WOYWW #567- The Colouring Edition.

Well, as if the lockdown causing us to lose track of the days wasn't enough, now we have bank holidays sticking their nose in. Almost totally missed Wednesday this week, and that would be a Bad Thing, as this is the day we post desk pictures and share them with crafters worldwide, just as we've been doing for almost 11 years.What an achievement that is. I wasn't here right from the start, looking back I seem to have come on board around week 83. So, pop your link over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and join in, please. We'd love to meet you.

Desk shot taken from the side, and yes, it's an unholy mess. Cards being stacked towards the front are some of the UFO's that got finished. Well, almost finished. Need inserts and envelopes, but closer to usable than they were a few days ago. And I have tidied a lot away now, as I wanted to stamp some more images to colour.

 
 These are some coloured images, from the post below, I finished over the last week.

One thing I did learn, to colour with pencils, you need a really super smooth  cardstock. Which these weren't.  It was Smooth Stamping card, which is fine for stamping and blending ink on, or for using with markers, but not smooth enough to get a great finish with pencils.

Any surface texture does make it difficult to get a good smooth finish and blend.  So I wanted to stamp some more and I've tried the Super Smooth Lavinia stamps Multifarious card. I'll report back on the success level.

 
I've used some more of my Gorjuss stamps, to try this out, but it feels like it will work well.  I know the Gorjuss girls aren't everyone's taste, but I like the weirdness, lol. Stamped with Archival Black Soot.

I also came across this sheet of butterflies, a Visible Image stamp, and they're done on Letraset paper, which is meant for use with Promarkers. Also a sheet of Bauble images, that's an old stamp, no idea of the maker. The goth girl is also a Visible Image stamp, and she was done with Promarkers. Just needs finishing off, when I manage to do some skin colouring that looks semi realistic, at least!

 And you have an enable free week again, as I haven't bought anything, so there's that.😁
 But thats me done, just leaves.....And Finally........( And it's another twofer)



I've never said I was responsible.......

And this is surely true.😀

Some Gorjuss Girl cards.

So, I have quite a few Gorjuss girl stamps, and they've rarely seen any use mainly because I'm not a confident colourer, and because I've never really been happy with what I've done, I've avoided it all the more, I think because I find it stressful rather than relaxing.
 Most of my colouring in the past has been done with Promarkers, and it's only very occasionally I produce something I'm happy with. However, I finally invested in some coloured pencils, and I bought the Prismacolor ones, as they were mid-range price wise, and supposed to be quite good, and also because I'd bought, and been bought, some colouring books, and the Promarkers usually tend to bleed through, where pencils won't do that. So anyway, I've been stamping out some images, and using them for practice over the last few months.
 I watched a few You Tube videos on using them, and gradually a few things dawned on me that have helped me be less critical of what I've done. I'll list them here, in case they help someone else.
 The first, and probably the most obvious is You are NOT going to be an expert the first time you pick up a pencil! Sounds obvious, but watching videos, and seeing examples of work others have done, and not being able to duplicate what I was seeing was making it stressful, until it finally clicked with me that they've been doing this for a long time, and probably struggled in the beginning too. It's all that practice helps them make it look so easy.
Second- I try to work too fast. I forget that the videos I'm watching have probably been sped up somewhat. So, slowing down is a key factor.
Third, it really is all down to trial & error, and practice, practice, practice! Just keep reminding myself it's only cardstock & ink.
 Finally- lightness of hand! This is a biggie. Not to try to lay down a solid patch of heavy colour in one go. Take time, and layer colour to get the depth you want. And don't worry too much about shadow at the start. So I selected some cardstock to matt them on, and die cut the images with either oval or rectangle dies. A couple have some stamping on the base card, and another three have backing paper from various pads. When they were mounted, I added some acrylic gems for a bit of bling.

I die cut some small strips for the sentiment, using a die set meant for cutting slider strips on cards. That's a tip I picked up from Jennifer McGuire.  You get quite an assortment of lengths, and is by Honey Bee Stamps, called  Straight Interactive Sliders. I got them from Bumbleberry Papercrafts.









The strips I cut from the same card as the matt.

