Wednesday 13 March 2024

What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday 771

It's been a week already. Good gracious. 
My nephew and his wife have announced the arrival of their second daughter, Penny. All safe and well. Really emotional, Penny was my late sweet Mama's name. Wow. Doesn't matter, it's just love poking through.
I decided to make a welcome to the world card for Penny, and guess what - I've only got about three stamps that are anywhere near qualifying as 'baby'! 
Whilst I was having post lunch coffee, I bashed out a few of these little sleepy duck images, painted them with the glittery paint pen things (can't remember what they're actually called) and left them to dry while I went out to paint. I hope that each is slightly different, the bottom left image is really quite paint heavy so have pretty much already ruled that out for use.  So this is yesterday's desk, but totally untouched this morning, and will be till much later!  You can see the Paper pad in all its glory....I've rifled through it at least twice now. One day I might use something from it!
Join in then if you will, and if you're just here to read that's fine! You're welcome here, to contribute or not. Sometimes we just don't have the puff!

Wednesday 6 March 2024

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 770


I've managed some time at my desk, and I have to say that I really enjoyed a bit of messing about!
There's detritus from various things, including at far right a gift from my Mother in Law which was a lovely gesture. It's a book of die cuts, labels and papers all on a theme, should make for some easy quick cards which will be a welcome thing to make in times of erm, being short of time!
I've stopped ignoring them and had a bit of sticky fun with the cookie cutter hangy decorations. Not enough to make a mobile but each will hang sweetly from door or cabinet handles. This is how I left them late yesterday afternoon, drying time if not time to rummage and find some other bits to stick in or on. Turns out that I have no mini Easter embellishments at all, and I don't have it in me to make any, so I'm just casting about for nice little things!
I'm sincerely hoping to get my desk/life balance a little more equal in the coming week, we shall see. Meanwhile, if I didn't make it to you last week, apologies. I'm hoping it means double biscuits with the coffee this week!


Saturday 2 March 2024

Spring; come on!

I know that Spring is around the corner, but I really would like to see more of it, NOW. Impatient, much? It's been a long and wet winter and I'm very over it. So, I got myself on a mission. A bit of colour please, and maybe use a stamp or two that I don't naturally turn to. Can't fail with flowers, huh. These two cards are made with a Basic Grey stamp set and the vertical text stamp is a wood mount from Magenta. Both I've had for years and never used. I'm not a huge fan of vertical messages because they aren't, to my eyes, immediately readable. Nonsense probably, but I can't get over it now, I'm too old. In order to layer all these images, I used Distress Oxides. They do not like being used to ink stamps, especially the clear stamps. To stop the ink beading on the stamp I used an emery board to rough up the stamp surface a bit, particularly as they were 'new'.  (Cough, I've only had them about ten years). I stamped birds in three colours and in the end chose to use the purple ones, feeling that they needed to be a strong-ish colour to sit apart from the flowers. You can just see the large text stamp in the right bottom corner of the pic- that's an old Hero Arts stamps. Simply says 'enjoy' in about 1" high letters. I stamped it inside both cards. Keep it simple, to kind of reflect the style of the front. The thing I like about a single word greeting in the Oxide ink particularly is that I can let my big sprawls writing go over it if I get carried away, it'll still be visible. So that's two for the finished drawer, an old set of stamps finally used - and enjoyed and a quick test of my collection of Distress Oxides which thankfully don't need re-inking or discarding. Not a bad session! 

