WOYWW 236 The Ahaa! Moment

I thought I'd try some crafting, but my desk was buried under a mountain of stuff, so I migrated to the dining room table, within minutes that managed to resemble my desk. I forged ahead....brave aren't I?  Some time ago, I'd seen a technique using masks, distress inks and stamps to create a snow scene. Of course, mine looked nothing like the original... in the bin it went, tried a second and third. By this stage, ready to throw in the towel... I thought for a minute..  Here it comes.... AHAAA!!!!  Of course it's not going to look the same, they've probably made it a hundred times...  

I think it turned out OK..

Hung out with Eliza. What a cracker, I walked into her craft room, wouldn't you know those Ikea purchases from our safari had magically multiplied. Hmmm! Not one but two desks, not one set of drawers but three. Of course Eliza stands there with a cheeky grin on her face shrugging her shoulders, trying desperately to act innocent. In your dreams GF.
We were on yet another mission, functional craft room by that night... First dismantle, WOW! I've never seen so many cables, power boards, double adapters. Just between you and the gatepost, I think GF has a fetish for anything associated with electricity....LOL. But we had a fabulous day, laughing, mostly at each other...that's what friends are for...right. 
Are you part of the WOYWW blog hop? Don't know what it's about, head over to the Stamping Ground, Julia provides links to everyone's blog...What are you waiting for? Check it out. 

Thanks for visiting, hope you have a great week. Happy Crafting and WOYWW.

DeDe

WOYWW 235 Ikea Safari

Another week has flown by,  must admit quite a productive one, where does the time go? I managed to make a couple of baby cards this week, created my own pattern paper for the blue one, using distress inks, water colour pens, stamps and clear embossing powder. Used a Spellbinders die (no idea what it's called) and  the embellishment was made using a Kaisercraft stamp and 6 layers of embossing powder. All the products used on the pink card were Kaisercraft. Anyone would think I like Kaiser products....LOL

A few people commented on the rosette item in the background last week so I thought I'd include a picture today... not very exciting, my attempt at making a centre piece for Christmas Celebrations no doubt it will end up a UFO. However, I did start making a storage unit for Tria Markers, each section will hold 12 pens, it's still a work in progress and it's possible it may morph into something else entirely by the weeks end.... I like to keep things interesting, in reality I never know what it will be until it's finished...

Now let's move on to my adventure of the week. The Safari at Ikea began like any normal day, (don't worry, no guns) a leisurely drive, hot summers day, you get the picture... Arrived at our destination, my hubby told me this store was big, but I had no idea, I was in retail heaven... Retail therapy for Eliza had just kicked up several notches... We had a ball, (the Bobsy twins on a mission, scary) but I must say I've never experienced so much mind changing, a few times we forgot what we'd chosen and had to retrace our steps...

Eliza (you have to love her, she's gorgeous) would see her future workspace, only to walk ten paces and find another solution...considering this store is half a kilometre long, the ten paces bit, works out be a lot of mind changing... not to mention,  measurements went out the window as the size of the desk was growing... LOL . 
 
Hilarious, fabulous day, at one stage I thought GF was going to wet herself, if you haven't already guessed, of course she was laughing at me and the out of control trolley. Dare I say (no offence intended) it had to be a man who designed these wretched things, my arms barely long enough to hold, wait for it, two handles to steer. Thank goodness my arms were not shorter otherwise I'd be turning in circles in the middle of Ikea. 

Word of Wisdom: Make note of the level where you parked your car before you enter the store. Ensure you exit the elevator with fully loaded trolley on the same level as the said vehicle...do not follow the males directions... also lazy male does not offer to push fully loaded trolley, he would rather smirk at short armed granny crashing into walls like a bee in a bottle...need I say more...

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment.  Why not pop over to see Julia at the Stamping Ground and participate in the best blog hop ever.

Happy crafting everyone, hope you have a great week and most of all happy WOYWW.

DeDe

WOYWW 234 Bibs & Bobs

Not a good crafting week for me, I decided to get stuck into my craft room. Usually I open the door and close it again.....Ever had one of those moments, when you decide to be brave and take the bull by the horns. Oh my! Well I did that yesterday, and today I feel like I've been trampled by the bull....Every muscle in my body is screaming... Mind you dragging around industrial shelving is bound to make a muscle scream.  I won't be opening that door again for a little bit...

As usual the craft bug got me, instead of having a lazy day I made a few things. Christmas card and a box thingy (kind of over sized Christmas cracker without the banger bit)....don't you love my technical terms.   Eliza speaks the same language, what's scary is we know what the other is saying.....

Also made a business card holder, didn't need one but it seemed like a good idea at the time. See totally bonkers...

 Thought I would throw in a picture of my 4 legged babies.  Let me introduce Molly (aka "Princess Moo" black & white) and Byron (aka The Creep).
 
Molly is the smart one, she loves to talk on the phone, Eliza's had numerous conversations with her, obviously on speaker.... she is very intelligent, loves her rag doll,  pink bunny and piglet.

Byron on the other hand has serious issues, afraid of the dark, bails up snails and is terrified of worms, shadows and his own tail.... not to mention only has 3 teeth. His favourite toy is 'Thing' (thing is a lamb, a babies toy he stole from my grand daughter) Hah! You think he's so cute right! Wrong! He's a terror, steals, throws tantrums and cocks his leg on anything and everything.  We love him anyway.

