Week 321 - Allsorts Challenge

Good Morning my fellow Crafters!

 

I hope everything is good with you all and that the last week has been a kind one to you.

I am a very excitable person this morning as we go away for a week in the sunshine today with some very dear friends and I can't tell you how much we are looking forward to it. (Because of this I wont be around for next weeks blog but I am sure you will forgive me!

 

Today Susan has asked the Allsorts Teamies to make a project and  -

 

Add a Butterfly

 

Well, as we all know adding a butterfly to a project is not a difficult one for a crafter and we have so many choices in our crafty stashes from stamps, dies and toppers.  I thought I would share with you a project that I did a few weeks ago for a Friend's birthday and she said that she loved it and I was a happy bunny.

 

 

There is quite a combination of different crafty products as you can see.  The main focal point is the parchment butterfly which is a pattern that a lovely friend of mine Josie Davidson has designed and I traced it in black and coloured it in pearlescent paints and embossed to highlight. The background is grid work using one of the pergamano grids and this pattern is so adaptable to so many different projects.  The die cut is the Sweet Pea from Tattered Lace and the flowers have been made from paper clay using a Katy Sue mould.  As you can see I have matted a layered the background in cerise pink pearl card and white glitter.

I hope that you like it as much as my friend did when I sent it to her.

The team have made some fabulous projects over at the Allsorts Challenge so please pop over and take a peep and get some inspiration if need be. Why not have a go at entering the Challenge this week as we always have some fabulous prizes up for grabs, thanks to our great and generous sponsors.

Anyway, must dash now as our plane wont wait! and I will catch up with you again when I get back home.  August is a really exciting and busy month for the shop so will have lots to tell you about.

Thankyou, as always for popping in and hope that you can find a minute to leave a comment for me.

Bye for now

Jo xx



Week 317 - Allsorts Challenge - Blue as the Ocean

Good morning Crafty Friends,

I hope that this finds you all well and looking forward to the weekend ahead. Thankyou so much for popping in.

Well, what a busy week I'm not sure where it has gone!

Some of this week has been spent getting samples ready for the Tattered Lace pick of the week and I decided to show you one of my samples that I made for Nancy's show today as my project for this week's Challenge.

 

 

 

I used the Charisma Sweet Pea die set and CD rom to create a notebook for all the garden notes (I must say the Sweet Pea was one of my favourites!) I used some background paper and the middle tag from one of my Heartfelt paper pads that I totally love! The Sweet Peas have been decoupaged up so that there is a lot of dimension.  The words are from a wooden set that I have and they are perfect size for this sort of project. I distressed the edges of the paper layers to give interest and added candy dots to each corner.

I hope that you like this and that you will find a minute to leave a comment.  Let me know if you saw the show and what you thought to this fabulous collection.

We have parchment class today at the shop and then Mark and I are off to Coventry on a retailer training event for 2 days so we are keeping busy!! Hopefully we should come back with lots of ideas and inspiration to pass on!

Whatever you are doing this weekend please enjoy it and hope that you can fit a little crafting in as well as other jobs!! 

Please check out the Allsorts Challenge blog and have a look at the other Team members lovely work

Thankyou again for popping in and hope to see you again soon.

Bye for now

Jo xx

Week 315 - Flower Power!

Good Morning!

Hello to you all and thankyou for popping in. 

 As always on a Saturday morning we have the launch of a new Allsorts Challenge and today is no exception.

Our lovely Team member Tracey has chosen a fabulous challenge for us all and I think it will be a very busy week -

She has asked us to show a project with the title -

 

Flower Power!

I am sure that we all can find something that we have made or are thinking of making with flowers on it and this is the project I have decided to show you -

 

We made this mini canvas in a class a couple of weeks ago and I thought then this will be ideal for this weeks Challenge.

As usual the photograph has not given it justice as there is so much detail on it.

I began by covering the canvas with Tim Holtz newspaper print tissue paper and then painted it with a mixture of acrylic paint and gesso.

In the background I have chosen to use a Tattered Lace die - Birdhouse row - I used smooth white cardstock and coloured some of the detail but left some white so they pop out nicely.

