WOYWW 169 at Katemade Designs

 

 

It's been forever since I did a WOYWW post. I feel a bit nervous, it's like being a first date I have to look good, sound intelligent and show off my the bubbly part of my personality and hope that you like me enough to visit again.

The picture shows the latest addition to the work desk - WASHI! I've see the blog posts. I've pinned the cards and scrapbook pages. And I've dreamed of having a bit of this magic tape. I wanted it when it was only from Japan. Now that American craft companies have seen the profit potential the product is more accessible and the price is more reasonable. I picked up 3 rolls at Archiver's this weekend. I purchased 2 that were black and white, figuring I could color them as needed, and the pink striped one you see here. The colors and pattern match my blog, Twitter and Facebook page background and I thought it would be good for packaging of certain items.

The experiments card front was made with the Silhouette. I did a print and cut on the tricycle image from The Graphics Fairy. I flipped over a second cut (not printed) and used it as a mask for misting to give the feeling of coming and going. The flag was also done as a cut and print with the Silhouette because I hate to waste paper and time. The texture was made by running the Mr. Huey's Circle Graph Mask from Studio Calico through the Cuttlebug. I worked so well I may have to do that again and again and…

I also got the misting mask on this weekend's Archiver's trip. I was thrilled to see Studio Calico in a brick and mortar store. I thought they were only available online. I hadn't purchased it before because I like to see things before I buy them the first time. Now that I know the weight, quality, etc. I may have to go spend some money in the Studio Calico online store. Of course I need to find some money first.

The binder clips in the foreground are holding paper as the Mod Podge dries. I was tired of looking at the domino box that holds my adhesives. I'll show the finished project when everything is dry and has been decorated completely.

On the horizon

Friday Freebies - digi stamps, papers or Silhouette cuts

I'll be explaining pixel vs vector graphics in next Tuesday's Tutorial. 

---

Happy Crafting,

---

Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

WOYWW - Quick and dirty

This is a quick post of a dirty desk.

Mess of a desk. Click for a larger image.

Last night I decided to practice a bit more with my Copics and the resulting mess is what I have to share with you today. I was somewhat happy with the chatting girls (Stampin' Up!s retired Time with You set) but the card looked blank so I decided to add the cycling girl from the same set and it was all down hill from there. The basket of blooms covered the feet of girl on the left and my attempt to make a scene was sad at best (notes to self - Don't rush. Plan a bit).

Scene created with SU Time with You stamp set and Copic Markers.
Click for a larger image.

 And now an apology to all the WOYWW ladies. I didn't get to looking at many of your desks last week and it will only get worse. As classes get a bit more intense my participation as a viewer will dwindle more and more. For those unfamiliar with WOYWW stands for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and is a weekly post linked to Julia Dunnit's blog Stamping Ground. There are over 100 desks shared each week that may offer inspiration for projects or organization.

Lastly welcome to my new followers. I know you're interested in Silhouette tutorials and I am working on one that hopefully will be posted within the week.

---

Happy Crafting,

---

Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

WOYWW short and sweet

Crafty ladies around the world are taking pictures of their work desks on Wednesdays and posting links to Julia Dunnit's Stamping Ground. This is a challenge if you have limited space. I can cut off a lot of the image and focus on one bit of the desk, or I can back up and do a back bend over my computer desk to get a wider shot, or I can point the camera straight down while lifting it high above my desk and praying I'm getting something decent. The latter is what I chose for today.

Click on image for a closer look.

Do any other WOYWWers have to do anything unusual to get the shot? Do you stand on a chair, hold your camera in the air, go for the long shot from the hall or another room?  

I'd love to hear your tricks.

Sorry no more time for blogging today because:

• My father is coming to visit for a few days so I need to clean the house and buy groceries.
• I need to prepare for tonight's class.
• I need to produce a newsletter (without much material yet) by tomorrow.
• I need to help my son complete his pinewood derby car cat. He wants it to look like a cheetah.
• I need to pack for Saturday's crop (this time I WILL BE PREPARED). Best news regarding the crop - I found the pictures I've been looking for for months (hidden on a poorly marked disk). Must find a better system for keeping pictures.

---

Happy Crafting,

---

WOYWW from Oh Yes! to What A Mess!

