WOYWW 682 – tiny journal….on my desk…

Happy WOYWW, as I sing along to the tune of Tiny Bubbles! We will be looking all around my room and MOST of the surfaces are clean or have real work in progress. My main desk has bits for the Journal Petite class, including cut-up paper towel roll tubes (lesson 8 Cardboard Roll Stamps), rolls of washi tape (lesson 5 Bindings, Flaps and Tabs), a handmade circle stencil (lessons 12 & 13 Play with Circles and Embellished Circles) a hand carved stamp from a eraser (lesson 15 Stamped Surfaces)and some clear plastic, transparency sheets and a plastic bag (lesson 16 Plastic Bag Printing)!

Blimey! And for all that, it looks pretty neat LOL!

As does my side table – let’s see if I can find a comparison shot from last week…Well I did but it’s a pretty neat shot. Believe me it looked a LOT worse then you see here for most of the week, I promise!

Even my desk-by-the-window is mighty tidy.

Making room for more paint-y mess soon, as I scored a handful paints I have wanted for a while, Quinacridone Violet, Gold, Magenta and Red and Nickle Azo Yellow. Yum. Best of all they are profession quality AND both reduced in price with an additional 25% off. I may mix up a few small bottles of a more fluid mix, as they are quite thick straight from the tube.

Doing a happy dance. I have plans for them for sure. And because I finished my blanket, I also have a kinda pattern that I MAY begin at some point, lounging around on my printer:

Phew. That’s plenty. Hopefully I’ll be off for my hop early this week – we MIGHT be seeing a plumber at some point so really need to make sure I’m ahead of the game. They are like an elusive and rare, shy bird. If he says he’ll come, I drop everything. Good thing (knock wood) nothing is actually leaking at this point LOL!

Happiest of WOYWW days to all.

WOYWW 681

Happy Wednesday to all! My desk is again a bit all over the place. I am working thru the Journal Petite class still and enjoying the process. I am also working on a second deli-paper curtain for the other of my three-window bay. One desk has had the black die cut circles from last week moved to it and the process begun of filling the circles with deli paper gel prints.

The other (main) desk is chaotic.

But what is all that? Well the B&W images are from the insides of tattoo care boxes, a gift from my knitting mate. The colourful pile is all the small scraps from the deli paper on the first desk, the stuff that is too small to fill a circle.

They made a lovely two-page spread in the journal and I once again opted for glue stick, which worked a treat.

Truly, this paper I made ages ago is the gift that keeps on giving! I have used it in so many ways, it feels like I will never run out LOL!

Tomorrow, watercolour – which is kinda back to the Prep this Journal lesson, although I only did the acrylic part initially. I may fill in a few pages and see how I like it.

Happy WOYWW, you lot. Hoping to see some of you at the crop!

WOYWW 680 – random, as ever

Happy WOYWW 680. The number creep up again and 700 is not that far away, in the grand scheme of things. The desk(s) are all busy this week, but not all on the same thing.

Main desk is full of the Petite Journal stuff, still working thru the prepping of backgrounds and moving on to the collage lesson. Yeah, I’ve done this before (as I have swiped paint and done washes of colour) but working on it within the structure of a class is helping to keep me moving forward.

My collage bin is overflowing.

My messy desk is still paint, but needs tidying so I can add watercolour to a few pages.

Sadly, one of my plastic palette knives bit the dust. Lucky I have a set of mental ones too!

And the side desk is full of black circles, being die cut for my other-window deli paper circle curtain – I like to cut graduated circles so I can get a bunch with one pass thru the machine.

My sewing room desk is still full of hexipuffs, lists of circles needed in various colours, and skeins of yarn. Too lazy to wander over there and snap a photo but if I remember to do one I’ll pop it in here to complete the set. The blanket itself is in downstairs on the sofa as I usually sew the rows up and add them to the main body of the blanket when watching TV. It’s all about the January 6th commission for a bit, so the five hours between UK and DC USA time means afternoon and evening on the days they meet (or YouTube catch-up if I miss it live) makes best use of my time. I can LISTEN while working, I don’t need to watch. Win-Win (kinda, except for the attack that is being examined.) So that’s me for another week. This week I actually have a Wednesday clear of Drs. appointments, blood tests, visitors or other drains on my desk time. Should be able to get to everyone in the morning. Yay!

Have a lovely (hopefully beautiful weather day) no matter where your celebrate your Wednesday desk hop!

WOYWW 679 – untidy!

Happy WOYWW all. I did not do a great job last week. Wrong link, less than 100% commenting, and just far too busy with real life to crafty blog as much as I would have liked.

But what you come for is the desk(s), right?

Back on Monday I finally managed to share my circles project and my desk is still littered with the debris of that, because I am hoping to make another one for the window on the other side. Here it is again to save you looking back:

My blanket is coming along nicely, although I have some problems with getting the number of circles out of the skeins of Hayfield. I learned a lot from the process that will stand me in good stead if I make another one. Again, just a progress shot, a repeat from yesterday to save you looking back:

Not done, obviously and it is the lime green I am about three puffs short of. BAH! I really hope to be able to share it with just the green section missing. I’ll pop in to Franklin’s in Salisbury when there for my next hospital appointment and hope to match the dye lot – but frankly, I don;t even care. If it isn’t exact, I’ll live.

