WOYWW #299

Well, 1 week away from the big 300- will next weeks edition be an epic production? Cue lots of bare chested Greek men in leather skirts, swinging swords left, right and centre and yelling 'This is SPARTAAAA!!!!!!' Or not, as the case may be.
 Anyway, apologies at the start for a photo heavy post, mainly of a very enjoyable weekend. As you'll remember, we were going down to Plymouth, and also visiting Shoshi while we were down there. Our friend, Rob, who's birthday we went down for, also managed to pass his driving test on the Friday, so I had a card to make for that too! Men! Both cards are in the previous posts.

Rob is the guy sitting in front of Doug, we were at an Asian all you can eat buffet, so there are a few people missing from the table, refilling plates, lol. Rob was under the impression it was just him and his girlfriend going for the meal, so when he walked in and saw us all there his face was priceless.
Earlier in the day, we had arrived in Torquay, to go and see Shoshi.











We had a short trip around the shops first, and Doug spotted a really interesting shop, full of fabulously gothy stuff. They also had handbags, but I was very good and left without any more. Which showed remarkable restraint on my part, I might add.

However, I did have to have this clock for my wall.



And these coasters, which I will seal before they get used.

 Shoshi and her Hubby were lovely people, it was a pleasure to have met them. We had a smashing couple of hours before we had to head off to Plymouth. I got to see Shoshi's ArtHaven, and discovered as well as  being sisters in bowel cancer, we are obviously separated at birth Really Useful Box twins!

Sharing cakes and coffee.

The great part of meeting WOYWWers in the flesh is that there's no initial awkwardness, no difficult silences. Its meeting people who have become real friends over the months and years they've been taking part in this wonderful blog hop, and for that, like everyone else, we love you Julia. You've given us all an amazing group of friends that just keeps getting bigger.

 When we got to our Travelodge for the night, we discovered the restaurant was literally a 5 minute walk away- out the hotel, across one road, walk 20 paces, cross another road, walk 10 paces and we were there. Which was probably a good thing, as I may have consumed my own body weight in Long Island Iced Tea. Not my fault, it was cheaper to buy it by the jug! But Beloved Hubby did help me drink them.


We were going to visit somewhere on the way home on Sunday, but it started raining as we left Plymouth, and poured down the whole way back to the Midlands.


On Monday this package arrived. I'd ordered some re- inkers for my Marvy inkpads, and a few new pads too, from Kevin Nakagawa, of Stampscapes. I've rarely been able to find the pads over here, and never the re-inkers. As it was $23 shipping, I emailed Kevin and asked if he had a rough idea how many pads/reinkers I could get in the box for the shipping cost. Later the same day I got an email back, he'd sat down with the box, pads and reinkers, and worked out exactly how many would fit in, and various combinations! How's that for customer service? I'd been email chatting to him a few weeks ago, about the Adirondack line being discontinued, and mentioned that I was watching all the You Tube lessons he's done, as I was spending a lot of time having a lie down, being tired after radiotherapy for bowel cancer. At the time he answered, wishing me well, and telling me he had a friend going through the same treatment for the same cancer right now. When he emailed me the info on the shipping, his email opened with a question about how I was doing now, how my treatment was going, and hoping that I was starting to feel better. Aren't crafters the most wonderful people?

 
So, in the box, a few inkpads, reinkers and a 10 pack of stylus tips. I could have got more in, but was worried about getting stung for import duty over here, so kept it sensible.

 He also included a whole bunch of the printed postcards he has done from the finished article in the video lessons.

And on the back, they have  a short description of how the scene was stamped and coloured.
 Ok, I'm done.I'll set you free now to go join in the WOYWW link-up at Julia's place, The Stamping Ground.

Triple Stamping with Molly

So, about time I posted something between Wednesdays, and as I'd gone to all the trouble of colouring the Molly images in, I thought a card with her on was in order.
I went about this a bit backwards, to be honest. I wondered if I could turn her into a triple stamped card, which meant masking her out first.

 
 I worked out the card sizes I needed, stacked them up, then added the Post-it mask. Its simple enough to get the right sizes- each stamping layer is 1" bigger than the previous one.

The stamps I used to over stamp with are mainly from the Molly Rules set, by Visible Image. I used Versafine Onyx black for the stamping of the phrase, barbed wire and skull. There is an ink splat stamp in the set, but I felt it was a little too large to work with this picture, so I used a smaller one from the Ink Splats set. I also used Adirondacks to stamp them in. I applied a layer of Stonewashed to the stamp, then just did a bit of random dabbing with Denim.

Molly unmasked!, and ready for layering onto dark blue card.To get the coloured layer, each one has to be 1/4" bigger than the stamped layer that will be matted onto it.
 Normally, I'd cut all the stamping layers first, then cut all the mats, but like I said, I was doing this backwards.

 I wanted to add a sentiment, and thought dog-tag style. I cut a piece of thick card a little larger than my stamp, which I covered in Black Soot Distress Ink. This is wet enough to be able to add embossing powder to it, and I used black detail for this. Three layers, and into the final layer I stamped the sentiment, which had first been coated in Silver Pigment ink.
 TIP:  Make sure you coat the sentiment stamp before you start heating the embossing powder. The pigment ink won't dry on the stamp, but you will want to be able to stamp into the molten powder before it can harden.
For the second part of the tags, I used a lock stamp, from the Max Rocks set. Done exactly the same way as the sentiment. When they had cooled, I coloured the edges and backs with a Black Promarker.


 Both tags  had a hole punched in one corner and were added together with a length of ball chain, and an eyelet put in the top of the matted panel to thread it through.
 If the embossing starts to crack when you punch the hole, a quick blast with the heat gun will fix it. Next time I'll make the holes first!

Supplies:
 Molly Rules, Max Rocks and Ink Splat sets, all by Visible Image
 Versfaine Onyx Black
 Distress Ink Black Soot
 Adirondacks (or any dye ink) in a couple of shades of blue.
Silver Pigment inkpad
Black detail embossing powder
 Black Promarkers
 Coloured Promarkers to colour Molly
 Ball chain & fastener
Dark blue card