Just for you Donna,,

Good evening all, and thanks for joining me today...

How is your week going? I am still struggling with health issues and Eric has Kennel cough....

What a dreadful few days it has been , I didn't realise that dogs could still get it after having their vaccinations..

It is such a horrible virus, I really thought he was chocking at first...

Thank goodness he is feeling much better today after a few days of Honey, extra vitamins and probiotics...I just hope that Tess doesn't catch it next,,.as she is much older than him...

Any of you who have pets will understand how hard it has been...

This obviously means that they can't go into the kennels whilst we are in Ireland for the weekend, so Adam and Danielle have sorted their work patterns out to look after them both.

Today it was our Hazel Grove workshops and we made Christmas cards, and we decorated a bauble....I do love these baubles...

A great way to give a personalised gift.

We also had cake thanks to Julie and Lucy, looks like the diet will have to wait for another day...

I have had quite a few enquiries about one of our cards from Clarity Cumbria on Saturday.

So this is especially for you Donna, ( thanks for the question and your continued support on this little blog )

I started by stamping the frame and then cutting out the middle part to make an aperature

Then I stamped up the frame.

On black card I stamped the Fuchsia stamp using VersaMark ink , and the Heat embossed using Clear embossing powered.

Then using my Inka Gold paints and a fine paintbrush I added some colour. I just spritz the pots with water and then use the paint straight from the pot.

I have to say, I always spritz the paint too before I put it away, I find this helps and stops it drying out.

I painted the borders , plus stamped and coloured a butterfly

Then just assembled the design

I do think this design would look good if painted with mica powders too...I must try that,,

I really hope that you like this technique, I just love to get many uses out of my crafty stash...no one trick wonders in my craft room...lol..

Well, I had better get on, thanks for listening...

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? I have now...yah...

Two down....lots still to do...

Call back soon

Love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Happy Saturday..

Good morning all , thanks for joining me on a very wet Sunday morning.

Oh it is going to be a muddy dog walk this morning, it has been raining here for the past hour....mind you that will please Mr Eric as he loves water and mud...

Today I am going to share some photographs from yesterday with you...it was our monthly Clarity Cumbria workshop...and what a fabulous day it was....

Thank you ladies and gentleman for your company...

Our Sheila is on holiday at the moment ( topping up her tan ) so Mary was a trooper and stepped in to help out ...big Thanks Mary...you are a star.

We used the fabulous new Jayne Nestorenko floral stamps,

These are the most wonderful stamps,

 

 

And they can be used in so many different ways, here we added colour with Inka Gold paints...

 

 

Look what the crafters made...just wonderful

 

 

Great for making those emergency cards....

And we all need those at some time,,,

Great cards by all, and finally a clean and simple design

A perfect way to finish off a wonderful day..

I just love everyone of them.....I am so blessed to have such lovely , crafty friends....

And I even baked the cakes for afternoon tea.....

Omg....yes Mum... I really did bake them myself.....

Right, I had better get on, it is another really busy week ahead with workshops in Hazel Grove and then we are off to Ireland on Friday , ready for Clarity Belfast on Saturday...

I also have samples to make for Barbara's next Hochanda shows, and a magazine deadline ....

So today it is working Sunday....well if you can call it work......

Enjoy your day...whatever you do...

Take care all ,

And pop back soon

Love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Stand out from the Crowd

Good afternoon all, and thanks for popping in...

I do hope that your week is going well, it is mad here as always and that list of jobs to do,,,,is getting longer and longer.... it hasn't been a good week here as I have had lots of headaches,,,

Which is not ideal when I have so much crafting to do, but on the plus side I did manage lunch with two lovely friends.

Today I though I would share a card with you that I made for Barbara's recent tv show on Hochanda.

I do love these new stamps,

I started with a piece of stencil card and stamped the tree, then using the masks provided with the stamps , I made myself a little forest .

Next I added some decorations to my main tree...

And then added some colour using my Spectrum Aqua pens.

Next I edged the card...just to draw the eye in...

And then stamped the words

I am not very good at English ( even though I did get my O' level ) and dyslexia runs in my family so I always struggle with spellings, hence I always have to write the words down onto copier paper.

This does help, but unfortunately I still make some silly mistakes...and this is embarrassing enough but there seem to be some 'lovely ' people out there who are always far too happy to point these out...

Dyslexia, is such a horrible condition, you can't see it, but my goodness it impacts on ones life so, so much...

I added the little robin just to give some extra detail...and here is the finished card.

A little twist on a Christmas card.

Speaking of Christmas , I spent last Sunday making a Christmas cracker, it was for Maria's show on Wednesday....it uses a lovely new Groovi plate...

I did enjoy making this , Groovi with a bit of a twist, and a Christmas card too, from the same plate...

 

Notice the little Robin again...

Well Adam has just gone to work, Karl has just come in from work and Mikey is in work....hope you are keeping up...!!! lol.

So it is time to put some food on the table....

Tomorrow I have to pack my bags ready for Clarity Cumbria on Saturday...we are using the wonderful new floral stamps designed by Jayne Nestorenko, I am really looking forward to it...

