WOYWW #269

Happy Wednesday! A pic of the 'desk behind the desk' today, as it was a bit of a mess, lol. Where I tend to dump stuff before I get around to putting it away.

 This weeks Show and Tell, for our lovely leader, Julia over at The Stamping Ground, for our weekly snoop into the craft desks of the world.
 I will tell you in advance that I won't be getting around to any desks before tomorrow, as today is my eldest sons 40th Birthday, and we will be going to see him when we get up.Which explains the odd Facebook profile picture, for those who know me on there. Actually, you can see it in my FB badge on the right hand side. Everyone who knows him is changing their profile pic to that picture of Ant for the day, which I know he will find highly amusing.
 A little bit of blatant enabling now, and I just know that these new stamps I bought (who, me?) will grab some of you as total 'must-haves'.
Aren't they fabulous? There are a few more in the set, another couple of word stamps, a male and female profile, a pair of eyes. They are called INKCOGNITO, the latest addition to the Visible Image range,and the two word stamps are going to get a lot of use, I know.

I have to ask, but am I the only one who keeps the sheets of acetate that cling stamps come on?  I even keep the little square ones from the freebie Craft Stamper stamps! The usual excuse applies, of course- they will come in useful one day/ I have a project in mind I can use them for.

A quick look at the finished Wedding cards I was assembling last week:

The desk behind the desk after I'd tidied:

The squares of Cut n Dry foam have been stuck onto a sheet of felt, and were under the glass cutting mat to stick down- I'd forgotten I'd put them there. Need to cut them up now, for the blending tools.





And lastly, the original picture from my background:

I should have posted this up last week, as most of the picture is hidden by my ramblings.
 I may have another attempt at linking from my smartphone, last week was an epic fail. Smartphone, Dumbuser, lol.
 So have a wonderful week everyone, I'll be seeing you tomorrow.

WOYWW #268

New look this week, I decided that as I have gazillions of photos on my pc, I'd have one as my blog background, for a change. Although you can only see parts of it, the picture was taken at St Nectans Glen, near Tintagel in Cornwall. An awesomely lovely place.
 Back to the reason for our being all together on Wednesday, our weekly visit to Dunnit Towers, at The Stamping Ground, with our gracious hostess, Julia for this weeks WOYWW.
Brace yourselves, here is the desk in mid-create:

No inks involved this week,and not a stamp in sight, just lots of die cuts and punched flowers. Two wedding cards for two people at work who are getting married next month.  Both couples are Polish, and they really prefer gold and white for their wedding cards, so  lots of both here. Mid way through assembling the flowers at the moment, the daisy like ones are a Heartfelt Creations Spellbinders die, called Delicate Asters. A lovely flower, but an absolute b****r to get it to cut. Doesn't cut through completely in my 'bug, even with the metal shim plate, it only works properly in the BSPro. Anyhow, after trail and error, and a lot of new swear words invented, I got it sorted.The small flowers are done from X-cut punches, two flowers layered up. Oh, and I didn't use the largest of the Aster die cuts, just the three smaller ones. A few other die cuts knocking about, the hearts are  Memory Box- two dies, Grand Heart for the base and La Rue heart that fits on top. Just. Almost fits more on the outside of the heart, rather than the edge, if you know what I mean. A bit fiddly to put together accurately, to be honest. Especially when its got glue on it. Bottom left corner are some doves, cut on the Silhouette. That's something else the Poles are fond of on Wedding cards. Everywhere else, assorted detritus, leftovers, and UFO's. So that's my offering this week, with a nice bit of sunshine through the window to boot. Those storms, eh? I think we had more thunder and lightening last week than we normally get in a whole year here. Most storms just seem to edge past us, I think mainly due to the Malvern Hills pulling them that way. Have a great week everyone, see you all later.

WOYWW # 267- the heatwave edition!

Blimey its hot! No pleasing us is there? Too cold/wet/hot/dry.Anyway, whatever the weather is, its Wednesday again, which means linking up at Julia's house, The Stamping Ground, for this weeks WOYWW. We've been doing a bit in the garden. For garden, read jungle. Cue Indiana Jones music, put on camo gear and find machetes. Not joking, honest. Its 150foot long, not desperately wide, fortunately, but sort of got away from us, growth wise.We have a Buddleia, which is next to a pergola over the pond, which has clematis growing over it. Unfortunately, the clematis grew over into the Buddleia, so we had a solid wall of greenery across the garden half way down. Now suitably hacked and shredded. Some fencing to finish replacing, and a lot more work to do, but its a start. We've discovered that is the only problem with working nights- you don't want to start doing stuff like this before you go to work to do a full shift, so its weekends only, and thats as long as its not raining!
So not much in the way of crafting done. Apart from the project I was working on last week, which I said I couldn't share. Anyone visiting our lovely LLJ will have seen it by now, an engagement card for her son and his fiancee. Granddaughters Birthday card and pressies went down well, the card I made a while back, with the Molly Rules set. Merlins verdict? Awesome, lol.
Black leggings, a black and white tunic top to go over them, and a black top were also well received. Next birthday up is my eldest sons, who is 40 this year.
I did do a little bit of stamping earlier today, using up a brayered background I made a bunch of a while ago.
The stamp set is by Inkylicious, called Daydreamer. A 3 piece set, the person & tree, the small flock of birds and the word Daydreamer.

