A warm welcome to all my visitors,

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at my blog, I really do appreciate it. I would love you to leave me a comment, even if it’s just to say Hi. It means I can come visit you!

All my designs are original, so copyrighted to me. If I have been inspired by someone elses work, I have named them in the post, and where able, I have provided a link.

Please feel free to use my designs for inspiration, I just ask you to credit me, and provide a link back to my blog.

Thanks, Shaz XX

Wednesday 12 March 2014

WOYWW #249

Well where did that week go? Or the weekend, for that matter? So here we all are again, meeting up in Julia's virtual front room, The Stamping Ground, for our much-loved WOYWW. My weekend plans were to visit IKEA (check), try out Julia's glorious Brilliance backgrounds, (check), and play with my new stamps from Visible Image (epic fail). The VI stamps were mainly the result of being picked as a winner for the Feb contest- £20 to spend on their stamps.
The ones on the right were the ones I picked as my prize, the two on the left just fell into my basket, the feathers because its so gloriously gothic, and the Molly Rules set, as that will be perfect for my Granddaughter Merlins birthday in July.
So, IKEA. Whats not to like? I had heard that the Expedit series was being discontinued, along with the drawers and cupboard with door fittings. The actual truth is that Expedit has been re-designed, the outer framing is a little thinner. Inner dimensions are the same though. I do hear that the big 5x5 unit is being discontinued, along with the desk attachment for the 4x2. Glad I got mine when I did.  I believe the bit about the drawers is correct too, and I did want another couple. So they are now in place in my 5x5.
It used to just have the two bottom pairs of drawers.











On to Julia's Brilliance backgrounds, and I love this.  Lovely pearly sheen to the sheets. Bit of trial and error for how much to mist, and whether to use glossy card or not, which didn't seem to make any difference as far as I could tell.






Last thing I was doing on Sunday was some brayered sheets. I bought a mylar mat, like the Splodge Away, at the NEC about 12 months ago- mainly use it for general inking techniques, but thought I would give the brayering a go, as everyone seems to like how it works. Usually I work on a scrap pad, to roll off the ink, and brayer onto the card from, which for me works just fine. And that is what I will be sticking with- I did not like the mylar mat method.  The three brown sheets on the top left were done off the mat, and for me, there is too much wet ink on the mat- when you start to brayer on, ink from the roller goes onto the mat, which I kept picking up on the brayer, when I wanted the ink to be fading out, it kept getting 'refreshed'. If that makes sense. I ended up with three almost one colour sheets. So I returned to my normal method of rolling off onto the scrap pad, then working up onto the card, and that gave me much better gradual fades/blends. Thats just my four pen'north, as they say. Each to their own, no doubt its just a knack, but the funny thing was, I had MORE trouble with the dreaded 'lines' with the mat than I do with the paper method. Whatever, I never said I was normal, thats just a vicious rumour put out by people who don't know me :).




21 comments:

Krisha said...

I haven't "played" with my brayer in a long time, I wonder if it is still in the drawer....LOL
Your backgrounds turned out great.

Nice selection of stamps, love the little girl one.

Krisha #33

Lunch Lady Jan said...

Cor, look at your amazing storage, I love it - so neat and tidy. Yum!
That feather stamp is glorious...I bet you use it loads on all sorts of things. Those backgrounds are fun too - very fresh and Springlike!
Hugs, LLJ 41 xx

Kyla said...

IKEA, my nemesis...I go about once every 2 years (its only 15 mins from work!). Great storage, great food, great fabric....but why oh why do I come out with 200 tealights every time?!
Kyla #38

Anonymous said...

My brayer is usually so caked with paint the thought of using it with ink just never occurs to me :) But I wonder - I've had good success working on a bit of fun foam - I've done ombre effects by lining up the row of paint dots then rolling it out to load the brayer, then rolling the paint onto the Gelli plate. Makes me wonder f it would work with ink....
DOH! One more thing to try....
:)

Happy WOYWW!

Mary Anne (25)

House of Bears said...

What a lovely lot of storage you have. We are green with envy.

