A bit of Organisation....

Actually, I got sidetracked from what I wanted to do.You know when you go looking for something, and can't find it? and you find something you'd forgotten about while you're at it? Had one of those moments a couple of days ago. I wanted some small black flatback pearls for a card. I couldn't find any, so used white instead. Worked ok, as it was a black & white card,. But still. So went & had a look on e-bay, as I have bought a few of them, and flatback acrylic gems, from a lady on there in the past. Anyway, they arrived yesterday, so I went to put them away. Yes, I found some black flatback pearls in another box(!), so decided I needed some sort of memory aid for what I did have. Didn't take long either.

I found out a piece of white card from my oddments draw, and using the Tim Holtz pricking ruler and a pin, made marks for where to dab a bit of Pinflair glue gel. That piece of card looks huge, but its only just under 6" square. So I just stuck one of each embellishment onto the card, mainly in colour groups, but not always.The really tiny flatback pearls on the left hand side are meant for nail art, also from e-bay.
Well, this seemed like such a useful idea, I did the same thing with brads. I seem to have a lot- probably because I always forget about them, and they never get used! Seriously, often they were multi packs of shades of a single colour, so although it feels like a lot, there are probably only a dozen or less of most of them. I suppose one day I shall have to get around to doing this with eyelets! So, in theory, having this within eyesight, should make me use them more.

Non-Pinners of the world Unite!

 By the way, this is nothing to do with Pinterest- that is one place I pin like crazy!


Some of you WOYWW'ers may have noticed recent comments by Lunch Lady Jan & myself about our refusal to pin & tack whilst sewing! To be honest, until Jan posted a comment about not doing it, I thought I was the only rebel in this department. I hate  doing it, I really do. Takes three times as long to do anything- pin it, tack it, remove pins, sew it, remove tacking- and I always got some tacking stuck inside my machine sewing- I just could not be bothered. I remember we had a sewing teacher who said you could machine sew with the pins still in place,and without tacking, as long as the pins were at right angles to the line you were sewing- that way the needle slid over the pins. Really? I tried that, I could not count how many needles I've broken that way. So now I defiantly do not pin!!! Anyway, last week Jan said we ought to have a No Pinners badge for our sidebar.  So I passed the idea over to my IT department (Beloved Hubby), who is a bit of a whiz at Photoshop, and here is the result. A badge that can be proudly displayed in your sidebar, if you too are proud to be a Pinning/Tacking Rebel. So feel free to click on the image, save to your pc, and add to your sidebar as a gadget- the Add Image one.

Those Sparkly Hearts.....

So, a couple of weeks ago, I showed this picture- you can probably guess that Valentines Day was involved somewhere.

This is the card they ended up on:

Beloved Hubbys Valentines card for this year.
I wanted to make some glittery hearts for it, and knew that I had some glitter card that was sort of encapsulated in a gel type of coating so it didn't shed.( I get into so much trouble for leaving a trail of glitter around the house, I didn't think he'd appreciate being covered in it too!)
 I remembered getting some from The Glitter Girls at the NEC a couple of years ago. Found it, and discovered that I didn't have any red! So I had to make my own. I had two goes at it, the first one I inked the hearts with Aged Mahogany ink and added a layer of clear powder, then I tried some Red Sparkle glittery embossing powder. It looked good, but as I added more UTEE over the top, the red colour seemed to burn off the glittery powder, and it started going a blotchy silver.

So, I  die cut another couple of hearts, and inked them again. (I've got a Sizzix die with four different sized hearts on it, one of the originals for the old Red Sizzix die cutter.) The Distress ink is quite wet, so I got some normal clear embossing powder on it, and heat embossed it.
Then a layer of UTEE.

Next was a layer of Red Glitter straight on top of the hot UTEE.

I tipped off all the excess and left it to set. When it had, I covered over the glitter with some more embossing ink- I have a bottle of it, I think from a Hobbycrafts store.It has a dabber type top, but I found it easier (and less glitter on the top) by taking off the dabber top and pouring a small amount onto the heart, then spreading it over the surface with a cotton bud.



