UPDATE: The Stamp Man Blog Hop and Awards

Well, we've reached the middle of this event and I have to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that has taken part so far, I'm personally overwhelmed at the effort you have all put into making this such a fun and inspirational time!

The ladies you visited on the blog hop happily took on my idea when they must have been frantically trying to organise their own Christmas arrangements. They humoured me, I'm sure, as it probably seemed a very confusing concept and quite a challenge when I first asked them to be part of it!! I'm very grateful to all of them, great job you lot:)

Plus, they also had to choose their best/favourite work of the year too when everyone else was wondering what else they needed to do for Christmas finishing touches! They are all true stars, as you've probably seen, they had lots of great work to choose from so not an easy decision. But they made it and it has been brilliant seeing their work again, I've hopped along it fully 3 times in the right order and been back to each one many times to read the comments you've left them!

We've had lots of international visitors too, fantastic!!

The Awards
Apart from the blog hop we had arranged, we have a whole new whopping great blog hop developing over on the awards post! Have you hopped around that one yet? If not, do so, it's brilliant!!

Thanks to you all it's actually become a much bigger blog hop than the one I first started. I'm sure it'll take you to all sorts of places for inspiration to get your 2010 crafting off to a brilliant start. There are so many new great blogs to visit, blogs to start following, challenges to take part in and new friends to be made. It's become an index of a whole new library of ideas. Fabulous... It's going to take me time, but I'm going to visit all the blogs of the people who left comments on the main blog hop eventually too, phew, almost 100 comments there now!

Do leave comments as you travel through the blogs you visit for the awards as I'm sure they will all be really appreciated and so encouraging. It will also enable people to visit you back sometime too!

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to share your favourite work with us. Honestly, it has been amazing going down that list visiting your blogs!

So, thank you, thank you, thank you, it's been a fantastic, and it was great receiving all the lovely comments in your answer emails too:)

Some emails have been about the anagrams... I'll let you know the prize anagram answers when we've finished this. I do hope Brenda and her family and friends will eventually forgive me, they were hard, impossible for non crafters I'm sure!!! Way to go Brenda... keep them amused while you cook, tee hee! Have you revealed the answers yet or are they still working it out?

Please, if you haven't joined in yet, don't be shy, don't just lurk, join us and have some fun, leave comments, show and tell your favourite projects! No-one bites:)

Happy New Year!!

Jill

PS: In case any of you are wondering, so far, you've all got the blog hop answer right. Not one wrong answer!
 

*****************************************************

Please scroll down to the next posts for the blog hop and awards instructions

THE STAMP MAN BLOG HOP, CANDY AND AWARD EVENT!

Good morning!

I hope you’ve all had a great Christmas and are ready to have some more fun along with a chance to win prizes. There are 16 great prizes to win, one on each of the blogs you visit on the hop!

There are 2 things to join in with, the Blog Hop, and the Awards, they are separate events.  To avoid confusion the details are in separate posts.  I hope you will be able to join us for both.

What you need to do for the Blog Hop

Look for THE STAMP MAN BLOG HOP, CANDY AND AWARD EVENT title on each of the blogs you visit, as there may have newer posts added to the blogs during the week. (Look for the title in the blog archive list or scroll down to find it).

Each of the featured blogs will have a code, (a letter) that you will need to write down. Leave a comment, then hop over to the next blog, continue in the correct order to find the answer. If you get lost along the way, come back to The Stamp Man blog and start again.  Once you have completed the blog hop, please email me at thestampman@btconnect.com with your answer.

To be in with a chance of winning a prize you must leave a comment on EVERY blog you visit in the blog hop.

If you get carried away looking through the work on the blogs you visit and run out of time to complete the hop that day, make a note of where you stop and start again another day. You have a week to complete the blog hop, there is no rush to get to the end, enjoy the journey and admire the scenery along the way!

The blog hop ends at midnight (GMT) on Sunday 3rd January.

The Blog Hop Prizes

You won't know what the prizes are until you start hopping along! Each blog has been allocated a prize to tell you about as well as a letter code.

Once the hop is over, I will list the names of people who have won a prize to ask you to email your address to us so we can post it to you.  The prizes will be allocated randomly to the winners.

