Laura Rumble - Crafter

Hello Wednesday Deskers! On my desk this week are the floppy disks I found and some black and white papers.  They will become a mini album.  For the first time I have started an album with no idea what photos I am going to use... When you make a mini do you have the photos first?  Or the papers first?  Or, as this one, do you have the concept first? Also note only bottles of drink on the desk... glasses, cups or mugs just end up paint-y and undrinkable with brushes and palette knives accidentally poking out! Here is a little sneak at the last mini I made that will be posted tomorrow... Thanks for stopping by, see you at your desk ! :)

I didn't think I'd be joining in this weeks smiles.  There has been an awful lot of sleeping and not much smiling.  But yesterday evening I looked out the window and thought, actually, life is pretty beautiful really...   Friday Smiles over at Annie 's is a place to share anything that has made us smile this week...

It's my turn to share a project over at Crafty Ribbons Inspirations today.  I have a large ribbon canvas that I made at the end of last year to match my new duvet cover and curtains. I have used a wooden frame from a bought canvas but knocking up a do it yourself frame from wood would also work well. I had a great big bundle of ribbons to start with.  What I was after was lots of different widths and textures and I wanted a good percentage of the ribbons to be see through.  I hand dyed a few lengths of white ribbon and lace with India Ink to get the right shade of aqua.  Once I had found exactly what I was after I divided them in to two piles and started laying out my warp ribbons - the ones that go up and down. Once I had roughly the right pattern I started stapling them directly on to the back of the wooden frame.  The key is to get them nice and taut.  When they were attached I started working on my weft ribbons - the ones that go ...

Having said last year I was going to join in every Rudolph Day I failed to join in at all.  Poor performance Laura  *shakes head*  Poor. New year, new ambition... well same ambition actually.  To enter every Rudolph Day .  The the rules have changed - two cards each month AND this is the last year so I must join in, no retakes next year!! So, here they are: Gelli play, stencil cutting play, a bit of added glitter, outlining in pen... So there we go. January *tick* :)

Linking this colourful smile to Annie's Friday Smiles

Happy WOYWW !! I'm a bit late with my desk-y post as the postman brought me a parcel.  I have a pile of floppy disks that have things on - but I have no idea what.  I ordered a USB disk drive and had a peep...  4 disks were readable - nothing of any importance, a few word docs of card prices from my time doing parties and fairs.  3 disks were not readable.  They say they need to be formatted but formatting will wipe the disks.  :(  The disk labelled photos/wedding is in this pile.  I am more than a tad gutted. Hey ho, on with the desk... I'm thinking the wire I pulled out of some wired ribbon looks pretty good woven together as a 'bird's nest' I'm thinking mini album made of the now empty disks :) I'm also thinking finish tidying desk before getting the next project out!! Thanks for visiting, leave me a comment and I'll return the visit :) p.s. DT call looking for talented non-card makers who use ribbon... WOYWW is full of talen...

I am very fortunate to have found the wonderful Jessica Brogan's card deck swap.  I joined in the latest mini swap with the theme of 'Permission to...'  You can read all about it here . Altering the cards was the easy part for me.  So easy that I got carried away in the creating and forgot to take any photos.  There was paint and there was washi and there was fun :) Then came the journalling and I was struggling (yeah, I know, no surprise there!)  I wanted my 'permissions' to be meaningful to me and not just empty words, and it took a lot of thinking.  Of course here I had lots of time to spare and part way through took a photo... I seem to have deleted my photos of the finished cards... either that or I have "put them somewhere safe"!  Boo!  However they have been sent off to USA, shuffled and sent off around the world.  I can share with you the cards that I received in return... An eclectic mix from all over the world....