New Molly Blooms Mag - a little review

 Yesterday at stamping club, which was a Molly Blooms day, the ladies wanted to know if this was worth the investment - so I thought I would give it a little review.

The magazine itself is printed on nice quailty paper with lovely photographs and layout.

Its written in an easy to read style and the projects are sweet and inviting.

As a crafter - there are a number of other things you may need to buy to complete all the projects but most of them can be adapted to suit your own needs and supplies.

The free papers are beautiful colours - similar in quality to those you would receive as a freebie in magazines but are matt and not shiny which makes a big difference to applying your ink to distress them.

Personally I felt the Christmas issue was a little more exciting but there again thats possibly because I love Christmas so get excited by it ! 

 The ribbons and buttons match the papers beautifully.  A little less I think than the last issue but still plenty for quite a few projects.

 The stamps are lovely. Some wonderful sentiments stamps and decorative features. Quite a lot of the other MB stamps are used throughout the mag too which is good to inspire you if you have invested in them - some of the older designs also feature which I like very much.

Comparing this magazine with other companies that bring out similar - this one wins everytime. Step by step projects work wonderfully for crafters and being able to put your own spin on the designers creation is a bonus. I am not a fan of mags that just show lots of pictures and not much how to - we crafters like to learn how we can create similar too.

What could improve it? I would like to see some copic step by steps of how Clare gets her amazing colour results - some guidance on the colours to use to match with the papers may help and also where to buy similar papers for once you have used these up.

This said I still give the Mag 10/10 for quality and projects.

 You all know I love my Mollies - and I have one or two ******cough cough

One of the things I love about them is they come with a ready coloured packet so you can see just where the shading needs to be - perfect for a lazy crafter like me.  So I keep my packets in a small photo album - when I colour I just go to the page where the packet is stored and follow the shading using whatever colours iIhave chosen.  This album holds all the smaller Mollies and Georges

 Lika so

 and my bigger ones that would not fit in the 6x4" size go in this one

Which holds 7x5".

Now the crafters dream would be if Clare designed something similar which held the stamp too ! my stamps are all stored in collections in the cases you buy from poundland - you know the A4 box/ folder things - works perfectly !

Hope you like the little review. Obviously all views expressed here are my own and in no way connected with the magazine or designer (though I admire her very much !)

Thanks for stopping by today x

Janet

Showing you the inside

 So you have seen the front cover - right.

 here is inside - pull the ribbon on the right

 and Steam train George appears......

pull a little more and he is skateboarding in the park !

Then just to strenghen and tidy up the back here is some left over papers to finish off .

This was so much fun to make and such a break from scrapbooking.

I have a handout with all the instructions if you would like try at home just email me on clarkyj44@gmail.com I will send them on xx Please leave me a comment here too so i know who you are in Blogland x

Happy Summer holidays to all my stamping club pals - have a great summer and be ready to learn more new stuff in the Autumn xxx

Take care

Janet

Last Stamping club of the summer.

I love my stamping club.  The ladies are all such fab people - eager to learn a "new to them" technique whilst chatting and teasing each other along the way.

One thing I learned fast is they love Molly Blooms.  Thats good because so do I.  I could do a Molly project each session but I try to stick to one a term so we learn lots of other projects too.

You may remember I did a class with Clare Rowlands back in 2011 and made a waterfall card.  Well I wanted to do waterfalls with the ladies so played around with the idea (if I admit to not being able to find the original would you mind? Therefore I had to work from scratch !). I wanted the waterfall to work from the side so the recipient could open the card - pull the tab and be wowed by the scenes in front of them.  I started off with 4 tabs - you know as waterfalls tend to have but downsized to 3 so the scenes inside were of a sizable nature.

I will show you the insides tomorrow as I am keeping them a surprise for the ladies too !

Hope you like my end of summer term project!

Thanks for stopping by today

xxxxxx

Janet x 

Creative moments - Anything but a card

 Which is indeed what has taken over every waking crafty moment - scrapbooking !

This has to be one of my easiest pages and even though I was not on this day out - the memories came flooding back about my boys at this age - when we were a 2 child family awaiting completion with the birth of our Megs.

 This is one of the pages I did first for my SILs scrapbook but it may actally miss being in the final shortlist.

Papers I have had forever - awaiting a project to use them on - they are perfect for this LO. They are of course by the fab Basic Grey.

If you had not guessed they were having their picnic at the Falconary centre about 15 miles away when a red kite joined them for lunch !

Thats my bro in the pics and our Tom and James as littlies - a lovely page to do.

So my teamies have been busy making anything but a card and have some fab inspiration to share with you if you would like to stop by here

Have a fab day folks - i am off to pick up my Molly Blooms mag - can't wait for some Molly and George inspiration xxx

Janet

A few commissions lately............

Sorry for the rubbish pics - these have now gone off to their recipients !

Commissions, as you all probably know too, can be tricky.  The customer has some wild ideas sometimes as to what can be achieved on cards - however my brief for all 3 of these were very clear and achievable.

