WOYWW etc...

 It has been quite awhile since I have participated in WOYWW...Time just seems to fly by with the never changing days that we have been enduring of late...For the first time since I have retired I am actually happy to be retired.  I worked 43 years as a RN in emergency rooms, ICU/CCU, etc.  I don't think I could physically or mentally face another disaster like what this Covid Pandemic is causing in the medical field. It has been a tough 4 years and the whole of the USA is a disaster at this point in time so we stay home and mope about!!

So I got off the subject of why I am here!  WOYWW is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  Julia is the creator of this magnificent space and I have participated in it for many years off and on...going to try to be more on then off I hope!  My work desk this week is a mess...whole room continues to be a disaster zone and I think I am rapidly becoming a hoarder of sorts!  It has paid off though cause I have only been to the local Michaels twice in the 6 months since Covid entered our lives.

Stormy girl is my constant companion when I am in my "room" and loves to lay in front of the computer so I am always having to reach around her to get anything and that means some lovings in the mix.  I have 3 critters and most the time they are all in the craft room.

I have been staying busy doing various projects by haven't been doing much original anything relying on kits to keep me going artsy fartsy!  I did make up some tags for the yearly calendar swap I have been participating in a group that utilizes StamperAnpn stamps etc called Art Incorporated  We used to be on Yahoo groups but moved to group.io.  I don't know what I did wrong but only 8 of the 13 tags photographed and I know I took a picture of all of them but...well here they are.  They are suppose to be all the same...so there you go just a little bit different!  Difference is good right?

So that is it for me for this week.  I will check out some of the desks and see what everyone has been doing recently.  I have missed it and get way too involved in the BS of politics in the US!  It is a hot mess here for sure right now.

WOYWW #459

My desk doesn't have a lot going on but I did get busy and make a few tags and ATC this week.  I am finally starting to feel better for the most part except for the pain issues...that's life! If you are interested in WOYWW and seeing what other crafters are doing check out Julie's blog and she will tell you how to play along!

Not a lot going on on my desk...I have been cutting out and gluing together these little suit cases from the Sidekick set you see there on the left.  I have been having so much fun playing with that darn thing!  Guess that's what it is all about...having fun!  I decided I was going to try and color in some of the ATC but don't know how much coloring I will do...I never like the way I color!

The tag I made for a swap on Creativeblock-StampersAnonymous. I always try and do the back of the tags too cause I hate it when they are always so messy so it is like making two tags sometimes.  

This is the free stamp we got for playing along last month.  It is from Stampers Anon Tim Holtz called Watson.  Tags were to be flat so that the 5 tags could be mailed in a legal envelope.  Sometimes all the embellishments play havoc with postage so we are trying to conserve by going flat!  

This has been an interesting week all things told!  Didn't have a single doctor's appointment except my weekly visit with the talk therapist...I have PTSD from various and sundry issues in both my personal and professional life!  Guess only so many bombings, building collapses, and natural disasters(tornadoes) etc till it takes its toll.  I worked ER and ICU/CCU for most of my 42 years as an RN and sometimes what you see can set off a chain of events that isn't good so I took care of myself so I could take care of others!

Weather has been pretty nice around here this week.  We got up in the low 80°F one day but we have mostly stayed around the 60-70° range.  The fruit trees and flowering trees are putting on a show and my front flower bed is bursting with hyacinth and daffodils that Chuck planted last year.  I am really happy it is starting to warm up.  Next week I will post some pictures of the yard and what is up and blooming.  The workers are suppose to come out soon to start tearing out the old patio and pouring a new one and I have been staying busy trying to get that cleared away so they can do their job!

More later!  Have a great week!

WOYWW #456

Happy Wednesday!  I am going to type up a post and show off my desk on WOYWW even if I haven't gotten much in the way of arts and crafts accomplished.  WHAT!  You haven't heard of WOYWW...go over to Julia's blog and check it out...lots of fun!

It has been a relatively quiet week all things told.  I was house bound due to the weather until last Friday when I ventured out and went to the dentist.  Nothing horrible just a routine cleaning and checkup for my upper denture.  I had such horrible teeth as a child that it came as no surprise two years ago when I was told I needed the upper plate.  I have been having a flare up of most of my autoimmune issues this past week along with the on going back pain from the surgery so I have been staying in and staying warm...haven't done much in the way of arts and crafts.

Enough about me...my desk is a mess for sure!

a wide view of my desk all a mess.  I have been working in my journal a little bit.  The cart is all my journaling paints, inks, etc.  I have 3 such carts I roll about as needed!

laid out a few things from my last shopping trip.Found those travel tins with brushes and sketch pencils for 60¢ each rather then the $6 they originally sold for.  The magazine Crafts Beautiful had that free stamp set...I had never heard of the magazine but had to have those 'free' stamps.

