WOYWW 150!!! Ally Pally!

Good morning my dear WOYWWers!

So today it is the 150th WOYWW! Another milestone! Congrats to all! We have made it this far - thanks to Julia our Queen! The worlds biggest blog hop is still going strong, more and more taking part! I hope you all enjoy it very much! I have learned so much since I am a part of this and I am sure all of you did too - it is not just about snooping it is about spreading information, techniques and whatever you want to know about crafting! Also friendship - some virtual some in real life! So WOYWWers lets now run the marathon towards 200!!!

Ok then lets get on with the regular Wednesday business! 

As you all know I have been on a short break in England and was very lucky to be able to go to Ally Pally! The show is really amazing - I think although I did make a few rounds around I still probably didn't see half of the stuff ! My DBF financed most of my shopping and I did get lots - things I really wanted for a while - some of the things were half price of what I would pay for them here! So let me show off my Ally Pally haul, then a few photos from the show and as last my last making!

Here is an overlook of all the stuff I bought layed out on the bed....It is a lot less then what other people have bought but I am happy with what I got

Here is some detail .....I bought a lot of stuff at Paperartsy - Stamps and Fresco Finish paints, I also bought stamps from Indigo Blu, The Artistic Stamper, LOTV and others....

I also got some got some TH Alterations, stickers, stickles....

You can also see some twin, sticky tape, bling, tags and other bits and bobs....

So that was my Ally Pally haul.....now come a few photos from the show....

People queuing to get in......

Paperartsy stand - oh the lovely stuff these ladies make.....I met a fellow WOYWWer there Helen here bellow right in the front of the photo.....it was so nice to meet you again  Helen.....

The Paperartsy ladies Lyn and Leandra have shown lovely new techniques - I really learned a lot and have come back home with a lot more mojo then I had when I left home! Really inspiring!

Here is one of the makes Lyn made for us.....

Next stop was the Artistic Stamper - they have a new range of stamps with houses - I bought them of course - here is Jennie showing off her new stamps and also the WOYWW badge!

WOYWWers who visited her stand also got a little present - a free stamp! Thank you Jennie!

Here is the LOTV stand - I bought some cute Christmas stamps there - what an amazing collection of stamps you can see there....ha, ha how can anybody think of so many different cutsy little girls I have no idea....

I could go on and on with these photos but I think this is enough for you snoopy girls.....well not quite finished - here is one of me in front of the Alexandra Palace - carrying  my heavy rucksack full of lovely stuff! And Julia I proudly wore my WOYWW badge!

Also unfortunately when I came back from England I heard that one of my best friends mom died and I made a sympathy card for her....and that actually rounds up my post for today!

Have a lovely snoop and a lovely week !

Lots of hugs to all of you!

Cardarian

WOYWW, I am back!

Hello my dear bloggy friends!

I am sorry I have been away for a while but life and work took over so I couldn't do blogging or crafting - well I did  some stuff which you will see as you scroll down the page! But before I start with my showing off I would like to ask all you ladies who intend to go to ALLY PALLY on SATURDAY the 14th to let me know ( just leave a comment) and I will try to find you there as I would love to meet some of you! Thank you!

Now we can start with the show off! Ha, ha...

First is first here is my desk of this week - very boring - just made a card for one of our professors - he went from student to professor of forest engineering - specialised in forest roads and he has a special day today so I made a card for him - we have been working together since day one ! The card is on my desk....

The card symbolises his road to success!

And then I have a few photos from my Easter day with my family at my moms.... our Easter table.... I decorated :-)

Close ups...... the plate....

the famous Easter flower, Easter eggs and of course we couldn't be without an Easter bunny.....

Here is a photo of all of us at the table.....

And to finish off I have another couple of spring photos I have taken lately......

Now I am finished!
Have a lovely day, enjoy life and let me know if you will be at Ally Pally!
Lots of hugs to all of you
CARDARIAN
 

An easter card!

Hello bloggy friends!

I made a little Easter card for a friend of our family who lives in Germany! I thought I would share it - I have more in the making but this one was just finished this morning!

Here is a close up......

I used a Penny Black stamp ( the one I colored with TH markers),  the letters are from TH Typeset die cut , DP from DCWV Spring stack and a few Prima flowers, made the felt leaves myself and ribbon which was from my stash! Huh did I struggle making that bow! I used to make really nice ones but I just couldn't remember how I did it so that it was really perfect - in the end I gave up trying and found a really good tutorial on the internet! Sometimes you just need some help! 

I will enter this card for the Penny Black challenge.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend, see you soon!

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian

WOYWW, a quicky!

Good morning my dear friends!

I have a bit of a busy day today so my post will be short and sweet! Actually every day this week I have something penciled in, so my list of to do crafty stuff is not getting anything checked off so I am a bit worried! This list is as long as my arm, specially as Easter is almost here! Well I hope to get up to things tomorrow but for today here is my desk....

