WOYWW 12th Anniversary ATCs mostly ready to go!

Last day in my infusions yesterday and today I have a thumping headache and don’t feel up to much. I did organize my ATCs for sending, although I do need two more addresses.

In the interest of using-stuff-up I made envelopes form a paper pad I have had hanging about for AGES.

Some of the patterns have significance, but mostly they were the options from what is frankly a not-very-nice selection. The paper I picked were the best ones. Keep that in mind if you receive one of these LOL!

Down to the last handful of 100 Days pages now – day 92.

REALLY trying my best to use up bits and pieces. And Less worried about using a colour more than once in a week. If it gets rid of some scraps, it works for me.

After the celebration….

Still hard to believe it is now beginning Year 13 of WOYWW. I managed to visit every blog yesterday and comment on all the ones that allow Open Id (ie where I don’t have to sign in to Google to comment) so pretty happy about that. I will still be up at Salisbury today for another day of IVIG but I thought I would share a bit of my ATC stuff in a scheduled post.

I believe my calculations are correct and I have all 11 of my 12 ATCs committed and ready to go – one to keep, one for my swap partner and 10 for trades. There are a few people I wish I had been able to swap with but I made 12 so I’m out of luck if anyone else contacts me. I have made little folders from pages of an old Vamp Stamp News (December 1999!) and I’ve used washi tape in Julia’s blog colours, like on the ATC backs I designed.

The local PO used to have post cards but not now, so I printed a smaller version, with an image of the famous painting by Constable of Gillingham Bridge.

Not as inspired as some of my past WOYWW ATCs but I like them a lot anyway – there is much significance as they are all made from stuff on my desk leftover from recent projects. Perfect for WOYWW, I think.

Day 91 of the 100 Days project. I can see the end now, just over the horizon.

If all goes well I will be home tomorrow, but probably not doing much but resting up. Normal services will resume on Monday, I’m sure.

WOYWW 624 – Happy 12th Anniversary!

Happy 12th Anniversary WOYWW!! I simply cannot believe this weekly desk-hopping adventure has been going on for 12 years! And yet, here we are. And here is my desk:

One of the things I did in my massive tidy was to re-locate the hanging displays that house most of the WOYWW ATCs so they hang above my desk:

Some are in an ATC binder I made but many of them are here in my eyeline. Lovely sign when I am working at my desk.

As mentioned many times I am up at the hospital this week for my IVIG. I will ensure I visit every desk but it may not be today. I will also add just my 100 Days page for day 90, which is all about WOYWW:

Pop back to yesterday’s post to see the 6-day recap. I really wanted to add only this page on this day so I have shuffled things about slightly so I could do that.

I have 11 ATCs to trade (one to keep) and have confirmed trades with SIX people. I have two that I mentioned I would trade with them, but not confirmed yet and may not manage it before tomorrow. If you want to trade, email me at ma (at) id.com. If one of my trades ALSO ends up being my “official” partner, as decided by the list position, well, then I may have an extra! It always seems like it will be super chaotic, but it always works out in the end.

Happy WOYWW to all my desk-hopping friends! I would love to see the 25th anniversary one day…

Another little ATC folder

I wanted to add another quick little ATC folder before the big WOYWW swap coming up, and as I sent the other one out with my other swap, I needed a new one anyway. This little folder is one I have seen all ovr the place over many years, although I have tweaked it a little to suit me.

Easier than the other, because it begins with an A4 (or US letter) sized paper. The final dimensions are going to be slightly different but either one should fit a standard size ATC card.

Fold the paper in half lengthwise like so:

Then in half widthwise, which you can see as the crease above. Crease well. Now you will fold in the two sides, not to meet the crease, but about a 1/2 inch away

Unfold the whole thing and with the valley fold in the middle, fold in the two lower corners to meet the crease then flip over and fold in the other two corners

But fold these a little bit away from the crease – maybe 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch.

Re-fold everything to get back to the original folds and decorate the folded-back edges with washi tape. You can add a thin line of glue to the edge and stick down the pocket. Better if your ATC isn’t bulky – and you might want double check this won’t interfere with the folder closing!

You can see how you could fit up to four ATCs, but you can make an adjustment and get two more, more visible pockets – they are here in this version, they just aren’t super-obvious. While the front two pockets hold the ATC securely, Sealing the bottom edge of the inner pocket is generally a good idea.

