WOYWW #411

Nearly missed another weeks WOYWW- just realised in time what day it actually is! Where we work, we have Monday and Tuesday holiday for Easter, as we only work half a day on Friday anyway, and I only just realised today is Tuesday, so I need to get my post sorted out.  Regulars will know that Julia, over at The Stamping Ground is our weekly host for this blogfest.
Sorting out Christmas images for the Christmas Card Club post, and came across these, which mostly just need some colour adding to make them usable.

Had another bunch of images I decided to cut into tags, using the Sizzix Thinlits Tags die set.
 No idea where I'm going with these yet, they will probably end up back in the poly envelope until inspiration strikes.
 I think the first batch will get some colour using the Starlights paints from Imagination crafts, so that will most likely keep me occupied this evening. Some may just get some dye inks sponged on, we shall see.
 All of these have been lying around for a few years now- I tend to stamp up a number of any image while I have the stuff out!
 Short and sweet this week, so I'll see you later.

One Layer Bee card

 Another card on the CAS theme- this time using a hexagon shaped mask, and Bees instead of butterflies.
 The mask was cut from copy paper using a hexagon Nestie, and repostionable tape runner on the back to hold it in place.

 I used Distress Inks to sponge with, Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade.
 One thing worth noting here, I worked on a Pearl card base, and the ink does not dry as fast as on other cardstock. It is easier to dab the ink on with a sponge, then do any blending with a clean sponge, rather than trying to do it the normal way, it just spreads too far.

You can see how much excess ink blotted off after I'd finished sponging.
At this point, I just stamped the Water Droplets stamp in Spiced Marmalade over the mask, and put it aside to dry for a while.





















When it was dry enough, I added the Bee stamps, in Versafine Vintage Sepia.
The large Bee is a Judikins stamp, which used to be wood mounted. The two smaller ones are both by Aspects of Design, from The Stampman.
 Finally I added some colour to the Bee bodies with Distress Markers, using Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed in dots, and blending them with Squeezed Lemonade.

The quote was also stamped in Versafine Sepia. How long the ink stays wet on this type of card is worth remembering when doing the rest of the stamping- its very easy to smudge parts of the design. I had to tidy up one Bees wings because I forgot.
 I am going to enter this into this weeks 'Less is More' challenge, as the brief is to use masking or stencils.


 Supplies:
 Card base
 mask
 Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Wild honey.
Water Droplets stamp, Designs by Ryn
Versafine Vintage Sepia inkpad
 Bee stamps- the Judikins one is still about, both from Judikins, and on E-bay. Looks like the Aspects of Design ones are discontinued though.

Resist embossed Birthday cards.

These two cards are made using the Papermania Urban stamps of Butterflies & Dragonflies I cut down in the previous post.This is the sort of thing I wanted to be able to use them individually for.
 First I stamped the Butterflies in white on a strip of scrap white card, and heat embossed with WOW Bright white embossing powder. Two things I discovered here, it was best to stamp one size of butterflies and heat emboss, and that embossing powder has a shelf life. The first one I tried, I used a different white embossing powder that I've had for a very long time, and when I came to heat it, it simply would not melt. The next one I did, it was too difficult not to accidentally smear the powder on previous butterflies. So this one was the third attempt.The inkpad I used for this one was the Studio G inkpad, by the way. After I'd completed the stamping on this, I did the Dragonflies on the second strip, this time using the Hampton Arts pad. Before putting the stamps away, I stamped an image onto post-its, peeled off four post-its and cut them out, for later.
                                                                                             
Pink and Purple Distress Inks were sponged onto the Butterflies, and Blue and lighter Purples onto the Dragonflies.Both were then wiped over with some kitchen towel to remove any ink from the images. Both strips of card were a bit longer than my card front, I left them like that till I'd finished, in case there were any bits I wasn't happy with.










Now the post it masks came into use- I wanted to overstamp with a texture stamp. The one I used for this is from a sheet by Aspects of Design, from The Stampman, of mesh, or netting. I used DI Dusty Concord for this bit.

For the Dragonflies, I used a stamp by Designs by Ryn, of water droplets stamped in salty Ocean DI. Possibly, I didn't need to mask, as hopefully the ink would have just wiped off the embossing, but I didn't want to take the chance it wouldn't.

I took two sheets of A4 white card for the card bases, scored and folded.

I'd already decided I wanted to add a little interest by placing a score line down either side of the stamped strip, so I marked on the inside of the card where these two lines should go, and scored on the Hougie board.

By some fluke, where I wanted them lined up exactly with marks on the board! You can see all the post-it masks in the background too, lol.

A stamped greeting, and for the Butterfly one I used Versafine  Imperial Purple, and the sentiment comes from a Butterfly Kisses clear stamp set.
 I think you may just be able to see the score lines on the Dragonfly one, especially if you enlarge the picture. They don't show up very well in the pictures. I used the same greeting on the Dragonfly card, this time stamped in Versafine Majestic Blue.
 You may have noticed that very often I leave my cards without any sentiment on them, I do that so that I have a little leeway with what I can use the card for- Birthday/Retirement/ get well etc. Although this sentiment will cover a multitude of sins, so I may use it more often.  The Water Droplets stamp I bought a while ago, and this is the first time I've used it, and I love the effect it gives.

Supplies:
 Papermania Urban stamps, Butterflies and Dragonflies
Designs by Ryn, Water Droplets
Aspects of Design, Mesh- sorry I think this is retired
White inkpad
Wow Bright white EP
Distress inks in blues/pinks/purples
White scrap card, approximately 2" wide
 2 sheets A4 card, scored and folded.
 Scoreboard and stylus
Sentiment stamp

 While finding links for the stamps from Papermania, I also discovered they have a group of Ladybirds- so sweet, I had to have them, lol.

A Bee Tag

Looking at the assortment of tags I'd coloured, the orange one said 'Bee' to me, and I do have a Bee stamp or three about.The first stamp is an old Aspects of Design stamp, (the Stamp Man),called Bee Botanical, and much to my surprise, when I went to have a look, they are still available. There is also a Butterfly and a Dragonfly, in the same style. Tempting, lol. They also have 3 sizes of unmounted Bee and the smallest of those I used to stamp in a few places with Versamark, then dust with Mica powder.

The main image was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black, by the way.  I made a hole in the tag and threaded & knotted some fibres, then set about making my Bee.

The stamp I used for this is by Judikins.It is still available in this years catalogue, and there are a few up on E-bay, wood mounted.  One of the Aspects Of Design Bees is the same size, I just preferred the wings on this one.

I was going to make the bee from Fusible Fibres,so

the Bee was inked with black Staz-on,and I used a mix of a shimmery white for the wings, gold for the body and some dark midnight blue roughly placed where his legs and anthers would be.When I had that on, I just put a sheet of greaseproof paper over it, and ironed it for a few seconds. You know you're done when the image shows up through the paper, I find.

So I peeled him off, and trimmed down.


 Cleaned my stamp with Staz-on cleaner. The reason I'm showing you this, is the block the stamp is on. For quite a few years, I wondered why my blocks were going cloudy/ crackled. Then I found out it was the Staz-on cleaner causing it. So I've gradually bought some new ones, and the damaged ones I keep for cleaning Staz-on off my stamps. They still work fine, and if its a large, or mounted stamp, its not a problem. But if I'm using a clear stamp, then you can't see what you are doing.

The Bee is mounted with some silicone glue blobs. I thought it needed something, then remembered I have some sheets of beeswax, so broke off a small piece, and added that below the bee with another blob of silicone.