WOYWW? 177 oops....I mean 178..

 What's On Your Workdesk?  Well thanks for asking...I have to tell you that I'm constantly surprised that you still do.  Here it is....taken in the good daylight of Tuesday afternoon and exactly as it still looks...I was called to greater service.  Had to go do a grand prix around the supermarket.  I know, it's all glamour.

Ooh look, I'm Mrs GotTech  - the iPad and the out-of-date-but-still-OK-for-me iPhone. One was in use entertaining me with a series on how Spain was born and the other was entertaining me with various messages.  The squirty bottle is filled with bubblegum scented stamp cleaner.  Really it is.  I found it during a clear out and I reckon it's over ten years old.  Hasn't improved the smell any, but it still works!  You can see a lovely wood mount stamp by Artemio - a Reindeer,as I live and breathe. As yet unused. A bag full of Kaiser tags in Kraft...strewn a bit so I could see how many of which shape per bag.  And there, plonked in the middle is a very valuable and much used notebook.  More to the point, I've finally used the WOYWW Crop kit contents.  And made a much overdue embellishment to the front cover of the notebook - now I can tell which way up it opens! 

Of all the homework I've seen with this little challenge kit, I've been surprised that no-one else has cut off the black keyline which I drew for the house shape...but I don't know why I'm surprised.  Nothing should surprise me about the way clever people interpret my stuff!

Now that's enough from me.  Time to play - please join us.  Show a photo on your blog of your desk/works surface.  Link here but please be sure to put WOYWW in your post title.  Visit as many as you can..because it's fun.  If visiting as many as you can turns into a chore, then stop trying to visit so many!  Everyone understands, it can be very time consuming!  Oh and to answer a lot of enquiries...there is no contest to be No 1 on the list per se....and I try to make this a scheduled post for about 1.30AM London time..gives our non Blighty dwellers a fair crack at posting in daylight.  However...sometime that will change so that the Blighty dwellers don't have to stay up all night....turn and turn about!

It's that time already..

Here's a card that's been caught in a photo of my desk earlier this month.  That was when I was working ahead and thinking how great I was.  Pride comes before the fall, and of course, I'm not great and indeed, I'm a little behind.  Christmas Cards.  Do 'em for private use, or don't do 'em. Whichever way I go, the decision has to be made this week.  After all, they need posting or delivering in about 4 weeks, otherwise it's not worth the effort.  Is it?  This Thursday I conduct the first of quite a few Christmas card workshops - which is why this card is already made.  And I'm showing you because it ain't exactly a lesson in technique so I figure no-one will be cheated by seeing it earlier!  It's the Tim Holtz Christmas foliage die and a Tim Holtz Heart die too....cut from grunge paper and inked and sprayed with glittery shiny stuff.  See, I can use the TH stuff, it just doesn't involve much grungy art in my hands.  I used iddy bits of ribbon for holly berries just to keep on with the dimension thing.  That's the thing about my workshops see.  I don't really bother about your difficulty or cost in posting them..that's kinda not my problem.  Obviously, if you don't want dimension, you will choose a one layer card workshop, or stick everything flat and that will be the gorgeous free will in action.  Meantime, silicone glue and foam pads are my glues of choice.  You may want to track the number of sprayed sparkly and shiny elements I use this month....the spray smells wonderful!

Every hobby has its nerds...

For a change, I know I'm right.  For sure.  Nerds aren't confined to a particular genre of hobby.  I am cheerful about my standing as a paper craft nerd.  I don't understand but acknowledge Mr Dunnit's entrancement with golf.  And archery.  And, as she's grown up, so I delight in Miss Dunnit's almost lifelong hobby too.  Although to be completely frank, there have been moments of sewing machine hell that have not been delightful!  But there we are, I blog for validation, sharing, involvement and my daughter does the CosPlay.  That's Costume Role Play to you.  Have you ever seen The Big Bang Theory with the four nerd chums who spend time in Comic shops and have dressing up in their wardrobes?  Well that's Miss Dunnit.  Except she's not a Professor.  Or American. So this weekend, at London's ComicCon (Convention...see how they like to link words?), Miss Dunnit is playing the role of Jon Snow and her friend is going as Bran Stark from the tv series Game of Thrones.  So that's why the costmes have involved mock swede and pvc styled into leather...a vaguely medieval look for a programme that seems to me to radiate nothing but grunge and cold. (Oh, and if you have young people about....there's also a lot of nakedness and erm...you know what, quite gratuitously if you ask me.  But I'm 48 and tired, so what do I know.)

