Sporty Birthday

The start of a crazy few days today in our house but we are starting by visiting my nephew who is 6 today.


Living in a sporty household he has caught the bug too.  As promised when I bought this 'Number One Champ' set from Woodware I had to use it for Harry too.


I've stamped and embossed 8 different sports using a different colour brilliance ink.  I've punched these out and dabbed the edges of the squares in the same colour.  These are mounted on complementing squares of card and added to an 8x8 card.
Happy Birthday stamped for the middle square and then I still had to add the little basketball player.


I got this Stamposaurus stamp a while back to use for Harry as he goes to watch his local basketball team Taunton Tigers play.  I've coloured him in realistic team colours and cut him out and added with sticky pads.

Smurfday

A busy few days, sorry for not blogging.  I have been crafting in between everything so will add some more pics this week.


Also had a great day at the Bristol Parchment Exhibition yesterday which was very inspirational and chatted with some lovely parchers.


This is a crazy card I made for a friend.  Smurfs have a particular relevance which is why I chose them.


I found an image and 'digitaged' it using the DOCrafts Digital Designer.  I inverted it to make it a bit different and printed out a greeting to add to the madness.

'G' is for girl!

The invites from yesterday have gone down well (need to make a few more now!).


This card is another commission for 2 year old Grace.


I used a Happy Birthday stamp in different colours on the base card with a '2' added in between.


The alphabet stamps are Penny Black and have quite girly images in the main which is why I chose them.  I've coloured the letters and pictures with Copics and added glossy accents on the letters.  These were then punched out and mounted on a matching colour card punched using an SU punch.

Invitations

 So, after yesterday's workshop I came home and the crafting continued (much as I really fancied a snooze on the sofa!).


I stamped, embossed and cut out 20 sentiments using a Whispers 'You're Invited' stamp and Brilliance Rocket Red ink.


At this point I should explain the invites are for a birthday party with a casino - hence the cake/playing card 'fusion'!.


The playing cards are cut out of white card with their corners rounded.  Peel offs coloured red for the letters and hearts & diamonds punched out and stuck on.


The cupcake components were all individually stamped, punched and stuck together and added to the middle of the top playing card with 3D foam pads.

The printed inserts also have hearts & diamonds cut out of the corners.


Been at a bike race today (that I bunked off yesterday to go stamping) so now on to the next card!

Work in progress

A fabulous Stampin' Up day with Jenny today - she certainly works us hard but we came away with another haul of great makes (and a table prize, sorry Karen!).


I am exhausted but have a few requests for this weekend so am trying to sort a few things.


This very poor picture is just to show that I have been doing something the last couple of days.  Sentiments aside, which I am just stamping, these are the components for one of my current commissions - hopefully I can report back on the finished goods very soon!

Football!

Hopefully this card has nearly made it to Denmark for my Father in Law for Fathers Day on Sunday.


I was going to keep it for a Birthday but given the current football mania everywhere I thought it would be quite suitable now.


It was a decoupage kit of 'football hero Weenicons' I bought in Hobbycraft a while back.


The background paper is stuck on a red card, I've then added the footballers whose head & feet are added again with little sticky pads.


Fingers crossed it made it and hope it goes down well.

Crafty Bunch

Some samples for tomorrow nights Quilling section at Crafty Bunch!


These little chaps should make everyone smile with their googly eyes.


As a card needs to be finished in an hour I've gone for this as I've done flowers, butterflies etc in the past and with simple shapes I'm hoping this is achievable to everyone that goes.


Then it's on to the next commission!

Cycling Thank You

Just a quick post with yesterday's commission - a busy day with a few cards and bits & bobs to sort (and someone that fell off their bike last night - never a dull moment round here!).


This is a 2012 version of a Thank You card that is given to everyone that has helped at a 2-day race my husbands cycling club run (sadly I can only do one day this year as the first day clashes with Jenny's SU day - no competition!).


I have been doing 2 different sets a year as we also run an evening race series and trying to find new bike images can be fun.  This stamp is from a fab new set I had to get from Woodware called 'Number One Champ'.  I will be using it again this month for a birthday card too - very good for sporty folk!


I've stamped and embossed it, punched out and layered on a punched square and punched postage edge square - in white, red & blue - the team colours.


A peel off Thank You to finish.  

