The show that never was!!!!

Well! I'm not sure if anyone of you did tune in for the 5pm show with me demonstrating Joanna's fabulous new products if you did I wasn't there!!!!

The story goes a bit like this ............................................. As I didn't have to set off from home until at least 1.30pm to get to the studio in good time I thought I would watch Joanna's show that was on at 12pm just to see her fabulous demos but also to check on the sales so that I had a bit of an idea what was selling well and or sold out!  at 12.15pm it was very apparent that sales were amazingly good and that the new cd rom If Flowers Could Talk was flying (never thought it would be any other- when you see it you will see why!)  Not only were the CD's going well, so were the new Cameo stamps that I had a fab demo for, and the Lace stamps, and the House Mouse, and the Thomas Kincade - are you getting the picture!!!  At 12.30 pm 4 YES 4 items had sold out including 3 items that I had prepared demo's for - Oh Dear!!  By 12.45pm the CD was at 75% sold at this point I was really panicking as I only had 2 demos left and these were for the CD!  By 12.55 I thought I would give the studio a ring to see if there was any stock left and they promptly said No sorry we won't need you for 5 pm!! I spoke to Joanna who was totally elated at how the show went, and assured me that she would organise a show so that I could do the demo's another day.

Anyway, the least I could do was to post a few of the samples that were going to be demonstrations so that you can take a peep at what you would have seen!!!!!!

This was a quick demo using the Jayne Shasky CD - as I am sure you all know by now this is the favourite CD to date and is so versatile.  Mark kindly painted the MDF plaque with acrylic paint and created the crackle effect as the base for the gorgeous Gerbera decoupage and the sentiment.  I distressed it around the edges with Vintage Photo to give it the lived in effect.  A little crystal lacquer in the middle of the flowers finished this off.

This was another demo using the House Mouse decoupage - this is the new collection called fun and games and this is a fabulous image of the baby mice sleeping.  This screamed out to be a New Baby card. Hope that you can see the detail ok.  Cute arent they!

Sorry about the picture, not brilliant, hope that you can see these new Cameo stamps.  the corners are amazing, they have fine lattice work and a butterfly in the design.  I stamped and embossed them with black sparkle from Creative Expressions onto parchment paper.  I also used the Damask embossing powder from Crafts Too for the background and Silver Glass Glitter for around the Spellbinder aperture. I am totally in love with these stamps - be prepared to see more designs using them.

This is a closer shot of the actual Cameo and you can see that I embossed the image a little with one of my Parchment tools.  I added a few pearls to finish it off.

I hope that you liked the samples and I hope that I get to demo them really soon on C and C.  I don't normally use the blog to advertise the shop but I do have the all the products mentioned coming into the shop in the next day or so if you are interested.

Must dash now - Spring cleaning with Mum tomorrow so must get to bed.

Thank you as ever for popping by and if you have time pop a comment in to let me know what you think of the new goodies from Joanna.
Bye for now
Jo xx

Week 151 - Sketch

Good Morning to Everyone,

Well!  if the farmers tell me that they need MORE rain!!!!!! ................  I am not sure if you have been the same this week but we have had all of March and Aprils rain fall in one week!!!  Apart from that it has been a good week in the land of Let's Create - a bit strange in the fact that our Daughter Kate has been on holiday in Spain which is her first foreign holiday away without us!!!!!  Of course she has been in heaven I am sure soaking up the sun and trying out a different cocktail each evening - which I have been sent pictures of each time - most of them have looked like a nuclear explosion! Not many e numbers in those ......................  I think so!!!!!  Of course I haven't had full details of all the activities over the week but I did bump into a friend who is on facebook with Kate and she did say that going back the hotel at 6 am was cool Mrs Channon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  At that point I just stopped listening and carried on with my daily goings on!!!  LOL  She is back home today - I do hope that she wraps up warm as it is horrible - she has been warned!!!

Apart from all of the above I have been kept busy by Joanna this week with 2 shows at C & C and another at 5pm this afternoon - hence fast typing as I have still to pack everything!  I have had an abundance of fabulous product to demo with (its a hard job but someone has to do it!) including the ever popular Jayne Shasky but especially the brand new Mandala stamp range - wow were these fabulous to work with and they were very popular on the show - thankyou to everyone that emailed in, the cup was overflowing with lovely comments.  I haven't taken pics of the samples but have asked Mark to do some for me so I can post these tomorrow along with the demo cards I am taking in this pm which are another set of new stamps entitled Cameo - another gorgeous set that shouts out to be stamped onto parchment.  Hope that you like these - I am sure that you will let me know.
Well back to this morning I have my Allsorts DT card for this week which is inspired by a great sketch from our lovely Emma - pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to have a look at the sketch.

