A What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?
Sweeping Thanks on Inkscape
Last week I showed you the new hot foil plate I got – Spellbinders Sweeping Thanks.
This is a nice big sentiment that will fit on a variety of card sizes, even the smallest if you place it diagonally. I checked to see if there was a co-ordinating cutting die to go with it, but unfortunately there is not. I wanted to be able to use this sentiment in a variety of ways, and not just for foiling direct onto a project. I therefore brought a photo of it into Inkscape and made sure it was exactly the same size as the original, and created an svg file from it. I drew several shadow layers around it too.
I shall now be able to print this, and also cut it on Sheba, my cutting machine. If I want I can also cut a shadow layer the size of my choice to foil onto. Much more versatile.
New butterflies stamp and die set
This is another unbranded stamp and die set that I acquired recently – see below for giveaway details. I had a problem getting the intricate dies to cut initially, but eventually I cut the butterflies individually rather than as a group, after I separated the dies. The card I was using was a scrap that was rather dense and smooth, which may have been something to do with it. The outline dies cut with no problem. I used Jennifer McGuire’s technique for lining up the stamp with the die cut piece in the stamping platform and it worked a treat – you put the negative space piece in the stamping platform and insert the die cuts into the spaces. You can see to line up the stamps so that they are central, and stamp as usual. It works especially well with the sticky mat. You can leave the negative space piece and the stamps in place in the stamping platform and add fresh die cut pieces till you’ve stamped as many as you want, and in different colours if you wish. Super-efficient! Thank you Jennifer! The negative space pieces have now gone in the pouch with the stamps and dies, so I can use them again in the future.
I was having problems getting any decent complete stamped images with my Tim Holtz stamping platform. I have had to stamp multiple times and press really hard to get full coverage. I did discover that pressing the ink pad quite hard against the stamp and twisting it slightly, rather than tapping it on, produced more ink. I’ve never been very good at stamping, and haven’t had much practice with it so perhaps it was my technique that was at fault. Any hints from all you expert stampers would be much appreciated! I have ordered some fun foam and am going to make a mat to go in the stamping platform, onto which I shall place the cardstock for stamping. I have one small piece of fun foam and I tried with that, and it did work better. I thought I had a packet of pieces of fun foam somewhere but I can’t find it, so I’ve ordered some from Amazon – white A4 sheets which will be more useful than what I thought I had anyway – smaller pieces of multicoloured foam. When it arrives, I expect my other fun foam will turn up! I use the small piece I’ve got mostly for hand-embossing flowers with a ball stylus. When it gets too squashed and warped, I warm it gently with my heat tool and it comes back into shape.
I stamped my first batch of butterflies with Distress Archival Ink in Black Soot. I thought they came out too dark – there’s quite a lot of solid area on these butterflies. I therefore stamped the remaining sets with Distress Archival Ink in Hickory Smoke and they came out very nice. This ink is waterproof and suitable for colouring over with my Tombow dual brush markers.
I have been sitting colouring them in the sitting room while we are watching TV. I also used my Staedtler fine-liner pens for detail.
Once they were done, I thought the white die-cut border looked a bit stark, so I went over it with my lightest grey Tombow marker and they now look much better. I made some cards with them (see below) and the remaining ones went into a baggie for later use, stored in the pouch with the stamps and dies. I do like this creating in bulk malarkey! I shall make lots more, in different colours and cut from different kinds of card. They can be coloured in all sorts of ways too – ink, watercolour, markers, heat embossing, Perfect Pearls… They would be fun stamped and die cut from acetate, too, for a transparent look. I think this set is going to be very useful.
On Sunday evening I stamped some butterfly backgrounds with the two smallest butterflies, onto some of my ready-cut 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch card mats.
I lightly coloured them, so that they wouldn’t overwhelm the design of the cards I would eventually make, and chose some of the larger die cut and coloured butterflies to embellish them with. I haven’t done anything like this before – stamping and colouring is new to me, and I’m really pleased with how they turned out. Adding a shadow with some more of the lightest grey Tombow marker to the edges of the stamped butterflies gives them some dimension.
Time to make up the cards. I designed and cut additional mat layers on my cutting machine, which extended beyond the stamped ones, which I did trim down a little, and whose apertures were smaller so they would provide a nice little frame, and I cut some pieces of scrap acetate for some of the apertures in the mats, and coloured them with alcohol inks. The inked side was stuck down so that the top surface was smooth, and gave a bit of shine. I also used a little of my holographic card as an aperture backer, and as always, it didn’t photograph well but produced loads of vibrant colour rather than showing the more subtle silver that it is in real life. I die cut several of the larger butterflies in white cardstock and layered them for a dimensional effect. I chose some sentiments – strips and foiled sentiments – from my stash, and I inked the edges of the plain white ones with co-ordinating inks to go with the colour scheme of the card.
