Monday Musings

I had to pick this one from the entries over on the Sugar Bowl challenge, here we have Hamish pulling his sleigh, one of the all time favourites from this range by Scottish illustrator Linda Andreu. This range is on clearance at Funkykits along with others.
Blue, such a popular colour and this card was made by Nicki for the challenge, not only did she enter it in our challenges but also three others, now there is time management for you!. Good luck Nicki and we love your card, lets just hope the weather for sleigh's stays away for a few months more. Today is sunny in Scotland and after a week of rain the farmer is back on his combine, hopefully they will finish the harvest this week as the forecast is for good weather all week, fingers crossed.

I have all sorts on by list of jobs to do  today, Monday is wash day and I have yet to start any. I have been playing with artwork and sending some links to our DT to see what they think, it is hard to keep all the excitement in check but all good things come to those who wait. Planning take for ever these days, I am sure it was a lot easier in the beginning when we did not think so hard about launching things.

We are all ready for the hop on Saturday, we also have a demonstration in the store with lots of special deals for the day if your local pop along. If you cant make it to Elgin, join us for the blog hop, I am sure we can organise some thing sweet for all our loyal sugar addicts too.

Rubber arrived on Friday so there is some cutting to be done, new artwork has gone to the factory and more to follow, its a bank holiday in England and it does for some reason effect our postal service. Other than that its a normal day but if you have an extra day off work, I hope the sun is shining where you are.
take care
Karen

Recipe for all seasons

So what kind of cook are you, Delia or Nigella?

Would you rather plug in your Kenwood mixer or your Cricut machine?

More likely to add a pinch or glitter than baking soda?

Use a rocker blocker than a rolling pin?

Prefer to fold paper rather than pastry?.......................

Lets get together next weekend and try our some of the Recipe's that our fantastic DT have put together. Not only have we got a blog hop planned with our DT we also have some very special guests joining in to show you that it's not just the new stamps that need a little attention at this time of the year but the "golden oldies" are begging to be played with too.

Each hop will take you to a blog full of inspiration and creative goodness, but on Saturday 4th the posting will be a yummy recipe that you can follow to create a delicious card for Christmas. Our girls will share their favourite recipe for a card of their choice which can be used all year around, sketches are not seasonal, you can adapt with the times and turn them around using your own fresh ingredients to fit the time of year. dependant on the time of year there is usually an abundance of new local product that you could incorporate into your recipe or why not clear out those cupboards and use up your supplies before they go past their use by date?

Saturday 4th September

You are all invited to join us next Saturday for our blog hop,

kick starting the Christmas season here at Sugar Nellie.

I do hope you can join us because candy and Christmas go hand in hand

and you would not want to  miss a little sweet treat now would you.

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For the lucky ladies who won candy last time around , be sure to email me your

"anything but a card" creations so we can see what you made.

Please email  info@sugarnellie.com remember to also include a link to your blog.

Wishing you a sweet weekend

Karen

Oh baby boy

Jump on over to the Sugar Bowl and see what prize Gayle and her sweeties have for you this time.

Remember too that Gayle is looking for some fresh talent, it could be you.

 How she found the time to make this super cute baby boy card from Lilians great sketch I do not know.

Yesterday I found the joys of Internet banking, WOW you can look back 7 years, did you know that?

Print off anything you like, (maybe all those lost statement ), without having to pay the bank £10 each!

I also ordered the cup cakes for the demo in store on Saturday 4th :)

And had another brain storming time with a friend,while DS was at football practice. Its good to bounce idea's off someone who has the patients to listen while I change my mind over and over.

 Today I printed off some new

artwork and played with those while sitting for the first time this year in our porch, we did not get many good days this summer. I do prefer ink and rubber to digi, I am sure my image smudged when coloured maybe I need a super dooper printer, no thats not happening.

So watch out sugar addict, Gayle wants more sweeties and I am looking for someone who can do CAS,

 is your blog looking good enough to visit?

Get the crunchies out its Friday!

