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

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

Gold leaf card from Saturday's show

The Stamp Man Blog Candy Giveaways

For details on how to join in for a chance to win the blog candy, please click on the picture on the side bar to the right. Call back again as I will be adding more giveaways in the run up to Christmas!!

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I'm back home after my wandering around down south.  I had a fabulous time with the filming and seeing my family.  I was shattered when I got back but it was all worth it!

I am really grateful to Tracey for doing the show with me and for all the cards she made and for her great demos with the gold leafing.  Also huge thanks too to Vix and Jo who also made cards for the show, they were brilliant ideas and I know that sticking to using mainly the products in a show can be a challenge, especially at short notice, and they did a great job!!

Today's card is one I made for Saturday's show using Tracey's fairies sheet.

The border on the card was made by using double-sided tape, I attached it to the card, removed the backing then added the gold leafing.  Yes, the normal tape that is on a roll!  Try using different widths together with a little gap between each for a different border.  I fixed a square brad to each corner.

I stamped the fairies in black onto the cream card and stamped again onto the acetate.  If you find acetate a bit slidey to stamp onto, rub it over with your antistatic bag first, it really does help.  Apart from the powder being there, it also very slightly sands the acetate to give the ink a key, don't leave too much powder on the acetate before stamping though, as the ink isn't absorbed like stamping onto card, it can make a bit of a mess when the ink hits too much powder!  I know as I did it!  Do give it a try though as it really does make a difference!

I cut out the fairy wings roughly and stuck on the double-sided sticky sheet, I removed the backing and added the leafing sheet to the sticky side.  I then added another piece of the backing so that I could use this to stick the wings onto the card without spoiling the leafing.  Wet glue can drag the leafing away and spoil the effect so I prefer to use 2 pieces of tape with this technique. 

I cut the wings out and then fixed them into place.

Once I had them all in place I found I had the odd white space around the edges so I used a black pen to hide them and complete the silhouette.

I confess to not cutting out a tiny star for her wand, I coloured it with a gold Sakura Stardust pen instead.

Thank you to everyone who has joined in for the chance to win the blog candy, and also to those who have joined as followers.  Your comments have been lovely, they really are much appreciated!

Don't forget to keep calling back as more prizes are coming up soon!!

Jill

More cards from last Tuesday's show

Here's a couple more cards from Karen and Rachel Jackson, the first is from Tracey Coates's Butterfly Beauties stamp sheet, I love her rainbow hair!!


Note the writing around the panel, a lovely card!

The second card is from the Starburst Fairies stamp sheet. The background has been sprayed with Glitz Spritz.

Thanks again both of you!

I'm setting off later to stay at my mum's for the night in Hertfordshire before travelling tomorrow up to Peterborough for the next show. Hello mum if you're popping by, see you later!

It'll only be for a few hours as I will have to set off early in the morning but they will be a few precious hours.

My demo stuff is all packed, I hope I haven't forgotten anything! That's always a worry!! I hope you can join Kay and I at noon tomorrow.

I'll schedule a post for tomorrow with some more cards.

Jill

More Fairy cards from the show!

I'm not normally a fairy loving type of person, it just doesn't fit into my radar of stamping choices, but when Tracey first sent me her designs about 18 months or so ago, I have to confess I changed my mind about fairies, these were the best I'd ever seen. There wasn't just fairies, there was THAT fantasy frame!! A great setting to show them off perfectly...

This card is stunning in real life, it was made by either Karen or Rachel Jackson, Karen is the lovely mum of Rachel Jackson whose work is published in Craft Stamper magazine. Karen was demonstrating with Tracey's new stamps at the HSNW show at Port Sunlight last weekend (amongst other things she demonstrated on the day).

Last weekend seems such a LONG time ago!!!

Anyway, Karen and Rachel made a number of cards, their ideas were great!




The background is brayered onto glossy card, the frame and fairies have been stamped on top with black ink and sparkle has been added to the fairies. I like the way that part of the frame has been used in the corners!

I also loved this next card, it shows that the frame doesn't have to be used with the fairies, you can add anything! But, as shown here, a greeting is just perfect!! It really is a versatile image.

