WOYWW #443

So here we are, at the last post before December-just- and is it me, or has this year suddenly flown in the last couple of months? I mean, the whole year has gone quite quickly, but these last few months it's been sort of blink and you missed it.
 Leaving our links over at Julias again, The Stamping Ground- I reckon there should be mince pies too soon, *wink, wink*.
Still not a lot of crafting being done, I have had some more practice time with the baubles, and I seemed to get a better result by outlining first, letting that set, then brushing on the ink. I think the nib of the pen was clogging on the ink. Might try doing the inking, then outlining a few hours later, see if that helps.


Tried  on the kraft card first- I've never really got into the whole kraft thing, the colour is just a bit to 'meh' for me, and although it inks nicely, the contrast just doesn't work for me.

Returned to black, and I'm much happier with the result, still not perfect, but much better.



I also decided to sort my UFO boxes- yes, I've now upgraded to Boxes 2.0-and I really need to get a grip and finish them all off, or get them made up, which is all a lot of them need.



 Exhibit A- and those piles all have 6-10 card fronts in them. At least. The one top right has closer to twenty.

 Masterboards bottom right, a couple of random card fronts above them, two Sweet Poppy Stencil fronts, done if I remember rightly with Imagination Starlights paints- a couple of stamped & heat embossed snowglobes, and the start of some sponged snowy scenes.

A random selection of stencilled backgrounds- all stencils are 7x7 from Clarity.

Another Sweet Poppy stencil, the cat on a wall, all done with stencil paste & glitter to get different coloured cats. I also varied the glitter on the walls on some, and two have been finished off with some foliage & tree stamping. Oh, and a masked off moon & sponged sky.

Doesn't look quite so bad when you hide them in plastic wallets!

There are also canvas UFO's- all are done with Sweet Poppy stencils & paste, a few have glitter flakes. Some backgrounds were swiped on with a baby wipe, some are Bleeding Art Tissue.  Bottom right with the Cat is Brushos straight onto the canvas.

Top right here is Bleeding Art Tissue, bottom right & centre are Brushos- centre one straight onto canvas, right hand one is a dried baby wipe from cleaning up.

Top left I have plans involving Bees- I have a Honeycomb stencil or three,😁, and the background is DI reinkers in Wild Honey & Carved Pumpkin, wiped on with a baby wipe. Bottom square has had ink brushed through a Clarity stencil, I think it needs more, and I think the other two are just random DI reinkers wiped on again with a baby wipe.

I actually found three finished cards- well, apart from the insert- these were done with the Laminator/Foil method, and a Sweet Poppy stencil.

These are again all done with a stencil- Top two are Dreamweaver ones- stencil paste and a Laminator & foil, matted onto silver glitter card, and blue. These came out fine.
 I was really disappointed  with the bottom two though. I was very happy when I foiled them, as they came out a treat- I loved the mulicoloured ribbons and baubles on the left one, and pleased I managed to get the green foil on the holly, and some assorted coloured foil on the baubles.
 I matted them onto Green glitter card, and that's when it went horribly wrong.

I always, always use Pinflair Glue Gel when matting onto glitter card- if it's not a smooth type- so that it grabs. This green glitter card has leached colour into the glue, and then through the cardstock. So, lesson here is that not all glitter card is created equal! I think that green will be consigned to die cutting trees or suchlike, where I can use DST/ sticky tabs. That may also be solution for this- foam tape on the back, then a little Silicone glue on the tape to stick it to the glitter, and the tape should- hopefully- provide a barrier.
 My problem is I love trying out new products/techniques, and get easily distracted by a new one.  So, no more experimenting till I finish these off!
 UTI seems to be clearing, now I've picked up a cough/cold, which seems to be resolving itself into a chest infection, so I'm back on Antibiotics, and extra use of the inhaler! My poor immune system just needs to catch a break so it can build itself up again after all the battering it's taken in recent weeks.  Running up to Christmas we have a few things going on- Wednesday (tonight) we are off  to Birmingham to see Stone Sour, then Friday night it's our works Christmas meal. Monday I have another works meal, for Long Service achievements, as I've been there for 15 years this year. Then next week we have a Marilyn Manson concert, and the week after, 5 Finger Death Punch, so it's all go, lol.
And now, it's time for And Finally.....

