WOYWW #x – Workspace then and Now.

It’s been a while since I participated in WOYWW, and I am not doing so now as this post has been ready for a while but somehow I don’t manage to post it on Wednesdays. Didn’t participated for the most common reason: major lack of time to be online. I knew I wouldn’t have the time to visit people, so I didn’t participate. I still don’t have much time, but I’d like to show the changes made to my workspace.

Before

An open cupboard, (actually an IKEA PAX cupboard, 58 cm deep, 100cm wide, 236 cm high) with a curtain (from the childrens room from the previous appartment) in front of it. Lots of storage space, but not it didn’t turn out very convenient as I had to keep moving stuff to get to the stuff in the back.

This is how much of my stuff is stuffed away.

Turning around, you can see the table, and 3 chests of drawers. Or actually, you can only see one. Two are stacked, and the other one is next to them, below the shoebox decorated with white-rosed paper.

Here you can see the two stacked ones.

Wednesday 00:40

Now

(Or rather, end of february 2015). I got another pax, the less deep one (35 cm, still 100cm wide and 238 cm tall) and added doors. Our current bedroom is differently shaped and a bit smaller then the previous one (moved april 2014), so we got sliding doors instead of these hinged doors. At first, I didn’t think they’d fit well in our living room. But now I think they do, it looks way better then the curtain, it looks less cluttered as the floor and cupboardoors match quite well. Also, as you can see, the tower of drawers is now next tot the cupboard.

Which makes it possible for the tabl e to be extended more, and which makes it look more calm in that corner. (just hink away the mess on the table).

 

Then onto some (I think clever) storage system. You know how supermarkets sometimes have special offers where you can save stuff? This sheet of metal is from Jan Linders, you could save grocery magnets so the kids could make a grocery list with images. The backside is covered with chalkboard paint.

With double sided tape I stuck it to the door and added some of the sizzix movers and shapers dies to it. This way I can SEE them, and therefore hopefully use them more. I added some tape at the height of the shelve, as I shouldn’t put dies there – they’d hit the shelve if I do. I did add a little helper thingy there, that small square isn’t a die but is meant to be able to lift paper out of sizzix bigz frame dies more easily.

Note that purple thingy on the cupboard door? It´s a Grippy. It´s meant to keep your cellphone from sliding all over the dashboard of your car. It´s made of the same material as the old slimy hands which you could throw against a wall and then it would walk-climb down. We liked it so we bought a few to give a way as gifts to other nerdy friends, but we forgot about them. Later when I found them I thought I might be able to use them. Now I use them indeed… Put it on an acryllic block, put your unmounted stamp or mounted-but-not-sticking-stamp on it, and voila! Same effect as the tack’npeel, only now both sides are tacky instead just one, and you don’t attach it permanently to your acryllic block. Reason I used this is that I didn’t have a large enough size of tack ‘n peel on an acryllic block, and you attach the tnp permanet to a block. I don’t have multiple same sized big acryllic blocks so I didn’t want it permanently attached.

 

On the other side I stuck two A4 magnetic sheets. I didn’t have any more at the time, meanwhile I have added two more to have a bit more space for my dies. Many dies are on there, some that aren’t are nesting dies, I still prefer those in the metal tin (that used to hold pencils) which I lined with magnetic sheets as well. Now it is very easy to see my dies and pick one. I haven’t noticed I used them more often by the way. I love dies, I keep buying some occasionally, but I don’t use them a lot anymore, I often find it hard to combine them with stamping.

The bottom shelve is still unsorted, I just stuffed all (or most) remaining paper there. On the next shelve are my binders with stamps, stencils, inventory list, spare mounting foam and a few stuff-tainers.

The third shelve: on the left part in the back are A4 papers/cardboard in my self made magazine files (made from cat litter boxes). I hardly use those papers. In front some tins with brushes and the plain tape. In the tin with the apple on it (stroopblikje) are brushes which my kids are allowed to use. Next to it, HEMA correspondentie kaartjes which I bought recently, I quite like them. In the brown box is A5 cardboard in several colours or designs. Don’t use those often either. Sometimes as backing card. In the blue plastic bin are the larger sizzix dies, many of them second hand. On top of it, you can see the pencil tin which hold some nesting dies, and on top of that a lightly decorated shoebox with unfinished cards inside. I have a new stack to add to it.