A view from the top.....Yes I finally got my new dylusions - mark my words this is one of my last purchases for the time being! Our wages are going down 15% so I better cut on the crafty stuff - luckily I have accumulated a lot over the last year or so, so I guess I have a lot to work with but of course new stuff I will not be able to afford! That said I guess if I go to Ally Pally ( still not sure I will) there might be a few more things ! Ha, how quick did I make my mind up! Oh dear I must get my act together!

Anyway what you see are the remnants of my "experiment" which you can read about here, mushrooms from the Dylusions already colored and ready to join the bunny on a card, my morning cup of tea and the dylusions sprays and stamps - I haven't used the sprays yet so they are still sealed! I colored the mushrooms with the distress markers which you can also see on my desk....

Here is a close up.....

That is all on my desk today - I will be back with more cards and stuff in the next few days!

Here are a few photos I took yesterday in the institute garden - a lovely rododendron is just in full bloom.....

Here are just a few flowers growing on the grass.....

So thats another bit of spring for you.....

I said I would be short and sweet and well I tried my best! Ha, ha....

Have a lovely day and enjoy snooping around the worlds desks! It is a lot of fun isn't it???

Lots of hugs to all of you

Cardarian

An experiment

Good morning my friends!

How are you today?? It seems a lot of us have been enjoying the lovely spring weather - our nights are still quite cold but during the day it goes up to 20 deg C.

Today I thought I would show you a bit of an experiment I did! It is actually a comparison of TH Distress Markers, Caran D'Ache Neocolor II Watersoluble and Van Gogh Watercolors! 

 I had this Penny Black Bunny image I stamped and I thought I would give the TH distress markers a go...then I thought, lets see how I will do with watercolors and then I thought to try the neocolors

Here are the results - without looking further down the post try to guess which image is colored with which medium!

Ok now you had your play now here are the results....

My "research" results  (I am a complete amateaur)  showed the following...

TH distress markers are nice for accurate painting  because you can color a bit and then pull the color out with your brush!Plus you can go in with the plastic tip to get into details. Very smooth no bits rolling off the paper but ( there is always a but) the colors are of course in TH style so not as bright! 

Watercolors are smooth - still none of those bits but you can't be as accurate as you can be with distress markers, still colors come out much, much brighter! 

As for the neocolors - I don't recommend them for doing smaller images ( they are ok for art journaling) - it is hard to be accurate as the pencils are quite thick plus I noticed bits rolling around when I was coloring!  

Also although I used very bright pencils when I mixed water with them they became very transperent and the lovely brightness was gone!

I don't know if any of this makes sense to you but it might help someone choose... I am known to be a critic of some of TH products but I must say I like the markers. I haven't used them on stamps yet ( well I tried them on a flower but not really mixing colors ) but I will have a go because I actually bought these markers because I wanted to do multi color stamping! I will let you know what I think!

That is all folks! Go out, sit in the sun and enjoy life ( take a coffee or tea with you ha, ha) 

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian

Yipeee it is Friday!!!!

Hello my dear Friends!

We have a lovely day - the sun is shining,  it is warm ( around 20 deg C), the birds are singing and the best thing of all it is FRIDAY!!!! Nothing special for the people who are retired or don't have to go to work but it certainly is a good day for us working folk! 

I have promised myself to do more then just the WOYWW posting as once a week is just not enough! But with being busy with other things I just couldn't get up to it! So as this week is turning out to be a "normal" one I am posting my finished sandwich board card! I made it into a Mother's Day card - our Mother's Day is this weekend so this will be sent off to my mom!

 My base cardstock was Stampin' Up, the DP is Mariposa from DCWV ( I think that set is one of their most beautiful ones), the main image is a La Blanche stamp, I used 3 different punches, scissors, a bit of Stickles, Worn lipstick distress ink and a computer generated sentiment - it says to my mom and there is a little poem which I am not sure I could translate accurately! Maybe I could embelilish it more but I thought my mom would rather have it simple!  So here it is my first ever sandwich board card....

 The inside

 and a close up....

Have a lovely weekend and I will see you all soon!

Hugs,

Cardarian

WOYWW, Easter chick!

Good morning my dear friends!

Are you all ok? Having nice weather and enjoying the spring that has just sprung???? Well I am - we finally got a little bit of rain so the grass and flowers can finally move to spring mode! 

So first a bit of spring for you - I work at the forestry faculty and we have a huge garden around our building with lots of different trees ( for the students to learn to recognise them) and this photo was taken about 10 m away from my library.....love the purple color of the crocuses....

and a primerose peaking out.....

So there that is a bit of spring for you but now lets get up to more serious business - snooping around desks with our Queen Julia in command.......

This week my craft room is in a big mess....I keep on changing from one project to another, I made a card for my brother who's name day was on Monday ( St . Joseph) - didn't take a picture, then I made a lovely vintage thank you card for my physiotherapist as it was my last session yesterday - again forgot to take a photo - that is age for you but here it is my really messy desk.....

In the middle you can see I am making a sandwich board card - Jo from Jozart gave me instructions how to do it over Skype but I haven' t finished it yet ! The base is done....here is a close up.....

Now comes the die cutting bit which I am worried about but we will see how it goes.....I will show the card when it is finished....

