Roses and kraft

Just having a play with some of the lovely new papers, ribbon and washi tape sent up from Paperworks, Dungannon - gorgeous!

Couldn't make a card without a good dose of Tonic too - check out the Rose stamp, Dotty border punch,Domed window die, Doily Square die and the Rose, Pansy, Camelia, Gardenia Punch and Stamp set.
The rose stamp is coloured again with my Promarkers.

Demo at Paperworks on Saturday

It's time to remind any local crafters that I'll be demoing some beautiful designs at Paperworks at the Linen Green in Dungannon on Saturday 2nd March from 11.00am - 4.oopm. I'm really looking forward to it as I enjoyed my last demo there so much. There will be lots of floral ideas using many of my own designs of dies, stamps and punches....and the new Punch and Stamps will get an airing too. I hope all the lovely ladies (and also the patient gentlemen who waited on their other halves!) can make it this time too.See you there. (Hope you can make it too, Lena!)

These little flowers were made from the Tonic Studios Rose, Pansy, Camelia, Gardenia Punch and Stamp set. I have made the flowers from the 2 different petal sizes and threaded them onto a set of battery lights.

Tonic Studios at Stitches Trade show

It has taken a couple of days to get my feet back on the ground after the show...literally! I wore high heeled boots (with a pair of "flatties" in my bag!) until I reached the airport to go home and my feet are killing me!

I just wanted to share a few photos from the trip with you.The top one was taken with the lovely Lucy - an adorable new addition to the "Tonic Team"

Mark and Mike 

Mark in Monday mode...

 Lucy keeping my seat warm :)

 With Betina from Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

With Jodie, Leonie Pujol and Lucy

 With Gareth

 Mike and David helping to pack up after the show

 David (my hubby) helping to take the stand down when it was all over.

 All hands on deck!

Simon and Gareth packing the van.

After all that it was a quick trip to the airport and a lovely flight home to Belfast.

Lots of news today..

Wooo, I'm so busy at the moment I can't remember when I last slept! Flowers, flowers and more flowers - our house is beginning to resemble Kew Gardens. And before you think I got a massive bouquet for Valentine's Day, think again. I've been making lots and lots of samples of punched flowers.

 I have three exciting bits of news to share today...in chronological order (not bad for a Thursday!)

1.  I have just been informed that as of today I am now officially a member of the Design Team for Papermill!! I've been using their superb quality paper and card for years now and am delighted to be able to share my projects on their blog and Facebook page now too. Why not have a look at the Papermill blog to see who else has been picked. You'll love their creations.

2.   I will be heading over to Birmingham on Sunday and will be at the Craft Hobby and Stitch trade show on Monday and Tuesday demoing for Tonic Studios. I'm really looking forward to meeting up with all the guys from Tonic as well as lots of others who have been in touch - hopefully my new friends from Papermill too.

Keep an eye out for lots of photos when I come home.

3.   Last, but not least, a little bit of advance notice of a demo. I'll be demoing my new Punch and Stamp sets along with other lovely things at Paperworks, Linen Green, Dungannon on 2nd March for the lovely Heather. I'll post another reminder of this in a separate post when I come back from NEC. I am really hoping to see some of the ladies who made it such a great day the last time!

IDEAL WORLD TOMORROW

A little heads up about some shows on Ideal World tomorrow..

Jodie Johnson will be demoing some gorgeous new Tonic craft goodies on Ideal World tomorrow at

 6.00 pm, 8.00 pm and 12.00 am.

She's been busy for days making beautiful samples so try not to miss!

To answer your questions....

I've had quite a few messages and emails about the flower punches and what flowers they make so I hope this helps...

At the moment there are 2 sets available as shown in the photos above. I designed 4 punches with 4 small coordinating stamps. These have been manufactured by Tonic Studios and come in boxed sets with a little acrylic cylinder and booklet of instructions on how to make the flowers shown on the boxes. (Of course, there are many more flowers possible from each combination and also by combining the 2 sets - the only limit is your imagination)

These sets were released by Tonic at CHA, USA on Create and Craft on Jan 13th  and were subsequently exclusive to C&C for 1 month. The set to the right above sold out completely and the set to the left is low in stock. They will be available from other retail outlets very soon - I'll keep you posted.

Just to show you again ...these are just some of the possible flowers from each individual set

Hope that clarifies things a little  - but feel free to get in touch if you need to ask anything else.

Making a frilled rose..

This is for the person who left a message for me on my blog asking how to make the frilly flower from the Rose, Pansy, Camelia, Gardenia Punch and Stamp set ...and anyone else who has bought the set and wants to expand the range of  flowers.

NB. You can follow the same procedure with the other set of punches for a frilly flower which has more of a point as shown above.

Frilled rose.

1. Punch out as many petals as you want. I've used 16 but you can use less or more. A little tip is to double the paper over and punch 2 at a time for speed.

2. Using reverse tweezers hold the petal in the centre but leave a tip showing.

3.  Place your fingers and thumb round the petal and give a quick twist in a clockwise direction.

4. It should look like this now.

5. Dip the tip into a blob of glue while still holding it with the tweezers.

6. Then place down on the sepal.

7. Make a layer of 5 petals , then offset another 5 and add a blob of silicone glue in the centre.

8. Twist more petals and add them to the silicone glue, pointing towards the centre.

9. It should then look like this.

10.  Recap

Please feel free to get in touch if there is anything unclear in the instructions.

I am thinking about doing some videos showing how to make these flowers as they are so quick and easy to do. I'll keep you posted.

Tonic Die and Die pad sets

 Just got a chance to have a play with the new Tonic Studios Die and die pad sets designed by Jodie Johnson...they were so easy to make and turned out lovely! You just place the dies over the marked area on the die pad, cut and assemble. The top one is the Anemone (love the colour) and I've done a bit of ribbon weaving on the Trellis Wall die cut behind it...

 This is the Oriental Lily - there are also sheets included for making up white with silver/gold lilies

Two more anemones and a begonia....

There are also beautiful cornflowers which I'll show soon..

Country style

Would you believe it, as I'm sitting here adding this bright, summery looking card, it's actually snowing again here....hope it doesn't lie!  EDITED - it's now lying about 2-3 inches deep....

Another card today using the new Tonic Studios Punch and Stamp set..Clematis, Lily, Poinsettia. I've used some of the petals (which I've shaded with Promarkers to add depth) down the edge of the card to echo the Rudbeckia stamp image. The stamp is mounted onto the Trellis Wall die ..which I can't stop using as it seems to fit in with most things. The grass at the bottom is from the Window Basket die which I've just cut the little flower heads off. 

Oodles of flowers...

I've been really enjoying making lots and lots of flowers with my new Punch and Stamp sets by Tonic Studios....all the ones above have been made with the Clematis, Lily, Poinsettia set...

...and all the ones her have been made with the Rose, Pansy, Gardenia, Camelia set.

It's quite addictive ....

Stamping Sensations DT card....Fur and Feathers

As you know I've been on the DT for the Stamping Sensations for quite a while but I have been so busy getting my Tonic designs ready (as well as family commitments) that I haven't been able to make a card for the challenge for a couple of months. Thanks a million to all the others who carried on without me and never complained once :)

The theme this month is "Fur and Feathers" so I have used my Parrot digi image from A Passion for Stamps and made a lot of colourful flowers with the new Punch and Stamp sets by Tonic Studios.
I've also used the Trellis Wall die behind the parrot and on the front of the tent card.

There is a super prize this month on the challenge blog.....

Great stuff!!

First scrapbook page

This is the first time I've tried a scrapbook page and I started with a very old photograph which I found a couple of copies of in my mother's house (with her permission, of course!) To tie in with the sepia photo, I've added a little bit of inking and some peach colours to give it a lift. This was a sample for Tonic Studios to show how their Pick of the Bunch range could be used for scrapbooking as well as cardmaking. The peach blossom at the top left is from the Rose set of stamps and the dimensional flowers were made with the new Punch and Stamp sets - one from each set, so far..

The butterflies were stamped from the Rudbeckia stamp set (it has flowers and butterflies in it)

You can see the Window box die here - and I've used one of the coordinating stamps to create the basket weave effect.

Flower shop

I'm busy at the moment making up samples of the Pick of the Bunch range for Tonic Studios to take with me when I'll be demoing at NEC next month at the Trade Fair and this is one of them..

Sweet peas (from the Rose, Pansy, Camelia, Gardenia set) attached to part of a Trellis Wall die and Arum lilies (from the Clematis, Lily, Poinsettia set)

Everything inside the "shop" (except the little bottles!) was made using stamps, dies and punches from the Pick of the Bunch range by Tonic Studios.

And the Daisy Border2 punched strip along the top to set it off

I bought the little "shop" frame and the cute little glass bottles from Forgetmenot Crafts in Pottinger's Entry, Belfast.