Christmas Comes Early ...

What a fab weekend we've just all had. It was the Sir Stampalot Christmas Launch weekend and we had 2 days of demos from 4 very talented ladies.

Saturday we were entertained by Gina with her watercolouring techniques using the Art Impressions range of stamps including the new Shoppe windows that have just arrived:

Gina also decorated some little metallic plant pots with paints, alcohol inks and stamped images, and used them as sweetie pots and also to hold the lovely give-away bookmarks she'd been preparing one night when she couldn't sleep - bless!

We were also blessed with the presence of Kim Reygate:

Kim was demo'ing all sorts of techniques including the wonderful versamagic chalky inkpads, sticky embossing and anything asked of her - thanks kim.

We've been very lucky to have Kim staying up here for the past week and she's helped enormously getting things ready for this weekend along with our other daily tasks - not much of a holiday, I'm afraid Kim but very much appreciated and hopefully we haven't put you off and you'll come back again!!

And the weekend fun didn't stop there, on Sunday, we had the creative duo Crafty Lou and Chris keeping us completely enthralled with their demos of shrink plastic, stamping, inking, colouring etc. As Brigitte put it so lovely on her blog A Stamp for All Seasons, "that Chris and Lou were a double treat" and that, they truly were.

Both Chris and Lou have been busily preparing for Sunday's demo for weeks. They've been creating a festive banner using the latest papers and stamp designs that will adorn the instore Christmas Stamp Shelves. They've also created tree ornaments for the twiggy tree, card samples and display boards for the store. They are true stars. And also thanks to Jo James for helping Chris as Chris has not been too well recently and was nearly not able to come yesterday but I'm so pleased she was able to make it - hopefully not in too much agony today because of it.

Here's Chris in action, note the banner at the front of her table, one of the display boards on the left hand side of the photo, in front of the twiggy tree.

here's the twiggy tree, with the brilliant tags, miniature works of art and shrink plastic creations dangling:

Here's Craft Lou in action, again, with her fantastically created banner at the front of the table along with loads of samples and ideas she was sharing.

The girls were very thoughtful and created hand-made projects for a charity fund raising game.

Chris has a pail full of ribbons. If you guessed how many pieces of ribbon were in her pail and you were the closest guesser, you won some reels of ribbon from me and a beautifully created festive notelet holder and 3 Christmas Thank You Notelets, made with inchies from inkadinkadoo.

Louise Roache from Spalding was the closest guesser. Her lucky number 96 was only 2 away from the actual quantity of 98 pieces, well done Louise - she is one of the ribbon queens of Spalding and obviously has an eye for these things!


Crafty Lou's button jar was the subject of the 'guess how many buttons' game.

Sue Watson from Peterborough had a lucky guess with 2012 (picked as the date of the next Olympics) and was only 4 buttons out from the actual quantity of 2016 (I'm glad I didn't have to count all them to get the actual figure!!).

Sue has won herself, a tilda present stamp from me and Craft Lou has created a stunning notebook using a tilda stamp, swirly stamp from Autumn Leaves and a greeting word stamp from Printworks.


(close up of Chris' project and Lou's one will follow in another blog update).

It was only 50p for a guess on both games and we raised £123.50 towards MS Research. Thanks everyone who took part and big thanks to the girls for their brilliant projects.

We were so busy at the till (thank you my very loyal and lovely customers) that unfortunately i didn't get to watch the demo's. However, the card samples, projects and festive banner from the weekend, have remained at Sir Stampalot and will be on display around the store for you all to see and admire on your next visit.


Here's a couple of pics of the 'Christmas Stamp Wall' at Sir Stampalot, WITHOUT the festive banner made by Lou and Chris:

In my next blog, I'll get another pic of these shelves with the festive banner, once I've put the shop back together tomorrow (should have been done today but we've decided to stay home for some R&R - I'm currently typing this and Andy is snoring next to me on the sofa!)

Right then, time for a cuppa, and search the cupboards for some food!

Happy crafting one and all.
- janice

It's not the size that matters!

Long over due, but as promised here's some piccies of artwork Chris has made using the inkadinkadoo Inchies stamp sets - so called as most of the square designs on the set are just a mere inch in size.

And don't forget, if you like what you are seeing here, then go and have a butcher's at Chris' blog - "Always About Colour".

This is one of the projects Chris made for Sir Stampalot. She has already posted this on her blog a little while back but I just had to show you the detail that goes into some of her work.

Using versamagic ink to stamp out the Inchies from the Flower Garden stamp set, this is the front of a wallet that is kept closed with the lovely organza ribbon from Creative Impressions that has a lovely swirly design on it. This wallet opens up and contains matching notelets.

This notelet wallet project makes a wonderful gift idea for a birthday present or as thank you notelets to send someone for all the lovely Christmas presents we'll get this year (have we all been good??)

