Still not right

For those of you that know me it will come as no surprise to hear me say that I'm just not right. Technically, that could be said of me by way of an introduction however, in this case I'm referring to the virus.

It hasn't completely gone yet and seems to be having great fun toying with me. I think it's gone and there it is, back again. It's not just me that it's treating this way, the dirty rotten thing is two timing me with Kye and to make matters worse it's now visiting Du (he does seem to have it quite bad).

At least it didn't stop knitting on Monday or the card/scrap club on Tuesday.

This week we looked at the new die cuts from Rayher, which I'd love to show you but didn't remember to take a photo of them, no surprises there.

I will take a pic tomorrow, but basically they're in several different themes and are double sided in different styles/colours

There are baby things, alphabet, frames and flowers, in the garden and roses. I chose to use the roses first, assuming they would be the least popular and found myself getting completely carried away with them, that I didn't get round to using any of the others.

This one is your basic bouquet shape, ribbon wrapped, with four of the small rose mounted on 3d foam. A little gold Stickles dabbed in places and mulberry paper.

Same idea, but this time the roses have been turned over to the pink/red side.

This one is the waste from a peel-off.

Card is made by taking a third of a 12x12 page and then wrapped in a piece of card stamped with Mica Magic ink. Roses are decoupaged with 3d foam. Card closes with a Velcro coin.

Scrapaholix tomorrow morning and it's basically a full house - yippee. It's a monochromatic kit with felt, all good fun. All is ready except of course the shop, but that won't take long. If I get a chance I will post up a pic of my layout after.

Before I go, here is the completed jumper that I made for D in the yarn of the month (of which there is not much left). Ideally, I would have liked a photo of her wearing it but that would mean the planets would have to be aligned, no war, etc - it's just not going to happen.

Sickness Bug

Errgh!!! I've been infected.

My lovely seven year old monster has been very, very poorly with the horrible stomach virus that is doing the rounds in the whole of the county (so it seems). He's missed a couple of days at school, seemed better and went back for a day, on his insistence and then got sick again the following day so missed the rest of the week. Not one to miss out on anything I began to notice a curious rumbling early Thursday and by that night I was nursing a bowl and well you don't really need to know the rest.

Safe to say I've had a bit of a time of it, am going out to the local for a bite to eat this evening, more as a way of spending time with the hubby, rather than to eat, must try not to gag.

Anyway getting back to the matter in hand. Before I leave it any longer and before all of the yarn of the month has gone. This is the jumper I made for D from Sirdar Juniper as promised. It's been on show in the shop all week and has really pushed the yarn out of the door.

Oops that's not the right picture is it..... that's because I don't seem to have one on my camera (blast, if I had a brain I'd be deadly). At least this proves I'd finished knitting it and if I remember my camera, brain and to do it (in that order), I'll take a pic of the jumper proper on Tuesday and upload it.

Last Tuesday evening I did my demo using the Papermania Chip-Board Embellishments. Personally, I think most of them are a little flat in colour (not all of them), but for the price they are a bit of a bargain and cover well with acrylic paint.

One of the paisley shapes, covered in gold Adirondack Dabber Paint and then adorned with gems to make what I hope is an Indian inspired card.

This one has been distressed with the Dabbers and mounted on 3d foam, the backing paper is a DCWV one from the Spring Stack add a little ribbon and voila.

This one is pretty much how it came in the pack, tie a little ribbon around it and mount it on 3d foam over some card punched hearts, add co-ordinating card and dots of pink Gel Pen.

This one has been painted again and the background paper is also another from the Spring Stack. The heart in the top left corner is also from the pack and has had a little red ink rubbed round it to tie it in with the colour theme a little better, ribbon again.

Quitting while I'm ahead now, I have some bits and pieces to get ready for Scrapaholix which is this Saturday and I want to try and put a few more rows up on this....

I managed to get the whole front of the wide neck baby pattern from Debbie Bliss (nice quick one), whilst Coni drove us to Clonmel to do the shopping earlier. It's in Rialto Aran and the stripes are improvised.

