A Winters WOYWW

It's December 1st and I am officially in the Christmas spirit especially with snow on the ground, snow always makes me want to curl up in front of the fire and watch a good film, but not today I'm off to Tatton Park later this afternoon to see the house decorated in all its glory for Christmas, just a shame it's so cold.  Anyway back to the reason we are all here, What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday......

I know, tidy freak at it again, not too much on my desk this morning apart from a couple of challenge pieces, one for The Stamp Attic which will be posted following this post and one for my Oh Alice Guest Designer slot on Saturday.  I'm trying to stay ahead of the game this week so that I can decorate my Christmas tree on Saturday, I love decorating the tree, takes me most of the day as I don't like to rush it.  When do you plan on decorating your house for Christmas?

I just had to take a picture of my garden yesterday (Tuesday) with all the snow on the ground, it was very cold but it does look picturesque especially when your indoors LOL.  If you would like to join in the fun of WOYWW then click HERE and you will automatically be transported to Julia's place for all the details and lots of wonderful craft spaces.  Enjoy the season, wherever you are, Tracy x x

Heart Decorations

Are my entry for this weeks Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Our inspiration photo below is right up my street, I love the weathered feel to the pegs.

I was going to decorate a large peg but as Sarah had already decorated pegs I thought I would have a go at some Christmas decorations to hang from my fireplace.

I love anything heart related so this is where my project began with hearts cut from brown felt.  I have added grey stitching, buttons and silver ribbon to match the colour challenge for this week.  I also added brown rusty snowflakes.

I will hang these from twigs on my fireplace to give that rustic feel which I love around Christmas.

My second decoration has had a bird added along with grey stitching, buttons, silver ribbon and rusty snowflakes.

I have also added a Tattered Floral for its wing. 

My third decoration I made a smaller heart but this time in grey felt, adding brown hand stitching, a small brown bird, Tattered Florals and buttons.  Again a silver ribbon has been added to hang the decoration and I have also added a silver heart charm to the bottom.

 

I love the silver charm on this heart which matches the rusty heart I have used for the bird wing.

I found these decorations very therapeutic to make and a lovely change from cards and I even quite enjoyed the hand stitching LOL.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Tracy x x

Oh Alice Chapter 41 Off With Their Heads

`Let's go on with the game,' the Queen said to Alice; and Alice was too much frightened to say a word, but slowly followed her back to the croquet-ground.

The other guests had taken advantage of the Queen's absence, and were resting in the shade: however, the moment they saw her, they hurried back to the game, the Queen merely remarking that a moment's delay would cost them their lives.

All the time they were playing the Queen never left off quarrelling with the other players, and shouting `Off with his head!' or `Off with her head!' Those whom she sentenced were taken into custody by the soldiers, who of course had to leave off being arches to do this, so that by the end of half an hour or so there were no arches left, and all the players, except the King, the Queen, and Alice, were in custody and under sentence of execution.


Welcome back to the land of wonder and where the saying, 'Off with her head' is a regular statement! Well here in Wonderland this week, that is exactly what we want you to do. This week we want you to take your stamps and yep you guessed it,'Off with their heads'. So we are asking you to alter your stamps and mix it up a little by giving them a new head or body. Ohhh this is going to be sooo much fun seeing what you come up with!!!


Now here is what I came up with for this challenge, a little fun piece LOL.

I must apologise for the poor quality of the picture, my husband had to sort this out for me as I was in hospital all day with my daughter and did not return until 8.30pm last night, nothing too serious Laura had broken her finger, one of two I might add, the second in three weeks.
  


I knew that I wanted to create a black and white piece this week, and I had purchased some new "Greetings From Wonderland" stamps (available from THE STAMP ATTIC) so this was the ideal opportunity to ink them up for the first time.  I also thought it would be a fun idea to remove the Queen's head and replace it with the cats head and I loved the "A Royal Summons" text.  Off With Their Heads was produced on my computer and simply printed and added to my card.  To complete, I added three heart embellishments.  Hope you like my simple fun make this week. 

Check out the rest of the Twisted Team's creations by clicking on the links below:-

• Andi Murdock
• Donna Budzynski
• Emma Eads
• Erin Leveille
• Gloria
• Jessica Diedrich-Our Mad Hatter
• Ky Sanders-Sponsorship Coord.
• Lynne Phelps
• Margie Cortina-Sponsorship Coord.
• Peggy McCurry
• Randi Wall
• Sammi Betbeder
• Tasha Beasley
• Tracy Evans-Nov/Dec Guest

Up for grabs this week is a Scor Buddy from the lovely people at  http://www.scrappingreatdeals.com. So off with their heads for your chance to win this awesome prize. You have until the 3rd of Dec to play along with us and link your challenge piece over at the Oh Alice Blog.  Have a fabulous weekend, Tracy x x

Curiously Distressed

Time for another Christmas piece from me today. I have now finished the work in progress that was on my desk for WOYWW.  I have combined challenges for this one as they all seem to work together, firstly Linda at The Compendium of Curiosities Challenge which this week we are asked to work with the DOUBLE DISTRESS technique found on page 40 of the book.  Then we have the Simon Says Stamp and Show your DISTRESS INKS which works perfectly in with the CCC challenge.  Finally, over at The Stampman Challenge Blog we are challenged to use anything by TIM, CHRISTMAS THEME, so as you can see all these challenges work beautifully together and is just how my challenge began, with anything by TIM.

