Leanne Ellis Candy #4

Another stunning arty stamp design from Leanne, I am so pleased that you are loving these, they are  amazing and so original and different from all the cute stamps on the market.
I will draw one name from all the sweet comments from those who take the time to speak to me and give this stamp away to someone who will ink her with love.

SECC, well it's over for this year, so many faces and so little time. A huge wave to all the girls I met this past few days and sorry I missed a few, I know you where there but could not find you, it was heaving.
I still have not emptied the car of all my shopping and I am sure that there is a list of things waiting my attention on my desk in the HOS, but as every mother know, when you get back home the house work has not been done its has just piled up in your absence. The house is in desperate need of a squad of fairy's to get it back in order and as much as I wish for them, its not going to happen.
Plus tomorrow is our birthday and my post with be later in the day as I have a few things to sort out first but do come back............ I have no ticks but plenty of treats :)

Hello....

Just a quick note from me, I am in Glasgow and cant post a pic as I don't have my lap top.

I need to clear something up, I am at the SECC but only as a shopper, SUGAR NELLIE do not have a stand, you can find some of our sweet stamps on various stands at the show but I am not working.
I am so sorry that some of you thought SN had a stand and especially to Rachel who spend a lot of the day looking for us. I must also thank her for the sweeties that are keeping me company this evening while I live like a city student and enjoy the high life in Glasgow LOL
I had a lovely day with sugar addicts, the company was great the sandwiches were awful, bring a packed lunch if your heading this way this weekend. I met up with a lot of HOS local customers and expect to see many more on Saturday.
I had a wee chat with Kath and Lorraine on the Fiskars, Dawn was on Imagaination stand and I have spoke to her often on the phone, its a delight to meet people in real life but its also nice to mingle in the crowd and have no one know who you are IYKWIM.
Yes the pressure is on to come back and do a stand but its so much work that until you do it you have no idea how much work it is, I take my hat off to those who do these shows on a regular basis.
If your headed this way, spare a thought and maybe a bar of chocolate to the guy on the LOTV stand who is there by himself and cant even leave the stand to get a coffee or have .............a pee! Maybe best you don't take him any liquids then LOL


Karen

Leanne Ellis candy #3


Morning sugar babes, leaving to drive to Glasgow soon, just have to some house work before disappearing for a few days and leaving DH with the kids.

I will leave you with the third one from this set of six beautiful arty stamps by Leanne Ellis due for release in November.
Mermaids is some thing we have not done before and I wonder what ideas you can come up with for a verse to go with this delightful design, mermaids,sea and shells. I will get my brain in tune while I drive, 4 hrs should be enough thinking time.
If you are so kind to take the time to leave me a comment, I will show my appreciation to those who listen to my mutterings and give one of you this stamp to test out. You know the drill, leave me a little sugar and I will feed you candy :)

How are you all getting on with your SIMPLY SASSY's, this is a loaded question as you know I am going to offer up that amazing prize of the Spellbinder Grand before Christmas. I have more SIMPLY SASSY stamps being released at the beginning of the month and the third set has already been completed.

Variety is the spice of life and here at SUGAR NELLIE we like to shake it up a bit and offer you lots of different artist with clearly different styles. Some sugar addicts collect ranges by artist other just pick and mix. As the valued customer the choice is yours but as we look back at all the artist we have launched into the stamp world in the last three years, I am amazed at the talent that is out there, much of it still to be discovered.
The changes in the choice you have is tremendous, at one point there were only a few stamp companies specialising in cute kids but now I can not even begin to count all the different companies and artist out there.
With so much choice available we appreciate your loyalty to our wee Scottish company and hope to work extra hard over the next few months to bring you more sugar, just the way you like it :)

take care and for the girls who are going to SECC, I will catch up with you all on Thursday.
Karen

Leanne Ellis #2 and candy

Another sunning design from Leanne Ellis, this is the second from a set of six new designs available in November. But if the pennies are tight right now or if winning makes this the sweetest stamps around, leave me a comment and I will give one of these away to one winner from those luvvies who leave me a little sugar.

