WOYWW #443

So here we are, at the last post before December-just- and is it me, or has this year suddenly flown in the last couple of months? I mean, the whole year has gone quite quickly, but these last few months it's been sort of blink and you missed it.
 Leaving our links over at Julias again, The Stamping Ground- I reckon there should be mince pies too soon, *wink, wink*.
Still not a lot of crafting being done, I have had some more practice time with the baubles, and I seemed to get a better result by outlining first, letting that set, then brushing on the ink. I think the nib of the pen was clogging on the ink. Might try doing the inking, then outlining a few hours later, see if that helps.


Tried  on the kraft card first- I've never really got into the whole kraft thing, the colour is just a bit to 'meh' for me, and although it inks nicely, the contrast just doesn't work for me.

Returned to black, and I'm much happier with the result, still not perfect, but much better.



I also decided to sort my UFO boxes- yes, I've now upgraded to Boxes 2.0-and I really need to get a grip and finish them all off, or get them made up, which is all a lot of them need.



 Exhibit A- and those piles all have 6-10 card fronts in them. At least. The one top right has closer to twenty.

 Masterboards bottom right, a couple of random card fronts above them, two Sweet Poppy Stencil fronts, done if I remember rightly with Imagination Starlights paints- a couple of stamped & heat embossed snowglobes, and the start of some sponged snowy scenes.

A random selection of stencilled backgrounds- all stencils are 7x7 from Clarity.

Another Sweet Poppy stencil, the cat on a wall, all done with stencil paste & glitter to get different coloured cats. I also varied the glitter on the walls on some, and two have been finished off with some foliage & tree stamping. Oh, and a masked off moon & sponged sky.

Doesn't look quite so bad when you hide them in plastic wallets!

There are also canvas UFO's- all are done with Sweet Poppy stencils & paste, a few have glitter flakes. Some backgrounds were swiped on with a baby wipe, some are Bleeding Art Tissue.  Bottom right with the Cat is Brushos straight onto the canvas.

Top right here is Bleeding Art Tissue, bottom right & centre are Brushos- centre one straight onto canvas, right hand one is a dried baby wipe from cleaning up.

Top left I have plans involving Bees- I have a Honeycomb stencil or three,😁, and the background is DI reinkers in Wild Honey & Carved Pumpkin, wiped on with a baby wipe. Bottom square has had ink brushed through a Clarity stencil, I think it needs more, and I think the other two are just random DI reinkers wiped on again with a baby wipe.

I actually found three finished cards- well, apart from the insert- these were done with the Laminator/Foil method, and a Sweet Poppy stencil.

These are again all done with a stencil- Top two are Dreamweaver ones- stencil paste and a Laminator & foil, matted onto silver glitter card, and blue. These came out fine.
 I was really disappointed  with the bottom two though. I was very happy when I foiled them, as they came out a treat- I loved the mulicoloured ribbons and baubles on the left one, and pleased I managed to get the green foil on the holly, and some assorted coloured foil on the baubles.
 I matted them onto Green glitter card, and that's when it went horribly wrong.

I always, always use Pinflair Glue Gel when matting onto glitter card- if it's not a smooth type- so that it grabs. This green glitter card has leached colour into the glue, and then through the cardstock. So, lesson here is that not all glitter card is created equal! I think that green will be consigned to die cutting trees or suchlike, where I can use DST/ sticky tabs. That may also be solution for this- foam tape on the back, then a little Silicone glue on the tape to stick it to the glitter, and the tape should- hopefully- provide a barrier.
 My problem is I love trying out new products/techniques, and get easily distracted by a new one.  So, no more experimenting till I finish these off!
 UTI seems to be clearing, now I've picked up a cough/cold, which seems to be resolving itself into a chest infection, so I'm back on Antibiotics, and extra use of the inhaler! My poor immune system just needs to catch a break so it can build itself up again after all the battering it's taken in recent weeks.  Running up to Christmas we have a few things going on- Wednesday (tonight) we are off  to Birmingham to see Stone Sour, then Friday night it's our works Christmas meal. Monday I have another works meal, for Long Service achievements, as I've been there for 15 years this year. Then next week we have a Marilyn Manson concert, and the week after, 5 Finger Death Punch, so it's all go, lol.
And now, it's time for And Finally.....