I started by creating a book approx 5.5" x 5.5" and using Tim's On The Edge Snowflake Die.  All the pages were painted with a couple of coats of Gesso and set aside to dry.  A coat of Terra was than applied to one side of the pages, I have to say I am really liking the Terra, the texture it gives is absolutely fabulous.  Two coats of red acrylic paint was then applied to all the pages, adding highlights of gold acrylic paint dabber.  All the pages then had DI Fired Brick sponged over the top of the paint to dull down the red to some degree.

My first page has had a Tattered Floral added, cut from an old hymn book and red Bazzil card along with a wooden heart, sponged with Distress Inks and gold acrylic paint dabber added to the edges and red thread added to the centre.

The inside pages have the Caged Bird and Styled Label added, both Tim's dies, as I type I am beginning to realise just how many TIM products I have used LOL.  The inside of the Styled Label has an image from Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash added and has been embossed with a snowflake embossing folder.  The Label has also had the Double Distress technique added too. 

You guessed it!!!!  The next pages also have Tim's products added too LOL.  This time it is the Carved Ornaments, two of which have had the Double Distress technique added and the other two have had two of Tim's stamped images added along with some hand stitching.

The back page has had the Tim treatment too with papers from his Seasonal Stash added along with any Tattered Florals I had left.  Hope you like my tribute to all things TIM LOL.  Have a lovely day, Tracy x x x

WOYWW 24th November

Wow another week has vanished, time is passing so quickly or it feels that way, probably because I have so much to do.  You know it's that time again, WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) for any newcomers.  If you have never visited our esteemed leader, Julia click HERE and you will be automatically transported to Julia's place for all the details and hundreds (well over a hundred) of wonderful desks to nose around.

I have work in progress on my desk this morning, another challenge piece and another Christmas card crossed off the list hopefully sometime today.   It's the first time I have used Tim's snowflake on the edge die and I must admit I quite like it.  There is nothing much else on my desk as I do tend to work on one thing at a time if I can, easier for my poor little brain LOL.

As you can see from the clock in the window, this picture was taken and 2.10pm on Tuesday, but to be honest I did nothing more after taking this picture, I needed a break and my desk remained like this until this morning.  I'm hoping to spend the day finishing my project and doing a little relaxing in front of the tv with a brew and a computer on my lap, blog hopping, well that's the plan.  Enjoy your week everyone and thanks for visiting.  Tracy xx

Fun With Dominoes

Thought I would have a break from Christmas cards this morning and make a small domino accordion card.  I will be entering this piece for the following challenges:-
Alter It Monthly - Domino Domination
The Sunday Stamper with Hels - Butterflies
Stampotique Designers Challenge - Girly Girl

I have some quite large dominoes in my craft stash and decided to use two for my covers of this accordion card.  Each domino has been coloured with Alcohol inks, Sail Boat Blue and Mountain Rose along with some blending solution to lighten the colour a little.   I have then stamped my images with StazOn black.  The accordion has been created from glossy card and coloured with the same alcohol inks and stamped.

I have added a heart to the front and back cover, both painted with rose acrylic paint.,

I quite liked the idea of adding her face and torso to one side and her legs to the other, just a fun element.  I have also highlighted a few areas with white gel pen.

A Maya Road butterfly coloured with acrylic paint and rose coloured buttons have been added to add to that girly feel.

On the reverse of my accordion I have added more stamping and highlighted more areas with a white gel pen which really lifts the page.  GirlZ Rule has been generated on the computer and I have highlighted a few of the hearts with rose coloured card.

This gives you a closer view of the highlighted areas.  I have really enjoyed making this, it made a nice change from Christmas cards.  Enjoy your day, Tracy x x

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas!

I have had this great set of Inkadinkado Stamps to play with this time around for my Design Team piece and the detail on the stamps is fabulous and work well stamped individually or with other embellishments and images.

I decided to make a pyramid card for my first piece which is created from Bazzill card stock.  My images have been stamped with Adirondack Inks Red Pepper and Lettuce.  I have also highlighted a couple of areas on my tree using a small circle punch and stamping part of the image again to give a 3D like appearance.  Buttons have been added to embellish along with the addition of a Merry Christmas ticket from Tim's Odds And Ends Set.

On the second side of my pyramid I have stamped the Bauble with Adirondack inks, adding ribbon and BELIEVE from Wendy Vecchi set of stamps JUST WORD ART.   I have added a bird from Tim's Caged Bird die and coloured with DI Fired Brick.  A button and twine have also been added to embellish my bird.

The third side has had the candy cane image added along with a second bird (both birds have been cut from GRUNGEPAPER) along with the Santa Claus image stamped on shrink plastic using StazOn inks.

My second card is a standard folded card, in this case 6 x 6" from Bazzill card.  All my images have been stamped as before with Adirondack Inks.  I have also created a Christmas floral using The Artistic Stamper Flower Power Sheet.  Must admit after creating these I really am getting into the Christmas spirit.

I would also like to enter these pieces for The Play Date Cafe Challenge and our inspiration picture is below.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Tracy xx