Week 237 - Snowflakes

Good Saturday Morning Everyone,

No doubt this post finds you all really busy and getting ready for everything to do with Christmas. A question for you - why is it that the women of the house always have so much to do and organise at this time of year!!!!  it is a funtime though but it is getting scarily close now so I really must get down to some serious sorting out!

 

 

We have had 2 Christmas get togethers at Let's Create this week - on Wednesday evening and all day yesterday and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that came along.  We had such a lovely time on both occasions, a good laugh, a little mulled wine and a fabulous spread of all the naughty food that we are allowed to eat at this time of year! We also played a few daft games and had a Christmas quiz!  It is our way of finishing off another fabulous year at the shop and having all of our friends and customers popping in to celebrate.

 

Today is the start of a new Challenge and it is our lovely Helene's turn to host this week and she has chosen .......................................

 

 

SNOWFLAKES

 

for the title and I think that the following card is quite fitting what do you think?

 

 

This is a gorgeous image from the Hobby House - I really love working with their products.

The inner circular die is from the Tattered Lace range and is the Floral Interlocking Die set.

The inner plain circle in the middle is a Spellbinder and the outer circle is also a Spellbinder from the Grand Circle Set.

The snowflake die is a Cheery Lynn and I really like it for its delicate appearance. These were cut in Centura Pearl card.

The organza ribbon and the string with a gem finishes the card off.

I hope that you like the design and get some inspiration from it to have a go at the Challenge at Allsorts.  Pop over to the Challenge blog to have a look at all of the other Design team ideas.

 

Thankyou, as always, for popping by and please leave a comment - I love to receive them.

 

Enjoy a lovely weekend and if you do go Christmas shopping don't spend too much!!!!

Bye for now

Jo xxx



 



Week 236 - Anything but Christmas at Allsorts

Good Morning Crafters,

How are you all?  apparently there is only 16 shopping days until Christmas !!!??? oops where did that disappear to!!! better I get organised.

 

Last week we had the fabulous Ali Reeve at Let's Create and it was a very successful day - the last demonstration day of the year.  Ali is such a great crafter with so many ideas. 

 

Yesterday I was at Create and Craft and I was demonstrating an array of Spellbinders and they were Buy One Get One Free!! I know hard to believe but I hope that many of you took advantage of this great offer.

 

Today it is my turn to host the Allsorts Challenge and I have chosen ....................

 

ANYTHING BUT CHRISTMAS

as the Challenge and this is my offering ~

 

 

this is anything but Christmas with the bright summery colours and the butterflies and the flowers.

I have made the embellishments using the caught in crystal technique which I love to do

and we did this in a class a couple of weeks ago.

I have used a lovely Marianne design as a backdrop and also the Butterfly edge die also from Marianne to embellish it further.

I hope that you like the design and that it inspires you to have a go at the Allsorts Challenge this week.

Pop over to the Allsorts blog to check out the other Design Team members work which is all excellent.

 

Thankyou as always for popping by and hope that you enjoy a lovely weekend whatever you choose to do.

If you have time to leave a comment that would be lovely.

Bye for now

Jo xx

 

 

 



Week 235 - Inspired by a Christmas Song

Hello Crafters!

Sorry for the delay in posting this week - we had a little hiccup with the camera.  All sorted now!

We had an excellent day at the shop yesterday Ali Reeve came to do a demo day and it was excellent. She is so inspiring and so many ideas.  It was lovely to see so many customers for the last demo day of this year and I can't believe it has flown by so quickly.

We also launched our latest stamp range and later in this post I will be introducing them to you.

 

This weeks Challenge has been set by our lovely Catherine and she has chosen

 

Inspired by a Christmas Song

(please indicate which Christmas song it is if you are entering on the Allsorts Challenge.

 

the song that springs to mind when I finished this design is

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

 

This is a design that we did in a workshop and I thought It would be perfect for this weeks Challenge.

I used Marianne dies to create all of the die cuts and mixed and matched different card stock for the insides and roofs.  I used a quickie glue pen and very fine glitter to create the frosted appearance.  The background is a Crafts Too embossing folder and this went perfect with the die cuts.  A little distress ink on the background and this popped out nicely.

I have put a dome of acetate around the front to protect it but it is not easy to see this.

 

Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to take part this week and we have 2 sponsors giving away great products so worth it!

 

Now back to the excitement of our new stamp range.

they have been designed and drawn by Shellie Blow who is one of our lovely customers at Let's Create.

She had put pen to paper and created some stunning designs and they are below.

 

Doodle-ish Flowers

 

Build a Flower

 

Doodle-ish Christmas

Doodle-ish owl

Doodle-ish Heart

 

Doodle-ish Butterfly

 

What do you think to these? They are a polymer stamp and they have been made from 3mm which is

a really thick hardwearing thickness and they stamp with perfection.

These are a few of the samples that we had.

 

 

 

I would love to know what your thoughts are on the new stamps.  If you are interested in buying a set they are being sold for £10.99 per set.  (the actual size of the stamps are so much bigger than the image on the front sheet)

 

Please also pop over to the Allsorts Blog to check out the other designs for this week's Challenge from Catherine.

Thankyou so much for popping in and hope to see you here again very soon.

bye for now

Jo xx