4th shelve, more little and big shoeboxes. Above it a shelve with A3 sixed paper and other bits that don’t fit on another shelve.

6th shelve, (6th if the bottom is a shelve too, that is): lots of small shoeboxes. My sponges are on there, distress markers, a very nice wooden alfphabet stamp set.

Shelve above that contains stuff. (Mostly used item from this shelve: the glues that are on the front. The other boxes are much less used).

Top shelve: acryllic paint, finger paint, childrens paint and finished cards. Stored out of reach of enthousiastic childrens hands. Ofcourse, the paint should be in the plastic bin with the yellow lid behind it, but you know how it goes… you grab some paint out, put the bin back, use the paint, clean up everything and quickly store the paint somewhere near the place it should be stored.

Nowadays I don’t buy those large containers of paint anymore – it’s good for large projects but I hardly have those. Now it’s just the ranger paint dabber/do crafts/alleene’s/hema small sized acryllic paint containers. Those fit into the drawers on the right.

The pictures were taken a few weeks ago, currently working on a different project.

Oh I made one more change to the workarea, this was before Easter to be able to hang up some cholates. Let me make a picture, brb!

….

…… sorry it took a bit longer, ofcourse cleaned the table empty (still was stuff on it) and removed the chair with all the clothes.

http://www.ikea.com/nl/nl/catalog/products/50255895/ Bundis schoenenrek / shoerack.

Bundis upcycled – I’ve always wanted a decorating thing ( those circles which hang above a table and you can decorate?) but not enought to actually buy one. We didn’t have space to hang it anyway. But I wanted to hang up chocolate easter eggs! So I made this, and hung the eggs beneath and had put young plants/seedlings on top.

The eggs are ofcourse eaten, the seedlings gone outside, and the space reclamed for my glass jars.

Beneath it now are 3 hearts – the smalles one is from Freya, she got it from one of my sisters on her birthday. The other two was a gift for me, they were plain white and for me to decorate. I’ve decorated one with alcohol ink, then put a varnish on top and then stmaped the drops. Problem is I stamped with Versafine rather then Stazon, and oily ink on varnish is not a good idea, doesn’t really adhere/dry. Still have to do the edges and the other side. Oh, and the other heart as well ;)/

 

The kids aren’t allowed on the table and know glass can break. They’ve left it alone so far, only time when they wanted to get something is the hearts or the mini chest. The hearts can be seen in the bottom of the closet – still brown/not painted. Here, my kids have painted them. For Denise Silva from https://sdenisesilva.wordpress.com/ I’ve put the tissue boxes on the table.  Oh and I altered/repaird my Ikea lampshade a bit more. See here for the first part – now I have repaired the two holes on the edges. Didn’t have that decoupage paper anymore so made my own using plain white tissuepaper and some distress colours.

See the texture made with glossy accents

 

WOYWW #275 – Collage

Before I show you what my desk (dining table) looks like now, I show you what it looked like at several times in the past few weeks on other days then Tuesdays. (If it was on a Tuesday I would probably have linked it up to WOYWW!)

Several of the projects you’ll see there aren’t posted yet, see the previous post with the collage/sneak peak of unblogged projects. (That is even still excluding unfinished projects if I’m right.)

And now, the desk/dining table of now:

Items visible on the image, in no particular order: Folded laundry, a teddybear my daughter got for free on a garage/carbootsale market last week (rommelmarkt), I got that tin basket there as well which I didn’t intend to use as I use it now , but this use suits me just fine ofcourse. In a post of another WOYWW-er she mentioned a place for her acryllic blocks. Great idea! And great ideas are there not to be reinvented but to be used, right?! So I try to store my acryllic blocks there. No more searching for that tiny block.

Also on the board, a breasfeeding schedule – I feed on request but sometimes it’s nice to have some guidance as to how much should he get, also because next monday he’ll be going to the daycare for the first time and I need to bring along enough milk.

