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.

Christmas Card Club, Challenge #6

Right, I'm finally back in the game with this fortnights challenge. I'd like to say a huge thank you to all the ladies in the club, both for their patience while I got better & found my mojo,😃, and for the get well cards & good wishes.
 So, onto this challenge, set by Granmargaret, which was to use two, or more, patterned papers. To be truthful, I could do with following this particular theme a lot more- I have so much patterned Christmas paper, it's embarrassing!
Well, here we are- two patterned papers, plus I also managed to use an image I must have stamped years ago. I spotted it in my ' oddments' folder😯when I opened the box I store all my paper pads in. I have to admit, I have no idea who made that stamp, and I'm not sure I still have it, but this is definitely the first time it's appeared on anything.
It had been stamped in black and heat embossed onto a pale cream paper, so I decide to use some of the Imagination Crafts Starlights paints on it. I did two, as I wasn't sure what colour papers I'd end up using.

Before and after. I did two completely different colourways, and if you haven't seen the Starlights yet, they are gorgeous jewel shades filled with gilding flake dust, which gives them a gorgeous sheen. They spread for a very long way, and mix together easily too- I mixed the green and Pearl white to make the pale green for the one tags background.

Here I'd backed them with some cardstock,  as the paper was curling a little.

 Two shots, hoping you will be able to see how lovely the paints are.

I now had a search through the paper pads, and found this one. I'm not at all sure where I got it, but it was either The Works, Happy Stampers or the NEC!
It does have some nice co-ordinating papers in traditional Christmas colours.






I chose these two, and covered the front of a 5" square card base. Across the join I placed a border peel-off. They are rarely long enough to do a diagonal on a card, but when I have a focal piece to add, I just cut it in half, and have a gap under the focal image.

I picked this tag, as the colours seemed a good fit for the patterned papers.










  You can see I have punched the hole in the tag. I used a tool I bought a while ago, but hadn't actually  tried out till now. Its a Japanese Screw Punch, and this one is by X-Cut. I have to say it's a great little tool- punching holes in stuff has never been so easy! Lovely clean cut hole too. It comes with 3 different sizes of hole punch, which just screw in, and they are stored in the handle when not in use.

Fab clean hole, in one totally effortless operation.
 You just push down the handle, and job done.

 Next a selection of thread to tie through the hole. One is red/gold, one gold, and one red/green/gold.

And that's it. I mounted the tag with foam pads, and added a peel off sentiment to finish.

Mulberry Paper & Dragonflies

 A card using up some of my mountain of Mulberry Paper, and an image I'd got already stamped up. A lesson in not overbuying, just because something is the new must-have. I think I cornered the world market in Mulberry Paper. It does produce a nice effect though,when torn to leave soft, fuzzy edges. The trick to that is to drag a wet paintbrush, or a waterbrush along the edge of a ruler, then tease the damp fibres apart.













As my stamped piece was on a blue/pink/purple oil pastel background, I used blue & purple mulberry paper for the background mat.












 I tore two squares of each colour, and used a scrap of card to stick them to, using DST. The scrap won't show beneath the stamped piece.
That bit done, I mounted the image with DST onto the squares, then onto a square white card blank. Next, a Dragonfly made from Angelina fibres was added over the one in the image with some silicone glue.
 The row of flowers along the bottom is one of the ones I received from Deeyl, Queen Lightwell, in the ATC swap!
   Onto a scrap of the same oil pastel card I stamped the saying in Black Versafine, and trimmed it to a tag shape. Added an eyelet & some fibres and mounted it with silicone glue again.


Supplies:
 Dragonfly Post stamp, Crafty Individuals 001
Mulberry paper
Oil pastels & white card for the background
Sentiment stamp, mine came from Life Sentiments, Kaiserkraft
Embellishments
 Black Versafine

Dragonfly Collage card

Still plodding away, using images I've had stamped up for ages. This one is a Crafty Individuals stamp again. Its stamped onto an oil pastel background, for how I did that, see here. For stamping onto oil pastel, Staz-on is the better ink to use, I think. Versafine, Memento & Archival I have found all need to be sprayed with an Artist Sealant.
As the background featured blues, pinks & purples, I used blue & purple Mulberry paper to matt the image onto. 
I cut a thin scrap of card, and ran a strip of DST along it for starters.

