WOYWW #551- The Happy Christmas Edition.

 Here's wishing everyone a warm, safe and very Happy Christmas! I'm writing this post on Tuesday, and will schedule it, as most of us will be gift unwrapping/cooking/visiting on Wednesday.
 Not a lot to show on my desk today, I've spent some time doing a bit of organising, and making up more of those striped backgrounds.
My last bit of shopping for the year, the few items I bought in the Country View Advent sale.  The bottle next to the mini inkpads is Gel Plate conditioner,then an Archival re-inker, a Black spray mist from Dylusions, 3 bottles of Stickles and at the bottom there is 1 Liquid Pearls, and 3 Wendy Vecchi Enamel Accents, which I think are the same thing. So thats me done, very short & sweet this week, but it wouldn't be the same without an ........And Finally.......


I think we can all relate to that!

WOYWW #507- or the getting my act together edition.

Yep, because that's a thing. Of course, maybe if I did all the stamping/ putting in inserts to my cards
 and sorted out the envelopes, and  bagged them up when I made them, instead of putting them to one side ' to do later on', I wouldn't have found myself with a card mountain that needed sorting.Mainly a general assortment of cards, but also a decent- or indecent, depending on your point of view- amount of Christmas cards too. So that's been my job for the last couple of days.

 
 Last ones on my desk now are all the Christmas ones.
 It would of course make my job easier if I didn't do so many different sizes of cards, or in so many orientations.Or if I did it when I made them.😎
 Maybe next time. Most likely not, though. Know your limits, I say.

You may also spot a storage tin on the left, with the new Archival pads in Distress colours. Because yes, I'm a TH fan girl.

I'd asked my local craft store, Amelias, if they'd be getting them, and she said yes, so I'd asked- on FB- if I could pre-order the set, and a storage tin. She replied that I could, and about 3 other people had seen the message and replied to her  Me Too, lol. Anyway, she messaged me Friday to say they were in, so we popped up to collect them. And stamps may have fallen into my basket as well.😎 And a dragonfly die too.
 The Paper Artsy one with the elephant is super cool, and sort of a pre release. They got them when they went to the Frankfurt show, and can sell them, just not allowed to put them for sale on their website till the launch in a week or so. In other good news for them, Nikki (owner) posted yesterday that Amelias won Best Independent Craft Store 2019 in the Craft Business Awards. Really pleased for them, they've worked so hard to build the business, as they took it over when the previous one was failing, and they've really turned it around.

In other shopping news, lol, came across this tube of glittered washi tape in The Range. I admit I've never got into washi tape, just doesn't do it for me, but I *may* have been attracted by the glitter😎.

The general card mountain, all with inserts ready for bagging. I tend to bag them just to keep them clean till I need them.

And I'm going to need a bigger storage box, lol. It's so full, it's pips are squeaking. And I've still got a million UFO's to make up, and a lot of ideas for more too.
 So I think I'll be bringing the whole box to Junes Crop10, and any sales will go to the days charity.


Hubbys Valentine card is in this post HERE.
Last weekends Christmas cards HERE,
 So, I think I'm done, oh in reply to those who asked about the colouring last week, no I don't intend using them on cards or anything, the books are really just practice for me to get better at colouring so I can colour images for cards without getting the heeby jeebies! And in a statement I never ever thought I'd make, colouring with pencils is so relaxing! I can easily lose a couple of hours doing it.
 I'll be leaving my link as always with our Beloved Leader Julia, over at The Stamping Ground, and I'll be round to see what everyones been up to later on.

Which brings us round to......And Finally........

 So apt for this week!

UFO's- Part 2

Been a couple of weeks, but around other things, finally managed to complete another few of my UFO's.


The three backgrounds are all from Clarity stencils, as are two of the stamped images.

I made the backgrounds quite a while ago, while I was just playing around with stencils, ink & brushes, and they've sat waiting for inspiration to strike. Which it finally did.

 

This Clarity stencil is called Flare Frame, and is one of their many 7" square ones, which are a perfect fit for their 7"  stencil card, which also comes in other sizes. The design part of the stencil comes out at 5½",so you have matting & layering ability.
It also has the central square 'mask' so you can blank that area off, if you wish.