As you can see, the pile of boxes and things has grown again. And the amount of started projects too. See the (backgrounds for) cards on the board? No? Well, let me zoom in on it:

Thanks to Anja from Artefaktotum I ran off from the computer (and chores) this afternoon to make these. Fun! Between making these backgrounds (1 or maybe 2 at a time) I experimented with mod melts. (More on that later. Someday, I’m sure).

Oh what a horrible picture I see now… you can’t really see the great effect and nice colours. Zoom!

Ah there, see? Better. Two cards with just acryllic paint and some glimmer mist. The texture is only paint. I intend to use the brown one for the Chocolate Baroque colour challenge. No idea how yet, something with gears? It’s a bit standard to do with brown background maybe. (Actually it’s antique gold and antique bronze).

Then, later this evening when I got back to the computer, I got distraced by building a blinkie for Ryn from Designs by Ryn because she liked that I place a “badge” on the sidebar. It wasn’t really a badge, the text was too small and off center, and maybe if I add some more information about her products, and hmm add some bits of this and that and why doesn’t it work like I know it should? Let’s search online, and try this, and tadaa! Now surprise her, darn, I tossed the mail away accidentally after working on it for 30 minutes. There, rewritten now add the image.. wait… edit it a bit… then done. Ooh is that the time?! Hey, it’s Wednesday, time for a WOYWW post!

And that’s how I end up with chronical lack of sleep and half finished chores…

So off with me, to bed! No need to get ill again (was ill on Saturday, some stomach flu and perhaps a chronic lack of sleep isn’t healthy either..)

Happy WOYWW all!

Argh I forgot – Thank you Julia for hosting this fun event! Anyone with a crafting space (or workspace) can join!

Debbie, #25 of  WOYWW #275

WOYWW #272

Time for another WOYWW, hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. Nothing to win, nothing to make.. then what is it about? Hop over to her blog and find out.

It’s been a busy crafting week, with a few projects finished I really like. I discovered a blogpost about lots of things (239+) you can do with your embossing machine. (I think I actually rediscovered it, it kind of looked familiar). I was looking for a faux metal technique and came across this technique with crayons, and had to try it out. Love it! Some cards I made with this technique are visible in this post as well. In the comments from last week, I promised I’d show another cupboard with my crafting stuff. Let’s start with that. (Oh no wait, check out the GAP quote in my widget bar first, I found it again and still love it!)

This is how much of my stuff is stuffed away. Most frequent used things are on the front half of 3 shelves, the rest of the space is for less frequent used things or non-craft related items. The brown binders and the green in between contain my stamps.

Usually before starting to craft I get most of the frequently used things out of the cupboard and put it around me on the table, like this:

Having taken many things out, put the card I want to work on ready, pull the box with baby close (wheels beneath a box are very usefull!) and get crafting! Oh and those curtains are still from the previous owners of the house, we haven’t had the time/energy/budget to have new ones made. On the front of the house we could put up our old cream coloured ones, but they were not wide enough for the back windows here.

What does that turn into during crafting?

This:

Finally made a card with the quote from VivaLasVegaStamps: Stick a gear on it and call it steampunk. (Because that’s what we’re all inclined to do, right? Always put a gear on it when it’s something steampunky… that would be a fun challenge, something steampunk without gears!) (And next one: without rust. I’d hate that challenge, as I’m in love with Rusty Hinge.) *

Other stamps are from De-Stempelwinkel and the embossing folder is the Oceanthingy Spellbinders M-bossability. Steampunk and Art Deco/Art Nouveau go well together, I still have tons of ideas for it!

*scribbles on wishlist: Rusty Hinge Distress Stain, can’t believe I don’t have that yet!

And this is 22 minutes later:

Not really sharp picture, sorry.

I’m assembling the alluminum foil card with flowers from Chocolate Baroque. I love how they turned out, with glitter, glossy accent, glimmer mist spray copper (or didn’t I use it?) and stickles. There are little Mod Podge Mod molds (or what is their name) shapes to see if they fit on the card.The two plastic boxes (one is an icecream box from Hertog) contain diecuts or fussy cut stamp images which I eventually didn’t use on projects or which I made extra. The mod molds have a plastic box of their own. (They are made with Martha Stewart clay, a tiny bit of ink, chalks and perfect pearls powder).

