WOYWW #538- The Bit of Enabling Edition

Indeed, as all has been quiet on the enabling front lately, and I have a reputation to uphold, there have been a few purchases this week. First off, an 8"x8" Tim Holtz pad, called 'Abandoned'. Loving the colours in this one.
 Next we went to Webbs garden centre on Saturday, and they have a Hobbycrafts on site. Not a huge fan of them, to be honest, but occasionally they have some bargains.

Like these packs of Glitter cardstock, 20 A5 sheets, half price at £2 each. So, two shades of gold, a silver & a white. They have lots of colours besides these too.








   While we're on the subject of glitter, I came across some Glitter Fun Foam, and I'm thinking these will be great for a number of things- sentiments, for one, and die cut shapes for Christmas cards for another. I think they were 90p each.

Julias revenge, lol. The enabler was enabled. You may recall Julia was using moulds & air drying clay last week, which reminded me I have a tub full of unused moulds.
 Spotted these in there, the one at the bottom says Superlight, and it really is. Feels like a packet of air! ( Mind you, I haven't opened it yet, they might BE bags of air, lol).They were a pound a pack.
 The one above is heavier.

Got distracted from the Christmas cards to join in a swap in a FB group for Samhain/Halloween. Samhain being the old Celtic name for All Hallows Eve, and the Celtic New Year.
Made another set before this, but got carried away with the stamping, and decided they were far to crowded with images, so they went in the bin. There's only so much you can rescue! Linking as always on Wednesday over at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, where she will attempt to keep order.

 On the Chemo front, this time round has been much better, and having seen the Oncologist on Monday, they'll continue at the 80%, as I seem to have tolerated that much better. Good news is, it's clearly working, as the blood test I had two weeks ago- before the treatment and after the 6 week break- showed my cancer markers have dropped from 235 to 175, so it's looking good.

Saw Annies mention last week of the 2020 Crop, it's in the diary! Looks like June will be a busy month, as the following weekend will be Download, and having seen the Headliners announced on Monday- Kiss, Iron Maiden and System of a Down, plus so far, 10 other bands we always go to see on tours - we are most definitely booking.



 Which brings us round to.....And Finally......

 Love this Terry Pratchett quote from one of the Discworld books.

Favourite Cards of the Year- 2016

So, I've done this post for the last few years, at the end of each year. Slightly different this year, as I'm doing two- Christmas Cards are getting their own separate post, as I've made so many! This years  Favourite Cards, in no particular order, start with this one, a mosaic made from a piece of masterboard. This mosaic technique remains one of my firm favourites, especially because you can use any assortment of pieces- masterboards, leftovers, trimmings from things that didn't quite work-  a whole host of potential scrap pieces get a lease of life this way.











Next up are two cards using Stencil Paste, Sweet Poppy Stencils and Glitter.

White on Black, then Black on white.

These cards were really all about the technique- one I came across on Pinterest.
 Although I'd used brass stencils with paste and glitter, I hadn't thought of using Tim Holtz's Layering stencils to do the same. Although this looks like a black lacy design on a white background, it's actually the reverse.

I also learnt that you could colour white paste with ink, which led to a whole host of possibilities. And with Embossing powder, which led to even more.

A new discovery for me this year was Honey Doo Stamps, courtesy of a visit to the Happy Stampers Festival.


These cards all used the same stamp, just different coloured inks and vellums.

The ribbon & Bows are Sue Wilson Dies.

A lot of fun was had this year trying new techniques to me, and stencils of all types played a huge part in this. The stencil here is from Clarity, and have been teamed up with Lavinia Stamps, and inks applied with a soft brush.

I had a great time doing this one, again using a Clarity stencil, and an assortment of Halloween images from various companies.
It also made me think that maybe I could transfer this design to a canvas- a process still under consideration!

Almost done, these quick & easy cards came about after I made some Christmas Cards the same way, using Card-Io/Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps.

My final selection uses stamps from Visible Image. The skeletons facing each other was achieved by stamping them on opposite sides of a piece of acetate, which then had double sided film added, so I could cover the back with gilding flake.


These are just the ones that jumped out at me- I could have added more, but I think this enough. I've added a link in each description to the relevant Blog post.

WOYWW #386

WOYWW 386- d'you know that's almost 7 1/2 years worth? Way to go Julia.Our good old Head Desker over at The Stamping Ground  could never have guessed it would be going this long, or how many amazing friendships she'd be the cause of! Or how many Desks Of Shame she'd be responsible for inflicting on the world,for that matter, lol.

No crafting going on right now, I've just cleared away after the Card-io Birthday Cards in the previous post.

