Flowers and Gears

Good afternoon all, 

I do hope your Friday is going well. 

It is a lovely sunny day here and I have spent the morning taking 

little Jenson for a lovely walk. 

We are now home and relaxing 

He is nearly 5 months old now, bless him. 

Today I am going to share one of my recent tv samples with you. 

It uses the stamp set #195 Flowers and Gears by Olga Heldwein 

from AALL & Create. 

And it matches the breadboard that I created too, 

A gift and a matching card, what a lovely idea. 

Here is how I created the card. 

I started by stamping in brown ink and using clear embossing powder. 

Notice the ink smudge in the lower right hand corner. 

Don’t worry , we will hide it later 

Next I painted the design using distress Oxide inks and water. 

Then spritzed it with more water, I do love doing this. 

Some extra splats of ink, see how the smudge of ink has disappeared.

I added the sentiment and some splats of brown ink. 

Followed by some cog stamping. Just to add more detail in the background. 

The finishing touches were some white ink to highlight areas, and charcoal pencil 

to add shade. 

What a difference these make. 

Here is a closer look. 

.

I do love floral stamps, and these have so much detail. 

I had better go, 

Nappy changing time.

Have a lovely weekend all. 

Thanks once again for all your support 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

When you need Fairy Dust

Good afternoon all.

It is a very wet Tuesday here in Cheshire, how is the weather with you today ? 

Karl got up at 5am and left early again, (he is so busy at the moment ) 

So Eric and me went on a long walk in the rain. 

It is so funny how things work out, we met a lovely gentleman 

Who stopped and wanted to pet Eric, he said what a fantastic dog he was, but he looked sad. 

So I told him about last week. 

We chatted for a while, he has a couple of dogs .

What a nice man and like I say, funny how things happen. 

I have lots to do in my craft room but honestly I am struggling.

If only being creative was easy, and didn’t depend on how we feel. !!!!

So I am hoping that a sprinkle of Fairy Dust will help me. 

This is how I created it.

I started with some yellow distress Oxide ink. 

At this point, I wasn’t sure where the design was going.

So I added some orange ink. 

Followed by some water spritzing, and more stamping. 

Finally I added my main image, The Dragonfly keeper stamp. 

Then I spritzed again and added some Sprinkleit, and glossy Accents. 

It is hard to capture the sparkle. 

But believe me,

It really sparkles and twinkles when the light catches it. 

I hope your day goes well, whatever you are doing. 

Take care all. 

Much love and hugs 

Jo. xxx

Saturday with friends in Glasgow.

Good afternoon all. 

Firstly thank you for all your lovely messages, cards, gifts and emails. 

Honestly we are so amazed by you all, you are so kind, 

generous and have given us such comfort. 

It was very hard leaving Perth, with a space in our little van.

Saturday’s workshop went well and the ladies were just so kind to us both. 

Under the circumstances we let Eric sit under the table at the class.

I held it together and only had one moment, 

When I was demonstrating, I opened an  ink pad and there on the pad was a white dog hair....

Bless her, my crafty companion didn’t want to miss out. 

Deep breath. 

We started  with a quick warm up card. 

One of my favourite techniques at the moment. 

I love to add little cobwebs to my cards these days. 

Have you spotted it? 

Look here are some of the ladies cards 

They are fabulous. 

Then we got out the gel press plates, and had some inky play. 

I do love to take a background and just add, layer upon layer .

I am afraid that I didn’t manage to photograph everyone’s cards, sorry ladies. 

(But who made the castle card!!!!) 

We also used the petite gel press plates, 

another one of my favourite type of cards.

We had tea and cake thank you Eileen, yummy as always. 

 We finished off the day with an ATC. 

It was such a pleasure to be with such lovely ladies (oh and Karl ) 

Thank you for looking after us and making our trip 

so worth while. 

I hope you have gone home and are now creating more backgrounds and having 

a really good time. 

Oh my, look what just arrived, 

Thank  you so much lovely lady 

They are so beautiful 

Love and hugs 

Jo xxx

A sad day.

Hi all, 

Just a short post from me today. 

You see we had to say goodbye to our beloved Tess today. 

She became unwell on Sunday, and gradually got worse each day. 

I spent last night sat up with her.

So today we took her to the vet, 

She had internal bleeding due to blood cancer and there was nothing they could do.

So I stayed with her until she was asleep.

Bless her .

She has been such a wonderful, loyal, family pet .

We are so glad to have shared the last ten years with her.

There is one thing for sure and my craft room will not be the same 

without her sat under my table. 

Take care all

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Abs is back on tv tomorrow

Good afternoon all.

Thanks for joining me and thank you for all your lovely messages about my Mum. 

She is slowly improving although still very sore and quite dizzy.

I am quickly popping in today to remind you that the fabulous Abs 

from AALL & Create will be ack on Hochanda tomorrow.