The angel hair paper was cut down so that four strips would be a little wider than the image. To cut it down, and keep the 'fluffy' look to it, take either a paintbrush dipped in water,(or a waterbrush) & a ruler. Run the brush along the edge of the ruler, letting the water soak into the paper. Then just pull the two edges away from each other, and you'll be left with a nice feathery edge.
I stuck these, alternating the colours, onto the DST.

   The strips are all different lengths,  so I levelled them off using the ruler & waterbrush method.
 
 






Now all the same length, I  mounted the stamped panel on top……..






……..then trimmed off the card strip so it wasn’t visible beyond the edge of the image.I added a layer of a darker purple Mulberry paper, then mounted onto the card front.





To finish off, I stamped a Happy Birthday sentiment onto a scrap of the oil pastel background, and trimmed with fancy scissors.
A dragonfly made from Angelina Fibres (fusible fibres) was added to the bottom of the image.
Supplies:
Crafty Individuals CI-001, Dragonfly Collage
Mulberry paper
Oil Pastels The Works.
Fusible fibres

Moon Collage cards

Two versions of a card using the same stamp here.
 For the first one, Distress Inkpads were dragged over a craft sheet, misted lightly with water, then white glossy card lay onto it.
 You can even use photo paper for this- in my Poundland, you can buy packs of 60 sheets of 4"x 6" for a quid- giving you loads to experiment with cheaply.




You can use it for a lot of inking techniques, but two things to remember:
 Don't try to heat emboss on it, or heat it to dry it out! The surface treatment starts to melt & burn.
 Also, it doesn't work very well for brayering blended colours. The ink sits wet on the surface for too long, and just tends to merge together into one colour.
Once the sheet had dried, I picked my stamp, and I love these sort of sheets for using with collage style images. I use my Stamp positioner to pick out the best placing for my image. You can also do this with a transparency sheet.
The image was stamped in Black Versafine and again left to dry. You could use Staz-on, which will dry instantly on this sort of surface.
I sprayed the base card with black webbing- that stuff is so messy, and goes everywhere!
 After all these bits were dry,I picked a blue and a pink pearl paper to matt the image onto, matting onto blue first, then cutting a slightly larger piece of pink paper. This one I cut diagonally from corner to corner then used these to frame the matted image, on opposite corners. Then I matted the whole thing again onto dull gold card.
 Once placed on the card front, I added a pocket watch embellishment in one corner, and some watch part cogs in the other. Also a blob of Glossy Accents to highlight one of the moon faces. The sentiment was stamped onto a scrap of inked card.

The second version was in my WOYWW post this week. This background was created slightly differently. It uses plain white card, nothing fancy, and Adirondack Inks on a craft sheet. The inks were misted with water like before, but because this is just plain white card, you get a matte finish, as the card soaks up the ink.It was stamped in Versafine again and just matted onto a black background.
 A sheet of purple card was embossed using a Tim Holtz embossing folder and used to cover the card blank.
The printed paper is from a Prima 6 x6 pad called Craftsman.

I tore a piece off and sponged Faded Jeans Distress Ink around the edges. The Tim Holtz message was stamped with the Faded Jeans ink onto a scrap of the paper and also edged with it. A few cogs added with Glossy Accents again, and a blob on a different moon face to finish.



Supplies:
Stampers Anonymous stamp,U5-708 Moon Collage
Prima  6x6  Paper Pad , Craftsman
Distress inkpads
Adirondack inkpads
Glossy Accents
watch parts(e-bay)
Embossing Folder, Tim Holtz Retro Circles  ( comes as a 2pack with Sunrays)
28x37mm Watch, Riverside Beads
Krylon Spray Webbing, Black

Some stamps from the NEC

Well as I can't actually do any crafting, I thought I would post up some more things I got seduced by at the Hobbycrafts Show at the NEC in November.
Some Tim stamps, I felt a need for some words for my card making, it is something I really don't have much of, and these were selling cheaper than usual, I suppose because he has new releases out.















These clear stamps are from Kaisercraft, and are really very cheap, but they print well.

I don't think I ever go to the NEC without buying some more stamps from Lavinia stamps!






I loved this stamp- from Cardio. Many of you will probably remember their Rubber Stamp Tapestry 'peg' stamps, well, now they do clear stamps too. This snow-globe just seemed to have so many possibilities, and not just for Christmas.

These were some of their samples, which they kindly let me photograph.

I love the stamps from Inkylicious- these birds & branches will be great for a few projects I (still) have in mind.

