Guess Who's Coming?

I'm sooooooo excited. Next quarter we have a very, very special guest coming to Sir Stampalot, Peterborough to teach a couple of classes. I'll be releasing the next schedule of events on Monday midday which will announce who it is and you'll also then be able to book a space on the class if interested. But in the meantime I thought we could have a little bit of fun to see if you can guess who it is.

Please leave a comment on this blog with your guess - 1 guess per comment please.

The Clues

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* she's female

* she'll be travelling from abroad to get here

* she lives in a different country to which her family comes from

* she's very crafty and has various crafting interests

* she likes to blog

* she's contributed heavily to the promotion of the Tilda and Edwin stamps for Magnolia both online and in publications

* she's recently featured in a book covering colouring techniques

* her creations are amazing and ofter she will do more than just create the outside when designing cards



This is just a short and sweet game - no more guesses after 6pm tomorrow evening (Sunday).

We'll then pick a random winner from the correct guesses who will win a personalised autographed book :)

Good Luck Everyone

- janicex

DT Spotlight - Sara

We are very proud here at Sir Stampalot to have many talented ladies who create cards for the shop, website and challenge blog, based on products we sell. Now one such creative DT member is Sara Rosamond.

Here's one of the cards she recently made for us which you can see instore and view on the online gallery.

I love the colours she's used and the combination of the stamps. The paper pieced summer dress looks brilliant and matches her colours of distress inks used on the flower/ribbon border brilliantly. If you are interested in any of the materials to make this card you can see the list here. It's very unfortunate that the Cheery Lynn die she used on this Summer Dress card, I'm having HUGE problems getting hold of and have been waiting since February for more stocks :( So big apologies to all of you that are still waiting for that die from us, as soon as I get my paws on them, I'll get them sent straight out to you.

You can view more of Sara's artwork on her own blog : Inky Fingers

and I seriously urge you to check out her latest Wedding Card creation with all its tiers, pearls and mathematical formulas she used to create it!! Sara brought it into the shop today for me to see up close and personal and literally it took your breath away.

Such a talented lady.

(She's now got her next challenge from me; let's see what she comes up with.)

CHA 2012 - Dies including Cheery Lynn

Following on from our last post, some of you have asked how this new Pop 'n Cut system will work. It's based on the magnetic 'movers and shapers' idea but has been improved. There will be a base unit and then interchangeable 'inserts'. Here's a picture to give you an idea:

Here's a sample of a finished Pop 'n Cut. Here's the plainly decorated outside of the card:

and here's the fabby Pop 'n Cut decorated 'insert'.

Over the next few weeks you'll see more Cheery Lynn dies instore and online. Their stand at CHA 2012 had plenty of card samples showing off their die designs making it really hard for me to stick to my budget!!

This card is using a couple of Cheery Lynn circular doily dies with a Sarah Kay stamp.

Here's another card sample, this one uses a butterfly die and a wonderful flourish corner die with decorative papers and vellums.

This scrapbook layout using several of the Cheery Lynn dies including doily, border, butterfly and flourishes - wonderful.

and I love this vintage style layout:

This card sample (although slightly covered by another card), shows how just a few dies (ribbon border, decorative border, flowers and foliage dies) can make a simple yet stunning card:

and this elegant and vintage design using border dies and heart filigree dies:

This wall sampler is amazing showing off flowers, foliage and border dies:

and this one is cool too, using one fence die to create the four seasons:

One last piccie for this post, some gorgeous ribbons:

happy crafting
- janicex

Sizzix Pop 'n Cut cards by Karen Burniston at CHA 2012

Short and sweet today :)

Sizziz have released a series of dies designed by Karen Burniston. These dies are called Pop 'n Cut and create amazing cards - check out these 2 clips of our speedy Sizzix run down...

Pop 'n Cut speed show 1 of 2

Pop 'n Cut speed show 2 of 2

- janicex

New Copic Sketch Colours, Word Play, and Inspiration

Lots of you have been asking for it, Tim Holtz and Sizzix are listening and have now released a new alphabet die set called Word Play. It's an alphabet set for die cutting that is on the Big Xl die size which means you can cut fabric with it. This die includes all the numbers and letters on one die - brilliant. Here's a picture of it alongside a regular decorative strip die:

There are new Stickles colours as well as new Liquid Pearl colours:

Colour swatches of both will be available at the Sir Stampalot shop for you to check out when next visiting.

Sizzix have come out with something called Stamp2Cut.

This is going to be a revolution. It's a software package that allows the eClips electronic cutting machine to cut shapes that are the same as some regular sized stamps. So you won't have to cut the stamped image out once you've stamped it. Superb idea for those of you who are like me and not a fan of cutting out.
Can't wait until the latest Sketch Copic colours arrive:

There are 12 new Copic Sketch colours in total which will come in a 12 pen set or sold individually.

Additionally, as well as the current 72 pen Sketch sets A, B, C and D, these new 12 colours will be combined with other Sketch colours to create the long awaiting E 72 Copic pen Sketch set.

Here's some background info about these new Copic Sketch colours from Marianne:
Loving this clip board from 7 Gypsies:

looks great decorated:

And these decorated tags make a great sampler:

Here's some samples from La Blanche rubber stamps:

Are these creations amazing or what?
Now these were just adorable:

Talking of adorable, I just so love these cute stamps from Stampendous, sorry I didn't take better close ups of these:

And for those of you that love the new Fran-tage products that we sourced end of last year, Stampendous have brought out a couple of new crushed glass glitter colours, including lavender:

and some new fragments:

and also some new kits to help you start your collection and save money:

There are also some new colours in the shabby chic embossing powder range as well as the 'aged' embossing powder range - just look at the embossing effect on these samples:

Here are some other samples of cards and layouts from a variety of stands at CHA

Here are some Basic Grey samples:

Loving these ribbons too:

Here are some Hero Arts samples:

and really like this stamp set from Hero Arts too:

Are these trees any good for you Brenda and Sally?

Sizzix Pop 'n Cut in the next post :)
- janicex