 This first one was for an autistic 4 year old little girl to give her Grandad.  Her special name for him being Dandad.  I didnt want to do this too old or too cute and once I had finished it I was hoping it was just right.  Thankfully the customer was thrilled with it - especially as I have personalised the inside too.

 The next two were for the same Grandma - the brif was the wording, for a boy and with a teddy -not too cute. This is a craftwork cards teddy stamp which worked beautifully being coloured with my beloved distress pens.

and this card was a brief of an elephant, the wording, some pink but not all.

The woodare patchwork elephant is perfect for this sort of card and reviewing them for this post I have realised I have used Craftwork cards papers or stamps on all 3!

I sent photos of the cards for viewing before collection and thankfully all were well received. The cards were all for people I did not know - who had found me through recommendation - so I was especially pleased to have fullfilled the orders with everyone happy with them.

So wonder who will challenge me next ?

Hope you are having a great Sunday xx

Janet 

Christmas in July !

For the last 2 years I have run Christmas card classes at home - 2 sessions twice a month making 2 cards a session.  This year I decided to have 3 card making days making more cards so we are even more ahead for the Christmas season.

On Friday the 2nd of my days is happening - in this heatwave !

We play a stamp a stack game working in pairs each person makes 2 cards of that design - that way there is no waiting for supplies just heads down and craft - its a very quiet workshop !!

In the afternoon we will be making a gift but I will save that for another day.

 This is one of my Fav SU stamp sets - usually I use it with browns and a distressed look but I love the fresh look of it with this pinky red embossing powder.

 Oh I waited 3 years to get this reindeer die buying it second hand - I love how it works so well with co-ordinations cardstock.

 Another lovely stamp set by SU this santa is adorable - this is introducing the ladies to using distress ink and how fabulously easy it is to get that sepia look.

 Punch magic - need say no more !

 This is delightfully simple but I love how the fresh and claen papers work so well together

and a bit of clever embossing teamed with punches - SU have a fab range of EF !

So thats what I have been doing today! My posts are still hit and miss due to scrapbooking every spare minute for my SILs birthday scrapbook which I cannot share as yet - only 22 pages to go !

Hope you are managing to stay cool in this heat .

Thanks for stopping by x

Janet

Claxby Summer 2013

Had a wonderful weekend away in sunny Lincolnshire with fabulous company.  We had decided to live the high life and host afternoon tea so chose Sunday afternoon to do it.

Unbeknown to me other girls had also been busy making plans for it too so when I saw all their efforts I could honestly have cried it looked so beautiful.

Barbara and Kate had arranged for us to have a Gazebo out the side of the hall - it was perfect. The bunting was a lovely touch - picked up that very morning at a local carboot sale !

 We stamped the tablecloth ourselves - using the lovely King and Queen teapot stamps by stampendous and the fab set by Stampin up with teacups on.

 two of the girls had sorted out napkins and napkin rings - they went beautifully with the centres tea cups.

 Beautiful flowers as a centre piece.

 Freshly baked scones and cakes.

 Wonderful company.

 who enjoyed the cakes too !

And this was another surprise from the lovely Jo - fresh cream merangues !

Thank goodness the rest of the weekend was healthy but we loved living the high life for a while which was finished off perfectly by a fly over from the Red Arrows - wonder which of my pals swung that favour ???

I have come back feeling recharged and refreshed. The last 3 months have not been nice at all . It was wonderful to feel totally relaxed and loved for who I am again if that makes any sense at all.

I am lucky to be surrounded by special people at home and away and after finally closing the door on the situation I am up for anything again.

Thanks for all your support girls it means so much xx

Intrigued - Can you help?

Even when I don't post I have a steady stream of blog traffic - How do I know? By checking out the Stats page its interesting what comes up.

Everyday I get hits for this page from 2010 Here

Each day I am puzzled !

I have read the post over and over - nothing remarkable  at all. So why the hits ?

I assume its from a search engine bringing it up for some reason - whats your theory ?  I would be interested to know.

Have a fab day xx

What am I up to these days?

Well I have been knitting quite a bit - yes I know its a shock to me too ! But it has given me something to do with my hands through all those Saturday nights of BGT and the Voice !

I decided to knit these little fellas having found out one of my retreat buddies now has some hens.  Its the summer craft retreat at Claxby this weekend and she is planning to bring us all eggs for breakfast so I knit these little egg cosies (14 in total) so we can all have one !

I have also been running the Skipton Craft Club sessions fortnightly where we play with a stamping technique or a particular brand of stamps making cards or 3d objects.  There are around 14 ladies although there is usually only 10 at any one time. We have such a giggle !

I have also been running my Christmas card days - the next one is on 19th July. We make 10 cards and a 3d project in the day - I like to work them hard !

I am also busy scrapbooking for my SILs 40th albums so thats definitely keeping me out of mischief ! And thats what I will be focossing on this weekend at the retreat - scrapbooking, a little sewing and stamping a large tablecloth for our tea party on Saturday.

We will also be making tea cup candles and gift boxes so plenty to keep me busy for the whole weekend.

Am mostly packed - just my last minute baking to do on Thursday night.  I am really looking forward to it.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods - thanks for stopping by x

Janet