WOYWW #510, or The Not Much Happening Edition.

Well, a pretty empty desk this week. Finished making a big batch of Strip cards, and I'm done with that for a while. Couple of posts below this one.
I bought some supplies, a few coloured envelopes. And some Super Smooth Blending Card, from Papermill Direct. They do it in 3 different weights, so I got a pack of each. Recommended by Eileen Godwin, who'd been trying out different ones after getting too varied a result from the Sheena Douglas card.

I'd also been finding that problem, but thought it was just something I was doing, but clearly not.



Decided as well that I'd do some more glitter cards using a Medallion stamp I've had for years.

These were stamped in Staz-on, and it's just not one of my favourite inks. Even with the Stamp Platform, results weren't as crisp as I'd like, and I've had to do some filling in with a Micron pen.


So I've done another batch with Archival Black, and they are definitely a better image. It doesn't dry as quickly as Staz-on, but it will if given some time.

I shall leave them overnight to make sure they're dry, then glittering will commence.


And that really is it for me.

 One mention for Visible Image, anyone wanting any of their stamps & stencils, they have a 20% discount until Sunday, use code INKY at the checkout.

Which just leaves......And Finally.......



It's important to support your local craft store!




Popping over to Julias place, The Stamping Ground, to leave my link, and come visiting.

A very Goth Valentine/Wedding card, with Visible Image stamps.

Something very different, for the Goth in your life!
 The base card is an 8x8" square one.


I made the skeleton panel first, and the skeletons looking at each other and holding hands was achieved by stamping the same stamp on opposite sides of a piece of acetate. They are a Visible Image stamp, part of the Mr Bone Jangles set. They were stamped in Staz-on Black, and I discovered that you can clean Staz-on off acetate with Antibacterial hand gel. I knew from past trying it works to clean acrylic blocks, so tried it on here when one of the images didn't come out perfectly. Thats one thing I hate about Staz-on, the pads seem to need re-inking between every use!




After they were stamped, I stuck them onto double sided adhesive film, ready to add some gilding flakes.
 I trimmed it down to size first, then peeled off the front layer.

 Now it's time to practice your Ninja skills! No sudden movements, and if you can hold your breath whilst you're doing this, so much the better.

Smothered in gilding flakes, then given a good burnishing with my fingers before gathering up all the excess flake and returning it to the tub.
 And breathe again.

Flip the panel over, and it's worth the effort. Looks great.

 I decided now I would add a border of barbed wire, which comes from the 'Love is Forever' set.
 This was also stamped in Staz-on black, and care needs to be taken stamping on acetate, as the stamps will slide if you are not careful.




I used the Heart INKognito stamp to stamp out 4 hearts, 2 black and 2 red. The Black in Versafine Onyx Black, the red is Versafine Crimson Red. Again, I inked up the stamp with Versamark first, so I could hear emboss with Clear Detail powder.
 Only three hearts here, I had to stamp a fourth when I changed the layout idea.


They were all trimmed down, then matted onto either black or red card. When I trimmed them, I made sure that all four would fit on the card front, and trimmed again slightly to make it happen.

 I missed photographing a few steps, but I overstamped the hearts with the barbed wire stamp again, in Archival Black.


The four hearts were mounted onto the card front with DST, then the Skeleton Panel was added using some blobs of silicone glue on the back, partly for dimension, and partly because the flake is a difficult surface to attach any other way.

Final step was to add the words from the Love is Forever set, and they are stamped in Onyx Black, and the edges dragged across the Versafine Crimson pad. I dipped the edges in clear detail EP and heat set them.
 It was these words, that gave me the idea for stamping the skeleton couple. It's also the title of one of my favourite pieces of music- by a band called Apoptygma Berzerk. They have included in it part of a classical piece called 'Ride of the Valkyries', by Wagner. You've probably never heard of it, or them, but anyone who remembers the Old Spice ads, and that music that played in it, or the film 'Apocalypse Now' in the helicopter scene, would recognise it instantly.
 Stamp Credits:
 All Visible Image:
 Love Never Dies set- words and barbed wire
 Mr Bone Jangles Skeleton
 Heart INKognito
ALSO:
 Acetate
 Double sided Adhesive Film
 Gilding Flakes
Versafine Crimson & Onyx Black
 Black Staz-on
 8x8" card blank
 red, black & white cardstock
 Clear detail EP.