Another couple of layers of UTEE, and the glitter was sealed away inside.




Came out pretty much exactly as I'd seen it in my minds eye, which is always a pleasant surprise, lol.
Repeated the process for the second heart, and left them both to set fully while I put the layers together.
I used a dark red card base and some black ribbed card. A layer of black slightly smaller than the card front went on first, and two layers of slightly different shades of red organza ribbon. I cut another piece of black slightly larger than the two hearts side by side and matted that onto another piece of red.The sentiment, I am (fairly) sure, comes from either an old Joanna Sheene stamp set , or a Chocolate Baroque one, as its on Grey rubber, and they are the only two I can think of that use that. That was stamped and heat embossed in black on some scraps of the red card.
The hearts were added to the card strip with Pinflair glue gel, and the panel mounted with sticky foam tabs. The two sentiment pieces I added with some more glue gel.
The hearts didn't take very long to make- it was more the trial & error that took the time. I will deflinitely try this with different colour glitters- black instantly springs to mind, lol.

A Friday Smile

I can't remember where I saw this on the web, but it really did make me smile. And, I imagine, every  other crafter who sees it!  Because we all know that feeling.
Over on Annies (Wipso) blog, A Stitch in Time, she has started a Friday Smile- post up something, anything, that makes you smile, and join in. We all need a smile every now and then. Have a lovely weekend :)

WOYWW #194

 First post since last week- the week sort of got away from me, lol. Valentines day,for one, and then helping youngest son find & fetch another car. He had someone hit the back of his car a couple of weeks ago while he was on his way to work .Spun his car round and into the barrier, he was on the M42. Fortunately, he works nights, and its not as busy as it would have been during the day. Apart from being shaken up, he was ok, but it turned out the car was a write -off.

  Just grateful that he was ok, it could have been a lot worse.The lady in the car closest to him saw what happened & stopped to help, and fortuitously  she was a nurse- unfortunately, the same spirit wasn't in the person who hit him, as they didn't stop.
 But he's got another one now, the same sort & colour too. So doing that took up Thursday & Friday, then Saturday we took my Mom to put flowers on my youngest brothers grave, as it would be his birthday this week, and finally an engagement party on Saturday evening- the work colleague I made the Engagement card for a few weeks ago. Sunday morning I had booked ( like Beloved Hubby), for a hangover, lol! Amazingly, I didn't wake up with one, which sort of confused me :).Anyway, this post is getting away from me too now, so why are we here? WOYWW, of course, hosted as ever by our marvellous Julia at The Stamping Ground.

My desk for this week, then. On the way back from my Moms, in Droitwich, we called in at Webbs Garden Centre in Wychbold, where they have a Hobbycrafts. The three wooden words are a very thin plywood as opposed to the usual MDF,- the DREAM word is 81/2" long, and they are very light, you would even be able to attch these to a canvas. Hmm, now theres a thought! They have a lot of other words too. Best part? £1 each!
 A little bag of  plywood alphabet tags fell in the basket too. The other bits are some black & white flowers I've just made, sitting for the glue to dry, and with the black & white card & paper are for a wedding card. I'm on afternoons this week, so I shall be able to join up earlier- have a great week.

WOYWW #193

Well, back at work for a week, and I've re-discovered what its like to not have enough hours in the day. I haven't posted for a whole week, I think because I blinked and it was Wednesday again.Not only Wednesday, but half way through February. C'mon, slow down a little, please? Valentines day tomorrow- AND three birthdays on it as well. A friend, a nephew and my youngest son Mike. Which he hates, by the way. Sharing his birthday with Valentines Day. I do tell him its entirely his own fault. He decided he was going to arrive 3 months ahead of schedule!So, on to the desks. If you want to join our Wednesday(ish) wander around, snooping into peoples craft space, pop over to The Stamping Ground, where our famous hostess, Julia will welcome you with open ( Mr.Linky) arms.
This weeks desk then. Completely unedited, uncropped and definitely untidied.

