Monday 30 November 2009
Well, that was fab..
See that little car boot crammed with stuff? It's the after-packing. Yesterday was 2 Scrap Ladies' Christmas Card Marathon. It's the only photo I have that represents anything of the day. And I took it about 10 minutes ago! (Note to self: Call yourself a scrapbooker!) I was absolutely desperate for a cup of tea when I got home, so I pretended that there was no unpacking to do. Naturally, first thing this morning my bleary eyes were delighted to see my oh so tidy workroom. And then my brain kicked in and reminded me that practically everything I use on a daily basis was still in the car. And it still is actually. Like turning on the computer, I've left it until other jobs have been done. Because once I settle into this room, I'm a real-life-gonner and there's still a deal to do about the house!
Oh and just so you know: they're still there...this photo also taken today. OK so I can't really prove that, but look at it this way..I've barely been in the workroom this weekend AND I have a handful of sweeties right in front of me..so today at least, I don't need 'em! So onwards and erm, forwards I think. A bunch of now painted wooden hearts needs my attention - yes Linda, Mr Dunnit cut 'em out for me. One day, when I'm really brave, I'll tell you the story about the machine he uses. It's kinda like a big ol' Cricut. It involves a swear word tho', and you know me, I wouldn't want to be offensive!
Friday 27 November 2009
Reality Check:
Here's evidence of an abandoned project. Honestly, those pom-poms are little...about as big as a 10p piece. No wonder I lost it. Even before it turned into a 'look what I made at Playgroup' end result!
So I have a bunch of small pom-poms and a part used ball of yarn (technical term) going begging. Seriously, if you can use it, let me know. Save it from the box of discarded stuff that I can't bring myself to throw away, but will never use.
So in the interest of balance, here's a shot of something to replace the silly pom-pom idea, but very much a work in progress. And I can only show you the painted backs of these hearts because rather inevitably, the decoration for the front is still trapped in my mind's eye. Just pray that I can realise it satisfactorily. If you're in the Ornament swap for which these are destined, pray hard.
Have a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing!
Thursday 26 November 2009
Plus ca change, la meme ca change.....
Alter:
–verb (used with object)
1.
to make different in some particular, as size, style, course, or the like; modify: to alter a coat; to alter a will; to alter course.
2.
to castrate or spay.
–verb (used without object)
3.
to change; become different or modified.
So I'm wrong. You can use 'alter' to describe my little canvas, because I have made it different in style...as in the addition of paint, paper shapes and beads. But you have to admit, that's what my £1 canvas is for. So I'm not, in essence altering its intended purpose: to apply paint and stuff to it. Of course, turning it into a tent would alter it, fairly significantly. But even the definition above suggests some sort of radical change occurs on alteration. As in - alter course, alter a will......that which it was is now something else. In altering, you change the use or meaning. And let's face it, that's not what we do at all. We re-cover notebooks and jazz up the pages, but it's not altering..they are still notebooks. Only slightly less easy to use because you don't want to spoil it now! And that's what I mean when I bore you witless about the 'altering' thing. The addition of paint ink and paper doesn't necessarily alter something. We 'enhance' a lot. As far as I can tell, if it isn't super-glued out of reach, then one crafter or another will have tried to enhance its appearance. Whatever it is.
Now this opinion could easily be explained by lack of imagination when it comes to this sort of thing. It's not that I don't like what the 'alterers' do..my goodness, some of the stuff you see is breathtaking. Perhaps that's what makes me the pedant. I'm no good at it therefore no-one should be able to do it. I would try to alter my opinion, but I'm too old. The title of this post, badly translated: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Leave me to the enhancing then. I need the practice.
Wednesday 25 November 2009
So, What's On Your Workdesk?
