What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 495

I haven't been able to craft much lately as my mother, who has dementia, has reached the final stages of the disease and I'm spending a lot of my time caring for her along with my sisters and stepfather.    But..... I had already planned to have a Christmas card making session yesterday with three friends.  We have all known each other approx 40 years and have taken to meeting up monthly for coffee and laughs.  None have crafted before so I was delighted when they wanted to make cards.  It was just the tonic I needed.  We all had a hoot, and my friends were thrilled with their cards.  Apparently we are now going to do this every month!

We made two cards, one a Clarity with a glittered stained glass window effect, and the second a layered die cut card using a Sue Wilson edge die and sentiment.

So, what's on my desk today?  Everything that was dumped on it yesterday.

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I thought I would share with you the finished results from yesterday - I don't know who is prouder them or me!  Believe it or not, this is the best photo of six.  It was like herding cats trying to get them all quiet and looking at me.  Crafting and friends - the recipe for happiness.

Marython part Two

Second part of Marython cards finished. As before a couple have been altered/amended as some parts didn't survive the journey home.  Really pleased with the cards, given me plenty of ideas for making quick and easy cards that look good.  I've also made great inroads to my card making for this year.  Unfortunately the ironing still hasn't been done!

Children in Need

On Thursday and Friday of last week a neighbour, who is a talented singer, took part in a 24 hour Gigathon.  Kim was aiming to do as many 20 minute slots around the Southampton area as possible.  She was joined at each gig by other singers, musicians, and dancers.  She completed 22 gigs in 24 hours and raised nearly two and half thousand pounds. A fantastic amount.

I made this card and the Close where we live signed it to let her know how proud we are of her.  Everyone made the right flattering noises about the card and Kim was thrilled.  I say thank goodness for Creative Stamping magazine.

Marython part One

A couple of Sundays ago I attended my first Marython organised by Kraft Crazy in Amesbury.  This is a day is held in memory of a lady called Mary where you can make up to 25 cards and the day raises money for a local hospice in Mary's memory.

Some people made their cards from start to finish on the day, but as I'm a slow worker I just did the stamping and die cutting for the cards and left the construction to do at home.  Well, I've been constructing all day and have only just about done half.  Which is a shame as I was going to finish the ironing tomorrow!

I'm very pleased with the cards so far, there are many different techniques and styles of cards and I've been taken out of my comfort zone a couple of times - there's even faux stitching (my pet hate).

If at first...

After my first post back in April gremlins got into the blog and I was unable to add any further posts.  But yesterday the lovely Julia from WOYWW came to my rescue.  After a few minutes head scratching I'm up and running, well running as fast as the creaky joints will allow.

In honour of Julia sorting me out I felt it only right that my first post be WOYWW.  Not the best of photos (I will get better) but my desk is covered with Christmas cards to be finished from a marathon a couple of weeks ago and cards made at the latest Clarity workshop.  These may get their own post when I've finished them.  Also a Clarity die that a friend has lent me which I'm itching to use.

So big thanks to Julia, who also designed some of the cards for the marathon, for coming to my rescue.

First post and Clarity workshop

Good afternoon, and welcome to my first post.  

On Saturday I attended a workshop held on the edge of the New Forest by Angela who is a Clarity demonstrator.  You can find out more about the workshops at angelascrafthut.co.uk.  I had a great time and think it was one of the best one day workshops I have attended.  Of course all my fellow crafters were friendly and helpful which makes the day so much more enjoyable.  What I liked was that the end products were finished and usable.  Just lately I have been to retreats where the projects are only half finished and I have to find the time to finish them at home.

First of all we inspected the class goodies, which was a paper and parchment folder filled with gorgeous Clarity papers and parchment.  Both are so strokable - the sort you don't want to cut into!  

We then did some parchment work and made two cards and a notebook.  The parchment for the small card was stamped with momento (wanted it to dry quickly) and coloured from behind.  Mounted on white sparkly card and held in place by small Clarity brads.  For the notebook I stamped again in memento and used ball tools to infill with white work on the back.  Again mounted on white sparkly card using black Clarity brads.

Notebook

Small card

For the third card we used the parchment that matched a paper and heat embossed Tina's flowers and leaves stamps using versamark and white embossing powder.  These were cut out and positioned on card - I haven't put my sentiment on yet as I have to find out if it is a friends significant birthday this year or next!

The final card was paper of choice from the folder, this was embossed using embossing folder and then stamped with Clarity stamps and versafine ink.  Matted onto black card with a few pearls and sentiment added and the day was over.

 I must get better at photographing my work as the last card is a lot pinker than it has photographed.