Dabble day....

Wow, what a day. Marvellous. If you have the opportunity to go to the next one, get yourself booked on, they are organised by Kim Sutton, and I can honestly say it ran so smoothly and professionally it was a joy to attend.

First I need to say thank you to Kim and her team.  The demonstators were looked after so well, we had constant drinks supplied (which trust me, a lot of organisers don't bother to do - even though you are talking constantly), they made sure we were fed at half time (again, a lot of organisers don't care if you are running on empty), and even offered breakfast, as I actually got there on time!!  When you are looked after properly it really makes you feel as though your work is actually valued, so thank you so much Kim and Co if you are reading.

Secondly, well done on the organisation.  Kim has been running these for many a moon, and she has managed to get it perfect.  There were 6 demonstrators, and each of us had a table of approx 14 people. We taught for 45mins, then our tables moved round.  We repeated our card, which meant everyone got to make 6 different projects.  It was fun, didn't feel manic, busy without being hectic.  Obviously the people were great, of course....crafters unite!!  It was lovely to meet many new people - and see some very familiar faces (I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....Helen and co!!).

I managed to remember to take a few pics, but not as many as I planned, as usual, but here's a few happy crafters:

Faversham Workshop

Just for those who missed the details of the workshop I'm doing next week, the details can be found on the Artistic Stamper website:

http://www.theartisticstamper.com

The workshop is on the 4th November, and there is a morning session and an afternoon session.  Tickets are still available - I think!!  Give them a ring and they will be able to help you.

Now, better get prepping for it eh!!

Create and Craft and Tigerlilly

Had a fantastic show the other day.  This is why I love C&C, we really do have such a good variety of shows.  Lisa, who is Tigerlily, brought some absolutely beautiful felt kits.  Now, this is something I have wanted to do for ages, obviously waiting for a spare min, but these kits make me REALLY want to have a go.  My favourite was the Xmas stocking, I could just imagine these hanging on the side of the fireplace filled with lovely treats.  And the price was incredible.  If you missed them, then I wanted to share a few photo's with you:

Happy Crafting days

Had a lovely evening the other night....my friend Emily, wanted to do a little bit of crafting as she had a few cards to make, so Rachel, Emily and Catherine and myself got out the stuff and cracked on.  It was really nice, and we have decided to really try and do this once a month.  I love evenings like this, as obviously with crafting being a "job" sometimes you forget just how fun it is.  I love showing everyone how to use stuff, and re-finding stuff as well!  Obviously, me being me, I have already decided we can extend this to a craft group!  I know, just leave it to a few friends popping round rather than making it another job.  I do get carried away.  Anyhow, here's the girls hard at work :)

The new Cricut MINI

Okay, this is another part of my job I love....getting to play with new stuff!  I have just been given the new and rather stunning cricut mini.  It sits perfectly next to my computer, very neat and tidy.  It looks good.  And man is it easy.  I have plugged it into my computer, linked it with ease and can use it with my Craft Room (which I already had installed).  Obviously you still need to buy the cartridges, which you can either buy online (and browse before you buy), or you can link your physical cartridges to your craft room, and use them as well.

It has most definitely got my seal of approval.  Cricut Mini, your very cute!!

Mr fox

Instead of getting on with shed loads of cleaning and my tax return, I sit in the garden feeding mr fox!! Worth every skived minute.

Glue and Camper van now in stock!!

I know I had to let people know that the Crafty Notions glue, and the twiddley bitz camper van are now back in stock......sorry I'm not dropping you a line personally (of course I didn't write it down!!).  I need to tell you there is only one camper van left at the suppliers, so unfortunately it will be first come first served.

:)

Samples for C&C.....

Thank you all for contacting me regarding making samples for Hayley on C&C.  The response was absolutely amazing.  And the standard of your work is fantastic.  Honestly, I was so impressed.  We have some damn fine crafters out there don't we.  I have picked 5 people to email Hayley.  I am so sorry those of you not contacted this time, but I have been inspired so please watch out for more shout outs like this one! I have idea's up my sleeve.  Lets hope the idea's manage to work their way out and my sleeves don't just get longer!!

Thank you again, it was so difficult, I just had to go for it, because honestly you were all fantastic xxx

Call for Volunteers....

This is a little request for volunteers to make cards for a show on C&C with Hayley from Pots and Pancakes, for the 18th November.  Hayley is going to be bringing us a marbling kit, which you can use to make some beautiful background papers.  Hayley is at home with making amazing rugs, painting pottery etc, but would love some paper crafters to give their take on her lovely papers - so we need a few volunteers to make just a couple of samples each for the show.  Hayley will send you a stash of papers to work with - what you use with them, and how you use them, is completely up to you.

I am looking for 5 volunteers, so we have a selection of different looks.  Please let me know if you are interested, and if possible I would love a photo of some of your work - then I have the job of narrowing it down to 5 people!!

Thank you crafters.

More flowers....

Just a quick post before bed. A massive thank you to everyone who came to visit us at Kettering at the weekend. I was there on Sunday, and as usual had a great time. Lovely to meet some wonderful crafters.

