WOYWW 73

Good Morning WOYWWers, first let me thank everyone who kindly wished me well with my dental appointment last week.  It was just a tiny filling that didn't take too long.  For anyone wondering what WOYWWers are you need to visit the inestimable (ain't that a great word) Ms Dunnit's Blog where all will be revealed.

This week there is not a lot happening - my lovely new Sir Tim die is lying where I left it several days ago because my mojo has done a runner.  I had a car crash on Sunday on my way to work, I hit some black ice and lost control, thankfully no other cars were around, just me, the car and that nasty patch of  ice. I wasn't hurt much - just a bit sore and stiff, but the car is a write off.  Anyhow I just haven't felt like doing much of anything except blubbering which I assume is the shock reaction.  Hoping today I can get some crafting done cuz I have some sample projects to complete for Elusive Images.

Heading off now for a wander round some other workdesks and perhaps find something to kick some life back into my mojo.

Elegant Ladies From Elusive Images

Elusive Images has just launched some lovely new A5 themeplates, each of which features a beautiful lady in a fabulous evening gown. Accompanying the lady on each of the plates are a lovely mix of swirls, ornate corners, chandaliers and candelabras.  You can see the new stamp sheets in their full glory over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog where, if you are lucky, you might win one of the themeplates in a random giveaway.  You will also get to see some of the beautiful creations made by my fellow DT memebers to give you some inspiration.  We all agreed that these stamps would be very pretty to use for wedding themes, making lovely cards to give to the bride and bridesmaids etc, but their versatility does not end there, as the samples shown on the EI DT blog show!  The samples I made did wedding themed items, but this one is an any occasion card made when I gave in to my addiction to Vintage Photo Distress Ink and just had a nice inky play! 

The stamp was stamped with the Distress Ink onto cream card, only stamping the upper part of the image. I blended more ink around this and also used the ink as a paint to add some shading to the lady's face and arms.  The frame was cut using Nestability dies from more of the cream card which then had lots of that lovely Vintage Photo  ink blended over it.  The pattern on the frame was created by stamping the skirt part of the lady's ballgown in Versmark ink and dusting with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls. The frame is mounted over the image of the lady using foampads.  The background is more cream card and paper from the Artylicious Decadent Brocade CD onto which I blended yet more of the Distress Ink.  To finish the card I stamped a greeting, added some cotton lace and some amber coloured cabochon gems to the frame and as the corners of the backing paper.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - 72

Good morning WOYWWers and thanks for all the lovely comments last week.  Short post from me today as I have to rush off to the dentist soon.  Will be back later to enjoy a good snoop round this week's desks. Here's my desk as looks this morning -  I left it like that on Tuesday before heading out to work the late shift.  I meant to mount those stamps on the foam and cut them out after work last night, but ended up watching telly till nearly bedtime instead.

If you're new to WOYWW and wondering what this is all about, head over to Julia's Blog to find out more.

Haunted House Card

This is a card I made using a stamp from the Elusive Images Spookylicious themeplate.  The background for the house was made by randomly blending Dusty Concord, Faded Jeans and Pine Needles Distress Inks over some white cardstock to completely cover the card surface.  I stamped and embossed the house using Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Black Aurora embossing powders, then highlighted the house using a faux bleaching technique.  

The faux bleaching is done by simply painting clean water over the areas you want to remove ink from, then dabbing the area with a kitchen towel to remove the water and as much ink as you can.  Because the stamped image has been heat embossed the inked background becomes slightly heat set and you don't remove quite as much colour using this technique as you would from unheated card.  For that reason I used  real bleach to take almose all the colour away from the moon area.  Once dry the card was dry, I blended Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges then mounted the finished image onto a mat cut from dark green foiled card.

The base card is a deep purple foiled card and the corners are chipboard pieces from Maya Road which I inked with more of the Black Soot Distress ink then covered in UTEE, two coats of clear UTEE followed by a top layer of the Cosmic Shimmer Arctic Black Aurora embossing powder.

WOYWW 71

Oh my goodness Wednesday already so it must be time for another WOYWW!  I didn't get to very many blogs at all last week so sorry to those who I missed, I will try harder this week as I really enjoy seeing lots of other interesting desks, crafty stash and inspiring artwork.  Now if you haven't heard of WOYWW before then the best way to find out more is to visit Julia's blog Stamping Ground where you can find out how to join in this regular Wednesday Snoop-fest. 

