WOYWW #306

Wednesday again, half way through April, and not long till the Crop! All of us being kept in order by Our Head Desker, Julia, over at The Stamping Ground.On to this weeks desk then, and not a lot to show, I'm afraid. I was missing last week, and hardly managed any visits the week before, thanks to a wonderful cold that blew up into a chest infection. Cue course of antibiotics, which did exactly squat- by last Tuesday I was literally dragging myself from chair to chair, I was so weak, and struggling to breathe. Back to docs for new course of antibiotics, and some anti histamines, as now I had hay fever on top! I do get it this time of year from the fruit blossom on trees, but really didn't need it on top of the chest infection. Anyway, I'm feeling much better now, we finally seem to have got on top of it. So precisely nothing has happened on my desk in the last two weeks.

The unmounted stamps I had have been coated with TIOO, and have lay on the mat ever since.I will put them away, one day soon.


I did manage one lucky purchase though. I'd been watching Stampscapes videos (again), and Kevin had been working with Stampbord, and the scraper tools. There is a sharp pointy one, a blunter spoon shaped one, which I have something similar to, and a sort of scratchy brush. So I had a look for them and found the set on Amazon (and elsewhere) for £28! I did find the toolkit on Chocolate Baroque for £19, but even that's a bit steep. No way was I paying that much, I'd manage without first. Then I had a quick look on E-bay, and amazingly, someone on there had one for sale, with an almost full pack of ATC sized Stampbord pieces, for a fiver. Put in a bid, and got it for £6.50, and she emailed me and asked if I wanted another pack of ATC sized pieces for an extra £4- total bargain. It even turned out they were the 16 piece sized packs, which are £12 on their own! I was actually expecting to get the 5 piece packs, so that was a real surprise.

In the actual kit: A bit of steel wool, a spoon shaped tool, a handle with two other interchangeable sharper pointed blades, a wire brush type scraper and a single domino sized piece of Stampbord. Way overpriced, if you ask me. Anyway, that's me for now. This Friday will be my fourth, and hopefully final IV treatment. That's actually gone past really fast. On the 23rd I have my MRI scan, and that will get looked at in the MDT meeting on the 28th. Fingers crossed this has shrunk it as much as it needs to be, and we'll be on to the surgery.

Scrapjourney: favourite 5 (or so) of 2013

I visited ShazinOz this morning, and she had linked to  A Scrapjourney, a blog by Debby, where crafters are invited to list their favourite 5 projects they made in 2013. She's not being picky over the number, lol, just that they are made in 2013. Which is good, because I had an extra couple I couldn't decide between. I actually found a few I enjoyed for different reasons- trying something new, came out better than I expected (always a bonus), or ones I really enjoyed doing.
 So, in no particular order, here are my 2013 favourites:








This is one of the simple, came out better than expected cards. Just a brayered background and silhouette style stamps in black.

This was a ' I wonder if this will work/came out better than I expected' card, using the SU Swallowtail Butterfly in a triple stamping format, with colour just sponged over & around the image, after it had been stamped in Versamark & heat embossed with white powder.

 
I really enjoyed making this one, for my eldest sons birthday,as we are both huge Edgar Allen Poe fans. It was a couple of new techniques tried, lemon juice heated to age the paper, and a Stampbord removable fridge magnet.




 This one was a real experiment, and definitely falls into the 'came out better than expected' category. I wanted to try using artists pastels, as I have loads, so really can't justify Pan Pastels as well. I stamped all the images in Versamark, onto a background of sponged Distress inks. For each image I grated artist pastels over it, using a nutmeg grater, then buffed off with cotton wool balls.




I was pleased with how this one came out, as I was CASEing a card seen on Pinterest, using an Indigo Blu stamp. I don't have the stamp, but had a fairly similar one, and was hopeful it would produce a similar effect, which it did.









 I loved the dramatic gothic imagery of this stamp, and simple black stamping on a background of various sponged reds really did it justice, I thought.

 Last, but definitely not least, as its probably my favourite, is the card I made for my Beloved Hubby this Christmas. The image, Snowy Postcard, by Stampendous, was stamped onto white pearl card then cut out with the Spellbinders Heirloom Ornaments 2nd to largest die.The white backing was cut from the largest. I stamped the image again on a post-it, and masked the buildings & snow, then sponged an assortment of blues for the sky. Then it was sprayed with Crafters Companion Iridescent Spray & Sparkle, which is hard to see, but gives the snowy areas a lovely sparkle.To get the black matt for the bauble, I drew around the outside of the die, and cut by hand. The Poinsettias are a Le Crea die, which is smaller than most Poinsettia dies, and works well on cards. The two hearts are triple embossed, using UTEE over Anitas Blue Glass embossing powder- the one heart then having a texture stamp inked in silver pressed to it while still molten.So my Favourite 5 is actually a Favourite 7- but what's a couple of extras between friends?