Well another week another mess. Last week a lot of people said, “Oh my!” to the amount of snow around my car and the reorganization of the wall above my desk. This week I’m sure some will be saying the same thing for the amount of mess on the desk – though really this isn’t bad for me.

This week I started my classes for Web Design and Animation at the local college. I don’t know how much work will be involved yet but last night didn’t seem bad. No homework per se but we were encouraged to practice coding stuff so the text of this blog post is being hand coded. The image and some of the links, not so much. Hopefully it will be done properly and will not be rejected when I try to paste this copy into the blogger text editor. Hey it works!

Because I have a longish list of things to get done today (including hopping through the some of the blogs linked to today’s What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday post on Julia Dunnit’s blog) I am only posting the pic and an Eye Spy. So here we go:

Click for a larger image, makes searching easier.

1. New Copic Markers
2. A bag and flyer from Blick, where I get my Copic markers. Big sale on Thursday, which is when I will be returning one of the two E33 markers I bought. Doh!
3. My art journal – tried to take a Jessica Sprauge class online and because it was a daily thing and I was busy about the only thing I got out of it was a cool journal.
4. Failed attempts to sew on card stock and patterned paper.
5. A thank you card for the wife of my son’s cub scout den leader. She sewed all the boy’s costumes for the Blue and Gold Banquet this year. They were Jawas from Star Wars and their costumes ROCKED!
6. Tattered Angels and Mr. Huey bottles coexisting nicely.
7. Tin foil adhered to black card stock with scissors cut out of it. The scissors were on the page I shared a couple of weeks ago, go take a look. We’ll wait.
8. Proof I’ve scrapped at Archivers.
9. My favorite Olfa knife.
10. And finally the book for my HTML class.

Happy Crafting,

---

WOW WOYWW

My first class in web design and animation was supposed to happen tonight but the school has been closed because of the blizzard. So grateful because my car cannot be moved. To see more picture you can go to my Blizzard 2011 set on Flickr.

My car is not going anywhere any time soon. Someone stole my shovel

Now on to the main event. The reorganization of my craft space.

Click to see larger image.

First I thought I should move the bulletin board out from behind the door. How inspired can I be by something I can't even see? I removed a lot of junk and added some organization stuff. The To Due section is for things that have a deadline. The Ideas section is for images and notes that don't make it into my notebook. The row of envelops above Ideas contain cards with timed activities for  when I need a bit of direction/inspiration. Here is a sampling of the cards:

• Journal
• Read for pleasure - sometimes I need to be reminded.
  
• Make a card with Glitter on it - yes I need to be told to do this.
• Make a card with ribbon on it - yes I need to be told to do this too.
• Clean off a work surface - I generally only clean off the space I need when I need it.
• Finish an altered project - I am good and getting things started but this year's one little word is Complete and hopefully this will help me complete things.

Click to see larger image.

Several WOYWW visitors have commented on how organized the space above my desk was and I was happy with the set up to a point. But I got tired of being hit by falling punches and stray wood mount stamps. I decided to rearrange to minimize the damage to me and my supplies caused by, well, gravity.

I have always been jealous of those who organize their punches on Ikea Bygel rails. Well I decided to see if I could do that too. The holes don't match those in the peg board but the pegboard hooks worked ok to attach it – Yea!. I also wanted to move the pencils so they were no longer in shadows, and moved the distress inks so they were within easy reach.

I removed the organizer I was using for ink and sponges from the pegboard because I had trouble reaching everything anyway and put it where the bulletin board was and put shelves there so that nothing everything would be easy to get to.
We'll see how this new set up works out in the coming weeks. So far so good.

Of course I have to show off a project so here's a page I worked on at a crop recently. I have had a lot of bad luck lately but when I stop to think about it each bad turn could have been a lot worse. Each episode turned out to be the best case scenario, financially, so I scrapped them all on this page. The faulty carbon monoxide detector, the knee injury, the plumbing problem, and when I find the key tag from the car repairs I will add that too. I guess I really am blessed.

The particulars

Paper: patterned paper from Stampin' Up!, Solid papers Summer sun and Only Orange. Die cut from Silhouette and Spellbinders. Happy Crafting,

---

 

 

*Edited to add Flickr link.