There of course is my wooden card holder, as usual, in improper use, but doing a sterling job. The gold holographic card is about to be used to mount some instructions on. You can see two others poking out of the 'envelopes' leaning against the back of the table. These are the supplies needed for the Marathon cards. Well the first three cards anyway. Way to go in terms of preparation then! You can see my stapler. Nothing remarkable about it at all. Except that lump of blue-tack has been on the top for over seven years. If I were vaguely superstitious, I would consider it a blob of luck or longevity. But I ain't and it isn't. It's a bit dusty if that means anything. Apart from the obvious non-dusting, lazy-cow type meaning, of course. Behind the sellotape dispenser is a small number of dollar bills. I forget how many and it's 3 feet from where I'm sitting at the moment, so I'm not going over there to count it. It represents the the Ornament exchange that I documented earlier this week. I of course, cannot send postal stamps to enable Megan, my host over there in the USA, to post forward my Ornaments, so am going to send her the notes as payment. Sounds like a plan huh. So did my ornament idea. Look out for plan B. Er, any day now!
There's chocolate on the desk too. And I won't be eating it. Very front right corner is a bar that I've made a new cover for - part of a workshop next week. NOT altered for goodness sake, just re-covered. Presumably even the mighty TH wouldn't alter chocolate; I think he'd slide down the ratings a bit quick if he did! There's a couple of Moleskine notebooks on the front edge too. They're awaiting transformation by stamps and stuff. Again, not altering, because they'll still be notebooks when I've done something to them. Getting the theme here? Gosh, I may start a campaign about the word 'alter'. As soon as I've altered my attitude and become uber organised that is.
Come on then, join in. Show us your work desk/top/carpet/surface...we're not bothered by what you work ON - we wanna see what you're doing and what you've got. Yep, we really are that nosey! Now, you can comment here and/or link to your blog, we'll all come round and have a rummage. It's only for fun, no need to tidy first and it's only for fun. So don't take it seriously, just join us for a bit of united fun. Grab the WOYWW button from the sidebar of this blog if you like. That's also a bit of silly fun. Apart from the skill that made the button of course - Steph and Annie were behind that, not me.
Monday 23 November 2009
Mr Dunnit steps up....(again)
So Mr Dunnit came home from work, I threw a less than gourmet meal at Miss Dunnit (guilt, see, really she can get her own!) and off we went. To Currys. Yep, he has a yearning for a new tv and we have a need for some new white goods, so he thought it would be a good chance to do some late night shopping. Except.... he isn't the chap that walks into the store, sees the appliances and tv that we want, does a deal and leaves. Oh no. There's a lot of research to do first. And for me, a lifetime's yawning. I realise it's important, but I hate it and it's boring and hey - date night! For once though, this may have paid off - I was sulking around the store (I know this is hard to believe of me, but at least I'm big enough to admit it). I mean, apart from my spoilt date night anticipation, I was suffering terrible angst over my ornament failure. And then it hit me. My new and latest idea.
As a reward for being good in Currys, Mr Dunnit bought me supper and I gabbled about my new idea. It invovles him a bit see - I need some wooden shapes . Not only did he agree that my new idea is great and would be lovely and better and no trouble for him to help me out with - he said he'd make extra shapes because he felt sure that some of the family would love it too. Now maybe that's proper date night talk!
So here I am, all fired up with enthusiasm. Again! Watch this space, huh.
(It won't be this reindeer ornament, I just wanted you to see him.)
Friday 20 November 2009
Me and my big mouth...
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Visitors
Workshop day today; appropriately, we're doing Thank You cards; and here's one of them....rocket science it ain't, but I am still very drawn to text on a card. Indeed, I have a little voice in my head called Sandie who once - totally off the cuff - said that I was incapable of producing a card without text on the front. She was right, and every time I'm searching around for a finishing touch - and it turns out to be a text stamp, or die cut letters, I hear her, but don't stop! Can't help it. So these are the perfect card for me. Quick and easily repeateable if you are still lovely enough to write thank-yous after Christmas and Birthdays...and I've shoved it on quite a big card, so could easily double as a lovely post-Christmas letter, or use it as a biggie for the kids to share so that the torture of formal thanking doesn't go on forever. Because it often does! Do you still write the odd thank you? Or is it all about email and text now? I dunno, the number of cards I make, you'd think someone would tell me not to bother if it was really a waste of time, wouldn't they?
But the very best thing about this card - I made it out of my scrap box! No, not 'out of my scrap box' - because that would be altering it beyond comprehension, frankly, and even Tim Holtz couldn't do that! But you get it. And I'm terribly glad that someone does!