If you enjoy anagrams, just for fun, here are a few clues about the prizes

Scatterbrain Sent Its Soul

Know Immortal Gospel

Tasteful Buyer Bite

The blog hop starts here so... let’s get started, your first letter is H

The first of the prizes is…. A SELECTION OF MOONGLOW PRODUCTS

Your next blog to visit is Janet at This and That

Before you go, don't forget to leave a comment under this post!

Have fun, and remember to call back here to take part in the awards too!  (See the next post for details, and post your award entries there).

The blogs you will be visiting on the blog hop will also feature the best/favourite projects the ladies feel they have made in 2009 for you to enjoy along the way.  For doing this they too will receive the award!

My favourite project of 2009 has to be this concertina book/suitcase, I enjoyed collecting all the bits and pieces for it as much as I did making it.  Click here to read more about it

The Stamp Man Award 2009

There are no prizes for the awards event apart from the actual award; it's just a nice random award for anyone that joins in with this bit of fun to take us into the New Year.

The most important part of this is that I would like you all to have fun and enjoy taking time to look back on your crafting over the last year and pick something you have made that you are particularly proud of and feel was your best work of 2009. As you go through the main blog hop you will see that the ladies you visit have shared their favourite projects with you too.

The instructions

It can be a card layout, an altered project, or even a new technique that you have mastered this year.

It must be anything crafty that you have made and designed yourself.

Post it on your blog between now and 3rd January, you don't have to make anything new, it should be something you have already made, so no pressure to make anything.

Leave a comment under this post so everyone can click on your name to come and visit your blog, it’ll then be a whole other blog hop for us to join in with to see what you have made this year too!

Once you have done this, please take this award to proudly display on your blog sidebar throughout 2010!!!

Here's my favourite project again

Click on the link HERE to go to the original post about it for more details

The Stamp Man Blog Hop, Candy, and Award Event

I decided we should have some crafting fun between Christmas and New Year so from Sunday 27th December until Sunday 3rd January 2010, I'm going to host a New Year Award/Blog Hop/Giveaway, so something a little different!!

There are 2 things to join in with, the first is for the Award, and the 2nd is the Blog Hop, they are separate events but I hope you will be able to join us for both.

The instructions will all be given here, the start point, from Sunday, 27th December, both events will run for a week to enable everyone to fit it in sometime over the Christmas/New Year holidays.  It won't take a week to complete, but it will enable you to stop and rejoin the hop whenever it is convenient!

For now, it would really be appreciated if you could add this picture to your sidebars and possibly mention it on your blogs to advertise the events as the more people that know about it and join in, the more fun it will be!

I hope you are having a good weekend!
 
Jill

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT! The Stamp Man's Christmas Blog Candy Giveaway No.3

The lucky winner of £20 of Stamp Man Gift Vouchers is.......

No.26        Marianne!

Congratulations!

Thank you everyone who entered, I loved reading through all your comments regarding what Christmas means to you.

If you didn't win this time, then do call back on Sunday for even more chances to win prizes!!

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Eve!

Jill

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Please...lovely snow, stop falling:)  It's not so nice anymore...

We've had quite enough snow now, these photos were taken on Tuesday after a bit of a thaw and we've now had so much more since then in our little village.   Flipping heck... Enough is enough I say!

Hamish has really enjoyed playing in it when it was this deep but since we've had even more, I think even he has had enough of it.

It's getting a bit deep for his little legs, and springing about in it for too long seems to be hard work for him now.

I was playing chase the snowballs with him, when we came in I realised he had brought some snowballs in with him, they had got so caught in his fur I couldn't remove them.  How did he pick that lot up?

I thought it was a matter of waiting for them to melt, but...

He decided to eat them off... what a mess!

I hope you have all managed to finish all your shopping, and are over the worst of the prep so you that can enjoy the next few days.  If you are travelling visiting family I hope you have a safe journey.

We finally managed to get our food shopping done yesterday, as it snowed heavily again on Tuesday night, I thought we may be eating whatever we could find in the freezer over Christmas, but by lunchtime the road was a little better after having the sun on it.  It was actually a lovely winter's day, but not nice to have to drive on the roads as they are. 