All six have frames and the more confident crafters amongst you will be able to use these images with or without the frame by masking off parts of the stamp. I just think that these ornate frames are shouting out
to be heat embossed.

I am off to Glasgow tomorrow and hopefully will master scheduled post before then leaving you something sweet while I am away :)
take care
Karen

Celebrate with us

As we turn 3 years old, Sugar Nellie invited you to celebrate along with us at the start of November. We will be bringing you new designs, special birthday edition sets at fantastic value, some very special offers and a few new ideas for you to try out with your sweet Sugar Nellie stamps.
We will also be bringing you news of a  new blog with a weekly challenge, just for the fun of it.
More on those birthday treats later. For today I leave you with a peek at one of the new beautiful art stamps from Leanne Ellis, one of a collection of six stunning stamps that a lot of you have been asking about. I don't like to disappoint so here we have it..........

Going Places



Yes she is, I don't know where she is off to but she's on a roll.......
You liked yesterdays girl didn't you, we have named her Outdoor Adventure and the first one with the girl drawing is called Art from the Heart. So those are three new Active Country Cousins to last you past the holiday season once you have inked up your Christmas Country Cousins, this is such a popular range.

Andie asked who draws them, if I told you I would have to kill you. LOL some artist we don't name, as a small business we had no choice by to use freelance illustrators to start with but as time goes on we prefer to have some lovely artists work behind the scene without "celebratory status", you never know one day we may have a full time artist in residence.
 This way we don't have one person with one style/character we can offer you variety and lots of it. If I had my time over again I would do things different but it worked for us at the time and sometimes we find a talent that we are so excited about that we don't mind giving the artist some positive promotions but only if they are signed exclusively to us, would not want them being head hunted now would we!

Another question was Simply Sassy boys, Julie I can tell you with much excitement that the boys are drawn and will be going off to the factory in the next week or so, giving the DT plenty of time to play with them before release. These are of course cheeky sassy boys with a mischievous twinkle in their eye and a smirk to match.

I have done my challenge card for the bowl, tomorrow I am hoping to have a little crafting time as I have some new stamps to play with,hope you too get a little R & R this weekend.
Karen

Fantastic prize




As always the SUGAR BOWL has one if not the best prizes for a challenge blog in blog land. A set of the new nestabillities and your choice of any 6 Sugar Nellie stamps. The winner is a random number and you have two weeks to join in and complete this sketch, the sketch has been provided by Marlene who is currently cold in France , lets hope all that wine helps keep her warm LOL


It's a simple enough sketch with the theme of boys, I know I know, you like pretty things, girly pinks, lots of flowers and bling, but the point of a challenge is to make you try something outside your box. There are boys/men out there, at a wild guess I would say 50% of the population are male! Some one soon in you family needs you to make them a card so combine the two and get your mojo working.
KIKI


Welcome also to the new sweeties who have started there time on the bowl with this challenge. Good to see the team growing and such amazing talent all in one place, all the samples are inspiring and "cool" you cant call a masculine card beautiful can you?

PAT

I am so glad that the girls remember to watermark their pictures, you would not believe the amount of picture I have on file and to have them watermarked is essential,
PLEASE remember to watermark everything that appear on your blog, especially if its something that can be printed off , especially a stamp image from any company, it is a small thing but it annoys me greatly that some crafters will just print it for free or even print it and sell it! YES I know you will be shocked at that but believe me you would get your eyes opened wide if I were to tell you about the "dark side" of crafting.
But we are all about rainbows and sweet things so lets not go there.

Speaking of sweet things here is another one of the soon to be released Country Cousins. So what do you thing this girl is up to, she's got her walking boots on, a trek in the woods, some orienteering with a map as a back ground, heading off in a new direction, with a compass as an embellishment. Off to camp for the summer or a school trip, these are all the things I have to think about when I choose a design, is it usable, how many uses does it have, will it offer variety and there for good value for  money, one stamp many uses, that's the choices I have to make on a daily basis. Hopefully I get it right more time than I get it wrong LOL

Thank you to the girls who take time to leave me a comment, its good to know I am not speaking to myself most of the time! Also thanks to the regulars who have offered to help me out with the bounty of new designs on my table, your offer is very generous and yes I would like to take some of you up on that, be in touch soon.
take care and stay warm
Karen

I love to draw.........

