WOYWW #280

It is an interesting Wednesday...interesting from the aspect my body is trying its best to foil all my attempts at a normal day.  I love the laundry list of medical issues I have and I hope that someday there will be a pill to cure it all but so far no luck in that department for me.   Flare ups aren't fun and the decrease in my mental capablilities definitely tick me off but hey you work with what you got...

Since this is WOYWW I guess I should talk about my desk.  If you would like to know why we are here on WOYWW check out Julia's blog Stamping Ground and she will show you how you too can participate in the weekly round of blog hopping!  My desk today...

Not a good picture cause I had to take it with the light on and with flash but it is the best I can do.  I have been doing some more Halloween type projects and you can see the two witches hats in the photo but since they aren't done we won't focus on them!

I just finished a tag for an Anything Goes Halloween swap on ATT and got it in the mail to its recipient today.  I love this stamp set by Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous called The Chemist and using some of the Tim Holtz dies and ephemera to create the tag. 

The Chemist set used to make a Halloween tag.  I think it worked!

 I love all the new things I am finding in the jewelry making aisle at Micheal's recently...a good example are these little clock faces!  I have looked all over for more of the Tim Holtz Halloween tags but so far no luck.  Anyone know of a store still selling them?

I used the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers's bottle dies to cut the bottles out of grunge board.  I painted them a silver color then put bottle stickers on them and covered them with Glossy Accents glaze and Crackle Glaze.  I like the way it cracked but some of the crackle glazed ones just rolled the label up as it started to dry.  The clear ones stayed just fine. 



Another project I worked on this past week was my painted rock cactus garden.  What do you think? 

My husband is always looking out for me and he saw a link on Facebook and thought they were awesome!  I think they turned out very nice and I have enough rocks I might make another! 

Okay that's it for me!  Hope you have a great week and I look forward to reading peoples posts this week!

WOYWW #279

It has been a busy week around here with a lot of varied and fun things going on.  I spent a little time crafting but a lot more socializing.  The gardening is starting to wind down because fall has started to settle in even though most days the temperatures are in the upper 80's and low 90's(28-30 c.)  We are still harvesting tomatoes, peppers, some okra and eventually the last watermelon will ripen so we can harvest it.  If you would like to read about my weekend this past weekend that I spent at the SCA Protectorate down in Texas go to this post.  Protectorate is an event where all the fighters get together to see who is best and will be the champion of the newly crowned Baron and Baroness of this Barony.  It was a lot of fun and I enjoy the interaction with the people.

Oh yeah!  My desk this week...

Not a lot to show.  I have a couple things I am working on but nothing that I care to share this week...not far enough along!  Looking at the picture I really think I need to clear off some space and put stuff away.  I did make a couple more tags you can see here, the 6x6" butterfly journal pages, learned to weave and made some rings and pendants in a beading class!



I had someone ask about my cutting machines and especially about the Big Shot Pro.  Question was why do I need a Vagabond (on cutting cart to left of desk), a Big Shot, and a Big Shot Pro and what the differences were? I also have a Cricut.




The Vagabond is electric and I use it a lot when I have to cut a lot of pieces out of the same die cause it saves my poor arthritic hands some pain after a marathon of cutting out bits and pieces.  The Big Shot rarely gets used (it was my first machine) and I probably should sell it but I save it for back up.  Those two machines will handle all the Bigz steel blade and thin cut dies, regular sized embossing folders, and strip dies.  The Big Shot Pro handles all the those dies plus the larger 12"x12" steel dies and the 8"x8" embossing folders.   I can also cut 3-4 different die cuts at the same time or more then one strip die at a time which really helps when I am in a hurry.  The Pro will handle Accucut and other broad platform dies so I can cut bigger things out. 

and example of the big shot pro dies vs regular dies. 

I really like the diversity of the Big Shot Pro and lucked into getting it when a friend asked me if I would like to buy hers.  My friend had bought the machine about 6 months before to use for quilting and didn't like it but had never used it.  I bought all dies she had, the machine, various platforms and shims for just over $300...the machine retails for about $500 itself so it was a buy I couldn't pass up!

I had a young friend whose birthday was this past week and we attended her birthday supper on Sunday evening after I got back from the camp.  I had forgotten to make her a card and hurriedly made up a card using the Graphic 45 French Country Market papers when I got back from camp.  I really love this paper and the colors are so warm and inviting...really has a fall felling to it.  I thought since it turned out so well I would use this card for a sketch challenge on ATT this month. 

front of card

inside

 This came in the mail while I was gone!  Isn't it gorgeous!  A friend on ATT made this Halloween card for me in a swap I participated in!

