WOYWWW #386

Not much in the way of a desk to share with you this week.  Chuck and I are taking a vacation that we have been talking about for years but have never been able to do.  We left home on Sunday headed toward Tucson, AZ to visit an old friend and boss of Chuck's.  After we leave here tomorrow we will be heading to visit the Grand Canyon and on to California and Oregon.  I brought crafty stuff to work on and will probably have a desk to show you next week and maybe something crafty I have made.  For today I would like to share a few pictures...

Before we left to come on the trip Chuck and I spent a day cleaning up and shutting down our swimming pool for the winter.  I have always dreaded closing the pool down each fall because it means the summer is truly over!

We moved most of the plants in the house because it will probably freeze before we get home in November.  I took a picture of this hibiscus that I am hoping to winter over in the house.  I haven't had much luck doing this but keep trying each year because the lady next door does it and I figure if she can do it so can I!

Our first day out we stopped in Roswell New Mexico for the night and the next morning I typed the information into my phone for our next stop.  I really like the map feature but this time I must have done something wrong because it gave us directions way out of the way for where we were going! It ended up adding another couple hours onto our travel time yesterday!  I got a few good pictures of the Guadaloupe Mountains and El Capitan peak and the Salt Flats in southwest Texas...I know how do you start in New Mexico and end up in Texas...big state!

      Second picture taken just a few miles down the road!  

The great Salt Flats!  

Last couple pictures are from along the road showing various rock and cloud formations.

Chuck getting back in the car after being out pacing along the highway while waiting for a pilot car to come and navigate us through the road work that was being done.  

The road work went on for miles with only one lane available to traffic.

Some beautiful sky scares today also.  I took a picture of this...the bright rays going from cloud to ground are called crepuscular rays.  Crepuscular rays are actually rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the sun is located.

The next picture is of another salt flat in Arizona.  The sun was shining on the ground and it looked like a large lake in the distance that turned out to be more gypsum. 

Okay that is it for me today.  I hope you drop by WOYWW and join in the fun.  Check it out on Julia's blog!

WOYWW #385 and a Sugar Skull, Fun Mail and projects in the works

Welcome to Wednesday and WOYWW!  I really look forward to WOYWW and visiting the desks of other crafters!  If you want to play along visit Julia at Stamping Ground and she will fill you in on the details.

My desk today!  Just wanted to share some stash I picked up at Michael's a couple days ago…I paid 60% off again and used a 20% off on everything including sales items.  The 3 bottles of alcohol ink was $3.99 and the 3 bottles of spray was less.  All the Tim Holtz Ideology was less then $3 a package.  WOW!  I couldn't pass it up!  I know…I am a hoarder but look at all these good deals.  The stamps were  $1.99 to 5.99 depending on what it is.

 Now this is my desk today!  I have been working on the Sugar Skull as promised and I am actually finished with it!

"The done deal!"  Any suggestions of anything else that needs to be done?  

I started some more clean up work and sorting of various bling and gems in order to start this project.  I decided I was tired of having to go look through drawers and racks every time I needed bling/gems of a certain color so I bought a couple $5-12"12" D-ring binders and a package of various pages to store my stuff in.  It isn't perfect but it is a start and cost me about $20.  I will buy better folders etc as time and money allows…I won't be buying bling.  The desk display thing was really starting to get on my nerves because I couldn't get anything out of the cups because it would knock the bling packets off.  I am going to keep the big Clip-it in the background for the bigger and product specific sets.  Here is what the books look like so far!  

I go to Starbucks once a week and when I went in a couple days ago the barista called me a 'frequent flyer that needs a head'  The head turned out to be a Sugar Skull cookie that my husband ate because I have Celiac and no gluten in my life.

I got some more happy mail this week…this time from swaps that I am participating in.  The Wicked swap on ATT a Yahoo group was 6 ATC that spell out WICKED!

remember the WICKED Pocket Page I made a couple weeks ago?  If not click the link and check them out!

Some Halloween tags using the 'ghosting technique' from the CreativeblockStampers Anonymous a Yahoo group!

mine is the one in the middle top!

Lastly a couple cards!  The first one is from Ann Wood from Paper Crafting Swappers a Facebook group!

And the second was from another ATT Yahoo Swapper Kathy Rohm.  Awesome cards.

Okay that is it from my desk this week.  Just wanted to share with those who want to know that I went to the pain management clinic today and had the second set of injections in my spine…got a horrible headache from the deal and spent the afternoon in bed despite the narcotics I took.  The nurse warned me it was a possibility so…I was prepared.  I was also fitted with the Rolls Royce of back braces that I was told to only wear if I was doing physical activity that would aggravate the the slide of my lumbar vertebrae!  WOW!  Life is grand!

Enough now…I have already gone over the limit of a limited post that Julia tries to keep us too…I always fail cause I am such a sharing and caring person…hhahahaha!  Thank you for visiting my desk and leaving a comment.  I will visit your desk soon!

WOYWW 384 and card making

Welcome to Wednesday!  WOYWW is my favorite time of the week recently!  I really enjoy showing my desk and the projects I have been working on over the past week.  If you haven't checked out WOYWW this week is the week to do so!  Julia has all the details on her blog Stamping Ground and how to link up to WOYWW here!

My desk doesn't look much different then in the past weeks except I have been busy working on some cards and a 3-D project you can read about here.   Here is a picture if you don't want to go to the previous post!

 My desk…still a mess!  I made a couple more Halloween cards and the second one is under the pile of scrap paper to the left!  I haven't used the witch set yet but it is out there cause that is my next card!

