AN ASSORTMENT OF THINGS, PLUS A NEW STAMP, AND A STEP BY STEP...

If you are on the CI website mailing list you will have seen that we have added another new stamp to the recent releases, and right now all the recent releases are on a very Special Offer - just for a few more days.  Check them all out (x 5) HERE!

This is the most recent release - CI-427 'Its a Woman's World', and it stamps beautifully too:

Now I have an assortment of goodies to show you, so you can have a little break from writing those Christmas cards and festive letters, and wrapping those pressies, and have a look at what the CI team have been making recently.

Firstly I have two makes by lovely Lynne, featuring CI-416 'Feathered Friends' ..

Loving Lynne's somewhat abstract style here - very pretty!

Then I have a rather lovely card made by Coco, using an earlier stamp CI-186 'Bicycle Embrace'..

Very romantic!

Makes by Gio feature next.  Firstly a useful as well as beautiful storage idea adapted from a box...

So very useful for storing those paint pots in your studio!  And the stamps adorning the top and sides are from CI-390 'On Safari'.

Now I have another two delightfully hand crafted items by Gio, featuring her own stamp CI-418 'Frida Dreaming'...

Next I have some very beautiful Christmas cards made lovingly by Joanna, using our Starry Tree Die...

Plus another beauty featuring some Christmas images from our 'Merry Christmas' mini book..

I have made a few Christmassy things recently....

A Santa dangly charm made with Ranger Memory Glass, our 'Merry Christmas' images, chain, and filigree wraps.  Love making these, and they make great little presents.

Below is another decoration.  This time using a paper mache star shape (got mine from The Range), and our little angel stamp CI-211, plus chain, flower and charms.

And my final make is using the star shaped tealight holders, plus CI background papers, and of course more charms..

This make will be adorning our Christmas dinner table on the 25th - and they also make great little gifts of course.

My final feature is a step by step by Sylvie - such a gorgeous card, which will envelop you in thoughts of warmer seasons than this of the present.

Here is the finished card...

And here is the step by step written and photographed by Sylvie..

I inked different elements from CI-423 with my Distress inks to make the background.
I punched a circle in cardstock and I used it as a stencil on a white cardstock. I applied two Distress inks (picked raspberry and Squeezed lemonade) with applicator.
I removed the " circle stencil" and I stamped the flowers CI-422 with  jet black Archival on the inked circle.
I colored the flowers with Promarker.
I stamped and cut a butterfly and a dragonfly on CI-410. I applied Izink opaline over. 

Hope you have enjoyed the rather glorious assortment of makes tonight.  Please leave a comment if you can.

Back soon,

Jean x

YES IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN IN OUR CRAFTY CALENDAR.....

.....Yay - its CI new stamp release time of course!

And very pleased we are too - just loving the new rubber - available right now - and at Black Friday prices for a whole week!  Had to mention Black Friday as its appearing everywhere in the UK today - total madness - and it is most definitely sensible to avoid the very busy shops and simply shop online with us instead!!

You will find the new stamps in our New Products section right HERE...

In reverse order ..... firstly we have CI-428 'It's a Man's World' - sooooo useful for creating for those men in your life.  Lots of tags which you can use individually for small items, or as a whole image..

Watch out for makes with this stamp to follow.

Then there is CI-426 'Lacy Doilies' - this one has been drawn by Gio - and I adore it.  Gorgeous for backgrounds - you will be seeing this in use a lot more on here....

I have already had a play on a house shaped thermometer holder that I had in wood, which I turned into a useful Christmas gift, by attaching a sticky note pad and a calendar ...

I embossed the doilies using Stampendous White Detail Embossing Powder.

CI-425 'Winter Garden' is another of our friend Linda's Garden collection, and will be lovely for festive cards, or makes for the winter months....

Finally we have CI-424 'Jolly Holly Robins' - last but not least! Such little sweet robins in a festive frame - utterly adorable...

I have already popped this one onto a card, with the doilies again in the background...

You certainly seem to be liking the new releases, and the website has been buzzing all afternoon and evening!

Don't forget that the special prices are for one week only!

Do leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Back soon,

Jean x

IN A SPRING GARDEN...

