Workshop today

Had a brilliant day with Jill Boulton as teacher at the workshop today and I got to play! Yippee!! A great day to finish a week of accounts and the VAT return.

This morning we worked on a canvas, we stamped and coloured on grunge paper and self adhesive canvas sheets using Adirondack Paint Dabbers and added a bit of shimmer with Starburst Stains. We played with the melt pot this afternoon, trying a number of different techniques which was great fun!

I don't have any photos to show just yet and as soon as I've done something with the UTEE elements, and finished my canvas I'll let you see. I broke off to serve here and there so got a bit behind.

We had 3 Jill's in the class again, but we coped well enough... I got to see Janet W's 2 finished tag books too. Two ladies travelled from Nottinghamshire, a long day for them, but I was pleased that they enjoyed the day visiting us. Thanks again Jill B, it was another excellent day.

Do pop over to Kay's blog this weekend and get your name down for the next lot of blog candy, it's the Fancy Flourishes stamp sheet this time.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend too!!

Jill

Kay Carley, Craft Stamper Mag, Free Stamp!!

Debbie has just emailed me this photo that she has mentioned this evening in her blog. She put a link from hers to ours. So, welcome if you have popped across from Debbie's blog and have been waiting to find out was it is she is talking about! Debbie's family have had to wait for their dinner while she organised the photo, sorry all!!

Debbie phoned me earlier to say I have to mention it tonight now, you are a star Debbie!! As you've probably gathered, Debbie gets quite excited about her Craft Stamper mag arriving!

As you can see in the photo, the cover stamp is from The Stamp Man, well in fact it is from Kay Carley! You may remember Kay mentioning this on her blog a while ago. As well as being a lovely stamp on it's own, it will also co-ordinate with Kay's Flitter Flutter stamp sheet, found here.

From what I can gather from an excited phone call from Debbie is that Kay and Katy (the Editor) have made cards with the stamp to give inspiration for the stamp design. I haven't got a copy yet and Kay probably doesn't even know it has been sent out to subscribers either! Kay will probably tell you more about it when she has received her copy.

So well done Kay and thank you for working on this, and also to katy for the opportunity, I cannot wait to get my copy!

Jill

Thank You

Hi Everyone. I hope Jill doesn't mind me popping on but I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the kind comments you have posted regarding my latest designs. I pop on here every day to see what Jill is up to and read all your lovely comments. As you are most probably aware by now I am not a confident rubber stamp designer so when I read how much you like the designs it really makes my day!

My sincere thanks to you all.

Kay x

Blog Candy Prize Claimed

Just a short post today to announce that Jan has claimed her blog candy prize. Congratulations Jan!!

As I mentioned yesterday, Kay will be starting the next blog candy soon so pop over to Kay's to join in. I bet Jeannette and Jan are glad they entered our first giveaways:)

Have a good evening.

Jill

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!

Thank you to all who have entered our first blog candy, and to those that also joined as followers, it's very much appreciated!

I have used a random number generator to select the winner, who is....

Jan - (No 29)

Congratulations Jan!!

To claim your prize, please email us at The Stamp Man or phone 01756 797048. We will need your full name and address by midday on Friday 26th June 2009, we can then get your prize in the post for you.

If the prize is unclaimed by then we will need to pick a new winner.

Now it's back over to Kay Carley for the next Blog Candy giveaway, I'm sure Kay will announce it soon so do pop over to her blog.

Thank you again to all that entered this one.

* * * * *

Blog Awards
Thank you so much Lisa for giving me the 2 awards, I wanted to pass them onto others and it has had my mind working overtime to think of who to give them to. I want to give them to everyone as I've been looking at a lot of blogs and they all feature such lovely work.

So, I think everyone who has entered for our blog candy should have the awards for being good bloggers by joining in with blog candy such as this, I know that for some it was the first time they have joined in something like this so please take them, you deserve them! I'm still learning all this blogging stuff myself so I know how you feel.

I have decided to get 6 more randomly generated numbers to pick bloggers for the awards too, just to start passing them around, so here goes...

Pinky (no. 21)
Betty the baglady (23)
Stamps & Paper (68)
Littlebear (45)
Georgina (5)
Sass (40)

Plus YOU!