This first one was done by adding ink through the stencil and letting it dry. I re-taped the stencil in place, then applied Translucent stencil paste (Sweet Poppy) over it, which was sprinkled with glass microbeads, for texture.
 Being a bit messy, I'd got some ink & paste into the central aperture, which I'd masked off, and was partly why it got put to one side, while I figured out what to do with it.

Finally had the idea to mount a small stamped panel over it, and went with that for all three.
 The owl stamp is also by Clarity, and actually has 3 owls on it, but that made it too large for the centre, so I masked off an owl on the right, as that was the easiest one to cover up, inked, removed the tape and stamped.
 Colour was added with Prismacolor pencils,and some Distress Ink in Stormy Sky sponged over the edges, after I'd trimmed it down to a 3" square.

To add all the panels, I die cut a square of white fun foam slightly smaller than the panel,and used that to give the image a little dimension.

These were the images I selected for the panels, the Owl & Lion stamps are both Clarity, the Tree image is from Inkylicious, called Daydreamer. I had to trim off parts of the image for this to get it down to the right size.

I also added some stamped grasses along the bottom of the Lion image, from a set by Indigo Blu called  Nature 1.

This one uses another Clarity stencil, this time called Circles Box. Same size & details as the previous one. This just had ink added through the stencil. The Lion stamp also has three images, so again I masked off one on the right as before.Chose a pale purple cardstock as my mat, and mounted onto a 6" square card base.

Again, ink through the stencil and then I found a closely matching cardstock for the mat.
 The image was stamped in Archival Coffee, which I also blended around the edges.
 This Inkylicious stamp has the person, tree and ground as one stamp, then there's a separate small bird flock, and the word Daydreamer.
 All three are mounted on a 6" square card blank.
 Left them blank at the moment, so I can use them for any reason later.


Entering this in the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge, Add some Texture. 
Crafty Creations Challenge, Anything Goes.

Christmas Card Club Challenge #3- Angels or Fairies.

This fortnights challenge is chosen by Granmargaret, and calls for Angels or Fairies.
Two different cards, one square in blue, and one Easel fold in brown. The papers for both come from a pad I picked up in The Works last year,and is a slightly unusual format of 15cm x30cm. Which worked perfectly for the easel card!
 The stamp is by Rubber Stampede, called Angel Chorus Collage. I doubt it's still available, as I can remember this was one of the first Christmas stamps I bought, and that would be close on 15 years ago.

 OK, I'm officially shocked! Just went off to see if it was available, and turns out it is! A UK online retailer called Carysma has it, along with a whole load of other fabulous Rubber Stampede stamps!

 The circular Happy Christmas stamp is by Circa Design, and comes as a set of three called Christmas Circles. The other two are Seasons Greetings and Happy New year.


So to start with the Blue one, I took a 6" square card base and covered with the paper. The Angel stamp was stamped onto a dark blue cardstock with gold encore Pigment ink, and heat embossed in gold. I trimmed it flush with the edges of the image, then cut some gold glitter cardstock the same size and matted them together, offset. The greeting was stamped in Archival Cobalt onto a matching sheet of blue paper from the pack, then die cut with a small hexagon die. This also was matted onto glitter card, then trimmed down and mounted with a foam tab.

This is my favourite go to technique for this stamp, and was a design I saw in a magazine a lot of years ago. Firstly the image is stamped onto cardstock and heat embossed in gold again, then stamped again onto vellum, heat embossing in gold again.
 Both pieces are trimmed down to the same size, and the vellum is torn down around the two angels.
 Next I added Vintage Photo DI around the cardstock, then a little shading on the reverse of the vellum with Promarkers. That keeps it nice and subtle. It's such a detailed stamp, it needs the subtle treatment, it's easy to overpower the image- I had a couple of fails while doing this where just that happened. I'll show them at the end.😡
 Next both pieces of vellum are attached to the relevant part of the cardstock image, and another light coating of Vintage Photo added over the top. You can add glue- either a liquid like Glossy Accents, or a snail type adhesive in small spots behind  the shading.
 The whole piece was matted onto an embossed gold cardstock, and mounted onto the Easel card base, which I'd covered with a Brown version of the same Christmas pad paper. A couple of Flourishes die cut from the gold card added to opposite corners, and a white Poinsettia made from a Spellbinders die topped it off. The same sentiment as the first card was stamped in Archival Cocoa, die cut with a circle die. I cut a second piece, this time with a  scalloped die to mount it onto, then added to the card base with a foam pad.

