Leeds Swaps...

I promised you pics of my swaps from training on Sat and here they are...

 I made several different colour flowers using the punch that matches the Mixed Bunch Stamp set (which we were given at training). The bottle caps we kindly saved for me by customers and my Dad.

 Side on showing the depth to the flowers. Apologies to those who wanted one but got to me too late. I received some lovely swaps in return and will try to get some uploaded here over the next couple of days. All the girls put in so much effort and I now have lots of new ideas to try out plus a longer wish list than before lol

 You 're never too young to get into paper crafting as my youngest is showing here... He regularly pinches bits from my desk and does his own 'stamp, punch' work. I love that he understands what I do and even calls it work lol

Concentrating very hard!!! He brought this table into my craft room some days ago and spends ages here at his 'desk' doing work. maybe one day I will be brave enough to give him stamp and inks... Till then its bits of paper only!

Till next time... Happy Crafting

Lucky me....

Stampin Up training events are always a good time and I was lucky to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.
I was lucky to get some fab swaps (more about them tomorrow) and I was lucky enough to have people tell me they loved my swaps too.

Now you would think that I had exhausted my luck for the day but not so....

As we arrived on the day and booked in we were asked to pick an envelope at random from those on the desks and under no circumstances were we to peek. I picked this little one and put it in my bag.

Prize patrol is part of the stampin Up day at these events and it is where prizes are won by random attendees. Now I don't normally do well in these things and after my luck winning one at convention last Nov I was prepared not to win.... BUT..... I did and here is my pile of goodies

A pack of Sweet Treat Designer papers... (12"x12" double sided papers, some with embossed designs), a roll of the new pleated ribbon in Blushing Bride, scented embossing powder in my favourite.. cherry and a pot of Jelly Bean brads!!!

                                                         WOOHOO!!!

Look out for some projects in the coming days using these goodies....

Old friends and new...

for me that was the best part about meeting up with everyone at Regional training yesterday. We all gathered at the totally gorgeous Weetwood Hall in Leeds for a fun filled day of swapping, business talk, general chatter and of course plenty of hugs and laughter...

 Over the next few posts I hope to share with you some of the gorgeous swaps I received and some of the fun we had.

 Waiting for the doors to open and a chance to catch up with friends....

 Some of the displays in the 'waiting'area.. They were all so fabulous and I came home "needing" stamp sets that hadn't really struck me before!

 Everything co-ordinated and looking scrumptious... Need that die now too lol

 My favourite set from the Summer Mini... Open sea.

Oh and the fortune cookies I made for everyone there. I will show you my swaps tomorrow but these were just a little something I decided to do on Fri afternoon (Thanks J! x). Each cookie is just a circle folded with a litte printed fortune (worded by me) punched out in the centre. I hope those ladies who got them see their fortunes come true!

Need to spend some time with the family now as they gave up their day for me yesterday.

Come back tomorrow for more scrumminess.....

Till then... Happy Crafting

Braving the Brayer....

Sometimes life just throws a challenge at you and its sink or swim time... Thats what happened to me at my class in Stamford back in March. I asked the ladies what they would like to do next time and they all wanted to try thier hand at Brayering.

This is not the easiest technique to master but when you do it has the most fabulous results.

I have to admit to shying away from this technique after trying it once and failing dismally!! However, not one to want to let the girls down I set to and made myself work at it. Now not one to normally blow my own trumpet and, even though I know there are much better works of art out there made using the brayer, I am proud of the way these card turned out. More importantly the girls all LOVED the class and were over the moon with their results.

So here they are...

 Blending several shades of the same colour family together.

 Using the brayer in a non conventional way!!!

 Brayer meets reinkeres and a happy accident lol

Graduating the colour.

I hope you liked the cards and it inspires you to tackle that technique you have been shying away from. After all its only card and ink and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I will be running this class from home again at the end of the month so if you are interested then just get in touch using the contact me button on the left hand side of my blog. 

Till next time... Happy Crafting

WOYWW

I've been following the WOYWW (Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday) posts on and off for sometime and rather than just be a follower I thought I would join in...

So here it is.... My workdesk.

As you can see its in a bit of a mess this morning and a current project is being inspected by the new addition to the family! I had to make a name badge for an upcoming training event and inspiration from that lead to the start of a 6x6 scrapbook page. Union flags are so current right now. Hopefully this little page will be the start of an album.

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday.

Till next time... Happy Crafting

More tea Vicar?...

What could be more English than a cup of tea...?

A good old fashioned Tea Shoppe thats what. So that was the inspiration for my swap in the recent Summer Mini Swap on ILWS.

The idea is that several demos create a card using new products from the Summer Mini Catty. As a demo we have the chance to pre-order items a month before it goes live to the public so that we can create some gorgeousness to tempt everyone with.

I was part of a group of 10 ladies (there were 3 groups in total) and this was my offering

I remebered a little Tea Shop that I used to go to when I was at boarding school that had the canopy and the leaded windows and so with the help of my new favourite tool the Simply Scored I was able to give my little shoppe some leaded windows of its own. I used the diagonal plate which sits on the main board to get the criss cross effect.

You can see the effect a little better in the 'arty farty angle' shot lol.
The sign in the window swings and the canopy which you can just see at the top of the picture is raised slightly to give some depth.

I hope you like and have fun creating your own 'Shoppe'

Happy Crafting

Summer Mini Blog Hop

Hopefully the Start of May will bring with it some good weather but in the mean time the girls over at In Love With Stamping have put together a blog hop to get you in the mood.

Today is the first day of the Summer Mini Catalogue. This has been introduced to the UK this year so it's an exciting time for all us demo's as we get to offer you loads more product.

So grab yourself a cuppa and get ready to see some gorgeous projects using all new products.
Aplogies for the shadows but the sun has been shining all day long for once!

These 3 cards are all made using stamps from the set OPEN SEA which, being a mermaid, is my favourite and so handy to use when designing cards for men which I know can be a struggle sometimes lol. The last card uses the new EDGELITS which also have  co-ordinating embossing folders.

Next is a desk caddy with notelets using TEA SHOPPE... It's amazing how many times I think I should send a quick note of thanks or thinking of you and I never have a card to hand. Well now I have. The caddy holds 6 cards and envelopes.

 I saw the design for this caddy over on an American demos blog and she had filled it with hot choc. It's a simple but effective design and just perfect for these little 10cm x10cm notelets.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and enjoy the rest of our blog hop.
This is the start of group 2 so from here you will hop on over to carolyn who I know has some gorgeous offerings for you.
The end of group 2 can be found here where the talented Vicky has some lovely things to show you.

To hop on over to group 1 you need to go here. Have a great time and don't forget to leave some comment love so we know what you think of the new goodies.