I did forget tin foil and icing sugar.  I'm sure we really can manage without both.  I picked up a tip about grinding caster or granulated sugar into a powder to make icing sugar so as the weather is horrid again today, I'm sure I'll still be able to make the brandy butter and dust the mince pies:)  There's probably a lot worse that I've forgotten.

Another top tip, don't live in a village that doesn't have a corner shop!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, thank you for all your great comments and support for our blog since I started it this year, it's become another wonderful hobby, and it has been lovely meeting and getting to know new people through it.

I also hope you will join us here for our blog hop and awards that starts on Sunday.  We will be starting at 11am, bring a mince pie and something warming to drink with you and join in for as long as you like. 

It will be lasting a week, there are 16 brilliant prizes to win too, so do pop in whenever you can, do the blog hop and also take part in the awards.  Don't be shy, it'll be great if you introduce yourself so we can get to know you too, especially with the awards!

Jill

PS:  I will be back later with a short post to announce the winner's of the blog candy giveaway no.3!

Christmas cards DONE!

Cards finished and posted on Thursday..... yeah!!!!!

I cut it fine again this year by only posting them on Thursday.  I did make more, I ended up making more poinsettia cards than I intended but I really enjoyed making them and using the Starburst Stain papers I had to hand.  As you can see there is quite a difference in the shades and styles.

We've received lovely cards so far this year, so thank you for all of those!

We received something new yesterday that we've been waiting for, magnetic sheets, I'll get them on the website asap!  There are two A4 sheets in a pack for £1.90!  I've a few projects on the go that I need to get on with over the Christmas holidays for telly shows in the new year but I hope to have a little play with these too, as I can see other things to use them for other than just Nestie storage! 

But, the first job will certainly be to store away my Nestabilities on them, I think my poinsettias will be glad to be stored away for a rest, but only for a little while!  I think they will be back out pretty soon though for more flowers, sunflowers are a definite flower I'll be making with them in the new year!  I'll have to search through all the Starburst Stain papers I have made with yellows and rich golds, yum!  Bet I'll go back to using the French Country set (again) for them!!

In the next few days I will be announcing something that is happening around here very soon.  I know everyone is busy at the moment, but do call back for news about it!

Well, we've the Strictly final tonight and a 2 part Cranford starting tomorrow, nice to have some good telly programmes to look forward to over the weekend.

We had about 4" to 5" of snow here on Thursday night and it looks like we've more to come today and tomorrow to add to it, so it's going to be quite a pile! I just hope we don't get the amount of snow they have forecast for the US.  That's serious snowfall!!

I hope you are all getting into Christmas zone, keeping warm and stress free with the prep! 

Jill

Traditional red and green easel cards with small square panels

Yes, more poinsettia cards, this time with more traditional Christmas colours.  Instead of making the extra front panel the same size as the card I have made the square smaller, both feature plenty of scrunch paper backgrounds.  If you have missed me mentioning them before, they are made from Starburst Stains and copier paper.  You will be able to see me doing this (again) on the telly (Create and Craft) on 16th January, Sky 671 or Freeview 36 if you have them. 

They have asked me to go back for a technique show and I'll also have the DVD I made with Moonglow products on the show, so I hope you can watch that especially if you haven't seen me doing all this stuff before. 

I used the Starburst Stains Holiday Wreath set for both of these cards, although I think a piece of scrunch from a different set with a paler green slipped in on the top card.

I am posting late tonight or is it early for today?  I am up late as I have been watching the snow falling again, it fell heavily earlier this evening and settled, even on the road.  Hamish loved playing in the garden earlier and came in with snow stuck to him, he had a cute white lump of snow on his nose where he'd been sniffing about and had scouped it up!  I guess we're going to be snowball throwing again tomorrow!

I do love watching it fall and the great scenery and peacefulness it seems to bring but don't like the fact that we are probably not likely to get out of the village until later tomorrow!

As you know we are based in Yorkshire and we do get our fair share of snow, we also live in a little village very high up so when we get it, it stays.  We left the car at the bottom of the drive this evening, at least we won't have to slide down that tomorrow!  It looks like the salt Ian put down on the drive this evening isn't going to help much, so I'm glad the car is on the road!

I'm just hoping it clears before Saturday as we have a workshop and I'm looking forward to playing with the Starburst Stains and Moonshadow inks with the ladies that are booked to attend!

This first falling of snow has been nice to get us in the mood for Christmas, we only want a little taster for now though!  It would be better if it just cleared up for the next week so we can all get our Christmas shopping done and then it would be lovely if it could snow from next Thursday night for a couple of days, so we can all have a wonderful white Christmas to enjoy!  I think we all deserve that this year:)

Jill

Christmas easel card, scrunchy leaves, dotty C'bugs, nesties and winners...

Sorry, back to poinsettia flowers again for today's card after yesterday's chocolate box:)

Edit:  Just realised I've already shown this card on a previous post, so here's another!

************************************************

Well, as you can imagine, there were 3 very excited ladies emailing yesterday to claim their prizes, I am really very happy for them all! 

Congratulations you 3!  Kym, Pauline and Ann.  I hope their luck continues into 2010 and that they will share some cards they make with the stamp sheets with us as it is always so nice to see what other crafters make with our range of Aspects of Design stamp sheets. 

Kym was the first to claim her prize and she was especially excited as she had already had a great day, her son had passed his driving test (first time).  I think she was a little shocked at having 2 good things happening in one day!  Kym said in her email that she makes cards for charity so your choice of the Funky Flourishes is going to prove so versatile for you Kym!

Pauline couldn't believe she was a winner and Ann, well, as you probably gathered from Ann's post yesterday, she got a shock this morning when she popped by our blog, she checked and doubled checked, YES Ann, it really was YOU!!! 

Three truly fab winners!! 

Don't forget to enter our Christmas Blog Candy No.3, 'What does Christmas mean to you?'

We'd love to hear your thoughts so do join in the next giveaway!

Wooden Poinsettia Chocolate Box and Blog Candy Winners

Congratulations to the lucky winners of the blog candy!  A nice extra Christmas pressie for you all is coming your way.  Ann, Kym and Pauline have all claimed their prizes now, they have each picked a different sheet, but I know they will be happy with them as they are all great stamp sheets!

*******************************************

This is the finished box that I started painting on our last Create and Craft TV show.  I think I painted the lid on camera, then quickly painted the rest while Nigel nipped up the counter to Tracey.  It dried very quickly so I just left it perching on top of my bag when I left the studio.

I painted it with Moonshadow Ink Burnished Brass.  The ink seeps straight into the wood so it is easy peasy to paint wood with, no worrying about brush marks.  If you want it to be a darker shade you just give it another coat (a bit like staining the garden furniture).  You can see by the other box in the picture that it started as quite light coloured wood.  I only gave it the one coat.  I didn't varnish it but if you want to make it a bit more hard wearing then any waterbased varnish will do.

I used the Poinsettia and Labels 5 Nestabilites along with Cuttlebug folders to give patterns to the card pieces that were not made with the paper scrunch technique.  I used card with different techniques so they would have more texture when they were layered.   I shaped the leaves of the card poinsettias.  The 3 yellow brads keep them together.

The stamp is from Tracey's Butterfly Beauties stamp sheet, useful at Christmas too!

I'm going to get some nice chocolates and give the box to Ian for Christmas (shush).

If I have time I'd like to make some gift tags and gift embellishments with the poinsettias too.  In fact I can see me dotting them all over the place!  I can embellish some napkin rings with them, the fruit bowl, candles, table, tree....Oh dear, just thought of something else too, shame there are not many days left to do it all now!

I hope you are not getting too stressed with your preparations, I just ate those chocolates in the photo, and it really helped:)

Keep warm!

Jill

CHRISTMAS BLOG CANDY NO.1 - THE LUCKY WINNER'S ARE...

52 Pauline Charlesworth

30 Ann

21 Kyms Crafty Cards

Please can you email me at thestampman@btconnect.com to claim your prize before midnight tomorrow night (Wednesday).  I'll need to know which of the 3 sheets you would like and also your address.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter!