The art journal pages I am working on!

The Creativeblock-StampersAnonymous group I belong to had a swap this past month 3 for 3 tags and a free stamp from Stampers Anonymous!  I like this old vintage style stamp a lot!  I have several men facing forward this is the first turned away!  The challenge this month is to use the stamp on the tags (3/3) and the challenge is to keep them flat to mail all 3 in a #10 (legal size envelope.  Some of us are guilty of using a lot of embellishments and it really runs up the price of postage.  These are the tags I received and the stamp...

 I didn't get around to all the desks last week but will definitely try and do so today after I get back from my appointment this afternoon.  Have a great week!

WOYWW February Art Journal Calendar

Well always an hour late and a dollar short but I decided regardless of how late I am I will still join WOYWW this week and make it around to as many desks as I can before next Wednesday.  Hey! You gotta give me an A plus for effort!  What is WOYWW?  It is a group of folks/artists that enjoy one another's company and snooping around one another's desks each Wednesday.  Go check out Julia's blog Stamping Ground and she will fill you in on the details.

My desk today...yeah I know it is a mess but you should have seen it earlier!!

I have been working on journal pages and lessons and paint is everywhere.  I am going to stop a minute and clean up and get ready to go again tonight! 

My February calendar for the Art Journal Calendar Challenge is finished and I really like the way it turned out.  I mixed up my own sprays for this and was surprised how well the Tim Holtz Barn Door and Festive Berries reinkers worked mixed in water.  I think they turned out pretty bright for the background.

Next I punched out the date hearts with a scalloped 1 1/2" heart punch and then used the "punch holes" as a stencil for the sides and a stencil for the back ground.  I used a Close To My Heart swirl stamp set for the background in Vintage Photo.  The month and year are cut from Stampin' Up! whisper white using Cricut Plantain Schoolhouse cartridge.  I don't remember where I got the vintage Valentine paper that I cut the Valentines out of and collage on the background but I wish I had more cause it is such a cute paper pattern.  I also found some candy hearts stickers in the stash that I used to fill in here and there. 

My next project was some tags for a swap on Creativeblock StampersAnonymous a Yahoo Group.  In the group we use only StampersAnon stamps and make tags each month from a prompt given to us by the group leader Sandy.  This months prompt was Steampunk Valentines. 

I used shiny silver cardstock to make the tags then ran them through the Vagabond using the riveted metal folder of Tim Holtz.  I brushed some black soot distress paint over it dull it down a bit.  The stamps are from the Odds and Ends and the Time Travelers sets.  I used all sorts of bits and pieces from my stash an most of it is from the Tim Holtz Ideology line. 

Hope you like my desk and art work today.  I had a lot of fun making them.  I am hoping to hop around to several desks this week and if you like what you see leave me a comment! 

WOYWW #250

I had a fun time in the craft room this evening making a tag and trying to figure out how to make it work out the way I wanted to.  It didn't come out the way that I wanted but I like it anyway.  Needless to say in the process of having fun making my tag my desk has become a really messy junked up heap of "schtuff"!  Okay! I know it always looks this way but I think it is even a little more so then usual!

 I try and keep it picked up but somehow it always gets too looking like this and it doesn't seem to matter if I put away after I use each product it still ends up a mess so I just quit trying to put it away during and just put away at the end of each fun time...or maybe at the beginning of the next!

 This wasn't the way I envisioned this tag turning out but I like it!  I first inked the card with various shades of green, yellow, and blue Distress Ink and distressed around the edges.  I used Tim Holtz Classics #1 dragonfly stamp and the flourish from the Spring Sprung stamp set.   I stamped the dragonfly in Archival black ink then stamped the whole dragonfly a second time and then the wings a third so I could layer them on the tag.  Using coarse texture gel and a wave stencil I gave the tag some depth...the texture gel picked up the color from the underlying Distress Ink and took on that color.  Kind of cool huh!  The dragonfly is colored with Luminart spray in green and blues.  I used some bling on the body and antenna.

a close up of the dragonfly wings.

I finished up the tag with some metal bits and coin charms I found at Micheal's on sale.

If you would like to see other desks and fun projects go to Stamping Ground and Julia will tell you how you can come play with us...it is a lot of fun!   Off to see if I can't find some more fun things to get into in the room of stash.  Have fun hopping around the blogs!

A Valentines Tag

Oh no!  I missed this tag some how when posting about Valentines tags!  Not that is unusual in that I don't post everything I make and/or do but...I thought this one was too cute to get away! 