The main item on my desk is a set of Inkadinkado stamps. Many of you may have seen this set on Vickie (Okienurse) blog a couple of weeks ago. I commented how awesome they were, but that as Halloween wasn't as big yet over here as it is with them, I doubted they'd be available in the UK. So the lovely lady offered to get me a set and send them to me. See what I mean about all the wonderful friends we've all made? In the envelope with the stamps were a selection of Halloween papers too, a lovely extra surprise.  So a smashing bit of happy mail.
Whats actually happening on my desk right now is a bit of reorganising. I'd started filing my wafer thin dies on magnetic sheets in A5 binders, which worked fine at first, but was now getting a bit unwieldy. I think I'm up to 8 folders, as you can only put so many in each one.

I'd seen on SCS a lot of ladies swore by Avery Elle pouches for storing stamps and dies,and raved about how strong they were, and how easy it was to find stuff. So, I bit the bullet and did a Google search. Found them on Amazon- where else?- and they come in a few different sizes, including one which they call Extra Large, which is in fact just a little smaller than A5 size.
 Which means I can just trim down my existing magnetic sheets and they fit nicely into the pouches. They have a flap at one end, so stop any dies falling out. And they are very strong, made from thick plastic.
Plus they fit into a Really Useful Box nicely, and I can make dividers from cardstock I have , and stick part of a file divider along the top for I.D. I'm only part way through, as I only ordered one pack of pouches to start with to see if I liked them. I have more ordered and will probably arrive today, so I can finish it off.
 Link HERE for the Pouches I've used.

 I've already done something similar with my metal stencils- the Sweet Poppy & Dreamweaver type- using CD sleeves for them. I used to have them in Photo Albums, but they weren't really strong enough, and the pockets were starting to tear.
 Still no news on the appointment front, I've rung at least three times now in recent weeks, and all his secretary can tell me is that he is chasing the appointments via email, and she will phone me as soon as she sees anything on screen. So, at least I will be going to the NEC Hobbycrafts next Sunday now, lol. Have a lovely day folks, I'll see you later.

All Hallows Eve Abstract

Just a 'for fun' card here, and I think I may well repeat the idea on a canvas in the future.
 Stamps from a few companies  were used, as I wanted to keep the stamps mainly to sizes that would fit in the boxes.
 The stencil is by Clarity, called Abstract squares 2.
 I taped it to a piece of their 7"x7" stencil card, and chose a selection of Distress Inks to work with.

For the Greens, Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint, the Oranges were Spiced Marmalade and Carved Pumpkin, and the Purples were Wilted Violet and Dusty Concord, although I did add in Seedless Preserves at the end.











Starting in the centre of the stencil, I brushed on Spiced Marmalade, then used a smaller brush to add Carved Pumpkin to the corners.



 Next I went to the greens, Mowed Lawn first, then Peeled Paint in the same way.

Final colours were Dusty Concord, with some Wilted Violet.
 I thought it needed something more, so added the Seedless Preserves.

I used a sheet of kitchen paper to wipe over the stencil, pulling in the ink from the edges, to help define the boxes a little.

So we're good to go, and off comes the stencil.
A post it mask surrounds the first square to be stamped in , as the image is much longer than the box. It's from a stamp sheet called 'Dark Boundaries', by Cherry Pie Artstamps.

 I'm using Versafine in either Onyx Black or Crimson for the stamping.
 The railings with the crow at the top, and the words bottom left are from the same sheet.

The next few stamps are all by Chocolate Baroque. The corner web is from Halloween Raven, the dangling spider from Halloween Candle, and the blood splats from Howling Moon.

Visible Image stamps come into the mix now, the two skulls in the centre are from Mr Bone Jangles.  The skull bottom right is from Max Rocks, and the barbed wire from Molly Rules. The bats are from Edward is Immortal.

I've gone back to Chocolate Baroque for some more spiders, and also a spider in its web which I've stamped portions of. A few more blood splats are used to fill some of the smaller shapes.

 

For the card front, I covered a 7" square card blank front with green paper, then stamped all around the edges with a partial print from an Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card stamp of cobwebs.

 
 
 The main panel is trimmed down, and matted onto orange then purple cardstock.
Two embellishments added, the spider in a web,top right, is an old earring!
 Skull and crossbones bottom left I think came from Route 52.

I stamped All Hallows Eve, from the Chocolate Baroque set Halloween Candle, in Black Versafine and heat set it with Stampendous Twilight Embossing Powder.
 I used daubers to add the three colours to the scrap of card.

Trimmed this down with the Tonic 6" mini guillotine, I love this little one, so handy.
 I also find that by lining up the edge of the guide bar to my cardstock, I get a perfect sized border for matting and layering.

Add a purple layer to that, then use pop dots to attach to the bottom right corner.

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black & Crimson
Distress: Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Spiced marmalade, Carved Pumpkin, Dusty Concord, Wilted Violet & Seedless Preserves.

