WOYWW 08/12/2010

The Mess (including all of the supplies on the couch)

 The storage solution

I have had this wooden chest of drawers for ages, it has been in my attic for about 6 years. I finally got it down yesterday and painted it and decoupaged the drawers. I think it looks great and fits into what I like to call "Heap Corner" really well. I just have to fill it with some of the contents of my very messy desk.

Some of the 12 Tags

I had a great day on Sunday with my good friend Mandy and my 9 year old daughter Olivia. I bet you can't even work out which ones Olivia did, she was amazing and so focused.

So I have started the great clean-up and hope to continue today. If you are wondering why I am showing you my desk, hop over to Julia's blog where all is explained.

Inspired by Tim Holtz

This is a tag that I did having been inspired by the great Lord Tim of Holtz on the Ranger website. I just love that birdcage and the pewter crackle paint.

Sorry It has been so Long

Hi everyone, sorry that I haven't posted in ages. I have been so busy that I just haven't had time. I started classes locally with some lovely ladies, teaching them card making techniques. It's going really well and continues at least until Christmas and hopefully beyond.
I am also gearing up for the Christmas markets making and painting, and gluing and stamping. Photos will follow I promise.
In the last week I also taught four papercrafting classes in various libraries around County Wicklow. Lots of children came and had fun making flowers and origami boxes.
Three mornings a week I volunteer at my younger children's Primary School which is such a pleasure. Children have a way of changing your perspective on life don't they?

So that's a small selection of the reasons which I have not been blogging, but a new leaf is being turned as I speak I promise.

all my best
Karen

Craft Extravaganza

What a great week-end of crafting and laughing and making new friends. I really enjoyed my first real teaching experiences and would like to thank all of the lovely ladies who took my classes. I have added photos of the wonderful birdhouses which my masterclass made. Each one is similar but unique. Fantastic work.

Sneak Peeks for GBCE in Athlone

It's only a couple of weeks now to the Craft Extravaganza in Athlone. I thought I would share a couple of pics of the wooden birdhouse which I will be altering in a class. The class is a master-class for 2.5 hours and should be great fun. The wooden blank has been beautiful to work with, and the papers and dies which we will be using are awesome.

This is a close-up of one of the little birdies about to enter his new home.

WOYWW 8/09/2010

It's that time of week again folks. If you don't know what I'm talking about checkout Julia's Blog where she explains all. Anyway! I have spent two days organising my workspace. I know it still looks pretty untidy but believe me the stuff in the foreground is all being used at the moment to create a lovely birdhouse which will be the class project I will teach at the GBCE in Athlone in a couple of weeks. 

This is a little close-up. It is still a work in progress, lots more bits and bobs to add. I just love the new Sizzix 'Birds' and I just got my hands on Picket Fence crackle paint too.

I thought I would show you my ultra organised bureau which I have converted into my Cuttlebug station. What do you think?

SImon Says Stamp and Show

This is a mirror that I started a long while ago and have just finished. It is a 20th Wedding Anniversary gift for my DH. I am entering it into the wonderful challenge at Simon Say Stamp and Show. This week is T!m Holtz inspired! As he is my absolute crafting idol this was no trouble at all.

I covered the frame with paper which a friend gave me. I made some flowers from grunge paper. The large one was embossed using one of Tim's texture fades, sprayed with a mixture of tattered rose and vintage photo  from a mini-mister, then swiped with fired brick and finally touched with Perfect Pearls gold. BTW the ticket says Trust not Rust. I added a photo from our wedding day into a memory frame and added a metal tag.

In one corner I added a metal picture corner. I just love these and use them sparingly. You can just see in the corner of the mirror a little fragment with a calendar from August, the month of our wedding.

I then added some of the lovely metal numbers. I used tea-dye and vintage photo distress embossing powders  to these to give them an aged appearance. I also added a Love key and some butterflies. Et Voilà, a Tim inspired mirror frame.

WOYWW

Hi WOYWWer's! Sorry I'm late, but I got the chance for a lie-in this morning and grabbed it with both eyes. On my desk today you can see the new toys that I am about to play with. I am using the die and Texture Fades for a class that I am giving at the GBCE in Athlone on 25th September. The class is called 'All about Tim'. I am so excited about it. In the background is 'DD' (named by Mandy and Betty), my gorgeous needle felted bear which was made by an extremely talented lady Dorothy Dinsmore. In the background you can also see my new little green tote. I have been looking for one of these for a while and happened to spot one in Tesco last week filled with children's gardening tools. The kids were happy with the tools and I was happy with the tool bag.

 

A close up of 'DD'

You can download these sheets on the Ranger website to help you organise your colours.

 I'm off to check out everyone's desks now. 

WOYWW 04/08/2010

Hi everyone welcome to WOYWW, hosted by the wonderful Julia. Those of you who saw my desk last week will be amazed to see the actual desk here, as opposed to everything piled up on it like last week. I still have some little houses waiting to be altered. The card in front is one a made as a sample for a sketch challenge in our monthly craft club. Shock, horror time I have used papers from my 'Lost and Found' paper stack. I also used my new 'Bingo' texture fade folder. The ribbon on the right has little red birds on it, I used it last night to make a hanger for a lovely fabric birdy that my friend Mandy gave me yesterday. It is now hanging in my kitchen.

Isn't it just lovely? I just love those little gingham wings.

