Back from Dublin

Twelve hours later and I'm back home again! The demos at Inspiring Ideas, Blanchardstown, Dublin went really well and I enjoyed every minute! I can't thank you all enough for the fantastic welcome I got :)

Inspiring Ideas is a really beautiful shop and I'll have to pay a visit when I'm not working so I can have a proper look around.

These are just a few of the lovely ladies who made it such a pleasure....Margaret, Pam, Maria, Mary, Kay and Bernadette...along with so many others who were there during the day.

Alma took some photos with her camera when it was busier - because you must know by now that I always get carried away and forget :(....I'll add some of Alma's photos when I get them next week.

Maria - thanks so much for everything - I'm enjoying the lovely big bar of chocolate now with a cup of tea :)

Hope to see you in Belfast in November.

Alma - those pics had better be good!!

Paul - who kept me fed and watered - thanks for the lovely lunch!

Alma and Alma!! :)

All over - sorry about the mess on the carpet :(

Here's just one of the sample cards for the demo - the Verso dies went down a treat.

I had such a lovely time because I met some ladies who had been "cyber" friends for a long time and now I have had the chance to actually meet up. It was so lovely to see Loretta (albeit briefly) , Margaret and Margaret Coyle with others.

I'll try to remember to upload some photos of all of the different types of cards we made with the Verso dies during the week. Right now, though, I'm off to steep in a big bubble bath :)

Inspiring Ideas, Dublin demo

If anyone is in the vicinity of Blanchardstown, Dublin on Saturday feel free to drop in to Inspiring Ideas where I'll be demoing lots of Tonic Studios punches and dies. It will be my first time in the store but I'm looking forward to meeting up with some cyber friends who have already been in touch.

The demos are from 11.00am - 1.00pm and 2.00pm - 4.00pm.

See you there :)

Wine linen embossed card offer at Papermill

It's that time of the week again - offer time at Papermill - and this week you can buy an A4 small box of Wine coloured linen effect card for £5.00. You can see the offer HERE. 

I've used the new Tonic Studios Decorative Wreath rings die set with the Papermill wine linen embossed cardstock as these dies can be used for many occasions other than just Christmas.

The stamp is from the Rose set also by Tonic Studios.

New Tonic Studios release..Baroque Ovals

Here's a card made with one of the new Tonic releases......gorgeous new dies and matching border punches.

I just love the way you can cut out so many pieces from the same set and put them together in different ways. If you take a closer look you can see how many different die cut parts there are on it.

There are 3 new sets and the one I've used is Baroque Ovals.

The flowers were made with the Carnation, Sweet William, Peony Punch and Stamp set, and the bird is from the Two Birds die set.

Look out for this set and the others on Ideal World as Pick of the Day at 9.00pm this evening.

Papermill's weekly offer

This week's great offer from Papermill is an A4 midi box of 250gsm plain white card for £16.00.

You can see the offer HERE.

It has a lovely smooth feel to it  - I've used it in various ways on the above card....I've made the actual card base from it, embossed it with 2 different folders on the umbrella and coloured 2 of the umbrella parts with promarkers (turquoise and dark sienna).

I used the Tonic Studios Delicate Lattice border punch on the Papermill teal card, and used one large circle die from 2 of the new Christmas Verso die sets to matt and layer the big circles behind the umbrella. The umbrella was cut with my Silhouette Cameo.
I printed the greeting from the computer and die cut it in two pieces with the small tag die from the Tonic Studios Butterfly Beautiful Topper and Die set.

Event City Pics

Mark and Mel getting ready for a busy day...

with Anne and her cousin

with Jenny Redfern

with Tracy

Michael from Every Crafts a Pound :)

Michael and Adie

with Debbie and her daughter

Had a great time and met so many lovely people. It was great, too, to meet up with some Docrafters!

Because the show was busy it was hard to get decent photos to show how it was going - when there were lots of folk around I couldn't take time to get photos so these are just a few I grabbed here and there over the 3 days.

Thanks Mark and Mel for having David and me - we really enjoyed ourselves.

Thanks, too to Michael and Adie from Every Crafts a Pound for being such good "craic" - and almost making me choke on my food! 

......I still think it was Michael's hair straighteners that were the reason we were all evacuated from the hotel at 1.30 am on Saturday........;)

Offer at Papermill

This is my card for this week's offer at Papermill - gorgeous smooth feeling Sea Green card in 250gsm which you can buy at £4.50 for a small box of approximately 80 A4 sheets.

You can see the offer HERE.

I've used the Tonic Studios Indulgence Elegant Vine Oval die set with one of the new Christmas sentiment dies and the new Fanciful Flourish corner die around the edges.

Don't forget if you want a chance to be a member of the Papermill Design Team you can enter the current challenge to create something Autumn inspired over at the blog..see the details HERE.

New Tonic Swirl dies

Things are a bit hectic around here at the moment but I hear that the super Tonic Decorative Wreath dies were a sell out! No wonder - they are superbly designed and fantastic to work with. For all those who were disappointed to have missed out, if you have patience you will see them again as soon as there is more stock and, believe me, they are worth waiting for.

So.....next up are the beautiful new Swirl dies!! Theses are favourites of mine. Not least because I have been asking Tonic for these for yonks now am so happy with the results - lovely fine, delicate swirls :)

On this card I've used the "negative" from the largest die in the Frond Finesse set. It's actually cut out of the teal card (from Papermill) and I've added 2 Multi Detail butterflies and 3 tiny fuchsias made from the Rose, Pasny, Camelia, Gardenia Punch and Stamp set.

Event City, Trafford Centre - anyone going?

Good morning!

Just a quick post to say I'm going to be at Event City, Trafford Centre at the Creative Stitches and Hobby Crafts show later this week (12th- 14th Sept) and would love to meet some of you.

I'll be on the Crafty Devils stand from Thursday till Saturday evening, so if you're there, please do come along and say "hello"

New Tonic Studios release tomorrwow

 Here's another card showing a different set of the new dies which are being released on Create and Craft tomorrow as the 4 Day Deal. This time I've used the Decorative Holly rings and I've cut the white one out using two dies and cut the green detail into the card using just one smaller die. 

You can see this effect better in the picture below where the card is open..

I've used Forest Green card and white card from Papermill and the image is own of my own drawings -"Robin and Holly" which is available as a digi image from A Passion for Stamps.

I coloured the Robin with Promarkers - Ruby, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Forest Green, Holly and Gold adding a little glitter on the berries and some white gel pen accents.

Yesterday's demo at Paperworks, Dungannon

A big thanks to all who came to Paperworks, Linen Green, Dungannon for my demo yesterday. I was delighted to see how many turned up - old friends and new! There was a great mix of people ranging from a gorgeous 9 week old baby boy to a great grandmother (not related!) with both ladies and gentlemen getting involved. And, of course, the inevitable happened - I remembered to bring out my camera when everyone had left :(...I was so engrossed in what I was doing (and enjoying every minute of it) that I almost missed lunch too but I must say that all of you who came certainly made my day - thank you so much!!

A big thanks to Heather who reminded me when to stop for a breath and when to have lunch (albeit a little late!) and not least to Mary who made me tea and kept me up to date with all her craic!

The Verso dies, crackers, Punch and Stamps etc all went down a treat so I hope all who bought them get plenty of hours of enjoyment from them.

Here are just a few of the samples from yesterday.

New Tonic Verso dies

Good morning! Well, I hope it is where you are - it's absolutely pouring down here and I'm just about to set off for my demo at Paperworks, Dungannon.

Anyhow, the real reason I'm on here is to share a really quick but elegant card using one of the gorgeous new Verso die sets from Tonic Studios which you''ll be able to see on Create and Craft on Monday as the 4 Day Deal.

I'll be sharing lots more samples but I wanted to start with this one to show their simplicity. This laser cut effect could be used for Christmas cards or wedding invitations etc.

There are 6 dies in this one set - so lots of scope for your imagination!!

Papermill offer

Here's today's card showing what's on offer at Papermill Direct this week. The card base and the diecut area have been made from the lightly embossed ivory card which is on offer at £5.00 for a small box.

I've used "Parrot" - one of my own digi images from A Passion for Stamps - and coloured it with Promarkers. The white background was cut with one of the Tonic Studios Delicate Lattice Ovals Verso dies.

I've punched the corners of the Lime Green and white with the matching border punch.

 Then I added lots of tropical looking flowers made with the Tonic Studios Punch and Stamp sets.

Demo at Paperworks, Dungannon on Saturday

Here are some of the samples for my demo at Paperworks, Linen Green, Dungannon on Saturday. I'll be demoing these and lots more - hope to see lots of my friends from the area and some new faces too!!

Christmas box tutorial

I made this box for the launch of the Tonic Studios Indulgence dies a couple of weeks ago and took photos of the steps on the way so I could use them for my next Papermill blog post - organised, or what!!

What you'll need;

Dark violet smooth card

Silver card

Hi tack DST

Tonic Studios Indulgence Elegant square dies

Indulgence tags dies (I have used 4 different ones but you could use the same one 4 times)

Gothic border punch

Vintage Frame tag die

Oval Indulgence die

1. Die cut 4 silver Indulgence Elegant square dies - using both dies in the set.

 2. Cut 2 pieces of the purple card measuring 16cm x 18cm

3. Cut 1 square measuring 14cm x 14cm

 4. Score 1cm in from both sides on the 16cm length and 2cm up from the bottom on the 18cm length and fold.

 5. Cut out the little squares at the corners, as above, and put strips of hi tack DST along the three folded edges on 2 of the sides and only on the bottom of the other 2 sides

 6. Glue the silver die cuts to the purple card as shown above - leaving the gap at the top where the lid will be.

7. Do this on all 4 pieces.

8. Attach  the bottoms of all 4 sides to the base as shown.

 9. Attach the sides with the DST to form a box shape.

10. To make the lid....Cut a square of purple card measuring 16.5cm x 16.5cm, score and fold in 1cm from all sides. Snip one side of each corner and add hi tack DST.

11. Fold and stick the corners together to form the lid shape.

12. Punch 2 strips of card with the Gothic border punch - 3cm x 30cm 

13. Attach these to the edge of the lid with DST.

14. I decorated the top of the lid with the Oval Indulgence die. the topper die and the Vintage Frame tag die topped with a Poinsettia made from the Clematis, Lily,Poinsettia Punch and Stamp set and a little ribbon.

 I used a different Tag die for each side.