WOYWW #556- The No Enabling Edition.

Not a single enable in sight this week, for which everyone joining in with Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday will be breathing a sigh of relief!😃As always, linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground for this weeks deskfest.

 For a change, there is evidence of crafting. Well,I will be crafting later, just collecting stuff I want to use ready. This fortnights Christmas Card Club challenge is due on Sunday, and the theme for this one is Stars. So out have come all my star dies, and a pack of star covered vellum that's positively ancient.
I do have ideas, and plans, will just be interesting to see if what's in my head translates to cards.
 Lavinia released some new stamps on Monday, so normal Enabling will resume next week.😀 Then of course it will be Valentines card making, and eventually I will get around to the MINC machine. Speaking of dies, I did get around to moving them from their box, which was getting ridiculously full, into the Hobbycraft trolley I bought.

This is why I was so pleased it turned out to be a smaller version of the one I already had- it fits perfectly under the desk I use for die cutting. And not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, there is now a load of room in it, and I even have all my Christmas dies & Embossing Folders on the middle shelf- the bottom one is completely empty.
And so that rounds off this weeks desk, bringing us as always to ......And Finally.........

This really made me laugh!Possibly because there is a lot of truth in it. 😁

WOYWW #555-The ' There was a sale on' Edition

Yes, there was, at Amelias. And although I visited, I was very, very restrained. As was Beloved Hubby, for a change. 😁

These are all my purchases-possibly because I had everything else! Hubbys choice was the Unicorn stamp, I spotted an old Lavinia Stamp I didn't have, a pot of Silver stencil paste- no harm in having a spare-and a pot of Sweet Poppy glitter in a lovely navy blue.
As I'd had to buy an Engagement die recently, I grabbed this Phill Martin set that was half price, as it has another larger Engagement in it, plus the Retirement one, and a small Crafters Companion Engagement too. And that was my lot. Possibly just as well, as I've been keeping up to date with new stuff being Demoed at Creativation, and there are some must haves for my wishlist. I'll mention a few, in case they appeal to you too.

Top of my list are Tims new Embossing Glazes. These are embossing powders, but unlike the usual ones which are opaque, these are translucent, so you can see the colour/image below them. These are the first colours to be released.


I'm loving the look of these, as I have a very old pot of something similar, a blue one that gives the appearance of blue glass. This is it here, used on a heart embellishment.
There's a link HERE to one of his videos, showing them off, and what you can do with them.
 There are also Alcohol Ink Alloys, which are different in the way they behave to the AI Mixatives.
A useful tool I think will be the Alcohol Blower. You may recall the 'puffer' gadget he brought out? This one is bigger, and I think will be useful to me, as I currently use a straw to blow the ink around, but have a tendency to run out of puff if I'm making a few backgrounds.💨
 The final item to grab my attention I think will be of interest to anyone who is interested in foiling.
 DecoArt make a Transfer Gel, which works great with foil, but needs to be heat activated. They have just brought out Deco-Foil Duo, which can be heat set, but can also be applied without heat by running through your die cutting machine. So that looks to have numerous possibilities.
 Not sure if they'll go on my wishlist, but there is also a storage tin for the regular size of Distress Inks. And they store on their edge!

Made some Christmas cards last week, in the post below, and also finished off these cards, using a smaller cover die than the one I did the Engagement card with. Again, left blank until needed. I ran some white card through various embossing folders as a background. The cards are A5 folded. I was MIA last week, as I caught a cold, which inevitably started to become a chest infection, and although I wasn't having difficulty breathing, I was getting short of breath far sooner than normal, so it took a few days before I felt like doing anything. But all good again now. I'll be adding my link over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and visiting later on. Which, at last, brings us round to.....................And Finally...................

Christmas Card Club 2020- #2 Holly and/or Ivy

This fortnights challenge has been chosen by Elizabeth, and she'd like to see Holly and/or Ivy on our cards. We also are welcoming a new member to the group, Linda, so we are all looking forward to seeing what she creates.
I've made 4 cards for this challenge, all pretty much identical.
I've taken Holly as my theme. The holly background in 3 of them is a Sweet Poppy Large background stencil, and I covered the paste in glitter while it was wet. The two on the left are two-tone, top one a mix of green & silver, the bottom one copper and green.  On the right, the top one is green glitter, and the bottom one is stamped with a 'cover a card' stamp from Impression Obsession.

 Here you can see the details of them a little better.


I matted them onto dark green card, then mounted them onto my card base, which are just under 6" square.

Next I stamped an old Chocolate Baroque stamp, Holly Script, in gold and heat embossed with Gold detail powder, then cut them down to a tag shape. I cut the same size tags in dark red, and ran through an Embossing Folder from Creative Expressions, called Festive Greetings. I layered them together, slightly offset, and added a small ribbon detail.
 I mounted them to the card front with some foam tape, for a little dimension.

