Demonstration cards

Gosh, it seems so funny posting onto this blog. I want to write lots on it, but for now, it's being kept simple.

I've been out demoing for the last few weekends, and here are some of the cards from this last weekend down in Derby..... and if you're over in Brigg or Southport over the next couple of weekends, hopefully I'll see you then!

I hope you like these.

Mmmmmmm.......

.... that's a confudlicated sort of mmmm... not a tasty mmmm...

So. Government. All change. Not that I like to talk politics on my blog, but ... Conservatives? I really didn't vote for Clegg to get a Conservative Government. Did you?

Oh. Dear. Me! I really think that the only way is down!

Now... what can we sell off first to get a few reddies?? (or do you think he'll wait a few years before he can find something??) Thank heavens I have still another 8 years on my fixed rate!

Anyway. I'm feeling a bit tired today, so I think a lovely early night is very much in order - cuddled up with my luvverly hubby and three spaniels - what could be more like bliss if I tried?

The show yesterday went well. I was with Joanne, so it turned into the Jo Show.. which was quite funny really. She's really lovely, and her eyes are so enchanting. The demo's left me a little confused, as we had gone through them in the morning when I arrived and everything was fine, but then I found myself being asked to do demo's that I hadn't prepped for, mixing this with that, and using promarkers? Well. I hadn't taken my promarkers! Never the mind though, the lovely floor guy (magic hands!) was there to assist and I did what was asked. Phew! I think it worked! lol. Then Monday evening we had our monthly Stampin' Up meeting over in Bullcroft Memorial Hall. Perfect end to a perfect day.

By the way, talking of promarkers, I am one happy lickle bunny today. I recieved my replacement Letrajet, so there should be more cards coming soon. I may even do you a little tutorial on how to use one as there isn't one out in the web I don't think - they all tend to be copics.

Ahhhhh.. copics!! **Sigh** I went out on Friday with the girls. Did I tell you?? We went over to Pontefract to see a lovely lady called Rachel, who was doing a copic class. I'd seen it advertised when I was looking for something else, so rang Rachel and she booked us a class to ourselves. There was Sheila, Sandra, Chris and a lady called Alison who came to join us. We had a fab day, full of fun, laughter, handmade pizza and the most tasty coleslaw you've ever tasted! Mind you, with the gluten I was suffering for a while after!

Saturday I was out demoing at the Range in Doncaster where alot of my regular ladies came along to say Hi. It was lovely to see each and every one of you, and I promise I'll upload my photos from the demo as soon as possible.

Sunday was a relatively quiet day, just sat making samples (again, I'll upload when I can) and watching the F1 with hubby. What an interesting race. Poor Lewis, what a bummer that was.

Monday, I've covered, and today. Well, today I've been searching the net for insurance. My house insurance and car insurances for me and Paul are due for renewal, so I did a bit of research as the increases were bloody ridiculous. House (up £11 per month!), Cars (mine up £7 per month, Paul's up £4 per month). And then we got to the Electric and Gas. Our bills increased to a daft amount in February, so I did my comparison (first time ever!) and I've now saved ourselves nearly £20 per month on the house, £9 combined on the car and a total of around £50 a month on the gas and electric.

Go on, price compare.. I dare ya!

Right. That's me off for now, I'll be back as soon as I can be with a few carsd for you. I've got some more samples to make for my demo in Derby this weekend, so I'll have plenty to upload.

Toodles for now. xx

Henbury meets Tilda

Two of my favourite things.

1. I love the new Henbury Lane papers - they are just so me!!
2. I love the new maggies.

Firstly, I'm having a lazy day today, so I scheduled this post for you for today. I'm up at silly o'clock again tomorrow morning to go to Peterborough for a show at 10am, and after one thing or another this past week, I've been up at a very ungodly hour every morning!! Still.....

So, onto my card, and I've teamed up my two favourite things as I said at the top.

The papers are the new Henbury Lane ones, and oh my, aren't they lovely. I decided to make an Easel card again, but turned it on it's side this time. Something a little different I guess.

The image is a little Tilda and she arrived early this week, she was coloured with copics and the background was done with my new toy which arrived last week - the letrajet. Love it!

The sentiment that I used came from the Vintage Vogue set from Stampin Up. Don't you just love it? And then, finishing off, I punched out a few leaves, added some paper flowers and a gem brad. The topper was created using the Mandala board.

