Blog Candy & WOYWW 105

Despite all the problems life throws at us there is always something to feel good about, and a reason to smile, so I hope I can bring a smile to many of you this week by offering some Blog Candy. I haven't done this for a while and with last week's WOYWW 2nd Birthday to celebrate and another EEEK! birthday coming up next week for me, it has spurred me on to have a bit of fun. 

I have had over 50,000 hits on my blog from so many countries, I'm heading for 200 posts, and I have nearly that many followers, so it is a good way to say a HUGE THANK YOU to you all. Above is a selection of what might be in your parcel. There will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes and the first prize will also include a hand made gift from me. (I made an extra PiF gift but as the original is on it's way to Australia I cannot yet show it.)

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Here's what to do for a chance or two or more... to win.....

1) Leave a comment on my blog and (if possible) tell me something funny or unusual that has happened to you. I'm nosey! Keep it brief but there could be an extra prize for the best story but you can still enter without a tale!

2) Optional...If you want to, and only if you really, really, want to...then become a follower and you will get an extra chance.

3) If you are already a follower then please mention it in your comment for your extra chance.

4) Give it a mention on your blog for an extra chance.

5) Post the picture on your sidebar for yet another chance.

The closing date is 20th June and, as always, Arthur my next door neighbour, who is in his eighties, will pick the winners. He loves doing it! 

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Also, please do pop in to see yesterday's post as I want you to share how brave my little grandee is. I'm so proud of her.

 WOYWW

Today I have been to Paddy's Place in Prestwich to visit her shop for one last time. Paddy is retiring from running the shop but still plans to do Elements III weekend in the Autumn. All her stock is 50% off at present so if you are close enough to visit please do and she will also be having a used stamp sale soon and I think the proceeds will go to a charity. 
 We will still see Paddy exhibiting at the shows but good luck to her for the future and in all she does.

I always feel bad about taking advantage of such offers when shops close down but someone will buy them so why not me? You can see my bargain treats on my desk this week.

I enjoyed painting my T shirt so much last Saturday that I have treated myself to a range of Stuart Gill Paints. There's a lovely selection of new UMs there including some Tim Holz and Paper Artsy one but I'm not allowed to peep at them again until my birthday as some are a gift from DD2.

Below is a close up of the quicky cards we made from painted fabric whilst we waited for our T shirts to dry. It was a good way to practise the stamping on fabric before we took the plunge with the T shirts.

Just in time for me to post this today, I received my lovely WOYWW 2nd Birthday celebration PiF from Joanne of mytobyjug blog and I am really thrilled at the fab hanging she made. It is a beautifully made piece of art and I especially love the background and the acetate leaves coloured with Alcohol Inks. The beads hanging along the bottom are exquisite too. Oh! I love all of it! Thanks so much Joanne for treating me and thanks again to our boss Julia for making it all happen. It was a great idea to share our friendship this way and everyone who participated will receive a piece of hand made art which includes a link to WOYWW to mark this special occasion.

MY PiF was posted out to Shaz in Oz last week but it might take a while before it reaches Australia when you can then see it but, meanwhile, here's my amazing gift from Joanne............

If you'd like to peruse a plethora of crafty desks, in all states of tidiness or disarray, then be sure to visit our lovely leader's blog and you'll swiftly discover what WOYWW is all about.... Julia dwells at stamping ground...so don't miss the mayhem! You may even decide to join us and share your's!

Mutperlen

These are the special beads awarded to our little grandee in Germany who is so bravely, at 21 months old, going through chemotherapy treatment for leukaemia. The beads are called Mutperlen, which translated means Bravery Beads, and that is so appropriate considering how she has progressed through this radical treatment.

On the right, the first bead with the anchor is given at the start of treatment and followed by beads for each different treatment. Blood transfusions gain a  twirly red and blue one, each chemo is a face and an orange/green and white bead. Hair loss is signified by a cap and more are added as each treatment is done. At the end a pretty flower bead is the last award and this cannot come soon enough. 

(The little one calls flowers bloomsies) So we all really look forward to the wonderful Bloomsy Bead!

Looking at the picture makes me realise how much they have all gone through and I really wish she didn't have to get this necklace, but it is a wonderful badge of honour that the children can wear to show how very brave they all are and show how far they have progressed. It will always be more precious than any diamonds. It is already a favourite which she loves to play with and wear.

I can't tell you just how proud I am of them and love and miss them so much.

T Shirt Stamping at Vicky Stampers

I had a really enjoyable fun day at Vicky Stampers yesterday, but felt guilty leaving DH, the Birthday Boy, home alone. He really didn't mind and refused a meal out in the evening as compensation, choosing instead a special day out during the week.

Lynne W was our tutor for this excellent workshop and we had a really good mess with paint and stamps producing our own customised T shirts. Lynne was a fab tutor and gave us so much information, hints tips and guidance to make these latest additions to our Summer wardrobes. 