Karen

Lot of tears

 For Megans 8th birthday she wanted a pet so I gave in after lots of naggin and added two guinea pigs to the family. Nice new des res, two up two down with fancy removable clean up tray. So they settled in well much to the torment of our youngest farm collie, who try as she might could not chew all the way into this new hutch but yesterday she managed to tip the hutch over!
We only found one guinea pig and spent the rest of the night and a few trips in the dark back to the hutch to see if Ginny has come out of hiding from the 7ft hedge that runs around our garden. Never been seen, no sounds of movement and no squeeking.................................we will never know what happened to Ginny, maybe its best that way.
It is very important for children to have pets, they learn lots but most important they learn about death at a young age, morbid I know but to deal with this when they are young will condition them for other sad times.

On a farm, births and deaths as as certain as the rain, and my children were well aware of this from the minuet they can walk. One childminder once had to deal with the view in front of our window of a field of cows giving each other piggy backs, on telling our girls what was happening she was quickly corrected  "Don't be silly Lorna, the bulls putting babies in that cows tummy!"................bless their little lace socks! With lambing happening each and every year the girls also used this in their imaginary play, giving birth to your dolly at age three was a common occurrence under our dining room table, when I say three I am sure Katie was still in nappies and Debbie was giving the orders "push Katie push". LOL.(Oh how to  embarrass your daughters in blog land but then again  it could be worse I could post of facebook!)

 Yes living on a farm is good fun when your a small child but devastating when your a teen and have no transport off the farm when all your mates are playing on the streets in town, as a parent I have to disagree with the teen, to shelter you child from "hanging about the streets" for as long as you can is a good thing because they all grow up far too fast and as a teen, they are very much under pressure to fit in with the crowd and follow the leaders............  I just want to have them play with their dolls under the table again!

Time to move, I'm off to town to hang about the streets and see if I can find some exciting trouble today. The bakers and butcher and then the bank, yes it's going to be an exciting day for me.* rolls eyes*
Hope you have fun too.

Karen

Perfect little box

Oh just think of that little baby boy that you need to buy a pressie for, well everyone has so much of everything now a days, its hard to think what to give that is original and will be appreciated.

This had decorated keepsake box can be personalised as needed and has been lovingly crafted by

Judy and you can find it in her folksy shop she also has an etsy store

She has used one of our stamps designed by Kathy Hare who has also opened a new etsy store.

Diane has always had one called Duda Daze

Now I can't yet give you a link to the artist behind Simply Sassy but I will as soon as I can. ;)

{Mark has chosen his lines to discontinue, these will be going on clearance sale by the end of the week and he suggests that the new range goes on pre order as he was blown away by these and does not want to underestimate the demand, he also ordered new Country Cousins Christmas and Activity ranges.}

So much rubber so little time!

                                                                        Karen

I made up my mind...maybe

Firstly Happy 19th Birthday Katie xox

Girls, thanks so much for your comment, over 60 of you took the time to guide me on this. Most of you wanted Angel Eyes but there is already a stamp line out there so we will not be stamping on toes.
Sassy designs was my favourite but after googling it, its too over used in lots of trades .
So many of you came up with other ideas and I did play with them in my head too. But I was  going to stick with Just Sassy as a lot of you chose that one. Once you see these stamps and fall in love with them it will not matter so much what they are called. Next step is online promotions followed by packaging and logo's. Oh I am learning as I go so be gentle with me as I explore the mind field which is DTP.

I would like to give the blog a make over as we approach our birthday and especially as we are growing up a little each year. If you have found a fab blog template site, please share, I will now go an spend the rest of the afternoon looking at options for a new look.

And for those of you who asked, yesterdays comments do come under market research and is top secret for my eyes only, thanks again for all your lovely comments, encouragement and suggestions , they truly are appreciated.
Shout out to Cheri who made very valid points about DT, I try my best to pick fresh new talent but its not long before they are asked to take part in other DT's,  I really appreciate my team , they are amazingly talented and I am only too happy to see them move on to other things, it allows me to bring some one new to the table and hopefully with a new style too. I always say if  your DT work is a chore move on, this is a hobby not a job, if its not fun don't do it.
Cathy, its a standing joke with my friends that my tongue will not work around sassafras, that paper brand was a nightmare for me LOL, its a word we don't know well in UK.