 So this cloak was a yellow velvet curtain and the leather chest strap was a belt.( A benefit of volunteering for a charity shop is the first rummage in the donations!).  The fur shoulder throw was a gilet from Primark...actually on, the cloak looks very good and the fur looks very much like it was thrown over for added warmth. 

And here's what you saw in pieces on Wednesday.  A doublet.  There's also trousers and padded thigh guards and Mr Dunnit has made a fabulous sword...a picture of the 'works' has to wait until it's all been revealed to the ComicCon world!  So a round of applause to Miss Dunnit for inventiveness and staying power.  She didn't just make her own outfit.  No sir, she made the one her chum will be wearing too.  Apparently, her chum is too busy at University.  I know there's sarcasm there, and that makes my daughter a better person than me, for sure.  Which is what the world needs, so that's OK.
So, while Miss Dunnit sweats her way round London's Excel, I'm planning a day of normalness for today and a day at my desk for tomorrow.  I'm quite excited as it will be the first time for a week.  Crop weekend is creeping up...I need to get back into nerd mode and start preparing!
Have a lovely weekend.  And if you live in the northern hemisphere - stay warm and put your clocks back tonight!

Foiling and Leafing and writing too much.

Here's another card with foiling...a cuttlebug folder embossed on Kraft card and then the raised detail 'coloured' with hologrpahic foil.

I promised to talk a bit about the foiling/leafing that I've used on cards recently posted.  Try not to yawn - click away if it's all old hat to you!

The autumnal ferns at left are gilded with Leaf. It also comes described as Gilding Flakes.  It comes in boxes or packets of sheets in gold, silver or copper, for example.  Once burnished, all the biddy bits and crumbs it creates can be saved for extensive re-use.  It has a soft glow to it and is probably the messiest medium I use in terms of static and cling.  I always decant the leaf into a large zip lock bag and try to work inside the bag when the glue is dry.  If you try it, you'll see why. Don't be put off by this...the tidy up effort is teeny compared to the reward!
So sorry about the naff photos of the foil...the light in this hemisphere is pants this morning.  

The foil that I use is on rolls (but you can get it in sheet form).  Here (as in, in England) it's described as 'Hot Foil' and you can use it with one of those heated wands to do freehand application to all sorts of surfaces. Comes in any number of colours and choices - holographic or plain, etc. It's basically a sheet of plastic that has a removable metallic coating on the underside.  When your glue is ready, place the foil, face up over the glue and burnish.  Lift away. Any colour left on the carrier sheet is good for re-use.  The carrier sheet, when fully used, will be transparent.  Quite a cost effective medium I tell ya.  

You can use most any wet glue...indeed the small kit that I first bought contained 6 1" wide reels of foil and a tube of glue that Mr Dunnit reliably informs me is  good strong PVA. Either spread it thin or be patient.  The key with all the gluing is patience...it really needs to be dry but sticky.  Which is why I use the Zig pen...it's obvious when dry enough and fast-drying enough to keep my attention!  If it isnt dry, the foil will actually just lift the glue off the card. Remember, if you use a heat gun to dry the glue, you might end up wrecking any lovely heat embossing that you've previously done on the card. Usually, the foiling/leafing, is like the glitter glue..pretty much the last thing I do to a card.  In the case below, the moon is foiled,  the glue was drying while I stamped and cut out the tree trunks to overlay the original image.  

Coincidentally this was the card that caused agonies in a workshop between the 'eyeballers' (me) and those who prefer precision (most everyone else).  Normally, I would pre-cut card stock and mounts to size to save the workshopeers the trouble and boredom.  But imagine if I'd pre-cut the gloss card upon which the image is stamped.  How many of the precision lovers do you think would have been un-shakey enough to fit the image on as precisely as necessary?  Far easier, I thought, to give out bigger pieces of stock and have the workshoppers cut to size.  See, you make one thing easier and it makes another thing harder.  But that's possibly a statement that should apply elsewhere.  
Here endeth the foiling lecture.  Go get coffee, the rest of your day depends on you being awake.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 177

