WOYWW 441 My Hat

Here we are again, another Wednesday, and sharing it with all the WOYWW'ers out there, and, of course, our instigator Ms Julia, here.

Last week I told you all about my hat I was wearing on Saturday - well, here it is - the full version - lots of pictures, sorry.

close-up of feathers etc

front

necklace & bracelet

bottle & bulb side

Not wanting to wear the hat all day long both Saturday and Sunday (plus Friday night) I made myself an alternative which was a head band with dominoes on (coloured with Oxides and die-cut letters stuck on) and then some silk flowers.  As you can see it was for Remembrance Weekend.  Unfortunately I left it on my worktable at home but this is it

 it looks good when worn

If you want to see some pictures from my weekend showing me dressed up in my hat you need to look at my blog yesterday.  It also has pictures of the two projects we did, one with Andy Skinner and one with Antonis Tzanidakis.  Loved every minute of the weekend.

Now to my desk.  I am making some more samples for my demo on Sunday at Leigh which will be in the Greyhound Hotel on the East Lancs.  I will be showing some different techniques with the Distress Oxides and hope that I manage to get some interest in purchasing them.

That's it folks - (not a lot of writing Julia)

Oyster Stamps BLOG HOP

Oh Em Gee - we are having another Blog Hop but this time we have been given a free rein to do what we want, the only stipulation was - to make a TAG.

Right folks - you have to be in it to win it and Oyster Stamps are giving away - not one, but TWO Big Goody Bags as prizes at the end. You start off here and leave a comment on my blog and then you follow on to Pam tomorrow and leave a comment on her blog, then on to Martine on Sunday, then Hellen on Monday, and so on (see the list below with dates) leaving a comment on each blog.

We end with Kerry on the 17th October and after that we will double check all the blogs and two winners will be chosen, with names drawn from a hat, that have commented on all eight blogs.

This is my tag to start the ball rolling:

As you can no doubt guess I used Distress Inks to colour everything. Everyone knows I am a Distress Ink Nut!

I started off with a 6"x 3" tag which I coloured in using Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord (these were also used for the rectangles behind the letters and the Balloon).

Next I stamped "Heartfelt Creations World Map Pre-Cut" set over the top with Black ink and stamped the Balloon from their "Balloon and Bicycle Pre-Cut Set" in the same way but this time embossed with clear embossing powder.  The letters were cut from Black cardstock using Memory Box Classic Lower Alphabet.  The ribbon is dyed by dragging across the Peeled Paint inkpad.

Because my tag is so simple I decided to make a folder for it to sit inside:

I used the same stamp sets as for the tag but also used the Heartfelt Creations Gear Assembly Die and introduced Tea Dye, Walnut Stain and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks to warm it up a bit.  Brusho's were used to colour in the bicycle and I used Wink of Stella to give the flowers a bit of sparkle, red for the flowers and clear on the leaves.

If you want to make one you just need to measure the width of your tag adding a quarter of an inch, double it, add half an inch for the width and measure the length adding half an inch to that.  (The addition of the quarter of an inch to the width is to give the tag room to move in and out.)

Make a fold 1/2" from the end (both depth and width) and cut some off as above.  (Note one half has the bottom cut off completely)

Put tape on the bits that are going to fit inside as shown above (Scor-tape really is the best and Oyster Stamps sell it in all widths. Fantastic for books and pockets etc and the backing peels off so easily).

Decorate and away you go.  Great to use one of those Thumb Punches for the top too!

Now here are the details for the Blog Hop - you need to make a comment on every single blog listed below and include this one to be in for the prize at the end (TWO Prizes!) so leave a comment here and then tomorrow go to Pam's blog and follow on from there.

Here are all the links (just click on the name with the right button on your mouse):

Saturday 11th October Pam

Sunday 12th October Martine

Monday 13th October Hellen

Tuesday 14th October Margot

Wednesday 15th October Andy

Thursday 16th October Eileen

Friday 17th October Kerry

All products used are available from Oyster Stamps, including the wonderful joint cutter and score board on my 3rd picture which is by WeR Memory Keepers.  Why not pop along and see some of the wonderful things they sell.

Good Luck and ENJOY!

BLOG HOP COMING but in the meantime ...

... here is a card I made for a friend who is celebrating her 80th birthday.  Congratulations Leo!!!

