WOYWW #542- The Fighting Back Edition.

Yep, because I am. Slowly. The last chemo totally wiped me out, and I'm definitely still not even close to ok again, but for the first time in over a week I'm back in my craft room, and linking up at Julias Place, The Stamping Ground.
 No crafting done, apart from some colouring I've sat doing, but there has been some internet shopping done, so normal Enabling Service is resumed.😇
 I mentioned new Lavinia stamps a couple of weeks ago, and here they are.
Pegasus- or is it Pegasi?-  and mushrooms.


I also paid a visit to Country View Crafts, and as well as a TH Christmas cardstock pack, which I don't actually NEED, but they were too gorgeous to resist, I also got a couple of bargains in her end of summer sale, so worth a look.

Some TH Tissue papers, and a fab waves stamp.

This older Chocolate Baroque set, because the words were used on ATC's from a Halloween swap I was in, and loved them. Is it wrong that I read them in the voice of the great Vincent Price, lol?

A Pegasus stencil from Sweet Poppy, many of their stencils have been designed by Tracey from Lavinia Stamps, and match up with stamps.

The Embossing Powders are by Lindys Stamp Gang, part of the range of Two Toned Embossing Powders they make. They used to be called MoonGlow Two toned when I first bought them many years ago,  the Lindys brand seems to make them now, but they are not very widely available in the UK, so these on E-Bay were a lucky find.

I don't have this one yet, they are pre-order for 31st October, but you all know we lost a lovely friend in Erika earlier this year. Erika was a huge Visible Image supporter, and Mark & Helen were at her funeral. Mark has designed this stamp set in her memory, and Helen has added words that reflect Erika.






This was the anniversary card I actually managed to get done in time a couple of weeks ago. I'll try and find the energy to blog it later in the week, with the products used.

This weeks chemo is put off, I'm needing another 3 or 4 weeks recovery time. This one really flattened me, I spent 18 hours or more asleep last Wednesday & Thursday! Still not even close to having any strength, but at least the worst of the brain fog has gone, and best of all the neuropathy in my mouth has gone so I can have cold drinks. Nothing worse than desperately wanting a cold drink but not being able to have one for at least a week.



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

Canvas calendar

I had to wait a while to blog this, as it was a gift for a FB friend, so needed to wait until she'd received it.
 A while back I posted about some stencils I bought at Happy Stampers, and my friend Erika said she had the same one, and that we ought to make something for each other, which I thought was a lovely idea.My WOYWW visitors will remember seeing a picture of lots of punched flowers recently, which were for this project. As usual, I made way more than I need, so the rest are filed away for later use.


This was the card Erika sent to me, a gorgeous Copper paste embossed card, with a background in shades of purple.









 I also gone with a similar colour scheme, oddly enough, using a  canvas board base from The Works. I'd just roughly sponged on some shades of blue & purple Distress inks, then left it to dry.
 I added a sheet of Tim Holtz Tissue paper with Matt medium, and left it to dry again.

Next day I stencilled on the image, called Flower Tree. I used Pearlescent white stencil paste, also from Sweet Poppy.

While this part was drying, I punched out the flowers.Many years ago at the Hobbycrafts NEC I purchased some Paper Blox pads, which are pearlescent/glittered/metallic papers, some in a square format, some long narrow pads. I pulled out a selection of sheets, and gave them a blast with Crafters Companion Iridescent Glitter spray before punching.

In the end, I didn't use all the colours I punched out, but what the heck, now I have some punched flowers in stock, lol.

I used a selection that blended together well, and added one to each of the flowers on the tree, having shaped them a little first with a stylus tool.




The flower centres were created with Crystal Stickles.

I added some toning Liquid Pearls in pinks and purples to the dots in the image.



I knew the wording that I wanted to add, so sorted out some white tissue paper, to make it sort of blend into the background, rather than stand out.

The 'Believe' and 'Never let go of your dreams' are both from Lavinia stamps, and I stamped each twice, as I had to tear them out, and that was a recipe for something going wrong! I used Archival Cobalt ink to stamp, and Crystal Embossing Powder for some sparkle.
 By the way, the phrase is in individual words, which is why the stamping here looks a bit weird.

 I placed the Believe word to follow the shape of the tree,after tearing into individual letters, then added the phrase at the bottom on either side of the tree trunk. All done with Matt Medium.



So I was almost done, when I thought I could add a small calendar to the bottom, to make it functional, as well as nice to look at.
 Cue trip to the shops- I'd actually expected to be able to buy them at the NEC last week, but didn't see any. I got them in a card shop in town, in a pack of 5, for 99p, if anyone needs to get any. Pretty sure it was called 'A Write Card'. If your shopping centre is anything like ours, there are so many card shops, they sort of all merge together!

 I added the calendar with a couple of strips of pale purple ribbon, and made a hanging loop from the same ribbon.
Final touch, I thought a flower tree needs butterflies, so punched out a couple from some glitter paper.