These two were made last year with the stamp, this time using Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue, and the same technique.

Both were easel cards.

 I said I'd show you my fails!
 On the left, I tried covering the image with double sided adhesive sheet and Glamourdust, funny thing is, in this picture it doesn't look too bad, but in reality, much of the detail of the stamp is lost, it just looks blurred to the naked eye.

On the right, I thought I'd try adding Gilding flake to the wings. Another fail. It looked terrible, so I went over it with a gold metallic marker, which just made it worse rather than better. I should have used some sheet golf leaf, rather than the loose stuff I think.

WOYWW #450

Right I'm Back!lol. MIA last week, so I'm here again to link up with Julia at The Stamping Ground for another tour of Desk Duty.I was doing some colouring in my books last week, and after dumping a lot of felts and markers that had run out/dried up, I ended up using some coloured pencils in an Art set from WHSmiths I'd been bought as a Christmas pressie a few years ago. I actually found I enjoyed the pencils much more than I expected, plus you don't get the bleed through issues you get with some markers, so I invested in a set of Prismacolours from Amazon.  I've been watching You Tube videos on blending & shading with them, and they seemed about the best at a reasonable price point.

I also bought another couple of Christmas stencils from Sweet Poppy in their  sale, I was very taken with the bauble one, as I'd seen some Christmas Cards  made using a rubber stamp in the same sort of lay out. I think these will look amazing done with the foil & laminator technique.

I'm actually starting to feel more like crafting, now that I seem to finally be getting beyond this blasted cold/cough/chest infection.

So much so, I have three new cards put together, the top one just needing a sentiment. I shall stamp a greeting onto cardstock and die cut, as I really should have done any heat embossing before the gluing down stage!
 Mind you, maybe I'm making work for myself- they don't have to be heat embossed really.



A quick bit of back info on things mentioned in the past few weeks- first, the Groovi Grip. I've put this onto my rulers now, and also onto my Stix2 layering thingy. It works like a dream, the ruler stays put with just the slightest pressure from your fingers. I also discovered it's not actually sticky, it's a static cling. So once you smooth it down, it stays put, but if you want to take it off, there's no icky residue to get rid of.
Second, the Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves Brown. I emailed Tsukineko, and told them what I was seeing, and asked if I had a faulty pad.

This was the response I got, admittedly very fast, in fact the next day. 

To inform you the conclusion, the Fallen Leaves you bought is not a faulty pad.

 The Fallen Leaves is blackish dark brown and when there is a lot of ink on the pad, it look blackish.

Especially when you just opened the pad, there is plenty of the ink on the pad, it may look more blackish.

 And, it may affect the color a little depend on the type of paper you use.

 The color sample of the labelling on the Fallen Leaves is not exactly the same as actual color.

 We appreciate for  your understanding and hope to continue to choose our TSUKINEKO products for years to come.

 So I replied, as this didn't really address the issue I had, which wasn't the colour of the inkpad, but rather the colour it stamped out at. I also asked if they were planning to put a colour chart on the website.

 

Thank you for your email and precious opinion.

 We will pass your opinion to our product development department and take your opinion into account in the case of next product development.

 As to the website, we are planning to add the color chart of Versafine Clair, but the details such as time has not been decided yet.

 Thank you and best regards,

I  have to wonder if they have had this ink tested by stampers before release. I still don't see any brown in it at all. I did email Lavinia Stamps, to let them know what I was seeing, in case anyone else had a problem. They tested it out and agreed that yes, it does not look brown at all, although they could get a brown impression with a second generation print. I think it may need to be coated cardstock, as on my bog standard plain card, I'm not seeing that.

