Christmas comes creeping in!!

I can't believe it's December tomorrow. What happened to the rest of the year? But it must be true as the Coca-Cola advert is on the TV, I've watched 2 Christmas films whilst wrapping some presents and my to do list is stretching to a never ending point in front of me.

I've sent off some Christmas ATC's and I'm looking forward to seeing what I get back.



I've also been playing with my new stamps and I'm definitely smitten with them, especially my Stampin' Around jumbo wheel, it makes borders and backgrounds really quickly and easily. Unfortunately no photos of what I've been doing yet, but I promise to share them with you soon.

Stampin' Up! is here

Woo hoo my Stampin' Up! parcel arrived today. So I've spent sometime unpacking and sorting it. The stamps are delicious. Now I just need to find sometime to play!
Good news is that I've already had my first order and I'm sorting out my first party. A few catalogues are getting posted out too.

A few more cards

I've been a busy girl today. I've got another commission for Beautiful Cards finished, including the write up of the copy, so they'll be off in the post tomorrow. I can't share those cards with you. However, here's a couple of cards I've been making with my Sizzix dies. The slide mount that I've used to make the background on the flower card is fast becoming a favourite, it's a versatile little die.

The red hearts on the love card were made by die cutting funky foam and then using it as a stamp.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but the weather has been rather gloomy here all day.

Chocolate?

OK not the real stuff but a card with a chocolate stamped onto it. Even better it smells of chocolate!! Chocolate embossing powder smells great but it does make you rather peckish.

Sleepy Sunday

That's what it's been today, just a nice relaxing day. I've got a few things done including some copy written for Beautiful Cards. Although my to do list doesn't seem to be any shorter!

Yesterday on my travels I saw some beautiful scenery, a stunning sunrise, two kestrels at the side of the road and a couple of windmills. Unfortunately though as I was driving I couldn't take photographs but I did get a snap of one of the windmills and you can just the sun trying to peek through:

Sir Stampalot

I've been to Peterborough today, to a shop called Sir Stampalot, owned and run by the lovely Janice and Andy. I've been there doing a Sizzix demonstration and have been wonderfully looked after. Thank you for my lunch, especially my grapes and chocolate.

They have a wonderful store packed to the rafters with gorogeous stash and can't do enough to help their customers.

Here's me doing my stuff.

And a selection of the dies they had on offer today.

Sizzix-tastic!!

I've had the most fabulous day. I've been to Wrexham to visit the wonderful Pete Hughes at Sizzix. I've picked up all my kit ready for demonstrating at Sir Stampalot on Saturday. Here's a few pieces that I've recently been making with my Sizzix dies.

A cushion decorated with felt cut from one of the Bigz dies - the button is made from shrink plastic.

These jars are filled with funky foam buttons and the heart on the side is made by using the bit you'd normally throw away as a stencil and H2O's using the spray from Once Upon A Stamp (thanks Rob), that let's you use you H2O's on glass, metal and plastic.

And to finish off a perfect day, I'm at my sisters and we're off to the pub for our dinner :)

Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peak of a piece I've been working on. I should be able to share all of it with you in the next couple of days!


A few people to say thank you to today:
Dougie - I love my card
Shirl - the chocolate is, make that was, fab!!
Anna - for always being there and egging me on
J-P - for offering to cook my dinner tomorrow
All my friends (the list is too long) and my family - for the support and kindness you've all given me over the last month.

Amazing pens

Like most people I've never really been a fan of my own handwriting, but I'm getting there. But it's true that you need the right tools for the job and for me it was learning how to use the pens from Kuretake - zig pens, including the brush pens and the calligraphy pens. Not only can I write with them but doodle and make beautiful flowers too.

So having attended a training day, I have now been accepted to be a product demonstrator for them, which means I'll get to play with the pens even more.

