Back To Being Busy!!

Hi everyone.  Just thought I'd pop on to let you know that I am not ignoring everybody - am just busy trying to get a few commitments done!!  I'll see if I can get some cards loaded up very soon!

Meanwhile my thanks to everyone who has left such lovely comments under The Blog Hop post - even though I know you're only commenting because of the candy it has been so nice to read such lovely things!  Talking of which if you are here for The Blog Hop, just scroll down a bit!!

I have heard from Nicola who has said she would like the Colouring Techniques DVD so just bear with me and I'll get this sent out to you in the next few days.  (I've promised myself that I am not leaving the house until I've done my project!! Lol!!)

By the way I have just got to tell you this as Mum and I have set a new personal record!!  Every year we hit the January sales within a few days after Christmas and always come back laden with bargains which we have great delight in showing each other.  (Even though we go together we don't always see what the other has bought at the time.)  Well this year we couldn't wait to hit the shops (as normal) but at the end of 3 hours we had had enough - which is MOST unlike us!!  (Although I think that both of us are starting to hate the crowds more and more.)  And here comes the personal record bit.......................................we came home with nothing!!  Neither of us!!!!!

And The Winner Is...............

For those of you who have stopped by here as part of The Stamp Man's blog hop simply scroll down for the Blog Hop Post.

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Well I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas!!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself!!  I especially liked the fact of having a few days off although I now have to get back to creating!!

Talking of creating my thanks to everyone who entered the card competition.  I thoroughly enjoyed receiving your entries.

Yesterday I allocated each of the cards a number and then used a Random Number Generator to pick a winner!  And the winner is the creator of this lovely card that you see here - Nicola Armstrong!! 

Well done Nicola!!  I'm sure you will all agree that she did a marvellous job with this card.

I have contacted Nicola direct as I know that due to the festivities not everyone is able to visit regularly.  I'll let you know which DVD she picks - Basics and Beyond, Colouring Techniques or Shrink Plastic!

The Stamp Man's Blog Hop, Candy and Award Event

Welcome to The Stamp Man's first Blog Hop, Candy and Award Event!!  This event is going to be running from today until midnight 3rd January 2010.  To find out more about it I suggest you visit http://thestampmanuk.blogspot.com/ where you will find out all about this unique event!  There is all sorts of candy up for grabs along with awards too!!

The candy that I need to tell you about is the choice of one of my new DVD's!! To be in with a chance of winning one of these DVD's (Basics and Beyond, Colouring Techniques or Shrink Plastic) you will need to leave a comment on ALL of the blogs in the blog hop including this one.

For those of you who already know about the blog hop you should have arrived here from Avril's Blog. If you haven't then I suggest you go to The Stamp Man's blog which is your starting point and start blog hopping from there following the links provided.

The letter you need from me is

 U

and now the next blog you need to visit is Teri's Blog.

Once you have visited all the blogs and got all the letters, you will need to email The Stamp Man at thestampman@btconnect.com with your answer to go into the draw to win one of the prizes mentioned throughout the blog hop.

As part of the blog hop we are all posting up what we think is our best project for 2009 but to be honest I really don't know what mine is so I am just posting up this card (which you might have already seen!) as this was made using my favourite colour of lilac along with my Funky Flowers stamp sheet!!

Do you fancy playing along and posting up your best project of the year on your own blogs?  If you do then please visit The Stamp Man's blog and post a link within a comment so we can all see your best project of the year.  You too can then claim The Stamp Man Award that you see on my sidebar!!

Wooh Hooooohhh!!!! It's Christmaaaaaasssss!!!!

I just had to come on and do a quick post to thank everyone for my gifts which I have now opened.  I won't embarrass anyone by mentioning names - but you all know who you are!!  I have had such a lovely build up to Christmas with receiving your beautiful handmade cards along with some surprise gifts - and now that I have had chance to open the presents I just want to thank each and everyone of you who took the time and trouble to either enter my Christmas Card Competition or who sent/gave me a present. THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!

I hope that everyone else is having a wonderful time today. 

My Christmas Card Competition is now closed so I will be back at some point in the next few days to announce the winner so stay tuned!!   Plus of course there is The Stamp Man's Blog Hop to look forward to which begins this Sunday!! But meanwhile enjoy your Christmas time!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Hi guys!!  I just want to wish everyone who stops by my blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.  My thanks to everyone who has visited my blog, left me kind comments and also those who have opted to become followers.  It is so nice to know that I am not waffling on to myself!!

I have had such a lovely lead up to Christmas this year - not only have I had presents given to me from companies that I work closely with such as Stamp Addicts, The Craft Barn and The Glitter Pot but I also had a beautiful Christmas bouquet of flowers turn up yesterday from The Stamp Man and of course this year I have had some beautiful handmade Christmas cards coming through my letterbox.  So to everyone who has sent me a card or gift - THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!  It has made this Christmas very special.

Don't forget that The Stamp Man are going to be running something very special on their blog starting from 27th December so if you can do stop by as not only will there be candy on offer but some awards too!!

Before I go this card is one of the designs that I made to send out this year.  I just love this Sarah Kay image she is so sweet!!  She was coloured using copic markers and then combined with SEI background papers - all of which came from The Craft Barn.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Very busy!!

Morning guys!!  I thought this was quite appropriate to load up today as this was what I was doing yesterday with a very good friend of mine!!  (The wrapping presents bit - not the trudging in the snow!!) I don't particularly like wrapping presents as I always end up losing and hunting around for stuff ie, sellotape, scissors, gift tags etc....  As soon as I put them down I swear that they sprout legs and get up and walk and then I spend the next 10 minutes trying to find them again!!  So yesterday I roped in Jenny (my good friend) to help me as bizarrely she like wrapping!!!  So I can now say that all presents are wrapped, labelled, prettied with bows, ribbons etc...and are now under the tree waiting for Christmas Day. (Thank you Jenny!!!)