I like this giving stuff away, I'll definitely be doing it again soon, so do keep popping by.

Thanks again for joining in!

Jill

The Stamp Man's 1st Blog Candy

OUR CANDY GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

THIS POST WILL REMAIN AT THE TOP OF OUR BLOG UNTIL
THE WINNER IS ANNOUNCED AND THE PRIZE HAS BEEN CLAIMED.

FOR MORE RECENT POSTS PLEASE SCROLL DOWN.

To celebrate the release of Kay Carley's latest stamp sheets we have decided to offer up some more blog candy to one lucky person. This is different blog candy to that offered by Kay, although the candy is very similar. As Kay's blog candy ends ours starts. The candy contains:-

* One of Kay's new stamp sheets - Aspects of Design No.57 un-mounted stamp sheet - Funky Frames
* 1 pack of mixed 12" x 12" vellums
* 3 reels of ribbon
* Assorted organza ribbons
* 1 pack of fusible film
* 1 pack of embellishments
* 1 pack of Magic Motifs
* Flower brads
* Domed alphabet stickers
* 1 set of chalks

For those with blogs - to enter all you need to do is leave a 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 is not a requirement:)

For those without blogs - please leave a comment below this post.

Please note
You will need to leave your full name within the comment to be entered, otherwise anonymous entries cannot be accepted. One entry only, duplicate entries will not be counted.

Unfortunately due to postal costs, this time, the candy is only open to UK residents. (Sorry!!!)

This candy will run until midnight on Monday 22nd June 2009. The winner will be selected at random and announced by Wednesday 24th June.

We will not contact you direct so you will need to check back then to see if you have won. Further details will then be posted on how to claim your candy! If the prize has not been claimed by midday Friday 26th June a new winner will be drawn.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!


Please continue to our latest post below...

Stamp Magic Show

Had a great day today at the show, I got nice and messy demonstrating, just as I like it! It was lovely to meet everyone too, and I gather from customers that they enjoyed the show and said there was a good mix of things there, which was good for everyone. There is another Stamp Magic show in October, if you live anywhere near enough to travel to Doncaster, it would definitely be worth a visit to the next show. There was such a nice atmosphere all day, it was busy, but there was still plenty of room to move around.

Only a short post tonight as I'm shattered but it was all worth it as I thoroughly enjoyed today.

Thank you for your help Caroline:)

Jill

The 'Scrunch' with Moonshadow Inks

Following on from yesterday's scrunch card, here is the same idea with a different image, again from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique CD. I love this image and I think it works well with the Moonshadow Inks. I have embossed the scrunch with gold embossing powder too which lifts the peaks of the paper and stand out from the burnt umber Moonshadow Ink

The best way to attach the scrunch to the front of the whole card is to put double-sided tape around all the edges of the card, right along the edges. Place the scrunch piece face down on the table, remove all the backing tape from the card then place the card onto the paper, then trim to fit. If you try to cut the scrunch to the size of the card you will find that because of the texture of the paper it will keep moving, you'll be trimming it forever, and never get it straight!

Once you have a pile of ready made backgrounds to hand, this card is actually very quick and easy to make.

More tomorrow!

Jill

Last of the Father's Day cards

Today Debbie helped me get the rest of those unmounted stamps I talked about yesterday bagged and ready for the Stamp Magic show on Sunday. We kept reading the funny ones out and a couple of ladies who called in bought some too, there are some great ones that I now wish I'd ordered more of. There was only 2 of one of the good ones and Debbie and one of the customers bought them, so none for me:(

Debbie, Helen, Ian and I have almost finished packing for the show now. We have a whole display board of cards with Kay's new stamp designs and they do look good. Nearly finished packing the demo stuff too so almost set.

Well, here's the last of the series of Father's Day card ideas for this year. For this one I used Moonshadow Inks with the scrunch technique to create the background and used an image from Joanna Sheen's Fashion Boutique which has been decoupaged. I misted the base card with the inks to tone down the whiteness. After I made the scrunch background, I misted it as well so that it really has extra shimmer to match the gents silk smoking jacket.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, looking forward to seeing everyone that can make it to the Stamp Magic show on Sunday.