It looks like this from a distance:  (yup my drawer with distress inks on the table – it moves around kind of randomly but is always near me but hardly in the cabinet when I’m crafting.

I also tidied the top of the drawers, as I noticed after taking the previous picture it was a bit cluttered with random things. Now it displays the letter F which I still want to embellish further before I give it to my daughter of almost 2 years. (Give in this case means: show her, let her see it and feel it, then put it somewhere high where she can’t reach it.) Also on display now are the big popsicle sticks we decorated the other day. (I made a fast stand for it – wishing I had wooden stampblocks to put them in – out of small empty sturdy box.)

My son and I made the birdhouse. Or rather, I traced and cut the template, he stamped 3 times and then put the acryllic block with ink on it, then I stamped some more and glued it together.

During all this, my little one slept – is still sleeping. Sometimes I get out all crafting supplies but have to put them away unused, other times I craft with him on my lap on a pillow or in a .. what do you call it… a looooong piece of fabric, wrapped around me and the baby in it. This time he was fine in the box. (Hmm I think it’s not called “box” in english, that is the exact word we use for it in Dutch. So don’t call child care services yet that I’m putting my baby in a box in the english meaning of the word haha!)

Hope you’re having a crafty week too!

Oh and darn Julia for being so enthusiastic about the Quietfire stamps – my order is on it’s way now! (For other Dutch readers: my experience with shipments from Canada which fit through the mailbox is quite good, it allways arrived within a week. Watch out with “inklaringskosten” though – if the value of the goods is written on the package and is above €22,- (about 30 CAD) then you have to pay those service costs, which are between €13,- to €18,- which is quite a lot!

Anyone else giving the Quietfire team a boost in their sales?

 

WOYWW #271

Time for another WOYWW, hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. Curious what it is about? Hop on over to her site!

This is what my desk looked like after 1 1/2 hour of crafting (I did clean up a bit in between as I didn’t have space). This time I didn’t keep my crafting area clear, usually I put down a bigger cutting mat and try to keep that clear of stuff so I have room to do the actual crafting. Not this time, I just wanted to make some simple things, envelopes, and decorate them with a stencil and some distress ink – nothing fancy – so figured I didn’t need that much room.

wednesday 00:39

What’s on there: A card of aluminium foil and a “copper” frame, heattool, distress markers, empty teacup, distress ink, embossing powder, can of paintbrushes, box of glue related things and things that aren’t glue related (you know, other things like a small package of brads, and just… little things in packages that I might use if they are on my table, but definetely won’t use if I put them out of sight). (Putting them on my table isn’t helping).

What’s more on there: a tin can with my childresn crayons which I confiscated. They rarely used them (in the Netherlands, children colour more with pencils (potloden) or felttip markers (viltstiften). On top of it is a spray can of sealer which I have never used yet, then you can see a binder in the back with some of my stamps, and on the right a drawer with my distress inks in it – I always just get the drawer out and put it on the table / chair.

Oh I forgot my wellbeloved spraythingy – unfortunately it got loose again so I’ll have to fix it, but need to fix it so it won’t leak this time. (The previous fix was putting the spray top on the glass jar because the original orange spray jar broke). [Oooh what a coïncidence, in that post is also the quote I have referred to a few times lately!]Oh, and those heart stickers on there: They have kind of become my pincushion. (What?) yup, pincushion for just 1 needle, and that one needle/pin (can you see it’s yellow head?) is to open up the tip of the glossy accents bottle, which is seen next to the drawer.

Let’s take a look to the left and a step back.

Wednesday 00:40

My frame for hanging nearly finsihed cards.

My ikea drawers with many of my supplies, two boxes which I need at hand. (It started out as one half box, then it got one full box quite soon, and now in the past month somehowe another box moved in there.) You can see into the second drawer, here are my other (big) inkpads, the little ones are in another drawer with the chalks.

Do you see the dowels sticking out of the drawer? That is my solution to nosy babies. You can imagine that having craft supplies in the same room where little kids play isn’t very safe. (health, furniture, money etc..) I wanted a simple solution so my son (at that time I only had him) couldn’t open the drawers. I’ve had the drawers for quite a long time and I had always planned to paint/decorate the sides but never done it yet. Because of this I didn’t feel bad about drilling holes in them.

