WHAT FUN WE HAD, PLUS A WEEKEND OF PLAYFULNESS....

It was a fantastic day Lesley and I spent at Hochanda on Wednesday, we hope you managed to catch the shows?!  We were amazed and delighted at how many of you placed orders and we had some super cool sell-outs and items placed on extended delivery despatch.  Thank you all so much for your continuing support!  We are sure you will have lots of fabulous fun with your winter tree themed purchases! Do let us know how you get on with your stamping and we always love to see your samples.

Of course we now have lots of images to share with you over the next few weeks, and to make a start here are the tree cards with reflections, as appeared on the shows...

Tree stamps used are from: CI-429, CI-450, and CI-209.  I had a whale of a time making these. I built up a background using Distress Oxides and created a reflection using the appropriate rubber stamp, an Archival Cobalt stamp pad and a piece of acetate.  All our tree stamps are perfect for this fabulous, easy to achieve technique.

Here below are the two fantastic makes from the shows by lovely Lesley Wharton, what a star she is!! Thank you Lesley!

Whilst I am talking about Lesley's loveliness - did you hear about our joint weekend workshops coming up in the Spring, called 'Art, Stamp and Play'? They will take place on 21st and 22nd April in the North East of England, and will involve lots of messy and creative fun - we can't wait!  We are working on collecting together more details for you but in the meantime if you would like to be added to the list of interested crafty persons please email us at: info@craftyindividuals.co.uk or sales@chocolatebaroque.com to express your interest. Lots of yays!

Happy stamping,
Back soon,
Jean x

HOCHANDA AND THE SNEAKY PEEKS.....

My next trip to the studios of Hochanda at Peterborough is coming upon us very quickly indeed.  The shows are next week, on Wednesday, 24th January at 3pm and 7pm.  I am going to demo of course as previously, but this time along with the uber talented Lesley Wharton of Chocolate Baroque and TV fame!!  I thought it would be fun if we played along together again this time, and happily Lesley agreed - thanks Lesley!  Soooo very exciting.
We hope you will tune in to see us and enjoy!

There will be some fabulous brand new stamps and papers launching on the shows, plus some slightly older favourites, masses of stunning makes from the teamies, and some extra special deals way too good to miss. 

Here are a few sneaky peeks.  I just love teeny tiny sneaky peeks.....

Some beauties from Sandra..

A couple of colourfully creative sneaky peeks from Helen..

Plus just arrived with me two more sneaky peeks from Gerrina..

With lots more to show you next week.

Oh my goodness!  I wonder if you can guess what the theme of the shows will be - ha ha?!!

Back soon,

Jean x

IT'S A QUICK POST FROM ME TONIGHT...

It's a very quick post as I've had a horrible cold for the last couple of weeks - I'd go as far as to call it the cold from hell!  Malcolm has had it too and one of my sons as well.  I expect there are quite a lot of you out there who have struggled with the bugs yourselves recently?!  So I've very little energy for a long post.

I have pictures tonight of just a few makes from our last Hochanda shows.  I particularly like the colours in these especially the purples, yellows and greens.  I am on Hochanda again on the 24th January at 3pm and 7pm.  Lesley Wharton, from Chocolate Baroque, has kindly agreed to demo along with me to bring a touch of artistic variety!  We are very excited indeed!!

Here is a tryptych card, with a bit of lace in the arrangement - this is a great format to use to bring several different images together in a pleasing way...

Images do work so well together in threes.  I teamed one of the pretty tags we have on sheets here with two popular stamps CI-302 and CI-415.  The only rules seem to be that the colours work together and although the sizes of images may vary a bit the finished height is the same when matted and layered.

Here is another, although there are four different elements together here rather than three, combining CI-185 with CI-411...

I also used similar colours on this beauty below, again featuring CI-302 and one of those fabulous Scrapiniec laser cut items...

I also put together a card using a variety of our images along with our latest postcard stamp - love that stamp!!

Also loving that pretty heart laser cut frame!

That's it for this evening,

Back soon,

Jean x 

NEW YEAR, NEW TEAMIES, NEW MAKES...

Happy New Year to all our customers and blog readers - hope it is a happy one for you and yours.  We have two wonderful new teamies to celebrate in the New Year, both from the Netherlands, Dora and Gerrina.  Here are their links in blogland, please send them your good wishes:

http://dora-knutselhoekje.blogspot.co.uk/

https://gerrinascreatievewereld.blogspot.co.uk/

Here are a few makes by the ladies, just for a glimpse of things to come...

Dora was the talented artist who drew the branch idea for our latest robin stamp..

And you may remember this beautiful card she also put together recently - fantastic stamping - bring on the Spring!..

..Here are two more cards by Dora..

I have the following pretties to share by Gerrina, just to get us started...

We also have some guest designers on the cards this year, so all is looking good!

Back soon,

Jean x