WOYWW 161

Yargh. What you see on my desk this morning is an exercise in frustration.

You see, I recently bought a rather funky looking doily die. "How fabulous!" thought I. "I can make doiles to match my projects, as many of  them as I like! Yippee!"

Or... not. Now, it's an intricate die and I'm not daft... I realised there would be some work involved in popping out all the teeny tiny little pieces. However, as it turns out, there's a lot more to it than "popping out"... mainly because even after being run through the BigShot twice (turning 90 degrees between runs through), the darn thing *still* didn't cut completely through in places. So I've ended up having to push and pull with a pokey tool, and occasionally try and re-cut lines with a craft knife, and generally it's taken me faaaaaar longer than I even care to think about to produce just one usable doily (and I wouldn't look too closely at it as there's a fair few ragged edges here and there).

So that's what I've been doing at my craft desk - that and a lot of swearing! :lol

So, to end on a more cheerful note, I shall also share with you the finished CJ page that I made using the background that was sitting on my desk in last week's WOYWW post:

I used a Dylusions stencil and a Stempelgelde stamp and handwrote the journalling. The CJ is now winging its way to the next recipient.

And that's it from me this week. I've stayed up faaaaar too late (or early, really) fighting with that doiley so I am taking myself off to bed! :)

WOYWW 161

For once, I actually have a work in progress to show you on my desk this week! :) For some reason, on Wednesday mornings my desk always seems to be either completely covered in (often non-craft related) bumf, sorely neglected, or, more usually, showing only the debris of a recently-completed project. But not this week. :D

Today was the UKS sponsor blog hop and what a fine hop it was! Some fantastic projects and inspiring ideas... and one of them - some textured background tutorial vids from Just Scrapbooking - inspired me to get my paints out. Something I've not done for far too long!

As it happens, I have an entry to do in an art journal CJ, so what better excuse to get painty? :)

So here's the desk this morning:

And here's my painty, texturey background:

It's still a work in progress in that I still need to "decorate" the page, as it were. But I'm quite happy with the background.

That's it from me this week. Short and sweet. I've already stayed up later than I should cos DD1 has recently taken to waking up a good hour or so earlier than she usually does *and* coming and opening her bedroom door and making a noise on the landing, which then wakes up her baby sister in her room, which in turn means that mummy's then got to get up at silly o'clock! Argh!

So. Bedtime for this little crafter. Goodnight and thanks for stopping by! :)

Octopode Alice

Remember the scrummy Octopode Factory Alice in Wonderland screen that I made for a screen swap and could barely bring myself to part with? ;)

Well, I've been at it again. :D Not a screen this time but a CJ entry. The journal I had to work on for the art journal CJ I'm taking part in had the theme of "Steampunk Alice". I immediately thought of the fab Octopode Factory images and lo and behold the CJ owner even put in her instructions that she liked the Octopode Factory Alice in Wonderland images. :) Perfect.

So I used similar techniques to the screen, using Dylusions sprays to make the background and to paint in the images (love the versatility of the digi images, that I can resize them to suit the project I am working on). This is the CJ page - and matching tag - that I made:

As it happens, this week's theme at the Octopode Factory Friday Challenge is "anything goes" so I am entering my CJ page and tag.

The CJ is going in the post today - it's got several more people to get around before returning to the owner but I hope, when she does get it back, she likes this page as much as I do! :)

P.S. Really must make *myself* one of these Octopode Alice projects... I always seem to have to keep giving them away! :lol:

WOYWW - 18 January 2012

Wednesday again already. How did that happen? I've not been crafting as much as I'd like recently... mainly cos it's just too flipping cold! Brrrrrr! I've been hibernating in the lounge with the gas fire on and I ain't coming out till it's spring! :lol:

I did manage to brave the chilly craft room long enough to get a bit of crafting done though (though, sadly, no tidying just yet!):

The pages on the desk are in-progress backgrounds for a CJ entry. Hoping to get the entry finished and the CJ posted this week, if I can tear myself away from the comforting warmth of the fire!