B is for Backgrounds

On Thursday 29th April, or Saturday 8th May, we're doing our second class in the Alphabet series (the first one is A is for Apple Making Day on Fri 16th April, it includes a recipe book make, places are still available, should you wish to partake in it).
Our 'B' Class is B for Backgrounds. Sample sneak peaks are below. 6 cards will be made, involving using background stamps, or creating backgrounds. It is 10.30am - 3pm and will be taught by Jennifer and Leanne (me!).
Hope you like! Happy crafting.

New goodies

Some new goodies arrived in today - a few essentials, that are not so interesting,but among the acrylic blocks and sticky ink pads, I delved straight for the box of embossing powders. My mum and I are very much clear embossing powder people - we tell people that in thick embossing powder the Blonde Moments colours are fab (they really appeal to the girly girl in me), but for normal powder, clear is fine; coloured ink is the essential with it. Until we saw the new 5-powder kits from Stampendous!.....

....on their website, it directed to their blog and there were videos showing how to colour images and backgrounds using these sets of powder. New computers, ipods, iphones? Naah, embossing powder's the new toy at the mo!

We have three colour options: Merlot, Rich&Rugged and Pastel Party. Available here.

My favourite is the Merlot:

...We also got some Stampendous! stamps in, available here. I am really tempted by this Ranunculus Field (I know, what a mouthful!) cling rubber stamp...

...but not sure whether to get this Spring Sprigs Cling (another tongue-twister!) instead...a sample and a bit of stamping play beckons.

Finally, I've been meaning to take a photo and upload these pretties for a couple of weeks now. They are the handiwork of the Boss (no, not Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer! The Crafty Heart herself).

This card is all made from the Persuasion paper from the Bo Bunny Persuasion Collection. We love papers that you can cut an embellishment from, and get your background from them at the same time.

These two below are from the Birdie Die Cut Paper in the Bo Bunny Love Bandit Collection. The Die Cut paper is really handy to make cards from; each corner can be used to make an interesting shaped card. On the first card is some Bazzill Basics double dashed ribbon, available in-store. It's a fab duck-egg-meets-turquoise colour, yumminess.
And on the second card Jennifer has used Love Bird stamps, and Martha Stewart Scallop Dot punch. It's now getting difficult to make a card without putting at least a bit of a Martha Stewart border on it :) Once you have a new stamp, paper, punch, it seems to get used on everything in sight :)
Ciao for now, happy crafting x

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Before I begin, I must first say thank you to all who attended our Grey and Grape Class last Thurs. T'was the first round, there is still another of this class, but to the first attendees, you were great, and was a lovely day. And you all did fabulously, even though some of you confessed to being beginners :) You could have said you were serial cardmakers, we'd have never noticed! It makes the job all the more worth it, when everyone is smiling, and concentrating hard, and leaves saying how much they enjoyed the day :)

Quite Contrary. The name of the new My Mind's Eye Collection of papers and embellies. There are little branches off it, called Jack and Jill, Mary Mary...so cute! We have some in the shop, and here are some quick samples we made, to have a taste of it. We combined them with new Hero Arts stamps, I am soo addicted to Hero Arts stamps (and stamps in general..stamp addict anonymous eat your crafty heart out)....

...both these cards below are made by cutting an a4 sheet of card lengthways, then taking one of the lengths and folding it in half. It is a5, but a thin rather than meaty one.

This is a strip of birds from

and a rectangle of yellow spots from

My Mind's Eye Jack and Jill Colorful Umbrellas Paper (the reverse). Wrap ribbon around the strip of birds paper and tie a bow, then stick the paper down on the spotty background.

This card uses the reverse of the

My Mind's Eye Jack and Jill Blissful Paper, which is the blue raindrops. stick a little rectangle on the card. Then take a rectangle of My Mind's Eye Jack and Jill Yummy Stripes Paper, making sure rectangle is a few cms longer than your card. Take a craft knife and cut your rectangle into several pieces by cutting diagonal lines at different intervals down the paper piece. First shape: cut the edge, so it looks frilly. Stick each piece on your card, starting with the frilled piece, overlapping the blue raindrop paper piece. You are reassembling your hacked-apart stripy paper, but skew-whiff, creating quirky stripes. Stamp one of the Hero Arts Classic Messages and the Hero Arts Row Of Houses on white card, using Adirondack Denim Ink Pad. Cut out, stick on.

Last Friday we changed the seasons in the shop, in a papery fashion...

Paper daisies in the window.

Our mural wall tree got new spring leaves :) And a few little blossoms.

A branch was added behind the counter.

With Bo Bunny Love Birds stamped and perched on it.

It's Spring hooray! Happy Spring everybody x

A little London trip

The last couple of weeks have been hectic, and now I finally have the chance to post a few photos of this hectic-ness. In each of these last two weeks, I made a trip to London (why twice? To see two different unis. They both gave out appointments on the same day, then changed it to a week apart, so made the trip twice).

The first trip I am posting photos of below. Did a bit of sightseeing. And also went to the Criterion Theatre at Piccadilly Circus and saw 39 Steps, t'was fab. I've saved the tickets and leaflet, and took photos of the theatre as I went in: the plan is to scrapbook it! I will do it...eventually :)

The second trip was more about shopping: Liberty, and all the others around Oxford Circus! The photos are still on my camera, so that will be a post on another day.

Grey and Grape Cardmaking Day tomorrow, Jennifer teaching and me assisting. Oo can't wait!

Spring is nearly upon us hooray, hope you're all having a good week.

I love the Underground...

Thank you!

Hello everybody,
This is just a quick note to say a big thank you to everyone who came on our open evening on Thursday, t'was a success, and we enjoyed chatting to everybody, and also thank you to the cake makers! The muffins and lemon cake were lovely. Crafting and cake is a good combination :)
So thank you and again, and I will be back posting again soon - I must put up some photos of London trips made in the past few weeks, and the samples made with the new My Mind's Eye papers that are currently in-store. They are lurrrrvely papers, with birds and raindrops and umbrellas and flowers.Mmmm.
Hope you all have a good week!
Craftybird x

Not long to go now!

Only three days 'til open evening, come join us on Thursday from 5pm 'til 9pm. Tea, cake, demonstrations, new products, free card kit with every purchase, and 10% off all product purchases. Mmm looking forward to the cake bit :) and seeing everybody of course! My mum and I have another date for a class taught by us: Friday 16th April, 10.30am - 3pm. 'Tis called 'A is for Apple' Making Day. The samples will be in the shop on open evening: a card, a recipe book and a door hanger in the shape of a cardboard apple. The recipe book is a swap book; attendees to the class each submit a recipe at least a week before the class, and we'll hand them out on the day, so everyone will go home with a recipe book filled with their recipe and 6/7 others. If you can, submit an apple-themed recipe, avoiding the typical apple pie (e.g. ours is Spiced Apple Tart yum yum). If not an apple one, then submit a favourite recipe of yours :)
My mum and I will be in London Tues and Wed this week, but the shop will still be open as usual on these days (although you may have to retain difficult craft-related questions until Thurs when we're back :D).
Hopefully see you Thursday,
Happy Crafting
Craftybird x