WOYWW #370

Don't know about you, but I really can't get my head around how fast this year is zipping by. Into July already, some summer about now would be nice.Big hugs and lots of love to our recovering Head Desker, Julia, and more love & big Hugs, to our Deputy Head Desker for a while,LLJ.

On my desk this week, loads of images stamped onto OHP film. I got a bargain a couple of years ago when we made a trip to Staples, and they had some boxes of OHP film  reduced to clear. I like it for lots of things, one of them being this- I stamp the images so that I can use them as an aid to placement. I've done lots with my Stampscapes stamps, for scene building, and I thought it would be really helpful with all those stencilled backgrounds I've done lately. Doing it by eye always results in something being adrift or skewed, which irritates me.

This sort of thing is what I mean, using Cardio stamps and one of the Clarity Stencil backgrounds.

  I've made a couple of cards with them, and I'll post them over the next few days.
Because they are on film, I had to use Staz-on ink, and from some research on the net, it appears the ink doesn't harm clear stamps, it's the Staz-on cleaner that does.
So, it's fine if you don't mind stained stamps, and I don't.
 Two tips I've come across doing this- first, if you don't want Staz-on staining your stamps, then if you apply Versamark first, then Staz-on, the Staz-on will wipe straight off your stamps afterwards, but as I was doing this on film, I'm guessing that would not have dried, so defeating the object.
Second- what if you get Staz-on onto your acrylic blocks? The cleaner definitely ruins them, I ruined a few before I found out about the cleaner. Turns them cloudy, with loads of fine cracks appearing. Well, apparently, Antibacterial hand sanitiser gel will clean them up. Sounds mad, doesn't it? But, nothing to lose by trying it.
Here was one very mucky acrylic block.
















                                                                                          

 
I squirted a small amount on,spread it over with my fingers, wiped off with a paper towel, and hey Presto! It works! Literally, wiped over with my fingers, and it came straight off. No rubbing or scrubbing.

That was definitely a wow! moment. I really wasn't sure it would work. But it does, perfectly.
So, something useful there.

Finally, I though these may amuse you. It does prove that dying your hair in a variety of colours clearly runs in the family.
Top picture is my eldest son, Ant, with his green beard, and opposite, my youngest son, Mike, with his two tone one. Amazing, that as Mike ages, he looks more & more like his brother.
 As they say, madness does not run in our family, it just wanders around, having a good time in the process.

WOYWW #284

Another week, another Wednesday blog round up over at The Stamping Ground, chaired by Head Desker Julia.So on the desk this week are my purchases from Hobbycrafts at the NEC last Saturday. Had a smashing day, especially getting to meet up with Linda B and Ali H, along with some other members of their scrapping group.

As you can see, a selection of stamps- Lavinia, Visible Image and Cardio in the main. Saw the lady on Cardio's stand making some amazing Christmas cards, and using dried out baby wipes to add the ink, instead of sponging. Very effective, and looked really easy, so I shall be trying that out. A few new ink pads, Tim mini blending tool pads,low tack tape and some background sheets also from Lavinia stamps. There is also some packs of black and white leather effect card under the tape.