 Talking of ink, another Black ink that may interest people.

When I did the TH workshop, he mentioned the 4 colour Archival inkpads the designers had all brought out. He said that in his, the black part of the pad wasn't the original Black Archival, but in fact a Black Soot Archival. He also said it wasn't available as a separate pad- won't be surprised to see that change in the near future- but that you could buy a blank Archival inkpad, and an Archival Black Soot reinker, and make your own. From the demo he showed us, the original Archival Black has clear Purplish tones, which the Black Soot doesn't have. So, it was out of stock for quite a while at Art from the Heart, but I now have one, and will be inking it up and testing it out soon.

 Had the follow up from the scan, and they seem happy enough. They're happy it's not grown, and may be smaller, so they will monitor it and I get another scan in 3 months.

And finally.........................

Mixed Media cards- Part 2

Ok, following on from yesterdays post are a few more die cuts made up into cards.
This die cut is from the Mixed Media set #2, and it does need glue on the back of the design, as it won't lay flat otherwise.

 The card base is an A4 sheet of Pearl white card, folded, and with embossed scoring either side of the panel.










 The paper it's backed with is a shimmery one bought a few years ago, and I have it in a few colourways. rarely used it, but it was perfect for this.

I used a Crealies die to cut the sentiment, once from the shimmer paper, and twice more from white card so I could stack them up for a dimensional look.




 A few small flowers were punched from the same paper, and doubled up, then some Stickles in dark blue added to the centres.

 A similar design for this one, but it's backed with an alcohol inked sheet.
 The sentiment is another Phill Martin one, from Mini Baroque Occasions.
 Two small butterflies punched from some shimmer paper, and very tiny acrylic gems added to the bodies.

A different die for this one, from Mixed Media set #3, and cut from an ivory base.The backing sheet is an alcohol ink one, in blues with Gold Mixative.
 It was matted onto dull gold card, then onto a 6" square card base.
 The sentiment is again from Mini Baroque Occasions, and was stamped in Archival Cobalt.  A couple of dark blue half pearls added as well.

A 7" square base for this card, and the die is from Mixed Media set # 1. It was cut from a linen cardstock, and then trimmed with a deckle edged blade.
 The backing is an oil pastel sheet, and I found some pale purpley-grey cardstock to matt it on to.
 Heartfelt Creations Spellbinders die called Delicate Aster was used for the flower, and the centre is filled with Glossy Accents and seed beads.
 The sentiment is from Chic Floral Occasions Borders, Phill Martin. I matted the sentiment strip onto an offcut of the backing card before sticking it down.

 This one is 5"x7", the die from Mixed Media #3. The backing is a rainbow piece made with oil pastels, and the sentiment is from Mini Baroque Occasions. I repeated what I did previously, and stamped and heat embossed onto an offcut, which I then die cut with a Spellbinders Labels 8 die and mounted with foam tabs. I also added a couple of acrylic gems again.











Another 7" square card, this time the Mixed Media die was cut from black cardstock. It's backed with a different colour of the shimmer paper, and  at first glance it almost looks like glitter embossing onto the card.
I backed it again with a dull gold matt.
 The sentiment is stamped onto a black heart, and then matted onto a gold heart. Die set is by Nellie Snellen. The sentiment is from Butterfly Elegance Sentiments by Phill Martin, heat embossed in gold.
 Some small flowers in black and gold completed the front.


And that's the end of the second batch. More to follow later in the week, I've still got a few to put together.

Mixed Media Cards- Part 1

Right, this is the post I promised last week, but I got sidetracked by the ear rings in the previous post.
I'd cut a whole pile of cardstock with an assortment of the Tim Holtz Mixed Media dies, with the intention of being able to batch make a load of cards, but still have them all different.

