Victoria Stampers

Well, it was the monthly meeting of Vicky Stampers yesterday and I was leading the workshop.  Lynne, our Programme Officer had seen some pyramid boxes at my house the last time she was here and she asked if I would do a workshop on them.

Now these were done for Craft Stamper a few years ago and I'd taught them at a workshop since the publication had arrived at the shops, given most of my samples away (obviously the better ones) so was not that enthused about them.  Consequently I did not start preparing for my workshop that early and when I did I found that the "wings" needed a bit shaving off them to allow for the holes to be punched for the satay sticks so it meant a whole new set of drawings had to be done.

By late Friday evening I was ready and set off yesterday morning with two very old samples and one partly done which I intended to complete at the club.  Well, it went much better than anticipated and here are some photographs of my latest sample and of what the girls made:

This shows the outside of mine and the tiny starbook for inside

(not decorated yet) (pale green pages measure 3/4" across)

Could not resist showing you the second one Sheila made - her funky Jubilee Weekend Pyramid - isn't that fab!

Inside they open to reveal more pictures

Hope you enjoyed this trip to Vicky Stampers!

Pan Pastels

Last week saw me busy playing with what Pan Pastels I had bought and doing some experimenting in a Pink Pig Book.  The only way to learn how to use them is to do some experimenting and here are a couple of my tries.

This one has Mica on it and there is some gold embossing.  Cannot remember what the script stamp is but I know I like it.  The other two background stamps are two from Cath Wilson from when she had the shop and did her own stamps.  Not sure if you can get them now but they are great for backgrounds as fillers.

I think most of these are Tim Holtz stamps

This saw me experimenting with some tissue paper stuck on over the Pan Pastels and you can see I used an eraser quite a bit on this page. Loved this, try it where you erase the whole image and also where you just erase part of it.

Well, I am going to leave it there.  Will upload some more for you another day but right now I am tired and I am teaching all day tomorrow so an early night is in order.  

Hope you like these two playabouts.

Back from Cleethorpes

Just got back from a few days in Cleethorpes.  All of this was a surprise for Sam (one third of the trio on Artful Times) who lives close by.

It started off with my trip to the Lincoln Show which I thoroughly enjoyed and have already blogged about but omitted to say that I saw my dear friend Ali from Ali-Crafts with whom I am doing a workshop in a couple of months time.  Got some gorgeous stamps from her to use in the workshop and bought some too.  You should check out her website.

Sneak Peek

Also didn't put the photograph of Tom and Liam up so here it is now

or the one of Tracey and Tara

After we left the show we made our way to Cleethorpes to enjoy an evening of sunshine in a seaside resort. I had been longing for a bit of sea air for weeks and this lovely weather we were having was perfect for it.  After a lovely meal at Steels (Sam said we could not go to Cleethorpes without a meal at Steels - lovely food, loads of prawns on my dish and you should have seen the size of the fish and chips everyone else had!) it was a quick stroll down on the pier and then back to bed for a well needed sleep.

Next day it was exploring Cleethorpes for Chas and myself.  Here I am by the boating lake and below is Chas playing some musical pipes by the childrens sandy area.  I did want to take photographs of the play area but with the way things are I did not want to upset any parents.  Shame, but that is the way it has got now.

Below - a couple of poppies in the wild garden area

and not a clue what this is - Chas went down to photograph it for me

Bet you thought Spencer had been missed out - well no, how could I not take him, here he is sat on a rice peasants hat (the rice peasant was not in Cleethorpes, just the hat)

All too soon it was time to say Au Revoir to Sam and Fraz.  Here we are, not sure why he is sat on my knee but isn't he a beauty?  You should have seen him with Chas, why do dogs always make more fuss of him than me?

See you soon Sam!