On the other desktop, 3 Sweet Poppy stencils, two Christmas ones and a Thistles one, which appears to be hiding. A set of Tim Holtz snowflakes, and some Memory Box bauble dies, which one of the stands was selling really cheap.
 The rest of my room is gradually getting back to normal, I've got everything put back on my desk, and have a few drawers to put stuff away in yet.
Running update, I now have only 9 days of radiotherapy left, thats gone by really fast. Oncologist was very happy with me last week, and said that if I still feel ok this week, I don't need to wait and see her, I can just see her next week, and she will organise the CT scan for 6 weeks time then. Works Occupational Health Nurse was also happy, and said she recommended that I continue doing half shifts until my treatment has finished, and gradually go back up to full hours after that. Which I am happy with, I do find that I tire easily- thats how its affecting me, lack of stamina. I can't do anything for as long as I used to be able to.  I am really glad to come home at 2.00am at the moment. Apologies to those I didn't get round to last week, Thursday was a long day, with treatment and having to see the Oncologist, as well as the Works Occupational health lady, and it was early hospital appointment, so had little sleep. Lost most of Friday catching up on sleep! I shall be doing better this week, lol.

Building a whole scene using the Northern Lights technique.

As the previous project came out so well, I was intrigued to see if I could build up a whole scene with a group of stamps and still using the Northern Lights technique for the sky. I figured if I used some masking, it should work ok. I have to admit, I'm loving this method- even I think this sky is stunning!

The stamp positioner came out for this- I have a phobia about not matching the stamps up quite right. I used Versafine on the positioner plate, but Staz-on for the actual stamping. I used to stamp onto the plate with Staz-on, then discovered it was that that turned my plate all cloudy.  Having stamped the mountains in place, I placed Lakeside Cove below them then masked the mountains to stamp Star Birth over the top.This was the completed scene, before any sponging.







I put the mask back in place to begin the sponging- I wanted the colour to reflect in the water, but not be visible through the  mountains.



I started with Mustard Seed again, but this time I was a little more free-form in how I added it, not just in straight lines.

  I sponged the sky, then added some streaks to the water area, with a few dabs onto the rocks.









After the Mustard Seed came Adirondack Citrus, followed by Sailboat Blue.




Finally some Dusty Concord, then the mask was removed from the mountains.


Now I began adding Blues to the water area, Sailboat Blue and Denim Adirondacks.





Latte and Slate were added to the rocks.

To colour the mountains, I dabbed in some Citrus and Mustard Seed lightly, then added Slate over the top, with finally a bit of Latte. A few stars were highlighted with a white gel pen.

I trimmed the edges of the image down, to remove the excess card, matted it onto black, then dark blue card.
I'm also entering this into the Craft a Scene Challenge for April, which is a Mountains and Hills theme.

Supplies:
 Adirondacks, Citrus, Sailboat Blue, Denim, Latte and Slate.
Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord.
 Staz-on Black
Sponges
 White gel pen
 Stampscapes stamps:
 Lakeside Cove, Rocky Peaks and Star Birth.

Northern Lights- a la Pinterest

Right, so I saw this technique on Pinterest, and thought it would work well with scenics. The original of the pin is here, on a blog called Stamping To Share. Haven't used my Stampscapes much lately, so out they came.
  










The blog owner, Kay, has done a video on there, using the Stampin Up set Lovely as a Tree- here's my pic by pic post with the Stampscapes.
 First off, I cut two Nestie shapes, using the 2nd largest die of labels 8.










  I also cut two from Classic Scalloped Rectangles, but I haven't used them yet. You can also see the inks I used at the back, the stamps and some sponge pieces.

Taking the lightest colour, here Distress Inks Mustard Seed, swipe lines across the label, the full width.




 Swap to your second colour, I used Tumbled Glass, and swipe alongside the yellow. Let them overlap a little so the blue will blend with it in places, making green.






Now bring in a third, darker colour- I used Dusty Concord DI, filling in the spaces, and lightly swiping over the other colours to tone them down a bit.

 The beauty with this is that you can't possibly do anything wrong! The colours will merge and blend no matter what you do- even mistakes blend in.

The stamp I chose for this one is called Lakeside Cove, and I stamped it in Staz-On Black, as I wanted to add some more ink yet, and didn't want to risk Versafine smudging if it wasn't dry enough.
 In Kays version, she sponged Dark Blue over the ground area after she'd stamped, so you didn't see the continuation of the streaks. As my image had water in the foreground I just wanted to tone the colours down a little, so they would appear to be reflected in the water.

