A QUICK CATCH UP.....

Thanks for your kindness and support with the recent Hochanda shows, sales were good, and we were very pleased with it all.  The studios, presenters, staff and other demonstrators were delightful, and Lesley and I had a very pleasant couple of days in the Peterborough area, as the following day, Saturday, we had a day out in a rather lovely local town, before driving back home later in the day - lots of coffee and cake were enjoyed of course!!

I have just received the pretty seaside image below from Sandra, so I thought I would start with this tonight - love the painted background, and the youngsters enjoying a day out, all very enticing.  Aaaah I can almost hear the waves, the seagulls and smell the salty air...

Anyway back to the Hochanda shows and Christmas, lol, and I will pop below the beginnings of some of the samples I had with me, so you can see the details more closely....

Here is the one by Willy that appeared on my last Facebook post, and is defo worth another look as it is gorgeous ..

.....and here are the same girls but in an assembly by Flo - just adorable! ...

Here is Sandra's version - another real beauty!...

Followed by Sylvie's colourful and bubbly interpretation....

My final make for this evening is the little folding Christmas book I demoed, made with our lovely houses and trees die cut sheets. I enjoyed making this creation immensely, and putting the images behind the little windows and doors. Here it is folded up....

Here it is opened out....

A detail....

 ... and even the back is decorated....

I joined all the pieces with the low tack masking tape before decorating with our brand new issue of A4 background sheets.  How about making one for your family for Christmas, you could even pop family images of your own behind the doors and windows?!

Thanks for looking!

Back soon,

Jean x
 

HOCHANDA SNEAKY PEEKS....

Hello Lovelies

As mentioned on Facebook recently I will be back on Hochanda this Friday (14th July) at 3pm and at 7pm on live tv again, (eeek!), and we are in a flurry of preparations for the shows at the moment.  We would love it if you could tune in and join us, see the Christmas themed demos and kits (which include some brand new background papers), and see the beautiful team samples that have been made for the occasion.  I'm not a big fan of distance driving so lovely Lesley Wharton of Chocolate Baroque has very kindly indeed offered to drive me down to Peterborough and keep me company - how sweet is that - thanks so much Lesley?!!

This is therefore a brief blog post just to give you a few sneaky peeks.  The colourful peeks below are all from items made with Winter Wonderland, CI-399 by the team...

Can't wait to show you the whole of their artworks!  With thanks to Flo, Sandra, Willy and Sylvie for the above.  Lots more samples to photograph yet, and lots more to show you on Friday.

Hope you are loving the peeks.

Back after the show,

Jean x

SOMETHING OF A TAG FEST.....

I seem to have gathered quite a few photos of tags, all beautifully made recently by the CI team, so these I will share with you tonight.  My first beauty is by lovely Sylvie in France, and is a manly one, featuring CI-405 in particular..

I now have an array of terrific tags by Coco, also in France..

The above, all summery delights feature CI-402, CI-459 and CI-449.
 

..This one I believe is the front cover of an accordion array of tags, and features CI-468 and CI-466.

My next lot are Christmassy ones (sorry if it's a bit early for Christmas - but it's never too early to make a start you know!!)..

Love this one by Sylvie..

...it uses one of our printed Christmas tags, plus the little cottage in CI-463, and a festive curly word from CI-446, and here's another, also by Sylvie..

And finally Flo is also in the Christmas spirit with the two lovely tags below...

My next gorgeous make is kind of tag shaped perhaps, but is in fact a decorated piece of bisque ceramic by Helen - so beautifully painted and stamped, and again looking very festive with that sweet cottage again, plus CI-462 and CI-425...

To end this post I will show you the two very attractive cards made recently by Willy from Holland, which I have also shown on Facebook.  Not tags of course but very delicious nevertheless..

Thanks all teamies, and thanks to you for stopping by to take a peek.

Back soon,

Jean x

FROM DAISIES TO JAPAN..

