Last of the Hotjohndas................

Good morning everyone. Hope your hatches were all battened down with this wind...........it doesn't do to have your hatches flapping about in this.................talking of which........

Flash over the road has a skip in front of his house and has taken to putting stuff in it whilst wearing the fluffy dressing gown and Crocs. Its like russian roulette as to which gust of wind may waft the dressing gown northwards.................I know, I know but I can't help but watch.

A big splashy welcome to The Pond to Amanda from Flutterbies and Heffalumps. Thank you for pressing the button.

Thank you for your kind comments on my Christmas cards. I should mention that these are ones that I made and posted for last Christmas rather than being anywhere near organised enough to have started this year's lol!!!

Now today's card is the last of the ones I made for John's last Hotjohnda shows and I decided to go down the narcissus route rather than a traditional yellow daffodil. I have some lovely ones in my garden that are similar called Salome. The Daffodil Burst striplet stamp is stamped 3 times together with Versamark then brushed with the mica.

Ingredients

Cream card

Black card

Apricot card

John Lockwood Daffodil Burst striplet stamp (and sentiment stamp is John's too)

HC Sunkissed Fleur die

SB Scalloped Oval dies 

SB Carnation Creations die (for the leaves)

Versamark 

Yellow and pearl mica (mixed to tone down the yellow)

Black teeny bling

I did enjoy making this as I love my florals. It did pop up on a couple of the shows so I was a proud Momma lol!!!

At the start of a few days off, hurrah, so lunch with Nesta yesterday, a line of washing bobbing in the sunshine today (one of life's simple pleasures lol!!!) and a bit of crafting whilst my hair dries after washing that too (for those of you who have met me, you know that's not a quick process)

Keep yourselves warm and well and see you soon.

TTFN

Ang x

Shiny Happy Crafters..............

Good morning blogging chums. Hope all is calm in your bit of the world. 

I'm back to work today (boo hoo!) and doing extra days this week too (boo hoo hoo!) so with friends funeral on Thursday, its not going to be the best of weeks.

I was due to visit John last Wednesday for a catch up, exchange of Christmas pressies (yes, it had been that long) and possibly helping him prep for his Hotjohnda shows (yes, the channel has been re-named as he was on so many times last week lol!!!). However, during a chat on the phone the day before, his sniffing and coughing alerted me to the fact that he was not a well boy.

Now, friend he may be, but a germ ridden one at that, so I said I wasn't going to risk catching the lurgy by visiting and ending up spending the rest of my holiday in bed with tissues up my nostrils, sucking a Fisherman's Friend (they are throat sweets for those not familiar with the UK lozenge market and thinking I had an unusual cold remedy). But, as I had some of the stamps and dies he was using, I made some samples for John for the show to help.

These (and the Christmas pressies) were exchanged in a wet layby on the A4600 as John was en route to the studios so I dread to think what the parked up truckers thought as we ooohed and ahhhed over the bags and waving cards about (at arms length to keep away from the lurgy).

Now,this is one of the samples I made for John and a couple of you noticed its TV appearance.

Ingredients

Cream card base

Black card

John Lockwood Daffodil Burst stamp

SW striplet outer edge die

Acetate

CE double sided sticky sheet

Double sided tape

Gilding Flakes (a random box of mixed leftovers)

Ranger black archival ink

Teeny gold bling

Krylon Gold Leaf pen

I do this slightly differently to John and Sue but John did actually demo it my way on his last show. I stamp the acetate, let the ink dry for a bit, then stick the sticky sheet on top of the inked image. I find by doing this, the ink stays sharper as its, in effect, stuck to the acetate so it cant smudge or fade off.

I then peel the backing off the other side of the sheet and pop the flakes on. The acetate piece is recessed so to add a touch more flaking to the edges of the next layer, I just ran some double sided tape around the edge and gilded that.

A run around the bottom black layer with the gold Krylon pen finished it off.

Hope you managed to see John's brilliant shows. I will be featuring my other samples over the coming blog posts.

Right, busy week so onwards........................

TTFN

Ang x

The One That Got Away. . . . . . . . .

Good morning paddling chums. Hope you are all well.

I'm busy at this end working extra days to cover my boss's holiday and its bloomin hard work, especially when a child pees on the shop floor and the Mother just drags it very quickly from the shop, without bothering to tell me. I was somewhat suspicious of the speed of exit so went to investigate at the back of the shop and found the offending puddle.

Accidents happen but to just clear off without telling me is out of order. . . . . . . . mind you, I'm assuming it was the child, perhaps it was the mother lol!!!

Now, today's offering is entitled so, as this was the card that I did as a sample for John's stamp shows but it couldn't go on telly as the die I had used for the flowers was not available on C&C at that time.

I tried to capture the sheen from the mica that I used on the panel. . . . . . . . 

Ingredients

White card

Orange card (Lidl)

Yellow card (Lidl)

John Lockwood's Daffodil Burst stamp 

HC Sunkissed Fleur die (for the daffodils)

SB Carnation Creations (leaf die only)

A Striplet outer edge die (to cut the recess the panel sits in)

TST Elegance mask (embossed under daffodil panel)

White embossing powder

Versamark 

Yellow and orange mica

Sentiment from John's Cherry Blossom set

Orange bling

Sorry that the embossing didn't show up very well on the top photo but you can see it better above.

Its a shame it didn't get its 15 minutes of fame lol!!!

Had a lovely time at CE Towers last Thursday with John and his ladies and was a very naughty girl as I bought 3 of Sue's new Christmas dies (Bad Duck!!!) I also bought a few other things (very bad Duck!!!).

Back there again on Thursday for one of Sue's demo sessions (repeat, I must not spend more, I must not spend more. . . . . .) They were originally 1 hour sessions but have been extended to 2 hours, yippeeeeeee!!! I have met Sue a couple of times socially but never seen her demo live so I'm so excited. Any of you ladies going?

Before I tootle off, I think it was Jane who asked about the difference between commenting and following. If you click on the followers button, my blog will appear on your reading list so when I publish a new post, it will appear on your reading list straightaway. Commenting just means you can leave a comment on anyones blog but you will have to look for updates yourself. Hope that makes sense. Also, when us bloggers have little giveaways for various milestones (like my 100 followers recently) it tends to be for followers only.

Well, that's me off to put my feet up (its Sunday evening and I'm scheduling) as I have done Friday, Saturday and today at work. Got today, as you're reading off then back at it again until Thursday so apologies if I fall behind with any comments again.

Hope you don't mind daffodils in June and that this week treats you kindly.

TTFN

Ang x