WOYWW, HELP, I have a problem!

Hi my dear friends! 

Something very strange is going on with blogger today! I started writing my post and wanted to add a photo a weird message came up saying I have used all my space - 1GB and have to " buy" space now....I don't know how to fix this so I am asking anybody who knows anything about this to help me! Also I have posted this appeal earlier and the whole post disappeared! I will try and post this again so I hope it will work!
HELP! HELP ! HELP!

Lots of hugs to all
Cardarian

WOYWW, Artistic freedom

Good morning dear bloggers!

How are you today?? We have a rather dismo morning - doesn't make you feel very happy but I guess this is the time of the year when all our spirits are a bit down - you go to work in the dark, come back in the dark Huh! Not much fun at all....
But not to worry there is Queen Julia with  WOYWW every week to cheer us up...
Now to start with a bit of chat I would like to tell you how I have finally came to the level of so called "Artistic freedom".....let me explain....A few years ago when I started making cards stamping and embossing and stuff like that was the scariest thing you could imagine ....I used to use mostly digi stamps and cards would be made by layering different designer papers, matting, attaching embelishments.....then I finally mastered stamping and embossing.....so then digi stamps were gone out of my life, I started a mad hunt for proper stamps and then it was suddenly almost shameful to use digi stamps or just layer designer paper.....I started making my own backgrounds and thanks to WOYWW I have mastered stamping and embossing and all the other tricks of the trade (well sort of...)....Suddenly this year when making all those Christmas cards I have reached the so called "artistic freedom" level when I don't think of using any craft material shamful or not appropriate - I actually use stickers and toppers on some of my cards....I dare to use horrible scraps to make a card, anything I feel looks good I use ...I feel so free now...and I think my cards this year are the best I have ever made....
Here are some of the examples.....
Stickers......does that look bad??? ....I think they make the card nice...

....how about a vintage Christmas card downloaded from the internet......I must admit the background was selfmade - stamps and gesso.....

Oh and here is the real "artistic freedom"......card made from scraps and washi tape....

So ladies and gentlemen have you reached the level of "artistic freedom".....tell me....
Ok enough philosophy.....my desk is here too......
I tidyed up as you can see....it might not be tidy to some of you but for me it is a great improvement as I actually  can see my desk now......

Right side.....

and left side - a bit more messy.....but it is what I call kaotic order....

If you are not snorring away by now I wish you a lovely day and a good snoop around the desks of the world....
Lots of hugs to everyone...
Cardarian

P.S.: I often wonder that it is about 8 o'clock in the morning in England and there is about 80 bloggers already linked up....does that mean most of you post on Tuesday....it is still WOYWWednesday isn't it????

WOYWW, Cards and stuff...

Hello my dear friends!

First I must apologize for maybe not coming back to everybody who commented on my blog - I lost track a little bit and then the week just flew by and here we are Wednesday again and I haven't come back to everybody! Huh!  Will try to be better this week!
We have very crazy weather - one minute lovely sunshine, next minute rain, storms with hail, snow and lots of floads! The sun is out at the moment so lets hope it stays out for a while! 
So lets get straight to the point....
If you remember in the summer Jo and Donna came to visit me and one of the first things they asked was if I am a messy crafter - I said I am messy but  the only thing I am very strict about is cleaning my stamps - I saw the looks in their eyes thinking - Huh she is a neat one....during their stay I might have convinced them about my messiness but if I didn't I am sure the following photos will convince anyone....Beware! People who are extremly OCD shouln't look at my desk......

My couch has gone from bad to worse......

I hope to tidy up a little bit this afternoon as I can't really work on my the desk anymore! Huh!!!!

To show you a couple of cards .....this one is a birthday card.....sorry my photos are not very good - the light this morning was horrible.....

And here is one of my Christmas cards.....stamp is Oxford Impressions, all the rest are just bits and bobs from my stash - the sentiment is Hero Arts....

And as last a bit more of the colorful autumn - the tree that has provided all these lovely leaves is outside the library where I work.....such an amazing variety of colors.....

Short and sweet today.....I wish you all a lovely autumn day and a joyful snoop around desks under the supervision of our lovely Queen Julia!
Lots of hugs to all
Cardarian

WOYWW, Klimt finished, Christmas cards and snow

Hello my bloggy friends!

I hope you are all well and safe - I hope all our American WOYWWers are safe from the devastating Sandy! We had snow too on Saturday and Sunday but it didn't last! It is cold though - we went from 24 deg C last week to -5 C this week! A shocking change but I guess we are use to this! 
So to get on with things let me show you my messy desk and craft room - I started doing Christmas cards (well I made 2 - I have to do about 70! Huh! I better get on with it!) and ended up pulling out stamps and stuff to make them and made such a mess I can't believe it! 

