Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

Personalised stamp jig

On Thursday afternoon I went through all the cards I’d made recently, and stamped my “Handmade by…” stamp on the backs of them. I used the jig I made according to Jennifer McGuire’s instructions and it works an absolute treat! I made it about a week ago and hadn’t tried it. I had unmounted the stamp from its wooden block and glued it onto an offcut of laminated white cardstock – I used a matte laminating folder – from when I was making my grids for the stamping platform. The strip is the width of the stamping platform and exactly fits inside the lid. I swiped some Pritt glue stick across the back and picked it up in the normal way of picking up a stamp in the platform. I used my “Personalised Stamping” grids to line up the various cards, and stamped away. It was brilliant. Once I was done, I pulled the jig off the stamping platform lid and wiped away the glue residue with a wet cloth.

Doing them all together rather than doing each card individually, saved a lot of time. It was a simple matter to ink up the stamp with one colour and do all the cards with that colour scheme, then wipe it clean and move onto another colour, repeating the process till it was all done. With the jig, you are guaranteed to get the stamp straight, and centred on the back of every card.

I did intend stamping some sentiments inside the cards now that most of them have sentiments on the outside, but I decided against it because I thought doing them individually would make them more personal to the recipient when the time came. I still need to assemble the envelopes for the various cards from the unglued blanks I’ve already cut.

The wreath card I made with the floral stamp and die set has now gone off to its recipient – a lovely lady we got to know where we used to live, whose equally lovely husband died recently.

I shall definitely be repeating this design when I do some more CD recycling – shame to waste all that gorgeous purple ink that you have to clean off them!

Patchwork cards

I’ve been watching quite a few of Sam Calcott’s videos lately and I love how she uses her scraps. I’ve got so much stash, a lot of it given to me by people who thought I could use it, and quite a lot of it I really didn’t think I’d ever use. I have a selection of papers (quite thin) which were obviously part of some magazine, and they were never really my style at all and I couldn’t think of a way to use them, so they’ve just sat on the shelf gathering dust (and went through a house move 7 years ago!!) and it occurred to me that they might be just the thing for trying out Sam’s patchwork technique, especially as they are quite small print designs and have the look of fabric about them.

To use them for the technique, they would have to be backed onto some scrap cardstock, of which fortunately I have an abundant supply!

I cut up quite a bit of the paper into 2-inch squares, ready to glue onto the strips of white cardstock and be trimmed down.

A nice little job to do in front of the TV.

Backing the paper squares with card.

I stuck the paper squares down onto white cardstock scraps, mostly in strips, and then cut them apart and trimmed away the excess white cardstock up to the edge of the paper.

Distressing the edges.

This was the final step in preparing the “patchwork” pieces. I used my Tim Holtz distressing tool – not a tool I use very often and think I should perhaps use it more! Once the squares are stuck down in a patchwork pattern, these distressed edges complete the illusion of fabric.

I made a bit of a mess sticking the squares down onto the card mat. I forgot that Sam Calcott suggested raising them on foam squares, and when I re-watched her video I saw that she rearranged them somewhat, to avoid having tiny corners to deal with in the pattern. Arranging squares on a larger rectangle means that the pattern cannot be entirely symmetrical. I ended up shifting my squares continuously till I was more or less happy with the arrangement and ended up with too much glue showing between them.

Since this was a practice run, I decided to cut them all out again – no harm in having an extra layer of cardstock on the back of each one – and rearranging them again on a fresh piece. I also decided that I didn’t like the stark white between the squares, so I inked the background first with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, using one of my new blending brushes – super-smooth blends from these!

After cutting out all the squares and adding foam squares to the back of them, I lined up the first one really carefully so that it was straight, and centred, and stuck it down. From that I was able to line up all the others. Unfortunately I hadn’t been so careful with the first attempt so the squares overhung at one side, and didn’t meet the edge at the other side! You can see that the small ones filling in the gaps at the sides are not even either. I decided to press on and stick them all down anyway, and trim the thing evenly afterwards. Once this was done, it looked OK from the front. Here it is just laid on top of a 7 x 5 card base.

However, from the sides it looked a mess! It wa also quite thick, and the little tiny pieces weren’t that well stuck down once they’d been trimmed. I really think it was better without the foam squares, so I thought I would pull them all off and stick the patchwork squares down again, this time taking more care over the glue. I did try sticking pink ribbon around the edges with strong double-sided tape but that looked really messy too…

I was determined to get this right!! The effect is so pretty. I am going to leave a comment under Sam Calcott’s video, asking her what her edges are like.