I had settled on Just Sassy, its grown up enough but then I remember that hopefully before the end of this year we have a completely new range coming which is amazingly artistic and its label is Simply Adorable, so I think we should call these Simply Sassy. Decision made, lets move on and think about our new Christmas stamps again.

New Christmas stamps are few and far between in the HOS, we thought that you would rather have more stamps with a longer shelf life and have limited the seasonal ones this year, we still have some great stamps for the festive season from last year when they arrived a little later than planned.

I have to go now, into town to show all our new artwork to Mark at Funkykits and see what he thinks of it all, our rubber factory is backed up out the door  with all the work they do for so many rubber stamp companies that delivery is taking 2/3 weeks at the moment, not good but at this time of the year our trade goes into over time, but at least it will go quiet in November and December when all other retailers are
running around like mad things. Oh the joys of the holiday season.

Enjoy your day and again , thanks girls for all your advice and encouragement, it means a lot.

Karen

A little help from my friends.....

I am struggling with the choices I have for a new name for the stamps by the next big artist.  If you have loved what Sugar Nellie has done in the world of stamping in the last three years, you are going to want a seat on the bus for this next stop.
 If you have loved all our cute children's stamps, fallen in love with our adorable ranges from  illustrators, you will know that we brought you these artist before they were known in the craft world and that our talent at spotting up and coming artist has been our strongest qualification, trust me you need a seat at the front, you hear what I am saying?

As hard as it is for us to keep our new artist a secret, I am just itchin to share but sadly no, I need to do this properly. Contacts are signed, art work is expected this week and by the time you see them I will have loads off at the factory anticipating that these are what is missing "out there". The feedback from all those who have had a little peek is very encouraging and everyone is excited to see this new range come out in late September. I am excited to launch a new name into the craft world and watch where it takes her.

We want to offer you stamps which take you beyond cute, my tag line for this range will be

Sugar Nellie is growing up....

The one word which sums these stamps up is SASSY, when I looked it up in the dictionary there were many  words which were spot on. Characters are aged between 10 -30 with a wide selection of different looks, not one character in different poses, all different character in a style that is going to be this artist trade mark.
The other word I have to play with is EYES as these are the artists focal point, beautiful eyes which are so expressive and just make this artwork stand out from the rest, we are sure that the quality and variety will make our sugar addicts very  very happy.

So given these two words I have to play with I am down to a few choices, (open to any more suggestions please)

Angel Eyes
Sassy Designs
Just Sassy

Now I know that only the DT have seen these, but having given you the best description I can without giving too much away, which of those three names appeals to you? I still have a few days to make up my mind before new packaging and promotions kick in, magazine submissions and blog hops and guest DT are arranged.
That is why I need a little help from my friends, let me know your thoughts and I will take them all on board.

Mark is back from holidays on Tuesdays and Funkykits will be seeing and placing their first order for this new range as well as doing a little spring cleaning to make room for them. The are tight for space in his little corner of the HOS as they already have the new Christmas stamps which you can all see at the "recipe for all seasons" blog hop on Saturday 4th September. There are some guest joining our DT to showcase other popular Christmas stamps that we have including Manga, Mary Hall, Diane Duda and Leanne Ellis. So much sweet rubber in one place and FIVE new Christmas stamps from us this year.
Take care.
Karen

Something different

These are just adorable, print fold and make, Megan is just going to have so much fun making these!

I did buy 3 sets, bunny, owl and chic's, well I ain't going to get much other shopping today.

harvest has started and the boys will not be seen again until its  finished or it rains. Sometimes hunger makes them phone for supplies in the field.

Pop over to my favorite shopping place ETSY and visit this this store .