I used all Tim Holtz Distress Inks, dies, embossing folders, and crackle paint I had left over that hasn't dried out yet.  I hand lettered the Love Potions labels.  Cute huh!

a tag or two!

I thought I would share a tag today that I taught in a class last Thursday night.  There were a total of 3 tags taught  and everyone seemed to have a great time making them.  I know I enjoyed visiting with the new students and look forward to having Denise and her daughter Heather come again whenever they can...now I say that cause Heather lives down in Houston and only gets to Oklahoma infrequently.  Hope to see Denise next month though!

I make all my tags using manila folders to cut down on cost cause I make so many of the darned things.  I think they do as well as the 20 tags for $5 card that you buy pre-cut.

In celebration of St. Patricks Day

The St. Patrick's Day tag was made using a Tim Holtz picture frame folder, Tim Holtz sentiment, Distress inks, Graphic 45 Paper, Martha Stewart 4 leaf clover punch, paper roses, gold coin from the party shop, and a cross that used to be a button!  The ribbon fob is jewelry findings from Hobby Lobby and the ribbon is seam binding from Stampin' Up!

A key to the city!

The key to the city was made using the Tim Holtz mini stamp set  Paris to London that came out last year and the voyage sentiment stamp.  I first inked with distress ink, stamped the collage stamp in white and then the fleur de leis and postage stamp in black.  The Eiffel tower is stamped on manila card and cut out and pop dotted up.  I found a bunch of these keys and cards of crowns in the dollar bin at Michael's and bought several of them for future use.  The leaves are cut out with the Tim Holtz Tattered Foliage die and I love the paper roses.  

The three tags together.

I posted the middle tag a couple weeks ago...if you want to see a bigger picture go here.  All the products used on this tag are by Dyan Reavely of Dylusions and Ranger Ink except for the Tim Holtz sentiment stamp!

I love tags.  Little pieces of art and so much fun to make!

WOYWW #249

Wednesday and I remembered...OMG!  I think something must be wrong here.
It was such a beautiful day on Monday and Tuesday with temperatures getting into the upper 70's and lower 80's that it must have released a chemical that activated my brain!  All joking aside it is WOYWW and I think you should go check out the blog hop that is originating on Julia's blog Stamping Ground!  Each Wednesday we get together and show off our desks so the other bloggers can take a snoop and see what we are working on.  Go check it out and come join in.

This my desk this week.  Once again there isn't much change but I have cleaned it up and trashed it out 3 times since last week!  Today there is a whole lot of bling laying out there because I have been busy trying to enter it into a new program I am beta testing for the iPhone. 

 

My son in law is developing a new inventory program app and if you are interested in testing it go here...http://tflig.ht/OICxCv  where you register and he will get back to you.  It looks very promising as a way to inventory and store our stash in a logical way!

If you would like to see the self portrait canvas I was working on last week go here to see it.  I think it represents me totally but looks nothing like me.  Everyone at the store loved it though!

Here is a fun tag thing that I have been working on.  I love making tags!  They are little works of art.  My DD bought me a wall decor bird cage that I can use to display my tags on for Christmas.  It is a real problem storing these things and I really like to have them out on display.  It is a lot of fun hanging tags on the rack to show off. 

Just a few tags and I have room for a lot more to be displayed!

All done for today.  Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather.  Look forward to being able to get out and garden soon.  Have a great week!

WOYWW #248

It has been a couple of weeks since I have been able to participate in WOYWW due to various obligations on my time!  I have been thinking about all the fun have been missing but I have also been having a great time visiting with friends and traveling a bit.  What's WOYWW?  Click the link here or to the right and it will take you to Stamping Ground and Julia's explanation of how to play!

We went to Colorado over the weekend of Valentines holiday and stayed in an awesome suite in a fantastic hotel in Denver.  Not all was fun and games for DH as he had to give a talk at Chaser Con 2014 I had a blast chasing around with a girl friend shopping and having a good time.  Luckily we had time to visit with friends and had an all around enjoyable time. 

Okay here is a picture of my desk today.  I admit it is a bit staged but I had just finished making my tags for a swap on the Yahoo group Stampers Anonymous and decided to pull out stuff to make a self portrait that will go up in the store where I teach lessons.  It is suppose to relate to who we are and what we create...hmm...interesting possibilities to be had here.  I love purple, steampunk, and grunge so I will try and create something!

 The canvas is a 12" x 16" black gesso prepped so I thought purple doily, purple flowers, some purple glitter paper for hair and a few gears and keys to dress it up.  You will have to come back next week to see how it turns out.

Here is a picture of the tags I just finished for the swap.  It is a large tag...#10 that is suppose to be "girls rule"!  I love this stamp set by Dyan Reaveley and figured it was a good example girls rule!

