The Wanderer's Return...

We've just returned from the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza show at Harrogate organised by Craftwork Cards.

It was great to see so many of you there having fun. We had the lovely Chris demo'ing at one end of our stand and she just had way too much fun showing lots of general stamping tips and techniques including playing with the glue glider pro tape runner pictured here.

And at the other end of our stand, as Gina was taking it easy on a boat somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, we had a stand in for the show - introducing the latest recruit to our demonstration team, the wonderful Frances showing off her skills using the Art Impression stamp range with watercolouring techniques. Considering she has only had a few goes with this stamping style (well actually with crafting at all), she did a superb job and created some really colourful and imaginative little pieces of artwork. Really gave us all some brilliant ideas to try ourselves. Now you could say i'm a little biased, she is my mum after all!!! But hey, what a mum!

Here's a little section of our stand, displaying some of the latest and very colourful brads and accessories we had to offer.

Next Show : The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show at Alexandra Palace, London - 18th and 19th April 2009 - see you there.

Mother's Day Delight

I just had to share this stunning card with you all.
ANOTHER one of our very talented customers (Clare Chalk) popped in earlier this week to show me the card she was planning on sending to her mother-in-law for mother's day yesterday.

It is just the cutest card, Clare's incorporated the cricut machine to create floral border, and take a close up look to the message motif...

Recognise the very, very useful stamp 'it's your day' by hero arts? Nicely finished off with just plain ole punched out circles overlaid to give an interesting scallop, flower effect.

Now this flower box from the tilda collection (2297H), i just wouldn't have looked twice at on the shelf but i am so impressed with how it's stmaped out and looks just amazing with the cute sweetheart tilda (2321G) sitting on it. The colouring is very effective too and i think all Clare used was our favouirte water-based markers - marvy le plume II pens. The card is just finished off with a few flowers and brads and there you go.

Lucky Clare's mother-in-law, to recieve such a fantastic card. Well done Clare, it's amazing.

By the way, if you are ever planning a trip to see us here in Peterborough and fancy a decent pub meal while you are over here, Clare's pub is within a couple of minutes drive and serves extremely yummy food at a decent price (www.thecrabandwinkle.co.uk). I should know, i've been there twice this past week!

Bad Blogger!

Blimey, can't believe i'm so behind with keeping you guys up-to-date with the happenings here at Sir Stampalot. Spent last night sorting all the photos out so i should be able to keep the photos and card ideas coming.

Firstly, i just have to show you some of the cards Louise Molesworth demo'ed here at Sir Stampalot Central on Valentine's day - Saturday 14th Feb.

Louise so enjoyed herself demo'ing and by the sounds of things, those who were able to come along, watch and support us, had a wonderful time too.

Here's Louise in action...

and here's some of the cards up close...

Tilda with Hearts is definitely one of the more popular stamps designs from the Tilda Jingle Jangle collection. I love the flicky-up hair style.

Louise has also used the Goblin Branch to enchance the corner motif. The use of nested circles and scalloped circles is just so cool with a cute small heart brad to enhance the centre.

I think this is one of the first stamps from the Tilda collection that i remember Louise going for - Tilda with Bird.

Louise has decoupaged Tilda's bird to make him stand out. Like many of Louise's creations, Tilda and Bird are coloured with versacolor cubes (applied with a paintbrush) and then sometimes clear embossed to give a glazed finish, depending on the image and desired finished effect Louise is after.
The circular stamped greeting used in the centre of the motif is THE very versitile Hero Arts stamp - "It's Your Day" (great for any ocassion).

I just love the attention to detail Louise has to finishing the cards. Just look at this little shrink plastic cherries from the Tilda collection, and there's that stamp again - "It's Your Day":

and this cupcake case (from the Hero Arts set CL158) has been decorated with just some left over circles punched out of cardstock - so effective yet soooo simple. Along with the glaze used on the cupcake icing and cherry:

Louise sure knows how to do some really unique shaker cards.

And cream shrink plastic is definitely Louise's signature, just look at this embellishment stamped with these cool candles from the Hero Arts cupcakes stamp set and shrunk down.

Thanks for a fantastic demo Louise - watch this space for another Louise demo day coming soon.....

Cool Classes Coming Up

Can't wait for the weekend. We have classes running all through the weekend here at Sir Stampalot and here's a teaser of some of the projects that those of you are lucky enough to have signed up for, will be creating:

Brenda Weatherill is running several classes on friday with the theme "Black and White with a hint of Hot Pink" using the new debut 2009 Hero Arts Stamps.

Brenda's then back again for an all day class on saturday for some glamourous cards using Glimmer Mists

and this superb accordian book using one of the tree design stamps from A Stamp In the Hand.

Anne Hunt will be coming to Sir Stampalot on Saturday 7th March, to create with us some fantastic cards using the Cute Companion stamps designed by the lovely Jayne Nestorenko.

Jayne Nestorenko has her own website and a fantastic gallery to browse through.
Additionally, keep an eye out for the announcement of a date later this year when Jayne will be demonstrating here at Sir Stampalot, some of the new designs she's releasing very soon - just so can't wait!!!!!

Sarah Kay

We've definitely got some very talented crafter's in our neck of the woods. Debbie's one of the Sir Stampalot customers who just can't resist my personal challenge i'd requested of her. I'd ask her if she could create a couple of samples for the shop using some Sarah Kay stamp designs, and i think you'll agree, she's done a fantastic job.

I love this sample of the First Kiss. Ideal with Valentine's Day coming up.

Check out Debbie's flower embellishments. Very simply done. Punch out flower shapes from patterned paper using a daisy punch, adhere a sequin flower to the centre, cover the whole thing with glossy accents and leave to dry before adhering to the main card.

And this is such a pretty card for any occasion, using the design Spring Blossoms.

Debbie's used the latest white opaque pen from ranger 'inkssentials' to create the highlight on the jeans and emphasize the dots on the hat - very nicely done.

Thanks Debbie.

If you like what you see, you should go and check out Debbie's own personal blog, there's some more fantastic card samples, sketches, stories and crafting related tips that I'm sure you'll find both inspiring and useful:
Pink Poppy Craft Box

More Stash Coming Soon

Due to the nasty weather and not being able to get into the shop today, i've been able to sort through some more photos from our trip to CHA (huge trade show in the states).

We stopped by the best booth everyday to see our very good friends and owners/manufacturers of the "Art Impressions" stamp range we love so much. Here's a piccie of the owners Bonnie and Phil, then me, Pauline and Sir Stampalot boss man Andy.

Here's some of the new quirky stamp sets they have launched "Shoppe Windows" which are the perfect complement to the Art Impressions Doorways.

More sets including toy shop and pet shop to be released over the coming months.

Watch out for a couple of new paper ranges we're bringing in....

As well as another stamp line.....

More "My Favorite Things" stamp designs:

And also some different colours from the "Tattered Angels", Glimmer Mist range:

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Apologies to anyone who wanted to try to get to the shop today and especially to those booked on the class - unfortunately the phone numbers of all the students is at the shop, and as we couldn't get in, we couldn't phone you personally to inform you about the class cancellation. Any class fees taken will be refunded and we'll look at re-scheduling the class at a later date. Hopefully, if there's no more snow tonight, then we'll run tomorrow's class as scheduled - please check the homepage of the website for updates tomorrow morning.