Come back and tell me which ones took your fancy as I am very tempted by the others but better try these three out first :)

Hope you day is full of special surprises and a gentle hug to those who are in

my thought today, you know who you are.

Karen

Card Maker of the Year

Get your stash at the ready, because our card making competition is back for its sixth year, and we couldn’t be more excited!
This year there are 15 different categories to enter, and each is offering an amazing £400 worth of prizes. That’s an incredible £6,000 worth of card making goodies up for grabs across all categories! The first prize winner in each category will receive £200 worth of gorgeous prizes, with second place scooping £150 worth and third place winning £50 of fabulous craft goodies.
The overall winner will be the person who wins the most categories, and this talented designer will be crowned the Card Maker of the Year 2010. So what are you waiting for?
How to enter
To enter, simply choose a category,(Sugar Nellie sounds good to me) make a card using a product from that category’s range and send it in with a completed entry form (or a photocopy) found here. You can enter as many times as you like and in as many categories as you like.

Because of the volume of entries, unfortunately we are unable to return any cards. However, if you would like us to donate your card to charity, tick the box on the entry form. The closing date is 14 September 2010, so start making your cards today. Good luck!

Send in to win!

Don't forget to include an entry form with each entry. Download an entry form here. If you want to donate your card to charity, please tick the box on the entry form, include an envelope and please don't write on the card. Send in your entries by 14 September 2010 to:

Name of the category, Card Maker of the Year 2010, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN
 
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More info and small print here. Also all the sponsors, we are only one of many.
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I have been asked by many or you, some who have my email too, which stamps are retiring. I do not know yet, we make stamps to order and the next order from Funkykits will tell us more, it is possible that we will continue to offer these designs for a while longer to our small selection of other wholesale customers but with Funkykits currently holding the only licenced to sell Sugar Nellie stamps online, they are our biggest customer. I will let you know as soon as they tell us at our monthly meeting but I am sure that they will be sending all their customers a news letter too.
Another day for me working from home, now that the schools are back  my office space is nice and quiet.
Hope you too have a peaceful day.
Karen

I am so sick .........

...that I can not take advantage of this offer, 100 sheets for $12/£8, even when I fill my basket with all the yummy papers, embellishments and flowers, the postage to UK is more than my spend, when it lands here we have also to pay tax and handling.................no longer a bargain :(

But if you are in USA and would like what must be the best bargains around from all the top brands, try shopping here and even better
Free Shipping on orders over $75 to lower 48 US states! You girls have it sooooooooo good.

I know that times are hard, business are closing all over the world, craft is a hobby and classed as a luxury spend and these are the buys that go first when things are tight. And I am sure like almost every crafter you have enough of everything to see you craft for some time, but we cant create without inspiration can we? And most inspirations comes in the form of yummy new supplies.

After yesterdays post I was driving to the HOS and on the radio they were playing Angel Eyes and that is my new favourite name for our new range.................today. Because as it was pointed out, there are boys, nice boys too, so Sassy Girls does not work. These new stamps are not seasonal, they will sit perfect under you Christmas tree and give you something new and exciting to colour in the new year, they have a long shelf life and appeal to a wider customer type. Which lead me to think that having been in this trade for 10 years now I see a lot of different types of crafter.

A+  Those who have a blog and follow fashion, making complex creations which take a lot of time, this is still their hobby but they put in more hours that a full time job but without the pay. They make cards for satisfaction and pleasure, with no use for the card at the end of the day and sell their makes when they can.Wonderfully talented and worthy of so much more than comments on their blog but paid for positions in this industry are few and far between because there are so many crafters  willing to do things for free that business need not pay designers, this trade is unlike any other that I have been involved with. Customers and companies have a very close connection, some business share a lot of personal info with the customer and there is sense of knowing each other especially via blog post.

B.  Those for whom this is a hobby they do in their spare time, they make cards for someone in mind. This is the majority of crafters and having studied all the top fashion stamps I find myself confident that the new range will fill a gap, what stamp to you use for a teenager, a student or your work college, what about those yummy mummies of your girlfriends. Do you stamp a cute and furry or an adorable small child on the card you are making for them?