Hello Folks - This is a blog post to make you feel warm and sunny, as it is all about spring and gardens.  As I am currently full of cold and feeling grotty, it is lovely to dream once again of spring, flowers and birdsong.  Actually the weather has been pretty good here so far considering it is November, but I don't like the dark days, and the cold and wet of winter.  Lets hope it is a short season and spring comes quickly next year.

The team have been brilliant in sending me lots of images, and quite a lot based around some of the latest stamps, so without further ado I am going to show you makes by Joanna, Sylvie, Coco and Daniele this evening, before I put my cold and myself into a nice warm bath, and then to bed.

I love all of the makes that follow, and here are some by Joanna - just so beautiful!!

The stamps used above are CI-415, CI-410, CI-422.  The flowers Joanna makes herself (gorgeous!), and the die cut is our Floral Branch die.  Its great that the images are tall ones so I can make them nice and big for you to look at!

Next I have some delightful makes by Sylvie ....

Couldn't make all of those as large due to the shape, but I love the watercolour effect that Sylvie has achieved with Gelatos, and here is a little step by step showing how she went about making them with the aid of a water spray...

You can try getting a similar effect with distress inks and markers etc.  The main stamps Sylvie used are CI-411 and CI-422.

Coco has made some intricate designs on the spring theme....

Lots of CI goodies appearing in these including CI-422, and die cuts.

And finally I have one of Daniele's adorable makes using CI-415..

Thank you ladies, and you will find links to their blogs at the side - do have a look around!  Hope you enjoyed the little taste of spring show!

Thats all for tonight,
back soon,
Jean x

p.s.  We picked 3 early winners of stamps as mentioned in the last post - who emailed us with their answers and addresses, and their stamps are on their way.  However Diane was also a very early entrant, and if you email us with your address Diane we can send you a set of stamps too.

BACK AT LONG LAST, AND A LITTLE GIVEAWAY TOO....

Its been a bit too long since I blogged last - the rest of life has got in the way - busy with the business, busy with fairs, and busy with the family, not to mention writing magazine articles (aaagh deadlines!).  Anyway better that way than too quiet - I do like to be busy!  Malcolm and I had a stand at a local fair last weekend, which was fun and rather good too, and we have another next weekend to look forward to.  Meanwhile I had better get on with blogging tonight....

Amongst the other stuff I found time to go to another workshop.  An arty one this time - playing with image transfer and canvas and collage.  Really enjoyed it - nice people, nice teacher, and lots of nice goodies to experiment with.  I also took along some CI stamps (CI-209 and CI-287).  This is an overview of what I made...

And a close up of a section...

Then my most favourite make on its own.....

And another close up section....

We put that last one in a frame!  Stamp used above was CI-209 (repeatedly stamped onto tissue and then applied to painted canvas, with netting, voile and stitching added).

Moving on... - another fairly recent make of mine was the result of having a bit of play time with one of Gio's recent stamp releases CI-419.  I also added a touch of shrink plastic for a change as a dangler...

The frame is the round one in MDF - and only 99p too!!  You will find this and 3 other shapes for sale on our website HERE.  The paper is from our Shades of Summer background book.

I have lots of Team makes still to show you, and I will work through those in the next few weeks.  To start with I have this lovely folding item by Helen to display.  She has used CI-415 in the main to make this pretty little thing....

Centre gate closed...

Centre gate open...

Close-ups...

Sections of other CI stamps also make their appearance in this make!  And I think this is an ideal opportunity for a giveaway right here, right now?  If you can give me the 'CI' numbers of 3 other stamps - bits of which can be found on here, at the end of this post, and you are the first to name them correctly (please send an email to us with your address as well), I will pop all 4 stamps in the post to you - that is CI-415 and 3 others.  Happy hunting!

My final beauty for tonight is this gorgeous festive wreath by clever Sylvie.  I thought I would show you this now, just in case you fancy making one yourself for Christmas!

Stamps making their appearance on this circle of loveliness are CI-358, CI-408, and CI-420, as well as an image from one of our little festive image books.

Thanks to Helen and Sylvie for their talent tonight, back soon with lots more to see!  Don't forget to get in quick with those stamps and their numbers.  Thanks as always for your continued help and support with comments.

Jean x