It's quite a large card (A4 folded in half) and I used some old Spellbinders Dies for the images.  If you can't have a Mardi Gras type card for your 80th then when can you have one LOL?  The black card is shiny and some bits I had left over from years ago - I thought it worked quite well.

Anyway, hope you come back tomorrow and see what I have made for the BLOG HOP that OYSTER Stamps is holding.  There are eight of the DT in it and I am kicking it all off with a tag using some of the products you can buy from Oyster Stamps.

These are the DT members taking part:

You start off with me and then move on to

Pam 11th October http://pam-simcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/

Martine 12th October http://abfabdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Hellen 13th October http://www.elliescupboard.blogspot.co.uk/

Margot 14th October http://margot-craftcorner.blogspot.co.uk/

Andy 15th October http://www.andrewbennett17.blogspot.co.uk/

Eileen 16th October http://eileenscraftyzone.blogspot.co.uk/

Kerry 17th October http://kerryscraft.com/

Thought I would list all of their blogs just in case you want a peek at what they do anyway.  Don't forget though - you have to start off with me and then go on to Pam on Saturday, Martine on Sunday and so on.  Each blog needs to have a comment from YOU if you are to be in the draw for one of two Goody Bags after the 18th October when it is all over with.

Good Luck!

WOYWW 217

I cannot believe I have not posted since last Wednesday, nor can I believe a week has gone by - flown in fact!!!  (And the weather has changed up here in the north west.  Rain - just seen that Walsden was flooded last night/this morning - those poor people.)

Got a good excuse - busy!  I am prepping samples for the Oyster Retreat - so worried that those attending will not like my style as it is so very different to that of the other tutors.  That is why you don't get a full view of my working area - not because I am worried - because I am prepping.

This is a view to the left - my two towers of mounted stamps, remember me saying I had got rid of one last week?  So annoyed with myself that I threw the wooden blocks away - could have made good use of them at the Retreat!  Bah!

You can see my new Tim Holtz stamps which arrived this morning courtesy of my friend Ali who popped them in the post for me.  My white "Felix" box (no time to decorate at the moment), a shoe box and a wooden wine box all containing workshop stuff.  That's not counting what is to the right of the picture for the Retreat.  The black box on the right holds my TH collection of stamps and the tiny tower behind is full of TH type ephemera.  (The red thing on top is a lollipop brought back from my American friend, Mary G's, workshop when I was over in January.)

This is further along going towards my work area - see how I have taken over the cleared area I had last week.  Still it is for work in progress and at least I can die cut there.

Want a sneak peek? Of my workshop?  Go on then.

Watch out in the next few days - there could be more.

Now pop over to see what others have when they linked up to Boss Lady J's WOYWW (she is lovely, not bossy but she is the brainchild behind all of this). If you haven't joined in yet you don't know what you are missing - best way I know to make friends.

ps I will be playing catch up again on comments as I am going to see Marti Pellow in Evita at The Lowry tonight.  How I loved "Wet Wet Wet" - and still love to play my tapes.

Next week I will have to do a scheduled post as we will be away for Chas's 60th Birthday.  Hope I manage to get his birthday card finished as I am only halfway through my workshop prep at the moment.  If you come on here and I am not linked will someone please link me.  Pretty please,  just in case WiFi does not work where I am.

A Birthday Card

Was tidying my blog photo file up earlier and came across a birthday card I sent to a friend a couple of weeks ago so thought I would show it today.  I was up early this morning and crafting up to lunchtime (late lunch) but I am not sure if I will show what I was doing in a day or two or leave it to enter for a blog challenge.  Mmmmm.....

Anyway, short and sweet, which is not me, here is the card I sent to Jo.

Knowing Jo likes purple and footwear I thought this was the perfect stamp.  It's one I bought when in America from my friend Mary.  I used Twinkling H2o's to paint it and did a bit of cutting out and mounting of parts of it so they stood out proud.  Think I used Glossy Accents on the clock face - it is so long ago that I cannot really remember now.

The cogs peeking out from the white card are die cuts (Tim Holtz).

Before I forget I will be teaching at the Oyster Stamps Retreat 16 - 18th August in Northampton.  Enjoy a weekend at the Hellidon Lakers Golf and Spa Hotel, Daventry and get Grungy with me!  Would be lovely to see some of you there.

WOYWW 208 All Together Now ...

