New Stamp Sets ... Part 2

And here are the other four ...

So what do you think? Any you can't live without?

New Stamp Sets ... Part 1

Did you miss us? We know it's been ages since we've posted but we've been rather busy ... we've designed and released SEVEN new stamp sets, and exhibited at a couple of craft shows in the last few weeks! So firstly ... here are our new stamp designs. This post shows you the first three, and the next post will show the other four. Currently we are out of stock of Make A Statement and Say It With Style ... they just flew out at the shows ... but they should be available again soon!

NEW Workshop Schedule

If you've not had a chance to check out our NEW workshop schedule for January-March ... where have you been? Here are just a few of them to get your creative juices going ...

Bang!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We just had to share this beautiful exploding box that Judy and Emma G recently made for a childrens workshop.

Due to v.popular demand from our adult customers we will be including a spring version in the January-March workshop schedule ...

We would like to wish all of our customers

a very Happy Christmas

and a wonderful New Year!

Thank you so much for your support during 2011,

and we hope to see you soon in 2012 for more crafty adventures.

We'll Always Have Paris

A lovely card designed by Judy using the fabulous Spellbinders Shapeabilities Accents Dies. There are so many things you can do with these dies ... and they work well on layouts and home decor projects, as well as cards.

Instructions

1. Cut a piece of cream card 6"x12", and fold in half to make your card blank.
2. Stick a piece of ribbon across the centre of the card, and trim at the ends.
3. Cut a piece of brown card 4.75"x4.75", a piece of cream card 4.25"x4.25", and another piece of brown card 3.5"x3.5", and stick these together and then in the centre of your card blank.
4. Die cut one medallion and four corners from the cream card. Stick the medallion in the centre of the smallest brown card square, and then arrange and glue the corners around the outside of it.
5. Stick five small gems onto the die cut pieces.
6. Tie a bow with the ribbon, and stick it onto your card at the top with a glue dot.
7. To finish, stamp your greeting using the brown ink pad in the bottom right hand corner.

Ingredients

- "Natural" Bazzill Card (cream card)

- "Carob" Bazzill Card (brown card)

- 1" Wide Beige Satin Ribbon

- Spellbinders "Parisian Accents" Shapeabilities

- Manual Die Cutting Machine (ie. Big Shot / Cuttlebug)

- imagine that ... "All Boxed In" Clear Stamp Set

- Acrylic Block

- "Coffee" Archival Ink Pad

- 2mm Flat Backed Brown Gems

- Glue Dots

Handstands

This scrapbook layout was one of the samples Emma G prepared for our Birthday Demo Weekend ... lots of you thought it was stunning ... and it's actually really simple to do.

Instructions

1. Place your mask onto the sheet of white card where you want your photo to go. Spray lightly with the Cosmic Shimmer mist (building up the colour in some areas). Note : the spray will cover a wide area - so you may wish to protect the surface you are working on, or place your piece of card in a cardboard box. Gently lift the mask away, and allow your sheet to dry.
2. Die cut your photo into a circle, and then die cut a slightly larger scalloped circle from the purple card. Stick these together.
3. When your piece of white card is dry, stamp three swirls coming out from the centre of the masked area (use your mounted photo as a guide to where these should go) with the black ink pad.
4. Draw three double lines across the length of the page (criss-crossing them).
5. Stick your photo in place.
6. Stamp your title with the black ink pad in the bottom right hand corner (starting with the last letter of your word(s), and working backwards).

Ingredients

- "White Bazzill" Bazzill Cardstock (white card)

- "Vineyard" Bazzill Cardstock (purple card)

- "Daisy Doodad" Crafters Workshop 6"x6" Template

- "Plum Twist" Cosmic Shimmer Mist

- Spellbinders Nestabilities - Circles and Scallop Circles

- Manual Die-Cutting Machine (ie. Big Shot / Cuttlebug)

- "Arabesque 2" Artemio Clear Stamp Set (flourishes)

- imagine that ... "Alphabet 3" Clear Stamp Set

- Acrylic Block

- "Onyx Black" Versafine Ink Pad

- Ruler

- Fine Black Pen

May Your Christmas Sparkle & Shine

Emma G has finally got round to making her Christmas Cards ... as usual she left it late and had little time ... so the design had to be quick and easy, whilst still being stylish and having a bit of sparkle! She has done one design, but in three colourways ...

