WOYWW 400

Not much going on except a little label attaching. This is an older Papertrey Ink stamp set that I used to store in CD cases, except now I store them in Avery Elle envelopes, so I keep the on their original sheet and cut the labels to suit (the newer sets come with the label in the same order as the stamps on the sheets so just peel and stick).

Since my eyesight isn't what it used to be, I find that inking up the stamps on the sheet and then pressing a bit of scrap on it makes it easy to tell which little stamp is which : D.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more crafty peeks of this 400th edition of sharing the creative spaces : D.

WOYWW 306, Working at the Stamp Wash, 500th post : )

An unusual (temporary) lull lol. Bottom left is a large whorl painted gold (it will be a large spindle one day). This marks my 500th post btw, I think I'm starting to get the hang of things lol.

I made a little stamp wash (and I sing car wash while I'm cleaning them). The scrubbie pad has stamp cleaning solution and water. I use a lunch container to keep squares of a car drying "towel". It has no lint and leaves the stamps squeaky clean. The lunch container gives me a place to store the bits that need cleaning.

edited to add: Most of the stamps I'm washing have lost their stick due to a lot of use (and Versamark?) and linty from all the baby wipes I've used. After the wash they are all sticky again : ). The "towels" are damp so they are like the rinse to the wash. And the Car Wash song is from the 1976 movie Car Wash... it was re-made in the movie Shark Tank. If you google it be sure to say Car Wash Song or theme song 1976 Car Wash... I didn't, it was... surprising lol.

For more crafty spaces, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

WOYWW 301

It's been a pretty busy week. The rosette is made with glassine paper. If you want to believe you have sausage fingers, make rosettes with glassine lol. Actually I'm thinking that with string and tiny hole punches it could be roped into compliance more easily. It's for a scrapbook layout I'm not sure if I've finished, all about being cantankerous  as #$@& when I grow up when I want to be : D.

The snowflake was on the floor, discovered when I was looking for one of the letters that drifted off last night. I even turned out the trash bag. On the plus side I did find a tiny transparent stamp on the floor that I had given up on finding months ago. I've also resolved to only use very tiny trash bags next to my workdesk (lest I wind up on hoarders due to fear of accidentally throwing out stamps).

Which ties into my latest obsession. Putting ttransparent stamp sets into Avery Elle bags. One of the benefits when the little ones fall off, they are still in the bag. I have a lot of Papertrey Ink stamps in CD cases. The envelopes take up a lot less space and the CD cases have a little gap where little stamps can easily fall out.

Next project on the agenda, put spring into a jar topper (clear half dome at the back). So the little sheep in the stamp set need to be reverse stamped to make a two-sided image.The snow is finally melting. I can actually see asphalt in 1/4 of the driveway. Only after an ubersnowy winter, am I so excited to see asphalt.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more crafty fun : ).

WOYWW 300

Happy 300 WOYWW! (Will Gerard Butler be making a cameo?). I treated myself to a Distress Paint Sale, and interesting fact about Distress Paint... it seems I can color directly on the lid, no labels needed. The wrapping around the Distress Paint is ultra crinkly and can be used in making great cat toys. We are still under attack by winter (which is why I have big ass snowflakes on my desk).

That's me today. Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more desk peeking happiness.

that is SOME [grand] PIG Scrapbook Layout

There was a challenge issued a while back by Leigh at to the full to create patterned paper. And Simon Says Anything Goes. I'm not the best at getting challenges done with deadlines, but I sure do get a lot of inspiration from them : ).

This is my grandpig. The journal tag is also a pocket because I often forget to write down something. If I have a pocket I can just write it on a tag and pop it in. Now I almost always add them. The title is a nod to Charlotte's Web.

I recently realized I can use my camera to store layout ideas. This is the majority of the components just before I bagged them up.

I also realized that I can use a top loading scrapbook to hold pages in progress.

I keep a small box of leftovers and experimental embellishments and mats within arm's reach of my work desk. For this layout I pulled 4 of the box.The crafting cuppie ephemera represents me (grandma). I didn't need all those pillows, so I stamped it on the other side.

To minimize mistakes, I write the journaling out in pencil (which allows me to erase the wonkiest lines, adjust for size, etc). Then I write over the pencil and finally erase it after the marker has had time to really dry.

The Details.
Stamped Patterned Paper:
White cardstock. Large flower from Papertrey Ink's Funky Florals stamp set. Petals stamped with Berry Sorbet, centers stamped with Pure Poppy, details stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Ranger Ink gold embossing powder.

