Sandown

Well I just finished my my first show as a self-employed person,this was with Kay at Sandown.It was great catching up with everybody on set-up day, then meeting some of the regular visitors to the show.
It was a little quieter than usual,so as a treat and surprise to Ali from Ali-Craft, we each took an hour to do a workshop with her.It has been an age since I did a workshop with somebody else teaching.
I decorated a little wooden chest with Graphic 45 papers,distress inks and some pieces from Tim Holtz idea-ology range.It was great fun,wish I could have played longer.Kay did a mirror frame with some paints from Paper-Artsy.




As I didn't have time to finish it on the day, I had a play at home. So I added some gold leaf and swirly pearls.The pearls I altered by colouring them with Spectrum Noir pens but you could use any of the alcohol ink pens or alcohol inks. I used Glossy accents to attach the idea-ology pieces and to highlight areas of the paper.
Hopefully I'll have another chance to do a workshop soon, but it's given me an idea with what to do with those wooden boxes I've had stored for years.....

Well my next adventure starts tomorrow and I'm really excited, I'm not saying what yet,there are a few who know but I'll tell all in a few days time.
So I'll have to go now and finish sorting out.
Thanks for all the lovely comments,let me know what you think about the box.

Welcome

Just a short post to welcome my new followers and to thank those who have posted some really nice comments.I appreciate those that have been made, as it's nice to know what you like.
I'm hoping to post as often as I can,with all this extra playtime I can make a lot more cards.
That's until the craft show season starts of course.
The card below was made from pieces I die-cut at the NEC, I decided to leave them white after seeing Sue Wilson's card,first time I've tried a card like this.
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.


I've have quite a few adventures to look forward to this month,details to be posted later.
Happy crafting

After a few weeks of winter cleaning... and getting ready for Christmas I'm now ready to start a fresh.What to play with first,I've been so used to being given a limited collection of products to work with. I may have to do the same to myself.
On the run up to Christmas I managed to make quite a few cards,here's a photo of one of my favourites,


For this card I used the Heirloom ornaments 2011 die from Spellbinders. Once cut, the shape was left in the die then embossed it using the polka dot mask,then inked using one of the new winter seasonal distress inks.Doing it in this way leaves a plain white edge to the shape.
The poinsettia was stamped using another of the winter seasonal inks, then the whole shape was embossed using Aurora Crystal embossing powder.To create the background I tore a piece of paper to use as a mask,inked around it and overstamped in the same colour using a wording stamp.Removed the mask then stamped the sprig with jet black archival ink.Both the sprig and poinsettia came from the A5 unmounted stamp set Snowflakes and sprigs from Creative Expressions.
I've used this die in so many different ways, hopefully I'll show some other cards in the very near future.,

New opportunities

Well my announcement is that I have left Creative Expressions to go back to being a freelance designer and demonstrator.
Recently I have been working at alot of the craft shows with both Kay Rutter (Hougie) and J & C Creations, and have really enjoyed meeting fellow crafters.This meant I did not have a lot of free time and was missing a lot of crafting time.
I'm hoping to now have time to play with lots of different and new products.
First things first, Christmas cards and Christmas shopping.Spending spree tomorrow at Lincoln Christmas market really looking forward to this as it was cancelled last year due to SNOW!!!Weekend means time to tidy the studio and then to make my Christmas cards, have at least 100 to make.What design to do,that might take some thinking time......
I know I've shocked some people with this announcement but I hope to now keep up with my blog and let you see what I've been making.
Who knows what I'll be doing in the future but it will be fun experimenting on the way.


Did you see this in last months Craft Stamper?I used some of the foundations papers and the button tree stamp from Creative Expressions.

I know,long time no blog,sorry about that.Needed to sort out a few things in my life as well as my daughter borrowing my netbook for college work.lol.
Last weekend I was demonstrating at Jo Channon's shop Lets Create in Lincolnshire and one of her ladies really loved this card.
The background was made using three shades of blue Cosmic Shimmer sprays,then die-cut using a spellbinder die.The tree and wording was stamped and embossed with cosmic shimmer true white.

Short and sweet blog today but tomorrow there will be a longer one with an announcement, so please check my blog tomorrow.

Christmas Tatty Launch

Christmas Tatty had her first appearance today on Create and Craft and this stamp was very popular.It's one of mine and Jo's favourites, there are so many different techniques you could use with this stamp.For this card I used one of my favourite distress inks Chipped Sapphire,I always say,this doesn't look like the colour on the lid.Once stamped I used a damp brush to pull out the colour from the lines.I stamped again to cut out the individual buttons to 3D over the first image.The ribbon, American seam binding, was even coloured with the distress ink.
This was the first day of shows,there's another 3 tomorrow,Jo's going to be very busy again plus she's on her own this time,no Nigel.

There was no real break between the first shows Jo and I were busy deciding on products for two more shows that are just before the POW.It's all go,right I off to think about card designs for flowers and girly stuff.

Here's another Tatty sample from today's show.

Murray & Ethel

Tomorrow is the launch of some brand new Murray & Ethel.We promised a while ago we would bring some new designs, so I hope you will love these as much as the previous designs.
Some of the sayings definitely made me laugh out loud,hope they have the same effect on you.
There will be some new products and some old favourites but all work well with these designs.
Here are a couple of cards





There are 5 plates all together, so plenty of choice to be had.Hope you enjoy the 3 shows 11am,1pm & 4pm.
After dropping the cards of in Peterborough with Jo I'm back to working with our new Tatty stamps.These will be first aired on the 11th August.

To answer the question I left in my last post I stayed in a house boat,at a place called Wayfordbridge Bridge near Stalham.If you want peace and quiet this is a great holiday, very relaxing.

Back to work,need to finish off these samples for Jo.