What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 534

This is scheduled for your viewing horror. Luckily, when I get home, I really do PLAN to tidy up. Unless somebody can come up with an alternative that isn’t housework, that is. Last week was a write off for me, I hope you’ll forgive. I’m battling an ongoing trapped nerve in my shoulder and some days are written off simply by doing the normal chores of day to day house-ness. I’ve got medical assistance now,(Mr Dunnit got tired of the yelps and bad tempered lack of sleep). So this weekend, I took part in an online crop and made a huge mess . It was great. Price to be paid....so much clearing up to do before month end! But, here’s something - some of you were involved without knowing it! 
 Ignore the wonky placement of the background words, I genuinely cannot do straight or even anymore. But I don’t much care. Scrapping Crop 10 made me smile. So I did another, unfinished for now....I have to put the story on it....there’s so much to say that it may well go on a separate sheet of paper clipped to the back of the LO, not sure yet.

The colours are stuffed up by a rubbish photographer, but you get the gist. Now sweet Desker, gimme the gist of your work space this week then, please. And by gist, I mean the hi-low, history and current, the what’s On, what’s In with you. Now that’s clear, see ya later.

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 533

Welcome to Whizzday. Actually, every day of the week could be called that, coudn’t it! I’m reporting in from messy desk land. It was a very productive messy desk over the weekend, although I did nothing with the embossing folder and inks problem mentioned in my last post. Instead, I just made some cards. It was fun! I tidied up a little bit and found the foamy modelling clay in the moulds that I was trying out weeks ago. My memory..sheesh.Don't rely on me for R&D!! Anyway, thats my next job...
I had a lovely day yesterday involving three stationery shops and I bought something in each. You can just see the spoils on the right edge there. I like to buy a handful of funny, loving, motivating postcards and send one to her now and then. Just to keep her Mummy in the forefront of her mind! The pencil case at far left is full of sparkly gel pens. Remember them? Now I have to do some tidying. Workshop preps and a need to stay productive are on my to-do list. Yeah that one - the one that’s longer than my leg! Show and tell then please, we wanna see what you’ve been up to. 

Watercolour is messy.

The fabulous blue that a lot of you saw on Wednesday’s post came from two pots of Spectrum Noir Sparkle inks. Incidentally, if you saw the post about a messy workshop where I managed to get ink on my face, these are the culprits. Trouble is they are too nice to resist and so I plough on, making a right old mess.

The graduated light to dark with a watercolour feel was not quite what I achieved and so this is an/the experimental piece. On that basis I’ve foiled the windows in the embosssed houses and scuffed some pearly white stuff over the sleigh in the sky. Too hit and miss; it looks a mess. And not enough embossed definition if you ask me. 

I actually found it hard to crank through my Big Shot in the plate sandwich which was going to achieve any embossing, so am now in considering mode. Of course, I’ll get better definition if I don’t use a watercolour card stock. But I still need to use something reasonably thick to withstand water and ink....the edges of that cut out portion particularly. Buckled supports are rubbish supports, lets face it! For now, I’ll soldier on with this; I know others will wonder what the problem is as a first draft, but I’m not a great reasearch and development type crafter - I really like to sit down and MAKE something, even if it’s only one card after a couple of hours of cutting papers and choosing stamps!

If this works out at some point, I’ll show you, of course. Look for a blog post entitled ‘triumph’ or ‘smug’!

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 532

Although this photo is newly taken, the desk state is almost gathering dust. I had just settled in for a ‘session’ on Saturday after lunch when my amazing skill set was required elsewhere and I didnt get back to my desk. And still haven’t. 

I was trying to figure out what to do with a cut and emboss folder after it was cut and embossed. Clever idea, but making me struggle; I wonder if it’s the subject (er, Seasonal) or just that it’s too much of a finished thing. Making nice with some of those lovely inky inks though, I might even use the waste paper for a change! I had a birthday present to buy from Amazon and suddenly found myself looking at stuff for me too...shocking selfish. Those aqua brushes were a bit of a bargain and have wonderful broad to teeny brushes. It doesn’t mean I’ll be able to use them effectively, but it may help. At any point. I must have had those inks on my mind - which, I should say, make wonderful dense watercolours. I don’t know when I’ll get back to this particular desk, but the longer I am away from it, the more I yearn to be there, and that’s good, because usually when I have to do this slightly experimental stuff, I get bored...very easily.

Come join then, you less bored by your own work Deskers, show me what you’re up to. Link your WOYWW titled post here please! Lovely.

Call me prolific.

It used to be that I would go to a crop and make a few Layouts. Then me and the Coven hit on the idea of a weekend away to scrapbook and so our ‘retreats’ added to my LO Numbers. The thing is, I never scrapped at home. Weird huh. I think I associated the whole scrapbook thing with chat, company, food and escape. Sometimes, I didn’t even unpack between monthly crops! 

Well, under pressure from my special friend Lolly, I joined a Facebook group called Scrapbook Inspirations. It involves challenges, competitions, team games and other online stuff to get you scrapbooking. I hovered for a while and then thought I might as well unpack and try a couple of sketch challenges. After all, no point in joining and then not joining in!

My word, my output has increased. At Christmas I was given a beautiful box to hold photos waiting to be scrapped. Do you know gentle reader, I’ve had to top it up!  Now the thing is...can I be bothered to pack everything up and go to Crop? I know a few who don’t go for precisely this reason. If you want a cut file or to compare ribbon colours, you’ve either got to be prepared to the point of making up a page kit or leave the idea till you get home. I’m not that prepared - surprise!

Well here’s the thing, I will always be packing up and going to Crop. I love being in company that gets the whole cutting and sticking thing. I love being in a room full of people that will collectively ‘ooh’ at a bunch of new embellishments in a pop-up shop. I love the chat with my girlfriends, making new friends, having lunch out, and I love the inspiration and ideas that swirl through the room.

So on a Wednesday when you see the same old same old on my desk and wonder if I do anything but make excuses for not tidying up, at least the mess is legitimate! I admit though, that after a session making one scrapbook page, I have to clear up before I can start again, there is simply too much ‘stuff’ balancing and teetering on any surface! 

My creative process involves getting everything out of everywhere. And likely not using it after a lot of consideration. I may need more photographs in my ‘to do’ box (and I have them, believe me), but I am still a fairly slow page maker! I haven’t set an annual, monthly or weekly target, but I find myself averaging two LOs a week which is prolific for me! 

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday 531

This is a genuine left over from Tuesday afternoon. I’ve been a bit poorly and thought I could easily spend time at my desk, but after about an hour I realised I wasn’t in the mood. It’s funny isn’t it, when you’re off colour and therefore have access to the time to fiddle around just for the sake of it, even that isn’t what you want to do. Such a waste of time, isn’t it! 

As you can see, I’m working on Flamingos. It’s a set of stamps that has three steps to each image. Ideally I should have bought the pale, medium and darker ink pads to do the ‘mingos with, but I thought I could probably rustle something up. I have, and I rather like them in anything but pink! Don’t know where I’m going with them, but that never stopped me. And of course, I have no intention of tidying up. After all, if I’m not in the mood to make a card, I’m certainly not in the mood for tidying! Still got a floating acrylic block, but you can see more clearly now that it’s just part of a pile waiting to be put away. Surprise! 

Join in do, show and tell that work area..take your lead from me, it really isn’t too messy to show us!