Wednesday, April 30, 2014

WOYWW #256

Happy WOYWW Everyone! That is short for “What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday”, the brilliant blog hop initiated by our lovely hostess, Julia at The Stamping Ground….and you can see all the deets there.

Yes, this desk is looking rather empty, oddly as I had a fabulous weekend all alone, and was in here a good part of Saturday and Sunday (WooT)  First,  Linda Ledbetter   has started the Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge, and I was bound and determined to not miss the first week. (which you can see here)  So, Saturday was mostly cleaning and re-organizing, and ok; trying to find my distress paints. And then Sunday was working on the first challenge.   And that totally got me past my block  (well, first part of my block…)for getting color down on the ATC’s for the WOYWW 5th Anniversary. 

So, what you see are the backs of my ATC’s…finally learned to do this part first…(who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks??) and a stack of one of the pieces-parts that will be going on the front..I did manage to flip them over before taking the picture.  There are the Distress Stains I used, some clear stamps I’m planning on using (virgin clear….time to ink them up!) And yes, that is a bottle of hard cider I was imbibing while working, as well as another bag of my fav trail mix! (yup, ate half a bag in the course of the weekend…)

Oh, and here are the Mothers’ Day cards I made from my CC3C Challenge technique.  Can’t tell you how happy I am my Mother and Mother in Law are now in separate states! LOL!


So, there it is…now go stop by Julia’s and hop around the world to other great desks! Happy Crafting everyone.


Tuesday, April 29, 2014

CC3C #1: Page #43

Yay!!! I’m so happy that Linda has offered to host another Challenge to go along with Tim Holtz’s 3rd Volume of his Compendium of Curiosities!!  As in the past challenges, we can’t give details on the challenge, so don’t ask, but do go get your own copy of Tim’s fabulous book.  Also, Inspiration Emporium has offered an extremely generous $50 Gift Certificate for all the odd numbered techniques! So grab a copy, and join in to play!!  All the deets are here, at Linda’s blog!

 Week #1: Page 43-Paint Marbling
In the past I have done tags for the challenges, but while they look pretty, it doesn’t always let me translate into an actual project. So, for this challenge, I decided to focus on colors for Mothers Day Cards.

First, I did experiment with the technique on more than a few panels of card stock.  Like the Marbleized Distress Stains: I had to get the hang of it...and not be stingy!

After the Texture Fade: Wanted to show the whole sheet!
So, then with a variety of backgrounds, I finally decided on using a texture fade , using Tim’s Oval Diffuser; and how convenient that it is the same size as one of the Sizzix Oval Framelets??!!
I colored the stamps with Distress Markers, and I’m sorry, but I can’t for the life of me remember where the stamps came from (on is probably Rubbernecker Stamps…maybe both)

I cut up one of the other pieced I made, that had two spots that matched both backgrounds, then stamped one of Tim’s text stamps from his clear sets., added some pearls, and Done! And I’m so glad neither Mother nor Mother in Law will see each other’s cards, or read my blog! LOL!




So, grab a copy of Tim Holtz’s Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3, and join in! There is plenty of time…

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

WOYWW #254

Happy WOYWW Everyone! That is short for “What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday”, the brilliant blog hop initiated by our lovely hostess, Julia at The Stamping Ground….and you can see all the deets there.

So, my desk is pretty darn clean…BECAUSE  After 3 weekends of working that Sizzix pop and cut die and card..it is done! And once that was done I celebrated by opening my horded bag of Trader Joe’s Indulgence trail mix..which you see on the left, and rewarded myself while straightening up.  Still have a bunch of stamps out, ‘cause I have hopes of working on my inventory for the holiday craft show..yes, the one in November… most of the acrylic blocks are back on top of the ink box, most of my DI pads are put away…I just see 4 sticking out…Hmmm, ok, apparently it was mostly the paper scraps and miss-trials I got rid of..but there were A LOT!  It was horrific! (nothing less would have me cleaning up!)

So, here are the shots of that Pop and Cut card; and believe me, I will be using it a lot now! (FYI, better to color the whole card background, both sides,  before running through the Sizzix, then just do the individual elements…just sayin’)







And here is my Mother In Law’s Birthday card…which I promised last week…Using the Our Daily Bread Chickadee stamp and matching die.  


 So, there it is…now go stop by Julia’s and hop around the world to other great desks! Happy Crafting everyone.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

WOYWW #253

Happy WOYWW Everyone! That is short for “What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday”, the brilliant blog hop initiated by our lovely hostess, Julia at The Stamping Ground….and you can see all the deets there.

OK, I’m nothing if not persistent!  Today’s desk is a continuation of the last 3 weeks. And you can see a progression from mass destruction through ”making it work” to enlightenment….sort of…getting there…

You see, I received my new Sizzix shipment with the backing pieces for my Pop and Cuts Butterfly die, oh , and I also got the Pop and Cut’s Label Die…And I’ve got them all working now, only to find out that you really need a much stiffer card than 65#, especially when using DI stains and other wetter mediums!  See, enlightenment…next week will be perfect! 

What is left about after my flurry of craftyness?  What was to be my Sister In Law’s  BDay card, but which will now be redone on double weight cardstock. The parts that will be layered on the flippy part are sitting on top of an ink pad up by the cleaner and diamond glaze bottles.  You can see my first attempt on the right, but my stain marbling didn’t work as well.  Yes, Hettie, those are my messy ink sponges on the side, and one of the stencils I used up above the mat..cool numbers, perfect for a birthday card.  Oh, and stacked to the left, starting with the cattail stamp, are my new Northwoods Stamps, and at the bottom out of sight…a husky puppy litter!!! Just wait to you see it!!

And there is a scrap top left, and the black rubber stamp, which is one of the limited edition cat stamps from Magenta…which I used for my Brothers BDday card. I did take a picture of that…so here it is;Not very "guy-ey" but he likes cats, and the saying fits his cat.  And next week I’ll show my Mother in Law’s BDay card, which I forgot to take a picture of, as well as the Redux II from the pieces you see. 


 So, there it is…now go stop by Julia’s and hop around the world to other great desks! Happy Crafting everyone.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

WOYWW #252-Butterfly Success!!

Happy WOYWW Everyone! That is short for “What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday”, the brilliant blog hop initiated by our lovely hostess, Julia at The Stamping Ground….and you can see all the deets there.

What a difference a week makes….last week I showed a desk of mass destruction and disappointment.  This week…the detritus is cleared, and perseverance has won out.




What am I going on about? The Sizzix Pop and Cut Butterfly insert die. And while I haven’t received my Sizzix shipment yet with the backing die, I did make do...using...get ready…a piece of my Gelli Plate prints (yup, I can hear you gasp from here!)

So, you see the finished card.  The White drawer goes in the cabinet that hangs on the wall, and is holding my Dylusions Ink Sprays. Sitting on the ink pads are some additional butterflies I cut out, but thought were too bright. To the right are the stencils I used. Now, as this was a test to see if I could get it to work, I really wasn’t thinking about the actual coloring.  I’ve decided, that while I like the butterfly wings to be veined (I used a very large Stamp Camp butterfly stamp, and just inked the tips of the wings to fit on the cut one) I think black was too much, and will use a softer brown next time.
 
Oh, and here is the finished card…in all its flipping glory!! Not that the photos are great...but you get the idea...


 So, there it is…now go stop by Julia’s and hop around the world to other great desks! Happy Crafting everyone.