WOYWW #378

You have no idea how close I came to missing this week. Blasted Bank Holidays. I remembered it was actually Tuesday, not Monday, about 10.30 on Tuesday night. So, as I'd been spending the day generally trying to get ready for going on holiday on Friday, and we went and posted the parcel of cards to Miss TeeJay, I was at a bit of a loss for what is actually on my desk. So, this is what had been on my desk:

A whole batch of cards made from left over fronts. The stamps are a few years old, and I'm pretty sure are not available now. It was a whole range of Christmas Trees, and the company was Butterfly Kisses. I know some of their stamps are available through Hobby Art, but I don't think these trees are among them. Actually, I just went and looked, and one of the sheets with two trees on it, and a backing is there.

This Santa stamp was  similar to a Butterfly Kisses set, but mine was originally a wood mount, I think from Stampendous. I added a few tiny stars to his beard, before matting and layering up the images. The stars are tiny, intended for nail art.
 I mentioned last week that a number of Tim Holtz stencils from the new release just happened to fall into my shopping basket at Countryview Crafts, along with a couple of older ones.

There are some mini stencils, which I also got the large size of.

 I have noticed lately that the name of the stencil is no longer printed on the stencil itself, but only on the packaging, hence they are written on witha Sharpie.

  They spend their life suspended from a hanging rack, with a lobster claw clip.

 Well, thats me done, and I'll be missing next week, as we fly off to Tenerife on Friday, until the 11th.
I'll be scheduling some posts to sppear over the next week, as I've been making some cards and if I don't do it this way, I'll forget all about them by the time we get back.

So, after my visiting today, I'll see you all in a fortnight. Link yourselves as always at our Julia's place, The Stamping Ground, and share your desk of shame!


Quick edit, I had to come and put this in. I was just doing up those scheduled posts I was talking about, and made a brilliant discovery! Quite accidental, and probably everyone already knows this, but for those like me who didn't it's awesome. I put a picture into my post, and accidentally double clicked on it. And around the picture came the typical 'free transform' box! You can now resize images to your hearts content, not just their 'small, medium,large' multiple choice.   How long has that been there, I wonder. I know someones going to come along and say 'years', lol.

WOYWW #377

Definitely feels like this week went faster than last. Mind you, when you pop into Tesco and see they have the Christmas tin of sweets mountain just inside the door, vying for attention with the Back to School stuff- which went on display the day they broke up, it's no surprise it feels like the years flying past.

And speaking of Christmas......, yes loads more of them!
To be fair, it's not what you think, honest guv.
  You may remember I said I was attempting to do a bit of stash busting in regard to my Christmas paper pads and suchlike. When I opened one box, it not only had paper pads in, but a whole load of stamped images, and even more leftover panels from previous cards I'd made. Too good to throw away, but had no idea when I was going to be able to use them up, as they were all panels I'd used in the last few years.
 Now, while I was visiting LLJ, she mentioned someone she knows who raises funds for the RNLI-  Royal National Lifeboat Institution, for our foreign members. The service is a charity,funded entirely on donations and fund raisers. Anyway, LLJ was sending her some stuff, and asked me if I wanted to help. I immediately  remembered all those 'nearly made' cards, and said yes. So that's what I'm up to right now, making them into complete cards so I can send her a parcel. I'll also be doing some birthday cards and suchlike, but I thought as we are heading towards Christmas at an alarming rate, these would help two of us in one go!

Shot from another angle, and a couple of interesting bits to see here. First off, front right is a Tonic guillotine.It's a small-ish one, but is turning out to be very, very useful. It was another of the things gifted to me, and it's getting a lot of use, and also saving me from having to get up and go to another table to cut. It won't take A4 length, but will accommodate the width.
 Second thing, just behind the cards on the left, is a new embossing folder. Its a Crafters Companion one, covered in Happy Birthday in assorted fonts. The weird part is, it's marketed as part of their 'Just For Men' range, but all it says is Happy Birthday.
Next week, the new Tim Holtz  stencils that just happened to fall into my basket at CountryView Crafts, lol.
 Right, I will be late visiting today, as we have an appointment to see a Thoracic surgeon this morning. I can't remember if I've already said that the last CT & MRI showed up something on my lung. We have no idea what it is, only that it's small. So I'm being sent to see this guy so they can remove it via keyhole surgery, then the histology will tell us if it was something important, or nothing at all to worry about. If I get any useful info, I'll do an edit to this post. Meanwhile, don't forget to link yourself at Julias place, The Stamping Ground.
EDIT:
 We saw the surgeon, and he's a really nice guy, which always helps. Basically pretty much told us what we already know, so no surprises, so thats good. They'll take it out, while I'm in surgery the lab will have a look at it, and hopefully can tell him what it is, so he can decide if he's removed enough, or needs to take more. It could be something from the bowel cancer, although the previous scans had shown no spread, so it shouldn't be. It may be a new primary, for lung cancer, or it may be nothing of any importance. He's planning on either the end of September or beginning of October to do the surgery, which all being well will be keyhole. In hospital for 4-8 days, and a 3-4 month recovery process, so the planned staged return to work won't be happening till Jan/Feb now.

