More goodies on their way...

Just ordered more goodies!.... Finally a restock of the fabulous Tim Holtz scissors - once used, completely addicted!... These scissors are excellent for cutting out unmounted rubber stamps as well as your general crafting use. Also on their way are some of the new Tim Holtz sizzix dies, some Me and My Big Ideas and Basic Grey 12x12 paper packs and some Adirondak Dimensional Pearls.... oh and a restock of Alcohol ink Blending solution for anyone who is waiting on some! Keep em peeled - this lot have got to come all the way from Holland so may be a week or so before they arrive.... happy crafting! Jane

I did it!!!

My friend Pauline always creates these amazingly artistic journals that get me all inspired and it has been my plan for a very long time to use that inspiration and have a go myself. I went out a bought a book (over 2 years ago...).. but never quite found that time to sit and do it. Probably one of those 'where do I start' moments! Well I saw Pauline's latest journal this month and decided that my goal for March was to sit down and create! Well yesterday I found the perfect excuse to use it as my demonstration piece at a craft fair and here are the resulting creations.... A background created using Eco-green Orchid paint, Distress ink peeled paint and distress stain Forest Moss (I love the way distress ink goes muted over the paints) The stamps are Inkadinkado Inchies Dogs set.

This is a crafty individuals stamp - as it the beauty words too. I have spritzed the background with a mixture of the new cosmic shimmer mister colours - teal wash, mango blush and rose pink and then handdrawn the swirls with the words with a letraset fine marker. Finally it needed a little more grunging so I used my crafty individuals crackle stamp (a must for every stampers craft box!!) with a little Aged Mahogany distress ink to fill in some of the background area.

This owl is from Elusive Images - as re the branches in the corner (retro vases set). I started again with a spritzed backround - teal wash, ice blue and a hint of rose pink. I stamped my owl with archival black and hand drew in the branch. The image stamp is also elusive images. As a final finishing touch it was a little empty at the bottom so I've handrawn little stitched borders and wording.

This hasn't scanned very well - it's much more vibrant in real life! This is really simple in design. Spritzed background again - same colours as before but heavier. Then a little tattered rose distress ink directly over the top - ink pad to paper - then I've stamped the Elusive images design using archival black in a pattern around the page and coloured in using my cheap & cheerful 50p gold gel pens as seen on the website!. Finally I've written the title - but if you were not confident using freehand - use letter stamps to create your heading.

Would love to know what you all think!!

enjoy

Jane

Beautiful Butterfly...

I'm still in the midst of my stock take here - so no time to be creative at the moment - so I thought I would share a couple of cards that I liked from last Saturday's workshop! The first created by Debbie I thought had just the right amount of inking and love those gems just to finish it off and that Phoenix is gorgeous! The second made by Karen is created using Nestabililities and a Marianne Designs Butterfly. With just a finishing touch of glitter - it shows how simple clean lines can be so effective. Thanks for the inspiration ladies!

now back to the stock take... is that a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.... no it's someone with a torch bringing me another box of products to count!!.... :-)

keep crafting

Jane

1, 2, 3, 4.... now where was I up to!...

oooh lovely... lots of alcohol inks!!

OMG.. so many brads where do I start....

It can be a bit of a mountain to climb doing our stock take.. counting all those brads, decoupage sheets and peel-offs seems endless at times!.... however on the positive side I get a reminder of all those little gems still in stock that I'd forgotten about... and some of them we just need to see go because we need the room for all the new stuff!... so keep em peeled on the website later this week as we are compiling a list of special offer items to be offered - including lots of stamps from top brands!....

Meanwhile - you can enjoy browsing through the new items on the website - lots to tempt you with at the moment!

Jane

Lots of new products online!

Lots of new products are now up on the website.... including new release designs from Spellbinder, the new Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Misters and also their new dazzle paints and drawing inks, plus the full range of Tim Holtz Distress Stains, new embossing folders from Creative Expressions, New masks from That Special Touch as well as some more stickles colours and much more. We've also had a complete restock of every colour of alcohol ink too! Still to come are the Eco-green paints and we'll have them up on the website soon!

so grab a coffee and have a browse - happy shopping!

Jane

The Distress Stains have arrived!....

They are here - hurrah... Tim Holtz's new distress stains... New ways to play with the distress ink range... Apply more vibrant colour over bigger areas, combine with your distress inks, experiment with other mediums too! More to come about these inks and they'll be on the website by the end of tomorrow but couldn't contain my excitement!

happy crafting

Jane

just one or two bottles of alcohol inks then....

well just over a 100 actually.... a big delivery has arrived and the boxes are crammed full of restocks like the fantastic alcohol inks and blending tools and cut n dry foam, as well as new goodies from Cosmic Shimmer like the new drawing inks and dazzle inks, embossing folders, chalk misters plus new dies from Spellbinders.. and a lot of eco-green paints!!... ooh it's just like christmas!