Here is another card with the frame used in the corners, a cluster of stars have been added too. The background is starburst stains and glitter added for extra sparkle. Lovely!

Thank you very much to Karen and Rachel for these cards, I'll show the others they made another time.

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I've now set my sky box on 671 for 12pm (noon) for Wednesday, if you have freeview it'll be on freeview channel 36 or 22? (not totally sure which it is for Create & Craft since you had your re-scans!).

I hope you can join Kay and I for our next show. Having played with Kay's stamps again, I remember how lovely they are to work with!!

Starburst Fairies meet Starburst Stains!

Here are some more demo cards from last Tuesday's show...

Unfortunately these photos aren't brilliant and don't show the colours very well, so let me explain and I hope you can use your imagination! The frame is embossed in copper detail and the fairies, wording and starburst border are embossed in gold on top of a Starburst Stain 'wash' background made using a stain from the Icicle Creek set. They are mounted onto gold mirri card (which looks black in the photo!).

The base card has been 'tapped' with the same stain to give a matching sprayed look but I actually used a paintbrush tapped against an acrylic block (as demonstrated in Tuesday's live show). Remove the excess stain off the brush before tapping for a light misted shimmery flittered effect. If you do have larger blobs, good, they look great too, as they have so much shimmer to them! I don't mind mess (as you've probably gathered by now!) but sometimes in the past my splattering has hit anything but the intended target!

You can adapt this technique with ink pad ink too. Stamp the ink pad onto the non-stick heat/baking sheet to transfer the ink then dilute with a little water and then use this the same way to flick the speckled background. I will try to incorporate this into a demo on Wednesday for those that missed it on Tuesday and don't know what the heck I'm on about!!

Below is the same Starburst Stain wash background with a different image. I love this large fairy almost as much as that gorgeous fantasy frame! I also added the small starburst stamp to add some extra magic. As before, you will have to use your imagination as the black mounts are actually gold mirri card.

All the stains in the Icicle Creek set look great with the fairies, I only used one colour for the cards in the show as there was only one stain in the Moonglow Accessory kit featured and we have to stick to using the products in the show, but using more than one colour in this set is just TOO yummy, I will have to finish a card I started with them all and get a photo for you to see.

Cards from the show and some waffle!

One of the aims for the show was to go back to basics a bit for beginners as we had an embossing starter kit on the show and the Moonglow Sampler kit. If the effects are on the card, simple matting and layering can be enough and keeping it simple is a good thing if you are a beginner. It doesn't mean you cannot have a play with techniques though and for this card I used one of the Moonglow Glitz Spritz sprays, which is a more subtle shimmer than the stains or Moonshadow ink as it is mica and water, no stain or walnut ink. So a shake and a spray is enough.

I love the copper detail embossing powder as it is a very soft copper shade, it has a pinky tint to it. I used the Moonshadow ink to detail paint, I used a tissue to lift the ink away for shading and painted over areas I wanted to be darker.

The next 2 photos are of the smaller images on the Butterfly Beauties set, I made Tracey's images smaller so they can be used as matching hand made stamps for the backs of cards and for inserts. Also, they are ideal of ATCs and gift tags. Now I visited a blog last night and Vix has used the smaller image for the front of a gatefold card and the larger image inside the card, a brilliant idea that you could use for both of these images.
This was my first demo, I could almost hear everyone saying, oh no, she's doing that scrunch technique AGAIN! Well, forgive me but as it was my first time live and on freeview for a long time I wanted to share it with new viewers. Ok, it is also that I just love doing it too:)

I haven't actually stuck it the down yet, and I did have some wording prepared to add to it but I must tell you that when Stephanie mentioned 2 clear powders in the starter kit I wrote white and clear on the back of it and pushed it in front of her to correct herself, poor woman had me doing that and likely someone in her ear telling her too!! So I don't know what happened to that little piece of card!


I'm not sure if this little gift tag was shown, but here it is now. I have been asked for a gift for you stamp quite a few times and thought it appropriate for the matching images.