Embossed Panels Part 2

Another card made with the embossed panels, this one in very soft pink, blue and a silvery purple.
The stencil is Tim Holtz Lace Layering Stencil.
 The techniques I'm using I saw in a You Tube video, and HERE is the link to my first blog post, which also includes the link for the video.

I'd spread Pearl embossing paste through the stencil, then chose some embossing powders to use.
 The three here I have had for more years than I care to recall, and I'm not even sure they are still available.
 I've just done a search, and they are available in America, from Lindys Stamp Gang, but I can't find them in the UK.

 They are called Moonglow powders, and each has a two toned effect, depending on the angle of the light.

 Here is the panel after heating, before being trimmed down.

Trimmed down, and just mounted onto a white card base, and again two score lines were made above and below the design.
 The sentiment is from the Phill Martin Scribbled Sentiments set, stamped onto a scrap of white card and attached with foam pads. A punched flower was added to both ends, with an acrylic gem in the centres.

The second card of this post is this one.
 For this one, Pearl Embossing paste was coloured with Distress Ink- Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick and Wilted Violet. Although they are quite strong colours, they become very pastel when combined with the paste.

The Stencil is Tim Holtz Flourish.

Each pad was pressed onto a craft mat, then a little paste added and worked together well.  It's a good idea to have some small pots to hand, as even with this small amount, I had coloured paste left over, and wasn't going to waste it. One colour was made at a time, but I think next time I will make all the colours first, then do the spreading. It takes a few minutes to get the paste and ink thoroughly mixed, and this does mean that excess paste starts to dry on the stencil, making it harder to clean.

Another point with this stencil, take care when lifting it and do so gently. Many of the curly parts of the flourishes tend to get stuck in the paste.

Put aside to dry, and when it is it looks like this. You still have the pearl sheen in lovely pale colours.

Now for matting and layering. It's matted onto a pale purple card, now I'm adding a couple of offset triangle 'corners' to it.



This gadget, from Stix2, is a Corner Ruler, and I bought mine in Imperial measurements, although they do make a metric version too. Useful in this sort of situation for getting things straight. 

Mounted onto the card front, and I've used a blank I folded a while back, and had lightly spritzed with some pink and purple inks.



The Sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set, Crazy Talk. Stamped in the same Mustard Seed ink, then cut to a banner shape. Added to the card with some Silicone glue.
 Now, due to the problem I mentioned earlier of some of the curls in the flourishes getting stuck, there were a couple of patches on the stencilled paste that were not perfect.
 So,  simple solution- Hide them! Out came some punched flowers, which I just layered up, then finished with an acrylic gem. Added an extra couple, and one on the banner for balance.

WOYWW# 376

Not my desk at all, but perched on a garden wall at LLJ's house at the weekend. As you can see, we had some lovely weather.

Jan, Hubby Gordon and myself, having coffee.

Then there was the three of us sorting through some craft stuff over brunch on Sunday morning. Was lovely to see Julia, and she is looking extremely well.

We really ought to run a caption competition on this one!
 LLJ had been collecting salad from the garden.

 We'd also been to Plymouth on Thursday, and after leaving there Friday morning, we stopped off for a short break at a place called Trago Mills, a huge hypermarket type store where you can get anything from a paper clip to a washing machine. Needless to say, they had a craft section!

 I was quite restrained, to be fair. These three embossing folders, all by X-Cut, just seem to have so many possibilities.




This circle cutter is also by X-Cut, and I liked the fact that it doesn't rely on making a hole in the centre, it holds down by a suction cup.