Jill

Wow, wow, wow!

The cards that Kay made for us with her new stamp designs have arrived and they are gorgeous! The pictures on Kay's blog don't show the layering or the glitters and it really does make them come to life. The colours are lovely. If anyone is coming to the Stamp Magic show in Doncaster on Sunday, please pop by for a look at them, and we will have Debbie's and my cards to show you too.

Been to the vets this evening with Hamish for his annual booster injections, what a bundle of laughs that was!! Talk about disgrace himself, he bucked like a bronco for the whole time he was in there. The young lady vet had to call for back up for the injections, the kennel cough injection was particularly fraught!! It must be scary for them, it must be bad when even bribery with treats doesn't work! Well, we're happily back at home and all calmed down now, you wouldn't believe it was the same dog!!

Spent this afternoon with a mirror and a pile of individual unmounted stamps from a company called River City. I was trying to match up the printouts with the rubber so we can take them to the show on Sunday. The pictures weren't too hard but there are over 100 different wording stamps, not easy! Will have to finish bagging them up tomorrow or Saturday morning.

There are images of people, mainly... shall we say senior citizens... who have loads of different wording stamps to go with them, they are realistic photo type images. Some of the wording is a little OTT, but matched with the right images are really funny. We don't have a lot of each but there are some very different verses, sayings and messages.

More waffle tomorrow!

Jill

The Good Old Days!

Who have we here then?

I found them the other day and thought you might like a look, they were taken for fun quite a few years ago, (um not THAT long ago I wish to add, though we do look younger in the photos!) They were taken at The Victorian Image in Whitby, not sure if it is still there, but it's one of those places where they velcro the outfits over your own clothes. The costumes are actually Edwardian style rather than Victorian.

The second photo includes my mum and stepdad, taken on another visit. Mum and I had fun choosing our dresses, hats and parasols and that was more to do with the choice of those than the actual American Civil War theme. Mum loves her clothes and had to be reminded that picking a dress and hat by colour wouldn't matter as the photo was going to be sepia, but that didn't spoil our fun choosing.

I remember for the first visit that I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans under all that lot, and it was a very hot day. To help make it authentic we weren't allowed to smile, which on both occasions was very hard to do, people should never say don't smile, it's bound to bring on major belly laughs all round isn't it? Also, Ian had to sit and I had to stand. Blow that, it wouldn't be allowed today, women's rights and such! The giggles were quite bad when all 4 of us were there, it was quite a long job taking that photo!

I used the photos in a craft project once, must get round to using them again sometime.

BLOG CANDY
Just a reminder that you've less than a week to enter for the blog candy, if you haven't already entered, then do it... quickly... otherwise you'll never get a chance of winning!!

Jill

New Bits and Pieces in the shop.

We have some new bits and pieces in the shop that are yummy! So I need to tell you about them!!

Woodware Paper Flowers, £1.95 that can be found here. There are 8 different sets.

Mini Mosaics, £1.95 that can be found here. There are 9 different colours to choose from.

Metallic Nailheads - £1.95, some of these are now available to order from our website but we don't have pictures as yet. I used some of these in the French Country Starburst stain book that I posted about around 7th June.

Also, I've added some things to the website that we have had for a while, if you click here it will take you straight to the pages.

Old key embellishments - £4.50 They are actual keys and are various sizes
Plastic Dominoes- 28pc. Set - £4.50 They are 2" x 1" x 3/8"
Mini Playing Cards - 99p - 1-9/16" x 2-1/4"

CraftsUK Christmas Stamps
If you are making an early start on your Christmas cards, we have the new Christmas CraftsUK A5 unmounted stamp sheets in stock, we've kept them at the same special offer prices of £8.50 instead of £9.99. There are 20 new sets, so definitely worth a look (here)!

Thanks to everyone who has commented, entered to win the blog candy and followed.

I have something a little different to show you tomorrow, want some clues? I would have to say it's sort of vintage but a bit of fun too, umm, what could it be?

Until then, have a good evening!

Jill

Puzzled!

