HAPPY HALLOWEEN WOYWW

Daytime:

Night - be very afraid:

No craft on a desk today Julia, oh leader of the world desk hop Wednesday, instead, decorating the motorhome outside has been this week's craft project.

Have a spookily fantastic woyww.

DECORATED FOR HALLOWEEN

Not dark enough just yet for the lights to be switched on:

and I can't wait for their effect:

'Til tomorrow then....................

NO SNOW HERE

We didn't get any snow or at least if we did, it came in the night and had gone by morning. However, it rained and rained all night long and is very wet just now plus I can see some very black clouds coming this way. May just lose my web connection.
I think we are on the same pitch as when we were here at Christmas because we put lots of fat balls, peanut and seed holders in the trees in our little corral and the remnants are still there. Needless to say, we replaced the peanut holder on Thursday and have been watching great tits, bluetits, black caps and sparrows since. Yesterday we had a lovely walk in warm sunshine and blue skies along the Tees into Stockton and bought more bird food.
The rapids were turned off when we went past so here is a photo from our last trip:

CHANGE OF PLANS

We changed our plans to come to the north east Saturday, instead we came yesterday - Thursday, It's quite a way up here although a lovely trip over the hills and moors, so to come for just a couple of days is madness. I rang the site - who by the way have the most wonderful wardens we have ever encountered in  the Caravan Club - and they had Thursday and Friday available so we decided to pack up Wednesday night and take to the road early the next day arriving here just after 10am.

Just look at the sun on those hills, quite breathtaking.
No car this trip. We decided we can walk to enough places or get the bus into Newcastle if the fancy takes us. Having said that, neither of us can walk too far any more what with aching hip joints, knee joints and crumbling big toes. Never mind eh?

So, not much crafting 'til I get back although I have brought a couple of things with me. There is a big Hobbycraft on the Teesside Retail Park plus a Range at the back of us so I can always find something there if I get too bored.
Just going to try and catch up on the crafting world now whilst I've got a good web connection.

WICKED WEDNESDAY ATC #55 - FULL MOON

Whoohoo! I saw this theme and thought - I can do something else for my Apothecary. Thank you WW for this weeks theme.
Now, when I was making one of the potion bottles for said apothecary, I made some UTEE moons. I had a brass charm which was hollow and had the face of the moon on the front. Just perfect. I held it firm by sticking it into some Plasticine and then I poured melted gold UTEE into it. The one I used here is a little bookmark. So here is my card:

Ok, I own up, it's a little book titled 'Full Moon Hairy Herbs'.

Can you see the hairs???

They came from my step sons puss cat. Purrrfect for this little project.
I really, really had fun making this and will apologise for the photo quality. No matter what I did I just couldn't get a decent one.

WHATS ON YOUR WORKDESK #177

I got up at 7am this morning but thought 'what the heck' and went back to bed hence my late post today. I doubt Julia, the leader of the desk hop, will mind too much, after all, I've given up all hope of ever visiting the hundreds of desks each week that pop up on Wednesday. Sorry about that, but today's success is still wonderful. I change the way I pick the ones to have a look at from starting at the beginning of the list, to visiting the first 5 in each column, to closing my eyes and taking a stab in the dark. No matter how I go about it, I haven't managed all of them for nearly 2 years!!!!
What I have managed though is to see some fabulous spaces, clever projects and lots of stash that I would love. Not that much on mine though today:

Just the remnants of some card I was cutting for this weeks Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge.
So then, next week I will be in the motorhome up in Stockton-on-Tees. I booked this in order to take our granddaughter to Newcastle for some shopping experience as part of her birthday present - she turned 15 last month, but unfortunately she has made plans with her friends for Halloween and we will still be there so she has had to put a rain check on the trip. It also seems that there will be snow over the tops this weekend and we travel on Saturday - great!!! Winter never really left the UK this year and it seems it is around with avengeance again.
Stay warm wherever you are and happy woyww.

