Tomorrow Last Day of In Store Sale

Saturday 1st January is the last day of our MASSIVE in store sale, we will be open 10am-4pm. We've got some huge reductions around the store and everything in our sale room has been greatly reduced.

And if you haven't been over to see us in the last month you will find the journey so much quicker now that all the roadworks have been completed. I timed it from the M1 to the store - it took only 8 minutes (a huge improvement on the 20-40 minutes it used to take).

Next Wednesday is our in store project club and we still have some spaces for the 1-3pm group. We will be using the new stamps from our show on Create & Craft next Friday. If you would like to join us it is only £5 but please call to book your space.

In Store Sale Starts Wednesday

Our MASSIVE in store Sale starts on Wednesday 29th December at 10am. The In store sale continues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 1st January 10am-4pm.

The in store sale room will be open plus huge discounts around the store.

Our online sale is continuing with 20% off everything, enter Promo Code XMAS.

20% Off Everything

Enter Promo Code (not discount code) XMAS and then click on the little gold icon, your discount will then show in red on the screen. But don't worry if you are having problems, you can place your order and then call and we will apply the discount for you.

Custom Stamps, Gift Vouchers, Stamperama Tickets and the lastest Stampington Magazines are excluded from this sale.

But everything else is included - even the items already reduced in the Special Offers and Clearance Sections.

Sneaky Peak 2

This is the other 2 of our brand new unmounted rubber stamp sheets featuring in our C&C show on 7th January.
Music unmounted rubber stamp sheet

Daydream unmounted rubber stamp sheet.

Sneaky Peak No.1

Remember I mentioned our new Create & Craft show on, well here is a sneaky peak at some of our new stamps being featured in the show.

Da Vinci unmounted rubber stamp sheet.

Vintage No.1 unmounted rubber stamp sheet.

B.O.G.O.F. on Nunn

Buy One Get One Free on all Nunn Design Products.

Just enter BOGOF into Notes/Comments box and we will manually add an extra one of each (same or similar) absolutely FREE. This will not show on the screen.

Nunn make some amazing metal embellishments like Ribbon Slides, Flowers held on with brads and of course Patera jewellery pieces.

This offer is for a limited time and only while stocks last.

New TV Show

We have just been given a filming date of Friday 7th January on Create & Craft - less than 4 weeks away.

We will be using our 2 Domino Sheets from earlier in the year plus 4 new ones - the new ones will hopefully in my grubby little paws by the end of the week.

I am then going to post some out to DT members in the hope that, against all the odds, they might be able to squeeze out a few cards before 7th January. Surely most people are going to be sitting around at home over Christmas with not much to do!

Bailey's 5th Birthday

Today is my son's fifth birthday, do you remember being so young and soooo excited every time you had a birthday - no, I'm struggling to remember as well. He woke up before his big sister this morning, which is very unusual, eager to open his presents. We only allowed one before breakfast and we are saving the others for when I get home this evening - it may sound cruel but otherwise they would never have got to school on time.

So to any of you out there having a birthday this week - HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Sorry I've no cards to post up at the moment, I have been busy working on other things and have some exciting news to share with you tomorrow.

Hope you have a good (and snow free) weekend.

Gift Vouchers

Remember we offer Gift Vouchers in multiples of £10, so if you want to make sure you get exactly what you really want for Christmas make sure everyone buys you Stamp Addicts Gift Vouchers.
You can then come and spend them in our SALE or use them anytime throughout the year, even at shows.

Teddy Bear

Good morning
This Teddy Bear is from our new range of wood mounted stamps, currently only available in store. But if you do decide to visit us you will find the journey so much easier now as the new dual carriageway is now open from the A1 right the way through to the M1 (j13), so traffic in all directions is moving so much faster (no 40mph speed restrictions). You just have to remember to turn off the new A421 at Kempston.