Tracey and I met at the hotel on Tuesday evening and had a look through all the cards before going for dinner where we had a good old chatter. Tracey went to her room to craft afterwards and I pottered about a bit and filed my nails away (almost), it was nice to be quiet and calm for a while as it had been a long day.

I don't usually sleep very well the night before a show but I must have dropped off straight away. I woke at 1am as an email arrived on my mobile, (it was my daily viagra spam grrr), deleted it but couldn't turn the phone off as I needed the alarm for the morning, anyway I went back to sleep, and then my daily spam report came through at about 4am which woke me again, (double grrr). My back was still stiff from the show at the weekend, (it gets worse when I stop moving) so I got up, made myself a cup of tea and walked up and down the room! Luckily I went back to sleep and no more emails came through.

We went for breakfast and chatted.... and chatted, neither of us had our watches on but luckily I looked at my phone and saw we had to run to get to the studio on time. It was straight into the green room and time to put on some make up and get the hair straighteners out. Tracey was all ready I have to say!

We were taken into the studio to set up and had to be quiet (which is very hard for me!) as Hazel was filming her live show across the room, we had a quick chat with Nigel, (he is the presenter for our show next Wednesday) then went through everything in our show with Stephanie. She was very good and explained everything to us, she had just finished her own show which was just her on her own talking for an hour, she didn't get much of a break from chatting before starting our show. Amazing to find someone that can talk more than me! I don't know how she does it, especially with people talking in her ear too!!!

Well, enough waffle for today, more tomorrow...

Jill

Tracey's Demo cards from TV show

Tracey's demo card, with the inside panel

Well, I have power! I can blog!! What timing for a power cut, I got back from the filming and had 'phoned Create & Craft to find out repeat times to put on the website when the lights started flickering, it was obvious it was on it's way out but could I type fast enough and update the website before it all went off, of course not! Thank you Debbie for updating the blog for me.

It finally came back on in the middle of the night. It was strange how both neighbours were off then one side had power. We have a huge great hole at the bottom of the drive from all the drilling and digging they did last night, last time there was a major problem it was on and off for days and I could do without that at the moment.

So, I didn't get to see the show until this morning. Thank you for all the blog comments, emails etc and of course your orders. Debbie has been a very busy bee today!!

Tracey and I had a wonderful day yesterday, I think she did so well for her first show. I'm glad she enjoyed it and wants to do more!! I'll have to get on with the next 3 sheets of designs, well, perhaps I will get these shows done first! We did talk about ideas for future stamp sheets so more will be on the way.

Tracey had prepared 4 demo cards, but only got a chance to do one so we'll start with Tracey's cards tonight and I'll post the others as we go along.

The card from the fairy sheet has been stamped with the pigment inks.


Tracey has used a paint brush to pull out some of the ink from the outline to give it a softer finish.
I love this shaped butterfly, it has been embossed with the copper detail embossing powder. Moonshadow mist has been sprayed for the background.


The 4th card shows gold embossing on gold card. Tracey was also going to show mixing the pigment ink colours on the craft sheet to obtain brown, which isn't in the pigment ink pad that was featured on the show.

I'll show more cards tomorrow and I'll tell you more about our day.

Just a reminder that we are having demos at the shop on Saturday and we will be open longer, 10am - 5pm (it is usually 11am - 4pm on Saturdays). Jill Boulton will be demonstrating metal embossing with Walnut Hollow products and I will be playing with Tracey and Kay's stamps. I hope you can join us if you are local.

Then, Kay and I are filming the show with Kay's stamps next Wednesday, it'll be at 12 (noon) again.

C & C LIVE TV show 13.10.09 - noon!

Just a reminder about the show!

It's been a busy week and it looks like it will continue for the next few weeks! Sorry I haven't been able to blog or visit your blogs recently, I know I have missed a lot. I will be posting the cards we are showing on the Create & Craft show after Tuesday. You have already seen some of them, if you have missed them you will find labels to the stamps we are using on the side panel. The stamps are designed by Tracey's Coates, there are 3 sheets, AOD 59 Starburst Fairies, AOD60 Classsical Instruments and AOD61 Butterfly Beauties. I have enjoyed playing with the combination of stamps and accessories we have for the show.

