Little Treats

Hello friends

I have luggage!  It arrived very late last night, who needs sleep when jet lagged!!

Despite the late hour I wanted to open up my cases and see all my craft treats.

Talking of treats, before I went away I put together a little something for

each member of the Design Team.  Time was tight so I chose a 

simple design - Cath Kidston pocket mirrors mounted onto cream cardstock.

I printed out the wording and added my favourite little flowers from Homespun.  

The mirrors stayed perfectly in place throughout the flight and Arizona heat by using 

Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™ - 3D Dodz™ 

 Each mirror was placed in an envelope that I embossed with Garden Lattice,

because it is a large folder I could run through two envelopes at a time - speeded things up!

I then layered Labels Four on each one.

 Before I packed them Bella gave her approval! I created 15 in all!

Thank you for enquiring about the boys - they are doing well.

While I was away I spoke to them each day so I was fully updated with everything 

that was going on.  Elliott is back at King's today to hear the results of the latest MRI,

we are very familiar with the hospital restaurant, they do a very good bacon sarnie!

The raffle for the Charity Event is now closed. I posted out the last of the prizes
yesterday so if you are awaiting a prize I promise it is on its way.
There was just a couple of unclaimed prizes and I'm
donating those to a local group that teaches craft to children with disabilities.

Now that my suitcase is here I am adding the final items I purchased to the Mystery Box prize
and I will be announcing a winner very soon - exciting!!

Take care friends.

Home from Arizona!

Hello friends

Well that week went by far too quickly! 

I'm safely home, minus my luggage! I had a connecting flight

in Las Vegas and unfortunately due to a delay it is thought my luggage might be there -

I am envious that it is still holidaying!   

Fingers crossed it is all returned as there is an enormous amount of 

craft items including some blog prize bits and mystery box prize items that I picked up in 

Jo Ann's, Michaels and Hobby Lobby 

(notice, I'm not so worried about my clothes!)

I flew out to Arizona two days early to allow for jet lag and to meet up

with two very special Canadian ladies - Lesley Langdon and Tina McDonald.

We allowed one day for shopping (yippee!) and one day for sight seeing.

We opted for a four hour drive to the Grand Canyon and we were not disappointed.

It's a long drop....

Tina emphasising that point!

  It is breathtaking and a fantastic experience.

Once our mini tourist experience finished, we got organised and switched over to the 

Spellbinders retreat hotel - the serious crafting, learning and fun began!

I was totally surrounded by the most amazing creative minds in the business and

felt very overwhelmed at times. 

It wasn't all class-time work, we got to go on field trips.

Visiting the Spellbinders office - catching up with all the staff  including Ken Oliver.

I will have a lot more photos to share with you soon, once I get organised and

my other memory card hopefully returns in my AWOL suitcases!

I've come back to an email inbox full to the brim but I will get around to answering 

them all, apologies if you have been waiting.

Take care friends - good to be back! 

Warm Winter Wishes!?

Hello friends

Yes, in the midst of Summer I'm sharing a Christmas card! 

But whatever time of year it is I cannot resist Layered Poinsettia.

This is a ODW card (One Die Wonder) - just the one die set used on this project.

You can easily see the main Poinsettia but the fancy edging ...yes that is 

the tips of the Poinsettia petals.

It is always interesting to see what you can achieve with one die set.

In case you fancy making a nice early start on your Christmas card (I know I should!)

I've got a stock of Christmas dies in my Amazon shop or please feel free to 

get in touch by email - christine.emberson@blueyonder.co.uk

This is my last scheduled post - the next one should be me back home and 

telling you all about my trip! 

Take care friends.

Hot!

Hello friends

A little blog post from a very hot Arizona! As most of you know by now (because I think I mentioned it a lot!) I'm at the Spellbinders Retreat. I am having a brilliant time and doing so much. My head is full of ideas and plans to share with you all very soon.

I took a photo of my desk - this is how it looked on arrival, my file, wine glass, chocolates and bright happy flowers.



On one of the days here we took a trip to the Spellbinders offices and Stacey especially posed for me pointing out the special award from the UK.



I have so many more pictures to share with you once I am home but if you follow me on Facebook you will have already seen some fun shots.

I am also so pleased that each day I've been able to FaceTime with home - chatting to Elliott and Mitchell, my parents and Bella! So all is good!

Thank you friends for continuing to stop by my blog while I've been away. I have been applauded here for having such dedicated blog followers and I told them - I have the best!

Take care and I will be back soon!

Christine x


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Special Guest

Hello friends

A special post today, full of festive wonder and creativity!

Before I left for Arizona I asked the very talented John Lockwood if he would 

like to do a guest spot on my blog.  I've been following John's blog for a 

while now and I admire the way he creates and uses Spellbinders® dies to their fullest potential.

I asked him to use the new Dimensional Snowflakes, 

he made not just one project but lots and they are all outstanding.

John is featuring his projects on his blog today so there will be further details.

A tri-fold card.

Here you can see the snowflakes in full detail.

Box and Tag - John knows how much I like a tag! 

Gorgeous layered card, Gold Elements in the background.

And...WOW - Christmas deccies!  

Made from both tissue paper and card, scored, folded and assembled.

Imagine a ceiling festooned with these.

Huge thanks to John for creating such crafty loveliness.

As mentioned, he will be featuring these on his blog today, just click on the link to say hello.

I have a limited stock of these dies available in my Amazon shop along with more
of the Christmas release.

Take care friends - I'm back soon.

Roses For You!

Hello friends

I'm back today to share another ODW (One Die Wonder) project with you -

this time using Rose Creations.

I purchased the little wooden box in Hobbycraft - as you can see it is plain and boring!

These boxes come in different shapes and are very reasonably priced, around £1.99

And here it is after a makeover with Rose Creations! 

Firstly I painted the box lightly with some regular white paint, watered down. 

Once dry I used Distress Ink on the box edges and also by stencilling through

the dies, I placed some dies slightly off the edge and built up a combination of colours and 

blending.  The lid was then stamped with a script stamp (Textures).

The flowers were created with the dies but by cutting vellum.  The leaves cut from green felt. 

I created a video a while back using Rose Creations and shimmer mist - 

in the video I use paper but the technique is the same.

To finish my box I tied some hessian braid/ribbon around it and finished with an extra flower.

It was fun to do and makes a great gift.

Take care friends - I will be back with more posts soon.