WOYWW 572. Happy Anniversary Edition

Today we are now celebrating ELEVEN YEARS OF WOYWW!  The usual practice is to celebrate with artists trading cards and a great big swap but because of the pandemic and the pressure that has been put on the Royal Mail it was decided to dispense with the usual and do something else.

No idea who (ahem, ahem, who was it boss lady?) thought of it but we are all doing something with a UFO that we have.  I had not a clue which of the many unfinished objects I have I was going to tackle - certainly not the two suitcases that have been waiting years (and I do mean YEARS) to be finished.  Several things went through my head but on Sunday I decided it was about time I put the "thingie" to hold my duster brushes together and give it a lick of paint.

Here it is flat pack:

I decided to Gesso it first so it would not take too much paint and,~ use my Titan Buff (a large tube) which I then discovered was almost empty.  Some done but two side pieces needed doing on the one side so I went with a brown paint.  Ugh!  Streaky and nothing would make it any better.  Some cheapo paint from years ago revealed Vanilla, so the two sides and the top (on one side) got that.  Then yesterday morning it was time to stamp.  

Having been watching Tracy Evans on her "Live" programmes I went with her flowers.  Fine, until the ink would not dry on the acrylic paint.  Heat gun - oops, is it going to warp? Still parts were not dry.  Embossing powder?  Solved.  Then to paint the flowers, thank goodness there was not that much but I certainly needed a fine brush for those flowers on the base.  

To varnish or not?  Well, let's see how it goes together first.  Oh dear, some of the wood has swollen either with the paint or the heat.  Sandpaper!  Still won't fit together.  Hammer!  and a piece of kitchen roll to protect it a bit as I knock seven bells out of it (only kidding).

Finally

and now modelled with old brushes 

(shorter so you can still see the flowers)

So there it is, my UFO, still not knocked down enough but at this point I gave up - more next time ... maybe.

Congratulations Julia on keeping WOYWW going for eleven years.  A big accomplishment, and one I don't think anyone has ever achieved - it's like a giant blog hop for eleven years.   Eleven wonderful years of fun and friendship, loyalties that have never been broken, tears and joy, sharing and caring - it goes on and on.  Thank you Julia for all of this, you had no idea what was going to happen when you first started and now eleven years later your idea is still going strong.

Happy Anniversary fellow WOYWW'ers, and 

Here's to the next .....

WOYWW 488

Went on my workshop weekend to Lancaster and here are my projects - well most of one anyhow and another one that is just being crackled at home 

Went in my craft room to start putting some crackle glaze on the back piece for the project with Mark and found that something was dripping on the floor.  Panic!  Please not another leak in the loft.  Thankfully "No", but what it was is a mystery.  Pulled all the bottles and cans out from the back and although they were wet on the outside couldn't find any obvious leaking one.  Dried them and stood them to one side - still no leaks an hour or so later.  Took ages to dry everything up as all the boxes had to be pulled out and the craft mat had to be redone as the liquid had gone between the old green mat and the Ranger Craft (brown) one.

Put the crackle glaze on the back piece of Mark's project (the glaze did not crackle that he had, so I repainted the back piece and brought it home to crackle.  Fingers crossed. - but it is not showing any signs of crackle yet - I must admit I have had this crackle glaze a while)  Moved it to the window sill and found that it is definitely not level as the glaze had formed a puddle on the mat at one end.  Start all over again - something telling you it is not my day/week???  (We've been let down by the plasterer - no estimate for lounge ceiling so started all over again finding someone else today)

Anyway, the hearts - they are by Tracy Easson and what a darling she is.  Had great fun making those with Plaster of Paris.  Tracy makes it so appealing as you are going along with her little stories about "her girls" - they really do come to life in her hands.  They are sat there now and they want words cutting from the sheet she supplied us with and then putting on the hearts to finish them off.  Then what will I do with them?  Hang each individually or group together going down in size?  Need to think on that one.

Back pain is here again so later today I am off to the Chinese doctor for a bit of acupuncture - he worked miracles last year so fingers crossed.

Apart from that, house is in a pickle with some things packed up in readiness for  bedroom being started but need to get the ceiling in the lounge done first.   

Still, there are people far worse off than us so no grumbling - instead off to see what Julia has in store for us on the great 'nine year blog hop'.  See you there!

WOYWW 478

Another Wednesday, another blog hop with Ms Julia and all the other deskers who join in with WOYWW.

Well, I have nothing to show you at all this week.  Got a phone call on Friday afternoon from my friend to say they were not coming.  So all the cleaning had been in vain, or had it - sort of an extra spring clean.  Only trouble was all the food that had to be eaten up - four bags of salad - can only be good for you can't it?  Not too sure about the mountain of cheese, some of it so smelly that it cannot really be frozen or it will pong out the freezer.  I smell of smoked salmon this morning so bad!