I used some small Peel Off sentiments on them, they're something else I'm gradually trying to use up. Back when I started making cards & stamping, everything was wood mounted, Barbara Gray was just about introducing the concept of clear stamps. Anyway, that meant that a single sentiment stamp was quite an expensive thing, so I bought a lot of peel offs to cover all the sentiments I'd want to be able to use. Of course now it's much easier, we can buy some great selections of sentiment clear stamps, and I do now have a lot, so the peel off stash hasn't had much use in recent years.
 I  know that the Gorjuss Girls, with their lack of nose & mouth are not everyones taste, but they are weird enough to please me,lol.

WOYWW #500- The HUGE milestone edition.

And what a milestone it is! 500 weekly linkups around the world, non-stop. All from an idea by Julia, our much loved leader at the home of WOYWW, The Stamping Ground, to have a weekly blog hop sharing our desks,( and floors/cupboards/ and I recall at least one Ironing board!) good & bad, tidy & messy, no matter what your craft, this is a fun and friendly place to drop in with friends every week.So I'm sending a huge Thank You to Julia,who along with some occasional standing in from LLJ, keeps us organised every week,and a huge Thank You to all of you who join in, to make this so much fun. We also have an amazing 10th Birthday Crop to look forward to on June 1st too.
There has been much more tidying and packing away than crafting this week- Christmas has now finally left the building. Normally I leave it till 12th Night to take the decorations down, but this year I just wanted to see the back of them, lol.
So, you may recall amongst my Crimbo pressies was a case for my Prismacolor pencils. I'd originally bought the middle set of 72, not being sure how much I'd like, and therefore use them. Having discovered they are so much easier at blending than Promarkers, I've gradually built up my collection.

 There are a total of 150 in the range, but as I had a box of 72, needed something for all of them. This is the case Hubby bought me, and I can highly recommend it. It will hold up to 180 pencils, so room for spares/blenders etc, and has a totally solid outer case.
 For anyone wanting to buy pencils to build up their collection, I can also recommend Artist Pencils Online . The guy whose business it is is very fast at shipping- typically next day- and packages them really safe and secure. He also has a couple of deals on them , 10 for £12.95, or 7 for £9.48, which makes them the cheapest on the Net, as that makes them either £1.29 or £1.35 each, and the cheapest price I could find for individual pencils is £1.60, frequently more.( Yes, Julia, I'm enabling again!)😁😁

Some colouring being done- great to be able to use some stamps I'd shied away from as I was not happy with the results from Promarkers.I think it's partly due to the colours all being so strong, even their Pale/Pastel shades seem extremely dark. Although I have recently realised that the Flexmarker range, which are also by Letraset, and will work together with Promarkers, do have a lot more very pale colours in them, so I have bought a handful to see if it helps. Equally, part of the problem is quite possibly me expecting to be better at using them with little or no practice!


Hubby bought me these after seeing a card on Facebook using them, and tracked them down. The cat image is great, as you get a selection of facial expressions to use with it, as well as a Santa hat.

The previous post to this one is my annual round up of my favourite projects of the year, and probably tomorrow, Thursday, I'll do a review of the Tim Holtz Travel Platform, now I've had it out and used it.
 Which just leaves.....And Finally......

WOYWW #484- The After Crop Edition.

Yes, it's the after crop edition, and a fabulous time was had by all.  From a lovely lunch supplied by Margaret- glitter&glue- to an extra special WOYWWer joining us- ShazinOz!
 I'm sure many of you have seen all the fab pictures posted by LLJ, who blogged it after the event, and I'll add a few at the end of the post. It's a bit photo heavy, so apologies ladies.


Some of us made ATC's, and others had something different to share. 😀
 These were the ATC's I made.

Instead of colouring individual cards, I cut down some Brusho backgrounds to ATC size.




 Larger image here, so you can see the stamps used.
  The stamps I chose reflect the feeling of WOYWW, I think.
 





 Across the Miles is from a Christmas sentiment stamp, and that's in honour of all the WOYWWers around the world.

 Let us be Grateful.... comes from a set by Chocolate Baroque, called Words of Gratitude. The word Friends came from a stamp block I bought many years ago at a craft fair. The WOYWW used up some more peel offs, and I finally added a couple of acrylic gems to the butterflys antenna.

ATC's & tags from the croppers.Clockwise from the left, ShazinOz, Sarah Brennan, Neet, Jo ,Chris (Mrs D),Christine (Bishopsmate),Margaret, and Heather M in the centre.

LLJ had spectacle cases as her swap, and Annie (Wipso) made a gorgeous tiny bear with his own little poem.




