Strictly come flower arranging...

Yesterday was a lovely day at the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight, it was good to catch up with Kay Halliwell-Sutton, travel with Jane and Brenda, watch Linda Simpson demonstrate Mica Powders and to be wowed by the fantastic magic that Maia Simms made with her Gelli Plate...

Oh and I bought some goodies too.....

Then today, Karl and I went to Daisy Nook Garden Centre to see their floral displays and help them raise money for a fantastic Charity.... The Christie Hospital ...(especially close to our hearts as that is where we met when I was a Therapy Radiographer and Karl worked in the Physics department) 

Thanks to an advert that a Facebook friend of mine posted.....thank you Beryl Martin....

As we were walking round Karl pointed out that one of the displays had been created by one of our craft class ladies.

Here is Joan Quinland's interpretation of the Samba, Salsa and Limbo...

How fabulous...

Look at the leaf platting...

As we were having our lunch, I read the programme and to my surprise found another display from one of our crafty friends....

This is the work of Chris O Hara and Sue Goldsbey,

And is their version of the Argentine Tango, 

Just look at those colours,

I just had to take some photos to share with you all, I do hope that you like them.

I have a busy week ahead .....I am now part of the Clarity Challenge Blog Design Team and their is a new Challenge on Tuesday so pop back and see what I have come up with....

Wednesday is craft classes, Saturday is workshop day at Crafts4u2do, I also have some Clarity samples to get in the post and another magazine piece to compose....but, I do love what I do....so I am really looking forward to it....

Hope you have a good week planned too,

Ttfn.....Jo. X 

That Friday feeling....

Yes, it is me....again....and oh, I do like my Fridays...

What have you planned for the weekend? I am going to Port Sunlight tomorrow to the Happy Stampers craft show, I am really looking forward to catching up with Jane, Linda, Brenda, Mike and Mark to name a few...

We are starting off with Bacon butties and coffee, (just coffee for me...) and then the shopping will begin.....Clarity Stamps will be there with Dave and Maria at the helm, ...Kay is also there with IndigoBlu and there are many other stands that are a must see....oh, and we need to catch up with the lovely Linda Simpson too.....

Today I am going to share a commissioned make with you....

This clock is made from a kit from the talented Karen Clare....aka 'The Clock Lady'...(heads up ladies...we will be making clocks in our workshops on October 30th) 

I also used the foxglove stamps from Clarity and my new dylusion inks sprays....oh so yummy....

This is the card that compliments the gift.....using the same stamps....

I do think it is nice to have things that match....don't you ?

Right that is all from me for today.....

I have a date night tonight with Karl.....both boys are out ....so I am cooking a special meal, got a nice bottle of wine and we are putting our mobiles and iPads in a drawer.....so Mum if you ring I won't answer.....and crafty friends if you pm me.....I will get to it later....

Have a good weekend (I know I will!!!!) and see you soon, Jo. X 

Hi, I'm still here...

Good evening, so sorry I have not posted for a while but as usual life has been a little hectic...I know it always is.....

Hope you had a good weekend ...it was grey in our house on Sunday....after the football....(thank goodness last night was better...) 

Well, I have been busy painting Terracotta pots....thanks Mikey...

Mikey asked if I could paint a pot for a local restaurant Gusto..and put their logo on it...

So I did.

Then he came home and said could they order another eight.....

Well, they're done and delivered....

Imagine my face when he came home and said they wanted them in all their branches now.....

So I could be gone for a while!!

I used the brilliant Letterbox kit from Clarity and a brilliance ink pad...Moonlight White...

See you soon.....crafty hugs Jo. X 

Christmas Elves...

Good morning all, well here we are Friday...nearly the weekend....

What are you doing today? 

I'm busy preparing card stock and getting ready for tomorrows Christmas workshop over at Crafts4u2do in St Helens...

But, before I get stuck in I thought I would show you this card that I made yesterday using products from the wonderful Hobby House...

The topper is from a sheet of toppers called Christmas Elves and is designed Mo Manning....the papers are just from my stash, as is the ribbon ....

The hat pins are from the Hobby House pin wheel and those gorgeous little boot embellishments are also from Hobby House...and as you all know, I do love my embellishments....

The flowers are from Sweet Lilac paper flowers and the leaves I cut using a Marianne die...

Finishing touches were added with Stickles glitter glue,  I really enjoyed making this card...my first Christmas card completed.....oh, so many left to make...

I would like to enter this into the Hobby House Blog Challenge...

Challenge 4- our Hobby House Artists....

Thanks for looking in today....have a good weekend and call back soon. 

Jo. X 

It's me......

