WOYWW ... My lovely new crafting area!

Hello! Welcome to another WOYWW!! This weekly event was created by the talented Julia Dunnit. To read her blog and join in visiting lots of busy desks (and generally have a good nosey, like me heehee!) please click here! But before you disappear off into Blogland I'd like to show you my humble offering ...

A couple of weeks ago I found a lovely little shelf/storage thing. I could show you any earlier as I left it at my parents (I was visiting them you see ...) and didn't get to bring it home until a couple of days ago ... I was originally going to use it to store and display my Stampotique stamps ... but they wouldn't all fit, so for now they're still in a plastic tub ...  Instead I decided to create a small crafting area in my kitchen! It probably sounds a bit daft, but sometimes I get bored when boiling potatoes (gas hob - I won't leave it unattended ...) so am now able to do some creating at the same time (sad or what lol!)! Anyway, here it is ...

I'm rather pleased with it! Inside are stamps, acrylic blocks, paper, etc and a small cutting mat fits neatly underneath...

Thats all from me today! Have a great WOYWW!!!

A hidden gem ...!

Just a very quick post from me today ... I just wanted to recommend a lovely arty crafty shop in Trowbridge, Wiltshire! Here it is ... (photo nicked from Google ...)

This shop is crammed with stamps and lots of arty things and I'll certainly go again there next time I'm in the area! (I'm not connected to this shop in any way - just recommending this hidden little gem!) I just wish I'd had more time to browse ...

A rather pleasing car boot find ...

This morning I went to a car boot sale and was rather pleased to find this set of old educational wooden stamps!

The person I bought them off told me his wife was given these when their local school closed (I've forgotten the name of the school already ...), and that she remembers using them herself when she attended the school! I reckon she looked about my age (no I'm not telling haha!) so suppose this makes them somewhen around the mid 1970's, maybe very early 1980's ... back when 'G for Gun' was still allowed! There's a complete alphabet with pictures, a smaller complete alphabet of lower case letters (one's just off the bottom of the photo - sorry!), some animals and a circle - there may have been other animals and shapes at some point, I'm just pleased all the letters are there! All the stamps look very well used, and the wooden handles look a little worn, but I think these stamps are really charming and a great find! I wonder if any of you have had any great car boot/charity shop finds? Please tell, I'd love to know ...!

p.s. - I just realised the i that looks like a bottle of medicine (i for ill? iodine? iron?) is actually i for ink ... so now you know!

WOYWW - a bit of wood ...

Yes - a piece of wood. Actually its the bit of wood that was used as packaging, supporting six lovely bottles of Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Misty stuff that came free with purchasing a years subscription to Craft Stamper magazine ... yes I finally got around to it! Anyway, I used the chalk mist on the wood and thought it turned out rather pretty, so stamped a couple of Stampotique images using Stazon, did a little bit of painting too ... Its not finished yet as I want to add text and some more texture. And I really neeeeed a harlequin stamp! How come I haven't got a harlequin stamp when I need  one ...!? Gah!! And some turquoise paint too. Actually I can probably raid the kids paint and mix some turquoise, but I still can't use it until I get the right stamp ... so I see a bit of internet browsing in my immediate future!

I had really wanted to show you a lovely little shelf/drawer unit I purchased whilst on holiday last week. Its a charity shop find and the perfect size for displaying and storing my Stampotique stamps and I can't believe how lucky I was to find it! Except I can't take a photo as I havn't got it here to take a photo of (its been left behind at my parents house) ... ah well! It'll have to be featured in a future WOYWW!

To join in and see what other people are up to on WOYWW please visit Julia Dunnit's blog by clicking here ! Go on ... race you there...!

I'm back - anyone miss me?

You may have noticed its been a little bit quiet on my blog the last couple of weeks ... I have been on holiday! The first week was spent at a holiday cottage on the outskirts of Bournemouth that was ten minutes walk from the nearest beach. Bournemouth center and Boscombe were both an easy walk away, and Mother Nature was extremely kind with the weather.

The second week was spent visiting family ...

Anyway, I've been unable to access the internet for so long I was getting rather jittery!!! Does that mean I'm addicted to being online??? Eek! At least my first scheduled blog post actually worked when I was away, isn't Blogger clever!

Here is some of the stamping I was able to produce throughout the hols ...

