Tree Lopping Again.

 A big welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy the journey.

Hi Angela here with a few new photographs to show you what we have been up to when not crafting.
 
We have had the men round again to chop down yet more trees.
I hate having to take them down but sometimes it has to be done.

And here they are.

 

This was the tree on Tuesday morning (last week).

Obviously the big one at the back not the baby at the front which is a very young plum tree.

 

You can just about see the man on the tree above (bit of his orange pants are visible.

 

Time for a little rest, that's men for you Lol!

It was about now that somebody suggested it would be good to build a tree house up there.

 

A few logs!

 

Now you see the stump!

 

Now you don't!

And I might say they made a good job of cleaning up afterwards.

 

 

Well that's it lots of space and light, ready to plant more fruit trees soon.

 

Bye for now,

Angela x

WOYWW 279# What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

A big welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy the journey.

Hi Workdesk friends.
Here we are with yet another Wednesday.
There's no rest for the wicked or so they say Lol!

Angela here to show you:
"What's on my workdesk this Wednesday".

If you don't know what this is all about then please visit the
Stamping Ground and our dear host Julia will explain and all will be revealed.

Anyway back to my desk Lol!

 

Last week I mentioned Spray M Boss, it is said to soften card but also bind the fibres so that you can emboss and cut even thin paper and card which might otherwise rip and embossing on card is deeper and die cutting easier.

At this stage I am not sure what is actually in it but it says non toxic. You can see the bottle on my desk, red top, right-hand side.

Card sprayed and drying out.

You can spray card with water but it needs to remain damp which might be a problem with electronic die machines, with Spray M Boss you let it dry and it still works to cut and emboss better, according to the instructions.

Many of my lovely WOYWW friends wanted to know about it so decided to test it, I don't want them disappointed Lol!

 

So here are the results. First I used Centura Pearl card.

• With Spray M Boss - Cut with two runs: The cut looks very clear. 

 

• Without Spray M Boss - Cut with two runs: Quite surprised as you can see there is quite a difference.

 

 

I also embossed the dies. The one on the left had been sprayed and the one on the right had not.

I am not sure how clear this is but there was a slight difference in the depth of the embossing.

I ran both of them through the machine twice.

Something that I did notice was that the card seemed to release from the die easier. I would normally use wax paper with these intricate dies but for this test I did not.

 

Finally decided to try a really thin paper with a Tim Holtz embossing folder.

 

This is typical with thin papers, if you look at the bottom you can see that the paper is badly torn.

 

 

 Whereas, if you look at the one below this has not happened.

 

 

I still need to do more tests but will post any interesting findings.

 

 

 

Hope you will pop over to see what the other deskers have been up to.

 

Happy Crafting,

Angela x

Masterboard Card Ideas.

  A big welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy the journey.

More samples from the Masterboard posted last Monday.
Just a quick post as I must get back to making Masterboards and hopefully more Christmas cards, I am on a role now Lol!

Hope you like it.

 

I have worked out that I need to make at least five cards per week to be anywhere near to getting enough made for Christmas, we shall see Lol!

 

Happy crafting,

Angela x

The Body Beautiful for The Mirror Crack'd Challenge Blog.

  A big welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy the journey.

Hi Blogging friends  here to show you my project for The Mirror Crack'd Challenge Blog this month.

And this is how it started:

 

 

 

If you are interested, I purchased this from Hobbycraft and had no idea at all when I got it, what I would do with it but just knew it would be interesting to alter.

As this month's theme for the Mirror Crack'd is The Body Beautiful it seemed like a good time to use it.

 

Although the body is beautiful in it's own right, it is even better when embellished and as hands are meant to hold things I looked for something that might be appropriate and decided on the dragonfly by Tim Holtz.

If you have ever been lucky enough for a dragonfly to land on your hand you will know how beautiful they are and I hope mine are too.

 

 

I started by die cutting the dragonfly in craft and holographic card and then acetate.

 

 

I used Distress embossing powder to decorate the body of the dragonfly as seen below.

 

 

Next I rubbed over the die cut insects with black ink and die cut the cogs which would build up the texture on the arm.

 

 

The cogs were attached randomly to the arm and hand.

 

 

 

 

I continued with this until complete and then covered it with builders foil strip. You may remember seeing me use this before when I made Mini BP the Steampunk robot.

It is sticky on the back, comes in different widths and is very cheap to buy.

Here is my lovely tool box full of metal working equipment by Walnut Hallow.

 

 

Once the whole thing is covered and the metal smoothed into place, I covered the whole thing with black acrylic paint and then rubbed over to remove the excess.

 

To seal this, I painted on Mod Podge and left it to dry.

You can see the texture stands out really well.

 

I attached the dragonflies with metal screw brads,

 

 

 

 

and completed the piece by adding a number of the brads around the arm and hand.

I am not usually a big lover of holographic card but this just works for me Lol!

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time to pop over to look at what my fellow Team Members have made this month and maybe join in the challenge.

 

I am entering this in the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey. "Heavy Metal"

Country View challenges. "Sparkle and Shine"

Left Of Centre.      Challenge # 48

 

Hope you enjoyed looking.

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by,

 

Angela x

The Mirror Crack'd Challenge Blog.

Hi Blogging Friends, Angela here to tell you about:
The Mirror Crack'd Challenge Blog.

What a fantastic response we have had for the first challenge, you all obviously love mixed media and it will soon be time for challenge 2.
I cannot wait to show you what I have been making!

Oh go on then, just a little peek Lol!

 

Sorry, that's all you get.

The new challenge starts 5th October, see you there!

 

Happy Crafting,

 Angela x

WOYWW 278 # What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

A big welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy the journey.

Hi Workdesk friends.
It's come around again, Wednesday I mean.

Angela here to show you:
"What's on my workdesk this Wednesday".

If you don't know what this is all about then please visit the

Stamping Ground and our dear host Julia will explain and all will be revealed.

Anyway back to my desk Lol!

 

I could say...........

 

What a mess!

However I have been busy so I'm excused Lol!

As you can see, Masterboards, ready to be made into Christmas cards, samples of which are to be seen below in Monday's posting.

Apart from that it's the usual collection of Stuff!

drawers full of goodies, lots of lovely dies, stamps of course, tins of felt tip pens, sticky tape of various types, stickles glue, blending tool, inks, it's all there.

 

 

You may have noticed at the back left corner there is a bottle with a red top.

I have had this for some time and not really used it until now. It is called Spray M Boss and is by a company called Once Upon a Stamp.

When used on thick card which may be difficult to emboss or cut, it softens it slightly and makes the embossing much deeper and the cutting easier.

I believe it can be used for other things too but need to look into

 this further.

 

And that's it for today, couldn't be quicker.

 

If there is anything you need to know, please ask.

Hope you will pop over to my fellow deskers to see what they have been up to.

 

Happy crafting,

Angela x