WOYWW -VI- Inky Messy

Hi all...
Welcome back to another thrilling instalment of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.. brought to you today by Brushos and paint and a Gelli plate...ohh and bubble wrap... also known as Inky Messy!

Last week my desk was naked as I had finished my projects and was too tired to start anything new. Little did I realise that I had caught a bad cold in Aberdeen and would be spending most of a couple of days in bed... I crawled out of bed for a bit on Friday.. but only to my lazy boy chair.. and struggled shopping on Saturday. Sunday was lazy and I was grateful to have Monday as leave (waiting in for the boiler guy to fix the thingie)...

I found out that I had won a Visible Image competition with the card I had made for Cat's birthday.. yay for £25 gift voucher... so I decided to make some backgrounds.. as seen below.

Inky Messy

Photo taken last night... but I forgot all about posting and even finishing writing oops!

Anyway... have a great week all x
Erika

WOYWW - V - 400th edition

Hi all,
Firstly, I owe you all and apology for not visiting or even answering comments last week.. I hope to rectify the comments later today (if I can) and will be visiting blogs when I can. I am mostly writing this because I didn't want to miss out on WOYWW400!

The weekend in Aberdeen was so very fast and fun... and just the distraction I needed.

There is no photo of my desk today as nothing new is there from last week. I finished the photo album and all of the cards I was working on have arrived so I will show them instead.

Final paw print card

Card for music loving Will who turned 21

Card for mental health nursing student Fran for her 23rd birthday

Card for a new friend Chris who asked for Navy, White and Grey.

That's my post for today... feel free to read below if you want to know why I've nothing started this week...

Have a good week... and happy 400th WOYWW!
Erika




The truth is, I spent most of yesterday at Southampton University Hospital in Nuclear Medicine having a Sestamibi Spect CT scan to assess my parathyroid glands which have gone rogue and are causing all sorts of problems for me... including pain, fatigue and worse of all,  confusion. Each of these have been growing progressively worse since I was diagnosed in November.

Parathyroid glands control the body's calcium and phosphorous levels, and I have been undergoing loads of tests and scans to understand how this is affecting me and the test yesterday should hopefully help localise where the glands are and which of the 4 are over producing PHT with the likelihood being a need for those to be surgically removed. I see my endocrinologist at the end of February for all of the results.

Hopefully I will understand more soon and can start looking forward to getting better.

Thanks for reading x
Erika

WOYWW - IV - Double sided tape mountain

Hello Crafters, Bloggers and those who have no clue how they ended up here... sometimes I wonder that myself!

Hard to believe that this is the last WOYWW for January... wow... !!

Without further ado... here is my lovely Workdesk  (as of late last night)...

Double sided sticky tape mountain

 On my Workdesk is my latest project... a gift for my friend's 40th birthday. Those with sharp eyes will notice two different colours of tape backing... I got through 1 1/2 rolls of tape for this project.. but I am super happy everything is now stuck in there. The gold pens are for captioning (a job for craft club tomorrow night).

In the background you may also see the paw print card... well another sneak of it. I will post the whole card next week once she has it.

You will also see a dragon card and a unicorn card... both made for friends.. hopefully they won't snoop here before they receive them..!!

Jasper came to visit me early on the process and tried to encourage me to tidy up by nicking bits... but as you saw in the first photo... he failed!!

Jasper encouraging me to tidy up.. and failing!

 I think I have mentioned him before... but here is my Craft Piggy and the proof that I am indeed down to only pennies... *sigh*... well I did make and post 2 commission cards last week.. but can't show them to you just yet...

Sad little Craft Piggy.... needs more monies!

 The good news is... the lady who I sent the Blue Kindness card to celebrated her 90th birthday on Saturday and had 30 extra cards to brighten her day. This also means that I can now share it with you. I hope it was worth the wait!

Blue Kindness Card

Well, that's it from me for today. I will try to get to all of your blogs but have to pack for my flight as I am out tomorrow night getting nails done and at craft club... then flying after work on Friday.  Please be patient with me... I will get to you all :)

Have a lovely week x

Chattys -II- Organised Chaos

Tonight was the second session of Chatty Crafters, the adult only bring your own craft club I help run at our local Community Centre. This week our numbers were up to 5... I keep hoping we will grow bigger... to make us sustainable.

This week, I was making a commissioned card (my craft piggy is empty and everyone is bringing out cool new products)... one of two I made for the same lady for her daughter and her partner's son. I am not sure when actual birthdays are to show you the final cards.. but I will ask!

Organised chaos

As you can imagine, crafting somewhere other than your usual space has additional challenges.. like trying to fit everything into a backpack that isn't too heavy.. or realising you can't finish something because you don't have the die cut letters you need... and most of all.. balancing what you did bring into some sort of organised chaos to work from but also to be able to tidy it all back up and into your backpack before closing the Community Centre and walking home again.

