More Christmas cards

Good afternoon all, 

Wow, this week is really flying. 

I have been working on commissions all day, 

So I have decided to take a few minutes away from my pyrography machine 

to have a catch up. 

Yesterday it was our regular workshops in Hazel Grove, 

and we had a bit of a ‘sprout ‘ day. 

We made some Christmas cards using the  fabulous stamp set from Hobby Art. 

I do love these stamps, it is great to have some humour in our crafty stash. 

The sprouts really lend themselves to decoupage. 

They make fabulous baubles. 

Plus there are plenty of accessories for the little sprouts. 

This Christmas hat for example. 

They remind me of an episode of ‘the victor of Dibbly ‘ 

If you watched it, 

You will know the one that I mean.

We did come up with all sort of daft sprout jokes....!!!!

But you know me..

Thanks for popping in, 

Oh and I nearly forgot, 

Welcome to our new blog followers.

I am so pleased to have you join our lovely little group.

Love and hugs 

Jo. xxx

Saturday crafting in Cumbria

Good afternoon all, 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

We certainly made use of having the extra day off yesterday 

and we had a family bbq.

I must admit after Hochanda last week and then our  Cumbria workshop on Saturday, I really appreciated 

two days of catching up on some rest.

Considering a couple of our regular ladies were on holiday we still had a full class.

We started with a quick warm up card. 

It was a Christmas card.

Look at these beauties. 

Then we got out our Gel Press Plate and good old Billy Brayer.

Again, just look at the ladies fabulous creations 

We put our Billy clean up card to one side.

                                                                       Then after  tea and cake (Thanks Sheila ) 

we used it to create this. 

Ladies I am so proud of you all.

It is such a pleasure to spend time with you. 

It was a lovely drive home in the sun too, and nice light traffic. 

This morning I have framed my first demo from Thursday too and put it on my craft room wall..

I am so chuffed with it 

Look 

And just before I go, 

I want to share this photo with you..

I just adore my little guys.

Take care all. 

It is our Hazel Grove workshops tomorrow. 

See you there ladies 

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

What a day

Good afternoon all 

Wow, what a day it was yesterday, 

Thank you all for such wonderful support.

I really couldn’t have done it without you.

The messages, emails, cards and presents, it was just so humbling. 

I really am lucky to have such lovely people in my life. 

Tracey you had faith in me.

Mandy you encouraged me so much, 

Lisa my good luck Hare is amazing 

Claire and Debbie thanks for such wonderful gifts. 

Jane, Claire, Janet and Susan your cards are up in my craft room. 

Just the fact that so many of you were watching or recording means so much.

Fi, Anne and Tracy, your support always means so much.

Thing is I have so many lovely friends to thank so I think I will 

just say one big 

Thank You 

As I would hate to miss anyone off.

I was so nervous, 

Abs was in the studio too...

So that was both my Boss lady and Boss man..

No pressure then!!!

Stamping live on tv

Using Billy Brayer!!!!

No wonder my knees were shacking.

Demo 1 

And this was the Billy clean up background card.

Demo 2 

Demo 3 

Demo 4

And this was a just in case demo (but the gel press had sold out ) 

I was shattered after the second show, but luckily the traffic was kind to me and I made it home safely at 7-30

Karl and Eric were waiting with a bottle of bubbles for me. 

I have made another YouTube video , 

This one is the demo 3 card.

I will try and load it tonight for those of you who are following my channel.

https://youtu.be/B_Kh3T9J870

My bags are packed and ready for Cumbria tomorrow, 

Another long and busy day,

but I am looking forwards to seeing everyone.

Then having two days off.

Take care and enjoy this Bank Holiday weekend

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Only two more sleeps.

Good morning , 

thanks for popping in again. 

Well I woke up at 3am this morning and I just couldn’t get back to sleep.

My mind was going through all the things on my 

To do list today.

So I thought I would walk Eric, have a brew and then do a blog post .

That way , I have ticked a couple of jobs off already.

I really can’t believe how quickly this week is going..

Not long now. 

On Thursday I will be bringing some of the new stamps to Hochanda. (11am and 3pm ) 

And the rest of the collection will be available from the Lavinia website. 

Here is one of my samples. 

I have throughly enjoyed using all the new stamps, ink pads and even Billy Brayer is coming out to play 

every day at the moment.

These stamps are perfect for creating a little story.

Look Rory needs help reaching an apple from the tree. 

That is like me in the supermarket...

Everything I need , tends to be on the top shelf!!!

On that note , 

I will love you and leave you. 

Take care everyone 

Jo xxx

Believe in yourself

Good afternoon all and thanks for popping in. 

I am so overwhelmed with your lovely comments on my dabble at 

YouTube videos. 

Thank you so much, 

also for the supportive emails. 

You really are the best.

Today I am going to share a recent sample from the 

Aall & Create one day special event. 

I created the background using paint on my gel press plate. 

I had a great time and made so many backgrounds. 

Look 

The hardest bit was choosing which background to use, 

I went for this one, and added some scribbles around the edges to create a frame. 

Then I stamped one of Tracy’s beautiful flowers, 

From here stamp set # 199 Eclectic stems 

I added some colour using pencils, then Fussy cut the flower. 

I assembled it on the card front and added some more splats of blue ink.

Followed by the sentiment plus some moss, which I happened to have in my craft stash.

It is amazing what we collect 

Isn’t it ? 

I have to say my craft space is a right old mess at the moment.

Poor Eric is finding it hard looking for a space to lie down. 

