A NICE DAY, WITH A STING IN THE TAIL.....

Malcolm and I had a nice walk with Monty Moodle today (he got all involved with a Spaniel, and got extremely dirty running around - white is not a practical colour for a dog!), and then we popped into Darlington to visit an art market - did a little shopping, and had a lovely lunch at a little restaurant, out in the open air, in the sun, in the middle of town.  The sting in the tail was a parking ticket when we arrived back at the car - its a Sunday for heavens sake - don't these folk have better things to do than worry about you being just over the hour you had initially paid for!

Well that's my moan for today!  Now on with the artworks!

I have some very gorgeous pretties to show you in tonight's post.  I collect the beautiful images the team send over in files on the computer, and I am delving deeply into them to display the wonderful assortment featuring below.

But firstly I have a superb card to show you by one of our lovely customers from Guernsey - Katie Conway..

Fabulous colours here Katie, and featuring the Alice Palace Puffin, plus beach huts from CI-278!

Talking of the seaside Daniele has been framing up the new lighthouse stamp CI-384 - gorgeous, gorgeous Daniele!

Lots of lovely texture on that frame too and a Tando compass attachment amongst other delights!

Talking of lovely this hanging by Lynne celebrates the 'Love Lovely Life' theme from another Alice stamp CI-382 ...

And quickly followed by another little beauty from Lynne ...

Lynne hasn't been too well recently, so all our good wishes are being sent your way, and hope you feel much, much better soon!  Love everything about Lynne's creations, and this one features an older stamp which I still love to bits CI-148 - Floradora Girl, with such a pretty background of perfume bottles from CI-341.

Then back with the Alice stamps I have some stunningly coloured crafty pieces by Sylvie below:

The goose from CI-380 has the 'Wow' factor here!

Brenda has also been playing very nicely with the Alice stamps ..

More lovely colour work here too!

And finally a couple of adorable cards by Gio ..

I'm sure my little dog would also love to get his paws on some tasty cake!

Hope you have enjoyed the glorious display above -
Back again soon,

Jean x

YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE .....

After a brilliant show with the Happy Stampers at Port Sunlight on Saturday, we are now back home, the van is unpacked, and I'm exhausted!!  Just time for a little chat with you tonight before I get some much needed beauty sleep.

How's this for a superb bit of home decor designed for the love of your life?!

Just the right shape to display nice and big on Blogger - this is beautifully made by Effie, using CI-384, Grace Darling's Lighthouse, mounted on a section torn from a map and standing on a piece of driftwood secured with florists wire. Loving the bunting!!

Also by Effie I have the following images to show you ..

Here featuring The Party Puffin from the Alice Palace rubber stamp collection,- plus CI-035 and a ticket from CI-307 ..

Plus another page from her altered book/journal, again featuring Mr Party Puffin ...

Then finally another project, this time using embroidery cotton and thread.  Effie has had her needle out here and has cleverly adapted CI-385 into a piece of embroidered loveliness ...

And back at the lighthouse Paula has so very nicely decorated a plaque, also with CI-384 -

Then focusing on another one of our new stamps CI-386, Summertime Sylvie has used elements from this stamp in a scrap layout - very stylish indeed!

Thank you ladies for the beauties featured above, and thank you all for visiting us here.  Must have another catch up session soon, as I still have sooo much waiting to be displayed.

Jean x

FIVE VERY FASHIONABLE CRAFTERS .....

We are delighted to be able to show you tonight Gio's choice of five projects for our April 'Spring in Fashion' Challenge, and very gorgeous they are too.  Gio had to make some difficult decisions here as the standard of entries is so very high - but decisions do have to be made - and the chosen ones are featured below.

We have a very creative card made by Nicola at http://paperprofusion.blogspot.ie/2013/04/spring-dressforms.html - splendid!

And a very fashionable bulldog - love it! - by Katie at http://inkyangelcreation.blogspot.ca/2013/04/spring-into-fashion.html -

Plus a very pretty card by Ellie at http://elliecreahoekje.blogspot.nl/2013/04/spring-in-fashion.html, just full of sunshine -

A superbly intricate jewellery box by Joanna at http://joannakrog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/ucji-urodzinki-ucjas-birthday.html - just stunning! Do have a look at Joanna's blog to see the full story...

And a beautiful linked up book by Myra at http://madebymyra.blogspot.nl/2013/04/ci-spring-in-fashion.html ..

For more images and lots of good stuff do have a look at the blogs concerned.  Well done to all who entered - you can see all 33 linked in entries by clicking HERE.  If the 5 ladies mentioned above would like to email us at: info@craftyindividuals.co.uk with their choice of CI rubber stamp, we will post them off to you as soon as possible.

Before signing off for this evening I would also like to show you 3 very lovely images of projects by a lovely lady called Ute at http://wolkentraum.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/albumkarte/ ..

Thanks for sharing Ute - and you will find most of the ingredients for all the above projects at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk

Back again soon folks,

Jean x

p.s. Hope to see lots of you at the Happy Stampers Festival at Port Sunlight, next Saturday, 11th May -

UPDATE ON THE APRIL CHALLENGE, PLUS USING THE NEW DIES AND STAMPS...

We now have 30 superb entries into the April Challenge with just 1 1/2 days to go to link in your entries.  The subject for this Challenge was chosen by Gio and is 'Spring in Fashion' - perfect for the lovely sunny day we have here in the UK today!  Have a look at the entries so far, and treat yourself to a little blog hop HERE.   Don't forget that you are entitled to a 25% discount on our website at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk just for entering - so do email us for your discount code valid for a few days yet.

We released some new stamps and 3 new dies recently.  Daniele, Helen and Lucy have had fun using the new stamps ..

Daniel's card is soooo pretty and uses the new Summertime stamp CI-386.  And Helen and Lucy have both gone for Linda's new stamp design Summer Garden CI-385 to adorn their projects - beautifully...

As mentioned we also released 3 new dies at the same time ...

And I have made a few quickie cards using them - you will find the new dies on our site HERE ...

In all these cards I have used a suitable 'nesting' die to cut an aperture in my card, and then I have used a strip of acetate down the centre of the aperture to hold the die cut or stamped image in place as my focal point - so it kind of 'floats'.  Very effective and easy!  This is a card made in a similar way with our Gilded Cage Die.  I cut the birdcage twice - once in our background papers and once in a plain darker card.  I glued the two die cuts together - but slightly offset, to give a 'shadow' effect.  I then cut extra 'branches' using the same die, and curved these separately around the aperture as you can see.  Add a few pearls and it makes a very pretty card.

My final crafty image for today is another by lovely Lucy.  Lucy has used our new elements stamp Plain Sewing on a hessian background to create this great piece ..

She has also incorporated one of our little wooden trays on the project, which are so very useful for making small shadowboxes with sweet pretties inside - and what's more still only 99p!

As you know we now have a little 'Moodle' puppy, who is just adorable.  As his hair was growing ever longer we took him to the doggy beauty parlour recently, where he had over an hour's hands on beautifying.  So our little 'Boris' went in like this (Malcolm spotted the similarity!):

And came out like this (and smelling beautiful too)!

He was quite happy to pose for the camera - just as long as was necessary (with a doggy treat at the end of course)!

Bye for now, back soon,

Jean x