WOYWW #199

Welcome one & all to the next instalment of our regular wander around the desks, hosted by the Incredible Julia Dunnit, at The Stamping Ground.
 Quite a few comments last week, about my tidy desk! So before I get a terrible reputation, its back to its former messy glory.
    A few weeks ago, Eileen Godwin, who runs the DT for Lavinia Stamps, (and was one of my earliest followers)  asked  people to let her know if they would be interested in Guesting for the DT, on the new Lavinia Stamps Challenge Blog. So I promptly emailed her, and a couple of weeks ago she got back in touch, and asked if I would like to Guest for April! So out came the Lavinia stamps, and I waited, somewhat impatiently, for inspiration to strike. And then, typically, just like buses, two came along at once, lol.
     One I can't show you yet, it will be on my blog on Monday 1st April, and also on the Lavinia Stamps blog, The other is in the post below this, and also on my desk here, on the right, hiding my Guest piece.

Top left too is a stack of reels of dotty organza ribbon, another e-bay find. Those stamped images are still sat there, nagging me. But, a nice long Easter weekend coming up, so hopefully, they will have magically turned into cards by next week. Thats Plan B, by the way. Plan A was to get some work done in the garden, but that idea has been put on the back burner! Plan B sounds better to me, anyway. I can also get my quilt bag put together, so I can get it off to Jo.Well, earlies this week, so I'll be joining in this afternoon. Just remembered, its also 'change the clocks' weekend- but I will have forgotten about that by the weekend, and probably be half way through Sunday before I remember. I usually am.

Lavinia Stamps Challenge #1- Anything Goes!

I love Lavinia Stamps, so the new Challenge Blog really appealed to me, and the DT is headed by one of my early followers, and a very talented lady, Eileen Godwin!
 I had to have a go at the first challenge, which is 'Anything Goes', as long as the stamps are Lavinia. All the Rules are HERE. You have till the 31st of March to enter this one.

 When I went to the Hobbycrafts, NEC show last November,as well as some Lavinia stamps, I also picked up a pack of Traceys new ready made backgrounds, which come in lots of colours & scenes,called Original Scenescapes and I've used one called Blue Sky for this card.

I used 5 stamps for this piece-
 Tree Goddess Luna,
 Spiral Of Spells,
Miniature Dragon,
Slender Mushrooms, small and
 Believe word stamp.
 Everything was stamped using a Versafine Black inkpad, and the first image stamped was Luna.

You can see a couple of test stampings on my scrap paper, I often do this just to reassure myself I've got it inked properly.










  Next I wanted to add the Spiral of Spells, so to get a feel for how to place it, I placed it uninked over the moon. I decided I didn't want the words to overlap the fairy, and if I could I also wanted the  spiral to be inside the moon itself.



So out came the trusty Stamp Positioner. I stamped onto that, then placed it so I could see what I needed to mask.






Rather than make a mask of the fairy, I masked off the words I didn't want to print on the stamp itself, using Low Tack tape.


Once I had inked the stamp, I tried a test print on my scrap paper- it came out ok, so I re-inked, then removed the low tack tape from the stamp.












 
     I carefully lined up my Stamp Positioner again over the moon, then stamped the Spiral Of Spells ( holding my breath!).









                   Next I added the small dragon- maybe he's a long way off, or perhaps he's just a baby?- then the slender mushrooms, small, along the bottom.

Now we needed some fairy sparkle!
 I used Black Diamond Stickles to outline Lunas wings, and to add detail to the branches and tips of the mushrooms.







Its hard to see in this picture, it doesn't show up very well. I felt it needed a bit more sparkle, so I gave the whole image a quick blast with Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle, Iridescent.

 
 I took another picture from a different angle here to try & show the glittery finish.




















After this, I added the word 'Believe'.

I stamped it onto a transparency sheet in Black Staz-on, then traced over the word with pva glue, and sprinkled with  a crystal glitter. Left this to dry out overnight, then trimmed close to the word. A few spots of glue on the back, behind the glitter, secured it to the bottom left of the image.I actually made this word for another project, but it didn't 'work' in the end, so I put it aside. But it was perfect for this one.





 
Then I matted the image onto Pearlescent Black paper, and trimmed down to a narrow border.



To make the card, I took two sheets of purple pearlescent card. and cut them down to make the shape I wanted.



 
    I scored each piece about 1 inch in from the left, and matted the image to one panel.

 Next I made two marks where I would put the eyelets, made the holes in the top piece, lay the back underneath, then made the back holes
through the top holes, so they would line up properly.
  If you wanted to add an insert, you could do it at this stage, just before you add the eyelets. Sandwich the insert between the two pieces of card, and punch the holes through all the layers.

Purple eyelets were added, and a length of purple & white dotted organza ribbon threaded through & knotted at the front.

