WOYWW and a bit of help please

 Its time for the weekly persuing of the craft desk courtesy of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, led by the amazing Julia. Here's my desk Tuesday night ...nothing has changed!, apart from me having had some sleep ... not enough but some!!

I thought I would give you the view as I see it sitting in my desk ... 3 books to do something with, a sample that went wrong, a part coloured in image, all my inks, mists and bits and bobs as Ellie calls them!!!

And just to the left of my cutter is ...

this ...!!!!

 All his stuff!! it was only supposed to take up a quarter of the desk and 1 shelf in the cupboard ... it grows daily and if not held in check often seeps over onto my space.  I often find boxes and books left on my messy mat in the morning ... should try not cleaning it, may be that would teach him!!  My pens sit on his chair when he's not around, I find them easily to reach from my chair!!

Now a bit of help please ... I bought these stacking papier mache books in a fit of madness .. .and have NO idea what to do with them ... paint/stain, well  what really!

 Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Have a fab Wednesday ... I am off to do the school run, Mum's and Tots, preschool run and then lunch, before a bit of quiet time!!

One for a girl .. one for a boy!

I am having trouble sleeping ... so when I am wide awake at 5am ... yep ... I am crafting!!!

 I stamped Jelly Pip from Sugar Nellie onto kraft cardstock and coloured her in using prisma pencils. I paper peiced her waistcoat top using some of the dp which is SU and I LOVE it ... shame it is runnig out :(  I kept the card reasonably embellishment free ... just some cream satin ribbon and a doilly heart that I distressed with antique linen distress ink to make it look cream.

Challenges:
Craft Your days away - paper piecing
Craft your passion - paper peicing
Stamp with fun - sketch
CES challenge - blues and cream
One Stop Craft challenge - colour on kraft

And one for the boys ...

 I coloured this Kenny K image up a couple of weeks ago ... and lost it!!!  So having found it I got a card together this morning.  The dp is Stell Rose and I added a TH weather clock die cut from grungepaper and painted with black soot distress stain, a gear left unstained and a journalling ticket that I tore and layered using an ideology paper clip.

Challenges -
Cupcake Craft - boys and their toys
Tuesday throwdown - paper tearing
Creative Craft - boys will be boys
Stamp+fun=creativity - non cute
Simon Says Stamp and Show - An idea-ology bonanza

Crafting Time DT - distress ink

 

 I coloured the Sugar Nellie image, OhLaLa, using dusty concorde, broken china, tattered rose, worn lipstick, vintage photo and walnut stain distress ink pads.  The tag was stamped using a Tim Holtz stamp in versamark and then embossed using clear embossing powder.  I distressed it using dusty concorde and broken china distress inks.  I also distressed the adage tickets in dusty concorde distress ink, and added seam binding, lace and some flat backed pearls.

Challenges
Make it Monday
Charisma Cardz - Love is in the air
Colour Create - lilac, blue, white, kraft

Less is more - Scraps

This is a really quick post as we have friends up for the weekend and are off out in a moment to go to Styal Mill (avoidance tactics as the rugby is on and we are a house divided!!!!!!!)

 So here is my go at the Less is More scraps challenge ... and do I have LOTS of scraps, can't recycle any of it!!!  I used some gingham scraps and some blue cardstock, and layered them up, before adding a button and some bakers twine.  I am pondering if it needs a sentiment ... not really a big sentiment fan.

Have fun everyone.

Challenges:

2 Sisters - anything goes

Allsorts - your choice

Sweet Stampin' challenge

Our challenge this week is "masculine", that can be anything from a little boy to a man!!

Our sponsor this week is the fabby Quixotic Paperie...

...who are offering a £10 voucher for their store....

and

we also have our monthly sponsor Joanna Sheen....

who is also offering a £10 voucher for their store.

I covered the card blank in tissue tape and distressed it using distress inks.  The stamped elements are from variuos Tim Holtz stamp sets, all stamped, distressed and cut out.  The effiel tower was cut out using the label and tag die set.  Finally I stamped the postcard and text over the tissue tape.

Challenges:

2 Sisters - anything goes

Allsorts - your choice

Do You Stack up - distress

Simon Says Stamp n Show - London, Paris New york

Amelia

 I confess to having "some" stamps ... as I pointed out to hubby "some" defines my stamp collection, it means more than 1!!!  He would prefer to use the word "Lots", along with the phrase "a bit of an obsession"!!!  But having some stamps means some are always neglected ... and this is one that I absolutely love and confess to having neglected badly ...