What's on your Workdesk Wednesday
But yesterday, when Teresa and I were putting the world to rights, I tidied - I even put away the bits of paper. I found the beads as you know. I put away 14 ink pads, 4 pairs of scissors and six pots of embossing powder. The dirty stamps are in the basket and after some gentle playing last night, my desk looks like this right now: The little yellow pot has just received a generous coating of diamond glaze. It's one that Miss Dunnit made at Primary School and has been on the kitchen window sill all those years. Which is a site of another potential mess problem I can tell you. In this house, if you don't quite know what to do with something - the odd Euro, screw, biro, peg, blah blah, stick it on the kitchen window sill. And leave it there for years. Anyway, the little coil pot, painted with my favourite colour has been used and abused and in a purge of window sill-o-bilia yesterday, I realised it needs preserving. So I did what I could. There's a red one in use elsewhere in the house and the DG has worked a treat, so am quite pleased again, that my craft materials have saved the day!
There's a bit of foil that still has chocolate in it - top left. But that's because during the messy period, the scissor sharpener fell over and hid it. Don't worry, I'll deal with it before the coffee cools. There's the seasonal bag of snowflakes waiting to be turned into I don't know what, and as you can see, I'm playing with a Christmas tree stamp. Which is today's plan - apart from cutting and counting for tomorrow's workshop.
Come on then, show us your work desk/space/surface. Don't be shy...photo, upload and link to it in the comments here. If you want to, grab the button from the left margin for your blog. It's nonsense, it's light hearted and it means nothing, but it's very interesting. Feeds my nosey person perfectly!
Tuesday 17 November 2009
For the Ffrog.
Monday 16 November 2009
Safe to post...
Again they're for the Card Marathon, and you'll be relieved to know that I've finished. All I have to do now is 'kitting' and that is so, so much easier than the ideas part! I'm going to photo my desk too - truly it has never been so shocking, but I'll save the picture for a comparative narrative on Wednesday. (I know, it's not enough that I think I can write a bit, suddenly I'm a poet too. Somebody'll stop me, you'll see.)
It's not the cards that are difficult, gracious no. It's the ideas and the constant thought that everything has to be new and shiny and loaded with techniques. But of course it doesn't. But they do have to be cards I'd like to give away myself as a minimum, and to come up with a card that I can't part with because I like it too much is a bonus! And I think the 'design fatigue' is entirely due to overkill. In one form or another, I've been using Christmas products since the end of August, and from a seasonal point of view, just as I should be really getting into it, I'm ready to opt out, thanks. So I'm going to turn myself to other things for a while, no doubt Christmas related, but more about the presents than the greetings and certainly nothing on a C6 card for a few days at least. Here's a start:
This little canvas is intended for Mr Dunnit; the robot is from Stampendous but the text is erm, borrowed from a stamp set I saw for sale but didn't buy (Woodware). Guilt guilt. The set had a couple of robots and a couple of text blocks in it. I already have the Stampendous set which contains 'body parts' for robots, so I kinda didn't need the other set, huh? It's not the major work of paint and masks and spritzes and inks and 38 images required by 'altered canvas' artists, but he's quite fun, and Mr D will get it. After all, the only thing I can do with a canvas that would actually alter it is to turn it into a tent, and there is no way that I want Mr Dunnit to suddenly get deep and understand from my gift that I want to go camping. Seriously. You'd never hear the end of it. So back to domestics for me then. Hope this Monday finds you facing a fulfilling and stress free week,
Saturday 14 November 2009
but hello, it's Saturday!
So he got up and went to work early.
And here I am. There's a large deadline looming and I need to do some tweaking of cards and ideas, so I'm going to settle in and get on.
I've been flicking through a handful of cards I've made for the Card Marathon - I usually discard and add a couple. This has hit the 'no' pile and you can probably see why at a glance. I've added a sort of mouth/smile to this fella with a thin black nib, but is he possibly the most depressed snowman you've ever seen? How can I use that on a card that's meant to offer greetings, which are surely, meant always to be cheerful? So he's a gonner. I wonder how many more will strike me as spectacularly inappropriate. What amazes me is that even though I drew the enigmatic smile on at the time of making the card, I didn't see quite how depressed he is, poor love. Tell me you agree, just so I know that the emotional chat I missed out on this morning isn't manifesting itself in rubber stamp critique! Have lovely weekend.
