WOYWW #525- The Holiday Edition!

Yep, next week we'll be MIA, as tomorrow we are off to Kos for 10 days. So I'll get around to as many people as possible who have joined in at The Stamping Ground, all kept organised by our lovely leader, Julia,before we go in the morning.

On my desk for this week is a card made to send to Ian, Condolences for Erika.  The stamp set is new this week- I'll show them further down- from her beloved Visible Image,  it was the words that went with this set that made me feel they were perfect for this. And it had to be colourful, as that was Erika too. The image was heat embossed, and I used an Encore Metallic pad that has 4 colours across it- pink, purple, blue & green.












Also on the desk some ATC's for a swap in one of the Lavina Stamps pages on Facebook. The backgrounds are as far as I've got for now, so they'll get finished when we get back.








 

And now for my regular Enabler part of the post 😀😇😉.

First are 4 new Visible Image stamp sets, there are more in this release, but these were the ones that got my attention.





Popped into The Works earlier in the week, and got these two dies.

I have one like the circle Happy Birthday, but it doesn't have stars in it. The other says Wedding Day. Also from The Works, this paper pad. Suitable size for smaller cards, notecard size, and the sort of colours that will work fine for masculine cards. And I think thats pretty much it from me, apart from wishing Helen (StampingbyH) a very Happy Birthday today.  Which just brings us round to......And Finally.......................................

Made me think of Debbie Rock (TatteredRocks) when I saw this.

Cards using Paperbox cardstock.

So, full disclosure. A few weeks ago I had an email from the people at  Paperbox.They wanted to know if I'd be willing to make some cards from their cardstock, and blog about them. I've bought their cardstock before and always been happy with the quality, so I was ok to do that.

They sent me some cardstock and paper, in mainly pastel shades.





There was also a sheet of non shed glitter card in silver.

The first card I chose to make used a cover die featuring hearts, which I die cut from a sheet of Pale Pink Pearl card. It looks a little paler here than it actually is, I'm finding the contrast from the TH mat does that to colours. I also cut a matching sized sheet from the Silver Non -Shed Glitter card to go behind it.

I matted the two sheets together, and mounted them on to a topfold base card, notecard size, which is roughly 5¾x 4¼. I create that by cutting an A4 sheet of cardstock straight down the centre, lengthways.

 To finish it off I die cut an Anniversary sentiment from the Pale Coral Pearl card. I cut it 3 times, and layered them up for some extra impact.


This card would be great for Weddings & Engagements too, as well as Valentines day, and you could change up the colours for the occasion.

Next up I made a simple Birthday card, again using die cuts, and these are great for a fast card when you need one quickly.

  Again this uses a cover die- I *think* this may have been from Papertrey- but I've had it a long time. There are many similar dies available though.
 I cut it from the Non Shed Glitter card, and it cuts really easily.
 One tip here, I've used non shed glitter card before, and it seems like the glitter is a plastic type of coating on the cardstock. Now what we call 'cutting dies' don't really cut, as they have no sharp edge. They sort of 'crush' their way through cardstock, but with any sort of acetate/plastic/ plastic coating, in places they can stretch it rather than cut. I've found that when you have pieces to poke out, it's better to push them through from the front, then if any parts are still attached, it won't pull the parts that remain away, leaving bare cardstock. Go gently, and it's all good.
 Back to the card, and I found a piece of alcohol ink background in my stash, so I added the die cut- for this I use Multi Medium Matte applied with a fine tip nozzle- then cut it down to the same size as the die cut.
 To the back of this I added a piece of fun foam to give the card a little dimension. I mounted it onto a card blank made from Pale Blue cardstock.
 The sentiment is from Elizabeth Designs, and is a nice big sentiment that works well on this type of card. I cut it 3 times from pale blue card and layered them up using the Matte Medium, which I also used to add the sentiment to the card front.

For the last two cards in this segment, I switched to Baby cards.

 All the small die cuts were cut from the Glitter card, then colour added with Promarkers. This is a great way to make your embellishments match your card, as the Non Shed Glitter Card takes colour from Alcohol Markers, Alcohol inks, even your Distress inkpads really easily.

You do need to give it a little drying time though.

All the dies were bought from The Range, they have a huge selection of small dies, all priced at £1, so they are well worth a look next time you visit.

Starting with the boy card, I took a 5" square card blank, and covered it with some Gingham Vellum from my stash.
 Next I used the  Pastel Blue Matte card and the Aquamarine Pearl card to die cut two sizes of Stitched Squares, (The Works).




 I layered them up using double sided tape.
To the backs I added a small square of fun foam to add some dimension.
I mounted them to the card front with DST again.