I demoed my fusible fibres again, and tried the tip that a very canny crafter emailed me to tell me about. Rather than gluing the flower together when coiled together, i used the heat gun. Just a few little blasts fused the flower together. And a few blasts to the petals made the flower even more interesting. A massive thank you to the crafter who passed that tip on - I'm so sorry I'm not giving you a name check, I couldn't fine your post to me :(. I was made up it worked though.

So, a few shiny flowers ready to go out with web site orders.

Blockbuster!!

Just wanted to show you (in case you watched today's show), I did manage to finish my card and pull an email out of the cup - hooray.

Need to get a card finished for tomorrow, I will be joining Helen and the lovely ladies at the Craftstation in Kirkby in Ashfield to do a days workshop. Need to get an early night in again as well, ready for the drive. This time I will not get lost!!!

Happy days

At work....good when you have happy days at work isn't it! Today has been brilliant, started with the kids show, which was good fun, and met john's family who are lovely. Then two hours of crafting with Barbara grey. Two hours, how fab. I've popped a picture of my attempts, I was really happy with them, especially the London one. Sorry the pictures arnt brill, taken on my phone.

After Barbara I had the last hour Linda Peterson was doing with us for this visit. She's so brilliant. Her jewellery is fantastic. She is so inspiring. The hour absolutely flew.

To finish the day I had our Debbie and her lovely pick of the week. Loving the books she has brought out on the cd, what a great idea. The shabby chic look is so up my street, and CDs give you a wealth of possibilities.

So, all in all it's been a marvellous day. I'm gonna grab an early night so I can be up bright and early tomorrow ready for Kettering.

Night all xxx

Create and Craft - Thursday

I'm a day late with this little posting, but I wanted to share a few of the lovely samples from Wendy at Card-io, I've popped the rest on my blog.  I love Wendy's stamps, great designs which are so versatile.  And have you seen Wendy stamp, talk about speed stamping!  Brilliant.  I hope you managed to catch the shows, if not do keep your eye's peeled for them on repeats, as they are definitely worth a ganders.

Kettering

Almost forgot - Kettering on Sunday.  The show is on for the full weekend, of course, but I will only be able to make it on the Sunday unfortunately.  Really looking forward to it, especially as this is a new haunt!

If you would like to come along, follow this link for all the details:

http://www.bssbs.co.uk/

I love this stamp from Beth Hughes, and choose it because I saw layers - layers of trees, hills and sheep.  It was one of those, as soon as you see it the project is formed.  It's perfect for decoupage, and you can pick and choose the bits you decided to layer.  I coloured it in with my Le Plumes, but following doing this card at my workshop in St Albans, I would definitely do it again in bright and wonderful alcohol pens.  The stamp is a happy image, perfect for a birthday, or maybe a good cheer up card.

A little Hello

I love sitting at night just making ATC's for my parcels.  I haven't been able to do this in quite some time, so it was lovely to chill out last night, catch up on all my Corrie's, and craft.  I used one of the stamps on my web site, the brilliant Cosmic Shimmer PVA, glitter and the ruffle edge ribbon.  This stamp is great, as you can make a simple card, which looks really pretty.  I love stamping on printed card as well, and this is another perfect stamp to do just the job.  Some of the ATC's I stamped twice so I could emphasis the "Hello", others I just used the flat image.  Hope you like them.

Blog Candy Winner Announced!!!

Sharon Roddis - come on down the price is right!!!  Please email me your address Sharon, as you have won the blog candy, yippppeeee:

leoniepujol@hotmail.co.uk

Watch out for more of those next time I do a web offer, rather good fun, and thank you to all who entered and for all your comments, there were some really lovely ones. Sorry to those of you who were unlucky this time.

Now, I thought I had better pop another project, again from my weekend at Ali Pally working with the fibres.  This time we are going to make a fibre flower.  So easy, and the fibres look amazing which ever colour you seem to use.  Now this time you need to make your fibre sheet slightly thicker than normal.  I made it round(ish), and ironed it on both sides to make sure it was properly welded together.  Trim off any ratty bits around the edges keeping the basic circle shape (don't be worried about it being perfect).  Now cut a spiral as you would when making a normal paper flower, keeping a large circle in the centre to sit the flower on when finished.  Starting from the outside of the spiral start to coil.  To make it neater in the centre I trimmed off the ratty bit at the end as well.  I also folded the sheet as I was coiling, so you do not have a neat fibres edge showing, but a folded edge.  It makes the flower more substantial.  Coil until you get to the centre then glue with strong double sided, and pinflair, to make sure it holds in place.  Using pinflair gives you a chance to adjust the flower so it sits as you want it.  If you prefer you can always hold it with a few stitches.

Viola.  A lovely shiny flower.

BLOG CANDY

This is the last day to get free P&P on my web site with your lovely ribbon orders, so to celebrate I thought it was due time I offered some blog candy - it's been quite a while since I gave away goodies.

All you need to do is leave your comment to this post, and a name will be randomly picked....the winner is going to receive a fab stash of absolutely gorg ribbon from my collection. 

