Where has the time gone

Wow Fellow blogger

where has the time gone ,

well time here at HQ has been very busy with lots of meetings for new programs and new products ,so there will be lots of new products for you all in the new year that you just know you will want and need lolxx

today i want to share a card that we made for the last QVC show using one of the templates from the show called paradise

We're Still Here!!

Hi Everyone
At last, time to post! So sorry to everyone that it has taken us so long to post this time, you just would not believe how busy we are!! I know it's a good problem to have but it means that so many things have to wait to be done. Harvey says he hasn't got a piece of paper long enough for his 'to do list'. I think we are running at 97 hours a week at the moment, why it isn't a hundred -who knows but at the last count we are all doing about 97 hours work. I always remember someone saying beware when your hobby turns into a job but do you know - we all absolutely love it. None of us have ever worked so hard in our lives and as with all Craft it is all about sharing. We want to share so much with you that's why Dawn has worked really hard on the Step by Step Tutorials for the Silkies and the Inkadinks. Her Tatty Flowers are so popular at the Shows and if you haven't made any before, give it a try they look amazing and you can customise them to suit your cards. Everyone is saying how tough it is at the moment and that it is going to get worse next year, so if you are trying to economise give the Tatty Flowers a go - you will get really hooked on making them so put a big empty choccy box close by and fill it with Flowers!
We have to say a huge, huge, thankyou to everyone who has sent messages of support for our QVC programmes. We appreciate it ssssooooooo much we have put our all into the Shows, hence the work load but it is the most fun we have ever had. How lucky are we to be allowed to have our own Show. We feel so privileged and when you share the same stage as Russell Watson, Lu Lu, John Barrowman, Joan Rivers, Susan Boyle, Liz Earle etc etc it is really, really exciting. Like everyone else we get a bit Star Struck and all these people have worked so incredibly hard to get where they are and we feel we have to keep up the hard work to stay up there as well. We have received so much support from lots of other Craft Companies who share the programmes on QVC and again it is so nice to be welcomed in to the fold. The standards on QVC are really, really, high this is no amateur outfit, you have to really prove yourself to be allowed air time. Satellite time costs millions and you have to really try to be the best you can be to stay up there. We have received a bit of stick for thanking Team Members on the Show but for the sake of a couple of seconds to say Thank you to everyone who puts their hearts, souls and massive creativity into each programme what can you be but incredibly grateful. Everyone who crafts, does it because they love it and we feel it is really important to share that. So this is really a thank you to everyone who has supported us and shared their thoughts with us. We listen to everything you say and we try and adapt accordingly within the stringent guidlines that we are given. We have had some interesting comments on Sue's Top that she wore on air it has been likened to Mirri Board, have to confess we all hooted with laughter, Sue most of all, we made her put it on so that we could all appreciate the full blinding effect!!lol!! Isn't it amazing that people can watch craft telly and get really into the clothes, of course it is tempting to wear a penguin outfit next time - let's keep it seasonal!! Any suggestions on a post-card please...........................she fancies a little Santa Number but she is still working out whose knee she wants to sit on!! Move over Harvey!!!!lol!!!!
Happy Crafting Everyone x

