Very quick post about Craft Supestore which is a great crafting website that I have ordered from a few times over the last few months. Everything I have ordered has arrived quickly and they always send an e-mail to let you know when the parcel will be delivered and give you the chance to change the day if you will not be at home- great for those of us that aren't at home every day. They have a great range of products, regular offers and good prices. There is also a loyalty points scheme that gives you points for every item you purchase and you can use those points whenever you like.
I have just received the new summer 2012 distress inks (because I clearly need more) and another brilliant We R Memory Keepers 12x12 ring bound leather album. It's the 4th one I've bought recently and they are all lovely- I'll blog some pics in a few days. They are just perfect for my style of scapbooking/photo taking!!!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sincerely Yours, Lincoln- May 2012
Visited the Lincolnshire Showground today for the Lincolnshire, Sincerely Yours, show. Was pretty impressed on entry as there were lots more stands than at the last one in October and lots of big companies/shops too. Managed to pick up a few new goodies, and with a holiday coming up soon, I'll hopefully get a chance to use them! Need to get some cards sold too ready for a possible trip to Kanban in a couple of weeks! Anyway, todays purchases...
Started off with a good bargain, picking up a 'skater boy' stamp at the reduced price of £3.50. It's about 3 inch sqaure and will be perfect as a topper for some slightly different cards (I think it came from the 'Honey Doo's Crafts' stand but can't be sure!)
I did invest in a set of 'rock a blocks' but not the Crafters Companion version but some by Imagination Crafts (the stencil people) instead- basically they were cheaper at £10.99 per set for a very similar product. When I've had a chance to try them out, I will report back just how much difference they have made to my stamping. Got those from the 'Little Claire' stand who also had some lovely stamps.
The next purchase was a really beautiful metal embossing stencil from the 'The Craft Station' stand. It is of a 3 tiered cake with flowers flowing down one side. There is also a small shower of hearts from the top of it. Definitely worth £7.99 and will make some lovely wedding cards.
I've been looking for a new craft mat for a while, mine is black & that really doesn't help to keep my cards clean when I can't see the inks that are all over it! Most of them were retailing at about £5 but I got mine from 'Designs by TabbyKat' as theirs was only £4.25 for exactly the same product!
Also got 2 other items from the 'Designs by TabbyKat' stand- a new set of 6 Summer 2012 promarkers in some fabulously bright colours (£9.75) & The Card Hut 'Garden Sheds' cd-rom (from the makers of the mimic creations cd I loved so much) for only £15- particularly like it as it has lots of black & white images so I can try out my new spectrum noir colouring skills!
Every time i've been to the NEC for the last couple of years, I have tried to get a cog mask/stencil that I want to use for my (still to be completed) Take That 2011 scrapbook. When I saw one on the 'Ali-Craft' stand today, the usual rules of price comparison went right out the window and it was bought there and then! They were on offer at 3 for £9 or £3.40 each so I got the cog one I've needed(!) for so long but also a rather fabulous crown & a Union Jack design too.
Final purchases came from the 'Meiflower' stand which was anotated on my map simply as RIBBON!!! They always have a brilliant selection of silk, organza & grosgrain ribbon in various widths and pretty much every colour you could ever want- and all at really good prices. The silk ribbon I got, has 23m on a roll and was £1.50! Ended up with 24 different colours (from a choice of about 40) and the man running the stall was nice enough to give us a bit of a discount as we had bought so many! Also got 2 small plastic dummies for my 2011 Take That scrapbook!!! (that will only make any sense to a true 1990's take that fan!)
All in all, a good day with some great new stash to play with as soon as I get chance- half term soon but I really need to get some scrapbooking done as there's a visit to the Making of Harry Potter very soon and that is most definitely going to need to be scrapbooked and I have just ordered 3 lovely new scrapbooks/photo albums from Craft Superstore- I'll blog about those in more detail when they arrive (hopefully next week!)
The next Sincerely Yours show in Lincoln is in October but they have others around the country too. Definitely worth a visit to your local one as entry is only £3 if you pre-book and that includes free tea & coffee all day- bargain!
Started off with a good bargain, picking up a 'skater boy' stamp at the reduced price of £3.50. It's about 3 inch sqaure and will be perfect as a topper for some slightly different cards (I think it came from the 'Honey Doo's Crafts' stand but can't be sure!)