C.  Then there are ladies who buy buy buy, it may sit in a box under the bed or a supper dooper craft space but it's more to be admired than played with!

Which one are you? Of course you will not all fit into one of those three craft types but I am sure you too know where I am coming from here. We are all guilty of thinking about things more than doing them, but hey that's life, I have been "thinking" about joining the gym and loosing weight for over a year now!LOL

Now if I just switch off this computer I might find the time to do something today.
Keep busy and take care.
Karen

Searching........

Searching illustrated design by Kathy Hare, beautiful card by Dena.

Searching searching, surfing and searching ...................I am always looking for new undiscovered talent.
It has given me great pleasure over the past 3 years to invite SAHM's to illustrate for Sugar Nellie. I too was a WAHM (work at home mum) and it was my only escape from watching kids TV and nursery school runs. I still put in more hours at home than I do in the House Of Sugar and with a manic house full of children, pets, sales men and farmers, sometimes I "need" to go to the office if you know what I mean.
Sugar Nellie was a very small business which came about purely by chance and a lot of lucky, we were in the right place at the right time.
The boom in cute children's stamps started in Sweden before taking over the world of stamping. At one point there were on a few companies who specialised in cute kids but now I can not even count them  as there are so many the market is beyond saturated.
Digi has opened up a new format for stampers but clip art has been around for ever, the instant fix is good but nothing is better than inking and stamping. Which ever format you choose, quality of artwork counts more than format.
Things change very fast in our world, craft is now very much influenced by fashion and up to the minuet trends. Something can be popular for such a short time that it is scary to watch the trends come and go. The Big Guys, have their own style and do not follow the trends as much but stick to what they know works well for them, they are committed to be here next year and do not want to fall foul of fashion trends.

I have no formal training in this field, I was a crafter just like you and my inexperience and trust has no doubt caused a few issues, but my instinct has proven to be my best tool in this business.
Sugar Nellie is still a very small business, with no employees and just a few hours on the computer a week, I manage it the best I can. Cutting up rubber and packing it is where the time is spent and even then there are weeks where we have no rubber deliveries at all.
 It is very often the case that the business you see online is in fact nothing like reality, it cost very little to have an all singing and dancing web site but work it from a kitchen table. I myself have been surprised to see the real business behind a web site in the past and never fall into the trap of judging a business by its web site , that's my new take on "judging a book by its cover".

The standard of acceptable artwork for stamps has changed much in the last 3 years, customers are far more fussy now about which stamps they work with, its a reflection of themselves what stamps they use on their cards and with everyone watching what they spend it is important the the customer feels that they received the best illustrations to work with and they have an amazing amount of companies to choose from. The customers is King or in this case Queen.

The best part of my "job" is the excitement of launching a new range, some artist we name others we don't but I have found what I have been looking for and am so excited about it, its been a long time and  lot of searching but in the true words of a song "I have found what I'm looking for".
It will be a delight to launch our new artist in late September and watch as you all fall in love with her images, watch also as her etsy shop becomes busy and no doubt other opportunities will come her way. And yes before you ask she does draw boys LOL! i am thinking about lots of ways to promote this range and the artist, in the past we have always used magazines as a launching pad to get the new stamps seen, the web site and our DT. This new range may see the need to increase our DT as we will again have a regular supply of new designs to tempt you with. But first I have to come up with a name, today I am thinking Sassy Girls but tomorrow I might have changed my mind again.

But as one door opens another closes, Sugar Nellie stamps are sold online by Funkykits, our catalogue is now full of 3 years worth of stamps and it's time to let some of our older stamps retire, they have done their job but its time to make room for the new and out with the old. Funkykits will be reducing selected ranges in the near future, watch out for a bargain.

But for now its goodbye from me and I hope that today the sun shines on you.

Karen

Cute idea.....

An adorable card from Judy using the Worried stamps from Kathy Hare.

