Scrap butterfly

Not got much to show at the moment as I have been too busy with the pay the bills job.....BUT my weekly meet up with the crafting coven does mean I get a couple of hours to craft (and eat cake and drink tea!!).

Its a little like a really short crop because you take the stash you want to use with you.  

To make life easier I keep a craft organiser grab bag which has mini distress pads, some glitter glue, a few stamps, some washi tape and a couple of small boxes with brads etc in (you get the idea) and a clear pouch full of papers, off cuts, scraps and bits of ribbon, odd die cuts etc and a few blank cards.  

This means that I can usually knock out a card or maybe two and get to use up some of my scraps.

This is the card I made at last weeks session. Luckily I was about to add some stickles to add a little bling...then remembered I would have to somehow drive home with it still wet so decided against it!

The butterflies remind me that spring has just sprung and very soon the sun will start having some warmth in it and the days will be getting longer.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

 Welcome to the weekly share of our desks that is Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  This week I have a bit of a cheek....it was taken Friday and is not my desk but my porch!

The eclipse was due Friday so I went on the BBC Stargazing live website and watched the video of how to craft a projector from your binoculars (as it is not safe to look at the sun direct).

All you needed was cardboard and gaffa tape!  Easy.  It may be slightly telling that the cardboard is from a wine box and my gaffa tape is zebra, but then why shouldn't it be stylish?

 You need to cover one of the eyepieces up

 You then project the image onto a piece of paper which you move to focus the image

and there you have it...a totally safe image of the eclipse!  I even managed to skype my family in New Zealand and show them the live image!

Sorry but no "Man Bites Dog" cards this week as my desk is full of work and no crafting!!

Normal service will return soon (honest)

Kyla

March 365 Journal Challenge

Hello peeps, I realised we are half way through March and I haven't shared my 365 Journal pages for this month!  

I have been following this on Kate Cranes Challenge blog for a few years now and it is great looking back and remembering the various events, big and small that happened.

In case you are wondering the black witches hats are on a Monday and are when I go to my Craft Coven get together-sometimes just a small picture is enough.

I used some gesso in the background as the inks were quite bright and this helped just bring it all together.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

 Wednesday again?!  Can you believe it?  So, after last week and having a lovely tidy desk I finally had an opportunity to spend an evening crafting.

I caught up on an old technique that I haven't played with for ages, using my sizzix and embossing folders as a fake letterpress (my previous post has the background sheets I made).

 On the right of my desk is a wallpaper sample (free) which I thought would make a lovely background.

My "Man Bites Dog" cards are 'Devoted Girl Runs off with Teen'...not sure about that one!

This is the finished card.  The embossing folder and greeting stamps are from Sheena Douglass' I got free with a magazine (the only reason I bought the magazine!).

So, why not join us for a legal snoop at desks across the globe over at Julia's WOYWW blog (link is over on the right).  Go on, take a chance.  It's been running for more than 300 weeks now and they are ever such a friendly bunch.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Fake letterpress

 I finally got to have a play in the craft room at last (now it is nice and clean it seemed a shame not to).

I revisited an old technique I haven't played with for a couple of years but I was reminded of on Pinterest recently.

It is a fake letterpress technique and VERY easy to do.

You simply ink one side of your embossing plate (you can use a brayer but I just keep the ink pad as level as I can and smear it all over) and pass the plate and paper through your embosser and voila - 

 I quite like it in the brown as it looks like a henna tattoo.

This is the reverse side of the card (the uninked side).

 Some of the embossing plates are deeper than others-this one was particularly deep.

Which was so deep it created almost a shadow when I coloured it.

Quick, easy and simple and now I have some backgrounds ready to play with.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW makeover

Happy WOYWW.  Sorry I missed last week but what with hubby's birthday and a new furniture delivery (well, new to us...it was from a charity shop but fitted the bill perfectly and was recycled) meant I was rather busy.

I do hope Julia doesn't mind, but we try to keep the postings short as there are many desks to get around-but this is both photo and text heavy as there is SO much desk/storage space to show this week!  Sorry Julia.