---

WOYWW I'm back

I can't believe I am still up at this hour (2 AM) but I was writing up a tutorial on how to use the Silhouette to cut your stamped images. I need to proofread the steps before I post. If anyone knows how to record your actions on the screen let me know as I'd rather do this as a video.

I made the card below as part of the "testing the theory" portion of my work on that coming post. Isn't the cut line on that plane beautiful.

The particulars: Paper: Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue, Whisper White, DCWV The Glittered Winter Mat Stack Ink: Stampin' Up! Real Red, Night of Navy Stamps: Papertrey Ink Fly Away Dies: PTI Clouds

If you have a Silhouette machine you may want to click "follow" so you will not have to go hunting for this coming tutorial later this week.

Maybe I'll break the top 100 on WOYWW this week.

---

Happy Crafting,

---

Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

WOYWW - a different day and perspective

Sunday my son took over the camera and snapped pictures of anything and everything. This is what kids do and I thank God and all the people involved in developing digital technology that allows me to delete unwanted images. I don't really need a picture of the seat of my chair or a close up of a pen cap.

Sunday I had a particularly creative session of experimenting with inks, paints, stamps and papers. The remnants are in the picture below. So I get to play Eye Spy with all of you too. Because he is shorter and shot the picture from farther away than I usually do you get to see a lot more of the mess storage .

Click to enlarge, makes Eye Spy easier to play,

Can you find:

1. A proportion wheel (put away, sort of)
   
2. A Spirograph set, circa 1972 (put away)
   
3. A boom box remote control (put away)
   
4. A Fiskar's stamp press (out)
5. A Stamp-a-ma-jig  (put away)
6. A Fiskar's cutter (put away) 
7. Tulip Puff Paint (out)
8. Decorative Duck Brand Tape  (out - hint it is black and white and damask all over)
9. A roll of paper towels (put away, sort of)
10. A calculator that I use more than the proportion wheel (put away)

For bonus points (which, when added to $5 will get you a hot drink at Starbucks):  a donkey sticker, 2 penguins on an ice floe, and a heat gun - all put away, plus a cell phone that only allows me to talk to people (not put away).

Happy Crafting,

---

WOYWW - Wow there is a desk here after all

Quick post for WOYWW. The desk as you can see is actually pretty clean. The envelops all over the desk are this year's version of an advent calendar. Each one contains the date and a verse. I wrote an piece on advent calendars in the newsletter I put together for my church group. My research lead me to an article titled Biblical Advent Calendar: Countdown to Christmas Idea that listed the verses to use for an advent calendar. 

 

The stack of envelops will be placed in a basket on my dining room table with a Bible and we will read the verses together each night before dinner. Because we will be traveling a couple of days this month I created this year's calendar with portability in mind. I wanted something that we could bring with us when we visit relatives. All we need are the envelops for the days we are on the road and a Bible.

 

I liked Ali Edward's idea of putting activities in the calendar so I think I will be incorporating it in my calendar. The backs of the cards may include an activity like bake cookies, make a card for your aunts or take a ride and look at the holiday lights. I'm also considering give my son a gift card in one of the envelops so he can go shopping for his grandparents. The great thing about not sealing the envelops is that I can add things up to the last minute when I know what we have planned. 

I printed the verses on cards I bought from Paper Direct years ago. Amazing what you find when you look through those old boxes. The color theme of the cards is silver and gold and the images are ornaments and stars so I carried that over to the envelops too. I used foam stamps and paint on the ornaments and Versamark and gold embossing powder on the numbers.

 

The desk is not clean because I need the space for this project. Anyone who has seen a WOYWW post from me knows better. No the desk is clean because we were working on the presentation board for my son's science fair project and I didn't want to be crawling around on the floor to do it. 

 

So TA DA! a clean desk but I'll be messing it up before the week is out. I need to finish up the Christmas cards.

Happy Crafting,

---

Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

EYE SPY Gratitude

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I am so excited my family is coming to join us. I am grateful that they are bringing the food, fixing it and helping clean up too. My Dad and sister are AWESOME! My sister even wants to get my tree set up tomorrow after the meal and boy birthday (the family always gives their gifts on Thanksgiving as his birthday is within the week). How wonderful is that!

So I have been thinking about gratitude and counting my blessings this week. 

