Laura Rumble - Crafter

Welcome to my desk! You can actually see it this week instead of it being completely hidden under piles of stuff! Not all that much going on... - talc for making sticky things unsticky - bottle of water to drink - never a glass - I find I either spill it ruining projects or put dirty paintbrushes in it! - my gorgeous copper pot with my lovely paintbrushes - letters cut from a greetings card I was sent - I'm sure they can be used in a scrapbook page title - a couple of angels that need to be waterproofed to be put on my friends grave for Easter - paper towels - never too far away! (I am rather messy!) - a pile of chocolate from my brother and these stamps I won in a bloghop a couple of weeks back.  Yummy!  Unfortunately the ink I used to test them was a plummy colour and stained them, (this is the before picture) but hey ho, at least I'll never lose them now! Right I'm off to snoop around other peoples desks now... see stamping ground blog for more deets.

Finally back to doing a bit of crafting.   I started this card yesterday and finished it off this morning. Whilst I’ve not been able to sit and craft I have managed a little handwriting practice (as I can do that in bed) and put it to good use here. I’m entering this into Less Is More .   This week’s challenge is to combine three previous challenges.   I did a little more than three! It’s a bit of a coincidence because I had designed this card in my head before the challenge was announced and just hadn’t got around to making it. Week 4 – three squares Week 9 – a touch of red (strawberry) Week 26 – fruit (strawberry) Week 28 – one layer, ink (pen and ink pads) Week 33 – anything goes Week 36 – one layer, heart Week 43 – a bit of bling (glittered heart) I'm also entering in to lollipop crafts - anything goes, my first lollipop entry. and Creative Mondays  - anything goes . I’m off to write the card now so ...

It's Wednesday (again? already?!) so it's what's-on-your-workdesk day.  See here for the details... The thing is, it's really not a good day (M.E/C.F.S) and I haven't even sat at my desk, I've looked at it longingly but not got anywhere near it.  It is a mess with no space to work.  Hopefully next Wednesday there will be a bit more action to share...

  Here are my finished Easter Goodies. I wanted to give gifts for Easter but nothing big or expensive, and nothing that parents frown upon!!  You end up getting loads of chocolate that lasts for months and forget the reason behind it all.  I want to celebrate the reason of Easter so giving nothing didn't work for me, and so I came up with these. The plastic is recycled from packs of papermania buttons.  This tells you I buy too many buttons!! Each packet has a personalised tag. The first three use paper from Papermania Spring Life Colossal Paper Pack and seam binding to tie on the tags. This one uses Papermania Sunshine Collection paper.  This is one of my favourite papers, you know one that you keep and keep because you don't want to cut in to it! And this one uses Imaginisce Black Tie Optional Kitsch'n Floral paper. J doesn't do chocolate so I made a phone charm.  A red star, (she is a star to me!) a J, and some s...

I’d had this idea for a few years but due to M.E/C.F.S it had just been written down on the   to-be-done-when-energy-appears list.   (It’s a long list!)   Anyway I finally got it started last week and it’s now finished and I’m really happy with it. First of all I covered a 25 cm x 25 cm canvas with a few coats of black paint. Arranged my stamps so they looked good with the colours evenly spaced but still looking random.   And stuck them down. I love the way you can make out some of the dates and places of posting. And it will always remind me of my Grandparents whose house most of the stamps came from.   The thing is I now want to do a massive one!!   You don’t see so many colourful stamps nowadays though so that might just stay as a dream!

White With 1's March challenge is White, Kraft and layering...  Here is my effort. Unlike most scrappers I don't have any 12 x 12 kraft, I just haven't gotten in to the trend.  But I had saved a brown paper bag (one of my 'I-could-use-that-one-day' keeps!) which is kraft, right?  I used the bag as my starting point and layered a few different whites on top and then added the photo. Here are some close ups... I used my take on herringbone stitch to make a pocket for my tag to go in.  And one of my layers of white is a leaf from a swatch that I dismantled.  I love the holes where the binding went. Used a coloured pencil as close to kraft in colour as possible to draw a simple border. My kraft journalling tag...                                      ...

This card is for CCCB challenge and Crafty Ribbons Challenge  and Cute Card Thursday .   The theme for CCCB is ribbon and while I've not used a lot of ribbon I think the ribbon I have used packs a punch! And over at CRCB the theme is Birthday and at Cute Card Thursday the theme is Happy Birthday. I used an embossed card blank and covered with versa mark and interference gold mica powder to get a good sheen. Stamped and embossed a Happy Birthday, layered it up on a subtly stamped music score from papermania urban stamps and a piece of red to match the ribbon.  The ribbon was simply tied in a knot and fixed in place.  It's a wide, wire edged, embossed ribbon form crafty ribbons .  Yummy!

I keep discovering new challenge blogs.  Today's gem of a find is Case Study Challenge.  This weeks inspiration is by Laura Bassen: and the first thing that struck me was the colourway, it is beautiful. So I set to work all inspired and came up with this... I ran with the theme of houses and hearts but reversed them and stuck to the colours as much as I could. I used silicone glue to attach the hearts to the card to give dimension. A bit of garden twine - I love this because it so rustic.  I much prefer it to bakers twine which seems much softer and smoother.  Hand wrote 'New Home' in brown. I don't have a die cutting machine so I worked out my hearts and houses with a pencil, ruler and craft knife. I distress them a bit by dry brushing paint over them and roughing the edges a little. I'm not sure if I'm happy with this card to be honest with you.  I love the inspiration card so much and don't think mine quite matches up....

Just working on some Easter treats for my girls... I'm thinking: Add some ribbon, a little chocolate or small piece of jewellery and hey presto! I'll show you when they are finished...

This page is very girly for me but my subject was very girly at the time! I used little pink gems to accent the 'princess crowns' on the backing paper. Fixed the pink paper flowers with sparkly brads.  Added extra pink by inking the edge of the photo. Mounted the photo with dimensional tape. Used papermania cardstock stickers for the title and added a little bit of glitter. Added a scattering of pink hearts and a pink glittery butterfly charm. I'm going to enter this page in Incy Wincys challenge .  There are two tic-tac-toe boards to choose from... I chose; pink designer paper, pink gems and pink charms. I'm going to go and de-pink now!!  ;)

So this is my first Whats On Your Worktop? Wednesday and on my desk this week you will find piles of stuff that needs to find a home..!  Amongst the stuff is  A half scrapped page.  The lid of a graze box with a picture of cherries that I'm sure I'll be able to use for something one day. A label from a lovely surprise that arrived yesterday that I will keep as I'm sure I'll be able to use it for something one day.  (BTW they were coconut, chocolate and cherry squares and were very tasty) A little encouragement amongst the piles of stuff that I'm keeping as I'm sure I'll be able to use for something one day. A gorgeous copper pot made by my friend currently filled with paintbrushes.  I know - no one needs that many paintbrushes! And that just about covers everything. Does anyone else keep every random thing they come across in case they can find a use for it one day?  No?  Just me then! TTFN.