WOYWW 121

Wasn't going to join in today but DS1 isn't feeling very well so is going to stay at home and miss the school trip!  Bit sad - we were off to a WWII museum in Staffordshire but he got sent home early yesterday for feeling sick and it looks like he still has the bug today :(  Oh well at least I get a bit more play time I guess!

Here is my desk today:

I have moved my main project as I am going to write an article about it and hopefully get it published.  The canvas bird you can see there is the startings of an owl - very excited about it although lets not talk about the glimmer mist spray that I used yesterday which sprayed in the wrong direction so that I now have a slightly sparkly owl - when will I ever learn to move items either before I spray or move the item I am spraying to another room to spray! never I guess.......   The cards on my table are just inked up pieces that need some finishing off so I will probably get on with those today and the pack of Prima canvas pieces are a new purchase I am playing with too - they are really nice so hopefully I will be able to do something fabulous with them and then get some to use in a up coming class at the crop or a workshop.

If you want to know why I am showing my desk to the world then pop over to Julias where all will be revealed!

Also I have restarted up my fortnightly tag, card and layout challenge on the post below to try and get my mojo moving again if you would like to join in with me please feel free - would love to see some creations if you do.
Thanks for looking :)

Lets Think Creatively challenge is back!

I have found that I only seem to produce scrapbook layouts if I enter challenges at the moment so as I haven't really found any that give me something to think about (all the challenges I seem to find are all sketches which is fine but sometimes I just need that little bit more to make it interesting), so I am going to run my own fortnightly challenge again:

I will start where I left off last May which was to use this image as inspiration:

and I have finally done the layout (had it planned in my mind for months but life just got in the way!):

Think I overdid it with the glimmer screen in the top left hand corner (that and the fact that I sprayed it with the screen the wrong way so I had to reverse stamp the image over it three times before I realised that it wasnt stamping properly as I was using bazzill cardstock! hey ho - obviously a bit out of practice with scrapping at the moment!).  I also found the mojo to produce these two backgrounds:

a boy card

 and a girl card - they arent finished yet as I am not sure who I am going to send them too but I have left a space on each to put either a name or a greeting on - feel quite ahead of myself now!

I would love it if you find inspiration from my challenge and join in with me, if you do then please leave me a link here so I can come and have a look at your creations:



Thanks :)

Whooo hooo

It's back!  Thursdays are bright and cheery again!  Even better for me my other half wasn't feeling well last week so went to bed early and I could watch it 'live' I was so happy! does that make me a bad person? mmmm not sure but still I enjoyed myself!

Anyway had a very eventful week last week as it was the open day at the local senior school and as my little boy will be 11 this year he will be off to big school next year! gulp - how did that happen??  anyway we looked around our catchment school and it was lovely so we are happy and hopefully he will get in there without any trouble.  Then we had the PA meeting where quite a lot of changes are going to take place this year, one of which is me no longer being on the committee - such a relief - however there is no-one at the moment to take over from me so no doubt I will get involved some where along the line.

Then Friday it was my art class - as promised here are my creations:

 can you believe this I did this in my second week and I have never used pastels - or drawn for that matter - before! I know its not perfect but I am well proud of myself.  Then last week we did these:

a pencil scene

same scene in watercolours - isnt that little boat so cute! although drawing those posts is rather scary to start with.

That's probably it for me today although it's raining here so I am hoping for a day in of crafty fun - am hoping to start doing my fortnightly challenges again from Tuesday so I need to try and prepare something for that, currently DS1 is playing on the pc and DS2 is painting some little boxes - bless I will make an artist of him yet and then hopefully I am going to get DS1 to watch

later and lets hope he becomes a fan too!

Thanks for looking :)

LSNED and some thank yous

Had a great time at the Charity crop last week - for those who haven't seen or heard we managed to raise a fantastic £900!  a big thank you to everyone who supported us.

Whilst there I was given some lovely gifts:

The ruler was from Sushi and was from Malaysia (fancy thinking of me all the way out there!), the ribbons were from Julie a fab find down the market and the bag of buttons and mushroom were off Lisa (Lisa always buys me mushrooms when see shes them!) - thank you everyone it's much appreciated and it is nice to know you appreciate all the hard work these events take to put together (am still worn out now!).