Here's the scrapbook page I submitted after the training day. There's not a piece of patterned paper in site - the paisley design was created by my own fair hand, as was all the lettering. We were only allowed to use the products supplied to us, cardstock, orange (2 shades), black and white, pens, flower punch x2, ribbon and brads - all from the same colour family)

And here's a card a made form the leftovers. Again just cardstock, pens, brad and ribbon.

Then I decided to do some tags for my new filing boxes.

Little things

I've been playing in miniature today. These are inchies for a swap I'm hosting and as the name suggests they are 1 inch x 1 inch, which sounds OK until you come to work in that size and it really is tiny.
All the backgrounds were made from stamping snowflakes with versamark and then heat embossed using white embossing powder. The purple/blue colour was added using ranger distress ink pads.
Then the fun of adding tiny embellishments. I've used buttons, stickers, stamps (yes tiny stamps), glitter, patterned paper, punched snowflakes, gems and silver pen.




I've also been busy cutting out, some very detailed decoupage for a magazine piece, so my fingers are tingling now. Very fiddly but well worth the effort, the quality of the images is great.

For Nets Christmas Card Challenge

My lovely friend Annette (Nets) has posted a challenge that closes today, to create a Christmas Card without using any Christmas paper. So I've gone very plain and simple with no Christmas products at all, just some plain cardstock and a little bit of sparkly paper.

This is a great card to make with the little people in your lives.

Giggling is good for you

We had a great day at our crop yesterday. As you can see there was a fair smattering of pink. Both the birthday girls had a fab time and as well as the chocolate biscuits we normally have we had fairy cakes and a large tin of roses.
We giggled all day, even to the point where we couldn't stop and didn't even know what we were laughing about!
Val, I hope you sorted your mouse out. Sue, have you sorted your stash out yet? Gwyneth, I hope your migraine has gone.

Here's the girls (Ali, Gwyneth, Val, Kae and Shirley) enjoying the choccies.

Sue and Siobhan mid-giggle

Somehow I didn't get my photo taken, a shame really as I was sporting a lovely pair of pink fairy wings. I'm already looking forward to seeing you all again in December for our Christmas party.

As I was less than productive yesterday I thought I'd share a couple of cards I made last week.

Altrincham Crop

I'm off to the Altrincham crop today. I know I'll have a fab time as I always do. What could be better than spending the day with friends, playing with paper and glue, drinking coffee and munching biscuits - pure bliss.

As I put this months kit together, I've already had a play but here's a sneak peek of what we're up to today.


As it's birthday time for two of our girls we're having a pink princess themed day, hence the colourful kit. So I'd better find something pink and sparkly - could it be the day for a pink wig?!!

I'm also looking forward to this afternoons class that the lovely Kae (who made my logo - thank you so much) is taking. We're making Christmas tags, which is a good job as I've got loads to do on my make before Christmas list, so this will help.

No randomness for today, but then it is only 6 o'clock in the morning.

A little bit of Christmas

I had some Christmas cards to finish off today and I couldn't resist a little bit of stamping. These were all made with a stamp from Penny Black, I love the way her look changes depending on the colours used. She's a bit shimmery in real life and on a few of the cards there's a little extra bling too.

So these lovely ladies are on their way to Clapham with a few other cards (75 in total!) to a wonderful lady called Angelina. Hopefully her and her customers will like them.

Today's bit of randomness is to do with cornflakes, of the crunchy nut variety. After I'd poured my milk over my cereal this morning, I got busy doing something else, so by the time I ate them they were a tad on the soggy side. I'd have put them in the bin but it was the end of the packet. So soggy cornflakes it was and I've discovered, I quite like soggy cornflakes.

Welcome

I've decided to take the plunge and get a blog!! So please bear with me as I find my feet, both in my blog and the adventure that is Ginger Pie Designs.

Ginger Pie Designs is me, Claire "Ginger" Hamer and I thought this would be a great place to let you know what I'm up to and a place you can get in touch with me.