The bolder flowers are a mixture from several JOFY stamps from Paper Artsy and, as you know, these really are some of my favourite stamps.  I coloured these with pro-markers.

The canvas was  7" x 5" in size and this makes a lovely gift to anyone that you would like to give more than just a card.

We all enjoyed making these.

We are sponsoring this weeks Allsorts Challenge and if you are chosen as a winner you will receive a £10 gift voucher to spend on our website

letscreateartandcrafts.co.uk

You will also find all of the products that I have used in the project.

Do remember that all orders over £10 are p and p free!

 

Today is also our gorgeous Daughter Kate's 22nd birthday but she is spending the weekend in Ireland so we will be having some tea together on Tuesday when she gets home. She is rather partial to Guiness so I am sure she will find some there!

Happy Birthday Kate! xx

 

Later today Mark and I are travelling up to Preston and staying over ready for a demonstration day at the fabulous Inspirations - home of Hunkydory! so if you are in the area on Sunday please pop and see me - I don't get out and about too much now so it would be lovely to catch up with some friendly faces. The times for the demonstration are 11 until 3.30 pm.

Must close now and get my bits and pieces packed, I hope that you enjoy a lovely weekend whatever you decide to do and please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of todays project.

Also please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to check out my Team members projects - always a joy to see.

Thankyou so much for popping in,

bye for now

Jo xx

 



Allsorts Birthday winner!! and Week 313 - Vintage

Good Morning Everyone!

Hello and Happy Saturday to you all.

I have lots to tell you and show you in this post this morning and the first is to announce my winner from everyone that took the time to comment on last weeks project which was to celebrate the 6th Birthday of our fabulous Challenge Blog - Allsorts! 

I am so grateful for everyone that took part and for leaving me all of the lovely comments.   I am so pleased to announce the winner who is 

.......................................................................................

...........................................................

SUZI!!

Congratulations! please contact me by email to lets.create@btinternet.com and I will arrange for you to be sent the £10 voucher to spend on our website letscreateartandcrafts.co.uk! 

It was a fabulous week all round and all the entries on the Allsorts blog were fabulous. Please pop over to check out the winners.

Todays challenge has been set by our lovely team member Tracey and she has asked us all to show you a project that fits under the title ...........

VINTAGE

So here goes with what I would like to show you (I couldn't make up my mind so I have posted 2!!)

 This was another of the many samples that I did for the Tattered Lace Trio show a couple of weeks ago.  I used an assortment of flowers and leaves from the sets and coloured them in very vintage colours which really suited the main focal point which is a Graphic 45 image.  I think the bird is stunning.

and, this is the second project

Again, I have used a Tattered Lace die and teamed it up with some Heartfelt Creations paper and by using inks it has turned this project into quite a vintage look too.

I hope that you can spare a couple of minutes to leave me a comment and let me know what you think. You know I love to hear from you. Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog and have a bash at taking part this week! If not check out the other design team members projects.

Thankyou, as always for popping in and hope that you enjoy a fabulous weekend.

Bye for now,

Jo xx

Week 312 - Allsorts Challenge is 6 years Old!!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to Saturday again and today is a very special day for the Allsorts Crew!! we are 6 years old today and we have reached this fabulous milestone because of all of the support that you all give to the blog, so thankyou! from us all.

As a massive thankyou the Team at Allsorts are offering lots of fabulous goodies for winners that take part in this weeks Challenge suitably entitled ....................

Happy Birthday!

This gives so much scope for whatever style that you love to do so if you haven't ever took part in our Challenge before this would be a great time to have a go!

As well as the main prize which has been kindly given by Stephanie at Tattered Lace the Team members are giving away individual prizes on their blogs too so pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog and check out all of the team members blogs leave a comment and you will be entered into their draws too! 

This is my project that I would love to share with you all as part of the Birthday Celebrations ~

This is a very girly card using some lovely girlie stuff!  including one of Sweet Poppy's fabulous shoe stencils, in black glossy paste, Craftwork cards fabulous papers from the Time Flies paper set and the wonderful flowers are from Tattered Lace Trio emboss and cut flower selection.

I have used some Dusty Concorde Distress Ink to enhance the image and papers.

I hope that you like it!

