A Technical Breakdown....

Well the technology gremlin has struck again!,
If you cast your minds back a couple of months you will remember the trauma I was going through with my laptop. Then I was doing a happy dance with the arrival of a gleaming, shiny (albeit a Windows 8) new laptop.
Oh the joys of Windows 8!! Which, if you also remember, was not included in the computer courses I went on in the hope of upgrading my knowledge in the wonderful world of IT.
After doing the damsel in distress oh woe is me routine a lovely friend and her lovely hubby took pity on me and gave me a guided tour of the Windows8 system and helped to upload all my documents, programmes, photos etc onto this lovely lappy. So you can imagine the horror when I started having a problem switching on the lappy. I parcelled it up and returned it to Tesco where a lovely young man named Chris had no problem at all in switching it on and even went beyond the call of duty and did loads of helpful techy things for me.
Off I went back home as happy as Larry but my joy was not to be as when I switched the lappy on  OH NO!! You may have  heard my cries where you live.
THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!!!!!
Back in the car and back down to Tesco. I'm sure Chris tried to run when he saw me coming!!
So here we are again folks!!  My lovely friends have helped me retrieve all my stuff off the other lappy but I won't get it all put onto this hew one until Thursday night.
 This brings me to the point... I can't put any piccies on this blog until then so it's another wait I'm afraid, but as soon as I can I will.
Wish me luck peeps as I'm opening the box right now!!

What A Week.....

Hiya back home after a very busy but fabulous week. Firstly a little jaunt up to Kendal to see all the lovely ladies at The Paper Warehouse for my monthly card making workshop then onto Preston on Friday for another card making workshop at Inspirations. Finishing off yesterday in Kidderminster for a Trimcraft Demo at The Range.
So I thought Id show a few photos of some of the card designs we've been making.

 This is one of the Inspirations designs. I have used IndigoBlu stamps along with Kaisercraft papers for the 365 days collection. This one is the Anenome Corner.

Here I've used the amazing tulip from the Nottingham Lace set. This tulip is going in my all time favourites list. It was stamped on all three panels then stamped again onto extra paper and layered over with some petals and a leaf cut away to give much more effect.

 

Now we have one from The Paper Warehouse class

Again I've used the  Nottingham Lace Set with a bit of inking with Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and doing my favourite masking technique.

 

To finish off for now this is a card made for my Trimcraft demo using the beautiful Santoro Mirabelle Collection papers. The butterflies were cut out of the 12 x 12 paper and the butterflies are all glittery. I punched around the backing paper with a Martha Stewart set and inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I used a Kaisercraft Crackle Stamp for the background. This card has had a lot of people oohing and aaarhing over it at the demos.

 

A final thank you goes to The Paper Warehouse Team and the Inspirations Team for their hospitality. I always have such a great time at both of these shops and look forward to my return visits there, which are....

The Paper Warehouse on 22nd May for another card making workshop and the 5th June for a Jones Craft Demo at Inspirations.

  

 

 

 

A New IB Challenge......

Ok everyone, hope you are all well and enjoying your Easter break. I've been absent from here for a few days and I apologise for that. I've had sooo much design work to do that I am guilty of neglecting you all here.
So to just catch up with everything...
I'm off to Kendal on Wednesday for my monthly workshop at The Paper Warehouse and this is one of the designs we will be making

 

The ladies will be able to pick there own choice of colours.

So now onto the latest IndigoBlu Challenge which starts today and here is my challenge design

 

 

here's the link to go and have a look at the other design inspiration

indigoblublogchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/challenge-15-words-are-all-you-need.html

 

After my visit to Kendal I'll be off to Preston and Inspirations to do a workshop there on Friday

So here's a design from that class

 

 

Then we get to Saturday and that finds me locally in Kidderminster where I will be demoing for Trimcraft at The Range.

 

Just time for a mention of the newbies who have joined me here. Thank you so very much all of you. I hope you find a little inspiration in my designs and that I don't bore you with my ramblings.

I appreciate every visit and look forward to reading all your comments.

Kaisercraft and Paper Clay.....

Good Monday Morning to you all.
The sun is shining YAY!! Are you all like me and get far more done when the sun is out?
Now those of you who follow my adventures with Jones Craft and the Design Team will have already seen this layout on their Facebook Page but I wanted to show it here and mention the embellishments I made for it......
I'm going through a mould period at the moment and am loving using paper clay!!
So I made this flower and the two leaves and a friend said how good it would look as a brooch. So I added a rub of Treasure Gold, glued them together and added a chain tassle et voila!! I just luuurves  it. Then it got me thinking of adding some paper clay flowers to my layout and I also have a bird mould. So off I went and added them to the layout.

The papers are from the new Kaleidoscope Collection and if you haven't seen them yet I think you need to check them out. They are just scrummy. 

I also made all the rose flowers by hand too!! Impressed? Well I did use the new Britannia Die to help me cut them out but they were all assembled by my very own self.

I had a great day demoing at The Range in Gloucester on Saturday. It was mega busy, as it is a brand new store, and I would like to say a big thank you to the staff for all there help and a special thank you to Lesley and Marrick (hope I've spelt that right) in the craft department. I look forward to going back there.

 

Next week sees me back up North to Kendal and Preston and then quite locally in Kidderminster, so that's the 24th 25th and 26th April

 

By The Sea.......

A Graphic 45 Scrap Layout.
I couldn't resist having a go with this fabulous collection of papers and I love the two photos I've used. They probably don't look amazing pics to you, but they have very fond memories to me.
So have a look and let me know what you think.

 

 

By the way, I'm demoing in Gloucester tomorrow at The Range. It's a brand new store that's opening today. I'll be playing with products from Trimcraft. 

A giveaway....

Who would love the chance of a fantastic giveaway from Jones Craft.....
So to enter this fantastic chance go visit the Jones Craft Facebook Page....

As we are so close to 600 likes we have decided to do another giveaway  all you have to do is like Jones Crafts and leave a comment on this status and we will randomly choose a winner  the prize 20 stamp sets from our fabulous suppliers Hampton Art, Graphic 45, Jillibean Soup, Kaisercraft and 7 Gypsies 
So why not have a go and check out all the inspiration on their page too. you may just see a little bit of my work on there too

The Crafty Bunch.....

The Fabulous Five

 

 

Twenty One Crafty Bunchers

 

 

All hard at work on their sunflowers

 

 

And this is what they were all making

 

It's an IndigoBlu Sunflower stamp which has been layered three times with petals cut away on the upper two layers. We added IB Mega Flakes to the petals. The flowers were coloured with Distress Inks

 

 

Another design that we used the Mega Flakes on. The ladies were able to choose any colour way they wanted for this card and it was great to see all the different choices

 

Another favourite technique

 

So now I'm looking forward to a return visit!!

What do you think Crafty Bunch??

A Marion Smith......

Scrap Layout......

 

Now you all know how I love a bit of paper cutting so this layout was no exception!!

I painstakingly cut out all the diamond shapes in between the trellis design. "Is she mad" I can hear you all say, but there is something quite satisfying to me about turning a sheet of paper into something else.

Here you can see the depth when I laid it over another sheet of the same paper, but uncut.

 

I've used papers from the Marion Smith Never Grow Up Collection

 

 

A few Kaisercraft flowers, a metal key and locket and a paper bow help to finish off the design.

Now I wasn't going to waste the diamond cut outs so I decided to design a card around them and this is what I came up with

 

The corner pieces were made with paper clay and rubbed with Treasure Gold Gilding Paste