First thing to do was sort out backing sheets for them, and this was also a bit of a stash buster, as I have loads of alcohol ink/oil pastel/blended ink/brusho background sheets- you know how you make up a load at the time while you have everything out? Yeah, that.
 I started off matching each die cut with a background individually as I made the card, but that seemed to take forever, sorting through all the coloured sheets each time, so I swapped method and paired them all up first, then got down to the sticking bit.

One bit of advice to bear in mind before starting, if you want to heat emboss a sentiment onto your die cut pieces, do that before you stick down your backing sheet, as heat & glue do not play nicely together!

There may have been a little mess made during the die cutting, lol.

Another thing to note, is that a couple of the dies do tend to leave slight edge marks in places I found. This may well depend on your machine, of course, some applying more pressure than others. The Lattice die in MM set #1 I found the worst, and no amount of shimming or such made any difference.

First set of backed die cuts.

Second set.

Sets 3...........................

....................and 4.

Fifth batch.

And the last three.
 By using a bunch of different colourways, I can swap out what I make up each card for.



 On to the cards then. the first couple are both using a  5x7 card base, and I turned both into Sympathy cards.

Anyone else remember these paper blox? I have a few, this one has darker shades, and I have one with pastels in, as well as some that were about 9"x2". Bought many years ago at the NEC, I think the packaging says Craftwork Cards. First one I chose is a dark blue with a gold sheen to it.

I trimmed the whole panel down to fit the card base.
 Sentiment next, and this was just stamped in a dye based ink.
These were the three I found that sat best with the cardstock colour- I also found the labels are not a very good representation of the colour.





 I stamped with all three on scrap, and there was really nothing to chose between them, although you'd expect the Paris Dusk to be the darkest.
In the end I went with the Versamagic Night Sky.

Foam tape added to the back so it would have a little dimension.
 I get my foam tape from Poundland- you get one roll- slightly larger than what you can see here- and I think about 10 sheets of foam pads, which have around 25 pads per sheet, in the pack. Bargain. 😀.

Finished card, with a few small white flowers added, along with a couple of punched fern leaves.

Oh, the sentiment stamp is from Inkylicious, by the way.

The second one is similar, but uses a purple sheet of backing paper, has a few more flowers, and a  Sincere Condolences stamp from Phill Martin, a set called Chic Floral Occasions Borders.












Next up I stayed with a 5x7" card base, but this time for a Thank You card. This die cut is from the Mixed Media Halloween set, a nice Brocade pattern. I've backed it with a bright blue pearl paper, and you can see I've used liquid glue in and around the pattern, as this die I found tended to warp the cardstock when it cuts, and the result doesn't lie flat on your backing paper. I used the Tombow Mono Multi glue, as this dispenser has two nozzles, one end has a chisel tip that spreads the glue over a wider area, the other has a fine nib for detail work.

I put it aside under some acrylic blocks so it would dry flat, then used Versafine Deep Lagoon to stamp the sentiment, which I think came from a Penny Black clear stamp set. I added a row of tiny acrylic gemstones under the sentiment, and again added it to the card base with foam tape.

The next one was backed onto an orange/yellow Alcohol Inked background, and I found a similar sheet of orange cardstock for the mat.

The sentiment, a New Home one, comes from another Phill Martin set called Mini Baroque Occasions. I stamped this in Archival Tiger Lily, and added some orange acrylic gems for a spot of bling. The card  base was a 7" square.
 This Flourish die comes from Mixed Media set #2, and is another that needs glue on the back of the design  to hold it flat.









Final card for this batch, and this one was backed with an orange & gold Alcohol inked sheet.The die is from Mixed Media #1, and the sentiment from Phill Martin Mini Baroque Everyday Sentiments.

Made a schoolgirl error here- the cardstock is a pearl white, and I forgot to dust it with an anti static bag first, so had stray flecks of EP inside the design. The only solution was to restamp and heat emboss, then use a layering die to cut it out and add to the card front, with foam pads. The die is from Spellbinders Labels 8.





So, with my error nicely covered up, I matted it on to a dull gold card,added some orange acrylic gems again, and matted it onto a 7"square card base.



As this is so picture heavy, I'll stop there, and do another post tomorrow with a few more.