Yes it was true, once upon a time I loved to draw and when other kids spent there pocket money on sweeties I went for stationary. Art was also the only higher I took at school but I left at 16 so not much time to do any other higher grade subject. I might be able to draw but I am no where near good enough to design for Sugar Nellie, we give you the best we can ;)

I have often said that Sugar Nellie is growing up and here is proof of that, these girls are a little older but just as cute. This one is from the Country Cousins range and will be available soon, I just have so much artwork to show you before the end of the year that I had better start showing them off.

This week you all seen what the DT did with Goose Gander, again from the Country Cousins range for Christmas, our girls did a great job and it's clearly a favourite image amongst them.

Winter has arrived here in Scotland, we have snow in some places, the store has sold out of snowflake punches and I have stocked up fire lighter ready for a long hard winter again.
keep warm, stay safe
Karen

hop skip and jump


Good morning sugar addicts, have your taken a look at the DT's work this morning?
Start with Dena and join the girls as they show case a something sweet this Tuesday.
I have had a quick hop around the blogs and admired their work, always first class crafting.
Thank you girls :)

Sarah has not been able to join in but she has a good reason, hubby has whisked her away for a surprise on the Birthday.
 HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH
from all at the house of sugar.
Karen

Bargain!


Bargains, I love then and am never happy with one or two, no no no, if its a bargain I need a trolley load LOL
So these spiral bound note books were £1 in Asda a while back and when I found them in the class room today I thought its about time I did something with them. They are about 6" square and slightly limited by the coloured stripe, I did not attempt to cover it up just decorate the front. The JOURNAL stamp is real old, not something that sells in the UK as keeping journals is defiantly a USA tradition, we keep diaries.
I kept this as flat as I could knowing it will be given some heavy usage going in and out of bags so no 3D embellishments this time.
The most expensive thing here was the bling, so if you find something similar in the bargain corner and want to do a little project for a craft table or fundraiser, forget the bling but do try the shrink plastic.
I have always had a fear of shrink plastic after the many disasters we had teaching this years ago. But today I gave it another try and realised that I gave up to early and if you keep the heat on it the charm will un curl and lay down flat again, you just need patience, well I don't have much of that even on a good day!

Sorry my photography is rubbish, I know first rule is light, especially day light but its dark here before I even get home from work, and those little pop up tents..............I think the guinea pigs can have that to camp out in next summer!LOL
No animal pic's today, I had a little giggle at all your comments, those are Mark's cats not mine. Anyone who knows me also knows what I think of my cat!

I hear on the grape vine that the DT are up to something, check back tomorrow and see what going on.
take care
Karen

Cats Candy & Challenge card




It's an often mentioned fact in the HOS that, out there in Blog Land there are more cat lovers than crafters!
It's often joked about that the blog needs a picture of rag doll kittens!
So today finds me using Mark's computer at Funkykits and these were on his desktop.
SO how many animal lover are going to leave me a comment, I am surrounded by Mark and Kate who both go gaga over cats and dogs. So prove them wrong , if you would rather cute animal pics on this blog than cards, just let me know I have hens, dogs, guinea pigs, sheep. lambs. cows and calf's, that would be plenty to keep us going  for a while LOL
I could pull out all the stops and show you a pic of Kate's grand puppie, Lady Gaga AKA Lady Crumpet, a tiny wee pug pup.

*shakes head *Give me craft any day!



