April Showers?????

Well April has arrived and as per usual the beginning of the month is a busy time for me in the shop.

Last Tuesday's card club was the first of the month and that means Stamp of the Month. I love this one, well I love them all, that's why I pick them, but I really couldn't wait to have a play with them this time.

It's a sheet of un-mounted clear stamps this month and as you can see the farm critters are really cute. I could have made card after card using them.

As usual there is a 15% reduction on the marked price for the rest of the month whilst stocks last.

The stamps lend themselves to decoupage really well and without even realising it, most of my cards are some bit raised.

This one uses ancient page ink and plain old colouring pencils, but you could make so many different cards in this theme.

Can't see this one very clearly in the photo, but it's just been stamped with the baby powder Kaliedacolor ink pad and then distressed and mounted. The cow in the bottom right hand corner is mounted on 3d foam.


Same technique as the first card for my little Gee-Gee and then stamped card blank with the 'neigh' stamp.

This little piggy is stamped in burgundy pigment ink and then embossed in clear over it. A little 3d-ing going on here too. Bacgroung papers are K&Co. distressed with same ink and wrapped with a co-ordinating ribbon. Obligatory gem flowers.

This one hasn't come out too well either, stamped and embossed in white and then brayered with the Kaleidacolor again. Decoupaged and then matted on plain cardstock. Lettering is cut with Sizzix - Girls are Weird font from brayered glossy card.




More to tell of course.
This months yarn of the month is Sirdar Juniper which is €4 per ball for April. I've been busy knitting up a easy jumper to show the yarn off, but still have a bit of sewing up to do. I'll post a picture up when it's complete.

Think that's it for now off to sew.
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2nd one today

I'm on a roll here, got a little side tracked by oodle noodles and Elizabeth Zimmerman, but that's another story.

Last Tuesday night I decided to show my lovely ladies the good old reliable folded shirt technique. I love this one because it's a great fallback for male cards.

This one is my favourite, it's a little harder to make the shirt from card, but in the case of the Extreme Boy papers it's well worth it.

A real extreme shirt if ever I saw one!

This week it is Stamp of the Month time and I'm actually gonna have a play later. I've also got to complete the neck, block and sew up a jumper I'm knitting to show April's yarn of the month. Once I've got that completed i have to get things ready for the shop window and do a little bit of paperwork, throw in trying to spend time with the kids, walking the dogs, washing, ironing, etc and that's me failing to get everything done already.

Best go I suppose.

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Conspiracies

I'm sure there is something out there trying to prevent me from ever getting a real bash at this blog thing. Even when I finally get myself organised I seem to get scuppered.

This time it's been my cameras memory card, which seemed to give up on me a few weeks ago after trying to print some shots off of it in one of the local chemists. Sadly, it had approximately 200 photos on it, including shots of my friends new born baby and of my dogs beautiful puppies. Happily, I did manage to print some baby pics before the catastrophe ensued.

Long story short - have since managed to purchase new card and have been frantically photographing anything and everything.

Time for a quick catch up on everything -

The Yarn of the month has been Guinco from Laines du Nord and has been on offer at €3 per 50g ball. It's 100% Merino DK and knits up great, we have it in the lovely colours below as modeled by my lovely fella here (knitted by Jill).

The stamp of the month for March is (nearly was) this graphic image of a church, which has been so popular that I only have one left. Amazing, sometimes I worry that the stamp I choose is not as good as I think (as in this case), and I get such a good response it floors me.

As you can see from these cards I could have gone on forever, because it covers just about everything that could ever be church linked.

Chalks, ric rac, tags and K & Co. papers here.

Embossing metal, mica paper and Mirri card here.

Plain old stamping here with some fab new baby papers and more tags.

Lastly, embossed with detail gold powder and foiled vellum.

Feeling much better now I've got that little lot up, must go and sort out some breakfast, or else I might get done for child cruelty. At least Kye's body is telling him it's only quarter past 10, not quarter past 11 yet. Am leaving this on, so I can load up images of cards from this weeks club.

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