We have had some packs of tiny puzzle pieces in the shop for a while now and occasionally someone asks if they are proper jigsaws that you can make. Well, at a workshop about a month ago a lady called Jill (you know who you are!) asked. When she returned for another workshop the following week she said she had made a completed picture from the pack she bought and it was a nice picture, I'm sure it was of a wild animal, tiger or something.

Well, Brenda a local customer called into the shop and asked about them, I told her about Jill's puzzle so she took one to try. and here it is made into a card. Brenda now has more of the packs. There are no pictures on the packs to follow, they just look different colour combinations and when completed they are about 6" x 4". There are 180 pieces for £1.95, they are here in our shop.

Well done for giving them a go, it must have been fiddly to do, I cannot believe your patience ladies!

I've just added them as embellishments so far, I've coloured them with Adirondack acrylic paints to co-ordinate with projects but I'm thinking that if you made one up and didn't want to keep the picture as it is, you could paint the whole puzzle and then stamp your own image. Perhaps worth a try if you have the time and patience!!

Jill

Funky Flowers & French Country S. Stains

Back to cards today.

I made this card with Kay's Funky Flowers stamp sheet and French Country starburst stains. I detail painted the flower design with the stains then misted over with the stains.

The bottom half of the card is made by mopping up spillages on my craft mat.

The top panel is vellum stamped with one of the fancy flourishes stamps in white Stazon. Curly clips, brads and organza ribbon have also been added to finish off the card.

Jill

Our Wildlife Garden

Seems that my post on Thursday about our garden has confirmed that it should stay as it is, decision made! As I've mentioned before, my camera is broken at the moment, the photos on Thursday were taken a couple of years ago but it looks the same now.

Every year it grows high like that before it dries out enough to cut and every year we have chickened out and cut it. It does look lovely cut short too, but not as environmentally friendly as it is when allowed to grow. So it's staying this year, here's hoping the neighbours don't mind too much!

It must be a real maze for Hamish, as I can't spot him in there now! He has a set way of going to the top of the garden and has beaten down his own track now.

So, now the 'lawn' fits in with the rest of our wildlife garden. Once the buddleia blooms we will have lots of butterflies too. The birds get most of the fruit, especially the cherries, (they actually drop some of the stones down our chimney!) Hamish has his fair share of apples when they drop, and we are lucky if we can get to the plums and blackberries! We've some wild strawberries growing too that are out of reach of Hamish (but maybe not the birds), so we might get to have some of those too. Every year we talk of making elderflower wine, but haven't got round to it so far. If we do it this year we'd better get a move on as they are now flowering!

Thanks to Ian and the grafting he put in to make it look so natural, and Wendy who provided a bucket load of her own wildlife pond to give it a kick start with bugs and inserts etc, we got a wildlife pond of our own, (with it's own little beach so that hedgehogs etc can climb out easily), that has been home to lots of creatures and we have replanted some lavender near the pond as our old overgrown one died on us this winter. One of the shrubs that the bees also love overhangs our pond as you can see in this photo. We took this picture a couple of years ago too, it is a lot more established now and it's great to see it all coming back to life.

Now where's that darn dog gone...

Jill

PS: Just wanted to add that we found out the name of the shrub the bees like, it's called cotoneaster.

Janet's Tag Book & HSNW

Starburst Stain Tag Books
Janet (W) recently attended this workshop and has kindly scanned the book for us. Apparently she has another on the go too. Lovely colours! We used the French Country Starburst Stain set and stamps from all 3 of Kay's new stamp sheets. The images were embossed with detail white embossing powder. The cover, with the large flowers in the third picture is anaglypta wallpaper that has been stained, it resists and gives a lovely textured effect. The middle flower was also punched from the wallpaper. The book is made with the large scalloped tag Sizzix die. Thanks for letting us look Janet.

HSNW Stamping Group
I did mention earlier this week that I would mention what this group is celebrating this year, and celebrate they should...

Way back, a group of ladies were attending a workshop by Caroline Rawcliffe, the words ..... "perhaps we could start a club" were spoken and there it was, a challenge for them. In August 1995 the first meeting took place in the home of one of the ladies and they have met monthly since November 1995. They held a competition for the club name and have been growing ever since. Larger premises were needed to accommodate all the members and after the 2nd move, they had to cap the number of members to 60.