Faith, family, friends, health, and you dear visitor make my list. 

Because tomorrow is the big holiday and my Dad should be on the road soon (he and my sister drive 5 hours to be with us) I need to cut this short so I can finish the cleaning up after a kid's party this past weekend. They did well and didn't completely trash the joint but I got a bit lazy and spent the days since looking for work, playing with the boy and preparing for his science fair so I need to get to it.

The Eye Spy game went so well last week that I think I will repeat it this week.

Click to enlarge, makes Eye Spy easier!

 Can you find:

1. 16 pence from a kid's culture project
2. a ceramic boxer dog on the mend
3. a reminder to be thankful
4. glitter embossing powder 
5. tweezers
6. a call for deli cheese
7. portable alphabet storage
8. a pictureless Ikea frame
9. a bit of black divine twine
10. and a place card make with a tag

I'll give you the answer to number 10. The Craig above is a place card idea I was playing with could be a napkin ring too. I'm discovering my son likes things plain because when I tried to use patterned paper he protested. The other place card for my mum mom uses recycled materials and the aforementioned glitter embossing powder. I don't really like the look so much but my son LOVES it and thinks his Nana will too so we will keep it.

My family is not into paper crafts and foofy stuff like place cards so it doesn't matter what I make really. They come for the company and food and don't care what the house looks like as long as they are well fed. I love them.

I was so hoping to crack the WOYWW top 100 but that's not happening again today. Someday, maybe.

---

 Happy Crafting,

---

Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

WOYWW Eye Spy game

This is a super busy week for me. We have plans every night this week and so the sharing thing is on hold a bit even though the crafty projects go on. I just don't have the time to write them all up this week. But I love to play WOYWW (and will get you see many of your spaces during the work breaks in the coming days).

Click on photo to see it larger. Makes finding the things below a little easier.

So here it is the mess for this week, I figured I'd set up a game of Eye Spy for you. Can you find:

• Super glue to repair a piece of jewelry
• An experiment in progress for the Mad Scientist birthday party this weekend.
• A beautiful bit of gold paper that I used on a thank you card for last night's dinner party (would be cheating if I showed the card right?)
• My first Copic marker
• The paper and stamps ready to make non-traditional Christmas cards (hint look for pink)
• An imaging sheet with bunny ears - must find a good cleaner to get those off.
• A bit of watercoloring that never made it to a card.
• Great Japanese glue.
• Cheaper than Stickles glitter glue.

If I can find time, space and energy I will get all these projects photographed and posted.

---

Happy Crafting,

---

WOYWW, because it's still Wednesday here

Here's a peek at the whole desk. The mess that should have been posted hours ago. To most WOYWW participants it's not even Wednesday anymore but it is here so off I go.

There are papers here that I got out thinking they may work on a Christmas card. They didn't. I haven't gotten around to putting them away.

 

You can even see last week's cupcake liner experiment and if you really want a challenge you may be able to find the OO of ZOO in inked chipboard. That I was saving for the  zoo page I posted last Tuesday. Again just not right for the job.

 

The postcard with the big 8 on it is an invitation to my son's birthday party, I designed on the computer. No papers or embellishment just me and Adobe Illustrator.

 

And there on the left you see the reason I didn't get the cards done or the space cleaned up more.  I was starting to work on a hot pink Christmas card and the handle fell off my Cuttlebug. Yep. Just fell right off in my hand. Thank goodness I was able to save the pieces. But more on that later.

 

 Here is one of the cards I was working on yesterday. A couple of weeks ago I bought this cute little Winter Wishes stamp made by Unity and got a free Paper Crafts Magazine with it (wait that's supposed to be the other way around). Regardless I got them both and this is the first card I made with the stamp.  I've been busy drooling over the creations in the magazine.

 

I wanted to get the Spellbinders Shapeabilities 'Mittens' Nested Dies for my Christmas cards this year. I've wanted to make Warmest Wishes felt mitten cards for a long time. Today on Kristina Werner's blog she made an adorable card with mittens that said "Baby It's Cold Outside" which is an other great sentiment for mittens. Alas the budget doesn't allow me to purchase everything I want and these dies are a bit beyond right now. But $1? I can do $1! I found a package of felt mittens and snowflakes with the adhesive already on them for $1 at JoAnn Fabrics. They only come in these 2 colors and are a bit plain so I will be sprucing them up with glitter, ink or stitching. And they are all right handed which I have compensated for my turning one of them over. I can make 7 cards with these plus I have a snowflakes I can use too.