Hibiscus Burst cardstock stamped with all three stamps from Background Basics: Woodgrain set in Versamark.

Picked Raspberry cardstock stamped with Mod Squad set and Black Soot Distress Ink

Journal Tag
Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge., Sharpie Fine Line marker, Funky Florals stamped with Versamark

Embellishments:
We R Memory Keepers Extra Large Grommets
White Organza Ribbon
Title Cricut Fonts: A Frightful Night cartridge, Calligraphy Collection cartridge. "[grand]" is run through the little Xyron sticker maker.
Ephemera: Stamping and coloring experiment done a few years ago with Taylored Expressions Crafty Cuppie colored with Distress Ink and Stickles.

WOYWW 299

At the back left are some pieces I wound up not using on my layout about a $12 Meal at the airport. And some containers of vinegar (dye experiment) and a watered down white paint and a spool of white organza ribbon. Julia has been writing about her crop experiences which reminded me to have one at home... by myself lol. I finished two this month. I would have had a party, but that would have made more work : D.

I decided to take pictures of layout ideas to reference when I'm actually putting it all together. This one is about my grandpig on a cat tree with papers I've stamped and embellishments pulled from my experimental leftovers. Yes it'll be rocking some extra large grommets I purchased on clearance about 5 years ago lol.

Because I've been cleaning... not in the ordinary way ... gathering up the unfinished pages and putting all the pieces into a top loading album.  (which is why I needed the reference picture).

This week's snow picture. The pink line is about where the top of the pile was last week. The blue is this week. The dog has built up a little snow bar for herself. The other day she stepped off it and was in snow up to her neck (she's a shepherd mix thankfully or she would have disappeared altogether.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground to see more crafty spaces : D.  Episode 299!  That's a lot of crafty peeking : D.

WOYWW 296

I'm finally done with all the Christmas knitting and for now some of the other things have been settled. It felt great to be able to do some papercrafting.

I couldn't find the picture I wanted so I'll be working with this one (Witch's Fingers grapes die cut with a Papertrey Ink strip stitch die and the Tim Holtz Alphanumeric dies).  To the left is a pot of Sticky Embossing Powder (Tim Holtz calls it Powdered Glue) I'm still concocting experiments on that one.

This Thursday is the kick off of Papertrey Ink's 8th Anniversary celebration all the pertinents will be on Nicole's blog. It's always a good ime : ). In preparation I've been organizing. You'll notice that all the inkpads have been labelled. I daubed color on some labels I found at the dollar store and used a 5/8" circle punch.

To see more crafty workspaces, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a gander : ).

WOYWW 280

Aftermath of crafting and organization. I bought the new Alphanumeric dies from Tim Holtz (and I love them), but the envelope was not gravity proof (I drop it and little dies fall out). So I bought some magnetic vent covers from my local hardware store and cut them to fit in the Avery Elle stamp/die sleeves with washi tape coding to find the three of them in a hurry).

Also on my desk is my small clutch of Distress Markers, and the domes I've been making. Along with the little mug I cut out and still haven't finished.

The information on the ornament on rhe right can be seen here. This one is allllll the creator of the kit and the dies in them. I just used them and picked out the colours.

The snow globe (with moveable deer) can be seen here.

To see more crafty spaces (and even join in yourself) head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

WOYWW 268

I love this die storage bin from Art Bin... only now that they are organized and I know what I have and where it is.... I've felt free to order more dies... It's a vicious cycle. Right now I keep the larger dies in bags on top of the magnetic sheets.  To the left is a little storage bin that is my watercoloring pot.

I sort of went on a water color binge. This is one of my favorites, It's all stamped and painted over except for the little bit of wash under the pot and cup. Some of my favorites, Papertrey Ink's Tea for Two (teapot), Tea for Two Additions (cup), and Make It Market kit: Beautiful Brushstrokes (sentiment).

I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with it, but it's here, it's here! That's a magnet stuck on the front of the bottle! I'm buzzing with possibilities : D.

To see more creative spaces around the world, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a gander. Better yet join in the fun : D.

WOYWW 264

This week I dyed with something other than Kool-Aid for the first time, and I have to say I am pleased with the results. The skein on the left is a 2 ply (1 corriedale and 1 romney) and the other two are 4-ply cable yarns (2 2-plys are then respun together). I love how the dye was absorbed differently by each type of wool (but I have no idea which is which lol).