We are open 10am-4pm Tuesday through to Saturday. If you would like to visit on a Monday please call to check we are here (occasionally we like a day off!).

Artwork by Lesley.

Large Fairy

This is the larger version of one of our new fairies. Currently only available in store on wood.
I believe Lesley coloured her with Promarkers & Copics.

Partridge in a Pear Tree

This is the large Partridge in a Pear Tree from our unmounted selection. This stamp is also available smaller on static cling or wood mounted.

Lesley stamped the tree in brown ink and then coloured over the pears in green to highlight them.

Child Angel

Have you finished all your Christmas cards yet? I've managed 2 so far . . . . oops! This is our Child Angel mounted on static cling cushion.

Artwork by Vicky.

Baby Bear

This is Baby Bear from our new range of stamps. The bottom half of the card was embossed with the dots embossing folder.

Artwork by Vicky

2 New Fairies

These 2 new fairies are currently only available in store, wood mounted. If we get chance this week we will make some more unmounted and put them online.

Coloured with Lyra Polycolour pencils.

Artwork by Lesley.

The Boy Santa

This little boy dressed as Santa is one of our new stamps that you can find online here. If you look closely you can see on the background is our new Fancy Snowflake embossed in Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder.

Stork & Friends

This is Stork & Friends from our new range of stamps. In the background is Rocking Horse, stamped with a dye based ink and then using a waterbrush pull some of the colour across his mane and tail.

Artwork by Vicky.

New Fairies

This Fairy is from our newly arrived range of stamps and she can be found online here. The Happy Birthday is here but if you want the co-ordinating frame which is mounted on wood you will have to call us or visit the shop.

Artwork by Lesley.

New Road Opening

According to our local paper the new A421 from M1 Junction 13 to Bedford will be opening on Wednesday 1st December - this should make the journey to us from Milton Keynes so much easier and quicker (and obviously vice versa should I need to do a bit of Christmas shopping at The Centre MK).

Fingers crossed that it all goes according to plan because it is perfect timing for Wacky Wednesday, late night shopping and our Project Club as these are all taking place on Wednesday 1st December.

So if you would like to test out the brand new A421 we are open on Wednesday 1st December 10am-9pm

FREE GIFT

FREE GIFT worth over £10 with every £25 you spend online or in store before end of Sunday 28th November.

Check out the new section on our website here where you can find all our new unmounted stamps, new designs being added daily.

New road opening - apparently the new A421 from J13 of the M1 to us will be opening on 1st December - so fingers crossed this happens as it will make the journey a breeze.

We 3 Kings of Orient are . . . .

Another of the Stamps Unlimited stamps in store.

For this card Vicky has simply embossed the image in Gold Twinkle embossing powder.

Trains

This is one of the Stamps Unlimited Train stamps that we now have in store (remember 20% off if you purchase before the end of Saturday - on all Stamps Unlimited and Rubber Stamp Craft wood mounted stamps).

Lesley coloured both these images with Distress inks. The detail on these stamps is amazing.

Unmounted Wise Men with Camels

Unmounted Wise Men with Camels stamped in black onto a background created with Alcohol inks.

Lesley created this card the same way but used different colour alcohol inks. Did you notice the little bits of white pen used to highlight some areas?

Unmounted Dancing Reindeer stamped onto white card and coloured with chalk pencils. Artwork by Vicky.

Unmounted Three Kings embossed in gold and coloured with Tombow pens. Artwork by Lesley.

Unmounted Snowy Village

Unmounted Snowy Village stamped 3 times and coloured with Tombow pens and a touch of glitter. Artwork by Lesley.

Unmounted Snow Village embossed in black and layered onto a black background with white embossed snowflakes. Artwork by Vicky.

Special Offer Launch Week - 20% Off

In store this week we took a huge delivery of stamps from Impressions Picture Stamps and Rubber Stamp Craft - to celebrate we are offering 20% off all of these wood mounted stamps until Saturday 27th November - these are only available in store.
But we have made some of them into unmounted designs which you can buy online (sorry no discount).

Unmounted Holly Tree embossed in white onto blue vellum.

Unmounted Reindeer Couple stamped onto brown card, coloured and cut out.

Artwork by Lesley.

Destination Videos

I've just added all the demonstrations and artwork from our Destinations show to our website. You can view them all here.

In these videos I use Kew Gardens cube, Seashore Cube, Paris Cube, London Cube and Egyptian Cube 3.

So we now have over 100 videos on our website, hopefully these will inspire you.

Cardmaking Weekend March

After the success of our Christmas Cardmaking Weekend last month we have added some more dates to our calendar and our next Cardmaking Weekend (not Christmas) is on 5th & 6th March.

Places are available to book from 10am today and are on a very limited basis as the weekend is being held in the classroom at our store.

The cost of the weekend is £99 and includes cardmaking on Saturday 5th March 10am-6pm and Sunday 6th March 10am-5pm.

To book a space on this weekend please call us on 01234 855833

Christmas Cards

Lesley made these cards using 2 of the Printworks Unmounted clear sets Q056 Holiday Season and Q026 Happy Holidays.

Both of these sets are reduced to only £6.99 but unfortunately only one of them has made it on to our website, we do have them both in store.

Have a Jolly Holiday

Both these cards were made by Lesley on her last Tuesday Coffee Morning, using the Printworks wood mounted Jolly Holiday stamp or the unmounted Jolly Holiday set.

Lesley hosts a Coffee Morning every Tuesday 10.30am-2pm where you can come along and see what she is creating and have a go yourself or just pick up some useful tips. You can also swap ATCs with Lesley.

Pastel Snowflakes

Lesley made this card using the Opaque Stazon Inkpads and a selection of JudiKins Snowflake stamps.
The Snowflake cube has been stamped using the stazon onto acetate and then layered onto blue paper.

Opaque Stazon Inkpads Reduced.

This is the Printworks G3611 Love In Your Heart Snowman. He has been stamped in Archival black ink and coloured with Tombow pens.
The background is JudiKins Xmas Tree Border stamped in Blush Pink Opaque Stazon Inkpad.

And a JudiKins Snowflake stamped in Soft Lilac Opaque Stazon Inkpad. We currently have all these Opaque Stazon Inkpads reduced from £7.75 to only £3.99.

These inkpads come as a blank pad and a re-inker bottle so just ink when you need to use it.

The creased card has been stamped with Dotted swoosh in Memories Soft Silver inkpad.

Artwork created by Lesley for this weeks Monthly Project Club.

Hep Santa Stamp

More Special Offer stamps JudiKins 2706H Hep Santa reduced to £6.99 and 1314D Seasons Greetings reduced to £2.99.



Artwork by DT - Michele

Ornaments Stamp

This is another stamp just added to our Special Offers Section. This is JudiKins 2999H Ornament Border which has been reduced to £5.99 plus JudiKins 2704E Retro Merry Christmas reduced to £3.99, while stocks last.

It has been stamped using Blending Blox and highlighted with the Marvy Xtra Fine Silver Metallic pen, which was also used to create a border.

Happy Christmas Stamp

We have now added a selection of overstocked Christmas Stamps to our Special Offers section. This is the JudiKins 3359G Happy Christmas stamp which is currently reduced to only £4.99, while stocks last.
The Happy Christmas has been embossed with Red Embossing Powder onto vellum, the Funky Xmas Pattern is in the background.

New Design Team Members

Congratulations to our 2 new Design Team Members:

Esther Peck - blog here
Janey Pye - blog here

We will be sending them some stamps to play with very soon.

Welcome to the team ladies.

Lesley's Sunday

Well it's my final day in The Purple Zone. Thanks for joining me. I hope I've given you a few ideas for those last minute Christmas cards. Here's a simple card to finish: Using the Scor-It board I've made a gatefold card and covered it with two embossed panels on the front. The 'dear' little chap was stamped directly onto reindeer coloured cardstock with just his nose and bow coloured with a Tombow pen. He was cut out and layered onto two scalloped oval punched shapes.

Bye for now. Normal service will resume on Monday with the return of Sarah.

P.S. Happy Birthday Vicky!

Lesley's Saturday

Oooh I've got a day off today. Jo will be in the shop so do go and say hello if you're in the area.
I've got four more cards to show you all coloured once again with Lyra Polycolours. I do love colouring in don't you?

In this first card I'm showcasing my absolute favourite Christmas motif, the gingerbread man. I have been collecting gingerbread men stamps for years and this is probably my favourite. The three little gingerbreads are layered over a background stamped with the parcel/holly/candy cane trio. I've also incorporated a border stamp which I use a lot to divide the card into different areas. Printworks produce many border stamps and I find them very useful.
As said in Little Women, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without any presents. This card features some very funky Christmas gifts. They are available on a wood mounted stamp or an unmounted set. Recognise that colour combo? Hmm. However, it looks just as good in sepia tones on cream card.

The final cards feature the little Printworks babies encased in the JudiKins Snowglobe.

Back tomorrow for the final time with a little reindeer. Right, time for some housework.

Lesley's Friday

We're turning on the twinkle today with the Printwork Wheelbarrow decorated with fairy lights. I've hand drawn the string using the infamous Zig Millenium pen and stamped the lights at random. Nestling inside is my favourite Frazzled Cat guarding all the presents. This took a bit of maksing with Eclipse tape but I thinkg it was worth it. The Santa Hat has been stamped separately and attached to Frazzled Cat. Now for a traditional red and green theme. I've used all these great Stamps by Judith sticks and stubbies to fill the wheelbarrow with Christmas greenery. The DeNami Merry Christmas has been stamped on cream card and then punched out using a 2.5" punch. This has been decorated with the SBJ Holly stubby and hand drawn berries.

Everything has been coloured in using Lyra Polycolours. If you haven't tried these yet give them a go. They are artist quality coloured pencils which will lay down a really intense pigment. Available in sets or single colours.

Lesley's Thursday

I knew it wouldn't get too far into this blogging session without introducing the colour turquoise. It's my favourite go to colour whatever the season. I keep trying to wean myself off it to no avail. I particularly like it partnered with greed and red. If you haven't used this combo before give it a whirl. By the way I'd love to know what your favourite colour combinations are.This first snowman is so cute, all muffled up against the cold. He has been coloured with alcohol-based markers and then layered onto white, turquoise and red card all using a spellbinders die set. I do like to use these die cut shapes for layering, it makes the finished card more interesting.

A similar colour combination was used for this next card. The snowman's body was cut using punches. My most used crafting tools are 2.5" and 3" scallop circle punches. They are always on my crafting table. I just find them a bit quicker to use compared to getting out the cuttlebug mats, dies, etc. By the way the Snowman's gloves have been attached using twisted copper wire. Everything was coloured with Tombow brush markers.

This last card will please Sarah as purple is her favourite colour. A giant winter moon was punched from glitter paper and laid over a purple base card. The snow hill was hand cut and the snowman layered over the top with foam pads.

Join me tomorrow when I'll show you how you can turn the Printworks Wheelbarrow that you've been harbouing in your craft drawer all summer into something Christmassy.

Lesley's Week

Hello everyone, Lesley here. I've hijacked Sarah's blog for the next few days whilst the Stamp Addicts team are at the NEC. Do pay them a visit if you can and check out Vicky's fabulous mobile. No not a phone, I mean a hanging mobile made from the Pear stencil.

You can purchase the Pear stencil at the show. Don't forget to take your key fob if you are a Stamp Addicts Member.

I thought I'd show you a few Christmas card ideas using stamps from one of my favourite companies, Printworks.

The first one uses a cute Snowman coloured with alchol-based markers, layered onto a Nellie Snellen die cut. I love this die set. It's a little different from the usual scallop dies without being too fancy.

The base card has been embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder. We have some really nice Christmas ones to choose from in store.

Love in Your Heart Snowman

The second card features a Poinsettia which has been stamped twice onto a card scrap and coloured with distress reinkers (Barn door, worn lipstick and curshed olive) and a waterbrush.
I like using the re-inkers in this way and also to make my own customer multi-colour inkpads. This is what I have used to stamp the leafy flourish.

Simply cut a square of cut n dry felt (not foam) and drip the re-inkers on to it in a random fashion. Store in a zip-loc bag and it will stay wet for months.
You can see another example of this technique being used on my card in the Best of British supplement included with this month's Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine.

I hope you can join me on The Purple Zone again tomorrow when I will show you some more of Printwork's snowmen.

Lesley

Blog Hijacking

Tomorrow we are off to the NEC Hobbycrafts show, we spend all day Wednesday building the stand ready for the doors to open on Thursday. If you are planning to come to the show I would recommend Friday as this is usually the quietest day, but wear your comfy shoes as there is lots to see - make sure you come and see us at the show as we will have some great bargains for you.

Whilst I am away I know Lesley has plans to hijack my blog so please come back and take a look each day. I've had a sneaky peak at some of the artwork she is going to share with you and it is totally fabulous so you will be spoilt rotten with inspiration during my absence.

Apologies for the lack of artwork over the last few days. I've had Judi & Rob of JudiKins staying with me and we have been very busy working on new stamps as well as attending the Suffolk PaperCraft Show, so I've had very little online time. But we are very pleased with what we've come up with and should be able to share them with you in a couple of weeks.

Bury St Edmunds

Today we are preparing for the Suffolk PaperCraft Show in Bury St Edmunds tomorrow (Sunday 31st October). Come and see us at the Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre, Beetons Way from 10am.

Judi of JudiKins will be running our Make & Take, for only £1 you can make an EcoArtBoard Brooch.

For more details about the show visit the Suffolk PaperCraft website here.

JudiKins are here

Judi & Rob have landed. They left LA on Tuesday evening and arrived in London yesterday afternoon, anyone that has ever made this journey knows how difficult it is to stay awake past 6pm. So it was up to us to keep them awake until at least 9pm so they could wake up this morning feeling refreshed with as little jet lag as possible.

Well, Rob & Judi love watching movies and having spent several hours catching up on family and gossip we decided to watch the movie Avatar - I've never managed to watch this one all the way through so did not realise how long it was!

The movie was brilliant and although they had already seen it in the cinema Rob & Judi did manage to stay awake throughout the whole film. But and this is a big but, it didn't finish until nearly 12.30 which is an unusually late night for me (and very late for them considering they have hardly slept in 2 days) - so late in fact that I didn't wake up until after 8am this morning and I almost never do that!

We will be going into the shop today and should make it there sometime this morning so if you want to drop in and say hi to Rob & Judi they would love to see you. Or if you are coming to the show in Bury St Edmunds on Sunday they will be with us, we've even managed to persuade Judi to run our Make & Take.

It is already 9am so I better go get dressed and attempt some work.

Hope to see you later.

Pear Reindeer

Of all the Some assembly Required Pear animals I think this is my favourite, I do have a soft spot for reindeers.

We will have these hanging on our stand at the NEC next week.

Pear Snowman

You do need to plan ahead when creating this characters, on this one the nose and eyes are added afterwards but the mouth and cheeks are drawn before assembly.

Pear Penguin

To create the Penguin you need the same Basic Pear Stencil Set from Some Assembly Required, as yesterday.
For this one you add wings, eyes and a beak and when creating the basic shape remember to do 2 pieces in white and the rest in black.