As you can see I managed to sneak in a few of my Stampotique stamps into my 'takeaway' box! I just couldn't leave them behind ...! This is my favourite one ...

But don't look too close as Gog's hat isn't stuck down properly - I forgot to take glue!

WOYWW - Not a very tidy desk ...

Welcome to another WOYWW! To join in the blog tour please go to Julias blog here . As you can see, my desk has been taken over by the kids and their cardmaking leftovers ... so its just a little bit more cluttered than usual! Ah well ..... 

We have a harvest mouse (bought from a pet shop, not a wild one!!) who lives in the bottom tank on the right. Captain Kellogg (aka Shreddie - the last one left out of three) has been temporarily moved into the smaller plastic tank on top so I can give the bigger tank a good clean. Also on my desk is my Sizzix Sidekick and my Xcut Impress (bought from a car boot!), and on the shelf above is all my dies and embossing folders - I don't have many and only ever use one or two ... my favourite being the Tim Holtz Mini Rosettes. And then there's my daylight lamp, which I love! The desk is away from a window and can be quite dark even on a bright day. You won't see much more of 'my' stuff on the desk as I have to keep it all tidied away ...

Happy WOYWW-ing!

WOYWW - Thought it was about time I joined in ...!

I've been following WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) for a little while now, so though it only polite that I share mine too ... This wonderful idea was created by the extremely talented Julia Dunnit, whose blog can be found here !

So here is is, this is what's currently on my table:

I'm trying to create a take-away box of tricks, so when I go away anywhere I can just pick up and go .. However as I am still deeply in love with wood mounted stamps this is proving rather difficult. So I'm going slightly out of my comfort zone and packing the box with things I wouldn't always reach for first! And of course I managed to sneak in a few bits and bobs I absolutely cannot do without lol! (paint dabbers, a couple of wood mounted stamps, two or three Distress Stains, Jenni Bowlin and Archival ink pads, ... etc) My main loss is Distress Inks ... but I'm sure I will manage - its not like I haven't got any other ink pads to use! At the moment the box just about closes ... hmmm!

Anyway, enjoy WOYWW!!

Goodness - a card AND a tag in one day ...!

At the beginning of last week I hooked out a blank tag and placed it on my worktop. There it stayed for the whole of last week and everytime I passed it and had a couple of minutes to spare, I splodged a bit of paint here, dolloped a bit of ink there ...  and eventually a picture of a garden fence formed:

The photo doesn't do it justice at all ... a lot of the detail and colour just don't show up in the photo ... ah well! I found it rather interesting to play and produce something more dimensional than what I usually do ... Although I did need to do a card in a hurry earlier so kept everything very simple and produced this, which took less than two minutes ...

The colours are pastels and kept very subtle. The stamp is from an older Stampin Up set that I absolutely HAD to get 'cos its soooo pretty ...! I hope the reciprient likes it!

Bird Tag

Yesterday I finally had a little time to play - hooray! I lined up a few blank tags on my desk, got out my new stamps and some old favourites, my new Stampin Up bird punch and just threw on Distress Stains, Distress Inks, paint, etc and ended up concentrating on just the one tag ... here it is ...

If I remember correctly - and I apologise if I leave anything out as I was too busy just playing to really take note of what I was using - I used: distress stains (fired brick, wild  honey), Distress inks in various colours, Claudine Helmuth Studio paint (Trad tan), paper from a Costco pack, Bird Punch from Stampin Up, text stamp (Aspects of Design), bubble wrap, Jenni Bowlin paint dabber (Brown Sugar), Stampotique stamps, (Carols Flower small, Splatter Blobs, Splatter Blobs long), Artifacts leaf stamp, Judikins Diamond Glaze, ribbon from stampin Up, and my Dymo!

I still have a couple of tags with half-done backgrounds to play with when I get time ... not today though ... DD has got her Musical Theatre exam, DS1 needs picking up from cub camp, DS2 needs to do his homework ... etc ...

Oh dear ... something else I neeeed!

I have to admit that I have totally fallen for these stamps! I didn't realise how much I liked them until I chanced across the Stampotique Designers Blog and followed a blog-hop, found here ! I am in total awe at how pretty and amazing these 'freaky' figures can look! I just HAVE to get me some of these stamps to play with and have a go! I have one - Girl with a heart purse - and have about half a dozen more on my wish-list ...  a new obsession starting?? We shall see ...