********************************************

Here's today's Christmas card...

 

If you saw the last TV show, you may recall I used the Moonshadow inks to start painting a wooden box, well I finished it on Sunday, I made it into a Christmas themed gift box, I'll hopefully show you that tomorrow, it'll be a break from the poinsettia easel cards for you if nothing else!

Hope you are keeping warm!

Jill

Another christmas card

I managed to get a few more cards finished yesterday, plus got our tree up!  The tree decorating started out to be a fun exercise as Hamish was leaping over everything.  He had to leave the room in the end otherwise it would never have got finished!  I'm hoping he behaves with it and doesn't think the ornaments are balls to play with!  He was very good last year and didn't touch it and he has been told to leave it, so far he has:) 

I don't think we'll risk putting any presents under until Christmas morning, just in case.  Our last dog must have got upset one day, I think someone must have come to the house and upset her as for some reason she attacked the presents, which she had never touched in previous years.  We came home to a living room covered completely in little bits of wrapping paper, Barbies with chewed legs etc.  Just picture the scene!  So not taking any chances with Hamish!!

Like most pet owners, Hamish will have his own presents but these will be smuggled in and put away to avoid temptation:)

I'm really starting to get in the Christmas mood now, especially after reading all your comments about what Christmas means to you in our blog candy giveaway no.3.  Thank you so much for adding your thoughts there, it has been lovely reading them all so far.  If you haven't entered yet, please see the sidebar---->

Anyway, today's card is another variation of my poinsettia/easel card theme this year.   Here's the card when it is closed.

I hope you are all getting on well with your Christmas preparations and not getting too stressed with it all.

Jill

The Stamp Man Christmas Blog Candy No.3 - now closed

The winner of this Blog Candy can choose their own prize for this giveaway with the prize being £20 worth of Stamp Man Gift Vouchers!

This hasn't been a great year for a lot of people so I decided to hold all of these giveaways for a bit of fun, and to also add a bit of cheer for the end of the year.  There will be one more, which will run between Christmas and New Year, I will tell you about that soon!

OK... Here are the details for our next giveaway.  It's all about Christmas, answers on a postcard, oops, answers in a comment please... 

To get us in the Christmas mood, here's a question for you to answer!

What does Christmas mean to you?

For those with blogs - to enter all you need to do is leave your comment below this post and spread the word on your blog by putting a picture of this blog candy onto your blog linking it back to this post.

If you would like to sign up to become a follower that would be great as we'd really love you to follow our blog, but it is not a requirement, although becoming a follower will alert you to any Blog Candy updates!

For those without blogs - please leave your comment below this post. Please note that you will need to leave your full name within the comment to be entered, anonymous entries cannot be accepted.

One entry only, duplicate entries will not be counted.

This candy will run from today until midday GMT on Christmas Eve, Thursday 24th December. The winner will be selected at random and announced later that day.

As we will not have your contact details you will need to check back to see if you have won and contact us as soon as possible.  As it is Christmas we will give you longer to claim this time. If the prize has not been claimed by midnight GMT on Monday 4th January, a new winner will be drawn.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

**************************************************

We will be having another giveaway which will take us into the New Year so do call back for details!

Jill

Ready for more Blog Candy?

Last weekend we gave away blog candy in conjunction with the Tuesday Tagger's for their Blog Hop. 

Our next giveaway will start later today, I'm still working on it, but before I finish the details and post about it I need to get a few more Christmas cards finished (while it is still light), so do call back later for the details!

Jill

Reminder!! The Stamp Man Blog Candy - Ends Tuesday

Just a reminder about our blog candy giveaway.  It finishes on Tuesday, so if you haven't entered yet, there is still a little more time to do it. 

Click HERE for all the details then add your comment there to be in with a chance of winning!

Jill

Jo's cards from our last show

Jo recently joined our design team and kindly made these cards for us for the last show.  Jo hadn't photographed them before she sent them to me so I'm showing them here as we are keeping hold of the cards for a while so people can see them in real life in the shop.

The first card features another way of using the butterfly of acetate.  Jo has also used 2 of the smaller stamps on the sheet to stamp the background.  I think this is a really pretty card.

The next card is from the same stamp sheet, it's the design I've been calling the bling maiden!  Jo has used gold leafing and a white gel pen to highlight parts of the design.

I love the Glitz Spritz background Jo has made for the fairy frame.  It's subtle but still lovely and shimmery! 

Now onto the Classical Instruments sheet, Jo has used mica pigment powders to add colour to the guitar.

This card has an acetate overlay.  Jo stamped the violin onto the acetate with Timber Brown Stazon ink and has added gold leafing to the body of the violin, unfortunately my picture doesn't show how lovely it looks.  The stamped swirls on the acetate are a great frame idea. 

Moonshadow ink has been used on the base white card.

Thank you for all of them Jo! 

Jo is a Springer Spaniel lover hence the name of her blog, The Life and Creations of a Springer-Lovin Paper Stroker...  A great name for a blog!  Do go and visit Jo's blog she has some great stuff over there!

Thanks for visiting

Jill

First Christmas Card... Done!!

Good evening!

Here's my first christmas card finished!  It's a variation on the easel card I showed on Sunday.

Rather than using a square that is the same size as the card as I did on Sunday's card, I have used the largest label 5 Nestability for the gold mirri card mount, and the next smaller size for the next mount which was some Starburst Stained card with the cling film technique that has also been Cuttlebugged with the Swiss dots folder and then sanded to show the original white card I used for the stain background.

People often ask what I do with all the background papers I make when I'm demonstrating at shows.  As you can imagine I get quite a pile together after a day at a show, so I've put alot to good use this Christmas.  I used the Poinsettia Nestability to cut from a variety of background papers including the Scrunch, which has a brilliant texture for poinsettia leaves/petals and I was happy to discover cuts really well with the nesties.

Now then what would you call them... poinsettia leaves, or petals?  Do you think it is leaves or petals that make them flowers, are they flowers?  I guess it is the green leaves that are leaves and when they become red they are petals?   Anyway, I'll move on from that thought, I'm getting myself confused...

I've tried to vary the layers with some other techniques.  I made lots of these flowers on Sunday, in fact Ian came to see what I had been doing for 5 hours and I confessed I hadn't finished a single card but I had made a nice pile of poinsettia flowers!!  After 20 years of doing this sort of thing I don't get the 'look' anymore, he just accepts that that is the way things are, he doesn't even shake his head anymore. 

These were made from the French Country starburst stain set (hence that gorgeous burgundy) but I think the green came from the Holiday Wreath set which I have also used to make the flowers in more traditional colours of red and green.

I shaped the card pieces and used 3 yellow brads to hold them all together.

The wording is raised on pads to hold the easel in place.

I have started more of these, I get bored doing the same design so I'll show the other layouts/colourways when they are finished.

I have taken some photo's today of the cards Jo made for the TV show, will show them tomorrow when I've transfered them... so do call back.

Thanks for visiting, and again for leaving all your comments.

Jill

Glitz Spritz and other waffle

A little bit of an in between post today, a sort of filler while I silently panic away in the background. 

I have been a bit lacking in the commenting department recently, it's partly due to the annual accounts, what with those and the VAT being due by the end of the year, it's taking a little bit of the nice edge off the Christmas feeling:(  I'd much rather be getting my cards finished, putting our tree up, shopping, getting on with planning the new shows on the telly for the new year and just, well much much nicer things...

Sorry folks, you have an unfinished card today, so a little imagination is needed, but by hook or by crook, I'll be starting Christmas here properly tomorrow!!...(Or it may be Friday!)

This is one of the last of the 'off the hoof' demo's I showed on C and C, it still isn't a finished card but I'm showing the bits anyway!  I'll show the last of my extra demo's soon, I just need some chocolates before I can show that one:)  ...Ian?

I used a Moonglow Glitz Spritz, this one was Desert Moon Endless Sky, one of my favourites.  Glitz Spritz is mica powder, again in a spray bottle but a little more subtle than the stains.  It was one of the first products from the Moonglow range I started with, about 8 years ago at least, I really must look up how long I have been lucky enough to have been working with this stuff!