 

 If you would like to participate in WOYWW this week go check out Stamping Ground and Julia will tell you how you too can layout your desk and crafty possessions for everyone to have a good snoop through.  I love seeing other peoples desks and projects they are working on and really miss it when I can't participate.  

Okay I am out of here!  It is just about 2 am my time and I am bone tired tonight... I am hearing my bed calling my name!  Hope everyone enjoys their week and I will be back in the morning to go blog hopping and snooping on others desks.  If you visit my blog and leave a comment I promise to make it by your desk this week! 

Camping, SCA and the fun time I had this past weekend!

Several months ago Heather and Micheal took me to my first big SCA event in Pennsylvania called Pennsic Wars.  Up until that time I didn't have much to do with the hobby except tag along when I could and I was asked to do so.  I thought SCA and the medieval recreation was a little strange and far fetched for a 62 year old grannie from Oklahoma to get involved in but...how wrong would you believe I was?  If you are interested in the Pennsic War story check out my blog post you can find here.    I had so much fun that after the trip Heather signed me up on her family plan to be an official member of the SCA and this weekend was the first official event I attended in the Kingdom of Ansteorra which is comprised of the states of Oklahoma and Texas and I am directly associated with the Barony of Namron here in Norman.

The thing I like about the society is all the different fun people I have met and the different arts/crafts and science things that I am learning.  This past weekend Heather and I traveled to the kingdoms Protectorate encampment south of Wichita Falls, TX where battles were fought to find a champion to guard the new king and queen who will be crowned next weekend.  Here are a few pictures I thought I would share with you. 

Heather and my tent at Protectorate.  Now it isn't the huge canvas tent that we lived in at Pennsic it is still a far grander tent then I usually take camping.  I loved all the room and there was actually a queen sized air mattress bed that was up off the floor...heaven for my old achy bones!

Some photos of people I hung out with most at the event...

Julie, Monica, Heather

l-r...Monica aka Veronique, Heather aka Droen back l-r Dave aka Jon, Julie aka Caitrin

Jacque in his new finery for the even being totally embarassed as Monica tells us how she 

'did' the fly!

Looking all flustered by our teasing!

Asha

Asha sitting at her tent where she sells jewelry, clothing, and hats she makes for sale.  And here is a class she taught on jewelry beading where we each got to make rings and pendants.  I made 4 rings...forgot to take pictures of them and 4 pendants.

everyone enjoying learning how to bead.  See Heather and the gals in the picture at the very top?  They were keeping and eye on me and making sure I behaved!!  I think I needed to watch them truthfully!

the pendants I made.  I kept the turquoise butterfly one.  Probably with use it on a canvas someday!

 Heather taught a class...(me and Monica) how to do Inkle weaving.  It is done on a loom where you wind threads around dowels for the warp (called warp dowels) and you use heddles to separate top threads from the bottom to create a shed where you can throw your weft (shuttle) through.  The weaver has to manually raise and lower the threads each pass through.  I found a good article here that helped me understand what Heather was telling me.  Check it out...inkle weaving.

 Here is the first few inches of weaving.  This style weaving produces a flat band that can be used for belts, handbag straps, straps of any sort and if you want you can use the band on clothing as a decorative element. 

I took pictures of the rapier fighting...

 I was impressed at how friendly all the fighters were even when they were killed and out of the competition.  Everyone offered suggestions and words of advice and 'picked up' fights with other rapiers so everyone could compete. 

Court on Saturday evening was interesting as it was the last for the out going King and Queen and several people were given honors and it was fun to see for a first time. 

The Thrones in the royal pavilion

Out going King and Queen

Prince and Princess who will be crowned King and Queen next weekend.

The Baron and Baroness of Namron

For some reason I don't have any pictures of the feast after court.  It was really yummy...breakfast for supper with yogurt and fruit, quiche and ham, pancakes, and pastries.  I wish I had pictures...

Packing up to go home the next morning was sad but I have been told that Samhain at the end of October will be our next event and I am really looking forward to it!  It was a fun first event for me in the kingdom! 

Halloween tags!

