Follow your Clarity Dreams

Happy Friday gang!

Did you wonder were I had vanished to for a few days? I got locked in my craft room,well sort of, I have been super busy with Magazine stuff,prepping workshops,tv cards etc. It all seems to come at once sometimes, yetserday was a great example of how manic it can get, I did the Thursday all day class for Claritystampers NW(which was great), tidied up/threw stuff in boxes quickly,then ran back home to get the box of Clarity samples for Barbara which was not even sealed!  Time check about 5 mins until post van, so I drove round to the posty cornering on 2 wheels etc, ran in the posty with said open box and roll of brown tape on my wrist, luck was with me-their was no queue, so while I frantically banged brown tape all over it the lady looked for the postcode(you would think I would remember it by now) then appears the postman at which point I grab him and whine "oh please dont go yet, im desperate" Im not sure what the look on his face was, surprise or fear of mad woman, but he didnt leave without my parcel!!!

So today needs to be a little calmer with a bit of a battery top up me thinks!

I have been drooling over my new delivery this morning, BoBunny and Kaiser goodies for me to prep workshops, I will show you soon but today I will show you another Clarity project.

Stamps used are the Rope Frame, Hat & Boots, Follow Your Dreams, Dragonfly all from Claritystamp, I stamped and coloured with Adirondack Expresso.  I also used some First Edition Papers from Trimcraft, Screw top brads, twine, pearly dots.

Dont forget Barbara is back on Create & Craft tomorrow for a new term of In The Classroom, then the Sunday shows too!

Have a good one.



A top place to crafty shop, & a cool new product!

Hello!

This was supposed to be my 2nd post yesterday but to be honest I just ran out of steam.

I wanted to tell you all about my couple of days in the North East because it was so enjoyable.

I was booked a while ago by Susan & Tom from Suzicrafts to do a couple of Stamping Workshops, the plan was to drive up at the crack of dawn but my lovely friends Annette & Mike Lee suggested that I go up the night before and stay with them (about 30 miles from Suzicrafts) also I could take Amber with me and she could spend some time with Charlotte-already super talented at 16 by the way!

So between talking to Susan & Tom and Annette & Mike, Amber & I trotted off on Friday arriving at Suzicrafts in plenty of time to start prepping ready for morning, actually we ended up spending most of the afternoon playing with Tom's 'new baby' the fantastic SPLODGE AWAY blending mat.

This is a seriously cool bit of kit!

It is a solvent resistant polymer blending mat with sooo many plus points that I need to do a separate review to do it justice, so watch out for more info on that, in the meantime there are several YouTube clips here, have a look.

There are currently 2 sizes available, 8x8 and 12x12. 

 I have brought 20 of the 12x12s' home with me for my workshop gang to play with, and I have my own of course!

So when Susan and Amber finally managed to drag Tom and I away from messy play, we went off to a great Italian restuarant where Tom & Susan treated us to a lovely dinner, Amber loves Italian grub!

The very busy workshops the following day went very well I think, the crafters-including some lads Im pleased to say, were all just the nicest nicest people and made me feel very at home with them.  Everybody regardless of crafting experience produced an impressive project, so well done to you all!

Now, you know you cant go to a craft shop without shopping can you, so at the end of the day there was just enough time for me to SHOP SHOP SHOP! And there was a fantastic selection to lead me astray, too many fave brands to mention-and that was just in one of the two rooms!  I was particularly happy to get my hands on the new Creatables Butterfly cutting die which seems to be sold out everywhere else, I also grabbed a couple of packs of Mushroomy coloured card that I have not seen elsewhere and some seriously lush Chocolate/Goldrush card,should have got more of both of those.

I want to tell you the thing about Suzicrafts that stuck out the most to me though, the strong friendship and loyalty between Susan & Tom and the Customers, they very clearly all care about each other-how many shops do you know where they put the kettle on when you walk in and nothing is too much trouble???

Read the shop sign!

I could talk all day about these lovely folks but I will just say this, If your ANYWHERE in the North East get yourselves over to Suzicrafts to shop or to one of their classes or free craft clubs, you wont regret it!

Check out the website for a list of events.

Thank you sooo much Susan & Tom for inviting me along.

 Congratulations on the success of your shop & long may it continue!

Right, I have woffled enough, Im headed back into my workroom,see you soon.



Lovely day out for me & my Amber!

Good Morning gang!

Yes its Monday again, I was thinking of giving myself the day off today but then looked at exactly how much work I have for the next few days, so day off is not on the cards for this week, Lucky I adore my job isnt it!

Anyway, I cant move on to this week without telling you all about the weekend I just had.  Will tell you about yesterday first & do a separate post about Friday/Saturday because I have loads to tell you about! So,yesterday Amber & I drove down to the NEC from the North East, Its always nice to have time to do the NEC as a customer because Amber can come and do little workshops and stuff, yesterday she had a go at Origami, Folk Art painting and Pyrography,

here is what she made

How clever is she!!!

