WOYWW #582- A bit of Enabling Edition.

Not a huge amount happening desk wise. I do have to get some Birthday cards made, as this week is the start of the Birthday marathon amongst our family & friends. I kid you not, first one is on Thursday, after that, from Saturday on, for two whole weeks, it's at least one every single day, most of them have two!

 But, the reason we are here, is our weekly visit to WOYWW, kept organised by our much loved leader, Julia, over at The Stamping Ground.
Considering how long we've all been in lockdown, I think I've been remarkably restrained with my craft enabling. I did order some stuff from Sweet Poppy - a Snowflake stencil, along with it's matching cutting die, and the one at the end is a Postbox, although that isn't actually the one I ordered, so may well be being sent back to swap for the Lamppost one I actually ordered.

 My only other purchase from last week was some storage packets for my 6" square cards. I do have a pack that says they fit 6" square cards, and they do, the trouble is they don't fit a 6" envelope!
 Tried these new ones and they do fit, which means the other pack are not 6" square, as it's the envelopes that are 6", not the card base.

I was MIA last week, as the day after my CT scan, I came down with a doozy of a UTI. Completely wiped me out, and took 4 days worth of anti biotics before it started to clear, so it had really got a good hold.
Kept meaning to say my bad shoulder finally healed, after realising it was down to a trapped nerve, and that sometimes I'd get no trouble all day, then get up the next morning and it was troubling me again, I came to the conclusion that maybe it had something to do with how I was sleeping. So, added a second pillow and within 3 or 4 days, it had gone completely. So thats all good now.
 The CT scan I have a telephone follow up on Monday for, and I had a smashing nurse who found a compliant vein first time, so only came home with one dressing, lol.
 And thats me done for this week, just leaves.....And Finally.......

WOYWW #580- The not much happening Edition.

There isn't really. Long shot of todays desk. Some piles of Christmas Cards, I've finally got round to cutting, stamping and sticking in inserts. My own fault, if I did it at the time, I wouldn't end up having to do so many at once.
 From front to back- glasses, phone, guillotine, wallet of Gelly Roll pens. Now, there's a question. How come Sakura can make gelly roll pens that always work- even white ones- yet no one else can make a white gel pen that doesn't fail almost as soon as you get it home?
Bottle of home made stamp cleaner, Versafine inkpads, Versamark and embossing powder- still experimenting with the MINC and stamping. Piles of Christmas cards,reading glasses, dry microfibre cloth for drying stamps and cleaning brushes on. Two carousels full of stuff to numerous to mention.
Far end is scalpels, tweezers and pokey tool. Pincushion- courtesy of Elizabeth at the last crop- and one of those loose sheet telephone pads that comes in handy for jotting stuff on, or squeezing blobs of glue onto.


Desk two- the desk behind the desk. Handy as a general dumping ground for what I'm using, just not right now, lol. The big  Really Useful Box is full of Christmas papers,tub on top has a damp microfibre cloth for wiping stamps. The big Document holder is holding card bags, some packs of coloured textured card underneath it. ATG next to that. Along the back storage tins for alcohol inks and a number of reinkers, Stickles & Pearls, with the Crop Bear sitting on top. Spray inks at the end on a Nail Varnish storage thingy from Amazon.Tim Holtz layering stencils hanging off a rail, along with Embossing Folder samples. The drawers under the desk have all sorts of card & paper, punches- which I really need to sort out, as I don't know  when I last used most of them- one drawer full of peel off sheets I'm trying to use up. Just at the very front, the corner of my Hobbycraft trolley with my make up brushes on top.And thats my contribution for this weeks WOYWW, courtesy of Julia over at Base Camp, The Stamping Ground.
 Which just leaves us with......And Finally.....

This did make me laugh, especially number 8!

Clearly from the US, as over here we'd say handbag, but all the same so, so true. I think I can handle anything short of a Zombie Apocalypse with the contents of mine.



Oh, I might be a bit late visiting today, I have a CT Scan at 10.00, and I have no idea how long I may be there. The longest part is usually them trying to find a willing vein!

WOYWW #579- The MINC Edition

So, back in the craft room for our regular Wednesday met up of desk around the world, commonly known as Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday, courtesy of our much loved leader, she of the recent birthday, Julia, at home in The Stamping Ground.

On my desk, is evidence I've been playing with the new toy I bought myself months ago, a MINC. I went for the 12" version- there's also a 6" one- as I often find myself working on 7" square cardstock, so I have some leeway.

The reason I bought the MINC is that I want to be able to use my stamps with foil, and I wasn't haven't a huge amount of success with my laminator. But to be fair, it's a really basic one- an on off switch and thats it. One speed, one heat. Works fine for it's original function, and is usually quite successful with  foiling over stencil paste, but was having no luck with stamping.
 As you can see, notes jotted on various experiments so far, just trying to find the perfect combo of ink/powder/heat for repeatable good results.
 So that's going to be an ongoing thing  for a few more days, a blog post will appear when I get the results I'm looking for.


The weekends Christmas cards were done with the tree stamps and various embossing powders.
The stamps are all quite old now, made by a company called Butterfly Kisses, but they seem to have faded away, can't find any reference to them or their stamps any more.


One thing about the MINC I do want to mention, is for anyone thinking of getting one, be very careful if you go through Amazon. Looking at reviews, I saw that a number of people had ones with the wrong plug delivered- now that could just be errors in ordering, as there are EU, UK and US plugs available, maybe the buyers didn't notice that- one person got a 6" one instead of a 12", and someone else had things missing from the box. So I ended up ordering mine via Hobbycraft for safety. I don't know if the sales pages have been changed since those comments were made, as now you get a separate page for each plug type, perhaps it was a 'tick box' system before? Like I say,most could  have been buyer error, but I wasn't taking the chance.
 And so I'm done for this week, nice and short & sweet.
Good news for Dougs family, Tim, Lyndsay & Curtis are all ready to be released, the council have found them a bungalow as a temporary solution until they can all safely manage stairs, when they'll move them to a 3/4 bed house. Friends & family have been in since the weekend painting & decorating, and furniture is being delivered tomorrow, so they should be home by the weekend. Livvy isn't ready for release yet, but she's doing tremendously well, I honestly think far better than was anticipated when she was admitted.
To all my crafting friends who shared the GoFundMe page, and to everyone who donated, a huge thank you from us, and from Tim & Lyndsay too, it is so appreciated.💓
Which brings us round to ......And Finally.......

...and that would be a catastrophe!

Christmas Card Club Challenge #14- Christmas Trees.

It would be really bad form if I was late with this fortnights challenge, as it's chosen by me, and I've asked for Christmas Trees, although we always have the option of Anything Goes. You can't even imagine how many photographs it took for me to get ones you could actually see clearly- Sparkly/Holographic Embossing Powders and cameras do not play nicely together!

My 4 cards are made with A4 cardstock folded in half, and I've used a selection of trees with a variety of Embossing powders for my offering  this week.
 The stamps are all by a company called Butterfly Kisses, who seem to have vanished from the industry. I bought the stamps quite a few years ago, at a couple of NEC visits, but haven't seen them for a very long time.

They are a mix of grey rubber and clear stamps,with 7 different designs for the trees. The grey rubber used to be wood mounted, but I unmounted them a long time ago.






  I finished them off by wrapping a black & white checked ribbon round them, then added the greeting onto a die cut banner label


I completely forgot to take any in-process photos, so I'm afraid it's a short and sweet entry from me this time round!