WOYWW #285

It's Wednesday, I should be in bed, and will be soon but I thought I would post this now. Can't link it up to the wonderful Julia Dunnit's blog - The Stamping Ground, where us nosy crafters from all over the world go stamping (or stomping) round each other's desks to see what is occurring!

I know I owe comments to late commenters from last week, and I am sorry about that. There is a reason - I have had the dreaded lurgy since Saturday and still don't feel at all well. I haven't done any of the planned crafting at all. I have been coughing, eating frozen fruit with yogurt to try and soothe my throat, honey lemon and ginger drinks (well lime to begin with because I ran out of lemons), pain killers, slept all day Sunday, then couldn't sleep Sunday night, and it still continues and seems to morph into something worse as it goes. I am pretty sure I caught it from my little grandson, he wasn't well and gave me such a lovely kiss one day the previous weekend when he was here!

I did some more crochet last week, but I can't show you that yet.

What is on my very cluttered desk, well I won again - this time I won some stamps from Crafty Individuals, I spotted a giveaway on their blog on Monday night, or was it early Tuesday morning when I couldn't sleep? Anyway they showed a couple of pretty projects, the last one was made with one main stamp and we were asked if we could identify three stamps or sets that were used to add other elements. There were in fact 4, but I just couldn't find the bunny - which turned out to be a hare. The winner was the first one to email the correct answer  - and that was me! So I won 4 lovely stamps, two are sets - how lucky am I after last week's voucher win too! I was thrilled to bits especially as I thought I was getting three not four! The Inkylicious water drops stamp behind is one I bought recently. I wanted water drops and this was a cheaper alternative than the rubber sets I have seen previously.

Happy Birthday Brother

 It was also my Brother's birthday yesterday, and he is a keen ornithologist so I made him a bird card. The background done directly onto the card blank is stamped and heat embossed in white and clear powder to form a resist, the stamps are Crafty Individual. Then I inked over the stamping with Distress inks and rubbed over the embossed images.
I stamped the branches, feather and bottom sentiment with Paperartsy stamps (rubbing over the embossed images again), and die cut then stamped the bird (I tried stamping then die cutting - which is when I found out the die is not the right way round to do that, I had to die cut, flip the die cut then stamp). Happy Birthday is a Hero Arts stamp, and Brother is a Papermania stamp.

Inside the card I used some Papermania Spring paper, also with blue and brown birds, and cut a slot to insert a gift card. Stamped sentiments are Paperartsy.

I was originally inspired to do the heat embossed background when a craft company on Facebook asked a question: if you used what you are wearing right now as inspiration - what sort of card would you make? I was wearing a dark blue fleece top with white silhouettes of birds all over it!

Happy Birthday Brother!

I have entered the following challenges:

Allsorts - All about the boy (Sat)

Cute Card Thursday - It's a wild world

Foxy Valentine, and new stash!

I love this little fox from Unity Stamps and the sentiment that comes with it. I coloured the image with Promarkers, die cut shapes with Spellbinders Nestabilities, and Lacy Heart, and the papers are by Prima and were free with a magazine. I added real lace and a mother of pearl button. The inside of the card is lined with more of the same papers.

I have entered the following challenges:

That Craft Place - Valentines (Sunday)

Craft Mojo - Love (Feb)

Feeling Crafty - Dies or punches (Feb)

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Love/Hearts (Feb)

One Sweet Challenge - Love (Feb)

Papertake Weekly - With a Heart (Thurs)

Passion for Promarkers - Have a Heart (Thurs)

Polkadoodles - Love is in the Air (21st Feb)

FWF Unity Stamp Co 

Ali Crafts Challenge - Valentines (22nd March)

 Shaun ate this when we were in Torquay, I think it was poached pear with alcoholic jelly of some sort!

 This was my scallop starter, I can't see the two scallops in the photo.

This was mozzeralla and tomato, another starter, I kept forgetting to take photos of the mains, and these were on the phone I was trying out.

 Little Claire haul from the Exeter show, I am a member so got my discount. The stamping mat is amazing, I have used it with wood mounted stamps and I didn't expect it to be good with those but it is.

