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.

Flowers and Snowflakes

Ideas on flowers and snowflakes could intermingle hence the reason I've put them together but once you get started on them it's difficult to stop.
Dies here are from John Next door and creative expressions. ( I forgot to say last post that the bird dies were from Creative expressions)

I do like John's idea of stamping a sheet and then die cutting all in one go as with the poinsettias, although a couple are from the dies without the stamps.

The deer came with the snowflake frame so that cuts across 2 of my planned workshops.

A little bird told me....

…. that Christmas is coming and there are lots of birds around to share it - robins get everywhere stamps and different dies, Then there are the doves which went well with background dies and the special effects paints.

Oh dear... there's a lot of deer around this year

……..and so lots to do with deer stamps and dies.
As you can see I kept trying different backgrounds with the Woodware deer stamps, including lots of ways with pixie powders.
Then there were the dies - "John Next Door " provided the dies with which again I had lots of ideas to play with …...and I still keep thinking of more!

These feature in next weeks workshop - could be Tues afternoon or Weds as advertised, (since I 've been asked to swop Tues for Weds)

Creative Stamping 62 - Winter Woodland

These magazines do seem to be coming round quickly! We have only just done workshops on last issue and now I've had the next one to prepare. This time I've looked at using embossing powders in different ways with the stamps as well as using them with some of the new dies I have been working with.

Lots of other boards are being prepared simultaneously as I plan workshops for the next few months so should have lots more to show soon

Creative Stamping 61

I loved the flowers on this issue which as you can see I've used a number of ways.

Foam flowers and FMM clay flowers

I have been using the foam mentioned earlier for some more flowers and have a workshop this week using them. I thought the clay flowers ( shown earlier ) would add to these although there are many die cut ones we could also add.

The picture frames are done with the special effect paints mentioned on my last post.

Clocks, cogs frames etc with special effect paints.

I used the cosmic shimmer special effect paints initially on photo frames, plant pots etc as seen earlier. The photo frames can be seen with some of the flowers on my next post. I then started usung them with the clocks and cogs, liked the effect so moved onto card frames and lots of new Christmas dies. The results so far are shown below...

More things we find in our gardens

I have had a great time with this. I used the John next door gerbera pop out circle ( my current favourite die as you can do so much with it) as well as the Bee Balm stamp and die set. I also looked at using the flower foam and JND clock die. I also looked at using the IZINk glitter paint with metal stencils.  All in all there is plenty for at least 2 workshops here.

The above is 2 variations on the same idea

creative stamping 60 AUTUMNAL TREASURES

This seems a little early as it includes Halloween which I don't usually cover but I did make an effort with a couple of cards
The 3 leaves have been done different ways - just inks, powders, inks and clear powders.

Things we see on our holidays

I started to plan this before finding out that creative stamping had a similar theme, so I used the new woodware stamp for seagulls and beach huts as planned and the castle from a recent issue of creative stamping that I hadn't done a board for, and then looked at what else we had that would fit in and where I still had products in the shop to sell.

Things we see in Our gardens

This workshop centred on solid flowers from Woodware coloured with various inkpads, the dragonfly media plate from JND, the new glitter texture paste from Adaline with butterfly stencils and the daisy stained glass from creative expressions where I have paper pieced the flowers etc.

Along the bottom are other things we see in the garden from previous workshops but where I still have the products to sell

Cie Cut & Emboss - free gift workshop

I have taken one set of nestabilities that will do flowers and an embossing folder and thought ( and still thinking) of different ways of using them. The designs make various flowers as well as using them as you would other nestabilities.
For those that come to the all day workshop (cost £25) you will get £27 worth of goods that we will use, to take home with you.

CS59 Summer holidays

Here's the first draft of cards done with this new set of stamps

GO WILD

The set of creative stamping stamps for GO WILD have proved very popular. Here are some of the ways I have used them along with trying out the free IZINK pad that came with the  magazine. For anyone who purchased this and the previous mag I have found you get a nice shade of green mixing the two pads together. The John Lockwood media plates were good for reflections - and of course there was lots of masking using the woodware MASK IT sheets

3D Flowers

 I have used a lot of things here
firstly there are some cards  - 3d ones are very good for those special cards even if they are no good for posting

I then tried playing about with FMM clay flowers and some cutters. Not a brilliant picture for capturing the different flowers but it gives you a feel for them

and then I looked at previous projects where I had used 3d flowers

Stencils

I am doing a free gift workshop day where everyone will get at least a stencil and a mask plus a coloured embossing paste and then we will look at lots of ways of using these., some ideas for this are shown below.

cosmic shimmer special effect paints

I tried these special effect paints on a variety of articles as shown. they have sand in them to provide texture.
The box was using another new paste with mini masks

In the countryside

This workshop covers both foliage on different backgrounds and die cut farm animals, tractors etc (creative expresions dies). The fields have been done in a variety of ways papers, inked. gilding polishes etc.

The sheep and cows on bottom row are from stencils.

Cards for men

 There have been a lot of ideas for men on the last two issues of creative stamping but I thought I needed to look for something else. I know you have seen the stained glass windows before but I thought they fitted in well here. The Good sport creative stamping didn't have football in so I've included cards done with this woodware stamp as well as the woodware wine stamp. More boats with the sailing boat stencil and glitter kiss, and the galleon stencil and pastes. The guitar was a stencil and silver paste but the background is stamped and inked
.

CS56 A Good Sport

I found coming up with ideas for the latest creative stamping magazine difficult as I am not at all into any sports. Walking is my only form of exercise!
Anyway with around 12 sports to cover these are what I came up with.

some need modifying a bit but that can be done workshop time.

All sorts of Home

Stamping clarity house with media plate backgrounds, colourful woodware stamps, mushroom stampendous house was the start of this workshops cards. After that it was the city scene from Creative expressions and a window / door frame that  we also used last year. I am also working on a windmill but that's not finished at the moment.

The funky houses at the bottom are greyboard shapes that have been decorated and put on a painted background. The middle dark card was where I was practising with cosmic shimmer patina effect paints

Assorted Flowers

I've been busy trying to get some new workshop boards started but having been suffering with a really bad cold for the last 2 weeks progress has been slow.
The flowers this time have included a solid stamp image form woodware which I have tried with different inks - so 1 set is using oxides and another IZink. I plan to try other when time allows to show differences between the inkpads.
The die is the poppy frame from creative expressions. This frame is lovely for any flowers as well as the image that comes with the set.
I then treated myself to a foiling machine and used some of the practice samples as backgrounds for more flowers.
Looking at new ways of using the stencils with inking and stamping over

Happy Easter

Ok so this should have come out a few weeks ago but I have been so busy I just don't seem to have had the chance so to wish you all a Happy Easter I have the Easter board and an additional card done for my sons family.

You'll notice some of the Easter board contained spring flowers from an earlier workshop but they seemed appropriate