Now, I wasnt gonna show you the one thing I made, but I changed my mind-NO LAUGHING!

Its not amazing is it!

So do I keep this as my first and only attempt at this type of painting, or do I put my stubborn head on and try to master it??

Moving on swiftly, we also met up with my lovely blog buddy Jane L and her grandaughters Ocean & Willow (cool names or what) Its always nice to see you all at shows and even better to be able to grab a coffee & chat, so thank you Jane & the girls.

We caught up with the gang at the Claritystamp stand too of course, where I got my hands on the new Theuva Card, it feels lush-cant wait to have a play.

Speaking of play, I bought a few bits from the MDF man to have a play with, I have some workshop ideas for those!

Zentangle book also came home with us, I showed Stevie when he came home from nan's last night and he was immediately inspired to have a go while we all ate the Maltesers & Toblerone he bought me.

So all in all it was a great girls day out!

Back later to tell you about Friday/Saturday.



Another potential treasure?

Well I should not be on the computer, I should be checking everything is packed for the weekend, but I couldnt resist showing you this because its been on my mind to do something with it!

These cake stands were on the tables at the awards ceremony we were at a couple of weeks ago, while everybody else was oggling the cupcakes I was drooling over the stand!  At the end as we were all leaving I was too shy to grab the stand but lucky for me my lovely friend Annette was a bit more forward-thank you Annette!

I have been waiting patiently to do something with this but I need some Gesso from Dunelm Mill, Im hoping there may be one somewhere 'up north' because Im getting impatient now.

So watch this space!

Im off, have a good weekend gang.



Mono Navajo Man

Good Morning!

Just a quick post again today-tons to do..

I still have some of this months Clarity samples to show you, this one uses the Navajo Indian man.

I stamped and embossed on Acetate and did a little paper folding for behind-not done that for ages!

The sentiment is part of the 'Follow your Dreams' stamp.

Hope you like it!

See you soon.

This months Clarity NW homework, please vote!

Good afternoon, I should just apologise for my absense for the last few days, I have been busy with some magazine work etc and I spent the weekend at the Harrogate show with Barbara and the Clarity team.  It was a great weekend apart from the dental drama! For those who dont know about it, I started with toothache at dinner on Friday evening and it just got worse and worse, after trying unsuccessfully to find an emergency dentist our friend Heather took me to A&E on Saturday night, I have a nasty absess but the doctor was great, I have some mega strong anti-biotics and painkillers which picked me back up again so I was ok to get through the weekend, I would have been really upset if I had needed to go home and let the team down!

So, onto this week,another busy one at the Simms household-which is always good news! First on the list is a little jig around in the workshop diary so that I am able to go to Ally Pally in a couple of weeks, Im a tad excited because I will be playing with some lovely goodies on the Claritystand- Barbara will be demo'ing too so dont worry!

Speaking of playing with fun goodies, thats what some of my lovely

Claritystampers NW ladies have been doing to produce their homework.

You remember last month? I asked you all to vote for your fave so I can decide who wins a Clarity stamp, so could you do the same again pleeease!

The homework rules are

3"x3" topper

Using any stamp we used in class and any other Clarity stamps.

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7

Some lovely work I think you will agree!

Thanks so much in advance for voting and leaving lovely comments, the ladies really enjoyed reading your comments last month.

Dreams

Good afternoon, I know its a bit late in the day but better late than never!

Todays card is another of my Clarity samples using the Dragonfly stamp.

I also used Some Spellbinders, Pearly dots, Embossing folder, white pen, Organza etc. I stamped Dreams from the Follow your Dreams stamp, Embossing powder used is Cosmic Shimmer Darks/Metallics.

Pins & button are from my stash, stamps from Clarity, everything else if from Creative Expressions.

Back to work for me, Im at Harrogate at the weekend but before then I have some top secret stuff to do!

Thanks for stopping by.



Clarity Dreamcatcher, Royal Mail strikes again.

Good Morning

I thought I would show you the Dreamcatcher I made for Barbara's tv shows last weekend as its the only way your likely to get a glance thanks to Mr Postman!

I held this back from the other samples because I wanted to finish the back off so both sides looked nice, and make sure all the glue and stuff was dry, so I posted it last minute to Terri's shop in Wisbech where Barbara was spending Saturday, but it didnt arrive and it still hadnt arrive when I spoke to Terri on Tuesday.

The Twine and Bronze pearly glue dots is from Creative Expressions

Card Candi from Craftwork Cards

I stamped in Expresso Adirondack and edged with the same pad.

Thats it for today, Im off to my Clarity workshop today,no rushing around this morning because I managed to get into our venue yesterday to set up!

Have a great day.

Cool new storage & an act of kindness!

Oh yes its here again, Slipper Day!!!

I have got mine on, hope your with me gang...

I wanted to show off my new pen storage and tell you about a nice lady.

This is my pen box- it is the only one you will need because it will hold more than 600 pens!