Hi Everyone
We thought it was time to start publishing some of the samples that you saw on the Telly. We are always getting lots of compliments from you about the quality of our samples so we thought you might enjoy seeing them for a bit longer than 1.3 minutes!!! Taking on board what you have all said about the 'time element' on the TV, it's a difficult one as QVC is a really professional outfit and they have producers, directors and planners who all get together to workout schedules and within those really stringent constraints we have to try and put across as much as we can. We know you want alot more demos and technical stuff and so do we and we know alot of you have filled in the QVC questionnaire form on their site requesting that we be given a bit more time so that you can actually see what is happening on the show, so fingers crossed.
The card today shows the fabulous Snowdrop stamp and the background uses the Cherry Blossom template, put through the Cuttlebug. Have to confess we found that you get a really deep impression by using some black spongy stuff that we sell at 3.99 a packet. We used this instead of an embossing mat and it is brilliant - thank Harvey for that - you see he does craft. He likes to keep it a bit of a secret though!!! (Man stuff etc).
Harrogate was as busy as ever and lots of people coming on to the stand and commenting on the programme which was nice. We had a day off!!!!!!!!!!!! (just the one), Stand back in complete amazement, first one since May and we indulged in some retail theraty - absolute bliss. We bought some books, heaven only knows when we will get time to read them but we bought them anyway!! Harrogate is retail paradise, lots of individual shops and not the usual High Street rubbish - does anyone else out there think the UK High Street is just horrible now, all the big stores have just forced the individual guys out and no wonder they say our High Streets are dying, it is so sad but Harrogate is a beacon of light in this area, thank goodness.
Our Dawn is back from her hols at the end of this week - yeah!!!!!!!!! There will be much rejoicing this end I can tell you. Mind you we don't want to see the Tan, thank you and hear all those stories of lying under blue skies, relaxing with a glass of something chilled in one hand and a delicious trashy novel in the other - Can't be doing with that at all!!! The date for the next show should be coming up soon, so watch this space. Also Michelle is busy doing her magic on the design board so we should have some new stamps soon. We also have a new designer who has joined us straight from art college, our Hayley, so we are looking forward to seeing what she can pull out of the hat for us - no pressure Hayley!
Happy Crafting x

A Huge Thankyou

Hello Everyone
We just wanted to say 'thankyou', so much for all your support during and after the programme last week on QVC!! We have never had so many emails and of course, everyone agreed there just wasn't enough time to show all the techniques and demos we had planned. We know you loved the Mica Powders and next month we will concentrate more on the Inkadinks and Silkies. It was great to be able to show how fantastic our 'positive/negative', botanical stamps, the Small Shadow Rose, the Echinacea and the Anenomes can look. We all worked so incredibly hard to bring you some really fabulous samples to inspire you and hopefully we will be able to have a little bit more time in the next programme to show them to you and explain how to use the products to their fullest potential. A real special enormous thank you to our own Dawn
http://allpinkgirl.blogspot.com 3 solid months of so much blood, sweat and tears to produce the very best samples for the programme, being an amazing efficient and organised Studio Assistant and of course personal stylist - how do you say thank you for that!! Our own Jennifer, who despite having surgery and being on crutches for months has worked so hard to produce incredible samples and Lucy Edmondson who met all our deadlines and we had so little time we couldn't even get to Lucy's fab cards - so next time they will be featured and that is really something to look forward too!
Perhaps it is just as well we didn't know how exhausting but exhilarating doing such a big TV programme could be! We are still reeling and trying to keep up with the flood that has followed but thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your support, it really means such alot and please don't forget our customers are our inspiration and we do it all just for you!
Happy Crafting
From all of us here at the house of Imagination

QVC SHOW DATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow girls the time has arrived
i can now tell you why we have been so quite ,
for all of you fabulous blogger's and costomers that have been e-mailing IMAGINATION CRAFT HQ
We can now tell you the 1 HOUR LIVE SHOW IS 1ST SEPTEMBER AT 2PM and Imagination will be on in the second half.
channel 640 ,
channel 16 on free view,
virgin TV 740,
free sat 800
think that's every one lolxxx
the show will feature our very own and very talented Sue(the boss lady lolxxx)
Sue will be showing you all the fabulous demos with our out standing products , and will be hosting the second half with Craig(swoon swoon),
hope you will all tune in and see what we have panned for you all xxxxxx

Blog Candy Winners

Good morning girls
so sorry for the delay in announcing the winners ,
life at the imagination craft HQ is so busy at the moment so please forgive us xxx
So on to the winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you to every one who entered each person was given a number and entered in to a random number picker
and the winners are
no8 Emma "thats life"
no42 Maxine's Art and craft
Huge congrats girls if you can e- mail imagination HQ please with your details

BLOG CANDY TIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS CANDY ID NOW CLOSED
WOW for all you crafter's out there that need a sugar fix !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have the latest sugar fix for you right here ,SILKIES
these beauties are just one of the many products that you will soon be seeing on QVC !!!!!!!
we have 2 sets of silkies to give away to 2 lucky winners (one winner will receive Indian spice and the other will win the tropical Paradise collection)
so here are the rules lolxxx
1) )place a picture of our candy on your blog with a link back here to our blog
2)become a follower of this blog if you are not already
3)add your name to Mr linky
( if you don't have a blog leave a comment underneath this post to qualify also)
4) good luck
5)this candy runs from 9th -23rd July 2010

