Back Home!

Morning everyone. I am now back at home safe and sound albeit a little tired! My thanks to everyone who has left me some lovely comments in my absence! I have now had chance to read them all and to upload them so thank you so much.


I've had a really nice couple of days as it had been a while since I had been to Bedford. Thanks to everyone who booked onto the class on Friday - it was really nice to catch up with you all and I really appreciate it you coming to the workshop especially when you have to book time off work to attend or travel a fair distance. I just hope that you felt it was worth it!!

It was lovely to see so many friendly faces on the Saturday as well. I really like demoing and I had such nice feeback from you all which makes all the preparation worth while.

Rita - it was a pleasure to meet both you and your husband. I was so pleased that you were able to make it. What a lovely husband you have got to sacrifice some of the football for you!

Kym - if there is a next time please introduce yourself as it would have been nice to have met you properly!

Thankfully I had a good journey home and did it in about two and a half hours - totally different story on the way up though as it took me four hours to get there. Luckily there were no major road accidents this time - it just seemed to be sheer volume of traffic. I will begin loading up some of the demo cards this week for you all to see. (Poor Sharon forgot her camera didn't you?!!)

Don't forget that today is your last chance to enter for the blog candy.

Right I must go as have lots to do...........

Stamp Addicts Demo Day

Finally I have actually begun playing around with my own stamps which is about time too really as I am supposed to be demoing with them next weekend at The Craft Barn's Extravaganza Weekend!! Once I have got some cards together I will begin posting some up but meanwhile today I will be busy demoing at Stamp Addicts so if you are free do come along and say hello as it would be great to see you!

The 2nd Workshop Card

So here is the other card we will be making today and as you can see a hint of brown crept into this card too. I quite like wearing pink and brown together but had never done this colour scheme before on a card but I think it worked out quite well! (The only trouble is the brown colour reminds me of chocolate and I keep wanting to rush for the Cadbury's Dairy Milk!)

The main image stamps that you see here are all off of the same Judikins stamp set and the papers are by Denami. I stamped and embossed another Judikins stamp (Mince Flourish) to create the background on the pale pink panel and then simply added some punched out flowers from scrap pieces of paper and card to embellish the card further.

This is the 'girl' that is most like me from this particular stamp range as I just LOVE to shop!

Stamp Addicts Workshop

So tomorrow I will be off up to see the Stamp Addicts girls. I am just keeping everything crossed that the weather will be nice and that I don't encounter any major hold ups. Every time I have driven up to Bedford I have been snarled up in traffic so it would make a really pleasant change if it could just go smoothly this time!

This is one of the cards that I have designed for the workshop. I thought it would be nice to use the new girl stamps and although this is a congratulations card for someone who has done well at school/college it can easily be turned into something else by replacing the books with a different image and altering the wording.

Yet another different colour scheme for me too! I don't often incorporate brown into my cards but I thought that it went quite well with my favourite colour of lilac!

As you can probably guess all of the products that you see on the card can be bought from Stamp Addicts - the strips of paper you can see is from a 12x12 sheet by Denami.

The Last Of The Penny Black cards!

Morning Guys. I get the impression from your comments yesterday that you all think I'm a little bit mad!! Well what can I say apart from sometimes needs must! I don't normally take my crafting out and about with me but I just couldn't bear the fact that I would be wasting valuable time. Anyway I got all the cutting out done that I took with me to do so I was quite pleased with that. (If I got any strange looks from anyone I didn't notice as I was too busy with my head down cutting away!!) My hair is now chopped and judging by the amount that was on the floor it is a wonder I have any left - it definitely isn't thick and heavy any more!

Anyway onto the very last of those Penny Black cards. I have saved my favourite to last!! I think that I like this one the best because it is in my favourite colour scheme as well as having my favourite Penny Black flower stamp (of the moment) on it. Also I went back to stamping my own backgrounds for this card with just an odd strip here and there of a MME background paper.

The flowers and the shrink plastic butterfly were coloured with the Coloursoft pencils and Sansador. The butterfly is from the Stampendous Flutterfly Friends clear set and all the other stamps you see on the card are by Penny Black. I hope you like it!