I really look forward to Wednesday's, I hop over to Julia's place, Stamping Ground to check out the desks in the hop, why not join in the fun.

Hope everyone has a great week.  Happy Crafting and WOYWW

DeDe

WOYWW 233 Box Flippy Flappy Thingy

Well it's Wednesday again, honestly it comes around so quick. I haven't done much this week, just some fine tuning on a 3D project. It's far from finished, but I thought I would put it up anyway.  This is what I love to do, I see things and of course I have to build it. The original design was a part of a class, but as usual I have to put my own twist on things (nothing like wanting to be different).  I've also seen the original concept on the net, when I find it I'll post the link.

I get hooked up in these projects and usually have several on the go at one time. Sometimes I manage to put the wrong pieces together and love it when it turns out right, but that's not always the case.

Yesterday the brain was scrambled, I was in design mode overdrive, poor Eliza put up with my ramblings while nursing a very painful arm. She's a sweetheart, love my girl, and we do have a lot of fun.

Sorry sidetracked, back to the task at hand. I constructed the covers and spines from book board joined with cardstock reinforced with tyvek. The entire folder is made from paper, no prefabs used. All the patterned paper is by Kaisercraft.

Well that's all I have for this week, hopefully I'll have this finished by next week or who knows, I might even give you a sneaky peek of the new project I'm working on or maybe not. You will have to watch this space....LOL  

In the meantime why not pop over to see Julia at the Stamping Ground, she is the creator of this fabulous blog hop. It's loads of fun, and you get to see the creativity of very talented people.

Hope you have a great week and Happy Crafting
De De

 

My Scribble - WOYWW 232

After beating myself up over last weeks disastrous effort, I thought I'd concentrate on my drawing this week. You know how it goes, scribble a bit then shade until the cows come home. The thing I love about this method is, you shade a bit, then you shade some more, all the while working in one orientation.

You think '...Oh yeah, it's OK..', then put it down and walk away. As you walk back you see it upside down and it seems to have warped into an entirely different piece. People think me a little odd when I tell them to turn their work upside down. I do it often and seven times out of ten I prefer it that way and people think you are really clever when you tell them you drew or painted upside down.

Next I decided to try last weeks tutorial again. With an attack of the lazies, I thought hmmm shortcuts are a really good idea today. So after skipping several steps and adding a little artistic licence of my own I came up with this one. Now, I'm far from convinced it's great but I'm OK with result. Not so in your face and scary. One must remember as a cardmaker I still have my training wheels on, mind you Eliza will front up with a spanner at any moment...LOL love ya GF.

I used Hero Arts Century French Script stamp and clear embossing powder on white card, then Tim Holtz Distress inks over the top to create the background. Other stamps used Penny Black Dreamy, Kaisercraft CS748 and sentiment. 

Moral of the story: A tutorial is great, step by step instructions invaluable, but it is a guide, there are no rules. We all have our own way of doing things, that's what makes our creations unique.

I'm looking forward to jumping over to The Stamping Ground and say hi to Julia

Happy Crafting and Happy WOYWW 232

De De

Another Magazine Tutorial also WOYWW 231

I am showing you this as my introduction to the WOYWW'ers where Eliza told me I had to come, look and see what other people are doing out there in the world.  So I am linking with Julia at The Stamping Ground as directed to join in the fun.

Well, I did it again. I tried to follow a tutorial in this particular magazine, there were a lot of steps, oodles of products. Gel medium, distress inks, tissue paper, paint, pens, inks, stamps, list goes on. Now I might add the sample in the magazine was beautiful, but not mine. Mine looked like something out of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I spent 6 hours on this mess, again a lot of laughs with Eliza, I've decided maybe this is not a technique for me. Goodness, even I get scared when I look at this one.

I suppose I can always use the excuse 'this is what NOT to do' and leave it at that. In fact I can't believe I'm putting this on my blog. Eeeeeek!!!! Perhaps the answer is to practice, practice, practice. Nah! I won't do this one again, I've learned my lesson.

Moral of the story: When trying a magazine tutorial, read it over and over and over again. Then hand it to someone with more experience and get them to do it, then get them to show you how to do it step by step. Happy crafting.

De De

Magazine Tutorial Using Creative Licence

1st attempt

Being an avid crafter, I'm constantly on the lookout for inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. A magazine cover caught my eye,
needless to say I had to have it. My BF and I tackled a tutorial for an amazing card. Lots of instructions, little guidance and huge dose of
 laughter we managed to completed the first card. However, it didn't look anything like the magazine picture, and even though we used
the colours exactly as instructed,  the result was less than satisfactory.





Far better result

So, BF and I decided to take creative licence to the next level and do things our way. Many laughs later along with a few tears of joy,
we had an amazing afternoon and produced a rather nice card, well we liked it.

We used Paper Artsy JOFY 09 stamp set which was a lot of fun, let's face it life is about having fun and you just cannot mess these up.
 They are fabulous to use, excellent quality and quirky just like me. I look forward to my next JOFY purchase, do yourself a favour and get a set,
you will have so much fun. Other products used were Tim Holtz Distress Inkpads and Stampers Anonymous Simple Sayings as well as
Letraset Tria Alcohol markers for colouring.

?The moral of the story, if first you don't succeed, do it your way. I do, all the time. Happy crafting and have fun.