So happy WOYWW and I WILL be popping round to yours later today.

Oh – also my furthest ATC trade has arrived! Susan in Australia sent this fab card and ATC. Love it – and thanks for the trade. Hope mine made it to you as well!

WOYWW 678 – not a lot of progress

Happy WOYWW y’all! My desks are super boring:

My main desk has the bits for something I am forced to MAKE because the thing I already own that would do the same job is nowhere to be found. Bah! The other desk has the circles of deli paper gel prints I mentioned yesterday but I have made zero progress on them.

The bright spot is one of the ATCs I was expecting has arrived – I am hoping a few more of mine found there way to deskers!

Thank you Christine!

Other than that, I have been cranking out puffs. Finally got the right yellow and the right peach and there is hope my missing yarn MIGHT find it’s way to me.

Happy Jubilee Weekend! I will spend the day getting ready for a visitor tonight, a friend of The Hubster’s who we have not seen properly for a couple of years. I will get to desks early but may end up finishing the list tomorrow – I hope to be able to share something interesting by then. Fingers crossed!!

WOYWW 677 – ATCs in da HOUSE!

Well, it’s WOYWW again and I made it back once more. Phew. The ATCs have begun to arrive, the first one, from lovely Lunch Lady Jan, dropped on my mat well in advance of the day. You can see it there top middle. Such a clever word cloud of all the craftiness we see week after week.

The top left is from Ali – we exchanged digital versions as I wanted to trade but ran out of “real” ones. Luckily we both are big fans of digi so it was a win. Helen’s one completes the top row. Those wacky birds just slay me. I always have to trade with her, even on the rare occasion we aren’t above or below the other in the list. The bottom row is Caro (hers is titled CONNECTIONS and is so sweet!) then relative newbie Tracy (gorgeous card & love the quote) and of course Julia. Her clever wire connecting the houses is WOYWW in a nutshell. Ditto for Cindy’s clever puzzle pieces on a mixed media background to the side. Still a few outstanding but they will get here eventually. One is crossing mine over Australia so it will take a bit for that to arrive. Weirdly, we got no mail delivered today so maybe the postman was having a little break and I will get a few more tomorrow.

My desk shot is boring – I snapped it before I realized two of the cards were still downstairs from the delivery on Monday. I had dragged out my oldest art journal so I could have a go at finishing up the last few blank pages.

I have also been cranking some flat circles on my Addi with an idea to make a blanket. It’s time consuming, but not so much as actual knitting. It’s more an experiment than anything else but I am enjoying the process. It’ll end up being perhaps for the next new family addition. I haven’t snapped photos but I made a dragon and a unicorn that need a few final touches then they will go in the mail back to the USA. I suspect the blankie will be too heavy for that.

Anyway I need to get one more colour that I forgot when I grabbed the yarn last week. Always happens, that. Ah well.

So have a fab WOYWW day and hope to see loads of ATCs on all the desks! One year I might hope to trade with everyone, but this was not the year.

IS it a bird? Maybe….Art Journal Journey page

I mentioned the fact I was hoping to manage a page for the Art Journal Journey challenge for May but had not been able to so far. WELL. I grabbed some birds I had made from some stamps, actually from a long-ago WOYWW crop (so that dates them as the last crop I was at was eons ago!) pulled a quote and was about to make a start when, clearing off my desk, my eyes fell on some leftover unused bits from my WOYWW ATCs.

In the interest of making use of debris I think my brain looked at them and said BIRD!

You can see the stamping was less that stellar on these two so they didn’t make the final cut. I felt like I could still use them and also commemorate the 13th anniversary in my journal. And I had the quote I used on the ATCs printed on vellum as well that I could add. There was an extra space in the first part of the quote and I decided against the [ ]s where I changed HAD to HAS, for aesthetics but it was useable. AND I even found my hoarded vellum adhesive and while the first bit was a bit dry, the rest was still very much invisible under the vellum. Win!

The real decider came with the pulled quote, which didn’t really work with the other birds at all but worked amazingly well with these and the whole WOYWW theme. I shuffled things about a bit

And the final design also used the roll of tape measure tape that I used to close the envelopes I mailed my ATCs in. Now tell me, isn’t the quote a good’un for this?

So yeah. The little figure is a BIT bird-like don’t you think? I mean it does have wings and is flying…. That’s my story and I am sticking to it LOL!

Another busy week, but I will hope to do an ACTUAL bird page for AJJ before June rolls around and I think I missed out a few of the tail end of WOYWW so must get back to finish the list and check out the AJJ pages from THAT list as well. I totally need more hours in the day! Bet you do too…..

ATCs, leather scraps and mailings

Been working all morning on packaging up my WOYWW 13th anniversary ATC swaps. I think it worked out pretty well. Now to get to the PO! Yesterday was spent all day in Salisbury, as Darling Daughter had an orthotics appointment for a new leg brace fitting. Fun. Back in eight weeks to see if it has done more harm than good. Hopefully not, but as it is a slightly new design we will see.