It was good to welcome 2 new members Pat and Helen via blogland, to the group and if YOU can get to Padgate in the Warrington area and would like to join our great monthly get togethers, just email me for details. Our new premises give us room for a few more. This month you missed out on Danish Pastries and Chocky cookies... as well as good fun and crafting!  

Here's my finished T shirt.......

First we added blank area of colour 

It was such a sunny day we dried them in the garden... here's Pat's pink one hanging on a bush! ...

Than we stamped over the blocks in black and I added a few embellishments.

It was interesting to see how people varied their layouts, choice of colours and stamped images. Also some added designs to the backs whilst I added a detail on a sleeve.

A good layout in a cluster on one side

Script and a birdcage....

Here's Enid's with flowers and swirls

Here's the before and after of Anne B's seaside themed T shirt

Here's our newbie member Helen busy beavering away and do you recognise the table cover? No! it's not my work desk...I took some spare strawberry wipe clean cloths with me!

If you'd like to see another fab T shirt result pop over to Neet's blog... Hickydorums. She has added some great detail.

Can't wait for the next workshop! 
Stop Press! check out even more T shirts at Carol's blog ...  carolcsstuff and Carol actually made TWO.... probably didn't gab as much or eat as many cakes as over our side of the room!!

WOYWW 104 Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Woo hoo! Happy 2nd Birthday to all you WOYWWers out there and Huge Thanks to Julia who started this crazy, weekly, obsession to show our work desks to the world.

In celebration, my desk shows my WOYWW easel kindly made by Julia's Mr D, a dish of REAL strawberries as a treat, 2 candles lit in the birthday cupcake (modelled from PlayDoh), a parcel containing my PiF gift, and some mini bunting surrounding my giant stamped greeting to everyone. Last but not least... lots of printed strawberries can be seen on the wipe clean cloth on my, amazingly, tidy desk for this special occasion.

Go over to visit Julia's stamping ground blog to spy on the desks of the World and join us in the fun and mayhem as we celebrate 2 years. 

I've made new blogging buddies, some I've even met in person, and some have joined my craft groups. Thanks to you all for the friendship and kindness and long may we all continue WOYWWing!!!

No time for any crafting this week as I am enjoying a welcome visit from my DD and Brighton grandees. 

Last week I visited most of your desks thanks to rainy days at home but had trouble leaving comments on quite a few. With this being a special week I'll do my best to pop in on as many as time allows but I hope everyone has fun and enjoys this special edition.

WOYWW 103

A reasonably tidy situation, although certainly not perfect, as there's so much going on here. I decided to show my desk from the other side this week.....Plenty of strawberries to be spied and my ATC hanger on  the back of the door to the kitchen. Klitty, my tart with a heart that our own Doone so lovingly made for me, keeps me company, hanging around on my shelves and the Mad Hatter/ Johnny Depp is lurking there.

Here's the usual, all together now, EEEeeeek! view with my mess before I set to today, tidying before I started crafting and making my pif for next week

 See! Lots of strawberries on view! I really did tidy up but what is hiding under the paper is to be revealed after the birthday party next week.

Confused, perplexed, bewildered? Call in on the instigator of this weekly madness... Julia at the Stamping Ground blog for the full explanation of how we reveal our desks to the WWW (world wide web) every week for WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) and next week we celebrate 2 years of this WW (Wonderful, Wacky ) phenomenon. JOIN US!

Birthday, Anniversary Cards & Liverpool Street Art

The oldest of my 3 gorgeous little grandees, who lives in Brighton, will be 4 on Wednesday and this is the card I made for her. She loves making cupcakes with her Mummy and the 4 main images depict her and her baby sister who loves to get messy. 

My DD in Germany recently celebrated her 10th Wedding Anniversary with her DH and her little one out in the sunshine in the cafe of Kloster Luene where they held their wedding reception. Take a peek at the website, it's such a beautiful place. They had planned a trip to Paris but that has been put on hold until the little one is through her treatment when I'm sure it will be an even more special celebration for the wait.

 Each year I try to make them a card with Lily of the Valley somewhere on it, as DD wore it in her hair for her wedding. This year I made a simple card with a removable bookmark using some beautiful ribbon I discovered which is embroidered, of course, with Lily of the Valley. Three tiny heart brads added, one for each of them.

I love public art, it enhances the environment and enriches the lives of the public...that's you and me folks!
I recently spotted this mural in Tunnage Square off Duke Street, at the edge of Liverpool City Centre

It took me a while to decipher the large word.... Dream

 Silhouette of the Metropolitan Cathedral

 Ask yourself this question........ answer on a plain postcard (aka in the comments box) and no prizes given but I'd love to hear your answers.

I really do hope you ARE happy!