Yesterday afternoon I had another session in the studio and really got to grips with this. I decided to abandon the failed piece for now as the layout was all wrong anyway. I began again. Here is the card mat at the planning stage, with new squaes laid out. I did adjust the colours so that I didn’t have identical ones side by side. I also centred the whole thing and dealt with the small trianges. Witihout the foam squares, they stuck down OK.

For this card, I chose pale pinks. I found the centre of the card and drew faint lines horizontally and vertically to line things up. I inked the card mat with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. The squares were glued down with tape runner with Pritt stick adhesive which allows a bit of wriggle time and you end up with a nice strong bond.

I inked the edges of the card base with Spun Sugar Distress Ink and after assembling the card, added one of my leaves cut with Sheba, my cutting machine, with a little Forest Moss Distress Ink to ginger it up a bit, and added some flowers and a sentiment (also inked round the edges to match the card) from my stash. The flower centre is embellished with some dark green Stickles glitter glue. Once this has dried it will be flat, and I propose adding some Glossy Accents over the top.

Making a second card took very little time. I chose darker squares – some pink, and some with orange in them. Some of them had text on them which I didn’t like, so I added some Dusty Concord Distress Ink and spattered them with water to add a bit of texture. I used one of my negative foil pieces from my recent foiling session for the sentiment, sticking it down with double-sided adhesive paper onto a scrap of red card and then die-cut it with the co-ordinating die, and made up a butterfly from my stash (not from my recent butterfly set), inking the wings to co-ordinate with the card, and adding some water splatters which I blotted off for texture. The final touch was to add some dark blue Stickles glitter glue to the body of the butterfly. I inked the edges of the card base with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink to co-ordinate with the butterfly and sentiment. This card has a darker, richer feel than the more pastel one above.

Both these cards measure 5 x 7 in. I used the personalised stamp rig to stamp the backs with co-ordinating inks. Such a neat tool – great fun to use.

I am very pleased to have managed to do this technique to my satisfaction at last, after such a frustrating start. I think it makes an attractive and unusual background. Now I know what I’m doing, I propose cutting some hexagons and other traditional patchwork shapes, to make some more quilty cards! Small strips could be turned into the log cabin design very easily. These cards would be lovely to give to someone who makes quilts. I really like these fragments of small patterned pastel shade card which I don’t think I would have used otherwise. I’ve still got a lot of the squares that I cut the other day so I shall use those for some additional cards.

I am also planning to use up some of my other patterned papers that I’ve had for absolutely years and never used – there are plenty of ideas for cutting these down and actually enjoying them rather than wondering why one ever kept them in the first place! – as well as lots of inspiration for using scraps and small pieces.

Looking through the shelves in my pull-out unit, I was surprised to find some stuff I’d forgotten I had. (Anyone else guilty of this…?) One of the shelf supports in this unit needs to be replaced. It broke as a result of my overloading the shelves with far too much paper in the early days!

Using up all this old stash would be all to the good because I need to make room for:

New stash on the way

I have ordered some of the new Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I fell in love with the latest one – Villainous Potion – at least, I fell in love with the colour, but definitely NOT with the name, which smacks far too much of the annual celebration of death and the occult which has no place in my life as a Christian. When it arrives, it is getting a new name: Royal Purple. I hate the way purple has been over-associated with that celebration and I think it’s time to claim it back for more pleasant associations. Anyway (rant over), I have long thought that purple was somewhat under-represented in the Distress palette, so I am thrilled that this new, really deep and rich shade has been added. I have also ordered Crackling Campfire, Prize Ribbon, Kitsch Flamingo and Salvaged Patina (with its embossing glaze) – like the Royal Purple, the orange and the blue colours are very intense, and these blend and wick beautifully with no loss of the true colour. I got a good multi-buy deal on Ebay. I have been watching a few videos and seen how well they perform, and other colours that go well with them. The Tim Holtz videos that introduce each new colour, and all the products in that colour, are very informative, and the “makes” at the end provide wonderful inspiration. I may get the Distress Oxides and possibly the sprays as well in due course, but for now, the Distress Ink pads will be enough to be going on with. I must say I am thrilled with Speckled Egg, which is the first of the new shades that I got a little while ago.

