NEW STAMPS AND MUST-HAVES NOW AVAILABLE!

As lots of you will realise (if you are signed up to the mailing list on the Crafty Individuals Website) we now have four new stamps and some new 'must-haves' freshly released, which you do seem to be liking!

The four new stamps are as follows:

CI-333

CI-336

CI-334

and CI-335

We also have some beautiful new hand-dyed ribbons available, some pretty shell buttons, and some wooden shapes with magnets, all of which can be found in the 'Must-Haves' section HERE.

And finally not forgetting Malcolm's lovely photographs in A3 size which can be found in the Art Shop HERE, and would make great Christmas presents for a loved one.

I thought you might like to see a few projects I have made using the new stamps and other products, so here we go.

Two cards made with the new stamps -

and

Followed by a dangly calendar to remind me to keep stress at bay and think of England next year -

Then some items I made with the wooden shapes, where I turned one of our patterned tags into a gift complete with easily removable fridge magnet.  The magnets that come with the pack of shapes also work as a pair, so if you glue one piece to the back of your tag in the appropriate place and the other to the back of your wooden shape, and cut a small hole in your tag as shown, the wooden shape will hold to the tag all by itself.  Just another little and cool idea for your handmade Christmas this year!

And the workings -

Another one:

Plus a little bird magnet on its own:

Let me know what you think!
That's all for tonight folks - back soon with the new challenge details, and more ideas for crafty project making!

Jean x

LYNNE HAS SELECTED HER 5 NOVEMBER CHALLENGE WINNERS ...

Thanks to all who submitted their wonderful entries for the November Challenge and we can now give you the names of the 'Winter Wonderland' Challenge worthy winners, as kindly chosen by Lynne Moncrieff.  So without further ado I will show you the beautiful projects below, and will paste Lynne's own comments underneath each project:

From Scrapekatten - A beautiful winter's tag:

'Great use of a non-Christmas stamp, still achieving a beautiful, wintery effect on her lovely tag.'

From Paula - A very lovely canvas:

'Very imaginative use of CI stamps and products.'

From Ann B - Another lovely canvas with a very wintery feel:

'Clever use of stamps to create a painterly effect of a Winter Wonderland.'

From Maggie - A gorgeous decoration for the festive season:

'Beautiful, ethereal look to her winter decoration.'

And from Florence - Her first Christmas card creation, and such a little beauty!

'Gorgeous, nostalgic feel to this card.'

Hope you will join us in giving them all a big pat on the back, and as ever if you would email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk please, giving us your choice of stamp ladies, we will send you your gift just as soon as is possible.  Enjoy!

Stay tuned for details about the next Challenge for December in a few days time, and we hope you will join us again by linking in your lovely projects.

Before then, hopefully, I will be back with a posting about the new stamps, and other products we have just released over at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk.

Bye for now.

Jean x

WINNERS - WOW 72 LOVELY COMMENTS!

What an amazing response - thanks all followers!  Here I am sat on the landing upstairs (that's where my computer is at home) reading all these lovely comments.  How amazing it is that this blog can reach you all out there - how incredible is the Internet?!

Well anyway I have picked out 4 comment owners randomly from the long list, and here they are:

Neil, Craftimamma, Crafty mop and jac777

If you would kindly email your address to us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk, and your choice of CI Stamp, we would be delighted to send it out to you, and include some other bits and bobs too.

Thanks again all - there will be more giveaways to come in the future so keep tuning in.

This won't be a long post as I am oh so tired tonight, and we are off to Harrogate to check out the Knitting and Stitching show tomorrow - lovely fabrics and beads and stuff galore!  Actually Malcolm will be off doing his own thing in the area somewhere as knitting and stitching isn't totally his idea of a good time! - I'm not a knitter, but I do love those pretty fabric projects - mmmmm.

However I will give you a little on the visual side of things before I sign off.  Here is another Winter Wonderland project (just 2 days to go) by this month's Challenge coordinator lovely Lynne, with Rudolph rearing his so pretty little head again:

(Shhhh - don't tell anyone but this pretty packaging has the good old toilet roll tube as its centre)

And another prettily dear box project by Ginger, adding a touch of wintery sparkle:

Plus two more - non-Challenge themed projects - to finish.  The first a rather gorgeous row of houses put together by Helen Chilton, who as well as being one of Craft Stamper's very popular project designers, has also started running her own classes at The Craft Barn (love that very crafty shop!).  So if this project tickles your fancy then do join her there on Sunday, 22nd January.  If we didn't live at the other end of the country I would be joining her there too for sure:

Now how could you not love that!