We are more or less packed and ready for the HSNW show at Port Sunlight, Wirral, this weekend, I'm really looking forward to the show, it always has a lovely atmosphere.

Monday will see me rushing around getting everything finished before I set off again that afternoon, this time down to Peterborough for the filming.

The show is on at 12 o'clock (noon) on Sky 671 or Freeview 36. Don't forget to set your recorders if you are out at work at that time although it will be repeated, I will post repeat times as soon as I know them.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Jill

Been away with the fairies!

Playing with the new fairies stamps actually, lol, have also been playing with the new musical instruments and also the 3rd sheet Butterfly Beauties that you haven't seen yet. I promise to stop playing for long enough tomorrow to show you that sheet too along with a finished card.

So many stamps, so little time, it is so true, I want to use them all NOW, one minute I'm stamping the fairies, next the musical instruments. The irons been on the go with fusible film and fibres, starburst stains and moonshadow inks are all out, cuttlebug, ink pads, moonglow ep's, pens you name it, it's out on my desk, or on the floor or well EVERYWHERE!! I currently have a little gap in front of me so I thought time to stop, put Sarah out of her misery and show the fairy sheet (lol), and have a general tidy up before I start again....

I hope you like this sheet... I'm LOVIN' it, especially the large fairy and the frame!!

All the stock arrived today, umm have we got enough, eeek, I hope so! Anyway, as I mentioned last night, I've put them on website here but no pictures there until tomorrow.

Thanks for looking, and also for all the comments and entries for the blog candy!!

Jill

Gone stamping.... will be back tomorrow...

I could be sometime... If I'm gone long.... please tell Ian to come and dig me out from under the pile of stash, preferbly with food and more card:) See, I'm definitely away with the fairies!!!

Another Starburst Fairy card

I was going to move straight onto a Classical Music card today but have decided to show this one too from Tracey's new Starburst Fairy unmounted stamp sheet.

While I had my Cuttlebug out I've used the swiss dot folder for the black mount which you probably cannot see in the photo. I've also raised the main panel for dimension. There's glitter glue on their wings as before.

Another sneak peek of the Starburst Fairies stamp sheet

Well, here's another sneak peek at the new designs by Tracey Coates.

Today's card is much more pink in real life than shown in the photo, really bright pink, so definitely a Debbie card!

It was a quick card to make. I used a wash of Starburst Stains for the background, it is the magenta/gold from the May Day Meadows set, just perfect for the fairies. I added glitter glue to the wings as before. The glitter paper is from the pads we have in the shop, I know they aren't on the website as yet, but I will add them through the week.

New stamp sheets - a sneak peek!

OK, 4th and final post, then I promise no more for today...

I made some cards today with new stamp designs by talented artist Tracey Coates. We should have all 3 new sheets in time for the Harrogate show next weekend, I will spill the beans on them all through the coming week, sooooooooo exciting!!

This card features designs from the Starburst Fairies collection, I just LOVE them. I've kept to monochromatic for this card but have added plenty of splashes of diamond glitter glue. Of course, you cannot see them in the photo but it really lifts the detail.

TIP: I used a paint brush to apply the glitter glue where I wanted it as I never trust those bottles, they always splurt too much out, and using a brush just adds a small amount which looks much nicer. I brushed the glitter glue over the entire length of the wording, which seemed appropriate. Remember to wash the brush out quickly after applying. I didn't once, it's glue, and a good one, I had nicely glued bristles, well actually one thick bristle when I next went to use the brush!! For more liberal spreading of glitter glue a finger is an ideal spreader as in this case a brush would be wasteful as it can hold too much!

I cannot wait to try this same card idea with Moonglow two-tone embossing powders, (yum!) I've already tried them with Starburst Stains (double yum!!), and I'm sure that with a combination of both is definitely worthy of a triple yum award!!! Too exciting....

Shame about the photos!

Another sneak peek coming tomorrow:)

Jill