Friday 13 November 2009
And in other, shocking news...
Thursday 12 November 2009
Overdue
At the beginning of the month, Ginny shared the colourful Making Smiles On Faces Award with me - a huge irony really. The pay off for that is I have to tell you five things about myself, but any minute, you're going to get a bonus - 35 things about me! This because the marvellous Jo and then Jane passed me the 'Your Blog is Over The Top' award which requires me to stuff socks in my mouth and sit on my hands and bite on bullets and eat tripe to stop me using more than one word per answer. I can do it. But I might have to do another post explaining, justifying, enlarging and quantifying each answer!
1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Your hair? middle-aged
3. Your mother? Sainted
4. Your father? Well
5. Your favorite food? loads
6. Your dream last night? ridiculous
7. Your favorite drink? Gin and Tonic
8. Your dream/goal? world peace
9. What room are you in? work-room
10. Your hobby? craft
11. Your fear? loneliness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? here
14. Something that you aren't? quiet
15. Muffins? nah
16. Wish list item? nothing
17. Where did you grow up? worldwide
18. Last thing you did? phoned a friend
19. What are you wearing? black
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your Pets? dead
22. Friends? incredible
23. Your life? charmed
24. Your mood? fighting
25. Missing Someone? yes
26. Vehicle? Yaris
27. Something you’re not wearing? hat
28. Your favorite store? Paperchase, silly
29. Your favorite colour? yellow
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today
32. Your best friend? One?
33. One place that I go to over and over? home
34. Facebook? Reluctantly
35. Favorite place to eat? out
OK, so it turns out I can't do it all in one word, but what the hell, today of all days I'm here to remind you that we live but once and this small stuff musn't make you sweat! I must say that I quite like the idea of my blog being Over The Top...how ridiculous. Someone just slap me when I start to take myself so seriously, huh! Actually, now! - my blog posts have just exceeded 200 for goodness sake, and to celebrate I'm sending Angie a RAK. Because I can. On account of that charmed life I have. I really, really do.
Oh, I should add that this award is to be passed on.....will do that tomorrow.
Wednesday 11 November 2009
What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday
Well here it is at cup of tea time..about 3.15 - I dunno about creativity, but I've done a few bits - according to the picture, I've used more tape! The wooden card holder is in use too, guilt and a tidy desk got the better of me! Am enjoying having a rummage through your WOYWWs - keep 'em coming!
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Back to scrap
Monday 9 November 2009
Pimpin' my blog...
It would be great if you can join us. The day will cost £38.50 per person and we'd like a deposit on booking - a booking form and other details are available on demand - 'Contact Me', or leave a comment...too easy. I'll email you the full details. Remember, until you part with the deposit, you're not under any obligation...you can find out more without committing to it and you have to factor in the fun you missed because you couldn't come for A Magnetic Year in a Day! Real sneeks and chat will appear over on the 2 Scrap Ladies blog, although of course, I won't be able to stop myself shamelessly promoting and chatting about it here. And you know that's the truth!
Sunday 8 November 2009
Lest We Forget...
Friday 6 November 2009
A question of scrap...
Thursday 5 November 2009
I've started....
Wednesday 4 November 2009
IIWA? WOYWW?
Right against the back of the table is a couple rubber stamps. Waiting to inspire me. One I bought last week and one I've borrowed from the Lady Nurse. They don't belong together, I just let them sit there quietly till they whisper an idea at me. Currently they have about 4 days left before being reconsidered for not whispering to me. Tough life for stamps round here - the piled high basket on the right is full of stamps and blocks and a couple tidy trays waiting to be washed. Some things never change.
So share with us the inspiration and products currently in use on your work surface - floor, tray, bench, whatever! Leave a link here and we'll trot round and visit you. If you like the idea, nab the button in the top left of my side bar, designed by Sissy Dunnit and made by Annie coz she's clever. And, note to Annie - I'll investigate Mr Linky...you'll be totally unsurprised that I completely forgot until I wrote the previous line! Share your surfaces then people, the interweb needs to see!