WOYWW #556- The No Enabling Edition.

Not a single enable in sight this week, for which everyone joining in with Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday will be breathing a sigh of relief!😃As always, linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground for this weeks deskfest.

 For a change, there is evidence of crafting. Well,I will be crafting later, just collecting stuff I want to use ready. This fortnights Christmas Card Club challenge is due on Sunday, and the theme for this one is Stars. So out have come all my star dies, and a pack of star covered vellum that's positively ancient.
I do have ideas, and plans, will just be interesting to see if what's in my head translates to cards.
 Lavinia released some new stamps on Monday, so normal Enabling will resume next week.😀 Then of course it will be Valentines card making, and eventually I will get around to the MINC machine. Speaking of dies, I did get around to moving them from their box, which was getting ridiculously full, into the Hobbycraft trolley I bought.

This is why I was so pleased it turned out to be a smaller version of the one I already had- it fits perfectly under the desk I use for die cutting. And not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, there is now a load of room in it, and I even have all my Christmas dies & Embossing Folders on the middle shelf- the bottom one is completely empty.
And so that rounds off this weeks desk, bringing us as always to ......And Finally.........

This really made me laugh!Possibly because there is a lot of truth in it. 😁

WOYWW #549- The die sorting Edition.

And here they are in their new home. So far I've only filled the top layer, and the second layer with all the Christmas dies & Embossing folders, leaving the bottom one empty. Thinking I *may* just be able to get my BIGZ dies in there, leaving me with a free drawer in the tower beneath the desk. So, it's working out fine.

It's cleared off the desk I use for die cutting, just have a couple of things left to put away.
  


On a good note, I got out the box that had left over Christmas cards from the last year or so, thinking I will at least have a start on this years, to find I actually had enough to do all my card sending this year!

Huge bonus, as time was definitely slipping past me way too fast.

This weeks only bit of enabling is some coloured cardstock from Papermill Direct, as well as some of their super smooth white cardstock, which is excellent as a stamping cardstock.




And that pretty much sums up everything for this weeks WOYWW, hosted as always by Julia over at The Stamping Ground.


Which only leaves.....And Finally.......

How true is that?

WOYWW #531- The Blatant Enabling Edition.

I have to admit the truth, this is definitely the most  Enabling edition ever. Totally because I have been so totally crap for the last week, I've literally done nothing but read, watch craft videos, and a bit of colouring. After spending most of last Wednesday in A&E, having nebulisers, along with some IV antibiotics & steroids, everything was too much effort. The breathlessness has just- marginally- started to improve, and hopefully the tiredness will lessen a bit now. I still feel yuck, but the good news is that this weeks treatment has been put off, and I get to see the Oncologist on Monday morning, because as I feel right now, there's no way my body could tolerate another treatment. The effect is cumulative, and two have totally wiped me out. So we'll see what Monday brings.
 Anyway, the enabling!

  An online trip to CraftStash got me these goodies.  Four new to me Oxide colours, a set of Christmas stamps with a really nice script, and some dies. The Christmas sentiment ones are all in the £3-£4 range, and you get the words, underline and shadow dies.
 I saw a card done using the bauble die in gold on white, and it looked stunning.

Flipped them over here so you can see what you get. The words are 1.6cm high, or  ⅝", and the longer words are 11-12 cm, the Noel is 3.5.


And that really is all there is from me this week. As always, I'll be leaving my link at Auntie Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and visiting you all later on.




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

WOYWW #513- The Bit Boring Edition.

Definitely a bit boring this week. Nothing of excitement on my desk, just a few purchases.
These sentiment dies, in a sale at Craft Stash, all around the £3 mark. They have lots more besides these.

As always on Wednesday, we are meeting round at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, to view desks with a lot more interesting things on them!

 A box of Number 11 blades for my scalpel- still my preferred crafting knife. Scalpel blades work out much cheaper than branded 'craft knife' blades, and because they aren't the expensive part of the deal, you're not tempted to use them past their best.

The T'GAAL pencil sharpener is a gem! I bought one for sharpening my Prismacolor pencils, and love it so much more than my battery operated one. You can dial the sharpness of the point you prefer/need, so can have anything from a gently rounded tip to something you could use as a dart,lol. Available from Amazon- of course- they come in a range of colours. The prices seem to vary with the colours, and some only have free delivery on orders over £20, but it's something you can wait until you order something else, or wait a few weeks for it to come from Japan. Which I did with the black one, when I realised they would be amazing for make up pencils.
 I finished the Wedding card, and I'll put it down here, as it was made for a work colleague getting married for everyone at work to sign, and I expect  they're on Facebook.
 Gold and white, which seem to be a traditional thing for Polish couples, as do the Doves.


I forgot to post this pic from Wales last week.

 This is Rhuddlan Castle, and was literally over the river from the Premier Inn. We thought we'd go have a look around when we left on Sunday, but sadly it was closed from November till the end of March, so we were just a week or two too early.