Anyway, I had a glitch on the show, live of course, you may have watched and noticed.  How many times have I told everyone to make sure they shake their bottles enough to get all the mica out of the bottom of the bottle so it doesn't get stuck and clogged in the spray nozzle?  zillions of times!! 

Never one to take note of my own advice, plus getting caught out at being allowed to do more than the normal 3 demos in a live show, I wasn't quite ready, so I'm applying a third of the blame to my tools, a third blaming me for not shaking the darn bottle enough, and a third blaming C and C for letting us fit in more demos!  The extra floating 1% is given to sod's law!  The lovely dear bottle sprayed once every 3 sprays for me on the show.  It's been fine since I shook the hell out of it!  Anyway, I watched the show after at my mum's and my step-dad said, "you'll not get a lot of orders for that then!"  So funny... thanks Pete:) xxxx  ...while I inwardly cringed!

Never let it be said that I can't own up to a glitch!  As many of you have seen, I've been a master of them in our shows.  Wonky mounting, forgetting what I'm going to say are amongst the classics, but, I have to say, I was the first to ever attempt tricky things like ultra thick embossing and gold leafing amongst other things in a drafty studio, and they all turned out fine.  I do sometimes wonder why I do it:)  and you must too when you watch our shows!!!  I do try, but as you've seen, I ain't perfect! 

I think Vix is still getting over the shock of seeing me doing shrink plastic on a live show, there was a time when I felt a little scared of shrink plastic, but you have to show it who's the boss!  Fiddling with it doesn't help any, it just tickles it into silly raptures and let's it go and do stupid things like sticking to itself.  Best to be firm with a wooden stick and make it behave.  Show the slightest bit of panic and you'll lose the game with it:)  Shrink plastic CAN be conquered!!  It doesn't stick to wood, so just hold it firmly with a wooden dowelling stick or even a lolly stick, in one place, ideally the centre, and let it do it's dancing about.  Once it has submitted into a smaller more controllable piece you can tidy it up, flatten it or shape it, you are then the boss:)

Challenges.... (yes, I will get back to the Glitz Spritz shortly).  I do like to throw out a few here and there and Tracey landed one of them on this show as on her first she only got to do one demo, so I wanted everyone to see more of her doing her stuff.  I asked her to do the gold leafing, well, didn't she do well!  We had been asked by Create and Craft to add this to the show along with the acetate we've had on before.  Quite a challenging list of products but I think Tracey did really well with it to say it was only her 2nd ever show, and it was live!  Vix and Jo also came up trumps with their cards too.

OK, back to the Glitz Spritz, follow the instructions on the bottle to add the water.

Give the bottle a REALLY REALLY good shake, make sure there is no mica lurking about at the bottom of the bottle, then spray.  The bottles are very good, they give a really fine mist when shaken well ...   (an embarassed Jill here on that one still!)

For the frame background I sprayed plenty onto a non stick sheet then mopped it up onto card before stamping over with the frame.  It gives a lovely shimmery ethereal effect and is also great for other sky effect projects.

I also sprayed onto black card, intending to use it as a mount, before mounting onto the sprayed hammered card once I've got round to scoring and trimming it into a finished base card.  Maybe it'll get it finished after Christmas!

I'll be back to properly finished projects tomorrow, I'm sure!  I just need to get on again today and get some of the boring stuff out of the way...

Workshops
Have you made it down the post this far?  If so, are you are within driving distance of visiting us this weekend?  Do you fancy taking time out this Saturday 12th December, to play with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, Melt Pots and more?  If you can make it, the other Jill around here, Jill Boulton, is holding a workshop this weekend, the last one she did here with UTEE was brilliant as she covered so many techniques during the day.  Give us a ring, book online or email us if you wish to join in.

We also have a workshop, with me, on Saturday 19th December.  We will be playing with products from the Moonglow range, such as the Starburst Stains, Moonshadow Inks and Mists, Pigment Powders, Glitz Spritz etc plus a brand new Moonglow product!!  So new I haven't even tried it yet! 