RE-CYCLE #2

As I mentioned a while back, I have 4 papier mache box lids going spare after making a Halloween Apothecary. I made a wall hanging with 1 of them and have now made another:

I turned the lid round for this one:

The colour theme is cream and green with silver:

The word 'dream' has been stamped onto 2 stiring sticks glued together:

Trying to pluck up courage to flick some wild plum onto it - or not.......
The next 2 box lid projects are in my head but they may have to wait a while as we are off to the north east on Saturday for a few days. Should have gone this week as there is snow forecast over the hills so it will be COLD.

MY HELS WORKSHOP PIECE

I knew I'd taken a couple of photos but they weren't on my camera or computer, then I realised, I'd used my phone. A bit of bluetoothing later and here they are:

We began with a 12"x12" page from one of Tim's stash and cut and folded it before decorating it with distress inks and masks. We used 3 techniques to decorate 3 tags and then made up our own decoration for a 4th tag using any of the techniques that Hels had shown us. I managed to stick to the colour combinations on the paper for all of mine and used the 4th tag to help decorated the outside middle of my sample.

The tags were placed in little pockets on the inside, held in place by 3 tickets on which we stamped various sayings.  I loved the use of several masks (stencils) on one tag, building up the decoration with different colours. I also adored the effect that the new metallic stains give, although I am still to open mine at home.
The whole project took all day so you can judge how many techniques we were shown.
Some samples were simply stunning especially the tickets made by Lou who had used a diamond mask inked through with red/white/blue. It looked amazing.
I hope Hels gets invited back to take more workshops because the day was fantastic.

WICKED WEDNESDAY ATC #54 - BUTTERFLIES

Last week, over at Wicked Wednesday ATC, was a celebration of their 1st birthday and there were umpteen prizes to be given away. Guess what! I won a $12 voucher to spend on Just Some Lines digis - which I have, whoopee and a big thank you.
This weeks challenge is a favourite of many I guess, butterflies. I am having fun using gesso and bits of paper, ribbon, grungepaper, etc. so this is my card:

The base is mountboard rather than just card because using both gesso and inks/paints on card makes for a disintegrated mess! I stuck little material butterflies together with hand - cut diamonds from grungepaper and scrap pieces of card border to the base before giving it the once over with white gesso. Once dry I used various green distress inks over the top. I have a gorgeous luscious green ink spray that has refused to spray from day one but it does make the most wonderful 'blobs' of colour which is what you can see in places. Finally, I distressed 2 card butterflies that have been waiting in my stash for years to be used on this ATC, stuck them together, added flower stamens for antennae then some seed beads for it's body. Another little punched butterfly and some darker distress to the edge of the card finished it off.
I enjoyed making this and it was so quick. Enjoy the different colours that my butterfly tea light gives and I'll see you next week:

ATCs WITH ATTITUDE - HALLOWEEN or ANYTHING GOES

This is our 25th challenge and we have 3 prizes for you this fortnight from our sponsors who are:
Beccy's Place - 3 digis for the winner
Fresh Brewed Designs - 3 digis for the winner
Just Some Lines - $12 voucher to spend in the digi shop

I chose my image - Fruit & Vegetables - from Beccy's Place and made an ATC -

I suppose my theme was anything goes as most of our wonderful DT chose the Halloween theme. I used watercolour pencils to do my best to create this 'still art' picture. It took me back to my school days when I actually had a piece of art put up on the class wall - a still art drawing all in blue. Never forgotten that because it was the only artwork I ever did that was good!!!
Pop over to our blog HERE for all the details of our challenge and to see the lovely samples from our DT.
If you would prefer to enter a card into our challenge we have our sister blog Fat Pages with Attitude for you to do just that. Looking forward to seeing your entries.

WOYWW #176

I doubt any of you, not even our Julia, envy where I am. Just to show you what I have seen from the window for the last 4 days, here is a picture:

Cheeky, no I'm not in prison! My OH wanted to return to the town where he was born (Rotherham) and see his school and the house where he was born and lived, so we are in a Premier Inn. Actually we leave this morning and not a moment too soon for either of us. So no craft to show you just this which is the desk where I am now sitting typing this post.

Must go and get a shower and pack our bags. Happy woyww.