Qvc here we come

Wow girls the time has come !!!!!!!!
imagination crafts is going live on QVC all your fav new products will soon be on QVC for all of you to see
The Imagination team had the fabulous honour of being invited to a special customer event last week in London ,
where we had a fabulous time meeting Dawn Bibby and her team plus the hundreds of lovely QVC costumers that attended

As you can see our crafting goddess (Sue) headed the make and take workshop which the crafter's loved

i did the demos with inkadinks and talked to the ladies about the other new products soon to be on QVC

Plus we had the added pleasure of meeting the very lovely and so fab Craig ,how made us all so welcome

huge thanks to QVC and the fabulous customers we met

Saturday Night Tag away !!!!!!!!

Good Evening ladies ,
have to tell you all stopping in and making tags is the new way to go lolxxx
for all of you crafter 's that get a bit nervous with inks and stamps ,
start small with tags ,
i want all you fellow crafter 's to go through your crafting stash and pull out all the rubber stamps you have brought (and never used lolxxx like we all do) and start making tags ,
i need you all to give all your products a new lease of life and a modern up to date twist ,
with the tags i have made for you tonight i have used inkadinks for all the back grounds plus most of the stamps i have used are from imagination crafts

These last beauties i have to show you are my fav's so arty can be pretty .

for these tags i have used the jumbo roller graphs and stamps from i think they are paper artstry and a bit of bling ,

please e-mail us and show use your tag art we would love to see it xxx

Distressed tags !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Girls ,
today i wanted to share with you a few tags i have made using the inkadinks ,magi glaze and mica powders i felt like getting inky lolxxx
the inkadinks have all been applied to the tags with cut and dry and the mica powders applied with a soft dusting brush
hope you all feel inspired to get your inkadinks out and have a play

YAY!!!!!!! Stock Take Nearly Done

WOW girls ,
its so great to be back with you all ,all the counting at HQ is now nearly done a few sore heads from all the numbers lolxx
a huge thank you to all you lovely customers who have been waiting patiently for you orders they will be dispatched ASAP so don't worry
now the counting is done i have had time to make a few cards with the new stunning chapel road stamps that we now stock
i have done two different looks with these stamps so you can see how versatile they are

Template cards

Hi Ladies,

to days card has been popped on here for all you Imagination craft fans that have e-mailed imagination HQ asking to see it again lolxxx

this card has been made with the Cherry Blossom template available on the web site .

which then we have sponged through with the Onyx shade silkies from the Indian spice collection

hope you agree this gives a very elegant look and finish to the card

if any silkies fans out there have any pictures they would like to share with us all then please e-mail them to us so we can see what fabulous things you have been making too

Stunning New Stamps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O M G girls how excited are we the Imagination crafts Team to be able to tell you all that we now have on the web site the fabulous new stamp range by Chapel Road designs

this stamp range is truly elegant and stunning and fits for any occasion

but hurry girls they are selling fast so make sure you get yours !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess who's in Craft Stamper

Morning girls ,
have you all seen the fabulous page we have in the craft stamper this month showing our beautiful silkies make sure you get yours before they sell out !!!!!!!!!!!!
the imaginatation team would like to say a HUGE Thank You to all the fabulous ladies we met at the weekend at Happy Stampers North West Show
we had such a fabulous time meeting you all and talking to you all about the products ,
we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did
thanks Happy Stampers xxxx

Template insperation

Good morning girls ,hope you are all having a fab weekend
so sorry we have been a bit quite at the house of imagination this week , but we have

been very busy behind the scenes and at the craft shows ,

don't worry normal service will be back soon xxx

to day i have a pretty card to share with you all ,this card has been created with the new fabulous stencils templates we have and the silkies

i used cut and dry foam with the silkies on and gently taped it through the stencil

,even the ribbon has been coloured to match the card using the silkies

so make sure you get your silkies as they are so versatile to use for all your crafting needs

Pure style and elegance

Good evening girls

to night for you i have a card to show you that would be very stylish and elegant for any special occasion .

this card has been made with another one of our fabulous new range of stencils make sure you get yours before they sell out at we can not keep them on the shelves at the moment

so pop over quick to the store

the card has had versa mark ink sponged through then heat embossed using our stunning fine detail embossing powder in gold

