It's Summertime and you know what that means...

...They are words from a kids programme my son watches, The Regular Show, from a song that gets into your mind and never leaves lol.
Just the mere mention of summertime sets off those songs that gets into your head all day or just crops up in a hum when you least expect it, triggering all sorts of memories for me.
While I was making the following pieces I was 'You Tube'-ing all sorts of summer songs from Dancing Queen to Californication and Stevie Nicks singing Sara (I hadn't listened to that song for over 20 years and it was like going back in time!!) Then got sucked into Dr Hook's Sylvia's Mother for somereason which led to Terry Jack's Seasons in the Sun and by then there was no hope for me as I spiralled in to Starry Starry Night....

I know!! I should have stopped when things were jolly lol

You see what I have to go through to get the feel of a theme!! lol

anyway...I digress - on with the crafty stuff...

Crafty Individuals are running the theme Time for Summer seeing as it's now officially British Summertime and so I made this box from four of the Crafty Individials tags, two fairy plates and a selection of flowers.

This is the softer more thoughtful 'chiffon colouring' view. Does that make sense? In real life this has a very subtle gentle feel to it but still remains summery I hope.



a closer snoop...using mainstamp image CI137)



then twirling it round to the other side we can see the more typical summer colours (in RL they are reds and bright orange not muted rusts)...



and a closer look at this side (main stamp is CI132)..



Summertime has taken a twist today here in the UK. We have sunshine but it's frosty white out on the grass and apparently Scotland are expecting snow!

To finish my post I'll leave you with just ONE song that to me says summer.

Whats your summer song??
Depends on your age I guess as to the era.
My summer ones tend to stem from the 70's/80's usually rock ones.
But I think given just one choice this has to be the all time knee patting, beer-garden table tapping song of all time...one of those (as the phrase is nowadays) 'guilty pleasure' songs...



So there we are... that summer feeling for me. Half a lager and lime/tequila and orange, beer garden, summer evenings, back in the day lol

Why not hunt out your all time favourite summer time tracks and get 'in the zone' lol and hopefully you will get your crafty items out at the same time and join in with the challenge. I look forward to seeing all the summery work.

xx Jo

All Wrapped Up

(You might light to grab a cuppa, this is quite a long post with lots of pics and a You Tube link :0) )

I was delighted to be contacted by Jean over at Crafty Individuals recently to ask whether I'd like to come up with an idea for the Crafty Individuals Challenge theme for December.

December, I always find, turns up, all is still pretty calm, loads of time for planning and organising with dreams of making cards and all sorts. Before you know it Santa's been , the lounge is strewn with wrapping paper and the turkey is in the oven!

So I thought that a good theme might be All Wrapped Up, so at least we'd have at least one Christmassy crafy item sorted.

This can be anything connected with giving over Christmas, either tags, your own stamped wrapping paper, decorated boxes, bags, little gifts wrapped with ribbon...anything along those lines.



On Tuesday I held one of my workshops and we all made little squash books with this as the example. We used the new 7 Dots papers which I'm loving and loaaaaaaaaads of Crafty Individuals stamps. (I'll link you to any that appear on blogs...Siobhan, that's your nudge)..(edit... link is at the end)

Above shows the front....

and here's the back...



Untied, the book springs open to reveal lots of stamped images.










Claire, one of my lovely workshop ladies, came up with the fab idea of hanging these tiny books from the Christmas tree and having them as little tree presents which would make brilliant keepsakes for family members if you included a few photos inside.
(yep...I have the tree decorated already!!...Even the ringtone on the phone is festive haha! Christmas came and went last year because of Mum's funeral last December, so this year I'm all set. Mum used to be in her element at this time of year and she'd have been disappointed if I'd decided to not bother.)

Looks right at home there on the branches don't you think? Great idea Claire!





If you would like to make something along these lines please take a look at this link to a very clear explanation by Lytlescrapper on You Tube on how to fold the paper. The size of my book is based on three 4" squares (10cm) but you can adjust accordingly to whatever size takes your fancy. Once you have the general idea you just tweak it to your needs.




All stamps used to make my squash book are by Crafty Individuals.
Please take a look at the challenge- you have all month to join in and doing so will be in with an opportunity of winning goodies from Crafty Individuals.

I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with and choosing five favourites to be shown on the Crafty Individuals challenge blog.

edit....Siobhan's squash book from my workshop can be seen here. Please check it out, its gorgeous.