 It seems that between us, Marg & Lynne complaining to Facebook, the matters been sorted finally, and Lynne can post her blog links. So thanks for all suggestions.

And thats it, I'm done for this week. Which just leaves........And Finally......



Not the one I'd planned on using, but saw this on FB yesterday! Shame there wasn't a video of him coming home, that would have been priceless.My second thought was I was surprised all the neighbourhood cats hadn't moved in!

WOYWW #477

Ok, so I'm going to say it. It's too darned hot! It's been so long since we've had a proper summer here in the UK, we can't cope with it. Fortunately, it wasn't totally scorching on Sunday, but it was still a hot day at Farnborough Airshow. We had a fantastic day, and would definitely go again. Some pics at the end of this post.
 Linking up with Head Desker Julia at The Stamping Ground, for this weeks desk fest.
 Little bit of crafting done, I've actually been trying to do a You Tube video making a triple stamped card, so now have half a dozen cards, but no video! Once or twice I hadn't turned the recording on, then I had desk shake that we've had to fix, so I'll be having another go later on.

Still, if nothing else, I'm upping my card stash,lol.
     

















I bought this set of ICraft Alpha dies a while ago, and decided today to take them out of the box, and get them onto magnetic sheets. This is the Upper Case, there is a Lower Case available, which I didn't get, and a Numeric set, which I also got. While laying them out, I discovered that I'm missing the letter 'R' from it, so I've messaged Oyster Crafts ( where I got them from), and asked for help. They are a really good size, 2" tall, so ideal for the Eclipse technique, for one thing.


 Something I think worth a mention, you may know there was a court case going on between the creator of the MISTI, and Tonic/Tim Holtz over their platform.
Apparently it has now been settled, and Tonic will stop selling the two current iterations of the Platform in the USA, Canada & Mexico. It also sounds as though the two companies intend to collaborate on the next version. Tonic will still be selling it in the rest of the world, but as the USA & North & South America, would be I think their biggest market, and if they are intending to launch a joint version, I won't be surprised if eventually it gets retired altogether. So if anyone is considering the purchase, I really wouldn't wait too long.

The Airbus A350, which is one size down from the A380, and is one of the Aircraft that we make fasteners for.
 All was good, nothing fell off!

The amazing Harrier Jump Jet. Seeing an aircraft this size hovering in front of you, and turning round on the spot is spectacular. It just doesn't seem possible that something that size should be able to do that.

I got to get up close & personal with my Dream Machine, the AH-64.

Better known as the Apache Helicopter Gunship.

I had a poster of one of these on my wall for years,lol.

I'm a real fan of helicopters in general, and this one in particular.

That scene from Apocalypse Now, where they come in over the sea to the sound of The Ride of the Valkyries!

Unfortunately, you could only get inside by climbing up the footholds on the side, and that wasn't happening!



We also got to go inside a Super Hercules Transport Plane, and a Chinook, all courtesy of the USAF.









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

WOYWW #440

Hello folks, and here we are at another Wednesday, over at The Stamping Ground, Julia is attempting to keep us all organised. I actually blogged a couple of times over the last week, Dies from Aliexpress Here, and the NEC Hobbycrafts Show, Here.
 Be warned, if you like dies, the Aliexpress one may cause you to visit, & spend money! But they are ridiculously cheap, as you'll see.
 So, back to the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC.
 Here's a long shot- yes, some stash was bought. I blame the stallholders, they just have so many fab inspiration pieces on show, and far too many goodies.









 Talking of inspiration, I bought some pots of gilding wax, due to these samples.
 I also bought 3 embossing folders(!) but they were 3 for 2, and it gave me great ideas to use with my existing ones too. There are some more gorgeous examples in my post.
These came from Pink Frog Crafts, as did another purchase, some glitter card. Now, for those who like glitter, but not the shedding, this glitter card is totally non shed, and super smooth. And you can do this with it:Yes, colour it with markers and even stamp on it. Cool, huh?
 He gave me a small sample to play with when I got home, to try it out before committing to a bigger piece, and I coloured mine with Promarkers,(right) and even Distress Oxides- Lucky Clover, another buy on Saturday. And it still has a glitter look to it.

 I bought a couple of dies- couldn't resist the Polar Bear & cub, and a lovely Snowflake Border.
 Heather Marshall   made a comment on how to store dies on the Aliexpress post, so I thought I'd quickly share my method here.

   
Mine are all stored in an A4 Really Useful Box, with homemade dividers, labelled with the contents of that section.The 3 Bigz dies at the front just keep them upright. I used chipboard type card- the sort on the backs of notepads etc.
 I buy A4 magnetic sheets off Amazon or E-Bay- whoever has them cheapest, and cut them down to fit the Large Avery Elle pockets.
 How many dies to a pocket depends entirely on die size. Some have half a dozen, some only one.



I did start out putting them on A5 magnetic sheets stored in A5 binders, but those quickly got heavy and unwieldy.
 I'm liking this system, it's easy to flick through and find what I want, and I don't have dies dropping off sheets in folders! The box stays on the table I use for die cutting, so I don't have to lift it either.
 Right, I think I'm done, just finish off with this- you can tell how much better I feel, my endpost funny is back!