Shaving Foam backgrounds

Most people are familiar with this technique, another one of those that supplies endless random backgrounds.
I'd been planning on doing a few for a while now, but while I was shopping the other day, I had a brainwave. Cut down on the cleanup by using Baking Foil to work on! Then, when I'm done, the whole thing just gets rolled up and thrown in the bin.

 I sprayed out the shaving foam- and you must get foam, not gel!-any cheap brand will do, I used the stores own, about 40p a can.
 First batch, I used Distress Inks in Weathered Wood, Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone. You can use any dye ink, even paints for this technique.

I'd also picked up a long toothed comb, as I thought that may work for swirling the colours. It does, but not as effective as I'd have liked. Anyway, I had a pile of the foam on the comb, so I wiped it off onto a white tag.

Got a really nice subtle background from that. 😀



Now I cut down some white cardstock to A5 size, and began dipping them.

This is the first piece, still covered in foam. Use a ruler to scrape the foam off, and put back in the pile.



Doesn't look like much at this stage, but the next bit is when the magic happens.

 All the excess foam scraped away, and the surface wiped over with a paper towel.

Second piece from the same mix.
There is a limit to how many times you can re-use the foam, eventually you will just end up with mud.
 Also a good reason to pick your colours carefully.

 For the three darker ones here, I added some Ground Espresso ink to the foam, and re swirled it, using a paintbrush handle this time.

 A touch more Weathered Wood, and you can see I'm getting a lot of browns now, from continually mixing. Time for a new batch!

This time I used Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry and a little Pumice Stone.
 To be honest, I think I prefer the browns of the first batch.

 I chucked in a little Faded Jeans here, so the pinks are not quite so dominant.

 Side by side comparison, and definitely prefer the more subtle browns.

Just need to put them somewhere to flatten out now, and that's a few backgrounds for my UFO box.

WOYWW #337

Hi folks, and we're back again, meeting up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for our regular snoop around the worlds best, and worst, kept desks.And here's my entry for the week:

As you can tell from the dark outside my window, this was taken late yesterday evening, but looks much the same this morning. From the bottom right, the blue folder contains the images I started on for my Christmas cards last year, which never got made, so at least I have a head start (In November, I call that a head start, lol). Beneath them is some black and white card I ordered, and in a few minutes I'll show you why I always order online from PDA Card & Paper. I did look round the NEC for black card, but why is a 'true' black so hard to find? Next is three of the new Distress re-inkers waiting to go away, some little pots that were used to hand us pills in the hospital that I thought might come in useful, lol.Baby wipes, every crafters staple item, rolls of DST, and low tack masking tape on the holders. The Spa tub was from a Christmas pressie a few years ago, contained bath stuff, now holds cotton wool balls,a Stix To layering ruler, a bit further on are Wilkinsons glasses wipes, a wooden IKEA holder with pens in, a couple of those egg shaped sponges I've yet to try, and a mountain of the NEC stuff to put away.Behind that, a couple of houseplants,and so many odds and sods I'm not going to list them! I've spent most of the week storing the images in Evernote- its a free app that works on PC, tablet and phone, and syncs between all of them. You can use it for keeping track of anything, I'm using mine to gradually store all my craft stuff, to stop me buying duplicates.

This is what was in the blue folder, they were done with stencil paste which was glittered before it dried. I need to matt them up, then find the card blanks I bought last year to fit them. They are in my craft room, which is about 15 foot square- how hard can it be?









I said I was going to show you why I order from PDA Card & Paper, apart from price and choice.

The parcel comes wrapped in a waterproof poly bag, which when opened reveals a corrugated cardboard box.

Open the box to find the contents wrapped in bubble wrap.

Remove the bubble wrap, and your purchase is wrapped in brown paper.

Remove that, and the top and bottom of your stack of cardstock is protected by a sheet of 'scrap' card, which is perfect for using as chipboard.