I've been carving some stamps. Erasers are sooo easy, but I decided to try something different. I never saw clear blocks before. This one was labelled easy carve (not compared to erasers lol). I stamp the progress as I go, in this case the back side of a Jo-Ann Fabric flyer.  The purple mice I have out so I can figure out what to do with it. I usually have to mull things over.

I finished my Sending You Sunshine card, and thanks to Nikki C, I got the glitter to show up in the photograph.

It even glows in the dark : ). The details can be read here.

I've also made some headway on the organizational front. I went through about 4 feet of patterned paper and cardstock and managed to find 4 inches I can part with lol. The pads I've decided to keep, I  labelled on the adhesive side with a sharpie so it's easier to find what I'm looking for.  I still have about 2 feet of paper pads to sort through and a lot of loose paper squirreled away in pizza boxes (ones that never had a pizza near them).

To see more crafty spaces around the world, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground : ).

WOYWW 262

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Happy WOYWW. Today I have a card in progress (for the Simon Says Paint challenge),I used distress paint on a fun foam stamp I cut with the Friendship Jar from Papertrey Ink (it's the orange shape on the left) which I glued to a piece of plastic clam shell. The re-inkers are for the Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink, which is making an inkpad out of a babywipe and re-inkers. The challenge for me is that I only have black and various tones of brown re-inkers, so it's time to make a thinking cap lol.

On the organizational front, I love Papertrey Ink, but sometimes it's difficult for me to see the images, so I took an 8.5" x 11" paper, scored it at 5.25", folded it and then punched holes. The stamped images of the set on the front, tip sheet info is written on the back and in the fold out part is where I glue cuts from the dies, and notes about the set I have rattling around in my head. The stamp set here is All Booked Up.

UPDATE: Ordinarily this is where I'd be directing you to our chief desker's blog, however she is in the hospital so there won't be a central hopping location this week and possibly next. Hoping she is up and about soon.

WOYWW 204 - portable workspace

Except for the April Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, I haven't even sat down at my desk until this morning. So today I'm showing you my "purse projects". It's a plastic pencil case I bought at the dollar store about 10 years ago to hold my portable projects.

Basically it's for some spindles and my long-term (about 15 years lol) handspun embroidery name tag. The paper towel roll (aka kitchen roll) holds some silk at the far end and it's either a wool-rayon or wool-silk blend on the middle and left. It usually winds up holding my needle threader too. The plastic bag hold more handspun embroidery thread. This is also where I stash little bits of things I find during my outings. The lastest is a nice paper doily that was too pretty to put a drink on lol.

The spindle in the middle is a Bosworth "Moosie" spindle made out of moose antler (Bosworth spindles are my favorite professionally made spindles btw) which I'm currently using to spin unbleached flax.  The snowman and the beaded spindles are ones I assembled from toy wooden wheels and decorated. The snowman is being used for some Churro and the beaded spindle (a semi-irregular peyote stitch using three types of seed beads) is my go-to spindle for silk (in this case a dyed silk "cap", not a cap for wearing just a name for a type of silk preparation for spinning).

My name tag sampler using a variety of handspun threads. The dark brown is a natural brown corriedale wool, the bottom blue is a blue wool plied with an undyed silk. On the needle is the wool-rayon(silk?) blend. I started it about 15 years ago, but kept misplacing it.. So when I found it this year, it's become my mission to complete it, and it's almost done! It didn't help that over the course of those 15 years my eyesight has become UN 20/20 and the stitch count is about 18 stitches per inch lol.

In a new level of scrappiness, I discovered that I could tie those little trimmings with twine to make an embellishment lol. This is the detail from my April Papertrey Ink Blog Hop card. I started working before coffee had fully kicked in, and stamped with the back of the stamp, and I decided I liked it.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more WOYWW fun.

Handmade Cookbook that Sits on a Shelf

The trouble I have with recipe files is that there's no place to put them that doesn't get in my way eventually. One solution, a recipe file that goes in a book box, which will sit on a bookcase with the rest of my cookbooks. I painted the "pages" gold and covered the outside with cloth (with mod podge). The back cover is actually a stand (ribbon unfolds). The lettering is from Cricut's Lyrical Letters and the pot holder is from From My Kitchen, but they could also be handpainted or collaged.

When I make the next one I will make the holes for the rings further from the edges to they can't fall off the sides. The way these are now, it reminds me of straps that never stay on my shoulders.