We had a couple of new cabinets.  One single width (no photo) and now filled with CD's and a matching double (photo below) which now holds my material and sewing stash (rather than 4 large plastic ugly boxes and about 5 carrier bags all stuffed into the dining room.

The great thing about doors is that they hide a multitude of sins though I have started to make mini bolts of my fabric (or at least the stash that is big enough).  It was an idea I found on pinterest where you use a piece of cardboard and fold the fabric-simple and meant that I created even more space!!  Top left in my leather (I went on another workshop at the weekend so will be playing with this soon) and bottom is my quilting batting for the quilt I have been putting off making for a year now!!!

  

 It is amazing as the dining room was crammed full but with 2 new pieces of furniture (the double unit replaced an old Ikea kitchen unit we used to have there) we now had lots of space AND room to move the record unit from the spare bedroom (you can see half of it in the picture above-yep, that is just a SMALL selection of hubby's vinyl-but looking at my stash I can hardly comment can I?).

What to do with the now redundant old unit from the dining room?  I know, remove the very small unit from the craft room and replace it with the dining room one!!  Now, in theory this was a great idea-in practise......this meant clearing out one side of my VERY overstuffed and MINI craft room (too small for a single bed when its empty)-not an easy task I can tell you (it's enough to drive a woman and certainly her hubby to drink, I can tell you!).

 So, this is my craft room (with thrifted recycled curtains).  The space on the right is where I used to have a small low unit that had lots of drawers stacked on top (which would be stacked on top of the new unit).

With all the crap off the floor etc now stacked on my so small desk space!

Now look!  I know, most of you may not be able to see the difference-but believe me, it's a HUGE difference.  The glass fronted cabinet from the dining room means that I have about 1 foot extra height in my storage.  My coven secret santa was a notice board with pegs (next to the window) and on here I change the cards that inspire me..currently I have some from Coven members, a WOYWW one, one from a school friend and the lovely Zoe's colouring birthday card.

The red box is my scrap box and I even sorted this out so lots of my scraps are now in little A5 plastic folders from poundland.

I placed my stash in boxes and labelled them and even have a few boxes that are empty! 

You can see how small the room is (but crammed full!) but now it is clean and tidy....place you bets as to how long it stays like this!!!

 

Phew, did you make it to the end?  Well done....as a reward here are this weeks "Man Bites Dog" cards-'Heiress Burns Last Lover'....ooer they are once again a bit sensational!

So, why not join us across the globe (link on the right) and show us what is on your workdesk this Wednesday?   Go on, its a legal snoop and they are a lovely bunch.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Finding the right words

Not blogged for a while as it was hubby's birthday and I was busy planning (and celebrating of course) so I thought I would do a quick update.

I was looking to make some Mothering Sunday cards the other day but instead ended up with a sympathy card!!!  I have no idea how that happened, but those sort of cards are always handy to keep and never easy to make so I suppose it was a win/win in the end.

I have also spent a lot of my free time over the past week sorting out my craft room and stash as we had some new storage delivered so I hope to share that for this weeks WOYWW if you'd care to pop back then.

Hope you have been having a lovely weekend-I went on a leather workshop yesterday and today have been ironing and catching up on missed episodes of the Great British Sewing Bee - rock and roll!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Altered coat

 Even though I am in my forties I love learning to sew (even after being asked to leave sewing lessons from school and being told I could do double metal work instead-which I loved but the cheek!).

I bought this wool coat in a second hand shop and finally used some of my fabric stash up (though not much!).

I cut out some circles and edged them on the sewing machine.

 I then un-stitched the lining (so that the coat wouldn't pucker) and attached the circles around the coat and cuffs, then stitched the lining back up.

It's a one-off and I know that I certainly will not bump into anyone in town wearing one like it!

Also, in the background (only just noticed as I loaded up the photos) is some bunting and a black and red fabric brooch (on the coat lapel) that the lovely Lunch Lady Jan made me-I wear the brooch on that coat everyday, its just enough sparkle for a dull winter day.

Happy crafting

Kyla