Wednesday 28 February 2024

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 769

My desk is neglected but for an hour yesterday, so this photo is taken as an aftermath of that slight activity.
As I was running about with the hoover and some clean bed linen this morning, I realised that I hadn't even got around to making my single monthly commitment- one ATC! Karen chose 'Red' as the theme . I wanted it to be a bit Spring like because it might hasten the arrival - you never know! So, I pulled out every red ink pad I won, red embossing powder and set to. I was going to make a complicated background of layered coloured images which is why the stamp set on the left is open. I put myself off that quite quickly when I discovered that actually, a lot of my red ink pads are similar and don't offer much contrast.  The tulips stamp is a solid one that I've had for years. So many years that it benefits from a time when I used to varnish the wood on the rubber side to protect it from ink staining. I did get over that quite quickly, but the few of that era that I still have really do still look as good as new!  I only used two reds in the end, and the embossing powder, and if you look closely, you can see that they aren't on the desk. Gentle desker, I had already put them away when I thought to take this photo. I know. I'm not I'll, but when pressed for time, even I recognise good housekeeping will help!  It was nearly lunch time, so the inevitable cup of coffee joined me at the desk, and then turned into a glue stick holder. It's not still there, promise! The Easter decs are still unfinished and shoved, not even pushed back. Luckily for me, Easter isn't till the end of March.  So that's me, off early to collect paint and wallpaper today, so bear with me if I don't show up just as the first need for mid morning coffee strikes!


Wednesday 21 February 2024

What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday 768

I've swept the Easter decorations aside; half finished, obviously. 
I collected a couple of second hand stamp sets over the weekend and actually moved them from dining room to Workdesk last night. That's it, the full extent of this weeks creativity at my desk! The highlighter pen is a remnant from sitting there to read through some legal paperwork. The purchase of Ma In Law's new bungalow has at last completed, and so I've been wallpaper stripping, masking, painting, dismantling fitted wardrobes...all sorts. Still a way to go; todays delights will include filling about a million screw holes in the wall from which I dismantled a fitted wardrobe (we're changing that bedroom into a lounge), and having a little go at the skirting boards. I figure I'm Ok for basic Do It Yourself chores, but don't want to have to rebuild the wardrobe in the new bedroom, way beyond my skill set! So while I'm painting on a large scale, please make me envious of your desk size creativity!

Tuesday 13 February 2024

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 767

 Already, my weekend of indulgence is over and it is from there that I thought you may like to see my desk. A share of the kitchen table, actually. Vey comfortable cottage and lots of space for us five. 
My space is actually clear! I'd just finished a page and was tidying up in between so that my mess didn't encroach on other spaces. My trusty cutter is at left of my space, in a sharing position. As always, we had a lot of fun and I made a goodly bunch of LOs which is very pleasing. We all did, actually. Also, of pleasing-ness to me is that I am using up stash, and because LollyScrapper shared her YouTube find about using up patterned scraps, I'm actually working through that lot too, and that is satisfying! 
My at-home desk isn't quite empty - I still have the easter decorations awaiting attention, but if it continues to rain and be grizzly, then completion is likely! However, I have a morning out of the house first, so please don't eat all the biscuits before I get back!


Wednesday 7 February 2024

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 766

This is yesterday afternoon, but it doesn't look any different this morning.

Oh, that's not true. I've moved the tub of pens and the box of little wooden houses to the dining table because I'm corralling stuff again. This time all the bits and boxes and stash and equipment that I'll be taking away at the weekend. This week I've cleared out a couple of cupboards and found these unused pastry cutters; so decided to make hanging decorations out of them for Easter, starting with sticking them to some seasonally spring like paper. Tricky but not impossible, getting silicone glue on the cutting edges!  I had to cut the top edge off the silicone glue because the nozzle end is solid. Makes me cross that it goes off so quickly, but can't banish it from my collection of glues, too useful! 
So, as is routine, please join in and link .... we need to see each other!

Routine can be a useful distraction and even a comfort. Zoe is a long time friend of WOYWW and those of us that know her are reeling from the shocking news that her son, Keagan, died last weekend after an horse racing accident. He was a professional jockey. I hadn't met him, but felt a little bit as if I knew him. He was a youngster when we first met Zoe and she told of us his caring nature and  his ambition to ride and we've followed his maturing and working so hard ever since to realise his ambition. His dream. He was a special son and we all feel his loss in a tiny way, and wish Zoe nothing but peace and comfort as she faces this new reality. I wish her routine and distraction and love and hugs and a safe place to howl and vent; I'm quite sure we all do.