So here is the desk.....right side.... a bag of tissue paper, ATG, MS punches, TH dies, brads....oh my black beads necklace...I was looking for that one.....

Right side.....the usual junk that is there but a bit more on top....a Nellie Snellen die, pewter distress stain, lots of glues......

and then there is the very messy couch.....stamps, cards, my altered book, more stamps.....

Stuff everywhere....huh!!!!


To show you what I have been doing - I finished my Klimtesque canvas.....I was very much criticized by my daughter but on some points I think she was right....I would love to hear what you think of my work - not praise - honest opinion! I found that it is hard to take a picture of a picture that is gold and shiny but I did do my best.....

details....

Well at least I learned a few more techniques - gold leafing was a right experience! Like it very much.....also I played with mediums, matt and glossy! I should have stamped my background stamps on tissue paper ( got the tip too late from Trish Latimers canvas tutorial) but I will know for next time when I get up to stamping on canvas!
Next up my first 2 Christmas cards....


Here is a very simple one - like it mostly for the colors I have chosen - grey and pink

And then a card with a Michael Powell stamp....I bought it the other week and seems to me if you color it with Twinkling H20s or some other shiny colors (mica Copics) you don't need any embellishments as it is just beautiful as it is! Very Christmassy!

So those are my makings for this WOYWW but I have a few more pics to show.... a lovely tree I take a picture of every autumn - it stands in the garden of our institute and the colors are just amazing.....

And as last our first snow photos.....

Ok then I am done.....
Have a lovely day, go over to our Queen Julias HQ and show us what you got...
 I know it is Halloween today and for many of you it is a fun day but for me it is a day to remember my lovely dad who passed away on this day 13 years ago! May he rest in peace! I love you dad!!!
Lots of hugs to all of you....
Cardarian
 

WOYWW - back to normal!

Good morning my dear bloggy friends!

Finally things are back to normal and I can get up to normal WOYWW ! Last week was a bit hectic - I wrote a long post about our BIG crop on Friday and you can see it here. Beware - ha, ha the post is so long you might shoot roots into your chair! But anyway THANK YOU again Julia and Jan - we had a lovely time and I will never forget my first crop ever!!!!!! Yes that is true!
Now returning back to reality and my desk which is the thing you all want to see - well a few weeks ago I was talking about making a Klimtesque canvas - it is not nearly finished but I think it will be in a few days - I finally decided how I want to make it...As you know I have used Donnas stamp as my main object and all the background will be gold - the true colors of Klimts early decorative painting! 
Here is what was on my desk this morning.....

Lots of gold paint - I decided to use 3 different golds - I started out with gessoing the canvas, then used matt medium to layer a few bits of old paper with gothic writing on it out of my stash of old magazines that have been thrown out of the library! Then the first coat of gold acrylic paint I am starting with a lighter gold and going towards a more darker antique gold color....on the side there you can see the stamp I am using already colored with shiny colors....the obligatory morning BIG cup of tea is there too! Don't ask! I couldn't open the Golden Matt Medium - it is so stuck I will have to wait for my daughters boyfriend to come around and open it - luckily I had another bottle of Liquitex matt medium! Huh!
Now more makings of this week....
I made a cute card for my aunt who is over 80 - I chose spring colors even though it is autumn as I thought it would be a bit morbide to send her a card with darkish colors and leaves falling - it is a bit suggestive isn't it???? So here is my happy birthday card - the stamp is from Kaisercraft a gift I was so kindly sent from Eliza all the way from Australia.....

No special technique - distressed background with Broken china, stamped twice so I could cut out the bird to make it a bit more dimensional two bits of ribbon and coloring with copics!The sentiment is one of our new Slovene stamps.. Bobs your uncle as the English say....
Oh yes I sort of finished off one of the jewelry thingies I have made at the crop with Jo.......I am not sure if I want to do more to it or not - for now it as it is - I am wearing it today anyway....

 And now after I have shown my desk I will give you just two photos of the autumn splendour we have.....

We have been very lucky up till now - temperatures nice 22-25 deg C.....but they say we might have snow for the weekend....oh well....
 Lots of love and hugs to all of you, have a good snoop and a lovely rest of the week!
Cardarian

A Friday WOYWW

My dear bloggy friends! 