As I mentioned at the beginning we are offering individual prizes for the Birthday too and I would like to send a lucky winner -

£10 gift voucher

 for Let's Create Website ~

letscreateartandcrafts.co.uk

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win my prize is leave a comment here on my blog and a winner will be picked at random next week and announced on Saturday morning when I post again.

Please also pop onto the Allsorts Challenge blog and comment on the other individuals posts they would love it! 

Well, so much to win so don't miss out!

I am only blogging once a week, on a Saturday, at the moment as I have not been able to pop in on a Tuesday and Thursday for the time being but hope that you will still stay with me and pop in on Saturday's for the time being. I am, however, popping projects onto our Let's Create Facebook Page so please check this out and what excellent offers we are running on the website too.

 I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your comments.

Enjoy a fabulous long weekend whatever you are doing and hope to see you next week,

Thankyou again for popping in and

Bye for now

Jo xx

Good Morning!

Good Morning Everyone

I hope that you all had a lovely long weekend and that you were able to spend time doing lots of things you love to do.

We spent the weekend with our very dear friends Caroline and John - Mark and John were busy sorting DIY stuff (boys things!) and Me and Caroline were 'having' to spend time in her craft room playing with lots of bits and pieces we have been meaning to do for ages.  A great time had by all!!

Today I have a really simple card to show you - one that I made some weeks ago for the Golden Age shows on C and C with Tattered Lace.

I sometimes find matching perfect background papers to fit the occasion a problem (even though I have a room and a shop full!! (as Mark would say!) so when I am out and about I pick up wrapping paper and know that it will come in at some point.  Well, this music paper certainly did on this occasion as I had a sample to make using the trumpet and I decided to use blocks of the paper to make a background, matting and layering them with black so that they pop out.

The stunning oval die that the Trumpet is sat on is the Eleganza die.

 

As you can see I made it into an invitation idea but this could easily have any sentiment on it for whatever occasion it is for.

Simple but effective I think.  What do you think? I would love to hear from you and let me know what you did at the weekend.

Hope that you can pop in again on Thursday for another little idea.

Thankyou, as always,  for popping in and 

Bye for now

Jo xx

Good Tuesday morning to you all!

This morning will be the last day of the Trade show at the NEC in Birmingham and we have seen some fabulous new crafting goodies to order and have to put on our website and in our shop.

Today I am a little Die festival in this sample - Tattered Lace to be more precise.

There are various dies in this project but the main one is which is the main focal point is the very pretty Hummingbird which really is a fabulous die.  I have cut the top layer in white pearl and then used a lovely aqua card stock to make a background solid piece for the backing.  The aperture has been made using the decorative rectangle die set that came out with the latest of the Panorama dies.  Some filigree flourishes and rolled roses make it a really pretty decoration around the aperture.

I really enjoy using this colour scheme as it looks so fresh and clean looking.

I hope that you like my project and, as you know, I love to hear what your thoughts are so please leave me a comment if you have time.

Please pop back in on Thursday when I will have another project to share with you.

thankyou all, as always,

Bye for now

Jo xx

Day 19 -

Good morning everybody,

Welcome to another week and hope that everything has started really well for you all.

Today Nancy is launching some new interchangeable embossing folders on C and C and this is one of the samples that I made for the show.

I had 2 different folders to make samples with and this one as you can see is lovely.

The interchangeables are really clever in that you can change the sentiment to go with the background and this suits whichever occasion you would like it to be.

I have used a few more Tattered Lace dies, butterflies from the Starlight square and Daisies from the Panorama collection, to embellish the design a little.

the shows are a 4 day deal and our lovely Liz will be doing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday shows so you may want to catch some of these.

Please pop a comment in if you have time, the blog candy is still up for grabs until the end of the month, not long to be in with a chance to win.

Thankyou as always,

Bye for now

Jo 

Day 7 - A little bit of Embossing

Good Afternoon Everyone,

What a busy day! have you catching up with a little bit of Pick of the Day - the embossing folders are amazing! the detail is so fabulous and loving the corners and borders.

I thought I ought to show you one of the samples that I made for the show.  If you have other embossing folders then use these, hopefully it will inspire you in some way.