Giveaways
As well as the blog candy giveaway that we are currently running, and the blog hop prizes we sponsored this weekend with the Tuesday Taggers, we have more giveaways to come, so when you get a chance to call back during your Christmas preparations, do so, as you'll have the chance to take part and maybe win something nice for yourself.

That's all for now, I'd better get back to those a/c books...

Jill

Butterfly Beauties and Moonshadow Ink

Good morning!

Well, the blog hop has ended now, I believe the Tuesday Tagger's will be announcing the winners of the prizes tomorrow, so pop over tomorrow to see if you have won!

Today's card is another from the show on 28th November, with the same Butterfly Beauties sheet, Moonshadow inks, and course salt.

We had acetate on the show along with Timber Brown Stazon which worked well with the butterfly image.

I added some nailhead embellishments on the acetate and wording strip to add a little bling.

I cut the wording panel and threaded through a Moonglow card strip as a change from using ribbon.

You can see the little flowers made with the salt and ink.

Just to answer a couple of the comments from yesterday's post...

Wilma, you mentioned that you missed the show, well I have been asked back for another show on Saturday 16th January, 11am, they have asked me to do a techniques show and they will also have the DVD I made.  It covers the 8 products in the Moonglow range but mainly features techniques with Moonshadow Inks.

McKinkle, I usually do my messy stuff in the kitchen, spread lots of paper out and it shouldn't be too messy, although I have to admit to hitting the toaster and kettle before now with the Moonshadow Mists when I've got carried away!  But it all cleans off.  If you have a non-stick craft sheet you'll find it a lot easier to keep the area clean.

Jill

Blog hopping and other stuff

Thank you to everyone who hopped by yesterday to take part in the Tuesday Tagger's Blog Hop.  If you didn't join in yesterday, you still can, as it runs through today too, and you still have a great chance of winning some nice prizes!  Scroll down or click on yesterday's post to get all the details about it, where to start etc.  It was a great fun yesterday, so well worth you joining in with it today.  Thank you to all the Tuesday Tagger admin team for organising it, count us in if you want to do it again:)

Today's card is another from last Saturday's Create and Craft TV show.  A whopper, 8" x 8" card. 

It's featuring my all time yummy favourite Moonshadow Inks!  The colours are great and the fact that the mica and walnut ink separate so well never fails to wow me.  I just love them so much.  I used Craft Creations linen white card for this, the Moonshadow Inks LOVE their textured cards!  Their card is great quality, a fab weight and thickness to it, which makes a better quality card.  When you think of the time you spend making a card, spending a little more on good quality card is SO sensible, it really makes a difference. 

Craft Creations also provide a service to cut card to size for you.  I've been using their service for this for well over 20 years now, even before Ian and I got together and started The Stamp Man.   

Sorry, digressing...  

When I received my first jars of Moonshadow Ink to try, I was very nervous about using them, I hadn't a clue what to do with them apart from the instructions about adding hot water to the fill line!  I spoke to Lindy who developed them and she suggested I give a piece of card a wash of the ink and then add some salt....  Ummm....

Well, I gave it a try and have been totally hooked ever since!

On last Saturday's show, Nigel waggled the card around so you could see the difference when you move the card, he really showed the brown look from the walnut ink and the stunning green shimmer from the mica.  Good lad!! 

When you add salt to the inks, well, special stuff happens, the salt draws up the ink, as in silk painting, leaving lovely flower like patterns as in this example of rock/course salt

Here's the same idea with Buccaner Bay Blue, oh, so, fab, wish you could really see this one!

And, aged pitted vintage style patterns with normal table salt.

OH, ....Love it, love it, love it!  Lots of yummy mica in these jars!!

I also painted the bling maiden's hair with the same Moonshadow Inks. 

You cannot see in this photo but her hair really shimmers too!

Oh, I had to share this piece too, Violaceous Violet Moonshadow Ink with the cling film technique same idea as yesterday's post, but with Moonshadow Inks!

All yummy, yum, yum, yumminess!!

I started making my Christmas cards yesterday, 'twas quite a frenzy!  Lots of elements made for them so far, but no actual finished cards just yet, although 4 almost sort of done:)  I had better get a move on with them...

Thanks for stopping by, and for leaving all your comments. 

Jill