A FEW THINGS TO MENTION AND TWO LOVELY BOXES......

A quick post tonight from me to mention that there will be a great new Crafty Individuals Blog Challenge starting at the beginning of July - so do keep a look out here very soon, and also that I am demoing, and running a little 'Make and Take' in the craft shop area of Strikes Garden Centre, Northallerton, this Saturday, from 10am - 4pm (with a little lunch break in the middle) - all welcome for a chat and a play!!

My inspirational makes for this evening's post are two very pretty boxes as painted and stamped by Coco! I am including some step photos taken by Coco and a list of 'ingredients'.  As the photos are pretty much self explanatory I think you will be able to see how Coco went about decorating her boxes without further ado.  Here they are (love the charms in the corners)...

Here are the 'ingredients':

'You will need:

 CI-410 Butterfly Mornings  and Wildflower Afternoons
1 Square wooden box (90x90x50mm)
1 old gold handle (of the two in the pack),
1 four old gold corners set
A little dragonfly from Assorted Dragonfly/Butterfly charms
Gilding wax 

Other Materials:
Paints: PA Fresco Finish Chalk Paints Amethyst, Dolly Mix (plain box) and Adirondack Cranberry and Eggplant (edges), 
Orchid, Zesty Zinc, Tango, Blood Orange, Pansy, Lilac, Vintage Lace, Limelight, Hey Pesto (images)


Mediums: Crackle Glaze, Multi-medium (I used Studio Multi-medium Gloss),  Glossy Accents
Stazon Jet Black/Stazon cleaner, PITT artist pen black (S), Pocket Guide To Mixing Color Vintaj Patina Verdigris, Cobalt (for the butterfly charm)
Two fine brushes'

And here are the steps for the dragonfly box:

And the turtle box was decorated in a similar way:


'The second one I made using the wonderful Alice Palace’s turtle CI-413 and CI-397!!! I did it almost exactly in the same way, except I used other shades of paints, and added extra texture all around the sides with a sea mask and heavy gel medium..'

Thanks to Coco - they are fabulous indeed!

Back soon with details of the July Challenge - hope you can join in!

Jean x 

BACK AGAIN....

With more good stuff!!  However I have had a day where nothing seems to work as it should - my vacuum cleaner isn't working properly, my lawnmower gave up completely, half way through cutting the grass, and my computer printer isn't working either.  Hopefully that's the three things gone wrong and it doesn't mean my computer will give up tonight too whilst I am writing this post!

To begin with I have some gorgeous goodies from Gio to show you.  Firstly she has made a superb 'upcycled mini drawer'....

How adorable is that?!  Made with our latest background book of papers 'Weekend in Seville' and the lady from stamp CI-414  - I love it!

Gio has also created some great 'Alice Palace' themed cards....

and a pretty panel, again using the papers mentioned above and stamp CI-430 in the background....

Coco has also made a fun 'Alice' card with the same background stamp......

I have some of Joanna's lovely flowery cards to show you, incorporating CI stamps too.....

 

These are sparkly cards featuring Gio's lovely doily stamps, plus CI-436 and the butterfly from CI-364.  Joanna has also incorporated our Floral Branch Die which is on a great special offer right now on the website (as are all the dies)!!

I now have some very colourful and cool cards by Sylvie using her Gelli plate and our stamps, CI-391, CI-385, and CI-434....

 Plus a beautiful butterfly card (butterflies from CI-437).....

Did any readers manage to get to The Craft Barn Summer Craft Fest recently?  Lovely Helen Chilton was busy getting mucky fingers demoing our stamps and Brushos to great effect.  Here is her sample board (photo courtesy of Craftyfield)....

Kathy Byrne also demoed CI stamps, this time with Stampbord. Here are a couple of her lovely samples....

Thanks for joining us, and my computer seems to have made it so far!

Back soon,

Jean x

SUMMER SUN DISCOUNT AND BARGAINS TO BE HAD.....

Hello All,

We have today sent out a Newsletter telling everyone who is signed up to receive the latest Crafty Individuals info about lots of Summer Sun bargains and sale items available online right now.  If you are not on the list yet this is the link where you can see all the current bargains together in one spot, and there are four pages of bargains at the moment from image sheets to image books, through to our entire collection of dies: http://www.craftyindividuals.co.uk/sale#:page1.  In addition we have also given our retail customers a discount code to get another 10% off everything on our site, including the items already discounted.  For the first hour or so this code didn't work properly, but I am pleased to say all seems to be in order now.  This is the code you will need to enter during the checkout process to receive your lovely extra 10%:

10%SUMMERSUNDISCOUNT

It has been glorious in the summer sun here today and we have had two relaxing walks in the park with Monty dog.  I am also enjoying a Blackbird's nest in a bush just outside my kitchen window, where mum and dad Blackbird are backwards and forwards feeding two hungry and growing babies whose open mouths can be seen popping up over the top of the nest much of the time - its lovely to watch!

Thanks to all who entered our recent Challenge, and thanks to all who occasionally or regularly leave comments on my posts here.  Its lovely to know you are out there and following this blog, and are maybe even finding a little inspiration to set you on your way.  Today I have some more delicious makes to show by members of our team (links to the relevant teamies blogs can be found to the right of this page).

I love the colours on this ATC from Coco....

(uses stamp CI-346)

And the layout on this tag, also by Coco....

(uses stamps CI-436 and CI-437)

The same butterflies stamps have been used in this gorgeous layout by Daniele...

(as well as papers from our new background pad - A Weekend in Seville)

Still on the butterfly theme Florence has been very busy cardmaking and suchlike...

(also appearing above are the new 'Seville' background papers again plus background stamps CI-435 and CI-436)
*The two frames Flo used can be found in our Must Haves section, and they are lightweight and great as embellishments.

Gio has been decorated a notebook in beautiful rich browns....

(uses stamp CI-432)

Finally this evening I will pop in a little desktop tidy tray I have decorated with flowers and grasses from CI-395...

Back again soon,

Jean x

MAGICALLY AND MARVELLOUSLY MUSICAL...

We have been very busy this week getting everything ready for our trip to Doncaster, where we will be appearing at Stamp Magic, at The Dome, on Sunday, 7th June.  This is one of those lovely friendly shows that we are so looking forward to attending again - and it would be so great to see you there!

However before we set off Joanna has made her five marvellously magical musical choices from our May Challenge linked in entries.  Thank you to everyone who entered for showing us their lovely makes - Joanna had such a difficult job to do. 

Here are the five, and Joanna's comments - please contact us soon folks at info@craftyindividuals with your address and choice of stamp:

No 4 - 'Fabulous 'simple' card by Craftyfield'...

No 10 - 'Beautiful shadow box by Myra'...

No 14 - 'Jane's great journal pages'...

 

No 18 - 'Lovely musical seaside scene by Sally'...

Emailed entry by Zuzana -'I like a lot the 'party' scene created here'...

Thank you Joanna, and thanks again to all the entrants,

Back soon,

Jean x