This particular card I did a little while ago for The Craft Barn using the Mice Elves House Mouse stamp along with the Hero Arts clear stamp set (for the wording and swirly bits).  I thought that the SEI background paper was just so appropriate for this card especially the panel with the trees on it so I cut the mice out and spaced them out a bit so that the mouse with all the presents could be trudging up the slope with them.

Anyway I hope you like it!!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

Ok so I know that it is snowing in other parts of the UK but it just isn't doing it here!!  So to help the snow along I thought I'd post up another snowflake card using my Flitter Flutter Snowflake sheet that of course can be purchased from The Stamp Man.  I love pastel colours and I think that this colour combination of lilac and aqua works quite well for Christmas and the use of vellum gives a nice floaty feel to the card.  Now normally I am not a 'peel off' person but I just couldn't find my sheet of stamps that contain some small Christmas wording so in the end I had to succumb to the use of some small Christmas peel offs instead!!

By the way don't forget that my Christmas Card competition finishes on Christmas Eve so if you have a card that you would like to send in there is still time as today is the last guaranteed posting date for first class mail.

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Yesterday I went and braved the Christmas shoppers as I had a couple of bits left to get and I have got to say that although it was rather busy it actually wasn't too bad.  Mind you that could be because I only had to go into about 3 shops to pick up the odd thing - probably if I had a whole list of things to get it would have been a different story!!  The worse thing of course was trying to find somewhere to park!!  Although I was very lucky and did come across a space but there certainly weren't many to be had.

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On a totally different note I've got to say that I feel really sorry for Joe McElderry being pipped to the post for Christmas No.1 all because of some internet campaign of trying to make sure that Simon Cowell didn't get the No.1 spot this year.  It seems a really mean thing to do to an 18 year old who is making his debut into the music industry.

The Stamp Man's First Blog Hop

The Stamp Man are going to be hosting their own Blog Hop, Candy and Awards Event from Sunday 27th December until Sunday 3rd January.  It will all start on The Stamp Man's blog on Sunday 27th December so make sure you head on over there to find out more then.

Meanwhile to help advertise the event we are asking everyone if they could please put this picture on their sidebars as the more people who can participate the better!!

More Snow??

Morning everyone.  Ok so I know that not everyone likes snow and that it is causing chaos around the UK but I must secretly to admit to wanting to see a bit more as we only got a sprinkling of it where we live, so for those of you who don't like it could you please send it my way??!!!

So in the hope of some more of the white stuff I am posting up a snowflake card today that I made using my Flitter Flutter Snowflake sheet although I did cheat and added a Stampendous swirly snowflake stamp too down the left side of the vellum panel.

Hope you like it!!

Wuh Hoo!!!! We Have Snow!!

Well I say snow it is only a very light sprinkling at the moment and looks more like icing sugar!  The sun is now out and no doubt the snow will have disappeared in a couple of hours - still it was very nice to see.  I haven't had chance yet to see the news but I am guessing that other places will have been hit a lot harder than us.  We are very protected here in our little corner of the UK and other places that are only 5 miles from us get a lot more snow than we ever do!!

Anyway I'm sure that you haven't popped by for a weather bulletin!!  So here is another card that I made this year to send out.  (This was the amount of snow I was hoping for!  Lol!!)  The stamps on this card are all by Penny Black and are all a couple of years old.  I don't know if you can still get all of them but both The Glitter Pot and Sir Stampalot have a good supply of Penny Black stamps.  The blue background paper is also a couple of years old and I haven't seen it around this year so I'm guessing that it is now unavailable - shame as I loved this!!  The snowflakes and wording were stamped onto a panel of acetate using StazOn inkpads and then stuck to the card using pieces of double sided tape positioned behind the snowballs.  Hope you like it!!

Craft Stamper Giveaway

Morning guys.  Well no snow to report as yet in our little corner of the UK although I know that they did have snow inland more.  Apparently we are supposed to have snow tonight and tomorrow but I'll believe it when I see it!!

Anyway I thought you might like to know that Craft Stamper are currently running a blog candy giveaway worth £350 so you might like to head on over to their blog and take a look!!  Simply CLICK HERE to go and find out more about it!!

In Anticipation!!

Morning folks!!  Just to prove that I do occasionally use my own Christmas stamps here is one of the cards that I sent out this year using stamps from my snowflake stamp sheet along with some of my favourite stamps.

Unfortunately it isn't often that I just get to make cards for the joy of it and usually I have to stick rigidly to certain stamps or materials but when making my own Christmas cards I can just go with the flow!!  The main (coloured snowflakes) that you see and the white background snowflakes are from my own snowflake stamp sheet. They grey snowflake swirl and the wording are both by Stampendous - not too sure if they are still available as they are a couple of years old!! And of course the large dotty swirls are by Denami - which you will already have seen a lot of on this blog.  I thought I'd be sensible and design a card that didn't need too much colouring in but unfortunately I just had to cut the snowflakes out as it looked so much better and then it looked even better if I layered a smaller snowflake over the larger one so in the end it didn't end up being a quick card after all!  (Nothing new there then!!)

Even though we live in the south east of England they are actually forecasting snow here for the end of the week - although I'll believe it when I see it!!  I'm still keeping everything crossed for snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as I have never known it to snow on either of those days and it would absolutely make my Christmas - I think I need to move to Scotland!!

Frost!!

In my last post I was saying that our Christmas tree has a 'frosty feel' to it well now we have got frost for real!!  It seems that the weather here has finally decided to become 'seasonal' and we had quite a hard frost last night - infact the fields and roofs are still covered with it!  Brrrrrrrrr!!

Actually it is really nice to see, as everywhere is sparkling at the moment!

So in honour of the cold I have decided to load up a cold looking card that I did some time ago in shades of blue.  These stamps are all by Denami Design and what I really like about these trees is that they are so quick to colour!  For this card I used a single tree and just stamped it 5 times and staggered them slightly so that they didn't look too rigid then coloured them using the Sakura Stardust pens. The snow mounds at the base of the trees were created with a light blue marker and softened with a water brush. All the stamps that you can see on this card are available from Stamp Addicts.