Silkie card ideas

Hi Girls ,today i have two more cards to share with you using the new fabulous silkies
the first card i have to show you has been made with one of our stunning new stencils ,
the silkies has been applied through the stencil like in the tutorial we have done for you already on the blog
the second card i have for you is a card beautifully made
with stamped flower images which have then been painted in with the slikies ,
i hope these card have inspired you to try something new with your slikies

Crafter's Love to share

Good Afternoon girls
to day i want to share with you all two fabulous craft blogs with you
both these ladies have been in touch with us to show there fabulous work and project that they have made using our products ,
the first lady i want to share her work with you is Mandi who has made some beautiful cards with the new silkies
And the second lady is the lovely Sue who we met at the NEC in Birmingham who has used the Inkadinks to create a fabulous card
i hope you will all go and have a look at the beautiful cards these ladies have made on there blogs
thank you so much ladies for sharing your cards with us all they are fabulous
xxxxx

Happy blog candy winner

Good morning girls
hope you all had a fabulous Easter break
we just wanted to share with you a lovely e-mail we received from our Blog candy winner Sarah,
Sarah wrote

Just want to say a big thank you for the Inkidinks and silkies (and flowers)that I received from my win on your blog. I've tried them for the first time and really do love them - just got to practice a little more!Thanks again - it was so wonderful winning such fab prize.Hugs Sarah x

so glad you are so pleased with them Sarah
thanks for letting us know
Imagination Team xxxxx

Blog Candy Winner

Wow the time has come to let you all know who has won the blog candy
thank you to every one who entered each person was given a number and entered in to a random number picker
and the winner is
Sarah's blogging bit huge congrats Sarah please e-mail us with your address (candy winner in subject header) and we will get your prize out as soon as we can
huge thanks

Its all black and white

Good evening girls hope you are all well
i would just like to let you all know the blog candy is now closed ,a huge thank you to all that have joined in with our candy and hopefully tomorrow we will let you know who has won the fabulous prize
it may be a week be fore we send the prize out because there is a lot of craft shows at the moment and the Imagination craft Team are spread far and wide so please bear with us xxx
to night i have a monochrome card for created with the fabulous stamps available from imagination crafts
the main is is created with the large shadow rose stamp
and the back ground is created with the roller graph stamp (zephyr)
the rose image has been stamped twice then a small selection of the image has been cut away then mounted on black card stock and added the the first image to add more dimension

Insperation Time

Good evening blog friends ,hope you have all had a fabulous weekend
to night we have new Inspiration for you from the Imagination Design Team
for this card Dawn has used a large tag and covered it in Cranberry sorbet inkadinks (sunset pack) then used the roller graph wheel (words words ) over the top using the Adirondack ink pad (Wild Plum) for added dimension
the stunning papers used on this card are from the fabulous glitz new range
we have so make sure you check them out on the site
the stamp also used on this card is the retro butterfly which has been stamped twice then the added touch of the beautiful slikies to give that shimmery glossy finish to the image

Cards to share

Good evening girls here at Imagination crafts we have to beautiful cards to share with you all
the first card has been created with the Inkadinks and slikies and the beautiful stitched flower collection of stamps and the roller graph wheel stamp for the back ground

the second card we have for you has all so been used using the inkadinks and the slikies with the added touch of the cherry blossom roller graph stamp

for the back ground and flowers embellishments and the poppy stamp for the main image

hope you like our preview using the new inkadinks and slikies

Blog Candy Time

BLOG CANDY NOW CLOSED
Wow girls this is a first for us here at Imagination crafts ,
but we are offering every one the chance to take part in our fabulous blog candy
the blog candy consists of the latest cutting edge products a set of Inkadinks(Brights) and a set of the stunning new silikies(Tropical Paradise) and a bag of flowers for embellishment
to be in with the chance to win these fabulous products
1)place a picture of our candy on your blog with a link back here to our blog
2)become a follower of this blog if you are not already
3) if you don't have a blog leave a comment underneath this post to qualify also
4) good luck
candy runs from 5th -19th march

A wedding card to share

Hi Girls,
Today i have a beautiful wedding card to share with you all ,this card is made with our new beautiful stamps from Imagination crafts ,
Dawn from the DT has designed this card using the new Daisy chain stamp and the roller graph stamp (zephyr) both images have been embossed with our Fine detail embossing powder
which will give you that liquid gold affect to any of your cards or projects
please check out the web site as new products are being added all the time
have a great weekend xxx

There aren't really words to describe how unbelievably gorgeous these Silky flowers are!! It's Dawn http://www.allpinkgirl.blogspot.com/ we are going to call them Midnight Flowers - as she has been working all night to produce these masterpieces - we are ssssoooo!!! impressed!!!
Crafting has now officially become beautiful!!