A set of stamps, all relations, was only £6.50.

 

I finally finished completely my Christmas Tree cards, they now have their acrylic star on top.
 And so, I'm done. Time to go put my link up at The Stamping Ground, where Julia is once again trying to keep us in order!

WOYWW #375

Where on earth are all these weeks going? Seems like the whole year has flown by, here we are in Mid August already. That means it's time for another visit to WOYWW Towers, hosted by our Head Desker Julia over at The Stamping Ground.
  A couple of things on my desk this week, a batch of panels I've made, some posted up in the two posts below this one.

These have been a lot of fun to make, and really quick and easy.
This post has the link to the video that inspired me, if you are interested.

The only other thing on my desk is a pack of acrylic stars. I wanted these to finish off the cards I'd made with the Christmas trees on.




  
 They've got a few acrylic gems on for 'baubles', but I wanted ones to stick over the star on top of the tree. I'll get these stuck down, and then apart from writing them, I can call them finished.
 That's my desk this week, short and sweet. There is another project I can't show yet, it's a Birthday card for Beloved Hubby. Our Birthday is this Sunday, and we are having a road trip this weekend, and are off down to Wiltshire to visit the lovely LLJ & her family, and to see Julia.
So expect there to be photos next week,lol.

First three cards from Embossed panels.

First batch of cards made with the previous posts panels. LINK HERE to the post, which has a link to the You Tube video which inspired these.



Starting with this one, the panel itself uses Tim Holtz Flourish stencil, embossing paste  and 3 colours of Embossing powder.











The embossing paste is spread through the stencil, and you don't need to worry too much about getting it flat, as the embossing powder will hide any imperfections.
 Remove the stencil, and either drop into water, or wipe it clean straight away.
Now start sprinkling one of the powders over the paste. Tap off excess and return to the jar. Repeat with however many colours you are using.  As you can see, I have three, all 'Heat it Up' brand, I've had for a while. Blue Glass, Eggplant and Lilac.
 Put aside to let the embossing paste dry- mine only took an hour or so.

 When it's dry heat the embossing powder with your heat gun. Be extremely careful not to touch the paste with your fingers, it gets incredibly hot.Now all that remains is to matt it and mount onto a card base.

I used a pale lilac card and some blue metallic card to matt it onto,and also scored a line across the card either side of where the panel would go.  The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Majestic Blue, and comes from a Phill Martin set called Scribbled Sentiments.










Second card uses the same stencil, but this time I used some  of the Glitter Embossing paste I was gifted- incidentally, these are also from Phill Martin.

I spread the paste in rough thirds across the stencil, letting them blend & overlap where they met.

I will say you need to take care when removing this stencil, as it's flourishes can get a little stuck in the paste.
 This was put aside to dry, nothing more needs to be done with it.

Just needs trimming, matting and layering. I decided to use a glitter paper for this, as I have a pack I picked up one time in Hobbycrafts which has colours very close to the embossing paste.

The pieces were matted using silicone glue so it would grip the glitter better than tape.

Now for the card blank.

I took a black card base, and scored two lines either side of where the panel would sit, then a single line either side. I mapped this out on the reverse with light pencil marks first.

For the sentiment, I used the Tim Holtz set Saying Stuff. The box comes as a separate stamp, so you can choose which of the dozen or so messages to put in it. They were both stamped in Encore Metallic Bronze and heat embossed with clear detail powder.  Two star shaped copper brads were added to the panel and it was mounted using 3d foam tape.

3rd and final card of this batch, using white embossing paste and 3 colours of a sparkly embossing powder- Heat It Up's Holographic, and Stampendous Crystal and Kaleidoscope.
The stencil this time is called 'Lace', another by Tim Holtz.
 After applying the paste, I randomly sprinkled the various embossing powers across the panel.

After the stencil is removed, and put aside to dry.

I like the optical illusion here, it could be black on white, or white on black. I didn't matt this one at all, but I did again score across the front of the card base.

I thought that as the panels have so much colour and texture, it needed a fairly plain base.

Layered onto the card base.












A sentiment, from Clarity, from a set called Line Sentiments No.1, stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.

Final addition was some sparkly black eyelash wool around the spine.

I'm liking this technique as a way of using up embossing powders. I have many pots of the stuff, bought back in the day when I used to do a lot of heat embossing. Not so much anymore though, so this is certainly going to help stash bust it!