Week 264 - Allsorts - How does your garden grow?

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope all is well with you all and you have enjoyed a lovely week. Mark and I are in Wales this weekend visiting our lovely friends at Dandie Crafts. Workshops all day Saturday and Sunday using an array of different crafty goodies. We always enjoy our visits here and I am sure this weekend will be no exception. 

Before we set off yesterday I had a fabulous show on Create and Craft playing with all of the wonderful Christmas range from the Hobby House.  We had so many sell outs you were really loving the kits, toppers, gorgeous embellishments, kraft bags and gorgeous ribbons.  I hope that if you were lucky to buy some of these that you will enjoy using them.

 

Today I have decided to use one of the Hobby House Art pad images for this weeks theme at Allsorts.

the Challenge this week is .................

 

How does your Garden Grow?

 

and I thought this cute image was just perfect.

 

I have kept the background quite simply done as the image is the main focus.  I am really pleased with the colouring, I have used pro-markers and I just play at trying to be good at it!!!  The art pads are really lovely to use as the cardstock that they are printed on takes so many different colour mediums. Let me know if you have had a go. 

 

As I mentioned in last Saturday's post is was our Daughter's 21st birthday celebrations last weekend and we all had a fabulous time.

The weather kept fine, albeit a little cloudy.

I really had to show you a picture of the stunning cake that my friend Natalie made. She makes cakes as a hobby!!

 

 

and a quick picture of the birthday girl and her guests

 

 

Thankyou for popping in and please take a minute to have a look at the Design Team ideas over on the Allsorts Challenge Blog.

Enjoy a lovely weekend and the longest day today!

Take care and bye for now

Jo xx

 

 



Week 263 - Allsorts Challenge - White, gold and one other colour.

Good Morning Crafters,

How are you all? What a gorgeous week for the sunshine - well, in Lincolnshire anyway!

I love the sun it makes everyone feel so happy and people smile and look so much more cheerful.

 

Mark and I had a great day at Inspirations in Preston last Saturday thankyou to everyone that came to watch my demonstration. We had a good chat and a laugh as usual and sneaked some crafting in in between!!

 

This week at Allsorts our lovely Helene is hosting and she has asked us to show you a project using the colours White, Gold and one other.  Well I have chosen pink as my additional colour and it rather dominates the canvas that you will see here ............

 

The gold is in the form of Treasure Gold wax which is my favourite crafting product at the moment. It is simply fabulous to use and creates amazing results with little effort.  The white is in the sentiments and the words and in the flower.  I have used a Special Touch mask to create the flowers and used paste through the mask.  This was dried and then coloured with the Treasure gold.  The butterfly has been moulded out of Paper clay from a Martha Stewart mould. The flower is a Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die which is my absolute favourite flower die.

 

I hope that you like the design and that you can spare a few minutes to leave a comment for me.

We have a busy weekend coming up but for once it isn't for work!! It is our gorgeous Daughter Kate's 21st birthday and we are having a family get together to celebrate. I hope the weather stays fine as we are having a BBQ in Mark's Mum and Dad's garden!!

Please keep fingers and toes firmly crossed for us!!

Also before I go I am on Create and Craft on Friday (20th) at 1pm with some more stunning Hobby House products and you will never guess but it is Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know you read correctly!! It is the launch of Create and Crafts Christmas - I am sure it gets earlier each year!.

 

That really is all for now,

enjoy the weekend and week ahead,

keep well and pop in again.

Bye for now

Jo xx

Week 262 - Allsorts Challenge - One Layer Card

Good Morning Everyone!

How are you all? I hope the answer is fit and well!

 

Well what a busy week since we last caught up. I had an excellent show on Create and Craft with the Hobby House goodies - the first show since February - I felt like the new girl!  Mark and I went to the Hunkydory show at Bolton running a workshop all day Friday and make and takes Saturday and Sunday.  This was a fabulous show and the organisation was first class. Thankyou to Ann, Dan and Adam and all of the Hunkydory Team for making us feel so welcome.

All of the crafters who attended enjoyed the show and are looking forward to next year!