Two shades of blue were added to each die cut, then I mounted them using Matte Medium.




























For the girl card, I used a different patterned paper for the front, and as it had a heart design, I used some Stitched Heart dies to  cut the layers.






This time I used Pale Pink Pearl and Pale Coral Pearl.


The images were coloured the same way as the boy card.















I will do a few more soon, as I still have cardstock left, so look out for Part Two!












So, I can say that the cardstock has been lovely to work with. The colours are good, and the quality of the cardstock is excellent. It's a good weight, and suitable for folding into card blanks, or for matting and layering. They all die cut beautifully, even the Non Shed Glitter.
 I'd also add that they have a huge range of finishes and colours, and also do swatch books of the various cardstock groups, which is a great way to see what you are ordering before you buy.

WOYWW #524- The After the Mudbath Edition.

Because it was. We had rain every day, at least once.This is what the fields looked like- and this was higher up the hill, where at least the water had drained away! A few acres of straw were put down every night, but it was a losing battle, to be honest.
Given that it normally looks like this:












 No idea how big the Festival area is, but the crowd capacity is 110,000! And most days were
a sell out.

  But, we are here to make our regular appearance at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for this weeks desk visits.

We hired an off road mobility scooter for me, which did make the world of difference. Not only didn't I have to wade through mud- except for the toilets!- but it meant that we could get around the whole site, as there is not only music, of course there are multiple sound stages, but lots of sellers of clothing & other goodies.





Like discontinued lines of New Rock boots!

Which sort of followed me home. 😇
 

 So very little crafting has been done, and won't be for a few days yet, as tonight we are driving up to Manchester to see Metallica.

Two wedding cards have been made, a former work colleague had asked me to make her one in pink, white & silver a couple of weeks ago, then contacted me last week and asked if I could make two for a neighbour of hers. For this weekend, as she needs to post them! Fortunately, they could be the same as the couples didn't know each other, and it could be the same as the one I'd already made.


 I've just got the inserts to print now
 and they're done. She emails me what they want inside, as it's in Polish, so I can just copy & paste!

Later this week there will be another post with some cards, made using Paperbox cardstock. They contacted me some weeks ago, and asked if I'd be willing to do a post with cards made from their cardstock, and they sent me an assortment of pearl card & paper.

There was a purchase or two- I have a reputation to uphold-😎, this time from Hobbycrafts, which is most unusual. I wanted some darker colours of fun foam, as I like to use that to create dimension in cards & sentiments sometimes, and the pack I'd bought has pretty much all pastel colours. Following a bit of Googling, it seemed that Hobbycrafts had a wide range of colours, and at 50p a sheet, not expensive either. They do indeed have a huge range of colours, and finishes too, I saw a glitter finish, and a marbled one as well.





 I also spotted a pad of Tim Holtz Small Snarky Stickers, and had to get that.

 Which just leaves.................And Finally.............





















EDIT.
 I'm so sad to say I have some tragic news to share.
Yesterday, Erika Phillpott, who sometimes posted in WOYWW as Sumbunneh, passed away.
 I've added here the message her husband Ian posted last night:
I’m so sorry everyone but now I’ve spoken to the families and some friends I now have to give you all some very bad news. Erika’s condition has deteriorated significantly and neither surgery nor chemo are an option. She has been moved to end of life care as she is no longer responsive to input from me or the nurses. She said something to me yesterday, the last words she was able to speak but it wasn’t until today that I put the pieces together. It was her telling me her soul was leaving her body. Please all just join me hoping for a swift and painless end so she can move on to be with her dad.

This was followed by this message this morning:

It’s with the heaviest and most broken heart in the world that I have to tell you all that my darling Erika lost her battle and crossed peacefully to another life yesterday evening. Myself and her wonderful nurse were at her side as she fell painlessly and peacefully to sleep.
It was her specific wish that only I was there during the darkest days leading to this. She wanted everyone to remember her how she was during her life and not how she was in those last few days. I take some relief in that her passing came quickly and she wasn’t stuck looking out and unable to communicate for an extended period. I firmly believe that those last words she uttered to me on Monday were as her being left. Those words will stay with me forever.
You will forever be in my heart, my wife, my bear my everything.

We were lucky enough to be befriended by her,  and we 'met' at first on FB thanks to our mutual love of Visible Image. We met her in the flesh at a crop, and at Ally Pally. To those who didn't know her, she was warm, lovable, friendly to all. She had a huge heart, and shared her love with everyone she met. Our hearts go out to her other friends and family, and most especially to Ian, we simply have no words to say how sad we are.

