Christmas Stamps. . . . . . .Birthday Card

Good morning everyone..................me again.

No further developments to report about the snogging neighbour and The Family Flash. The problem with being home most days is that you see all this strange activity. Its far more interesting than TV lol!!!

Now, today I am back with one of John's show samples. I, like John, like a bit of value out of the old craft gear so I looked at John's new stamps and thought "can I get another occasion out of them other than Christmas?"

So, I ended up with birthday card.

Ingredients

Cream, beige, brown and ginger card

John Next Door Confetti Embossing Folder

John Next Door Build a Wreath stamp set

John Next Door Spring Flowers stamp set (sentiment)

Presscut Circle die 

Memento Dewdrop inks in Rich Cocoa, Desert Sand and Peanut Brittle

Cosmic Shimmer Berry Red Pearl PVA Glue

Gold coloured pearlage

To do the centre, I used a craft knife to cut around the sprigs and popped the circle die under the flaps and then cut the circle out.

Would make a nice Autumn or even male birthday card methinks.

Well, busy day today putting new stock onto the website and pricing stock for the pop up shop at John and my workshop at Ansty.

There are still some spaces available so if you decide to pop along, that's fine. Details are on mine and John's sidebars.

Have a great weekend everyone.

TTFN

Ang x

Holly Border. . . . . . .

Good morning guys and gals. Hope this finds you well.

It was a busy day on the website Tuesday after John's show. Hopefully, some of you lucky folk got your goodies yesterday and have been having a play.

This is another one of the samples I made for John. I love the combination of cream, black and gold on cards. A classy trinity methinks.

Ingredients

Cream and black card

John Next Door Christmas Textures border stamp (available on my website)

John Next Door Build a Wreath sentiment stamp (available on my website)

Spellbinders Labels 28 dies

Black Archival ink

Gold marker pen (available on my website)

Pearls (coloured gold with the marker)

Black bling

I did cheat and edged some cream card with the gold marker as I had used the marker on the berries and I wanted the same colour for the layers. Its a really lovely rich gold colour pen.

I used the Press To Impress again to do the border. It really is a handy bit of kit.

Had a nice Thai lunch and catch up with Davey yesterday. We both had the Pak Tod and the Pla Rad Prik (Maureen, don't go there................its fish!!!). Yummy.

Smiles with a good friend and a line of washing in the sunshine........Happy days!!!

Nothing more to report from the House of Flash. Hopefully with things getting a bit nippier round the Trossachs, it may prevent any further exposure issues.

However, new (noisy) next door neighbours who are renting from our old lovely neighbours could be a source of drama.

We have seen a chap, who we assumed was hubby in and out and taking the (extremely noisy) kids for bike rides etc but think he works away.

Then I saw the woman sharing tonsils with a fella in the back garden, who wasn't the husband.............there may be trouble ahead.

On that note. I shall bid you adieu.

Have a great Thursday.

TTFN

Ang x

Stagnificent Silhouettes. . . . . .John Next Door is Back

Good morning one and all. 

This morning heralds the launch of John Next Door's latest goodies to add to his already fantastic range of products.

John is on Hochanda today at 8am and 12pm showcasing these new products.

Needless to say, the new stamps and media plates are now available on my website too, along with some other new products (click on the link on the sidebar to be taken to the website). If you order before 3pm, these new beauties could be in your craft room by tomorrow!

Now, I was lucky enough to get to play with the stamps and made John some samples for his shows. This is a brilliant set and it made me get all inky again lol!!!

Ingredients

White card

Blue textured shimmer card

John Next Door Festive Silhouettes stamp set (available on my website)

Variety of Izink inks (available on my website)

I tried to make the sky a little Northern Light-ish. A simple card, I know, but hopefully effective.

Hope you manage to see the shows as I am sure that John will have some interesting cards and techniques to share.

As John would say, enjoy!

TTFN 

Ang x

A Rose from Daisy's. . . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope all of your ticketys are boo.

Welcome to Sam who has pressed the "follow" button and hopefully not by accident lol!!!

Have been busy making samples and making room for next weeks delivery of John's latest goodies for the website. I will be sending a newsletter to those of you who have kindly subscribed to the website as I have some other new bits and bobs.

Thank you for your kind words about my friend's Dad. Sadly, its not something that is going to get better.

Now, today's card is another sample I made for Daisy's Hochanda shows last Wednesday. Like a donkey, I forgot to label them for Jo as I forgot other folk had done samples too so they were quite prominently on display but I wasn't mentioned in dispatches lol!!!

Ingredients

White and pink card

Daisy's Spring Flowers Stamp set

Daisy's Fancy Florals Mask set

Memento Dew Drop inks

As most of you know, I like to use masks for embossing rather than stencilling and that's what I did here. I then used a cotton bud to apply ink to the embossed rose.