WOYWW #442

Hi folks, Wednesday again, and stopping off at Julias, The Stamping Ground, to link up for our round the world Blog hop. Good job it's a virtual thing, it's gone darned cold out there!
 And there has been some crafting done, although not as much as I wanted, which I'll explain in a while.

You may remember seeing this after  my NEC post. A kit from Inkylicious, comes with everything you need, and after you've used up the 5 sheets of Kraft card, you just need your own to substitute.
 Anyway, I thought before I started on the Kraft card, I could use up some suitable sized pieces from my scraps folder of black card to practice on, and if they were OK, I could use them as card fronts.

Stencil taped in place, and some of the Brilliance white brushed in from the edges. I used a soft brush instead of the Inkylicious Colour Dusters. I'd splodged the ink onto a little Mylar mat, instead of trying to take it from the inkpad.

A bit further on, and I've taken a pale blue- I used Distress Oxide Broken China- over the white at the top.

Now to outline it with the white pen.

Outlined & stamped, and I'm not happy with the outlining, nor the stamping.They recommend using a Colourbox  White inkpad, as it's such a true white. And I agree that it is, but it's also so juicy, it loses the detail of a stamp too easily. But it's only a practice piece, so no loss.

This time I used the Colourbox Frost White to brush off the stencil,. then added Distress Oxide Broken China at the top, and Wilted Violet at the bottom.
  I stamped in Memento Luxe Wedding Dress, and the detail is much crisper.
Still not totally happy with the outlining, so more practice needed.







Now, more practice was interrupted by me not feeling well on Friday. I was freezing cold all day, and had no energy at all. I spent most of the day reading on the sofa. When I got up on Saturday, Doug said I'd been clammy all night, and I'd clearly been sweating, as my pillowcase was wet, as was the area on the sheet where my shoulders had been. Now this was exactly how the last UTI started, so we jumped on it straight away. Phoned the triple 1 NHS number, expecting to be told to go to the Out of Hours practice at the hospital. So I was a tad surprised when they said they were sending Paramedics to assess me.They did, and she said that as I was showing all the signs of an infection- raised temperature, blood pressure & heart rate (179 bpm, apparently!) and she could see me sweating, they wanted to take me in to A&E, as they had new guidance now on  suspected infections, and they were to be treated as potentially Sepsis until diagnosed otherwise with blood tests. I'd sort of expected it, and was glad about it, as after the last time I knew how bad it could get. I packed a bag as I fully expected to be staying in, at least overnight. Anyway, had blood tests, and was given IV antibiotics & fluids, then the Doc came back and said it was definitely a UTI, so he was happy for me to go home with Antibiotics.
I'll be having my catheter changed when I see the Nurse on Friday, as this one has let me leak urine on occasions, and I've not had that before. I've also now had two UTI's with this catheter, and I'm pretty sure that's the problem. Never had leaks before, and never had UTI's before either! Otherwise, I'm now feeling fine, I have antibiotics until Friday, and I'll be getting the nurse to check a sample and make sure it's clear of infection, if not she can get one of the Docs to get me more pills.
Right, thats my round up of the last week, I'll be getting back to my practice after visiting everyone. Have a good day folks.
Oh, the end of post funny....I nearly spat coffee all over the place when I saw this yesterday, so be warned!

WOYWW #441

Yes, it's Wednesday again. Where are these weeks going? Time to pop over to Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and add your link to the best blog hop there is!
I've been playing with stencils & paste again, with the intention of doing some more foiling on some of them. I'll probably do a few more before I do that though.
 Of those in the picture, the snowflakes have a multiple of blue glitter EP on them, the bottom one is another Tim Holtz stencil( so was the snowflakes) , this one has blue through purple glitter on it.
 The white snowflakes are done with a White Sparkle Puffy Powder from Stampendous.



I like the idea, but not the order I used the EP in. I'll try it again, but swap the order round.

This one worked better.

This is the white puffy one, I stood it up so the light would show the dimension better.
 You can see along the top where my 'Low Tack' tape wasn't so low tack! Good job it'll be trimmed down.

