Three in a Row

Good morning,

I hope you are enjoying the warm weather, I know some people don't like the heat, but I love it!  I am pretending to do some gardening, I like to be outside in this weather, so I have a pair of secateurs with me and am doing a bit of dead-heading (but not too much, mostly it is sitting around!!)

Flowers seems like a relevant theme for a card..
This is a landscape DL card, with three elements across, I like doing this sort of layout.

I started by stamping #151 Layered Domino by Tracy Evans with Distress Oxide ink .
Stamp the three flowers from #70 Quirky Blossoms also by Tracy, across the centre.  I also stamped them on a previously made background and cut out the heads only to attach over the top of the images on the main card.
Round the edges, I added some inking through stencil #28 and some texture paste through stencil #39 Lotza Dotz both by Abs.
The words are from the Quirky Blossoms set.
Thank you so much for dropping by.

Janet xxx

I did it!

Good evening!

I have had a fairly lazy day today following all the excitement of the last few days.  On Saturday morning I did my first TV show on Hochanda, representing AALL & Create.  I had been really quite nervous in the few days leading up to it, but on the day, I was strangely calm and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.
My demos went fairly well, apart from having a dried out inkpad (which had worked perfectly well the previous day!!) and losing the die (which did panic me a bit, but I found it in time, thank goodness!!!)
I have had lots of lovely messages from people saying they enjoyed the show, so thank you so much if you sent one, I really appreciate them.
Thanks also the the Design Team, for their support and encouragement, it is such a lovely team to belong to.  Thank you to Olga for making so many fabulous samples for the show, I hope I showed them all!
Finally a huge thank you to Abs for all his help, support and encouragement and for having faith and trust in me to represent AALL & Create on TV.
Here are the samples I made for the show...

Thank you for visiting

Janet xxxxx

Exciting news!!

Good evening!

No cards tonight, this is a photo of me at the Hochanda studios with Abs.  I was there for the 2nd Anniversary shows a few weeks ago.  I had a lovely time and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.  I asked Abs if I could tag along to see what went on because on Saturday 17th August at 08.00, I am going to be demonstrating for AALL & Create on Hochanda!! I am so happy and proud (and a bit terrified!!) to be representing this awesome company on TV.

You don't have to talk to me for long before you realise how much I love this company, the ethos behind it, the stamp designs, the stencil designs and now DIES!!  Dies which match stamp sets!!  Yay!! No more fussy cutting!!  These dies are an absolute must have if, like me, you don't like cutting out!
So guess what I've got on my first show?  Dies!  and the matching stamp sets - how cool is that!

It would be lovely if you could join me, I like to be amongst friends!
Thanks very much for dropping by
Janet xxxxx

Floral Fence

Good evening,

I have been doing my workshop in Great Blakenham today, it is always lovely to get together with everyone.  I will blog the cards tomorrow and share some exciting and nerve-wracking news...

For now, here is another of my projects which I did for the ODS show yesterday.  A bit outside my normal area, I made a little fence by gluing lolly sticks together. I did a bit of background stamping onto the actual sticks, then stamped the main flowers on separate card, painted them, cut them out and glued them to my fence.

I used stamps #199, #200 and #210  all by Tracy Evans

Thank you for visiting
Janet xxx

Rainbow Butterfly

Good evening,

Well, it was an amazing couple of days for the AALL & Create team.  It was so exciting to be part of the team during the One Day Special.  It sold out overnight and was on extended delivery for the day.  Abs worked so hard before the shows to make it all happen and Tracy Evans was just the most awesome demonstrator.  The design team produced such a wonderful array of projects using the stamps and stencils.  I am so happy and proud to be a small part of this fabulous team.

This card is one of the projects I did for the show

Inspired by Abs and Tracy and the team, I am doing more mixed media sort of cards, but I still love clean and simple and when pushed for time, as I have been recently, that is where I turn!
I adore this butterfly which is in the Time Flies A4 stamp '#143 and I love creating rainbow colours, so I combined the two!
One of the reasons I was first drawn to AALL & Create is their stencils - I LOVE them!!
I like using them in a variety of ways, but for this card, I just did the basic sponging ink through the stencil.  This one is #61 Circle Chain by Aida, a lovely design of circles and splatters, perfect for a clean look.
I just used ink colours of the rainbow for the design across the card, then stamped and cut out the butterfly on separate card and coloured with similar rainbow watercolours.  The sentiment is from #199 Eclectic Stems by Tracy.

