Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

WOYWW 180

Once again I am writing this on Tuesday evening ready for tomorrow's world wide tour around other crafting folks' work spaces. You can find out why we do this on our lovely host, Julia's, Stamping Ground

This week there is not a great deal on my desk, but I am busy all the same. On the left side there is a pile a papers. I sing in a choir called Cantante (Spanish for singer) and we have our first winter concert in my local bar, because we are raising money for our village charity that helps the disadvantaged children in our area. I am looking forward to it as we are based at Huercal-Overa, some half hours drive from here, so it is nice to have one concert nearer to home, which my friends will be able to come to. So I took it upon myself to make the posters for the village. I showed them to our choir leader for approval at the practice this morning, and this afternoon I set about translating them so I could also display them in Spanish. I then had to seek out a friend from the village to check that  my Spanish was accurate and now I have printed out a few copies in each language, plus a lot of smaller ones to hand out to friends. So tonight I am having a guillotine session, so I can start handing them out at my sewing  group tomorrow.

When that is done I shall move to the other end of my desk where I have a few Christmas cards all waiting for inserts. I did a count up of my cards this week and found I still needed a couple of dozen or so, so I looked around for some fairly straight forward ones and got ten done yesterday. First of all I printed out four copies of a nice little Silent night sheet that I bought  from craftuprint. It has three layers of decoupage on the angels and crib, which was fairly easy to do, and then I used some ready made white base cards and some off cuts of patterned paper to mount them up.

I am pleaded with the 'Merry Christmas' ones. These used a cutting file for my Silhouette cameo machine by Tina Fitch, also purchased from craftuprint. As you can see, the inner layer is very fine and delicate, and when it is behaving, the machine can cut these very well. Yesterday it was temperamental, and I ruined a couple of sheets of paper before I got the settings right. It was then a game and a half to stick them onto the second layer. In the end I used diluted PVA glue and a very fine paint brush, and had kitchen roll ready to mop up any over flow! The third layer is mirri-card and I was impressed at how easily the machine cut this. Once the three layers were assembled and set under a press to dry, (My huge Spanish dictionary is just perfect for weighting down glued cards while they are drying!), I quickly put together a simple base. Because I was happy with the end results - the red/gold set, I then made another set using blue card and paper and silver mirri-card. It made sense to make three of each as I could fit three of each layer on an A4 sheet of paper.

Now I had better get on with that cutting up, or my cards still won't have inserts in them. I usually print my inserts but I need a new ink cartridge so I will have to stamp them tonight!
I will do my best to visit at least my regular group of friends tomorrow, and a few extras too I hope.

12 comments:

JoZart Designs said...

Beautiful cards! It must be such a joy singing in the choir especially at this time of year. I really miss singing carols but we were never in the house during December with having so many bookings!
Jo x

Annie said...

You are one busy lady Kate. Love the cards and how lucky are you to be singing in a choir.....enjoy.
Hugs,
A x #74

kiwimeskreations said...

Love choir singing, but it is not something I have done now for a long time. The cards look lovely too :-).
Blessings
Maxine

Sarn said...

Happy WOYWW xxx

Caz said...

Busy workspace!!!
Love those Christmas cards - you must have a terrific amount of patience!!!
Happy WOYWW
Caz
#98

Di said...

Hi Kate - love those cards!

We were down in Estepona, as usual, and had a lot of rain. Sunday was bright, Monday fabulous and then we came home yesterday leaving high temperatures and sunshine :) I was amazed how cold it got when the sun wasn't out to play :(

Still, it was a change and won't put us off.

The market was down in Estepona Marina on Sunday and I'd never seen those jingly bell bracelets before either. Noticed an Ikea on the outskirts of Malaga yesterday which is good news, unless yours is closer to you.

Hugs, Di xx

Unknown said...

Hi Kate thanks for popping by and you kind comments. I was just talking to my hubby today about going to a carol concert to help get into the Christmas spirit. What a great job of the posters and flyers. Hope it is a great success and that you raise lots of cash for the children. I agree with you about the one photo layouts with all the flowers and things piled on! I think they look more like something you want to put on a wall for decoration but they don't truly tell a story. Happy WOYWW to you from Helen 30

Shoshi said...

I love the "Silent Night" cards you've made, Kate. It's always nice to see music in projects as it's so decorative as well as meaning something. Your Cameo files are gorgeous - love the decorative script. The concert flyers are great! Well done you, taking on all that extra work at such a busy time of year. I hope the concert is a great success. I really miss singing in choirs... Such fun.

Thanks for your great comment, Kate. I'm so glad you like my page. As for the poppies, I think the wild ones have four petals - maybe the cultivated ones have more, so it depends what you want, really. I wanted the petals to overlap, which is why I designed the file to have two layers, not identical, to make it look more naturalistic. Making the centres was tremendous fun, too! The cut file is available for download from my Skydrive (see the poppy tutorial on my blog for details).

The top zentangle is everyone's favourite! I've just discovered this thing of mixing two patterns to create a new one, and it's great fun.

My hubby is feeling tons better today, but still pretty tired after the awful time he's had - it is a very nasty and violent sick bug that's going round. So far I'm still free of it, thank goodness - I don't think I've got the energy to go through all that my poor old boy went through on Saturday night!!

Happy WOYWW,
Shoshi #20

Ali H said...

Great cards! We have a place in Murcia but sadly only for holidays! So here in rainy Wales mostly! I did once visit a craft shop in Albox but not sure if it still exists! Amazon do some free deliveries if that'sworthopedic a look! Anyway have fun finishing your cards! Ali #58

Words and Pictures said...

Great looking cards... and I hope your concert goes brilliantly! Happy WOYWW!
Alison x
#4

Anonymous said...

Happy WOYWW. We will be staying in Mojarcar Playa - not sure how far that is from you. We will have a hire car, so could come and meet you somewhere. Hopefully the weather will be back to sunshine by the time we arrive. Our last 2 winter holidays in Spain have had one day of rain each time, and then warm sunshine for the rest of the time. Lovely cards. A Cameo machine is on my wish list. Just bought a foiling machine - I love having a new toy! Ali x #71

Carol said...

Hi Kate massive apologies for being such a bad blogger this year!!!!! Have had a lot going on but getting there. Thanks so much for your comments on my blog!!!!! You are busy at the moment. Have been looking through your lovely blog....... these cards are fab and the programmes you have made.........how patient you are . Hoping all the choir singing goes well. you have probably already performed the one you refer to. Have fun and enjoy your crafting, have left some other comments further down!!
Carol x