So many of you ask regularly about a certain special little girl, my grandee in Germany who bravely, and cheerfully, is progressing well with her yucky chemotherapy. Thanks so much for all your good wishes, care and concern for her. All three of them are so valient and I'm really proud of them all.

So here's the treat of the day........a photo I adore! This little fraulein recently went on a special trip for new shoes (lovely to see her wearing one of my crocheted sun hats). She had to go to the shop as soon as it opened so it would be empty, thus with less risk to her of infection. She loved it there! I wish she had managed to bring that fabulous orange sofa home too!

Blue Dress Form and Aintree Show

I'm still mad on making these dress forms especially as some friends want one to keep!  I made this one for my friend Jayne who loves blue and I've added extra detail with pins, press studs, hook and eye. The ribbon behinds the  pins open up to a little book so a message can be written in it.

The dangly bits!

The full thing

Detail of the front

I love these raggy roses which I buy, by the yard, from Abakhan in cream or white then colour with Distress Stains.  You can see here how the background tissue was stamped before crumpling and attaching to the card.

We had a great day at the Aintree Show yesterday and, as usual, I spent too much but this time it wasn't so much temptation and impulse buying, I went with a list of things I really did NEED!!! 

Basic essentials such as Glossy Accents, inks, embossing powders, ink pads, Easy Mount, etc., and dies for my new Vagabond to add to my limited collection. I spotted a Spellbinders die to make pennants and bunting so I treated myself to that and I love it!

The man on the craftsUprint stand was shaking everyone's hand as they entered the "Everyone's a Winner" tombola and greeted each by name via the entry leaflets, so Lorraine, Jayne and I wrote daft names on the forms and we laughed so much when he never reacted at all! 

So above you can see Milly not Silly, Molly Not Polly, and Mandy not Randy. It's nice to see that I look taller but it's just that Jayne dipped down so she wouldn't hide the big fella!

I won a magazine but whenever there was a "BIG" winner (£5) everyone was cheering and it just reminded me of CHA in America.... mind you the prizes there were really BIG value and worth cheering for.!!!

I planned to visit the show again today, with a friend who couldn't attend yesterday, but she is not well so, as I'll be at Padgate Crafters tomorrow for the full day, I'll spend today in the lovely sunshine with DH!!

The problem is that I intended taking most of my photos today so all I can show is the amazing tableau of knitted scupltures... "Under the Sea" which is touring the shows to raise funds for the Royal Lifeboat Appeal.

 Overall it looks a bit lumpy bumpy but when you see the detail and the amount of work in it  you cannot help but be impressed. 

However, I think I'll stick to knitting hats and cardys!!

WOYWW 102 & Creepy Crawly

It's confession time again and, whilst it is said to be good for the soul, I'm not too revived after baring this mess. It's partly the aftermath of preparing for and then unpacking after the Port Sunlight show last Saturday and the tedious job of cutting and mounting my new UMs. 

The first view looks reasonable and I still have a few of the notorious strawberries peeking out round the edges.

How misleading it is when I bare my soul fully and show the bigger picture. 

Did I hear a mass scream of Eeeeeekkk!!?? It's creeping out of everywhere but I have been busy, busy, busy, folks and, no excuse, but I have been creative, (see yesterday's post for proof) and OK, I know I have made a mess I admit but, no buts... it's all to keep the world happy snooping, not just here, but at the rest of the crafty spaces of we WOYWW-ers who expose what we've been up to each week, where we do it, and whether or not we stay tidy and organised. Mostly we don't!!

Call in on boss lady Judith at the Stamping Ground Blog to see them all.

Go on now ... admit you loved noseying around, we know you love it!

Giant Creepy Crawly

Just had to share this as I love public art.

There's an area our the city centre where all the bikers park, at the bottom of Bold Street, and this piece of public art appeared a while ago. I love it and what a great concept it is for it's situation. It's a leather look bikers glove with a huge creepy creature settled on it and it's made out of bike parts. It lights up and moves too.

Further Confessions

Inspired by Deanne at Quirky Boots, the Boss Judith has confessed her answers to the questions below remarkably well and with great humour, so I too am taking up the challenge just for fun....check Judith's out on Stamping Ground ... quite different to mine of course.

Age: You are welcome to choke at my honesty... 66 and soon to be 67 but feeling 36 in my mind until I see what's in the mirror!
B. Bed size: Super King Size.. it's a dream!
C. Chore that you hate: Trying to get and keep tidy.
D. Dogs: I wish we still had our crazy lovely little Jack Russell, Ziggy
E. Essential start to your day: Opening my eyes and getting out of my pit.
F. Favorite color: (s)Purple, cerise, turquoise.
G. Gold or Silver: Defo silver
H. Height: 5 foot, just.
I. Instruments you play: Comb and Tissue paper or Kazoo
J. Job title: General Dogsbody, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, Artist and Stamp Designer.
K. Kids: two beautiful grown up women
L. Live: North West England
M. Mother's name: Lilian
N. Nicknames:  Too many unmentionables....