Beginners Workshop

A very successful workshop for 4 ladies today who had all had a quick try of quilling and given it up until they thought they'd try a workshop.


Luckily they were all pleased with their efforts and took home some finished items so that was good.


We did a small sampler of basic shapes to start with after talking about tools and paper then did a card with 3 simple teardrop flowers on, then either a cat or butterfly to finish.


It's always pleasing when they then buy materials and tools in the shop too and they have gone away enthused with a new craft.


I'm quite exhausted but got a 15 card commission to sort before some final prep for the Crafty Bunch quilling workshop this week, the stash for which is pictured below (not that we need 1,000 goggly eyes but I felt the need to buy in bulk!) - when I have some more samples I will report back!

A Day Out

Yesterday we ventured to Barrington Court in the rain to see the 'Field for the British Isles' exhibition by Antony Gormley.


As seems to be the norm at the moment it was very damp when we left but we ploughed on!


This picture is an internet one from a previous showing of the display.  It features 40,000 of these clay figures in 3 rooms in the house - it's one of those weird but worth seeing experiences.


We have visited the house before but went on a full tour as we were there and by the time we'd had lunch (highly recommended) the sun had come out so we could enjoy a walk round the gardens.


No such luck for the weather today so some prep for upcoming workshops - although I am helping at a bike race later, not a very appealing option at the moment.

Pampered Pets

A quick card today that I made using an image from the die-cut pack of Pampered Pets from DOCrafts.


3 layers make up the main image, a matching greeting and some matching roses for the corner to finish.


Fairly simple but effective.


We had a very damp day out today - starting at Castle Drogo where unfortunately we couldn't make the most of the wonderful views or walks in the ground because of the weather, then Torquay to watch a round of the Halfords Tour Series town centre cycling & supporting races.


By 7pm the rain actually stopped and there was some sun but we got very damp getting to that point.
Race highlights on ITV4 tomorrow night so will see if we made the cut!

Day out in Dorset 2!

Just to complete the story of our day out in Dorset!


Our day was at the end of a week where the Company had entertained reps, retailers and demonstrators from all over the country and some from abroad too.


The display that met us on the way in was great with all their products displayed by range - Me to You, the new Forever Friends Best of British, Michael Powell etc and some of the card samples that are in the current Creativity magazine which it was nice to see in the flesh.


After our lunch (and a chat with the magazine editor Tina Piper)  we had a great demo with Jo Austin.  It wasn't on my original agenda as there were 4 sessions and only 3 slots for each of us but as Jo was demo-ing Digital Designer I couldn't miss a live demo and she was great.  There is nothing like seeing things for real and getting those little tips that make all the difference.


Jo also did some great water colouring and then showed us a little technique that may turn up at Crafty Bunch in the future!


I then had a quick chat with Emma about blogging as social media is her specialist subject and enjoyed watching her set up a blog for another club member who had found it all too daunting before.


There was also a focus group running which we were trying to fit in with everything else but after a quick cuppa and some presentations (Jo's birthday at the weekend and Emma for the organisation) we were then informed of a visit to the showroom which I'm afraid blew everything else out of the water.


We stood and drooled at not only all the DOCrafts products layed out by range but the Creativity Essentials that are being released in July (very nice with some different ranges coming) and September (sooooo fab - get saving!).


I certainly came away with quite a few little ideas to try so let's hope I can put some in to practice soon - watch this space.
Jill

Creativity Club Day Out

What a great day we had yesterday at DOCrafts HQ for their first ever Creativity Club Members Day.

Thanks to Karen for getting us there - although we did have a little inevitable postcode fun on arrival, quite surprising some workers in the area didn't know where the largest building on the estate was!

After some play-time when we arrived with all the goodies on our table we had a workshop with Sheila Halliwell where we made this lovely Michael Powell card.

The image is stamped twice, the second one is partially coloured and cut out to 3D on to the first image.  We used DOCrafts aqua glass paints which I wouldn't of thought of using before.

The image is layered on to capsule card stock, the yellow layer was also cut with the looped fringe border punch.

Sentiment is cut from a Michael Powell A4 toppers set & layered.

The pinwheels are made from red card stock and placed on mini card springs (this picture doesn't give you the 3D effect of them).

Whole card then finished off with a selection of adhesive dew drops and we were all quite pleased with ourselves so went off to enjoy the BBQ for lunch!

More of our day out tomorrow .....