Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's back to work I go...

It feels like an age since my last post - though it's only been just over a week! I haven't done much in the way of crafting, I haven't really felt like it to be honest - I've been spending my last week of maternity leave with Tim rather than squirrelling myself away making cards every night! So, yes, back to work next week...I'm lucky that I can go back part-time so I get the best of both worlds - spending time with grown-ups and being able to spend time with Connor. He's had some of his settling in sessions at nursery... he's already reeled the carers at nursery in with his smiles and cheek so I'm sure he'll be fine!

I managed to miss WOYWW yesterday, though I did manage to take a picture so here it is...

At the back is the first canvas for my friends, however... I'm not happy with it at all... too many embellishments I think, so back to the drawing board with this one. The images at the front waiting to be coloured are from Tiddly Inks' Gothic cute collection.

Even though I've been lacking on the card front - I've altered a white lantern from Sainsburys using alcohol inks and prima flowers.

I've got a bigger one from Wilko's to alter in a similar way, though I might go more down the blue line...

WOYWW and Another Acceptance

I'm managing to post this while Connor spends 10 minutes in his door bouncer - he gets fed up a lot quicker in it these days - I think because he now bounces so vigourously in it that he tires himself out! He's been very snot filled the last few days and hasn't been sleeping well, but last night was a lot better and we ended up waking him up at 8am - he went back to sleep at 10 and slept til nearly half 12! Obviously he's catching up on all his missed sleep...

So here is my desk today...

I did a canvas as a present for a Christening a while ago, these are for some friend's two children. They don't know I'm doing it but I don't think they read this blog so I should be ok! I'll wrap these round a frame and embellish them accordingly. If you want to find out more about this WOYWW lark then have a gander over here.

And lastly, a card for another Wedding Acceptance, again in August. The hen do is in a few weeks (at the end of my first week back at work handily!) in Chester - I won't give any details here just in case but I'm sure there'll be some amusing photos!

The papers are Kirsty Wiseman - told you I'd be using those dotty papers again!

I have a full day planned tomorrow - I'm off to be Kirsty's slave for the day to help her get some bits together (though we may just spend the day chasing Connor round the house) then I'm off out for tea and to the cinema to see Iron Man 2. Tim and I haven't been to the cinema together since Connor was born so that'll be a treat!

Butterflies...

This card was made using papers from Kirsty Wiseman's CD Colour Burst of Fanciful Things. I love the dotty papers that Kirsty does - I can see them turning up on a lot of my cards! This card is for a wedding acceptance - I know the trend now is to include RSVP cards with the invite but I still like to send a proper card. I also like to try and match the card to the wedding colours but this invite was just white so no clue as to the colours!

I've had this clock kit for AGES, probably a few years in fact... well, I finally finished it last week. The kit was from Craftwork Cards, the papers came with the kit but I changed the numbers for some Grungeboard numbers, which I painted with pearl acrylic paint then covered with alcohol inks. I outlined them with Stickles to make them stand out a bit more. The flowers were painted with metallic acrylic paints then spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer Mists, and again outlined with Stickles.

 I glued everything on then added gems, dew drops, butterflies and more Stickles! The numbers still don't stand out very well but I'm pretty happy with it regardless...

PS Kirsty Wiseman is showing her third CD "Colour Me Crazy" again on Create and Craft this Friday (21st) at 9am.

Strawberries and Cream - yum!

I've been fairly productive of late (though not with my blogging!), but instead of doing a massive post I'll eek it out over a few days!

Connor is finally on the move, which is making everything that little bit harder to do as I'm constantly having to keep an eye on him/move him away from the fire/X-box/speaker stand! Something I'm sure all parents appreciate...

The following card is made using the Lili of the Valley stamp "Fairies - On Tiptoe" and I'm entering it in this weeks Lili of the Valley (a sketch) and Passion for ProMarkers (Strawberries & Cream) challenges.

The papers are from Kirsty Wiseman's second CD - Colour Burst of Fanciful Things - available here.

And to end - here are some more cupcakes...French Toast Cupcakes to be precise, full of cinnamon and maple syrupy goodness...

WOYWW, Cakes and Fairies

Wow, Wednesday came out of nowhere this week! My desk is pretty tidy today as I'm kind of in between projects so I thought I'd give a little tour of my creative space...

I'm lucky that we currently have a spare bedroom which I have a corner of so there's room for a decent amount of stuff!

Here is the left of my desk, the boxes at the back have sticky ribbons, alphabet stickers and rub-ons and lots of embellishments.

This is the right of the desk - more ProMarkers, drawers with Twinkling H2Os, micas, brads, cuttlebug folders and general tat.

These shelves are above the desk - if you've read my blog for a while, you'll know that the bottom shelf came off the wall and caused no small amount of destruction - it is now VERY securely fastened to the wall with very long screws! The top shelf has the stuff I don't use too often - acrylic paints, Fimo, my light box. My alcohol inks are also there, but only because I haven't found another home for them yet! The second shelf has chipboard and grunge alphas and some of my ProMarkers. The bottom shelf has my Prima flowers, some embellishments, Distress inkpads, hot-fix crystals and my dew drops.

This bookcase is to the left of the desk and is home to my rubber stamps, papers and books/magazines (which you can't see as there's a pile of stuff in front of them)

These drawers are to the right of the desk and house my embossing powders, punches and lots of "I haven't used it for ages but might do one day" stuff. On top are the papers I've used recently and not put away along with my paper scraps split into boxes depending on how much of the paper is left - not sure why I bother keeping the small scraps as I never look through the box!

This is underneath the desk - scrapbook albums waiting to be filled, boxes with Christmas stuff/cross stitch kits in, memento boxes...

And that's it! Read on if you're interested in what I did with the backgrounds and stamps from last week...

I've kept these quite simple so the stamped image is the focus of the card.

Last, but not least (finally I hear you cry!), here are some lemon meringue cupcakes I made for Tim to take into work tomorrow. We've obviously road tested them and they're pretty tasty!

Well done if you managed to stay the course with this feature length post!

WOYWW

I thought I'd give WOYWW a go - that's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday to those that don't know. I thought it might encourage me to start tidying my desk up more...but today I've left it as it is so you can see the mess!

So I have some Cosmic Shimmer misted backgrounds drying, they just need flattening a bit then I can use the fairy stamps to their right to stamp on them. You'll also see a bit of paper propped up at the side - this is an e-mail with details of my first (and hopefully not last!) magazine commission! Obviously I can't show what I've done yet - you'll just have to wait!

Next is my ribbon box which I need to sort out, it's doing my head in that I can't easily see what I've got but I can't decide how to store them! Propped on top is my modified Pampers box which is now my Cosmic Shimmer mist spray box...

Apparently the anniversary of WOYWW is coming up and the challenge is to make something pretty for your workdesk - I've been toying with some better storage for my ProMarkers for a while so watch this space...

Colour Me Crazy!

Here are my sample cards for Kirsty Wiseman's new CD Colour Me Crazy which debuted on Create and Craft this morning. 

Butterfly World

Angelica Rockchick

Jasper Nutcracker

Jemima Cuppycake

Jennifer Raspberry

 Matilda Merriweather

Natty House

Oliver Postlethwaite

It was great to watch the show and see my cards on tv! There were some great ideas and some lovely cards made by Kirsty's team and I was very proud to have contributed to the show. Hopefully I'll be able to make some more cards for her next CD!