So busy

Good afternoon all,I do hope that you are having a lovely bank holiday weekend. The weather has been lovely and we have got lots of gardening done, it is so good to get some order outside...the plants have all gone mad and grown and grown, they are like triffids .

Life has been so hectic since our last catch up. The Summer event at The Paper Warehouse in Kendal was a great success and extremely busy. It was great to see so many friends there, and to have so many sell outs. We have had lots of design work to do, with so many lovely new products. Then last Saturday it was Clarity Cumbria , which is always such a wonderful day.

We made a start on our Christmas cards,

Some Kraft card and snow

After lunch we carried on with the festive theme

And a nice, quick and easy card to finish with

I do love these Jayne Nestorenko designs.

Just before I go , a have a new photo of Elliot to share with you...the little man is doing very well and hopefully they can move back home later this week

Have a great week all,

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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So much Thunder.

Good afternoon all and thanks for popping in....oh my...what a busy week it has been. Lots of crafting jobs on my list , medical appointments and then due to a flood at their house Adam, Danielle and Elliot have had to move back in with us.

Do I mind? ...what do you think? In fact I am here in the living room now, watching the little man whilst he sleeps...The thunder is bombing away and Elliot is still fast asleep. He is dong so well, and he really is the light of our lives at the moment.,,so many horrible things happening around us...

Today I am sharing a little photo tutorial with you...

This is one of my samples for this weeks tv...using one of the new stencils...

As usual I started with a piece of stencil card, I added some ink...keeping it lighter in the middle

Next came the petite Gelli plate , some artistry ink and another great stencil

I added the design through the stencil, one aperture at a time

Using a variety of colours of ink, some positive, some negative images .

After cleaning the stencil and replacing it. I added some VersaMark ink through the stencil. Then washed the stencil and added some clear embossing powder to the card. Heated it and oh yes, I love the result.

Some stamping, a word and some white pen with my Posca marker...

Something a bit different and a bit arty....

Mmmm what do you think?

 

Rossella is on Hochanda today with some rather lovely Pergamano products and some flowers...very nice indeed

A box that I made , plus I decided to make my bag into a card,,,just something a bit different,,,

I hope you have a lovely weekend planned, I am off to Kendal tomorrow...and I am really looking forward to it....Janet and Jane look after me so well...A fantastic shop...and so many great crafters...

See you all there

Take care all,

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Another Monday

Good afternoon all, and thanks for popping in....I do hope that your week has started well.

I have spent all day working on samples for upcoming television...more new goodies , you are going to love them....I started very early as Karl left at 6am ...so I just got up, walked the dogs and then started crafting...I needed a productive day,,,as it is another very busy week

Toaday I have a card for you using the Elements stamps...all four on one card...I do love to make these sort of designs..

I started with a piece of stencil card and some masking tape

Next came the stamping

And some inking

I used Artistry ink pads

And filled in one corner at a time

Until all four were complete

Some water spritzing....or Happy Clappy as we call it at our workshops

And then I removed the tape

Added a word

Followed by some charcoal pencil and some white Posca pen dots.

Some matting and layering and glossy Accents...and job done...

Four elements on one card . A bit like the weather at the moment,,,we seem to have days with sun, rain, and wind all entwined .

I must admit we had a little sunny spell today so I treated myself to a coffee in the garden,,,my trusty companions joined me

A little update on Elliot and I am happy to say he came home on Friday....so this weekend we have been so excited as we took him out in his pram....our first walk pushing the pram...Grandma and Grandad were grinning like Cheshire cats...

He has to keep going back for more tests , but the main thing is that both Danielle and him are at home,,,

He wanted to say hi...to you all....

I have had so many cuddles,,,

And I just love every minute of it... puts everything into perspective...

Better get on...I have a chilli to make before Karl gets home,,,

Good to have a catch up....thanks for joining me

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Christmas in August

Good afternoon all, and thanks for joining me,,,.have you got sun today? We have a little bit it keeps clouding over...mind you i am just grateful to get the washing dry these days .

Yesterday it was our regular Hazel Grove workshops, and we had a play with some rather wonderful floral Stencils from Clarity...so it was an inky sort of a day..