The bears @74

My name is Cindy said...

You have been busy! Didn't know that about the expedit range but I think we have all the bits we need. Lovely stash - isn't that sentiment just lovely? Seems like something out of twilight.... See you at the crop in May? Happy WOYWW, Cindy #58

Monica said...

My brayers are pretty messed up from Gelli Plates. I have never thought to use them that way. with inks I tend to go the Tim Holtz way. I started years ago with Ikea and my bookcase is hanging in. A rambunctious cat could bring it down as it has always been unsteady.
Monica 74

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

Loving the Grunge Flourish and the set with feathers. Nice prize. I'm with you, I have no idea where the last week went!

Fiona #87

MaggieC (Silvercrafter) said...

When we go to the Crop, you can have a go with a proper mat, Shaz. It really makes a huge difference, and the lines come from how you use the brayer not from using the mat. The Splodge away and the new Clarity mat save wasting so much ink and trees worth of copy paper, and you can shade beautifully, honest! My new monitor is great, tell Doug, but I did have to turn the brightness down a touch - I needed sunglasses. Glad you got what you wanted at IKEA. Hope you are getting your water leak sorted now. fingers crossed, mine is done, just need it all to dry out thoroughly then the damage can be sorted. Have a good week and speak to you soon. xx Maggie #85
PS There are loads more plants to arrive yet, and more raised beds to be built. At the moment, you cannot buy sleepers because everyone is busy making fence panels to replace all those blown down in the storms.

BJ said...

Great backgrounds, great drawers, and just had to have a go at the mosaic cards, just spotted the one layer ones too, might have to give that a go as well. Thanks for the inspiration and the visit BJ #39

CraftygasheadZo said...

Amazing storage, I desperately need something like it but not to be for a while. Looks fabulous though! Take care Zo xx 82

Julia Dunnit said...

Hey I like that grunge flourish and the words...lovely for a prize! I can't agree more about your preference for the brayering...the mat just makes it muddy....
Did you feel very retro using the Brilliance? II did!!

Helen said...

oh, glorious storage!! interesting to read about your play with the brayer/mat inking. Have a great week, thanks for the visit. will try and stop buying stash (one day!) Helen 16

Felix the Crafty Cat said...

Love the storage, great way to organise stuff. The papers look great too.
Happy crafting, Angela # 59

sandra de said...

Now that is a fab storage system and you got so much done on your weekend. I wish!! Have a lovely week.
Sandra @8

Andrea said...

your storage looks ace and that's quite a haul of lovely stamps you have there. I have only tried using a brayer once or twice and each time failed miserably I dont think I have the knack. thanks for visiting me ... I'm late but still made it before Wednesday !and hope you have a good weekend ahead craft hugs Andrea #27

505whimsygirl said...

Hi Shaz,
What a nice prize! The feather stamps look interesting. I like "watching" your experiments - love the misting examples.


Thanks for stopping by already.

Happy belated WOYWW
peace, Kay (23)

Anonymous said...

That Grunge Flourish stamp is very cool. Gorgeous Brilliance card fronts and brayered backgrounds -- the colors are scrumptious. Happy WOYWW on Thursday! ~ Laura #14

Rossella said...

Please forgive my lack of commenting lately, I will try and get back on track soon, are you going to NEC next week? If so please visit me on B12
Rosie x

okienurse said...

Awesome post this week Shaz. Love the brayer work. I heard the IKEA thing too and I couldn't understand why they would get rid of the 5x5 and change something that was obviously being a big hit! Have a great week and thanks for visiting my desk earlier! Vickie aka Okienurse #72

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Your new storage space is remarkable. I love it. Funny that IKEA would change what worked so well in the past. Of course, there isn't an IKEA within 1000 miles of me, so what do I know?

I always say I'm brayer challenged, so I'm not sure I could do this technique.

Sorry I'm late answering your G+ question. It's been a busy life-gets-in-the-way type of week. And, no, when you visit MY blog you are on blogger, not G+. So there is nothing to worry about, although I see you have G+ circles on your sidebar. Happy very belated WOYWW from #7.

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