The final addition was a glittered holly bough, taken from the CB stamp. I'd stamped onto acetate, then glittered and finally cut out. A few small spots of silicone glue adhered them over the holly image on the tags.

A peel off sentiment finished them off. I only wanted a small sentiment, and this helps use up some of my peel off mountain! I stuck the peel off onto scraps of the green card, then matted onto scraps of the red.

WOYWW #553- The Making Cards again Edition.

Indeed, a few have been made over the last week. A total of 10 for the Christmas card club, giving me a decent start on next years cards. Here's the first 8. They can be seen a bit closer, as well as the remaining two, in the post below this.
Then I completed the Engagement card I was working on, and made a second for my stash.

This is the completed one, done with smooth glitter card behind the die cut, in red, as I know she has her Grans Ruby Engagement ring.




The gold one has no sentiment yet, as I thought it would be suitable for an engagement, wedding or anniversary card, so I'll just leave it blank until I need it.









The sentiment on the red one was cut 4 times and layered up, then mounted onto a vellum heart die cut, so it would stand out from the background better.

I had to wait to finish it, as amongst all my sentiment dies, the one I didn't have was Engagement, but an internet search found me this Hunkydory one, which has 32 dies in it, including a few that allow you to build a phrase out of the sentiment. Available on Amazon, amongst others.



Okay, thats a small Enable, now for the big one. I treated myself a couple of months ago now, but being ill, I've not got around to opening it, or trying it out yet, but that's what I'm going to be doing next.
I bought myself a Minc. You all know I love foiling, and whilst my laminator could do a reasonable job on a number of things, it's not the perfect solution. I didn't go down the Gemini Foil Press route, as I want to be able to use stuff I already have, not have to start buying expensive special Foiling plates!

So, I'm going to do an unboxing video, and then some test foiling, so that post will be coming soon.
Which rounds of my WOYWW post this week. As always, we'll be linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and visiting desks worldwide, to see who's up to what. So that only leaves.....And Finally..........

Christmas Card Club 2020- #1 Angels or Fairies

 Back in with making Christmas Cards for the Christmas Card Club Challenge, and I've used both themes for my cards, and made a total of 10 cards.


The ones on the left are 4 6" square cards, and 4 'notecard' size, which I make by cutting a sheet of A4 cardstock in half on the length, then folding to give me topfold cards, or landscape sidefold.

The Fairy and large tree are by Lavinia stamps, the treeline and small deer by Cardio/Majestix.
 As a finishing touch I added an acrylic star to the top of the tree, and some dots of Stickles for fairy lights.

These two are A4 cardstock folded, and use a very old stamp in my collection, called Angel Chorus Collage, by Rubber Stampede. It was stamped onto cardstock, then also onto vellum, and the vellum was torn around the design and added on top of the cardstock with a small amount of adhesive. I also added some colour to the back of the vellum image first. A few die cut flowers, and a couple of again very old backing papers, and they're finished.




To make the bauble shapes in the first four cards, I used a variety of stencils.The very top two are using a Clarity bauble stencil. The other two square ones use a stencil cut using a Spellbinders Ornament die, 2011 Heirloom Ornaments.
 The final 4 use a stencil cut using Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments 2010.

 DI Broken China & Tumbled Glass were brushed over the top edge, and  I used a torn paper mask for the top hillside. I used the cheap 'Toothbrush style' make up brushes to add the ink.
 The remaining ink on the stencil was dragged around the edges to define the shape, using a dried baby wipe, which I also used to add the ink over torn paper to make the hills.

 This is the Clarity stencil, and I also cut a copy from thin paper to use as a mask when stamping in the trees. The paper is thinner than the stencil, so the stamping is easier to do without having a big gap caused by the depth of the stencil.

The Poinsettia is another Spellbinders die, and I believe the flourishes are by Cheery Lynn.

WOYWW #552- The Happy New Year Edition.

Yes, it's Happy New Year, and Happy New Decade! Hoping it's a wonderful, happy, healthy new year for everyone, and another year of Wednesday meetings over at Julia's place, The Stamping Ground, for our regular weekly desk- hop.If you just browse the blogs and have never joined in, make it this years resolution! All the details can be found on Julia's blog, it's easy, fun and FREE!!!! And you can join in whenever you like, no obligation to post every week, just link up and visit when you can.
 Not a single thing to show you this week, I have been working on an Engagement card, actually, making half a dozen different to build up my stores, but can't show them yet. But I wasn't going to miss out on the first post of the New Year, so I'm just going to leave you with this weeks
 And Finally......................................