Keep your eyes peeled on the website - I'll be busying myself behind the scenes to get them all up on-line as quickly as I can... but it may take a few days as I've also got lots of events on this week too!

no drooling on the computer screen now at all these goodies!!

enjoy

Jane

latest arrivals

New on the website -Martha Stewart edge punches, grungepaper, shrinkles, new peel-offs, memento dew-drops are now all back in stock - as are those favourite ink pads - memento large tuxedo black, stazon black and versafine black too!... more stickles in stock... and there's still lots more to arrive that's been ordered yet!

enjoy!

Jane

New clusters...

Getting ready for a craft fair at the weekend so thought I'd make some more clusters as per the sample I made at Birmingham - and here are the results!

enjoy!

Jane

What a busy club night!

It was Diss club night last Monday - and we had a room full of enthusiastic and chatty crafters - great fun! Everyone was very productive this month and we all managed to craft in between our chat! Walking round the table there was quite a mix of crafts - rubber stamping, decoupage, using alcohol inks, beading, brayers and inks, even a lady doing chicken scratch (a form a stitching onto gingham fabric). I did a demo using the Eco-green paints - hope you all found that interesting. It's always nice when club has a busy buzz about it. If you are in the Norfolk area and want to join us we meet in Diss once and month and I also run a club in Harleston twice a month. Details on the website of venues and dates.. new members are always welcome!

happy crafting

Jane

A productive weekend...

It doesn't happen very often that all three are present at once... that (a) I've got the time to craft (b) I'm in the mood to craft and (c) I've got the inspiration to craft.... when all three come together it results in a productive weekend!

I continued working with the pieces I created yesterday to make them into cards. As you can see I've managed to convert my painted pieces into a variety of cards. I'll feature some in more detail in a later blog to give you more information about how they were created

hope you like them.

happy crafting

Jane

Eco Green Paints - Part One

pic One -background painted, main colour painted over lines ready to be buffed back to reveal the embossing

pic Two - the whole design has been painted in - just needing the white gel pen highlights

Pic Three - the finished piece

I've been playing with the Eco-Green paints this weekend... so look out for some blogs over the next week or so with some hints and tips to get you started with these fab paints.

Today's project is using your paints to 'colour in'. I've started with a piece of greyboard - but you can use your paints on ordinary card, or even mount board. I painted the whole piece with aged gold and allowed to dry thoroughly. Next I have embossed the lady stamp (from UMount) in the usual way - firstly rubbing over with my anti-static mat, then inking up with VersaMark and using a detail black embossing powder. Then heat your powder until ready. You need to make sure your first coat of paint is properly dry before doing this - if you try to rush it, there's a chance that your embossing powder will stick to your background.

Use a small pointed brush to paint in the detail so you have lots of control. I always put a little paint onto a non-stick mat that can then act as a paint palette. The embossing will be a bit of a resist for the paints. You can paint over the edges slightly and then buff back to show the embossing through. Bear in mind that if you put lots of coats of paint over the embossing, it will be trickier to get it to show through - so if you need to build up your colours, paint a coat, rub it back, then paint your next coat and so on. These paints also buff up to a high shine - just use an old towel or tea towel for a good result. Don't be tempted to hurry your paint drying with your heat gun - remember there's embossing underneath and you don't want to overheat the embossing or it'll disperse into your card!

I've used butternut and orchid for the flesh tones and pomegranate and periwickle for the dress colours.

As a final handy hint - a few highlights with a white gel pen can make a big difference. If you compare the before with the after pictures above, you can see how much zing it brings to the finished piece. We stock some fabulous value gel pens for just 50p a pen, available in gold, silver and white and I highly recommend them!

More to come this week on Eco-Green techniques...

happy crafting

Jane

oooh new goodies - yippee!

oooh the goodies are starting to arrive that I ordered last week. I've got a huge box of plastic boxes - A4, A5, A6 & ATC all to unpack and load up on the web, and also a box from woodware to sort & upload... including the fab owl stencil from Dreamweaver pictured above. We've got brayers back in stock as well as a selection of new stencils, peel-offs and stamps & ribbons too!.... we'll get them up on the website as soon as we can - but bear with us - it always takes far longer than we think to upload everything and put onto our stock system!
what will arrive next... oh the anticipation!
happy crafting
Jane