Week - My Favourite Things

Good Morning Everyone!

Well I have woken up to glorious sunshine I hope that you have too! A fabulous weekend ahead the weather man just said!  

I hope that you have all been enjoying Wimbledon - come on Murray lets have a win this year!

I will be at Inspirations in Preston tomorrow when the final is going on so if you pop in to see the Christmas Event make sure you know what the score is and let me know!!

It has been a good week for the family too as Dad came out of hospital and is finally home and Mum is chief Nurse and he is doing well.  He has a long journey to get back on track but I am sure that he will make sure that happens.  Thank you to everyone for all your good wishes whilst Dad has been in hospital.

On to todays task of the morning.  It is Saturday again and that means a fabulous Challenge from Allsorts and this week we have a great one from our lovely Brenda and it is ........

Our Favourite Things

Brenda would like to see a project showing us what your favourite crafting goodies are I think it is going to be a popular week!

This is an example of several of my favourite crafting goodies ~

As you will see this is a mini canvas using lots of crafting goodies that I love to use - vintage ink, guilding flakes, moulds, stamps and paint.  A collective mix of everything that gets down and dirty!

This is a canvas that I recently took on a Crafty Notions show when I had all of these gorgeous goodies to use and show you all.

The moulds are a brilliant product to use with Crafty Notions Jewelled enamels and topped with gleams to really bring out the patterns on the flowers.  The stamped sentiment that I have used is from a Studion 490 set.

Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog and have a look at all of the Teams favourite things that they love to use when they are making all of their stunning projects.

Thank you also to our sponsors this week who are DigiStamp Boutique.

I hope that you enjoy a weekend of glorious sunshine and tennis!! 

Have a go at this weeks challenge we love to see what you all create and we are really interested to see what your favourite crafty things are.

Thankyou for popping in and please leave a comment if your like my project this week.

Take care and bye for now

Jo xx

Week - Lavender and Lace Allsorts Challenge

Hello Everyone,

I hope this finds everyone well.  My apologies for not being around on blogland this week - I'm afraid that there has been a lot going on over the last couple of weeks and I just ran out of time.

My Dad has been very poorly in hospital and ended up have a triple heart bi-pass operation.  There have been a few complications but he is now doing really well and starting to get inpatient so he must be starting on the road to recovery.

As well as Dad to worry about and keep visiting I had another marathon on Create and Craft which was the World Launch of the brand new Christmas Spellbinders and what fabulous shows these have been.  I think that everyone really likes them!! 

I did promise to post some pictures on my blog but unfortunately I forgot to take photographs of my samples and they are at the studio at the moment.  I will be collecting them on Wednesday when I am next in so I promise this will be sorted straight away.

I hope that if you have ordered the dies and folders that you are enjoying them.  It isnt often that we get any new crafting product before the American's  but we did this time!! 

This week's Allsorts Challenge is Lavender and Lace and I am sure we are going to get some really pretty cards with this title.

This is my offering .........

This is a card that was a project in my class this week and it has a stunning Kaiser craft stamp as the main feature.  I stamped it in Momento ink and coloured the butterflies with Pro-markers. These were also decoupaged up to give some lovely dimension.  I distressed it using 2 colours - Seedless Preserves and Tattered Rose.  The BP is from the House of Zandra and the sentiment is from a Creative Expression stamp (sorry I dont have the name for it).  The die on the side of the design is a new Joy die that arrived in the shop only a couple of days ago so I had to try it out!! 

Some cotton lace finished off the design.

I would love you to leave a comment if you have a minute - let me know what you think.

As I mentioned earlier I am on C and C on Wednesday (8am and 11 am) with some Spellbinders at really great prices (sale prices I think?)

I hope that you all enjoy a lovely weekend - so much sport to watch - Wimbledon, Grand Prix and the Tour de France (if you are interested!) - Wimbledon is the one for me - come on Murray no excuses this year please!! 

Must dash we have a demo day at the shop today - I am demonstrating our new stamp range.  Thankyou to our lovely Brenda as she has used some from the set on her Challenge card this week and I must say it is stunning.  Thankyou for all of your support with this Brenda! x Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog at allsorts.blogspot.com and have a look at all of the team fabulous work.