Hi Girls

Today we have 2 more gorgeous offerings from Dawn, they arrived in the post this morning and I just had to get them to you!! These cute Penny Johnson Bears, clear stamps (check out the web site), are coloured, of course, with Inkadinks. We are now thrilled to tell you that Inkadinks have gone global!! Its official, our creative friends across the Pond and Down Under are ordering their Inkdadinks after seeing the fab samples we have here on the Blog - thank you girls for all your hard work!!

Dawn is also giving great advice on how to get the best results with your Inkadinks, using good smooth quality watercolour paper helps such alot with the finished image and getting a professional finish to your cards. All these hints and tips from the professionals make such a difference when you are working with new products. They use the products every day (believe me, being on a design team is a more than full time job - and they all do it for love- how lucky are we)!! and spend hours experimenting on how to get the best finish so that you don't have to spend hours and can get on with making the best possible creations to send to your loved ones!!

Wait until you see our next offering - Dawn has been working with the Silkies and when you see what she has achieved your eyes will 'pop'. I have been brayering with the Silkies and as someone who always gets a 'line', when using a dye ink pad, I have discovered that by using Silkies, I can avoid the line - what a 'ureka'!!!lol!! moment and for my money the finish is a million times more beautiful than a dye based background. Never thought I would say it but it's true!! I will be doing an on-line tutorial showing you how - when I get 5 mins - after the Trade Show, after Glasgow a week later, after Birmingham, after, after, after ..........

So that we can spend more time on the Web Site and give you lots of Tutorials, tips, hints and samples, we will be cutting down on Shows after May. You will still be able to see us at the NEC and locally but we won't be scattering ourselves as far and wide as we have been. As with most things in life you can't do it all and the time has come to make some choices. Also to our huge sadness, Heather has decided that she would like some of her life back, and she won't be joining us at Shows. She is a really busy lady and has put her life on hold for us over the past few years so she would now like to spend more time with her family, so you can't argue with that. We will miss her so much, she has worked really hard as part of the team and we will miss her creative input like crazy as well as having a steady hand on the tiller at shows but all good things have to come to an end eventually. However, every cloud has a silver lining and the good news is that she will still be designing for us - thank goodness, so we can have our creative 'fix', that way.

We are just manic at the moment preparing for the Trade Show at the NEC next week. Everyone is working flat out to prepare for Workshops and demos. There is alot of excitement out there about Silkies and Inkadinks and we want to put on a good show!! This is a really exciting event in the Trade calendar and everyone wants to see what everyone else is up too!! and wish they had that idea first!!! Nothing like a bit of healthy competition to keep everyone gossiping and on their toes!!!!lol!!!! Bring it on!!!!!!

We will let you know if anything exciting happens, lets just hope and pray that the promised snow and even bigger freeze they are predicting doesn't come to pass - keep everything crossed girls!

Happy Crafting

We are so excited because at long last we can introduce you to Kim Reygate who has joined our design team. Kim is one of the most respected people in our industry, her years (sorry Kim !!lol!!), of experience as an Author, at Search Press, Teacher, Demonstator and all round amazing crafter as well as being one of the nicest people around, make her the perfect choice for our talented team. I love her take on the Ollyfants and it gives you the chance to see how someone else uses, Inkadinks for colouring. If you want to catch up with Kim pop in to her blog at www.kimreygate.blogspot.com. You can also see Kim at alot of the Shows around the country, where she demonstrates for various companies, so don't forget to go and say hello!!

