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!!