Mojo Monthly

If your Mo is a bit Jo-less please take a look at Sarah Engel-Greer's blog, La-De-Dah, home of MOJO Monthly. Guess who is over there....go on... have a guess....

heehee


And there's also a prize to be won and lots of time to take part!!! Check it out!!

HERE'S THE LINK

Craft Stamper December Issue 2011

How time flies!

It's time for the December issue of Craft Stamper already.



I am very pleased to say I have a super-cheap-make article in this issue using newsprint and the most recent additions to my range of stamps over at Stampotique. Of course, you could use any stamps at all that you own, but I thought it would be perfect to use the new ones as the gentle nature of them appealed to me with the colours I chose at the time (along with one or two old faves such as Bee that you've no doubt spotted).

I'm not allowed to reveal full images of the cards I made to place inside the wrap, but can show the whole item as its on the top left hand side of the cover!! :0))))



For the stamps and the magazine please pop over to Merly Impressions or Happy Daze.

I hope you enjoy the magazine if you manage to grab a copy. Lots of great ideas in there. To mention a few of my favourites from the quick glance I have managed to have so far...
Joanne Wardles Crafty Individuals houses (the kite card is inspirational!!)
Trish's snowflakes...very atmospheric. As always, Helen's stunning use of colour. Jeans vintage image pendants (looking even more fab with the soft pink rose setting) There are also some amazing reader's contributions this month...I spotted Sam Read's Moon Girl piece (awwwwwwww...and more so when I read the words alongside it), Jannet Blays cake (how long did that take??!!) and Anne Mullan's stunning Dream piece.

And thats just skimming the surface!! Best you order a copy, eh?

Paperbag Studios, Tim, a sandwich bag and a bit of tissue paper

An unusual combination, but all of the above is what you will need if you fancy making something along the lines of what appears on the cover of the November issue of Craft Stamper.

To say I was really pleased was an understatement!! I was so suprised to see my card on the front of the mag, plus it means I can use the 'loop hole rule' of actually getting to show a published piece on my blog by showing the magazine cover!!




To see all four cards please grab an issue from Craft Stamper, Happy Daze, The Craft Barn or Crafty Individuals. For a copy in The Netherlands, Art Journey stocks the magazine.

Stamps used for the article are available from Paperbag Studios, Craft Barn and Happy Daze.

I hope you liked it if you have already got your copy.

Just Dreaming and Hanging About

Crafty Individuals have their new challenge theme for September up and running!

This is what it says...

'...the theme for the month has been chosen by Lucy Edmondson, and is 'Hanging About'. To give you some idea of how to tackle this I will put the idea in Lucy's own words - ‘this would give people scope to do a wall hanging, canvas, frame, lantern, bird cage, bird house, jewellery, dangly things on cards, pennants – all sorts. Or they could interpret it as friends hanging about together.’

So I made this hanging using a selection of Crafty Individual stamps. The main image is one of the fabulous new designs, which, wait for it wait for it....currently, aswell as being able to buy it in the 'normal' way as usual from Crafty Individuals for £6.44, if you spend over £28(excluding postage) you get this new Crow collage stamp FREE!!!!

Yes!! FREE!!

And talking of bargains, the little skeleton hand charm dangling from the hanging is a snip at 20p from HAPPY DAZE




Hope you like this.... coloured with Distress and Jenni Bowlin ink pads...and pencil crayons. Splashes of water here and there. Black StazOn for the black stamping. Lots of matt and layering. I have run out of eyelets, so I would have liked those on here to finish the piece off nicely but nevermind ay.

A great challenge theme...I hope you can find a moment this month to join in. Worthwhile...theres a prize! Check out the Crafty Individuals blog challenge post for details.

Sea, Sand and a Friend

Crafty Individuals have a new challenge theme today.

Here is my contribution towards it. I used a slidemailer case (no glass) and a whole collaboration of Crafty Individuals stamps.




If you haven't seen the challenges over there before, why not have a go this time? You have a month in which to come up with something and in doing so are in with a chance to be a lucky winner of goodies on offer from Jean and Malcolm.

All the details can be found here

Ctafty Individuals also have some new stamp images released this week. I LOVE the elephants !

Free as a Bird

May's challenge over on Crafty Individuals is set by Is Norris, one of my old partners in crime way back when lol (ok it was only five or so years ago I guess when we managed to pull together an article for an overseas publication by email having never met but it was fun, albeit a little hectic!).
Is has come up with the theme Free as a Bird. I made this card for the challenge. Looks like a tag doesn't it , but with a bit of smoke and mirror trickery (and a spare bit of card!), but I put a back on it so it will stand upright. I used the main NEW image of CI-309 and one of my favourite Crafty Individuals Craft Elements plates CI-287 .

