A few flowers and updates on last 2 posts

whilst waiting for JND new flower dies to come in I tried doing a cyclamen from dies I had. Results below. Then the orchid came in but I only managed to capture one image before battery on camera went!

so more next week.

In the meantime I've added to the last two boards as new workshop cards have been done.

stamping with solid and multilayered stamps

On this workshop board I have used a number of Phil Martins solid stamps against different backgrounds - some inked and some with the backgrounds produced for last workshop ( not that they show off too well here).
Also there are the multilayed stamps from Crafts too - the lighthouse and the rabbit..

I've also included here another of the backgrounds made with pigment inks,which made a lovely scene but unfortunately my photography doesn't do it justice. Frame for John Next Door.

Shop and Workshop photos

I had Janie Berry in this week to take photos of the shop and ladies at a "Backgrounds" workshop where we were using pigment ink refills to create our backgrounds.

I have shared the photos between my website, facebook page and here.

To see more of Janie's photos go to
facebook.com/janieberryphotography  and
Instagram @photo_girl61  and photo_girl365

Backgrounds

My favourite background at the moment is that using pigment ink reinkers. They remind me of encaustic art pictures although there is not as much variation achieved as with the iron & waxes.
Unfortunately the photos don't show this to advantage and don't pick up the small details.
Other backgrounds include marbling with shaving foam and inks, paints with a type of gel plate,
cosmic shimmer lacquers, special effect paints, alcohol inks and gilding polishes.
These backgrounds are then used with die cut frames or solid black stamps.

The pictures below show full background  and a frame. The intention here being that when I do the workshop on these I can show moving the frame around to decide which bit of the background is best

Workshops can either look at producing many backgrounds of types decided by group of a few then used in finished cards

Christmas Specials

I recently had to sort some of my specials for a card order and having taken photos of them I thought I'd share them with you. Some of you may remember doing these on workshops over the last few years.

The last photo is from this year's collection with a Sue Wilson die

More crackers

I couldn't stop doing these last week and so decided to fill them with gifts to give away this Christmas. They were a great opportunity to use the dies I'd used on Christmas cards  this year as well as some peel offs and card from stash. I do still have loads of peel offs to sell also!

CRACKERS

I've had a great time using the cracker die and decorating it with many of the dies opened for Christmas. It also gave an opportunity to use the flowers from the foam and clay.
 The crackers can be used as pull crackers or as a special presentation box for a gift.
 At the opposite extreme to these my grandson had a great time making them, decorating with drawing, coloured peel offs and stamping on them, then of course there was choosing what goes in them (good job I'd saved unwanted cracker gifts from previous years!)

NOTE I haven't pulled them tight so that a gift can be inserted first.

There are December workshops on these if you wish to have a go or you can pay to cut a few for yourself.

the magic of Christmas

so  Ok this wasn't as magical as I thought when planning workshops. The original idea had been to use anything new that came along but in the end I'd opened so many products for other workshops that I couldn't afford any more.
The new items I did try were with  the foiling machine and one of the creative expressions stamps. Other items on the board were from last year but with dies I still had for sale and a new creative expressions stamp and die.
Anyone doing this workshop gets the choice of these or anything from the other boards.

Backgrounds

I have used various backgrounds made with inks, paints, crystal lacquers, pixie powders, glitter pastes and paints, sprays, marbling etc. these go well with many of the dies we are using this session and a few of the stamps.

CS63 The Twelve Days of Christmas

For this issue of creative stamping I looked at using different shaped cards. There is a double page of stamps to use, so lots of cards to do.

I like some of these stamps are a lot more than than others but I used them all as not everyone's taste is the same.