WOYWW- 282 (with a toad in tow)

WOYWW - 282

Hi peeps, Thanks for popping by to look at my desk. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, visit Julia at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/ .)

This is my desk. If you have read my blog from yesterday (“Me? Messy?”) you would expect some paint, ink and gesso, but I have decided it’s time to start doing some Christmassy things.

I had bought some embossing folders last month and I was trying them out and then sanding them. I quite like the result. The box with ‘Martin’ on it, is a box of guitar strings. My husband had changed the strings on his guitar and was about to throw them away when I spotted him. He should know better by now that a crafter does not throw anything away! There are some acrylic stamps lying there with Christmas sentiments on them and I have been playing with my new snow crystal Spellbinder dies.

I keep all my Christmas craft stuff in separate boxes that ‘live’ in the garage. DH was kind enough to get all the boxes down for me. Oh I love that man! “Anything to keep my lil’ girl happy” he says.

Now, what did I find at my front door last night? A little toad! (at least that’s what I think it is). 

By the way, the 'vegetation' you can see on the tile, are fossils. They are real as here you can buy natural stone tiles with fossils in them.

 Isn’t he cute? Luckily the cats weren’t in the least interested, or they would have had him for supper....

Sorry I'm late today. We've traveled all the way to Malaga airport to pick up DD and grandson1. We'll be busy spending precious time with them so I'm sorry but I probably won't have time to comment much this week. I'll try and do some in the course of the week though.

Thanks for visiting. I'll blog about an update of the building project, which is going splendidly later on this week.

Bye for now,

many blessings,

Lisca

Me? Messy? Scrapbook page

Me? Messy? Scrapbook page

 I really like doing the scrapbook challenges of CSI Color, Stories and Inspiration. (http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/)

This was last week's challenge:

The colors were a good combination. I really liked them and I made a layout with all of those.

This is my layout which I called: 'Me? Messy?'

The evidence is found in the polka dots, triangles, ribbon (small yellow piece sticking out), buttons, metal (the brad) and flowers.

Testimony: I decided to journal about my creativity. The other week’s “Left brain/right brain” challenge got me thinking. I really want to develop the right side of my brain, but it’s not easy.

The journaling is hidden behind the photo and reads:

"After having done a scrapbook page about right and left sides of the brain and coming to the conclusion that I am firmly in the left sided camp, I decided I wanted to develop the right side of my brain. This means being creative, thinking outside the box, and in scrapbook terms: being messy!

This is a photo of my desk. Not a paint brush in sight, no gesso or ink sprays. No palette knives or torn up books or modelling paste. This has got to change. I’m going to make an effort. I have sourced some gesso and modelling paste... I’m using my ink for the first time and I made sure the photo was not straight!

I’m still ‘afraid’ of the ink. I will have to watch some tutorials and learn. I’ll have to be a bit bold and try things out. This is a completely new journey for me. I would never have dared embark on this journey if I didn’t have such encouraging  online craft friends.  So a big thank you to all of you!"

I was given two little plant pots at the check out at Lidls supermarket a while ago. The plants looked half dead and they were handing them out to anyone who wanted one. Then with a bit of TLC and water this is the result: Some gorgeous pansies!

That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow showing you my desk for Whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday.

Until then, 
Blessings
Lisca

WOYWW 281 - Lisca gets messy!

WOYWW 281 – Lisca gets messy!

A few weeks ago the CSI challenge was to do a layout about being left or right brained. (see my blog of  Oct 14^th). I discovered I am very left brained (maths, science, logic). I’m trying to be right brained (music, art, creative). You can imagine that mixed media is outside my comfort zone and that I don’t do ‘messy’. But of course I’m going to try. Who knows, I might like it....

Well, every tutorial I have looked at mentions the word Gesso and ModPodge and modelling paste. These things were not available here (so I thought). I have since found a Spanish company that sells this stuff and yesterday my parcel arrived! Woohoo! (I bought the biggest tub of gesso they had, just lets hope it doesn’t dry out....)

Here is my desk last night. There is a 12x12 page with my first attempt at being messy. There are palette knives, a stencil, some bits of sponge and a large tub of gesso. There are also some acrylic stamps that arrived with the gesso. I managed to get some sentiments in Spanish. Very useful for when I do workshops with local ladies.

Here is a close-up of the stamps.

In case you’re wondering what I did with the dolly stamp I had on my desk last week... I made some large tags. One with ‘happy birthday’ on it for a birthday girl, and another one with a Bible verse on it for another friend.

Then just to finish, I’d like to show you what I found growing outside our cave house the other day.... yes, they are autumn crocuses. Aren’t they lovely?

Thank you for visiting my desk and I look forward to visiting as many people as I can over the next few days. (Last week I started at number 1, this week I’ll start at the end I think...)

Bye for now. Hugs

Lisca

Our life here in Spain: almond shells

Hi peeps,

Thanks for popping by. 

This blog is not only about crafting but also about our life here in Andalucia. Today we went to Zujar with our friend David to buy almond shells. We’d bought some new sacks and armed with twine, scissors and a bucket we bagged our almond shells directly at the plant. This is the fuel for our stove this winter. (It does get quite cold because of the altitude: 1200m).

