Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Rubber Rubber Everywhere


Today Mark got busy with pressing new stamps. It's so exciting when the first new stamps come out of the press, get trimmed, put on EZ mount, and you can stamp them out for the first time....


When Jo and Lynne arrived around 10am for a day of ArtsyCrafts prep and practise, Jo was convinced I had been on the turps most of the morning already. No I haven't lost the plot and of course I wasn't drunk...high on rubber funes??? LOL. 

Nope. Just very, very excited. I can't help it...I get so buzzy when we give birth to new rubber, and just like new babies, the little details on these stamps had me cooing and gooing. Jo thought I was completely potty. "skippy" I think was the term she used! LOL



A few of the index sheets waiting to partner up with the new rubber.

Piles of Nut and Meg stamps.

Ohhh these look new!!

And these are a couple of new minis which will be released at the Artisan show this weekend!!


These are also 2 more new minis, and if you want these you need to subscribe to Craft Stamper magazine in the month of November. Go to pages 40 & 41 in the November issue of Craft Stamper on sale this week. Subscribe and you will get 4 PaperArtsy minis worth 18.40GBP (INCLUDING ARCHIE HIMSELF!!) as a subscription gift. 
Here are the 4 minis up close.


Squiggly Mini 29

Squiggly Mini 30


Ink & The Dog: Mini 59

Ink & The Dog: Mini 60



Tomorrow I will reveal Ding and Dong. 
They are very very very very very cool.


Did I tell you how excited I am????

Monday, 28 September 2009

Ink, Paint, Clocks and Metal

Well I did promise more photos from the weekend, and so here they are. 

The background is from the Rum and Raisin papers. Ruler stamped on the stripes at the top and bottom, quote stamped in the middle. Clocks stamped on pearl metal, sprayed with blue glimmer.

Background  is stamped onto red paper in black ink. Copper clock puffed some sections and used a wheel on the face. 

Papers again with the elf.

Distress Inks sprayed with glimmer. copper and pearl clocks to accent. A touch of bling.

Viva terra and ferro for texture over-painted with viva precious metal colour paints. Copper accent clocks. 

Close up of ferro on chipboard and painted with precious metal colours.

Like how the pearl clock looks with walnut gold glimmer on top.

The clocks are really fun to emboss with the metal working tools to puff out ridges in the designs.

Love how this mini castle looks so different with a bit of texture added to the metal.


New stamps. 

This looks so oldy worldy. Ferro and terra texture. Painted black. Viva precious metal paints on top. Copper embossed metal accents. 

Distress ink background with viva at the edges. Clock on pearl metal.

Puffy clocks are my fave.

Here's a fun thing. Blue and brown distress inks. Walnut gold and patina glimmer (generous), then a generous dose of marshmellow glimmer. Dry and the whole base collour becomes paler and sparkly. Use a mask to create another level of interest. Pearl clocks.

Last one, more marshmellow on this too, but you can't see the sparkle that much in this light.


5 sleeps till Artisan. 
We have some surprises for you...more NEW stamps to be released at the show.....
all will be revealed soon!!!

Sunday, 27 September 2009

Ally Pally Day 2

The day started with more Archies flying the coop, yes they all found lovely Sunday homes to go to. I'm so pleased. The clock stamps went down a storm, and we demoed our socks off for another day.


I didn't take photos of my samples yet, but I will tomorrow when i dig them out of the bag, so here's a bit of what Lin did today.  She was using metal onto the mould, then putting it on the mini arch, adding terra and ferro, then black paint, viva paints, glimmer...and that's just the background! LOL Onto that she put metal (new clocks of course, and a quote and flower to embellish. Really lovely little project, and so much fun! Everybody loved this technique so much. Very clever.


Did you see this on her blog, its superb! 3 arches decorated with that technique - she has decorated with squiggly minis, fleur de lys and nibs from the crowns and castles series.


This is how the show looked during the day. Everyone was saying how busy it was for a Sunday, and we found on the stand we were steady all day long with people interested in all the lovely products Lin had on the stand.

At lunch I hooked up with Lynne Howe (left) and Jo Firth-Young (right) who our very able helpers at ArtsyCrafts, and in the middle is Jo's friend Rachel. 

Here is another of Lin's samples. Same as before but with a die cut/ embossed/ alcohol inked metal dragonfly, and the embeliishment in the centre is UTEE poured onto a metal Xtra stamp which is painted with viva paints.

The marshmellow glimmer mist was a hit, and we found more bottles to re-stock with today! That stuff is wicked! Opaque white with sparkle, and it makes a strong distress background soft and pale to stamp beautiful images onto. I love it a LOT and I'll put up pics tomorrow!



So here is the Great Hall, Alexandra Palace about an hour after the shoppers have left. Nearly all packed up.

And this always amazes me. before and after the show, we drive the vehicles into the hall behind the doors at the back of the great hall. In here there is a massive pipe organ at one end....

and at the other a huge stained glass window. 

Here's a zoom in of the window. How cool. 

The building looks like this from the outside. Atop a sunny hill looking across London.


The next Ally pally is April 10 / 11 next year. Hope you can make it! People come from all over. There were people from Germany, Iceland and France there today, so no excuses that its too far to come!!! LOL


Have a great week


Only 6 sleeps until Artisan Show!!! Yikes



Saturday, 26 September 2009

Ally Pally Day 1

Well finally it arrived. Ally Pally. YAY

The "Marks" were ready. Lin's Mark on the left, and my Mark on the right.
Twins?? - Just like Lin and I have interests in common, the Mark's both enjoy photography and are pretty good at building stuff, and computesr, so they happily chatted all day when they could!. I think they quite enjoyed themselves.

The stand was ready

Lin (left) and Leandra (right) were ready

The aisles were empty waiting for people to come in.

And the Archies and B-Line inchies were waiting for new homes.

Some of the PaperArtsy Squiggly Ink stamps.

Demo tables before they got messy!

Sheila was the first person to nab an Archie! She was thrilled! As were all the Archie owners!
I didn't get to photograph you all, but these people were more than happy to let me get clicky!


Karen and Michele

Helen and Kay

Carol and Angela
All got Archies!

Onto the demos. 

Viva ferro with pink and purple paints on top...yes !!! Pink AND purple...me!! With a touch of gold! Quite like it actually! Tomorrow Lin get to use the purples and pinks all day!!!

Here is one of the new fob watches with a ridge puffed out to give some texture.
The background is distress inks in Aged Mahogany and Vintage Photo, sprayed with scarlet and tattered leather glimmers, with some marshmellow. The marshmellow Glimmer Mist is opaque with a very sparkly sparkle, almost holographic!, it tones down the darkness of the other dark shades making it easier to stamp on top. We love it!

Here is a similar thing, this time the quote was embossed with clear EP, the clock is on pearl metal and sprayed with walnut gold and creme de cocoa. The other little copper bits are parts of one of the larger grid stamps chopped up and added as bellies.

A UTEE'd clock, stamped flowers and copper clock embellishments.

Another distress ink background with copper clock embellishments.

Another distress ink BG with a stencil accent, stamped and embellished with pearl metal. The wings and small circle on the clock are all puffed out.

A close up of the clock.

Christmas Elf stamped on Rum and Raisin papers. Glossy accent highlights.

Sticky backed canvas on an arch, terra at the edges with Viva paints, and copper clock and accents.

Check out Lin's blog for more of what she did today too!
And we hope to see more of your for the Sunday Archie's on offer.