WOYWW #572- The Happy Birthday To Us Edition.

Yes, our 11th Birthday! What a milestone that is, eh? All down to our lovely Julia, over at The Stamping Ground. This is my UFO for the theme, and I thought I'd make it into a Birthday card to us all. The balloons and gifts are both Card-io/Majestix stamps, the 11th is Honey Doo Crafts, and I'm afraid I have no idea where the 'Birthday' balloon came from, may have been a freebie at some time.

This was the envelope I decided to work from, I can't believe how many of these stencilled sheets I have and not used yet.
 I used an assortment of Versafine Clair inkpads for the stamping, and although it's hard to see, I did cover the balloons with a coat of Glossy Accents, and sprinkled them with a little Glamourdust.
 And I learned a little trick that some might find helpful.
 When you're trying to place clear stamps on your background, ready to pick up with the lid, they can be really annoying, as they keep sticking to your fingers, am I right? Well, the 'string' on the balloons above is a separate stamp to the balloons, and was a total nightmare to get to lie where I wanted it, as it's really thin. It was driving me nuts, and I was sort of looking round my desk for a solution. And then I spotted my anti static bag, and the little dish it sits on has a good coating of powder on it. Dipped my fingers into the powder and rubbed it over my fingertips, and Yay!!! no more stamp sticking to my fingers.

 Got the Christmas cards finished, and the Caught in Crystal sheets worked out a treat.


 Nothing much in the Enabling Dept- just a 2" Speedball brayer! Came across these a few weeks ago, but couldn't find them anywhere in the UK. Not sure if they're new, or just not widely stocked. Got mine on Amazon- via Supermart USA, which are really good, as their prices are always competitive, and they ship worldwide for free.








  realised a few days too late last week that I completely forgot to add an And Finally! So this week there's two to make up for it.

So here you are....And Finally.......

Birthday Shaker cards

Not what I had planned on making- I was intending to glitter some medallions- but a chance remark on Sarah Brennans blog yesterday, about a card front to cut an aperture out of sparked an idea.
 I bought a Phill Martin Birthday Collage background stamp a while ago, and thought it would work well for shaker cards.

I stamped up a few of them in an assortment of colours, and made 5 into shakers.



For all of them, I went over the whole stamp in a pale colour, then added some darker colours, particularly over the main Happy Birthday, but also in spots over the design, using those egg shaped sponges.

This first one I used Adirondacks for, and then switched to Versafine & Versafine Clairs.

Ive included the inkpads so you can see the colours used, and the old & new Versafines work perfectly together.

With a few, I ran the front through an embossing folder, and I found it's better to do this after die cutting the aperture, as if you do it the other way round, it tends to flatten the embossing.
 I cut the apertures with various shaped dies for a bit of a change.

 The die is a Nellie Snellen heart die, and the card base is 6" square. The embossing folder is by Creative Expressions, called Ocean Waves.

This star is a Stitched Star die bought from the Works, and the embossing folder is called Sunbeams, by Crafters Companion.

This embossing folder is an old Cuttlebug one, called Scrollwork Frame, and I used a plain Oval die for the centre.

These two weren't embossed, the top die was a Presscut one, Scalloped Edge Rectangle, and the bottom one is a Nestabilities, Petite Scalloped Ovals, Large.

I added seed beads and sequins in matching or toning colours, and a bit of table confetti too.

WOYWW #509- The Ouch Edition

Ouch, because I seem to have Sciatica. On the upside, the bonus is that it must be on my left side, as I'm not getting the pain down my leg, which I wouldn't feel that side thanks to the nerve damage. On the downside, my back hurts like hell. But, I'm still here, linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for another week of desk sharing. If you're new to this, just follow the link to Julias, she has all the info there.

Shot of my desk in mid-create. Making cards using those strips from last week. I liked the golds/brown version so much, I'm duplicating it in a red/black mix.  I might do a more in different colours, I reckon they'd be good masculine cards. And look! I did Pink!!!!

The desk is looking extremely clean, however, the die cutting desk tells a different story. Dies & die cutting scraps everywhere. And the desk behind my desk is a nightmare of discarded stuff.

 A load of card strips, envelopes of card scraps, baby wipes. The water bottle isn't a drink, it's for filling my mister bottle/watering the plants!
 Annies adorable Crop bear keeping an eye on what I'm up to.😇


 
The Bauble cards I was making last week are HERE, along with another go at a You Tube video.






And so I'm done. Which just leaves ......And Finally ............

Lots of quick die cut cards!