My question to you is do you stitch on your cards, I see a lot of stitching and wonder if I sould dig out the sewing machine and join in? I am not usually one for so many layers, CAS, clean and simple is my style, time is always against me.

I have been surfing again * rolls eyes* and when I googled for detail on something I was amazed to find I was reading a tutorial by a crafter not 20 miles form me! What a small world indeed.
Domino's with a stamped image attached, partially, and glazed. This is on my to do list, wow that list is getting too long.Here you will find the link and it would be interesting to see what you make of it before I get around to trying it out. If you google images for Domino pendant, you will see some amazing pieces of art which I do not like to copy in case I upset someone.

Another point I keep hearing myself repeat in the store is, "stock up on stationary goods now while the supermarkets are selling them, cheap as chips!" I have a cupboard full of goodies, packets of crayons, pens, note books with hard covers, post it notes etc, which I am sure I will think of something to do with them when the time comes. If I do I will be sure to share with you all here on the blog.

New Christmas Mangas have arrived in the HOUSE OF SUGAR so just a little cutting and packing to do before these are launched at the same time as we have our "recipe for all seasons" blog hop.

This is the final project for Janiel as she is moving on from the DT to hopefully bigger and better things, we will miss you Janiel but a lady as talented as you will always be in demand in the craft world and we are honoured to have had you as part of our team for the past year.

take care

Karen

Monday mutterings

Good morning girls, we had a really nice day weather wise yesterday, I hope that you too seen some sunshine over the weekend. I did a little colouring in at a crop in Hopeman with a few other crafty girls, show you those later, my kids went fishing and caught nothing off the pier at Lossiemouth and we added two Guinea Pigs to our family. School goes back tomorrow and I am looking forward to having some sense of control over my days again.

Today I am going to remind you of TWO things today,
firstly the new challenge over on the SUGAR BOWL,
you can see the sketch up above and a card made by Elaine, I just love little Annie and hanging on the moon is so sweet, one of our favourite stamps from this range illustrated by Leanne Ellis. All our sweeties have done a great job yet again in supporting Gayle as she runs our very own challenge blog. The prize is always very generous as we don't generally sponsor any other challenges, allowing us to give you a prize worth trying for.

Secondly, Card Maker Of The Year, your entries need to be in by the 14th September so we are counting down now and time is never in our favour. I know you don't like to part with your lovely cards but you never know what doors this competition could open for you, go on give it a try, it will only take one card and I am sure you would love the excuse to sit down and craft. :)

Our Christmas blog hop is planned for the 4th September where we will show you some yummy card made with Sugar Nellie stamps old and new. A little more on that later.

Today I am back working in the store, so I had better get off this computer and do some work, hope that you all have a good week and for those of you who  have school going back this week, will it be tears of joy?

Karen

Oh No Friday 13th!

Ok I have spent quite enough time trying to get the random generator to appear here with the winning numbers.I give up *throws hand in air*
Your are just going to have to trust me on this one............

Christmas candy Winners
#1 Honey = 14
#2 Santa = 64
#3 Snowman = 9
#4 Pet friendly =13
#5 Winter Wonderland =29
#6 Leanne Ellis Annie = 50
#7 New Manga set = 72

I have no idea who has one what, I hope that the candy was shared around fairly and I look forward to sending out your prize and seeing what you all make with it. email info@funkykits.co.uk and Mark will send out your candy, we thank you all for taking part and hope that the ideas that follow will inspire you to do a little something new with your rubber. So many possibilities, so little time. :)

Hope you have a good weekend, we have taken down the umbrella's here in Scotland, the men are busy on the farm trying to get the silage cut, wrapped and out of the fields before it rains again.

