Sorry to any followers for not having posted for a few weeks. I've been busy with my Christmas cards most of which have been variations on those I've shown you before.
The one special card was for my son and family. Since my grandson likes flap books I decided to do a flap card which ended up as a 3 page book card.
Hope these pictures show it adequately . I used a selection of stamps from the creative stamping magazines and an embossing folder. Pages are shown with flaps closed and then open.

Then there was making special cards for the shop - the only type I sell at Christmas. I did 8x8 variations of the 5x7 cards I'd done before. The first one kept selling as soon as I'd made it.

Last week I started working on the new border and striplet dies from creative expressions, so those will be the ideas coming in the new year but for now there is a break from the shop and cardmaking while we celebrate Christmas with the family.
Merry Christmas to you all.

I've been busy with various workshops and card orders since my last post but I also managed to complete the board for the latest creative stamping "Labelled with love". We did the all day workshop on this yesterday and I wanted to take pictures of the different colourways that some people did but in the rush at the end didn't get round to it.
I concentrated on different ways with different types of glitter and metallic leafing but there were other cards using distress inks and papers from a creative cardmaking magazine plus of course various dies. I have been trying out different ways with the creative stamping striplet.
The pictures are not good - sorry! but hopefully will give you some ideas of how to use the magazine stamps of which we still have a number left. Thought it more important to get a posting than wait till I can do and post a better picture

Sorry there was no post last week and i only have a few things for this week having been busy with workshops.
 During our Stencil course I was asked about the sparkle texture pastes on acetate and the next two cards show this. An earlier card using trees can be seen if you go back a few postings

 
When doing pearlescent paste mixed with micas it didn't dry so we heated it for this lovely effect

Then some popular specials.

Got to post now as battery running out!!!!1

I was distracted from my plan this week by being asked to do a sympathy card. I set about looking at partially done cards/flowers to get these done then looked at variations of cards for an autumn / Christmas theme. These are some of the cards I came up with.

For these cards I adapted a style I had done earlier for this season

Wanting to combine stamping techniques with die cutting I tried these ideas. The bird is from Stampendous and the poisettia from Woodware. Creative expressions dies

  This one is awaiting the greeting - the holographic card has really caught the light here!

Sorry I missed last week, didn't have too much time to play and what I did wasn't finished so I'll make up for it this week.
I have been looking at new products in e.g. spellbinders scene, Vienna die from creative expressions and then for those who had purchased the pivot and accordian dies earlier this year I tried Christmas variations.
My results are just trying different ways with these dies so some will end up in "quick cards" workshop, others for "Specials" alongside those in my last posting and others in the "more ideas" workshop.

Simple backgrounds to the spellbinders die but trying to see what worked best.

 Below are some uses of the Vienna die - poinsettias get everywhere this year!!

The a couple of quick cards using the pattern part of the die

Just a couple of extra cards ( creative expressions tree & frame, Marianne snowman and deer)

 then the pivot and accordian dies we used earlier in the year

Well I'll see what  else I can come up with this week

This week I've been working on quick cards and special cards. I'm going to show you the specials today.
Some of these are new like the box card ( thanks to Sharon Bramley for the original idea which I have adapted) others are old styles but for those of you who haven't seen them before I thought I'd include them.
Dies used here are mainly Marianne but 2 are Cheery Lynn.

 These are my tunnel squeezy cards where the apertures get smaller to stress the distance

Another box style with new dies from creative expressions

My fold back aperture cards suit a variety of  adaptations

 The card below is the one we did with Jane Gill on the Woodware retailers workshop which is similar to my tunnel squeezy above but has a front cover

 Other types which fold flat.

This week I have been trying to finish the board for the Creative Stamping 19 " Classic Christmas". I still have a few of these magazines & stamps available for anyone interested. We do a full day and half day workshop using the magazine stamps - details on my website www.llindas.co.uk .
I try to use a variety of techniques with these stamps and some of the other new items in store like the tree pivot die. Others like the Christmas tree easel I show "how to ..." get the effect you need.

Over the last week I have been working on the "Stencils & Masks" workshop and the Christmas Creative Stamping. This week I'm showing you the "Stencils & Masks" - the other will be next weeks by which time I have hopefully used all of the stamps.
I started   "Stencils & Masks" with the intention of using the sparkle glitter pastes and inking methods as the main methods for the workshop but soon decided I needed to try other things so I did some " Molten Magic" and then ideas for the next Stencil course workshop where we are covering Pearlescent paste, translucent paste, crackle paste (but this card wasn't dry enough to finish) and Zentangle. I do love exploring different ways of using the stencils.

As promised I finished (?) the die cut board (but will try out more ideas later! since one could just go on and on). The tree pivot I have done in 3 ways - countryside trees, Christmas tree and quickie card - just to show the versatility of the die.  We then have some of the new Marianne dies with creative palette (stampendous) background. I've then mixed about dies from a variety of sources including the creative expressions dies.

 The trees have been cut from wood veneer on a roll (Woodware).

I really must get on with creative stamping this week. Last week I had 3 workshops and then when I put time aside I really had to play with the stencils instead!! so perhaps that will be next.

This week I have been working with some of the new dies from the Sue Wilson collection ready for Wednesday's workshop. I did have a panic on Thursday when my Joy Machine broke but Peter from Crafts too was very helpful and not only is he sending me the bits to repair the machine but  he managed to get a new machine out to me for Friday so that I could use it on the demo weekend. This time I have tried the crossover machine from Cheery Lynn which is designed for paper and fabric, so if anyone wants to see it do pop in.

The double glitter techniques works really well with PEACE and the stencil sheets from Woodware / stix 2 are really useful for this. The tree stamp has been transformed into a winter scene using stampendous embossing powders - chunky white and vintage blue tinsel. The die set works really well with shadow techniques - what I love about these dies is the different sized outline frame and the separate internal decoration. Words are Cheery Lyn. Cats are Marianne,

I have almost finished the other die cutting workshop board featuring the tree pivot and other new (& old) dies, so that will be my next offering. After that I need to work on the new creative stamping - classic Christmas set!