WOYWW #89

Two cards on my desk this week, both using Crafty Individuals stamps.The card on the left uses the 4 Birds stamp, CI 184, and Owl Postage, CI 225. Both were stamped onto an oil pastel background made with yellows and browns, using Staz-on black. I cut the four birds into individual images, and trimmed the owl stamp down to the postage stamp edge. I matted this onto gold card, and trimmed down to leave a border, using a stamp edge blade.  I then cut a sheet of gold card to size slightly smaller than the card front, which is an A4 sheet of cream linen card scored & folded, and used landscape format. I cut the gold card into four sections and added some matching paper from the Papermania Earthtones pack. Two panels had very narrow brown ribbon wrapped around, then all the images were put in place, sticky tabs used on the two bird images that overlap the owl. A small greeting was added to the final blank section.
The card on the right  uses CI 001, dragonfly postal stamped onto an oil pastel background made with blues & greens. A sheet from Papermanias ' Antique Cream' paper pack was used to cover the front of the card, then I tore 8 strips from toning mulberry papers, and attached these in a wave across the front of the card. The stamped image was matted onto a scrap of dark blue card, and trimmed down to leave a very narrow border. Two dragonflies were made using Fusible Fibres and the dragonfly on the stamp. These were attached with silicone glue.8 small flowers were punched from pearl paper, in toning colours, and paired up, overlapping the petals, and secured with a yellow brad, again attached with silicone glue.
How to make the oil pastel backgrounds is shown on one of my pages.

I thought this may be of interest to anyone with a Tesco nearby. I went in earlier this week, and in their £1 promotion area, I found this pack of 10 DL size storage wallets, like the sort sold for storing peel-offs. I thought they would be really useful for scraps and offcuts of paper/ spare stamped images/etc, and ten for a quid is a real bargain! So much so, I think I will be getting another couple of packs when I go in again- you can never have too much storage, can you?

And talking of storage, here is how I store my brass stencils- photo albums intended for 7 x5 photos, they cost me around £2.50each, again they came from Tesco, in one of their end of line sales, I think. I have adapted some of the pockets, dividing them down the middle with a row of staples, or in some a row across the centre, then cutting a slot in the side, depending on the size/shape of the stencils.

Happy Valentines Day

I'm still with the easel cards, lol. I think I've got stuck here. Its nice to have more than one surface to adorn, though.This is todays Valentines card, using one of the Elusive Images Rose plates  from my desk a couple of weeks ago.Matted onto black & Burgundy card and tied with ribbon. A sheet of rose patterned paper was used to cover the card front.

  The triple embossed hearts were made by inking first with a mix of Fired Brick, Barn Door and Aged Mahogany Distress ink, then a few were stamped with a word stamp 'LOVE' before covering with Clear embossing ink.

 Sprinkled with UTEE, 3 layers, then some were overstamped with a swirl stamp and Gold Encore Ink.The INK IT UP Pad is my clear Embossing pad- It picked up red ink the first time I used it for this, so I keep it for Reds. These pads are really cheap- only a couple of pounds, so its no loss. The Really Useful Box with the spoon in it is my UTEE- I bought it off e-bay, loose in a bag- much cheaper than buying a branded jar.
They were attached with a few dabs of silicone glue.

For the base, I covered it in a pale gold paper stamped with a lovely Baroque style stamp, by Magenta, 26019-R.

This is the stamp, and this is what it looks like when stamped a number of times to make a larger sheet. Stamped in Gold Encore, and heat embossed with Gold detail powder.

The stopper part of the card was made by cutting a band of black paper which was punched along both sides with the Martha Stewart 'String Lace' Border punch, then a panel of cream card that had been stamped with Hero Arts 'Italian Poetry' , S1832, in Gold and heat embossed. The Valentine greeting was stamped & heat embossed  in Gold again on plain vellum, then matted onto black then burgundy card, held together with a gold heart brad either end.The panel was attached with foam pads.

As I had a few images, and quite a lot of hearts, I made up some more panels, as I think this will come in handy for Weddings/Engagements/Anniversaries.

Thank You Fiona

 I am a little late posting this Thank you, as my PC has been having some radical surgery this week! It now has some nice (almost) new insides, so the slowest bit of it now is the one behind the keyboard, typing, lol.
  
The very talented Fiona, over on Leaves from my Notebook, has very kindly chosen me to give the Liebster Blog award to. I very much appreciate it, it is lovely to know that other people enjoy your creations as much as you have enjoyed making them, isn't it?
The 'rules' to the award are:
to thank the person who gave it to you,
post the award on your blog, and link back to the giver,
choose 3-5 people who's work you admire, and pass the award on to them.
The first two are easy, Fiona, I thank you very much indeed, and the award is duly posted. Choosing who to pass it to is the difficult part. I have had my blog running now for a little under a year, and I have 'met' so many wonderful crafters, and been given so much inspiration on their blogs, I could happily award this to every single on of you.
However the blogs I am nominating are:
Arlene, Altered by me.
Nicky, Stiggys Cards
Cindy, Plants List
Kim, Kims Creations
Miss Magoo, Miss Magoos Creations


 I had a second lovely surprise this week, when Kevin Nakagawa, the guy who 'invented' the Stampscapes stamps, added my blog to his links in his gallery section. I am thrilled at this, as I have been a devoted follower of this site ever since I first came across the Stampscapes stamps. This Link will take you to the site,and if you have ever been interested in these stamps, there is an unbelievable array of work by many, many stampers to browse in the gallery section. I feel really honoured to be included amongst them.

WOYWW #87

This is my desk for this week, and I must be honest, this is what it usually looks like when I am working! Valentines Day projects at the moment, some  have been  ordered, others are to take into work in case anyone wants one. The stamped Rose image is by Graphicus/Elusive Images, Harlequin Rose Themeplate. A couple have been stamped in black Versafine & heat embossed, the others stamped in Sepia Versafine only.I have also used a mix of card, white, cream and some marbled. The roses I have started painting with H2O's/Artquest  palettes. The single rose is also a Graphicus image, stamped on acetate & glittered on the back. I punched out some envelopes, cut up some handwriting stamped text paper, and made a bundle of 'love letters' which is tied with ribbon. The gold filigree and Lattice hearts have been cut out with the Silhouette. I am posting this at a disgustingly early time, before I go to work,to give me more time to visit everyone else when I get home. So Happy WOYWW to everyone, and if you have just come across my blog, and haven't joined in this before, visit Julias Stamping Ground Blogspot, to join in the fun and get to see lots of crafters desks & workspaces, for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday.