Week 182 - Bring on the Bling!

Good Morning Everyone!

Well I can't believe it but our 2nd Birthday weekend is here and we are all ready to PARTY!!!! 

As mentioned last week we have a fabulous weekend planned with the gorgeous Phill Martin and the lovely Anne-Marie from Hunkydory today and the very talented Ali Reeve from Stamps Away all day Sunday.

The demonstrations will start at 10am and run through until 4pm both days and there will be refreshments available all day so that there will be no reason to rush off!!

We have been getting organised for the weekend all week and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all their continued support for Let's Create and for making it such a wonderful success over the last year.

Anyway, back to Allsorts business!  This week is the fabulous Brenda's Challenge and she has chosen 

BRING ON THE BLING!! 

Thankyou to our sponsors for this week

                                                                        Flonz Crafts

                                                                     www.flonzcraft.com/

This is the card that I have chosen to show you 

I am not sure if you can see the bling but I have popped gems over the sky and the trees and houses are all sparkled with gorgeous Hunkydory Diamond Sparkles Butterfly Trails glitter.

The main picture is an embossing folder from Nellie Snellen entitled Snowy Village.  Just running it through your embossing machine and applying Broken China distress ink creates a really simple but effective design.

The frame has been cut from Spellbinders Labels 11 (a favourite of mine!) from navy cardstock.  The dies around the frame are Marianne poinsettias, branch and tree with a little bling added for good measure.

We made this in class today and everyone enjoyed it.  A great stop gap for the last minute cards that we all need to do!

I must sign off now as I have a million and one things to do before we have our guests arriving.

I will take tons of pictures and pop them on the blog after the weekend.

Please pop in if you are in the area we would love to see you.

Pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to have a look at my team mates designs and I would love you to leave a comment on here if you like what you see.

Have a go at the challenge too.

Many thanks and enjoy a fabulous weekend, thankyou as ever for popping in.

Bye for now

Jo xx

  

Week 181 - It's A Gift

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope that finds you all well and looking forward to a lovely weekend.  There is a bit of a chill in the air and it is certainly reminding us that it is now November!

Another busy week for me - I have finally been discharged from hospital this week - they are happy with how everything has gone and don't need to see me anymore.  I have also had my return to Create and Craft this week with an hour on the Get Britain Crafting section.  I really enjoyed the hour with Dave Bradford showing you some gorgeous kits from S.E.I.  The quality of these papers are second to none and it really wasn't a chore playing with these!

The shop has been as busy as ever we have had 2 great workshops using Molly Bloom stamps which was throughly enjoyed by everyone.  We are also preparing for our 2nd Birthday weekend Event which is a week today - I can't believe it is 2 years already time certainly has flown.  We have a fabulous line up of super duper demonstrators - on Saturday we have the fabulous Anne-Marie from Hunkydory and the gorgeous Phill Martin who will be demonstrating Wild Rose Studio stamps and Pro-markers.  On Sunday we will be having Ali Reeve showing us how clever she is using everything inky with masks, sprays, and anything else she can use in the Grande Calibur to wow us all.  We will be open 10-4 both days and refreshments will be available all day.  A brilliant weekend to celebrate 2 brilliant years.

Back to the matter in hand today. Our lovely Emma has set the challenge for this weeks Allsorts Challenge and it is ...................

IT'S A GIFT

This certainly gives you all a great deal of scope and hopefully at the moment when everyone is preparing and making crafty gifts for friends and family for Christmas is would be a great time to show some of your gorgeous creations.

I couldn't make my mind up which project to show you this week, they are both decorated frames which make fabulous and individual gifts.  See what you think -

This one is on a Christmas and scrapbooking theme using 2 pictures of our gorgeous friends children Brandon and Rosie.  They are such adorable children and we think the world of them so I thought let's show them off in this little frame project.  The frame is a twiddlybits wave frame which really catches your eye.  I have crackled the actual frame using acrylic paints and crackle glaze from Crafty Notions and decorated the framework with twiddlybitz snowflakes and mini Christmas tree.  The words were cut out using Tim Holtz alphabet with mirri card and a little bling finishes the project off nicely.  This is a great project to do, it is quick and gives lots of smiles when you give it away.

The second project is a shadow box frame that I put together on the C and C show on Thursday using S.E.I papers.

