WOYWW 564- The Locked Down Edition!

Well, here we are, in lockdown. Hoping you are all safe and well, along with your families. We've been being extra careful for a few weeks, to be honest, as I'm in the high risk group. Dougs been going out for any shopping, and it seems like at last, the panic buying is tailing off, as he could get bread & milk in Tesco yesterday afternoon, instead of everywhere being sold out before breakfast! So, our safe space as always, visiting desks around the world, courtesy of Julia over at The Stamping Ground.

Todays desk, working through as many of my UFO's still, as I can finish up. Will be taking a break from them for a few days, as this weekend another Christmas Card Club is due, and I almost missed the last one, lol.


These are the cards I've managed to put together from the various wallets they were stored in.




Two using Sweet Poppy stencils, and foiled afterwards, both on Brusho backgrounds. Found some old vellum with dragonflies on, to back the card on the left.

The top two are using a very old Stampers Anonymous stamp, Classic, which is a wood mount, but I think it's available as a cling mount now, in one of the sets.

The other card uses stamps from Crafty Individuals.

These are a stamp by Indigo Blu, called Bicycle, which was stamped 3 times, overlapping, with 3 generations without reinking. Inks sponged over the top. Covered with a sheet of Double sided Adhesive, then sprinkled with Glamourdust.
 The flower is a die by  Heartfelt Creations, called  Delicate Aster.

 A background stamp by Phill Martin, called  Birthday Cloud, and I did the same with these as I did with the Bicycle ones.
 The front is an old Cuttlebug Embossing folder, Scroll Frame, and I cut out the blank oval with another die. Hard to see the sparkle in these though.

Two Eclipse cards using the same stamp.


Slowly making a decent dent in the UFO's, as I'm being really good and not starting anything new until I've used up a considerable number of them.




This is the next batch I'll put together.

All trimmed down and matched up, just need to stick them down.

I end up with so many UFO's as I have a habit of making a large batch of something while I have the stuff out, then either run out of ideas, or just get bored with them!

And now we get to the Enabling part!
 
Some new stamps from Lavinia, a Tim Holtz Layering stencil, and 4 new colours of Alcohol inks.



And that's me for this week, which brings us round to ....And Finally, and this week you get a Twofer!

First off, a reminder for all in the UK that it's Clocks Forward this weekend.

And one for all us crafters everywhere, it really made me laugh when I saw it.


P.S. Our Neet came up with a fab idea to Brighten Our Days on Facebook- every day, post a pic of something you've made. It can be anything at all- crafting/baking/even gardening, and can be something new, or something you did a while back. Feel free to join in, help us beat the doom & gloom on FB.😀

Christmas Card Club #2- Cute

 Second challenge of the year, and this theme has been chosen by Sylvie, who wanted us to make cute cards.

I went for cute snowmen- although I do think the one on the far right may be a tad more sinister than cute!

The first pair use a really old stamp- I know he's called Scribble Snowman, and used to be a wood mount, and made by Funstamps.
 He was stamped and masked, then I stamped a tree from Visible Image Peace Love Hope Christmas Set.The medium tree is also from this set.
 The snowman was coloured with Prismacolor pencils. I sponged some hills, then added a treeline with stamps from Card-io Christmas Scenery 1.The deer is also Card-io, set called Deer Deer.
 The sleigh and star trail are by Inkylicious. The sentiment from a Crafters Companion set, Christmas Sentiments.
 Sky was sponged in using Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire.

These next pair are both Impression Obsession Snowmen- really not sure about the mouth on the taller one- definitely looks a bit creepy to me!
 Both were stamped onto OHP film- I bought a couple of boxes really cheap when our Staples was closing down- then glitter added on the reverse. Must admit, the stamping platform is great for this, as the stamps tend to slip a little normally when hand stamped.
 The treeline is from the Visible Image set mentioned earlier, as is the lone tree. In the one on the left, the Santa& Sleigh are also from that set, the other uses the Inkylicious one again.

Final two, and back to the Scribble Snowman, again stamped on film and glittered.The Visible Image treeline used again, and the Indigo Blu large tree.


I'm also going to enter this into the
Crimbo Crackers Challenge. 
Winter Wonderland Challenge. 
Christmas Cards All Year Round.
Sparkles Christmas Challenge.
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 
ABC Christmas Challenge 

WOYWW #488

These Wednesdays seem to get here faster every week! Back to leaving our link at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for this weeks Desk Fest.
 Had a great time at Happy Stampers, as always so much to buy, lol.
This was my desk on Sunday, ready to start the mammoth task of cataloguing in One Note, then putting it all away. Love One Note, as I have it on my PC and on my phone, so can check whether I have something before I end up buying it again. Yeah, that's a thing.
 Favourite purchases of the day?
Has to be these three stamps from Crafty Individuals.
 Love that fluffy, scruffy Raven on the end.