Take care and hope to hear from you all soon,

Bye for now

Jo xxxxx

Week 211 - Time for Tea

Hello Everyone,

Thankyou for popping by again.  

It is my turn to host the Allsorts Challenge for this week and I have chosen 

Time for Tea!

As crafters we love a lovely cup of tea so I thought that it was really fitting as a Challenge.

This is my take on the Challenge - 

This was such a quick card and it is such a great card to use for so many occasions.

The stamp is a Kanban stamp and it is a single tea cup and I have masked it and stamped it again.

It is very simply stamped in Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and the ribbon is Cosmic Shimmer.

I really love this stamp and have used it on a few cards.

I would like to say a massive thankyou to all the ladies at Dandie Crafts in Wales where Mark and I visited last weekend.  We had a fabulous time and were made soooooooo welcome.  I have been asked back in November so looking forward to that.  Thankyou to Anna for the fabulous cakes, move over Mary Berry Anna is here!! 

Painting on Parchment with Maria Maidment today so really looking forward to this.

I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend and you can join in the Challenge so that there are lots of entries for me to choose from on Friday.

Please pop over to the Allsorts Blog ( allsortschallenge.blogspot.com) to check out my fellow DT members and their gorgeous designs.

Thankyou so much for taking the time to pop in,

take care and hope to see you soon.

Bye for now

Jo xxx

Week - In the Garden

Hello Blogger Friends!

How are you all? I hope that you have all had a fabulous week.

A busy one as usual for me.  I attended the Age Uk Summer Festival at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire.  What an excellent event and I gave a 45 minute talk and demonstration which was really well received.  

Yesterday I had an excellent show on C and C representing Crafty Notions with the fabulous Nigel May.

We also travelled across to Wales where I am demonstrating today at Dandie Crafts, Caerphilly.  If you live in the area please pop in it should be a great day and they have promised some very tasty cup cakes!!

This week at the Allsorts Challenge has been set by Catherine and is .....
In The Garden

This is one of the projects that I have made to demonstrate today at Dandie Crafts.  The Poppy stamp is from Fun Stamps and stamps out really well.  I have coloured it using pro-markers.  The image was stamped onto board that was crackled using acrylic paints and pva glue.  Crafty Notions flake (Pirates Treasure) was added to the edges using Crafty Notions pva glue to adhere it down.
The background was created using Chloe stamps Lattice and Sepia Adirondack ink.  Creative Expressions Gold pearl glue has been dotted in between each line.  Again, I have edged the background with flake.
The tag has been made and stamped using an Inkilicious stamp .  A few gems and ribbon finish off the design.
I hope that you like it.  Please leave a comment - I would really appreciate to hear what you think about this weeks challenge and my take on it.
Also please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to check out all the other Team's work.
Thankyou also to our sponsors this week.
I must dash as we have planned to meet with Deb and Mandy for a cooked breakfast before the demo day begins.  What a way to start a fabulous day!
I hope that you have a great weekend, the weather man says it is going to be great weather (we will see!)
Thankyou so much for popping by,
Bye for now
Jo xxx

Week 209 - Here Comes the Girls!

Hello Everyone,

I hope this finds you all really well and happy to see that fabulous sunshine at last (or until it lasts anyway!)

May I first of all say a HUGE welcome to all of my new blog followers I have tipped over 500 followers and  I am so grateful that you all spend your time to pop in and leave all of your lovely comments each week.

This week, of course, has been very exciting as it has been the Allsorts 4th Birthday and the Blog Hop has been really great.  As you all know individually all of the design team have been giving away individual prizes and I have chosen a winner from all of you that kindly left a message and the winner of a set of Let's Create stamps of their choice is ............................................

***MAY***

and you can find May's fabulous blog here

Congratulations May and thankyou for taking part.  Please e mail me at lets.create@btinternet.com

Now onto this weeks challenge from Tracey

Here Comes the Girls

and I immediately thought about showing you a little project that I completed for my Crafty Notions show on Tuesday on Create and Craft 

This is a Twiddlybitz floating frame and was fabulous to work with.  The Twiddlybitz are so solid and very durable when assembling and painting.  I have decorated it with the main focus being a beautiful topper from The Secret Garden collection from Graphic 45.  I am loving these papers at the moment and have to stop myself using them!!! The corner pieces on the frame are also Twiddlybitz and the flowers are from The Hobby House collection along with the pearls. Lace around the topper really sets it off.

This is a closer shot of the topper ...................

isn't she adorable!

I hope you like my take on the theme this week and don't forget to pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to check out the other Design team members ideas.

Today I am popping over to Sir Stampalot in Peterborough with my friend Caroline and I am taking part in a workshop designing a canvas.  If it turns out ok I will show you what I have been up to!  It is such a pleasure to go to a workshop myself instead of teaching in one.  I am quite excited about being a student!

I hope that you all have a great weekend and that you have a chance to enjoy some of the sunshine.

Pop a comment in if you like my project let me know what you think.

Thankyou, as ever, for popping in.

Bye for now

Jo xxxx

Happy Birthday Allsorts! 4 Years Old Today!!

Hello Everyone!

Happy Birthday Allsorts!

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 .................... 

I am particularly pleased with this project as it is using our fabulous New raNge of stamps from our shop ~ Let's Create. 

The maiN image aNd the corNer are from the set Sealed with a Loving Kiss.

This oNe is Wild Flowers

 This oNe is VictoriaN Frame

I used this one for the greeting and I stamped it onto shrink plastic and then shrunk to this size.and the sentiment was also used  die                                                                      

This one is Victorian Pleasures

This one is Rosetta

and this one is Labelled with Love

 all images are a lot bigger than
what is shown on the froNt sheet as we had to make room for the header and footer.

I would love to hear what you think about the designs and if anyone is interested in purchasing a set please email me on lets.create@btinternet.com with your details and I can get in touch with you and post a set to you.  Our website is being worked on at the moment but its not quite ready. Each set in £10.99. 

If you pop over to Brenda's blog on http://stamping-fantasies.blogspot.co.uk/ and she has posted a couple of stunning designs working with the new stamp range.

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.  I have a set of our stamps - which will be your choice - coming your way.

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

If you are in the area I will be at the Sincerely Yours Show in Lincoln on Sunday, if you are there please pop and say hello.

I hope that you all enjoy a lovely BaNk Holiday weekend aNd the weather improves.
Thankyou for popping by and I hope that you have found my letter for the blog hop!!!
Bye for now
Jo xxx

Week 207 - True Blue

Hello Crafters!

I hope that finds you all well and have had a good week.  What a busy one in the Channon household  As you know from the lateness of last week's post we surprised Mark with a 4 day trip to Dublin and it was fantastic.  Not sure if I could deal with all the stress of organising a surprise trip again though! phew it took some doing as we are together 24/7 working and living together! 

I will pop some photographs on the blog in the week but they are on Kate's camera at the moment and she is working.  

We also went out for a meal on Wednesday evening at it was Mark's actual birthday and we had a fabulous time in the company of our family and special friends.  Thursday was our 26th wedding anniversary so with one thing and another the lounge is full of cards!

Back to this weeks Challenge - it is our lovely Sarah's week to set our challenge for us and she has chosen:

True Blue

In todays workshop at the shop today we were crafting using the Fabulous Shoes cd rom and stamp collection from Katy Sue Designs which were fun to use.

This is one of the projects that we did and I thought it fitted the Challenge brilliantly so I thought I would share this with you.

This is a digi print from the CD Rom and I love it - it was so much fun to colour and there is so much detail on the picture.  The sentiment is from a stamp sheet from the series too.  The blue paper is from my stash and the flower has been cut out from the Grande Peony Spellbinder Die. The design was coloured using pro-markers.

I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I will be back on C and C on Tuesday for 5 more sales shows which I am sure will have some great bargains on again so pop by and have a peep if you have time.

Please pop over and have a look at the Allsorts Challenge Blog and check our the other design team members ideas for the Challenge.

Thankyou as ever for popping by and I hope that you enjoy a lovely weekend and a busy week ahead.

Bye for now and enjoy your crafting this week,

Jo xx