 

The white panel is cut using Spellbinder's Nestabilities Labels 4 and the stamp fits so perfectly in the corner. The white panel is adhered with Yasutomo Nori paste from Japan. This stuff is amazing and I plan to write more about it soon. The glitter is actually from a crystal DecoArt Craft Twinkles Writer. I haven't tried Stickles but the price for the DecoArt Craft Twinkles Writer is a lot lower and the quality suits my purposes. Wish it dried quicker though. (I feel a craft critique coming up.) The paper and ink are retired Stampin' Up!. I've decided against giving many details about retitred products, especially consumables because it'll just frustrate you.




Speaking of frustrating, back to the broken Cuttlebug. I was a bit befuddled at first. How did this happen? or was it more like WTF? Dunno but I know I was going to get this thing fixed. Today. I looked through my tool box looking for a small screwdriver to put it, wait a minute, that's not a screw head on that little piece. I'll call Provocraft and ask them what to do, or at least what I should be looking for in the tools because I'm findin' nothing.

I talked to someone immediately and she sent me to customer service.
"We are experiencing high call volume"
La, la, la, lovely music.
"If you are calling about 'xyz' then try 'abc' or check your hooziwatzit"
La la la, hey some nice smooth jazz.
"We are experiencing high call volume,"
La, la, la, Oh! a vaguely recognizable classical tune.
This went on for 40 minutes before I gave up. Thank God for speaker phones and the ability to do other things while on hold. I know things are busy some times but 40 minutes?

I took the handle and the small parts in a baggie to Menard's hardware store, walked around lost for a bit (it's a huge store) until a woman asked if I needed help. I showed her the parts and she said you need a hex key. Turns out I needed a #2 metric hex key. So if your Cuttlebug handle falls off in your hand and you can't find the tool that puts it back on go to a hardware store and ask for a #2 metric hex key. I bought a whole set for under $2. It's fixed but my craft time was shot for the day.

It's quite late now and I need sleep so I will close. Happy belated WOYWW y'all.

---

Happy Crafting,
Katie

WOYWW? Experiments gone right

I often tinker with ideas and techniques with awful results. I don't show these failures off. I don't want people running away. I want readers to come regularly, becoming followers even. Well this week I did a bit of experimenting and I like the results.

This embellishment has been poked and prodded and played with quite a bit.
It looked a lot better when I first made it. Letting kids play with stuff may
add a bit more character to your work than you anticipated. 

First is an easy, easy embellishment. Last week for my son's scout Halloween party I baked cupcakes and used Reynolds Bake Cups. Well at some point many years ago (1997) I purchased the mini size cups and I don't have a mini size pan so what did I do with these cups? Put them back in the baker's box for later of course. The baker's box, you know that box of baking supplies, only comes out for birthdays and holidays at my house so I regularly forget these cupcake liners are even in the house.

This time I decided they could be used in a crafty project. I like the look produced by Tim Holtz Paper Rosette but I can't currently afford the die. One thing I don't like about these popular rosettes is how thick they are. I don't like thick embellishments on pages that may be crushed and look bad years later or may dent other pages in a book. Crazy I know. So making them myself by hand, while completely doable is probably not going to happen too often either. But this cheap cheat will happen. I took a mini cupcake liner, turned it inside out and added a 1-3/4" circle  and TA DA. Done.

I can alter the look by changing the size of the circle I add. Large cupcake liners would work too but they are just so large that I would probably end up using them as frames.

The second project is an ATC. I was experimenting with the Retro Circles Texture Fades Embossing Folder by Tim Holtz  and Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky Back Canvas. I purchased the sticky back canvas at the CHA super show in July and I've had these tulips sitting on a shelf for months. After playing a bit with the embossing folder I decided to see how well the sticky would work on it. And I gotta say I like it.

I need to get some sleep and it's now Thursday here so to you UK WOYWW readers I'm really late as it's already Friday morning for you lot.

---

Happy Crafting,
Katie

---