O. Overnight hospital stays: Two births, removals of one non malignant breast lump, one fish bone and one non malignant head lump (no comments please as I still have my brain).

P. Pet peeve: Homelessness... nobody should be.

Q. Quote from a movie: Life's a kaleidoscope.

R. Right or left handed: Left

S. Siblings: None, I'm a one off.

T. Time you wake up: Don't have 2 x 8 o'clocks in a day now I'm retired, so shortly after.

U. Underwear: Of course...comfy but brief.

V. Vegetable you hate: asparagus.

W. What makes you run late: Life but I'm always manage to be JUST on time.

X. X-Rays you've had: Work down from the head and keep going.

Y. Yummy food that you make: Scouse.

Z. Zoo animal: Giraffe... maybe I'm wishing I was tall.

Crackled Faux Leather Tutorial

This is the technique I was demonstrating on Saturday at the Port Sunlight Show and I promised so many people that I would put full details here to help them try it out. It's something, from many years ago, that I tried out using crumpled tissue glued to card but I've updated it using products, such as embossing powder and Distress Stains, which weren't available to me back then.

It's a special effect which gives a wonderfully impressive finish to book covers or die cuts, making the mundane look spectacular and it recycles items which would otherwise be discarded.

Here are the materials needed..

First... Dress to mess!

Card from packaging, e.g. cereal boxes. 

Tissue paper, light copy paper or old dictionary pages.

PVA glue and a spreader. I used a small spatula but a piece of heavy card works well to splodge on the PVA.

Colour medium. I used and love the new Distress Stains as they are so fluent and convenient to apply.

Versamark Watermark Clear Pad, (use an old one as a new one will dirty very quickly for this process).

Embossing Powder. I used gold and silver detail powder, but try out any colour.

Heat gun.

Wet wipes.

Brayer if available (don't buy one)

Take a piece of tissue slightly larger than your card, as it will reduce in size slightly once crumpled. 

If desired, stamp images on to the tissue with a dye ink pad, then dry, before crumpling it.

Crumple tissue or paper into a ball and roll it well in your palms. 

Open this out and do it again to make sure all the creases are small and fairly even.

Spread adhesive liberally onto the card. It doesn't matter if you use the printed or plain side as it will not be visible when complete.

Open out the tissue ball and lay it onto the glued card, then gently roll the brayer over it to smooth out the crumpled tissue and disperse any air locks. 

If you don't have a brayer, turn the card over onto a non stick worksheet and rub gently. 

Tip: If your tissue is a bit thin, use two layers. Kitchen roll also works but doesn't create such good crackles however, it often has it's own good texture and gives a different effect.

If you are making book covers, cut the card before applying the tissue. When the tissue is applied, trim off and mitre the corners neatly and glue the edges to the back of your card. 

A piece of coloured card, slightly smaller than the book cover, can later (when the card is coloured and embossed), be stuck to the back over the tissue.

At this stage and only once the card is dry, cut out die shapes. It will save both ink and embossing powder if the required shapes are cut out before colouring or embossing.

Colour the pieces of card and dry thoroughly. It is best, if possible, to allow them to dry naturally as sometimes bubbles form and the tissue lifts if a heat gun is used.

If using Distress Stains, clean the applicators with a wet wipe to prevent cross contamination of colours.

When the card is completely dry, rub the Versamark pad lightly over the crackles of the surface of the tissue. Do not press the pad down as this will ink everything and not achieve the crackled effect. 

Lightly dust with embossing fine embossing powder and tap off excess. The powder will stick to the crackles of the tissue.

 Experiment with different colours to achieve a variety of amazing results... clear, brown, black, bright colours as well as gold silver or copper embossing will look so different depending on the colours of ink beneath.

Watch the crackles appear when a heat gun is applied..........It always amazes and fascinates me!

Below the dressforms left to right...

from plain card, with crumpled tissue applied, then with colour and embossing.

A dressform covered with stamped tissue before embossing.

One of the final products!

Below...close up of tags, plain, coloured, and embossed showing the remarkable difference from the beginning to the final result.

Above and below shows the comparison between silver and gold embossing.

Heat embossing stamped tissue

On Saturday whilst watching my demo, someone came up with the great suggestion that I should make intentional creases as strata to form a landscape so, very quickly, I tried this. Some one else shouted out that we should have trees, so I made a few vertical creases. Below is a postcard sized piece of the result after embossing and I really do think it could be developed successfully on a larger scale.

Thanks to whoever gave me the inspiration!

If you try this technique I'd love to hear how you get on and, as always, if you hit any snags or come up with any new ideas for it, please email me. 

I share my ideas willingly but if you pass it on, please mention my blog and give me due credit!!