Oh My Gosh - it's Wednesday and my desk is .... TIDY!!!

Put that in your diary peeps - doesn't happen often and don't get used to it but I decided not to have JUST a little tidy but to scrub my cutting mat and have a little re-think whilst I was at it - hope you all approve. Now, don't faint but .... here it is - STILL NOT BIG but at least it's TIDY! I'm going to make the most of it by sharing more than one pic too .... normally you can't see the carpet and everything has to be done "on the wonk" because there simply isn't enough room to stand squarely in front of my table .... and don't even THINK about adding a chair because then none of the drawers could be opened! I REALLY don't have much space to manoeuvre in let alone craft!!!!

 

Doesn't this look better? In case you wondered ... the cutting mat is just A3

Not just my desk either ... I can see carpet!
And my office drawer unit - A4 size

 

Oh WOW! Wonder how long it will stay like this?!?!?!
See how tight I am for space?

 

Can't remember the previous chaos? Well check out last week's desk here. Impressed by the change? You SHOULD be - mind you, if you were impressed by that then - read on ......

 

Last evening saw me cooking for a couple of my pals - don't faint!! Those who know me personally will know that (like the tidy desk) this doesn't happen often either! Hubby likes to cook and I LIKE to let him!! However, being a master of the "bung-it" school of cookery I can (and will) tackle chilli, spaghetti, soup and the occasional dessert! So there I was, slaving over a hot slow cooker before 09:00 yesterday morning - the great thing about the slow cooker is that you can have all the signs that you've cooked at all cleared, washed and put away before your guests arrive and they think they've come on the wrong night!!! Then, all I have to do is cook some rice and serve - VOILA!

 

All I can say is that I hope I haven't killed either of them! They certainly seemed to enjoy it and managed to walk out on their own!!! I've known them too long to want to lose them now! I know I had a lovely evening and hope they did too.

And now - on to some actual crafting ....... the talented peeps over at Stamplorations launched their new sketch challenge on Monday and yesterday was the first chance I had to get around to it. My inspiration? Well that came from the equally talented ladies over at the Simply Less Is More blog where their challenge was animal - the set I cracked open for their challenge had just too many sweet images not to use another ........




OK, hands up ..... who is now thinking of Beverley Hills Chihuahua!!!
OR
Is it just me?????

Here's the sketch I used:



Here's a close up so you can better see that I did indeed deploy a STAMPLORATIONS border stamp

 

Materials used:

• 300gsm C6 Kraft card and matching sized envelope
• White card snippets, black card snippets (for matting a 1/16" border) and a Kraft snippet too
• Using a Tim Holtz blending tool and Distress Ink in squeezed lemonade I coloured the tall thin piece of white card and then overlaid my TCW stencil and went over the panel again with D.I. mustard seed
• Using the snippet of Kraft card I edged with my EK Success paper binder punch before stamping the Stamplorations grungey border using Encore gold ink
• I stamped my Woodware sentiment centrally on my panel using Ranger Archival sienna ink (New stash from the weekend) and then my Inkadinkado doggy using Memento tuxedo black
• Alcohol markers to colour my image and to "ground" him to my sentiment and a Wink of Stella glitter pen in silver over the black "spots" on the dog
• Using a Colour Box stylus and a foam blending head I applied Distress Ink in antique linen and old paper around the edge of my snippet, drawing it in towards the image and sentiment but not covering it all.
• Spray and Shine sprayed over my card and insert to protect the precious ink .... in case of rain whilst in transit!!

As is usual for me, these days, I carried my design across the inside of the card and to the envelope too, including colouring the outer edges

 

Now, if I'd JUST had a little more white space it could have been a second entry at Simply Less Is More but I'm just not sure there's quite enough .... should I risk it?

Back to the Beverly Hills Chihuahua ..... check this out and I THINK you may see where I was coming from ...

Just look at those ears!

Now, when I bought the Distress Inks used in the project above I tried them (like you do) and didn't like them at all so they've been sitting in my drawer, unloved and somewhat neglected. For some reason I got them out yesterday to use on the card above and .... SUDDENLY ..... fell in love with them so used them on another project and using another animal image ....




Now I'm thinking Cheshire cat - you with me on this one too?

Materials used:

• ATC blank
• White card snippet cut to ATC size
• Inkadinkado cat image and Stampers Anonymous sentiment stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink
• Alcohol markers used to colour image
• Distress Inks: antique linen and old paper applied with a Tim Holtz blending tool leaving a border around the cat
• Paper Artsy "splatter" image stamped randomly using Encore gold ink
• Kaisercraft border image stamped around the outside of the ATC using the old paper ink



You can just make out the border - unfortunately Picasa has posted the
watermark pretty much where I'm trying to highlight!! Oops!

At CAS Colours & Sketches I'm making a late entry

Materials used:

• 15cm square white, 250 gsm card blank and matching sized envelope
• 13½cm square white card
• Rust coloured card for matting
• Stamping Bella (Javabellas) image stamped on to snippet of white card using Memento rich cocoa ink and matted on to both Kraft and rust card
• Alcohol markers to colour
• Fiskars coffee bean image and sentiment stamped using Memento rich cocoa ink

And the sketch? Check it out

Woo Hoo! I got an Honourable mention for challenge #108 (thanks, Ardyth for picking my Angel card) over at CASology. Check out their current challenge #109 - "JAVA". I have displayed the H.M. button in my side bar - thanks again peeps.

Have a great Wednesday peeps