I initially started off with CI-309...



...then added odd birds and built on until I felt the balance was right. The main stamp has music notes and a song but I substituted these song words with one of the sayings from the CI-287 plate. Finished off with some fine liner pen stitchy lines.

Its a simple make, lifes hectic, whats new lol.

There are prizes to be had over on Jean's 'Crafty Individuals' blog for lucky participants. Please take a look over there for all the details and ideas from the 'team'.

There is light on the horizon.... its back to 'normal' day tomorrow!! All back to school...yeah! I won't be exactly as free as a bird, but I'll have a bit of time to get round Tescos lol

Have a great May Day holiday if you are in the UK.
Not long to go now until the Port Sunlight show, where Crafty Individuals will have a stand and I'll finally get to say 'Hi' to Jean and Malcolm after all these years (I have some Crafty Individuals stamps so old they are wooden backed) as I'm working there too for another company.

Crafty Individuals NEW Challenge! (2nd post of the day)

Simply Square (click for the link) is the theme for the first ever Crafty Individuals Challenge on their new blog.

My idea is shown above using CI-248(apologies for pinky hue, very poor light ).

There are prizes available!! FIVE OF THEM!!!Go and check it all out along with more ideas!! :0))

Breath of Springtime

(please click on the image for a larger view)

It's a beautiful spring day here today on the southcoast of the UK. Sunny, fresh, cold in the shade.

Soooo, this morning I thought I would have a flick through my Crafty Individuals images and see what I could come up with.




I used stamps from the following:
CI-289 (chickens)
CI-237 (text)
CI-207 (grass)
CI-205 (eggs)

Wishing you all a good weekend ahead. Lifes a lot easier when the suns shining and the birds are tweeting don't you think?

Soon gone...

Well thats Christmas been and gone.

Hoping you all had a good break.

Over the next couple of days, flying things, foliage and the word 'Hope' seem to have become common denominators in the items set to appear on my blog. But woahhhhh, they couldn't BE more different if I'd tried!! (Wait till you see Jan 1st's post)...and yet they were made on the same day!!

Sorry....will have to keep you in suspense re the next card on Saturday, but needless to say, its very different to this one.




This is for Gingersnap Creations SP#6. Every so often when theres an 'extra Wednesday' in the month, ie 'once in a blue moon' kind of, there's the Blue Moon Challenge where members of the DT make something of their choice and add the idea to the post. So instead of a single theme it could be 4 or 5 different themes,depending on how many contribute, so it's your pick on what theme you join in with!

I decided to keep it REALLY simple by setting the theme of A SINGLE LAYER CARD.(Always takes me a while to get myself going again after Christmas). This is a new image by Crafty Individuals (CI-288) which I stamped in black and roughly coloured using coloured pencils and touches of white pen. 'Hopes and Dreams' is also from CI.

I hope you are able to join in one of the Blue Moon themes over at Gingersnap Creations..there are some very tempting 'dares' up there.

Wishing...

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas.

This was made using the painting with bleach technique that I posted a tutorial about on Gingersnap Creations.The main image is Crafty Individuals CI-154...one of my all time favourites of theirs, and the splashy stamp is my 'splatter long' produced by Stampotique, also available at Happy Daze in the UK..

The card is a single layer card...where it appears mounted, its just an illusion created with pens.



Apologies for the quiet non jolly cards of late...

Wishing you all the best xx

A few pieces...

Here are a few sneak peeks that I managed to put together a few months ago(end of the summertime hence the colours I guess) for Crafty Individuals and Happy Daze to appear in the current Craft Stamper during a time when things had turned upside down a little at home (more on that this coming week when I find the right moment).

I'm not able to show the entire image due to regulations at Traplet but hopefully you get the feel of whats what.

These two pieces (above and below)appear in the Stamping Contrast article for Crafty Individuals in the UK.



This piece below appears in the Idea Gallery where the theme Recycled was given. I used an old tag and an old brown envelope (brown paper) to form the base for this piece using a selection of stamps from my collection at Stampotique and one from Lost Coast, all which are available from Happy Daze, also here in the UK.



This issue of Craft Stamper is available from Craft Stamper, Crafty Individuals and Happy Daze.



This months has a very wide range of styles and is full of inspiration...seriously worth getting!

Have a good weekend xx

Thank Yooooo-oooooooou!