I used some scraps and decorated the front in a collage style, which I quite like – and I am still loving those floral diecuts! Using up some Basic Grey letters too.

The adjustment to better expose two more pockets is super simple – although I have made it more decorative by adding a punched edge. Punch (or don’t) the long edge.

Whether you punch or not, fold the edge up but don’t meet the top edge, as you did for the first one, leave 1/2 inch (or up to 3/4 inch) like so:

The rest of it is pretty much the same, although you also have the option to fold the front pocket punched edge forward, so you see the pretty punching

For this version the packets are on the front of the folder….

…but if you flip after the first fold so the punched edge faces you, you get a very different look – but fewer pockets. And in this version, sealing the bottom edge is a must.

It all looks a little sloppy, because I did just unfold and flip – if you make the decision to begin with it will look a lot better, I promise.

Hopefully one of those will appeal to my WOYWW mates.

Oh and…TAH DA! I love this one, and it is an amazing achievement, for me. I can’t believe I have stuck with it for 75 days.

WOYWW 621- ATC backs for the swap

Happy WOYWW to all my desk-hopping buddies! I am now fully vaccinated, and quite happy to be so, but my desk sat unloved and untidied for far too long because I had a thumping headache, a sore arm, and was SO tired. I really started to feel more myself by last night and did a good clear-up.

Still there is a before and after. The before is the debris from the weekend and a project that is now done. More on that possibly tomorrow.

And the after is from yesterday – I kinda ignored the whole chaotic mess on Monday, and did nothing but my 100 Days project.

Much of the debris from the project is in my collage fodder basket, and I will possibly use some of it to make my ATC for the swap. I went back and found the ATC backs I designed for the 6th Anniversary swap, and thought I should do a set for the 12th. It needed more than just changing the words cause Julia’s blog header has changed. For the 6th Anniversary I matched the colours to the blog, and wanted to do the same this time! I used my quite ancient, but still working, PSE and the colour-picker to get them just right

and designed three different option on on sheet. Hopefully you will find them useful. The image is just a .jpg – this PDF will print better and clearer. Do download it if you want.

Here is my 100 Days re-cap – I think the vaccine fog in my head has meant my design choices aren’t as good as usual. A couple of questionable pages here!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And today’s, which I do actually like, although for maybe the first time I just stamped the letters, rather than stamping them then punching them out. As a result they are a little wonky and less clear then they should be. I might re-stamp them and overlay the punched letters.

So have a lovely day getting your arty fix from all the deskers! I know I’ll be hopping like mad today.

ATC Holder Folder – updated

Quite a while ago (2015 to be precise) I made a little folder to hold ATCs for swaps. The original was a well-known origami fold (although I’ve totally lost the memory of what that was LOL!) and, remembering it I went back to fold one to use to house my ATCs for my swap partner. As the ATCs were a bit lumpy and bumpy, and because I wanted to add in a few goodies as well, I knew I needed to make a bigger one. Sitting in my room, staring at all the scrapbooking papers going unused, I decided to use some of that to make the folder.

Interesting problem – this thing is folded, multiple thicknesses, and 90% of the double-sided scrapbooking paper I have is more like carstock, some thicker, some thinner, but definitely NOT paper weight. I found some Dovecraft paper that was about as thin as copier paper and used that. It worked pretty well – heavier weight card is likely to be too thick!

I needed the folder to fit an ATC, but still fit in an envelope for mailing – I think this satisfies all requirements!

Start with a 12 x 12 piece of double-sided paper.

Because of all the folds you can’t make a true directional paper work in all areas – stripes work fine, large bold prints like this work fine. Images like people or trees or anything that would look weird sideways or upside down is probably not the best choice! Alos, be sure to burnish all the folds really well for easy folding!

Mountain fold the piece in the middle of the longest side, then fold the two sides in to create an accordion fold:

Score a line at 1 inch and at 11 inches, and fold towards the mountain fold

Fold all four corners in so they meet the valley lines, like so:

Fold the sides in – you can see the difference in the options, beginning with the floral pattern UP or DOWN

The striped flaps = stripes on the pockets, floral flaps = floral on the pockets.

Score a line at 1 inch on either of the short ends, like so:

Fold it over towards the non-flap side. Burnish well. Now just fold up the other end, tuck the corners under the newly created small triangles, and burnish the bottom edge (about where my fingers hold it) flat with the bone folder

Once done you will have SIX pockets that will fit an ATC

• 

• 

• 

I added my extra goodies to two of the pockets – and you can see my first one was made from single sided paper, hence the white insides!