Here is Juls entry to the bowl, she loves Leanne Ellis and I bet she will be over the moon to see the artwork
I have on my messy desk from Leanne, 12 new stamps designs, 6 beautiful arty designs, her best work yet in my opinion and 6 simpler Alice themed stamps. I have no launch date for these but I just wanted to tease you a little :)

A little candy to come your way Juls, collect at the HOS or email info@funkykits.co.uk

that's all for Sunday, I have earmarked a day at home next week to update the Gallery, I am not sure when the last time we loaded cards into it but we need a few new departments and loads of new creations loaded later this week.
My class went well on Saturday, the store was dead quiet all morning and then it went manic in the afternoon, It was a half decent day weather wise and maybe folks were taking full advantage of a dry sunny but cold day to do other things. I am already hearing customers saying that they are stocking up as when the winter weather comes they will not get out the house, if it's anything like last year one poor customer was snowed in for weeks!
hope you are warm and cozy with some time to craft this weekend.
take care
Karen

slide show



ETA, No its not working, so here is everything loaded into the Gallery



Will this work? It is meant to be a slide show of the Simply Sassy stamps, but if it does not work I will take it down and try again.

Single stamps are now available at Funkykits, I know many of you have fallen in love with these and I can promise you that this range is only going to get better. So we have 5 available now and more at the end of the month, if you intent to collect these we have five girls at the moment which are a dream to colour and a delight to create with.
Simply Sassy competition will be announced after the third set is launched. So that one lucky crafter can have a special present under the tree this Christmas.
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lost........

I am totally lost, if you should find me please return me to the house of sugar!
I can not seem to find my way out of the mountain of paperwork on my desk, we have loads of new artwork, sample sheet of new rubber,boxes of prizes and candy galore that are waiting to be shipped out to some lucky winners, card maker of the year amongst those lucky people. New packaging samples, ideas for competitions as part of our birthday bash, some beautiful card samples and that's on top of my general work at my desk.
All made the more frustration as its the tattie holidays, winter has arrived and I have my kids hanging around my neck and I had planned to be in sunny Florida but just did not get there.:(
The highlight of next week will be Megan doing her Brownie promise.!

I hope that this October holidays sees something more exciting coming your way.

Karen

Dena & more candy

Country Cousins Christmas make a wish

DENA has been busy with her DT work, with 10 stamps to play with in the last drop the DT have there hands full to make 10 sweet creation within a month. That's an average of one SN card every 3 days, I have no idea how they cope with this and many challenges and other DT commitments. Time is a crafters enemy and we never have enough of it. We have way too many new designs arriving soon so to take the pressure off the DT I am looking for a few guests to join in the fun, you must have lots of time on your hands, a great eye for colour and an up to date blog. I have my eye on a few followers and will also be asking the Sweeties over at the bowl to help out.



I am not sure how Dena has done this fancy edge, I think its a MS round the edge punch but having it as the outside edge of this card is stunning. Love it!

*****************************


I would like to send Sheila some candy for her entry in the Sugar Bowl, Sheila has used Maggie with flowers which is now on clearance at Funkykits. Hamish and Maggie have been adopted my many in the years that we have been selling them but Funkykits are trimming down on Sugar to make room for fresh new sweetness. We have not stopped making these for our other wholesale customers as these are still super cute stamp.
take care
Karen


Sweet Candy & classes


This card is entered into the Sugar Bowl Challenge by Gemma, I particularly love the colours used as yellow is a difficult colour to work with, Gemma has done a great job teaming it with brown to make an autumn theme which fits perfect with our woodland fairy digi images. Flowers match perfect as she has punched  and assembled them herself from the patterned paper used in the layers.
Gemma if you would like to email Mark at info@funkykits.co.uk with your address he has a candy bag of rubber stamps for you.


Do you remember Janiels project last year using Annie Stamps designed for us by Leanne Ellis.
I think this is so adorable and must have been so much fun to do, Janiel is a master crafter or should that be mistress? In the HOS we are doing our own version of this DT project, I am sure it will turn out great if it looks anything at all like Janiels JOY.
Hopefully we will have enough wooden blocks to do something similar with BOO, HOME, BABY ans SNOW. I will show you picture's when its finished.