So on to the business of the day - here's my desk as I left it last night when I headed off to bed - a stamped background I have been working on, a pile of Prima flowers that I plan to use with the background and a mottley assortment crafty clutter piling up and pushed back.  Time now to grab a coffee refill and settle down for good nosey at everyone else's desks.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

This card was made using Hallowe'en themed stamps from Elusive Images.  The the toadstools, the spider web on the corners and the greeting all came from the Halloween Candle Themeplate.

To make the card I stamped the toadstools onto white card using black Adirondack Dye Ink.  Next I added spots over the tops of the toadstools using a Versamark Pen, then sprinkled clear embossing powder over the image and heated it.  With the spots of clear embossing in place I coloured the image using Copic markers then coloured over the whole image with the Versmark pen, coated the image with clear embossing powder and heated it up.  The clear embossing was to provide a resist so I could ink the background around the toadstools. 

The background was inked first with Pine Needles Distress Ink, blended right up to and over the image.  Next I blende some Dusty Concord around the outer edges of the image, then wiped the ink away from the clear embossed area.    I stamped the branches of one of the trees from the Arboretum Design-A-Tree themeplate around the edges and inked up just the spider dangling from it's web on the large Candle stamp in the Hallow'en Candle set and stamped it in to look like it was dangling from one of the tree branches.

I made a card blank from some black card and added mats and layers in orange and purple card. On the purple layer I blended Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks around the edges and stamped and embossed the greeting with black embossing powder.  The corners were cut from some of the orange card and stamped with the spiders's web stamp.  Finally I added some Black Diamond Stickles Glitter Glue around the corners and around the edges of the mat and some black brads.

Elusive Images Sponsors Play Date Cafe Challenge

Hi, this week Elusive Images are sponsors over on the Play Date Cafe Challenge and there is a fabulous rubbery prize to be won!  The challenge each week gives you a colour story to work to.  This week, as you can see from the photo above, it's a fresh take on some tradtional Christmas colours.  Over on the Play Date Cafe blog there is some wonderful inspiration from their Design Team so why don't you hop over there for a look and then play along this week. 

Meantime here's my take on the theme.  Details of the stamps I used and how the card was made can be found over on the Elusive Images Design Team Blog where there is even more inspiration for you from Glenda and some of the other DT members.

WOYWW 70

Good morning WOYWWers.  Sorry I missed last week, I was a bit under the weather last Wednesday and had far too much Elusive Images DT stuff lying around on my desk that involved some new stamps that have not been launched yet so I would have had to clear that up  before I could have taken a photo and joined in. 

This week however I just have one card - turned over as it need's to wait till tomorrow before I can blog it. The rest is most of my usual stuff - the push back method is working well for now, but I really need to take some time today to clear things up as the what you can see is only the tip of the iceberg, there are a heck of a lot more scraps that need to be binned and stamps and inkpads laying around that need to be put away that you can't see in this photo. Jo - the paint brush holder is working a treat. It's out of shot tho, but within easy reach!

Now before I go on I should explain WOYWW stands for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, and it's a chance to find out if you really are the messiest crafter in the known universe or just an also ran by snooping round lots of other crafters workdesks.  To join in you need to visit the Goddess of Snoop Ms Julia Dunnit over at Stamping Ground.

Last time I joined in someone asked if I was going to label my drawers - if you click on that photo you will see they are labelled with contents on the left side of each draw.  I thought it would be easier to share the contents of some of them if I took the drawers out and sat them on the floor.  I had just about enough clear floor space to do that - so here are the drawers that contain my Glimmer Mists in the first photo.  The second photo shows the draws that hold Stickles and Pearly Stuff in one and the other my collection of Twinkling H20's ... well  most of them.  I have those lovely little pots of shimmery goodness roughly organised by colours as you can see.  Neutrals in one tray,  purples through pinks and reds into Oranges in the second one and  yellows, greens and blues in the last one.  The metallics, the interference whites and a couple of other sets are still squirrlled away on a shelf, I keep meaning to find the time to add them into the trays in that draw...oh well one day I suppose.