Been shopping again!! It's a bad habit that I just can't stop!!

Well I know I shouldn't, but well, it is the last day of my holidays, back to school on Monday, so what better way to beat the back to work blues than go shopping! After some tempting posts on UKS big store deals, I drove over to the Qvc shop to hopefully find some deals :) See below for my naughty stash :P 

 Got to be honest and say this first purchase isn't normally my cup of tea, not a great kanban buyer, but the prints are quite cute, and I haven't got anything like it so thought I might have a play with it. It's the Db-Spring Woodland kit and was £11.87, but in my defence there is a lot in it :)

 This one is more me really, a set of lovely Pearl Lustre embossing powders by Stampendous (5 in pack) and "Ranunculus Field" Stamp, for £7.35. They seem pretty similar to my cosmic shimmer blacks, which I love, so will get used easily.

 Set of Anna Griffin 12x12 papers, some really beautiful metal embossed papers, and some plain prints. Got to be honest and say if I'd bought the plain prints at full price, I would have been annoyed as the paper quailty is surprisingly poor for AG. The embossed prints are much better. Can't really moan for £7.86.

 Pack of rainbow organza ribbon, nearly bought this from a show a while back, so pleased to see one that looked in good order. (The textile teacher in me had to have it :)  £5.32

 More Anna Griffin, not sure what this machine is called, it stamps and inks the image as you press down, (If you see what I mean?) It has a set of stamps which are all just a bit bigger than an inch, (Flowers, Butterflies, Heart, Leaves, Crown, Lips and some royal type seals) and four little ink pads. All seems unopened, so whoever has sent it back hasnt tried it. £9.61

 Very rarely do I find any sizzix dies in the qvc shop, and I've never seen any TH's ones before, so I did grab these like a silly child, before someone else beat me to it :)  Got both of these dies for £11.08.

 Wrmk chipboard stickers x 7, metal charms and brads, I already have the matching 12x12 pad for these, so that was excuse enough!  £8,53

and finally, some Anna Griffin punches, all of these for  £13.01, Pheww!!

Well you would think that that would be enough shopping for any normal person, but well if I don't go today I won't be able to for months, so I got back in the car and drove to Dawn Bibbys shop for a nosey about. I normally go in my holidays for a treat to myself, but it is quite a drive, so I don't do that often. I wasn't really sure what to expect this time with her selling up, but there is still plenty to look at, although there doesn't seem much stock of each item, (But that seems sensible to me) I will miss it when it has gone, there nothing like seeing/touching items, I'd much rather buy in real life. Anyway I got all the stuff below for half price, it's all Christmas stuff should have been £27.04, but got it all for £13.52 :) Really pleased, as that includes two sets of stamps, some of the stickers are Anna Griffin (Again!!) and K&Co.  

Well All in all, a good days results (Not sure the bank manager will think so :P) just got to find somewhere to keep it now!!
Wx

Wedding Anniversary Card made with Utee.

Well, I thought I'd share how I made this card as well as showing the finished piece, hopefully it might be of use to someone. I made this for my husband, as it's our Wedding Anniversary today, Five years ago at 3pm. Not sure how he puts up with me, but thanks love if you are reading this :-).  

 I started using a large darkroom door background stamp, stamped onto plain red cardstock using Memento black ink.

 Added some red mulberry paper and a piece of lace. (I also lightly blended the lace with fired brick distress ink)

Making the embellishments.
I have used some Elusive stamps, (Although they have ceased trading some stores do still have these)

 Warmed up my Melting pot, and added the following Utee. Started with a good base of clear, added gold and waited till both were melted and then stirred. Then added my favourite embossing powders, "Cosmic Shimmers" Lilac Black and Lava Black. They have a lovely depth to the colour and look beautiful with the gold.   

 Using one of the stamps inked in a gold versamark, and some cookie cutters which will fit the stamp, carefully pour in the melted utee. You do need to be careful not to put in too much otherwise the heart will be too thick for the card.

 Wait to cool, add then you can remove the cutter and hopefully have no leaks :)

 You should have an impression from the stamp on your utee tile.

I have used some mica powders brushed over the versamark gold on the utee, to add an extra depth to the colour. I then polish the raised sections to see the original utee colour, hopefully you can see the colour difference. I made a selection of hearts in different sizes for this card.

 Then it's just a matter to finish the card, I made a small plastic file tab and stamped happy Anniversary. (Stamp is a personal Impressions -Paula Pascual one) and then put the different utee pieces in place together.

Hope you like,
Wendyx

Fabric CJ

This is my Fabric Cj cover and page, I really enjoyed this Cj, as it allowed me to play about with the sewing machine :) Worked with layouts much the same as I would with paper, but everything is stitched instead. The faces on both pages are reverse appliqued, so you layer the fabrics from the back of the image then cut though to reveal the layer you want. The whole image is Free Machine embroidered. The first page uses some painted canvas as a background and they word "Inspirational" has been stitched on a few layers of organza.
Thanks For Looking :)

Beryl Taylor Inspired Bag

Thought I'd share some of the day job with you today, This is a project I'm running at school at the moment. It's inspired by the textile artist Beryl Taylor. It's a good project for teaching a range of decorative skills and the girls are happy as it's a bag, quite easy really :) Mixture of skills used, Free machine Embroidery, Felt embellishments, layering/applique fabrics with beads and buttons. Hope you like :)

Birthday card and a Cj Page.

Firstly a birthday card for my brother's 30th Birthday, he is football+rugby mad so had to do something using those themes. Mixture of stuff used, main stamp image is a old Papermania one, just stamped, layered and shaded with my promarkers as per normal.

 This was one of my Cj entries on the photo Cj I was in. Couldn't find letters I liked so I've painted, and glossy accented these, then stamped over the glossy with white staz on  with a text stamp, quite liked the effect in the end.  I made the background paper, with some ink and my stamps, think it's a hero arts one (Swirl) just brushed on some perfect pearls

 The rest is just the normal, Martha Stewart punches, more lace :) Bit of rick rack ribbon and a couple of little metal embellies to finish.

My New York Cj

My New York CJ returned not so long ago, and I've been meaning to get around to photographing all the entries in it. I took a group of my students from school to New York, so this is a few memories from the trip. Really enjoyed the trip, but was soooo tired by the end. Will try to photograph the rest of the pages this week to show. These are my pages from the book before it went on the journey :D

Mothers Day Cards

Well, this is something of a production run, I have three of these cards to make today as I need to hand deliver tomorrow,  As is usual for me, I am unable to produce something quick and simple and have made life difficult and over complicated! Think I'm going to be up all night :p This is the first one finished so it's not all bad!

The card shape I cut on my Robo, another download purchase from the silhouette site, the card design already has the smaller patterned shape as part of the template, so that saved me a job. The window in the card I diecut on my Bigshot using a set of " Go Kreate Dies"- (Wavy #3) and I also made the frame on the front using the same set. The patterned paper is Cotton Candy- Basic Grey

 The stamps are a mixture, The girl and the sentiment are both Kanban stamps, the little sheep were a Nec find, last week, and are from the "Nitwit Essential Collections". They have all been stamped in Memento Black and shaded with my promarkers. Finally the flower was cut with my set of Marianne Creatables-(LR0110) with some Abbey Road Papers-(My Minds Eye) Hope you like, ( Well hope the Mothers/Grandmother like really) :)