Week 306 - Allsorts challenge blog - Bingo!

Good morning everyone,

A gorgeous day yesterday hope that you enjoyed the weather, hope that the weekend goes in this direction too. 

It's Saturday again and so Allsorts Challenge it is and our lovely Team member Tracey who has chosen a great theme -

Bingo!

We have been asked to choose 3 items from the grid that Tracey has given us - you can check this out on our Allsorts Challenge blog and have a go. - it's great fun to challenge yourself with the different items on your project.

I have chosen this Spring card to show you and have used
Lace, Flowers, Sentiment, Die cut and Pearls ( more than 3 but I am sure nobody will complain!)

I have used the Bubble Bloom (Michelle) stamp from Woodware and covered the image with card candy and pearls and coloured the leaves in with pro-markers.  The greeting is also from the stamp set.  The die cut that I have used is from Joanna Sheen's Signature die selection and is called the Trellis Aperture.  The background checked card is from the Hobby House and I have finished off the project with some cotton lace and some adorable scorable.
The stamps and the die are available on our website letscreateartandcrafts.co.uk and remember postage and packing is free when you spend £10 or over!

Today we have the very talented Hel's Sheridan coming to the shop to demonstrate for the day and I am really looking forward to this.
I will try to take some pictures of the demos and pop them on later in the week.
Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge to see what the other team members have done with this great title this week.
Thankyou, as always for popping in and hope that you can spend a minute leaving a comment.
Bye for now
Jo x

Week 152 - Shaker Card

Good Morning Everyone,

Just a quick post this morning as I have got a very busy day ahead.  We are having a Demonstration Day at the shop with the fabulous Hels Sheridan demonstrating Studio 490 and Art Parts.  If you are around the area or fancy a drive out we kick off at 10am and as always at a Let's Create demo day we will be having lots of offers, lots of laughter and, of course, lots of cake and coffee! 

Some of the products that Hels will be using are the Ranger and Ideaology range and the card that I am posting for this weeks Allsorts Challenge is using Grunge paper and distress inks as the main products.

  It really doesn't show the true colours in this picture as the flash gives it a bit of a shine( without the flash it was too dark - couldn't win really!) and it doesn't show that it is actually a shaker card!! I used micro beads for the shaker element and the camera didn't pick this up.

I have used a Bo Bunny dot paper for a background and overstamped it using Creative Expressions Flutter Floral stamp set. The flowers, leaves and butterfly were also stamped with the same stamps onto grunge paper.  I used an Archival black ink gave it a quick blast with the heat gun and coloured each element with Distress Ink colours Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint and Wild Honey.  The frame was also cut out of grunge paper using Grand Labels Four in the Spellbinders range.  A little glitter on the edges of the floers and butterfly and a few gems finishes off the project. 

I hope that you are inspired by this design  - pop over to the Allsorts Blog to view the other fabulous designs from the girls.  Remember it doesn't always have to be Christmas to be a shaker card! Remember there are always lovely prizes to be won and the Allsorts Challenges are always so very popular.

Must dash, Hels will be arriving at the shop before me!! Hope that you all have a fabulous weekend and find a little time to do what we all love - Crafting!
I will take some photographs of the day and post them shortly - keep an eye out for them.

Bye for now
Jo x
Jo

Week 143 - Allsorts Challenge Free and Easy and Trade show pictures

Hello Everyone,

Well this week has been a great improvement on the last one.  Kate is back driving and the weather has drastically improved.  Mark and I also spent 3 days at Stitches Trade show at the NEC.  Take a look at some of the photographs at the end of the blog to have a peek at some great new stuff!

This week's challenge on Allsorts Challenge is the last week of Free and Easy.  I cant believe how many entries there has been over the last few weeks so much amazing inspiration.  Here is my offering for this week

The picture isnt amazing but hopefully you can see that it is a really comical decoupage of the very cute House Mouse group getting on with their New Years resolution.  It is a really fun design and would make anyone laugh when making it up.  The backing paper is from House Mouse backing papers CD rom and it really finishes the stamped and decoupage designs off a treat. 

I hope that you like the card and dont forget to pop over to the Allsorts Blog to have a look at the other DT members designs. 

Now for the pictures that we took at Stitches.  We went to Birmingham on the Friday to be ready to attend a Rangers workshop held by the amazingly talented Tim Holtz and his team.  We made a

fabulous wall hanging (forgot to take a photograph of it but will sort this out tomorrow and post!)We got a chance to use all the Ranger products including the very latest which is the Distress Pens.  Wow these are something to report home about.  These pens are filled with the exact same colour as the corresponding distress ink.  They blend so well and the colours are so true.  Look out for these in the shops they will be arriving towards the middle of March.

The show opened on Sunday and it was very busy, we decided to look around and then decide on what we wanted to buy.  The demonstrations were excellent on the stands from all the faces that we love.

These designs are from the lovely Clare Rowland from Molly Bloom. This is some of the new collection and as you can see they have a Circus theme. Clare is an amazing crafter and we were lucky enough to arrange a demonstration at the shop too.

This picture is the lovely Steve from Little Claire they have also released a new range of stamps and the character is called Flossie.  We have been lucky to have these delivered already - they are really lovely images that will work perfectly with your pro-markers.  Look out for these.

This is a picture of some of Hels Sheridan's work.  It is stunning 3 dimensional work made using Wendy Vecchi stamps and Art Parts. All Hels work is fantastic.  If you like to have a go at something like this these are the products to try them with and with all the Ranger products used with them you finish off with an amazing project.  Hels is also demonstrating for us at the shop - date to be arranged.

This is an example of some of the new designs from Indigo Blu.  We have had these in the shop for a few weeks and have been extremely popular.  They also received the award for best stamp rage at the awards evening.  Well deserved too!

This is another sample from Indigo Blu showing the guilding flakes being used with the new flitter glue too.

We caught up with Sheena and had a demo of her new Paint Fushion range including the fushion transfers.  She was a lovely as ever and so proud of her new range.  Have a go if you get the opportunity.

Check these out they are simply amazing.

This photograph was taken at the awards ceremony which is held every year on the Sunday evening.  Joanna was awarded the Best card Designer and we were all over the moon for her.  (We also enjoyed the cupcakes too!!)

We came home on the Monday evening weighed down with  catalogues and information.  Also very excited about the product that we have ordered and will be in the shop very soon.  Keep an eye out for all these.

I am demonstrating House Mouse stamps and decoupage and Spellbinders at Inspirations in Preston (Ann-Marie from Hunkydory's home!) It is the shops 2nd birthday and they are holding demonstrations all week in one form or another go onto their website for more details.

I hope you are still with me - sorry tonights blog was lengthy but I wanted to tell you so much!

Thank you, as ever, for popping in and I hope that you are all lucky with the Allsorts Challenge.

Bye for now

Jo xxx