... Happy Birthday to You
    Squashed Tomatoes and Stew
    Lots of Jelly, in Your Belly
    Happy Birthday to You!

WOYWW is Four Today!  Thank you Julia for bringing so many of us together each Wednesday, for all the fun and friendship that is here today.  It's unbelievable that you gave birth four years ago to the biggest blog hop Blogland has seen.  And we are swapping ATC's too today!

I could go on but cutting the chat I will show you my desk.

Stash!  That is all it contains.  On Sunday I was working at the Lincoln Show and, as per usual, spent my earnings on goodies.  Four Spellbinders dies and a two Die-namics from Tracey - and a stamp from Ali-Crafts.

It was a great show, lots of people waiting at the barrier to come in when the clock chimed "ten" - and I missed the chance of a photo! But here you can see the crowd as it came towards me

Our stand before the show started

I was working to the side of the pink case - where the kitchen roll is - and Pam was at the other side.  That's Pam talking to Tracey at the end.  You have probably seen lots of Pam's beautiful cards in the Oyster Gallery.

Had a great time - made all the better with meeting up with Sam again.  I do miss her when she doesn't come to Harrogate and I was not sure she would be here this time - but (thankfully) she was.  Great to see you Sam!

and here is Spencer waiting for it all to begin

Sitting on a Spellbinders Die of course

As well as demonstrating the Artisan Explorer (Spellbinders' dinky new machine) I did two workshops using Pan Pastels.  Tracey asked me to do ATC's so the idea was born for my swaps for today's birthday celebrations.  I won't show you what I did this week as the ladies have not got them yet so don't want to spoil the anticipation.  Also not opened the two I have already received (thanks Jo and Anonymous) and it is too early to do it now so you will have to wait until next week when it will be an ATC filled post.

Right, time to see what others have posted - wonder if there are lots of ATC's out there?  You will have to follow this link to see - happy hunting!  Happy Birthday WOYWW!  Here's to number Five!

ps I will post a list of who is taking part in the Flat Susan Travelogue in a day or two - check if I have your name and addie.  If not please get in touch and if you want to sign up there is still plenty of time.

Harrogate

Didn't get time to blog over the weekend and yesterday had to make a start on the housework (yes I said the "H" word) so no time then either.

Well, here is my stash in all it's glory from the show in Harrogate. Just as I have unpacked my goody bag (shopping).  Was I circumspect or what?  There was lots more I wanted to buy from our own stand but I had a bad back this weekend and so shopping from others went on hold and we were so busy that I didn't get much from Oyster either.

Those Glue pens are magic for die cuts.  You will find them under "Everyday Crafting Needs" on the website.  Just trying to be an enabler here.  Now I will have no problem with that lattice die you can see there.  Hope there are enough to take to Leigh Show in 3 weeks time as I am sure a lot of my friends will want them.

Love those glitter pens and that gilding paint which is like the Krylon pens but in pots and much better value, if not as easy to put on as the pen for edging but i dipped my old pen in the pot and find it just the same without the hassle of the pen keep refusing to send the paint out.

I always take my camera and forget/never get around to use it. Managed to take one on Sunday just down the aisle from us

and here is Pam (facing the camera) who makes the most fabulous cards for Oyster Stamps.  Check out her cards on the website.

I'll leave it there with this photograph taken on our drive to the show, a lovely village, Kirk Deighton,  we always pass through and a lovely church.

Toodle Oo for now!

175th WOYWW

Thought I would change the heading around a bit and put the number first.  Can I please ask that WOYWW'ers put your number alongside your comment, it makes life so much easier to find you and  comment back.  It is especially difficult if you have more than one blog and we have to sift through them all to find the right one.

What is a WOYWW'er?  Well it stands for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and a group of us get together and show our work desks, courtesy of the boss Julia, and then have a nosey at what everyone is doing.  Join in, it's good fun and you make some lovely friends. Speaking of which lots of them are joining up for a GIANT CROP this coming weekend.  Sadly I cannot go :(   If you, dear reader, are planning on attending - have a whale of a time!  Sending my love to you all.

Just a reminder too that when I reach the double zero in followers I will be sending out a gift to someone (clue, it has pages).  Just one of my lucky followers will get the gift.  No need to apply by doing a comment to any posting - will just take a random person from the whole lot when it gets to 300.

