Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

WOYWW 163

Well I have spent the morning at my usual Wednesday sewing group, which ends with a drink and tapas at a local bar. That meant a siesta was a must, so I am somewhat late in joining in with our Wednesday blog hop hosted by Julia at Stamping ground. But as I actually prepared my photos last night, I am going to go for it anyway.

I was dual tasking yesterday as I wrote a rather long post for this blog and one for my other diary blog, and at the same time I was regularly feeding sheets of black paper into my Silhouette cameo machine.



Taken from the end of the table, this photo shows my project 365 album open as that was the subject of yesterday's blog.

The husband of one of my Wednesday group friends, leads a local church and he asks her to make Christmas cards for the congregation and 'friends', some 100 of them, which is no mean task. She asked if I could help her out, so I offered her a design similar to my card for Rudolf Day last  month, and yesterday I cut out 100 nativity scenes, and then 100 tiny gold angels. The black paper was fairly fibrous, and I could only cut seven images from each sheet, so as each one finished cutting I had to carefully lift the scenes off, make sure the star still had all its points etc, and then scrape the carrier sheet clean of bits. You can buy a scraper for this job, but I have found that a small piece of card in a business card laminator pouch, works just fine! 



I managed to fit 54 angels onto one sheet. This is some gold almost plasticised paper that I was given when I purchased my original craftrobo machine, and it cuts beautifully, so I now have two sheets of angel-punched paper. I wonder what I can do with those. In the corner of this photo you can just see a grey fluffy tail. As usual Baggins wanted to sit on my work, but his fur sticks to my carrier sheet so I had to keep shoving him over. Eventually he got fed up with being moved and joined his mum, Arwen, under the window, but doesn't he look grumpy about it?!


Hopefully I will now get to visit some of your work spaces. Last week I had a system - I visited everyone whose number ended the same as mine, and a few regulars, and that worked better for me. With the best will in the world, I know I won't get to everyone, but hopefully this way, I will visit at least one new person each week as well as my regular blogland friends.

17 comments:

Annie said...

You have been one busy lady with all the cutting out you've done this week. Do hope we get to see the finished cards :-)
Hugs,
A x #76
ps do pop and see your ATC in all it's glory on my blog today....sorry that I missed to put it on last week.

Robin Panzer Art said...

Wow you've had a lot going on! Love this kitties! Happy WOYWW #125 Robin Panzer Art Studio 33

Becky said...

Wow, that's a lot of angels!! So sweet of you to help! Baggins, perfect name for a cat, and what a beautiful pair of cats you have too! :)

Anonymous said...

Happy WOYWW. Well done for cutting out so many angels etc, whilst typing at the same time. Love your cats. How do they cope with the heat? Jealous of your sunshine. Ali x #113

Shoshi said...

My goodness what a busy bee you've been, Kate! Lovely to see your cutting machine hard at work, producing all those lovely goodies. I find black or dark card is often harder to cut than lighter varieties - something to do with the dye in the fibres I think. When doing a lot, I also check the blade fairly regularly particularly if I'm having to use a lot of force to cut a particular sort of card, as it can blunt fairly quickly. I use my flat-ended palette knife for removing stuff from the mat - we had a thread on the Black Cat forum a while back, about what everyone used for this purpose, and there were lots of interesting ideas - including someone's credit card lol! We all agreed it was a total rip-off, Provocraft selling a special spatula for the Cricut machine!! I love your sheet of gold angels. I am sure you could use this negative - if for nothing else, then as a stencil!

Lovely to see Baggins helping - fur on your cutting mat is a big no-no though - it's also very difficult to get off lol!! He does look pretty grumpy!

Thanks for your lovely comment - the inks are really vibrant and juicy! They don't have any mica in them, but if you wanted some shimmer you could always add some afterwards, or mix it up with a small amount of the ink in a separate bottle and spray it on. These inks are so versatile! You can paint with them as well as spraying, of course.

I'll be blogging about the flowers as I make them. Unfortunately today I've done nothing at all except crash out on the recliner and try and catch up with my blog comments, as I'm having a very bad day health wise.

Happy WOYWW,
Shoshi #3

Eliza said...

I think I need a siesta and I haven't been to a bar, just worked all night LOL Maybe a coma would be better for a few days LOL

You are such a nice person to cut all those little things out, I have a robo and can't even work it, so it sits on the floor looking at me all the time. Blasted thing.......... Goodluck with the cardmaking, I make around 100 for charity staff every year and have not even started yet.

TTYS Eliza #11 again

Lorinda.C.F said...

So kind of you to help out with the Christmas cards. It looks like you're making rapid progress!! Love your furry helpers! Thanks for visiting my desk this week. Happy WOYWW!

SueH said...

Why is it that our furry friends have to be in on the action when we are in crafting mode? BoJangles is exactly the same and has to sit on whatever I’m doing even if I’m trying to cross stitch.

Great job helping your friend with all of those Christmas cards. It makes the job of cutting multiples so much easier with a Robo or Silhouette , could you imagine having to cut that little lot out with a die.

Thanks for visiting this week and……….

Happy Crafting!
Sue
x
#51

kiwimeskreations said...

Hi Kate - love all those angels :-) You have been so busy. Thankfully my cat does not come onto my workdesk, as he is also a long haired boy.
Blessings
Maxine

Anonymous said...

You HAVE been busy :)

Thanks for the info on marbleing. I tried acrylic paint and didn't get a good result, but the vinegar might help (wonder if Malt vinegar would work LOL!)

Cheers and happy WOYWW

MA (1)

Di said...

Lucky you Kate with such a fabby cutting machine. A year ago I punched by hand almost 2,000 circles - would have been easier to pop over and share your machine:)

Super piccie of the kitties there!

Belated Happy WOYWW. Di xx #10

sandra de said...

Very cute kitties and your angels look perfect. Sounds like you are a very organised crafter.
Sandra @31

Deb said...

So glad you visited me, I have been reading both of your blogs and am hanging on every word! I love your stories and pics on the fiesta, so interesting! I can't wait to see how your Christmas cards come out and your kitties are so cute!
Debxx

Kemma said...

Gotta love our pet helpers!I just love looking at everyone's space!
My plan is to try to visit the people that end in the same number as me


Thanks for the peek!
Kemma
mykemmacards.blogspot.com
#161 on this week's WOYWW

SandeeNC said...

wow, 100 cards, all the same, makes my short attention span just freak out! lol I have a hard time making 3 cards that are identical! Your kitty let you know what he thought about being sencond place to your mat! lol waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :) #50

Julia Dunnit said...

What a great chum you are Kate, to help out to such an extent..dont the angels look fab in such a large host! Tapas and siesta, sounds like a perfect day to me.

Neet said...

Gorgeous cats! What a lovely gesture to help your friend with all that cutting out - am sure she will soon meet her target with your help.
The sewing club sounds good - tapas and drinks at a local bar - and sunshine - bliss!
Thanks for sharing - Hugs, Neet 71 xx