WOYWW #428

Well, this weeks Desk Of Delights comes to you covered in card fronts & paper! You can catch up on what all of that means over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground.
 I said last week that I intended to get some of my UFO's made into cards, and at the very least, most of them are now matted & layered. A few are now completed cards.

These need a sentiment adding, which is why some have a longer piece of backing card.

These, using Honey Doo stamps, need finishing off. I've got the vellum flowers to go on top already cut out.

The scenic card is finished, the Teasels needs a sentiment.

Same here, just waiting for a sentiment to be added.










I was fixing a bracelet the other week, and had so much trouble threading a needle with the elasticated Crystal string. So I did a bit of an internet search, and found these.
The eye is like a needle threader, which will make things so much easier.


Now, I did say I wasn't going to start anything else until I'd cleared my UFO mountain. However, I saw a fabulous card on Facebook, which basically uses a laminator to attach hot foil to stencil paste. So, I got some foil ordered- I'd not got any biggish pieces- and I've done up a batch of stencilled images, ready to give this a go.

This is a handful of the pieces I've done, they need to dry overnight, then I can try it out. I've also since read that hot transfer foil can be applied with a hot iron, so I'll be testing that out too. There should be a post about it towards the weekend.




I'll be really pleased if this works as well as the project I saw, it means my laminator will get some extra work. At the moment it gets used to laminate sheets to store my stamps on, other than that it just sits on the shelf.

Right, I'm done then. Be round to see you all a bit later. And thanks to everyone for the birthday messages, and cards for us both. Much appreciated.
As Doug was working on Monday night, we went out Saturday night for a meal. Did our exchanging of gifts when he got up Monday afternoon.

WOYWW #427

Hump day again, and time to meet up at Lady Julias (if the Tiara fits....) place, The Stamping Ground.
I have a cunning plan...well a sort of plan anyway. I have not really crafted a lot these last couple of weeks, I suspect my mojo is still sitting in a bar on Kos, sipping on cocktails.

 So, in an attempt to drag him kicking & screaming back, I've been sorting out my UFO box. I was actually quite shocked at what I found- loads of pieces I'd forgotten about.


Exhibit A is some Stampscapes scenes, an experiment with some glitter paste, a few masterboard pieces and the bits for some Honey Doo stamped florals.

A couple of plastic wallets with half done projects in.
A whole load of those Mixed Media die cuts, matted up and waiting to be finished.
 A Christmas snow globe scene, and another wallet with some backgrounds in.

These are the backgrounds from the wallet- some just sprayed, some had white heat embossed images done with Brushos.

I found these in the same wallet- heat embossed dragonfly images, and I think smooshed through Distress Inks on my craft mat. Shows how long they've been there, having to try and think how I did them.

The Mixed Media die cuts.



So, the project for later this week is to turn most of these into cards.


And I've barely made a dent in the UFO box! I've told myself no more experiments until I've at least made all these up.

Finally, a quick giggle for everyone.


Quick edit I forgot about last night:
 I've had my PET scan, last Friday, and Monday morning I had my Radiotherapy planning session, and my first Radio is scheduled for the 31st of August.

Favourites of 2014

Just browsing, as you do, and I saw a post from last year with favourite projects of the year, so as I've been very lacking on the crafting front lately, I thought I'd have a look back at my crafting year again this year. I've not just concentrated on finished cards this year, but also on some techniques I've really enjoyed trying out. Possibly a good call, as I seem to have so many UFO's about, its ridiculous!
 First card I picked this year,was one I did for a guest DT spot on Chocolate Baroque.

Put myself on the spot by colouring with Promarkers, and I'd just started playing with gilding flakes, so added them in too.I made both backgrounds by sponging on Distress Inks, then second generation stamping images. Something again I hadn't done before, though admired it greatly wherever I'd seen it.

Second card used sponging again, this time with another technique I'd finally got around to trying out this year- Resist Stamping. It only uses two stamps- both from Visible Image, Love with your Heart phrase and Grunge Flourish. The flourish was randomly stamped around the edges of the large square in white, and heat embossed in white powder. DI in Salty Ocean and Dusty Concord sponged over the top. On the small square the phrase was treated the same way, then I overstamped the flourish in Adirondack Denim. The flowers are called Delicate Asters, a Spellbinders/Heartfelt creations die, that looks gorgeous, but requires a ridiculous amount of patience to get good cuts!

The Resist Embossing technique is one I played with quite a lot over the year,  you can get some beautiful effects just by changing the sponging colours, and its so simple. What's not to like? I did the panels on a separate sheet of card, so the base card didn't buckle when I heated it, and just trimmed down to the height of my card base. Still pretty CAS, almost one layer cards though.