The first batch, with blue and purple colour schemes.
The one on the left has a sentiment strip printed on the computer on glossy photo paper, and the alcohol inks were in shades of blue and green. The purple one has purple and pearl mixative alcohol inks, and a sentiment strip printed on plain white card, inked around the edge, as with the sentiment on the final card on the right. I felt that the die-cut butterfly was a bit lost on such a busy multicoloured background so I created a band from two scraps of cardstock. The butterfly itself was inked with two shades of Distress Ink and backed with a plain die cut in holographic card for a bit of sparkle. It is layered wth several die cuts in whie cardstock. I must say my new blending brushes do a lovely job on intricate die cuts – no catching on the edges, and smooth as silk!
The second batch, which are mostly brown.
The one on the left has a gold foiled sentiment, and the alcohol inks are brown with gold mixative. The centre card has an aperture backer in the holographic card (very misleading colours!), and the final card has another foiled sentiment, but is somewhat plainer, with no underlying mat or aperture, and the background butterflies were coloured with individual colours.
Here are the photos of the individual cards.
All six cards together.
I found another “Thinking of You” sentiment on the floor the other day, that I had dropped and couldn’t find at the time. That always makes me smile!
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
Psalm 8:3-4
Duplicate Amazon order – and a giveaway
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had a problem at the checkout with my Amazon order, and it ended up being duplicated. Everything has arrived now – I got several of the things fairly quickly and was able to return them all together, and got a refund with no problem. The other things took a bit longer to arrive as they came from overseas, so I waited till they’d all arrived and decided to deal with them all together. This time I wasn’t able to pack them up in a single return package, and they didn’t offer the home collection option, so my hubby took them to the collection depot the following day. They had to go in two separate packages and it was rather complicated printing out the various labels and making sure which ones went in the packages and which ones got stuck on the outside! There were extra ones for the customs.
When I came to deal with the return of the duplicate butterfly stamp and die set, they said they would give me a refund straight away and there was no need to return the product, so I now have two sets, which obviously I don’t need. If anyone would like the duplicate, please let me know in the comments (first come, first served) and details of how to contact you and I’ll send it to you. I think you can see from my examples what a useful set this is. I don’t want anything for it because it didn’t cost me anything! Click here to see the Amazon details.
Although it’s a pain trying to contact Amazon with a problem that doesn’t fit any of their multiple choice options, at least they are really good about returns and refunds. It’s been a hassle dealing with this but it’s done now, and I am not out of pocket at all.
Food
Back in August 2019 I featured Cauliflower Cashew Lunch Bowls as recipe of the week. I make this quite regularly as it’s delicious. I made it last week, and packed some of it for my hubby to take when he went out, and this was mine for my lunch at home.
This time I added some chopped beetroot, and a spoonful of my cooked soya beans to try and reduce my symptoms of reduced oestrogen levels! I try and add soya beans to everything these days! Also, you can see one of our neighbour’s delicious orange tomatoes sliced around the edge, and I also added a bit of one of her cucumbers. Nowadays, I substitute the honey in the dressing with maple syrup. The sweetness with the ginger is lovely, and the recipe is definitely enhanced by the addition of the nuts.
Kitties
This is how much Lily loves my hubby. She loves rolling around in his dirty socks when he drops them on the floor!
Ruby all wrapped up in the blanket.
Ruby asking so prettily to be let in after playing in the garden.
All tucked up for the night.
Those butterflies are absolutely beautiful and work incredibly well as a background and detail. I think they looked better int he softer grey and browns too, less harsh than black. I would like to be considered for the stamp giveaway but not the die (as I don’t have a machine). If they are a single package then count me out – thank you!
Hugs LLJ 4 xxx
Lovely butterflies and cards, The butterflies really pop out, Shoshi. Your cats are very cute! Bella and Gracie send meows!
Hugs
Lynnecrafts 13
Fabulous butterfly cards. Love the picture of the kitties asking to come in. I had problems with my stamping platform till I learnt there were two ways of using it. One for clear stamps and one for thicker rubber stamps. The cover comes off and flips over. Angela #10
Your butterfly project is wonderful – it’s so fascinating to see it from start to finish and lovely results too. xx Jo
It’s generous of you, but I’m not a big butterfly user, many people are so am sue you won’t have this set for long! There’s a very MCM vibe going on with the shape of the mats you’ve crated for the word, it’ll just take some brown and orange colourings and look very groovy!
