What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday? #108

Can it really be Wednesday again already? I don’t know where the last week went!

Today my desk is full of merino rovings, ready to make some needle felted flowers.

If you want to see what’s happening on other desks more creative than mine, then head on over to Julia’s place.

I haven’t forgotten that I promised to show you what was in the last two drawers, but that will have to wait until Friday. Tomorrow my children get a bonus day off school, because some of their teachers are striking, so there’ll be no blogging then!

Do you digi?

A lot more scrappers are dabbling with digi these days. If you are thinking about giving it a go, then you might want to join in with Jessica Sprague’s Birthday Blog Hop today. There is a digital freebie on offer at every one of the 47 blogs taking part in the hop, including mini kits from Echo Park and Cosmo Cricket.

Maybe you don’t want to go totally digi, but quite fancy the idea of printing out elements to use on your paper layouts, cards or other projects. The idea that appeals to me the most, is that those elements and papers are there for ever and can be printed over and over again. No need to worry about using the last one up, just print some more!

Hybrid projects needn’t be restricted to paper either. A couple of weeks ago Alexa had a very inspiring post on her blog about printing your own fabric, which she had done with her own designs. How amazing is that!  Alexa used her home printer and some ordinary cotton fabric, for which she gives full instructions here.

While hopping around the birthday blogs earlier, I found another example of this idea using a special cotton fabric that is washable, once you have printed your design. The resulting cushion is just gorgeous and could be made using any digital paper designs. Imagine being able to have some of your favourite scrapbook papers as beautiful cotton fabric, ready to be made into anything you like.

So what are you waiting for? There are free papers galore on offer today and plenty of other goodies. If you want to try your hand at a digital page then are some ‘quick pages’ included, which just need a photo added as all the hard work has already been done for you.

If you don’t have a clue how to get started, then you might want to check out these tutorials for a digi or hybrid page. Have fun!

The free downloads are available until 10pm EST tonight, which I believe will be 3am tomorrow morning here in the UK

Upside down or right way up?

Once upon a time, when I started stamping, I had a black inkpad (don’t remember the brand) and a small collection of the 1 inch Versacolor cubes and they all lived happily together in a shoe box under my bed.

Over the years I discovered that there were many other different types of inkpads and my collection grew. They moved to a shelf in the dining room, but were not happy there. I found you could buy a swanky metal case to house the Distress Inks, but that didn’t help with all the others. Then one day, in Ikea, I spotted something which I thought would work very nicely.

If you ever stop by on a Wednesday, you get to see the surface of my desk, but not what lies beneath.

The unit has six drawers and four of them hold all my stamping stuff, except the actual stamps.

My favourite black inkpad is without doubt Versafine and I have all the colours in the small cubes now too . My original Versacolor cubes still going strong, Versamark, embossing pen and heat gun. In the other icecream tub I have a selection of alcohol inks and Stickles. Acrylic blocks are thrown in here too.

Distress inks, Stazon, Encore Gold and Palette metallics, which have my favourite type of case. The lid fits on nice and tight and you can snap it onto the bottom of the pad, while in use, to create a handle. A few re-inkers at the back there.

Brilliance and Versamagic Dew Drops and a few Cat’s eye chalk inks. A collection of Adirondack dye inks, which I bought second hand and have the worst cases. I think the design has been changed now, but these I find a pain with their flappy lids. Having said that none of them have dried out yet, even though they don’t fit firmly. Some Cut ‘N’ Dry foam in there, as I don’t get on with the Tim Holtz foam pad thingy.

Finally we have wet wipes, embossing powders and one of those tidy trays, which seemed like a good idea, but in reality gets passed over for a sheet of A4 paper!

So there you have it. All my inkpads in one place and within reach when I am sat at my desk. Not a single one stored upside down, for no other reason than I like to see the colours on the lids.

Want to know what’s in the other two drawers? Well that will have to wait until next week. I think this post is photo heavy enough already!

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday? #107

Well here we are again, on another tour around the crafty desks of the world, presided over by the lovely Julia. Although it would seem she has been getting a wee bit tetchy this week on the subject of inkpads! I have never stored my inkpads upside down, so the whole lid falling off issue is not one that has troubled me greatly. Anyway you came to see what’s on my desk this week, so here it is.

There’s a Circle Journal propped up at the back, so that I keep it in mind and don’t forget it’s due to be posted in less than a week. Some stamped cupcakes for a birthday card, ready to be coloured in this evening. Episodes 11 and 12 of True Blood Season 1 (I know, I know, I’m a long way behind the rest of the world here)ready to be posted back to LoveFilm in the morning. A Cowboy Junkies album that I just had to listen to, after hearing a snippet of a song in episode 11 and remembering how much I love it.

Pop back tomorrow if you want to see how I store my ridiculously large collection of inkpads!

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

Blogger has been causing me no end of trouble over the last few weeks, so there has not been a whole lot of blogging going on around here.

My plan was to comment on every desk during the birthday celebrations, but I only managed half of the participants, although I did visit almost all the others. Try as I might Blogger would just not let me have my say! Thankyou so much to everyone who left a comment for me, it was lovely to have so many visitors.

If you are a regular visitor, you may notice a couple of new additions at the back of my desk.

Thankyou so much Kay aka Toodles and Binks for the lovely PIF. The finish of the mannequin is a gorgeous coppery purple, which doesn’t really show up in the photo as it’s so dull and dreary here this morning.

By a strange coincidence I used exactly the same die to create the base of the little frame I made for my PIF recipient. I hope she likes it.

If you’re a regular desk hopper, I’ll no doubt be dropping by later. If not and you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, then check out Julia’s blog.