I made this card for the girls on a little tiny forum I've belonged to now for five years or so. Last week I received the most beautiful bouquet of flowers- rich autumn colours and foliage, burnt orange coloured roses, tawny and gold freesias. When it came to lifting the flowers out of the box style carrying case there were chocolates underneath! :0)))) Thank you Chris for organising such a wonderful cheery up suprise and to the girls at Chrysalis xx. Over the past few months I've received some gorgeous cheery-up pressies and cards from the girls - makes the day a happier one thats for sure.
Thanks too go to my online friend Lottie who recently sent me the most beautifully made 'Papillon' bag which is in constant use.



The main image ( CI-225 ) and Thank You is by Crafty Individuals and available here. The background text is by a new American company called Rogue Redhead Designs but unfortunately the RRD stamps are not yet avaiable here in the UK, just to those from the States.
The background branches behind the owl were created by lightly sponging ink though a stencil.



I'm entering this little guy into the Lots to Do challenge which this week has the theme of Autumnal Colours.

Girly girl sits sewing under the arches with freebies...eh?

A busy blogging day for me... I have a double(make that triple) post to do today as I'm involved with two teams that have challenge themes that both go live at the same time.

Hence the merged title of my post lol



Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC#19

First off the starting blocks is Girly Girl, the challenge set for Stampotique Originals by team member Kim Prince.
I admit, I struggled with the theme....I'm not a natural Girly Girl by any stretch of the imagination so after much deliberation put together a very simple little notebook using 'Splatter Long', 'Mwah!and Kiss', and 'Marci'.All by Stampotique Originals.





Stampotique are continuing to be incredibly generous by offering one lucky participant a $30 Gift Certificate to spend on stamps in their online store. YES!! $30!!! The winner will be drawn at random and announced as usual in two weeks time. As its the first challenge of the month any stamps can be used for this theme but if you have any Stampotiques amongst your collection it would be fabulous to see them.

The guest artist for this month over at Stampotique is none other than the extremely talented artist and fellow Stampotique Stamp Designer Janet Klein. Please keep an eye out over there for Janets fabulous artwork. More details can be found here.

Stampotique Originals are also available here in the UK from Happy Daze.

Gingersnap Creations GS#78 Sewing Notions



Also today Gingersnap Creations announce their latest challenge theme of Sewing Notions. I didnt actually know what notions were, how embarrassing is that, I'd never heard that expression before, so once I'd been set on the right track and knew what it was all about I got to work putting together this card using pins, netting (from a vegetable bag), velvet and ribbon and stamps from Crafty Individuals.



The main stamp CI-285 recently released from Crafty individuals couldn't have been more perfect for the theme I felt, used alongside a tape measure stamp and that gorgeous printed image, also from the same company.Lots of distressing, crackle paint, scribbling and overlaying involved here. Weighs a fair bit as it kept evolving and moving into different directions lol. It would certainly need a 1st Class Large stamp for the mail.

GC#75 Gingersnap Creations Arches




And due to events beyond my control I missed out on blogging my GC#75 Random Redhead Challenge Arches contribution for Gingersnap Creations. You still have time to take part in this challenge theme as it doesnt finish until Sunday 14th November. Any arches...use the shape to create onto or incorporate stamps or images of arches within your artwork.



I decided to use the CI-264 arch, again from Crafty Individuals, remove the central image it comes with and replace that with one of the Crafty Individuals printed paper images from their People and Places books.



Fabulous news too in that Jean and Malcolm (Crafty Individuals) are giving away TWO FREE BACKGROUND PAPER BOOKS (Springtime and Travels in Italy) with every order over £25!! A fantastic offer. If you haven't tried their background papers now is the time to get on over there and try them for free - lets face it, £25 is easy to spend when faced with such a wonderful selection of images and alterables.

Well I think that ends the longest post ever lol...

I hope you will find time to play along with Stampotique and Gingersnap Creations.

Life's a Beach

Well, perhaps not exactly a beach for me right now...my life's more like the alternative saying at the moment lol, but to brighten up my morning these gorgeous gorgeous carefree happy looking stamps arrived from Crafty Individuals. I have to say, these new beach images are right up there amongst my all time fave Crafty Individuals stamps.

I was all fingers and thumbs, I couldn't ink the rubber fast enough to make this little card so I could post here and do a 'heads up' re their new images .

This card was made very simply by using coloured paper, black ink, a copic marker and a white pen.



The main image from the CI-284 plate. Added extras (neg strip and dotty-ness!) from the CI-283 plate.

I hope the girls that modelled so beautifully for these plates were paid well in treats....bet that north coast sea was freeeeeeeezing lol BRRRRRRRR!!