I did invest in a set of 'rock a blocks' but not the Crafters Companion version but some by Imagination Crafts (the stencil people) instead- basically they were cheaper at £10.99 per set for a very similar product. When I've had a chance to try them out, I will report back just how much difference they have made to my stamping. Got those from the 'Little Claire' stand who also had some lovely stamps.
The next purchase was a really beautiful metal embossing stencil from the 'The Craft Station' stand. It is of a 3 tiered cake with flowers flowing down one side. There is also a small shower of hearts from the top of it. Definitely worth £7.99 and will make some lovely wedding cards.
I've been looking for a new craft mat for a while, mine is black & that really doesn't help to keep my cards clean when I can't see the inks that are all over it! Most of them were retailing at about £5 but I got mine from 'Designs by TabbyKat' as theirs was only £4.25 for exactly the same product!
Also got 2 other items from the 'Designs by TabbyKat' stand- a new set of 6 Summer 2012 promarkers in some fabulously bright colours (£9.75) & The Card Hut 'Garden Sheds' cd-rom (from the makers of the mimic creations cd I loved so much) for only £15- particularly like it as it has lots of black & white images so I can try out my new spectrum noir colouring skills!
Every time i've been to the NEC for the last couple of years, I have tried to get a cog mask/stencil that I want to use for my (still to be completed) Take That 2011 scrapbook. When I saw one on the 'Ali-Craft' stand today, the usual rules of price comparison went right out the window and it was bought there and then! They were on offer at 3 for £9 or £3.40 each so I got the cog one I've needed(!) for so long but also a rather fabulous crown & a Union Jack design too.
Final purchases came from the 'Meiflower' stand which was anotated on my map simply as RIBBON!!! They always have a brilliant selection of silk, organza & grosgrain ribbon in various widths and pretty much every colour you could ever want- and all at really good prices. The silk ribbon I got, has 23m on a roll and was £1.50! Ended up with 24 different colours (from a choice of about 40) and the man running the stall was nice enough to give us a bit of a discount as we had bought so many! Also got 2 small plastic dummies for my 2011 Take That scrapbook!!! (that will only make any sense to a true 1990's take that fan!)
All in all, a good day with some great new stash to play with as soon as I get chance- half term soon but I really need to get some scrapbooking done as there's a visit to the Making of Harry Potter very soon and that is most definitely going to need to be scrapbooked and I have just ordered 3 lovely new scrapbooks/photo albums from Craft Superstore- I'll blog about those in more detail when they arrive (hopefully next week!)
The next Sincerely Yours show in Lincoln is in October but they have others around the country too. Definitely worth a visit to your local one as entry is only £3 if you pre-book and that includes free tea & coffee all day- bargain!
Friday, May 4, 2012
more 'Mimic' cards
I have been really busy at work and preparing for a big craft fair this weekend but have finally found the time to post some more pics of my 'Mimic' cards from the recent c&c pick of the week. This is a cd that I am really loving to use & even though it has a relatively short shelf life for some characters (Little Mix???) I've already got my moneys worth out of it!
Marilyn Monroe decoupage topper from the 'Mimic' cd with a Kanban 'music & dance' background card.
'Mimic' cd background topped with 'Weenicons' England footballers decoupage.
Doctor Who T.A.R.D.I.S. shaped card with 'Mimic' Matt Smith & Karen Gillan.
Michael Jackson 'Thriller' decoupage with a 'Rusty Pickle' backing paper.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
muted tones floral card
I've been trying to make some newer style floral cards as that's something I've been lacking in my stash recently. I've made a selection of 'modern' floral cards over the last few days.
This card starts with a simple 8x8 scalloped card that I inked with my 'dusty concord' distress ink. The backing paper comes from a DCWV 'latte' stack and I chose it because of the muted green shade. The flowers are an acrylic stamp from 'Little Claire designs'. I stamped the flower 3 times onto cardstock from the DCWV stack so that I had 3 different colours (brown, blue & purple) but all in muted shades again. The flowers were given a hint of extra colour by using my water brush to drag out some of the distress ink from the centre detail and the edge of each flower. After cutting out each flower, I used my embossing tool to create a bit of depth by embossing over the lines seperating the petals of each flower. I then rubbed over each flower with my gold 'memento' ink pad so they shimmer in the light. After attaching the flowers to the corner of the card, some flat & some with 3-d foam, I finished them by placing a new gold stripe 'card candi' in the centre of each flower.