This one is very simple and quick.  I have used one of the templates that are also on the show - the elegant easel card.  I used the Butterfly Flourish folder and simply used Pan Pastels to colour it in rainbow colours. This really picks up the detail.  The border from the same set adds interest to the stopper - again colouring it with the pan pastels.  The base is a floral print card.

Pearls and glitter glue finishes the card off.

Again, simple but pretty.

Hope that you like today's offering and hope to hear what you think.

Please pop in tomorrow,

Until then - 

Bye for now

Jo xx

Week 282 - Cold and Frosty Colours

Hello my Crafty Friends,

Good morning on this chilly Saturday and today we are back with our Allsorts Challenge project and this week our lovely Team member Brenda has chosen ~

Cold and Frosty Colours
and this is what I have come up with ~

It certainly fits the bill with the colour scheme and is suits the weather today also.
The image is a topper from Marianne designs and comes on an A4 sheet with a choice of different images that were all perfect for this project. I covered the image with double sided adhesive and covered it in micro beads (this is difficult to get a good picture of these)
I used Tattered Lace Essential Circles to make the frame around the image.  I cut the Cherry Tree die, again from Tattered Lace, and then sprinkled Stampendous embossing glitter in patches onto the branches and heated it to set.  I also used the glitter on the frame to make this frosty too.
the cardstock was from my ever increasing stash and the woolly hat is a cute felt embellishment that we sell in the shop.  I thought it went well with the theme.
As always the Allsorts Challenge Design Team have come up with some fabulous ideas so take a peek at this at the Allsorts Challenge Blog.
We have 2 fabulous sponsors this week ~
and
Thankyou to them both for their continued support.

Also thank you for having a look around our newly released webshop, we really appreciate your positive feedback.
As a thankyou we are offering the first 50 people a 10% reduction on their order and
all that you need to do is go onto the website at letscreateartandcrafts.co.uk
and use the Code - JAN50
and remember that Postage is free over £10!
For those of you that have popped onto the blog for the first time this year I am posting every day during January to try and beat the January blues! if you leave me a comment you will go into a draw at the end of the month .
Thankyou so much for visiting, as always it is much appreciated!
I hope that you enjoy a lovely weekend and hope to see you again tomorrow.
Bye for now
Jo xx  

Week 289 - White Christmas

Hello Everyone,

Well, the big day is getting closer and everyone is so busy getting all prepared.  

I have had a busy week with Create and Craft and the last 2 workshops of the year at the shop.

This week I am also hosting the Allsorts Challenge and I have chosen the title .........................

WHITE CHRISTMAS

and the way that the weather is going I think it might even happen this year!

This is the project that I have made which fits the title ~

I have used a real mix of dies on this design including~ 

Tattered Lace corners - the free die from issue 12 of their magazine,

and the bow is also one from the Tattered Lace range.

The poinsettia is one of my very favourite dies from Tim Holtz and the shadow box frame that the design has been made from is from Tonic!

I have used a mixture of pearl cardstock and glitter card.

Some pearls from Hobby House finish everything off a treat.

I hope that you like it and it inspires you to have a go at the Challenge this week.

Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to have a look at the other team members lovely projects.

Thankyou to our sponsors Flonz Craft and Scrappers Delight.

This week we have a Christmas meal get-together with some of our lovely shop friends and our evening and daytime Christmas get-togethers at the shop.  This has become quite a tradition and Mark and I love to host these to say thankyou to all of our customers and friends.

I have also got 2 shows on Tuesday demonstrating the Tattered Lace interchangeable embossing folders at 10am and 1pm on C and C.

Looks like a busy one ahead!! 

Thankyou for taking the time to read the blog and as always I would love to see comments from you if you have a few minutes to spare.

Oh nearly forgot we are going to see John Bishop in Nottingham tonight so I will let you know all about this next week too! 

Phew - I think that's it,

Have a lovely week and bye for now

Jo xx

Week 286 - No Design papers allowed!

Good Morning everyone,

Thankyou for popping in this morning - I hope that you are all well and have had a great week.

Last week was busy as ever with our fabulous Let's Create Dabble Day.  It was a fantastic day with lots of fun with wall to wall crafting and cake and tea - what more can we wish for!!