• 

• 

And my other condition was met as well – this size easily fits into an A6 envelope for mailing, opened out:

• 

• 

Overall I think this works a lot better than the 8×10 version for housing ATCs. Now I just want to design my ATC backs for the WOYWW swap – I’ve done them most years where I have participated so I might as well, even if I am the only one who uses them LOL! As tomorrow is WOYWW day, that seems the best day to add them for people to grab if they want them.

Day 68:

This one seems a little disjointed, although I really like the colours.

An ATC swap!

I am in a FB group (yeah, I know – still hate the place but what can ya do? It’s a private group so no cross-pollination to friends, friends of friends, strangers…) and another member there and I arranged an ATC swap. It has been AGES since I’ve done one, and with the WOYWW 12th anniversary ATC swap coming up it seemed a good idea to make a few, for practice. I used a piece where I had been playing with the gloss-spray-over-stencilled-gel medium technique I showed a few times (made at the same time I made the piece here, that grew into a page in my journal) and am quite annoyed – I was so sure Ihad grabbed a shot of the piece that I didn’t snap one before I built the ATCs and it became a very much hidden background! Grrr.

Here they are:

I really like them – the black die cuts were a cheapie Amazon purchase and I love them so much, the birdies and the circles were cut from the sheet that was under my stamped house when I gloss-sprayed it, and the tiny text is from a Tim Holtz Clippings book. I designed the backs (the text) so when printed I could stamp another Dina Wakley stamp over it.

In the end I removed the lines and just left it as a blank space for writing everywhere other than the Card __ of__ and the Date line.

I also did another version, harder to stamp correctly, that uses a smaller stamp and ends up as two blocks – def. requires a stamp positioner of some sort to get it right! The fit is tight …

• 

• 

• 

And it is possible to get it lined up pretty well, but I never did get it perfectly placed, even with the positioner.

So that got me thinking about another old project, the ATC holder folder. I had an idea fir making that … better, so I will sort out some photos and share that tomorrow. It is another thing that could be helpful for the WOYWW anniversary swap.

So it’s day 67. Why are the days between 50 and 75 dragging more slowly? It makes me even more convinced that a 50 day project is a far better for for me than another 100 days one is, but I WILL finish this one.

This one has a bit of a story – ok, not much of one, but for the first time I got a bit of muck from my inky fingers (stamping the letters for the word from the previous day) onto this page! So the placement was all about hiding that smudge

My new book is still quite flat, as I vary the bulk placement between the four corners and the middle. I think the difference between book One and book Two will be interesting to see at the end!

My ATCs done!

Boy, am I out of practice!  But I managed to finish my ATCs so I am happy.  And I not only used and old tool that I thought was only fit for the bin (the Creative Palette) but I used something I bought and had not used yet.  It is a little stamp set from Tiger that cost me all of £3 and is so useful.  Doubly so since I bought two, recognizing that it would be useful to have multiples of letters and more than one upper case set.

You can see it comes with both a circle and a flat piece.  What I love is that the flat piece can be arranged either in a long strip of in two or more lines.  I may even get a third set to extend the amount of typesetting I can do.  To be fair, the font is dead simple, not anything to add any real style, and since I stamped the text then cut it out, printing the text would have worked as well.  But had I decided to stamp directly onto the background I could have.

You can see a couple of the ATCs – here is the whole set:

You can see I added a few little resin dots here and there.  I actually really like them! And it got me doing SOMETHING creative so for that it is all good.

Now off to help clear the dining room and hubby’s office – having one hardwood floor sanded and oiled, and a new wood floor added to make hubby’s home office warmer in winter.  The cold air actually BLOWING up from below the floor made working in there a challenge.  Also, dearest son will be visiting from tomorrow, as he breezes thru Europe on his way back to LA.  So I may be otherwise occupied and back to not crafting for a few more days.  Oh well, it was fun and I’m sure I’ll get back to it soon….

fingers crossed…

Finally, a use for the Creative Palette!

It has been far too long since I felt up to any crafting but knitting.  I am finally feeling a bit better and trying to flex my creative wings once again.

I am taking a free class from Carolyn Dube called Permission to Play (link in the sidebar) because I used to take part in her Gelli Print Party and I like her enthusiasm and her style.