Hairdressers

So this morning I am off to get my hair cut which is just as well as it won't do anything that I want it to at the moment as it has got too long and thick. Believe me if I owned a pair of thinning scissors I think I would have had a go at sorting it out myself as it has been driving me nuts!

Because I am busy, busy, busy at the moment and can't really afford the time to go to the hairdressers, yesterday afternoon I spent my time colouring in some images so that I can take them with me today and sit in my hairdresser's chair and cut them all out!! I would've taken some colouring to do too but there isn't room there for me to find somewhere to put all my pens and pencils and there's definitely no room for me to assemble a few cards either!!

Internet Explorer Is Driving Me Crazy!!

Thank goodness there are other internet based programmes out there because at the moment me and Internet Explorer are most definitely not friends!! Nearly every time I try and use it, it decides to shut down on me - hence my post being rather late today!

And it is yet another shrink plastic card - see I was a very busy bunny!! All stamps on this one are by Penny Black and the papers are by My Minds Eye. Again not my normal colour scheme but this one reminds me of autumn because of the reds, greens and oranges.

Meanwhile I hope that everyone out there is having more luck than me at the moment with surfing the internet. Everything was fine until I downloaded Internet Explorer 8 - that was my downfall I think!

And Some More Penny Black!

As you will have probably gathered by now I ended up doing quite a few cards for that Glitter Pot demo day as here is yet another one from that weekend. The flowers were stamped onto shrink plastic, coloured with the Coloursoft pencils and shrunk down. The stripey paper is by Daisy Bucket. More my normal type of colour scheme this time too!

Mini Flowers

Apparently it is a lovely bright and warm day out there this morning,here on the south east coast. However I wouldn't know much about that as I have lots to do (yet again!) over the next few days.

I have finished the cards for my workshop at Stamp Addicts but am still working on some sample cards for their demo day. Sarah kindly sent me some new colouring pencils to play with and they are really nice. The only thing I have against them at the moment is that the colours are a bit limited as there is no purple, lilac, pale pinks, or aqua colours!!! This most definitely needs sorting out I think!! The colours that are in the set though blend beautifully and glide onto the paper. I will load up some samples using them once I've completed a few.


Meanwhile the card today is one that I did for The Glitter Pot's demo day using those Penny Black stamps. This particular flower stamp is most definitely my favourite at the moment along of course with that background stamp. The flowers were stamped onto the frosted side of the shrink plastic and coloured with Coloursoft pencils before shrinking it down. The papers (which I am sure you must recognise by now!) are by My Minds Eye. All available from The Glitter Pot.

And More Penny Black

Here's another card usinng Penny Black flowers and frosted shrink plastic. The shrink plastic was shrunk first then the flowers were stamped using Brilliance Starlight black to keep it 'soft' looking. Colouring was done with Coloursoft pencils, Sansador and paper stumps. Papers are by My Minds Eye and all stamps are by Penny Black.

Doesn't Time Fly??

I can't believe how quickly we are getting through this year and am astonished to think that a week tomorrow I will be heading up the motorway for my workshop at Stamp Addicts. (Originally when we arranged it - the end of May seemed so far away and now it is almost here!)


Anyway in honour of my forthcoming trip to Stamp Addicts I thought I'd take the opportunity of loading up a card we did on one of my previous workshops up there. The flower stamps were stamped with a pigment inkpad and embossed with Sticky embossing powder and then gold leaf was applied over the top. As well as the Sticky embossing powder holding gold leaf it will also take foil and glitter too. The flowers were from a Printworks set, the wording from a Denami set of 3 wording stamps and the background is one of my favourite flourish stamps called Mince Flourish by Judikins. All of which you can get from Stamp Addicts.

Over the weekend I will be putting the finishing touches to the cards that we'll be doing for this coming workshop so look out for these either next week or the week after!

Torture!!

Morning and what a lovely sunny and warm morning it is too!! I feel that I should be outside not stuck indoors with yet more deadlines soon coming my way!