But these are the samples for next Saturdays class using those Penguin stamps from Darcie's. These are the mock up cards made some time back but I was not happy with the kraft card used and needed to find a new supply. This class is full but the sample's will continue to be displayed in store
 along side a little red bucket of Penguin Poop with a matching tag and red gingham ribbon. The "poop" is hard mint sweetie :) I forgot to take it home to photograph last night as I forgot my camera earlier in the day.
Stay warm as winter has arrived in Scotland, take care
Karen

Penguins Workshops and Halloween calling

It's had the weekend off work but as jr was whisked away for a party and sleepover I ended up at the HOS to see that they were coping with back to back workshops on Saturday. The class was held in the morning and afternoon to fit demand and Kate took control of this workshop using Woodware stamps, one of our long term suppliers from the year dot. I have had to come out of retirement* next week to teach a class with Darcie stamps, all sample's were made a long time ago but the search for kraft card has been the hold up.
Penguin's, kraft, black and red, simple but effective, I know its not Sugar Nellie but I will take a pic and post it here in the week. Workshops now include the set of stamps so that you can go home and do it over again. Here is the stamp set I will be using next weekend, picture is of the display board at CHA. These too are sold over on Funkykits, and if you entre code Karen you will get a nice discount off these Darcie stamp and then you can use the samples on the board and what I show you to inspire some winter creations :)


Have any of you attended workshops lately, I know that Christmas is the craftiest time of year  and there are a lot more than cards being made, I personally love the non card projects, show me yours , inspire me by showing off what you have done.

I too have been perusing the new SU catalogue, like all good crafters I can never get enough stash. I particularly like the punches of which I have many thanks to both UK and USA demonstrators, the lovely Liz in Tampa Florida once met me at Whimsadoodle to hand over my goodies, crafters are so willing to go out of there way and help. I must say that while we were there we headed for the beach on the cost and have never ever in my life been so hot as I was standing on the beautiful white beach as my kids went into the see to cool off I stood and melted as I had no swim suit with me. Just the memories is calling me back to FL but try as I might over the last 2 weeks I have not been able to get flights out of Scotland. The traveling is the killer and I have made a few nightmare journeys to the sunshine state and now refuse to take anything other than a direct flight. I know a lot of Scott's who have flown off to the sun this October, might be something to do with us not getting a summer and being in desperate need of some rays.
October to me is Halloween and over here it is getting bigger with Asda clearly showing it's Walmart parental influence in the decor and costumes it stocks. But with Halloween being only second to Christmas in the USA it is huge and no one does it better that Walt himself.

Paula was delighted with her win over on the Sugar Bowl and I hope she has found some time to play with her goodies this weekend, I am off upstairs to try and find time between washing loads to make a card for the challenge too, I give myself 20minuets LOL
Enjoy your weekend, take care

Karen

Candy bags


Challenge 45 is up, join in the Sugar Bowl not only for a chance of winning  the big prize but also this time I am taking a look at all  of the entries and will give a way a few candy bags of sweet Sugar Nellie stamps to any that catch my eye.
And talking about candy here is a wee box that Donalda has made with one of the new Christmas Country Cousins Sweet as Candy, this project allows sweeties to be put in the box and I am sure no child would say no to candy!



Remember to pop over to the bowl and see what Gayle and her Sweeties made to fit this challenge, their work is always inspiring.
My Internet time is limited at the moment, its the only way I can actually get any book work done,
 stay away from the computer it swallows up all your time LOL
take care
Karen

Rainbows

Be bold, color outside the lines.

You colour my world

Sending you a rainbow to brighten up your day

When your day is dull and grey, look out for rainbow's coming your way

Have a colourful birthday

Sending your a piece of art
especially made my me

Which one of these sentiments would you put with this stamp? Elaine has made a beautiful card using Artistic Goddess and Basic Grey papers. I know that MS punch very well and I think Elaine uses distress inks to colour.


Well today I am stopping at home, this house does not run itself and the children are running out of clean clothes. I did take some paper work home from the HOS to do but other than that there is nothing exciting happening.
Pre orders for the set of 6 simply sassy stamps has now closed and numbers have been sent to the factory. 
Single stamps will be available towards the end of the month.