Good luck bloggers :) xxx

Fusing your Fibres

My word, sleepy this evening, and I've gone and done something which really bugs me. I've left my glasses at work. This means I'll have to leave my contacts in till the bitter end, then put them in first thing. I hate that. My eyes need chance to wake up before I cover them up. Damn. Serves me right for laughing and showing off to the Deal gang because I was going home.

Had a lovely day today again. Apart from the samples going missing this morning of course. And of course they weren't missing - they were just in a very unsafe place. And it wasn't me putting them there either. Result. They are now retrieved though, so at least I'll have something to show on Saturday. Phew. It was great working with Christine and Julia. Really looking forward to the Kettering show. Pop it in your diary, it's on the 13th and 14th October. I will be there on the Sunday, lets hope it's a good turn out.

Now, today I am going to post another one of the samples from the demo at Ali Pally, again using my fibres (please check my web site if you would like to have a dabble). this time I wanted to see if I could colour the fibres, but with them being such strong colours I wanted something more intense than an ink, so used my paints. Now the first time I tried this I had already inked my stamp using versamark, then changed my mind at what I wanted to do, so applied the paint onto the stamp, over the top of the Versamark. This happens to be the key factor to this technique, as I found out when I was actually doing this again in front of everyone. The second time I did it - in front of the crowd - I didn't ink my stamp up first and just applied the paint. When I came to iron the fibres onto the stamp rather than lift the paint, I actually just ironed it into the stamp. You need to versamark your stamp prior to applying paint so the paint will life off your stamp and stick to the fibres. This does indeed paint the fibres, and takes away a little of the shine. I really liked the results and will definitely try this again with various colours to see what happens:

Postage charges altered...I think

Just a quickie post to say I think I've managed to alter the postage charges!! I think. I know, sounds a little dodgy doesn't it. Anyway, if it's worked, than this is the new structure orders up to £5 - £1.50 £10 - £2.60 all orders over £10 - FREE Until Friday, you can still get your free P&P on all orders that contain ribbon, and there's a lovely selection available, so do take advantage of that. The code you will need to enter when you check out is: RIB1 Fingers crossed that works, if not please let me know and I will get it sorted. Thanks crafty folk

Beautiful Face stamps

Well, what do you think!! How many posts is this in a row....not bad eh. It won't last long I'm sure. I have been busy as well. Work has been cropping up of course, and then we had a lovely cheese and wine evening. Quite a lot of both! Lovely though. I'm not generally a white wine fan, but found a really nice one (obviously haven't a clue what it was now). Work was good on Monday, Jo was back and it was really good to see her. Jo, Dean and myself had a really good morning catch up, a proper coffee morning goss. Jo is looking so well, it must be strange coming back to work, I imagine quite heart wrenching. Other than that I have been busy getting my orders sent out. The "Loving Ribbon" free P&P offer has gone down a storm. It has made me think about what to do with P&P in the future, I'm considering offering it on all orders over £10 as a trial. What do you recon? We all hate paying P&P don't we, I'm completely the same. I think this is something I need to amend - I'll be honest, I'm not sure where the bit is on my web site to let me change it - so don't hold your breath. I did however, find a button that let me add bank transfers! Whoopee, so now you can pay by cheque, transfer or paypal. Always handy to have more options. And then, for todays crafty think, one I've already popped on Facebook, but want to share it with the bloggers as well, as I know your not all on fb. This is such a beautiful stamp, which I'm very happy to report is now in stock (hopefully I'll manage to get it on my web site in the next few days). I distressed the background and then stamped with a really cool stamp from Sam Poole, type alphabet. I then over-stamped in black, the beautiful face. It's such a clear image, brilliant for over stamping. I dried it completely then stippled on a little versamark and sprinkled on a little embossing powder to give it texture. The words are also with this set of stamps, and anyone who knows me probably knows I thoroughly believe this is true - some people get rather offended when their crafting is described as playing, but playing is a way to experiment. Maybe those who get offended don't actually play, maybe they just stick and stay safe. Nothing wrong with that of course. Anyway, before I have to go digging round for my soap box...back to the card!! I was actually working on the base more than anything with this card. I wanted to use my fusible fibres in a different way. They are generally sparkly and bright, so don't work well with distressed effects. So, I used them with my Eco Paints, and Vaseline, and only allowed a little sparkle to come through, this gives you texture, but also a tiny bit of shine! Okay, back to packing parcels PS when I wrote this I did put in paragraphs, but my preview is cramming it all up together - don't know why unfortunately, hopefully it'll post it properly.

Christmas Birthday

This is another card which has been recently published in Cardmaking and Papercraft. I didn't want to do a Christmas card, so thought I would do one which would be suitable for a winter Birthday, and I think these fab Gorjuss stamps completely fit the bill. I used my distress markers to colour it in for a change (as I wanted to play with them!). I didn't use the stamp as a full image, but seperated the little girl - this way you can definitely get more from the stamp. Watch out for the stamps appearing on my web site tomorrow!!