To all our friends, those we've met & those we haven't, you are as dear to us as family. We love you all, and if you take anything away from this, let it be to tell the people in your lives that you love them. Regularly, daily. Because in the space of one week, we have lost Erika. We don't know ever, when we may see or speak to someone for the last time.

WOYWW #523-The Almost Download Edition

This week has flown past- it never feels like there's 7 days between one WOYWW and the next! As always, we meet at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, to share our desks/floors/whatever with the world. Feel free to join in, we always love to see a new desk- and desker!
 On Friday we are off to this years Download Festival, at Donnington Park, although from the weather forecast, I have a nasty feeling it's going to be more Downpour than Download.☔☔☔

Made these over the weekend. Post below.












These were the two cards I made at the crop that I forgot to photograph last week.





Very teeny bit of enabling this week, paid The Range another visit for another look at those mini dies, and realised that I have almost no dies suitable for baby cards.



 Elizabeth( Altered Book Lover) will like one, I'm sure.  Didn't spot the Birthday Wishes one last time I was there.One thing buying the baby ones did, when I got home, was jog my memory about having a few suitable Quickutz dies, you remember the ones for the Squeeze tool? So I found the folder they were in, and actually got quite a surprise at what I had- a couple of Christmas ones, a car key-make a great  new driver card-a cameo, slider buckles, and two alphabets,as well as 3 or 4 Baby themed ones. And they work just like the wafer thin metal dies too, so can run them through any die cutter.

 And so I think thats all from me, so it just leaves.......And Finally.............................

When Get Well isn't the right sentiment.

Wasn't easy finding the right title for this post, to be honest. You want to send someone a card to show them some love & support, but Get Well just isn't the right sentiment. Maybe because it's going to be a long road to recovery, maybe they will be coping with something for the rest of their life. You can always use sentiments like 'Thinking of You', or 'Just for You' but I really liked these sort of motivational ones I used from Inkylicious. They're big enough to need little more than matting, and maybe a backing paper, like these.

 The cards are 'notecard' sized- that is,4⅛ x 5⅞,( 10.5x15 cm).
   This is half an A4 sheet, and depending how you cut your cardstock achieves a different orientation of card. If you take a sheet of A4 and cut it across the width, that gives you either a sidefold portrait card, or a landscape top fold card.

 Cutting the length of the cardstock gives you either a topfold portrait card, or a landscape sidefold one.
 These cards are made using the top fold portrait orientation.












Often, a different orientation will suit your card better, or even make the same card look entirely different.

  All backgrounds have been done with Alcohol inks on Yupo, with the addition of some foil pressed onto the 'sticky' areas where the ink spreads out. A good You Tube Video from KWerner on this technique HERE











 All the stamping was done using Versafine Clair Nocturne, which alone will NOT dry on this surface.
You could use Memento,or Archival which will.
 I added clear embossing powder, then heat set it. To do this you need to really let your gun get hot before starting to heat your project, keep the gun moving and stop as soon as it's raised. You may get a little bending of the Yupo, but sticking it down with DST, or Tape Roller cures that.


 The stamp is called Always Remember, by Inkylicious.


 I die cut it with a Stitched Rectangles die with rounded corners, and then die cut the two next sizes up from toning cardstock.





 I matted onto the first layer, then added a layer of fun foam to the back before matting onto the second layer, then added the whole topper to a card base I'd covered with a toning paper from my DP paper mountain!
 Then I rounded the bottom corners to match the panels.
 I finally added a few sparkly gems with a dab of Glossy accents, just adding 3 or 4 to each one.








I then used a different stamp, also from Inkylicious, called Live Life.

ATC Storage & uses for storage pockets.

I said last week I'd do a post about ATC storage. So, here we are.
I have WOYWW ATC's going back to the 4th Birthday celebrations, and I had envelopes holding them safe everywhere.
 I finally got around to getting them safely put away, using Storage Sheets bought from Amazon.

 I've yet to decorate the covers!

 These are the specific Trading Card pockets,but they come in a wide variety of pocket sizes,intended as Currency/postcard/photo storage amongst many others.
The 4 pocket square ones are ideal for storing the cards that sometimes come with an ATC.

 



    
This is a screen shot from the Amazon page in the link,so you can see what's available.

They come in batches of 10 pages, so the trading card ones will store 90 ATC's.

I also find the 3 pocket one great for storing large tags in, and larger ATC's too.

All of this years in their pockets now.

 Another great use for these pockets is storing spare die cuts.

The wide range of pocket sizes lets you store all sorts of die cuts- just in case you ever remember you have them!

 
A third use for them is storing unmounted rubber stamps, especially the bare rubber ones.
 No matter how large, or small your stamps, there are pockets that will fit them.

Hope this will be useful/helpful in your storage issues!