This afternoon I have been roped in to drive Mum around Bexhill so that she can hand deliver some of her Christmas Cards so I think that I will be wrapping up warm before I set foot outside my front door!

Oh Christmas Tree!!

Today I thought I'd show you a few close up photos of my tree after telling you all about the saga of putting it up yesterday.  The photos that I took of the tree as a whole looked absolute rubbish and didn't do the tree justice at all as it looks far prettier in real life!!  These will give you a taster of what it does look like though.

Here's a close up of the cute little snowman from above.

















This bauble is actually silver with white glittery snowflakes.
















And here's one of our snow balls!
















Another of our cute snowmen.














These snowmen baubles have been going for years and are really fragile!!


So as you can see our tree has quite a frosty feel this year.  As well as all the white and silver that you have seen we do have a few light blue/aqua coloured baubles on the tree too.

How Long Does It Take To Put Up A Christmas Tree??

Hi Guys.  You won't believe this but yesterday it literally took me all day to put up and decorate our Christmas tree!!  This year we went ahead and finally bought a new tree as our old one was well and truly past it.  Last year we had a real one but this year with all the upheaval that is currently going on with our extension we decided to have an artificial one for this year.  So about a week ago we went out and chose a new tree.  Well yesterday when I opened up the box I discovered that you have to assemble this tree branch by branch so that was my first challenge!!  Actually I've got to say that once I'd sorted out all the individual branches it was quite easy to do - it just took a long time spreading them all out as I was going!  My next challenge was putting the lights on it - I always find this the hardest bit as I either have too many lights at the top and run out before I get to the bottom of the tree or I find I haven't got enough lights at the top of the tree and have loads at the bottom so it normally takes a couple of attempts for me to get it just right!!  Anyway about four attempts later the tree finally had it's lights on and then when I stepped back and looked at the tree I realised that this tree required thicker tinsel than what we normally use on our trees so it was then a mad dash to the shops to try and find some thick silver tinsel.  About 90 minutes later I was back home armed with my tinsel and could then begin decorating it.  My final challenge was then threading up some new baubles that we bought last year so that I could actually hang them on the tree which was a really fiddly job!!  Anyway tree is now decorated complete with a couple of presents under it too.  I did take some photos of the tree which I will load up so you can see it but unfortunately the photos that I took don't do the tree justice at all as it is far prettier in real life!!  So with all this tree decorating I just didn't get chance to blog yesterday!

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As you already know I was at The Glitter Pot on Thursday teaching a couple of classes and I had such a nice day there so a huge thank you to the ladies who were on the classes for making it such a pleasant day.  One of the ladies brought along a card for my competition and also presented me with a present at the end of the day for under my tree!!  I won't embarrass the lady in question by naming her but she knows who she is and once again I send a huge thank you to her as it really made my day.  Whilst I was there I badgered the rest of the ladies on my class too about sending me a card so I'm hoping that they too will enter the competition.  I have had a few cards turn up for this and it has been soooooooo nice opening them up and seeing your wonderful creations!  And just before I departed The Glitter Pot I was presented with another present for under my tree - this time from the owners.  Then when I got home I found a couple of cards waiting for me too so all in all I had a wonderful day and really felt in the Christmas spirit!

A Sneaky Peek!!

Tomorrow I am off to The Glitter Pot where I am teaching all day so here is a little taster of what we will be doing in the afternoon.  This cute little bear is by Penny Johnson and I just LOVE it!!  Both classes are Copic marker based and there are still some spaces left so if anyone lives close enough and fancies forgetting about Christmas for a few hours(as neither of the classes are Christmas based)  then please do come along. It really would be lovely to see you. 

I've decided to move the details of my Christmas Card competition to the top of my sidebar so that my recent posts are more clearly visible. Fear not the competition is still open - you just need to click on the DVD picture to bring up all the details.  So far I have only had a few cards come through the post and I really would like lots,lots more so please do enter!  Besides at the moment you stand a really good chance of winning!! My aim is to have a room full of beautiful handmade cards so please do join in.

Adorable Doraline

I cannot believe just how quickly today has gone and not just today but the last few days - they just keep disappearing on me!!  Hence me being rather late with today's offering!  Anyway this is a card I made for The Craft Barn's blog but thought I'd pop it on mine as well!!.

This cute little squirrel is by Motivet and apparently  she is called Doraline!  I have stamped her using Brilliance and coloured her with Copics - see I am getting in lots of practise with my Copic pens!!  The background papers are by SEI and these can be purchased from The Craft Barn as well as the Motivet stamps and Copic pens.

Hope you like it!

With a bit of luck there'll be more from me tomorrow if the day doesn't miraculously disappear on me!!

A Blue Christmas!

Oops just didn't get round to posting this up yesterday!!  This was a card that I did for Stamp Addicts's Demo Day back in October using the latest releases by Denami Design.  I kept a cool colour scheme for this one as I wanted the card to feel a bit 'chilly'!!

Yesterday I went round to my Aunt and Uncles and they had got their Christmas Tree up and decorated and after seeing this card (of trees) it has got me in the mood to do ours now!!  However I have got too much on today so maybe tomorrow!

Anyway I hope you like the card.  All the stamps on this card can be purchased from Stamp Addicts.

Christmas Is Coming!!!

Oh how sad am I???  I am starting to get really excited now about Christmas as yesterday I braved the shops and did some more Christmas shopping.  It was lovely hearing all the Christmas songs in the shops and seeing the lights and all the store displays and I even met Father Christmas!! 

What is even nicer is that your Christmas Cards are starting to arrive too and yesterday I received my first card from abroad!!  Please do keep them coming as there is still plenty of time for you to enter the competition and it really is sooooooooooo nice seeing what you have made - I now can't wait for the postman to arrive each day! 