Monday, April 9, 2012
'Gorjuss Girls' calendar cards
Went back to my roots with these cards.
I started my card making nearly 10 years ago with an old calendar and the idea of making cheap birthday cards for my family (as a student I needed to save my money for beer!). It's still an idea I sometimes use although my recent makes are much better that the originals!
May seem odd, but now is a great time to pick up cheap calendars (if you can still find them). I managed to get a large 'Gorjuss girls' calendar for only 50p from a local department store (well 4 actually). So far, I've made 10 cards using 2 of the calendars, some A3 card & some stickles glitter glue. They are all simply decoupaged cards with a hint of embellishment.
I started my card making nearly 10 years ago with an old calendar and the idea of making cheap birthday cards for my family (as a student I needed to save my money for beer!). It's still an idea I sometimes use although my recent makes are much better that the originals!
May seem odd, but now is a great time to pick up cheap calendars (if you can still find them). I managed to get a large 'Gorjuss girls' calendar for only 50p from a local department store (well 4 actually). So far, I've made 10 cards using 2 of the calendars, some A3 card & some stickles glitter glue. They are all simply decoupaged cards with a hint of embellishment.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
'Mimic' cards
The one serious bargain picked up at the NEC this year was a great cd-rom made by 'The Card Hut' who are a company I've never bought from before but this cd is ace! It contains a wide selection of backgrounds, toppers & phrases, all of which can be used to create your own base card, backgrounds, inserts, envelopes, decoupage, invertage, pyramage & toppers. There is a wide selection of characters on the cd such as doctor who, lady gaga, james bond & the a-team. You can also import your own pictures to create all of the things listed above from your own photos- plenty of fun to be had with Take That pics me thinks!
Anyway, here's a few cards that I've made so far- I've printed out characters only and also printed the twilight card background from the cd.
Anyway, here's a few cards that I've made so far- I've printed out characters only and also printed the twilight card background from the cd.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Hobbycrafts, Birmingham 2012- disappointing...
Went to the NEC over the weekend for the Hobbycrafts show, which is always a highlight of my year but, I must admit that, this year, I was a bit disappointed with what I saw.
As anyone who has visited the show will know, the stands are set out in rows with an aisle down the centre and each stand has a letter and number code. When I have been to previous shows, there have been enough stands to have them coded up to the letter 'j', yesterday the letters only went up to 'g' and that was only from about G1 to G3. Considering there are an average of 48 stands in each aisle, there were around 150 less stands than at previous shows. We had managed to walk round every stand writing down what we wanted to look at again by around 11.30am, when it would usually be closer to 1pm. It was, however, also very obvious that less people were visiting too- lots of stands had plenty of stock left towards the end of the day and there wasn't the usual squash to actually look at some stands (although the amount of people with motorized scooters or pushchairs(!) did still manage to make looking at some things difficult).
Lot's of big name brands were not there such as create & craft and polka doodles. It is obviously an expensive time for the retailer as I'm sure a stand is not cheap and the internet makes it possible for people to get the products without leaving home, but I hope this is not a sign of things to come as I much prefer being able to see a product in the flesh before I buy it.
That said, there were a small number of exciting new products to be had which I will post about in more detail later- nowhere near as many as in other years though- I actually came home with some money left for once!
As anyone who has visited the show will know, the stands are set out in rows with an aisle down the centre and each stand has a letter and number code. When I have been to previous shows, there have been enough stands to have them coded up to the letter 'j', yesterday the letters only went up to 'g' and that was only from about G1 to G3. Considering there are an average of 48 stands in each aisle, there were around 150 less stands than at previous shows. We had managed to walk round every stand writing down what we wanted to look at again by around 11.30am, when it would usually be closer to 1pm. It was, however, also very obvious that less people were visiting too- lots of stands had plenty of stock left towards the end of the day and there wasn't the usual squash to actually look at some stands (although the amount of people with motorized scooters or pushchairs(!) did still manage to make looking at some things difficult).
Lot's of big name brands were not there such as create & craft and polka doodles. It is obviously an expensive time for the retailer as I'm sure a stand is not cheap and the internet makes it possible for people to get the products without leaving home, but I hope this is not a sign of things to come as I much prefer being able to see a product in the flesh before I buy it.
That said, there were a small number of exciting new products to be had which I will post about in more detail later- nowhere near as many as in other years though- I actually came home with some money left for once!
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