As there was a lack of shows in the area at the time, in 1998 they decided to organise one of their own which was attended by 12 retailers initially and 500 shoppers. By 1999 it had grown and such was its popularity 2 shows were held a year, in the Spring and Autumn.

As a retailer attending the shows I can vouch that these shows are well organised and have such a lovely atmosphere. It is obvious that all members, not just the committee, get involved helping to make it the success that it is. Their hard work is so worthwhile.

This is not an advert to gain them more members or to help sell tickets for their shows as they are their own advert. Club membership is full, there is a waiting list for exhibitor show stands and, they had to go ticket only for the shows a few years ago as too many people wanted to visit.

I wanted to give brief details of what they have successfully achieved, and thank the group for all the support they have given us retailers over the years. I'm sure that everyone whether a member, shopper or retailer appreciates it. It is a shining example of what a group of crafters can achieve with a stamping group.

After all their meetings and 20 shows in 10 years under their belts, I hope that they continue to thrive along with other groups like them around the country.

Thanks to everyone that has commented and joined as followers today.

Jill

Bees, Moles and Gardens

We have a large garden (more like a field), which consists mainly of grass and is not the normal neat and tidy garden with pretty flowerbeds, more like you would expect of a Yorkshire hillside. Weather permitting Ian spends his summer time mowing it.

As it had been so wet, he wasn't able to do it and it got longer and longer. By the time it was getting somewhere near dry enough to mow, Ian had second thoughts about doing it. Now was it because of all the bees, buttercups and wildflowers, the insects and other wildlife like birds, hedgehogs and frogs, or was it even the mole hills the mower bumped into?

He said he felt like a murderer! We have hundreds and hundreds of bees (honey and bumble) in the garden, I don't know the name of the shrub (it's an evergreen with red berries), but they love it, and create quite a buzz around it.

Hamish just gets lost in the garden now... much more fun for him like this! Great to spring around in.

Ian says, "save the bees!"

Is it a wildlife haven or a lazy gardener? What do you think?

Jill

A few things

Welcome to the new followers and thank you everyone for your comments, I hope you'll keep visiting us.

Kay's Blog Candy Winner
Here is a photo from Jeannette, winner of Kay Carley's Blog Candy, who has used one of the flower stamps from the Funky Flowers sheet that she won to make 3 framed pictures that will adorn the walls of her newly decorated bedroom, great idea Jeannette, so pretty!!

Stamp Magic Show, The Dome, Doncaster - Sunday 21st June
I know I've been asked about this before so just to let you know that we will be at this show as usual. We will have Kay's new stamps with us along with sample cards, and probably the book I've been showing for the last few days. I have some plans to add other things to the book so do come along for a look. I will also be demonstrating, and will have some lovely new things by then so waiting to see what we have and what I can come up with before I make firm plans.

Workshops
We have a workshop on Saturday, Cards for Men, if anyone is interested we still have spaces. You can book online here.

Jill x

French Country/Funky Flowers & Frames Book, p6 & 7

We're almost there with pages 6 & 7, nice sunny daisies on these pages.

The last page has a small square greeting card on the panel so that it can be given as a gift/special card.

There is a list of the items used below but as it was a workshop that the ladies paid for, I'll not give detailed instructions as it wouldn't be fair.

1 x Square file album (found here)

White card for stamping and also for colouring with Starburst Stains

1 piece of white copier paper

Wording

Black card for mounts

1 x Swirl Chippie

2 x paper flowers (painted with stain to coordinate)

4 x Curly Clips

15 x Silver Brads

1 x strip of each coloured nailheads

Various ribbons

Wide burgundy organza ribbon for one of the panels

Black Stazon ink pad

French Country Starburst Stain sprays and inks

The blank album is £3.95 which I think is good value.

French Country/Funky Flowers & Frames Book, p4 & 5

Late again! So just a quick post to show pages 4 and 5 of the HSNW book.

Jill

French Country/Funky Flowers & Frames Book, p2 & 3

A look at pages 2 and 3 of the book today, I will post more detailed descriptions during the week.