Hi Girls

Just to wet your appetite a bit more for the Inkadinks we are featuring another of Dawn's ( www.allpinkgirl.blogspot.com)

fab creations using this little Sarah Kay stamp. As well as colouring the image with the Inkadinks she has also just lightly distressed around the edges of the petals of the punched flowers. It is just so pretty. I love the matting and layering up of all the background papers. The balance of colour is so soft and subtle, lots of people often ask how we would colour in this particular stamp, so I hope this gives you a bit of inspiration.

Happy Crafting!

Inkadinks rule!!lol!! So many of you have been asking about how to use the Inkdadinks and I know you have been looking at Dawn's www.allpinkgirl.blogspot.com. step by step tutorial on her blog. I thought you would also like to see some of the cards on our blog. Dawn has sent me some of her artwork so we can display it at Shows and on the Blog. She makes it look so easy doesn't she! Well it is. As you know Heather demos with the Inkdadinks at the Shows, so if you want to see them used in Glasgow and Birmingham come and see us on the Stand. Personally I was a great fan of the Sunset Set but I have been using the Vintage set alot recently especially for distressing. I love the muted colours and they are just so easy to use with Cut n Dry Foam.
We are also expecting some new Templates in today, so look out for them on the Web Site. I have been using them with the Silkies and the effects are incredible - so watch this space in the next few days.
We are frantically preparing for the Trade Show, Stitches at the Nec and there just aren't enough hours in the day to make all the samples.
Jayne over at Stampasorus has also fallen in love with the Inkadinks and the Silkies, so look out for her take on them, used with her range of cute stamps.
If anyone can suggest any ranges of really soft, muted ranges of background papers, I would be really grateful to know. You would think we saw everything but as time is at a premium at the moment any suggestions would be more than gratefully received.
Our weather has warmed up just slightly here in Dorset and Barney, who has been reclining on a sofa with an injured paw (what's new for a Springer Spaniel)! may have to attend Doggie Weight Watchers as he has put on a pound or two because he hasn't been harrassing the local small mammal population as he normally does. He still looks gorgeous though but as he is 7 years old in March we don't want his middle aged spread getting too much of a hold too soon!
Happy Crafting!

Dawn's Inkadinks

I just had to show you these gorgeous cards from Dawn at www.allpinkgirl.blogspot aren't they absolutely fabulous. Those of you who follow Dawn's blog will know that she uses the Inkadinks all the time. The pink card is a Sugar Nellie stamp and the blue one is a Sarah Kay. I have put these on the blog this week because lots of you have asked us how to use the Inkdadinks, are they easy to use, how do you mix the colours and what do they look like when they have been used on ordinary card - well now you can see. If you want to see lots of different cards using the inks in different ways, call by Dawn's blog. She has done a really great tutorial, it is easy to read and follow and shows how simple and effective they are to use. Quite a few of you have asked about colouring cards and how to get the right balance of colour, looking at Dawn's card will really help. If you analyse what she has done you will see how she uses shades and tones of the same colour for maximum effect. Looking at the construction of the card and taking the card apart in your mind will help. Asking the questions, what papers has she used (check out her blog and she tells you), what main colour theme has she used, what has she used to colour, Inkadinks, of course, which stamp is the focal image and what has she used as accessories. A lot of successful card makers sort of know automatically what works, but that will come when you have made a few. It's like most things after a while it suddenly clicks, and looking at blogs and galleries is a great way to start. It is really hard when you first start out, trying to work your way through what ink is used for what purpose, which papers to use. The people at Exhibitions and on the telly make it look so easy but when you are sitting on your own at home it can be really difficult to find inspiration.

I just wanted to say how lovely it was to meet customers on Saturday who had bought the Silkies from www.joannasheen.co.uk and were so impressed they came to the Show to have a look at some of the samples and of course, bought more!! Great feed back girls, thankyou!

We will be showing more of Dawn's cards using the Inkadinks - so watch this space!

Happy Crafting!

No piccies today girls, for the some reason known only to the computer, the layouts and pictures we have taken for the blog haven't come out as we wanted - how often does that happen!! So, when we are back from the show at Sandown we will address the problem.
However, massive excitement you have got to go onto Dawn Wheeler's blogspot at allpinkgirl. She has done a real easy peasy tutorial on Inkadinks. Lots of her girl have been asking her how she gets such fantastic effects on her cards with the Inkadinks and she decided to give a step by step, simple explanation, which is really helpful. It makes you realise how easy the inks are to use and she gives some helpful hints and tips about how to lighten colour and lift colour out as well, which is fantastic. Once the madness of the Spring Shows is out of the way we hope to do lots of this sort of tutorial on the blog. There is so much we want to do and so little time but we are aware where we fall short.

