Christmas workshop

Just a very quick post today.   We have just come home from an amazing family holiday in Florida so crafting has definitely been on the back burner this month.  But more about that in a minute - our Christmas workshop booking closes soon and we have a couple of places available so if you wanted to come you need to book asap.  Check the events page or email me to find out more.

Back to my holiday!  

I did manage to sneak into Michaels a couple of times - it was brilliant but Halloween is such a big holiday for the USA and Christmas supplies were not really available. I would have loved some festive papers. 

I did accidentally buy a couple of items - a gorgeous Halloween wreath kit and a complete scrapbook kit.
The scrapbook was my husband's idea - not that he realised that was what he was describing.  I have no idea at all how to make one so I bought a kit to get me started.  I'm looking forward to picking out the photos we are going to use and we've kept tickets,  maps etc to include.  We are making it for our little boy to remind him of all the fun we had.

Chalk Talk and Flower Shop

I absolutely adore chalk talk and love the coordinating framelit dies that come as part of the chalk talk bundle.  It's a great deal too, with a 15% saving when purchased together.

I made this gorgeous anniversary card for a friend.

It has a crumbcake cardstock base, with a layer of wisteria wonder dsp on top.

I used wisteria wonder and elegant eggplant ink to stamp my own background using a stamp from the flower shop set on some very vanilla cardstock.  Isn't it beautiful!

I then stamped one of the chalk talk stamps in white craft ink on a scrap of wisteria wonder card and topped it with another stamped in crumbcake on very vanilla card.

A little piece of the crumbcake seam binding ribbon tied in a bow just finished it off.

Gorgeous, if I don't say so myself!

More Polka Dot Pieces

Preparations are already underway for the christmas craft stall in aid of the Yorkshire Cancer Centre.  But in the interests of not depressing anybody reading this, I am not going to post festive pictures just yet!

Instead, I have got a lovely card I made using the largest flower from the Polka Dot Pieces stamp set.  My design was inspired by a project I saw on Brandy Cox's Website  I used a circular framelit to cut a hole out of my So Saffron Cardbase and Whisper White cardfront.  To do this I tacked them together with snail adhesive.

I stamped the large flower onto some white card using coastal cabana ink and punched it out with the large scallop circle punch.  I made two of these flowers.  I gave them a little sparkle with some dazzling details.

I then took a length of coordinating thread (you could use fishing line) and glued my two flowers back to back with the thread through the centre.  I fixed either end of the thread to my cardbase with dimensionals - pulling it tight so my flower hung in the centre of the hole.

The front is stamped with the sentiment from the same set in night of navy ink and fixed in place with dimensionals.

Christmas is coming early this year

I have signed up to hold a craft stall in our hospital to raise money for the Yorkshire Cancer Centre.   It isn't until November but I am already starting to panic that I won't be able to make enough cards etc.

Fortunately,  I am not doing it alone - my good friend and fellow SU demo Anita is on board too.

So I have been playing with some Christmas design ideas.  I have requested to borrow some retired Christmas stamp sets from other demonstrators to get me started as the new autumn/winter seasonal catalogue has not been released yet!

My first project uses cardstock in cherry cobbler, gumball green and crumb cake.   Cherry cobbler and gumball green ink, woodgrain stamp, scallop circle and circle punches.

Polka dot pieces class

I had such a lovely day yesterday teaching 14 lovely ladies at the summer papercraft workshop I ran with Kylie Henshaw

We used the lovely new Polka Dot Pieces stamp set.  Each of our crafters received their own set to use and take home.

We made 3 beautiful cards and a simple 2, 4, 6, 8 box.  It was great to see all the ladies enjoying themselves and putting their own creative twist on our designs.

If you would like to join us next time look at my event's page and visit Kylie's blog for her class dates.

Simply sketched

I have been playing with the latest in colours and the gorgeous exclusive hostess stamp sets - simply sketched.

This beautiful set is only available to our hostesses when their workshop order exceeds £150.  To make your hostess benefits go even further, these exclusive sets are also discounted.  This set has a retail value of £18.95 but only costs you £13!  WOW!

The 3 images are just lovely and the sentiments make it a really versatile set.  You could really make a card for pretty much anybody - or a beautiful home decor project.

I made a little set of thank you cards which I plan to make matching box for later.  I used very vanilla cardstock and the five new colours for 2013-15.  Baked brown sugar,  strawberry slush, pistachio pudding, crisp cantaloupe and coastal cabana.

A little birthday something

I got my new in colour bundle of ink and cardstock and I could not wait to make something.
It is my (almost) ) sister-in-law's birthday and I decided to make her my guinea-pig!

The colours are crisp cantaloupe and very vanilla for the cardstock.   Then I've used crisp cantaloupe,  strawberry slush,  pistachio pudding and baked brown sugar inks.
I've teamed this up with the ever popular papillon potpourri stamp set and coordinating elegant butterfly punch.   My lovely "L" was cut with the alphabet bigz die and the edges distressed using a sponge dauber and some baked brown sugar ink.
I've added a little bling with pearls and rhinestones - it is for a birthday after all!  Then I just popped it all into a picture frame minus the glass. Voilà!