I did hang some work on the wall that had been sitting about for ages - oh, and I put a skull inside a box I made with Seth Apter on a trade workshop a couple of years ago.  (and 'yes' that is a cat food box behind it)

Anyhow the desk is not at all great for you all to look at - I did do some crafting on the Friday when my friend Paul came over.  I so enjoy crafting with him - and he always brings me some flowers - often roses!  Paul does different journalling to me but his influence shows now and then and certainly tomorrow's journal page(s) are a mix of both our styles, or should I say it shows his influence.

You can see my square journal ready to be scanned for tomorrow's blog  and - oh peek! - there is my diamante flip flop just peeping in on the photo - and my phone chair at the back.

Well, that's it for this week, hopefully by next week I might have something to show you as I am determined to get more crafting done other than the Thursday Journal page.  See you next week ...

WOYWW 409 (and a Little Mouse with Clogs on)

"A little mouse with clogs on

'Well' I declare

Going clip clippety clop on the stair"

Yep, I have been to the Netherlands.  Only a short short trip - flew out Saturday morning and returned Sunday evening.  Both ways were good flights but I thought the pilot was having a laugh when he told us on the way back that we would probably be "ahead of time" as he was "going to take a shortcut".  Never thought of that in the air!

Won't talk too long but we went to a show run by the Art Specially people over there, somewhere I have wanted to go to for simply years.  It is a stamping show, mainly rubber stamping but with a fair amount of mixed media in it now and it is full of Dutch and some French (and a Swedish) manufacturer's stamps, plus English (apologies if I missed someone).  There are lots of free workshops too but we only managed to join in one of them as we were too busy enjoying watching the demonstrations plus two &T's (lots of them - UK take note please). 

These are what I made, followed by two ATC's that Eva (Wanders - who I made the hummingbird card with at a Make and Take) gave to me - the tag was made with Bettina from Scrap Unlimited in a workshop and the top card was made at a Gilding Wax Make & Take

Anyway, here are a few photos from the show - first of all some cards that were on display

There were mixed media canvases

I bought lots of the metal pieces from Scrap Unlimited

and below is a stamped canvas I liked

Hope you enjoyed the pictures - but you came here to see my desk (oops - sorry Julia!)

The thing that struck us mostly about the Netherlands was the friendliness of the people. Not just at the show but everywhere we went.  And, of course, they all spoke really good English which made me feel so embarrassed that I could not speak their language at all. Mind you I did find it difficult to pronounce and have just about mastered "thank you" after a whole weekend.  Next year, yes, we are hoping to go again, I hope to manage "excuse me" for when people are stood in the way.  Next time we want to tag another day on so that we can see something of the Old Town in Amersfoort which looks lovely on photographs and which we glimpsed as we passed on the train.

Hope you enjoyed my photographs.  Now it is over to Julia, our "Queen of Deskers" to see what she has been up to and to link up with so many others.  See you over there.

WOYWW 390

Last week I was busy making a card for my friend's 60th birthday and I had a wonderful idea in my head to make a window in the front of it and string a load of cards (ATC Size) behind, like bunting. It was then going to open and the bunting was all going to pull out and be a continuous string of Alice images stretching from front to back.  Well, it wouldn't work because the main card would have had to be huge and have a big big spine to it.  I have thought since that I could have done it and used my Alice images in shrink plastic. Ah well, too late now.  Instead I just made an A5 card (A4 in half), fussy cut the figures out and put them on the front - some were done twice and decoupaged over the top of an original image.

Sorry it did not end up being special or with me using one of your ideas.  My friend liked it though but I bet it was not what she expected until she opened her gift which was from Whittards - Alice milk jug and sugar bowl (to go with her teapot that she already had), some White Rabbit biscuits and a selection of teas in three tins decorated with Tenniel images. I do like the original images I must say.  She also got a birthday cake and a book of jokes for 60 year olds, you know the kind you find in garden centres.  Wanted one which was called "Sterilise the Dentures. I'm 60" that I saw at my dentists but I cannot find it anywhere.

Anyway, here's my desk, I will be in trouble with Julia if I am not careful going on and on like above.

I have tidied it up as it was an absolute mess with stuff thrown all over it.  Now there is just a picture I did with Brenda Brown which I love but need to finish off.  Back is bad again today, after a week of no pain it came as a shock, so I have not got around to gluing down and painting the final bit.  Just a couple of things to put away too and then I was hoping to get on with some Christmas cards.

Hope everyone going to the crop has a wonderful time, that the weather is kind to you for those that have to travel by road and I look forward to seeing all the photos next week.

Toodle Pip again!

For those who don't know the WOYWW blog hop is organised by Julia here so pop along and join in.