Wednesday 00:41

My embossing powders (I still want some bright yellow!) and my “lock” solutions. A hole in the side of the board and drawer, a dowel in it and it’s closed. Don’t stuff your drawers so the dowel can’t be moved in though! How to open? Take a pencil/pen/thingy, and push the dowel in.

How do you prevent your kids from figuring this out too soon? Don’t open the drawers when they can see you do it. My son (aged 3) hasn’t noticed the dowels yet, so this fix still works.

Now, let’s put the camera away amd tidy things up a bit.

Wednesday 00:52

And then it really was time for bed!

Hello autumn, winter and spring babies! and a WWOYWW

What was on your workdesk wednesday in November 2013.

Well, there was babies, and mess. Let’s take a look…

Today I want to show you three baby cards, two which I made in November last year (november 2013), and one I made after 3rd of July, because I wanted to send them a birth announcement card but hadn’t yet congratulated them on their baby which was born in March! Ok, they didn’t have my adress so I got the announcement card from my mom, but better late wishes than none, right?

I am most pleased with the first two cards, although they took quite some time to make.

I’ll start with the one that has stamps from Designs by Ryn on them:

I stamped the fairies on top and repeat stamped the leaves and acorns, masking them off with self adhesive window foil. After that, I coloured them in, I think with my Caran D’ache neocolours.

Used stamps:

Dancing Faeries CM-M6 from Designs by Ryn

Acorn Faerie set  CM-M12 from Designs by Ryn (used only the leaf and acorn)

The letters were made with a Joy Craft alphabet die

The baby stamp is from Stampinback: Sleeping baby.

 

 

Next is a card I made sort of simlutaneously. This is the birthannouncement card:

The stork is the logo of the city The Hague, where they live. The stork is also said to deliver the babies. The colours of the city are green and yellow, so they kept in style. I like how they made it a unique and personal card.

This is what I made, I didn’t make a winter scene although they have snow on the card, I made an autumn card as the baby was born in October.

I made this card with the same sleeping baby stamp, and stamps from Nonsequiturstamps – Plate 101 Trees, NSPL101.

A little bit of the process and What’s On Your Workdesk-ness:

On the left the self adhesive window foil, with the cut out templates. The stamps are there too. Memento and STazon inks, a remote for the tv, acryllic block, and in that metal tin for pencils weren’t pencils. I don’t know what was in there, but what is in there now is different from what was in there then, and back then it weren’t pencils allready. (Now it stores quite a few of my cutting dies).

Oh right, Christmas was nearing so I made a few Christmas ornaments for cards allready. And see the card on the top right? That one I made for my father, I’ll post about it later.

A furhter look down the table. A binder with stamps in it, the couch behind the table (and isn’t that a sleeping toddler on it?) – as we were preparing to move I had gotten the brilliant idea of emptying one of the living rooms so we could store the boxes in there, which meant moving the dining table to the other living room. It was a bit cramped in there though.

 

Oh look, here’s a better view. And no, that is not my applejuice in the bottle, nor is it my ambulance. In the back 2 binders with stamps and 1 with dies (that storage solution didn’t work, I didn’t put the cutting dies back properly and they also fell out too easily.)

On to the last card with the sleeping baby.

Used on the background and the center piece: Chocolate Baroque Floral Edges Unmounted Rubber stamp sheet – A5 Part Number UA5SP0416

The little butterfly is probably from one of the faeries or dragon sets from Chocolate Baroque

The text (barely readible on the photo) is from Sheena Douglas – Crafter’s Companion – A little bit magical – Knowledge

The fairy is from.. can’t remember. She’s got glossy accents on her wings.

Health, Wealth, Happiness, Love, Always! From Sheena Douglas – A little bit magical – Knowledge set. The embossing didn’t quite work out as intended unfortunately. But no time to make a new card or cover it up, it’s just the magic wish flowing from the fairy’s hand.

I tried to use the same colours as on the birth announcement card, and (as seen in previous picture) added a butterfly at the end of the swirl to match it even more.

