WOYWW #591- The Odds and Ends Edition

 Time for Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday again- is it just me, or do these weeks seem to be getting shorter? Pop over to Julias place, The Stamping Ground, to join in.

Some enabling right at the start this week- two new Visible Image stamps. I thought the star one would decoupage nicely, for quick cards, and loved the size and font on the sentiment stamp. I'm thinking stamp the Star onto the card base & heat emboss in silver, gold or sparkle EP, then stamp again onto glitter card or patterned paper, cut out and add on top. Also, the new Distress colour, Crackling Campfire.

Two cards made last weekend, should have been 3. I'm retrying the third one in the pic below. You know when somethings not gone right, so you try to fix it? And end up making an even bigger mess of it? Yeah, well that happened. The image, an old VI one, is framed, so in order not to stamp the frame across the snowflakes, I wiped the ink off the bottom part, then, completely forgetting the top part of the frame, stamped it. Looked awful, so I added in the same colour ink- which I intended doing anyway-, but it went all blotchy. So, next intended fix was to die cut a circle of double sided adhesive, place over the image, and sprinkle with Glamourdust.

The Glamourdust would hide the blotchy patch.That went well, right up to the sprinkling bit. I grabbed the bottle, and sprinkled. Except it was the Gold coloured one, not the Crystal. It hid the blotchy patch alright, but it hid everything else too! That's when I  realised every fix was making it worse, not better, so it went in the bin. This is the fresh version, and so far, so good. Good job I have a sense of the ridiculous!

Thank you to everyone for your input on White pens last week. General opinion seemed to be that A) Posca or Sakura Gelli Roll are the best, and B) and actually finding a good white pen is a bit like looking for hen's teeth!

And all that brings us round to .........And Finally.............................

Saw this last week on FB, made me laugh, so I thought I'd share with you all

...and this about sums me up. 😀

One final moan about the new Blogger- whats the new Labels thing about? Now I have to start typing each subject, then select what I want, rather than just scroll through the list. Grrr.

Christmas Card Club Challenge #20- Gifts, Ribbons & Bows.

 Well another fortnight has flown past, and we are again showing our cards for another Christmas Card Club.

As well as the fortnightly theme, we also have the option of Anything Goes, and this challenge is Zoe's choice, she wanted to see Gifts, Ribbons & Bows on our cards. 

 I had a search, and couldn't find anything in my stash for gifts, although the new stencil I chose to use does feature a nice big bow, so mine are a bit of the challenge, and a bit of Anything Goes.

The Stencil is from Sweet Poppy, and many of you have probably seen a lot of cards made using it on Facebook. It's been so popular, Lucy has really struggled to keep up with demand.

The baubles are done by inking through the stencil, then adding some stamping to the centre. As you see, I did 3, but only have 2 finished cards. The one on the left wasn't going well, the image is actually set within an oblong frame, and I remembered not to ink the frame at the bottom, and completely forgot not to ink the top! Didn't like how that looked, so tried to fix it by inking the remaining part of the bauble with the same ink. That didn't go too well, it was drying out blotchy, so I thought I'd die cut a circle from double sided adhesive sheet, and sprinkle with Glamour Dust, which should even out the background a bit. I should have just tossed it in the beginning! Cut the sheet and stuck it down, grabbed my Glamourdust and sprinkled it- and it wasn't the Crystal Glamourdust that I'd intended to use, but a gold one that completely hid the design. So thats the point when I accepted every attempt to fix it just made it worse, and tossed it. But I will do some more, using that stamp, as it will look good, if I do it properly, lol.

So these are the two I ended up with. On the red bow I added a little Translucent stencil paste, and some crystal glitter. The stamped image is from Inkylicious.

The blue one is stamped with an image from a Card-io set, called Winter Fun. The set contains a few other images, and two sizes of this one, a larger and a small. This is the larger one. I matted them onto some pale blue card, added some silvery snowflake paper from my stash to the card base, then added a peel off greeting. 

WOYWW #590- The Finished Cards Edition

And another Wednesday rolls round- more like flies round!- so time to link up again over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for our weekly desk shennanigans.

Continuing on from last weeks cards, the one thing that I dislike about Distress Oxides, is trying to stamp over the top of them. I think the fresh wet ink must activate something in them, and you get some of the Oxides design showing through. So I decided to do a few more, this time using my trusty Adirondacks. Clear case of full set syndrome here, lol. But I do love them, they apply easily, blend nicely, and so many colours, from palest barely there, to dark shades.

 

These were the half dozen I did with them, I forgot to take a pic till after I'd stamped the first one. My pad by the side with the stencil name & ink colours used can be seen to the right.

The stamped one is a Visible Image stamp, as are three in the next picture. The Buddha stamp is from Inkylicious.

These were some of the Oxides ones, now stamped up, and I'll warn those of a nervous disposition to look away, as the Visible Image word stamp I used on the Indigo Blu motorcycle card wouldn't fit, so I took my scissors to it and separated the three phrases. The words were too close together for masking with tape, so scissors it was.

It was so perfect for the motorcycle card, I had to use it.

Back to a touch of enabling, another new stencil from Sweet Poppy, Abstract Backplate.

On the subject of this new Blogger, I discovered today that if you click on your photo, you get the little squares appear that let you adjust the size of the image by pulling at the sides or corners. I'm probably late to the party, but thought I'd mention it. I've also discovered I can get my pictures where I want them by using the 'indent' icons, so I'm getting happier with the new stuff!