 I added a Tim Holtz sentiment instead to mine.

Treated myself too to some more Promarkers- they are really cheap at Cowling & Wilcox.


I got the Autumn/Winter 2013 set, and a set of Flexmarkers. I've been adding Flexmarkers recently as they have really pale colours, much lighter than the regular Promarkers.
 By the way, for those who have liked the Raindrops set I've used in the past from Designs By Rhyn- Inkylicious have their own set now, which I have to say look pretty identical, so no need to order from Canada.

WOYWW #266

All I seem to do is comment on how fast this year is going- seems like a couple of weeks ago I was amazed we were in June already, now that's gone and we're into July. This is the mad season for birthdays here, between now and the middle of August, there really is a stupid amount. I put it down to everyone wanting to be a Leo, lol.  First up is Granddaughter Merlin, next Monday, 11 this year. Nannys little Mini Me, :). So she's getting 'clothes like Nanny would wear'.  There has been some crafting, one project I can't share, the other is the Alcohol inks on Mirror card posted below- so if you've got that stuff and no idea what to use it for these days, give it a go. The colour depth is amazing, really jewel like, and the pictures don't do it justice.
 I mentioned that Visible Image were at a craft shop near me recently, so I went along.

And there I am in the background, browsing.


 Did a bit of shopping whilst I was there, well it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it? The ladies in the foreground had been in Marks workshop, using the 'Revolution' set, which is on my table.
 




 
As well as a few more VI stamps, they had a sale on their Indigo Blu stamps, 50% off. They didn't have many left (probably a good thing) so I only bagged a couple I didn't have.

A Sweet Poppy stencil, of thistles, and a book. Oh, and I see a Lavinia Stamps Bunnies stamp, one I've been meaning to get for ages.
So I think that's me done for this week, our Chief of Desks, Julia, otherwise known as The Birthday Girl for this week, is over at The Stamping Ground, waiting for your links. I'll be visiting later, so have a good day everyone.

Alcohol inks on Mirror card

Well, the Black Hole that is Pinterest does actually yield some interesting stuff. Mind you, if I wanted to make everything I've pinned, I'd have to craft 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next couple of lifetimes!  But still it sucks me in. However, today I spotted something, pinned it, and for once had a play with the idea there and then.  So to all of you now suffering biblical plagues and floods, sorry, my bad! The thing that caught my eye, was someone using alcohol inks onto what she called shiny card, for that read mirror card. Now I just so happen to have a Really Useful Box full of that stuff- bought back when I first started card making, and did a lot of decoupage. Always made a nice backing panel. Then I discovered stamps and ink, and was lost for ever. So if you have any of this knocking around, and don't know what to do with the stuff anymore, have a look-see at this.
I've got some plain 'pillars of light' style card, and some with patterns, so I thought I'd give both a try out. The tub of felts for the blending tool by the way- I bought a pack of felt sheets off e-bay and cut my own. A pack of 10 9"x9" squares cost me £4- the contents of that tub is from one square!
By the way, I give you fair warning now, this is a picture heavy post!

 For the first one, I tried out three of the new colours- Mermaid, Indigo and Honeycomb.

 Its not easy to show on here, but the effect is really amazing, a little bit like glass paint on a mirror.

 This next one is Purple Twilight, Raspberry and SailBoat Blue.

 Because of the holographic effect of the card, you get different colours depending on the light direction.





This is one of the pieces with stars in the foil- Poppyfield (another new colour), Pesto and Sunshine Orange were used here.

 This one used Raspberry, Wild Plum and Raisin, with a tiny bit of Black Soot added at the end.

 I thought the starry background would look good in night sky colours- Purple Twilight, Raspberry, Stream, Denim and Sailboat Blue.

       This combo is  Botanical, Honeycomb,(both new) and Sunshine Orange.

                                                


This one is Indigo, Poppyfield and Terra Cotta.

  

 The four completed panels.










             






And the three with the pattern.











Now I wondered how the plain ones would look with some embossing folder texture added.




















This is a Cuttle bug folder, Gears.





The second two are Tim Holtz folders.




 As is this one.

The four sheets, all embossed. You get a lovely deep reflective colour using this card, plus the bonus of changing shades depending on the light source.