Hope you managed to see the shows as they do some lovely MDF too.

Well, its all been quiet on the Flash front but this week, Mrs Flash decided to get in on the act again.

I was getting some bags out of the boot when she strolled across the road from a neighbours house, in a short dressing gown, with bare legs and slippers and without any chestical support. Now, I like to keep a reasonable size in that department as I find that it helps having gravity pull the wrinkles out of my face but it looked like she had a loose sack of spuds stashed.................actually, maybe she did lol!!!

I have left my front door in a dressing gown on occasion but only as far as the bin and under cover of darkness, even though its a very fetching red and white fluffy M & S one, but this time of year, I like to keep a Hobbit like coverage to keep the legs and feet warm.

They obviously share a love of exhibitionism. I have seen her in a similar outfit on the street before but you hope its a one off so that the image doesn't burn into the retinas lol!!!

That's me for now as have Diwali cards and a 70th birthday card I need to make for this coming week too. That'll be about 25 cards made in a week and a half. I know Wendy (Spanish Crafter) makes that many in a day but its a lot for me lol!!!

US GP this weekend so a couple of late-ish nights ahead. It would be such a shame if Hamilton had a mechanical problem...............shi shi shi (done in a Muttley stylie).

Have a great weekend and hope Brian doesn't get you..........that's the storm not a mad neighbour lol!!!

TTFN

Ang x

Daisy's On Hochanda Today. . . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope you are all ok?

I am feeling back to normal (well, as close as it gets for me anyway).

Now, Daisy's Jewels and Crafts are back on Hochanda today at 3pm and 7pm with Jo Austin and I have made a few samples for the shows.

There are stamps and stencils on offer so I hope that you can tune in.

Ingredients

Cream and purple card

Daisy's Magnolia Greetings stamp set

Presscut Ovals dies

Memento Dew Drop Grape Jelly ink

Purple teeny bling

Hope that you don't mind shortish blog posts at the moment as I have some samples to make for Mr L and also a very dear friend of mine has a very sick parent at the moment so my thoughts are elsewhere a lot of the time.

I will try and make sure that I don't get too far behind with blog visits too.

Hope you can catch the shows today.

Be good.

TTFN

Ang x

Starry Starry Night. . . . . . . Paint Your Palette Blue & Grey (Well, Silver)

Good morning everyone. Hope this finds you bright eyed and bushy tailed (or as near as you can get).

Thank you for your comments on my last card. I really enjoyed making it as the scraper foil board really is lovely to work with. I now stock it on my website if anyone is interested.

Now, on today's card, I have also used a few items available on my website, namely the Starry Night die, the snowflake die set (now back in stock), double sided sticky sheet and the "snow".

Ingredients

White, peacock blue pearlised and silver mirror card

Double sided sticky sheet - as used by John Lockwood (available on my website)

Starry Night die (available on my website)

Snowflake die set (back in stock on my website)

Snow (a few bags left on my website)

Iridescent glitter

Blue bling

I cut the Starry Night die 4 times and cut the border edge off each of the die cuts. I then used the cuts to form a frame on some double sided sticky sheet with the reverse stuck down on to white card.

I then added the bottom snowflake to the sticky sheet and then sprinkled with a mixture of "snow" and iridescent glitter. You can see a little bit of the sparkle on the above snap.

This is an A5 card but you could trim the die cuts smaller to make a smaller frame. Its also not just a Christmas die as you could have stars on a birthday or thank you card.

The Christmas pile is getting a little taller, thankfully, so I hope I won't be rushing last minute this year...............who am I kidding lol!!!

The remnants of the cold are still lurking but its nearly gone. I did see Mr L for a very lovely breakfast last Thursday and then met a friend (since school days) for an early tea on Friday so at least its been nice getting out socially again.

I did have fun with the "snow". I had tapped all the excess from the card onto a piece of card I use for glitter, embossing powder etc and then promptly sneezed!!!

I have been finding the stuff for days lol!!! I think its a bit like sand.......finds its way into all nooks and crannies hahaha!!!

On that note, I shall bid you a happy Sunday and hope the storm that's heading this way doesn't affect you.

TTFN

Ang x

MAWTT Challenge 56. . . . . . . . .

Good morning everyone. Hope all is well with you and yours and you're enjoying this unseasonably warm weather.

On the weather theme, its time for this month's challenge for Team A over at MAWTT and the lovely Zoe has chosen the theme of 

Autumn/Fall

Now, as John has been scraping recently, I remembered the scraper board picture that I did for John's samples some months ago, here and went ferreting through my craft stuff to find the rest of the copper boards as I thought that would be Autumnal.

Ingredients

Black card

Copper scraper board

Embossalicious Falling Leaves embossing folder

Red and copper paper (wallpaper sample I had in a box of scraps)

JND Winter Trees stamp (stamped in white ink onto the board then scraped)

Picket Fence DI

Fine grade sandpaper.

