Perpetual Calendar

Good morning, peeps!  Are you enjoying the sunshine then if you're in the UK?  We ceratinly waited a long time for it, a whole Summer in fact!

I thought I woud just make a quick post to show you a liitle project I taught yesterday to a lovely group of ladies at a workshop at Samuel Taylor in Brighouse.

This was inspired by a project on the talented Jane Johnson's Blog some time back, so thanks go to her for doing all the complicated work with measurements and stating which numbers go on each block to make the calendar work.

The blocks are distressed with Milled Lavender DI and over stamped with a Penny Black stamp 'Scrolling Along'.  I cut the numbers from a Spellbinders Presto Punch alphabet die called 'Plain Jane'.  This is designed for their punching device but also cuts in the Big Shot.  The months were printed on the computer and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The other decorations come from a Sizzlits die and Martha Stewart punches.

The surprise for me came when I discovered that the published detail of the workshop said that the calendar was decorated with Molly Blooms images.....whoops!  Better make more comprehensive notes when I'm booking workshops in future and thanks go to the good natured ladies who didn't seem to mind at all that their calendars didn't have characters on them!

Have a wonderful day and I hope you all manage to get out into the lovely sunshine.  Thank you for looking today and think of me here in my craft room running to catch up!

Hugs

A distressed card

Good morning, peeps!  Thank Crunchie it's Friday again - don't they roll around fast?  I'm trying not to think about it frankly and at least this week's challenge at Polka Doodles isn't to make a Christmas card!  (we're going to be needing those far too soon!)  It's 'Distress it', which is really good because I don't seem to have done any distressing for a while and, when that happens, we can often forget these techniques so it's good to revisit.

This little cutie pie is Bella and she appears on the new Simply Sweet CD.  Here she is on her garden swing under a lovely blue sky with just some light fluffy clouds - she clearly doesn't live in Yorkshire, that's all I can say!

Anyhoo, I distressed the edges of the main image with a distressing tool and Pumice Stone DI and the put some Stardust Stickles over the top, which almost obscures the distressing!  Well I did say that I hadn't used this technique in a while!  I also applied the same DI to the sentiment and the lovely DP, both of which were printed from the same CD.  The leaves were cut from a Marianne die and the flowers are Sweetheart blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts.  The ribbon is from my stash.  Speaking of which, have you ever noticed that however many spools/lengths of ribbon you have, you've never got quite the right one?  Who wrote that rule then?

Of course, Bella is coloured with Copics and Flexmarkers and the shading is enhanced with Prisma pencils blended with Sansodor but I'm sorry that, in the chaos that is my craft room, I didn't keep a note of the numbers for you.

I do hope that you'll join us for this challenge and hop over to the Challenge blog to see all the wonderful work that my teamies have put in.

Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a good un.  I'm teaching a colouring class at Samuel Taylor in Roseville Street, Leeds tomorrow and there's great excitement about the place there at the moment because a new store opens in Harrogate tomorrow - let's all wish them every success because it's great to see a new craft shop opening it's doors.

Hugs

Snow and ice already!

Good morning, peeps and a bit of a chilly one it is too!

Well it's been really busy around here lately and I've hardly emerged from my craft room!  However, I shall be heading over to Craftrange.com at Burnley later for their big demonstration evening that starts at 5 o'clock.  I'm demonstrating the wonderful Polka Doodles range and my fantastic DT teamies have made some stunning samples for me to take along so I thought that today I'd show you one of the samples that I've made myself and here it is:

I've used stamps from the Christmas Neighbours set, which I love - there's just everything you need in this set to make a Christmas card with a difference.  I've coloured it in the style perfected by Nikky herself using Copic pens from the Cool Grey range.  The 'light' in the windows is created using Y11 and then enhanced with a Wink of Stella clear pen although it's not really showing in the photo, probably because the light was virtually gone by the time I took the picture!  Glamour dust provides the snow effect and the snowflake die is a Whimsy one called Winter's Jewel, which I think is the perfect description for it.

The background papers are from the Paper Boutique Vol 2 CD, which is called 'Creative Christmas' and has loads of wonderful papers you can print as well as 21 templates for Christmas crafting.

This is one of those cards that definitely looks better in real life because the cool greys look a little odd on blue background papers in the photograph but not on the card that's beside me as I type.

If you're planning to be at the demonstration evening later, do come and say hello - it would be great to meet you but, whatever you're doing today, have a good one.  I'll be back tomorrow with another Polka Doodles Challenge card.

Thank you for looking today and I hope my icy card didn't make you shiver too much!