I am not quite ready to jump in fully as I am very much out of practice, but a post in her group  showed some fab ATCs.  I remember that whenever I felt like I needed a little jumpstart, making ATCs usually worked a treat.  Little bite-sized pieces of creativity, very manageable, and using nothing too precious.

I collected up some stuff – I wanted to make use of the prompt (Using Cardboard or Trash) so I started by covering some cardboard with bits of the Sparks of Art-spiration Carolyn includes as an endless resource – mess it up? print another! I also dragged out a sheet of Teesha Moore stamps that I had not yet even cut from the sheet. And cut them.

I think I may have mentioned about 100 times how much I loathe mounting stamps.  I was not sure I had that sticky backed mounting stuff so I wasn’t sure how best to deal with them.  I considered using sticky backed fun foam, which I have done before and which works pretty well, but what had been in my head was the crappy Creative Palette pseudo-Gelli plate that I reviewed in the past.  Carolyn also has a video on using the Gelli plate to pick up the overflow from acrylic pours and when dry, use them as skins to add to your art.  I saw that a day or so ago and thought that THAT might be a good use for the CP.  It has languished in a drawer for YEARS and I hate to waste money so I’ve held on to it, SURE I would find a use for it SOMEDAY.) It was something I was already thinking about. A solution presented itself.

One problem with the CP is that is is really sticky, for Gelli plate-style pulling.

I had previously cut the CP into shapes with my Big Shot, thinking this was going to give me mini-gelli-plate style tools. It didn’t. But I pulled it out and stuck one of the bits to a stamp mount

and I pressed the unmounted stamp into the plate.

The first time I tried it the stamp fell off – it doesn’t grab the rubber supper firmly with just finger pressure, but if you are ready to stamp and you tamp the ink onto the stamp with a bit of pressure, it will hold.

And it’s a pretty sharp image, right?

So this makes me very happy!  It means I can pretty closely trim the rubber around the stamp without stressing that I have undercut the image, I can cut close enough that I can see where the image will be placed, and I don’t need to buy sheet after sheet of mounting foam!  RESULT!

Now, word of warning.  If you try this, I would shake the mount and make sure the stamp is firmly attached before inking.  It is a temporary hold, strong right after you have pressed the stamp into it and strongest after you have really pushed it down with the inkpad.  It will eventually loosen and you might have the stamp fall off onto your project if you dally.  Washing the CP (like you do with cling stamps) to refresh the sticky will help.  I guess it depends on your tolerance for error, and need for perfection.  For me, as I am not placing the images but will cut them out, it’s a great solution.

Sorry for the portrait style photos – after I decided to post it I realized my camera batteries were dead, the charger MIA and that my phone was downstairs.  My iPad was near so I used that for the photos.  Next time I’ll rotate it 90 degrees so the post isn’t so long.  It’s like I have to learn how to blog all over again…  DOH!

WOYWW 313 – post crop/post-anniversary let down

WOYWW time again.  Feels like I just returned all my visits oh wait, that’s cause I did! Ah me.  Now all the excitement over the anniversary  is over, real life once again asserts itself.  My desk is full of accounts paperwork  (ugh) and my art journal, dragged out to share with DS and his GF.  She’s been thru most of the scrapbooks and some of the DVDs of DS as a baby, so we are moving on to more crafty things.

Not at all interesting.

I did manage to get all the ATCs for the anniversary swap into one ATC holder.  Apologies for the crappy photo, but I didn’t know my batteries were dying, and there was a bit of a power issue in the area so we shut everything off for a few hours and I couldn’t re-charge them before snapping the photo to schedule. When the batteries are close to giving up the ghost, my camera will only take blurry shots.

Such a lovely variety in style and colour, and yet I absolutely adore every one of them.  Each one is a little bit from a friend to inspire me.

I did manage to get the inside of DS’s computer clean.  Ready for a scare?

Bear in mind that is two A4 sheets, the flyer.  That gives you some idea of exactly how much dust I removed.   Blocked fans are no laughing matter, and overheating is not good for a computer. I didn’t measure it but I am going to say it was over a 1/4 cup of dust.

And still working my way thru piles of laundry, only 4 more loads to go…maybe 5 …. then it’ll be regular laundry day again.  Lucky the washer and dryer are close enough to my desk I can multi-task – put in a load, visit a desk or two, switch to the dryer, desk hop some more, hang our a few things, more desks….

Let’s hope it plays out that way!  Sorry mine is so boring this week.  Bet yours is absolutely fascinating {wink}