Now, some help from everyone please, for one of my visitors/commenters, Magic Maggie. Maggie doesn't blog, but she visits me, and last week in her comment she asked for recommendations on a reliable white pen. Now, I've tested out the ones I have, and will give my results in a minute. I've tried all sorts of storage- lay flat, point down, I've tried writing on my hand to get them started, and most of the well known brands fail miserably. Maybe if you are using them every day, they're ok, but I always find they fail within a few days if I haven't used them. So here are the ones I have, and how they worked.

 Top of the fail list are the Inkessentials pens- don't ask how many I've bought- they all fail. A Signo white pen, also fail. I have a Pentel Hybrid, which also wouldn't work, and finally my Dylusions White paint pen also is dead.

Now for the goodies. First off- and I wasn't overly surprised, as I've seen lots of good comments about these on the various Lavinia pages on Facebook- is a POSCA Paint Pen. Wrote perfectly straight away. They come in a variety of nib sizes I believe, and the one I have is a fineliner, 0.7mm. This would definitely be my top recommendation. Next, a Sakura Gelly Roll  Med white pen, again, worked straight away no problem. I *think* it says #50 on the barrel- white writing on a clear, white filled tube isn't the best idea, lol. But definitely another I'd recommend. I have a Pilot white pen- the sort with a nib you have to pump first- works fine, but is a bit of a broad line drawn with it. And finally one called Artline Multi pen, probably picked up at a local art shop. Rather like the Pilot pen, works fine, but a bit of a broad line. All of these pens have been unused for the same length of time and all stored the same. 

If anyone has any preferences for white pens, any advice on getting them to work again, or any other helpful advice for Maggie, could you leave it in your comment, where Maggie will be able to find it? Thanks folks.

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

WOYWW #589- The Inking & Stamping Edition.

Well here we are again, another Wednesday has arrived. Another weekly link up over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, to bare our desks to the world.

Two shots of my desk this week, this one a long shot, as I can't actually get far enough back- the desk behind the desk is in the way- to get a close shot.

This is a bit more of a close up on what I'm working on. I wanted to do some masculine/teen cards, and I'm getting there. The partial stencil on the card is another Eileen Godwin technique- if you've not seen her stuff, look her up on Facebook or she now has a You Tube channel of videos. She does amazing work, she really does.

The card with the drum kit at the back had to be coloured as it was a simple line stamp, a magazine freebie. I couldn't find the one I wanted- found it now, lol. You can see the VI stamp on the left of a drummer & drum kit.

These were the partially stencilled cards, using Oxide inks. I'll list all the stencils & colours when I do a blog post for them.

I think I've been very restrained during this lockdown, my crafting purchases have been few and far between. So, before I forget, here are my two most recent purchases. The Lines stamp set is by HoneyDoo, and a Christmas Bauble from Sweet Poppy. I think there are going to be a huge number of people getting Christmas Cards with this bauble on- anyone on Facebook will have seen a lot of fabulous cards made, and Lucy at Sweet Poppy has been really struggling to meet the demand for it. I think it's back on pre-order again, for the end of the month.

MIA  last week, you may recall I mentioned the kidney stent looked to be blocked on my last CT scan, and that most probably ties in with the UTI. The Urology team said they'd get me in in the next few weeks to change it early, as it's not actually due it's 12 month change till December. Anyway, the Friday after the last WOYWW I did, I had a phone call to say they'd had a cancellation in the theatre list for last Tuesday, and could I take up a short notice appointment. No problem for me, so of course took it. I did have to go and have a Covid test first, and that came back negative, so clearly what we are doing to shield ourselves is working. Anyhow, stent changed, so hopefully that'll put a stop to any uti's.

Which just leaves .........And Finally............( apologies to anyone who doesn't get it, it's a song by AC/DC, a band I desperately want to see live).

Christmas Card Club #19- Christmas Sentiments.

My these weeks just seem to fly past! Explains why I used to end up in a panic making Christmas Cards in November! But, thanks to our Christmas Card Clubs fortnightly challenge, that horror is way behind me now.😀 This fortnights challenge has been set by Rita, and she wants us to use Christmas Sentiments on our cards. I bought some smashing Christmas Verse stamps from Circa Design a couple of years ago, and their beauty is they look good either inside your card, or as a  focal point on the front, which is how I've used one on my cards.

The first one is in green and silver, and the dies used are an old Spellbinders one called Lacy Squares. I stamped the verse in Silver Pigment ink, then heat embossed with silver EP.

Both pieces of cardstock have an embossed design on them.

The second card is exactly the same, only this time using red & gold.

I has intended to wrap a ribbon around behind the die cuts, but like an idiot, I stuck the gold & silver card down to the card base a bit too quickly!

WOYWW #587- The Almost Crafting Edition

 Wednesday again, doesn't feel like a week ago. And I'm really pleased with myself for keeping up with what day it is, despite a bank holiday! As always, time to meet up over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for our weekly desk tour. Top pic is my desk right now, planning on getting some birthday cards made, so I have card & inks at the ready. I'd have actually started, but spent yesterday finally getting our planters replaced & filled at the front of the house, and today my back & butt are telling me it wasn't a good idea!

This pic is some ATG refills I ordered from Amazon, which arrived today.£24 for 12, a generic brand, which is way cheaper than the brand name refills, which seem to be in the £4 a roll price range, and these had good reviews.

They look pretty much the same, so fingers crossed.

Not finding it easy to place pictures exactly where I want them with this new Blogger software, hope they sort that out.

And thats it for me today, just leaves......And Finally...........