WOYWW # 198

Blimey, Wednesday again- doesn't time fly when you're having fun? First pic isn't actually my desk, but a glorious sunset seen from my desk one evening last week. Picture doesn't really do it justice, it was so vibrant & fiery. It looks like  we live on the edge of, or in, the countryside. In fact, the centre of town, and the Kingfisher Shopping Centre are actually a three minute walk from our house. This view from my window, overlooks masses of trees on higher ground, around the old churchyard.

This one was from late last summer, with all the trees in leaf. We are pretty much at the top of a hill, absolutely ace view, winter or summer.

So this weeks desk then- someone last week was saying about sorting out images they had stamped previously to start using up. Which reminded me I had found quite a lot during the move from room to room. So out they have come to start getting used. Well, some have come out- I'd not be able to see desktop if I had them all out. So, a stack of images at the front, a number more in the plastic wallets on the right.I have a habit of stamping quite a few images when I have stamps out, with the intention it will save me time later. Except I always forget about them. There is also a little pile of punched squares- I found a few images that didn't really 'work' as they were, these were chopped up to do some mosaic style cards with. The window to the left is the one the photos were taken from. Some off cuts of paper from the Papermania Chronology pack, a utensil holder from Ikea with my rulers & pinking shears in,dst, various tools, my windowsill with assorted crystals on, and a wedding photo of me & Beloved Hubby.

One last thing I have to share. Last Friday was Comic Reliefs Red Nose Day, and although I did not get to see it live, my DIL Becky sent me the link via Facebook to see the piece done by the cast & crew of BBC's Doctors- my eldest son Ant is one of the Editors, and here he is, on the far right with the black shirt & flame pattern.As he absolutely hates having his photo taken, this made me smile.

Have a great Wednesdayand go visit our lovely Hostess Julia at The Stamping Ground to find out what this is all about, if you aren't a regular!

Wedding & Anniversary Cards

 Two cards made this week, the front Easel card for a Ruby Wedding Anniversary, and the Silver & White at the back for a Wedding Acceptance. Not something I've been asked to make before.
 The Wedding Acceptance uses the Memory Box dies La Rue heart, and the matching Grand Heart for the backing. I die cut the Grand Heart from white pearl card, and the La Rue overlay from a silvery paper. A few silver & white flowers were made using the Tim Holtz strip die, Tattered Flower Garland. I used a mix of silver, white & vellum for those and filled the centres with seed beads.The Bride & Groom are the Stampendous stamp, At the Altar, stamped once onto black card for the groom, then onto white pearl card for the bride, and finally onto vellum to cut out the overdress. I added a little Diamond Stickles to give her dress a bit of sparkle.
The Lattice background is a Quickutz folder, Diamonds & Dots.

 The Easel Anniversary card uses the same folder, and hearts. The flowers on here are a mix of Tims Tattered Florals Movers & Shapers, and Tattered Florals Bigz die. I like that you can mix all these flower dies together and get an endless variety of flower shapes & sizes. Dark Red ribbon was wrapped around the Lattice before matting onto dark red card, and the sentiment was computer printed and cut out with Nesties Labels 4. I had one set of these, the large, but ended up eventually getting the small set too, which gives less of a margin between the layers. Sometimes I felt the gap was too big between the layers on the single set.

WOYWW #197

Well, this is my desk on Tuesday night- early shift this week, so it won't be changing! Stuff that needs putting away, to be truthful. It was in a pile, I spread it out so you could see what was what. Mostly freebie stamps from magazines-the large one in the middle with the womans head on was with Creative Stamping, (with the obligatory Thank You stamp) and a couple of Craft Stamper stamps on the top. The small Art Deco style( plus Thank You stamp) was with a Creativity mag- you all know just how much I needed two more Thank You stamps! The one behind that I bought from Hobbycrafts, a map stamp. Then on the right is a new mag I picked up from Tesco, with a set of stamps free, called Get Stamping. Didn't grab me when I opened it, so shan't be making a regular purchase, I'm afraid.Top left is a pack of card from Cardcraft UK, don't know if you can see them on top, but a couple of Darice embossing folders also came my way, a Honeycomb and a wire fence one. Next to that, the start of another Ruby Anniversary card, and some blue & silver flowers from the Tattered florals die.A few odd tools lying about- scalpels, tweezers and so on. So why the Show & Tell? Wander over to The Stamping Ground, where our ever charming hostess, Julia, will explain it all
.Earlier in the week, my desk looked like this:


All my bear panels being stitched together! Found a smashing e-bay supplier of gingham fabric, and it goes perfectly with the bear squares. The quilt is all put together now, but I will show that after Jo has had it to put on the LilyBo site. I should be getting it off to Jo next week, I just have to make the bag for it now. Happy Wednesday folks, I'll be round to visit later.