Your are liking our Christmas stamps, those Manga's and Country Cousins are amongst your favourites. 

Tomorrow will see a new challenge over on the bowl, I am going to pic a few of my favourite entries this time and award a spot prize to the maker to celebrate the new girls joining the team. We have such a loyal following over on the blow and with the new Sweeties taking part this challenge it should be a great one to try out for.

Hope that your day is full of colour
take care
Karen

Tuesday tweetings

Good morning Sugar Addicts, I was wondering if you tweet at all?
How many folks actually use Twitter or are you a facebook person?
There are now so many different ways that you can converse these days its difficult to choose.
For now Sugar Nellie is happy blogging, but I would like a make over here but time is always my enemy and until and extra day in the week is invented I better not take on any more.
Yes I have Face book but it's quite private, I think I blether enough on here about the business side of my day that FB is for close friend and family, I say family as its the only way I can keep tab's on my daughters, its amazing the things they let everyone else know about what's going on in their life's but never their Mother!

I paid a visit over to the Challenge blog to see what you have all been making. It will be fun to see what the new Sweetie's come up with for the challenge, I am forever looking out for crafter who chose to play outside the box, what I mean is that fashion dictates a style and it becomes popular and everyone tries it out, but who are the trend setters in the stamping world?
Who do you have on your favourites that inspires you to get the papers, ink and rubber out? Let me know who your favourite is and I can pay them a visit. We have a few big project coming up and I will be needing all my DT and the Sweeties to help out with the many new stamps but I would also like to introduce a guest now and then to share the work load.
What about our past Sugar Bowl Challenge winner, what did you make with your winnings? I would love to show off your creations, we would hate to think that after winning such great prizes you did not use them. Let me know and we can get together and showcase your work.

It's almost our birthday again ..............3 years old, who in rubber stamp years that's middle aged! LOL
So I had better get my thinking cap on and come up with something in the way of a celebration.
That's enough tweeting and chirpin from me today, have a great day girls and keep inking those stamps.

Karen

Monday Mutterings


Yummy cup cakes from Macleans of Forres, all covered in glitter :)
Made for our Saturday demo for sweet toothed crafters.

*whispers* good Monday to you girls, I am sneaking a post in at work today, I am in the store today putting it all back together after a manic demo day on Saturday, Kate has the day off and I have had a busy morning at the counter. Now that there is a wee quiet spell I thing I better remind you that at some point today Funkykits will remove the pre order of SIMPLY SASSY stamps but they will be up again as 5 singles some time next week. Pre orders are just waiting for the rubber to arrive at the HOS and they will be sent out asap.

I see Gayle has announced her new Sweeties, congratulations girls welcome to the family. I look forward to seeing what you bring to the challenges over on the Sugar Bowl Challenge blog.

I will leave you will a few more Simply Sassy cards by our fantastic DT memebers.
take care
Karen



Simply stunning





A little more Simply Sassy cards from Donalda and Judy, I think the DT have done a great job with this batch, even if I did pressure them to do Clean and Simple, they have all turned our Simply stunning.
Pre orders will close on Monday as we wait for the factory to make our sweet rubber and get it out to you asap, we are testing batch two this weekend but it was manic in the HOS today with a demonstration from Erika, we have been busy for days getting ready and I have missed my daily posting on the blog. Just too many balls in the air at the moment!


New sweetie's over on the blow, some girls I know other I will get to know as we all work together to share our sweet Sugar Nellie creations. I hope to meet up with a few of them at the end of the  month in Glasgow at the SECC, any one else going?