Hi, sorry I have been a bit quiet this week, but I have been busy doing things that have to stay hush, hush for a while.....all exciting stuff....

Well, yesterday was workshop day in Hazel Grove and it was so good to catch up with everyone....as always, we did have such a laugh...

We had a new crafter....a gorgeous little black Kitten.....but Alex won't let me give it a home.....boo hoo...I thought it might help Tess with her phantom pregnancy......don't worry ....I was good and left it alone.....

We had a play with Mica Powders....I chose to use Perfect Pearls as I find them the best on the market and they have a built in binding agent...

This is the first card that we made....using a favourite stamp of mine from HobbyArt....the Border Poppy ....

We used gold embossing powder, mixed water with our mica powder and then painted with it...

The background uses Tumbled Glass Distress ink and the brilliant Cloud mask from Clarity....I have to say I have been using it on a lot of my cards recently...

Our second card, using the same stamp but creating a different effect...

We used smooth black card, VersaMark ink and then added the mica Powder with a paint brush....left this for a few moments and then buffed the area with a tissue...(I find tissue better that kitchen roll...it is less abrasive) 

Top Tip...if you put talc on your card first it help with the static, but also helps to show up where you have stamped...

These are some tags that I made as inspiration for other ways of using the stamp...

I have just treated myself to some Dylusions sprays...oh, I love them...I now have a spray booth....all in the name of research....just for you Rachel....

So I am off to play...

See you soon....Jo. X 

New blog Challenge Day

Hi lovely crafters, blog followers and friends...good to see you,

Well as it is the 15th of the month, it is the day for a new Blog Challenge over at the  Sweet Lilac Paper Flowers Blog...and the new theme is ....

..............Vintage.......

Here is my DT inspiration, I do hope that you like it,

I used a lovely paper from the Secret Garden collection from Graphic 45 and yes, I did stroke it first!!!

The sentiment is a Clarity Stamp, I used Versafine ink....Imperial Purple...

The butterfly is also a Clarity stamp, stamped onto Vellum and then cut out. 

The gorgeous little cameo is from HobbyHouse and they come in a variety of colours...

The flowers are from Sweet Lilac as is the lace.....I do love their products and if you go to their on line shop you can see the full range of products....

The green leaves are one of the white flowers coloured with Bundled Sage Distress Ink and then cut into sections...

We had some wonderful entries last month and congratulations to the winner...oh, did I mention you win some Sweet Lilac goodies....

Why not go along and have a look at the other DT work ....just click 

HERE.....

If you like the Graphic 45 papers, have you checked out my lovely friends blog....Clare is the only UK DT member for Graphic 45 .

 http://mycreativespirit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/happy-birthday-diane.html

Well, that's enough for me today...take care . Have a good week and call back soon. Jo. X 

Thanks goodness it is Friday

Oh have you ever had one of those weeks? You know the one....where you just go from one thing to another.....

I won't bore you with all the ups and downs, but I must tell you about my trip to the garage to have a pigeon removed from the grill of my car....

It all happened on Tuesday evening....Karl and I were travelling down the motorway past Stockport when a rather large pigeon flew head on into my car....this was bad enough, it made a loud noise and unfortunately, killed said bird instantly....but........it got stuck and I mean well stuck and we could not remove it.....so I had to carry on driving with these large wings spread out in front of my car....all I can say is that it certainly took people by surprise and I did get some odd looks....

Even my lovely Postman knocked on the door on Wednesday morning and said....Jo...do you know you have a pigeon in the front of your car?????

Thank goodness for a really nice man at my local garage...who took pity on me....removed it and even jet washed the front of my car for me.....

Talk about a freak accident, I'm just glad that I didn't have workshops on Wednesday morning....what would my ladies have said????

On to things crafty, I have just realised that I have not shown you the samples that I made for Jenny For her recent Christmas shows on C&C ....

These were made using Hobby Art Stamps, Memento ink and coloured with Graph'It markers...

This is Rocy Robin,

The next two cards were made using stamps from the Robin and Friends set.

Here I used PanPastels...

This is Bertie, with Distress Inks....

And this is Archie and Pals...also using Distress Inks....

I do hope that you like them.

I am off now to walk Tess, who is down in the dumps as she is having a Phantom Pregnancy.....poor thing....she is so sad ....

Whatever next,

Have a good weekend and call back soon, 

Jo. X 

It's a new week...

Hi all and here we are a new week, I wonder what it will bring....

I hope you had a good weekend, I did and the workshops at C,J, CardCraft in Edgeley went really well on Saturday....if you need any craft supplies Glynis has a shop full of products and she is not only helpful, but a talented crafter who has her work published regularly...

Today, I have been putting the finishing touches to my latest work for Practical Publishing....so watch this space ...I will let you know when the magazine is out...

