I need to tidy my craft desk...

...so that I can make space for THIS: :D :D :D

Oooh I can't WAIT to have a play!! As soon as DD's in bed tonight, it's tidying and then playing for me, cold be damned! :D

WOYWW 17 November...

Welcome to another Wednesday! If you're new to WOYWW and wondering what on earth it's all about, check out Julia's blog for details and the full list of fab blogs to visit! :)

Not much on my desk this morning. Well, actually, I have a confession... these photos are of my desk at 11:30pm on Tuesday night... but believe me, nothing has changed since then! :lol:

Crafting has not really been happening this past week, due to a combination of illness (both DD and I are full of cold!!) and houseguests so aside from the general crafting debris around the edges of my workspace, and a couple of completed ATCs, the only thing currently gracing my workspace is a set of in-progress ATCs.

I used some lovely new Anna Griffin lace stamps to make the background for these and have stamped a flower design onto acetate.. these are going to be cut out and added to the background.

As there is so little on my actual workspace, I thought this week I'd also show you the rest of my craft desk...

Can you believe I tidied this only the other week and had this part of the desk completely clear - enough so that there was workspace for a friend to come round and craft with me? *sigh* The clutter just seems to pile up, no matter what I do... not helped by hubby having the occasional tidying spree which usually involves dumping any of my or DD's belongings (note her stylish booties gracing my desk!) into my craft room!

I can never seem to keep my computer area tidy either... too many in-progress bits and bobs, scraps of paper, empty tea mugs and - at the moment - empty tissue boxes (curses this rotten cold!)!! There's a printer under there somewhere... :lol:

WOYWW

Bit late to the party today...  it's been a kind of crazy day! Have been battling viral labyrinthitis (feeling constantly dizzy/wobbly) to finish off an urgent project. Finally got it done and sent on it's way.

Consequently, I can't really share with you what has been on my workdesk all day (as it's still sooper-sekrit at this stage) other than a few tantalising snippets:

Therefore I shall instead show you what has been sitting on the floor of my craftroom (in a carrier bag) today... at least I had to unpack it to take this photo so it may now stand a chance of getting put away properly! :lol:

Christmas Card Prototype

Helen (and anyone else on my Christmas card list) look away now or you'll spoil the surprise!! :lol:

So... I finally got around to having a play last night with my chosen stamps for making my Christmas cards this year. I wanted to go with something fairly bold and simple and that doesn't take a huuuuuge amount of work to make (I may not have a lot of cards to make this year but I do kind of have a lot going on atm!!) and I wanted to use these pretty bauble stamps...

So this is what I have come up with:

Laid flat

Stood up

Soo... whaddaya think?

Bear in mind it's only a prototype at this stage (hence why I wasn't too fussed about the ink smudge on the greeting!) and still subject to tweaking. The smaller baubles are stamped onto ice white shimmer card which is layered onto black card with a narrow strip of black card laid across at the bottom. The larger bauble and the greeting are stamped onto more ice white shimmer card and heat embossed with black embossing powder then cut out and attached with foam pads for a bit of dimension.

As I said, I wanted to go with a fairly bold and simple design and I felt like anything too fussy would detract from the pretty detail of these baubles stamps. But is plain black and white a bit "too" bold and stark for a Christmas Card? Any thoughts/feedback gratefully received...

Hee! New stamp...

I happened to come across this stamp whilst browsing in Hobbycraft today and I just HAD to have it!

This is SO getting used for a birthday card for my mum in January (it's so totally her sense of humour!).... :D :D :D

I love the vintage picture and style of it... combined with the humorous tagline. :D

Bling bling!!

One of my online crafty friends (*waves to Lilli*) is a bit of a recycling fiend and often posts tips and ideas about how to turn recycle everyday bits and bobs into stash... her favourite tip is to snip out and save the ribbon hanger loops from any new tops you buy but another of her great ideas is to keep an eye out in the sales/clearance sections for cheap jewellery that can be disassembled and used as embellishments.

I had this idea in the back of my mind as I meandered around the clothing section of Asda this afternoon and just look what I came away with!!

For a grand total of £8 I have:

A gorgeous big metal and gemstone butterfly embellishment...

A cute little cameo, a filigree metal heart charm, a filigree metal butterfly charm. a metal flower embellishment and a selection of crystal/pealised beads....

And 7 pretty pearlised plastic and bead flower embellishments plus matching beads!

And that's without using the chains... :)

This is the second time recently that I've bought discounted jewellery with the intent of using it in my crafting and I recently made a scrapbook page using some lovely decorative hoop earrings as miniature frames (lighting not the best in these photos - sorry!):

I think I am now hooked on this thrifty crafting tip and I find myself viewing jewellery in a totally different light... that of how it would look disassembled and used on a scrapbook page! :lol:

WOYWW

Well, I thought I'd join in the fun of What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday over at Julia's Stamping Ground blog. :)

So here's what's on my workdesk today:

A combination of the detritus from making a personalised birthday card for a friend of my mum's last night, a belated goody that arrived in the post today, and the card and stamps I'm intending to use to create a prototype for my christmas cards for this year...