WOYWW - 96 - What a mess!!

Rather late in posting this week, due to life getting in the way.  However, better late than never..... maybe.  These photos do not truthfully reflect the true state of my desk, and in fact, most of the room, for that matter.  Yes, you can see a little bit of desk, but that is only because I am very good at the "shove it harder" technique.  Even my big magnifier lamp is in use for draping cards along. 

As you may be able to see, I have been having more of a go at brayering, and working with Clarity stamps.  I have decided that I need to invest in new ink pads and also some detail embossing powder.  My Versamark pads are drying out, and my only gold embossing powder is what I would call "gobby", too thick to give a really good image.  Also, more practice is needed to really get the right result.

The one card hanging on the light is using Barbara Gray's ideas and some of her techniques, but with some adjustment.  Obviously, Barbara has not produced a new stamp especially for someone called Don.  That is something I printed from the computer onto the silk card.  Then I used the Versamark pen to go over the design before adding the gold embossing powder and heating from underneath to give the glassy finish.  (I have had so much trouble trying to post these last two photos as  Blogger is not playing nicely at the moment, so I tried changin browsers to see if that helped) Then I printed the design again and cut the centre out of the "O" so I could mask off the rest. I used Vintage Photo to stamp the foliage, and the three flowers, before masking the flowers so I could brayer the whole centre with Adirondack Cloudy Blue, and Juniper. I also brayered the border area with the same colours and used the foliage again in the border, then used a gold pen to outline the main design and to edge the whole thing before mounting it on pearlescent card. Although it is not yet perfect, the idea seems to work so it could be used for anyone who has an "A", "D" or "O" in their name.

The card on the desk is more conventional, using the proper stamp, and another of Clarity's stamps, the mini rose, which I coloured with promarkers. I need a lot more practice in using the promarkers to really get the right results that everyone else seems to get. I forgot to brayer the centre of the "O"before I removed the masking, so I grabbed the nearest thing, which was a tumble dryer sheet, and inked a corner, removed most of the ink before swirling it where I wanted it. I did the same with a different corner and the other colour, and it seemed to work quite well.

I could show you other pictures round my room, such as the two printers totally buried under piles of stuff, but I will spare you that, and let you get off to visit more friends from WOYWW.  You will find them at Julia's desk at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/    Have fun and see you again next week.