The case is now keeping my glasses clean on my workdesk, and the little bear had a fridge magnet on his back, so as my PC unit has a magnetic backboard, that's where he lives now.

There was a raffle, where we get to choose our prizes, and my choices were a Memory bear made by Annie- with a WOYWW tag!- and a little bound notebook, which I have just realised I forgot to photograph.

Annie said if she'd known I was going to get him, she'd have made him black, lol. But green is probably my second favourite colour,😀, and he's just gorgeous. So thank you for making him Annie. 😉
 I have to find him somewhere to sit where he can see the goings on, but not get inky!

ShazinOz gave everyone a little bag of goodies she made up. And no, I haven't eaten the chocolate yet!

I took colouring to do, as the amount of time spent crafting can usually be counted in minutes, rather than hours. Well- consuming all that coffee and cake, and all that chatting doesn't do itself you know! So it was something I could stop & start easily. And I needed some practice. Okay, a lot of practice. I took my Prismacolour pencils, as I hadn't actually tried them yet, I also took a selection of Promarkers, but to be honest, I loved the pencils so much, the markers never saw daylight.
 I was amazed how easily a blended look can be achieved with them, I've never, ever got results like this with markers. But that may improve with more practice.But I really loved the results here, and I can see me doing a lot more colouring in future.

This has nothing to do with the crop- I saw these in Poundland last week, a BIG bag of sequins, in a copper and a bronze colour, and will be great for shaker cards, amongst other uses.

Last week I showed those Wedding photos, and mentioned that Rich had carved the bench they sat on. It was hard to see much of it in that pic, but here it is.







And so, on to the roundup of crop photos:

Everyone looking very industrious- don't worry, it didn't last.😁

Annie,Jo & Shaz,Elizabeth & Hubby, LLJ, Mrs D,Sarah and Christine.

 We had a lovely weekend with Annie & Jo & the Hubbies, as we all stayed in the same Travelodge.

LLJ and the spectacle cases, and Sarah.

                                   Sarah again.

 Shaz & Shaz!

 Front row from left: Heather M, Neet and Chris (Pearshapedcrafting), and the two Shaz's again.

Team DougnShaz (Thanks for that Elizabeth!) and Shaz

The traditional group photo.

And the menfolk, without whom most of us would not have got there.There were another two, but they'd sloped off to a footie match, lol.

I'm sure you'll get lots more photos from the others, we all had a fabulous day.  Join in the blog hop by leaving your link at Julia's place, The Stamping Ground,and keep your eyes peeled for announcements for next year- maybe you'll be able to join us, meeting up with all these crafting friends is just the best. AND we raised almost £170 for the two charities being supported too!




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








I forgot to say, we're off to the Netherlands this afternoon, so I'll visit as many as I can before we go, and I'll catch up with everyone else as and when Internet access allows!

WOYWW #478

And just like that, it's Wednesday again! Another WOYWW with our lovely Leader, Julia, over at The Stamping Ground.
Well, we had rain at last over the weekend, and it was just what the gardens needed. Came down in the right intensity too- heavy enough to soften the ground and sink in, without any flooding.
 There has been some crafting, there's a little video about inkpads and heat embossing in the post below, and I've finally got a video for a triple stamped card that I'm happy with, which will probably go up tomorrow.
Stamping, and the use of an embossing folder too.




Had some time cleaning and tidying, sorting out draws, and starting to put stuff together that needs a new home, in time for the crop.









Took myself out for a walk around town today, and popped into The Range, to have a browse. Came out with this stamp, I thought she looks so Goth, couldn't resist.






On the subject of buying stuff- and I know this will get me into a lot of trouble, lol- I had an email this week from Handy Hippo crafts store. She is closing down the business, so has a 30% off sale running right now. It'll run for 10 days, then go up to 50%, then finally 70%. Code at the moment is HIPPO30.
 Been and had a look, and she has a huge amount of stuff- inkpads of all sorts, including Distress & oxides, Archival, Memento.  Card blanks, cardstock, tools, Embossing powders & folders, Dies,Stamps, the whole caboodle. And she has a Clearance section where the stuff is already marked down  by 40,50 & 70%, and they are included in the 30% off as well. Lots of Memento inkpads in that section. Well worth a look to see if there's anything you'd like. Even two or three brands of the Stamping platforms on there.

Doug got round to putting up  the pictures on my wall at the weekend. The three sheepy pictures I bought from Tilly Tea Dance, and the bottom one is a piece made by Debbie Rock( Tattered Rocks).


