WOYWW #108

Happy WOYWW to everyone, pop over to the Incredible Julia Dunnitsfor this weeks wander around the workdesks.

This is whats on my desk at the moment- a pair of new blades for my Silhouette, courtesy of E-bay, and two purchases from The Works. A flexible ruler, which I thought 'will come in useful'- I have a houseful of stuff bought under THAT particular mis-apprehension, lol, and the book, Handmade Celtic Cards, by Paula Pascual.

Its a Search Press book with 48 pages, full colour, and some lovely ideas.

As you can see, nice clear illustrations & directions.

Lots of ideas, using stamping, embossing & peel-offs onto card, acetate & metal or metal foil.

And as it was reduced to 99p, I consider it my bargain of the month!

The reason there is so little to see on my desk this week, is that I intended to spend Sunday crafting, to give me stuff for this week. However, that plan went out the window thanks to Ambrose.You may recall seeing him on my post a couple of weeks ago, looking quite handsome. This is a photo of him taken today.

You see the bald spot over his eye? This actually looks a lot better now than it did on Sunday morning. I had taken my coffee out to sit on the decking, with a cigarette (or two), before getting down to stuff, and he comes walking up the garden, looking like the definite loser in a recent brawl! The swelling above his eye was seriously raw, and looked infected. Looking closer, I saw a tick just below his ear, and I think he must have been trying to scratch it off and had scratched off all the fur, and made it bleed. So a visit to the vets was needed, and fortunately, Pets At Home have a vet on the premises on Sundays. 

So he is now on antibiotics- and we had the choice of tablets or liquid. Given the trouble we have had before trying to get pills down him, and believe me we have tried every known method, and invented a few ourselves, we went for liquid. While not exactly any easier, at least he has to swallow liquid- pills he just keeps in his mouth until you finally release him, then spits them out. We've held his mouth shut and stroked his throat for 10 minutes before now- doesn't work- put pills in food- he just eats around it! The difficulty comes in because he HATES being picked up or held- he loves to be fussed, but is not a lap cat, and really dislikes being handled. So it takes at least two of us to get his medication down him, twice a day, and is really not the ideal start to your day at 5.30am! But as I say, it is doing the trick, because he does look better. The other news is that he is now on a strict diet,lol. Apparently he is overweight- 6 kilos, and he should only be 4. So now he is on dried cat food, a rationed amount daily. I admit, looking at the side of a box of Whiskas pouches last night, ( maybe I should have done this before), it does say that a neutered cat should have no more than two pouches, or 1 1/2 pouches & 50 grms of dried food a day. Ambrose had 2 pouches for breakfast!

 To add insult to injury, it was stiflingly hot here on Sunday night, even with the windows open & fan on, I was so hot I couldn't sleep, so eventually I turned myself around on the bed, and lay down again with my head at the foot of the bed, closer to the fan. I did then drift off to sleep- I know this because I got an extremely sudden awakening. I obviously turned over in my sleep. and because I was facing the opposite direction, -THUD- I landed on the floor! I sat up, somewhat startled, and my Beloved Husband ( who had woken up at the thud) checked I was alright, then howled with laughter at me! And no, there are no pictures of that particular event,lol.

WOYWW #107

Good Morning WOYWW'ers, and I am posting early this week. My work hours have been changed slightly, I don't start till 7.00am, so I have time to post this before I go. It means I don't finish till 4.30pm, which I don't like, but then again, I REALLY don't do early mornings either! No pleasing some people is there?To anyone who doesn't know what this is all about, pop over to the Awesome Julia Dunnits at The Stamping Ground, 

                                                                 and come join the fun.

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You will probably remember seeing this card before, but in blue. I was asked to make another, for a girl, so I had to go pink. Really NOT my favourite colour, I think I have told you that before too- I am getting very repetitive, aren't I?
 I made it the same way, using Stix-2 double sided adhesive film on acetate, much quicker for glitter than waiting for glue to dry.
       The stamps are by Elusive Images( now Chocolate Baroque) but I think it may be retired.

The punched border of mulberry paper was done by attaching the mulberry paper to some cheap printer paper with a couple of bits of tape, then punching it, with the copy paper on top. You can get a nice relatively clean cut this way.

 The vellum was stuck down with a glue tape roller, which doesn't show on pale colours. The only problem can be getting 'sticky edges'- where some of the tape goes over the edges.
However, I have the perfect thing for this: an adhesive eraser.





This is a spare, the package says it removes all Xyron adhesives, but I have not yet found a glue it does not remove, even liquid glues once they have dried, of course. Its a really useful bit of kit, and I am probably going to show my age here, but do any of you remember the sandals we used to wear in the summer,when we were kids, usually Burgundy or Dark blue? Do you remember the soles of them? Well this adhesive eraser is just like the stuff that the soles were made from.

 You can trim it down once it starts to get mucky, you can see I have cut the corners off this one.


This is the 'before' pic, and if you click it to enlarge, you will see little patches of adhesive down the edge of the vellum.

This is after its been cleaned up with the eraser.
 Cool, huh? This is the front view, but it was actually the back where the vellum was folded over the spine that I wanted to clean up, as that would be on show- this front bit will be covered.I just photographed the wrong side, I admit it.

I added some sticky backed ribbon over the seam between the vellum& the mulberry paper.Then mounted the glittered squares with silicone glue.

                                         Then the letters were added, also with silicone glue.
                                                  And here's how I make the folded bow.

