Caturday: Bob

Handsome Bob may only have one eye but it doesn’t stop him playing hard. His favourite game is to chase a pen around the worktop at the cat shelter. You can see more of his pen-pushing antics at the Woodland Nook Blog.

Today is my Launch Party for the Spring/Summer catalogue and Sale-a-Bration. I have lots of new products to show people and there are Make & Takes to enjoy, too. At the time of writing I also have an array of cakes cooling!

Lotus Blossom FREE stamp set

Who here likes free craft supplies? Hmmm... quite a few I think. Free stuff is the best, and often because it’s sometimes not the sort of thing you’d normally choose. I always think you can take a bit of a chance with a freebie, because it’s not cost you anything. 

And, as you’ve probably noticed that I don’t make a huge amount of flower projects, I thought I’d break with tradition and get a floral set (I counted once and all but one of my floral stamp sets were freebies!). 

This is Lotus Blossom and you will be seeing lots of it in the next couple of months as it’s proving to be a REALLY popular Sale-a-Bration stamp set. You’ve heard of two-step stamping? This is THREE-step stamping, and it couldn’t be easier because this is a photopolymer stamp set, so you can see exactly where you are stamping. The stamp sheet is even numbered so that you stamp them in the right order. You see, it’s much easier if you start by stamping the darkest image first, working your way to the paler background. 

I’ve combined it here with Hardwood; a match made in heaven, I hope you’ll agree. If you’d like to have fun with this stamp set, you can earn it FREE when you spend £45 before 31st March. Click the images below to go direct to my online shop. And to get the lowdown on Sale-a-Bration, please click the banner at the top of the page. 

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Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

New catalogue and Sale-a-Bration, too!

I LOVE this image. I absolutely love goats and, after an all-too-short “llama experience” in 2013, I adore llamas, too. So when I saw this brand new stamp set in the Spring/Summer catalogue, I knew I’d have to knuckle down and learn to use those Blendabilities. 

It’s actually not at all difficult and I’m now a dab hand at colouring these creatures. Sometimes the birds are yellow, sometimes the llama is pale blue... whatever colours you throw at this image it seems to look right. Perhaps it’s because the llama looks slightly unhinged!

Here I stamped the image directly onto the DSP so that I could get all the fiddly bits without having to cut them out, then stamped again onto Whisper White for colouring with the Blendabilities. I’m not a fan of “fussy cutting” but I knew it would be worth it because I was blatantly CASEing this card, which I’d seen on Pinterest. Incidentally, I also Pinned this image because it’s so hilariously close to the stamped image that it makes you wonder if the stamp designer had seen it, too!

Oh, I just have too much to tell you all in one go, so I’ll stop rambling and cut to the chase: 

Spring Summer catalogue - is now live and available to order. Use the link on the right or click here to view.

Sale-a-Bration has begun! This is a fabulous time of fun and freebies for everyone. Just spend £45 to earn a free product. Host a party to earn extra freebies, or join my friendly team for all your crafting dreams to come true!* See what you can earn by clicking the link on the right or here.

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Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

* Depending what they are, of course. If your crafting dream involves Colin Firth, it probably isn’t going to happen.

Caturday: Mr Winky enjoys a treat

Caturday is back! I'm sorry I missed last Saturday, it's the first Caturday I’ve missed in nearly three years!

But I’m back today with an extra special picture of an extra special cat. Yes, it’s Mr Winky, enjoying a Christmas cat treat on the settee. Picture expertly captured by daughter, who was also administering the treat.

Celebrate your Big Day with lots of stripes... and cake

You know how some cards are really quick … you step back from the project and think “wow! I can’t believe that came together so easily!” 

This isn’t one of those. But it was fun to make and I am happy with the idea in principle, even though I would do it differently next time. 

It all begins with a piece of the Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper, which is FREE with a £45 order during Sale-a-Bration (begins 6th January). There are six patterns in this pack, all glossy white on white, which opens up a whole world of possibilities!

I couldn’t resist having a go at this fun rainbow effect, which involved seven ink pads, seven sponge daubers and almost a whole pad of sticky notes. What would I do differently? I’d make sure the centre of the image was coloured in yellow and orange, ie the paler shades, so that the main image showed up more clearly.

I stamped the images in Black Stazon which brings me to a note about Stazon and photopolymer.  My Big Day stamp set (the words and the cake) is rubber, so all is fine, but the balloons are from my From The Herd stamp set, which is photopolymer. 

Stazon WILL stain your photopolymer stamps which, quite frankly, I don’t care much about. But you must remember that if you clean your photopolymer stamps with Stazon cleaner, you need to clean them again to get the Stazon cleaner off them, otherwise it will damage them. Make sense?

Anyway, back to the card. The greeting is stamped onto a Window Sheet, and I’ve coloured behind it with  a Chalk Marker … the same one I used to draw the dots around the label image. 

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Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com