I have had a few enquiries through my website about the stuff John uses. The scraper card I have used is a different product than the one John uses.The scraper board I use is actual card but John has been using foil paper that has to be spray glued to card.

I have ordered some of the card I use for my website, rather than the paper, as I wasn't sure that folk with dexterity issues would want to be spray gluing.

It will be sold in packs of 2 (same as the paper) and I will retail it at the same price that I would have sold the paper for. Also, I will be stocking the copper as well as gold and silver.

I will send out a newsletter to those who have subscribed to the website as soon as they are in stock.

Hope that you can join in at MAWTT or at least pop over to see what the other gals have been up to.

Hopefully meeting up with Mr L for breakfast today, now that I am slightly less germ ridden. Whatever you are up to today, hope that its enjoyable.

TTFN

Ang x

Up and Under. . . . . . . . . .Not a Tribute to Eddie Waring!!!

Good morning everyone. Hope this finds you well.

I haven't had a great weekend as the cold, which had started to improve, triggered chest issues again but feeling better yesterday.

Busy doing some samples for Daisy's as they are on Hochanda next week........it keeps me off the streets. I've even done a bit of messy crafting with pastes and masks, whooda thought lol???

I have also succombed to the delights of a Press Too Impress. John has been extolling its virtues for weeks and I had managed to resist. However, after goofing up stamping a large stamp on a sample twice, I reached to my store stock shelf and took a Press Too Impress off it............it was either try that or pull my hair out.

Well, I am well and truly converted. Its brilliant and I only wish I'd listened to John earlier (don't tell him I said that). Its great for doing my dib dabbing on floral stamps.

Now, back to today's card. This is one of the samples from John's JND launch shows (told you I had done a few lol!!!).

Its kind of a take on triple stamping but double and undulating.............you know I have to be different.

Ingredients

Cream and black card

John Next Door Quattro Mask - Drops (used to emboss)

John Next Door Summer Flowers stamps

Black pearls

The central panels undulate up and down and down and up, which I think you can see on the above photo.

Busy week again with samples, blood test, dentist and doctors but hoping to catch up with a friend I went to school with. We try and meet up once per month to put the world to rights.

I will be back on Thursday with this month's MAWTT DT card so until then, be good.

TTFN

Ang x

Ps...........for those of you not subscribed to my websites's newsletter, to celebrate one month of the website being up and running, there is some new stock and a couple of special offers, one of which is 10% off when you spend over £30 (and of course, that would mean free postage too for that spend).

More new stock coming shortly.

The Duck Returns. . . . . . . . .With Fruit

Good morning guys and gals, hope you are all well. I say guys, as I have to say welcome to Henry who has dipped his toe in The Pond. Thank you Henry!

Apologies for my absence but I have been hidden under the duvet for the past few days with a nasty cold (I'm not sure that there is an un-nasty cold but you know what I mean lol!!!).
It was my own fault for opening my big beak at the doctors on Friday.

I had gone to get my last blood test results and was very happy to be told that my thyroid had improved, my B12 had improved, my cholesterol was good, no sign of diabetes and the anaemia was gone..........hurrah!!!
I then asked if I should have the flu jab as the receptionist had mentioned it. After discussion about benefits against risks (there was a potential problem with the anticoagulants) it was decided I wouldn't have it, as I also joyfully proclaimed that I hadn't had a cold for over 12 months..............then it was all downhill from there.

I woke up Saturday morning at 4am with a raging sore throat and by 8am my nose was running like a tap. Needless to say, I didn't get to Stoneleigh (sorry Karen and Anne). I stayed under a blanket watching the GP Qually on Saturday and same on Sunday for the GP. By Monday, I was feeling rougher than a badgers chuff and coughing like Steptoe.

Finally feeling a bit better now and glad that this time I didn't end up in hospital.

Now, on the unwell note, I remembered that I hadn't shown this card that I made for blogging buddy Darnell a couple of months ago when she was having to have another operation. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it now. 

Ingredients

White, yellow and green card

Sentiment typed up on the computer

Foliage die

Lemons made from oval die cuts trimmed into lemon shapes and embossed with a small embossing tool 

Sorry about the lighting on this last photo.

This is very CAS for me but anyone who knows Darnell knows that she has an amazing sense of humour and is a very funny lady, so it only seemed fitting that I should send a humorous card.

After the 18 months I've had, its a good mantra for me too lol!!!

Hopefully, that is normal blogging service now being resumed. 

Didn't get to see Mr L on Saturday either before he jetted off to Greece. Hopefully its nice and warm and he's making good use of his Speedos.

That's me for now, so until next time, be good and stay well.

TTFN

Ang x

Ps............new stock arriving at the website this week and special offers too so, those who have subscribed to newsletters, keep an eye on your inbox.