This card is very similar to one that I showed a while ago but with a different Sarah Kay image.  This particular one I designed some while ago for one of my classes at The Craft Barn.  The Sarah Kay image was stamped using Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured using Copics.  The papers are by SEI and are from their Christmas Mint collection.  All products can of course be bought from The Craft Barn.

Silver Greetings

Good morning everyone.  Well although I am not actually making Christmas Cards at the moment I still have a few to show you from what I made earlier in the year.  This particular card was one that I made for Stamp Addicts in October for their Demo Day.  All the stamps that you can see on this card are by Denami Design and can of course be bought from Stamp Addicts.  As you can see I decided to keep this card quite monochrome which (I think!!) looks quite stylish.

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Now I have a question which has nothing to do with card making whatsoever!!  It is a little known fact but I absolutely LOVE Take That - always have done!!  Much to the absolute disgust of some of my closest friends!!  Anyway because of this I watched the Children In Need concert thing on the telly that Gary Barlow and Take That organized.  I loved it when Lily Allen started singing Who'd Have Known (which is set to the tune of Take That's Shine) and then Take That came on and started singing Shine in conjunction with Lily singing Who's Have Known.  I have had a quick look on the internet to see if there is an MP3 download of this track with them singing together but so far haven't found one.  Does anyone out there know if there is one available somewhere or if it is going to be released?

Last of Tilda

Morning guys.  First of all my sincere thanks to everyone who responded to my question about storing Nestabilities - after receiving your comments I have decided that magnetic sheets (of some description) are obviously a must and I may see if over the Christmas period I can make some sort of book (using my Bind-It All) machine along with the magnetic sheets.  I'll let you know how I get on!!

Now that we are into December I actually WANT to be making Christmas cards - after doing nothing but since July!!  However working within the crafting industry nothing could be that simple and of course within this industry Christmas has been and gone and we are now onto other stuff!!  For instance I am currently working on cards for my next classes at The Glitter Pot which are on the 10th December - being that this is quite close to Christmas and most Christmas cards will have been made by then I am designing cards which are non-Christmassy!!  Once I have fnished those I plan to make a start on my next submission for Craft Stamper which will be for the April issue - so again a non-Christmassy theme for that then!!  See it is a topsy turvy world I live in!

Anyway here is the last of the Tilda cards that I made the other weekend when I was at The Glitter Pot (which is Christmassy).  Tilda was stamped using Graphite Black Brilliance and coloured using Copics, then I lightly rubbed a light blue chalk inkpad around the edges and added some subtle stamping using that same ink.  For the rest of the card I used My Minds Eye background papers which I embellished using the Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly clear stamp set.  I hope you like it!!

We Have Frost!!

Instead of all the horrible wet weather this morning we finally had a proper wintery morning with frost on the rooftops and cars and with the sunshine on the frost it was all glittery and sparkly, just like a proper winter morning should be!!

However my posting today doesn't go with the weather at all but I wanted to show you another of the cards that I made a few weeks ago now for when Jill and I did our live TV show.  For this show we had some packs of vellum so I used my set of Fancy Flourishes to decorate it and then coloured my main image (taken from Funky Frames) to match.  As I'm sure you will remember my stamp sheets can be purchased from either The Stamp Man or The Craft Barn.

Talking of my stamp sheets, Jill is currently offering a giveaway of one of my latest stamp sheets to THREE lucky people!!  Click here to head on over to her blog to find out more!!  Also if you want to do some last minute Christmas shopping Jill is offering free postage on all orders over £10 over on The Stamp Man's online shop.  And talking of free postage The Craft Barn is currently offering free postage on all UK orders until December 21st and free postage on European orders over £15 so now is a great time to order anything that you have had your eye on! (Including my stamp sheets of course!!)

I am going to see if I can get myself a little bit more organised over the next few weeks and wondered if any of you out there have any great ideas on how to store the Nestabilities templates?  These pesky things keep slipping and sliding all over the place and keep mixing themselves up so if anyone has any ideas that they would care to share I'd LOVE to hear them!!

Christmas Card Competition

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

This Christmas Card Competition is open to absolutely everybody!!  The prize will be one of my new DVD's (shown above) of your choosing plus a few of the cards that I made for that particular DVD. 

To make this competition fair I have decided that as I receive the cards I will allocate each card a number and then enter these numbers into a random number generator to pick a winner. 

The rules to enter are as follows:-

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  1. You need to send a Christmas Card that you have made yourself and that contains some form of rubber stamping on it. (Please note. You can send as many cards as you like in order to give yourself more chance of winning as each card will be allocated a number!!!)
  
  
  
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  2. For those with blogs - please write your blog address within the card as well as your name. (If you are the winner and I find that you have advertised my competition on the sidebar of your blog with a link back to my blog then I will include some extra cards and bits and bobs!)
  
  
  
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  3. For those without blogs - to advertise my competition please tell any of your stamping friends and family to enter. When sending your card entry, please write your name within the card and if someone  has told you about this competition please write their name also within the card. (If you are the winner I will send you the prize and will also send the person that told you about the competition a few cards and bits and bobs!!)
  
  
  
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  4. Your entry will need to arrive by Christmas Eve (Dec 24th 2009) to be counted.
  
  
  
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  5. By entering you are giving me permission to show your card on my blog as I will post the winning card up along with that person's name.
  
  
  
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  5. To enter simply click here to email me using the title of Christmas Card Competition and I will email an address to send your entry to.
  
  
  

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your cards!! :)

Weatherful!!

I thought that with all this 'wonderful weather' we are having in the UK at the moment (Not!!!) that this would be a really appropriate card to post up!!

I actually made this card a few months ago when we were having much better weather than we've recently been having!!

These little cuties and indeed all the images are by Denami Design and have been coloured using Polycolour Pencils.  The white circles were punched using a normal large circle punch and were then layered to scalloped circles that I cut using my Nesties.  Hope you like it!!