First wrap a length of ribbon around the card, and secure with glue dots. Now cut another length to make the first folded bow. Add a couple of glue dots to the centre, and fold each end to the middle & press onto the glue dots.

Cut a slightly shorter piece and repeat the process.




Now add a couple of glue dots to the front centre of the larger bow, and press the smaller one on top.

Now stick a glue dot onto the back of the larger bow, then take the rest of the ribbon and stick one end to the glue dot and wind it a couple of times around the centre of the two bows.Trim off the ribbon, and secure with a couple of glue dots on the back.

        Now I just stick it over the join in the ribbon on the card, and I usually use silicone glue for this bit.

                              I shall be back to visit everyone tonight, meanwhile have a fab WOYWW!

WOYWW #106

The only card on my desk this week is one that I have slightly re-worked. This was just a Happy Birthday card, but I have added The larger sentiment cut out with the Silhouette, and also the word Mom. I layered  two flowers together, and they have been coloured with Distress Inks, to match the brayered card (Mustard Seed, Wild Honey & Marmalade). A yellow brad made the centres.

The card I commented on last week for Silvercrafter is posted below, along with an engagement card I also couldn't post until after the couple received it.
My tidy workspace often gets comments, which makes me laugh, as I am the untidiest person I know! I assure you the tidiness is all down to careful zooming with the camera, and occasional Photoshop cropping. To prove this, here are some unedited pics taken whilst I was making the engagement card:

Happy WOYWW to everyone, off now to Madame Dunnits  for the weekly snoop.

Happy Birthday Marg

This card couldn't be posted until today, as it was for my co- Mother-in-Laws birthday, known to all of you as Silvercrafter.  The Crafty Individuals 4 Birds stamp was stamped onto an alcohol inked background, made using Lettuce,Meadow & Espresso ink. The larger panel was sponged with a variety of inks, then overstamped with a selection of grasses stamps. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug in the Birds & Swirls folder. Both pieces were matted onto dark Burgundy card. The backing paper is a Kay & co one I have had for a long time, a 12x12 piece which features the meaning of flowers.The base was covered with a word printed vellum, and a label cut from Nesties has a stamped sentiment. I added three flowers, together with a couple of skeleton leaves.

Engagement Congratulations

           I can post this now, its been given out.
The base card is a DL size, and is embossed with straight lines.
 I cut out two hearts from thick card, which works as well as chipboard for this.I inked each one using clear embossing ink and White Pearls embossing powder from Stamp'n'Stuff for the first layer. Then I added two more layers of clear UTEE. I used a swirl stamp-Scroll Pattern,2636K- from Penny Black, inked with Silver Pigment ink, to stamp into the last layer while it was still wet.
 The same stamp & ink was used to stamp onto a scrap of white pearl paper, and this was heat embossed too. I trimmed it down to a square with a deckle edge blade, then cut a slightly larger square of silver card to mat it onto. I mounted this to the top of the card and the hearts were added on top with silicone glue. A strip of the white pearl paper was punched with a Fiskars Hearts border punch for the bottom, and stamped the Congratulations phrase,which is a Whispers Words stamp from Do-crafts, in silver & heat embossed. I added the dots before the word with an Embossing pen, and heat embossed them in silver too. Finally tied a length of silver eyelash wool around the spine. This design could be easily adapted for Weddings, anniversaries etc. I think I may do a few more in different colour combos, as they are quite quick & easy to do- the longest bit is the triple embossing!

WOYWW #105

No cards on my desk this week, as the card I have been busy with is for Silvercrafters birthday, and its only fair she gets to see it first, lol. So I shall post that one next week.To see lots of other workdesks, go to the Fabulous Julia Dunnits , who hosts this glorious snoop festival.

                              Instead, I thought I would show you some of my favourite things:

Our cat, Ambrose, sunning himself yesterday. He is completely black, but lying in the sun brings a sable brown out in his coat.And he does a lot of sunbathing, lol. The 'grass' growing up through the decking is germinated birdseed from the feeders. Usually buy the husk free, to cut down on this problem , but accidentally bought the wrong one. Oh, and he doesn't bother with the birds, and they don't bother about him. He absolutely refuses to chase his dinner- far too much effort.

A double clematis on the fence opposite my kitchen window.


  A Black Elder. This refers to the colour of the leaves, which are a green/black. as you can see the flowers are a pale pink, unlike the usual creamy white ones.

Part of our front garden- this is only tiny, but it gets the sun for most of the day, so herbs love it. Here there are Rue, Marjoram and Variegated Lemon Balm. I love growing herbs, they smell gorgeous, and the bees & butterflies love them too.

    






                                  Books and Dragons...........................
........................and more books................. I could never, ever possibly have too many books........................ There are more in other rooms too..........and there could never be too many Dragons either. Most of those on top of the bookshelves I've bought for Beloved Husband.





 My Beloved Husbands computer desk, which he built himself, as we couldn't find a desk anywhere that would fit the dimensions between the chimney breast and the wall.
  Where he does his gaming, amongst other things, and yes, there is a Dragon on his screen.









                                       This, however, is probably my most favourite.

My son & daughter-in-law put this together for us while we were on our honeymoon- we love it. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

  

As you can see, its HUGE! The chimney breast is almost 4' wide.

                                 And yes, that is the top of a Dragon at the bottom of the picture!

We have another on another wall that Silvercrafter & her husband put together for us between our Wedding & the evening reception! Its gorgeous, and I will show you that another week. Happy WOYWW to all, have a glorious week.