As part of the embellishments on the front of the wallet, Chris came up with, accidently, the 'peanut' flower look:

this is where she has inked the edges of Prima flowers (again with versamagic ink), and dropped the flower into clear embossing powder (this was the accidental bit if I remember rightly!). So she decided to gently heat set this flower covered in clear embossing powder - the texture of the flower and the colour of the ink assisted in the flower petals looking like peanuts! How cool is that?

The centers of the flowers are nicely embellished with cream shrink plastic circles stamped with designs from the same Inchies stamp set. And also a few separate ones adhered in a neat little row on the wallet front.

This is a brilliant, non-complicated card design that Chris came up with. Again using Inchies from the same set as before in 3 simple coordinating colours as the main focal point of the card (designs from the Flower Garden set).

And finished off with a greeting motif from the Woodware Clear Magic set - Circular Greetings, again using the same colours to match the Inchies.

Thanks Chris, these are brill. Just had a peep at your blog and love the new Sarah Kay card you posted on Saturday 1st - it's gorgeous. Looking forward to seeing the second variation you are working on - no pressure or anything!!

More Inchies to come next time .....

New Christmas Penny Black Designs

Yeah, I know "Christmas already!" I hear you scream. It'll loom up on us quick again this year. Penny Black have released some 'preview' designs before their big launch of a complete Christmas range later this month. The preview range consists of 4 wood mounted stamps and 2 clear sets.

I've whipped up a couple of samples from one of the clear sets - Have a Holly Jolly (code: 30-039)

This cat and mouse design is so comical and I'm sure a few of us can relate to cats climbing up our Christmas trees and causing havoc.

All colouring has been achieved by using marvy le plume pens and watercolouring with them to give shading and colour intensity. The baubles and star have been ehanced with prism glitter to give them the all important Christmas bling.

The cheeky little mouse in the corner of the card, underneath the tree, has been coloured in to co-ordinate with the Bazzill cardstock:


All the pen colours and materials used for this card and the 2 following cards, can be found on the Sir Stampalot gallery.

Again, coloured with marvy pens, here's another design from the same clear set. I've used the greeting from the set, along the bottom of the card and just used some very small Bazzill brads to add some embellishment - still all very clean and simple. Of course, no Christmas card would be complete without the glitter, so Mr Snowman has some on his hat trimmings (I think I over-did the rosy cheeks!!):

I love this little mouse, he's so sweet. I've used a brad to attach some felt snowflakes from Hero Arts to the card.

I've again used the greeting from the set but this time, I stamped out words at a time (cleaning in between) so that I could create a more square greeting for my card rather than a long line - I also missed out the 'holly' word to show you that you can be quite versatile with any phrase and play around with them to create the look that you want. Just don't forget to clean the stamp well after each impression.

I then tried to be clever and used the inverted corner punch on all 4 corners of the mouse focal point so that it followed the curve of the snowflake embellishment.

However, the inverted corner round was the wrong angle of curve and so I made a feature with some little black peeloff circle frames and dots instead. This was a pure accident as well, as I was using tweezers to pick our only the tiny black peeloff dot from inside the black circle frame but picked up both and the dot shifted to one side. I felt it looked quirky, liked the look of it and just went for it. Then repeated for all 4 corners.


There are another 2 designs in the set that I haven't used - yet!!


If you want a sneaky peek at some of the wood mounted designs from this new Penny Black Christmas preview, then click over to Brenda's blog - Floral Fantasies. Brenda's an inspiration to us all and has some wonderful artwork along with very meaningful/thoughtful daily doses of write up.

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Looking for a new challenge? Then go over and check out Dotty Divas. A brand new challenge blog based on ideas from adverts you see. Unfortunately the closing date for their design team has recently closed but there's heaps of potential for taking part and winning some stash. who can resist!! We are proudly sponsoring this challenge blog and I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone's creations.

Happy Crafting!
- Janice

Chris' Creations

Some of you may recall a post back along where I introduced Chris, who demo'ed for us at the Harrogate show earlier this year (and did a fantastic job). Well, Chris is a regular tutor here at Sir Stampalot and contributes some amazing artwork for shop and show samples.

Here's a superb example of what Chris designs:

This card incorporates one of the latest designs from Hero Arts (Be Yourself).

The inkpad colours used are Jumbo Java and Red Brick by Versamagic:

Even the inside is well laid out and each section could be used as a card front in itself:

The lovely glittery red patterned paper is by My Mind's Eye, stamped greeting is by Whipper Snapper.

And intricate cutting of this foliage stamp design (keep the curved shape of the leaves by adhering with silicone glue):

And the message reflects Chris totally - 'one of a kind'.



Here's another card sample where Chris has used the same Hero Arts stamp set:

The greeting is such a unique saying that can be used in all situations. You can find it humourous and chuckle, it could bring you a smile and perk you up when feeling low. These tiny buttons are from Lasting Impressions:

Don't be fooled into thinking Chris has painstakingly sewn each button onto the card (sorry to spill the beans Chris!), but she's just threaded a little cotton through the holes (or co-ordinating thin strip of paper if you fancy) and then adhered the button onto the card with glossy accents. Neat eh?

Patterned paper is from KaiserKraft's Peek-a-Boo range, distressed with a soft brown inkpad, and I love the way that Chris has the little owl popping out of the 3D frame and the 'funky foliage' is entwined in and around the frame:

And again, Chris has created a lovely co-ordinating insert:

The greeting is by Penny Black and the frame is cut from the Cricut Machine using one of the designs from the Storybook cartridge. Notice that the frame is actually visible when the card is closed - see the first photo of this sample, as Chris has cut the card front so as not to be as wide and hence give a taste of the inside design.


Chris' Blog is called Always About Colour and was just launched last week. Go and have a butcher's.



Watch out for classes and demo's featuring Chris in the next set of Sir Stampalot events - release date for next event schedule is 1st July.


And if you ever get a chance to try any of Chris' Eton mess, ginger lemon cheesecake or messy caramel crunch, believe me, you really wouldn't want to miss out! She's a total all round star.

I'll be posting some more of Chris' creations shortly, showing off some of the 'inchies' designs from Inkadinkadoo.

More installments from Louise's Demo Day

Here's one of the Tilda designs from the extremely popular Chasing Butterflies collection. Tilda with Ladybug takes centre stage here with the same embossing folder design as Louise used in the last post, again using an inkpad to emphasize one saying from the backing design.

A small flower brad has been used as in the middle of the greeting motif - "it's your day" by Hero Arts.

Louise has decorated a Woodware Chippie heart shape with co-ordinating patterned paper, distressed the edges, adhered a button and stamped a Magenta swirly stamp design on it. Whew, she doesn't do things by half does she??

And your final Tilda card creation from Louise for now, is this brilliant patchwork card using co-ordinating patterned paper (from Daisy Bucket), another Woodware Chippie shape, this time a lovely flower from the same set as the heart.

There is just so much going on in Louise's artwork but it never seems 'OTT'. Check out the shrink plastic owl on the sign post to the real twig from Louise's back garden for the sign post itself.

And then there's glossy accents used to highlight the flower petals in the flower pot, stitching, inking, distressing - she's just an amazing lady with talent bursting at the seams.

Thanks Louise, we LOVE your work. It's incredible.

And watch out for more of Louise's creations from the demo day using Hero Arts stamp sets .....

.... coming soon, to a blog near you!

Demo Day with Crafty Lou

I can't believe it was a week ago and it's taken me this long to tell you all the fun we had at the demo day last Saturday. The fabulous Louise Molesworth (Crafty Lou) was demonstrating her unique style of inking and stamping techniques. She really is a wonder to watch. For those who couldn't make it into Sir Stampalot to see her demo's first hand, I just had to share with you some of the artwork she created (Just realised the photos have come out an awful colour this time, sorry guys, best check my camera setting for the next post).

Firstly, good ole Tilda with Bird, I've mentioned before, this is the first Tilda stamp I remember Louise buying so it has a special place in my heart :)

Cream shrink plastic was used for the Tilda Tag message:

A small punched out circle created an aperture for the Birthday Wishes stamped greeting from Hero Arts. Nicely finished off with a heart brad in the centre of the motif.

Here's the inside of the card, with pattern paper by Daisy Bucket and the Nestabilities Labels Two die set.

Here's another card, this one uses the Tilda Hen (usually makes an appearance on Louises card in shrink plastic mode) but on this occasion sitting proudly on the Tilda fence - TV adverts of the kellog's symbol comes to mind!!

Don't be afraid to shrink Tilda's - look at this little cutie (Spring Tilda) perched on top of a greetings motif. The circular greeting used here is from one of the most popular Woodware Clear Magic sets, currently. Funnily enough, it's called Circular Greetings and consists of 6 different circular sayings, some flowers and accents that can all mix and match together. Fantastic results when used with the EK nesting circle punches - both plain and scalloped.

The turquoise background scalloped circle has been embossed with the Happy Birthday cuttlebug embossing folder, gently wipe an inkpad over the raised embossed words to make them really pop out. Louise has then included the Tilda Present stamped image and attached some matching swirly organza ribbon to finish the card off.

That's just a taster to get your juices flowing, i'll post more of these gorgeous Tilda cards in the next day or two. I promise i won't leave it so long next time!


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Charity Update: The charity box of cards instore for Brenda's MS Cause, is growing all the time. Thanks everyone who's been able to spare a card or two. Brenda is collecting cards for a fund raising event on 28th June in aid of MS Research. You can send cards into myself (Sir Stampalot), Brenda or Stamp Addicts.

A big thanks to two lovely ladies, Mrs McMullan from the Netherlands who sent in this brilliant set of cards for the charity event:

And Louise from Spalding who popped instore and donated these superb cards (check out Louise's awesome blog):

Thanks guys.