 

We have a Tim die, Tags & Bookplates, my Rotary trimmer complete with babywipes, an Anniversary card for a friend, a second one partly done,glasses, rotary cutters that I've been using to make more strips for my Quilt along with a new blade, pins & tailors chalk.Bits of tin foil. No, I haven't been at the chocolate, I was sharpening my border punch!Pencil, ruler, tiny scissors and scalpel and lots of scrappy bits from the punching.Just at the back you can see a wooden block, from Opitec.

Actually there are two of them. Better view here. I used to use cutlery drainer thingys for all these bits & pieces, but I still had to keep foraging for stuff. These are great for all my embossing stylus (should that be styli? I wonder) scissors, pokey things and stuff. I see the spoon I use for UTEE too. The one at the back is full of various pliers & wire cutters. That is what these are actually meant for, storing two handled tools. They're not too big, so don't take up as much space as the drainers.


I shall be posting a UTEE project later in the week, meanwhile, a sneak preview:

I'm on 6 till 2 this week, so I shall schedule this, and link up when I get back.

Quick update on the faulty Distress Re-Inkers- two replacements arrived last Friday! Definitely ace customer service from Ranger.

WOYWW #192

 Good Morning all, and again its time for the Wednesday stalk over at The Stamping Ground, under the watchful eye of our hostess, Julia.

 Picture of my desk this week is the first 9  blocks for my LilyBo quilt. You can just about see the piece of paper I was planning out my sizes on at the top. Ok, so this was (at least) the fourth piece with a plan on, so I guess you could say I'm running with Plan D! Not worrying, I've got plenty of alphabet left yet.

 

First square for my quilt- along with the manual for my sewing machine,lol. I've had it a few years, so that tells you just how often I use it.

One of the people making quilts had posted about using fleece blankets for the back of the quilts, so when I saw these, I let Jo know about them  so she could put a 'heads up' on her LilyBo Quilts site as at 120x150cm they are pretty much the perfect size for backing a quilt. I found them in B&M, a pair of blankets for £3.99.
Quite a few colour choices too. Not too thick, and the edges are just blanket stitched, so no bulk.

Quick picture of another bargain for this week, courtesy of Poundland.

How cool are these? I put a ruler next to them so you can get an idea of the size, although looking at the pic, its not showing up very well. Just measured them and they are 2" tall. They'd make great focal points for a card, that can be taken off and then be used as a fridge magnet. They're plastic too, so not too heavy, and should take Alcohol ink/Stains/paints I expect.

 I'm back at work as of Monday just gone, so its back to juggling my time. Saw the Doc last Thursday, and he said he had no need to see me again, just keep up with the Physio visits, and bear in mind it will be 3-4 months before it really gets back to normal.

 One card I've done over the last week:

A really simple Engagement card. Just a sheet of white pearl card run through the 'bug with the Swiss Dots folder (twice,just flipping it round to do the extra length). Trimmed down, matted onto dark blue and mounted on the front of a white pearl card base. The offcuts provided the two squares also matted onto dark blue, a diamante heart threaded onto some Dark blue organza ribbon and the ribbon stuck down on the back of the first square with DST. The sentiment , stamped in a navy blue & heat embossed,is from some sets of 'Stick n Stamp' magnetic stamps, made by Rubadubado, which I bought really cheap  a few years ago in a sale. They used to do loads of these sheets, with Words, Relations, Greetings etc in all sorts of different fonts. This font is called Vivaldi, and the words themselves are each separate, but I have a feeling they are pretty much unavailable now, which is a shame because they are really very useful.

I've just remembered, if any of you saw the post about my faulty Distress re-inkers, an update - I e-mailed Ranger with a picture of them, and the following day I had an e-mail back apologising for them, and asking for my address so they could send me out replacements! How's that for Customer Service?

  So I shall catch up with you all over the next few days, ( I'm on afternoon shift, and I've got Physio Thursday morning), so may take me a couple or three days this week. Have a great Wednesday.