In the week Bernice also gave me all these lovely charms:

see there are some mushrooms in there too!  fancy that - anyone would think I have a thing for them!  She also knows I am a big fan of skulls too - I know I am strange!

Then I have also received a fabulous tag for the birdcage tag swap from Mrs A

go check out her blog it's really cool - and also a big thank you to Mrs A for following me too :)

Then yesterday I got up at 4.30am and managed to catch up with some of my LSNED tags - I have already completed days 1 - 9 last year so I am going to use those for the start of the book (if you are interested then they are here http://sunshinegirlnicola.blogspot.com/2010/09/learn-something-new-everyday.html and here http://sunshinegirlnicola.blogspot.com/2010/09/learn-something-new-everyday_11.html) then I made these 4 (all of them only took me 1.5 hours so they are really all quite quick and simple but it's all I can manage at the moment!):

Might have to funk up those houses a bit more if I get chance but I have visitors today and my crop tomorrow so I won't have much  play time.

Also had a fab time at my art class yesterday and I have drawn a vase! Honestly! am really quite pleased with it will post a picture on Monday.

Thanks for looking.

A card and gift for my Mom

It was my Mom's birthday yesterday so I made her this card:

It's based on the sketch over at http://sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com/ so I would like to enter it into their challenge this week and I also based the colour scheme and used butterflies to fit in with the challenge over at http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ so I would like to enter it into their challenge too.

I used Echo Park Victoria Gardens papers and stickers, Spun Sugar and Barn Door distress inks, the black lace was given to me by my friend Julie and the butterflies are Papermania chipboard ones.

I also made her a bag:

excuse my rather garish dining room - sorry craft room! - table cover there but I took the photo in a hurry! the pattern and materials were from a kit I received from my quarterly sewing club details of which are here: http://www.daisychaindesigns.co.uk/.

Thanks for looking :)

WOYWW

I wasnt going to join in this this week as I feel I am running behind on everything again at the moment- why does that always happen?  I am stepping down as chair/secretary from school next week and we held our Charity crop last Saturday (we raised a massive £900 for Cancer Research!) so I thought I would have some spare time but its not happened?  Anyway here is my desk this morning:

It's actually very tidy for me - not much on it as I have busy doing some sewing (hence the pattern, cotton reels and bobbins there that need putting away), the sizzix machine is out as Bernice popped round yesterday afternoon for a quick lesson on crease pads, the empty box is a gift I got last night from OH which is another car mouse as the one on the picture is playing up and my phone is on charge.

I was busy sewing a gift for my Mom who's birthday it is today - Happy Birthday Mom! - so I can't show that yet and I still have done no more on LSNED or the Jennifer McGuire Inspiration Showcase course I should have started on Monday.  Let's hope I catch up later today after I have made Mom's birthday card!

However here is my birdcage tag that I sent to Tertia

There was quite a lot of pink on her blog so I went for these colours - am not sure if she has received it yet as she lives in South Africa and I didn't post it until last Friday but the swap was done via the lovely Frankie's blog and the rules are to show and tell the tag you have made today.

If you want to know why I am baring a rather boring workspace to the world then pop over to Julias where I assure you there are lots of really fun and interesting desks to look at!

Thanks for looking :)

Fantastic News

drumroll please ........
Yesterday we raised a staggering £900!
Thank you all so much for all your support, kind wishes and donations. We had a fabulous day and hope you all did too.

Nicki and Morag
x

One more day to go...

Big charity crop tomorrow - can't wait.  Am all organised - kits are packed, raffle tickets are sorted, hall booked, lunch booked, biscuits purchased and all seats sold.  Just need to print out my notes for everyone for my class today and I am done.

It's been a busy week though, packing the kits took a day - thanks for your help Bernice - and the raffle prizes took Morag and I another morning to sort through.

I thought I would also show you the other card I was working on last week as it has now been delivered to it's new home - tee hee:

lots of inking and stamping on this. 

Here is the inside which I am really pleased with too:

Using my Claudine Hellmuth stamps which I still consider new even though I bought them in March as I have only stamped them out on one half finished project (there is a surprise!) am really pleased with how the Sold sign turned out though - it has a lovely Lili of the Valley stamp saying "As you unpack your things and settle right in, may happiness follow and good times begin" - isn't that lovely, also a new stamp ahem.