To do this I used Adirondack Sailboat Blue and Denim sponged over the water area- toning down the colours reflected in the water also had the effect of making the sky seem more vibrant.

Final ink was some Adirondack Mushroom on the rocks- again just to merge the colours in, rather than cover them up.

 I repeated the technique on the second label, adding Adirondack Citrus to the mix this time, and using a stamp called Rocky Creek.
Again I used the Blue Adirondacks to tone the colours down in the water, and Latte and Mushroom on the rocks.







 I also felt the label size was a bit too big for the image, so cut them both down using the next size down Nestie.
I  added some stars in the sky, and reflected in the water, with a white gel pen.

 I used the second largest die to cut out some black card to matt them onto. I cut two card blanks to roughly 6" x 5". Two strips of card, one gold, one silver were embossed with Cuttlebug folders, the gold with Diamonds in the Rough, the silver with Forest Branches,and the strip of card added to the card front using DST. I added the image on top with more DST.

Supplies: Dye inkpads in Yellow, blues, brown and purple.
White card
 Stampscapes or other scenic stamp
Sponges
 Staz-on Black
 Nesties label die
 Embossing folder of choice.
White gel pen.

This was my desk mid- session, lol.

WOYWW #225- I'm Back!!!

Hi folks, back from 2 weeks in the sun, on Corfu, mozzie capital of the world! Thats a panoramic pic taken by Beloved Hubby on his new tablet gadget thingy.

This was the view from our balcony, the beach & sea just over the road. Me and Beloved Hubby having a pony & carriage ride around Sidari, where we stayed.
So not a lot of crafting done, as yet. I did have to throw together rather fast yesterday afternoon, a card for a girl at work leaving to have a baby. She was going to go next week, but decided to go this Friday instead, so it was a bit of a rush job, but didn't come out too badly, I have to say.

Biggest help was all the glittering I did a while ago- the squares & Baby word are Chocolate Baroque stamps, in White Staz-on on transparency film, silver glitter on the back of the squares, and white on the letters. The background paper I have had for ages, and I went with white for the glitter & ribbon, because when I started it, I realised I could not remember if she's having a boy or girl. I thought she was having a boy, but didn't want to take the risk that I had the wrong idea in my head- wouldn't be the first time- so played safe with a paper that covers all options, :) .So thats me for this week, I'll hopefully post early, and be back later to visit. I'm back on double day shift for a few weeks,which is a whole other story, but if I start telling it, a lot of bad language will be involved, and I wouldn't want to shock my visitors.Have a great Wednesday!

Dragonfly Collage card

Still plodding away, using images I've had stamped up for ages. This one is a Crafty Individuals stamp again. Its stamped onto an oil pastel background, for how I did that, see here. For stamping onto oil pastel, Staz-on is the better ink to use, I think. Versafine, Memento & Archival I have found all need to be sprayed with an Artist Sealant.
As the background featured blues, pinks & purples, I used blue & purple Mulberry paper to matt the image onto. 
I cut a thin scrap of card, and ran a strip of DST along it for starters.

The angel hair paper was cut down so that four strips would be a little wider than the image. To cut it down, and keep the 'fluffy' look to it, take either a paintbrush dipped in water,(or a waterbrush) & a ruler. Run the brush along the edge of the ruler, letting the water soak into the paper. Then just pull the two edges away from each other, and you'll be left with a nice feathery edge.
I stuck these, alternating the colours, onto the DST.

   The strips are all different lengths,  so I levelled them off using the ruler & waterbrush method.
 
 






Now all the same length, I  mounted the stamped panel on top……..






……..then trimmed off the card strip so it wasn’t visible beyond the edge of the image.I added a layer of a darker purple Mulberry paper, then mounted onto the card front.





To finish off, I stamped a Happy Birthday sentiment onto a scrap of the oil pastel background, and trimmed with fancy scissors.
A dragonfly made from Angelina Fibres (fusible fibres) was added to the bottom of the image.
Supplies:
Crafty Individuals CI-001, Dragonfly Collage
Mulberry paper
Oil Pastels The Works.
Fusible fibres