The card on the desk is the very first Z-fold card I have ever made.  I am not so for sure that I like the process/technique at all but a couple of the swaps I am in wanted Z-fold cards this month…so I did it!  Whine, whine, whine, whine…guess that is the reason behind swaps and challenge isn't it.  It takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you try something different.  Here is a picture of the card close up!

 I had difficulty getting it to lay down enough to take a photo so I just stood it up.  Card stock is from Close to My Heart.  Stamp set is one of the new die and stamp sets I got from Michael's the other day.  The moon and black dots are some bling left overs from a set.  I stamped the ghosts but they didn't show up with white Stazon so I used Perfect pearls and painted them in.  Nice translucent effect!  Pumpkins are more Perfect Pearls.

The second card I made is another Z-fold card but this time I went a bit more colorful and used some paper from a new paper pad I bought last week.  I went to Michael's looking for a stamp set and saw these paper pads on sale for $5 and just couldn't live without this one.  It is a Day of the Dead pad loaded with all sorts of bright and different papers.  I made two of this card because I plan on sending to someone as a Thank You card!  

Here is a side view of this card.

 See why it is called a Z-fold?  I don't know why I had so much problem with it cause now it seems easy peasy!  There are a lot of different types so look around and find one you like.

Okay I am going to sign off and get to bed.  I have 2 doctors appointments tomorrow.  The first is at 9:30 so I can't be up late tonight.  Probably won't link this post until after I get up.  Have a great week and I will try to make it around to every ones desk this week.

my boo….

It has been a fun and productive weekend even if I haven't felt well and haven't gotten much in the way of work done around here.  I have been play in my craft room making some Halloween decor!  I love this time of year when the weather becomes more temperate, the light changes and softens the world around us, and of course the colors.  It just looks, smells, and feels shades of oranges, golds, yellows, and dulled down greens and purples.

I used everything out of my stash to make this…you know the bargain hunter and end of season sales shopper I tend to be.  I love a good bargain!  The wooden BOO came from Hobby Lobby last year after Halloween!  I saw them there again this year and was glad I bought mine last year…also glad that I saw them and it reminded me I had them in my stash!

I covered the B and the pumpkins from some paper from Close to My Heart collection from last year called Nevermore!

  

 I had a bunch of Halloween bling and ephemera in a box so I pulled it all out and made some tentative plans as to what I wanted to do.  I decided to do the front and back of the pumpkins…just because I could.  Not much I could do with the B so I covered the front, painted the back and blinged it up with some big purple and orange gems I had.  The flowers are from years ago put out by Prima.  I have no idea where the black flourish bling is from as it was not in a wrapper.  Here are the fronts and backs of the pumpkins...

The Skeleton's are a Jolee's boutique set you can pick up just about at any craft store. Card stock is from Close to My Heart from the Nevermore Paper pack.  My daughter, Heather, sells CTMH by the way and if you need some supplies check out her CTMH site.   BTW I am having an online party and if you go to the site and want to buy anything check my party…

Here is the set completed and put together in 3 different ways.  I think you could make them go different ways but I settled on this.  Didn't it turn out super neat!  Love these colors!

Okay I am off to do some more crafting.  Think I am going to make a couple Halloween layouts since I have all the stuff out.  I am sure my daughter in law will dress the babies up cute again this year and I will need something to put the cuties pictures on!  

WOYWW #383 and it has been a busy week!

…yes it has!  I am sorry if I didn't get around to your desk but it was one of those weeks that will go down in infamy!  I posted and then things just started to happen and that was it.  I haven't had a good week health wise and ended up at the doctor this week to have injections in my back so I can get up and get around a bit better…hopefully…still hasn't happened yet!
I took a picture of my desk after I went to the doctor and stopped by Hobby Lobby to pick up some small easels I need for a swap.  I am participating in the 12 Days of Christmas on ATT Yahoo Group and someone had posted last week about telephone easel on her desk…so I am stealing that idea and making my own…will post as soon as I get one done!

My desk:

As you can see there are all sorts of fun things I picked up at Hobby Lobby and Michaels this week.  I got everything you see on sale 40-60% off and except for the easels…top center.  I will just have to use the 40% off coupon each week and get them more inexpensively!

I think the happiest purchases were these stamps…they are originally $9.99-12.99 but they were on sale 50% off then an additional 25% off on Saturday only…add my 15% AARP discount I just couldn't pass up buying them!  They turned out to be $4-6 each!  I thought it was a good buy.

I also got some Happy Mail today in the mail from Susan Salyer…I can't remember if she posts on WOYWW or not but I hope she does.  I know she reads my blog posts from time to time!  Anyway back to the happy mail!  Look at this envelope!  I am hoping she shares how she made it because it feels like leather and is stamped with some of the most awesome images.

Inside the envelope was all sorts of ephemera, tags, punch outs, etc.  The two wrapped packages were cards that have seemed to have disappeared at the time of this post…does anyone else do stuff like that?  I had everything in the package except the cards and the package made it back to my desk but they didn't!  WOW!

Remember the three layouts I posted last week.  I got them done this week also!  I think they turned out really well!  I don't think my daughter in law reads my blog so I don't have to worry about her seeing them!  If I can stand to give them up they might become part of her Christmas prezzies!

The cards weren't the only things that were forgotten!  I was busy this weekend also and made 5 cards for swaps I am in and forgot to take pictures of them before sending them off to my swap partners.   I have asked them if they will takes photos and post them so hopefully they will!

Okay I am done for now…Enough I think!  I tend to run on and on and on and on…If you would like to come along and play WOYWW and check out some desks got to Julia's blog and click on the WOYWW Link!  Lots of fun things and a bunch of awesome guys and gals!