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.