The Crop is Nigh - 521 WOYWW

Super excited The Crop is almost here.  If you are not going I don't think it is too late to change your mind and roll up.  I have about 30 ATC's ready and waiting, still need to make my SW cake, pack my clothes and decide what to take to do.  I will take all kinds of things and then spend my time just nattering, I know I will, but hey ho you have to put the pretence on don't you!

My desk has been littered with my lace teabags again as I have put some together with hooks and eyes but the others I still cannot work out how to make them into a book.  Maybe I should take those with me to the crop and get some advice from all the talented ladies (and men) who will be there.  I did a video yesterday showing my teabags here - all off the cuff, no prep or anything so take it as it comes.  It's ages since I did a video so I had completely forgotten how to upload one - thank goodness I have a man who works these things out for me.

My desk today is as it was yesterday when I actually took the photograph.  I was starting to do a Journal page.

The stencil on the left is the one I used, but in actual fact you would not know I had used the faces in random places all over the page.  It is an Andy Skinner stencil as is the one you can see in my file.  Underneath the file is my tiny Misti and some stamps and blank atc's - just in case I need more than I have made.  To the left of the Misti is a green waste bin Jo (Pritchard) once made me and then my cut down wine bottle case containing all manner of things - pens, pencils, scissors, stencil brushes, droppers, pokey tools, dental thingies - all kinds of things I use on a day to day crafting session.  Next is a kitchen roll, then the big silver thing which is my A4 Gelli Plate and behind that is a whole host of things.

Going up a layer, so to speak, we have a book we once made as a group (we all made a page and Cath (our group mom) put them all together to remember a friend who had died).  You can just about see the tips of various scissors, mainly deckle ones which I confess never get used.  Then there's a thermometer hanging with a couple of distressers and some more tub containers with, again all manner of things inside.  Next you come to my Carousel - we won't go there but will jump to my Distress Ink Pads and Monkey and two Koalas both from Shaz in Oz.  There is the Australian flag there too but you can't see it  Perhaps another time I should do a shot of the window and all that rests on the sill.

Well, will leave it there as this is getting L O N G and for some reason my photo has jumped to the side and my writing is not justified as I like it and I swear I never touched a single button - must get it sorted.  See you Saturday if you are going to the Crop, otherwise see you next Wednesday via cyber-space.

(done, now fully justified as I like it, Phew! Just hope the video link works)

WOYWW 514

Another week, another Wednesday another WOYWW (how many "W's" is that?)  More to the point what is it - WOYWW is where we meet up each week to show our desks.  Why not join us?

My back must be feeling better as I have WIP on my desk.  Whey Hey, Zippity Doo Daa!

Won't go into how many days it has taken me to get to this stage but not always because of my bad back.  I just wish I had that lovely Antipodean Lady who used to do the most wonderful things with lace right here besides me.  Her name escapes me, as does her blog, but I have missed her, and so much of late when I wanted to do something with lace and things.

I finally found the box that had my lace in, went through it and sorted out some of the white and some of the cream lace into two piles and then cut bits off each.  Now I need to go through my box of trimmings and my metal bits too - all can be incorporated into the tea-bag cards/things I am making.

I want to make a book out of them as well as cards but haven't figured how to hold the pages together - got several ideas in my head but need to try them all out and just hope the sewing one does not come out on top or I need to take a couple of machines to the workshop and that could pose a problem.  Anyway, my desk today shows the two piles of lace pieces and the bits I have cut off from some of them.  In front to the left of the teabags you can see the book page I am working on (close up below).  

  

Here is the beginning of a tea-bag covered in lace with a picture in it.  No fear of my class seeing it as none of them ever go on my blog.

  

I did think of putting another layer of lace on the tea-bag but my head is saying "it could be fabric or card underneath if it is lace layered on lace - this is supposed to be a tea-bag - so let the tea-bag show through".  What do you think?

WOYWW 475

Wonderful, the fires are under control.  The firefighters and locals all worked hard with diggers and made a deep trench all around the moorland area that was on fire and filled it with water.  It is now contained and they can concentrate on putting the peat out at last.  I believe the firefighters from London, Wales, etc have now returned home.

Much easier sleeping now without the smell of the smoke permeating the bedroom and making me cough and wake with a very dry, hoarse throat.  I feel normal, well as normal as I can get, now.

My desk today

Teabags!  My new favourite stamping medium.  Went to a workshop with Kate Crane (I have been stalking her - three workshops in eight days) in Burnley and this is what we were doing - painting on teabags.  Not easy when you are not tea drinkers at home so in readiness I had collected all the teabags I could at two previous workshops.

On my desk you can see at the left some magazine pages and a new journal with some scissors and a pencil case full of black pens.  That was a workshop I went to on Sunday with Dyan Reavley but I am saving that for another time.  At the back are some of my watercolour tins and a concertina book that is going to hold my teabags when they are all finished.  In front is a large paintbrush for Gesso, some teabags waiting to be prepped and a long one with a fish on, unfinished.  

Here are the finished ones stuck on pages in my concertina book.

I need eighteen in total so I guess I had better stop 'wittering' and get on.  See you all over at Ms Julia's where we meet on a Wednesday ready for our giant blog hop around one another's desks.  See you!