 

I really liked the first two cards, and might make more of these. Use the colours of the birth announcement card, or the season in which the baby is born or other elements that I can reuse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WOYWW # 269: Time is the essence of life

It’s been a while since I participated in a WOYWW, but it’s about time I did again, as I made some pictures while making the card for the first Chocolate Baroque colour challange (july/august). See the end of the post for the picture of the card, and another desk- picture. (For an older desk picture, of how it was back on November, see my next post. (Yup, NEXT post. I’m not working in an entirely chronological order when it comes to blogging – I can time travel, hurray!).

Hmm now what’s on there: My heat tool, a cloth, my much beloved broken and fixed water sprayer, distress inks, stazon inks, Chocolate Baroque stamp, glue, embossing ink, acryllic blocks, stamppositioner, embossing powder, an empty teacup (hurray! I emptied it!), cuttlebug, binder with stampimages, scissors, my phone, waterbrush, another cloth – I love that one too. It’s an old rag, almost falling apart, but it’s just the right size, right absorbency, and been with me all my “crafting” life. The yellow cloth is not as good, that one is for cleaning the desk or acryllic blocks. The smudgy rag is for lifting off water / ink from cards.

After having received a new stencil (clockwork from Tim Holtz) I ofcourse had to play with it, even while my kids were around. Ofcourse that resulted in them playing with it and me trying to keep things in one piece. I took some light coloured distress inks (so the inkstains on their hands would not be very intense), and having the Chocolate Baroque colour challenge in mind I took out my distress inks Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters.

I liked the colour and stencil combination a lot, so I managed to grab a piece of cardstock for myself and started on the next project.

The clockwheels were great, but I needed to add some (CB) stamps too, and I was thinking Steampunk style. I browsed through my stamps, stopped at the Steampunk Christmas set and chose the flowers from that set.

Then trying out some different stamping inks (Stazon red, DI festive berries or fired brick, only embossing ink and embossing with red or Queens gold embossing powder). Wiping away the ink a bit on the holly leaves of the stamp, inking only the middle or outer leaves and restamping with the stampruler and embossing it, then colouring it with DI and water. Used colours: Fired Brick, Mustard Seed and Scattered Straw.

I had a quick detour while playing with the stamps from Design by Ryn and alcohol ink, using the cover from the EZ-mount foam as base. Too bad one side was too smooth, luckily the stamps were sort of symmetric so they still fit on the piece of backing.

Then choosing the flowers which would go on the card, and the layout. I had intended for a small flower on a big flower at first, but liked 2 big flowers twisted in eachother too. Only that would cover too much of the stenciling. A small flower on a big flower would cover the lovely gold embossed gear too much. So only 1 flower per clockwork.

Next, some text. I wanted it to be time related. My neece, who is still on the IC in the hospital, will need lots of time to recover (if she recovers). We believe in her, and that it only takes time for her to “grow” again.  It made me think of this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7eFYtkOiXo   Nitin Sawhney – Street Guru.

In it, there is a line: Time is the essence of life.

It just fit my mood, so there we are, the sentiment. Stamped in black, and distressed with aged paper and scattered straw.

Last were the butterflies, I wanted to add some more blue to it, so stamped the CB butterfly from the summer fairy set several times. I kind of repeated the process for the flowers: clear embossing, black embossing, silverywhite embossing, no embossing. Coloured them with Distress inks and Caran D’ache Neocolors. Oh and I used glossy accent on some of them.

Then I remembered the small wooden laser cut butterflies I had recently bought at the Xenos. I applied some gesso to it, and coloured them with the Caran D’ache Neocolors and added glossy accent to three of the prettiest.

The outline of the stencil is a bit wobbly/aged, I liked that so I cut out a “frame” equally wobbly. The basecard is straight. I coloured that with brushed corduroy, vintage photo and a little bit of black sooth and a tiny bit of real coffee. (There are more crafters out there that dip their brush in their drinks when in need of just a tiny bit of water and having no water around…right??) I wanted it to be brown to be a bit more clocklike, like an old standing clock (I know that is not the right english word for it, it’s the literal translation of the dutch word, but I think you know what I mean).

