What's On Your Workdesk 395 ..the 'really...is it Wednesday?' one..

I can hardly believe it myself gentle Desker. Wednesday already, and Christmas has been and gone. The magic of the Season is still swirling around though, so please enjoy some more as the new year approaches.

The thing about my desk is...well, that canvas I was working on. I still am. Ive done other things as you can see. I covered some spoons in chocolate, paired each one with a scoop of marshmallow and a sachet of hot chocolate and put them in a little baggie as 'gifts' for the staff at my Mama's care home. The best bit about this sort of giving is the big bowl of 'lickers' left over. You can just see it before I lost control and helped myself. By the finger full. So much easier than a spoon, don't you find?
It's fair to say that the food and drink of the last 4 days has made me a solid. You don't have to confess to anything, but it would be nice to see what delights covered your desks or work surfaces over the hols. Link here with WOYWW in your title. Please don't feel obliged to feed me when I visit, Alka Seltzer would probably be more appropriate. This large piggy wishes you a happy new year!

Happy Christmas

Beautiful paper mastery by Margaret - Glitter and Glue...

However you spend this weekend, I hope it makes you happy. Tell them that you love 'em, friends, that's the key to all of this.

Whats On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 394 The Jingley baubley one...

It doesn't really matter at this stage does it - if it gets done, brilliant. If it doesn't, well, we're all still breathing, right?

Taken on Tuesday afternoon because I was fearful of getting carried away and forgetting. And there's a chance that I will be getting carried away. That square of white is a canvas board which I've since started working on. It's destined to be a gift, so I hope by the time you see this picture, I might have made a picture! The plastic bag at left has shredded holographic plastic in it - snow, to you and me. I used it behind my latest favourite Christmas character...

                                           

Under that bag is a couple of gold coloured walnuts. Sprayed about ten years ago by my Mama...they are there while I decide whether they need a place in the decorations box or the bin. Back right is the yawning opening of a bag of chocolate buttons. Obviously, they've all gone now. And my phone, waiting to be charged. Stupid really as the charger cable is at front left, waiting.

Now then gentle Desker, if I don't see you back here before next week, know that I wish you a safe, warm and need-for-nothing Christmas. I'm absolutely sure that whatever your faith, we all feel that this holiday is the one that can really unite the world - let it be with love.

Joint the link fest if you've time - put WOYWW in your blog post title, show us your work space - for a lot of you it may be a kitchen at this stage - and link here, it will be lovely to come and visit.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 393

There's still too much on my workdesk, but at least it looks vaguely seasonal. Things are definitely looking 'dumped' aren't they. I was working on the miserable looking dog card. Then I had to go shopping and abandoned ship without tidying..obviously. In fact, I haven't tidied properly from whatever was before the dog card - the block with the glitter glues in tells me that. The little jigsaw is about ATC sized and a die that I had to buy. That wired gold ribbon is still there too...I have used it this week - because it was there. I'll show you when I've dug out that pile on the right!
Show us your festive workspaces then, we all need the strength to keep going at this stage! Put WOYWW in your blog title and link here. Thank you very much indeed.

Of cabbages and Kings

Actually, gentle reader, this is about Brussels Sprouts and Princesses. OK, not real Brussels Sprouts, and the Princesses in question are the girls that I scrapbook with. See, we do a secret Santa for Christmas and of course, we make each other beautiful cards to go with the gifts. Except I don't. I can't remember which year it was precisely, but I was very sick of making cards and so I made each of the gals a small gift that included a tag. The tag says what a card would say, right? Well, this year, Baker Ross sent me a pack of round craft baubles to play with.

I did some research. (I looked at a lot of baubles on a lot of trees in some lovely shops.) I decided that I would go sophisticated. Paint the baubles with a lovely deep rich green, maybe add some gold mica, wrap ribbon around and top each one with a lovely wired ribbon rosette. Sounds terrific doesn't it? Well of course it does. And of course, it didn't happen!

I found myself painting dictionary pages with a green squirty paint (from the stash of no-longer-sprays that I specialise in owning). Then I ripped the pages up and used PVA to adhere them to the baubles. Takes a bit of patience coz of drying time (yawn), and for some, it's a bit messy. Ask me how I know. On the plus side, once it's dry, PVA is easy and fun to peel off your hands!