The butterflies are lovely and would love to be considered for the give away. Love the cards you have made with the butterflies
Take care and stay safe,
You now me, I am a sucker for any photographs of the kitties. I love the video, it made me titter watching Lily playing so happily with the socks. But .. Ruby stole the show for me with her pleas to coe in our of the cold. So darned cute.
Love your cards. My favourite is the last of the single ones, the circle aperture with the brown butterfly. it is gorgeous and I think your colouring is fabulous. on all of them. You obviously have an eye for colour, as is evident in your knitting and clothing and it certainly comes out here with these butterflies. I would be happy to take them off your hands if nobody else wants them. I have some dies but they simply refuse to cut.
Hugs, Neet xx
Sorry for all the typos above. I have my hand wrapped up (arthritis in my thumb and general area around it) so need to proof read in future. sorry.
Hugs, Neet 6 xx
I have quite a few butterfly stamps and dies Shoshi so I will stay out of the hat for the give away thenks anyway. Love your cards and using the negative space for lining up the stamps is a good ides. I always stamp first and die cut afterwards I must admit. The latest recipe looks yummy. My mum has a lovely recipe which involves broccoli and cauliflower with nuts and seeds. I can’t remember the dressing she puts with it but it is so moreish! Meow to the two cuties! STay safe and happy WOYWW. Sarah #3
Those cards are simply stunning – I love the way you have stamped and cut out those butterflies, and the way they have been coloured. They make wonderful cards. I would love the butterfly set (stamps and dies) if someone else hasn’t spoken up first! Loving the photos of the kitties, give them a hug for me. Happy WOYWW. Take care and stay safe. With love & God Bless, Caro xxx (#14)
the butterflies are beautiful but I have enough dies so thank you I love the cards you’ve made!
I have hardly used my stamping platform, but have you made sure you have are using it the right way round (there’s one side for rubber stamps and one for thinner polymer ones.) Have a good week Helen #1
Loving your butterfly cards they are beautiful designs. Those stamps and dies were a great buy. Your kitties are always smile worthy they are so sweet. Wishing you a lovely and creative woyww. Hugs, Angela x12x
So much pretty to see 🙂 I actually have the TH platform in the closet as I found it more difficult to use than a Misti. ( the hinge on a Misti works more smoothly to me) as far as stamping goes sometimes its the ink it self not how you try to apply it but, any platform the goal is to be able to re ink and re-stamp without moving the paper so that you can get a good image. ( some of the things I have stamped on watercolor (lumpy) papers were inked and stamped a half a dozen times. one other thing I have seen recently people using platforms is finding something to apply pressure on the lid with that will disburse the pressure more. ( so some people are using say the eraser to a dry erase board, or things that look like an old stamp block with felt on the bottom and a handle to hold onto. This is handy with really large or complicated stamps. I tend to ramble when I am thinking out loud as I type so, I hope that made some sense. ~Stacy #21
Lovely set – I recognize the Stampin’ Up surround, so probably a Chinese version of the same. I have a few of them myself and most of them cut and stamp OK but yeah the tiny negative spaces are a pain! Love the cards and another interesting recipe 🙂
Happy WOYWW, all jabbed!
Mary Anne (2)
Thanks for visiting, Mary Anne. Interesting that the set may be a knock-off of a Stampin’ Up set! I’m glad you like the cards I made.
Shoshi #9
Beautiful butterflies! A super set of cards!
Could just eat that cashew/cauli dish!
Happy WOYWW!
Susan #5
Hi Shoshi! Fantastic work with the butterflies! Well done! Lily is so cute all wrapped up in your hubby’s socks, now that’s true love! And Ruby looks so cute wrapped up in her little blanket. Nice to see some photos of the kitties, I have to get my camera out for my kitties as well. Have a great week, give Lily and Ruby stritches for me! Lindart #23
Sorry I’m so late, I thought I’d been! then couldn’t get into Stamping ground again. Your pussy cats look so cute and cosy all wrapped in that lovely blanket. The little cat that visits us everyday,puts her paws on the window in just the same way and then gets all excited when she sees me and starts pawing very fast and meowing. She lets me stroke her now with not too many hisses and spits! Mr Jinx keeps his eye on her and won’t have any nonsence! Happy Very Late WOYWW! Stay safe ((Lyn)) #16
Hi Shoshi, wow so many butterflies! You have some beautiful cards there, great colours too. I am wondering if the problems you are having with the stamp platform have more to do with the unbranded stamps rather than the platform itself? The quality can be very varied and they might be uneven. Try testing it out with a branded stamp and see if you still have the same problem. Or try using the other side if you are using the rubber/clear side?
Kitties are looking adorable as usual, especially the “let us in” photo lol. So sorry, RL got in the way, and I am terribly late. Happy belated WOYWW! Elle #11, EOTC