WOYWW #230

Welcome to another What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, hosted by the effervescent Ms Dunnit  over at The Stamping Ground. Go here to join in the fun. This is the day when we wander about the ether world and have a good old mooch around the work spaces of fellow crafters all over the globe, getting inspiration, support and friendship along the way. If you've not tried it - give it a go - you won't be disappointed.

So the burning question is "what is on my workdesk today?" The answer is - not what there should be!  I should be sewing like a loony (for a craft fair on Saturday) but I got a bit side tracked by a new challenge letter for the altered dictionary challenge I'm doing with The Craft Barn...

I bet it's a bit more exciting on your desk today. Let me know you came, and your WOYWW number, and I'll pay you a visit later.

N is for ... Neige

Time for another entry for The Craft Barn's Dictionary Challenge. This time round it's letter N with no twist. So before we go any further I need to apologise to Izzy for playing fast and loose with my word choice.

As you know I'm using an old French-English dictionary and I'm using the French half of the dictionary for this challenge. I have chosen the word neige meaning... snow. My interpretation, as you can see below, is a snowman, which in French is really un bonhomme de neige, but I'm hoping that since my bonhomme is made from neige (OK if you're going to be picky - cereal box, acrylic paint and ink) Izzy will forgive me?

I have used Tim Holtz's Winter Wonder die, painted with white acrylic and inked with DI. The hat and carrot nose have been flocked and the seam binding stained with Fired Brick DS. The snow and snowflakes are heat embossed with Stampendous Winter Wonderland embossing powder.

I'm really quite fond of my jolly snowman :0)

L is for.... Lune

Oh my giddy aunt - squeezing in under the wire with this one!

The Craft Barn's Dictionary Challenge is letter L this time around - but with the twist of incorporating a window in to the design.

It took me ages to decide which L word I was going to use from my English-French dictionary, I finally plumped for lune meaning moon.

My happy man in the moon is a vintage image downloaded from The Graphics Fairy, the window is a Molly Blooms stamp with a Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe blind and Artemio stamps "wallpaper".

Thank you for visiting.

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013 - October

Hello and welcome. It's been a busy month here at Moonshine Manor and it has been difficult to find time for crafting. That said, today is my birthday so I have treated myself to some me time in the old Chambre de Craft and am delighted to have started AND finished my October Tim Tag.

You can see Tim's original design here. Once again I have had to work around my woeful  lack of TH supplies but I'm really pleased with the results.

I'm enjoying my Halloween crafting and seem to be getting a dedicated "spooky corner" in my craft room.

Thank you for visiting.

WOYWW #229

Hello again and welcome to another WOYWW. (Confused? Go here, meet our lovely hostess Julia and join in all the fun). I'm sorry I missed you last week but I was just too busy to make it in to the craft room.

I wanted to say thank you for all the lovely comments I got on WOYWW #227 about my WIP (work in progress) Halloween tag. It was lovely reading all your positive comments about the window idea. The tag is now finished and if you are interested you can see it here.

So - what is on my work desk today?

Well, today I am mainly making monogram keyrings. I'm over half the way through the alphabet now, but crikey, these little beauties don't half take some time to make! My first craft fair this season is on the 2nd November so I need to get a hustle on!

That's it from me - but what's on your work desk today? Leave me a comment with your Mr Linky number and I'll try my best to come and visit you too.

Creepy Castle Tag

I have finally finished my Creepy Castle Tag for the textured Halloween tag challenge at Our Creative Corner. My plan was to create a tag which gave a view in through the window of a long deserted haunted castle.

I started by die cutting a tag from cereal box board and inking it with Black Marble Dylusions ink then randomly stamped Paper Artsy ink splatters in Black Soot DI to add some extra interest. I die cut the window shape and applied multiple layers of Black Soot DI to the frame.

I used texture paste and That Special Touch Stone Wall mask to form the bricks and the same ink splatter stamp pressed in to the almost dry paste to add some extra texture. When the paste was fully dry I blended Pumice Stone and Dusty Concord DI over the bricks. I dried the ink with a heat tool and applied pewter gilding wax lightly over the bricks to further emphasise the texture.

I stamped partial images of spiders webs randomly over the tag to add more interest. The Beware embellishment is stamped and heat embossed and the cardstock aged with Pumice Stone DI and a paper distresser.

I stamped spiders webs and bat stamps on some seam binding with black StazOn and then inked the ribbon with Pumice Stone and Dusty Concord DI.

The tattered curtain is a piece of tulle which has been torn and inked with Pumice Stone DI.

A mini plastic skellie and some metal embellies finish the tag.

And finally, the tag in all its spooky glory back lit by flickering LED candle light!

Hope you like it. Thanks for looking.

J is for... Joujou

Can you believe it's time for another entry for The Craft Barn's Dictionary Challenge? This fortnight's challenge is the letter J with no twist. As you by now know, my dictionary is a 1970's French-English dictionary and the word I have chosen is the joyful sounding  joujou meaning small toy or plaything.

A little bit of fun - a yo yo hanging from the pointing finger...

I've been looking for a place to use my noughts and crosses stamp for ages!

Another clean and simple page from me - mainly because I've been up against it time wise but also because the vintage image (downloaded form The Graphics Fairy) kind of speaks for itself.

Thank you for visiting.

WOYWW #227

Hello and welcome, how lovely to see you again.

The Moonshine Family seem to be all over the place at the moment with visits to University Open Days at the weekends, so I'm a bit behind with my crafting. (Still haven't stared my Dictionary J page which needs to be finished by Saturday and I haven't even thought about how I'm going to work around my TOTAL lack of TH supplies for the October Tim Tag.)

To tell the truth I've been a bit side tracked by the October challenge over at Our Creative Corner so that is what I'm playing with at the moment...

The challenge is a Halloween tag with texture, so it's out with the texture paste again. The tag on the left is my prototype, but I'm liking how they're both coming on.

I thought I'd also post a shot from the "back side" of my desk. In the foreground you can see a silicone chocolate mould, which I'm planning on using for some Melt Art embellies, the makings for some felt key rings for my craft stall and two empty olive buckets for storing stuff, on the left you can just see my dictionary which is sending out "work on me" vibes and the rest is the paraphernalia for my tag.

That's all from me, short and sweet today. Thanks for stopping by and I'll catch up with you later.

Quick update - lots of comments about the windows on my tags - they're cut with the Small Gothic Arch die from Poppystamps. MMx

WOYWW #226

Hello and welcome to the first WOYWW of October - that's OCTOBER people! Even if you're not a Christmas fan you're going to have to start thinking about it soon!

(Wondering what WOYWW is? go here to Julia's place for the low down)

Not such a fun week here this week, I'm doing some "admin" and trying to tidy up a bit. I have a big pile of stamps which I just haven't got round to cataloguing (I'm an ex librarian and old habits die hard!) So I thought I'd get those done and clear the decks ready for my next Dictionary Challenge page and my October Tim tag....

That was the plan - but in reality it is all taking rather longer than anticipated!

So this is the organised chaos on my desk today...

I did three hours yesterday but the pile doesn't seem to be getting much smaller - I'm hoping some of the stamps at the bottom of the heap are ones I didn't file away after use and have already been catalogued!

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday wander around the workdesks of the world and I hope to catch up with you soon.