Hugs

Reminder of Summer

Good morning, peeps and how are you all today? Isn't it getting autumnal? The hillside I look out on from my craft room is changing daily it seems and I watch the lovely greens change to the wonderful Autumnal colours. Wouldn't it be great if we could have the rich colours of Autum without the cooler weather? I know it's not possible but I can dream! Anyhoo, speaking of losing the lovely greens of Summer, I thought I'd share this card with you today:

If you've been watching Barbara Gray on the Pick of the Week Show on Create and Craft TV, you'll have seen this card already because Barbara asked me to make some staged samples for her to help out with the massive task of preparing so many demonstrations for all the shows being aired this week. Please follow the link if you want to buy Barbara's DVD 5 at a real bargain price!

If you didn't see the show, this card was made by stamping the Birch Tree stamp twice across an A6 Clarity Card using a dye based ink pad, then covering the trunks with Versamark pen and embossing with clear embossing powder. The clouds were produced over a cloud shaped template using a make-up brush and Adirondack Stonewashed ink. The Birch Tree Leaves were then stamped with Kaleidacolor Fresh Greens ink. I used the same stamps and inks to make the backing paper on the base of this card but blotted the stamps twice before planting them on the paper. The pale blue card mount is cut from a Go Kreate die because I was trying to echo the shape of the clouds and make the whole design fit with the lovely verse that forms the stop for the easel card.

I'm making every effort to be a better blogger and post more regularly although I can't promise every day. I really don't know how you peeps that post every day manage it but perhaps I just need to be more organised.

I'm working hard on samples for the Polka Doodles dem on Thursday evening that I told you about in yesterday's post. Some wonderful sample cards have just arrived in the post from my lovely Teamies Dee, Emma and Lis. Do hop over and look at their work, it's just fabulous!

I do hope you like this memory of Summer and thank you for looking today - I'll see you again soon.

Hugs

Hello from an absentee blogger!

Good afternoon, peeps! Well, did you think I'd fallen off the face of the Blogosphere? If you did I'm not surprised - I'd rather not think about how long it is since I last posted, but I thought I'd check in and show you a little of what I've been working on craftwise and the first thing is a memory of Summer with these poppies:

I so much enjoyed making this card for two main reasons; firstly, poppies are one of my favourite flowers and secondly, I love the medium of watercolour, which is what I used to colour the large poppies. Sadly, this card did not pass its screen test (or something) so didn't make it on to the screen during the Stamping with Clarity at the beginning of the month so it's making its debut here. Its mount is very plain, as many of my Clarity cards are because I think the images speak for themselves. I simply brayered some sky and some grass and added the small poppies in Memento London Fog to add some depth and that wonderful little verse to complete the picture.
If you live in the North, I'll demoing Polka Doodles stamps and CDs at Craftrange.com in Preston on Thursday evening from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Do click on the link and check it out because there are lots of demos happening on that evening so it will be well worth a visit. Then, on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4p.m., I'll be teaching a Copic/Promarker colouring class at Samuel Taylors in Roseville Street, Leeds.
Have a wonderful evening, y'all and I promise I'll be back sooner with something else.

Hugs

This one doesn't scare the birds!

Good morning, peeps! Well, thank crunchie it's Friday and it's time for another Polka Doodles Challenge and, this week, the tiitle of the challenge is 'Autumn Leaves', which means that we have to create something that shows the colours or subjects related to Autumn so here's my contribution:

I'm sorry about the poor photograph but the bulb died in one of my daylight lamps and I'm having difficulty getting another daylight bulb but there's one on order now. This cute scarecrow has now been named Cedric, in consultation with Nikky, and he's from the Sundae of Seasons CD. There is so much wonderful material on this CD as there is on all the Polka Doodles ones. I used one of the papers from this CD on the first layer of matting that covers almost the whole front of the card. Cedric and his feathered friends was great to colour with my Copics and Prismas and I hope you like my Autumnal offering.

I live right on the Pennines and all I can see as I look out of my craft room window is a hillside covered in trees and I have to confess that many of them are starting to show colours other than green! Of course, it's wonderful to watch the changing seasons and especially to see the wonderful colours of Autumn but I can't help but feel that we've missed out on Summer - again! Maybe we'll get an Indian one this year. Thank you for looking today and I do hope you'll be able to join in the challenge. Here's the card recipe:
 
Recipe:
DPs: Polka Doodles (see above), Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son
Ribbon and buttons: from stash
Button Twine: The Ribbon Girl
Copics:
Face, hands and feet: E41, E43, E44
Hat and tunic: B91, B93, B95, B97
Coat: E11, E13, E15
Tunic trim and grass: YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97, Y28
Birds: BG70, BG72, BG75
Bows Y21, Y26
Hearts: YR12, YR18

Whatever you're doing over the weekend, have a great one. I'm teaching a colouring class tomorrow at Samuel Taylor in Brighouse and aiming to have a day off and watch Barbara Gray on Create and Craft TV on Sunday.

Hugs