This week at Allsorts we have been asked by our Chief Team Member aka Brenda to show you a project that we have made without using design papers.  

I couldn't decide which one to show you so I have two!

A really quick an easy little number using Tattered Lace embossing folders and Tim Holz Poinsettia die and tag.  The card size is a 7" x 5" and I have embossed the corner of the Holly folder and then coloured it over with distress ink and Treasure Gold wax.  I have used the Holly border folder across the tag too.  The poinsettias were die cut and stamped onto with a music stamp from Sheena and then inked and spritzed.  Candy and vintage ribbon finish off the design.

The second design that I have decided to show you is using an embossing folder from Crafters Companion Vintage range.  I embossed it and then sanded the embossed areas down with a sanding block so that the ink soaked into the paper more and this has highlighted the baubles.  The sentiment is from Stampendous and I have used a little Frantage to embellish the corners. A bit of glossy accents, ribbon and bakers twine bow finish off the project.

I hope that this has inspired you to have a go at the Challenge this week.  Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge Blog to have a look at the other Team members ideas and all the information about our lovely sponsors this week.

I have a couple of Create and Craft shows next week - Monday at 4pm and 2 shows on Thursday 12oclock and 3pm and this show is free p and p! Both shows will be using Tattered Lace dies. 

Thankyou for popping in and please find a few minutes to leave a comment if you can - I really appreciate hearing what you think to the projects today.

Enjoy a lovely weekend whatever you are doing,

Bye for now

Jo xx

DAY 28 - Christmas Inspiration

Hello Again!

Well its day 28 (where has those dissappeared to !!)

Only 2 more days to inspire you and really trying to get to the 30 days without a blip!!!

Today I would like to share this with you ~

This is the Holly embossing set and I have used the corner part of the set - I have embossed it 4 times and matted it onto some cream card.  I have also highlighted the embossed area with Treasure gold.

I also embossed some craft metal for the centre square and I used the main 8" x 8" folder.

The Poinsettia is the Sue Wilson design and I have cut it in pearl red card stock and pinched the petals together using my tweezers to give it some shape.  I also sprayed them with some mica spray to give them more interest.

We have got the embossing folders in the shop to sell now so I will be making lots more samples to display, I love using them they give such a great embossed image.

A little ribbon and a flourish finishes the design off.

Please leave a comment to be in with a chance to win the Blog Candy at the end of the 30 days.

Thankyou for popping in,

Enjoy a lovely weekend and hope to see you again tomorrow.

Bye for now

Jo xx

DAY 23 - Christmas Inspiration

Good Monday Morning to you all,

Well, I don't know! just where did that weekend go again!! but at long last I am able to tell you my fabulous news!!

I will be returning to your TV screens this week Tuesday and Wednesday to be precise!

I have been asked by the lovely Steph to join the Tattered Lace team to demonstrate on C and C and I am delighted to be asked! 

As you know one of my many passions in craft is die cutting and I am chuffed to bits to be asked to demonstrate for such a very popular company.

My first outing will be on Tuesday at 6pm (unfortunately for those of you that don't have Sky it will need to be watched on your computer) this will be demonstrating the brand new dies from the Starlights collection which is the Craftinator being launched by Nancy tomorrow.

I am back on Wednesday with a 1pm and 4pm show.

I hope that you will be able to watch and are as pleased for me as I am!

Well, back to the matter in hand today.

It is Day 23 of my Christmas Inspiration and my offering today is ~
A little Black and White number!

This is another project made using the Sue Wilson dies and this time it is the Noel Christmas die which is the main focus of this design.  I have cut the die in black and kept the black and white theme throughout.  The icicles are a Spellbinder die and I cut this in both glitter card and black cardstock and offset them to look like a shadow.  The background is a Crafters Companion embossing folder from the vintage range.  I have also used Tattered Lace poinsettia collection to make a little flourish at the bottom right and added a little organza ribbon.  A few little gems and some glossy accents finished the project off.  I love a black and white Christmas card and really enjoyed making this one.

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at it and if you have please leave me a comment.

I have had a few enquiries as to how to leave a comment.  If you are not registered to Google and dont have a blog you can still comment.  Go to the end of the comments list and simply make your comment in the box and after that use Anonymous to post your comment but please make sure you put your name in the comment box after your comment to make sure I know who to get in touch with if you are the lucky winner of the Blog Candy!