I stamped the ladybirds in black this time, and did mask them off for the sponging, and the overstamping with the fabulous Water Droplets stamp from Ryn, which incidentally can now be bought as part of an unmounted sheet available from Oyster Stamps. The cards made doing this technique, also led me to another card making discovery, for using up the offcuts, and the stuff that didn't come out too well.

Punch/cut down into small squares and mount in a grid system! The colours and stamps pull the whole thing together, and you get a bunch of cards in a few minutes.

It was definitely all about playing with the techniques this year, and one I found on Pinterest really grabbed me, called 'Northern Lights'. Just so simple, sponging on streaks of colour, letting them overlap and blend together, then finally bringing in a darker tone over them. Add your images, maybe a little colour to areas of the image, and you're done.









This was the start, with the basic sponged colours, and the overstamped images.

Same piece after the brightness has been toned down the addition of extra blue. All it needs now is some greys/browns adding into the rocks to tone that down, and its good to go.

Final one, just to show you don't have to get fancy to get awesome! Stamped in black on white, then matted onto black card leaving a really thin edge. To get the embossed oblong, I lay the stamped piece on the inside of the card front, and just lightly drew around each corner with a pencil. Then I marked about 1/2" away from those lines, and lightly pencilled in the oblong. Scored the lines on a scoreboard, then rubbed out the pencil marks.

So thats what I've enjoyed doing in 2014- heres to another year, and hopefully a lot more creativity on my part next year!

WOYWW #270

Flipping Heck! August already! Packed to the gills with birthdays- between the 13th and the 18th  we have 2 every day- with a couple in the following week.The highlight of the social calender being mine and Beloved Hubbys next week, lol. Not got his card made yet(!), but thanks to the wonders of the Amazon wishlist, I've had all my pressie buying done way ahead of time. I knew it would happen one year. Apologies in advance for all the earthquakes, plagues and tidal waves that will probably follow this momentous event. So, the desk then, which is what we are all here for, joining our much loved leader, Julia, at The Stamping Ground.

I spent some time yesterday playing with some of the new VI stamps, and mixing in some older ones,with resist embossing. Haven't decided exactly where I'm going with these yet, but I do have an idea or two.



 Now I have to share this picture with you- taken by my Daughter in Law last week, on my Sons birthday.

As Becky said on FB- Ants face on seeing his Facebook newsfeed this morning- priceless! You'll remember I said we were all changing our profile photo to this one of him.

  
Ant isn't one to have a big fuss made (epic fail there this year), but Beck wanted to make it special, and personal, so asked everyone who knows him for memories of Ant of the last 40 years. She was going to do it as 40 memories, but had so many responses that she had to change to 40 years.

 A huge pile of envelopes, all stamped with tiny ants, for him to open.


 He used to be an editor for the BBC, but when they closed the Birmingham Studio down he went freelance, and his business name is Green Ant Edits, hence the green envelopes! And beard.

 

Love the t-shirt- that is so Ant, lol.( I may be wrong, but its highly unlikely).
  
Loads of blast from the past pictures turned up on FB too- long black hair and dressed all in black- don't know who he got that from :).
So thats a quick round-up of my week, hope you all had a great one too.

Love with your Heart

Yesterday, Saturday, Visible Image stamps were at a craft shop local to me, Pink Tulip Crafts of Studley. So Beloved Hubby took me there in the afternoon. Mark and Helen (Visible Image) are both lovely people, I've met them before at the NEC Hobbycrafts show. Mark was running a workshop, and you can see some lovely cards created there on their Facebook page. Hazel Eaton was there creating samples, and proof of my visit is me in one of the photos, happily browsing, lol.
 Anyway, when I got home, I unpacked my purchases- some new VI stamps, a couple of Indigo Blu stamps that were a real bargain at 50% off, and a Sweet Poppy stencil. I clearly unpacked my mojo as well, as after I'd put my new stamps away, I got creative. The two Visible Image stamps I used here, Love with your heart and Grunge Flourish were two stamps I already had.
 I beagn by stamping the larger square of card with the Flourish all around the edge in Versamark, adding White embossing powder and heat setting. Then onto a smaller piece I stamp the word stamp the same way.

Next I added colour, using Distress Inks and a blending tool,using Broken China, Salty Ocean, Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves. I made the edges more prominent by going around them with more Seedless Preserves. Then a piece of kitchen roll took all the ink off the white embossing.

Broken China.

Dusty Concord next,followed by salty Ocean and Seedless Preserves.

With all the inks sponged on. Finally I trimmed the word sheet down to size, then stamped around the edges with the Flourish stamp again, this time in Chipped Sapphire.

The word section was matted onto blue card and fixed to the centre of the Flourish panel, and mounted onto a square white card blank.
 For the final embellishment, I die cut some flowers from purple and blue vellum, using the Spellbinders/Heartfelt creations die set called Delicate Aster. The centres were done with Glossy Accents and seed beads.
Supplies:
 DI in Salty Ocean, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves.
 Visible Image stamps Grunge Flourish and Love with your Heart
Versamark pad
White WOW embossing powder
Flower Die.