That Poe Card.....

So, the card got finished, and I can post it now, as its been given to my son.
The Raven background was stamped in Versafine Onyx black, onto an ivory coloured paper that had been given the lemon juice treatment. This post covers that.
 After stamping it ,I added some blue and black Distress inks to the raven, with sponges.
 I used the Crowscape Stampendous stamp from this post to create another 'black on black' backround paper, just  stamping in Versamark, and heat embossing with Black detail powder, onto Black pearl paper,to cover the front of the base card.

 The smaller Raven piece is called Quoth the Raven, and has been made into a fridge magnet.
I used a piece of Stampbord for this, but a piece of mountboard would do just as well.
The Stampbord is only slightly smaller than the image, and to get it right I inked up the stamp, Onyx Black again, and lay it on my desk face up. Then I placed the Stampbord onto that and pressed down well. I left it overnight for the Versafine to dry well, as the first piece I tried started to smudge. The beauty with Stampbord, as it has a clay coating, is that you can sand off anything you put on the surface, and try again.
 Next day I started sponging on Distress Inks, in various brown shades, using a Colorbox stylus tool.

The first two colours were Old Paper & Antique Linen, then I added a light application of Victorian Velvet, to 'warm' it up a little.

I added more browns, with Brushed Corduroy & Gathered Twigs.I finished the edges with Walnut Stain. At this point, it looked too different to the original piece on the lemon burnt paper, so I added some Brushed Corduroy & Gathered Twigs to that, to pull them together.
 Now to turn it into a fridge magnet. I took some Magnetic Photo paper I'd bought in Tescos to do this. I'd bought it originally, with the intention of using it to store Nesties & such like on, in a binder, but it turned out that the magnetic photopaper isn't strong enough to grip them without them sliding off. So after I bought magnetic sheets for the dies, I put the paper to one side, as I was sure I'd eventually have a use for it.
 I covered the back of the Stampbord with DST, Just the cheap 3 rolls for a quid from Poundland.

Drew around my Stampbord and cut it out. I did the fine trimming after with a scalpel.
Next I used a Distress Marker in Black to go all around the outside edges, to hide the white of the photopaper and the brown edge of the Stampbord.

Almost done, but I wanted to give it a coating of clear embossing powder, just enough to make it wipeable. For this I used ordinary detail embossing powder, as the UTEE tends to need 3 or more coats to get an even finish, and I didn't want to make it that thick.

Dabbed all over with Versamark, then added a layer of detail Clear powder, heated it, then re-coated with Versamark and added a second layer. Gave it just enough to protect it, without making it too glossy.

Assembly time! The black background went onto the card front, then I added the main image. The Fridge magnet is attached with a couple of Repositionable Glue Dots, so it can be removed without damaging the card.
 Some black and brown eyelash wool was wrapped around the spine and knotted at the top front. Finally I added an ivory paper insert for writing the greeting.

Supplies:
Stampendous stamps; Crowscape, raven Background and Quoth The Raven.(Links in the linked posts above)
Versafine Onyx Black
Distress Inks in Old Paper, Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet,Brushed Corduroy, gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain. (Black Soot & Chipped Sapphire to add colour to the Raven)
 Versamark
 Clear Embossing Powder
 Black Detail Embossing powder
 Stampbord piece, or Mountboard
 Magnetic paper or sheet
 Ivory paper and black pearl paper
 Fibres
 Repositional glue dots 
 Black marker for edging

WOYWW #214

Two desk shots this week, this one looking over from my PC desk, to a view of a desk liberally littered with crafting stuff. Underneath the sheet of paper you can see the packaging of a Corner Chomper, unopened as yet. Tub of inking tools, RUB's with sponges & the pieces for the inking tools on top.The easel has the card on from the last post, theres a tub of tags to the right, an Ikea cutlery holder that is home to my rulers.

Front shot with some recently acquired goodies:A metal shim for intricate metal dies- seen a lot of people raving about how good & easy a cut you get with this-An intricate metal die- well I have to test it out, don't I?, some mini sponge daubers, a bottle of Glamour Dust and a new stamp. Actually, its a second version of a stamp I already have, The Raven, Stampendous. The stamp is built around the Poem by Edgar Allen Poe (one of my favourite authors)  The Raven.