WOYWW 156 WotAMess

Well, what about this lovely weather we are having?  I am sure it cannot be any hotter abroad than it is here today.  The weathermen tell us it is set to break - hope it soon comes back and we get more of a summer than we have had in previous years.  Back to how it used to be when I was a child and my son was a child and ..... even before that ...

Anyway, all you WOYWW'ers out there - hope you are all well and that Julia's dad is healing with this lovely sunshine filtering through to him.  What am I talking about and who the heck are WOYWW'ers? Well pop over here and you will see just what I am on about.  You might catch the gist of it.  You might even swap an atc with it being the THIRD birthday of WOYWW.  Congratulations Julia and all you WOYWW'ers!

This is my desk today.  No crafting for me!  I am waiting for Ian to come and build me another set of shelves like the ones he built a couple of weeks ago.  These will not be as wide and certainly not as deep but I am hoping they will house a bit more of my stuff tidily. So, as you can see, this is normally the area I craft on and there is not an inch of space.  Everywhere else is full too (including the floor in our bedroom) so I just hope I can find everything when I come to put it all back.  At least I am hoping I can put all my books together for once.

click on the picture for a bigger one and see the mess

Now a couple of weeks ago you might remember I asked if anyone would like to meet up in Manchester.  I didn't post about it then as one of our number was over here on holiday.  She and I had been corresponding a bit and she wrote to say she would be over in Manchester for a few weeks so we decided to meet up.

Here she is - that gives you a clue as to where she comes from

So who knows what flag this is?

This was taken in the Northern Quarter in Manchester where Ann, Donna, Jo, Shaz (yes, it is Shaz from Oz) and myself had lunch.  And a lovely lunch it was too.  Here we all are

Me, Ann, Jo, Donna - Shaz took the photo.

Must say that the photos were taken after Shaz and I had spent a good hour in Paperchase (she loved those papers and I think she went back at least twice before she left for home), and we had met the others in Cafe Nero and had gone on to Afflecks Palace where they were all WOW'ed with the Jewellery bits.

In Afflecks

The Diner in Afflecks

We had a wander around the Galleries, marvelling at the prices of the goods, and then made our way to Abakahn where some of us bought rubber stamps (and someone got so hooked on them she bought more at another place another day).

All too soon it was time to say goodbye and as Sharon headed back to her family I took Jo and Donna into Paperchase.  I just left them there - they never disclosed how much they spent or how long they stayed!!!

It was lovely meeting Shaz, especially as we had chatted and emailed before we actually met up, and now I have my own little Australian corner in my craft room.  Thanks Shaz - you are one in a million!

Loving memories of a great meet up

and the Brits are making it a regular occurrence!

Today I Went to Lincoln

Yes, today, in glorious sunshine saw me heading to Lincoln to see my friends, the Oyster Family, and surprise another friend, Sam, from Artful Times. Mind you with hindsight I would not have been surprising Sam (and her lovely friend Maz) as they very nearly didn't see me and I certainly did not see them.

It was lovely when I first walked in to see George at the door and then to see Tracey with Pam, a Design Team member. Pam was in the blog hop with me and we met for the first time - she was as lovely as I thought she would be and before long we were working alongside Barbara, giving Martine a break. Unfortunately I did not get a photo with Pam but Tracey took one of Martine and Barbara with me.





After a quick stint on the stand I went for a recce of the show and saw Wendy from Cardio and Ali with her new designs on her own stand. No Sam or Max though!

Back to Oyster and a hope that Sam would see me. Nothing. A visit to the cafe with Pam, still no sign of the elusive pair. Nothing for it but to demonstrate some of the lovely new dies - and there are some beauties. You want to see the Cheery Lynn flowers, lots of them and the individual ones are so reasonably priced. Loved a new fairy one too and forgot to buy it so I am afraid there is going to be an order wending its way down to Kent shortly. Now don't you be getting your order in before mine!

Not long before it was time for me to pack up and collect my purchases I just looked up and there she was - Sam. It had been her friend Maz who had seen me - and she had only seen me the once before. Here we are





in front of the stand, well a bit of it. It was huge.