Hi Lovelies.  Hope you are enjoying some summer sunshine where you are.  It's been a lovely day here in Yarm, and we are hoping the good weather stays with us at least for the weekend.  I am starting this post off with three delightful 'daisy' cards made by lovely teamie Flo...

The stamp Flo has used in 3 different ways in these is CI-262, along with some papers from our mini background books.

In similar colours I have this beautiful card by teamie Joanna, using stamp CI-474, bedecked with Wisteria flowers...

Simply stunning Joanna!

...And another stunner is this very pretty rose from CI-470 made by teamie Sandra..

(lovely colouring Sandra!)

I'm not sure if I have shown you the next two cards before, but they seem to fit in nicely colour wise, made recently by me...

I used our background papers and our mini image book Nature's Beauty along with some die cut mini frames, which are great fun to decorate with CI stamps and stuff.

Finally tonight I have a few makes to show you from a couple of our customers.  The first is by Sherry Hickey from USA...

Sherry used CI-471 and I love the soft gentle colouring, and the touch of aqua in the ribbon.

The last cards are by Eriko from Japan, who is quite new to stamping, but is having the time of her life practising and making her lovely images.  Don't you just love the way we can travel the world so quickly courtesy of the internet, and connect with people we would never have met otherwise?!  Fabulous...

Thanks so much for sharing ladies - you are all so clever and so talented.

Bye for now,
Back soon,

Jean x

IT'S ALL PINKS AND PEACHY....

I have some lovely makes with lovely colour schemes to show you this evening.  Starting with the gorgeous pink flamingos here below by Flo.....

....so very bright and cheerful, and totally tropical!  Love them!

More by Flo to follow here - from the seaside themed show on Hochanda - here are some ships....

....and some seagulls and feathers....

Still on one of my favourite themes of the seaside here are two makes by lovely Joanna.  This fabulous scene in a box....

And a very pretty card with the sandy toes and salty kisses little boy....

Flo did a very cute thing with the little boy on the following card, using just the top of his head and his little feet, and the deckchairs...

.....adorable!

I recently made this card and used a template by Flo to create a home for a fruity teabag to pop inside - a teenie tiny gift for a friend....

and here is an image of a make I have just received today from Daniele - so pretty, using Paper Artsy infusions I believe...

Finally I popped the two tags below by Flo on Facebook the other day and you loved them, so here they are in all their glory again....

Thank you ladies ... and we are also sending lots of love to Manchester and London this evening....

Bye for now,
Back soon,

Jean x

p.s. As usual all stamps used in the above makes can be found at www.craftyindividuals.co.uk

YAY - NEW TEAMIE.....

Like all teams we do have some retirements from time to time, and recently we were sad to see lovely Lynne leave the fold, however we are delighted that we said hello to Willy from the Netherlands recently, and tonight we are again delighted to introduce another new teamie to the CI family, lovely Sandra, from the UK, and I'm sure you will join us in warmly welcoming Sandra, and also enjoy a visit to Sandra's blog at http://sandmacards.blogspot.co.uk/.

I have some new makes from Sandra to show you today, in addition to the fabulous scene she created and I blogged in my last post, she has also been busy with more very creative and colourful landscapes that I will pop below.  I can make these nice and big as they are a perfect shape for blogging and firstly here is that pretty cottage from CI-460...

Followed by stamps and scenes from our latest lovely landscape addition, CI-474..
 

Stunning!

She also sent over an extra image on a sunny seaside theme, and as you know we do love those seaside scenes, which are especially delicious when featured on a beautiful day like today...

Thanks Sandra, we do look forward to seeing more of your fabulous makes in the future!

Appropriately I also happen to have a couple of landscapes by Flo tucked away, in a similar vein.  One little beauty I popped on Facebook the other day....

.....and here is another...

Hope you are having a lovely sunny weekend, wherever you are and whatever you are doing!  Back soon with more fantastic makes.

Jean x