Right, lots of cards here, all using die cuts, some as a frame, some as the main focal point.
 The top three use frame dies, and a Happy Birthday sentiment die from Quietfire/ Creative Expressions.They're all backed onto glitter cardstock, and the sentiment layered with black craft foam.

These four used up some scenic stamping images I'd done in the past that were in my UFO box,
The leaf shape is a Sizzix Framelits die called Birch Leaf.
 The star is from a set I think I picked up in The Works.
 The circle one is a die that was gifted to me, so I'm not sure exactly what it is. The die is white in colour, and I'm afraid I don't know who makes those, if anyone does, I'd love to know.

 All the cards use a C5 card base.


The embossing folders I used are ( far left) Ocean Waves, Creative Expressions, and on the right, Swallow Pattern, from X-Cut.
























These use a die by Memory Box, called Large Circle Burst.
 In each case I've backed them with glitter card, and then added a
Tim Holtz Butterfly die cut.
 I'll leave adding sentiments to these, so I can use them for many different occasions.

Not sure where the medallion die came from, may have been gifted. It's backed with a glitter paper with a shiny coating.

These use the Circle burst die again, and a die cut birthday sentiment.  The card bases are 5" square.

 The tree outline die I think came from Aliexpress, as I was trying to find the Memory Box version, but it seems to have been discontinued.
 The Chinese Lanterns is a stencil by Sweet Poppy, and was done in Bronze stencil paste.





Again, leaving the sentiment until I need them for something.

One of the cards from the first picture, the die is from Paper Trey Ink, called Quatrefoil.
 I matted it onto some rainbow glitter card, then added the sentiment layering it with black craft foam for dimension.

Here I've used a sable brown glitter card for the top one, and gold for the bottom. The sentiment done the same as before.I think a lot of these would make great cards for men, even with the glitter!

Final card is for a relatives birthday in December .

 I cut the panel from some metallic blue cardstock, and then cut the number from another scrap of it. It's backed with blue glitter paper. The TODAY word is a die I was gifted, and I think it was from a Stephanie Weightman set.

    

Floral Honey Doo Birthday Cards

Wow, two posts in two days! Well, the makings of these were on my desk this week.


The black and white card is on an 8" square base, the Blue & white on a 7".
 The same stamp was used in both cards, Floral Corner Flourish by Honey Doo.

On a recommendation, I recently bought some Sheena Douglas Stamping Card from Crafters Companion, and I have to say it does stamp beautifully.
 I'd cut one square for each card, and I've said this before, but when using square pre-made card bases, the dimensions given are  the envelope size, not the card base!


Meaning, one called 7" is actually going to be closer to 6¾", so you need to cut your matt layer & stamping layer accordingly.
 I stamped the image using my Tim Holtz Stamping Platform, and that makes the positioning easy, as there's no need to move the stamp, just rotate the cardstock 180 degrees. They were both stamped in Versafine Clair ink, Nocturne (black), and Paradise (blue).
 On the black card I sprinkled WOW! Black Twinkle embossing powder, and on the blue, a Stampendous powder called Stardust.
  I also stamped them onto white pearl paper multiple times, heat embossing them too. Then fussy cut them out.

Lots of extra flowers here, as I've also stamped some other images ready to make more cards. The tray they are sat in is intended for party snacks. I found a pack of them unused in a cupboard, and thought they'd be really handy in my craft room!
 Those scissors you can see are great for when you have a lot to cut out. They have a small pair of blades with a fine pointed tip, and a shear action, so you don't end up with aching fingers.

These were by X-Cut, but there are a few other brands out there as well.

I sorted out 4 large flowers,and 4 smaller ones. Shaped them around the pokey tool, and then just pressed down in the centre with the ball stylus.

Two flowers on each of the larger ones, added with a drop of Glossy Accents.

Then a single flower on each of the smaller ones, and finished off with one of the resin Dotted Rhinestones. The ones that sort of look like glass?
 I'd matted the panel onto the base before adding the flowers. It's layered onto Black Glitter card.
 The sentiment is another Honey Doo set, called Happy Times, and also includes a Happy Anniversary stamp.

Again, stamped in Clair Nocturne, and embossed with Black Twinkle. It was matted onto more black glitter card, and the labels were cut with Spellbinders Labels 4, large & small. You can just use one of the two set sizes, but by combining the two sets, you get a smaller border.
 I stamped first, then placed the die where I wanted it and die cut the shape.

The blue version was done in exactly the same way, just using  Clair Paradise, and Stardust Embossing Powder. I also used slightly smaller dies to cut the shape for the sentiment, as there was less room for it. I have no idea where the sentiment is from, sorry. Just added a couple of sequins to it, as there seemed to be too much white space.