A few more Lavinia stamps.

And some fab ones from Hobby Art. Love the Round Penguins, far left, and the super cute Polar Bears.

There's a great Indigo Blu stamp called Batty, and a cool Fairy Castle, a steampunk Dragonfly and a couple of Halloween stamps.

 A great Halloween die cut, and a small Poinsettia die too, something I've been on the look out for.  Another Fairy House stamp, and some snowflake dies, reduced. You can never have too many snowflakes!


Good job, as I found a set at The Works this morning, too.

Along with some small wood shapes, angels & Trees, great bargain at 32 for a Quid.

These were on my desk on Tuesday morning, fussy cutting some stamped flowers from Honey Doo to go on the stamped bases. Had to shift them for now, as I needed to make an Anniversary card for Hubby. Married 9 years today, but I can't share it yet as he's on earlies this week, so he won't have it till this afternoon.

I'll blog it later in the week.

Along with the flower cards when I get back to them.




And I'm all done, apart from.........
  .......................... and Finally

 yeah, that's a thing too!

Christmas Card Club #11- Christmas Trees

Hello everyone, and I hope this finds everyone well. This fortnights challenge is from me, and is for Christmas Trees- Indoor or Outdoor.
I've used both options, and the first one is a card I case'd from one I saw Gina K of Stamp TV make, using one of her own stamp sets.

My tree is froma set by Indigo Blu,called Winter Wonderland. The hills were sponged with torn paper and Archival Cornflower Blue ink.
 The sentiment is from Phill Martin, Scribbled Christmas Petite set.
 A few baubles added to the tree with Red & Gold Stickles. The embossing folder used for the mount piece is from Crafts Too.

 This is a Sweet Poppy stencil called Mistletoe tree, and was done using home made glitter paste.
 Some half pearls finished them off.

Another Sweet Poppy stencil, Snowflake Tree, this time in silver glitter paste, and a few acrylic gems for some extra sparkle.




I'm looking forward to seeing everyones take on the theme.  I missed the Christmas Wreaths week, while I was on holiday, and the next one, Sentiment as Focal Point, due to a burst water pipe- not indoors I hasten to add, but a lot of upheaval nonetheless. I'll be trying to catch upon those challenges, as I have many wreath stamps and dies I'd love to use, and the Sentiment one is a style I've been meaning to try for a long time.

Christmas Card Club #7- Animals.

I've put together 3 cards for this challenge, which has been set for us by Kate. They all use tags as the focal point, this one features a stamp by Indigo Blu, from a set called Winterland Wood. The small row of trees is from a Card-io set called Christmas Scenery 1, and the circular sentiment is from a Hobby Art set called Winter Wishes. Broken China and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks were brushed over torn paper to create the hills, and then Broken China and Stormy Sky brushed in for the sky. Snowflakes were added using Liquid Pearls in White Opal.
 The Embossing Folder used for the backing tag is by Crafts Too, and is called Happy Christmas. I brushed a little silver Gilding wax over that for some definition.
 The large tags are cut with a Tim Holtz Tag die.
Both of these first two cards are mounted onto A4 card, folded.

This one was made very similarly, with the same inks used to create the hills.  The larger  trees come from the same Indigo Blu set, stamped in Versafine Olympia Green. The deer is from a Card-io set called Dear Deer, the rabbits and cabin from one called  Christmas Scenery 2. Stickles in Icicle were added to the roof. The background tag is cut from a sheet I stamped out in silver on dark blue card and heat embossed. The stamp is called Merry Christmas Background, by Inca. Probably no longer available, as I bought this wood mounted many, many years ago. The sentiment is from a Card-io set called Winter Wishes 3.

This is an A5 card, topfolded, and uses a smaller tag.
 All Card-io stamps on here, apart from the sentiment.That is from the same Hobby Art set as before.
 The treeline from Christmas Scenery 1 again, along with a couple of individual trees also in the set.
 The larger foreground trees are from Mini Tall Trees, and the deer from Dear Deer.
 The broken fence is from Crystal Globe, and was extended slightly across the tag.
 The same background stamp was used for the backing tag, stamped and heat embossed in gold this time.
 These two stamped backing sheets I've used have been in my stash for way more years than I care to remember, as I recall stamping and heat embossing  a number of sheets of card with it when it was bought!
 A few fibres finished off these two tags, and some ribbon for the first one.

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.