Now to the real business - my desk - or as it was on Tuesday night:

My Tiny Stash of things bought at Harrogate

My bag that fits my Grand Calibur (new from a friend)

Shades of Bet Lynch?

Some of the Pan Pastel Diecuts 

Now this is really how my desk is/was earlier (10 minutes ago) - once Harrogate had been cleared away I once more tipped out my parcel of goodies from Jan (LLJ to you WOYWW'ers) and here are lots of trimmings for me to play with.

Sorted into colour families for ease of use when I get around to it. Well kind of sorted as some were so colourful they fit into more than one category.

And finally, here they are bagged up and ready to be put away. Thing is, I am so tired now that I think it will have to wait until morning.  It's almost midnight, I am shattered (five early morning get ups in a row) and bed is calling.

Night Night, God Bless.

Harrogate Weekend

This weekend was the Great Northern Papercraft Show once again - my very favourite of all the shows - which saw us heading up to the beautiful town of Harrogate once again.  First of all a stop at York Shopping Outlet on the Friday afternoon and then an "intended" trip into York itself.  I say "intended" because we were in a long queue of traffic and seeing so many people doing a "U-ey" in the road we did one too and headed straight back into Harrogate.  York will have to wait for me to visit it until some time later.  Once again, on the way up, we saw lots of fields covered in water, the aftermath of the terrible floods that the beautiful city of York and surrounding area suffered.  It must have been a mess for these fields to still be so under water.

Anyway, on to the show which found me once again working for the lovely "Oyster family" and I must first of all say "Joan, it was lovely to meet you".  A lady came up to me on Saturday whilst I was dem'ing and said "you don't know me but I am one of your followers". How lovely it was to meet a follower of my blog.  Joan, I am so sorry but I cannot remember the name of your blog but if you read this please make yourself known to me on here.  I was so chuffed to meet you.  Never had that happen before.

Saturday saw my friends Sam and Maz visiting from Grimsby and Lorraine from Crosby came along too.  We four were all at a workshop in Harrogate a while back so it was nice to meet up again. Here we are with Tracey - my lovely boss.

Wish I wasn't so tall as I always end up looking "stooped" on the photos when I bring myself down to all these shorter folks.  That's me on the left, Tracey on my Calibur, Lorraine, Maz and then Sam.

Saturday saw me demonstrating, first of all the Grand Calibur and then a change for me, the Pan Pastels.  Must admit I was enjoying myself so much with these that I carried on with them on the Sunday and my poor GC never came out of its bag.  Now if any of you want to try the Pan Pastels they have a great starter pack which I was selling. Normally the individual pots retail at £4.95 each (Tracy also does them at 5 for £20) but we were selling the starter packs for £35 and they contain seven pots (so that works out at your total price of £35) PLUS a tray (retailing £8) PLUS an applicator with two foam sleeves and two big sponges.  That means you get the sponges and the tray for FREE.  They were going like hot cakes so get yourself off to the website and have a look whilst they still have them in stock.  Well worth buying and they make a lovely addition to your Christmas list.

Lorraine was staying in the same hotel as we were so Saturday night we went off to 'The Squinting Cat' for something to eat and Lorraine and I had a shared dessert - a chocolate dough pizza.  Having had one huge piece here is Lorraine debating whether or not to have a second.  We decided against it so it went home for her teenage son. Looks as if she is saying "ooh" here.

Sunday, Lorraine drove me into the show so Chas could stay on in the hotel for another 40 winks where she had a couple of workshops booked and we had a chance to look around and say "hi" to some old friends before the show started.

Sorry you are so "blue" Tracey, but I forgot to change my setting on the camera back to "daylight".  Unfortunately this is the only photo I have of her demonstrating the Shimmer Sheetz (click on the link to find out more about them on a blog and here to find out about them from Oyster Stamps and get an order in quickly) which were a big hit at the show.  Some beautiful samples where Tracey had used the sanding blocks to sand back the sheets and reveal the beautiful undertones they had.

Below, Graham takes a well needed coffee break whilst Martine surveys all her work with the new eBoss machine (on pre-order from Oyster Stamps) - I want one!  It cuts fabric as well as paper.  I really want one.

Here's the Lovely Liam taking cash as usual.

It was good to see my friends Leandra and Mark at the show with their wonderful Paperartsy products.  They have been sorely missed at a lot of shows so I am sure crafters will welcome them back.  Here you can see Mark in the red checked shirt and a little bit of one of the twins, George, who was doing his best to drive me mad by jumping in on the photo.