Using the scraps............

Well, so far I made 5 cards using the Butterfly, Dragonfly and Ladybird stamps, and now I have 4 more, made using the offcuts and one scrap piece that didn't work out too well.

 This is probably my favourite technique for using up scraps and odds and ends- punch or cut into squares and make a mosaic.


 This one was made from the strip that some of the embossing rubbed off on.
 It fit nicely onto a 5x5 card, as the squares are a little larger.

These ones are on a 4x4 base, and I used a 1" punch for them.

 

Also 4x4, and used up all the remaining green/yellow bits.

Butterfly Overload

Thought it was about time I tried out my Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly stamp, and this is one of a few cards made last night with it. Seeing a Pinterest card, done using the Versamark resist technique, I thought I'd give it a go. 
 One thing I was curious about was did it have to be Versamark & white embossing powder? So I did three butterflys, one with Versamark/white, one with clear embossing ink/white, and a third with Brilliance Pearlescent white Pigment ink & White embossing powder.With this technique, you stamp in Versamark onto card then heat emboss using white powder. After that you sponge ink over the Butterfly and the white embossing resists the ink.

The three butterflies in the picture, top left Versamark/white, the top right Clear embossing ink & white and the bottom one is Brilliance & White. Which you can see didn't work too well. Maybe the pad is a bit dry- didn't hold enough embossing powder, but there really isn't anything to choose between the Versamark or Clear embossing ink.The card I saw, the lady sponged the ink on in circular motions, using Sponge Daubers. I don't have any of those, so I just used small pieces of make up sponge. She also didn't worry about going over the edge of the Butterfly, as this gives it a sort of shadow, as if the butterfly is raised up.For the sponging I used DI in Milled Lavender, Shaded Lilac & Dusty Concord.For the card at the top, I just trimmed it to size, matted it onto two shades of purple card, wrapped a purple spotted organza ribbon around it, tied in a knot and mounted it to the card front. Then I punched out three small butterflies and added them to the corners with a bit of Purple Stickles down their bodies.

 I quite like how they came out, so I did another one, This time I lined up three tags side by side, sticking them to my scrap paper with a bit of re-positionable tape. You can probably see the Butterfly looks a bit of a funny grey colour. Thats what happens when you loose track of whats on your desk! I stamped this one in Black Versafine, intending to heat emboss in clear powder- I just picked up the jar on my table and sprinkled it on. It was only when I started to heat it, and it was turning whiteish, that I remembered the powder on my desk was White, not clear! Well, they both look the same in the jar, lol. So I forged ahead, stamping a Post-it mask for the Butterfly, then overstamping in Versafine Black again, the Script Stampin Up stamp.Needed to stamp it twice to cover the image, I think I could have lined it up a bit better, to be honest.
 For the sponging this time, I stuck with DI, but used Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers & Faded Jeans. The Peacock Feathers is a very strong colour, and a little goes a VERY long way!
  I also added sponging around the edge of the three tags, again with Faded Jeans.To be honest, despite him being a funny colour, it didn't come out too badly. I matted the three tags onto dark blue card, and trimmed it to the shape of the tags. This I mounted onto an offwhite card base.


I thought it needed something extra, so I stamped the butterfly again and heat embossed in white, onto some thick vellum.
After I cut it out, I sponged the back of the vellum with the same three DI's I'd used on the main butterfly,which I heat set before going any further. Then mounted him on top of the tags with a line of Pinflair glue gel down his body, and the inner sides of his wings.

This Swallowtail is a huge stamp, 5 1/2x 4 1/4 inches, and I don't actually have an acrylic block big enough! What I do have though, is some thinner acrylic plates, which I use with my Stamp Positioner. I already have one, but I ordered some more off an e-bay supplier recently. They do them to any size you want, really cheap, which was cool. So I used one of those for it. Works fine too. I did notice that there is a lot of excess rubber around the stamp, they are not as close cut as some are.
 One video I watched, I noticed the stamper kept getting marks around the bottom of the 'tails', so I trimmed it there. When using clear ink on it, I'd advise going around the edges with a cotton bud, as its way too easy to get excess ink, even when applying the inkpad to the stamp, rather than the stamp to the inkpad.But I am impressed with the stamp quality, both give a beautifully clear impression.

Supplies:
 Stampin Up Swallowtail Butterfly
Stampin Up French Script
Distress Inkpads: Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord,Shaded Lilac, Faded Jeans,Peacock Feathers &Tumbled Glass.
 Versamark, or Clear Embossing Inkpad.
 White Detail embossing powder.
 Black Versafine inkpad.
Vellum, a thick quality.
White card & tags.
Sponges/sponge daubers.
Heat Gun.