Catch up from France

Good morning all, 

Hope you are all keeping well. 

I have been keeping an eye on you all from France, 

So , after much deliberation, Karl and I decided to keep our holiday and come over 

here and have some rest and relaxation, 

Well look what happens, 

Barbara and Dave got married, Congratulations both 

Jenny Mayers becomes a grandma again, Congratulations to all, 

and we got two offers on our house....

So it has been frantic phone calls and emails to set plans in motion.

I can’t tell you how happy we are to accept a cash offer and once again have a deposit on our dream house 

Phew....

It is all go...even on holiday 

We drove down to the Dordogne and stayed at a fabulous camp site ..Soleil Plage

It is set in the most fantastic scenery 

We went on so many walks 

One day we spotted this Chateau, 

So the following morning we went to find it..

And it was so beautiful, 

Even had its own resident cat 

I have certainly been getting my steps in...

We met the most wonderful group of ladies , 

Look , here is Pat , all ready for the France football match 

Oh what a character ,

These ladies would fit in so well at our craft groups , what a laugh we had 

It is one of the things that we love about camping, meeting such great people 

Our next stop was at a Chateau near Boussac-Bourg 

This was our view from the van 

More walks 

Just beautiful, 

I hope you are keeping cool , as I believe the weather is very hot at home,,

We have rain here today..

Not that I mind...it keeps the air fresh and the plants green 

So for now,,,

Cheers . 

Take care 

Much love and hugs 

Jo. xxx

New Home card

Good evening all, 

Hopefully you will see this post appear on Tuesday evening..

If not,,,whoops...I’m sorry...

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend,,,and made the most of this beautiful weather .

Today I want to share a new home card with you 

I made it for Adam, Danielle and Elliot 

When they moved into their lovely new home,,,

I used that fabulous Gnome set of stamps from Hobby Art 

There is just so much on this stamp plate..

I used watercolour paper, and VersaFine ink , 

And added some colour using the Clean colour pens from Hobby Art..

These are great to use and give such vibrant results .

I created the background using some Fine Wine ink 

and then assembled the card. 

I carefully cut into the door so that I could stamp a couple of hearts behind it 

Look 

A special card for a special family 

Enjoy the rest of your week 

I think Elliot is missing his grandma,,,don’t you...

Take care all

Much love and hugs 

Jo. xxx

Messy String

Good afternoon all, 

If you are reading this is should be Friday afternoon , 

If not , well then my scheduled blog post didn’t work..

Today we are going to have some fun ,

We are going to play 

And make a design using the ‘messy string’ technique.

Well that’s what I call it anyway..

This is such a fun technique to do, it does work with other materials and mediums...

But today we are going to use paint and string 

Oh and a little plastic container.

This particular one had the most wonderful ice cream in,,,courtesy of Aldi

The things I do for my crafting!!!!

You can use just one colour of paint or many.

I have use two.

Just add some to the container and then dip the string in 

Lay the string in a sort of snake shape on your card,

With another piece of card or paper on top.

These are placed between the pages of a book or magazine,,

And I’m not going to suggest any particular magazines,,,,Peter !!!!

Close the magazine, hold it down with one hand and pull the string with the other...

And look 

This is what you get 

(Just watch out that you don’t have anything behind you that can get paint on it...!!!! Lisa and Ruth )

I must warn you it is very addictive, 

I would suggest having a few pieces of card at the ready and making quite a few prints 

I must try this on a canvas , as I think it would be a wonderful piece of art 

Now how to make the print into a finished design 

First add some splats ( Becki’s background Stamps from Hobby Art )

Next some script stamping and colour around the edge 

Oh , yes , more purple...(Take note Karen !!!) 

A bit more stamping 

Followed by some splats of luscious 

And more ink splats 

Finally , a butterfly. A sentiment and a bow , yes made from the dry string 

So there we have it ...

Messy string made into art...

I really love it...

Bet you will too

Do let me know how you get on 

Much love and hugs 

Jo. xxxx

Ingenious Inking

Good evening  all, 

and welcome to the first scheduled blog post 

Hopefully by now we are settled in our little van 

in a campsite near Dover .