You can just about see Leandra at her dem table on this shot of the whole stand.

Finally a photograph of the lovely Martine with her big smile as she packs up at the end of the weekend show.  Love this photo of you babes, and see you in Anaheim!

Nearly forgot to show you a photo of Spencer, who went to the show with me on the Sunday but spent most of his time in my pocket.  Here he is lounging in the hotel with his winter hoody at the side of him as it was lovely and warm in the room.  He really is a much travelled little bear.  I'll leave him to say "Cheerio" to you all and thanks for visiting.

Is this Pretty? It's an Oyster Challenge!

Ever had one of those deja vue moments?  I am having one right now.  Am sure I have already blogged this but cannot find it, yet I remember exactly what the words are that I am going to use. Remember in the way that I have already used them.  Searched through my scheduled posts but there is nothing there.  Most peculiar!

Anyway, here is what I was/am going to say - My *ex-friend, Barbara, another member of the Oyster Stamps Design Team, challenged me to do a "pretty" card.  She feels I am a bit of a "grunge" person and so the last time we met up she gave me this stamp from 'Whimsy Stamps' - 'Rose and Felix' with the instructions "make a pretty card". All I can say after attempting to colour this image in and make the card up is "thank you so much Barbara!".

I was really chuffed at what I achieved at Vicky Stampers a couple of months ago when I did a class with Vix but when it came to colouring this image in I found I had forgotten most of what I had been taught. Shows that you need to practice , practice, practice when learning something,.  Did I not learn anything at my psychology classes all those years ago when I was training to be a teacher?  Is it Skinner or Pavlov I should be listening to again?

I tried to use mainly Spellbinders dies, the circles and the scalloped ones for the main image, the ticket and the photo corners from old ones but I resorted to a Cheery Lynn die for the flowers as they needed to be tiny and to a MS punch for the vertical strip down the side.  All available from Oyster Stamps which is where the card has ended up - sent to The Boss (not sure which one) and a note sent to Barbara to tell her that the card is up.

I do have another cute stamp which I am going to use to try to make a "pretty" card with but this time will do it in lighter colours as I bet Barbara thinks this is verging on the grungey side with it being dark colours.  Will have to wait and see what she has to say.

*only kidding about Barbara being an EX friend.  She is one of the nicest people you could wish to meet and I have been dem'ing with her for quite a long time now and always look forward to seeing her at the shows.  Sorry Barbara, am sure you knew the EX thing was a joke.

Back from Cleethorpes

Just got back from a few days in Cleethorpes.  All of this was a surprise for Sam (one third of the trio on Artful Times) who lives close by.

It started off with my trip to the Lincoln Show which I thoroughly enjoyed and have already blogged about but omitted to say that I saw my dear friend Ali from Ali-Crafts with whom I am doing a workshop in a couple of months time.  Got some gorgeous stamps from her to use in the workshop and bought some too.  You should check out her website.

Sneak Peek

Also didn't put the photograph of Tom and Liam up so here it is now

or the one of Tracey and Tara

After we left the show we made our way to Cleethorpes to enjoy an evening of sunshine in a seaside resort. I had been longing for a bit of sea air for weeks and this lovely weather we were having was perfect for it.  After a lovely meal at Steels (Sam said we could not go to Cleethorpes without a meal at Steels - lovely food, loads of prawns on my dish and you should have seen the size of the fish and chips everyone else had!) it was a quick stroll down on the pier and then back to bed for a well needed sleep.

Next day it was exploring Cleethorpes for Chas and myself.  Here I am by the boating lake and below is Chas playing some musical pipes by the childrens sandy area.  I did want to take photographs of the play area but with the way things are I did not want to upset any parents.  Shame, but that is the way it has got now.

Below - a couple of poppies in the wild garden area

and not a clue what this is - Chas went down to photograph it for me

Bet you thought Spencer had been missed out - well no, how could I not take him, here he is sat on a rice peasants hat (the rice peasant was not in Cleethorpes, just the hat)

All too soon it was time to say Au Revoir to Sam and Fraz.  Here we are, not sure why he is sat on my knee but isn't he a beauty?  You should have seen him with Chas, why do dogs always make more fuss of him than me?

See you soon Sam!