 

I have some fabulous photographs which I will be putting on next week - we met some lovely people and some very special youngsters also.  Look out for these early next week.

 

This mornings job is to show you what I have designed for the Allsorts Challenge this week and it is my week to host.

I have chosen the theme -

 

"Make a One Layered Card"

 

and this is the card that I would like to show you -

 

 

I have used a mixture of some of my favourites stamps from Paper Artsy - these are from the JOFY collection.  They are such fun stamps to use as they are quirky, bright and so cheerful.

I forgot to send a very good and kind friend a birthday card ((I know!!!! bad) and I have made this to hopefully make up for it!

Hope that you forgive me Wendy!!

I used pro-markers to colour the stamped images and distress inks around the edges to create a soft outline.

The middle section where the sentiment is was masked off whilst I stamped the flowers and then I coloured this with Distress ink.

I finished the design off with glitter glue and glossy accents to highlight various areas.

A little bit of doodling on the edge of the border just finishes everything off.

 

Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to check out the other design members designs - they are all excellent examples of one layer cards.

Have a bash at it too - we have a lovely sponsor -

Craft Bug

http://www.craftbag.co.uk/

 

We are at Inspirations in Preston today doing a demonstration and if you are in the area please pop in - it will be lovely to see you.

 

Must dash now or the customers will be there before me!!

Take care and enjoy a lovely weekend.

 

Bye for now

Jo xx

 

 

 



Week 261 - For the Guys!

Good Morning Everyone,


I'm afraid this will have to be a really quick post as I am away in Bolton all weekend at the Hunkydory Show and have only 30 minutes to do all my catching up on my blog and my post before my 30 minutes limit runs out!! love Premier accommodation but internet service is a bit short!

This week we are showing you cards for the guys and, although it appears that this card is the same as one I posted a couple of weeks ago it is a different theme - this one has more Steampunk ideas with it with the clocks and cogs and the fabulous stamp from Visible Images.  I have also used the new steampunk corners and hinges from Cheery Lynn which I am loving.

 



Tomorrow will be a busy day as I am doing Make and Takes all day at the show - really looking forward to meeting everyone.

Anyway, sorry it is so short but hope that you like the style. Let me know what you think, please leave a comment and pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to check out the other Design Team ideas which are fabulous!

Thankyou as ever for popping in as ever I really appreciate it.

Take care
Bye for now
Jo xx

Week 260 - Happy Birthday Allsorts! and Blog Hop

Hello Everyone!

Well! another Bank Holiday weekend has rolled around and at the moment it looks as if the Sun may show itself.I hope that you all have planS afoot.

It is also a special week on the Allsorts Challenge Blog as it is our Birthday!!! 

It's been a fabulouS five years and it's wonderful to see all you lovely crafterS joining in each week, many who have been with us from the start and it's all of you who make AllsortS Such a Success. Plus of courSe our fabulous SponsorS and talented Design Team, a huge thank you to you all.

As you can See today is Allsorts Birthday and the Team are celebrating with a fabulouS Blog Hop and there are lots of crafty prizeS to be had.

You need to pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to find out how to play the blog hop (it is really easy!)

The theme for the challenge thiS week is very appropriate

Happy Birthday!

and thiS is my project for you to have a peep at .................... 

ThiS is a card that I have put together for the Birthday Blog and alSo for a Sample to take onto TV on Tuesday.  I am So pleased to be going back to Create and Craft after a long enforced break due to health problemS.  I will be working for the Hobby House and, aS you all know, I love crafting with their gorgeous products.  The lovely image on the card is from EliSabeth Bell and it is from the brand new Ready to Colour Art bookS that I will be showcasing on the show. The paperS, flowers and greeting are alSo from Hobby House. I hope that you like the design. 

At the end of the challenge this week everyone that has commented on my card will be in a draw and I will pick a winner. There are some fabulous prizes up for grabs so it is really worth it.

There are lots of other prizes to be won from the Allsorts Challenge site and from the other members of the design team blogs. 

Enjoy a fabulous Bank Holiday and I hope that you have found my letter for our Birthday Blog Hop at Allsorts.