He will have more of the fabulous new release stamps.

Here is a sneak peek of some of my samples 

And here is a tutorial from one of last weeks samples. 

This is such a quick but effective technique.

First of all I stamped using black VersaFine ink, then added clear embossing powder and heated. 

Next I added some wax resist using a Brusho wax stick. 

Then the messy bit, adding the Brusho and water. 

Oh such fun. 

Let it dry, 

mat and layer, 

and 

Job done. 

Here is a closer look. 

Thanks for joining me. 

Take care all 

Love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Landscapes in Cumbria.

Good afternoon all. 

Hope you are keeping well. 

Well what a couple of days we have had. 

It all started on Friday evening when my brother phoned me to say 

that our Mum had fallen in the garden, hit her head on concrete, and was on her way to hospital in an ambulance.

Karl and me were on our way to the airport to pick up my nephew. 

We eventually got to be just after midnight. 

I was up at 6am to drive to Cumbria for our workshop. 

The news on my Mum was that she was on a ward being assessed, after having a CT and MRI scan. 

I did my best to stay calm, run the workshop and teach as much as I could. 

This was madeeasier by the crafter being so lovely, caring and such good friends. 

Thanks ladies. 

We used a couple of lovely stamp sets from Hobby Art 

http://www.hobbyartstamps.com/Heritage-Walk.html

http://www.hobbyartstamps.com/Countryside.html

We started with a quick warm up card 

Look at these, fabulous cards everyone.

Next we stamped a scene, and then spent time relaxing and watercolour painting. 

Stunning cards by everyone 

After lunch , we created a dl card. 

I do love this shape of card, and great for men. 

After tea and cake (Thanks Sheila ) we created a tag . 

These stamp sets work so well together. 

It was such a lovely day , and great to welcome a couple of new ladies. 

By the time I got home the news was a bit better and my Mum was sitting up in her bed and didn’t need as much oxygen. 

Bless her, they finally let her go home last night.

I have just had a lovely chat with her on the phone. 

Oh my, I was so worried. 

Take care all 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Sell out on Hochanda.

Good afternoon everyone, 

thanks for joining me today. 

I do hope you are well and that you have had a good week. 

Oh my, it has been a very wet week here. 

Jenson is home from hospital so that is good.

Thank you for all your good wishes.

Did you manage to see Abs on Hochanda yesterday? 

He had the new release stamps from AALL & Create.

3 out of the 4 sets sold out in the first hour. 

This is one of my samples.

It is quite funny really, I wasn’t sure about it when I made it. 

You see Jenson was in hospital, 

So Elliot was with me.

He was in his hightchair in my craft room. 

Plus I was on a deadline as the cards had to be in the studio ready for the shows on Thursday. 

Talk about crafting under pressure. 

Times like this is when I look at my emergency backgrounds. 

This was one of the clean up pieces using the fabulous Sunflower stencil. 

So I stamped the image. 

Then added some colour using my Inktense pencils and water. 

Next I added some more stamping, I do love using stems for this. 

(Thanks Lisa for the idea ) 

It is often the little extra that add dimension to samples. 

So I added some ink through a stencil, some ink blending around the edges, plus some splatters of white gesso.

I must say Elliot loved watch that bit, 

Just hope he doesn’t copy and so it when he is painting at nursery. !!!!

Finally I stamped a couple of small details for the border stamps, 

added colour, cut them out and added them to the design. 

Charcoal shading really helps the design pop, 

another one of my obsessions. 

I loved the fact that Janice noticed it , and pointed it out.

Thanks  for that. 

Well it is all go again here, 

Cumbria workshop tomorrow. 

My bags are packed, and  it is going to be a relaxing day with 

watercolour painting for us. 

Just the job. 

Take care all. 

Thanks for your continued support 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Another wet Day

Good afternoon and thanks for joining me today. 

Sorry I haven’t been in touch for a few days but Jenson has been in hospital again. 

We had visitors from Friday until Sunday lunch time, when 

we dropped them off at the airport. 

By the time we got home and had put the kettle on Elliot was on his way round and Jenson on his way to hospital. 

It is always great to see Elliot and have him for sleep overs but boy 

do I need to catch up when he goes home. 

So, sorry if I haven’t answered your emails or messages yet.

I will get round to it, but family must always come first. 

Saturday we had a long day too, 

as it was our Anglesey workshop.

We had a few regular crafters missing, 

which was a shame. Pat , I hope you feel better soon. 

We started with a quick warm up card. 

Then had a play with our gel press plates. ( Gelli plates to you and me ) 

The petite plates are great 

and 

And 

Look what the ladies created 

Fabulous cards by everyone 

I am so proud of you all. 

Thanks for your company, your friendship 

and your support. 

It is Cumbria this Saturday and then Glasgow the week after.

So I had better get back in my craft room. 

Take care all

Much love and hugs 

Jo Xxx