NEC Hobbycrafts Show, November 2017

As I said to Doug, I don't know if the show really was better this year, or if it was simply that I walked around it without struggling at all just made it seem that way. He thinks it was not really any different to the last time we went, so it must have been my not struggling meant I enjoyed it more. As usual, my main complaint is the way the stalls are mixed in together- I get irritated by walking half an aisle, past crafts/ Hobby Associations that I have no interest in. But that's just me, lol. My second complaint is of course the prices! £12 to park your car is disgraceful.
So, first off, an overview of all my purchases after I unpacked my bag onto my desk.
 We'll start of with the shiny stuff, shall we?

Some glitter, a few new colours and a couple, the gold & silver, that I use a lot. Some ultra fine in the bottle, some bead mixes, and lots of acrylic stones, which I liked the look of for flower centres and such.

Those bead mixes- Again I use this sort of thing for flower centres, and I thought a couple of them will work well with Poinsettias.

Hot foils- I really got into this with Stencil paste & a Laminator, and of course glues. Got a nice selection of colours here, especially that coppery one in the middle.

Glitter card, and the really great thing about this stuff is that it's totally non shed, and absolutely super smooth.
I got a couple of packs of the silver, because this sample on Pink Frog Crafts stand, totally sold me.

All the different colours it comes in? No, all the colours you can achieve with Markers!
 Yes, it's so smooth, you can colour the silver with your markers, and as you can see in the bottom right sample, you can even stamp on it.


He gave me a sample to try out the colouring on before I committed to using it on a big piece. On the right, Promarkers, on the left, I've inked it with a Distress Oxide Lucky Clover, also a purchase yesterday.

3 pads of assorted glitter paper, which at a £1 a pad, was great value.

I admit to going a bit mad at the WOW! embossing powder stall, all lovely glitery powders, apart from one which is a Puffy Powder. Some of them were reduced, as the colours are being discontinued. But you get the little storage case with each 6 pots, so I'm going to sort out these, and ones I already have into cases by colour.

 The last of the shiny stuff is this gilding wax.








I got sold on this, by some samples of embossing folders, again at Pink Frog Crafts.

Just take a look at these, aren't they stunning?

 


The Embossing folders were buy 2 get one free, so obviously I bought three folders as well! I got the floral one, the Flourish Edges, and a Christmassy frame. It's also given me ideas to use some of my other folders.

So we move on to the basic stuff- DST,A couple of pots of Collall glue,the Oxides pad, some really fine glue nozzles,A Perfect Medium refill that was reduced, and a couple of odd Pixie Powders, also reduced. Oh, and a pot of Translucent Stencil Paste.

The paste was from a visit to the lovely Lucy Ellis, of Sweet Poppy stencils, where I also bought 3 stencils, and as I'd bought 3, got the NOEL one free.I think it's being discontinued.

Two Indigo Blu stamps, also reduced.

Next was a visit to Inkylicious, and I was really pleased to see the two Buddha stamps. I've been looking for a really nice Buddha stamp for ages, the nicest one I had seen was an old PSX design, which sells for stupid money, when they ever appear for sale. Two cuddling kittens, and I thought the cat with butterfly holds many possibilities- he could be ginger & white, grey and white, maybe even a tortoiseshell.

And just look at those bats! How could I not?

Honey Doo and their gorgeous florals- although they do make others besides-and I was particularly taken by the sentiment one, bottom right. Bee Yourself, Bee Happy etc. The small stamp was a freebie for buying 5 packs.

Now I do have a few stamps from this company, Circa Design,but I rarely pay them much attention at the show. This time, I wanted some verse stamps, not just to stamp inside the card, but also to be able to make a feature of on the front.

On to Lavinia stamps, and I wanted the Sacred Tree we used at the workshop a few weeks ago, and the hares are a smaller version of the ones already available. The squiggly vine one is a new one to the line, as is the fairy.

I should have put this one further up, but forgot! The kit is from Inkylicious, and contains all you need to make the project.

Stamp, card, Inkpad, Stickles & a White Gel pen, along with the bauble outline stencil.


 I also have a couple of Bauble die sets, of different shapes to the kit, so I can cut out some of my own stencils and make some more.

Last item is from Cardio, and this pack has four sets in it. 3 definitely Christmas ones, (Bells, snowflakes & fir branches) but the fourth could be used all year round.


So thats my lot, and will be my last Craft show attendance until Happy Stampers next year.It's a chance to meet up with fellow crafters, and chat to the people who own the companies. It's a great show if you've never been.  Dedicated to papercrafts, all the stalls are to do with the card making/canvases/mixed media/journaling side of crafting, so you don't feel half the show is not your thing. Also, the parking is free- they have a small car park, but there is plenty of on street parking, and it doesn't cost you £12 like the NEC! Also, and this is another big plus, the tickets are £2.50. You have to buy them beforehand, as you cannot purchase on the door on the day.