More Lilac!!

Morning guys.  The sun is actually shining here on the south east coast but I don't know for how much longer as yet more rain and wind is forecast for our area over the next few days!!  Like we need it!!!!

Anyway with the thought of all that gloomy weather I thought I'd post up a nice cheerful looking card - again which goes nicely with my new blog background!!

Quite a simple card this one as I just stamped the poinsettia 3 times and then coloured it using Sakura Stardust pens and a water brush.  The background was mainly stamped using Versamark with the grey images being stamped in Brilliance Starlite Black.  All the images are by Denami and can be purchased from Stamp Addicts.

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My thanks to everyone who has entered and enquired about my Christmas Card competition so far - I can't believe how quick off the mark some of you have been as cards have already been arriving which is great!! Please keep them coming as I am loving seeing what you have done!

Talking of competitions The Craft Barn are currently running a card competition too where you can win some Kadoodle Stamps. Click here to check it out!

More Magnolia

Oh my goodness my posts are getting later and later aren't they??  I had to go out this morning to do some mundane shopping bits and it took so much longer than anticipated that I am now only getting around to some computer stuff!!  Before I get too engrossed in all that I have to do I thought I'd better start by showing you a card that I did the other weekend when I was demonstrating with the new Magnolia Christmas stamps and the Copic pens at The Glitter Pot.  I quite like this card as I think it looks as if she is perching on the top of the background paper and she certainly looks quite Christmassy in her Santa's hat!

All the other stamps that you can see on this card (including the wording) come from the Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly clear stamp set.  The background paper is by Fancy Pants and has most definitely been one of my favourites to use this year.  To get the white highlights on Tilda I used the Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque pen as I have found that this gives a really good dense white.  (If I get time I think I might make some duplicates of this card as well for some of my Christmas cards this year!!) All products can be obtained from The Glitter Pot.

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Before I disappear again for today I just want to remind you all that Jill (from The Stamp Man) will be live on Ideal World tomorrow at 12 midday along with Tracy (another Stamp Man stamp designer) so don't forget to tune in or to set your boxes as I am sure that they will have got some wonderful demos lined up for you to see!!

Sleigh Ride Mimi

Oh I have been so busy today on the computer that I almost totally forgot about doing my daily post!!  Still have lots of things to get through today so this will be a quick one from me. 

This is now the last of the Mimi cards that I did for the Stevenage show - image again by Denami as too are the background images.  The wording is by Printworks. Image has been coloured using Polycolour pencils and Stardust pens.  All stamps, products etc... are available from Stamp Addicts.

Right off to go and do some more stuff.............

More Mimi

Hi Guys.  I thought I'd stick with the Mimi cards for today and show you another one that I did for Stevenage.  I just love these Denami stamps as they are just so stylish and are a little more grown up than a lot of the other 'girl' stamps out there.

This was coloured using Polycolour pencils along with Stardust pens for some added shimmer.  The background stamps that you can see and the wording stamp are also by Denami.  All of which can be obtained from Stamp Addicts.

Lilac,Lilac Everywhere!!

Morning everyone.  As you can see I had time to trawl the internet over the weekend looking for a new blog background as I had got bored with the other one and when I came across this one I looked no more as it is just so ME!!  What with it being lilac and flowery I just had to have it!!  I do hope that you like it too.

To celebrate my new lilac/flowery background I thought I'd post up a lilac card to match - although admittedly it isn't flowery but Christmassy instead!!

This is a card that I actually did several months ago now for the Stevenage show.  The stamp is from the Mimi range by Denami and was coloured using Polycolour pencils and Stardust pens.  The background was achieved using another Denami stamp of some swirly dots and I stamped the wording (Printworks) three times across the base of the card to make a border.  All of these products and materials are available from Stamp Addicts.

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For the last couple of days I have been beavering away on my latest submission for Craft Stamper which is now almost finished.  I just have the text left to do and the step-by-step components and then I am hoping to get back to making some Christmas cards for me to send.  After re-discovering this card above I am thinking that perhaps I might duplicate it for some of my cards, as this year I am doing a few different designs so that I don't get bored!

By the way as of today I have ordered that desktop tote that I've been going on about so my sincere thanks to everyone who helped me out with this.  I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

By the way this week The Craft Barn are having a Christmas Week over on their blog where they will be posting up several Christmas Cards each day and it is also where you will find some more of my card samples so why don't you hop on over and take a look!

Popcorn Bear

Good morning everyone.  Here is the last of the bear cards that I did for The Glitter Pot.  The image was stamped using Graphite Black Brilliance and then coloured using Copics.  I've certainly been getting lots of practise using these pens over the last couple of months and feel that I am getting the hang of them more now. 

The snowflake that you can see in the background is from the Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly clear stamp set.  This has been stamped randomly onto acetate using white StazOn and then stuck over the background card panels.

All products can be obtained from The Glitter Pot.

By the way I still haven't been able to lay my hands on that Toteally Cool Desktop tote so if anyone sees one in Wild Berry anywhere in the UK please let me know!!

We Have Sunshine!!

Morning everyone.  Well what a welcome change it is as finally we have got some sunshine here on the south east coast of the UK rather than the gales and rain that we have been having for the last week!!  However I have got to say that it doesn't feel at all Christmassy as yet as the temperature is far too mild.  Apparently this time last year we had snow!!  Much more appropriate!!  Still I am keeping my fingers crossed (just like every year) that we get a sprinkling of snow for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day - I can live in hope!!

Anyway talking of Christmas I have yet another Christmas card to show you which is the other card that the class made when I was last at The Glitter Pot.  This particular Tilda stamp I believe is from last years collection and has again been coloured using Copics.  Talking of the Copics now that I have all the Ciaos I am gradually buying some of the Sketches too - my aim is to have the complete collection!  Anyway back to the card - the background paper is by Fancy Pants and the light blue Bazzill card has been embellished using stamps from that Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly clear stamp set again.  All of which can be obtained from The Glitter Pot.