Ready for the early ferry tomorrow morning. 

We had to leave early today as we had another viewing in the house, plus 

a second viewing tomorrow, followed by another one on Thursday..

We still have everything crossed that we can get an offer soon...

My head and tum really can’t cope with much more...grrr

Anyway 

back to all things crafty..

If you fancy treating yourself...this is a fabulous buy,,

On Sale Now 

Available here 

http://tidd.ly/e709b10c

There is a great article in it..

And some fab cards...

But then I would say that ,,,

As yeah,,,these are my designs, 

and I had great fun making them . 

The free gifts with this box kit are fabulous...

and so versatile,,

And available for a brilliant price 

I must dash,,,

So much to do..

Take care all.

Much love as always

Jo. xxx

Crafting in Cumbria

Good morning crafty friends 

Another monday and another week ahead, let’s hope it’s a good one for us all. 

Hope you had a lovely weekend .

It was our monthly meet up in Cumbria on Saturday...

And what a fabulous day it was...

We started off with a warm up card using the beautiful foxgloves Stamps from Lavinia ,

Look at these beauties...

After coffee we made some backgrounds using the messy string technique....

To be honest that is what I call it, sorry not sure if it has a technical name,

It is a technique that I used to do in school , with the children and with the cubs, I had forgotten about it , and 

then saw a video on Facebook , and it reminded me...

It is such a fun , oh and messy thing to do...

We made so many backgrounds , 

And found out just ‘how long a piece of string is ‘ 

The hall floor was covered with them 

Whilst they were drying , 

We made a card using Mr Badger....

These are gorgeous ladies, 

We were all ready for some lunch , and then made our background into a card 

There are many possibilities with these prints, but I decided to go with the underwater theme, 

These two designs had glossy Accents on.  So they were drying 

I love these ladies...

I am so proud of the way you embrace new techniques and just have a go...

We had a new lady join us, which is always lovely ,

and a couple of our regulars who were unable to come,,

We did miss you ladies and gent 

See you next month..

As always , our final make was an ATC 

These are great fun and it is so lovely to be able to take home a piece of art made by a friend. 

Some of the ladies who didn’t make the class posted their ATC’s so that they can still join in the swap..

I am so proud of the way this group of Crafters are so friendly, generous and really make our workshop such 

a fabulous experience 

I am building up such a great collection of art work made by my lovely friends 

Makes me so happy..

Still no news on the house...

It really is taking its toll on us all, so maybe a few days away are needed...

I will schedule some blog posts , including one on the messy string ...

So keep popping back  

Have a great week all..

Much love and hugs 

Jo. xxxx

Lace, buttons and bows.

Good morning everyone, 

Thanks for popping in on this Friday morning, 

another very busy day here as it is our 

Cumbria class tomorrow,,.

Another full class so lots of prep to do...

Today it is a new Challenge 

over on the Fussy and Fancy Challenge blog 

The new theme is 

Lace, Buttons and Bows...

Our lovely hostess is Jules 

and this is what I came up with 

I didn’t want to just do the obvious and add a piece of lace, a button and a bow to a topper. 

So I decided to make my own background using a piece of lace. 

I added some distress ink onto my Gelli plate 

Then placed the piece of lace over my stencil card 

Then placed the Gelli plate on top of the lace and gave it a good press. 

And this is what I got...

Oh , I love it 

Perfect for the new seahorse stamp from Lavinia 

Next came some bubbles, another Lavinia stamp..

As usual I did that thing that I do..

And yes,,,I really did

Cut my stamp into two..!!!

I added some detail to the bubbles, and some colour to the seahorse, 

Some matting and layering, 

Followed by ribbon 

Buttons and Bows...

As always the glossy Accents came out to play ,

I do love the detail of this stamp.

If you would like to check out the designs from the rest of the dt,

Just go here .

 http://fussyandfancychallenge.blogspot.com/

Even better 

Why not have a play and enter the challenge 

Must dash...

So much to do..

See you lovely ladies in Cumbria tomorrow...

Early start...

Much love and hugs 

Jo. xxxx