Once again the the creative spook sought me out and I just couldn't help but create a couple more Halloween tags.  I didn't do anything special just had some fun!  The paper is a very vanilla #5 tag sprayed with orange, yellow, purple, and red spray inks.  I stamped some Halloween designs from Inkado on the dry tag.   The raised lettering is coarse texture paste and a Tim Holtz Stencil!  Next I added some Halloween washi tape to the left side of the tag and orange tinsel and spooky lace ribbon to the hole punch.  The embellishment of the tags were a bit different. 

Same tag with a little twist...a snake goblet instead of a sentiment!  I also thought the pumpkin was a bit twitchy so I stuck a witch hat and cauldron on to the pumpkin! 

All the products used on the tags came out of my stash so I don't know who made the tape, the stickers etc...hence fun stuff!
I am trying to make something at least 4-5 times a week and I have found tags and cards to be a lot of fun again!  I think sometimes we get caught up in big projects and sweat bullets over how they should or shouldn't look/be and it takes all the fun out of it.  I am in this for the fun not the profit so I will have a large project working and not sweat the "getting it done" aspect and have fun with the tags and cards! 

6x6 Butterfly Journal Pages

 I spent several days this past week working on these 6"x6" art journal pages for a swap on ATT a Yahoo group I am part of.  The deal was to create 12 of these bad boys and get 12 back...should be a piece of cake I told myself...right!  A big piece of cake to bite off!  I don't know what other people did that made a different one for each page because just getting them done doing one was a lot of work. 

I love the Tim Holtz Ancestors Found cards!  I think I am going to have to break down and buy a couple more stacks of these things. 

I used paper from the Tim Holtz paper stash "Wallflower" to make these pages.  Each page was cut 6"x6" then I sewed a piece of netting on the front of each one.  Next I glued a doily down, the ancestor found card and embellished with the canvas butterfly banner.

Each butterfly was stamped with a word stamp from Stampers Anonymous.  Next came the flowers and the tag spike.  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz stamp set. 

Aren't all these pictures of these children so awesome!  I was laughing making some of the pages because they just either seemed to be so happy or so ticked off at getting their pictures taken!
























The backs of the pages were only in two designs.  The butterfly paper was the only difference in materials.  Flowers varied in color and card ink varied some what from card to card.





















The backs of the pages were a separate 6"x6" page that I sewed to the other page.  The card stock was first sprayed with Dylusions inks and allowed to dry then ran through the Big Shot in an 8x8 embossing folder.  Then I distressed each page with Vintage Photo.  The butterflies and the top note sentiment tag are from Stampin' Up!  Sentiment stamp is from Tim Holtz.  I used flowers and the bling I bought at Micheal's.  The leaves were cut from Stampin'Up! card stock with a SU punch.  Finishing touch was  a muse token.

I had a lot of fun making these 6x6 pages and look forward to making more in the future!

WOYWW #278 and Halloween Post Card swap

It seems like forever since I last posted to WOYWW.  First off I am doing fine and haven't been majorly ill just a little flare up and that was because I went over board and did a bit more then what I should have done.  We have had company from Spain the past 17 days and I was enjoying visiting and running around a bit with him and my husband. 

What's WOYWW you ask?  What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday to be exact and it is a group of artists/crafters that get together from around the world to share their work and desks!  Go visit Julia at Stamping Ground and click on the little link at the top of her page to find out the details on how to join us hopping around the world. 

First off a picture of my desk today...

 

Not a lot going on.  Just finishing up working on another swap for another Yahoo group called Altered Tattered and Timeworn.  It is a bunch of artists/crafters that create awesome works of art that has a natural tattered and timeworn look.   This swap was for a post card using only Tim Holtz dies and stamps which I did.   

 I created the front of the card using Tim Holtz Rickety House, Branch Tree, and On the Fence dies.  The house was stenciled with a large brick stencil and the windows were cut from alternate papers.  I then glued it all down to a 4"x6" piece of card stock that I had distressed with Faded Denim Distress ink and glued a 1 3/4" yellow moon on.  The windows and doors are glazed with Crackle Accents glaze and then distressed with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  The ticket tag was made using a stamp from the Odds and Ends Tim Holtz stamp set.  Bat, kettle, witches hat, cat and bird are from Michael's Recollection line of Halloween stickers.  All cardstock is Stampin'Up!

Back of the card is stamped and inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink.  Post Card stamp from the stamp set by the same name!

I am posting another post today with the craft room changes so check out what I have done with the craftroom switch over that I promised would get done this year.  It needs some fine tuning and paring down but it is on the end run for sure.

Have a great week.