Finally a very sweet and clever little project by Lucy Edmondson - nice use of our hen stamp CI-289 Lucy!

Should be some new stuff out soon on our website at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk, so don't forget to sign up to the website mailing list so you will be the first to know when we release new stamps etc.

Have a great weekend!

Jean x

LOVELY FOLLOWERS' CANDY...

As mentioned in my last post I now have 400+ lovely followers, and I would like to give a little reward to 4 of you.  Actually I'd like to reward you all, but as that would probably bankrupt us, I'd better stick to 4 this time around.  So if you would like to be in with a chance of being able to choose a particular CI stamp, and also have a few other little goodies enclosed with your stamp when we send it out, and you are a Follower of this Blog (you still have time to become a Follower if you are quick!), then leave a comment at the end of this post.  We will then pick 4 random Follower Comments to win the prizes before I write my next post.

Now I will get on with giving you a little visual stimulation!

Decorated purses seem to be right on trend at the moment and I spotted this little beauty on Ephemera's Attic Blog.   Paula is one very talented lady!

Lucy Edmondson has also been decorating little purses too - so check out her blog for other delights.  Here is one of them ..

Very pretty!

Isabelle Norris has also been busy lately using our stamps in a very creative way involving matchboxes.  How adorable is this little set of drawers?!

A

And a close up ..

Just loving all that lovely detail.  Check out her BLOG for more pics and projects.

.....

There are six days left to get your 'Winter Wonderland' NOVEMBER CHALLENGE entries linked in folks, so you have still got enough time to make that wintery project sparkle, and I still have a few more projects left to show you made by the team.

Firstly three more adorable cards made by Sue Abbott - love them!

How particularly stunning is that last card?!

You will find most of the stamps used in the above projects on our website at  www.craftyindividuals.co.uk either in the Individuals or Elements Section.

To close tonight thought I would just show you my little notebook on a tag gift idea again - this time with the addition of a miniature ball point pen - found in packs of ten recently in Aldi.  Just makes the gift complete I reckon.

So don't forget to leave a comment.  FOLLOWERS ONLY this time please.  Much appreciated!

Jean x

AND AT LAST ..

I can show you my inspirational contribution to the November Challenge theme as set by the lovely LYNNE - Winter Wonderland.  I got very behind with this Challenge, but anyway here it is - eventually.  I gave the photo a big of a wintery glow too ....

I used a Tando ROUND PRINTER TRAY for this project - I thought it would make a pretty good 'bauble' for the festive season.  I hung some little glass hearts from the bottom, which I couldn't resist buying recently, and I used stamp CI-240 as my main image.  I was very tempted to use old Rudolph instead, but resisted on this occasion.  I added some little images from our MERRY CHRISTMAS IMAGE BOOK in frames here and there, plus snowflakes and sentiments from CI-138, and various embellishments.  Hope you like?!

However I couldn't resist using Rudolph CI-332 and his delightful red nose, in my next little project.  I think I can just about get away with this as a 'Winter Wonderland' offering, although the real idea behind it is relating to the 'homemade Christmas' theme I have had going in previous posts and is inspired by a project shown before made by Kim.  I thought the little net covered bags of chocolate coins that are now in the shops, or similar, were perfectly suited to this idea, and actually as they seem to stand by themselves when decorated, would also make fantastic name/gift ideas for your Christmas dinner table (Tesco has a special offer on at the moment - two for £1) -

And another one along the same lines, using CI-142 and various die cuts -

I put my son's name on this one, so I had better make one poste haste for his brother too before I get accused of favouritism!!

And still in the vein of a handmade Christmas I have also made a crafted bottle hanger (inspired by Nikki LT's entry in our October Challenge) -

This uses paper from our Christmas Background Books and CI-142 again, which is always a very useful Christmas stamp to have around.

Finally tonight I have another Challenge inspirational image by lovely Lynne herself (come on Rudolph!), which is so very wonderlandish and soo pretty.  Thanks Lynne.

Still more offerings stacked up to show you, but as I am now yawning my head off, I think it is an early bed tonight for me.

Must just mention though that the Followers total has just hit 400 - how amazing you all are - I think we might have to pick out one or two of you randomly to receive a thank you gift in my next post, by way of a celebration - I treasure you all!

