WOYWW #579- The MINC Edition

So, back in the craft room for our regular Wednesday met up of desk around the world, commonly known as Whats on your Workdesk Wednesday, courtesy of our much loved leader, she of the recent birthday, Julia, at home in The Stamping Ground.

On my desk, is evidence I've been playing with the new toy I bought myself months ago, a MINC. I went for the 12" version- there's also a 6" one- as I often find myself working on 7" square cardstock, so I have some leeway.

The reason I bought the MINC is that I want to be able to use my stamps with foil, and I wasn't haven't a huge amount of success with my laminator. But to be fair, it's a really basic one- an on off switch and thats it. One speed, one heat. Works fine for it's original function, and is usually quite successful with  foiling over stencil paste, but was having no luck with stamping.
 As you can see, notes jotted on various experiments so far, just trying to find the perfect combo of ink/powder/heat for repeatable good results.
 So that's going to be an ongoing thing  for a few more days, a blog post will appear when I get the results I'm looking for.


The weekends Christmas cards were done with the tree stamps and various embossing powders.
The stamps are all quite old now, made by a company called Butterfly Kisses, but they seem to have faded away, can't find any reference to them or their stamps any more.


One thing about the MINC I do want to mention, is for anyone thinking of getting one, be very careful if you go through Amazon. Looking at reviews, I saw that a number of people had ones with the wrong plug delivered- now that could just be errors in ordering, as there are EU, UK and US plugs available, maybe the buyers didn't notice that- one person got a 6" one instead of a 12", and someone else had things missing from the box. So I ended up ordering mine via Hobbycraft for safety. I don't know if the sales pages have been changed since those comments were made, as now you get a separate page for each plug type, perhaps it was a 'tick box' system before? Like I say,most could  have been buyer error, but I wasn't taking the chance.
 And so I'm done for this week, nice and short & sweet.
Good news for Dougs family, Tim, Lyndsay & Curtis are all ready to be released, the council have found them a bungalow as a temporary solution until they can all safely manage stairs, when they'll move them to a 3/4 bed house. Friends & family have been in since the weekend painting & decorating, and furniture is being delivered tomorrow, so they should be home by the weekend. Livvy isn't ready for release yet, but she's doing tremendously well, I honestly think far better than was anticipated when she was admitted.
To all my crafting friends who shared the GoFundMe page, and to everyone who donated, a huge thank you from us, and from Tim & Lyndsay too, it is so appreciated.💓
Which brings us round to ......And Finally.......

...and that would be a catastrophe!

WOYWW #553- The Making Cards again Edition.

Indeed, a few have been made over the last week. A total of 10 for the Christmas card club, giving me a decent start on next years cards. Here's the first 8. They can be seen a bit closer, as well as the remaining two, in the post below this.
Then I completed the Engagement card I was working on, and made a second for my stash.

This is the completed one, done with smooth glitter card behind the die cut, in red, as I know she has her Grans Ruby Engagement ring.




The gold one has no sentiment yet, as I thought it would be suitable for an engagement, wedding or anniversary card, so I'll just leave it blank until I need it.









The sentiment on the red one was cut 4 times and layered up, then mounted onto a vellum heart die cut, so it would stand out from the background better.

I had to wait to finish it, as amongst all my sentiment dies, the one I didn't have was Engagement, but an internet search found me this Hunkydory one, which has 32 dies in it, including a few that allow you to build a phrase out of the sentiment. Available on Amazon, amongst others.



Okay, thats a small Enable, now for the big one. I treated myself a couple of months ago now, but being ill, I've not got around to opening it, or trying it out yet, but that's what I'm going to be doing next.
I bought myself a Minc. You all know I love foiling, and whilst my laminator could do a reasonable job on a number of things, it's not the perfect solution. I didn't go down the Gemini Foil Press route, as I want to be able to use stuff I already have, not have to start buying expensive special Foiling plates!

So, I'm going to do an unboxing video, and then some test foiling, so that post will be coming soon.
Which rounds of my WOYWW post this week. As always, we'll be linking up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, and visiting desks worldwide, to see who's up to what. So that only leaves.....And Finally..........