Oh my word, I've migrated into the conservatory.  And oh my word, I'm being the super- mother-of-the-year.  Miss Dunnit has been slaving (and I mean slaving) over a costume for MCM Expo this weekend.  She has been on a steep learning curve too, because I have been steadfast in my resolve to not interfere and take over.  Because I have been stupidly busy and she hasn't.  But now she has a job and time is against her.  And last night it all went a bit wrong and there was the frustration meltdown and I so utterly know how crushing that is.  So on Tuesday afternoon I unpicked and re-jigged one thing and finished another.  I forgot how much easier it is when you know how.  I also tidied the table and swept the floor before I started...it would seem that Miss Dunnit's method of messy working doesn't suit me.  Which is an enormous double standard, wouldn't you say!   

So, there's the iPad, I was listening to an afternoon Drama on Radio 4.  There's faux leather sleeves and under the needle is faux swede.  Yes, Miss Dunnit is going to MCM as a character from Game of Thrones.  It's all the rage, you know.  Which of course, is why I know very little about it!  

I'm fairly sure she's not a reader, but I wanna wish my sister Sally a really Happy Birthday today.  Younger than me or not, she's a cracker!

Lastly - had a lot of feedback about the last two cards I've posted; and a lot of questions - I'll answer them tomorrow, it's all simple.

Come on then, share the desk.  Show us all what you're up to this foggy October day.  Upload a pic to your blog, put WOYWW in the post title, and link here.  Eventually, we'll visit.  It has to be said that turning off word verification helps enormously.  And If your post isn't really related to What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, you probably won't get any comments.    

More of the same...but different

If you were one of 40 people at Japonica's day long workshop yesterday, you will recognise this as the card I bullied you into making.  If you weren't there, it's a variation of the card I put on my last post.  In as much as it uses the same stamps.  The rest, actually is quite different in terms of ingredients.  Which goes to show that there's lots of very similar products out there and you need to take a workshop or two - they help when you're trying to find which product suits you best.  Because you don't have to buy it to try it.  But you already got that.  Now, I will stop promoting workshops and go get on with something.  Erm, probably workshop preparations!

For Elsie and Virginia - a card...

 Artemio Hedgerow stamps. Background is a colour wash of Cosmic Shimmer Mists painted on in broad brush strokes.  Stamp two ferns in Eden Green Stazon, stamp and emboss the central image with black ink, clear powder.  Emboss the whole piece with the Cuttlebug or similar folder.  Use a Zig glue pen to highlight some of the embossed surfaces.  Let it dry.  Foil the glued areas.  Mount. Mount again. And Again! stick to card.  For me..a ten minute card.  For a person that needs precision, possibly half an hour.  

I conducted a workshop on Thursday and this was one of the cards.  It's a variant that will crop up at a workshop on Monday actually, but without this and that and adding that and this.  Anyway, I made a mistake in the preparation of the workshop and so two gals didn't finish all the cards and so I promised to post it here for reference.  Interesting isn't it...the fault lay in my slapdash attitude and 'that'll do' approach.  One of the other cards also required 3 layers of matting.  My method is this:  stick the image onto the first mat and eyeball the trimming.  And then repeat repeat repeat....I only briefly check each layer will still fit on the card face by holding it against the card briefly and that's how it works. For me. But of course, we don't all roll in this casual and alarming manner, and I did not allow for measuring and rulers and pencils and those sort of timings when I put the workshop together.  See, it's a real quandry to me. I recognise that anyone who comes to a workshop and pays good money for it wants to receive a couple of tips they may not have heard before, maybe try a few products that they wouldn't dream of buying without the chance of trying...and ultimately, come away with something finished and nice.  Mostly, my 2 hour workshops offer four cards.  Logistically, it works well.  But I do panic that if people don't finish, they may well feel cheated.  Although of course, there are those who come to the workshop and cheerfully don't do one or other of the cards because they don't like them - of course I have no problem with that - this is a very subjective thing, isn't it.  There is a dynamic to be maintained at a workshop...the supplies need to be moved around so that no-one wastes time waiting, but you can't force people to hurry really, that's making them be slapdash and out of character if they work slowly, so then it's not a nice experience.  Is there an answer?  I don't know.  In all the years I've been doing them, people have either been too polite to complain or it's not nearly as much of an issue as I think.  It would be interesting to know what you think, if you are a workshop goer.
Enjoy the weekend!