This is the complete overview of the desk, somehow from this view it doesn't look quite so tidy. The ever faithful glue and heat guns on the side. The large wad of papers on the right is actually a letter stand which contains my have to have at hand, pieces of card and paper and stamped images and embossed card and, you can see where I am going with this right?

Anyway, pop over to Julia's blog and take a look at all the other lovely desks.

Design Team Call

Hi everyone. I just thought  would let you know about a DT call over on Emma's page. Check it out and check out her lovely shop for great crafting goodies.

WOYWW

Be prepared for a picture heavy post here. 

This is my desk on this lovely summer's Wednesday. Those of you who have visited before will not notice much change in my methods (lots of mess, everything piled up, seemingly total chaos). The little house in front is a ladybird house which has been painted and is ready to be transformed (see photos below of the one I completed the other day). The ribbon rolls on the desk are there from another couple of projects completed yesterday, they are cork boards which I made for my two little girls (pictures also below, I told you this would be picture heavy.

 This is the ladybird house completed and transformed into a little key house. I don't know about you all, but I can never find my keys, so hopefully this will solve the problem.

These are the notice boards.

This is a wall hanging that I finally finished, it has been on the desk for about 6 weeks I think. I just couldn't think how it would go together. I finally cut the original piece in half and used my gorgeous Tim Holtz on the edge die for the bottom edge. The paper is from K & Company. The bingo card is from Jenni Bowlin. I made the door of the house using one of Tim's Fragments and a piece of the 'Lost and Found' paper, (OK a confession here, I didn't use a piece of the paper itself, I used a piece of the cover sheet from the paper pad, I can't quite bear to cut the paper yet).

This is the little wooden birdhouse that was sitting on the desk for ages too. I was unsure how to finish it having used crackle paint on the roof and rock candy crackle on the rest of it. My good friend Betty has just taken possession of a great punch from Stampin' Up (the bird, wing and branch), This is a really sturdy punch and easily punches grunge paper! Joy of joys. So I punched out the little bird  and sat him on the perch. The scalloped border was done using a Martha Stewart punch. The rock candy crackle paint was rubbed over with shabby shutter ink.

Phew! That was a long post, I hope you stayed for the entire thing and enjoyed it. Pop over to Julia's blog to learn more about WOYWW

Thank-you Card

This is a thank-you card I made for the girls' teacher. I have used all things Tim Holtz on it. Including the edge die, the embossing folder, stamps and distress inks. I used the edge die, then folded it back and used it as a stencil.

You can just see the shape behind the bird.

You can see where I also used the edge as a stencil to ink up the inside of the card too. Not quite the traditional Thank-you card, but I think she liked it.

WOYWW

Ok everyone here it is. Last week if you visited you would have seen me at my best. This week alas I am back to my old untidy ways. I had some friends over yesterday so everything was moved to the kitchen and just dumped back on the desk afterwards. The mirror as you can see has still not been finished, but I did get a card made.

The card sits atop one of my fave pieces of equipment, my Woodware paper trimmer. Off to check out some other desks. For more information on this great experience check out Julia's Blog

WOYWW

This is what's on my desk today. Some unfinished projects. A wall hanging thingy, a mirror and a cute little birdhouse.

The mirror is hopefully going to be a present for hubby on our 20th wedding anniversary. It will look tidier when I have decided which of the pieces to stick to it!

You may have spotted the little box in the background and wondered what it was. It is my box of distress ink sponges. I coloured a tab with each of the colours, cut some cut 'n' dried foam and stapled the label to the foam. I now have all of the colours at my fingertips.

Father's Day

Sorry people, long time no blog. I hope to get back on track from today. Although the sunshine does beckon! Every sunny day is a bonus in Ireland, so we need to catch those rays when we can.
This is the card that I made for my husband on Father's Day. He flew away to England yesterday, hence the theme of the card. The card is distressed with vintage photo and brushed corduroy ink, over-stamped with brushed corduroy and walnut stain.
The tags are made using two different techniques. The green tag is distressed with peeled paint and shabby shutters. It was then swiped with espresso paint and finally the edges were embossed using vintage photo distress embossing powder. The brown tag is coloured with scattered straw, tea-dye, vintage photo and brushed corduroy inks. The stamps are Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous and the whole tag is dusted with some Perfect Pearls in Heirloom Gold.
I am entering this card in the My Partner in Crafting Crime Challenge #4.

Flower Wreath - Finished at last!

For those of you who have seen this wreath lurking in the background on some of my previous posts, this is the finished product. I am happy with the amount of flowers on it at last. I kept seeing empty spots when I held it up that I had to fill. I ended up making some smaller flowers and putting them around the sides.

This is a close-up of the top of the wreath.

I also made this one today. It has a much more muted colour scheme and I wrapped the wreath in a dark green Hessian ribbon first to take the blank look away. It meant that I needed a lot less flowers for this one than the last. We live and learn eh?

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

Well it's Wednesday again and as you can see by the shocking state of my desk, I have been busy starting lots of projects. I must say that not a lot of them got finished, but we will battle on! In the foreground are some tags, The orange one was inspired by Linda Elbourne in the latest issue of Craft Stamper. She used just one colour of distress ink to create a complete piece. My flower heart wreath is still languishing in the background and I have also started to alter a bingo clipboard. This needs lots more work.

I was crafting with friends on Monday night and everything that I brought with me is still piled up on the side of the desk.

On a tidier note, this is one of my storage areas, complete with Regie Pie puppet. and one of my 'Wishing' Bird Houses.

And this is another storage area. Hope you enjoyed your visit.