Suddenly I'm not stressing about perfectly formed rosettes. I'm ripping half moon shapes from the painted pages and layering them onto the baubles as if totally inspired. It was fun!  I used them as tags on the little treats I gave the girls. Because they are loyal friends and extremely good crafters, they recognised them as paper Brussels sprouts. Actually, the PVA glue was a great choice too...it dries rock 'ard, so these are some of the strongest sprouts. It means that the gals will have to hang them on their trees for decades to come, in case I pop round to check!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 392

Whoa! I've managed to impress myself with the amount of stuff that's on my desk.

Now I need to impress myself by the amount of tidying and straightening to be done quickly..I need the surface to be clear enough to make up workshop kits. I can't go on like this! Centre front is torn up pieces of old dictionary pages that had been painted with pearly green paint. Well, squirty ink that no longer squirts..I gather that too many of us know about this particularly annoying phenomenon. The very dictionary that I took the pages from is still sitting on the desk. Just behind that at left is a die cut border of snowflakes. I was going to use it to wrap around a small jar, but it was over complicating the original idea, so its in the 'discarded' position. Water colour pencils at left because I've been colouring some images that a friend stamped for me. As they aren't actually visible, you'll have to take my word for it and believe me, if they get turned into cards, I'll be sharing. It'll be a Christmas miracle. That gold ribbon behind the dictionary is wired. I rarely use wired ribbon and I have no idea why it's there. But it's using valuable push back
space, so that'll have to go, if little else!
Share your Christmas chaos will you? No one can make this feel or look better by comparison, but it helps to read that the detrimental effect of the season on a workspace isn't exclusively mine!

Naturally, it ends well...

I showed this to Jan earlier in the week to get her reaction as to whether it would be a good project to brag  blog about making for Baker Ross. She laughed so hard when I told her how I had reached this magical outcome, that I felt it only fair to share so that you can learn from my experience.

The box of 'Naturals' contained a reel of twine and I immediately decided to do something IN ADDITION to using it on cards and as the string for some cute bunting. Yeah, smart-arm...but what. Well you know, a browse through Pinterest sorted that...I decided to crochet with the twine. It worked a treat and I'm pleased with the transformed marmalade jar. Arty photography alert....

See, what you do is crochet a chain that will fit tightly around the neck of the jar. Slip stitch it together and singe crochet around again. Then, work a chain of a length that makes sense to the proportion of diamond you want....in this case it was 8 stitches. And then slip stitch it into every 6th space on the collar. Then go around repeating, making the slip stitch into the previous chain, at about the 5th position. You can tell can't you, that I didn't follow any instructions, or write down what I was doing. What you can't tell is that I found it very much easier to do it with the jar in position.  What you can't tell is that when I had smugly cast off and checked it was even and looked OK, I couldn't get the collar over the neck of the jar. Stuck tight. This jar cover is not coming off.

Ha! Quite funny that she crocheted a jar into its cover.

Not as funny as the fact that I hadn't thought far enough ahead to forsee that problem. So I hadn't soaked the label off. Cue much hilarity and some swearing. And an overnight soak in a saucepan for the whole thing. And me picking bits out of the diamond shapes with enforced good humour. For goodness' sake! Still, it's OK. And other jars will receive this treatment, am liking the 'grouped lights'

idea to sit atop the piano. Indeed my dears, and here endeth the lesson.

Of Bark stars....

I know, Bark stars? Well of course, there's a bit of a story. I'm in the pocket of promoters at Baker Ross and they send me stuff to play with and show you. And rather inevitably, the latest box of goodies has had a Christmas theme to it. A 'Naturals' theme actually. I've assumed Christmas by the inclusion of the bark stars. See. Ask me, I can manipulate anything to mean something easier for me.

Bark Stars. I didn't make them up! So of course, my first thought is for a card. A single star just needed a teeny bit of gold glitter as an embellishment and then I was off....a stamped background because I could (old Hero Arts) and some blobs of spray ink that no longer sprays.

I used a textured white pre-folded card for this one, but have in mind to try it in/with/on other colours. I've always been a bit of a stickler for 'gold goes with cream' and 'silver goes with white', so now I've mixed it up a bit, I need a short lie down. The additional stars were die cut from the self adhesive glitter paper. Nice huh...impressed to be honest, that it would cut - lots of plastic coated papers don't like to be die cut.

I'm getting in something of a panic about cards and the quantity I need compared to how many I've made, so versions of this will crop up shortly!