Now while I'm not normally a fan of what could be called excess packaging, when I'm ordering cardstock, I want it to arrive without damaged corners, or indeed any sort of damage at all, so love the fact that the company goes to great lengths to ensure your order arrives as perfect as it left them.
So that's my offering this week, just leaving you with the results of my check up with my surgeon at the QE last Thursday. He's absolutely delighted with how everything has healed, and with my progress since he last saw me. He was especially pleased that I no longer have the weakness in my left knee & ankle, and that I have no pain, only that my butt tends to ache and get numb if I've been sitting a lot.The numbness in my thigh, and tingling in my left foot will subside as the nerves heal, and were all expected. Nothing that isn't kept at bay by Paracetemol, so you can tell.
I still have a catheter, and saw a specialist in Urology today. Everything functions properly, I just have no sensation in my bladder at all, he said the sensation should return, but could take up to 12 months. To be truthful, it's a small inconvenience, compared to some of the possible after effects of the surgery we were advised of- I could have had permanent weakness in my left leg, leaving me with mobility problems, I could have had chronic pain from the removal of the tailbone, I may have had the opposite bladder problem of incontinence, so all in all I do feel I've got off lightly.  So that's me for today, I'll be round to visit shortly.

WOYWW #312

And indeed it is! Six amazing years of WOYWW, and making new friends.All thanks to the amazing Julia at The Stamping Ground, who came up with the idea, and regularly does her best to keep us in some sort of order.
 Just been searching back through my blog, and I first joined in with WOYWW on 12 Jan 2011,  #84, and according to my stats, I've posted 155 times, so occasionally I've missed a few.

Two desk pics today, only, as we went away for the Bank Holiday weekend. Beloved Hubby did a spur of the moment decision on Friday afternoon, and we ended up visiting a few places, so I've posted some pics at the end. When we got back yesterday, waiting on the mat was the latest Tim Holtz Distress ink colour- Twisted Citron. He seems to have gone very bright with this 12 colour release so far, I've noticed.



 Also on the desk, a couple of pressies bought by Hubby- a penguin with an extremely cute face, and a little wooden sheep.
 On the way home yesterday, we stopped off at Weston Super Mare. Walking  along the main promenade, Hubby spots this:
'What do you think?' he says. ' Me, like an idiot, says, 'Yes, I can do that'.  Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!



And it was ok, until it started to turn! Once we are a quarter of the way round, waiting for others to get on, I decided it wasn't such a smart idea after all. Mild panic attack, realise there's not a whole lot I can do about it, and hang on to the centre pole for grim death.
So thats mainly my anniversary WOYWW post, and my ATC's I've already hooked up to trade with people will go out today, and I'll be putting a star for joining in the general swap.
 The rest of the pics you can skip and go off visiting, it's places we stopped at over the weekend.

 These are the Beer Quarry Caves, not a planned visit, we just happened to spot the signs for it. Really very interesting, they've been quarrying stone from it for over 2000 years- the earliest part of the caves dates from Roman times, and they can tell when each part was being quarried by the shape of the roof and supporting pillars- different ages used a different shape to support the roof.
 It's also home to at least 4 species of bats, and there were a few hanging from the roof.

 Very, very cold down there- appreciated the warning Jan!

Sat and had a coffee when we came out, and this fellow was pecking around under a tree with bird feeders in it, getting what had been dropped.

Lyme Regis seafront. This area is known as The Jurassic Coast, for the vast amount of fossils found here.

This one is at Bristol Zoo on Saturday, feeding the Lorikeets. I expected the Zoo to be larger than it was, but it was a glorious day, and a lovely place to walk around in the sun.

On Sunday we moved slightly along the coast to Seaton, Hubby here clambering over rocks. Me sitting down! Walking over the stones on the beach was darned hard work.

 I said that on Monday, we stopped at Weston Super Mare. Something they do every year is have a Sand Sculpture competition.  On display at the moment are winning entries from previous years, recarved for the display. They are truly amazingly detailed.

This one was truly exceptional- if you enlarge the image and look closely, the writing, and the clock face have been carved as a mirror image. This one was on the theme of 'games'- just look at that chessboard!

The amount of detail involved in them is incredible.

Had to take this pic- Sid the Sloth is who I named my Sid after! The wooden boxes at the back are how the sculpture bases are made. A box is filled with wet sand, then compressed, and more sand added until its full, then a second, and however many more are required to get the approximate size of the sculpture, are added.

They have no supporting structure inside, and where you can see some wires sticking out, they are not a framework, but to stop the seagulls landing and pecking them.