WOYWW - Old Mother Hubbard?

Hello and welcome, visitors to Magpieheaven, where life is busy with my tutoring starting again and the cupboards are not bare exactly  - but - a mystery picture for you: what are these?

 They are dinky little models of what our cupboard doors will look like, evidence that they are an actual work in progress now!!! Kevin brought them over last Saturday evening and Mr Magpie forgot to tell me until last Monday. They measure 6 by 14 cm and I reckon they'd make a nice little diptych with some hinges on them!  Last Sunday I left my unfinished kitchen behind me, spread my wings and fluttered by Ally Pally! I met some lovely crafters there and spent lots of money - ah well, it was my birthday treat! Since then I've been playing with my stash when I should have been reading 'King Lear' and 'Jane Eyre' for my tutoring! I loved the chipboard flowers on the Paper Artsy stand at Ally Pally; but my money ran out before I could buy any. I've been trying to improvise! I'll show you an idea I had - possibly for a Christmas decoration -  in a minute. First I have to say if you want to know the meaning of this blogpost title and to join in with the best bloghop around hosted by the incomparable Julia Dunnit then click HERE and head over to The Stamping Ground. I will try to be brief, as I'm sure you'll all be leaping from blog to blog, eager to see other desks. I was lucky enough to get Happy Mail from dear Darnell on Tuesday! She took note of a comment I made on her blog about loving Moons with Faces and she sent me these beautifully stamped images to use! Thank You, Darnell for your generosity! I'll give them a good home! They are lovely!

Today I want to start another homemade book, so I've got out my waxed thread, my little pack of canvasses for the covers and some sketch books for the pages. My daughter has asked for one for her birthday on October 4th so I have to get busy. I have told myself I'll do a selection for Christmas gifts. Is this too ambitious??? Everything looks neat and tidy because I have to get things out as I need them and then put them away again, but once I get started there will be quite a mess and it will spread everywhere. My dining table is speckled with Frescos - gives a whole new meaning to dining 'Al fresco' I suppose! Maybe this time next year I'll be in my very own summerhouse in the garden!

Here is one of my experimental flowers. I made it with heavy white card out of a TH Tattered Floral, painted with one of the new Paper Artsy blues. The underlayer is some waxed paper also from PaperArtsy. The image stamped in the middle is from a Lynn Perrella plate and it's coloured with Portfolio Pastels mixed with Glossy Accents. Here is what it looks like on the reverse side.

I stuck the flower onto the bookplate from Tim Holtz's tag die and added another little flowery centre, I reckon the addition of some wings might suggest an angel and it could go on the Christmas tree. The flower is made of computer paper scrumpled, spritzed and then swiped through distress inks and when dry, dusted with Treasure Gold. This black floral fabric gave me the idea for maybe creating these flowers from linen, die-cut and stamped and painted with Frescos and fabric medium then stitched onto this fabric for a  project. What do you think?

 Oh dear, not enough hours in a day! That reminds me I must get those wings into gear and visit some crafty blogs to see what's on their work benches today! Thank you so much for dropping by. It's always a pleasure to read your comments - they brighten up my day!