WOYWW 129, a 10 minute card and 10 cards in an hour

First of all let me say to all you WOYWW'ers out there - thanks for having a go at guessing the number of butterflies Victoria Stampers had made.  How I wish we had reached the dizzy heights some of you predicted but the number was actually 335 and Elizabeth was only one number out so if she contacts me via my email button on the right I will get a little something off to her in the post before it gets too frantic with the Christmas mail.

Don't know about you but I have had it with making "C" cards.  I am suffering terribly with back ache so think I might be calling it a day for the time being.  I am longing to do some altering of things that are, and have been for ages, sitting in my craft room and I long, oh how I long, to get my polymer clay out and make something.

This is my desk in its Christmas splendour

My paper cutter and the images I began colouring whilst holidaying in Cyprus - do you remember?  Some Christmas brads and some small images at the back and just peeking on the right are the Spellbinders Poinsettias.  Love that die.

Shoshi, see, I have my doilies out ready.  Just a box with my Christmas papers in which is going to be depleted as I am giving some of them out.

My "dumping bag" - I have been dumping loads of stuff in here - think it is a "will look at it later" bag.

Another box, this has the more three dimensional stuff in that I might use in my cards - and knowing me - might not!

In about ten days we will be having our "C" party at Vicky Stampers and I am going to show them how to make ten cards in an hour.  That is without embellishing which can or cannot be done later.  This was a class I did with my lovely friend Mary G ("Hi Mary") when in America at one time.  I wrote and asked her if she minded my showing the girls and she said "no, it was fine".  Am not saying what else I have up my sleeve but I hope they all think the day has been "fun" when they finally have to go home.

Nothing else to tell you or show you except a couple of "C" cards I have made - now comes the bit I don't like - getting the envelopes out and writing them.  Perhaps I will wait until I have visited the desks of a few WOYWW'ers so it is off to Julia's now to see who has been hanging out with The Elves.  Wonder what Julia has been up to herself?

This is my 10 minute card done for a challenge on Katy's Corner

... and I bet this one took me 10 minutes to thread the darned ribbon through so definitely not an entry.

What a Week!

The shower in our en suite had given up and gone to shower heaven - think someone (not me) had broken something on it.  As I am a bath person it did not bother me too much and we do have a shower by the guest bedroom so Chas tended to use that when we didn't have anyone staying.

Anyway, last September we decided to have it repaired by installing a new fitting.  Easy Peasy?  NO!  Fittings have changed - not the same sizes, tiles have changed - not the same sizes.  Well, we have waited since then for the plumber to arrive to do the work.  Finally heard he was coming on Monday.

Monday morning up at 6.30 (tradesmen have a habit of being with you for 8 am don't they?), bathe, move the remaining bits from the bathroom, sit and wait.  At somewhere turned 10 (I had given up by then) he arrived and informed us he had "only come to look at the job".  I was not best pleased!  He couldn't come the following day so I explained we were out Wednesday and would not be in until 10 am Thursday.  "I'll come Wednesday".  "Excuse me - what part of 'we are not in Wednesday' did you not understand?"   Finally it was fixed for 10 am Thursday.

Thursday we were at the appointment in Bolton for 8.30 (having once again emptied the bathroom etc) and we dashed back, how I would have loved to shop a while, to be home in time - actually home for 9.45 am.  Ten o'clock, no plumber, noon - still no plumber.  By this time I was feeling a tad irate and rang the contractor who had employed this plumber (we'd been having other work done in September) who came up imediately from his other job only to tell us he had rung and rung the plumber but got no reply - he wasn't picking up.

To cut a long story short we got a message, or rather Chas did, on his mobile, from the plumber to say he had been called out to an emergency that morning and could not get a signal to let us know. Err ... could you not have rung as you left home?  I took over the phone and eventually he sent the reply that he would be with us the next day in the morning.  I then asked "whose morning, yours or mine" and he said between 9.30 and 12.  Obviously he was as sick of me as I was of him.  At least that meant it was not a 6.30 am get up for us.

Just after 10 a young guy came (where was the original plumber?) and took the old shower off, informed me he would have to knock the tile out (this was not his fault at all) we would have to get a tiler and he, the plumber, would then come back to fit the shower - so I gave him the go ahead, what else could I do.  Too late to send the shower back - we'd gone well over the 45 day returns policy  Visions of travelling all over town to find something to fit the gap where the tile had been - remember they no longer make this size.  Doesn't end there!  A short while afterwards he came in - oh, he had had to turn the water off outside the property at the Water Boards stop tap - with a little thing in his hand - the stop tap (WB's) had sheared off.  We would have to inform the Water Board, they'd "just come and put another on - no charge".

Chas rang them - 6 hours they said - we had to go for some tiles!  Might as well go now we thought.  Got to the shop and realised how impossible a task we had.  I said to plumb (excuse the pun) for a mosaic one.  £89 later we came out with eight tiles, adhesive and grout.  Then the Water Board rang - or rather an Inspector did.  Not a happy one either.  We dashed home and he was sat in his van by the side of the property - I tried to appeal to his good nature (think I cracked a bit of his veneer, but only a bit) and he said the work would be done, they should charge, but he had no idea when they could do it.