Thank you so much for visiting, I have lots of samples still to show, so come back soon!
Janet xxx

Pretty mathematical

Good evening!

It is getting exciting in the AALL & Create camp as we are looking forward to the very first One Day Special launching on Friday 9th August, Abs will be there with the lovely Tracy Evans who will be demoing with some of her fabulous stamps.  The show times are:
Friday 9th August at 6.00pm and 8.00 pm Saturday 10th August at 9.00 am 1.00 pm and 5.00 pm.

The DT have been having a lovely time making samples for the show and there are some amazing creations for you to see!

My card tonight is one from the 2nd anniversary show Abs did a couple of weeks ago.  I enjoy putting together something pretty with something industrial or mathematical...

Nothing too clever here, just stamping..
I masked off a square in the centre of the card and stamped #30 round the outside of the square and # 29 on the inside. (both by Bipasha)
I edged the square with a black pen
I stamped , coloured and cut out the flowers from #195 Flowers and Gears by Olga.

Thank you so much for visiting, I am happy to report that my cat's eye has improved considerably and we now have to administer drops every 4 hours instead of every two hours, which is a relief for us.  I am hopeful her eye will be saved, although her vision in that eye may be impaired...

Don't forget to tune in for the ODS on Friday...
Janet xxx

Butterflies and Bees

Good evening,

I am on the all night shift again tonight!  One of my cats has a really nasty eye ulcer and the treatment is for her to have antibiotic drops in her eye every two hours including overnight.  Fortunately there are two of us, so we are taking it in turns to do the nights!  Tonight it's my turn!  I know from the days I used to be on call overnight in the blood transfusion lab that I function better the next day if I just stay up all night rather than getting an hour's sleep then being woken, then another bit of sleep and being woken, so I will be up until 03.30 then Simon will do the 05.30 drops because he gets up to go fishing.  Then me again at 07.30!!  I have crafty things I can be getting on with, so if you notice some weird samples from me in the next few weeks, blame sleep deprivation!  (I will be using that as an excuse for some time to come hahaha)

My card tonight features the beautiful stamp called Exterminati Sunt #81 by Olga with some background elements from #10 by Autour de Mwa

One of my favourite techniques is overstamping with several colours of ink, which is what I did here.  I use a stamping platform and add several colours  of distress ink to the stamp, spritz with water and stamp.
Allow to dry a bit, then ink with black versafine and stamp again.  I love the effect this gives!
I added several elements into the background and used the fabulous little blocks from #10 to edge the card (I think these are my favourite stamps in the set....oh and I love the circles...and the triangles...ok so I don't really have a favourite, I just love them all!)
I stamped and cut out one of the butterflies and the numbers on a separate piece of card and added them in place.

Thanks very much for visiting
Janet xxxxx

Understated Sewing

Good evening,

One of the things I love most about AALL & Create is the originality of the designs, especially those by Bipasha.  I love all the little details and the wording mingled in with the design.  They are lovely stamps to use if you just want to stamp in black and not do much else.

For this card, I did a subtle background starting by brushing ink through stencil #70 Diamont Life by Olga
I stamped # 203 Fly High by Aida in a pale colour
I used a black ink pad and clear embossing powder for all of the stamps in set #27 by Bipasha (I had practised the layout on some rough paper before I did it on the main card)
I used a grey pencil to put in a bit of shadow round the images to help them stand out from the background a bit.
At this point, I liked what I had done, but didn't quite know where to go with it until I thought of using the fabulous little blocks in stamp set #10 by Abs.  I love this stamp set!  The background elements are so useful, and in this case were just what I needed!
For a final touch I added white texture paste through the circles in stencil #22 by Abs
A few splatters and some ink round the edges, and it was done.
I used stamps and stencils by 4 different designers in this card and love the way they all work so well together.
Thank you so much for visiting, I hope you all have a great weekend!
Janet xxx