I picked this up in Tesco yesterday. I saw it last week, on BJ's desk, I think, and kept an eye out for it.
 The two penguins are, indeed, adorable.



So thats me done, I'm doing this Tuesday afternoon and scheduling, as my desk won't change tonight.
 For starters, Doug doesn't work nights anymore, so we have the evening together, which is lovely. I used to do my blog post after he'd left for work, and have to keep remembering I don't have that time now. It's lovely that he's off nights, we get to spend more time together, and he doesn't have to have an afternoon nap on a Sunday, then stay up all night to get back into his shift/sleep pattern.
Then, tonight we are off out to see Alice Cooper at the Arena, Birmingham. I've been a fan of his since the 70's- had all his stuff back then. We saw him about 4 years ago, and he was great.
Amusing story about Alice Cooper- like I said I was a fan of his back in the 70's, and had all his Vinyl LP's, as they were back then. During the late 80's, early 90's, he dropped out of sight for a while.  Anyway, my Eldest son Ant came in from college one evening, raving about this great new band I was going to love. It was, of course, Alice, and the single was Poison. You should have seen his face when I said, oh you mean THIS Alice Cooper, showing the aforementioned Vinyl!

And finally seen on Facebook yesterday.........................

WOYWW #440

Hello folks, and here we are at another Wednesday, over at The Stamping Ground, Julia is attempting to keep us all organised. I actually blogged a couple of times over the last week, Dies from Aliexpress Here, and the NEC Hobbycrafts Show, Here.
 Be warned, if you like dies, the Aliexpress one may cause you to visit, & spend money! But they are ridiculously cheap, as you'll see.
 So, back to the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC.
 Here's a long shot- yes, some stash was bought. I blame the stallholders, they just have so many fab inspiration pieces on show, and far too many goodies.









 Talking of inspiration, I bought some pots of gilding wax, due to these samples.
 I also bought 3 embossing folders(!) but they were 3 for 2, and it gave me great ideas to use with my existing ones too. There are some more gorgeous examples in my post.
These came from Pink Frog Crafts, as did another purchase, some glitter card. Now, for those who like glitter, but not the shedding, this glitter card is totally non shed, and super smooth. And you can do this with it:Yes, colour it with markers and even stamp on it. Cool, huh?
 He gave me a small sample to play with when I got home, to try it out before committing to a bigger piece, and I coloured mine with Promarkers,(right) and even Distress Oxides- Lucky Clover, another buy on Saturday. And it still has a glitter look to it.

 I bought a couple of dies- couldn't resist the Polar Bear & cub, and a lovely Snowflake Border.
 Heather Marshall   made a comment on how to store dies on the Aliexpress post, so I thought I'd quickly share my method here.

   
Mine are all stored in an A4 Really Useful Box, with homemade dividers, labelled with the contents of that section.The 3 Bigz dies at the front just keep them upright. I used chipboard type card- the sort on the backs of notepads etc.
 I buy A4 magnetic sheets off Amazon or E-Bay- whoever has them cheapest, and cut them down to fit the Large Avery Elle pockets.
 How many dies to a pocket depends entirely on die size. Some have half a dozen, some only one.



I did start out putting them on A5 magnetic sheets stored in A5 binders, but those quickly got heavy and unwieldy.
 I'm liking this system, it's easy to flick through and find what I want, and I don't have dies dropping off sheets in folders! The box stays on the table I use for die cutting, so I don't have to lift it either.
 Right, I think I'm done, just finish off with this- you can tell how much better I feel, my endpost funny is back!

NEC Hobbycrafts Show, November 2017

As I said to Doug, I don't know if the show really was better this year, or if it was simply that I walked around it without struggling at all just made it seem that way. He thinks it was not really any different to the last time we went, so it must have been my not struggling meant I enjoyed it more. As usual, my main complaint is the way the stalls are mixed in together- I get irritated by walking half an aisle, past crafts/ Hobby Associations that I have no interest in. But that's just me, lol. My second complaint is of course the prices! £12 to park your car is disgraceful.
So, first off, an overview of all my purchases after I unpacked my bag onto my desk.
 We'll start of with the shiny stuff, shall we?