If any ladies from the HSNW group have photographed their books and would like to share them here, please email them to me, I would love to see them all. It was great seeing people being creative and doing their own thing with the items in the kit.

Thank you for your comments, I will catch up with replies another time.

Jill

HSNW Workshop - a brilliant day!

Only a short post tonight as I'm absolutely shattered. Worrying is very tiring you know!

Anyway, they liked what they were making! I don't know why I worried as it was an absolutely fabulous day, great company, I really enjoyed it. Other Jill, if you read this, thank you SO much for your help etc, much appreciated, it was a bril time. Thank you to all the ladies at HSNW for coming you were a wonderful bunch! Jill (B) and I stopped for a yummy Chinese on the way home which has finished the day perfectly!

Thank you for all the comments, and to everyone who has joined as followers, I will catch up with your comments another time, off to put my feet up now.

More tomorrow...

Jill

HSNW Workshop

Here's a preview of the book that the HSNW stamping group will be making at the workshop tomorrow. I'll post some photos of the inside next week.

Have a good weekend!

Jill x

HSNW workshop - the excitement is mounting!

A VERY late post (again) as I've been doing some of that ironing that I didn't do on Tuesday when I went walkabout! Two wash loads done since I got home and just a few bits to iron in the morning. Had to resort to using the dryer to speed things up... Ugh, had enough of that sort of stuff for now! You didn't need to know all that either did you? Sorry!

Thank you to all that have commented, entered the blog candy, followed, and kept up so far! It's appreciated.

The photo tonight is a bit of the table while Debbie, Helen, Ian and I started packing on Wednesday, (notice how we started with the ribbon first and the card cutting came last:)) Thanks for counting the brads and curly clips Debbie, almost as exciting as cutting the card! (You should have seen what Helen and Ian had to do:()

While the washer was whizzing earlier, I wrote some class notes, almost proper ones this time, not just a list of things to do, so I've something to print out to help the other Jill who'll be in the other room, Tracey (who has VERY kindly agreed to help us, ) and hopefully it will also help the club members work through the book. My notes on backs of envelopes, bits of paper etc, are almost nearly in one place.

None of it will help to stop confusion at all with 2 Jills, one in each room, we had 3 Jill's at a workshop the other week, so we just numbered ourselves! We were happy...

Now, have I done well, so that Tracey can have a play too or will I prove totally disorganised and Tracey is back and forth with us 2 Jills finding things we need all day? I really hope she gets to play a bit :) But, she confirmed when we chatted today that she wants to help, so I bet we'll not be able to sit her down easily!

I'm such a worry wort at times, (as if you didn't know by now, or you do know now:() but, I've found where I'm heading to on the map, and as the prep is nearly done, the worries are ebbing away and the excitement is mounting! They are a great stamping group at HSNW, I know we will all have a great day on Saturday. I cannot wait!

I hope I can give those ladies a lovely day, they've given loads of support over the years to many of us smaller retailers and they just deserve it, apart from anything else it is a special year for the group. I'll tell you why next week... and show you what they made too.

Well, after dealing with mail order and other bits that needed doing, I've spent most of the day cutting card and packing, still a few more kits to put together tomorrow and then finish the packing of equipment, till and bits for the 'Shop' afterwards, etc.

I'll post a photo of the front cover of the book tomorrow then if any HSNW ladies happen to pop by they can see a little bit of what they will be making!

Exciting!

Jill x

PS: Oh, I do hope they'll like it - Mrs W W (mrs worry wort)

PPS: Glad I'm not alone LME!, see you on Saturday:)

Starburst Stains + Surgical Spirit = Alcohol Inks!

Research and Development!

A few weeks ago I had a little play as Tracey, owner of the company that makes the Moonglow products emailed me about an idea she tried, it seems an obvious thing to try, once you know about it!

You may know that Starburst Stains come in the bottles and jars as a ready mixed formula that you need to add hot water to when you get them home. Therefore as the water isn't in them when you buy them, you can add other things!