NO DINNER

The restaurant next door to the hotel is literally heaving. We tried to go for a meal and knocked a chap down just opening the door. No chance of having anything then - not if I have my way. Computer out, logged in for 30 free WFi minutes and ordered a couple of pizzas and some garlic bread. they just rang me to confirm my order, yippee!!
I was so looking forward to a juicy steak but guess that will have to wait.
The room is lovely and we are well suited. Tomorrow sees the start of a 'step back in time' for my hubby as he tries to find his old school and the house where he was born, then we will hit the shops. Anyone know of any craft shops in the Rotherham/Sheffield area????

IS THIS RECYCLING?

I had to buy 4 papier mache boxes to make my apothecary but didn't need the lids:

so I am left with them cluttering the minuscule bit of storage space I have.
A certain time of year is fast approaching which means making and buying presents for nearest and dearest. I thought I would have a go at making. So, spurred on by my unbelievable canvas which Hels made for me on commission, I decided to bite the bullet and 'attack' a lid.
I didn't want to 'copy' Hels' design - not that I stand a cat in hells job of doing that - but it wouldn't be right and darn right rude, but I did want to - shall I say - have a go and follow the information I tried to glean from just looking and admiring it, if that makes sense. I hope it looks ok 'cos it does to me:

This is destined for a very dear friend and even though I know she sees my blog, I hope she likes it when she finally sees it at that 'special' time of year.

12 TAGS OF 2012 - OCTOBER

Somehow it seems longer than a month since Tim made the monthly tag. Got used to the 12 tags of Christmas I suppose. Anyway, how to compromise this time as I don't have the BOO die nor the ticket die nor the date stamps.
I came up with this:

I had everything to create the base tag so that was easy, I cut the spider from grungepaper but I already had the cat which was part of some pre-cut grunge from way back. The colouring of the glitter was quite messy and it took an age to dry so really it remained kind of lumpy!!!! Don't like that technique Tim, however, I do agree about the extra sparkle you get by colouring it with ink so maybe I'll have another go. I cut the October from the Lost & Found papers and stamped 'creepy' using some tiny Halloween stamps I have. The black wool tied at the top is also coloured with pitch black alcohol ink.
All in all, it turned out fine and I adore the colours. Thanks Tim for another fun tag time.

WICKED WEDNESDAY ATC #53 - ONE YEAR CELEBRATION

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all at Wicked Wednesday ATC.
I found this little challenge blog in their week 2 and have played along every week since. I know how difficult it can be to work with a digi image and a theme so I have the greatest admiration for the DT who come up with the best cards ever. I work with digis for my DT so being able to do whatever I want on the WW challenges suits me completely especially when I can look at the future themes list so my thoughts have time to form - well that's the theory anyway!!
For this week's card I've used a Magnolia stamp, some alcohol inked card, some sticky backed paper, watercolour pencils, a couple of brads and of course - a birthday candle:

Congratulations to all the DT and especially Jenn. Mwah.

WHATS ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY #175

Gosh! 175 weeks since our wonderful workdesk queen, Julia, started this phenomenon each and every Wednesday. How time flies eh? We do our best to visit each of us but not many actually manage the whole 'million' who now take part. I do try but generally fail miserably.
Well, this is my little space today:

Quite untidy for me but that's because I have actually been crafting over the last few weeks. I finally finished my 'big' project - which you can see HERE and HERE if you want, so the mess is the remnants of that.
There's a plastic bag full of scrap card etc, 10 brown bottles which have arrived too late for my project - darn it - a mountboard coffin which I didn't get to use - yet, a lock n lock with dried candle wax in - super for making bottles full of rancid yak, a container full of sand with a funnel over the top of it!!!!!, the usual punches, scissors, melt pot etc etc. - BUT if anyone can tell me what that yellow thing is I would be grateful - I think......................

NO PHONE!!!!!!