Where's the week gone?

I can't believe that today is already Saturday.. time is just flying past. And what an exciting week we've had too. What with elections and who to vote for, life has never been so exciting!! (notice the excitement here.... not!)

When I went down to the polling booth I took my papers, looked at the list and there was an entry for the party of 'Citizens for the Undead Rights and Equality... what's all that about?(she says in a very Sheeeeeela voice! lol) Never heard of them... so I placed my cross in my chosen box? Well.. did I go white, yellow, red, blue or something else with giant spots on?

I'm not going to reveal, but today we've got pink and furry......

These papers are just sweet aren't they? And they complemented the image really well. I just love the Messy Rabbits and have quite a few now - but this one is my favouritest favourite of them all. She is just so cute.

I coloured her with Whispers pens and added a tad of water to blend the shading a little. I have also blobbed a bit of stickles around the edges of her petticoat to add a bit of bling.

as seen on TV ....

A few folks have emailed me over the last few days to ask if I could upload the cards from last week's show.. so here they are.. Enjoy!

This one was stamped using black dye ink. The shading was made by pulling out the colour from the edges with the Stampin' Up blender pen. The white parts are actually mirror board but didn't photograph well last night.

For this card, I made the ever popular Easel card. These are brilliant for those quick card moments as they look really classy. The colouring was done with promarkers, then a little bit of wishy-washy blue added around the image for the background.

This is the close up of the card below to show the shading that I've done with the promarkers. I usually build up my colours in layers so that you can get a little bit of depth with it.

This is the card in full - complete with matching background papers to the image. I just love the colours in this card. As you can see, the gold mirror card didn't photo well again - bloomin' flash! Again, I added a little bit of wishy-washy colour to the background to add some shading.

Now.. this is the card that Andy picked up on the program. It is actually coloured with promarkers, but if you colour it in really really quickly over the dye stamped image, then the colours will smudge a tiny bit to give you that water colour effect. You can clearly see here how I layered up the colours. I outlined the edges of the image with a cool grey marker to add a little bit of shading to make the image stand out.

The background was created by the little element stamp that came with the set. Just look at these scallop cards.. they are a fantastic board to work with, such a lovely feel and a great weight too.

Right.. I must get flying - I'm doing a very very interesting course today... more details on that over the weekend!!!

a few for you

Just nipping on this morning to upload a few cards before I go out. I am off out today with the girls to do a copic course. I can't tell you how much I have looked forward to this for the last few weeks, but today? Well...!

Anyway.. back to the cards. These are the ones that some folks have emailed me about over the last few days, as they were shown on TV last week when I was on doing Olivers Orchard.

As I say, just a very quick post... but enjoy!

To create this one, I used dye based ink and the Stampin Up blender pen to 'smudge' the outlines a little to add some shading. The white is actually mirror board in strips with the black, but it didn't photograph very well.

I am loving Easel cards. It's not very often that I make them, but if I'm looking for something a little different, this is what I like to make. They're quick and easy and look quite effective. The image was coloured with Promarkers and had some watercolour around it to give it a slight background.

This must be my favourite card. I just love the colours of it, the papers match in with the stamp sets too. I've actually used the aqua promarkers and normal ones too to colour this image.. here it is in closer detail.

You can see here - as I always say on demo's - don't try to be too tidy with your colouring. I am not a perfect colouring sorta person, as I prefer the more watercoloury effect.

This card was also done with the Pro's. The background of the card was done with the little butterflies that came with the stamp set. The image itself was not shaded perfectly which is what gave it that more fluid look. Andy had commented on the show that it looked like a watercolour, but the colours were more vibrant. Just don't shade it in too much and this is the effect you get. Also, use a dye ink and do a couple of layers of colour over the outlines to soften them.

Here again, you can see the detail. Can you see the outline of the image has a greyish look? That makes it stand out a little more from the page.

Hope you've enjoyed looking.

sweet bumps

Awwwww.. **sigh** I remember the days of expecting my children. Wonderful days, but a never-to-be-repeated experience!!!!

I love making cards for expectant mums and dads, and this one is my all time favourite stamp to do it with.

