Just A Quickie!

I had a little bit of free time tonight and I had the greatest urge to make a card using gray and yellow.  I found that I only had a very dark gray cardstock so I substituted silver for gray and this is what I came up with.  I was using our new Perfume Stamp Set (called You Look "Scent"-sational!)  I found a small piece of yellow polka dot card in my crafting stash, used an embossing folder to create the shaped dimensional background, did a bit of piercing, and added some ribbon and a flower to complete the card.  Quick and easy, hence the title.  What do you think of my colour urge?  All for now, Sue x

Busy Busy Busy!!

I'm usually a pretty good blogger, but the past few weeks have been a complete blur there has been so much going on!  I planned to spend the entire past weekend stamping samples for the upcoming Ally Pally Stamp and Scrapbooking show.  I did get a few done on Saturday, but Sunday's plans went awry.  Sheena was scheduled to teach at a Creative Expressions Road show and she had an emergency and I filled in for her (in Bristol several hours away).  In case any of the lovely ladies that attended that class are reading this, I passed my test on Monday!!  

Here are a couple of cards that I have made recently using the new shoe and handbags rubber stamp sets.  If you like what you see, these are finally available on the Particraft website.  They are both fairly simple, but nice cards.  I did enjoy using my new favourite tool, the Tim Holtz design ruler to do a bit of piercing on the first card.  I hope you like them and hopefully I can get a few more done using some of the new designs for you to see very soon.  All for now, Sue x

Two Shows For Me!

Hi everyone,   I have just been told that I am not only doing the wildflower show on Create and Craft on Wednesday, but I am also doing a second show that day too!  Since Sheena is on a short holiday this week, they have asked me to do a Spellbinders nestability show as well.  This is a first, my first Spellbinders show and my first time doing two shows in one day.  Ususally I do a show about once a month so for me to have two shows in one day is big!  Although I haven't had much notice, I  have been hard at work making samples for these shows (which means I haven't had too much time to play with the new stamp sets.  Those new stamps are just sitting on my table staring at me and laughing!! Soon, I hope, soon!)  The wildflower show is set for noon and the Spellbinder show is scheduled for 3pm. 

I did say that I haven't had  a lot of time, but I have had a little time to play and I managed to make a few more military cards and one card from our yet unreleased religious stamp sets. 

I was rather pleased with my religious card as I was able to make it look like a miniature Bible by stamping it on vellum four or five times, cutting it out and curling the pages slightly and  layering it like a book.  I've included a pic showing the side view so you can see what I'm talking about.  I used a small piece of satin ribbon to make it look like a bookmark and edged the pages using a gold paint pen.  I know that both the military stamps and the religious stamps are more specialised but I think it is very difficult to find stamps to fill those needs.  I am hoping that you like these designs and even if they aren't for you, you might know someone who would enjoy these.  What do you think?  I've got to get back to my show prep.  All for now, Sue x

It's Candy Time Again!

Here we go yet again!  We've added a few different items this time too.  Just to give you a list of everything (and hopefully to keep your mouth watering at the goodies too!) we have five of the latest release A5 stamp sets including the girly corset plate, shoes and handbags and the scent-sational perfume plate as well as two of the three new underwater life plates.  We are also offering several fun Tim Holtz items including a decoratable lunch tin, philosophy tags, and a rather large pack of the grungeboard digits and punctuation.  There is clear shrink plastic, a Primary Elements starter kit, Stow and go, Luminarte Twinkling H20's, Theresa Collins clear ribbon, gingham ribbon  and box book.  There are several Cosmic Shimmer products including a set of ultra thick embossing powders, fuseable fibres and film, ultra fine glitter set, shimmer mist and a pot of embossing powder.  There are paper flowers, sticky fixers, decorative wire, rub ons, Fancy pants ribbon set and crochet flower buttons.  In other words, a whole lot of crafting goodies just waiting for a good home with one lucky follower.  A couple of things to remember, if you are already a follower, your name is entered and will roll over to the following draws each time.  You can up your chances of winning by leaving comments on the blog.  After each time I post, if you leave a comment to let me know you were here, you get an extra entry in to the current contest.  That way, you are rewarded for your support and I know that there is someone out in cyber land that is reading my babble!  (Cuz you just never know about those things!)  Also, would love to hear your comments about card samples and posts that I make too. And finally remember there is a second and third place winner that receive rubber stamp sets (not as great as the Grand prize, but free is free, right?!)  Here is a quick sneak peek at our new Vintage Wine plate that is going to be released next week.  Just a little teaser for you.  The plate is lovely and this card only shows one of the images (a vintage wine label) pyramaged for you.  All for now, Sue x

We've Hit 600!!!

   It's that time again!  Time to draw our first, second and third place winners!  Everyone has been so very supportive, I just want to say a great big thank you to everyone that has become a blog follower and spread the word about the Particraft blog.  You guys are the best!
   As usual, we will announce the third prize winner first and work our way up to the big grand prize.  The follower who has been picked for the third prize is..............................
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Terriavidreader

The winner of the second prize is............................................................
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..............................Mad Moose

And now, without further delay, the winner of the grand first prize is.......
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BonJen3

 If your name was drawn, please email me at sales@particraft.co.uk so that I may verify your shipping details before posting your prize.  If you weren't lucky enough this time, don't forget, your name rolls over to the next candy contest.  Maybe 700 will be your lucky day!  All for now, Sue x  

More Fruit!

I was hoping to start playing with some of the new stamp sets, but alas, it is going to have to wait a tiny bit longer.  I've been recruited to do a show on the 17th so that we can give Miss Sheena a bit of a break after her "Sheena-athon" last week!  The only thing is that they haven't told me what I am doing on the show, but only that it will be either the wildflowers again or a show featuring the new military stamp set designs,  Hopefully I will find out which one early in the week.  I have spent most of the weekend making military cards since I only had a few finished.  That way I will be ready just in case.  I can't show you any at the moment, however,

because I have misplaced my camera cable to put them on my laptop! 

So here are a few more fruit samples from Sheena's Spellbinders show last Wednesday.  I really had fun making these, even though they aren't my usual style of stamping.  The Plum card was done using distress inks to create a background and then removing some of the colour by stamping with water spritzed on the stamp, then blotting and then overstamping with swirls.  The fruit card was done by stamping the fruit with a clear perfect medium pad on ivory card, then using the cosmic shimmer watercolours  (lime twist and pale russet) and washing over them to create a resist.  The apple was also painted with Cosmic Shimmers but stamped in walnut ink Distress ink first to give it a vintage feel.  They all featured the Spellbinder Nestability dies, of course!  Hope you enjoy them!  All for now, Sue x

Change Of Plans!

Hi to all,  I know that I said last time that I was going to show you some more sneak peeks at the newest stamp offerings, but there has been a slight delay in that.  (Sorry Sunny, I did read your last comment and I know I owe you! Soon, I promise) I was hoping to lock myself in my craft room and tuck in to the new stamp designs and go mad, but instead I was asked to help create samples for Sheena Douglass' upcoming Pick of the Week show this Wednesday.  The show features several different Nestability dies (labels, borders, etc) and the challenge was to use these dies to create some scrumptous cards.  We were allowed to use four stamp plates which included Sheena's fruit, swirls, windmill create a scene and the Rubbernecker Easter plate.  There were four of us, Sheena, Karen, Michelle and myself working fevorishly to make enough samples for three shows on Wednesday.  We divided the stamp plates and the nesties up between us and I made samples for the Easter and the Fruit plate.  I was in full on cutesy mode for the Easter plate, then straight in to arty grunge mode for the fruit.  Talk about from one extreme to the other!  Without giving away too much (so you will have to watch on Wednesday!), here are several  of my fruit favs.  The first one is my favourite, but probably shows off the nesties the least of any of my samples, but it was made using our new Eco-Green paint and ink pad line that I am really excited about.  The crackle technique I've done was shown to me, again, by Julie Andrus at CHA (very talented lady and the Eco-Green paint is her line which we are now going to be carrying!) The second card shows the nesties done as a border, which I rather liked.  For the third card, you've heard about pyrimage cards, well what do you think about my "pear"amage card?  I know, I know, bad joke, I can hear the groans now!  I just couldn't help myself, sorry!
My favourite Easter card is going to  hopefully be shown by Sheena as one of her demos so I don't want to spoil it and show it ahead of time (again, you'll have to watch the show).  I'll be working on these until Tuesday evening, (maybe even a few more sneak peeks too) but after that I AM going to tuck into the new stamp offerings and I promise some results to show you!  All for now, Sue x

Sneak Peek At Some New Offerings!

Particraft has been hard at work adding to it's already extensive line of crafting supplies and goodies.  Within the next few weeks, we plan on releasing over twenty new stamp sets as well as numerous other craft related products.  The new Tim Holtz Distress Ink colours are, of course, part of the list of the "must have" products we will be carrying as well.  I can't give too much away just yet, but I can show you a few of my creations using some of the new stamp sets.

   Today's post is going to showcase our new Military themed line.  There are three new plates called "Life In The Forces, "  "My Hero" and "The Strong and The Brave."   Sam Poole has drawn all of these new designs and I am especially proud of these for several reasons.  Firstly, because I feel there is a real lack of stamping supplies in this area and I think they will fill a full needed niche.  Secondly, because I come from a military background.  My father was a Lt. Coronel in the American Air Force (he was stationed here in Molesworth during World War II) and I feel that the troops need and deserve recognition for their heroism.   I say let's stamp some cards for the troops to show our support.  I hope you enjoy mine and they inspire you.

  The card below showcases a really cool technique that I learned on my recent trip to CHA, the wholesale show in California.  I was watching Julia Andrus demo her new paint line.  (For those of you not familar with her work, she was one of the first demo artists with Ranger and she helped develop the Perfect Pearls and Perfect Medium lines)  She painted a piece of card with one colour of paint, dried it with a heat tool, then spread a thin coat of vaseline over it.  She then painted over that with another colour of paint and dried it.  Using a piece of kitchen roll, she then gently wiped small areas away and the resulting look is that of distressed or peeled paint.  I gave it a go here and I think it's a great look for those masculine based cards, don't you?  You can click on the card for a close-up view if you like.

On the card below, I had a go at making my own camouflage background paper.  I used the distress inks old paper, antique linen, frayed burlap and peeled paint to achieve this look.  I used the inks direct to the paper in swiping motions. They aren't blended like you would get using cut and dry foam to apply the inks.  I liked the look, though, when I was finished. The sentiment on this card is very  poignant, as if from a military wife to her husband.  You might have to click on it to read it clearly.  It fits neatly in to the circle nestibilities. 

 All the samples have had the edges distressed with the edge of my scissors, then inked again with distress inks to give them a more rugged look.

Over the next few weeks, I am hoping to be able to showcase samples of all the new stamp sets and products that are being added to the Particraft line.  I hope you like what you see and if so, they will be available on the website very shortly.  All for now, Sue x

Brand New Blog Candy!!!

  Hi everyone,  We are starting another brand new blog candy contest.  You know the game by now, we draw a first, second and third prize when we hit our goal of 600 followers, this time,  to the blog.  You will also get your name entered an extra time each time you leave a comment on the blog.  We want to know that you are out there and you will be rewarded for showing your support! 

  This newest blog candy prize features five A5 sized unmounted stamp sets, clear shrink plastic, a set of four polished pigments from Luminarte, a mounted Stamp Collage-able and a mounted stained glass stamp, Cosmic Shimmer bondable fibres, Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Pine Needles), Cosmic Shimmer Twinkles, Cosmic Shimmer watercolour set, Tim Holtz Grungeboard set, Tidy tray, Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder set, Tim Holtz Ideology charm set, Cosmic Shimmer Glitter pot, self adhesive rhinestones and Art Institute Fantasy Film.  Whoooa, that's a lot of loot!  Let me know what you think!  All for now, Sue x

It's Time to Pick A Blog Candy Winner Again!

Oh goody, goody!  I love this part!  We have finally reached 500 followers (seemed to take quite a while this time, don't you think?)  Anyway, we are here at last.  Starting with the third prize winner, that goes to ................................................................................Sheng

The second prize winner is...........................................Fuschia

And the first prize winner of all that lovely blog candy goes to ............................................................................
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KATE STREET!!!

Please will all three blog candy winners email me at sales@particraft.co.uk to verify your shipping addresses before I send your prizes out to you. 

And here is another wildflower card  so at least you will have something to look at if your name wasn't drawn!  This card is my "Ode To California" because you always see palm trees shown this way on post cards with the pretty sunset in the background. (Just for the record, they never look like they do on those postcards!)  Thanks to all, Sue x

More Wildflower Pics

 I just want to say thanks for all the nice emails of support this morning during my show.  It's really great to know that you are watching and enjoying it.  The hour seemed to fly by so quickly and I don't think that many of my samples got a chance to be seen (although it is kind of a blur to me!)  So I thought I would post a few more so you can see the versatility of these stamps.  There are so many techniques that work well with them.

This card was made using the ultra thick embossing technique called "cracked glass."  You stamp into the ultra thick and then put your piece in the freezer for a bit, then bring it out and give it a quick bend and it cracks into these cool areas.  It is difficult to see in this pic, though.  I used some black soot distress ink to highlight the cracked areas even more.This one is a quick and easy card using a small piece of decorative paper I had lying around and then just stamped the flowers in black on to it.  The green piece was run through an embossing folder.  Add a sentiment and a bow and your done!This one is simply stamped with clear perfect medium, then brayered over it for a resist.  Then I finished by stamping and embossing in white for a dramatic contrast.  Add a satin bow (I love my ribbons!) and your card is complete!

I hope you like these.  They are not my usual style but I did have a great time making them.  I know you would have a blast with these stamp sets and they are now available on the Particraft website for you.  All for now, Sue x

10Am Show is a Go!

Just a quick blog to let everyone know that the show is indeed on at 10am on Wed. Feb.10th.
I apologise for the delay in this!   I've been so busy the last few days getting everything finished and organised for the show.  Here is another sneak peek of a quick card from tomorrow's show.  I hope you like it.  There are many others, but you will have to tune in to see them all.  I do have a few duplicates to send to anyone who emails in and gets it read on air, though!  All for now, Sue x