Birds are clearly a bit of a theme- I love the gothic look of the Raven stamp from Crafty Individuals, and I have seen some great cards done using the 'Birds on a Wire' stamp.

Last ones are from Dimension, they used to be called Dimension Fourth. The skull attracted me straight away ( no surprises there then), the guitar will have a number of uses, and they had a beautiful sample on display using the leaf flourish stamp.

WOYWW #177

   A crafting desk liberally scattered with stuff, for this weeks Wednesday Wander round the Worlds Wordesks, courtesy of our delightful hostess, Julia Dunnit at The Stamping Ground. In the middle of making a Birthday card for our Daughter-in-law, who as regular visitors to WOYWW will know, is Silvercrafters (Maggie) daughter. Tim Holtz is out in force for this one- Distress Inks, Distress Pens, Craft Resist Paper Pad and Papillon stamp set!


There are a few stamped butterflies about, as I tried a few different colour combos from the Distress Pens. I used a sheet from a Papermania pack to stamp the Papillon words on repeatedly.Tore it in half and sponged & distressed the edges. I stuck it to the front, then decided I would tear off the remainder of the front and stick a piece of the Kraft Resist Papillon sheet behind it.
I've threaded some fibres through the tag,- bit of a fancy title, fibres- its actually 'knitting wool, lol. Cost me a quid, in a clearance sale. I've bought a load of them that way, different types of wools in assorted colours. These matched the tag perfectly. the tag is mounted with sticky pads, I've just got to sort out the sentiment and its done. So that's my mess  desk this week- I shall schedule this for Wednesday morning, but probably won't get to link up till this afternoon as we are now working alternating shifts- one week mornings, one week afternoons. This week we are doing mornings, 6 till 2, so I shall be round to visit later.

Last couple of Christmas cards

Both these cards use a stamp called Angel Chorus Collage, which I thought I had shown on here before, but apparently not. Its made by Rubber Stampede,and is available still, I found it here. I used a technique I saw done a long time ago, in a magazine, but I really can't remember who by. I stamped the image first on cream card and heat embossed with gold powder. I stamped & heat embossed in gold again onto plain vellum. I coloured the image on the card quite roughly with Promarkers- you don't need precise colouring, as the vellum softens the look of the colours.Then I tore around the angel images on the vellum, and placed them over the card versions, using some adhesive roller, the Stix2 one.I trimmed the images down and matted onto gold card. The backing paper on the card on the left is from a Joanna Sheen cd, and the other one is, I think, a Paper Pizzaz one, but I may be wrong. I have so many Christmas paper sheets I have had for years, I am trying to get some use from them, and stop hoarding, lol. Both have a rosette on them. I love those, I think I may end up doing rosettes to death if I'm not careful.
You could also colour on the back of the vellum, and oil pastels would work well for that.I just liked the softness that the vellum gave over the card image.

WOYWW #133

              Merry Christmas Everyone!

 Sorry to have been missing for a few weeks- between car breaking down, and extra work, trying to make cards- I've been chasing my own tail all the time. I hope everyone is ready (or almost) for Christmas, and want to wish everyone a very Happy, Peaceful and enjoyable Christmas, wherever you are. So, back to the Wednesday Wander around the Workdesks of the World, courtesy of Santas Little Helper, Julia Dunnit at The Stamping Ground.

These are some of the cards I have been working on, using a Dreamweavers Bauble stencil, embossing paste, and adding some glitter to the paste before it dries. I also tried out the Tim Holtz Rosette die I bought at the NEC last month. I  found that by trimming the paper down slightly, I could make different sizes of rosette- then I had to get a couple of small scalloped punches to make the centres, as the original was out of proportion. I did try cutting them down with deckle-edged scissors, but didn't really like the finished look. Punches are quicker too, :)

I also did them using my original Cuttlebug plates, rather than the extended ones, after I looked at the price of them. OMG! HOW MUCH???! I really cannot justify buying them, no matter how often I used them.  I will post the pictures of how I did them on my Cuttlebug page over Christmas, but as you can see, it does work, and is not really difficult. I actually found it much trickier getting the rosettes into shape. That is so fiddly!!!
 These were some made-to-order cards utilising few images I have stamped up previously. I hope you all have a great day, I shall be visiting over the next couple of days- yes, I STILL have some cards to make- and I haven't bought a turkey yet- the tree & decorations only went up on Monday-I am so going to change my ways next year!