It's a shame I can't show you all the photos now but I will load them up another day. Before I go, however, I will leave you with this one of me strangling Tracey - not really it was Tracey who gave me a big hug but only coming up to my shoulder it looks as if I am strangling her.





Will post some of the lovely lads tomorrow. A great show hope I get to go next time too. Before I go, Sam was so pleased to know that Oyster had now got the 20 sized trays in for the Pan Pastels. You really want to check out Oysters website for the great prices and the offer they have on Pan Pastels, but not until I have got more of them myself.

Toodlepip!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Oyster Stamps Blog Hop - And We Have a Winner

Well, last night at 6 pm it was all happening on my computer.  The Oyster Stamps Blog Hop ended and the latest edition of the Artful Times went out.  That meant a couple of hours trawling through all the comments to find a winner.  Are you ready?  Really Ready?  Sure ...

Drum Roll   ...

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...

...

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and the winner is ...

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...

The Winner is - Wendy - aka Flowergirl.

Congratulations Wendy - now Tracey will get your dies off to you as soon as possible next week - they are all exhibiting in Lincoln this weekend so give them the chance to get back and put everything in order and then two of the CFT dies will be coming your way once you have made contact and given them your details.  Well done!

Here's an idea you might like to copy for the Jubilee Weekend -

I was going to post this earlier on Friday but then decided to schedule it for Saturday and give you all another peek at the CFT dies, used similarly to what I used before, but just a couple more ideas.  This was my tray on Thursday evening with my latest cutouts ready:

To get the ones on the white circles to show up with red, white and blue I cut them out in red first of all with a card that had a white backing.  Then I coloured the bits that were to be pushed through to the other side with a blue felt tip pen.

Here are my plant pot markers which are the dies mounted on white scallop circles with a satay stick behind and a plain set of circles on the reverse.

and some more

We've not got the big table out yet just the Bistro set for lunch today.  Here are the napkin rings - all made with cardstock.

Now you can see the garden a bit better

and how about these mobiles blowing in the wind?

These are just the middle and small sized dies, mounted on circles of contrasting card and then another one placed behind with a piece of cord running down the centre and a loop at the top.

Think I need more of these mobiles ... Hope these pictures have given you some ideas for the Jubilee Weekend and how you can use your CTF dies to help you celebrate. Congrats again to Wendy.

Hope the sun shines where you are!  And many thanks to all who entered the blog hop!  Maybe next time it will be you!

Ribbon & Lace

First of all, thanks to everyone who entered our challenges the last four weeks - we had over 30 in the last one and it was lovely to see so many terrific entries.

Sam's choice this time and I must admit I did like the thoughts of Ribbons and Lace - kind of Vintage or Shabby Chic.  What did I do? Well I made an atc because at Vicky Stampers we are doing Vintage for our next swap and so I can actually use this one (hope nobody from Vicky Stampers sees it before next week but don't think any of them come on here except Jo and Ann and they are not going to the club that week).  But then there is Paul - he won't tell.  I hope!

Here it is

I used a new stamp (think it is a Whimsy) from Oyster Stamps and stamped it in Black Archival Ink on a piece of white cardstock.  Then I cut another piece of card to ATC size and using an oval from my Nestabilities (Spellbinders) cut out a frame. I then put some lace on the bottom and re-cut the length of the atc as I wanted the lace to hang over the edge.  A tiny strip of lilac ribbon, some flowers pushed through pin holes in the top left corner and it was almost done.  The final thing was to pop dot the frame on top of the picture and then mount the whole on a piece of lilac card so that it showed through the lace.

Hope whoever gets it in the swap likes it.

Now what will you make for our challenge at Artful Times?  Remember it is ribbons and lace but does not have to be Vintage - do what you will and enter our challenge, we love to see what you create and each and every one of you will get visits from the Design Team.