As you can see mine holds all my Promarkers and some flexmarkers, all the Copic ciao pens and a few sketch, also in there are 140 Prisma pencils and my Sakura pens, and there is still plenty of space for me to add more Copic Sketch and Flexmarkers to my collection.

Now, when this arrived I couldnt wait to get it positioned and filled, but in my rush to get up the stairs it had a fall!!!!

Milly Posh Paws was on her litter tray in the hall at the time too, luckily she is a fast bunny!

 Yes there were tears, I sat in the corner with my arms crossed and sucked my thumb and everything, then I did a more grown up thing- oh yes I did!

I asked my friend Dan to try and fix it for me, and as you can see from the pic it looks as good as new,the damage has been very cleverly disguised.

When I told Vicky about what had happened she was so kind, as a crafter herself she knows how it would feel if you get something totally cool and then you break it, so she very very very kindly sent me this rack for Stickles Glitter Glue as a pressie!

THANK YOU BIG MUCH VICKY!

As you can see I am using mine for my Cosmic Shimmer Pearly glues instead,they are great stored upside down because it reduces the possibility of air bubbles when you use them.

Are you a tinsy bit jealous,are you? Then go and get your own, and check out the other storage stuff too...

Have a good one!



Flowers,Dragonfly and a touch of Pink.

Good Afternoon, hope you are all looking forward to the weekend.

Todays card uses the Dogwood Rose, Dragonfly, and Sentiment from Claritystamp.
I stamped the background using Pink Chalk ink and added a tiny drop of Glossy Accents to the flower centres.
I stamped the flowers on the focal piece with Black Adirondack and then glazed. When the glaze was dry I brayered Pink Sherbert from the top left and bottom right corners.

I then stamped the sentiment and Dragonfly and added a button and some Twine from Creative Expressions.

Back to work for me, still re-organising workroom.
 Have got to prep for next weeks Creative Expressions workshops up in the Northeast- im looking forward to making 24 new crafty friends!
And of course there is Sunday's Clarity workshop too, which is full.

Enjoy your weekend whatever your doing!

Out on the range

Another Scheduled post today while Im busying away.

This one uses the lone cowboy and the silhuette trees.

 I masked a strip and brayered with Stormy Sky Distress ink, then spritzed lightly with water. Then I stamped the trees twice and the cowboy with Archival ink. I then added Life is a journey-the whole stamp says Life is a journey not a destination, but it wasnt right for this card.

If you took out the cowboy this would make a nice Christmas card I think.

Hope you like it!

Candy Winner

Good morning, just a real quickie because Im supposed to be prepping for tomorrow's Claritystampers Northwest workshop.

The winner of the Papermania/Woodware candy is

Glass Daisy

Well done, can you email me your address please

simms.maria(@)hotmail.(co).(uk)

I write my email this way so the spam robots cant easily detect it, so just take out the brackets.

See you soon!

These boots....

Well you cant have a 'boot' stamp and not do a sparkly pair now can you!

This another sample from the weekends Clarity shows on C & C.

The paper is from a pack that has been hanging around for ages, I cant remember what its called.

I coloured some bits in black and then glittered with Glamour Dust.



Pretty Pink Clarity Blooms

Good Morning!

Im scheduling a handful of posts because I have a busy week prepping workshops etc.

Todays card is using the Clarity floral set from TV Yesterday.

I used the dogwood rose (is that right?)

I also used the Clever Urn and stamped the Leafy Swirl into it.

The ink is Pink Sherbert Adirondack.

I also used Spellbinders Foliage and Spiral Blosom.

I stamped a verse over the background in versamark for a subtle watermark.

See you tomorrow for another card.



Navajo Lady

Good Morning

Its Clarity Sunday and this is my first sample.

This is using the Navajo set.

The paper is from First Edition.

I used Spellbinders Lacey Squares,Foliage dies and Spiral blossom. I made the other two flowers freehand.

The Bakers Twine is the new Vintage set from Creative Expressions.

I stamped with Expresso Adirondack and coloured with Promarkers.

Edges are inked with Expresso.

Thanks for stopping by!



A new giveaway

Good morning!

I have a new giveaway for you today.

A pack of Papermania Sweet Nothings 6x6 paper.

And to go with it

A set of Woodware stamps

Sweet Tooth

No silly rules, no need to follow, just leave a comment and I will pick a random winner on Tuesday.



Bottle it, The Conclusion!

Really quick post folks because its deadline city for me today, so fortunately Im feeling better!

Ok, the bottle is done, hope you like it..

To embellish I used a couple of the Moroccan die cuts from my bit bag-remember that big bag of spares I had on tv?

Spiral Blossom flower also from Spellbinders.

Bakers Twine

Glass Glintz

Vintage Ribbon

Cosmic Shimmer Mica Sprays for the tag & blossom

All from Creative Expressions

The Sentiment stamp is another Claritystamp

The Dragonfly charms are from my stash.

See you soon!