WOYWW 143

Well I am just scraping in on the right side of midnight to pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and show what is (or isn't!) on my work desk tonight, and have a quick look at what a few of my fellow crafters are getting busy with. Now I am involved with a group on Wednesday afternoons as well as mornings, it is even harder for me to get any craft done, but I was determined to do something this evening, so, for a change, my desk isn't quite empty. I have spent more time just lately messing around with photos and cutting files, than actually making anything, but I have been trying to get a few birthday cards done. I have resolved to use up some very old stash so this week I raided my decoupage folder and selected half a dozen sheets. I spent a couple of evening cutting out. I find this very therapeutic as long as I am in the right mood and have a decent light, and last week I replaced my broken up-lighter, so I can once again see what I am doing in here. On another night I assembled the cut toppers, and then I set about mounting them, using as much as possible, pre-folded cards and envelopes, bought possible ten years ago!, and large and small off-cuts of paper. Tonight I have been doing some finishing touches. The green dish contains letters cut with my silhouette to glue to the long yellow card, and the pink tray is left over pieces from the decoupage which will go in the inserts, and some hand made flowers that may end up on some of the cards. Also in the picture is this months project from my parchment craft class. I am supposed to be doing some serious practice in this - hence the box of tools by the card, but unless I cut out sleeping altogether, there simply isn't enough time. Now I shall visit as many of you as I can, but it won't be too many of you tonight.

WOYWW 141

I nearly didn't post today as once again I have an almost empty desk, but I wanted to thank all you friendly and helpful folk who commented on my invitations last week. With just a couple of exceptions, you all felt that my choice of a glue pen to attach the swirls was a good one and you were right. The paper I cut them from was a heavy pearlescent one right through, not paper backed as it sometimes is. This is almost fibre free so it cuts beautifully with my cameo. I was also gluing them to a textured pearlescent card so I wasn't sure how well this would work, but the glue pen stuck them beautifully. The stamp I was making for the word 'Invitation' was also successful. Here is a finished card. For the inside I cut one swirl in blue paper, scanned it into the computer and used photoshop to make a frame with the script inside. He wanted thirty of them and I found I only needed a couple of evenings to get them all done. (I have blurred the personal data). Tomorrow we are driving up to Benidorm to deliver them to my son and his partner, as they are on holiday there this week. It will be a long day (three hours drive each way), but I am looking forward to seeing them again.

As well as my usual Wednesday morning sewing group I have now committed myself to being out most Wednesday afternoons. My little church has started home/life groups and mine meets for a fellowship lunch followed by a Bible study, every Wednesday. They are a lovely bunch of people - here we are just as our meal is finished, and before we move on to the next bit, but it means I am even less likely to have anything very creative on my workspace. However, I rarely go to bed to before 1 or 2 in the morning, so I will have to start taking a very early photo before I clear Tuesdays mess away!



But just to prove I have made something this week besides my son's invites, here on my desk is a card I have made for my sister's birthday. I had to take a quick photo this morning so I could get it in the post when I went out. I wanted to use a new cuttlebug emboss and cut folder, and I am very pleased with it. I glued the embossed frame to a pink square card, added a decoupaged flower in the centre, and some very pretty gems in the spaces around it. I used a Marianne lace punch at the bottom and some sticky ribbons to hide the joins, and the flowers at the top are from a spray I bought at a pound shop years ago. The butterfly was cut with my cameo, using a file bought from the silhouette online store.

Well I have just about enough time to link this to Julia's blog and visit some of your desks, but it will have to be an unusually early night for me tonight if we are going to hit the road at first light tomorrow.

WOYWW 140

Hi friends. I'm afraid I missed this last week but I'm here again today, and I think I should have called this post "Cutting Corners". My youngest son and his partner are holding a Civil Partnership Ceremony in May which just the close family are going to, but I am making them some invitations for the evening celebration. I sent them several designs to chose from, and in the end they agreed on a fairly simple one. You can see the prototype leaning on the pink tray. However this involved cutting sixty curly flourish corners on my silhouette cameo machine, which was not too difficult though it did take quite a while. But they seem to have a life of their own, and they are now a tangle in the tray, and it is going to take me an age to sort them out as I need each pair for gluing on to the cards that I have cut and folded ready for them. I didn't have enough sheets of double sided adhesive paper to back these before I cut them, and that would have made the sticking of them easier, nor can I easily buy an adhesive spray here, so for the sake of speed I am going to use my trusty glue pen. That should be fun!

The light coming in from the left is my table lamp that I am using to cure an imagepac stamp I have made for the word 'Invitation'. If I was more confident with the 'print and cut' feature of my machine I could have used this, but it is not something I normally do, so for me it was easier to cut a page of labels and use a stamp for the script. (The stamp is now cured and I have tested it out. It's fine so now I am ready to assemble them all). The inside is printed so that won't take me too long to do. Our son and his partner are on holiday in Benidorm next week which is about a three hour drive from where we live, and I am hoping we can deliver the invitations to them there, so they can get them sent out as soon as they get home.

Of course this is a good excuse for a brief visit to UK in May. We can only stay for a week as it will be the first time our dogs have been in kennels, and we are not sure how they will be, so we don't want to leave them for too long. But it will be lovely to see all our sons (we have five!), and their families, and hopefully have a quick cuddle with our great grandson too.

Right, a quick hop to Julia's blog to see what you are all getting up to, then I had better get cracking. Now, where is that glue pen?......