In Stitches with Amy!

Hi there
Oooooh I can't believe it, I had a surprised phone call from Reena at Topaz last week asking me if I would like to go to the Stitches show at the NEC, well after one second of thought yes was the answer! my bags were packed even before I put the phone down LOL:)))
I travelled down with Amy (Shaw) and I had my first Starbucks with her, she couldn't believe it that I had never had one! On the Saturday we had a Ranger workshop booked, we made 3 canvas's - couldn't believe how well organised it was. I sat with Amy, Lindsay & Dot who was a lovely lady and funny too. The first canvas was Tim's, I still keep on admiring it- looks fab! the second one was by a Lady called Dyan Reevely and wow I do like her style very different indeed, I've started to follow her blog mmm think a trip to Harrogate is needed! and last but not least a Claudine Hellmine style by Tim, Claudine was unable to come but Tim did his best to keep it to her style not one bit ov grunge insight he did very well!
I managed to get a picture took with him and asked him to sign my canvas, it's very hard to get near him as everybody else was! then when I was able to speak to him I froze don't know why, but he probably thought who is this strange woman! lindsay did tell him I had made one of the configuration boxes for QVC it had a few bits of his range in but I tried to show that you can but anything in it- I don't think that he was convinced as it was a Tim Holtz show!
In the evening we met up with the owners of stix 2 Bryan & Ruth and their sales team. They are such lovely people and the stories they were telling they had me & Amy in stitches! Dawn had said to me that Bryan was the Vinnie Jones of the crafting world and he drinks pink champagne! they made me feel very welcome condsidering they didn't know me from Adam, thanks for looking after us.
On Sunday we spent the day walking around all the stands at the NEC,  I've got to see loads of new techniques and products that are out there. We met up with Lindsey and saw her fabulous stand, the ATC's looked fab! I've managed to take a few photos to show you :0)

Me & Sir Tim!



Mario & Dot



Amy at PI stand



Lindsey hard at work as usual lol!



Dyan Reaveley & she does have inky fingers!

One of Dyan's journaling pages

Tim's configuration box - loved this

Tim's canvas that we made at the workshop

Claudine stlyle canvas by Tim - needs a bit of something else to it and the wired smoke is missing!

Dyan's canvas - Quirky!

My baby girl Stella in her upside down world :)))

 Well that's it for now hope you are all well, take care Elx

Grunge book swap

Helllooo there :)

I've finally started Shelia's grunge book swap which I have joined. I've started the steampunk pages first so I can return Shelia's stamps to her this Saturday that she very kindly let me use. I've no picys as yet but when I am happy with it I will post some.

I hope you all enjoyed craft day on QVC I did quite a bit of work for Dawn and this is what my craft room looked like by the end!   





A friend of mine said it "looks very busy", so l reckon that there is no such thing as a messy craft room's they are just busy!:)

Here is a picy of my fairy doors that I made at one of Lindsey Mason workshops

When I finally got my crackle paint right, I always seem to put it on too thinly or too thick! I really enjoyed making this and a great day out as well :)

Hope everybody is well and have got over their colds and flu's
Take Care
Elx

Hi there

Well I've done it........(drum roll) I finally got Mr G to make a card for his Grandma's 70th Birthday! she loves anything Elivs :)

oooh look at the consentration :)

a crafter in the making me thinks!

I've recently been on holiday in Scotland, lovely time of the year with all the colours of autumn, here are a couple of picy's :)

Me (ninja) & Stella

Stella - she loves to play on the beach x 

Bud - worn out, bless x

Hope you have enjoyed looking
take care
Elx

Tagtastic!

Helloo
Well judging by the title I've been making some tags, never had ago so i thought i would! I hope you like them x

I've also finished of my matchbox shrines which i made at one Lindsey Masion classes

Sorry not the best picys:( but loved making these:)

This is one I made at a class with Sheena Douglas, simply but very effective love her inky style :)

Christmas Cards

Hello there ;)

I thought I would put some christmas cards on that I have made as samples for Topaz, now & again I do some work for them for QVC. Each card has different techniques, some of them are simple and some of them have more detail to them.



On this one I have coloured the image with promakers, distress the edges, then used clear thick embossing powder over the image, let it cool then cracked it and inked over the top to make it look aged.



I've used a vintage sepia ink pad to stamp the image onto cream card then, water coloured some of the features of the face to enhance it and then lightly distress the edges.

This is a nice & easy card - with just simple stamping, matting and layering.

Again nice and easy, highlighted the face with some colour, then distress the edges with Tim Holtz ink pads and sprayed a shimmer of colour over but unfortunately you can't see it :(

This one doesn't really show up very well, I've stamped onto textured white card, distress the edge with Tim Holtz, then distress the edges with my scissors and embossed the edges with antique gold embossing powder.

With these two cards above I have coloured the image with promarkers, then distress the edges with Tim Holtz, the love card  has a shimmer of colour over the top but unfortunately you can't see it, hopefully it might show on tv- fingers crossed x

This image has been stamped with vintage sepia on cream card, then using the crackle glaze from the Tim holtz range then I've rubbed over with coloured ink to distress it more.

These two cards are done very simply, the bottom one has been embossed using gold embossing powder, but the colour of the card looks very different to what it actually is, I hope it doesn't look like this on tv x







I hope you like these samples, these stamps are foam backed stamps & they stamp beautifully if you've never tried them give them a whirl :) 

Happy crafting
Elx

Something for the men

This card I made for my sister- in- laws boyfriend who is in his early 20's and he's not particuarly into the " normal things" that are out there for men,  I'm always on the search for different stamps so I was chuffed when I found a series of them. Even my brother-in- law Phil, is thinking of having this as a tattoo! Elx

Hello there!, I've been able to catch up today on alot of projects that I've been fiddling with. Everything has taken a while as I had the mad idea of decorating a few rooms at once, well that god I've finished and life is kind ov returning to normal apart from 1 or 2 bits that still need to be done but I think I can persuade Gareth to finish it of for me (fingers crossed hehe):).
These 2 scrapbook pages I've made at Topaz with Jane I'm thinking of framing them and hanging in one of the rooms I've decorated the picture doesn't really show the colours that well but I hope you get the idea.

This is the Ranger mirror that I did with Lindsey over at Topaz, it was a complete mad day as we did 2 classes, I haven't yet finished off the the matchbox shrines but that is on my list to do tomorrow. It was nice to catch up with everyone including Shelia who was making us all laugh :))

Again I'm afraid not the best photo, but for whatever the reason of the computer world this is the only one it will let me upload - strange things!
Good luck to Shelia with the grungy book swap can't wait to get started :))))))
El x