Guess What's Arrived!!

Morning everyone.  Just look what turned up here yesterday afternoon!!  At last I have been able to see what the covers of my new DVD's look like and I must say that I think they look very pretty!  I have added each of them to my sidebar with details of how you can get hold of them.

In the next couple of days I will post up details on how to enter my Christmas Card Competition where the prize will be your choice of one of these DVD's so don't forget to check back!

I have added a new date to My Event Diary which is a day of classes at The Craft Barn on Saturday January 23rd 2010.  In the morning I'll be showing you how to create some beautiful backgrounds using my Fancy Flourish stamp sheet and in the afternoon I'll be taking you step-by-step on how to build up different arrangements using some of the different flowers and leaves elements from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet along with some basic masking.  So if you fancy joining me for either of these classes you know what to do!!

Meanwhile my last day of classes for this year will soon be approaching on Thursday 10th December 2009 at The Glitter Pot.  So if you fancy getting away from all the Christmas mayhem for a few hours it would be great to see you!

Talking of Glitter Pot classes here is a card we made from one of my last classes there using a Sarah Kay image along with some co-ordinating background papers which I embellished a little using a snowflake from the Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly clear stamp set.  The Sarah Kay image was coloured using Copic Ciaos and I will be showing you how to get the best from these pens in my classes in December.  The greeting was taken from a Popcorn Bear Christmas stamp set.

Need Your Help!!

Morning guys.  First of all many thanks to those of you who left me a comment regarding the previous post.  I have taken all your comments on board and have decided when I go ahead with the competition I will not judge the cards in any way but will make it into a draw where I will allocate each card with a number and then use the random number generator to pick a winner.  That way anyone with any ability will be in with a chance of winning - I hope this sounds ok!!  Once I get myself a bit more organised I will post up proper details on how to enter so watch this space!!

Meanwhile I am hoping that someone out there can help me!!  I have been trying to locate a UK Stockist who currently has in stock the AMM Totecally Cool Desktop Tote in Wild Berry but so far without any success.  Does anyone out there know of anywhere that has one currently for sale?  I have posted up a picture of the one that I am after so you will know what I am going on about.  Any help will be gratefully appreciated!!

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As most of you will be aware Christmas is fast approaching and so yesterday I thought that I had actually better start doing some Christmas shopping.  As Debenhams are currently having their Christmas Spectacular it spurred me into action yesterday so I bravely went and hit the shops.  My first hurdle was actually trying to find somewhere to park as spaces were hard to find - how can this be??  We are still in November for goodness sake!!  Anyway I managed to locate a space where I could park for 2 hours and then went in search of Debenhams - my goodness was it busy in there!!  It was absolute bedlam in some of the departments.  Still it was well worth me going as I was able to get some good bargains which I was pleased about so I am currently feeling a bit smug that I have made a start on my Christmas shopping!!  I'm sure that  most of you will have already done most of yours but what can I say??  I'm obviously not that organised!!  Thankfully I don't have loads of people to buy for so that makes it a lot more manageable.  Even though it was busy in some of the stores I quite enjoyed myself as I just LOVE Christmas and seeing all the Christmas decorations up and hearing Christmas songs playing quite got me in the mood for it all! 

Under The MIstletoe

As promised here is another of those Tilda cards from Saturday.  She was stamped using Graphite Black Brilliance and coloured using Copics.  The wording is from a Popcorn Bear Christmas stamp set and the snowflakes that you can see on the blue Bazzill panel came from the Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly stamp set and were stamped and embossed using Versamark and Crystal embossing powder.  The background paper is called Bough of Holly and is by Fancy Pants.  All products can be obtained from The Glitter Pot.

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I have been thinking about running some sort of competition but before I go any further with this I'd like to get some feedback from you as to whether you think anyone would enter!!  I absolutely LOVE receiving handmade cards but I don't often receive many and with Christmas coming up I would love to receive some beautiful handmade cards so I am thinking about running some sort of competition where you send me a handmade Christmas card and are then entered into a draw to win one of my new DVD's (of your choice) plus a few of the cards that I made for that particular DVD.  Please let me know what you think!!

Silent NIght Tilda

Today I thought I'd give you all a rest from bears and show you one of the Tilda cards that I did for Saturday instead.  I never used to be ovely keen on the Magnolia images but just recently they have grown on me plus of course they work really well with the Copics!!  The Glitter Pot have just had their delivery of all the new Christmas Magnolia stamps so over the next few days I'll show you some of the other cards I made with some of the other designs.

Meanwhile back to this card.......I stamped Tilda with Graphite Black Brilliance and coloured her using the Copic Ciaos and also the Copic Spica pens to add some shimmer here and there and then added some Stickles glitter glue to the ground area for some extra sparkle.  The papers that you can see are by My Minds Eye and I just embellished them here and there using the Hero Arts Winter's Butterfly clear stamp set.  All of which can be purchased from The Glitter Pot.

More Cuties

Morning guys.  First of all my sincere thanks to everyone who stopped by my table yesterday - it was lovely to see you all.  Even though the weather was absolutely dreadful! I was so surprised by how busy the shop was and seeing all your friendly faces helped the time pass really quickly!!  As many of you will know by now I absolutely love the Copics and it seems that many of you out there love them too!! 

When I first started out using the Copics I bought a box of 36 pens in Set A and it wasn't long before I realised that I needed to get more colours in order to get the effects I wanted to achieve.  I know that it is a cliche but the more pens you have the easier it is to get the shading right and also to choose colours that complement each other.  So I gradually saved my pennies and purchased the other sets as soon as I could - now that I have all 144 colours of the Ciaos it is so much easier to get the results that I want as I have a good range of the light, medium and the dark colours in all of the shades.  So for any of you that may have just have a few of the pens and are struggling a little, my advice would be to put them onto your Christmas list and ask friends and family members to club together and buy as many pens as they can afford!! Both The Glitter Pot and The Craft Barn stock a good range of both the sets and the individual pens.

