Whats on in November?

November is the busiest month of my year. For the next 5 weeks I have either a class or a craft fair every Friday and/or Saturday. So I have been busy in the studio getting a bit ahead of myself. The blog will post every day for the rest of the month I have so much to show you.
Firstly and most important this years star book is finished. Big smile and happy dance here. I have been thinking about it since the seasonal catalogue arrived in my hands in August!
Today I just have the cover to show you, there are a few refinements I still want to make but it is complete. The theme is the Nutcracker story.

I am thinking of changing the sentiment from being stamped in black to stamping in versamark and heat emboss with gold embossing powder. Will have to try it and see what that looks like.

Pop back tomorrow to see the first page.

New hostess code for the month is RN723RGW      

For all those who spend online between £25 and £149 I will send you a FREE class pass for January. If you are not local I will send you a pack of 4 cards and instructions.

Butterfly basics in neutrals

For my weekly card and a cuppa I have been working my way along my stamp shelf. This week butterfly basics came out. I have used this many times with a variety of colourways but at this time of year I didn't want pink or yellow.

I decided I would go neutral. I have used crumb cake and early expresso ink.

















The first card  is almost a single layer card. Just the butterfly stamped on a bit of extra then fussy cut. The butterfly has a soft gold button with a bit of bakers twine. This would work with a range of coloured card for the butterfly....use your favourite.




















The second card I really enjoyed making. I stamped the flower onto crumb cake with early expresso then I have used an aqua painter to develop the colour on the flower and leaves. The fern is stamped with crumb cake but stamped off first. Because it looked aged I decided to follow this theme through by tearing the edges, there is a knack to this which is my taught technique for the session. I have used some very vanilla ribbon layered up with some of the black lace trim from the current seasonal catalogue. I looked a bit stark just on the early expresson base card so I have added a piece of newsprint from my stash.
I wonder what we will be doing next Tuesday.








Woo hoo its November so a new hostess code. RN723RGW 
Add this number to any order you place then in December I will have a small crafty gift for you as a thank you.

Scene boxes

Tuesday class today..... not cards this week. I have a couple of ladies who want to make halloween boxes like the ones I had made for the Queensbury makers fair. The other two ladies didn't fancy halloween, so I said I would create something else for them. Sticking to the curvy keepsake box I stalked pintrest until I was inspired. I found a little box with a little bird here It really inspired me as we have used the 'Best Birds' stamp set for a few makes which have been enjoyed. I changed this up to make it more seasonal by using the robin from the 'Cheery Chirps' stamp set in the current seasonal catalogue. So thank you to Brenda Quintana.

All the colouring is done with the marker pens. The edge of the circle I have added a bit of sparkle.

The second box is a straight case from Janina here That pesky penguin is back.

I love this, what would you put in the box?

Vintage Leaves

Its the half term holiday here this week. So I have planned a few childrens classes. Monday morning started with the vintage leaves stamps and dies. I spent a couple of hours last week die cutting leaves so they could get off stamping straight away. We had one colour of ink to each stamp no matter what colour card the leaf was. It worked very well.

Once they had stamped 4 or 5 of each leaf shape  we started on the hedgehog. I got them to lay the leaves out and start to stick from the outside inwards. Whilst they were planning and sticking I cut more leaves for the wreath.  The class was only an hour but we did overrun by 20 minutes. Such fun, they did really well.

On Wednesday we are decorating clipboards, the sewing on Thursday.

Christmas card with 'bling'

Another card for my bling series but without the Year of cheer paper.

I started this card using the 'thick whisper white' card, which I then embossed with the new 'Winter Wonderland' textured impressions embossing folder.  This is a beautiful embossing folder and I hope to make lots more cards with it. I am really just starting on christmas card making unlike last year , by the end of October I just wanted to do something not for christmas! Perhaps next year I will time everything properly.....
I then die cut one of the stitched oval framelits in white and stamped with versamark and embossed with copper powder. The sentiment is from the 'Merry Mistletoe' stamp set. The layers are finished with a snowflake die cut in gold foil using the 'Seasonal Layers' dies. I don't often use a lot of different sets but these layers kind of work..... well I think so.

Where do the days go?

I don't know where the days go its quite scary....
Tomorrow I have a stall at a makers market in Queensbury near Bradford. I have a lovely new make I really wanted to show you.
A few weeks ago I had a class where we decorated a plaque using the Painted Harvest stamp set. Well today I used one of my spare plaques for a christmas home decor item. Its the first outing for my 'Deck the Halls' matching dies. I still have the stamps to use, they are unopened and clean. Now inspired so next week they will be in use.

Christmas Year of Cheer 2

The second card using the lovely Year of Cheer deisgner paper, again simple but beautiful

For this one I have actually used 2 of the papers, the lovely check sheet and a slither of the snowflake one I used yesterday.

Then I have added one of the snowflakes, wow these are just stunning. half a pack silver, half a pack gold and they are white on the the reverse! 

Finally I have added another of the embellishments, this time a gold star. 

The sentiment is gold embossed. This sentiment is from the Sugarplum dreams stamp set which has a starring role in my star book. The star book is my traditional make of the year. Its nearly finished and I will be bringing you that later in the week.

Shopping
Year of cheer designer paper      144640
large snowflakes                         144642
year of cheer embellishments     144643
Sugar plum dreams stamp set     144908
versamark                                   102283
gold embossing powder              109129


Using my online shop is easy, either click on any of the numbers above and a new page showing that item in my shop will come up or click on the hostess code below and that will take you to my home page. Remember to use the hostess code below if your order is between £25 and £149 for your October gift.