WOYWW 573, Starting year 12...

Good morning dear friends!

I hope you are feeling well and have got over those hangovers after drinking all that champagne last week when we were celebrating our 11th anniversary!😀 This week we start year 12!!! Yipeee!!|
So lets get to my desk first....

What you see is some Altenew watercolors, an Altenew cover die......and then on the next photo the there is already a finished watercolor background and on the third photo a load of "junk" on my desk! Notice the tiny space I have left to actually do something!😏
I will explain quickly the technique I have been recently been doing which I saw on the memory box blog and it was done by Dave Brethauer. This is how it goes. You put some wide washi tape on a freezer paper, then choose any die you want and die cut it from the freezer paper covered in washi tape. this way you get a sort of "stencil" that has strong sticky on the back. I then take the die cut off the freezer paper (be very careful how you do it especially if you have chosen an intricate die!) and stick it on some watercolor paper. Then you watercolor and because the die is stuck very snug to the paper you get a wonderful result of watercolor and clean lines where the washi tape was stuck to the paper. You can use  various double sided sticky sheets but I think those are quite expensive where as we have big roles of washi tape tape in our stash. Why not use it?
I have 2 examples here... I showed this one in of my previos posts....

And this is todays background.... I die cut the background again in light gold card and added it on top...

I love this technique and thought I would share it.....
In other news....I have been very spoilt this week .....two ladies called Jo have sent me lovely presents... Jo - Twiglet has kindly sent me some prefelt and her daughter from Tilly tea dance a lovely coaster for my cup of tea! 😀 Thank you sooo much!

My lovely friend Jo from Jozart has spotted my humble attempt at felting and sent me a bunch of wool for felting....Thank you Jo - very much appreciated!

And I did not waist any time at all - made my second little felted picture straight away! Love doing this.....

That my dear friends is all from me this week! I did not get round to all last week but I will try to get to those I didn't say hello to last week - sorry time flies for me and suddenly we are back at Wednesday again! 
Link up to Julia's blog and have a good snoop around desks! 
Lots of love and hugs to all
CARDARIAN

WOYWW 572 HAPPY 11th ANNIVERSARY!!!

My dear WOYWW friends!

Good morning to everybody!HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!🎉 Are you celebrating? Is the champagne out? 😃 Are your desks ready for show? And have you done the special forsaken/challenging project our lovely task master Julia gave us for the anniversary? 😊
Well I am very happy to have come back just in time to celebrate! And it was just health reasons and caring (for Alan) that kept me away! 
My first post on WOYWW was actually in 2010 on the 17th february. It was from my "home" desk and I must say that my desk since then is a lot more messy! I have bought hundreds of crafty things since and many of them because I saw them on WOYWW. I have also learned a lot more since then and even now I learn something every time I snoop around the desks.
But lets talk about the community of WOYWW. Yes lets talk about all you lovely ladies that come along every week and not just to show off your desk but also to support when one needs it. Julia our Queen is such an amazing lady! To start this community and keep it going for all these years - that is an amazing achievement and I salute you my dear friend! Lets not forget all the wonderful crops that we have all been to at one time or another! Lots of chat, crafting and cake!!And all the amazing friendships, that stretch beyond the WOYWW.  So dear Julia and all you lovely WOYWW ladies a big THANK YOU to all of you from me the CARDARIAN.
I could carry on talking about things for ages but I have to get on with the usual business of showing what is on my desk.

Not much crafting going on this morning - a few new bits - 2 die sets from Pink fresh studio and 2 new embossing folders! At the far end of the desk you can see my anniversary challenge project, which brings me to the the other desk , ha, ha the third one I have taken over in the house and this will probably give you a clue of what I have been doing....

So let me tell you about this project! A few years at the crop Annie or WIPSO brought her felting machine to the crop! She showed me how felting was done and I really liked it! So I went home and started thinking about buying myself this machine. It was quite expensive and well as you know if you can't start on something straight away the enthusiasm fizzles out...BUT every now and then I saw some needle felting project on the internet so I kept on thinking about it UNTIL 2 weeks ago I saw Annies - I think it is her niece Maxine at TILLY TEA DANCE do a video on how to do it! My enthusiasm was back so I went on the internet bought the foam, brush, needles, and tool and started on my first ever needle felting....and this is the result....