Anyway back to the card - this is the same image as the one I posted up on Friday but has been coloured slightly differently and then popped onto a card using a different layout.  The snowflakes that you can see on this card come from a Hero Arts Christmas stamp set and the backing paper is from The Glitter Pot as too is everything else used on this card.  I hope you like it...........

More from me tomorrow!!

How Cute Are These??

Morning Guys.  Just a relatively quick post from me today as I still have loads of prep to do for tomorrow.  Meanwhile I thought you might like to see a sneaky peek of one of the cards I will have with me at The Glitter Pot tomorrow.  Aren't they sweet??  They are from one of the Popcorn Bear un-mounted stamp sets that The Glitter Pot sell and have been coloured using Copics and of course I'll be showing exactly how I achieved this effect all day tomorrow so if anyone feels like stopping by and having a chat I'll be pleased to see you!! 

(Pssstttt........by the way don't tell Bryan or Carolyn but I have actually stamped out multiple images of them for myself as they may well appear on some of my Christmas cards this year!!)

Having Fun!!

Morning everyone. I just can't tell you what a lovely time I have been having over these last few days!! As you will know from previous posts I am no longer mega busy with work stuff and so for the last few days I have been playing around with my Design Team stuff that I received from The Craft Barn and I have really enjoyed myself. Now that the pressure is off I am being able to go into my craft room because I want to rather than because I have to and it is soooooooooo nice!! This is one of the cards that I've come up with over the last couple of days. The main image is by Motivet which is available from The Craft Barn. To see the other cards that I have done you will have to check out The Craft Barn's blog on a regular basis to see when they are loaded up!!

Meanwhile here is a brief run down of this card. The main image was stamped with Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured using Copics. The background stamps that you see are from a clear stamp set by Hero Arts (available from The Glitter Pot) and the wording is an old Penny Black stamp and I don't know if this is still available or not!! As you can see I have stamped Bazzill card using the snowflakes off of the Hero Arts set and also stamped onto acetate too using white, Stone Grey and black StazOn. The panels of background paper are by SEI, from their Winter Song range and this too is from The Craft Barn. Anyway I hope you like it!!

Unfortunately my play days are now over as this morning I received the stamps that I am demoing with on Saturday so I now need to put my work head back on and start preparing!! Still it was fun while it lasted!!!

Also I have now finished reading Breaking Dawn so I'm now bereft. It was very good - I'm just sad that it has now ended!! Perhaps to console myself I'll read the Harry Potter books again over the Christmas period!

Cup of Cocoa

Hi guys.  As promised here is the other Forever Friends card that we made in the morning.  Sweet isn't he??  Again I embellished the background papers using stamps from a clear Christmas Hero Arts stamp set that consists of different snowflakes as well as a flourish and the wording is once again from a Popcorn Bear Christmas stamp set.

I stamped the main image using Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured using the Copic Ciaos.

All the materials and products used on this card are available from The Glitter Pot.

Santa Bear

Good morning to you all.  Here is my card offering for today.  This is a card that I made for The Glitter Pot classes that I took the other week.  Isn't he cute??  The bear is of course by Forever Friends and is a Glitter Pot Exclusive stamp so if you want him you know where to go!  He was stamped using Starlite Black Brilliance and coloured using Copic Ciaos.  The background papers are also from The Glitter Pot and have been embellished using stamps from a Hero Arts clear stamp set - can't remember what it is called!  The wording is from a Popcorn Bear Christmas stamp set and all of this is available from The Glitter Pot.  Tomorrow I'll post up the other card that we made using a different Forever Friends Bear!

Sharon's Card

Oops!!  Forgot all about posting yesterday and am late posting today and I can't even say it is because I am really busy as things have eased off a bit for me now which is REALLY nice!!

Anyway today I wanted to share with you a card that I was presented with by Sharon when I was up at Stamp Addicts in October.  It was a complete surprise to receive it.  As you can see Sharon chose the Mimi character (by Denami Design) who is most like me - or at least who was most like me because as you know I can't eat chocolates any more - still perhaps one day...........Thanks Sharon - I will treasure it!  (By the way if you want to make me a Christmas card at all.........................!!!)

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After having been making Christmas Cards since August I suddenly realised over the weekend that Christmas really isn't that far away now - how did that happen???  So now that I have more of an even schedule from now until Christmas I have been thinking that I may see about making some Christmas cards for me to send to a few special people.  Although I'm thinking that I may well cheat and base my Christmas Cards on designs I have already done!!

Last of the Penny Black Ted Cards

Morning everyone.  Here is the last one of the Penny Black teddy cards that I made for that Glitter Pot weekend.  As you can see (just like I did for the postbox card that I posted the other day) I decided to cut him out from his background and put him onto a smaller card.  Again this really helps to pop him out from the rest of the card.  He was coloured using those Copic Ciaos - have I mentioned that I just love these pens????

The other stamps that you can see appearing on this card are all by Hero Arts and once again I have added a layer of acetate which I stamped using white StazOn and the Hero Arts snowflake and then stamped the holly flourish (by Hero Arts again) using Stone Grey StazOn.

Everything featured and pictured can be bought from The Glitter Pot.  By the way don't forget that in a weeks time I will be at The Glitter Pot demoing with the Copic markers so if any of you have any questions regarding them and are close enough to stop by I will do my best to help you, although I am still learning with these markers myself so am no expert!!  I would dearly love to do one of the courses run by Copic to become Copic Registered but as yet they don't actually run their courses in the UK but if anyone hears anything at any time please let me know!!

Craft Stamper December issue

Morning everyone.  Just thought I'd take this opportunity to show you a peek of my project that is in the December issue of Craft Stamper which is now out.  I have a four page project in this issue (at the back) showing you step-by-step how to watercolour using glitter gel pens.  I hope you like it!!