We are expecting a new addition to the family this weekend, my youngest Megan is 8 on Saturday and has been begging for a pet, I caved in the end, the disadvantage of being an older mother I just don't have the energy to argue with them. We had thought a Netherland Dwarf rabbit would be a good choice but can not find one anywhere local. So she settled for a Guinea pig, the only ones I can find are at Pets at Home but the member of staff who served us in our local branch was no brighter than the animal's *rolls eyes* I do not think I would choose to go back there, but I may have no choice.
Mark at Funkykits just doubled his family by adding  2 more rag doll kittens to the 2 he already has.
We are all taking to the animals this week in the HOS, move over Dr Doolittle!

have a great weekend and congratulations to the winners, Friday the 13th was lucky for you :)

Karen

Final candy #7

One week of Christmas candy, this being the final day, so therefor the biggest prize. Winners listed tomorrow, Friday.

No picture today because these new stamps are still under wraps, top secret until our Christmas blog hop our DT already have them and are busy creating a treat for you.

You will receive 4  new CHRISTMAS MANGA and I can assure you that you will want these for definite :)
Again, don't enter unless you are prepared to show off your creations using these stamps, anything but a card please, think up some ideas and get your creative juices flowing. You will be show cased here on this blog sometime in the near future.

Leanne Ellis candy #6

Today's candy is little Miss Annie sitting  on top of a special gift for you.

Leanne Ellis has designed a variety of stamps for us but this cute character of Annie is one of my favourites

If you lovely Janiel's project lst week, you might need to add this one to your collection.

Jump right on down to the bottom of this post and put in your entry, good luck.

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Random things I do with my time.

google is my gateway to everything................

today I googled images with some very surprising results
gorjuss girls 24,400
sugar nellie 585,000
Diane Duda 102,000
Leanne Ellis 84,800

last night I googles origami and it took me in the end to this site. Need to try out some of those flowers :)

So the best way to waste a few hours or even a  day is to surf!

What else is a girls to do is this weather? We have rain, rain and more rain, umbrellas required and don't forget your wellies if your any where near us here in Scotland. Needless to say that DH the farmer can't do anything in this weather but then again he's house bound due to "back problems" but you don't want to hear all about that!

 So not only are the kids in the house today but DH too, great joy, cant even send them out to the garden. I am sure I have some painting by numbers, that could keep them happy for about 10 minuets! Oh happy days, school goes back next week and along with many parents we cant wait.

BUT then again there are those little innocent darlings who will be going to school for the first time, Yes that's Ava too, I am sure Gayle will be shedding a tear (this year) when school starts. Oh bless them all, once they are in school , watch out, it amazes me the things they come home with once they are subjected to all that goes on in the school, like little sponges they absorb everything!

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Winter candy #5

From our own HOME GROWN range of rubber stamp designs comes this cutie pie, Winter Wonderland

can be stamped with or without the robin if it was out of season. There was a few girls chatting about many of the stamps being so versatile for all season just by the colours you choose to work with.

We have one stamp to give away to a crafter who is happy to do a little project with it once you receive you prize and show off what you made her on this blog.

Pet friendly candy #4

Hello stampers, we it's clear that everyone is thinking Christmas. I am taking my turn in the store

today and all things Christmas is on crafters shopping lists.

With the season upon us for mass productions of cards and gifts, Mark has put all the Christmas stock at Funkykits in one place, here. Plenty of stamp ranges to be found not just Sugar Nellies so get a head start and start stamping up you seasonal stamps.

This little one is designed for us by Mary Hall and would suit all those pet lovers out there.

A topper for a pets stocking or bag of doggie treats perhaps, or maybe even a card!

Put your thinking caps on and join in the fun, you know what to do.....

Snowman candy #3

Picking one stamp from Diane's stamp range was hard but in keeping with the Christmas theme, here we have one of her whimsical characters with a snowman which I think is is a good choice.

There are so many snowman themed project out there, from snowman's poop to soup. A little bag full of sweet stuff, a poem and and tag is all you need for a great wee gift idea.

Santa candy #2

This is a fantastic Father Christmas card made by Marlene, Santa is from our

Home Grown range

There is nothing shouts Christmas as much as the man in a red suit. What project would you have in mind for this stamp? Count down calender or candle? Christmas wish list or gift tags..............

What do you think would look best for his beard, puff or glitter?

Remember only enter if you are willing to do a project for us here on this blog.