Its Amelia from Sugar Nellie's Simply Sassy collection, and i have coloured her in using my cool grey and black promarkers.  I embossed the background and distressed the edges of the cardstock.  I added some punched flowers, card candi and stained seam binding.

Challenges
Passion for Promarkers - black and white
I love Promarkers - time
Everybody-Art-Challenge - sketch
Stamp and Fun=creativity - favourite stamp
Do you stack up - distress

Totally Papercrafts Challenge

 Its my turn to choose the Totally Papercrafts challegne this week and I have picked  an inspiration picture

(courtesy of Design Seeds)

You can use the colours, the image, both ...

Our sponsor this week is the lovely Melissa from Meljen Designs and she will be giving one lucky entrant a choice of 4 Digi images !! Woo Hoo ! :-)

 I used this fab Mo Manning image and coloured it using my promarkers.  The dp is a mix of BG Marrakesh and MME Stella Rose.  I added some punched flowers, pearls, ribbon and button.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado and I just LOVE it!!

Challenges:
Creative Inspirations - sketch
Papertake Weekly - get krafty
Simon Says Stamp - use 3 different papers
My Mum's Craft Shop - buttons, ribbons
Paper Pretties - punches/diecuts
Divas by design - bling it up
Paper Shelter - add a sentiment
Moving along with the time - lots of layers
Fuss n fancy - More than words

The Sugar Bowl #78

It'sMaria Therese's  turn to do the Sugar bowl sketch, and we have the additional option of getting krafty ... so get that kraft cardstock out

One lucky winner of this challenge will have their choice of 4 stamps (or 6 stamps, if we reach 100+ entries) either from the new release or any stamps from the Sugar Nellie range at

I used Contemplation (currently out of stock by the looks of it) and coloured her with my prisma pencils.  The dp is MME Stella Rose, and I added some ribbon, punched kraft flowers and card candi coloured in with my promakers.

WOYWW

This year seems to be romping along ... can't believe I was whisking up and flipping pancakes last night ... Christmas doesn't seeem 2 minutes ago!!  So Lent starts in our house ... DH is giving up chocolate mini rolls and biscuits, much to the girls' delight as they hate the fact that he 'pinches' them  The girls are giving up whining and sulking ... that's not going to last long!!  I have given up cheese and crisps ... I soooo love cheese and crisps!!
Anyway at least I haven't given up crafting, although life has been so busy over the last couple of weeks that my desk looks, well bare!!

OK not bare ... but the tag and stamp folder have been out since Sunday and nothing has been done with them.  However I got happy mail this morning - I won a TH stamp set from commenting on his blog ... one of the new ones ...

this one to be precise!!!!  So I am hoping that it is going to get the creative juices flowing today.  I have these stamps already in other sets, but I am loving the size of these ... brill for smaller cards and tags.  Just need to get work finished today and then PLAY!!!

Have a fab day everyone, and if you have time take a snoop across the crafty desks of blogland, courtesy of the amazing Julia.  I will be joining in this afternoon, when the little 1 I mind is having a well earned sleep!!

Simplicity and a bit of grunge

The weeks seem to be romping by ... can't believe it is Pancake Day today!!   Here are a couple of creations from an inky, and not so inky session last night ...

 I love blue and red as a combination, and it always looks so striking on a white background.  The flowers were die cut from my TH tattered florals die, before being stamped over with a Hero Arts script stamp.  I simply layered them up, with a pearl in the middle, and added some punched leaves and the sentiment.

CHallenges:
Craft Your Passion - red, white and blue
Less is More - diescuts/punches
Stamp with Fun - shapes
The pink Elephant - print it
Secret Craft Saturday challenge - Bingo (gems, flowers, leaves)

 And having been all clean and simple ...

... time to get the inks out!!  The card base was covered in wild honey distress ink and then I used a mask and more distress ink to get the harlequin pattern.  I stamped the Eiffel Tower TH stamp directly onto the base and added some Paris stamps.  The weathered clock is diecut from grunge paper and distressed using barn door distress stain.  The tickets was distressed and cut out, and I added the charm to it.  I made the flower using lace and added a grungey centre.  Had very pretty coloured fingers at the end!!!

Challenges:
1 StopCraft - create your own background
Totally Gorguss - lace
Simon Says Stamp and Show - london, Paris, New York
Creative Stamp Friends - inspired by a song (I love Paris)