 Bargain bin bargains, Crafty Individual stamps and Tim Holtz, Tattered Angel metal paint system, soon added up though and the total was a shock!

 More goodies, Inkylicous ink dusters, amazing bargain stamps (Hero Arts, Personal Impressions, Fun Stamps) from a lady giving up her shop, organic creams in the bag for face, and some for Kenny, some Art Bin magnetic sheets, Fresco paints - turned out I duplicated one of those, paper flowers, yarn to make donkeys - it is all grey except for the white - the sparkly looks blue here! Taken on the hotel desk, hence the lovely hairdryer.

 We did go look at the sea.... but returned to the car pretty smartish, it was so windy and cold.

 Shaun had sherry trifle.

 I had sorbet, yummy, I think it was apple, raspberry and white chocolate.

 Shaun had soup for a starter.

Oh - there are the scallops, I don't know what the other photo was then!

The Craft Barn Quotes and Lyrics challenge

The Craft Barn challenge for 2014 is Quotes and Lyrics (Q&L), and I did manage to do my first page well within the timescales, but couldn't load the photo into blogger with the tablet (some days it will, some it won't and even when it did I couldn't load it into the post I created - which has now mysteriously vanished anyway). I will add that first page later, it isn't downloaded onto this sick computer yet, I have it on the tablet too....

The challenge is set every two weeks, and we are given two words, this time it is Silence and Dazzle, and you can use one or both words if they feature in a quote or lyric. I found a few lyrics but this quote from an online paper really appealed to me.

"Vänskä’s balance of the ensemble was disclosing instrumental colours that are usually washed over by the razzle-dazzle of the piano.... from the examiner.com

I didn't know what I was going to do for this challenge, a journal, a box of cards perhaps for inspiration you can dip into randomly? Then I saw this kraft notebook and decided to use that. I made the mistake of getting paint on the binding wires during my first page and now it is difficult to turn pages and I can't seem to get it off! I used Crafty Individual stamps, some images are heat embossed. I have adhered pages together to make pockets so I can store the remaining quotes and lyrics I gathered, not sure how well this is going to work - I might have to rebind the pages with a bigger non paint covered wire or come up with another solution.

Anyway due to the internet going down on me just as I was going to blog this last night, or it could be the sickly computer playing me up, I missed the deadline! So that is two chances the computer has spoiled for me!

Here is my first page, I got it onto Facebook a week before the deadline but couldn't get it onto blogger!

Penny black stamp set, and the quote is A Smile is Just a Frown Turned Upside Down from Undisputed Truth - Smiling Faces Sometimes by The Temptations.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - N

The Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn is on N, and I chose night in the English section of my dictionary. There was only one other option here for me and that is now glued down between pages! I don't think there was much in the French section either. See the stars at the top of the page? I wanted to stencil stars and the only stencil I had was sequin waste, and I used clear ink and holographic embossing powder which was heat set before applying distress inks to make my sky.

The owl on a branch, bats, sentiment and cat are by Cherry Pie Art stamps (and have featured before), the row of houses is a Hero Arts stamp, the branch on the right is Crafty Individuals and the moths are Paper Artsy, big moths don't you think, rather Dr Who like, the invasion of the giant moths!

I used various colours of Ranger Distress ink to create the sky, and finally I die cut a moon and stars from an Accucut Zipeslim die.

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - U for Upholstery

 Here is my first (and possibly only) entry to The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge letter U! I have spent ages on this, masking the page and stamping round the edge, which as I have covered the middle was unnecessary really! I used woven paper string carpet, freebie paper wallpaper, stamps by Chocolate Baroque, Santa Rosa, Unity, Crafty Individuals, Hero Arts (die cut with matching Sizzix dies) and Cherry Pie Art Stamps. Die cuts with Spellbinders dies. Images coloured with Promarkers. The curtains are lace ribbon on a cocktail stick rail.

Stamping as follows:
Chocolate Baroque stamp used round the edges of the page.
Crafty Individuals - scene outside the window.
Hero Arts - chandelier and black and white chair.
Santa Rosa - big armchair.
Cherry Pie Art Stamps - cat in picture.
Unity stamps - Smaller armchair and standard lamp.