I also ordered a few other Tim Holtz bits and pieces, a Tonic Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen to add a bit of sparkle here and there on my projects, some white pigment ink, and a couple of packs of cardstock in dark navy and pale grey – both colours missing from my stash, that I have been wanting for a while. I have plenty of ideas for all of these.

I recently got this die set, after seeing someone using it on YouTube (I think it was Laurel Beard but I may be mistaken):

It has co-ordinating stamps to go with it but these are out of stock at the moment, so I’m waiting for an email to tell me when I can order them. They are absolutely beautiful together. Meantime, the dies are now safely stored in their own Avery Elle pouch in my dies basket. (I do love my new storage! I need to get on with the stamps…)

After my recent card-making binge, I am now keen to get back to some mixed media work. I haven’t done any of this for ages and watching the Tim Holtz videos has really fired me up again! I’d really like to start making books again too.

More Inkscape drawing

I have been practising more on Inkscape, tracing and adapting various script sentiments, just for fun and to hone my skills. First, the original:

and then my drawings.

I have joined up some of the parts in places, so that they will cut better if I do decide to use them, and improved one or two bits that I wasn’t so keen on. This is like a “spot the difference” puzzle!

With this one, I pulled the two words apart a bit, extending the top of the Y, and added a heart to the swirl.

It’s good practice doing these, and I am learning a lot about Inkscape each time I use it, and am now more confident with it.

My other Lily

I realise I haven’t updated you recently about the progress of my trainee Guide Dog Lily. Here’s her latest video, which shows how well she is doing. She has grown into a very handsome dog indeed, and she’s clearly a very good girl and her trainer is very fond of her.

Kitties

Not a great deal of activity from the girlies this week as the weather has been colder and they’ve spent a lot of time asleep, although they’ve had a couple of sessions playing in the garden. Here they are in double-decker mode on my hubby’s chair.

Here is Lily, fast asleep on my legs.

Health update

Yesterday I had my radiotherapy follow-up appointment with the community radiographer at the oncology department. I’ve done extremely well with minimal side effects. God is good! I told her that the skin under the breast has now cleared up 99 percent – it is still slightly red and feels a bit rough, but it is no longer painful and hardly itchy at all. I am continuing to moisturise it twice a day. The breast remains more tender than the other one but no doubt that will improve with time. My energy levels have not been appreciably different. I have also continued with my shoulder exercises but have reduced them to twice a day rather than three times. She is very pleased with my progress, and the good news is that I am now discharged from the Oncology Department! She will be writing to the Breast Unit referring me back there, and told me I’d probably have an appointment in about two or three months’ time to check on my progress, and then annual mammograms there, the first one being about twelve months after my surgery.

I shall also have another bone density scan in two years’ time and possibly another two years after that, at which time I shall have finished my five year course of exemestane, the oestrogen blocking medication.

I have gone back on this again after the community radiographer instructed me to stop it for a month to see if my jaw problem would subside. It has improved a lot but is still a bit painful intermittently, and it’s still quite clicky. It has not got worse again since going back on the medication so I think it was coincidental that I developed the problem not long after starting on it. I’ve been tanking up on soya at every meal and have had very few hot flushes which is a huge relief too! A tablespoon of cooked soya beans stirred into my breakfast oatmeal and main meal goes down unnoticed as it’s tasteless, and my half dozen chunks of tofu with every meal are an extra treat – the spicy recipe is so delicious! I make up a batch about twice a week and it keeps well in a box in the fridge. I’m also eating loads of soya yogurt and I make custard with soya milk, but I prefer almond milk in my tea and coffee. I no longer bother to make soya milk because my machine broke down and it’s a total faff to make without it, but I make the almond milk which only takes a few minutes in the Vitamix, and then squeezing it through the nut bag – the remaining pulp is made into delicious hummus.

So the news is all good.

My hubby

After his emergency stay in hospital a few weeks ago, he is having an endoscopy on Friday just to make sure all is well. He’s been much better since being in hospital and I think the fact that he is now drinking more is helping. Our diet is ideal for diverticular disease – he’s getting plenty of fibre. Strange to think of him attending colorectal outpatients which was my stamping ground for so long – he is also very familiar with it, accompanying me for my appointments.