WOYWW 128

I know we all say it, but goodness, where has the last week gone? thank you, Julia, for organising us once again for our weekly Nosey Session to see what’s on our desks midweek – if anyone doesn’t know what this is all about, click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar and hop over to Julia’s for a look.

In between some pretty rough days health wise this week, I’ve been pretty busy, but managed to have a few sessions in my ARTHaven, continuing to work on the set of birthday cards I’m making for my mum for Christmas. I’ve decided to make a whole lot, to fill up my card stash so I can relax next year and concentrate on doing the sort of art I “want” to do, and less of what I “have” to do!

On my main work table this week, here are the Cuttlebug-embossed Core’dinations sheets I’ve done over the past couple of days for further cards, distressed round the edges and some matted ready for making up. I have used a range called “Whitewash” on the left and “Gemstones” on the right. The latter do not sand particularly well so I didn’t bother – the core is so similar in colour to the surface, which just has an iridescent sheen on it. The Whitewash ones, however, work beautifully, and I particularly like the script embossing done this way.

At the back of the table are some more that I did on black Core’dinations card which has an orange core. After embossing them (the 2 on the left are Cuttlebug “Ornamental Iron” and the one on the right is a Tim Holtz Texture Fades folder with a wood grain effect) I sanded them, and then added some embossing powders, the one on the right with a little clear embossing powder around the edges, and the other two with some bronze and gold mixed, around the edges, and then some black Distress Embossing Powder, to give them a grungey blackened effect. I thought I might make these up into more “man” type cards but not sure what I’m going to do with them yet.

On the left, at the back, you can just see the corner of my new art doll faces mould that I bought on Ebay this week. Jo of Jozart (thanks Jo!) inspired me with her gorgeous angels last week and I asked her about the faces, so I had a look on Ebay. No chance to try them out yet.

On my brown table you can see the additional cards I’ve made since last week, including (far left, 3rd from left) ones embellished with bits of cut up doily after I’d used the doily as a stencil – I thought it looked really pretty with ink on it, so decided to use some of the doily motifs, adding dots of Stickles in various colours to give a bit of bling. The one on the far left has the doily stencil piece I showed you last week, as a background. The pink card (2nd from left) is another one using the doily as a stencil – after inking, I went round the edges with a white marker pen to add definition and make it look more like lace – this has a slight shiny texture which has turned out nicely. The turquoise one has stamped images with clear heat embossing as a resist, and inking over them with Distress Inks, using my Inkylicious Ink Dusters. I love this technique! I may do some more of these.

On the far left of the table you can see the pile of cards I showed you last week, and between them and the new ones, tucked behind, if you look carefully, you will see the lid of my favourite teapot which I dropped in the sink the other day and… broke! Grrrr. I am hoping to be able to mend it.

In front of the cards is a piece I’ve made by gluing my offcuts to a piece of plain white card – bits I’d trimmed off the sheets so they’d fit in the Cuttlebug folders. They looked too pretty to throw away. I’ll think of something to do with them!

This week I’ve also been preparing for my Bible teaching session on Thursday – I am supposed to be doing a demonstration of the Passover for them, but today my throat feels odd, and I very much fear I may be coming down with a cold (or worse still, a throat infection – I am prone to these, accompanied by a temperature and flu-symptoms when colds are going round) – my hubby has started a cold so the outlook doesn’t look good. If it does develop, it will be in full swing by tomorrow. (I’m typing this at 12.30 a.m. Wednesday, so about 36 hours to go…) I am Really Fed Up about this. The group are so lovely and they have reassured me from the outset that if I’m not well enough any time, there’s no pressure, and they’ll just do something else, but I hate letting people down, especially in this case, when various different people have been doing things to help prepare for the session.

Sorry I didn’t manage to get round many desks this week – it’s hard to fit it all in. I’ve had a few really rough days and needed to rest, and I’m also trying to archive a whole lot of magazine articles which takes a lot of time, and continuing to work on the word book pages for my friend (only 4 more to go!). Thank you, those who visited me and left comments – always much appreciated! Happy WOYWW everyone!