I made hot strawberry souffles! It is the first time I have made souffle of any sort, and this was a Slimming World recipe which did include some sugar. They rose beautifully, I had to go buy some ramekins, I only got 4 and then I realised that I had 4 egg whites left from making cheese straws for the "boys" and the recipe called for 3, so how to seperate, well rather than wasting an egg I upped the sugar proportionally but I had to use a cup for a 5th souffle. I gave the cup one to Shaun as it was the biggest and he decided he didn't like it so left most of it. I love it. When it cooled down, as there were 3 left, they sank back down to maybe half the height they are here and I worried they would be no good but they still taste yummy today!

Sweet sweet music

In honour of the Bradford on Avon Music Festival this weekend at the Wiltshire School of Music I have been making musical cards. I only just saw these stamps by Crafty Individuals at the beginning of the week and had to have them, and they came really quickly with some freebies, thanks Crafty Individuals! 

I stamped the music stamp onto some marled card, and cut a frame using a Spellbinders die, which I cut the centre out of to make a frame. The reason you are seeing three photos of this card is because I tried 3 different dies in the centre to get different effects. I embossed the frame then used the die as a stencil to shade it with plum Memento ink, and then cut the music sheet to fit behind. I stamped the piano and instruments and cut them out to add, oh and I should have said the first thing I did was stamp and heat emboss the sentiment using stamps from a Hero Arts clear set.

Do you like this frame the best? I just used a square Nestie in the middle here.

Or this one? I used the next size down of the main die this time.

They are all easel cards, inside I added a panel of the green card, some ribbon with musical notes, some Prima blooms and a gem, and a French horn, or is that a tuba?

Slightly different inside, I used Tim Holtz Ideology tape on this one.

I had high hopes of making more cards using this wonderful Dreamweavers stencil, and I tried it embossing it by passing it through the eBosser ( I had several attempts before getting anything like what I wanted, the one with two pieces of card to shim it worked best but then the machine reversed it and wouldn't accept that a second time, after which all attemps were not so good), then I tried the Big Shot, the Big Shot gave me a better definition, and I tried the embossing paste. I had a few problems with the ebosser and didn't end up with the result I had hoped for. I got in a mess with the paste trying to do the black piano keys only despite have the little brass masking tool, well I just got in a mess! So this one ended up with the dry embossed image cut from the keys, and I used black Promarker pen to mark the embossed notes, words and the black keys. I also used Cordinations Black Magic embossed with a music note folder and sanded, then die cut with Grand Nestabilities die. I mounted them on gold and added Happy Birthday cut out of some printed card I bought ages ago at a show, and I used Sizzix ;Lollipop dies for that.

I am entering the ABC challenge E for embossing, take your pick the cards above all have embossing!

These little characters are stamps which I think I bought from Smiling Summer Girl on ebay many years ago, I think they are mythical folk art figures maybe Mexican and beginning with X but I could be wrong! It is really bugging me that I can't remember what they are called. The set includes the figures in different sizes, so the block comes smaller, and the small individuals come in a bigger size. The sentiment might be from her too. If anyone knows please tell me. Anyway this is a CAS or clean and simple card, I used Kaleidoscope ink and stamped directly onto the card.

When the new stamps arrived I tried to use every bit of the one EZ mount sheet I had left, and some scraps! So the Crafty Individuals had to be mounted so I could use them and as many Krafting Kimmies as I could fit!

Ermmm, I think I need to order some more EZ mount!

Shaun and Richard outside in the cold and very wet laying a new base for the new greenhouse to come, with toughened glass so that Kenny doesn't have any accidents. The old greenhouse is being used as shelter here, and will be going to a new home next week!