Enjoy your evening...

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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Super Saturday

Good evening all and thanks for popping in, I hope you have had a lovely weekend.

It has been a very busy one for me, but a very enjoyable one.

Yesterday it was our Clarity Glasgow workshop ,

And look, even the sun came out to play.

We started our day by using Jo's large flower stencil and making a Christms card...( well I have to get mine made somehow )

Look at these wonderful card designs

I do love looking at all the different colour tones that the ladies have used .

We then made some 'time'

We decorated these fabulous clocks

The photo just doesn't do them justice, the colours and designs really were stunning.

Then after tea and cake ( big thanks to Eileen) were finished the day with a quick and easy CAS card design

It was so good to catch up with my lovely friends north of the border...

And the best bit...I didn't get locked in the car again....yah...

Karl drove us home , with a pit stop at our favourite services ....Westmorland Services

They really do make the most wonderful home cooked food.

Today has been a day of catching up with washing and other jobs, plus we had to go and collect Tess and Eric...bless them....I really missed them...

Better get on,

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxxx

 

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A colourful Friday

Good afternoon and thanks for joining me, and oh my goodness we have another new follower...I am jumping up and down with excitement..

Today I wanted to share some more colours of ink with you...if you remember last week we took a look at the new Artistry ink pads....

A dye based ink pad...very juicy, very versatile and a real must have...

Now those of you who are regulars on here will know that I love autumn colours....and use those colour tones so much....

So I thought we could look at the equivalent colours in the Artistry ink pads...

I made myself a swatch of the Distress ink colours that I normally use and then added some similar Artistry inks , and chose the nearest match...

And this is what I came up with

Mustard Seed - Golden Turmeric

Spiced Marmalade - Orange Popsicle

Abandoned Coral - Blushing Rose

Candied Apple - Blaze

I also needed a good brown.- Burnt Umber.

And there is the most wonderful deep burgundy colour - Fine Wine, I have used this so much.

I also repeated it with blues and greens,

I found it a great way to help me decide on which of the large ink pads to buy first...

I do hope it helps you too...

Do let me know what you think

Here is a quick and simple card made using the Artistry ink pads...

In fact we are using them tomorrow in our Clarity Glasgow workshop...I do love coming up here...

At the moment I am sat in our hotel room with a lovely cup of coffee...

I must just tell you something that happened today...

And I hope it makes you smile...( it did me...eventually )

Karl and me set off early this morning, we had a decent journey up and Karl had an appointment in Edinburgh.

So whilst he went into the lab, I sat in the car, Groovi at hand to get on with some samples

Now as he walked off, I heard the doors , click....as the central locking , locked them...

Oh no....I looked for the keys....yes he had them

I reached for my phone, only to notice that he had left his in the car with me...

I tried to unlock the doors, and all that happened was the car alarm went off.....

Well, not only did I feel a fool, but I was worried that the alarm would flatten the battery.

So , I sat still, motionless for 40 minutes , getting hotter and hotter....

Karl eventually came back to the car, ( thank goodness)

He said my face was a picture!!!!!!! And not a good one...

Good job we can laugh.....

But it will cost him...lol...

So we are off now for dinner....

Enjoy your evening and pop back soon

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

 

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A canvas for today.

Good afternoon all, and thanks for popping in for a few minutes. We have another new follower , as you know I always get excited when we have a new member to our little blog family...

I do hope that you will be very happy here...

But I must warn you that I do ramble on at times.....

Today I thought I would share a canvas with you....

I made this for the Clarity Open day, as you know I do love to dabble in Mixed Media , and love to play with stencils and grunge paste.

I started with a canvas board, and this rather lovely large flower stencil, designed by yours truly....( yah.....sorry....but I do love saying that...)

Now I didn't drag the grunge paste through the stencil. I used a technique that I have borrowed from the very lovely and talented Eileen Godwin.

What you do is put some GP onto your craft mat, spritz with a little water and use a clean, min blending tool pad to dab the GP through the stencil.

This gave me lots of texture.

Plus I just dabbed some GP around the canvas for extra texture.

At this point I wasn't even sure which orientation I was going to have the canvas.

Next , I added some small wooden stars....for extra detail and painted the whole thing with black gesso..

When the gesso was dry , I added some colour using the Fresco Paints...the best way to do this is to Dry Brush. It...so that means not too much paint on your brush..having your brush quite ' dry' and not pressing it too hard onto the canvas. I used a sort of dragging motion with my brush.

The next stage was to add some gilding wax...and some splats of gold paint...( I do love adding splats...)

And a lovely die cut...from Memory Box dies.

I used this brilliant glue wand....it really is great for adding delicate die cuts...

This Jayne Nestorenko stamp is my favourite butterfly stamp at the moment, I just can't put it down...

And it just finished off the canvas perfectly..

I also found these cute little metal hearts...They say ' made with love' ....and it was ...

I do hope that you like it,

Enjoy the rest of your day, I am off to the hairdressers, then I need to get everything sorted for tomorrow's classes in Hazel Grove....

We are going to be making a start on Christmas cards...

Take care all,

Much love and hugs

Jo. xxx

 

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