Here it is a bit closer, with a piece from the other version stamped onto Stampbord. The other Version is a portrait one, this one is landscape and will work better for what I have in mind, a card for my eldest sons birthday,and a fellow Poe fan, with part of the image on Stampbord, so I can turn it into a removable fridge magnet. With the portrait version, the main quote' Quoth the Raven, Nevermore', is split between the top & bottom of the stamp, so I can't get it all on one piece of Stampbord. The landscape version has all the quote together, alongside the Raven, so it will look better. And it is only slightly larger than the Stampbord ATC sized piece. So thats my Show-and-Tell for this week, join in at The Stamping Ground, where our much-moved hostess, Julia, attempts to keep us all in line- not saying that she succeeds, but she does try, bless her little cotton socks.

Stampbord & Stampscapes

I was watching another couple of Kevins videos on the Stampscapes You Tube channel today. I've got up to number 17, and this one is called 'An Introduction to Stampbord'. Something else I have some of, but haven't really spent much time playing with. Anyway, Kevin made it look really easy- mind you, he makes whatever he does look easy, lol- so I thought it was time to give it a go. The piece I thought I'd try is ATC size- I think I bought the pack in a sale at Chocolate Baroque.

He only uses 3 or 4 colours, so I went with Cloudy Blue, Stonewashed & Denim, with Pitch Black for the edges, and stamping the image. I've pretty much imitated how Kevin did his.


For the first colour, Cloudy Blue, I just swiped the pad over the whole surface, and evened it out just a bit with the Stylus tool (colorbox).

The second colour was Stonewashed, which was applied around the edges,leaving a pale centre to the Stampbord.


So onto the third colour, Denim, applied the same, around the edges moving inwards, but leaving some of the Stonewashed showing.

I was beginning to think I'd messed up here, as it doesn't look like much!

Pushed on anyway- I can always sand it off, I suppose.






Last colour application is black, to define the edges.
 
So now to stamp. I used the same stamp Kevin did, Lakeside Cove, although he worked on a   smaller piece of Stampbord, so he used the small version of this stamp.

Inked the stamp up well with the same Pitch Black Adirondack. Kevins advice was to place the Stampbord on to the stamp, rather than taking the stamp to the Stampbord, so you can control where your image is placed.

Came out surprisingly well, although I do think the image could have done with being placed a little lower, so that the light area was more even. But I'm happy enough with it that I will still use it.





I added some reeds to the foreground, and a pair of ducks, and I heat dried the previous stamping first- I found the black ink of the image stayed wet for quite a while. Then I had a little try-out with a scraper type tool, not a lot, I was too worried about wrecking it now!
 He also said he likes to seal his image, with a spray sealant of some sort, as the image on the Stampbord surface tends to be a bit flat, and dull. I do have some artist sealant, and I also have some Spray & Sparkle, from Crafters Companion. I haven't used it before, but thought I would give it a blast on this. I have Silver and Iridescent, and it was the Iridescent I chose to use on here. Its given it a nice sparkly finish, which actually looks better in the flesh than the picture shows.

So, all in all, not too bad, and I shall use this to mount onto a card- I love the Stampscapes for mens cards, and you could always put some magnetic tape on the back for a Fridge Magnet.

Pentacle Easel

I am still on a bit of an Easel  theme, this one took a bit of cutting and measuring to get right. The shape came about due to the shape of the stamp, which  is one bought off E-bay a few years ago, and I think it was a self-made one, as I have never seen anything like it anywhere else.It was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black, this is the first time I have used this, and I can see why everyone loves it- the image is superb, even on glossy/coated card. The background was created using Tim Holtz method of swiping Distress pads onto a craft sheet & misting with water, then pressing the card onto it. My Craft sheet cost me £1 from Poundland, lol.I then trimmed the image to a pentagon, matted onto black & trimmed again. I made the easel fold in the card, then lay my image onto the folded part, and drew around the image. Next I trimmed the folded card front on these lines then stuck my image down with DST.The base was covered in a dark purple flowered vellum, and Birthday phrases in black were stuck around the edges.A small oval piece of Stampbord was coloured with Adirondack Black Soot and heat dried. then I stamped a Celtic design in Encore Silver and heat dried this Clear Embossing ink was tapped over the tile, and UTEE sprinkled over. I repeated this one more time, then coloured around the edge of the tile with a black Promarker. It was stuck in place with glue dots.