The other day I spent all afternoon colouring the index sheets of the new stamp sheets to send to Jill. I can't believe that it literally did take me all afternoon! I would get so far with one of the print outs and then do something that I didn't like and have to start again!! I have added the finished sheets now to my sidebar for a little while so that you can see them - once I get bored with them I'll take them off! Meanwhile I have still yet to actually play with the stamps. I have got so far as to stamping out some images and that is it!! I now have got to put them to one side and start preparing for my visit up to Stamp Addicts next weekend. So I am sure that those of you who have already got your stamp sheets will be making cards before me!

A Buzzy Bee

Here's the second card that we made in the afternoon class on Saturday. It is a really sweet little card, as like the one I showed you the other day it is only 10x10cm once folded. I've used the same Penny Black background stamp that you have been seeing for several days now and the bee and wording is from that Stampendous Flutterfly Friends clear stamp set. You can't tell from this photo but behind the bee is a piece of clear shrink plastic that I stamped with the background stamp with white StazOn and then stuck to dark green card. The papers are by My Minds Eye.

Pink and Green Dragonflies

Morning. Here is a picture of the card that we made on Saturday afternoon at The Glitter Pot. Behind each of the dragonflies there is a textured piece of clear shrink plastic that is achieved using the intaglio technique. (Can't tell you anything more on how to do it, for now, as it isn't fair to those that booked on the class. However I will be doing a feature on this technique in the October issue of Craft Stamper so keep a look out for that to learn more.)

The papers are by My Minds Eye, the dragonflies you will probably recognise as I have used them before - they are from the Stampendous Flutterfly Friends clear stamp set and the wording and background stamp are by Penny Black. Everything can be purchased from The Glitter Pot.

So tired!!

Morning everyone - well it is just about still morning as I begin typing this! I am SO tired this morning that it is taking me forever to do things. Yesterday's classes were really quite hectic as they were both full as well as being fairly challenging. I think that everyone really liked the technique that we covered in the afternoon class using the clear shrink plastic. (I'll post that card up tomorrow for you to see.)

Meanwhile here is the second smaller card from the morning class - no-one actually got to make this card although several people did make a start on it and went away with the components to finish it at home. It is only 10x10cm once folded but makes a really sweet little card to give to someone. The flowers and background stamp are by Penny Black and the 'dreams' wording is from the Flutterfly Friends clear stamp set by Stampendous. The green paper is by My Minds Eye and the stripey paper is by Daisy Bucket all of which can be purchased from The Glitter Pot.

Latest Magazine Projects

Morning everyone. Just thought I'd take the opportunity to let you know that I have some projects out at the moment in a couple of magazines.

The first is in the June issue of Craft Stamper using one of my oriental stamp sets called Japanese Dragonfly Dreams. The cards I created for this magazine were more manly than my usual style using the oriental dragonflies along with gold leaf. For this project I made my own background papers using some of the background stamps from this particular stamp sheet along with some Distress inkpads and a Starburst Stain dauber. All of which can be purchased from The Stamp Man.

The second one is in the current issue of Papercraft Inspirations (which I personally haven't seen yet!) using the sets of English Countryside Art Impression stamps. F0r anyone that hasn't come across the Art Impression range of stamps, they are the most truly interactive scenic stamps. I just LOVE these stamps. Unfortunately I don't get an awful lot of time now to play with them but they appeal to me so much because they allow you to create so many different scenes and layouts using the same stamp combination. They are great for those of us who like to be able to get the most out of our stamps. To see the range click here and this will take you to Sir Stampalots website.

Shrink Plastic Class

Tomorrow I am at The Glitter Pot all day teaching classes on shrink plastic which is definitely one of my favourite mediums to work with. When I first started using shrink plastic (many years ago!!) I couldn't get on with it at all. It wasn't until I tried using a different heat gun (the white one that looks like a hairdryer) that it all came together for me and I haven't looked back since. I still don't get on very well using the long heat guns with the plastic as I find that they are too fierce.

Anyway I am digressing! The card I've posted up today is one that we will be making in the morning using Penny Black flowers and that Penny Black background stamp (that I keep using on all my cards). The little shrunken bees in the punched out flowers are from the Flutterfly Friends stamp set by Stampendous. The stripey background paper is by Daisy Bucket and the leaves are by My Minds Eye. All of these things are available from The Glitter Pot.

Guess What Came Today?