It was fun making it, and I am pleased with the result, eventough some more green wouldn’t be too bad. Then again, the stencilling would get lost if more is added. I think the card would be great too with just the stencilling and one flower, that would be a nice card too. I’ll keep that in mind when I’m in need for a quick card. Just the stencilling, a flower, maybe even a butterfly – I still have lots of those two lying around now – and a fitting sentiment and voila, ready! (Then there is matting the card and making the envelop – I hate making those, as I usually discover at the last moment that I don’t have an envelop that fits!)

My dining table in the end, just this afternoon (the other picture was of 2 days ago):

WOYWW 231 – What Workdesk?

WOYWW #231 – What workdesk?

Thank you Julia from Stamping Ground for hosting another week of What’s on your Workdesk Wednesday! First I’ll refresh your memory, here is my crafting area as it was as mentioned in WOYWW#227

And here is how it looks now:

It’s GONE! (A creeper came near and it exploded?).

Don’t worry though, it has only moved. I haven’t crafted much lately, because the table is not next to my crafting stuff anymore, and I am used to that so it is a bit inconvenient that it is now moved and reduced in size. I know, still lots of space, and those are just lame excuses. A better reason for not crafting much is the reason you saw those boxes: cleaning the house of clutter. We’re not moving, but preparing to sell. My motto is that is should look like a hotel, (very clean, and no personal items) and that about 2/3 of our stuff needs to go, so there is lots of empty space. I am also waaay behind on reading blogs, I’ve got about 100 unread posts to go through. It will be browsing images, and thinking I haven’t left a comment in ages on certain blogs I follow. And then moving on to the next post. (I’m sure many of you recognize this, commenting just takes up quite some time, especially when you’re like me and can’t keep a comment short!) (I don’t mind short comments though!)

Sorting out stuff takes up lots of time and energy!

I did do a bit of crafting,I printed a slide my dad made 30ish years ago on fabric (a bit smaller then A4, it was glued on an A4 sheet for printing with my epson stylus SX235 printer) – I still need to finish the procedure (ironing, drying, washing in water and vinegar to set the ink). (Not all ink is suitable for this, some will fade when washing).

I’m not sure what I am going to do with the fabric, I think I’ll use it to decorate an old ugly binder/folder thingy (I don’t know the english word). My sewing skills are horrible, and I’ve thrown out my old and only half working sewing machine, so sewing is kind of not an option.

Furthermore, I’m making a series of minecraft Christmas cards. Minecraft is a popular game (which I do play/have played also) – you can dig, build, explore. And there are the creepers. They creep up on you and go Ssssssssssssss……. BOOOOOM! (yes, they explode, leaving behind a crater and you being dead if you’re unlucky). The Sssssss sound is reason for many a panicked reaction, frantically trying to get away from the sound, to safety. The creeper is very well known, even amongst non gamers. I thought it would be fun to make some geeky Christmas cards (and sell those if possible), of creepers with Christmas embellisments.

I made the creepers by printing an image several times and cutting out squares (it’s built up out of squares), and then using those as masks. I wanted to make it directly on the card, but I messed up when I used the unfolded cardstock: I stamped on the wrong side. So I decided those will be cut out and matted onto another card. That is why the other side of the cardstock is also stamped, it will be cut out.

Punchlines to add could be: End the year with a bang / enjoy the fireworks. Got any more suggestions? (I already discarded: Don’t eat until you explode, have a creepy Christmas, Have an explosive holiday)

I’d love to hear your suggestions as to Christmassy punchlines for the creeper card!

