The Art of Making It Merry

Hels made these tags using Wendy Vecchi Christams Stamps, The Art of Making It Merry, hence the original title lol. The base is a piece from a sheet of Maya Road Chipboard, you can either make a scallop edged book from the sheet or you can use them individually as Hels has done here. Coloured with good old Fired Brick distress ink, the ric rac is also from Maya Road. The flower is again using the WV stamp set, as it the tree except it has been done onto shrink plastic and added to an acrylic piece from the Maya Road Acrylic Tag Keychain set. Finished off with Rock Candy Stickles for that bit of Christmas bling...........good job Hels and especially liking the that tree, its fab full size and reduced on shrink......thank you.

Pink Pearls

What a day, a huge and I mean HUGE order arrived so have been up to my neck in boxes all day and still not done yet.........just time to share this though. These little beauties arrived from Maya Road, they are pink, they are pearls and there are 50 in a box.........not going to hang about for long..........back to the unpacking, have a great night.

Nut and Meg

PaperArtsy new Christmas stamps, absolutely wonderful..............quaintly named Nut and Meg, these stamps are deep etched red rubber and mounted on EZ for ease of use (bonus for me, they are ready cut too so just out the packet and on the block). Sue has been playing with them and my favourite is the Christmas tree. The image 'middles' are empty so stamping them onto book paper coloured with Distress Inks/scrapbook papers etc makes them just that little bit different and saves colouring in if you are in a rush. I love that elf..........his head and legs come as seperate stamps so easy to use other stuff for his body. Sue used the elf poster from the set but you can use £2 coins and make it a gift card, chocolate bars etc, you get the idea. One great idea I have seen (sorry I cannot recall where) is stamping the legs on the back of envelope just under the edge of the flap, poor little mite looks like he's been pressed and gives the postie a laugh (not that I think he deserves a laugh right now). Thanks Sue

Messing about with inks................

Hels has been messing about with inks this week and lookie what she did. Wendy Vecchi, for those of you who don't know, brought out a book of projects recently, full of ideas and techniques. One of them was this inking idea, using your hot sheet rub a colour or two of Distress Inks over it, then spritz with your mini mister of water and pop your stamp into the resultant inky colourfulness, and stamp. Result? well you can see what happened with Hels' piece here, a watercoloury blurry edgey effect (all very technical terms you understand) and most effective. Thanks for sharing Hels...........

Merry and Bright

Well Merry and Bright is the card, its sure not the weather today, more like Dull and Wet here............oh and cold..........but hey its November. I have been fiddling about in the new studio today, inbetween customers that is. Our first workshop is next Tuesday and I need to get some of the finer bits and pieces this weekend, cups, coffee, kettle etc and there is still the question of sticking up some artwork to make it.........hmmm arty I suppose. I ordered new tables and chairs, they should be here in time but if not we have some to use, so no stamping on the floor.............

Merry and Bright refers to Kerry's next card...........much nicer than the weather.........


Papers : My Minds Eye Colourful Christmas, Cardstock : Bazzill, Tools : Bazzill Jewel Template - Borders, Stamps : Inkadinkadoo Tag Wishes, Hero Arts Lots of Merry, Colouring : Markers, Sakura Clear Gelly Roll Stardust Pen - applied with Waterbrush, Embellishments : Stick on Gems, Adirondack Dimensional Pearls - Cranberry, Spotty Organza Ribbon

La Belle Epoque

The new Craft Stamper came in today and our Sue has been doing some lovely work in the Stamping Contrasts section. She used La Belle Epoque No 1. set of stamps and the Chandeliers from Inkadinkado. I cannot show you the project here due to magazine restrictions but when you get yours you will see what I mean. Rachel Jackson, Carol Quance and Gail Milburn also joined in the fun and produced some really lovely pieces.

Three Trees

Day two of the Kerry My Minds Eye Cards.........
I love this one, the trees do it for me.

Three Trees
Papers : My Minds Eye Colourful Christmas, Cardstock : Bazzill, Punches : Fiskars Apron Lace Punch, Stamps : Hero Arts CL357 Holiday Dolls, Colouring : Pencils, Embellishments : Prima Stick on Gems, Ranger Stickles in Stardust, MME Die Cut Embellishment, Spotty Organza Ribbon