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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How Long?

It has been some time now since I last updated my blog. I was spreeding myself too thin and decided to try and step away from a couple of things in order to try and get back on track. Unfortunately, this being me, I'm not quite there yet, but I'm a good bit of the way.

Anyway, January was 'Sale' time here in the shop, which left little time for much else. February is here at long last and I for one am counting down the days to spring and the possibility of a little sunshine.

There's lots going on here, we've had a real move around with the layout in the shop, it's still a little untidy, but that should all be sorted tomorrow. Our new opening hours seem to be working better for everyone and the knitting group has become a weekly event.

Our stamp of the month for February is this wonderful hot air balloon from Inca Stamps.

I love it, it can be used for so many different cards and is another one that will work particularly well for the boys.

This card was made by layering up strips of mulberry paper to make the landscape background, with flower gems stuck on for a bit of height. The image was stamped in brown onto plain cream card and then shaded with plain colouring pencils. Cut out with a very sharp craft knife and mounted with 3d foam.

This one uses Anna Griffin papers, Maya Road ric-rac, red gems and love stamped in red. The image was stamped using Versamagic in white onto red card and then punched out with a heart punch.

This one is stamped and embossed in white onto white card with a watercolour wash applied in rainbow stripes. Mounted on top of coloured card to lift it a little more.

The photo for this one doesn't show it off too well. The image has been stamped on to two complementry colours of card, one of which has been cut through the image. This section is the lined up with the whole image and mounted on 3d foam. A pice of crossgrain ribbon is taken over the lower corner, just to add a little interest.

Lastly, this card has the stamped image embossed in gold and coloured with metallic, crystal lacquers. It was then cut out (very carefully), with a really sharp knife and fixed with silicone glue. The background papers are all handmade and the gold ribbon and gold embelishments come together in what I hope, is an Indian themed card.

Yarn

Before I go, there are a couple of you that have asked me to start adding some bits about the yarn side of things here.

Firstly, our yarn offer of the month is on Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran, which was €5.99 and is €4.99 for February (whilst stocks last). It is a really lovely yarn, soft and warm available in lots of lovely colours. There is a pattern book available however, it should work to most other aran patterns. As always i'd advise making a tension square. I've made a lovely green jumper in it, which I'll photograph and load up over the next couple of days.

I also thought I should share this with everyone - Artesano Hummingbird. It is 100% Alpaca and is even softer than our usual Alpaca. It's lovely varigated colours make it really fun, I'm well over half the way through a scarf I'm making. The hanks are 150g and cost €21.50 each and they seem to go on for miles.

Off to continue with my latest project.

Lora

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P.S. The lovely knitted heart was made by Sandra - thanks mwah! (x)

2nd Post of the Day

My second post of the day because I wanted to upload my completed layout from Carolines crop in Cork. I had a fantastic time and was really able to enjoy myself cropping without the shop in mind. Unfortunately, I had a dire cold and missed most of the crop, but I was enjoying myself so much after the class that I stayed on to play and shop. Yes I did say shop, you can never have too much stash after all.

The kit was fab, I jiggled things about a bit and added the dark green and dark pink cardstock, I also used gems instead of the perfect pearls and the photo just doesn't do the page justice. Definitely one of my favourites so far.

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Octobers Scrapaholic

It feels like I've only blinked and a whole month has whizzed by, it doesn't seem to matter how organised I get something comes along and pandemonium breaks out.

This morning before I even leave the house I'm going to put a couple of posts up, do some surfing (no swimsuit required, thank god) and answer some emails. For those of you who have subscribed to my newsletter, it will be with you soon. It was actually written on the 25th September, but as per usual I'm waiting on something to come in, before I email it out.

Right, enough moaning for now, time for Scrapaholic ......

Unfortunately, as many of you are aware I had to cancel Septembers Scrapaholic, despite there being lots of interest, there just wasn't enough bums on seats. So I've had a good long look at what I could possibly do to make it more appealing and I've decided to include cropping/shopping time either side.