Now Tracey said to use rubbing alcohol, which according to the chemist is surgical spirit. I needed to have an experiment with it so I tried filing a half bottle first and then found I could fill the dauber bottle with the same amount of surgical spirit as you would normally add water and still get the same colour shades as when you add water. I left them a while to activate as you normally need to when you add the hot water.

Bearing in mind you cannot do this if you have already added water to a set, you will need to decide if you want your new unused set as alcohol inks or the normal water based product. If you think this is something you'd like to try then perhaps mix a new set putting half the formula into another container with water and mix the other half with surgical spirit.

Be warned it does smell!! If you don't like the smell of surgical spirit, then this definitely isn't for you as the even the card takes a while to lose the smell. The smell reminds me of some mint sweets I bought in the US, I think they were called Wintermint, it was mentioned by someone that tried the sweets that they tasted of TCP, so it is that sort of smell if it helps!

A plus point to making them into alcohol inks is that the Starburst Stain set colours are lovely and work so well together and will match projects you may already have with the waterbased version.

Anyway, I filled the dauber bottle with surgical spirit (about £3 for a large bottle) and gave it the usual shake to get the mica mixed, then I tried it on glossy card and also on normal smooth stamping card. It works really well on both and using the gloss and matt card gives a different finish.

I liked the idea of applying it with the dauber top directly onto the card, I'm not sure I would fancy spraying it. I dabbed the inks onto a non stick craft sheet, swiped the card onto the mat to pick up the colour, then filled some of the white gaps on the card directly from the marigold yellow orange Stain dauber bottle.

When the card dried it left a residue of mica on the surface which I just wiped off, and I ended up polishing the card to a high sheen. I stamped one of the flower stamps from Kay's new Funky Flowers stamp sheet and as I didn't have the alcohol inks with me when I got around to colouring it, I used my normal water based French Country set to detail paint the flower.

I used 2 of the alcohol ink flowers that Debbie made for me a couple of weeks ago as an embellishment along with the new pink Woodware nailheads (metallic self adhesive dots).

When I have more time I will play a little more and let you know how I get on.

Jill

Today's waffle!

Many thanks to everyone who has so far left comments for the blog candy, and a warm hello to the new followers, thanks for joining in everyone and good luck!

Day off today, I should have been ironing, but much too hot, so I made up a better day plan (though it was still too hot). Ian and I went for a walk (longer than anticipated) with Hamish, up on the very tops of Haworth Moor, amazing panoramic view! Apart from a coach load of tourists heading towards Bronte waterfalls it was fairly quiet up there which was lovely.

Came back and have now finally finished off the 2 books ready for the HSNW workshop on Saturday. I've made 2 almost identical books as we have to hold the workshop in 2 rooms and so we now have a book for each room. There are 38 people in total, eek! I've tried not to go overboard with it so that it can be finished in a day, but who knows, I've totally lost track of how long it took to make as I've been doing bits here and there!

We are using French Country Starburst Stains and 2 of Kays new stamp sheets. Does anyone else have an inner panic about projects, putting off sticking anything down in case you want to tweak it a bit? Well, once I'd been let loose with the DST, that was it, I made a commitment! It's now a huge relief to have them finished, so no need to worry about them at least!

Now to make up the packs for everyone!! I've tried to be mindful of making things easy for everyone on the day, but I'm sure it will be the normal chaos that comes with large workshops like this. See, we all like to chatter at workshops don't we, so would it be mean to say no chatting 'till you are all colouring in later?? Umm, maybe bad tutor manners:)) I hope I don't have to shhhsh anyone, cos then I'll have the whisperers, lol! Mind you, I think they will be lucky to get a chance to talk with me waffling, like I am now.... But we do need to get those backgrounds dry early... Anyway, I've a mountain of card to cut and brads to count etc, so I think that'll keep me busy during the next couple of days.

I have more cards on the go with the same items, I did finish one of them last night, hopefully Debbie will take a photo of it tomorrow for me. I think the French Country Starburst Stain colours work so well with the Funky Flowers and Frames stamps, I LOVE them, and I'll probably bore you with these cards for a while!

Jill x

PS:
Jo, Hamish says hi to you and your woofers, and yes, we will be at the Stamp Magic show at Doncaster later this month, so I hope you will come and say hello (to me that is, not Hamish!)