I am not an artist so don't judge it too harsh...I loved doing it and have already started on a new project. I am looking to find prefelt as I can't find it anywhere at the moment! So there that is my forsaken idea and challenge.
In other news I have made a card this week which took me a few hours to make as all the flowers were colored with coloring pencils! If you want a good blend it takes a long time!Huh!

And made a few more masks....

And thats all folks!
Have a lovely anniversary, I will try to come round to as much of you as possible!
Lots of love and hugs to all,
CARDARIAN

WOYWW 571 A busy week!

Hello everybody!

I hope you are all well. I am sure you have all got the message from the government although some people seem to be confused so Matt Lucas has explained it clearly! 😄

I thought this was quite funny! Back to the business of today we are showing our desks and talking about what we have been doing all week! Well.....
I was thinking this morning how making cards has changed over the years! And how the stamp industry has changed. Nowadays it is all about dies and die cuts , the stamps are relativly simple ...I used  to love stamps from a company called Lost Coast Designs that were very elaborate also others...I seem to be happy just using a few die cuts for a card sometimes these days... I made an effort this week and stamped a few bits - used an old stamp for the background which I have recently rediscovered ....

Of course I still used die cuts....
With being at home and nobody coming in the house I am free to have a mess everywhere so upstairs in my craftroom this is the mess on the desk.....

What you see is a bunch of stamped sentiments cut out with this relativly new die from Taylored Expressions that cuts lots of them at once - very handy! Then there is a bag of sequins and gems which I use a lot and a few bits from this new kit called Tropical Paradise from Tonic Studios which arrived with a 2 month delay - I will show some of the dies included next time - quite nice dies !
Not finished yet with the messy photos....downstairs in the lounge I have taken over the table with my sewing stuff - making masks...as I was going to take the photo Alan said "What?!? Are you taking a photo of all your junk?" Junk to some, valuable assets to others 😉

Next week is anniversary week and we have to show something we never finished or wanted to do and never did and actually finish it or do it! Huh! I have a lot to choose from - over the years I have started a lot of projects - got really excited and then...got bored and abonded the half done project. So I am now deciding which forsaken project to choose and finish till next week...Huh! Our task master gives us hard tasks! 😏
My dear friends have a lovely week.. I will try and visit as much of you as I can! I am getting back in the swing of it but I am still slow commenting! Will get there!!!
Love and hugs to all stay well and safe !
CARDARIAN😘💓
PS.:Have you noticed I discovered how to put emojies on my post?!? he, he..

WOYWW 570, A long lost crafter is back!

Dear friends!

A hello and big hug to all of you! It is a virtual hug so don't worry about the virus! I have been silent for almost a year and now I have finally got back the courage and will to write and post a blog! These are weird times and I have been through a lot this year. Still I am alive and well, so is my partner Alan. I have been swimming almost every day until this virus came along and just as I should have finally got my knee operation it was cancelled thanks to COVID 19! And who knows when I will get it now. Hay ho, that is life. I don't want to complain as hearing about all the deaths and people suffering every day you would be really ungrateful as you are still healthy and sitting in your craft room making cards or whatever takes your fancy!So coming to the point of crafting and WOYWW I must say although I haven't been blogging a lot has been going on in my craftroom! I have made and am still making lots of cards - made a few changes to my craft room and although I have tons of crafty stuff I am still buying new things - it is a disease I just can't stop myself!
So lets first have a look at my desk .....
 As you can see on the first and second photo I have bought this MDF storage system for my distress ink pads and reinkers - I actually colored them with distress oxide sprays and then filled them up with all my inkpads sorted by color. Proud of that achivement..

On the photo above you can see I also have the Tim Holtz glass media mat! I was not sure about it at first but I like it because at least a little bit of my desk stays clean and ready for me to make things..well lets be honest I still sometimes end up with about  a 5 inch square of space to work on but what can I do?!? I am a messy crafter!
Here are a few of the cards I have made as of lately.....various techniques using inlays, stencils, die cuts and watercolors. I am trying to experiment with everything.

I saw the challenge that Queen Julia has given us for our 11th anniversary (although being away for a year am I still on 10?!?) and I think I have a few projects in various envelopes, bags and boxes that need finishing so I think I will have a go at it!
I am really happy to be back in the community of my lovely crafty friends! I will try to visit all your desks and say hello! I just got a cup of tea on my desk from my Alan so I am ready to have a snoop around the desks!
Love and hugs to all, glad to be back!
CARDARIAN