WOYWW #487

 Not looking too untidy, but I have to tell the truth, I'd actually started putting stuff away when I realised I'd forgotten to take the picture. WOYWW time again, desks galore shared over at Julia's place, The Stamping Ground.  
 If you've not joined in with this, just leave your link at Julias on a Wednesday, and visit the other desks, and we'll come and visit you too. It's great fun, and we're about as close to normal as we're ever going to get.😂
 I've been playing about with Eclipse cards, hence the Alpha dies under the Stampin Up stamp case. One of my whole 3 SU stamps, lol. Behind them, some Stencil paste experiments and some foiling ones too. A couple of  Clair inkpads, some DST, and a Microfibre cloth. One from a cheap pack of 3 from Poundland. Use it to dry my stamps after babywiping them. I've noticed that wipes tend to leave fibres behind, but the microfibre cloth pulls them all off.

These Birthday cards are what I've been up to for the last day or so. You may have to enlarge the image to see the design clearly, I can see it's not too clear in this pic.


I'll blog them later in the week.

















I made 4 Christmas Eclipse cards over the weekend, they're in the post below.
 Now I'm out of white Fun Foam, but I've ordered some self adhesive sheets from E-Bay.



Took myself out to town for a walk today, and as I often do, paid The Range a visit.

These small wooden snowflakes- I have some larger ones from Kaisercraft.

Also some small Christmas wood shapes,both lots by DoCrafts.

Tubs of sequins- £1.50 each, and the bag of blue ones was a £1.

 4 Different colours in each pot, a real bargain.









So that me done, just leaves
..........................And Finally

WOYWW #481

And so here we are, another week closer to the crop, which is now less than 3 weeks away. I've been looking for stuff that needs a new home, and whilst doing that, ended up completely resorting my stamp folders! Not entirely sure how I got there, possibly worked better as a spur of the moment thing, if I'd thought about it first, I don't think I'd have started, lol.
I did have a considerable number of them sorted into folders by manufacturer, but was starting to realise that meant I forgot entirely about some stamps. Like, I had leaves and trees as a subject in one folder, but equally had a lot of both stamps in folders by manufacturer, so if I was looking for a tree, they'd get missed. So now, apart from Tim, who is now up to 3 folders(!),  Lavinia stamps and Stampscapes, they are all stored by theme. 27 folders of stamps, and 4 folders of Christmas stamps. I have about 30 wood mounted stamps, all fairly large, so they've not been unmounted. Then there's an A4 Really Useful Box of Visible Image stamps, and a smaller box of Card-io/Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps.  At least now, when I've moved those odd items from that end cube, I have 2 new storage spaces!

Hubby contributed to the stamp collection again, with these from Whimsy stamps.  I'm not normally a 'cute' person, but the bunny upside down in one of the stockings, and cute penguins are a winner. Above is a storage box for blending tools for me to decorate and assemble, and it has a couple of drawers for spare foams etc.

Stamping an insert for our Grandsons birthday card, and it was clear that this stamp wasn't straight. The Happy part is definitely at an angle to Birthday. So, out came the scalpel, I split the two words, and now I can stamp it straight, as well as switch the individual parts with other Birthday stamps.

Bottom was the original stamp, the top one after surgery! The stamp was by Dovecraft, so only cost a couple of quid at most, and it was an easy fix, but really, what ever happened to quality control? I remember once having to throw a wood mounted rubber stamp from a set by Whispers, because they had spelt- in capital letters- Congratulations as 'ConGARTulations.'



Onwards then.

This is Morts card, cut with the Silhouette again. Sorry if it looks a bit blurry, I think the glitter in the cardstock has confused the camera a bit.  I'd already written it and sealed the envelope when I looked at this pic.

I'll blog the card, and the insert,which I jazzed up a bit, later in the week.

Some  Freebie stamps I picked up, with Creative Stamping magazine.





One last thing. You all remember this monstrosity from a couple of weeks ago. Well, one of my commenters, Jackie, Suggested colouring it with Alcohol inks. Brilliant.
 

 
Came out a little bit streaky, but at least now I can look at it without cringing.😉







Oh, almost forgot. Had a follow up with my Oncologist on Monday, after the CT scan. Seems the nodule is still shrinking, so all is good. So the radiotherapy I had, which is called SABRE, or Cyberknife, is still working a year later.

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

  





Remember to leave your link over at Julias, The Stamping Ground, and we'll all do our best to come visit.
Last thing, are we doing ATC's for the crop, does anyone know?