I hope that makes sense!!
Hope to see you tomorrow,
Thankyou so much for popping in,
Bye for now
Jo xx 

DAY 17 - Christmas Inspiration

Good Morning,

Welcome to day 17 of my Christmas Inspiration.

Today is a card design using Tattered Lace embossing folders and dies.

 

I have used the snowflake 8" x 8" embossing folder to emboss the background centura pearl cardblank and I have also used it to emboss another piece of card which I have then coloured with Broken China distress ink.  I then covered this piece with double sided adhesive sheet and covered it in the smallest of clear micro beads.  The phtograph doesn't pick this up really well but it really does give a fabulous effect.  I have also embossed a circle with the Winter Wishes embossing folder and popped it into another Tattered Lace die (really sorry I don't have the name of this - but if you are interested please let me know on your comment and I will find out)

An organza bow really finishes it off.

I hope you like my offering for today.

I have some quite exciting news for you all tomorrow so please pop in again and I will be able to share this with you.

Today is a very busy day so must dash,

Please leave a comment and be in with a chance to win the bog candy at the end of my 30 days!

Thankyou for spending the time to look in on my blog,

enjoy your day whatever you are doing and hope to see you tomorrow.

Bye for now

Jo xx

DAY 10 - Christmas Inspiration

Hello Crafters!

Thankyou for popping by again today.  

We have a project using the Tattered Lace Christmas Embossing folders and this was a sample that was shown on TV when these were the Pick of the Day.

The embossing on the card speaks volumes - it is such a deep impression and to make it even more detailed I have used Treasure Gold wax to highlight the gorgeous pattern.

What do you think?

I have used a Tim Holtz Poinsettia die to make the flower and sprayed this with mica to bling it up a bit.  Ribbon and a flourish finishes off the design.

Do you own any of these embossing folders - if you do I am sure you will agree they are a joy to use.

Thankyou for popping by and please leave a comment to be in with a chance of some Christmas blog candy at the end of the 30 days of Inspiration.

Hope to see you again tomorrow,

Bye for now

Jo xx

Allsorts Challenge: Week No: 216 - Transport

Good Morning Crafters,

Here's hoping that this finds you all well and enjoying this fabulous Summer weather.  I know some of you are loving it more than others but it certainly puts smiles on everyone's face and everyone looks so healthy.

 

We are so busy at Let's Create as it is only 2 weeks today that we move into our new shop!!!!!  scarey what we have to do in this short space of time.  Today I had my last workshop in this shop and next week I can concentrate on getting the workshop area packed away - it sounds so much easier when you can't see what needs to be done!! Big thankyou to Denise (Box lady) for the fabulous chocolate cake to celebrate the last workshop (well any excuse for Denise's cake!)

We also purchased a new lap top this week - not by choice I might add - it died on us! we didn't have one for 4 days and you really don't realise how much you rely on your computer.

 

Anyway, back to the matter in hand.  Today's challenge is from our lovely Wendy and she has chosen

 

TRANSPORT

 

as our Challenge for this week and I have chosen something that we may not always look upon as falling under this category ........

 

A Pram!

 

I made this card for Pat and Geoff to celebrate the birth of their Granddaughter Lyla.  She is only a day old and proud Grandad has sent me some gorgeous photographs of his beautiful girl that he says he isn't going to spoil!!! whatever Geoff!!!

 

I have used the Tattered Lace Pram as the main image and layered it onto a Marianne die. We are stocking Tattered Lace now at Let's Create and I am loving using them. The background has been embossed using the Crafters Companion Patchwork A4 embossing folder.  Pat chose the colours.  The flowers and the beads are from Hobby House and the punch for the border at the bottom is an EK Success punch.
The card is an 8" x 8" size and I made a box for it too.

Please pop over to the Allsorts Challenge blog to check out the other Team members ideas for this Challenge. 
Thankyou for popping by and hope that you can make a comment and also take part in the Challenge.
Thankyou also to our Sponsors for this weeks Challenge prizes.

Must dash I have lots of packing to do.
See you all next week,
Bye for now
Jo xx