Today I thought I would share one of my Christmas samples with you...the ones that never made it to the tv....boo...hoo...so disappointing...especially when I spend so much time on them ...and I don't have a lot of time at the mo...but hey ho...its one of them things...just hope they don't keep disappearing or I will get a complex!!!!

This uses the new Holly outline stamp set...I just wanted to do something different with it..other than use it as an outline stamp and build a scene,,,so Wreath it had to be,,

I wanted to make my own background paper , so I used an A4 piece of Stencil card...and a favourite technique of mine...

Just dabbing ink with a blending tool.....yes...just pretend you are back a young girl with your post office set,,,

I added a different shade of green

Followed by red and orange

And finally brown...this is a great technique if you are having a bad day...

I used potting soil Archival ink to stamp the holly leaf, which I then cut out .

To make the background I use a piece of stencil card, brushed some brown ink around the edges and stamped this fab little stamp from the set

Then added the wee folk and started to assemble the Wreath..., when I was happy with my design I glued it all together. Adding some embellishments...

 

Plus some colour to the tree baubles and a sentiment cut into pieces.

I think this would work well as a door hanging too...watch this space as I have an idea...

Bet you know what it is...

Just before I go , a little update on Elliot and he had to go back into hospital yesterday to have more phototherapy, Danielle is staying with him and it looks like he will be in for a little longer...

Bless them , they really are having a rough time at the moment... so glad that we are here to love and support them ..

I hope the sun is shinning for you and that you can enjoy your evening

Much love and hugs

Jo, Xxx

 

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Monday again

Hi all and thanks for popping in. I do hope you had a good weekend, we had a lovely day on Saturday playing with all thinks Groovi including the new Perga Glitters. Plus the most wonderful news is that on Friday evening Elliot was allowed home..bless him. He has done so, so well and completely surprised everyone.

Now Adam has been reading Harry Potter to the bump and now to Elliot , who really seems to enjoy it and wow does he recognise his daddy voice. So I made him a bookmark.

And we took it round last night....He slept for our visit....and he looked so contented...

And off course cute....but yes I am biased...

I hope you managed to watch the Clarity shows yesterday and today. Great to see the ODS sell out in record time again. I was very disappointed that it looked like my samples never made it to the office. A few of us seem to be having issues with Royal Mail...but hey hoo....I can still share them with you on here..

But not today...I am under the wether I'm afraid....another trip to the dentist this afternoon and still more visits planned...I'm really not liking this getting older thing.....well I say that and then just look at little Elliot and it makes everything ok...

It's times like this when it is great to have good friends , and I am so pleased that I do...

I must go and reply to some emails , and then maybe a walk with the dogs....hopefully in the sun...as it seems to be shinning for a bit.

Take care all, and thanks for everything

Much love and hugs

Jo. Xxx

 

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Favourite colours

Good morning all and here we are with another new Fussy and Fancy Challenge...

Our new theme is .....Favourite colours....

And our host is the lovely Gina

Now it won't surprise any of you what my favourite colours are...

Here is my dt inspiration

 

I have had quite a few questions recently about the 'ghosting ' technique so I thought it would be a good opportunity to use it here.

I started with a piece of Stencil card , the correct card is very important for this technique...you need one that will accept water...so it needs to have a low chalk content .

I started by adding my distress inks , with the darkest first

And then blending to the lighter colours, this is a great way to practice your blending as it doesn't have to be perfect

Next , I added the stencil and spritzed some water through it

I carefully removed the stencil , left it for a few moments and then rolled it dry with kitchen towel

Look at the cool , effect that you get, and depending on colour choice, amount of water and drying time you get different results.

When completely dry I added some flicks of white paint and a black sharpie line .

Next some matting and layering

Followed by these wonderful die cut butterflies from Tim Holtz.

Finally a Clarity sentiment , chopped into separate words

A quick, easy but effective technique.

I do hope that you have enjoyed today's blog post and that you will visit the Fussy and Fancy blog.....here...

http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/

Even better, I would love you to enter the challenge.

I have another busy week planned with a Groovi day class tomorrow and some more hospital visits to see the little man....

Have a lovely weekend all, oh and remember that our Barbara and Paul are on Hochanda this Sunday and Monday..

Sneak peek time

And

Take care everyone

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxxx

 

 

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