Carley left her old job last weekend to move on to pastures new (and permanently full time), but she is now in a rush to finish doing her NVQ she started last year. The girl who is grading her work is expecting her baby, and as it's the last time Carley will see her, she wanted me to make her a card.

The papers are the glittered ones from DCWV, I can't remember what pack as the front has fallen off, but aren't they lovely? I used promarkers to colour the image, and I matched them up with the colours of the papers.

The background was done using the letrajet airbrush, which can be used with the promarkers. Good eh?? There is a bit of a fault with the one I've got, so I need to ring them today to sort that.

I hope you all have a great day whatever you're stamping!! I'm now off to sort out some projects for Monday night.

Do you want to join us? Me and Sheila are holding our Stampin Up event over at Bullcroft Memorial Hall. It is a very popular evening where we make three great projects for a fiver.

If you'd like to come along, just let me know and I'll book you in.

It's all in the size, you know....

Hello all.

I told you I'd be back didn't I?

As promised here is what I got upto last weekend.

The 1st May saw another Dabble Day over in Bawtry for the lovely Kim Sutton. It was great fun and there were around 80 crafters in total, which was fab. I was joined there by Ali Higginbottom from Dimension Fourth, Kim and Jon from BCE, and Michelle Marsden. What a lovely group of ladies eh?

It was so busy that I didn't get a chance to see what the other tables were making, but this little mini album is what we were doing on ours. I was assisted by the lovely June. What a joy she is to work with. Thank you for the help June, it was invaluable.

This is a little close up of the front of the album. We used mount board to create the album, and a sheet of 12" x 12" double sided paper for the inside. The little decoration on the front was made using a peel off which had been coloured in black, and the design coloured with permanent markers. We then UTEE'd it three times to give it a really glassy look and stuck it onto the album.

One hour and twenty minutes later, all albums were made, decorated and embellished with punched decorative flowers! Done! How good was that?!

The day started at 9am and finished around 6pm, and then Kim took us for a meal over in the Red Lion in Blyth. I got home around 10.15pm, had a natter with the hubby and went to bed! I was tired out.

Thank you to all you lovely ladies that were there, who made it a perfect day. Some faces I knew from previous Dabbles, and some were new, but knew me.. which seemed wierd! lol.

A wedding card

Blimey - two posts in one day.. how good am I doing? lol. I am going to schedule a few more so that whilst I'm busy this week, there is still something for you to look through. Well, that's if anyone visits.. lol.

As I said earlier, this last few weeks has been hectic with one thing or another. Doing the shows on TV takes quite alot of prep and stuff, and making the samples can be quite time consuming - well, that's if it wasn't for my lovely DT members Sheila and Chris. They are stars! This last show, I didn't get the stuff for the samples until a few days earlier, so I couldn't get them doing anything for me as it was a blind rush! In fact, the stamps didn't arrive until around half two on Wednesday!

In between doing the TV, I had a few private commissions to do, one of which if you remember, was a few cards for a lovely lady called Kay, that needed changing. (the post is further down the blog somewhere).

The wedding one I did needed changing as the couple were unable to marry in Cuba because of the ash cloud, so the card needed a total overhaul.

Well, here it is again - just a little more wedding-y than the last time as they are marrying in the UK.

I used the beautiful new wedding papers by Papermania for this card, and the butterflies were punches by MS.  The greeting was printed by me, and I decided to simply add their names.

There is a strip of netting down the card. I have never used this before, but bought it on one of my trips over to a craft shop in Grimsby. It is really lovely stuff, and me thinks I may need some more!! I tied a bow across the centre to finish it off.

I also needed to change the wording on this card below, and also totally redo the design as the last one eventually wasn't suitable.

The punches are the same as the one I used on the card in the last post, it's a MS border, and I just love it. The papers and cardstock are all Stampin Up. The papers are Tea Party (just divine colouration in that pack, I love it!!) and the cardstock is Apricot Appeal and Almost Amethyst. I just love this colour combination.

I printed the wording off on the computer. The butterflies punched again with MS punches, and finished off with some adhesive pearls. I dangled a little silver charm from the ribbon to add a little bit of bling.

Right then.. onwards and upwards. Today I am finishing off a few magasine commissions that I have had sat here since last week. One is more or less finished and the other has another couple of cards that need to be made.

I'll be back later to show you what I was upto last weekend.