Stamps:
Cherry Pie Artstamps: Dark Boundaries,
Chocolate Baroque:  Halloween Candle, Howling Moon & Halloween Raven.
Impression Obsession: Cover A Card Webs
Visible Image: Max Rocks, Molly Rules, Mr Bone Jangles, Edward is Immortal.

WOYWW #362

I'm Back!!!!! Yes, after a week on the high seas, minus internet & phone access to anywhere, other than when in a port and settled down in a bar somewhere, lol. There was wi-fi available on the ship,but at an eye watering £56 a week! This was our home for a week, and it was a very nice ship. We had a good holiday, saw some interesting places, but I don't think we'll be doing it again, apart from maybe a Northern Lights cruise. Not really our type of holiday, in the end. But it was a good experience, lovely crew and very nice fellow cruisers.Oh, and we got an invite to dine at the Captains table one night, which was fun. We arrived home last Tuesday, the  3rd of May.The weather has been extremely warm ever since we came back, I think we may have just snagged the sunshine and towed it back with us. Unpacking and washing, as you do for the next couple of days, then re-packing an overnight case for our trip up to Port Sunlight for the Happy Stampers Festival. 
What can I say, but Wow! If you've never been, if you're a stamper, you really must. Fantastic show,almost all stamping related, and I came across some new companies I'd not  heard of.
















 
 We also got to meet our Neet,( Hickydorums) and Chris, (Pearshapedcrafting). I got to meet some other lovely crafters, friends of Neet- one of whom, Lyn, recognised our name from FB posts, lol. Neet brought me a lovely book, full of celtic designs she thought I'd like, and a smashing rubber stamp. Has a plain side, to stamp a background, and on the other side is a gorgeous rosebud.
The pic above was taken at our lunch break- about 1.00pm, we all stopped for a reviving drink, and some food.Much purchasing of stamps was done-now I just have to catalogue and store them all.

 Love these cats and dogs from Indigo Blu- and you may spot a bit of a cat/dog theme here.

Some Sweet Poppy stencils- a steampunk cat, and dog(!) amongst others.

Hobby Art stamps here, this time we have Cats & Owls, along with a scenic set.

Over to Cardio, and a selection of stamp sets here. Bunnies, some flowers, and a scarecrow set, with a really sweet little snail on it, in a few sizes. There's also an Oriental set, with a few sizes of Hummingbird on.
I also picked up a set with a number of fairies in small sizes in a variety of positions, and I think quite a lot of these stamps are a perfect size to mix and match with the Lavinia Stamps I have, which is always good.

Inkwell Stamps, I have seen before at the NEC, but not really had a good look at what they do. A set of stylized cats(!) grabbed Dougs attention, as well as the Pebble People stamps. A cute penguin and snowman Christmas stamp, along with a NOEL stamp in the sale.

A few from Crafty Individuals- The loose stamps were 5 for £3, a bargain. I think they are oddments from some of their larger sheet sets.

 I've heard of these Cover A Card stamps, but this was the first time I'd seen them. The Holly one, which was reduced in a sale, will be great for Christmas backgrounds, and the Spiders Web one I have loads of stamps it will go with.

A visit to Helen and Mark at Visible Image provided these stamps, and a nice chat.  I'd been chatting to Helen on FB when we were starting to drive up, and thanks to her info about the state of the M5 & M6, we stuck to back roads, and made good time.

A few from Lavinia stamps, I have a large version of the dancing fairies already.

These came from Stamps Away/Clevercut. I'm always on the lookout for sentiment stamps, trying to get a variety of sizes, and scripts.  Liked the handwriting font for these, and they are a bit larger than normal, without being too large.

This is a company I had never heard of before, Honey Doo Crafts. They have some amazing, beautiful stamps. If you don't know them, go have a look. They have a huge range of stamps, and loads of other crafting goodies.

  This one was a freebie, I think it was buy 4 large stamps, get a small one free.

 A few stencils from Glitzcraft, and some Scenescapes cards from Lavinia Stamps.


An awesome little Dinky stencil of Bats.






Then a handful of basics- some Stickles, some pearls, a new pot of Glamourdust, some Puffy Stuff- I thought it might make interesting snow texture- and some glue.






And the final purchase was some deckle edged 8x8 cards, and envelopes. 4 packs of 15 for a tenner.

 All in all, quite a haul there.So now all I have to do is pack it all away, and of course I need to get going with my ATC's for this years Birthday bash. Anyone who would like to swap, just leave me a comment, and if we haven't swapped before, drop me an e-mail with your snail mail in. That should keep me quiet for the rest of the week, lol.Hope you all have a smashing Wednesday, and I'm sending loads of love and healing thoughts to our much loved leader, Julia, as she has a nice break before her surgery.