The mountain of almond shells at the plant is enormous. I’d never seen so many in my life! It didn’t take long to bag them. The men did the filling and I tied up the bags with twine.

We got very dusty, but luckily there was a compressed air blower thingy. And when we had finished bagging we played with the ‘blower’ to get the dust off our clothes. We 'blew' ourselves and each other. There is also a water hose. David picked it up, thinking it was air. He realized only just in time that he was about to get wet!

The boys loaded all 32 bags onto the trailer and the pick-up. 

Graham then drove the car onto the weigh bridge to calculate 

how much we had bagged. I went into the office to pay the bill, and that was a good morning’s work done. 

I'd never done this before. Normally we have it delivered by the lorry load in a friend's garden.. This is much easier. We shared this load with David and soon we shall get another load. That then should get us through the winter.

Thank you for visiting my page,

God bless you all.

Lisca

Update on building project and craft desk

Update for those who are interested:

We’re living in an old cave house in Andalucia, Spain, while we construct a house next door.  My desk is a fold up table, and there is a limited amount of stash (all my stuff is still in the house that we have been living in before). It’s a good exercise as I have to craft with what I’ve got, and I have to find ways round not having everything at hand. (if you understand what I mean).

My husband kindly got me my comfy chair, the shelf unit thingy, and a box of stash from the other house! Oh I’m a happy bunny now!

So happy, in fact, that I made him his favourite raisin and walnut bread. (See photo) While I was baking, I also made a loaf of brown bread the lazy way (a bread mix from Lidl). Yum, freshly baked brown bread with real butter and cheese.....

The build is going well. We are building over 4 levels as we are on a hill. We've reached the top level, and this week I hope the roof will go on that top bit.  We should really hang out the flag (only, I haven’t got one....). Level 3 has a lounge with an arch (and a view). 

Here is a picture of me sitting on the beginnings of the arch. Tomorrow, weather permitting (it’s been raining) the builders will put bricks around this mould. When the cement is dry, they take away the mould. Voila an arch! Easypeasy.

Thank you all for your interest and lovely comments.

CU soon and God bless,

Lisca

WOYWW 280 My desk in our cave house

Oops. It’s Wednesday again! Desk hopping time!

Welcome to my desk in our cave house! My posts have been becoming longer and longer, so before Julia tells me off, I will just show you my desk. For those who are interested to know the progress of the building project and what nice things I have baked etc, just scroll down to the next blog and it will all be revealed....

So here is my desk. I’ve moved it to the other side of the room and have added two lamps and my comfy desk chair. My DH brought over another big box of craft supplies from the other house, so I’m a happy bunny. You can see my finished project (scrapbook page ‘Left and Right Brained’ from previous post) and I’m still playing with my dolly stamp. I’m using the Sizzix cutting pads to stamp with as I don’t have an acrylic block big enough. I really must stop playing and start making something. One of my girlfriends has a birthday this weekend, so my goal is to make her a card..... Next week you will see if I realized my goal....

Thank you everybody who has commented and who has shown an interest in what is happening here in Spain. I get really excited when I get comments.

Bye for now. God bless everybody.

Lisca

PS. If you have no idea what this desk hopping is all about, please have a look at Julie’s website http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Scrapbook page 'Left and Right'

Left and Right Brained

The CSI Color, stories and inspiration challenge of last week was about being right or left brained. Of course all those very artistic and creative people are all right brained. I did an online test and I seem to be mostly left brained. It's only a bit of fun because in reality we use both sides of our brain simultaneously. 
I enjoyed this challenge. And this is how I solved this case file:

The colors are all there and the evidence lies in arrows, plain white background and a speech bubble as well as numbers, a heart and circles. The ampersand (which I had to look up as I didn’t know what that was) is there too.

The testimony is about being left or right brained.

The journaling reads:                

“I’ve always been ‘left-brained’. I love maths, logic and symmetry. I managed a science degree and always loved studying. (I worked as a nurse because I believe this is what God wanted me to do). Now I’m retired, I really want to use the right side of my brain. I want to express myself, I want to create. Not easy as that R side is not used to being used. I want to do messy. I will try not to put everything in a straight line and get used to a-symmetrical.

I read somewhere that the concept of R & L brained is not to be taken literally. In reality we use both sides of our brain simultaneously. That sounds logical to me:  Left and Right!”

You might wonder about the photo. Of course we don’t have photos of our brain, but I thought my head was the nearest I could get. It’s a photo my husband took of me asleep during my chemo. It was the time I had recently retired and was looking forward to having some time to do crafting. But the chemo makes your brain slightly ‘fuddled’. So I was neither right nor left brained at that time but fuddle-brained! 

Thanks for looking and see you on Wednesday when I show you what's on my desk and will give an update on the building project.

God bless

Lisca

WOYWW 279:“No more kitchen table!!”

WOYWW 279 Whats on your workspace Wednesday. 

“No more kitchen table!!”

We’re desk hopping again. If you don’t know what I mean, go to http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/  where Julie will explain how it all works.