Thank you for visiting 🙂

WOYWW # 227, my showcase cupboard and a happy boy

I’ve been seeing various people join in on WOYWW (What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday) from Stamping Ground, and I’ve had the idea of joining for some time now, but I was too late each time. It’s 23:35 now, and I was in a rush as I thought it was Wednesday allready. Guess what, it’s still Tuesday! So I’m on time. Technically, it’s a picture taken at Tuesday, but I have to clean my workdesk each day (as it is our dining table), and tomorrow I won’t have time to craft (so no interesting picture there). Also, I don’t think I’ve cleaned it up before midnight – still some minor things to finish, and then clean, so actually it IS a Wednesday situation. Well then, here’s the picture:

Yup, that is my table, on it is a card I am working on, before applying the mod podge. You can see diecuts lying around, those are supposed to be going on the card. My box of cuttlebug folders and a few sizzix dies,, the rest is either quite clear what it is or not visible enough. Let me try a different angle:

My crafting cupboard. Or rather, one of my crafting cupboards. I’ve made an extra shelve last week (in my previous posts I had mentioned cleaning up), it’s the one shelve in the different colour. The brown oranizers contain my stamps, and there’s lots of paper. Behind the blue bin with folders is a decoupaged box with scraps, on top of that is my box of rubber unmounted stamps which I won’t put on ez-mount because they are too small or because the foam doesn’t stick anymore, I use an acryllic block with a sticky thingy on it. (I forgot the name. Tacky stuff?)

My showcase place

Another important place is the place I take my pictures. Or used to. It’s across from the table:

Actually it’s different now, as it has two copper lamps and a copper phone on it. Also the 3 chests of drawers are gone, and the stuff on top of the cupboard which is seen in the mirror is gone. The big cupboard with drawers also contains mostly crafting stuff. It is a bit of a showcase place though. I love the mirror, love the lavalamp, like the dried flowers (Don’t tell anyone I do, I only like THESE dried flowers). And I love bananas.

I still love the lava lamp, it’s fun to watch.

My “pressing station” and a frame with postcards from French Kissed Postcards, which are in split in new frames now (see previous post Copper Kisses).

The pressing station exists of a spare glass plate (for inside a cupboard) with the cardboard from the packaging (I glued a wallpaper sample on it so it looks pretty) and a salt crystal lamp without the lightbulbfitting and wire. (I still need to replace the lightbulb, it’s broken, and therefore the fitting is not in it). Also seen is my card-stand thingy. I found that the light is better if the card is slightly tilted, but ofcourse it won’t stand on it’s own so I made this simple ugly thing. Good thing it’s not visible on pictures. Oh, and the purpose of my pressing station is to reflatten cards or papers. Just put it beneath the glass plate, put the heavy salt lamp back on top and leave for a day or so. Papers come out almost completely flat.

Ofcourse, with all the moving of stuff I’ve done, the pressing station has moved to. Or actually, has been “dismantled”- I still have to find a new spot for it.

This is what is on top of the cupboard now:

One polished and one unpolished ship lantern and a copper telephone.

The copper telephone is complete, but I took some parts off to clean it better. It still has to be cleaned more, but it’s ok for now. I love the ship lanterns, although I doubt if they really were used on a ship – I think these were made and meant for in a house. Maybe one day we’ll reinstall the wire and hang them, but for now, I like them on that cupboard.

Happy birthday boy

One more thing I’d like to mention: In my previous post preparations (and a birthdaycard for a 5 year old) I showed the card I made for that boy. We also gave him a toy bus, and at the last moment I decided to add some coins to the card. I don’t like to give money to a child, but I know children love getting money, or coins. Not paper money, but coins they can count. The boy who these gifts were for is lightly autistic, and has a strong opinion about toys he does or doesn’t like. We were told he liked public transport things, hence the bus and the train-themed card.

The toy was very well received, he and his younger brother play in turn with it, they both love it. He was delighted with the coins, counting them several times a day. And the card? He loves it! He even insisted on taking it to school to show his teacher the next day, and later that night was in tears because he couldn’t find the card when he went to bed, and he wanted to take it to bed with him. He had been walking around with it 2 minutes prior to that, so it wasn’t far gone – it was actually lying on a cupboard near his bed.

This moves me. How a child can be happy with simple things like that! I’m so glad I decided to also make  card for him. Usually, when we go to a kids birthday, we only bring a toy, it is not a custom in this part of the Netherlands to also bring a card. You mail a card, bring a gift.

So, it’s half past twelve now (00:30), and the table hasn’t changed much. So here it goes, my first WOYWW.

(Oh, the post isn’t up yet on the blog – I’ll add my entry in the morning!)

And here is how the dining table / crafting area looks now: