First Day

Today was the first day of our in store sale, it was pretty hectic so we didn't get much of the mail order out but we have prepared it all ready to be despatched in the morning.

If you didn't make it in to see us today I hope you'll be able to make it in by the end of the week as we have some fabulous bargains.

In Store Sale

We are currently closed but our in store sale starts Tuesday 29th December and is also on 30th, 31st December and 2nd January - 10am-4pm.

Lots of bargains in our sale room and discounts all around the store.

Its Christmaaaas

Main images are DeNami Stamps, Let It Snow from Printworks and Snowflake in the background from JudiKins.

Artwork by Lesley.

New Products

12th January is our New Product Launch Week. We will have new stamps from Stamps by Judith, Printworks and DeNami as well as several other products.

These are all new Printworks stamps.

Artwork by Lesley.

Angels

You may have noticed we have been using the Peeking & Praying Angels quite a bit this year. This is another card from Lesley, also featuring the Small Copperplate Merry Christmas. The small clouds in the background were created with the Eclipse masking tape and stippling colour over the top.

This is the JudiKins Eskimo and Printworks Warm Winter Wishes. Use your cuttlebug or Cricut to cut out trees for the background.

Artwork by Lesley.

Wheelbarrow

Printworks Wheelbarrow stamp filled with some Stamps by Judith Stamps.

Artwork by Lesley.

Stamp of the Month

This is the Printworks Stamp of the Month - Presents, sorry I'm a bit late in posting it.
Presents are not just for Christmas . . .
Artboard by Printworks.

Cards by Lesley.

Bicycle, Bicycle - I want to ride my bicycle . . .

These are all taken from the new Wheelie Stamp Addicts TV show and feature the Printworks Bike with Basket.

Artwork by Vicky.

Simply Cards & Papercraft

Have you seen the latest issue of this magazine? Issue 66, if you turn to page 39 you will see a photo of our lovely Lesley and 7 pages of Lesley's artwork using our fab JudiKins SnowGlobe/Goldfish Bowl.

As several of the stamps used are Stamps by Judith you may have to call us to place your order as we can't put their stamps on our website.

We've nearly finished sending out the Newsletters so hopefully next week I will be able to post up some more artwork from our new TV shows.

Have a good weekend

Pantomime

I am a littley bleary eyed this morning as we had a late night last night. We went to see Cinderella at the Milton Keynes Theatre which is starring Louise Dearman, Bobby Davro, Anthea Turner, Mickey Rooney and Prince Charming was played by Anthony Kavanagh (Kavana the popstar in the 90s), he is not the advertised Prince Charming and I have to say he is the campest Prince Charming I have ever seen but this all made for a very entertaining show.

Bobby Davro was definitely the star of the show - he was certainly there to entertain the parents! Whether some of the incidents were planned or accidents I don't know but it was hilarious and I would thoroughly recommend you go and see it - children not required, although mine loved it.

It is 8am and my kids are still in bed fast asleep and today is Bailey's 4th birthday, so I'll guess we'll have to do presents this evening as waking them is probably going to take ages. But I bet they'll have some strange stories to tell their friends today about last nights panto. There was a disco ball in the theatre that was used for one of the dancing scenes and Bailey was so funny - he laid back starring at the walls and ceiling going ' wowwwwww' until they switched it off.

Anyway I must go now and start waking them and me.

Wheelie Stamp Addicts

These are some of the cards we made in our new TV show which will be coming to your screens on 9th January. Printworks Collection Wheelbarrow with a selection of Stamps by Judith stamps.

Printworks Collection Truck on translucent shrink plastic.

Printworks Collection Truck with Stamps by Judith Present.

Watch the show to see how you can make these cards.

Wacky Wednesday

Being the first Wednesday of the month today is Wacky Wednesday . . . . .
which means if you enter the Promo Code 'Wacky' on our website - 30% will be deducted from the price of everything.

You need to press the '>>' button to apply the code and then 'discount applied' will show up in red.

If you are having any problems just enter 'WACKY' in the comments box and we can manually apply the discount.

Remember Members must not log in before or after entering the Promo Code as this invalidates the special offer.

This special offer is only available until midnight tonight - or if you come into our store it applies until we close at 9pm tonight.

New Shows

Today we are filming the new shows I mentioned last week but we've decided to hold off showing them until January, something to do with the VAT messing up the on screen prices!

The Mini-Mag/Newsletter is finally finished and the first batch went in the post last night. If we are really really lucky we'll get them all out by the end of the week. It includes a flyer with the dates of the new shows in January as well as lots of gorgeous artwork from our Design Team and staff. There is also a list of workshops for the first half of the year and I will try and put these on our website by the end of the week so you can book online.

Now the newsletter is finished and my new hard drive has arrived I'm hoping to start work on our new catalogue so it will be ready early next year. Our new website is still under construction - who knew it could be so complicated! I've got my fingers crossed that it will be ready for the New Year (only 3 months late!)

Before I go, don't forget tomorrow is our project club and late night shopping in our store - open until 9pm.

Hope to see you soon

Pressed Leaves Cube

JK Pressed Leaves stamped in black and embossed with Psychedelic embossing powder, this is an irridescent powder that changes colour the longer you heat it.

Pressed leaves onto white shrink plastic.

This card also includes the Damask cube.

All artwork by DT - Brenda.

Instruments Cube

JK Instruments cube stamped and embossed onto window plastic.

The Instruments cube embossed in Malachite EP in the centre and the Calligraphic Doodle around the edges.

JK Calligraphic Doodle with some punched flowers.

All artwork by DT - Brenda

New Newsletter

I've nearly done it, albeit a month or two late. The latest edition of our newsletter/mini-mag is almost finished. I believe I will be able to finish the final page today, it will then take me a whole day to print this one page, all other pages are printed and ready.
Half the envelopes are stamped and labelled ready for stuffing, the other half should get done within the next few days, although Julie is on holiday this week so if you pop into the shop tomorrow it is only myself and Vicky (and of course my wonderful husband working in the warehouse), so please be patient with us as the phones have been quite busy this week, but we would love to see you.

If you do pop in to see us this week you might catch us working on our new TV shows. We are filming 2 shows on Tuesday but they won't be on your screens for a week or two, I will let you know exact dates when I have them. Wheelie Stamp Addicts & Mica Gloss (the clues are in the titles).

Anyway, back to the newsletter -this issue contains some gorgeous new Snowmen stamps from Printworks (we are waiting on their arrival so I haven't put them on the website yet), some artwork from our last live show with Sticky Stuff and Amazing Glaze (but not together!), classes for the first half of next year, details of our next Retreat and lots more.
So if all goes according to plan you will receive this issue of the newsletter sometime next week, but best laid plans and all that!

As well as filming next week and sending out the newsletter we also have our monthly project club on Wednesday 1-3pm or 7-9pm with Amazing Glaze and our monthly crop Thursday 10am-4pm. If you would like to join us for either of these you can book online or call us.

I think its time I stopped rambling now and go do some work.

Vicky's TV Artwork

For this card Vicky stamped the butterfly several times onto JudiKins Laminating sheets and cut them out. When you peel off the backing from the laminate sheet it is sticky so Vicky applied Variegated Red leaf but you could also use glitter. The background is stamped with the JudiKins Bamboo Sprig.

Vicky created this card using the same 2 stamps as previously but this time stamping the butterfly and embossing with Sticky Stuff embossing powder. Once heated the powder becomes a glue, so Vicky brushed on some mica powders.

This card is the same technique as the previous card with the Sticky Stuff but this time instead of Mica powders Vicky used glitter with the JudiKins Damask Cube.

This final card is the same Sticky Stuff technique but this time with Flock and the JudiKins Damask Cube.

My TV Artwork

This is a couple of cards that I made during our live show last week. This is using the Instruments cube stamped in Brilliance onto black card. For the centre piece I covered the area with Embossing Ink and then Amazing Glaze and heated, repeating twice more for the depth of powder. Into the last layer of Amazing Glaze I stamped making sure I had inked the stamp first - if you don't ink your stamp before applying to the hot surface you can make a big mess, although it shouldn't damage your rubber stamp.

I created this card using the Pressed Leaves cube. Again the centre piece was created with several layers of Amazing Glaze and a layer of Metallic Bronze embossing powder for the final layer before stamping into it.

DT Artwork

JK Cloth Butterfly and Bamboo Sprig.

JK Pressed Leaves Cube.

Artwork by DT- Gill

Damask Cube

I hope you enjoyed the show yesterday, we tried a slightly different format to normal and I preferred it - did you notice any difference?
It was great fun working with Leonie and we hope to be working with her again soon. JK Damask Cube with a shrink Plastic Cloth butterfly.

JK Damask Cube embossed in white.

Artwork by DT - Brenda.

Today's TV Show

JK Instruments Cube.

JK Pressed Leaves cube.

Artwork by DT - Brenda.

Christmas Globes

Just in case you haven't seen enough of our Snow Globe here are a few more cards . . . This is a shaker card with JK Eskimo, SBJ Tree & Snowballs and PW Friendship warms. The snowflake was created with the Spellbinder Creat-A-Flake.

SBJ Frazzled Cat, the background stamp is JK Layered Holiday Frames.

JK Penguin, Xmas Tree Border and DeNami Merry Christmas border.

Amazing Glaze

While we were away at the NEC last week Lesley started work on some samples for our live TV show next week . . . JK Damask Cube and Calligraphic Doodle.

JK Instruments Cube.

Both cards use Amazing Glaze which is an extra thick clear embossing powder that you build up in layers and then you can stamp into.

Peeking & Praying

These were also in our new show that was on last Saturday and will be on again very soon. Peeking & Praying Angels, Unmounted Snow Globe, Eclipse Masking Tape.

Peeking & Praying Angels, Eclipse Masking Tape.

Stamps by JudiKins, artwork by Lesley.

New TV Show

We have a new pre-recorded show on Create & Craft Saturday 7th November at 1pm. These are some of the stamps featured in the show : JudiKins Holiday Trees, Merry Christmas Copperplate small.

JudiKins Snowglobe unmounted set.

Also in the show are the Peeking & Praying Angels plus more.

And the winner is . . . .

Simply A Bug Lover

Congratulations, please contact me to receive your blog candy.

Thank you to everyone who entered and especially those that became followers. Commisserations if you didn't win but, we are having a prize draw at the NEC this week to celebrate Vicky's birthday on Saturday.

If you are coming to the Hobbycrafts show bring along a hand stamped birthday card for Vicky (put your contact details on the back) and you will be entered into the draw.

We also have quite a few Show Specials planned so come and visit us on stand H30.

Blog Candy

Blog Candy has now ended - winner will be announced shortly.

To enter please leave a comment and then if you could post the picture and a link from your blog back to this post it would be much appreciated.
Don't worry if you don't have a blog, you are still in with a chance of winning.

UK entries only please and only one entry per person.

The winner will be drawn on Monday 2nd November. Please check back here on 2nd November to see if you are a winner.

Good luck