Still.. I'd not trade it.. I get inspired playing with people even when they are crocheting or cross stitching.. and it gives me a focus to get on and craft and not be distracted by hubby or cats or TV... or blogs!

Speaking of which... blog time is over... bedtime is here x

WOYWW - III - A Whole Lot of Paws!

Wow.. so.. here we are again Crafters and Bloggers.. Wednesday!! Time certainly flies when you are having fun :)

Brrrr it is -5C this morning in Andover, UK!!

The Blue Kindness card from last week has hopefully arrived.. so now we patiently wait until 21st January (well next Wednesday) so I can show you what I made.

But on to this week... and here is my desk.. as taken last night:

A whole lot of paws!

Going from left to right, you will see some marbled card which my friend and I made on Saturday... she wanted to learn about foam and spray ink.. and as it is my favourite thing to do I was more than happy to show her.

In the background you will see pink/red marble background that she made with black paste butterflies.. she left it behind for me to turn into a valentines card.. which I will play with soon.

Centrally is my newest project.. and I am attempting to use up all the stamps on my desk for a very special card. Unfortunately I can't tell you all about it yet.. but the Paws in the circles are a sneak peek for you.

I've also just received a commission for two cards.. which I hope to make tonight/Thursday at craft group so I can mail them out on Friday.

I hope you have all had a good week... I will be around to visit when I can :)

Ps.. now that I am enjoying blogging, I thought that you would like to meet my 3 furbabies...

Petal is 9 and we think she has used up most of her 9 lives. She currently has a paw that has no feeling due to a neurological injury she suffered when she was hit by a car in October... we are still grateful to the lady who hit her for picking her up and rushing her to the vet... we would have last her had she not made it to the vet so quickly. Petal is still very much the boss cat.

Biscuit (known mostly as Kitty) is 3 and a very chunky girl.. we did try to diet her but she went on a week long hunger strike refusing to eat the diet food.. to the point that she was lifeless... now we let her eat what she wants (within reason).

Jasper (JazzyCat) is 2 and is a very sweet, gentle little boy. His favourite thing is to pick up his toys in his mouth and race around the house at full speed until he is panting for breath... it's too cute.

=^.^=

Jasper (JazzyCat)

Biscuit (Kitty)

Petal (3 legged boss cat)

WOYWW - II - Blue Kindness

How can it be Wednesday already?

When I started this blog last week, I knew that I would be linking up with the WOYWW  crew, but never did I expect that so many people to visit my blog and leave such lovely comments.. and you know what... it inspired me to blog again.. so thank you!

But I knew that I couldn't blog an empty craft space again... I mean.. craft spaces are for crafting, right? So then I thought... what should I make!

I had a play with some distress crayons for an idea that was lurking in my head.. but it wasn't really a project I was ready to start in full force as I need way more time than I had available... so then I was lacking a project to sink my teeth into until I saw a post on FB from someone asking for cards for their Mum's 90th birthday... and that her favourite colour is blue. So that had me thinking... blue kindness... I could totally get behind that.

So, last night I had 30 minutes spare and I pulled out some pretty pearly blue card and decided to use a Sweet Poppy stencil as the basis of what I hope will become a very elegant 90th birthday card for a lady I don't know and will never meet.

See my desk isn't always tidy!

You will see the card on my glass mat drying (yes the photo was taken last night as I leave for work at 6.40am and wouldn't be awake enough to remember to grab a photo!)

My desk is also strewn with distress inks (from my play the other day), a crystal ball in the background.. my heat tool and trimmer on the right and various other clutter that I may need (ok I won't need it but I was too lazy to tidy up!)

Hopefully I will finish the rest of the card off tonight when I am home from work,  or I will take it with me Thursday night to the craft club I help run at my local Community Centre. A proper photo of the card will appear once I know it has arrived and been opened (not until end January though).

Have a great day everyone :)
x

It's the little things.. playing with my new Distress Crayons

It's 5.30pm.. you are just home from work and the kitties are fed... and although you know you have 2 weeks of laundry to do.. dinner to make.. a nap to help the jetlag to take... comments to reply to (thank you all so much!!) and several episodes of MasterChef the Professionals to watch (please do not tell me who won.. I honestly don't know yet!)... all you really, truly want to do is try your new craft supplies.  Dilemma.. "adult stuff", or "fun stuff".

OK.. I admit it.. Fun stuff should almost always win.. and in this case.. I set the alarm on my mobile to for 6pm and rushed upstairs to finally try my brand new Distress Crayons.  I have had an idea in mind for them since I bought them.. so with limited time.. I went from this:

New pack of Distress Crayons... and a piece of white card

to this:

Oooohh Aaaaahh

The results aren't great.. but that is mostly to do with the fact that my timer went off just as I added the distress crayons and I only took a moment to use a baby wipe to moosh them around a little. The effect of the blue is exactly what I was hoping for.. and now I know the idea I have will work.. but I will probably use distress inks for the final version of the card.. with crayons to highlight where needed.

