Fancy a Freebie?

Gail's giving away an amazing candy over on 3djean's blog.
Pop over and leave a comment and you could get lucky and be the new owner of this saucy little piece of art. Good luck.

Scrap heap challenge

Over on UK Scrappers one of the members has asked the question "what do you do with your scraps"? Well as a card maker I have a few small scraps (tongue in cheek!). I tend to use 6"x 6" papers so I have lots of thin strips. So I stick them onto an A4 sheet. It's amazing that what should look like a pigs ear actually makes quite a lovely patchwork sheet.
So when the sheet is full I cut it up and use it. Here I've used my corner punch to round off the patchwork sheet, mounted it onto a blue card that has been punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

Easel cards are one of my favourite shapes and so, so easy to do.

If you fancy joining in pop over to UK Scrappers it's that easy.

Crafty Individuals backgrounds workshop

Today is Thursday so it must be Crafty Individuals workshop day. We've had a two week break whilst Jean was swanning around in Marakesh. Aparently she is now known as Miss England so if you see her demonstrating tomorrow at Graphicus please use her new title. We got to play with the new Distress inks (you can buy them here such fab colours... I want them all !!!!!!). Here's Jean showing us how to create a background with an acetate mask. Sorry about the photo but the table is right next to a large window. The idea being to build up a layered effect using blocks of colour and stamps. Then we got to use the delectable embossing powders from Stampenduous, gorgeous colours. This is the shop where we buy all our goodies. It's very difficult to resist!

This is Jean's card for us to emulate and as you can see below mine's nothing like. I forgot the first rule , make sure your masks are straight (ok who does straight?) Using scissors make little cuts to give a distressed look. I think I must have being making a cupper because I can't remember her saying that!

I've gone with a more clean line because I tend to get carried away and want to put everything on and end up with a mucky dark mess. I'm rather pleased with this one but I may tinker with it a little more, maybe something round the corners plus there's not a bit of ribbon or a button in sight!!!

My final photo is a piece that's unfinished. I'm aiming for a look that suitable for a man's card. I love the colours just need to titivate with some layers to get the look right.

Thanks for popping by and if you ever get the chance to go to any of Jean's clases you won't be disappointed.

Wish you were here

Here's a sneek to tempt you over to 3djean and the blog. Lots of things to see and buy!

Sneek preview

Here's a sneek preview of my first post on the new 3djean blog. pop over and check it out and say hello.
Sorry folks there seems to be glitch with posting on the new blog, hope to have it sorted soon. Call back later I promise it's worth waiting for

All sorted

Dry or Wet

At the weekend I did a great workshop at Samuel Taylors in Leeds with the wonderfully talented Kay Halliwell-Sutton. We played with Crafty Notions colour sprays. I first saw this at a show and I thought ooo gorgeous effects and promptly bought a selection of spray. .....Don't tut I know you've been drawn in and hooked by the wonderful craft products out there! So I brought them home and they've stood alone (well almost alone) on my shelf just waiting to play. For those peeps who've been following me for a while know I go on about being heavy handed but believe me people move away when I get a spray in my hand! So I finally learnt how to use these beautiful sprays to get lots of different effects. We even had time to make a lovely sketch book cover.

I don't believe it!

OMG I've been invited onto the design team of the new blogspot for 3djean. I'm so excited I've never been on a design team before so it's a new experience. I love 3djean she has an amazing range of stash at great prices. I'm joining wonderfully talented people so I hope some of it rubs off on me. Pop over and see who else is there.

Where did the time go?

My youngest baby's 18 today it makes you feel so old.... what do you mean I am old! I have a six year gap between my boys and I can't believe I have two grown up children. We had his celebrations before Easter as my husband is away working on his actual birthday so it seems that we have been celebrating for a long time. I made him a little mini book with few chosen photos and some coasters that we used at his celebration meal. When you make these little things it's not the end product that I enjoy the most but the looking through all the photos and remembering all the good times. He has grown from a loveable, cute, happy little boy into a confident young man who has dreams and we wish him all the best on his special birthday.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Every year I decorate the bunch of twigs that stand in my hall with some Easter egg decorations that I got from Paperchase years ago. This year I spotted these gorgeous knitted eggs on the John Lewis site. My friend Irene happily popped into her local JL(nearest one to me... 40 miles). I know you knitters out there will be muttering "you could knit them yourself". but I can't!! But next year I'm going to have a go at making these beauties I spotted on my friend Jo's blog.

Enjoy yourself over the holidays and remember you can't eat too much chocolate