Happy New Year and a few cards

This was my last attempt at Craft Stamper of the Year, and this round was Indigo Blu. Having learnt my lesson from the previous round where I only bought one stamp that proved hard to use, for this round I bought a set called Wild Meadow and a Sunflower stamp and I had the freebie small butterfly from Craft Stamper magazine. I also bought black stamping card from Indigo Blu, as previous winning entries had used 3 or more elements from the sponsor. I actually got this one in a day before the closing date, or maybe it was hours as I was up to the early hours of the morning finishing it because we were leaving for Devon the next day. I stamped onto the black card with Brillance and the pad has three colours of blues and greens, and then heat embossed with crystal pearl powder, and I trimmed this and mounted it on some gold card then onto the card blank, I think I left the image a little long, however I had been stamping and practicing for hours and forgot to make it a little shorter and had no time to do it again. I stamped the sunflower onto white card several times and coloured them with Promarkers and Trias, then cut and decoupaged the images so each layer gets a little smaller, and I stamped and coloured the butterflies in the same way. I painted over the sunflower and butterflies with artists irridescent medium to give it shine, and finally I stamped the sentiment onto parchment paper and die cut it, edging it with the same brown ink I used to stamp it. I actually bought stamps to complete the last round but ran out of mojo, so got nowhere! I love the stamps and I am sure they will get a lot of use.

This card was also for Stamper of the Year but the round before Indigo Blu, which was sponsored by Crafty Individuals, and I have a lot of their stamps, however this all went horribly wrong! I started by trying to glue book pages together to make an altered book, but it was clear I wasn't doing it right and I didn't have time to look for the instructions - again this was the last day! So I carried on with the book theme and used a page from the book which is about a beautiful garden outside a house window, and I cut a window into the middle and used a Sizzix cut and fold window die with the top part hidden. Inside the window I stamped and embossed the bird cage and some blue birds. Outside I stamped branches and birds, and then went to grab the flower stamps - it wasn't until I had spent some hours colouring them in that I realised I had grabbed the wrong make of stamps for the flowers, I had stored Graphicus (Chocolate Baroque) stamps on the same sheet and the Crafty Individual stamps were right next to them - whoops! Again with no time to redo the whole thing I had to just finish off with some Distress walnut coloured ink painted onto and around the page, which is mounted on Kraft card on a lighter Kraft card blank. Oh Dear!

Christmas Eve make, delivered to a neighbour at 11:30. I was making quick cards by this time, and this was the Crackerbox Palace santa and sleigh stamped onto linen effect card which was embossed with the snowy village and I added Ice Stickles to highlight that image. Crafty Ribbons of course, and by the time I got to Boxing day and still making cards I had refined this a little but didn't take more photos so I need to make some more so I can!

This was inspired by the Crafty Ribbon DT, and used up some short ends of ribbon. I only had one of these card blanks left but I am sure I can reproduce this in some other way with the tools I have! Ribbons are Crafty Ribbons except for one tiny bit, black and silver which is Papermania. I sprayed the card blank with bronze Glimmer Mist and added a star and some wooden ornaments, and this was for Shaun.

Not a card, this is an insect hotel and was one of my Christmas pressies!

The Quirky Crafts challenges will begin on 6th January for 2013, and the winners of the last challenge will be announced then!

Recycled Romance, Quirky Crafts challenge time

Its challenge time again over on Quirky Crafts, I was late as usual with my DT example. The challenge is Recycled Romance, romantic projects with a recycled element that you would normally not use on cards and would throw away, such as kitchen foil, bubble wrap etc. I altered a Green and Black's chocolate box, painted it first with Gesso then white acrylic with a touch of bronze. I then stamped it with a variety of stamps and Stazon and dabbed it with Versamagic chalk. The heart on the front is die cut using a Tim Holtz Sizzix die and pink and silver tissue boxes, I realise that might be hard to tell as it looks like the holographic card you can buy, this really was two tissue boxes! The heart backing is a page from a book.

Inside the box more stamping, more book pages and Decopatch glue, stamped with Cherry Pie gravestone and owl stamps, and a cat. The skeleton happy couple are also from the same Cherry Pie set and are suspended with invisible thread, glitter hearts added. Heidi Swapp clock, with brad hands. MM metal sentiment eyelet. Various other embellishments from stash and Dymo tape words.

Stamps used: Cherry Pie, Inkadinkado (words), Paper Artsy, Crafty Individuals.

I have entered this in the Haunted House Blog Macabre Monday's challenge - Love Bites.Is it dark, macabre and creepy enough do you think?