A poppy card

I mentioned earlier in the week that I was working on a stamped image of some poppies - here's the end result:

The stamp is from a clear Hero Arts set, coloured with Aqua Markers. I also stamped a second image and coloured a few extra petals to add some dimension like this:

Assembling the card was pretty straightforward, although my initail thoughts were to keep the basic card stock plain white, I just can't quite do CAS as yet! So, I used spotted background paper from a Papermania Capsule Collection 'Mono' pack and layered the image onto some silver Mirri card then added the extra petals using sticky pads. I buy my sticky pads either online or from Wilkinsons (under their own brand name in the stationery aisle) as they aren't too chunky, not too expensive and come in about one inch by half an inch size so they can be snipped into whatever size is best.

As the images were stamped onto quite thick watercolour card I also used a little trick which is, once the petals are cut out for the decoupage run a matching Aqua Marker round the cut edges so that no white shows.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Try It On Tuesday - Flower Power

Ooh La La Creations - Summer Flowers

Corrosive Challenges - red and white

Hope you have a great weekend!!

Di
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WOYWW 106

EDIT!!! Mr Postie has just brought my PiF from Fiona (Angelfish) - it's truly lovely and goes beautifully with my craft room - in fact I swear Fiona used some of my spare curtain material for the background :) Take a look - isn't it gorgeous...and the colours are much more vibrant than in my rubbish photo!!!!! Anyone who knows me will know that I adore pink roses too:

See what I mean about the curtains (the darker bits) - how spooky is that?:



I'm trying to clear some stash away from the few cards I've managed to make recently, so my desk is pretty unexciting right now :(

It isn't your eyes, this photo IS a bit blurred! I had my boxes of charms out whilst 'poodling' around yesterday making a card - plus some plain white card candi arrived in the post (brilliant to colour in with Pro Markers to match whatever colours have been used on images) so I've just added it to the RUB storage tray which seems to have a ton of candi in, even though I've given loads of it away since I first discovered it. Maybe it's breeding on the quiet?

Behind the boxes and trays are a few stamps which will be stamped and then go on their hols with me next week in case I find a little bit of time to play with Aqua Markers. A couple of the stamps are Ching Chou Kuik's designs, made by Sweet Pea Stamps - so delicate that they are calling for watercolours. If you want to see some fabulous results using these stamps, do hop over to Sue's - she does some amazing colouring using watercolours and Twinkling H2O's. Hiding her light under a bushel you have to poke about a bit in her blog to discover that she recently joined the Sweet Peas DT, well deserved. I think I'll just take Aqua markers with me and then add highlights with Twinkling H2O's when I get back - need to leave a bit of space for something to wear!

Advice from any water colourers please - I use Fabriano Classico 5 300gsm 50% Cotton watercolour card - having found that the other card I tried buckles or 'bobbles' when the watercolours soak in. It's great stuff but it's an off-white colour. I know that watercolours are generally painted onto off-white backgrounds but sometimes it would be good to have a pure, crisp white background, especially when layering onto a pure white card. Help! I use The Glitter Pot's own brand High White, Ultra Smooth card (290 gsm) card for Pro Markers and that's just great for those pens. It's pure white card suitable for Aqua Markers that's got me stumped!

To the right is a lovely GorJuss mug and pen given to me by Moira - how thoughtful is that!? I can't bring myself to use it for coffee so it's here for me to admire. The big pink Piglet mug does have coffee in it - a permanent fixture when I'm in here!

Then, ahem, to the right hand side of my desk a 'kinda tidy' selection of baskets as usual. One with scraps of unusable paper in for recycling, one with used stash to put away (the pink acrylic paint is a hint at the PiF I made but it's en route to Dolores - 'Cardarian' - in Slovenia so I can't say more). The green basket to the back is stuffed with unused stamps mostly, so some of those will be dug out and stamped ready for hols. 

That's my little patch for this week - to see much more interesting desks do hop over to Julia's for a good nosy around! I didn't manage to do much hopping around last week - hope to do better this week though. Have a great WOYWW everyone!

Di

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WOYWW 101

And, it's Wednesday once again! What's on my desk right now is some paperwork and a Laura Ashley file (from Staples). I'm a dead woman if Len ever decides to really peruse this file though :(  !!

It looks innocent enough in the front sections - being a bit OCD of a squirrel, I file away ideas and techniques, mostly from magazines, at the front of the file.

Ahem, it's when you get past those sections towards the back that things take a downward turn:

Yup, that's my left paw in the piccie! I file away most order copies from crafting purchases so I can remember where I got them from - either for when I need more supplies or if someone asks where I got such and such from. Now and then I do weed them out so this certainly isn't the whole of my incriminating evidence by any means :)

This little lot are waiting to be filed in plastic filing pouches and only in date order so perhaps it isn't as OTT as all that!? I'm sure I read that someone is even more organised and jots new bit of stash into a notebook. Just gotta hope that my OH doesn't read this post - maybe I should lock the file away?