So waterless we carried on but luckily our good neighbours gave us a key to their garage where they had a tap so several trips with pans and buckets we managed into the early evening.  I had really given up when through the darkness I saw a yellow vest walking up the drive - yes, at gone 8 pm someone had come to save the day.  We now have water, a great big hole outside the property waiting to be filled in by another crew and  must wait to see if we are being charged and if so how much.  Still no shower, £89 out of the account that we hadn't budgeted for and another bill for the tiler.  Anyone want to come over for a shower in the future?

(Oh, and the contractors little pup piddled on my shoe and it has left a stain - let it all come)

So I forgot, in all the excitement, to upload a card I had made for Lorraine (Happy Birthday Thursday love) which was different for me - a bit of Parchment Craft and (shudder, shock horror) a Peel off.

Lots of "ball tooling", some pearl colours and a lot of pricking and cutting for the border.  Should imagine it was not at all what she was expecting from me.

ps the person who came closest with the number of butterflies was ...


Elizabeth (or was it her lovely cat Bleubeard) with the guess of 336 which was just one over the actual number of 335.  How I wish we had been able to send as many as some of you estimated.  Think it would have taken a long long time for us to get over a thousand.
Thanks for taking part - and hope some of you send a butterfly off.

Favourite Technique

Oh heck - so many things I like and one or two are favourites for different reasons.  I love the grid technique or retiform as it is sometimes known but it takes so long to do properly and I love the look of Caught in Crystal but wasn't in the mood for that, besides which I am going easy on my Johnsons Klear as I don't have that much left now and it is no longer available.

Thought about using the embossing paste like Lorraine showed us at a recent Victoria Stampers - oh heck - Zoe beat me to it.  Use my Distress Inks more than anything else I own but Von had already used them as her favourite and even though I was referring to them with a different technique to that of Von I decided that JFF needed something totally different for this week.

So what did I settle for - Serendipity.  (Check Von's tutorial on this) One of my favourite Christmas Cards of all time was one sent to me by Debbie Shelton (I know of at least one person who might read this who will remember it too) where she used Serendipity to make some tags.  I have made this card over and over but never have managed to get mine to look quite as good as Debbies.  She is the Queen of Serendipity.

Anyway, enough chatter and about time I showed you the card.  As I said the tags are Serendiptity, the rest is just gold stamping and that is about it - I must get on - I want to make some more and once again strive to make mine as nice as the one I have saved that Debbie sent to me.

I am so looking forward to the different techniques that you will all use and show us on Just for Fun, well, at least I hope you do show us lots.  Also hope you are ahead of me in the making of the "C" cards!

WOYWW 128 and Holocaust Butterflies

I know I have done several posts on here about the butterflies we made at Victoria Stampers but I am so chuffed that we made a contribution to the appeal.  They are finally winging their way to Houston, Texas today.  Although I did not take photographs of them on my desk but on the dining room table I am including them in this post and hope some of you will click on the button on the right hand side of my page and send some off yourself.

How many do you think we sent?  Here they all are on the table:

and in the box ready to go

(I put a matchbox at the side to give you an idea of the size)

The group came up with lots of ideas - from folding to embossing

... from acetate to ...

Parchment ... to mirror card

and from there to using leaves and flowers.

We varied in size from large to small ...

... and we sent a total of X butterflies.  Can you guess how many?  Only Victoria Stampers Club Members know (although it has changed a bit as I did a few more) so please don't spoil the fun, sorry you are excluded,  - the person nearest to the correct amount by noon on Saturday will receive a small prize.  Nothing wonderful but a prize nevertheless.

Now after all of that this is my desk as it stands today for all you WOYWW'ers out there - yes, I have tidied up and started my "C" cards.

and found this box of goodies this morning

Ho Ho Ho Crimbo is Coming!

Dash over to The Stamping Ground to see what others have on their desks and what Boss WOYWW'er, Julie has to offer for us this Wednesday.

A Bit of Clay

When I was on the last Polymer Play Workshop Alison asked us to make "inchies" but these were to be made from polymer clay.  On the Saturday evening we had a buffet and we swapped our inchies with one another.

Now these beautiful inchies have stayed in a bag in my extension craft room since the event (really it is the utility but I have purloined a cupboard and had a free standing one built in to cope with my "overspill") but last night I decided they were too nice to be hidden away and it was time I did something with them.

Looking through my collection of "frames" (yes, I have quite a collection, you know how it is, you see one, decide you will do something with it, take it home - and it stays in a pile with the others you had forgotten about) I found three small photo frames from the Swedish company that we all tend to visit now and then.  Perfect - or at least they almost were when I put my inchies on them.  A few gaps didn't look quite right so I took my Walnut Ink Stain and covered the wood and left it to dry overnight.