Obviously I can't show you any photos.....sorry ...so instead, I will show you one of the cards that I made for the Clarity shows the other weekend...

I am totally hooked with the stencils.....they can be used in so many ways...

This was a really quick car to make....I used Centura Pearl card and the Treescape stencil and my Grand Callibur to get an Embossed image...I then added a mask for the moon and placed the stencil back in place before adding colour....I used Adirondack inks....Salmon and Pesto..

The duck is from the Clarity Duck and Drake Stamp Set, and I coloured it in using Perfect Pearls mixed with a little water...

A bit of scribbling with a Distress Marker and all finished...

I do hope you like this....have a good week, and see you soon. Jo. X 

Fussy and Fancy Friday....

Morning all, well here we are again another new Challenge over at the  Fussy and Fancy Challenge Blog...

Today, the theme is Sport.....

Well with having two boys and a football mad husband this is right up my street...here is my D.T. Card....

I have used the Letterbox kit from Clarity and stamped them in Black Memento ink. Also I used the stamps from the Lesson 8 Classroom kit plus the sport balls stamps.

It did take me a while to work out my design....I do recommend doing this on some scrap paper first...

..I then added a little colour with my ProMarker pens (hence why I used Memento ink)

This is a good card to make to practice your masking....the background was created with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and Sequin waste....

Some Glossy Accents and Cosmic shimmer, pva glue to make dots and job done .

You can enter the challenge HERE,. Also why not go and have a look at the brilliant inspiration from the other Design Team members...

Thanks for looking in today and  have a good weekend, I am off to C.J.CardCrafts in Edgeley for two workshops tomorrow.....so if you are coming, I will see you there ..if not ...have a good weekend and see you soon. 

Jo x 

Happy Birthday Dad...

Yes, today is my Dads Birthday....so Happy Birthday Dad.....

Hope you have a great day ....

Here is the card that I have made for him....

When I was little (yes, I know I still am!!!) I used to spend many hours with my Dad feeding the ducks at the flight pond....I even had an incubator in my bedroom at one stage, where ducklings were hatching...

So these stamps from Clarity are perfect ....

PanPastels make a great background ....

Right, I am off ...ironing to do....

Call back soon, Jo. X 

Getting ready for Christmas...

That's what we did today at the workshops ....we made lots of toppers ready to make a good start on Christmas cards...

I'm determined not to be on the last minute this year....just remind me of that in December!!!!

Here are a few of the ones I made...

Eileen brought us some lovely chocolates...wheat free so I had a few....

Talking of Christmas the lovely Jenny from Hobby Art will be on Create and Craft TV tomorrow at 2pm and 7pm.....

 Sky 671

 Free view 36

 FreeSat 813

And Virgin 748 

She will be showing some fabulous new Christmas stamps ...here is a little sneak peak of some samples using them.

And,

And,

This set are so versatile....I love them...

Well enough from me....see you soon. Jo. X 

Global Warming......

That was what came to my mind when the new Clarity Stamps arrived at my craft table....I do worry sometimes as to how my mind works......

The stamp set is called We Three Kings....and includes a star and music score....but all I could see was the camels walking across the dessert....and I thought poor Barbara if all the sample cards end up the same.....so what would be different......and it came into my head ...snow not sand!!!!

I used Cloudy Blue Adirondack ink, the cloud mask, some torn paper and a sponge....to create the background. The three kings were stamped in Cobalt Blue Archival ink and the letters were made using the Letterbox kit, the design was completed by using Stickles glitter glue...

I do hope you like it? It certainly got a reaction from Martyn.....

The next couple of cards are using the stamps from O Little Town of Bethlehem...

This one uses the Spellbinder Heirloom Ornament 2010 set to make the masks...the figures were stamped on Sepia, Archival Ink.....the background was created by using the Treescape stencil and Spun Sugar Distress Ink...then the music score was added using the Spun Sugar....

Shade was created by sponging using Latte Adirondack ink...some scribble with a Distress Marker, some ribbon and job done...

The last card was my attempt at recreating the nativity table that was always in the porch of our local church.

The brick wall stencil with Latte and Espresso Adirondack ink were used to make the background....more sponging and torn paper were used to create the table.....detail was added with a Distress Marker.....

I stamped the nativity using Black Archival Ink and added a little straw....

I do find it fascinating to see how we all create such different pieces of work from the same set of stamps....

Thanks for looking in today,....and for taking the time to read and comment....I do love to read them all......and so does my Mum....

Hi Mum.....(this blog is like my diary and she reads every post...I it's great way to keep in touch....Thanks...) 

See you soon, 

Jo. X