This was so quick and easy to make.  Everything apart from a little ink was part of the S.E.I kit including the shadow box which came flat but very easy to make up.  The paper in the centre of the frame was cut down from a 12 x 12 and the flowers were made using a Spellbinder die and papers from the kit.

A couple of Cheery Lynn flourishes and a little ink here and there finishes it off.

I would be very happy to receive this as a gift - let me know what you think.

Outr lovely sponsors this week are:-

Pretty Little Ribbon Shop

and 

Digi Darla

Thankyou to you both.

Pop along to their links to see what excellent offers they have on this weekend.

Must dash, as ever, Parchment class again today at the shop.  Also lots to still organise for next weekend.

don't forget to pop by if you are in the area - we can guarantee a great fun filled and entertaining weekend.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thank you, as always for popping by.  Take a look at the other Design team projects for some inspiration for gift making.

Bye for now and happy crafting,

 Jo xxx

Allsorts Challenge Week 180 - Young at Heart

Good Morning Crafters,

Saturday again and another Allsorts Challenge and this week it is the lovely Tracey who has chosen this weeks theme which is ~

Young At Heart

I think that you agree that this a great challenge with lots of scope to cover a range of topics.

I have decided to show you this card which makes me smile and reminds me of my next door neighbour (he is a lovely man but I hope he doesn't read the blog!!!)

The stamps are from a Creative Expression set which features some fabulous stamps that are all humerous and perfect for golf enthusiasts.  (I apologise I cant remember the name of the stamp set - I will look into it and let you know)

The papers are again from Creative Expressions and is from the foundations collection - these are an excellent A4 sheet and are double sided , very popular in the shop.  I have also included some paper piecing which worked well to emphasise his cap and trousers.  Not sure if he will be able to do anything with that golf club though!  Candy and a little ribbon finish off the layout.  What do you think - does it remind you of anyone?!

Today in the shop we have painting on parchment which my friend Maria Maidment is running (I am sneaking in as a student today so will need to be on my best behaviour.)

I hope that you all enjoy this weeks challenge pop over and have a look at the DT work at Allsorts.  Thankyou to our fabulous sponsors who are

Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps
stitchybearstamps.com/shop/

Many thanks for popping by and please leave a comment.  l I hope that you enjoy a fabulous weekend.

I hope that if you have or are going to the NEC that you have a lovely time and spend lots!!!

Bye for now and take care,

Jo xx

Allsorts Challenge Week 179 - Men and Boys

Good Morning Everyone!

Well, I am back into the swing of everything this week and loving being back into doing what I love to do.
The week has been a busy one starting with me doing a demonstration at the shop using our new stamp range.  What a fabulous day we all had and thankyou to everyone that popped along, the shop was buzzing with fellow crafters and we had some fabulous comments about the stamps.  It seems that they really love them.  The lovely Maria Maidment also demonstrated using parchment techniques with the stamps and this gave everyone some different ideas to have a go at.  Huge thanks to Maria x

On Sunday I had the pleasure of teaching at Kim Sutton's dabble day in Blyth.  Our feet didn't touch the floor but, again, such a fantastic day and so well organised by Kim and all her staff.  Their next dabble weekend is on the 1st weekend in March next year and it is well worth a visit.

Onto today's Allsorts Challenge.  This week it is Sarah's week and she has chosen

For the Men and Boys

and this is my offering for this great challenge

I have used Fishing Stan digi print from Digi Stamp Boutique who are our lovely sponsors for this week's challenge.  

The papers are the front and reverse from We R Memory Keepers - Argyle Sweater which seemed to really fit the bill.

The image has been coloured in a selection of promarkers and the background with Pan Pastels.

I cut the image out using the Classic Square Spellbinder and used the out of the box technique to cut around the fishing rod.  Some vintage photo distress ink, a little distressing with the Tim Holtz distressing tool and vintage bakers twine finishes the design off.

I hope that you like it, pop over to the Digi Stamp Boutique and have a look around, there are some smashing images to choose from click on.http://www.digistampboutique.co.uk/catalog/to have a peep.

Must dash now we have a fabulous day planned with Caroline Whatling teaching a Molly Bloom Christmas box project and I am a student!!!! I have promised to behave and listen to teach!!!  I will try to take some pictures so that you can see what we have been getting up to.

I hope that you enjoy a lovely weekend, that the weather is kind to you and that you have time to fit in some well deserved crafting time.

Pop over to have a look at the great projects the DT girls have done and hope is encourages you to have a go at the challenge this week.

Bye for now

Jo xx