(the flash has made it a bit sparkley) I have used the Embellishing Flourishes from the Eco Green Crafts selection. I have stamped them in Creative Expressions Black Sparkle embossing powder which have been done on a piece of mount board that has been crackled and distressed and edged with the same embossing powder.  The flower has been made from 8 layers of a scalloped edged Spellbinder fastened together with a brad and then spraying each layer and pleating and scrunching up into a tight bud.  When all the layers have been scrunched up carefully (as they will be damp and fragile) open up the flower and then dry - this will made the flower quite sturdy.  You can distress the edges and add glitter glue if you wish.    The paper for the background is the new Bo Bunny Vintage Double Dot coillection and I have finished it off with a piece of egg shell ribbon that I have coloured using Distress stains (really loving these at the moment they are so useful) and a crystal pin.

I love working with a sketch especially if you have got a creative blank (often happens!!! - age related I have been told - funny ........not!!)

I hope that you like my take on the sketch, pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog and have a go there are some gorgeous vintage ribbons up for grabs from the Pretty Little Ribbon Shop and some even more great cards from the Team.

If you have a few moments to spare today at 12 pm Joanna will be launching her brand new totally stunning CD Rom called If Flowers Could Talk on C & C today and I am on at 5pm for an hour using anything that she has left for me!

Must get on with the packing or I wont be going anywhere!!!!!
Enjoy a lovely weekend and please pop by tomorrow I will be posting those samples to show you from the shows this week.

Thankyou as ever for popping by and thankyou also for all the wonderful comments on last weeks post.
Bye for now
keep warm
Jo xxxx

Week 148 Photo Inspiration

Good Morning My Fellow Bloggers,

Well what a fabulous week we have had with the weather - I think it is a little confused but I'm certainly not complaining!  Although the weather forecast does speak of snow at Easter!

Well lets move on from being typically English talking about the weather and let's talk about this weeks Allsorts Challenge that the lovely Debs has set for us.  This is the first time I have done a week with a Photograph for Inspiration.  Pop over to the Allsorts Blog and it will be explained to you much better than I can!  Basically you are given a group of photographs and whatever inspires you from these you use to create your project for this week.  The colours and flowers all inspired me to make this card

The stamp set that I have used is from the fabulous Jayne Shasky that I am sure you have all heard me going on about both in the shop and on C and C.  She has produced a CD Rom with the most amazing images entitled the Heart of the Garden and now we have 3 sets of stamps with the same images to play with.  Joanna Sheen has produced both the CD and the stamps and the quality is fabulous.

The set that I have taken this gorgeous image from is called A Slice of Heaven.  It really shouted out Spring and hopefully you will agree links in with the photograph that Debs has given us.

I have also used some of the backing paper from the CD Rom.  The frame has been embossed with the Bark embossing folder from Creative Expression and I have used distress inks (of course!) to ink around the edges.  Pro-markers were used to colour the stamped image and you may not be able to pick this out, but, I have glittered the tiny flowers to give them a bit of sparkle.

I have also used Nellie Snellen punches that emboss too to finish off the framework.

I hope that you will pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to see what you are inspired to do. I am very much looking forward to seeing what you all create from looking at the photograph.

I have quite a busy day ahead as I am going to teach at a Dabble Day for the lovely Jean at Busy Bees which is being held at Beighton Sports Centre, Nr Sheffield.  Jean has a fabulous shop in the Market Square in Sheffield and she holds regular Dabble Days throughout the year and they are a fabulous day.  Today I will be showing the ladies and gentlemen how to decorate a plaque using the Jayne Shasky CD Rom, Crackle paint technique and inks so I hope that they enjoy themselves!

If you are in the area of Sheffield pop along to Jean's shop and you will find details on her blog of all the activities that are planned http://wwwbusybeescrafts-busybeescrafts.blogspot.co.uk/.

Do pop over and join in the fun of the Challenge as always there are great prizes to be had and the Design Team are showing you what has inspired them to do.

I hope that you all enjoy a fabulous weekend and all of you that have given something up for Lent it is only 1 week until you can indulge in what you have given up!  (Mine has been chocolate and Good Friday cant come fast enough!!!!  Lol)

Bye for now

and thank you as ever for all your fabulous comments

Jo xxx