This morning I stuck my inchies on and here are my picture frames.

I cannot remember who made all the various inchies, do know that Alex from Spain made the Steampunk one top left and his wife, Noella made the one in the opposite corner.  His mother, Marta, made the fourth along from his and Irene, my friend, did the "face" one next to it.  Val did the Celtic knot at the bottom and the one above it and the one below Noella's were made by Sue.  Now how did I get two from Sue - Lauren, her daughter insisted Chas had one although he had none to swap himself - lucky me!  The one with the circle on was made by Christine Dumont one of the tutors.  After that I am stuck!

Yes, in places on the photos they look a bit wonky but I can assure you they are stuck on straight.  Some are not quite 1" x 1" but you have to remember that some of the participants come from other countries and are not used to the "inch" as a measurement.  We were not given any thickness to roll them out to so the depth does vary and this might add to the wonkiness you see.  I can assure you though, they do not look wonky when you see them stood up in real life.  Anyway, it shows they are hand and not machine made.

OK so there are only two frames, didn't have enough for the three frames but that gives me scope to make one myself as I do other things in Polymer clay.  Now to find some suitable photographs and somewhere to display them.  Perhaps you could do something like this - even if you don't use clay you could do them with techniques in rubber stamping.

Do You Have a Favourite Colour?

After my months choice of "Favourites" I really thought it would be easy but now I realise it is not.  My favourite colour changes with my mood.  What is my favourite colour to wear is is nothing like my favourite colour to craft with.   Oh dear, I am so sorry if I have given you all a dilemma.

Thanks to all those of you who entered last week but can I just say that some of you did not say which was your favourite stamp which makes life difficult if you have used more than one.  It does help us if you give us little hints - please ... pretty please.

Anyway, for my Christmas Cards I do like "blue" so here is my effort this week.

I say "effort" because I was feeling quite rotten with a head cold and sore throat when I had to make it to allow Zoe time to add it to the challenge site.  Zoe would be the first to tell me not to bother but I feel I should make the effort to do something so here it is.

I coloured some white cardstock with a couple of blue Distress Inks and then stamped this Aspects of Design stamp over it.  Took some core card in another shade of blue and put it through the CB with an embossing folder.  Sanded it to bring out the design and attached the stamped card with brads.  As you can see there were two other layers - all different blues.

Hopefully this cold will not be with me too long and I can spend more time preparing next week's challenge - now I wonder what "favourite" it can be?  Hope to see lots of you with entries - thanks in advance.  Remember, if you use more than once colour do say which is your favourite and try to make it the dominant one please.

BTW as a point of interest tomorrow at eleven seconds after eleven minutes after eleven o'clock the time and date will be all the elevens.

WOYWW 127?

Before we go anywhere - Amanda - ScrapnBee - I tried three times to comment on your blog last week - kept saying my email addie was invalid - so sorry.

Thanks to all of you who put numbers behind your comments last week, it made life so much easier to find you.  Still got a bit of a cold in my head and throat.  In fact it was the AGM on Saturday at Vicky Stampers and I ended up losing my voice Saturday evening.    (Bet some folks are saying "pity it wasn't Friday night she lost it"). Busy day with the AGM in the morning and my Make & Take workshop in the afternoon.  Thanks Annette, all but one made the mannekin you showed me how to do.

I had given spindles out to a couple of the members and both Ann and Alison brought in what they had done with them.  Have just checked their blogs and Ann has put her interpretation of the challenge (just to alter it - never expected anything like this - wonderful) on her blog.  Click here to see what she did.  I hope Alison hurries and posts hers.

Early evening saw my son, Andy and his partner, Sam, arrive for the Annual Firework Evening.  Sam has gone on a diet so we did not have the usual Ribekuchen which she usually loves but she brought a couple of chillis and that helped clear my nose.

Anyway to the task in hand, as you can see, my desk is still under the deluge of stuff I brought back - waiting to be put away but I haven't felt like it.  Would have loved to have gone and crafted but just too hot and bothered to do it.

This is the area I craft in (normally)

Just to the left you can see some "C" stamps - yes, I had to make a quick card for Just for Fun on Sunday - before I emptied my bag on the table.  The book has just gone on now, it is one Carmel has loaned me to see if there are any constructions inside it I would like to try for future workshops.  Isn't that sweet of her - but then she is a sweetie.

Here is the pizza box that contains 317 butterflies - our contribution to the Holocaust Appeal (see my side button).  I took them with me just in case there were any last minute ones to be added.  Victoria Stampers contribution!

This is my lethal cutting knife.  Actually it is brilliant and folds up.  I use it all the time for cutting cardstock.  There's a little book there that I threw in as a last minute "maybe" just in case we ran out of things to do - no chance!

Well, that is it for now.  I have still no voice so all is peaceful here at this end and tomorrow we are off for a test drive although I might not go if I don't feel up to it.  Can't get excited about cars these days.  Prefer a good book and my craft room when it is tidy enough to craft.