In this issue of the mag I also saw for the first time what the cover looks like to my first DVD - Basics and Beyond.  You'll never guess what..........................it has got a lilac background!!!  I can't wait to see what the other DVD's look like now!

By the way last night I could stand it no longer and finally reached for Breaking Dawn - the fourth book in the Twilight series. I have got to say that so far it has not disappointed and I found it really hard to put it down and go to sleep!

A Helping Hand

Oh my goodness I just don't know where the time has gone this morning!  I  have just looked at the clock and couldn't believe the time so thought I had better do my post now before the time just runs away with me!!

I don't think that I have posted up this particular card before but with all that's been going on I just can't remember!!  This is another of those Penny Black cards that I did for The Glitter Pot's birthday celebrations.  Out of all the Penny Black stamps I was working with this one was most definitely my favourite.  Unlike the cards that I know I have shown you before using this stamp I decided to cut it out and mount it onto my card which really stands it out as it emphasizes the shape of it,

The image was of course coloured using Copics - I just don't want to colour with anything else at the moment!!  All the background stamps that you can see including the wording are by Hero Arts and everything is available from The Glitter Pot.

Creative Crafting DVD's

Morning Guys.  Now that I am back up and running I have just got to take this opportunity to tell you that my three brand new craft DVD's will be available to buy very shortly!!  I think that I am right in saying that all being well they will be available at the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC this week on Traplet's stand!  Also Pauline has told me that they are now being advertised to pre-order  in the December issue of Craft Stamper.

The first one is called Basics and Beyond and covers basic stamping, stamping and embossing, working with bold stamps, kiss stamping and interactive stamping and this is already available to buy from The Craft Barn. The second one is called Colouring Techniques and this ended up being a double DVD as it is around 2 hours and 45 minutes long! In this DVD I cover colouring with dye-based pens, pigment pens, dye-based inkpads, colouring pencils along with blending solution, water colour pencils, Copics, glitter pens and chalks.  Lastly the third DVD is all about different techniques with shrink plastic including the basic method of colouring it first and shrinking it into a flat object, colouring and shrinking it then shaping it whilst it is still warm, intaglio effects with both background stamps and outline stamps, using frosted shrink plastic with white StazOn, using black shrink plastic with Brilliance inks and layering shrink plastic.  You'll find that in some of the DVD's I have made mistakes or nearly made mistakes but these have been left in so that you know I am human too!!  I think that I am right in saying that once all three are available both The Craft Barn and The Stamp Man will be stocking them and of course Traplet will be selling them through Craft Stamper too.

If any of you go ahead and buy any of the DVD's at the NEC show do let me know as unfortunately I won't be at this show.  Although after having to just buy a new computer perhaps it is a good thing that I won't be there as then I can't be tempted by anything!

Tomorrow I'll see what cards I've still got to show you so do check back then.....

Have You Missed Me??

Hi Everyone.  As the title says..............have you missed me?  Did you even notice that I've been gone????

I'm afraid that for the past 10 days or so I have had major computer trouble!!  It all started when my computer absolutely refused to start!  So I called my computer guy who stopped by later that day and after running a few tests was unable to fix it there and then so he took it away.  Basically to cut a long story short after trying for several days he was unable to get my files and folders off of the computer and the disk drives had become so corrupted that it was pronounced unfixable!!  So not only did I lose 2 weeks worth of work (as I hadn't backed it up) but I also had to say goodbye to my computer and see about getting a new one!!  Meanwhile I was checking my emails on my ipod but trying to type replies on it was a nightmare so I soon gave up!!

Anyway as of yesterday I am now up and running with a brand new computer and am having to get used to the new operating system of Windows 7 as well as finding my way around a whole new model!!

As you will know from my last post, I mentioned that Jill and I would be on your screens again shortly but unfortunately my back has not been good since my last trip.  So when you next see Jill she will be on her own but I will leave it up to her to tell you all about the next show on Create and Craft.

At the moment I am busy loading all my software, installing the updates for the software and loading my files onto the new computer as well as trying to catch up with the work I lost!  Unfortunately some cards have gone forever but fear not I still have some to show you!

Meanwhile I must say a huge thank you to Sandy from The Craft Barn as she has invited me to be part of The Craft Barn's Design Team so expect to see some Craft Barn orientated cards soon!!

Absolutely Shattered!!

Morning everyone.  What can I say??  I really did not want to get up this morning as I am just soooooo tired!!  I worked it out this morning that in the past 5 days I have driven around 570 miles and unfortunately my body knows about it!!  (So far I have yelled 3 times today where the sciatic pain down my leg has taken me unawares!!)  Anyway I am home safe and sound which is the main thing and I don't have to do anymore motorway driving for a couple of weeks.  I just don't know how other people manage with all the commuting - travelling anywhere these days on the roads is a nightmare!

Still I hope that you managed to catch Jill and I yesterday on Create and Craft and that you enjoyed the show.  Although it was my first 'live' show I've got to say that it was no different really from doing a 'pre-record show' as Jill and I always do those in one take anyway.  By the way did you notice how well Jill and I matched with each other??  As most of you know we don't live anywhere near each other as Jill is based in Yorkshire and I am on the south east coast so we communicate with each other either by email or phone.  We were both trying to work out what to wear and discussing it with each other a few days ago on the phone and I couldn't believe how well the colours we had chosen matched each other - we obviously see colours the same as each other as another of our outfits (that we had brought with us) also matched too!! 

Unfortunately we didn't get Nigel as our presenter (who we had booked) and we had Dave instead who neither of us had worked with before.  However he seemed very nice and at least he let us both speak which was a good thing!!  There will be more happening with Jill and I on Create and Craft very soon but I will let Jill tell you all about that on her blog so keep an eye on The Stamp Man's blog.

The card I've posted up today was one of the ones that I managed to make for yesterday's show using both the Funky Frames and the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheets.  I have got to say that I just can't stop using my Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet at the moment as there are just so many different backgrounds that you can create with them.