WOYWW - Letter From America ?

Hi there - well not a letter but a parcel !

I have signed up for some craft & art courses with www.joggles.com - one of which is making a figure called The Elusive Butterfly - never done this type of doll making before (only Tilda type soft toys) but this looked so serene on the website - it just caught my eye !
I ordered the doll making kit you can see in the plastic bag in the middle of my workdesk on the 1st June & it arrived yesterday - thought that was good coming snail mail from Rhode Island to Wales !
So not sure when I'll have the time to have a go making it up but as long as I have the instructions
downloaded I can go at my own pace !

On the left at the back of the desk is a funny little cloth figure I bought too - a couple of dollars to make up the minimum order - so I'm thinking there's an Art Doll looming too !!

To the left at the bottom you can see some of the photos I have managed to gather for the scrapbook for my mother-in-laws 80th birthday - its been hard to get photos of her life & keep it a secret !! Also a little Owl - he's a magnifying glass - great for us old crocks can wear round our neck to look at small details when even the reading glasses or varifocals let us down !!

In the middle is Dad's card for Father's Day - written & ready to post to be sure to arrive by Sunday !

And finally on the right my subscription copy of Simply Homemade arrived yesterday - love the free Emma Ball papers & stamps - they will be fun for scrapping our seaside holiday in Cornwall in August - I really like her quirky sea-side images & the papers are bright happy summer colours (so even if the weather ends up as rubbish as this week I can feel upbeat !!)

Well hope you all have a happy crafty week & looking forward to seeing your workdesks too !

WOYWW - Trying Card Making !

Hi hope everyone had a fun Jubilee weekend !
We didn't get the 2 bank holiday days off - but with the miserable weather it wasn't much of a hardship being at work !

I haven't made cards before but I fancied making a couple of cards for my Dad - for both Father's Day & his birthday which is also in June.

So I started with a decoupage card kit of one of Michael Powell's lighthouse scenes which was fun to do !

Then I got lured in by a set of die cuts & papers of Wellington Bear (as much as I love grunge - I do find that certain cute stuff always finds a way to creep up on me too !!!)  ... and then saw a girl-y set of gardening, cup-cakes & dresses type stuff which is not really my sort of thing but I liked the gardening scenes and thought I would make some for a friend's fund-raising craft stall.

And it all sort of just escalated from there ! So hence this week my desk is covered in cards !

I haven't really mastered the skill of getting all the layers lined up perfectly straight - if anyone who is into cards can tell me if I'm supposed to measure everything before I stick it down ?

I'm really much more of an "eyeball it" kind of a girl - maybe this isn't compatible with being a card maker ?!!

And I'm not sure I have the patience for measuring everything down to the millimetre !

Anyway - think my Dad won't mind a couple of slightly wobbly bits on his cards & he's the one who really matters !!!

Have a fun crafty week !

Happy Jubilee !!

Hi Happy Jubilee !! We haven't done much personally to celebrate the Jubilee - it's not got much coverage here it Wales - but we have watched the pageant on the Thames yesterday & are watching the concert from Buck House on telly right now !

And to get in the mood & mark the weekend I have had a go at a Journal Page & laid my Book of Days pages for June out in a Jubilee theme !!

Oh and quite fun to see my canvasses in the window of the local Emrys Arts shop - I've never entered anything to show my work in public before - and one even got a highly commended - which I was chuffed with as some of the canvasses were beautiful !

WOYWW - Trying some more Watercolours & Drawings Done !!

So life has been getting in the way of crafting the past few weeks - work conference in Ireland, having to go into work 3 Sundays in a row, a trip to Düsseldorf & Amsterdam for work and finally a gorgeous sunny weekend which had us out of the house & up in the Brecon Beacons & then on the beach at Pembray Country Park.

So lots happening but not much crafting !

I did create the June pages for my Book of Days - all themed for the current Great British Summer thing going on - using the Portabello Road papers & stickers - I'm sure about all the Jubilee Twee stuff that's going on in every shop & public space !! - but thought it would be a shame not to mark it in my book !

The one thing I did make time to do was to spend a few hours in the garden trying to make sketches of some of my favourite plants emerging - knew I needed to catch them before all the unfurling was done !!!

So on my desk today are some new drawings I have had a go at - I need to keep practising my drawing & water colouring - I am hoping that if I keep at it my skills will improve !!

Not sure what else will get get done this week - especially if the sun keeps shining !!
Hope you all have a sunny crafty week !

WOYWW - Scrapathon !

Well there have to be some silver linings from a damp bank holiday weekend - and mine was something of a scrapathon !
Apparently it was National Scrapbook Day in America on Saturday - so it was good to get in the spirit of it !!
I had a printed & trimmed a veritable pile of photos from when my family came to visit over Easter - so I sorted these into layouts from the various activities we did on the different days - and got busy with the papers & the double sided tape !!

I can't really say that the layouts are works of art or creatively stunning but at least the layouts are done, the memories are captured, the photos are safely stowed in the scrapbook album & available to be seen & enjoyed ... rather than stuck on a hard drive somewhere ! So job done !!

Hope you all have a happy scrappy week - or what ever crafty fun it is that makes you happy !!  

WOYWW - Birds Abound !

So on my desk today - a big mound of photos hot out of the printer & ready to take to Scrapbook Club tomorrow night - apparently the Zumba class in the main hall - who were making the whole building shake with 1000 decibels of music blasting out last time - have been asked to find another venue - so hopefully we'll be able to think in a straight line this time ! Apparently the whole street could hear them !
And I finally finished my canvas for the challenge in the local art shop - not sure what they will make of it as all the others I have seen on display are proper pictures painted on the canvas and mine is definitely of the mixed media persuasion - anyway it was fun to do & nothing to be lost entering it !!
 So not much else going on ... got my May pages ready to go in my book of days & that was about it ! Hoping to be able to get stuff planted out in the garden this weekend - glad I held back as I think they would have been washed away in the past weeks deluges !!

And want to do some more of my Watercolour Journal class too .. anyway hope you have a fun crafty & drier week !!

WOYWW - Watercolour Journal

Well haven't had the time for crafting or arty things for a couple weeks !
Happily the weekend before last was because of some serious retail therapy at Ally Pally Scrapbook & Stamping show - think it is my favourite show as it is so focussed on the 2 things that I enjoy without lots of other stalls that don't hold much interest ! My friend Theresa & I had a fun day & now I have a to do list of projects to use up my new papers & stamps !

This weekend I was playing around with watercolours - I have signed up for Jane LaFazio's watercolour journalling course & am enjoying using her style & inspiriation to learn new techniques !

So on my work desk today are 2 of my pages from her lessons - as well as a half finished bird house canvas I am struggling to work out what to do with next ! I have shown some of Jane's lovely paintings - hope you enjoy them ! Take a look at Jane's blog if you want to see more - on  www.janeville.blogspot.co.uk

Have a lovely crafty week !