NEW! NEW! NEW! Standard Rollers

NEW!! THEY'VE ARRIVED!!

After months of waiting, wanting, hoping, dreaming, THEY ARE HERE!! The new Standard Rollers we have been promising you - Yes! they did exist, we weren't just tormenting you, they are really in our possession! How exciting is that! And.........................they are truly GORGEOUS!! And the price is INCREDIBLE - if you are watching those pennies, this is classy, crafting on a shoe string - believe me!! Even Barney has had his nose in the box and chosen the ones he likes.......admittedly they have sweet little Cats, Rabbits and Toys on them but he has been trying them out, by rolling them around the garden and down the path and he reports that they roll really well, so that's good to know isn't it!! So now his are buried - somewhere - in a Dorset garden just in case some one else fancies them and makes off with them, which, of course is exactly what will happen!! Lesley, who is new to our design team, saw them for the first time yesterday and we couldn't get her out of the box either! Seriously they are truly just beautiful, we have 45 new designs in stock and there is just a teeny taster sample below.

Firstly a few facts, so that you know what you are playing with. The price, -unbelievably, they are JUST £3.75 each - yep it's true JUST £3.75 per roller. The handle is JUST £3.00 and of course you only need one of those and off you go!! What other crafting tool costs so little these days. These little beauties have to be up for the most cost effecting, creative craft tool of the century! The fact that you can use them with card, paper, vellum, stamps, ink pads, die cuts etc that you already have in your stash makes them such a good economical buy! They are just an inch wide, 25mm in modern money and they work just like the Jumbo Rollers and can be used in conjunction with the Jumbos or as a stand alone roller. They are being loaded onto the Web Site as we speak, the whole lot should be there in the next few days or so. We are loading as many as we can each day and if you can't wait come along to Happy Stampers North West, at Port Sunlight on the Wirral, next Saturday 9 May, entrance by advanced ticket only, from HSNW, and see the rollers in the flesh!

Country Border

This pattern is evocative of country cottages, pretty wallpaper, lovely stencilled borders, if is the sort of pattern we always come back to in the end. I think coloured in soft pastel inks, the Kaleidocolor soft pastels and Brilliance Lilac colours would be wonderful.

Zephyr

This has to be everyones favourite Standard Roller, isn't it beautiful. This is a Flourish with added twiddly bits. It is so fine, yet classical, contemporary and Oh so useful, we absolutely love it!

Daisy Daze

This little gem is going to be ssooo useful for backgrounds, die cut shapes like Chippies and to use over open stamped images. Try it over a brayered background, roll onto vellum and dust with Mica Powders. Use it in conjunction with the Mixed Dots Jumbo roller (this one has tiny mixed dots in the background) and layer up.

Roses

At last a really beautiful classical image, just right for Wedding and Anniversary cards.

Meadow

Meadow, this pretty little roller can be used as a stand alone image or in conjunction with the Jumbo Butterfly Garden roller. This is really useful if you want Tags to match cards and for those fine images on the side of an envelope.

Techniques for Tuesday on a Wednesday

I mentioned yesterday that we would show you 2 cards using the same Rollagraph pattern but using two different techniques - we ran out of time hence Techniques for Tuesday on a Wednesday! Before we begin one of our Blog followers, wanted to know which embossing powder we use

at our Demos to get such a glossy finish, well as they say, it is all in the Detail. It sure is, to get the best finish ever when you are embossing always, always, use fine detail embossing powder. We have it on the site and we always use it. Again apologies for the photos of the products, they don't come out well, but the product is superb. Used with a clear Versamark pad (always use Versamark, cheaper ones just don't cut it), and detail powder, you will never get a better finish. Detail powders are much finer than normal embossing powders and literally they show up the 'detail', of an image. The Black is particularly good, as black powders are notoriously difficult to use and if you are using a word stamp, for example the lovely background 'Words Words', roller you need the fine powder to ensure that all the fine detail is readable. Also, fine powders have a lower melt point and they meld together for a beautiful almost foiled finish - we love them! Also they don't cost much either, which is always a bonus!

So, back to our technique. On the card above, again featuring the lovely Lola with a Bird, Sugar Nellie stamp, the background Mixed Dots roller is used on heat embossable acetate. Ink up the roller with Saddle Brown Staz-On Ink and roll onto the acetate. Leave to dry for a moment. Clean the roller, drag an antistat pad over the acetate, ink up the Mixed Dots with with Versamark, this time, roll over the Staz-On inked dots and heat emboss with clear detail powder. Ink up a piece of background card using the Mixed Dots roller again using the Staz-On Saddle Brown, cut both the background card and the acetate into a circle and layer up with the acetate circle on top of the background circle, separate the two with foam backed sticky pads. Glue the decorative paper circle over the top, stamp Lola using an Artprint Brown Memories Ink Pad, colour her in with the Inkadinks using a small paintbrush. The effect is of being drawn into the card and the Mixed dots and the layering technique using acetate is perfect for this effect. The mixed dots roller lends itself to being rolled over and over again, building up the layered look. Some of the dots are solids and some are open so you can see through to the other layers.

We are very, very, excited today as the much awaited Standard Rollers have arrived! Boxes and boxes of them, all brand new designs, we can't wait to get them out and roll em! They will be a bit cheaper than the Jumbos and they will be great for doing 'wiggly' curved lines and borders and already we are planning some really exciting 'fun' backgrounds using them. Watch this space for more news and hopefully they will be on the web site in the next week or so!

Techniques for Tuesday

Hi Everyone,

Sunshine and showers in Somerset! The week-end was a huge success and we met so many interesting people. In response to all your enquiries and questions we thought we would start the week with some inspiration for your Spring card making but before we do just a quick round up of general news. Heather is back from Russia, thank goodness, we miss her so much when she isn't within easy reach as she has all the answers to all those difficult technique questions!! She caught a horrible cold from a Babushka on the plane but she is now on the mend and is getting herself all psyced up for Happy Stampers North West. We can't wait for the Show and we will have extra help on the Stand this year as it was just unbelievably busy last year and we couldn't get to everyone in double quick time and give everyone the time they needed to answer all those technique questions! Heather will be doing a really inspiring demo this year using the Inkadinks and some new Rollers. So all you roller addicts, can get your rolling 'fix'. Barney loves going to the Wirral because he can run on the beach and chase seagulls, the only problems is that the Wirral estuary does a special line in the stickiest gloopiest mud known to man and Barney just loves it. We have had him clipped for the Summer but his fur seems to retain Wirral mud like super-glue and the showers on the camp site don't quite get to the root of the problem.

Anyway on to the cards featured on the Blog this week.

What we wanted to do was to inspire you and show you how you can use just one or two rollers and get really different effects. The design team have been hard at work as you can see and we have Jennifer and Heather to thank for this week's contributions. We have featured the Mixed Dots roller in these two cards (above and below) and on the Rope Swing image we have just used it to frame the central image in the circle and simply heat embossed the dots with detail silver embossing powder. Really easy and quick to do. Stamp the little girl on the swing 4 or 5 times, using a Black Memories ink pad, (Memories is a permanent, waterbased ink pad which is fantastic as a base before colouring ink - it won't run like Staz-On). Colour her in using a damp paintbrush and Inkadinks. Layer up and mount inside a circle. You could use any colour combination, we have used pink and silver here. Ink up the Roller with Versamark, roll either side of the image, shake on the detail powder, heat emboss, trim, mat and layer. Punch out a few pink flowers and your done!