Good night, sleep tight.

Jean x

WE HAVE TWO BLOG CANDY WINNERS.........

Such a lot of lovely comments and emails!  We have two blog candy winners to announce tonight.  My youngest son picked a number between 1 and 51 (comments) - number 29, and if I've counted down correctly the winner in the comment candy list is THE SPARKLY FAIRY.  Then for the email candy list Malcolm picked a number (number 17) from 28 emails, and the winner here is JENNY JEANSSON.

Thank you to all who left a comment or sent an email, and we would be delighted to post out the winning candies to the above ladies if you would kindly let us know your address asap - info@craftyindividuals.co.uk.  Keep checking back folks for more blog candy in the weeks to come.

Anyway whilst I am in blog mode I want to quickly show you some more lovely, lovely inspiration for the current 'Winter Wonderland' Challenge.  However it will have to be quickly listed as I only have an hour before the last episode of Downton Abbey (sob!), and my eldest son has come home from Uni just to watch it with me (now a family tradition!).  However I think I read somewhere that there will be a Christmas special episode - goodie.  So here goes with the 'inspiration' -

Firstly I must show you the sooo cool projects by our lovely Helen Chilton - had a bit of computer trouble getting hold of these, but finally here they are:

And:

Due to my shortage of time this evening I won't link in to all the website pages for the stamps, but if you have just stumbled upon my blog out of nowhere you will find all the stamps you need to make your own takes on the projects I am showing you tonight on the Crafty Individuals website HERE.

Thanks Helen they are just Yum!

Next Isabelle Norris has been helping out with a customer enquiry on her Cuttlewax technique.  You may have noticed on the CI WEBSITE GALLERY some time ago several beautiful Christmas cards that Isabelle made using CI stamps and embossing folders - so pretty and so Winter Wonderland!  Anyway she has been an absolute dear and has made a slide tutorial demonstrating how she went about the process she used to make the cards below, and you will find her slide tutorial on her website HERE.  It is a really interesting and clever process so do try it out, I think you will love it!  If you want to have a go you can purchase the wax sheets you need from THE CRAFT BARN.  I will be buying mine very soon I can tell you!

Here is one of the older cards and three new delights she has made:

(There's that Rudolph again - he seems to poke his nose in everywhere, doesn't he?)

And:

Love them!

Well I still have lots more on my computer desk top to show you, but I'm going to call it a day for now.  Just time to leave you with some photos Malcolm took in Whitby on Friday.  You know how we love Whitby (fish and chips - yummy!)  It also just happened to be the start of Goth weekend, so I left Malcolm loitering on a corner grabbing hold of passing Goths (who just also happen to love having their photos taken - fortunately) whilst I went shopping.  His excuse was that you would all love seeing the pics on my blog, but actually he just likes taking snaps!  Hope you don't have nightmares after seeing these.

Night all - and enjoy Downton if you can get it wherever you are!

Spooky!

Back soon.

Jean x

A VERY BEAUTIFUL CUSTOMER PROJECT, MORE CHALLENGE INSPIRATION AND BLOG CANDY

I have a few more November Challenge inspirational pieces to show you tonight, and some blog candy to give away, but firstly I want to show you the most beautiful project made by a customer of ours JANET (JANET'S KAARTEN), I just love all the superb detail, and I'm sure you will love it too.

How fabulous is that?!  Check out our stamps CI-285 and CI-322, CI-323.

Now onto more lovely November Challenge inspiration from 'the team'.  Firstly a couple of SUE'S wonderful card creations:

...... with more to follow soon! - (stamps CI-327 and CI-332)

And a very pretty 'Santa' box by GINGER - loving it! (an early Santa stamp CI-136)

And you may ask - where exactly is my contribution? Well I am working on it - honestly - but after a couple of hours work I dismantled it (wasn't at all happy!) and am redoing.  Hopefully it will follow in the next few days, along with still more inspiration!!!  So in the meantime here is a little tag with apologies.....

And to finish off tonight two lovely packs of blog candy are now available to give away.  One pack will go off to a random 'comment maker' at the end of this post - so get commenting folks!  And the other pack will go off to a random email - so anyone can go for this one.  Please email us at info@craftyindividuals.co.uk with the words 'blog candy please'.  You are welcome to try for it both ways - but one comment/email each only please.

Pack A

Pack B

Looking forward to hearing from you, and seeing those Challenge entries too (three in already!)

Jean x