Take care all 

Love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Lovely Sunday.

Good afternoon all, 

thanks for joining me today. 

I do hope you have had a lovely weekend. 

We took Eric for a long walk this morning and the weather was beautiful, he is fast asleep now. 

Karl went for a bike ride after coffee, 

so I went into my craft room and made a little card. 

Look 

I have used a couple of the new Lavinia stamps which will be available to buy on 

Thursday 22nd.

Oh not many sleep left, I may even have a couple of them on the tv with me. 

Billy Brayer is getting so excited, his bags are packed ready. 

Whilst I was in my craft room , 

I had a go at making a little 

You tube tutorial too. 

If you have a minute , I really would appreciate you popping along 

and having a look. 

If you really wanted to make my day you could subscribe...

Hopefully you can find it here 

https://youtu.be/92UAUx8dRUU

Time to cook our meal now. 

Although my tummy isn’t happy at the moment.

Must be those butterflies in it.

Take care all.

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Create your own Dream.

Good afternoon all, 

Wow , it is Friday already.

This week has certainly whizzed.

Today I am going to share an Eclipse card with you. 

I do love making these. 

It can be any design in the background and any word die cut. 

So many possibilities.

I started out by selecting the die cut letters for the word Dream and 

making sure that they would fit on my piece of stamping card. 

Next I started adding some distress Oxide Inks using 

Billy Brayer...wow, he is having a few outings recently.

He is so excited about his visit to Hochanda next week. 

Don’t worry about any lines or uneven coverage of ink, as this is just the start of the background. 

Next some water flicks. 

A large moon mask and then some stamping. 

First in Oxide ink to represent flowers in the distance of our scene. 

Then in VersaFine ink for the foreground. 

I added some dragonflies and then blended some ink around the edges. 

That gave me my completed scene, so next to the die cutting. 

There are many different ways to do this, 

I must say, this is just the way that I like to do it. 

I die cut the letters in white card, black card and then out of the scene. 

Next I mounted the scene onto white card and placed the white die cut letters into the spaces. 

On top of those I added the black letters, just moving then to the side slightly , to achieve 

a drop shadow effect. 

Finally , I added the topper die cut letters.

What a wonderful effect. 

Look at a side view 

All the stamps that I have used are from Lavinia stamps. 

Remember you only have a few days left to enter the 

Create your own Dream Challenge.

All details are on the website 

https://laviniastamps.com/lavinia-stamps-monthly-creative-challenge/

It would be fabulous if one of you won the voucher.

Have a fabulous weekend all

Much love and hugs 

Jo Xxx

Little furry friends.

Good afternoon everyone, 

thanks for popping in. 

I do hope that today has started well, 

I just keep thinking that this time next week I will be at Hochanda.

I am getting more terrified by the day.!!! 

Yesterday it was our usual workshops in Hazel Grove. 

Thank goodness that the journey was so much better this week, 

No flooding. 

I even got my car back , all repaired. 

I was so pleased as the low driving position of the hire car really made my back so painful. 

We had a few of our usual friends missing as they are on holiday. 

Really hope you are all having a great time. 

We used stamps and stencils from Aall & Create, 

These cute little stamps are great for all ages. 

We used inks on the gel press plate for our second card. 

And this was one of my demos 

Which I have made into a card for Karl. 

You see it is 12months today that we moved into our wonderful new home. 

I can’t believe where the time has gone. 

I do think that these sort of backgrounds are great for all ages, especially 

dare I say those difficult to make for , men. 

It was lovely to catch up with everyone.

Today I am on grandma duties, so I must dash.

Then out for a meal with Karl later, when he gets back from Bristol. 

Enjoy your day everyone

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

Monday in my craft room

Good afternoon everyone,

thank you for popping in. 

I do hope that your week has started well. 

I have been in my craft room all day, 

working on samples for Hochanda. 

I am so excited, 

Well nervous, and terrified really.

I can’t believe that I am making samples for myself to demo,,,

So I do hope that you can join me on 

Thursday 22nd August at 11am and 3pm.

I even have some new designs on the show, 

Tracey has designed some fabulous new stamps. 

There will also be some new ones available on the 

Lavinia website that day too.

Here is a sneak peek 

Ok, 

You twisted my arm

Here is the full design 

I am really enjoying using these fabulous new designs. 

Just hope I will stop shaking enough to actually stamp them live on air!!!

I had better get on, 

I need to tidy my table. 

You know what it is like 

We seem to work in a 6 inch square,,,!!!

It is our Hazel Grove workshops on Wednesday and I am really hoping to 

have my car back from the garage

Enjoy your evening all

Much love and hugs 

Jo xxx

One day Special.

Good afternoon all, 

thanks for joining me today. 

I am having a Saturday off, no work for me today. 

I must admit , it is so that I can watch the fabulous Tracy Evans. 

She is on Hochanda with the first ever one day Special for Aall & Create. 

Here is one of my samples using her wonderful stamps, 

I do love creating pieces of art. 

I used a cheap, sorry , inexpensive frame , that I 

picked up from a local shop. 

I began by stamping the three backgrounds. 

Next I added some texture , the sentiments and the flowers. 

I found it very relaxing colouring in these flowers. 

Some squiggly edging lines, and white Posca splats and the designs were complete.

I do hope you have enjoyed the shows, 

Just two left Tracy..

Off to watch more fabulous demos.

Take care all. 

Enjoy your weekend 

Love and hugs 

Jo Xxx