I did want to say thank you to those of you who emailed about being on the design team, we will get back to you and lots of lots of apologies for not doing so in quicker time!! We have checked out your blogs and we would love to have you on the team, so we haven't forgotten you but we need some time to chat to you. Time is something we never have. Over Christmas and New Year we all had the dreaded swine flu and yes, it has taken all this time to get over it, a couple of us still haven't completely recovered - not as young as we used to be!!
Anyway, the madness of the Show season is now upon us! It is sort of pleasure and pain really. The pleasure is meeting lots of other crafters, the pain is that lots of craft companies now have an increasing problem with stuff being - shall we say - misappropriated by over enthusiastic crafters!! It is so difficult, we all suffer from stuff being stolen from the Stand but last year it reached epidemic levels and is so upsetting. Most people are wonderful and lovely but it is always the few who spoil it for the many. When we ask these ladies 'why', they do it, they say, they can't help it, there is a recession on and that can't afford it, they don't know how it got in their bags (honestly this is absolutely true) - when you ask why have you put those stamps in your bag, they say - I don't know how they got in there - what do you say!!!!? The Federation of Small Businesses has said it will all get worse, due to recession etc so we have to live in hope that they see the error of their ways! However we do want to say an enormous big 'thankyou', to all our wonderful loyal customers - we couldn't do it without you and thank you for all your lovely kind emails, saying the service is great and you got your goods, despite, arctic conditions - we aim to please.
On a much more positive note, we have some delicious new Silky colours in the pipeline which is fantastic news. There is a lovely black, bronze, denim blue, and a wonderful bright red. There will be 8 new colours in all we are just refining the shades. So look out for more news on those in the next month or so.
Talk to you after the Show.
Happy Crafting!

As we are running a course at the Institute of Genealogists on Scrapbooking your Ancestors, we thought it would make a change to show a few Layouts and how you can use the Inkadinks to distress and antique a few pages. The Vintage set of colours are really effective and so quick and easy to use. So armed with a piece of Cut n Dry foam, a spritzer bottle and palette, use of few drops of Ochre dripped into a palette and dab the ink onto the foam. You only need a tiny amount. Drag the ink along the edges of tags and gently sponge onto background material. It works really well on photos, we always use scanned copies so that if a technique doesn't work it doesn't matter too much and you haven't ruined your precious original print. Using the ink in a spritzer bottle and adding a few drops of water (until you get the colour you want), and spritzing the ink onto tags for journalling and adding a 'foxing', effect to age the photos is really effective. Remember always put the photos in a cardboard box to spritz, so you don't spray onto your clothes, soft furnishings, floor etc! The Inkadinks are fantastic for distressing techniques and using Cut N Dry means you can sponge and apply them onto any surface.

Doing a Layout of an Antartic Explorer seems appropriate at the moment with the weather!! All we are missing in our garden is a few Penguins and a Polar Bear or two posing by the pond!!

I don't know about you but I really enjoy Scrapbooking. I know it isn't as popular as Card Making and lots of people tell us, they haven't got time and they aren't into it but I love being surrounded by pictures of my ancestors. I think it is probably something that comes later in life, like Gardening! It really fulfills the creative urges to make a work of art. The satisfaction of collecting and choosing all the bits to go together is very satisfying and for card makers it allows us to put to use all the techniques we have learnt like Rubber Stamping, embossing, printing, creating 'arty', backgrounds and distressing, to name but a few. Everyone has an old shoe box full of old photographs, it seems such a shame not to do something with them and use all the stash we have collected over the years. You will see I have used by Cuttlebug embossing folders in the next blog to add texture and to antique some frames, they look great, I just hope they come out in the photo.

If you want to see the Inkadinks being used to their fullest don't forget to go onto www.allpinkgirlblogspot where my friend Dawn does some amazing cards using the inks. Take a bit of time to look back at her blog and look at some of her backgrounds. When you look into the cards they show some great techniques.

Happy Crafting!