My wait is over as this morning my stamp sheets arrived from The Stamp Man. Yippeee!!!! So this means that they have now got them in stock!

No prizes for guessing what I will be doing later on today - providing I get time that is!

Fingers crossed that my mind doesn't shut down once I start working with them. If anyone else purchases any of these sheets and makes a card please let me know as I would love to see what you come up with.

Right I'm off to go and finish the cards that I am currently working on...........

And More Penny Black Flowers!

Oops I'm a bit late posting again today as I have been a busy bunny.

Anyway here is another card from when I was demoing the other weekend using those same Penny Black stamps. I am fairly certain that the background papers are all by My Minds Eye and the rest was stamped using the Penny Black Srolling Along background stamp which I just LOVE! I don't normally put blue and green together but I think it turned out quite well.

Funky Flower stamp sheets

Hi guys. Just a quick post for now to let you know that you can see the designs of the 3 new stamp sheets (Apsects of Design un-mounted stamp sheets No's 56, 57 and 58) on The Stamp Man's website! Click here to see them. Plus you can pre-order them too as we now expect them to arrive sometime this week.

More Penny Black Flowers

Morning everyone. Well the stamp sheets didn't make it in time for the Port Sunlight show but hopefully it won't be too much longer and then Jill will pop them up on The Stamp Man's website for you to see.

Meanwhile just to prove that I have been making cards here is one of the cards that I was able to take with me the other weekend to The Glitter Pot's demo weekend. All the stamps are by Penny Black and the background papers are by My Minds Eye. The green panel at the top of the card was stamped with the Penny Black Scrolling Along stamp in both Versamark Dazzle and Brilliance Starlite Black. The Starlite Black is a soft black so isn't so harsh - I used this same inkpad to stamp in the corners of the flower panel too. A bit of a different colour scheme for me as I normally go for cool colours so I hope you like it!

Classes

Morning everyone. Well at last I can breathe again! I am glad to announce that finally I was able to use that cover mount stamp in a way that I was satisfied with! (I just don't know what it is with me and my own designs. I don't get this problem with other stamps - just mine!) So I just have the text to do for these now and they can be sent on their merry way.

Next Saturday I am teaching all day at The Glitter Pot - the cards for this are already done, I just need to get on with typing up some project sheets which I will probably do today. These classes are full up but I am back at The Glitter Pot again on Sat 20th June if anyone is interested. In the morning we will be combining stamping along with some backgrounds created with cuttlebug embossing folders and core-dinations cardstock and in the afternoon I will be showing how to double emboss in two different ways using cuttlebug embossing folders combined with some stamped foreground images. So if anyone fancies a day of cuttlebugging do book on! For more information on the classes click here.

Also Sarah (from Stamp Addicts) and I have now decided to base my workshop at Stamp Addicts on Friday 29th May at 3pm on the new Judikins girl stamp sheets so if any of you fancy a couple of hours of girl power you know what to do! Click here for information on how to book on.

Right I'm off to go and do some more typing!

Port Sunlight

Well tomorrow it is the Port Sunlight show and both Jill and I are keeping everything crossed right now as we are hoping that the new stamp sheets will arrive tomorrow at the show! This will mean that anyone who attends the show will get to see the finished rubber before I do! Because of the show Jill won't be able to post my sheets to me until Monday at the earliest so someone could be playing with my new designs before me!! Anyway if the sheets do make it in time and any of you out there see them do let me know what you think. Meanwhile just incase the sheets don't turn up Jill and I have been working on a little surprise for you.................I won't tell you what it is - you'll just have to stop by The Stamp Man stand and see!

**************

Well what a manic time I have been having recently! For the last few days I couldn't tell you what the weather has been doing as my eyes have been permanently glued to my work table and I've only just about managed to eat and sleep inbetween. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my editor who I think has saved my sanity! With a lot of focus and hours I had managed to get my main magazine project done - just! However I am supposed to be creating a few things for this particular issue with the cover mount stamp that I'd designed and to be honest I absolutely hated what I had done with it but I had run out of time to do anything about it. Katy has been an absolute star though and has given me today and the weekend to sort it out. You would think that working with my own design would be a walk in the park wouldn't you? But for some reason every time I work with a stamp that I have designed my mind just completely shuts down and I just can't create anything nice with it until I have just about exhausted every possibility! (What a great designer I am?!!) With 3 new stamp sheets about to come out aren't I going to have fun???