This week the only crafty stuff I have managed I can't show as one is for a birdcage swap that is currently on it's way to South Africa and another one for a project I am working on that I am hoping to get published - we shall see.  Will be able to relax and concentrate a bit more next week - oh who am I kidding - it's my Mom's birthday, I will be helping out in school and I am starting an another online class on Monday and also a painting course that is starting today at my local craft centre.  It will be all go as always!

Thanks for looking :) am off to get my brushes sorted....

WOYWW - I've moved

my craft room that is!  It was all getting too much sharing an office/craft room and having stash dotted all around the house so I have decided to move into my dining room - it's a bit of a squeeze and I haven't got all of my stuff in here yet but I am a lot happier!

So here is my progress this week:

If you want to see why I am showing my desk to the world then pop over to Julia's and join in the fun.  I have a busy few days ahead of me as I am running a Charity Crop at the weekend in aid of Cancer Research so I need to get packing up kits, sorting out notes and organising the raffle prizes but I do hope to pop by a few desks along the way.

Thanks for looking :)

Children went back to school today

house is very quiet.

It's been a busy week

It's actually been all systems go here the past couple of days - firstly my phone had blown up, I managed to get into it and handwrite down all my list of contacts and then put my sim in an old phone which I had completely forgotten how to work and muddle by and then OH sorted me out with a new suitable phone (I haven't a clue and was quite happy to delegate this problem!) but they were out of stock at Tesco's and their's was the best deal so I couldn't have it then and there.  I could however get myself two new pairs of glasses that I am desperately in need of - although this meant a trip home and back again to get our Tesco's vouchers as there was a double up offer on them that finished on that day.  Yesterday OH took the little one to Tesco's for our weekly shop whilst I cillit banged the bathroom (how fab is that stuff! looks like a gleaming new little palace now - at least it did yesterday!) and they had my phone in stock so I am now the new proud owner a new phone that I again can't work!

On Friday I tried to make some cards - needed to make 4 but really struggled and only made two and finished this:

Will show you the other card when it's been delivered (it's a New Home one so guess who it is for!).



I struggled because OH works from home on a Friday (and Mondays and Wednesdays too!) and I had the two children at home and mainly because my stash is stored all around the house at the moment - inkpads and dies are in the utility which is a bit of a dumping ground and the cupboard has a football table in front of it so I can't get in there easily, most of my other stash is up in my craft room which doubles up as a study now so as OH was at home and spends most of his day on the phone its difficult for me to rummage through what stash I need and then I had to make six trips up and downstairs so I spent most of Friday in a bad unproductive mood.  As life it too short to feel this way we sat down yesterday and had a rethink about the organisation of our house.  So little one is going to get the big second bedroom so that we can move all of the lego pieces out of the lounge and dining room into there with him, OH is moving his desk into little one's old room and its becoming a dedicated study and I am going to move most of my stash into the dining room and get rid of my craft table upstairs *gulp*.  That said we had a quick trip to Ikea last night for some more storage units and today I am going to be putting them up in my dining room.  It means dinner parties will be a bit of a squeeze but we don't have that many anymore and I would rather be happy crafting for most of the year rather than keeping an empty dining room so we can have 9 people round on Christmas day. 

Hopefully this week will be the whole start of something new for me, the children go back to school on Tuesday and I was hoping to enrol for an Interior Design course for Wednesdays morning but now I can have a dedicated craft room again to myself during the day I dont think I will (actually its mainly because its £125 and I have bought new glasses (small fortune), a new phone (another expense), new furniture (another small fortune), 3 fantastic new books to inspire me (can't say how much they are in case OH reads this!), some digi papers as Nitwit collections had a sale on and I so needed the pirates! oh and a new blender (more for OH than me really), so all in all I am a bit skint!  Might have to go out and get a job.

Thanks for looking :)

LSNED and a challenge card

I have made this card for my inlaws anniversary which is next Monday:

It's based on a sketch over at www.sweetstopsketches.blogspot.com and also includes three natural items (the card, the birdcage, and the flowers) to fit in with the challenge over at http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ however both challenges finished yesterday and I have only made the card today so I can't enter it into either! hey ho.

I am also going to retake part in Learn Something New Everyday - I only managed up to day 9 last year so I am going to cheat and reuse the album cover that I made for then:

I can't put my hand on the other book I have made way back in 2008 but when I do I will put up the pictures from that too to compare them.

Thanks for looking :)