My mobile has gone back because it's broken - can't make or receive calls - so out came my old phone, a pay & go. The rotten suppliers have deleted my number because I haven't used  it for ages, but the worse bit is, they have also taken the money that was on it. Surely that can't be right. Anyway, this means I don't have a phone at all now. It's quite scary really because what if I break down and need to call the AA!
The phone companies are happy to take your money, contract or otherwise, but leave you in a mess at the drop of a hat. This is the 2nd phone in my 24month contract to fail. Thank goodness it's up at Christmas because not only will I be looking elsewhere for a better deal, I shall never have an O2 contract again especially after the fiasco down south when I couldn't get a signal most of the time.
Another little rant now - the new bins never came. Should have had replacement bottle and paper bins 2 weeks ago, even waited in for them (didn't want them, no room) so the council here are rubbish too - no pun intended.
One little bit of a surprise yesterday meaning that possibly we have a brilliant Royal Mail. I received my ATC swaps from Jenn of Wicked Wednesday ATCs, but there is no stamp, no franking and no PO label whatsoever on the envelope. How on earth the envelope came all the way from California like that beats me. My swaps are super, I love them:

Thanks Jenn for arranging the swap.
Right then, today it's cementing time again only this time I'm helping so the job can get finished before it rains once more. My poor old knees!!!!!

NO LIGHTS THIS TIME

I've had to download photos from my phone as I'm taking it back for repair and don't want to lose them. Darn thing is the 2nd I've had in a 24mth contract. It won't/can't make or receive calls so is no good at all. Anyway,  I thought I would share these as a follow on from yesterday:

Right, off to sort out this phone.

MY BIG CRAFT PROJECT

Oh crumbs! I've  been leading you on for days about this and now it's done I feel really worried. May I just take you back to my header statement where I remind you all that I am just an amateur crafter, something I was reprimanded for saying by friends last weekend!!
Ok, look at my left hand side bar where there is a link to Laura Carson's blog. There is the clue.
Laura has embraced Halloween and made an Apothecary - she is an American and they know how to celebrate Halloween - us, on the other hand, only know how to do the dress up bit. I could not find any Halloween craft in any of my local shops despite many requests, so had to resort to the pound shops instead. I did however, buy Laura's digi downloads of her image sheets and followed her video tutorials. My 3 'creations' I am entering into Laura's 1st part of her Apothecary event are:

A little glass votive coloured with red pepper paint dabber stuffed with black alcohol inked roses, calla lilies and black beads attatched to wire, trimmed with black beaded ribbon and an amazing black peel off. KIV the candles.

A bottle of mushy bones. This looks very simple but glueing the feet to the bottle was really difficult until the tube of E6000 arrived and saved the day

and a 4 drawer book of scary bits and pieces which I made from 4 small matchboxes and following Laura's amazing video tutorial.

Because I've made these 3 items slightly differently to those that Laura had made, I thought they were the most appropriate to enter.
Now for the rest. The second entry is this: drum roll here please -
The full Apothecary

It now sits proudly on a new shelf in my bedroom. Just to give you an idea of it's size, it measures about 23" high and the shelf is 30" long.

The first 'window' contains :
Frog Slime
Rotten Pumpkins Guaranteed to Stink
Dragon's Fire
Eyeball Bottles
Midnight Moonbeams

The second 'window' contains:
Gravediggers Mushy Bones
Spider Webs - Extra Sticky
Witches Brew Aged to Perfection
Black Cat in a Coffin
Rabid, Rancid & Rotten - made by Icky Potion Supply Co. Experts in Yuk
1000 Year Old Gargoyle Drool

The Dark third 'window' contains:
A Couldron Favourites Book
Full Moon Hairy Webs
Instant Embalming Fluid
Bottled Ghost
Black Widow Venom
Old Crone Beauty Cream

The fourth window contains:
'By Pumkins Fat' plaque on a stand
Eye of Newt
Poison
Haunted Dreams and Other Nightmares
Contagious Cat Grin

The top of the Apothecary is covered in spiders webs, rotten mummy bandage, well used dungeon candles, a jar of very large spiders protected by Mr. Bones, a few black rats, black creeping vine and several poisonous flowers and leaves.
This is the Apothecary just being built

Here is the back:

THANK YOU Laura for a month of fun.