Instructions

1. Cut your dark cardstock 4"x12", and fold in half to make your card blank. Round the bottom right hand corner using the Corner Rounder punch.
2. Cut your light cardstock into strips x 4" (the height of the strip will depend on which stamp you're using).
3. Stamp your greeting on the left hand side of your strip using Versamark. With a piece of scrap paper underneath, sprinkle the embossing powder over, and then tap off any excess (put this back in the pot). Tidy up any loose bits of embossing powder on your strip with a fine paintbrush.
4. Melt the embossing powder using your heat gun (heating from underneath seems to give the best results ... but mind your fingers!).
5. Run the Encore ink pad around the edges of your strip and your card blank.
6. Stick the strip onto your card blank (towards the bottom).
7. Finally, punch out one large and two small snowflakes, and stick onto your card using 3D foam pads.

Note : If you have a lot of cards to make, you may want to do the different points above in batches (ie. punch all your snowflakes in one go / stamp and emboss all your strips etc). Please also remember that the snowflake punches are designed to be used with paper and thin card - using them with glitter card will work, but will also most likely shorten their life!)

Ingredients

* Silver Card = "London Fog" Bazzill, "Sail" Bazzill, "Silver" Glitter Card, "Silver Dollar" Embossing Powder, "Silver" Encore Ink Pad

* Copper Card = "Suede Brown Medium" Bazzill, "Mystique" Bazzill, "Sand" Glitter Card, "Kettle Copper" Embossing Powder, "Copper" Encore Ink Pad

* Gold Card = "Kraft" Bazzill, "Vanilla" Bazzill, "Bright Gold" Glitter Card, "Mirror Gold" Embossing Powder, "Gold" Encore Ink Pad

- Snowflake Punches (15mm / 25mm)

- imagine that ... "Christmas Is In The Air" clear stamp set

- Acrylic Block

- Versamark Ink Pad

- Heat Gun

- Corner Rounder Punch

- 3D Foam Pads

Just Because

Minnie Mae-Hemm has returned with a stunning card. We had some fun with this alcohol ink brayering technique on our Re-Ink Christmas card class, and everyone who has tried it has been hooked! Quick, simple, and you never know how it's going to end up! Instructions

1. Cut a piece of black card 8"x6", and fold in half to make your card blank.
2. Cut a piece of turquoise card 3.5"x5.5" and stick to the centre of your card blank.
3. Cut a piece of black card 3.25"x5.25", and stick this to the centre of your turquoise piece of card.
4. Cut a piece of white glossy cardstock 3"x6".
5. Place a small amount of each Alcohol Ink in a row on your craft sheet (leaving a small space between each one). The finished effect will depend on how much of each ink you use, and the order that you place them in. Add a few drops of Blending Solution across the row of ink.
6. Run your brayer through the inks (so that they form stripes on your brayer). Make sure the whole of the brayer is inked up, and that you are just going forward and backwards in a straight line, so that the inks don't mix together too much.
7. Run the brayer over your piece of glossy card. You will get a patchy effect - which is fine.
8. Pick up more ink from the craft sheet, and repeat going in a different direction on your glossy card. Keep repeating this (adding more Blending Solution when the Alcohol Ink starts to dry/disappear on the craft sheet) until your piece of glossy card is covered.
9. Cut your glossy card to 3"x5", and then stamp some of the different size circles over it using the black ink pad (it's always a good idea to start with the largest stamp, and then work your way down to the smallest one - which is idea for filling in gaps).
10. Stick your stamped piece of card to the centre of your card blank.
11. To finish ... Stamp your greeting onto the remaining piece of inked up glossy card, and then trim to size. Mat this onto a piece of black card, and trim so there is a small border all the way around it. Stick the greeting onto your card blank.

Ingredients

- "Beetle Black" Bazzill Cardstock

- "Dragonfly" Bazzill Cardstock

- White Glossy Cardstock

- Alcohol Inks - Watermelon (red), Pool (turquoise), Sunshine Yellow (yellow)

- Alcohol Blending Solution

- Craft Sheet

- Brayer

- imagine that ... "Write Big #2" Clear Stamp Set

- imagine that ... "Going Dotty" Clear Stamp Set

- Acrylic Block

- "Jet Black" Archival Ink Pad

It's Our 5th Birthday!

Can you believe we're going to be 5 years old this weekend? Where did the time go? To celebrate we're having a wonderful two days of fun ... * FREE demonstrations * FREE make & take * FREE goody bag (minimum purchase £25, one per customer and whilst stocks last) * PLUS 10% off all products (please note no loyalty points will be given this weekend) * PLUS special offers * PLUS birthday cake & bubbly Here's some sneak peeks of what we've got planned ...

We hope that you'll be able to come along and join us!

Doors open at 10am ...