WOYWW

 Welcome to hump day..or as it is known in the crafting world "What's on your Workdesk Wednesday" hosted by the lovely Julia (WOYWW link is over on the right to see what it is all about). So time to bare all.......

This photo was actually taken on Sunday when for some crazy reason I decided it was time to sort my craft room out!  Now, after crafting for 37 years I have amassed a lot of crap (as well as some sentimental pieces and some rather nice stash).  Its all good stuff, and cost a wad of cash at the time no doubt...but my crafting styles and techniques change so time for a clear up.

I decided to tackle it bit by bit and only worried about the unit on the right and all the stuff in boxes on the floor or in the bottom half of the bookcase.  This means it is mainly mountboard (who knew one person could have SO much mountboard!), Christmas stash and jewellery making supplies.

 Now the after shot below may not look much different but I have 3 large bags of stash to give away and also a half empty unit!!!  Result.

When the madness takes over again I will tackle stamps next (I don't think there will be many to be relieved of as I have stamped since I was into CB radio and my dad into Radio Ham in the early 70's and you used to get stamps made with your call sign-so I use them all lots), there may be hardly any gotten rid of but I am sure there must be a better way to store them.  They are currently in blank clear VHS boxes with the "theme" on the front and then in drawers with similar 'themes'...Pinterest will no doubt bring up may ideas.  Then next to sort out will be paper-not looking forward to that as its precious!!

 So tidy desk means I don't want to mess it up yet so it still looks like this now!!!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Angry Exec Drops Lawyer'.....seriously some nice headlines one week would be nice!!!

Hope you are all having a good week and happy crafting

Kyla

 

Repetitive colouring to ease the woes

Hello peeps.

The 'pay the bills' job has been taking over my free time at the moment so I have had very little time to craft.  On those occasions when I only have 15 minutes I try to grab my coloured pencils and spend a few minutes colouring.

Certainly in the UK the colouring craze has really taken off over the past couple of years.  

About 4 years ago I started colouring again, mainly through zentangles and journalling but the phenomena of adult colouring means there are many more books to choose from.

My favourite is a Sci-Fi graphic novel colouring book but at the moment I am quite enjoying the repetitive nature of this foliage book.

My pencils are just the cheap ones I have had since I was a kid (literally the ones I had as a pre-teen!) but they do the job.  I have been looking into the pros and cons of a couple of different types (polychromos and coloursoft are the two that keep appealing to me) and may treat myself for my birthday.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

Welcome to another What's on your workdesk Wednesday.

This week is not my desk but my kitchen.  I am trying to use up my stash so I decided to tackle my fabric and dye some of the cream fabric I have a large amount of.

On the left is a tea bath and on the right is a tumeric bath.

 I left the fabric to soak for about 15 minutes before rinsing it out.

The fabric on the bottom is the undyed, the middle is tea and top is tumeric.  I was surprised at to how bright is dyed the fabric!

I have a rough idea what to use the fabric for but I need to develop it a bit more.

No 'Man Bites Dog' cards this week as I totally forgot as this was late at night and not in the craft room!

So, dare you share and bare your desk this week?  Go on, we are a friendly bunch and there is always some great stash on show.

Happy crafting

Kyla

The C bomb!

I thought I would make a few cards, Christmas cards!!!  I know, I dropped the C bomb!

These are 'cheats' cards because they are using old cards and I have either cut out certain parts, added some glitter or glaze and matted and layered them.

Recycling at its best!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath

 Not a crafting update but I thought I would share some photos I took recently on a walk one crisp morning around a local cemetery.

 The gravestones in the early morning light really showed the frost off and they sparkled like they had been dusted in glitter!

 The architecture in this cemetery is truly stunning

 The buildings are made of Bath stone, that instantly recognisable warm honey stone

The views across the city of Bath are truly spectacular, there are many churches in the city so you often see one of them as you gaze across the city

 Here you can see the golden dome of Beckfords Tower at the top of Landsdown.  Built in 1827 this 120 foot tower is open to the public and you can climb the steps to the top (I haven't, but my husband has).  Its golden dome dominates the skyline.

We have some fantastic cemetery's in the West Country (I plan on going to Arnos Vale in Bristol) and they have some great photo opportunities, stone carvings and structures.  It was too cold to take my sketch book so I only took photos.

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

 Another What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  The excuse for us to bare our desks, good, bad or indifferent!

On my desk this week is my carving from the other week (haven't had time to do much crafting so its still sat there).  At the front is a card I have actually had time to make (shock horror!) and on the left are some recent purchases.

The card has an alcohol background and an octopode stamp of the crow and visible image text (I do love their text stamps).

 

 My new purchases were from last weekend.  We went to a local antique/flea market and I bought some old photos (I am a sucker for old 'miserable' photos)

and some old postcards (not written-I like to post vintage cards to friends, much funnier than modern ones)

 

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week....'Nude Judge Nails Blonde'.....well, not much I can comment on that!!!!!

Happy Crafting

Kyla

 

365 Challenge Year 4

I often beat myself up for not sticking to things but one thing I have stuck to is Kate Crane's 365 Journal Challenge.  Every day you jot something down about the day, or even a small drawing to represent the day.  It only takes one minute which I think is why it works.

I have been doing this for four years now!  I know!!! Get me, actually sticking to something.

January's page is coloured with Dylusion sprays (I still love these products, such bright colours and water reactive) and the fir trees are made from a stencil I made by punching trees from some waste card and inking through.

I added some snowflakes, stickles glitter and flicked some white watered down acrylic paint across the pages.  The 'January' is die cut from an old cereal box, coloured and stickled so it screams bling and sparkle! 

The pages are filled in up to date, but I tend to take a photo before I start filling them in...lets be honest the daily humdrum life is of little interest to me let alone you!

If you have made any new years resolutions (mine are the usual, work less, create more, be kind to myself etc) then I hope you have made a good start to 2016.

Happy crafting,

Kyla

Baby quilt

 My brother and sister in law had a baby girl back in the autumn and this gave me the ideal opportunity to have a go at making a small baby quilt for either the cot, car seat, floor...where ever they needed a small soft surface.

I used some bright owl fabric with an organic bamboo batting and a yellow fleece for the backing.

 To keep all the layers together I hand stitched around a few of the owls

It was lovely to be able to give my niece a handmade gift at Christmas.

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

It is Wednesday again so that means crafters across the globe take the lead from the lovely Julia and bare our desks......be them clean, messy or like mine....devoid of any work!

On my desk this week is not much!  My stamped image I made (see my earlier post) is propped at the back and the rest is just bits and bobs that I need to put away.

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Blind Suspect Strikes Priest'!

So, do you dare to bare?  If so then you can find all the details here 

Happy crafting

Kyla

Misfortune stamp carving

 On an earlier post I mentioned that fellow coven member Anna bought me some 'misfortune cookies' and Doug (Shaz silverwolf's hubby) suggested they would make a good stamp so I thought I would give it a go.

First I hand drew an image based on the cookie and transferred the image using carbon paper onto a rubber (the fake £50 note...no I am not made of money but these large flat rubbers are perfect for carving and only £1 each).

 Then I carved the image out of the rubber

 I inked the stamp and made a few first impressions to highlight areas that I needed to tidy up and finish off carving. 

 and there you have it, my new stamp

Thanks to Doug for the idea, now I have a new one off stamp and used up some of my ever expanding stash!!

Happy crafting

kyla