Last week a lot of nice people commented on the sweet peas water colour I was doing. The card was asked for by my OH as a thank you to a lovely lady who has done a lot for a club he belongs to. Recently they've done a load of groundwork there and Sue has been amazing, working away chivvying members to roll their sleeves up and pitch in as well as providing teas and coffees for the workers. I think her unofficial title is 'co-ordinator extraordinaire' and this is how the card turned out:

It's an 8" square scalloped card, topped off with some shimmery slightly patterned dark blue backing paper from my stash, lace also from my stash and a pink bow using the Ribbon Girls 32mm pure silk ribbon.. I added filigree corners and a few slightly pearlised pink gems, along with Sue's name. If you look closely at the lace there's a little teapot charm tied on with bakers twine :)).....oh, and of course I used the sweet peas watercolour! Almost forgot that bit! My OH chose the backing paper from my quite limited supply of large papers after disagreeing with my initial suggestion of silvery grey - he was the client after all :)) And of course, then it needed a box:

I think, recently watching Forrest Gump and the boxes of chocolates had registered here, so I lined the base of the box with more dark blue backing paper and attached the pink silk ribbon so it was part of the lid.

Sue was delighted and rang me that same evening to say so - how nice was that?! It was a real pleasure to make something as a little recognition of all her hard work.

I'm entering this for the current Oldie But a Goodie challenge. The theme is 'Say it with flowers' and you have to use a stamped image at least 6 months old. I've had the sweet pea stamp for a lot of years so I guess it qualifies as an OAP!!

So, if you managed to read this far folks - remember to hop over to Julia's to see what everyone else is up to on What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Thanks again to so many lovely readers and for your kind comments too!!

Di

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A special Mothers Day Card

As some of you know, my step-mum is currently in a care unit being assessed as to whether she can return home or needs to be in full time care. I spoke to her again yesterday (she lives in Northumberland) and it's the brightest she's been since she was hospitalised - which is a huge relief as we live so far away.

I made this card for her on Wednesday, in between blitzing my messy desk and trying to hop round a few WOYWW blogs:

The image is done using a PB Stickeroo stamp. It's the first time I'd inked this little beauty up - but certainly not the last! I had such fun using my Aquamarkers to colour it in :)

I used a scalloped card topped with Coredinations green card, with the corners rounded - in real life it's a perfect match for the greens in the Aquamarker colouring. What I love about Aquamarkers is that I can mix and play around with colours on a perspex block to get just what I'm looking for. A little squiggle of this, a dot or two of that and then a good old mix up with a wet brush!

A scalloped square Nestie was used to die cut round the image, the sentiment is from Craftwork Cards and I added a few bits of orange/white Card Candy, also from them. I found the flowers tucked away in my stash - possibly among the first I ever bought as they are silk and were snipped from little branches of flowers bought from a local garden centre years ago......way before I discovered Prima and Wild Orchid flowers, and probably before using flowers on cards was so popular. The yellow daffodils were already just flower heads in a little box, from the same garden centre, and they came with droplets of 'dew' on - which was such a novelty back then. Hmm, was this me being ahead of the game for once in my life?!

I also discovered that my step-mum can have fresh flowers after all, so a lovely bouquet and  a cuddly teddy should be delivered on Saturday. We're never too grown up for teddy bears are we :)

Thank you so much for calling by!

Di
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What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday? 92

Wednesday again! First up, here's a tip (which the more I think about it is probably teaching Granny how to suck eggs) for anyone using Aqua Markers. Of course I had to have the whole set - as you do. So......being a tidy little soul I then HAD to have the zipped Letraset holders didn't I. I know the barrels of Aqua Markers are coloured as a guide but some of them aren't totally accurate. My tip is so simple - I didn't want to work with a colour chart so off I trolled to Staples and bought some small white round stickers which have been scribbled on coloured to match each pen and stuck onto the flat ends of the tops:

I guess this would work with Promarkers too - as I say, I betcha I'm by NO means the first to think of it though. I can see some eye-rolling going on! Before anyone says, I'm meticulous about putting the tops straight back on in any case - so no chance of ending up with a handful of pens and mixed up tops!

It's been a busy week so not a ton of crafting done really, although this is the card I made for my friend Joy's son and his girlfriend Jess. They recently got engaged so Jess is of course now Stuart's fiancee.......OK, so where is the accent symbol to go above the letter 'e'?!

Just to prove I can do a little bit messy - here's my desk just after I finished the card:

And this is the card - plus insert:

I used a square scalloped card from Craftwork Cards, a Love and Romance Lili of the Valley Cute Square, mounted onto a Nesties die cut - with a little bit of Stickles plus a teeny diamante gem in the little chap's hand - apparently Jess's engagement ring is a gorgeous diamond solitaire. I like the way the little girl seems to be having a think about what's going on :) The background paper, lace and roses are from my stash, the cute 'double heart' charm came from Dies to Die For and the sentiment stamp is from the LOTV Dreamy Days set. For the red bow I used some scrummy red organza ribbon that I bought in Germany a year or so ago - it has silver heart outlines on and I've been waiting for a very special card to use it for the first time! I hope we'll be going over again to see the grandchildren this Summer so a visit to the little shop where I found this and a few other tasty ribbons is def. on the cards..........to coin a phrase :)

So, now make sure you hop over to Julia's to find out what everyone else is up to........have fun!

Di
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