I have 3 white walls, and one that is papered in a black glittery paper in my craft room, so the art is going on the chimney breast wall.


On another subject completely, I was getting really irritated by Pinterest lately. It seemed my main feed was constantly being flooded with stuff I had no interest in, hadn't searched for, either on there on on the net in general. Been going on for weeks. I had about a fortnight of Paleo diet posts,a week or so of Quilling and Iris Folding, and no matter how much time you spent clicking 'Hide' there were still more the next time you visited. Last straw was a few days ago, when my feed was full of posts about the Periodic Table of Elements! Literally dozens of them. I mean, really?
 I mentioned it on SCS, and a lady there told me something I hadn't spotted. Along the top of the main feed page, on the right hand side close to your picture, is now another button- Following. If you click that one, what you get is a page with stuff from people/subjects you have followed on Pinterest. Much more useful, and less annoying. I admit I like the change to Pinning now, as a suggested Folder appears over the image if you click Save, and you can navigate to specific folders right there, no more new box opening up.
 So there we have a lit, a bit of helpful info, and a dose of enabling as well, lol.
 And finally...............................

Just remembered, a HUGE Happy Birthday to our lovely Lunch Lady Jan today. XxXx

WOYWW # 325

Hi folks, and before I forget, those Dragon Eggs last week? Built up on a coconut! They were split in half, emptied, then glued back together before adding the scales.So, time to show your desk/floor/tray- whatever you're currently crafting on, for worldwide inspection, courtesy of Julia at The Stamping Ground.
The weak willed amongst you may wish to hide your eyes at this point! I'm almost certain one of you enabled me with the Quietfire/Elizabeth Craft Designs Happy Birthday die last week! There is also a Happy Christmas (that's on backorder).
 The Alpha die (Die-namics) was reduced to half price as a clearance line, so I just had to.By the way, looking at it, are you as confused as I was? Usually, they are in the order of the alphabet, I've found. This one is random, clearly to make the most of the cutting space they had, but it really threw me when I first looked at it.





 The Happy Birthday die is really quite large:

I've laid a couple of rulers next to it, to show you. I loved the script style though, thought it was gorgeous.





I like how the back of the packaging for the Alpha die gives you all the sandwiches for various machines.

I forgot about these Brusho's a couple of weeks ago. 8 new 'Autumn' colours.

The rest of my week so far has been taken up with organising 'Things to keep me occupied' whilst I'm in hospital. To that end, I stamped out a batch of images to colour- these are some of the Gorjuss stamps, not probably normally my thing, but I think they're kinda creepy, rather than cute, as well as some of the Visible Image character stamps. I've also packed my colouring books, Promarkers & DI markers, and both the Art Journalling magazines that Diane sent me. I've been downloading You Tube craft videos to go onto my tablet, as well as some comedy stuff- Michael Mcintyre, and my absolute favourite comedian, Eddie Izzard.
Loads of music, E-Books and Audio books too. So I think I'm fairly well stocked for entertainment of all sorts. I'm not packing my suitcase yet, as we're having this weekend away, to help keep both our minds otherwise occupied. The plan is to drive down to High Wycombe, and stay there Friday night. No particular reason for there, just that it's roughly half way to Kent, which is where we're going on Saturday. I've tried to organise this weekend so Doug only has a couple of hours driving at a time. Then on Saturday we are going to pop in to see Jennie, at The Artistic Stamper.Yes, I may possibly buy some craft supplies (whistles, looking innocent!)
 Saturday night we'll stay at Whitstable, then on Sunday, drive over to Southampton and stay the night there. Monday we will start heading back up towards the Midlands, possibly via Avebury- LLJ mentioned it last week, and I realised it's been a few years since we last went there. So we'll be back home Monday evening, then Tuesday I will pack to go into hospital on Wednesday. I will put up a blog post next week, if I can't link before I go out, then I'll ask LLJ to link me in. I'm going to have plenty of time on my hands to visit you all!
 Also, if anyone wants to text me to chat/see how I am, either FB PM me, or email me (link in sidebar) and I'll send you my mobile number. Hubby has also put Skype on my tablet & phone- shazsilverwolf@gmail.com. As far as I know, the hospital has wifi Internet access, so I won't be out of touch for long,lol.
Tomorrow morning is my pre-op assessment- how on earth has this come round so fast? Have a lovely Wednesday folks.