WOYWW 159 on Tuesday

Since the post is already up at the Stamping Ground, I have decided to add mine early. I have so missed playing along each week. It is great to be back!

As you can tell, my pretty yellow work desk has been pushed to the back wall, so that my hubby could make me a standing height table. Due to my back issues, standing is the way I have to craft for now. My dh took down my stacked cubbies and made a mock up of that famous Pottery Barn table. Since I had to push it against a wall, he turn one of the cubbies to the inside of the desk. This is where I store rarely used materials. I still use the yellow desk for sewing, since this is something that I can do rather quickly and not have to sit for a long time. And let me clarify, it is sewing on paper that I mostly do, not fabric.

Tonight, I am working on a layout from my daughter's homecoming, but below are two cards that I made earlier today. Both cards are quick ones, of course, with machine stitching.

Have a happy humpday!

Dani

Playing with Paste

Thank you all for such nice comments that were left yesterday. It really is so nice to be blogging again. I showed something that I had been playing with yesterday, and today, I would like to explain a little more on how to do the technique.

On the layout below, I started with a Kraft sheet of card stock. I placed a 12x12 stencil on top and used masking tape to hold it in place. I then spread light molding paste through and leveled it off with a palette knife. I then removed the stencil and waited for it to dry. (it takes about 30 minutes to an hour, depending on where you live) Once dry, I choose two colors of dye re-inkers and place small puddles side by side on a piece of wax paper. Any nonstick surface would work. I rolled a rubber brayer in the ink being careful not to mix the colors too much or you will end up with a brown mess. Then roll the brayer down the paper and hold upright so that the ink runs. Repeat. Once dry, I spray with a purple mist and added splotches with my Picket Fence Distress stain. To do this, I stamped the stain really hard on to the paper and it splats out. You might want to do this step outside and while wearing old clothes. Ask me how I learned this. And then, just build your layout on top of your design as usual.

Thanks for visiting!

Dani

It is good to be back

Finally, after a break longer then I intended, I am back! For those of you who have been following my blog and knew about my back issues, I just wanted to give you a quick health update. After five weeks of physical therapy, cortisone meds, and some much needed rest, I have been discharged and have learned some techniques to keep me on my feet. Since I am too young to be considered for the surgery needed (yeah, finally too young for something), I am learning to adjust and live with controlling the pain and flare-ups.

One of the things is sitting for extended periods of time. To help with this, my hubby has taken some cubbies in my room and turned them into a table for standing. You will see more of my desk on Wednesday for WOYWW. How I have missed these weekly posts.

I have been working during my break, but just for very short periods of time. Some projects have taken me two weeks to complete, which has led me to be able to try new things that before I didn't have the patience to wait for things to dry. One of those things was playing with light molding paste and Julie Fei-Fan Balzers Crafter's Workshop stencils. The first thing I tried was playing on tags, as shown below.

Once I became familiar with the way the paste reacts, I took one of the tags, cut it apart, and used it on a layout. I then dripped Distress Ink down the page using a rubber brayer. I am so in love with this technique, as you will see in pages coming up in the next week or so.

Well, if you joined me again today, thanks so much for sticking by me through all of these weeks. The prayers and well wishes were really overwhelming and humbling. If you are new here, I hope you continue to visit and see what I am up to.

Hope you have a blessed week!

Dani :)

WOYWW 153

I know, I have been missing in action lately. If you remember my back episode from a few weeks ago, well, it was worse off than we thought. Right now, I am on cortisone's and go to physical therapy three times a week. To keep with the "rule" of a short post, I will just say not much creating going on here. I am up to date on my card challenge, but I haven't taken the photos yet. The layout on my desk has been there for almost two weeks and still isn't done. I do a little when I can get out of bed. I just couldn't miss another week of playing along.

If you are wondering why the random blathering about my desk, check out Julia's blog to see what I am talking about.

Happy WOYWW!!

Dani

Just Add Water

Today, I created a two-page layout using a sketch from one of the Scrapbook Generations sketchbooks. I don't normally do two-pagers anymore, but I had more photos than usual that I wanted to include. I followed this sketch pretty closely because I really liked the clean lines of the design. I used Thickers for half the title and stamped the rest. I added the tag to give the journaling a place to rest and I embellished it with a bit of washi tape from my fast growing collection. I wasn't even sure how to photograph a layout this wide. lol...

While I was taking the above photo, I noticed how well the design of the first page would lend itself to a card. So, while the supplies were still out, I created this Celebrate card. Cute, huh? I substituted the sentiment for the photos in the sketch. And, of course, I had to add some stitching. The stamp was from the $1 bin at Wal-mart. I just cut out the parts I didn't want to give me a stamp that I liked. I actually do that quite often with cheaper stamps. It doesn't bother me to cut them up since I didn't spend a lot of money on them to begin with. Great way to build a collection of sentiments!

Card #16

Thanks for visiting!

Dani

WOYWW 151 *Updated with Cupcake Photo

So, this isn't my usual workspace, but for today, this is it. I have to bake turtle cupcakes for my daughter's work and I need to get an early start since I have a doctor's appointment at 10:00. Besides, the cakes have to cool so that I can fill them with caramel when I get home.

It is a dark chocolate cupcake filled with homemade caramel sauce. It is then topped with chocolate ganache, a caramel buttercream, toasted pecans, and just a drizzle of caramel for more decadence. Like it needed it, because this thing is really rich.

And if you remember the jar that was on my desk last week, this is it. I turned it into a simple vase for my kitchen. The tag can be changed, but since I like love coffee, this is it for now. I can't wait for the tulips to fall over in a day or two.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy WOYWW! Hop on over to the Stamping Ground to see what this is all about.

Dani

Baby Goodness

Morning, I mean, good afternoon fellow blog readers. I hope your weekend was great. Ours was fantastic. We had beautiful weather, surrounded by wonderful family, and babysat the new baby to boot. What could be better than that? Since her Mom would rather not have the babies photo all over the net for now, I am posting this cuteness below.

This is why I do not have any new projects or pages to show you. I didn't even finish my glass jar from last week. I was too busy playing with, holding, loving, taking photos, and generally spoiling this little princess. I forgot how little they can be. And bath time was a blast. She just loves the water. Okay, enough baby goodness, for now.

I hope to get in the studio today, in between the laundry and the cooking, and finish that jar and a few other things that are in the works.

Have a blessed week!

Dani