Therefore, the actual class will take place from 3-5pm, but there will be an hour either side for those interested. The class costs €15, with an additional €5 for cropping, in addition if you book in advance for three Scrapaholic crops you will save an extra €5. Scrapaholic is all about it's members, it is a club after all and membership equals benefits and so I am in the process of fine tuning the club side of things too and will update everyone when I've completed it.

Below is a sample layout made using Octobers transparency kit.

The kit contains:
1 x Imaginise Raindrop Reflections paper
1 x Imaginise Black & White Bash paper
2 x Evening Surf (Blue) cardstock
1 x Black cardstock
1 x White cardstock
1 x Hambly Frames Overlay
1 x flower (Gerbera)

If you require more than 1 kit to complete a double page layout an extra kit can be purchase at a reduced rate.

If you would like to book a place or find out a little bit more please email me at info@craftmills.ie

Lora

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Trying to avoid work

I've decided to update this morning before I get on with some more cards, because I've become a bit obsessed with my latest designs and there is a real danger that I won't get anything else done.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel Scrapaholic last Sunday after having several people cancel. I know it's impossible to please everybody all of the time and we've experienced this before, but it's very disheartening all the same.

Anyway, back to the job in hand......

Below is the replacement card with the SOM, it's a bit layering and matting mad what with the marbelled, pearlescent, snakeskin and fantasy foiled cards. I stamped the image using an Opalite ink pad and then used the perfect pearls to make fantasy fruits of gold. The picture doesn't do it justice, with all the different textures, but the flash bounces off everywhere.




This layout is one I completed a few weeks ago now, it's definitely one of my faves. I used the Dabbers to make my own transparency and then using the same technique on an extra sheet, i then punched out some flowers, which I've adorned with some black gems. The papers are Junkitz Basics and there are little hints of pink with the Mirri card and the flower gems, just to lift the black and white theme a little

The card is made again with the dabbers on acetate and then stamped with Stayz-on. With both the layout and the cards I've used brads to anchor the acetate.
This card was for my mums birthday.

Tonight it's our card/scrap club which is the perfect excuse to get back to my card making.

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September Stamp of the Month

Nothing unusual in how far it is into the month before I have managed to get to upload my cards for our Stamp of the Month again. In my next life I am going to be super efficient, incredibly organised, but probably single and very boring.

In truth I can't actually take all of the blame for the delay as my supplier took ages to send my order out and then didn't include the stamp. This was despite the email stating it's importance and asking to be let know if there were any PROBLEMS!!!!!!

Getting back to the stamp - It's the Melvin Tree stamp from Hampton Art Stamps.


I've actually made 5 cards using the image, unfortunately one has been damaged whilst on display in the shop, so I will have to make another.

The one below is stamped several times beginning with the lightest colour first and then embellished with one of the scrummy Maya Road ribbon sliders.


Using the image as a resist I then brayered over it with Kaleidacolor. Gem brads are from Papermania and are on offer this month.


Getting ready for Halloween - Stamped and embossed in black and all without a hint of orange (sorry to you know who).



Just stamped this time, but what a cool background paper it makes?

I'll try and upload the last one later, I also have a layout and a card (made for my mums birthday) to put up too.

Sunday is Scrapaholic and there are still a few places left so if any of you are interested please get in touch. The kit is really quite nice and very reasonable for €15, what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Scrapaholic is changing over the next couple of months as one of the original ladies with whom it all began is leaving, so watch this space for anymore news.

Unfortunately, due to other commitments we have had to pull out of ScrapFest (sorry). If however, there is anyone who was hoping to get to see us and is coming from some distance you can always let me know and I will try and keep the shop open for you.

We hope the weekend is a huge success and raises a good bit and in support will be donating a Gift Voucher for the shop.

As far as the shop goes, most of you will already be receiving our monthly newsletter and will be aware that CHRISTMAS has hit the shop, if not email me to put you on our mailing list.

I think that's everything for now, I am trying to be good and update this and my website regularly but must try harder.

Lora

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