I now have a craft space! No more kitchen table! Let me explain: We are constructing our house next to an old cave house and while we are building, we are living in the old cave. My DH has cleared (and cleaned, bless him) a room for me to craft in! The furniture is what we found here when we bought the place.

The fold up table has come out of its box, a light (plus safe electrics) have been rigged up and the old stove now has a chimney pipe so it can be used when winter comes.

Isn’t that stove a beauty. We’ve tried it and it works! The winters here can be cold because of our altitude (we are in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.)

On my desk is my finished layout ‘Where the wild things are’ (see my previous blog page) and a ‘dolly’ stamp I have been playing with. I'm going to have a stab at 'colouring in'. I got my box of water colour pencils out (has never been used) and I’ll try to make a card for a friend. I'm seeing so many cards on WOYWW that I've really been inspired to do some again. (Although people in this country don't give each other cards.... but that's about to change!)

The new CSI challenges have been printed out and are beckoning, but I’m not sure I’ve got any papers in that colour. (I have very limited supplies. But that is a challenge in itself: scrap with what you’ve got...)

A lot of people have asked me for photos of the construction. There is one at the end of my previous blog and here is another one. We’re building on several levels and this is the ground floor, which now has a roof. What you see will be a lounge/kitchen/diner, a bedroom and a bathroom.

I cook for the workmen too as they live too far to go home for lunch. Yesterday I made a ‘mean’ lasagna. There’s just a little bit left, so if anyone is peckish..... I’ve got red wine ready too.

That’s it for today. Thanks for visiting. Pop round any time you like for a virtual glass of something (This is Spain: plenty of wine, lol!)

And I really appreciate all your kind comments.

God bless.

Lisca

Where the Wild things Are (scrapbook page)

Where the Wild Things Are 

Hi peeps! Thanks for visiting my blog. I'd like to show you these unusual trees and the scrapbook page that I made of that photo.

The challenge this week with CSI Stories, Colors and inspiration, (http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/) was:

'Document something strange or weird.' 

Well, these ‘trees’ in my opinion are the weirdest things I’ve ever seen! (Very beautiful though!) 

We were in Calpe, on the Costa Brava in Spain in January last year when we walked along the seafront boulevard and spotted these trees/cacti. I had never seen anything like this and I have no idea what they are called. Does anyone know?

I managed the two green colours and the purple, which I thought was a gorgeous combination although I would never have chosen it... There is some white (not a lot I admit) and black in the lettering.

The evidence is found in the leaves, cogs and gears which I have all covered with glossy accents (which might not be so obvious in the photo). There is a black ‘wire’ and I did fake sewing which could count as penwork as I did it with a pen.

The wordart is from Elegant Wordart (A lady called Bethany in El Paso, but who no longer does that since last year). 

The two patterned papers are bits of real handmade papers from India which I received as a birthday present a few years ago. They are all bright colours so I’m glad I got to use some more of it.

The words 'Where the wild things are' is printed from my computer (with a printer) but then I managed to smudge the ink! aarghh! So I had to hide the worst smudge with a black 'cog' and flower, the rest is still visible, but hey, that's life!

I'm still crafting on my kitchen table! Still living in a building site, but at least the build is going well. We had some rain yesterday but that was in the evening and it didn't affect the work. From now on it's going to be warm and sunny again. Once the roof is on it won't matter so much. Here's a shot:

That's it for today. Thanks for popping by and for your lovely (and encouraging) comments.

God bless

Lisca

WOYW?W 278

Hi peeps,

Thank you for visiting my desk. Yes, it’s desk hopping time again. If you don’t understand what I mean, have a look at Julie’s blog at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

But beware! It’s highly addictive!

I'm early today. I got woken up by the sound of the cement mixer. The workmen are here.....
This is what my ‘desk’ looks like today.

 As many know, we are living on a building site so I use the kitchen table when available. It makes me very disciplined in that I have to put everything away every time. My ‘desk’ today is a small occasional table as the kitchen table is occupied with something else. (see further down).

As you can see I busted my (kitchen) scissors! No panic! I found another pair in my craft box/crate. And later today I will have to go to the shops and get another one for the kitchen. 

I’m in the process doing a layout using CSI’s latest challenge and palette. (http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/) You can see some papers and bits that I've prepared so far. I've just die-cut some leaves as the brief mentions leaves. I’ll show you next week what I've done.

For those who wondered what I did with the papers I had on my desk last week.... here is the finished layout which I called Ship Ahoy! It’s about an adventure. In 1955 I went to stay in England for 3 months without my parents at the tender age of 4. I've used the original (tiny) photos. Have a look and read about it in my previous blog.(Friday 26 Sept)

Now in case you’d like to know what is actually on the kitchen table... it is this jigsaw! I’ve nearly finished it. It’s from the series ‘Buried Blueprints’ by artist Albert Lorenz, who’s work I love. I haven’t decided what to do with the finished puzzle: do I take it apart again? Or shall I frame it?

Some people have asked me how the build is going. We’re building on a hillside, so the foundations are extensive. We've only just finished the foundations. There’s no point in showing you a photo because there’s nothing to see, but I will show you as soon as we have completed something above ground.

That’s it for today.

Have a good week and God bless you all.

Lisca