Thankyou so much for popping by,

Bye for now

Jo xx

Week 258 - Purple Passion

Hello Everyone!

Well! what a turn up with this gorgeous sunshine and so early in the year! I hope it doesn't burn itself out before the summer months get here!

It really has been a very busy and exciting week in the Channon house. Firstly Kate, our Daughter has got a new job and we are all so very pleased and proud of her. She starts her 10 weeks training in June and she cant wait. We went out for tea on Monday evening to celebrate.

Thursday was Mark's birthday and his treat (and mine because I had to go with him!!) was a Spa Day at Eden Hall.  What a fabulous day. 

 and to finish the week off it has been our Anniversary today 27 years married!

To start a new week at Allsorts Tracey and Challenged us to make a card 

With

PURPLE PASSION

included.

and this is what I have made ~

This is a card that we made in class last week using Pinflair dies and matching papers.
The centre die is a Creative Expressions Sue Wilson design which has been backed with purple glitter card. The embossed background has been created using a Sheena Douglass embossing folder from her new India collection. It is an A4 sized folder and very useable. The class enjoyed making it as one of their 3 projects.

The sponsors this week are:

Passion for Stamps

 & Craft Fairy

Thankyou to them both for their generosity.

Please pop over and have a look at the DesignTeams lovely designs at Allsorts Challenge Blog and hope that you are inspired to have a go this week for some lovely prizes.

Thankyou for popping in today and hope that your weekend is enjoyable and have fun in the sun!

A appreciate your lovely comments, please pop one in if you have time.

Bye for now

Jo xx

Week 258 - Fancy folds - Allsorts Challenge

Hello my fellow Crafters,

Firstly welcome to my new couple of followers this week and thankyou for choosing to follow my ramblings each week (or if you are really lucky!! lol) maybe twice! I really appreciate all of my members.

It has been another great week in my crafty world with our usual workshops and chatting with our lovely customers. We are still laughing about our Melt pot workshop that we had last Saturday - thankyou for all of your lovely comments about the projects that I blogged on Sunday. What we need is a Tardis! so that all of you lovely crafters that live too far away can pop into it and transport yourselves to my shop so that we can all play together! If anyone has one stashed in their back room or garage please let me know!!!

Now onto this weeks Allsorts Challenge. It is the turn of our Wendy (L) to lead this week and she has chosen .......................................

FANCY FOLDS

for us to have a play and come up with an idea so that we can inspire all of you to have a go at the Challenge.

I couldn't choose between 2 projects this week so I hope that you don't mind me showing you both.

as you can see I have been one of many that has had a go at making a pop-up card and these are so easy but great fun. this one was for my Father in Law to give to his boss who owns a Bike shop! it is always a challenge to make a card with bikes on and get it totally different each year.  I hope he likes this one.

The Penny Farthing is a Marianne design and the cogs are from Rob Adams range of dies.  I have left the tag open at the front so that John can write his message on.

If you havent made one before the card folds flat and so fits in the chosen size envelope really well.

Papers are from my stash but they might be some old designs from Graphic 45.

My second project was one that we did in class today and it fitted the bill nicely.

  This is an easel card that I have made from another Marianne - this one is from the Creatables range.

I really love this set as it is so intricate if you want it to be or quite plain if you choose.

The flowers are from Pinflair and these are the dies and papers to match and cut out. They are really excellent quality and I would recommend them to you.

The edge has been finished off with Hobby House pearls on a roll.

Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog and check out the other Teamies ideas. 

We have 2 sponsors this week and they are:-

Eureka Stamps

and 

Yours or Mine Papercrafts.

Thank you to both of these for their generosity.

Also I need to mention that it is Allsorts birthday on the 24th of this month and as usual we are having a blog hop. so keep your eyes open for this as there are prizes galore to be given away to lucky crafters.

We have a busy weekend coming up as it is our eldest Karl's birthday today he is 23! today and we are going out for a family meal this evening.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend and try to fit a bit of crafting in.

Please leave a comment if you have time and let me know what you think about my projects this week.

Thankyou for taking the time to pop by and I hope to see you back really soon,

Bye for now

Jo xx