Ok back to that dratted cover mount stamp...........

Penny Black Flowers

Oh dear another late post!! I did have good intentions but have been SO busy beavering away! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow..........

Meanwhile here is another card from last weekend. All the stamps are by Penny Black and the papers are by My Minds Eye and are from The Glitter Pot. The butterflies (in the flowers that you can't see very well from this scanned image!) are from the Stampendous Flutterfly Friends stamp sheet.

Chasing My Tail.......Still!!

Morning everyone. Well after having to do extra work for the Glitter Pot demo day it has had a knock on effect and I am now desperately trying to get a magazine project completed and it seems that the cards are fighting me all the way - don't they understand that time is precious and that really they should have been sent off a few days ago???

Anyway once things are more under control here I will load up another card. I just don't have the time at the moment - sorry!!

Right back to those cards................

Flutterfly Friends

Oh dear!! I had meant to post much earlier than this but I am still trying to play catch up!

This card is one of my Glitter Pot demo ones using clear shrink plastic behind each of the butterflies. The butterflies and bees are off of the same clear stamp sheet by Stampendous called Flutterfly Friends and the swirly background stamp is by Penny Black. Background papers and stamps are all available from The Glitter Pot.

Gotta go as have SO much to do...............

Glitter Pot Demo

Hi guys. First of all a big thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to comment on yesterday's post - I do appreciate it and am glad that you like the look of the new designs!

Well today I thought it was about time I stopped boring you all with talk of the forthcoming stamp sheets and have loaded up a card that I did for the Glitter Pot Demo Weekend. This was another one that I ended up not taking with me due to that Bo Bunny paper at the base of the card!

I really enjoyed myself on Saturday as I do love demoing and sharing my passion with everyone. I have most definitely missed demoing at the shows so far this year.

The flower and background stamps are by Penny Black and the bee has been stamped, coloured and shrunk on frosted shrink plastic and is from the Stampendous clear set of Flutterfly Friends. All the colouring was done with Coloursoft pencils, paper stumps and Sansador. I really like this method of colouring as you can get the colours to blend together seamlessly so well with very little effort. Anyway I hope you like it!!

All the materials used (apart from the Bo Bunny paper!) are available from The Glitter Pot.

Another Peek

Hi guys. I'm a bit later posting today as I had quite a bit to catch up on after being out all day yesterday.

My thanks to both All Pink Girl and Lisa for your kind comments yesterday. As you were SO nice I thought I would load up another sneaky peek for you. This image is also from the Funky Flowers stamp sheet. I am keeping everything crossed that you all like the new designs.

I have actually finished the 3rd stamp sheet now so this is the bit I find the hardest as I then can't wait for them to be made into rubber!

If you get time I would really appreciate your feedback as to what you think of the new designs.

Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday!

A Little Taster!!

Good morning everyone. Well as promised here is a little peek of one of my new designs that you have been hearing about this past week. This particular design is off of the Funky Flowers stamp sheet which is the first one that was sent off to be made so with a little bit of luck this may make an appearance at the Port Sunlight show next weekend!!


Once both Jill and I get our act together each of us will be offering some blog candy so do check back! Meanwhile for another little peek of one of the new designs from the second stamp sheet hop on over to The Stamp Man's blog! I hope you like them!


Meanwhile I must scoot as I am demoing at The Glitter Pot all day today! Wish me luck...............

At Last!! A Card!!

Hi guys. Just to prove that I have actually been working this week on making cards as well as the stamp sheets, here is one of the cards that I had made for The Glitter Pot but won't be taking with me tomorrow due to one of the papers being discontinued!

I hope you like it! The stamps I have used are all by Penny Black and are currently in stock although I don't know if they will be by the end of tomorrow! The paper on the left has been discontinued but was by Bo Bunny and the one on the right is by My Minds Eye. The type of shrink plastic that I used is 'frosted' which is pre-sanded one side and clear on the other.

Don't forget to call back over the weekend to see some of the new designs!