It made me realise that it really is the little things that make me happy.. even in the smallest craft time :)

What's on Your Workdesk - I - A clean slate... well desk

Back in November I met a lovely circle of Crafters who were linked by two common things... crafting and blogging. I had one thing in common.. I love to craft.  I enjoyed the meet up so much that I thought, why not give it a go and try blogging (again).

I've not had a blog since the days of live journal.. and that has to be about 20 years ago, so please bear with me!

I thought that I would use today's post as an introduction to my Workdesk as it is usually tidy... and is unlikely to look like this again for a long time! Welcome to my space. 

Welcome to my Craft Room

There... see... it is almost completely naked... this makes me feel both proud  (it is a beautiful space after all) and sad (beautiful spaces inspire messy inky playtime which I have not really had mojo for in the last few months).

In this first photo, you can see my love of Iron Maiden, and some random mittens.. the little container with all the lids has seed beads in it.. and the rose on the door handle is one I dried a very long time ago in memory of my Dad who passed away 3rd January 2003. This space is actually used to hold my larger card blanks and envelopes.

Bits & Bobs

In this photo, you can see the shelves which hold my papers and card sheets.. you can also see the start of my work space which has a Hard Rock Café bag.. which is filled with the swag from my recent holiday in San Francisco. Also on the side are paint brushes, my inks, drawers with my stencils and texture pastes..

STUFF!!

This is the other side of my workspace.. smaller card blanks, gel pens, glitter watercolours, a spring wreath I made.. and even a couple of paper craft magazines which I bought for the cute stamps hehe.  If you look real close, all the way at the back, you will see a photo of my best friend and I 'murdering' each other for a photo taken at the London Catacombs lol.. it cracks me up every time I see it :)

STUFF (on the other side)

Lastly.. this is my actual workdesk.. well.. at the moment it is home to an orchid my directors at work gave me for Christmas as thanks for the past year.  I need to have a tidy up to find it a permanent place.. as the windowsill is full of candles which I love burning.. and it's a bit too cold for it to sit on the windowsill at the moment. In the background you can see some things I made at an Inky Workshop.. the first time I learned about making backgrounds.

My actual workdesk

 The last thing I wanted to mention is my Inspiration Wall, well.. it's more like an Inspiration Nook now. It was something I wanted to do for my 40th birthday, and luckily I have some amazing friends who took time out of their busy lives to make things just for me.. If you look at the right on the heart are all of the ATCs and tags and little star that came from the WOYWW Crop.

Inspiration Nook

Hopefully this little blog and overly tidy workspace will help me ease back into inky fingers and creative fun. Here's hoping anyway!

Happy 2017 to you all...  thank you for visiting x

Why SumBunneh? (About ME!)

SumBunneh... what a strange name for a blog... but it is also the name of my creative adventures. It came from something my best friend said to me when I was trying to think up a name for my FB page 2 years ago... he said to get a handmade card you really have to be somebody special... only true to our unique friendship where we spell things phonetically (or just plain silly to anyone but us) he wrote "sumbunneh" special. I loved that idea... that I'd be making cards for SumBunneh special... so the name stuck.

I should explain that I love bunnies.. and all of the cards I make have a punched bunny on the back of them... or a bunneh if you follow... so that also helped the name to stick.

I have always loved making things... and have always loved the notion that things made specifically for somebody also carry the gift of time and thought and love.

My primary craft is card making... although I do also dabble in other crafts at times... card making is the craft I always come back to... and where the majority of my craft pennies go (when I have pennies to spare).

I love stamping, texture paste with stencils, and am learning background techniques to enhance my creativity. I may have a slight addiction to Visible Image stamps  (you will see them often) and also enjoy the chaos of Brushos.

I don't often colour... but when I do, I tend to use glittery watercolours, gel pens or chalks. I still don't own alcohol markers... but I did recently purchase some distress crayons... I can't wait to try them :)

My chalks are my most prized craft possession.  My Dad (who left them to me when he passed many years ago) was a jack of many trades... including ceramics teacher... so had beautiful chalks which he used a lot... I hope to use them more this year too.

As for little old me?
Well, my name is Erika, but many people call me Riki.

I work full time as a secretary and "babysit" a team of around 50 people, mostly maritime engineers or consultants.

I am married (for almost 18 years now) and have 3 gorgeous cats.. who I am certain you will meet many times along the blog.

I also help run an adult only bring your own craft club on Thursday evenings at my local community centre.

So now you know a little more about SumBunneh... but if you are curious about anything else, drop me a comment and I will answer you if I can :)

My First Blog

Ummm so... hi!
I am trying to figure out how to use this :)
Big thanks to Shaz for fixing my logo for me so I can watermark photos xx

I even figured out how to add a photo... yummy cookie bunnies :)