WOYWW 137

I've done a major clear-off of my workdesk, AND finally moved the lamp to the middle where it won't cast a shadow of my left hand (because I'm in my right mind lol, okay that's a southpaw joke) when I'm trying to write something. Though now you can see clear through to the other side of my workdesk lol. So I haven't made a lot over the last week, but it has been thoroughly productive. I've been listening to "Does this Clutter Make My Butt Look Big" by Peter Walsh while I'm doing this. Some of the information is useful, and a lot of it is very repetitive and sounds a bit condescending. I'll soldier on through it, but I think it would be more useful to me if it was condensed to the major points. But it's a library book, so no aggravation about the cost :D.

I bought this stamp kit in the early 90s, but it has some awesome stamps and some useful information so I'm not going to re-organize the contents because they just wouldn't save much space. To the right is another maze book that I use to store my lists of things I have like stickle and ink colors. I also found my favorite small scissors which were missing for 7 months.

I found a cake stand at the local thrift store with a very tiny foot which I used to add a third tier to my lazy susan and voila all the Distress Inks are off my workdesk and it holds some assorted small stamps.

And my Cricut has been excavated :D.

BTW, I can walk through my craftroom so I don't think I qualify any more (that's my story and I'm sticking to it), but I saw this on facebook yesterday and if I had to guess they are doing a series on Craft Hoarders or something to that effect lol .https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150480081556434&set=a.385943336433.174477.299457271433&type=1&theater

I'm always on the lookout for new ways to use my stamps and I found a (free) class on two peas in a bucket about stamp scrapbooking. I can hardly wait to get started :D. The things I find on pinterest!

If you are wondering what's all this WOYWW, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.

Chalk it up to Magnetism!

I'm just tickled pink with this one, it's so versatile. It's a chalk and magnet board. It can be used as a countdown board, a menu board, a caption board. The photo corners are attached to magnets so the sign or photo is lifted away from the board about 1/4 of an inch. The American Crafts Chalk Paper is included in the October 2011 Club Ruby Designers' kit.

Board

Step 1. Cut a 12" x 12" square out of foamboard and paint it black. I didn't cut it with my Cricut by the way, it's just where I photographed it.

Step 2. Glue on galvanized tin step flashing. I used several sheets. I didn't go all the way to the edges because I wanted to make sure the paper was attached to the foam board around the edge.

The leftovers are very useful, so don't throw them out. None of my local hardware stores sold this, so I had to order it online. If you are shopping locally, it's helpful to carry a magnet with you to test for magenetism. Just don't carry it next to your credit cards, or other things that are affected :D.

Step 3. Glue on the Chalk Paper.

Step 4. Attach a hanger. I made one out of two pieces of grungeboard with holes for the string and attached them to the back of the foamboard with Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue.

Magnetic Photo Corners

Step 1.  Cut cardstock into 2 1.5" x 1.5" squares.

Step 2. Fold in half as shown.

Step. 3. Fold in half in the other direction.

Step 4. Open and apply glue in 1 quarter of the square and fold in half. If you glue more than a quarter, there won't be a pocket to stick the sign in.

Step 5. Apply glue to 1 quarter of the square. Attach magnet to back.

Supplies:
American Crafts Chalk Paper
ProMag Magnets
Galvanized Tin Step Flashing (used for roofing, but don't get the aluminium that is also used).
Foam Board Black Acrylic Paint



WOYWW 114

Papertrey Ink stamps to use on the left, box of Cricut cuts under the Papertrey Ink cardstock sample book on the right. Cards to finish behind.

It's great for picking out cardstock color combinations. One of my favorites: vintage cream, pure poppy and Hawaiian shores.

It has a handy dandy chart in the front.

So I added the various whites that I have (stamper's select, white shimmer, vintage cream, rustic white), and re-arranged my cardstock in the order of the chart. Thinking this will make it easier to find what I'm looking for :D.

It's been a fairly quiet week considering that DD is back after 5 weeks away at camp lol. And somehow I managed to get a gallon of water in the floor of the passenger side back seat (American seating that is). Thankfully I bought a small automobile wet/dry vac a couple of years ago. Still haven't figured out how the water got in, if it was an open window I think the seat and door would have been wet too. Apparently there is no gel pack I can just put on the floor and vacuum up later. I might have to borrow a hairdryer to dry out the residual.

If you are wondering what's all this WOYWW, head over to the Stamping Ground and have a gander. Better yet, take a picture of your workdesk and join in the fun :D.