Next up is my other project I am at - the Easter chick....I decided to make some cute felt chicks for my daughter, mom, my brothers family and some other people who are dear to me - put it in the envelope with the Easter card....it is quite a lot of work but I really like to make them....here is one for show.....one side...

and the other side.....

Here is one in the making...... it involves a lot of hand sewing of all these beads but I also use the glue gun and glitter glue....just a bit of a play....

I will show more of them as I make them....

And the last picture is the rest of my messy craftroom....I was looking for bits and pieces got out loads of boxes of stuff - then something fell off the shelve and you cand see what the result was - I just said "Sod it" and left the mess there for you to see....huh.....

So there I am done showing my mess....have you shown yours??? If you haven't you still have all day to join in the biggest showing of desks at our HQ!

Have a lovely day!

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian

WOYWW, time flies!

Hello Bloggerettes and Bloggers!

I must admit that time flies and I am now just running around like a headless chicken! (sounds horrible that doesn't it???). My day goes like this - get up at 5am ( crafting till 7am) then go to work stay at work till 1pm then rush to the physio ( about 20 min drive) phisio takes about an hour then back to work and after 5.30 pm sometime I finally get to go home. How much crafting do you think I do after that??? NOTHING!!!

But this will only be till the end of the week and then I hope I will have more time and more will to do things! I have stuff together for a few projects - I just need to get on with it! I am ashamed to say that I haven't been around many desks this week as I don't even turn on the computer once I get home and work is quite busy these days as the term is coming to the end!

I have seen another doctor this week and I have to have an artroscopy for my knee which in itself is not such a painful procedure but the rehab is a rather long process so I am now thinking when can I have this op without upseting the work process at the library ! The thing is the waiting lists for these operations are enourmous - it can take a year ! Unless you pay for the op - then you get to do it in the next 2 weeks!!!! 

( well of course it costs from 1400 - 1700 €) So I am contemplaiting all these things! 

Anyway just so that you are all up to date with my situation!

Still the show must go on - here is my very messy desk..... I was making a card for my nephew - I can't show it as this morning as I was taking photos my battery went and what you see is what I got! 

This is an overall shot.....new ribbon, bits and bobs and then there is this yellow bit of paper and on top of it is a badge with a WOYWW

lets have a closer look......

YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I have my original wonderful WOYWW badge!!!!Thank you, thank you, thank you JULIA! None of my crafty stuff arrives as quick as your badge did! I promise I will wear it with great pride! If I go to Ally Pally in a few weeks time I will give it a try! See how many other WOYWW-ers I might spot and of course how many of them will spot me!

And now some of my new stash - not much - just a bit to keep me happy!

Crafty Individuals stamps and a Lost Coast Designs Pencils background stamp

 and lovely lace....also from Crafty Individuals.....

Thats all folks for today! Have a lovely day - spring is here giving us lots of sunshine but to be honest we would need rain - the reservoars are empty!

Good "snoopy" day to all!

Lots of hugs from yours truly

Cardarian

WOYWW and a bit of a moan!

Hello my dear Friends!

How are you all today?? Having fun??? Enjoying the lovely spring days??? We have lovely weather, a bit cold in the morning but the rest of the day is warm and nice! 

I should be in a good mood which I am most of the time except for my obvious health problems and craftwise the fact that I am frustrated with buying goods for my crafting! Ladies you can be very happy if you have a shop down the road where you can buy things for crafting - also you are quite lucky if you live in countries where you order something online one day and the next day it is on your doorstep! Not so here!! This month the only shop that we had closed so you can't actually have a look at what you want to buy! We have a few art shops but they don't have that many things that crafters want! The online shops (3 ) are trying their best but still they don't have the "cool" new stuff! So what to do??? If you order from the States it takes at least 10 days to get the stuff (if you order a lot you have to pay tax and the postage is a big cost) so if you need something for a challenge by the time you get the stuff the challenge is gone! If you order from England it takes about 7 days (It can take 14 days) which is also a long time! But what is really frustrating is when you order online you never know what you get....like my last buy was these two stamps - the Magnolia stamp I could predict about how big it is going to be as I have bought them before, but the Easter bunny  I thought would be at least 2 cm bigger - not so small that you need to put glasses on to see it and the thing cost almost 9 € with postage!!!!! I am not sure if you get all this or even remotely understand what I am trying to say but I think it is worth a moan! Why did all this really come about??? Well because I wanted to make the March TH 12 tags of 2012! I ordered the butterflies - the online shop comes back with the answer they are out of stock....I order the woodgrain background - out of stock! I am now trying to think of a way to get it done without any of that stuff but it isn't the same! That is my moan for the day - if you skipped the first bit I hope that at least my desk photos will interest you.....there is a big mess so enjoy!

An overall look from the top.....

My 2 new stamps - the very small bunny on the right - huh!

look to the right.....

look to the left...

more to the left......

and extended to the couch .....just got some stamps out for Easter cards....

and as last 2 of my Easter cards .....bright and happy!

So that is all folks! I hope you enjoy the snoop - I know I will!

Have a lovely day and a lovely week - see you soon!

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian