Hello Again
Well this is my secound blog and we have had some really nice goodies come into the shop needless to say I have been busy getting them made up into cards.
First the other sunday I was happily reading when Diane phoned to say that the new Christams toppers from flower soft were being premiered on "Create and Craft" so I dutifully tuned in and thought yep were going to be asked for these on Monday. Diane ordered them on the monday and I did a demo on the following saturday.

The nice thing about these is that you can sit and put the flower soft on the toppers whilst watching tv and leaving them to dry overnight, then make up the cards the following evening. The other advantage you do not have the thickness or depth so won't cost an arm and a leg with postage. Dont forget after you have sprinkled with the flower soft and shaken off the excess repeat with the glitter.
The toppers themselves come in three designs the post box as you see on your left, the door which you get three green and three white, the white shown below the post box. They come in packs of 6, and at £2.50 a packet represent good value for money, enabling you to achieve a good quality greetings card. The doors and the piller box are proving extreemly popular.




As you can see from the above sample cards the Trees I have "swagged" using different colours of flower soft per t
ree. You can of course use your stickles glue on the baubles to give them that little extra glitz (which I know you all love). The doors themselves you can do as little or as much as you want. The Holly Wreath and the shrubs by the door lend themselves to be given the flower soft treatment. And dont forget the snow.
Anothe new range of products that has come in is the new Elusive Images Christams Stamps. These again are proving very popular along with the "Seasons Greetings" CD-ROM.



The above three cards above I did on the recent retail retreat that Diane sent me on (see blog below). The cards themselves can all be achieved in a days workshop which we will be starting in September, they are quite easy and straight forward to do. They feature various techniques: heat embossing, paper tearing, and stamping on acetate, producing as you can see excellent results. The backing paper all come from the Elusive Images " Seasons Greetings" CD-ROM. The lamp stamp is taken from Elusive images "Hearth and Home " set, which again is proving very popular. The lamps were embossed using the detail gold and silver, the reasom being it's a finer powder thus enabling the finer detail of the stamp to be picked up. Again we have a range of colours in the shop, gold, silver, copper, white, and black.
The lamp below I have embossed with the detail copper and used co-ordinating papers from the cd-rom. You will also find on the cd-rom the toppers that I have used with the lamps which just adds that nice finishing touch. Again if you are worried about the thickness of the decoupage then you can always opt for the 1mm foam pads which we sell in the shop.
One final word about the cd-rom it is very user friendly and the papers are arranged on themes and in colour groups, so it maskes it much easier to co-ordinate and match up your papers.

Anyway I thinks that enugh for the time being
Happy Crafting
Andy x