Nothing as sweet as Honey

Christmas Honey by Elisabeth Bell is our first Christmas stamp to be given away this week.

So what do you think you would do with Honey if you won her, any little girls need a Christmas card from you this year, Special Granddaughter, Little Angel, to a special little girl?

Or is she just so cute that it would be a pleasure to colour her?

You know the drill and remember that who ever wins this has to show us a project other than a card :)

made by you

Here is a wonderfully colourful card from Kate T

and another fantastic card from Kiti

These two cards are both entered into the Sugar Bowl challenge 

and were both stamped with designs by Diane Duda

The Sugar Bowl is run by Gayle and her amazing "sweeties" who each two weeks put a challenge together and show you their take on the sketch etc. Jump on over and join in, its a realy easy challenge this time and the prize is so sweet too. 

I notice that Judy has started her Christmas cards with this little darling

This is Pip, isn't he adorable, he was drawn for us by Elisabeth Bell back in 2008

but is so cute he is still very much loved by stampers. More sweet SN cards from Judy here

Now you all know that there are many many challenge blogs out there and after doing yesterdays post I want to see more "projects", its getting to that time of year when some of you will have to do craft tables either for yourself or fundraisers. Brownies and youth groups too all craft for Christmas and I would like to see ideas that can be adapted to suit our sweet stamps. You know I like to involve you as much as I can.

I will start tomorrow with a

Christmas stamp a day give away

 but this time I want the winner to do a project with their winnings and it is going to be posted on here for all to see. No cards allowed!

so until tomorrow, take care and I am off out for coffee and cake with a friend ;)

Karen

Great JOY

This is a stunning project done by Janiel using Annie stamps designed by Leanne Ellis , find more picture here on Janiels blog.

I don't really have a DIY man in my house "rolls eyes along with anyone who know Cameron" so when I found these from one of our suppliers I thought that I could re work Janiels great project and do it a little different.

So I ordered, JOY, BOO, BABY and SNOW, we might make these into class project once we see how they turn out but if I had some wooden blocks that would be easier, any ideas where to find those?

With only a few weeks until we are full on into Christmas we have a lot of ladies waiting for classes in our store, so with that in mind we could bring then or others to you here online, is it something you would be interested in or is there enough free ideas on the www, what would make you actually try something out. I believe that there are more than enough challenge blogs, can you turn you paper crafting skills to home decor items?

 I love all the other things you can make with your skills and I am more likely to do something decorative than a card, in Ellon we had a box or toffee and a candle decorated ( I realy should have taken photos), we also did make and takes with diaper fold pocket, calender and note pad. I love little things like that and will Christmas only how many days away? I know I will never get everything done that I want to. I even had a thought of having a little craft stall in the store with ready made craft items for sale

 as not eveyone has time and crafty folks love to give crafty gifts dont they? :)

take care

Karen

Away with the fairies

Janny went to CHA, lucky girl and we have not heard back from her yet, I am hoping she has found some yummy new things to share with us. She did find time to do this beautiful colour combo with the new Woodland Fairy stamp and its is adorable, I love it.

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Thanks to Erika and Kate for working so hard in Ellon yesterday, thanks to Fiona for inviting us and for making sure we had an audience. Thanks to all the ladies who attended and enjoyed their craft day. Thanks to the Station Hotel in Ellon for supplying the venue.

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So its back to the HOS tomorrow to tidy it all away and get on with the next thing, bookwork, well that never goes away or is up to date, Halloween and Christmas will be our priority in the store with Christmas in full swing by September we have August to put up our Christmas decorations.

Sugar Nellie all ready have some Christmas designs ready to go and we are looking at all that's new from CHA. Spellbinders are already on order and of course MS punches, but for now my shopping list is not long.

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This week we hope to test drive the new Aqua markers and show you our findings.

Pick some guest designers to help on our August blog hop.

Decide on which Christmas paper we will promote this season.

Make up some samples.....................

and do bookwork!

Hope you find some crafting time this week and are enjoying the bank holiday if you are off work today.

take care

Karen