Week 169 - A Gift

Good Morning Crafters,

I hope this finds you all well and happy.  This is a very quick post this morning as I have a very busy day - we go to the airport tonight after we close the shop and fly on holiday tomorrow for 8 days!!!!

Turkey here we come!

But, before that ....................  calm ..............

I would like to show you my project for Brenda's excellent challenge this week for Allsorts (allsortschallenge.blogspot.com)

I thought this project that I did in a class this week would make a super gift.  

I have used a Spellbinder shape MDF plaque (we sell lots of these shapes in the shop and they have become really popular and so very reasonable)

I have crackled the background using Sheena's crackle technique with acrylic paint on the first layer, a layer of PVA glue and magnolia emulsion on the top.  To make it look even more distressed I have used Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges.

The decoupage that I have used is from the Jayne Shasky CD rom from the lovely Joanna Sheen which I sprayed with Spray and Shine from Crafters Companion - it finishes a decoupage off really nicely.

The sentiment is also from the CD rom from the Calligraphy section and again I have edged it with VP.

The foliage that was added to the edges is from one of the new Spellbinder sets - Fall Leaves.  I am really loving this one such a variety of leaves to use on so many projects.

Thankyou to our lovely sponsors this week:

and 

As always pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog and have a peep at the gorgeous gift ideas that the girls and made - fabulous work this week and lots of ideas for giving crafty goodies for Christmas.

Must dash now I have lots to do before I can set off this evening.

I won't be around next week to post for Allsorts but please pop by the week after and I will fill you in on our holiday too!!

Bye for now and enjoy a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend,

Jo xxx

Week 167 - Going around in Circles

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope that this finds you all well and enjoying the long awaited Summer that we are having.  

This week I am hosting the Allsorts Challenge and I have chosen the title

Going Around in Circles

and this is my design

I have used the simply gorgeous House Mouse Feathered Friends design, which I had the pleasure of demonstrating on Create and Craft yesterday.

You never fail to smile when you are stamping these designs and then you have the pleasure of colouring them in to!  It's a hard life but someone has to do it!

As you can see I have used lots of circles - and these have been cut out using the Grand Circles from the Spellbinder range.

I have used Pro-markers to colour the image and Pan pastels to add a hint of colour into the sky.

The backing paper has been printed from the If Flowers could Talk CD rom - again from the lovely Joanna Sheen.

To bring all the colours in I have distressed the edges with Dusty Concorde and embellished it further with flowers and a Marianne swirl.

I hope that you like the design , go on, have a go at the Challenge too.  It is quite a broad title so add anything that you want to the design.

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of demonstrating at Inspirations, Preston which as we all know is the home of Hunkydory.

I was sharing the stage with Anne-Marie and Phil Martin and we all had an excellent day with lots of you lovely crafters popping in to have a peep at what we were doing.

Here are a few pictures Mark took on the day.

                                                         
                                                             Phil and the lovely Anne-Marie

                                                     
                                                       Check out that smile ladies!!!!

Not such a good shot of me but lovely one of the ladies.

Thankyou to everyone that made me feel so welcome.  It is always a pleasure to travel up North to visit this fabulous shop.

Must dash now, we have a decorating box workshop today at the shop and I am a student!!! The lovely Carolyn Whatling is taking the class and I am sure that we are heading for an excellent day of messy craft, just how I like it!!

I will pop a picture on when the project is finished to see what you think.

For now, enjoy the sunshine and keep in touch with a comment and don't forget to take part in the Challenge this week.

Bye for now

Jo xxx

Week 165 - A Recipe

Good Morning Crafters

I hope that this finds you all well and enjoying the fabulous Olympics.  The Brits seem to be making their mark and for a small Island in comparison with the other huge nations I think we are doing a great job.

Watching the Olympics has been in snatches for me as it has been another hectic week.  I have had 3 excellent shows on C and C including my first show representing Crafty Notions. This is the first show since the terrible loss of Sarah Lawrence.  These were big shoes to fill and I must say I was nervous about making sure I did the best job that I could have done.  Having Nigel presenting was the best start to the show and it all went so well with 4 sell outs in the hour! phew!!!!

May I say a huge welcome to our lovely new members on our design team - Tracey and Sarah.  check out their blogs they are very talented girls.  I hope that you both enjoy your time at Allsorts.

This mornings Allsorts Challenge has been set by our lovely Emma and the title is A recipe.  What a great idea and a recipe with no calories - even better!!! We have been asked for a design using a certain recipe of elements and this is what I have come up with

   I have chosen to make a decorative hanging using every possible Tim Holtz product!  A bit of a Ranger Fest I think on reflection!!!! As always it isn't the best photograph but have taken a couple of close ups to see more detail.

Are you ready for the list of products! First of all I took a piece of Grunge Board and cut a Labels 1 Spellbinder out. I used Distress stains - Dusty Concorde for the background - great for quick coverage -  and spritzed it with perfect pearls to add some glimmer.  I added to the background by using some paper from my stash which has a generic text on it so perfect for what I wanted.  I used Tim Holtx Flourish from Sizzix as a stencil and used Snow Cap alcohol ink to create some depth.

  I then tackled the next layer with a group of tattered florals (again Sizzix) which were cut from Grunge paper and Glassine paper I also coloured the grunge paper flourish with a cocktail of alcohol ink colours (I couldn't make my mind up at this stage!)I also spritzed these with the perfect pearls too.

the butterflies were stamped onto Grunge using the lovely floral set from Hunkydory (check these out if you haven't already - fabulous designs and great value for money)

The Ideaology buttons finished off the flowers, Creative Expressions pink pearl PVA added the girly touch and Cosmic Shimmer ribbon was used for hanging.

Great fun doing this as I am sure you can see - get your newspaper ready for the inking frenzy though!! (that reminds me must get on now as I didn't tidy up after finishing quite late and I have a parchment class this morning - I don't think alcohol inks, distress stains and parchment are a match in heaven!!!

If you are around the Preston area on Sunday I have the pleasure of demonstrating at the fabulous |Inspirations shop (Hunkydory home).  The gorgeous Phil Martin will be there also trying to upstage me!!!

Very much looking forward to this always a great day and the staff are some of the best.

I have been asked to demo Tim Holtz and Ideaology products so will take my project to display,

It would be great to see you if you have a chance to pop in.

Anyway must dash.  Please pop over to the Allsorts blog to check out the other recipe ideas from our lovely team and it would be great if you left a comment about my Tim Holtz Fest!!  Get all your Ranger stash out and have a blast.

Bye for now and enjoy a lovely weekend.

Lots of crafty love

Jo xx