 It is a little different then what I usually do but ya' know I think I like it.  I stamped the dolly on red cardstock, cut it out and did a little painting and futzing about.  The tag itself was sprayed with Dylusions inks, and a Dylusions stencil was used to layer and texture.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz. 

That's it folks, nothing more!  Hope everyone is keeping warm and dry this week.  It has been in the single digits here with snow and ice since last Sunday.  Today it got above freezing but it is still very cold and miserable outside.  I am going to try and venture out tomorrow to take my DH to the airport so he can go to Pennsylvania for a talk he is giving there! 
Have a great week!

ooooopppppssss....WOYWW

Nope I didn't fall off the face of the earth, no I wasn't gobbled up by a Purple Haired People Eater,  and I wasn't abducted by aliens and had thousands of unmentionable tests done on me...I have no excuse!  I really don't know what happened I just seemed to fall out of the crafting and blogging scene for awhile here.  Healthwise I haven't been feeling well but I have had worse bouts of feeling unwell.  I went to the Doctor this week and she is running a bunch of tests so maybe they will find out what is up with me again.  I was also started on another type of medication for my ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia called Lyrica.  Suppose to help with the headaches and muscle pains I have been having...maybe give me a little more energy to do more.

I wanted to get back into sharing with WOYWW and I have been doing a few crafty things but haven't taken the time to photograph them or my desk this week! I do have a picture of some tags I made recently for a class I am going to be teaching this Thursday at Scrap That.   I really have a lot of fun crafting but seems like a lot of things keep getting in the way! 

If you would like to know more about WOYWW check out Julia's blog Stamping Ground for more information.

so excited!

Heather and I took a cruise from Barcelona Spain to New Orleans on Carnivals latest fun ship the Sunshine.  I have always wondered what a transatlantic cruise would be like and thanks to Michael and Heather generosity I now know.   16 days about a ship with only 4 stops was an adventure to say the least.  We stopped in Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Spain, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Grand Turk in the Caribbean...the Caicos or Turk islands.  




 I think Heather is awesome subject to photograph and look at these 2 photos of her side by side...

24 hours and no sleep!

The first one was at the airport in Oklahoma City waiting for our tickets and the second photo was after we had pretty much been up 24 hours and been in airports and on airplanes the whole time.  I am sure I didn't looks as good and she was still full of energy!  We didn't stay in Barcelona any time we flew in then caught a bus to the docks to get the ship.  Next time.  Barcelona is a beautiful city and I have been there before but unfortunately Heather hasn't.


Our first port of call was in Palma de Mallorca where we walked around town a bit, looked at the cathedral and had coffee with some friends.

A nice passerby took a picture of Heather and I together

Steps up behind the palace leading to the cathedral

looking out to the docks from the cathedral

Friends Alan and Fabris  

I heard that Malaga, Spain was a beautiful city but unfortunately I had fallen ill with a sinus and respiratory infection that kept me from getting out of my bed.  I don't remember having an upper respiratory tract infection like this in a long time I am so thankful I wasn't forced to get out of bed because I wouldn't have made it!  I saw the inside of the ship's infirmary to purchase decongestants but luckily didn't see the doctor.  I heard that they set a record for numbers of patients seen because of this virus!

In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Canary Islands was an interesting town to visit.  Unfortunately I was still under the weather and didn't go anywhere but to a pharmacy and grocers before having some paella with Heather and heading back to the ship. 

Our boat is the one with the blue smoke stack

Heather posing for me!

Yummy Paella!

The next 6 days were "at sea days" and I was ever so grateful.  I began getting over the crud and poor Heather and 1/2 the ship came down with it.  Laying in bed at night I could hear people moving about and coughing in the halls...lovely stuff we brought back to the states with us!

During our sea days we spent a lot of time on deck sitting and reading, walking about the ship,

our favorite spot!

My favorite view!

Front of the ship from above the lido deck

The adults only deck

Back of the ship see the funny looking brown pods?  Most uncomfortable place to sit ever!

 We had 6 time changes during the crossing and luckily the weather change from cool to much warmer was easier to handle.   Our last stop was in the Caicos or Turk islands at the Island of Gran Turk.  Smallish size and from the top of the boat you could see water surrounding the island on all sides

Water water everywhere!

I was a hot day and I thought I was melting...

I think Heather was getting embarrassed when I ordered my 3rd margarita at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville....They don't skimp on the Tequila either!

made a purchase of 2L tequila while on the island...too cheap to pass up! No I didn't have any difficulties getting back on the boat! 

We had 3 more days at sea in the Caribbean before we made it to New Orleans and home. 

Happy Campers...we had a blast!