Birthday Wishes

Hello again,

Welcome back to my blog, which is definitely being a little neglected lately.

Last time I posted, I was just off down to our new store which opened in Evesham last month. It's situated in the 'Valley' shopping village and looks so pretty.

It was most certainly a busy weekend - we had two of our TV personalities demonstrating and the store was full to the rafters. It was a couple of very long days, but my colleague and I had the best time there.

Back in our own store at Chesterfield, we are now preparing for our first Birthday celebrations - can you believe it's been nearly a year since we opened our doors! We have three lovely ladies coming over the birthday weekend to help us celebrate - Leann Chivers will be in store on Friday 22nd September, Sara Davies will be with us on Saturday 23rd and Lizzy Curtis on Sunday 24th. We are selling VIP tickets both in store and online if you would like to come and join us.

My crafty project today was made for my manager at the store who celebrated her birthday at the end of August - I'm sure she won't mind me showing you here ...

I used Sheena's glycerine technique with my Spectrum Noir Aqua markers to make the background - simply squidge a small amount of glycerine into your blending tool before picking up the scribbled water colour from your glass mat. It behaves much like distress inks, but stays open for longer allowing you to get a really good blend. I also flicked some water splats onto the background and blotted with a piece of kitchen paper to add a little interest. 

I stamped the pocket watch with black Versafine ink - 'Time Flies' designed by Donna Ratcliff for Crafter's Companion, then embossed with clear powder before adding a little extra depth using the same colours.

I stamped just one of the little butterflies for a second time and coloured it to match, then added it to the top of the stamped image.

A little frantage powder and a greeting to finish off.

Hope you like my design for today.

Hugz, Jan xx

A Long Time Gone ...

Hello there,

It's been ages since my last post, but I have been having a nightmare of a time with Blogger. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but every time I go to open my blog it redirects it to an advertising page - it's driving me mad!! I have googled how to stop this and ran what seems like millions of antivirus/malware programmes to try and detect the problem - but it's still doing it!!! Aaaaaargh!!

Anyhow, I have managed to get in here today and it is letting me post (for now). So a lot has happened since I last posted, but I won't bore you with all the details. 

We have had a little change round at the shop and some of the staff are now producing the samples to showcase the new product launches at Crafter's Companion, so I thought I would show you one of my samples for the new Mockingbird Lane Perfect Partners collection by Sheena Douglass.

I have absolutely loved playing with these gorgeous little houses - here's the church from the collection ...

The background is made with distress inks, then over stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with white detail powder using the little snowflakes from the collection.

The dies and stamps are so easy to use and I have layered up some of the elements to give a 3D effect. The image is coloured with alcohol markers and I also added a little glitter to the snow areas for some sparkle.

My sample is now proudly residing on the display at the shop for our customers to use for a little inspiration.

I will try not to leave it so long before I post again this time, providing I can get back on Blogger. I would love to hear from you if you have had similar problems, especially if you have managed to fix them!!

Hugz, Jan xx

Just for Fun!

Good afternoon,

I feel like a bad blogger at the moment, it's been over three weeks again since I last posted, so please forgive me.

It's been over six months since I started my new job, but I am still getting used to the new regime - I'm out out of the house and working more now than I have done in the last thirty years - how does that work?! Lol.

Having said that I am absolutely loving all aspects of it - working in the store, demonstrating and teaching classes. I was promoted to Supervisor a few weeks ago, so my job role has changed a little (with more responsibility), but then I have always loved a challenge!

It's been one of my days off today and I have actually had a chance to 'play' in my craft room, instead of what I now class as 'work'. So, after spending what seems like an age watching crafting videos on You Tube this morning, I found this gorgeous little project which several people have done tutorials for and decided to have a go myself. So here's what I have been playing with today ...

I have used mainly 'Stampin' Up' products for this one (with a little Crafter's Companion thrown in for good measure).

I made the shadow box from a piece of 12" x 12" Sahara Sand cardstock, which has a little bit of text stamped on it using some Pumice Stone distress ink. The background design paper is from the 'Falling in Love' suite, and I cut lots of embellishments from a piece of the left over design paper using some of the dies from the 'Botanical Builder' set. . I also die-cut the beautiful 'Bloomin' Heart' from cream linen cardstock to fit in the centre of the little box.  

I had to sneak in a pretty die-cut butterfly, which is from the 'Shabby Chic' Signature collection by Sara Davies (I think this might appear on many of my projects from now on - I love it!). The stamped banner is also from the same collection.

I am planning to make more of these for an up and coming craft fayre that I want to attend, so watch this space.

Enjoy the rest of your evening,
Hugz Jan xx

Life's a Hoot!

Good morning and Happy St Patrick's Day,

I finally have one of my samples to show you today (yes, just one for now) and this one is for the Alphabet Challenge where we start back at the beginning of the alphabet today - so for the letter 'A' I chose the theme

'ANYTHING WITH WINGS'

Here's what I made using a couple of the brand new mixed media dies from Crafter's Companion which were launched during our recent birthday week with Hochanda.

The main mixed media die set used for the little owl is called 'Twit Twoo' and I cut him from black matt cardstock, then embossed all the pieces and treat them to a little gilding wax - I just love him!

I used a piece of design paper from my Tim Holtz paper pad that seemed to fit nicely with my theme, then added a die-cut border and a length of ribbon to create a perch for him to sit on. 

The whole piece is embellished with some die-cut leaves in felt and leather, using the 'Maple Leaves' mixed media die from the same launch, and I added a couple of felt flowers too. 

The 'Life's a Hoot' sentiment was created on my pc to finish off.

Hope you can join us with your own creations - there are so many ways to incorporate wings into your projects, I can't wait to see them all.

Hugz, Jan xx

A Quick Catch Up!

Hello again,

Well, I am not doing a very good job of blogging lately - it's well over two weeks since I last posted!

Just to catch up - my first class at the Chesterfield store went really well and my ladies all seemed to enjoy themselves, leaving with their lovely Christmas card designs, asking me when my next class was.  I have also done another two classes during our 'Birthday Week', using the fabulous new collection of 'Time Traveller' Perfect Partners by Sheena Douglass - lots of messy play with the gilding wax!

Anyway, I've not been in my craftroom for a while again now, so I thought I would post a few of the samples I made for my recent demonstration in Leeds. These ones were using the 'Autumn Morning' range from Sara's Signature Collection.

Products used 

12"x 12" Paper Pad, Natural Wood embossing folder,

Leaves are Falling metal dies and Pebeo gilding wax

Products used

Rustling Leaves stamp set and Scattered Leaves metal die

Products used

In the Forest embossing folder, Scattered Leaves metal die, 

Flourish Leaves metal die and Pebeo gilding wax

I have my next demonstration booked for three weeks today, so will be busy preparing more samples once my goodies arrive. 

I will try and show a few more of my samples as soon as I can.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and the extra hour in bed tomorrow!

Hugz, Jan xx

Purple Tag Art

Hello there,

I hope you all got a chance to enjoy the weather earlier in the week - I didn't see a scrap of it, was locked away in a nice air conditioned shop all day!  Although I did get chance to watch the fantastic lightening storm here on Tuesday evening, but thankfully no rain.

Just a quick post from me today with my DT project for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time Helen has chosen the theme of

'ANYTHING BUT SQUARE'

Here's what I made for a little inspiration ...

I love making tags and it is always an opportunity to use up some of my paper scraps. The gorgeous die cut frame is from the Crafter's Companion Downton Abbey collection (as is the little piece of patterned design paper).

A little stamped sentiment and lots of punched flowers to decorate.

Enjoy your day,

Hugz, Jan xx