Some glitter, a few new colours and a couple, the gold & silver, that I use a lot. Some ultra fine in the bottle, some bead mixes, and lots of acrylic stones, which I liked the look of for flower centres and such.

Those bead mixes- Again I use this sort of thing for flower centres, and I thought a couple of them will work well with Poinsettias.

Hot foils- I really got into this with Stencil paste & a Laminator, and of course glues. Got a nice selection of colours here, especially that coppery one in the middle.

Glitter card, and the really great thing about this stuff is that it's totally non shed, and absolutely super smooth.
I got a couple of packs of the silver, because this sample on Pink Frog Crafts stand, totally sold me.

All the different colours it comes in? No, all the colours you can achieve with Markers!
 Yes, it's so smooth, you can colour the silver with your markers, and as you can see in the bottom right sample, you can even stamp on it.


He gave me a sample to try out the colouring on before I committed to using it on a big piece. On the right, Promarkers, on the left, I've inked it with a Distress Oxide Lucky Clover, also a purchase yesterday.

3 pads of assorted glitter paper, which at a £1 a pad, was great value.

I admit to going a bit mad at the WOW! embossing powder stall, all lovely glitery powders, apart from one which is a Puffy Powder. Some of them were reduced, as the colours are being discontinued. But you get the little storage case with each 6 pots, so I'm going to sort out these, and ones I already have into cases by colour.

 The last of the shiny stuff is this gilding wax.








I got sold on this, by some samples of embossing folders, again at Pink Frog Crafts.

Just take a look at these, aren't they stunning?

 


The Embossing folders were buy 2 get one free, so obviously I bought three folders as well! I got the floral one, the Flourish Edges, and a Christmassy frame. It's also given me ideas to use some of my other folders.

So we move on to the basic stuff- DST,A couple of pots of Collall glue,the Oxides pad, some really fine glue nozzles,A Perfect Medium refill that was reduced, and a couple of odd Pixie Powders, also reduced. Oh, and a pot of Translucent Stencil Paste.

The paste was from a visit to the lovely Lucy Ellis, of Sweet Poppy stencils, where I also bought 3 stencils, and as I'd bought 3, got the NOEL one free.I think it's being discontinued.

Two Indigo Blu stamps, also reduced.

Next was a visit to Inkylicious, and I was really pleased to see the two Buddha stamps. I've been looking for a really nice Buddha stamp for ages, the nicest one I had seen was an old PSX design, which sells for stupid money, when they ever appear for sale. Two cuddling kittens, and I thought the cat with butterfly holds many possibilities- he could be ginger & white, grey and white, maybe even a tortoiseshell.

And just look at those bats! How could I not?

Honey Doo and their gorgeous florals- although they do make others besides-and I was particularly taken by the sentiment one, bottom right. Bee Yourself, Bee Happy etc. The small stamp was a freebie for buying 5 packs.

Now I do have a few stamps from this company, Circa Design,but I rarely pay them much attention at the show. This time, I wanted some verse stamps, not just to stamp inside the card, but also to be able to make a feature of on the front.

On to Lavinia stamps, and I wanted the Sacred Tree we used at the workshop a few weeks ago, and the hares are a smaller version of the ones already available. The squiggly vine one is a new one to the line, as is the fairy.

I should have put this one further up, but forgot! The kit is from Inkylicious, and contains all you need to make the project.

Stamp, card, Inkpad, Stickles & a White Gel pen, along with the bauble outline stencil.


 I also have a couple of Bauble die sets, of different shapes to the kit, so I can cut out some of my own stencils and make some more.

Last item is from Cardio, and this pack has four sets in it. 3 definitely Christmas ones, (Bells, snowflakes & fir branches) but the fourth could be used all year round.


So thats my lot, and will be my last Craft show attendance until Happy Stampers next year.It's a chance to meet up with fellow crafters, and chat to the people who own the companies. It's a great show if you've never been.  Dedicated to papercrafts, all the stalls are to do with the card making/canvases/mixed media/journaling side of crafting, so you don't feel half the show is not your thing. Also, the parking is free- they have a small car park, but there is plenty of on street parking, and it doesn't cost you £12 like the NEC! Also, and this is another big plus, the tickets are £2.50. You have to buy them beforehand, as you cannot purchase on the door on the day.