I am sure everybody thinks what is going on with that women - she didn't even do WOYWW this week! Well I came back home from the crop late Monday evening, Tuesday I was working late as I had to make do for not being there on Monday and then Wednesday and Thursday the Slovenian university librarians had a conference so I was stuck there for the last couple of days! Although crafting is much more fun and I would rather do that,  my work does put bread ( and stash) on my table so unfortunatly it has a priority! 
But now I am back to normality ( I think) and hope to do a lot of crafting after getting all those amazing ideas from my fellow crafters at the WOYWW BIG CROP!!!
So let me start with the this BIG WOYWW crop I have been to last Saturday! I don't know where to start but I must start with Jan and Julia who were the organizers of this meeting - such lovely ladies, friendly, kind and soooo much fun! It was like coming home - I had not felt for a minute out of place - it was like I belonged there forever! THANK YOU my dear Jan and Julia - you were the stars of the show!!!  Ohhh the cooking Jan has done ....YUM, YUM, YUM!!!! And the cakes......YUM, YUM, YUM! Now I wish I had more of them!!!! Ha, ha....
There was about 20 of us....all lovely friendly ladies - each one not only a lovely person but an amazing crafter, some do scrapbooking, some cards, some jewelry, some sewing, art journaling... well just a fantastic group of ladies who I think could move a mountain ( that is our saying) if they wanted to! Ha, ha but we would rather do crafting!
I would like to mention all your names my dear ladies - So let me try - Jan and Julia - words are not enough to say how lovely these 2 ladies are, then my dear friends Jo and Donna who I was so happy to see again and give them a big hug!!! By the way there was lots of hugs going around! I guess we all need lots of love!!! Oh yes then there was Helen who is the first crafter from WOYWW that I have ever met a few years ago at Ally Pally! Then the lovely Di who has sent me a beautiful present a couple of years ago when we had our WOYWW anniversary gift exchange! And then came all the new people I have met for the first time - Mary Ann - who has surprised me by being an American amoung all the English ladies, oh let me think then there was Sam ( an amazing scrapbooker), Janet - she tought us all about beads - something I didn't have a clue about! And then Morti - Diane a lovely lady which was very kind to invite me and my DBF to her home where we had a lovely fun evening - THANK YOU DIANE!!! Also thank you for teaching us how to do the Domino jewelry - Mine I think has turned out very well  No not finished yet - I must mention Pam, Kate, Kyla, Kirsty and Cindy and also the lovely Zoe and Lisa! I think I have mentioned everyone now!Yes well I didn't get much done there as I was running around like a headless chicken - chatting with everybody - so much my whole face was hurting in the evening from all the chat and laughter! Julia gave us some tasks which I finished this morning at 6am! Yes I got up and did all the crafty work before actually going to work! 
I must mention that after the crop the next morning was a lovely day so me and my DBF decided to drive through London for a change! The M25 can get a bit boring ! I took some nice photos as we were driving along through the sun roof! THANK YOU TO MY DBF - he made all this possible for me so he deserves a big thank you! 
 If you have managed to stay awake through all my waffling I would now like to show a few photos from the crop that I have taken....they don't seem to be very good - I guess I was so excited my hands were trembling!...
 Group  photo....standing Jo, LLJ, Morti, Janet (Fairy Thoughts), Mary-Anne, Kyla (Li'l Pidge), Julia , Pam, Di (Pixie), Helen, Sam (Hettliecraft), Donna (Doone) me (Cardarian) , seated- Kate, Cindy, Lisa, Zoe

Zoe, Morti, Sam and Kyla (I think) all looking at Donna drilling holes!

Chatting....in the front, Jan, Helen ( she is crafting at the table although she was given a space on the floor!!!), Di...in the background Jo and Janet.......Cindy, Julia, Lisa,  Mary Anne and Pam....

Queen Julia....isn't she just lovely????? 

This is what Janet (Fairy thoughts) was teaching us......

and this is as far as I got......huh....

This is what Morti was teaching us - the domino thinge....I quite like the initial work but I need to finish it off...will show it when I am done!

This is what I was doing with Jo - from Jozart....stamping and coloring stambord .....not finished either but the weekend is coming and I hope to get that done!

And here are the tasks Julia gave us ....I should have done it at the crop - not enough time so I did it this morning - following Julias instructions....

And here is the homework we got from Julia....we got a little bag with bits of stash and we were suppose to make a card....here is my make - I did add the lovely washi tape Jo gave me - colored it with copics...added a flower to make it pop more and the sentiment was stamped with Hero arts alphas!

So there ...that was the crop.....just hang on a few more seconds...take a look at the photos of London from the sun roof.....
Harrods ( the bloody car just drove in front when I took the photo...huh!!!!)

Three in one....Westminister Abbey.....Big Ben and the London Eye.....

The Gurkin.....

And the Chard.....its suppose to be the highest building in Europe!

Still awake???? If not I hope you are having a good sleep.....but if you are still with me I wish you a lovely day and send you lots of hugs from sunny and very warm ( at the moment we have 24 deg C and it is the 19th of October!!!!) Slovenia...
CARDARIAN