I did have a couple of people who were willing to swap digital versions of the ATCs, which is good, although they are really only slightly less work than making a “real one.

The colour is not as spot on as I would like but it isn’t so off that I don’t feel they are a true representation of the actual paper&card ones. I did add to the printed versions. The edges were smudged with the same Distress Oxide ink and the gold sequin dots were added – they look. basically like black dots when scanned so, yeah, they really needed that.

Then it was just making endless (or so more like 10) envelopes and adding a little message. All ready to pop in the post.

The one oddball is for a fairly new WOYWW participant and I decided to add in some bits from a recent score. The local glove factory is shutting down. I popped in yesterday because The Hubster saw a post on Facebook about it – they were selling off all manner of things, from massive reels of lovely coloured velcro and elastic to spools of thread and leather scraps. I got a bag full.

True scraps, not huge pieces, but some lovely colours. I had quite a long chat with the owner, as it was just me in there, late in the day. He explained most of the glove makers were getting to retirement age and sadly there were no young people interested in learning the skills to replace them. The gloves are gorgeous and so many varieties, and some of the tools were almost sculptural in their design – like the love forms and the irons. Amazing. I may pop back Monday and grab a few more things, as the owner said they will remain open and selling off the stock and the tools of the trade until they close the doors.

I’m off to see what the internet has to offer in the way of crafts with leather scraps….then hopefully to the post office, later today or tomorrow.

WOYWW 676 – Thirteen YEARS!

Well, well, well. Thirteen YEARS of fun and friendship, virtual and IRL. WOW. The desks change every week, people pop in and pop out as their lives allow, and yet, we all still seem to feel the tug of our community each Wednesday for years to come.

My desk had a bit of ATC stuff on it (of course) for the swap:

and some yarn my MIL brought over to make shoelaces out out. That green is pretty in-your-face, but I am liking it a lot. Funny, I would have always said green is not my favourite (well, I make an exception for celery green and sometimes lime) but I have warmed to it over the years.

I want to share the quote I used on my ATCs, because it perfectly sums up the weekly event that is What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday:

...a rare combination of creativity, inspiration & motivation…a perfect blend that ha[s] the capacity to affect people’s lives positively.

I also have a question. I came to this quite late this year (like Monday LOL!) so didn’t get to make as many ATCs as I would have liked. If you visit, and you want to consider trading a printed version of the ATCs (so I would scan and print out my front then mount it on a regular ATC back in exchange for the same from you) let me know. I think I have 7 to trade + my official trade based on list placement, but I would love to increase the number and would be happy to accept a printed version if you would.

Sadly, the only day I could squeeze in a meet-up with my best knitting mate was today, so I will have a flurry of visits and comments early, then hop on the treadmill, then meet up with her and finally return to complete the list mid-afternoon. I might even consider signing in to Goggle (! I know – cue shock-horror from all who know my aversion to THAT) just to comment for one week on ALL the blogs, although I might break out in a cold sweat and not actually manage it, you never know… 😀

Happiest of Happy WOYWW’s and here’s to the next 13 years LOL!

This is what happens when you take a break….

Yesterday, after posting, I popped over to Julia’s to see what was up with WOYWW. Imagine my surprise to see that we are perparing for the ATC swap to mark the 13th anniversary!! blimey. Later in the day dear Helen (h) commented on my blog words to that effect so I was double warned and really felt I had to figure it out. I missed very few anniversaries, probably only just after my SINAM diagnosis (YAY! Finally an acronym that seems to be slightly universal – Statin-Induced Necrotizing Autoimmune Myositis takes a long time to type LOL!)

Cue panic. I had to come up with an idea, then decide on a design, then make the things and I had a very limited amount of time to do so – as I mentioned this week is a bit full. I dragged out a bunch of stuff and found the quote – the PERFECT quote – and got to it.

The little stamps at the right? Man I love those guys so much. They are quite tiny but super useful. I bought two sets from Tiger ages ago, pre-Pandemic, and I wish I had bought more (I think they were maybe £3?) as, typically, WOYWW has three W’s and each set only has one of each consonant. Bah!

I went thru a number of possible designs, tested out a few different stamp sets for the bit above

but in the end I finally managed to settle on a design I quite like. I wish I had time to make enough for every WOYWW person but I probably don’t. I’m hoping for 8 with basically the same design and I might be able to squeak out a couple more that will be unique. Maybe. Anyway, we’ll see.

With any luck I will manage to settle back in to a weekday blogging routine but I am finding it difficult to focus my mind on crafting. We are still working to get back into a routine but it will be short-lived. Darling Daughter ends her time in education at the end of the summer term and it is going to be a challenge. I have a follow-up with Rheumatology in June as well and might be getting another round of IVIG – or something else, who knows? My meds are changing (a little concerned about that) and everything seems like it will be in flux for a bit. Anyway, WOYWW tomorrow and the big 13! I wonder if there will be a crop any year soon? Wouldn’t THAT be lovely?

😀