Short post today, I am shattered even if I did have the sense to put on  my slippers, it was still a busy and long day. I have so much emails to catch up with that they might have to wait until tomorrow...........oh no I have an all day end of season football tournament to take James to...............at 9.30!
Hope you get to take it easy this weekend after all is that not what you are supposed to do?
Karen

Dear Donalda



Dear Donalda has been busy, these are two beautiful cards she has created as part of her DT work for Sugar Nellie, I don't know if she would call it work as her love of crafting and appreciation of others shines through in everything she makes and each kind comment she leaves on your blogs. One of the first followers of Sugar Nellie, she has been a great support on this rocky road which after three years has seen many changes not only at the House Of Sugar but also in stamping. Stamping is very much back in fashion and has boomed more than any other style of crafting, It did concern me that there was a swing towards pick and stick for a while and you cant switch on the shopping channels without seeing CD roms. But nothing is as satisfying as stamping in your chosen ink and colouring in with your favourite medium. I started with water colour pencils, whisper pens , prisma's, letra set and then copics. There is no doubt that the HOS sells more Letraset than any other and Sugar Nellie and Letraset are a good British mix.

Ooops, back to Donalda's cards, these two feature Simply Sassy stamps which will be available to buy as single stamps later on this month, {OMG its October already} with pre orders being taken now for all six. Remember that Hippie Chick will not be available as a single stamp for a good while. She is FREE when you buy the other five, a limited edition stamp just for you our loyal sugar addicts :)
Donalda has used new nesties with the top card, I see a lot of our DT must have those but I have not seen them in the HOS and boy do we have plenty of those in store, I cant get near my computer some days for the amount of stock that's arriving in the building. what with the general busy time of year and a demo day tomorrow. But we don't have that set! Love the colours used especially the black and teal, sometimes its the classic colour combos that appeal the most but this one is striking. Thank you Donalda, I know your were disappointed to fall behind the team because of mister post man but your cards are lovely.
Our DT, Judy, Sarah, Elaine, Dena and Donalda all have there hands full at this time of the year, when you have a home to run, family to support and a job to do, crafting is  a stress relieve that is badly needed some days. Our team have various other commitments in the craft world and its hard to fit it all in. But in never rains but it pours and we have a lot of designs backing up at the factory ready for release, no more seasonal stamps this year but some yummy new designs which we will have to stagger the release of right into the new year. At least the magazines can get a head start with them working 2/3 months ahead it's difficult to give them brand new releases to work with.

{If you work with a magazine and would like to choose Sugar Nellie to work with in your feature, give us a shout and we can work something out with you. There are so many girls out there working on projects that don't necessarily see a wage packet so the least they can expect is some back up from the companies they promote right?}

With the DT currently working with 10 new stamps for September I am hesitant to send out another 10 for October, just as well there is no rush on with Christmas designs as I would not want our girls to burn and crash. There after all only 30 days in a month and blog posts are a real commitment to keep up to date with.

I am waiting,not so patiently, to hear back from Card Maker of the Year, it must be time for judging soon, I cant wait to see what the top 10 cards they have picked for me to choose from, I know a lot of sugar addicts who entered and of course I don't know who's made what. Blind judging to keep things fare and square ;)

Gayle is still working on choosing new sweeties, it must be like standing in front of a wall of jars trying to pick between cola cubes and sherbet pips LOL I look forward to finding out who she chooses SOON!
I expect it will be someone who has taken part in the challenge blog after all, here at Sugar Nellie loyalty counts for an awful lot in our books. We like to give new blood a chance and always appreciate the support we receive back from you.....................................

..........but there were not a lot of you wanting the BIG prize offered the last day, does that new toy not excite you? As a crafter you know the draw that supplies have on us, those darling little buttons, those beautiful 12" papers that you just admire but dare not cut into, those cute flowers which you know you need, you know how excited we get when we stand in front of a wall of Martha Stewart punches, that you do need every colour of Pro Markers , those nestabilites are a great purchase that you justify to yourself in how many ways you could use them.
Yes I know that only a fellow crafter can understand the draw of craft supplies and toys are no different. As I put this competition details together I need to know you are interested, I have many choices open to me on how to promote and distribute prizes and I thought you would like this one? After all a prize needs to be something you would not usually buy for yourself but something you would love as a gift.
Let me know your thoughts, I am always listening.
Karen