Hi there everyone, I would like to thank you all for following me I do appreaciate it. I would also like to say welcome to Rae, Bernice and Caroline thank you for joining. Of course I will/have returned the compliment!

I have been neglecting my Gblogs because my working blog is my Website blog which is attached to my SplodgeAway Blog which is the DT Blog (get all that)?  Well what I am trying to say is, all the cards I have been making have been going on that blog so I haven't had any work to show on here or my main GBlog.  I do have a lot of work outstanding but none of it can be shown yet, its for TV,  DT Blog and Challenges.  So, I will give you a small collage of my latest DT Blog card and bits I have messed around with just for the usual "Eye Candy" (I never blog without it) but you have probably already seen some of it.  I don't do this blog to show off my work anyway really, its just a private blog to talk to fellow mad/addicted/show me a table and I'll make a card on it type of crafters!

I am really excited about the crafting world at the moment.  My cards are getting better (well I think they are) I am meeting loads of like-minded people.  Having connections with DT Members from Indigo Blub, Clarity Stamps, and SplodgeAway is so exciting, my three favorite styles of cards and stamps and images etc. We just all talk rubbish though!?  Joe said tonight on facebook about how its exciting because there are so many mediums to play with, I agree with her there is so much to choose from and although my Debit Card looks a bit worn out its great buying all the different stamps, inks, card stock and embellishments that are so reasonably priced!!  Does that sound like an advert?

I have done a couple of great classes lately one with Marie this weekend, she is so good at designing new card styles, and a couple of weeks ago I did the Altered Book class with Annette Lee (our Blog Lady) well I was so excited about that, I have been cutting holes in anything that stands still and has print on it ever since!!!

What next - well watch this space!!!!!  My next big shopping trip is going to be really exciting too because a few of the DT/s from the different teams (well some are on all the teams I think? eh Rae?) are meeting up at the NEC on the Saturday.  Can't wait.  On My shopping list is the Clairty letters and Numbers.  Soooo anyway I am supposed to being doing something for Eileens' Challenge but thought I would catch up with my blogs first and do that in the morning! To feel free to drop me a comment!
By for now, Sam

SplodgeAway Blog Challenge

Commisioned Card

Hi everyone, I have not been here on my "Personal" Blog for a little while, but my other two Blogs are busy for the time being so - I thought it would be nice to let you know from here that SplodeAway are having a "GIVEAWAY" on their Blog

Insert for 25th Card

http://splodgeaway.blogspot.co.uk/

The theme is Sparkle and Gems as the winner will be drawn just
                                                    before Bomfire Night! 

So why don't you have a go?  The prize is a selection of SplodgeAway Products.  Me and the rest of the DT Team will visit your blogs and have a look to see what you have created.  I am looking  forward to seeing what you all come up with.

Commissioned Card - 7 stars were requested!
for 7 High Grade Marks

I do not have a piece in this challenge but the other DT Members have come up with some lovely cards for you to take a look at.  However I did have these commissioned cards that I made recently which I think fit slightly with the theme, I don't like to leave my blogs without a bit of "Eye Candy".

See you on the SplodgeAway Blog Soon?

SAMx

Suzicraft 1st Birday!

I can hardly believe it, its one year since www.Suzicraft.com  of Stockton On Tees, came into our lives. 
What a lot has happened in that year.  I had just set up some of my own classes in The Pottery Loft in Billingham, I was hovering around any craft shop I could find, usually The Range or Hobby Craft trying to promote my own business of selling cards, doing the classes and just generally talking to like minded people about crafting, I often used to get asked which was the best glue to use or how do you use an acrylic stamp, whats the best ink etc - and that was just when I was out shopping!  Then I met Barbara Grey (the other one) we kept bumping into each other in The Range and she used to ask me advice on the best products to use, then it became silly because everytime I was in the shop she would appear or sometimes she would get there just ahead of me, never pre-arranged.  So we decided we spend that much time together we may as well arrange to meet - she told me that Collectables were going to have a Docraft Demonstrater starting and we arranged to go.  Well we couldn't leave we were so inpsired so we went to the next one and the next one, and we stayed all day, then we started to go to lunch with the Demonstrator and she told us about future plans and classes so we booked into them all.  Guess who that demonstrater was!  Annette Lee - can you believe I am now on the Design Team that she runs for Tom of SplodgeAway (or Mr Suzicraft). I secretly call Annette our BlogLady - not sure she would like that title though!?

There was a buzz about town suddenly, everywhere you went (which was always a craft shop) someone would ask if you had been to "that new craft shop in Stockton"? or ask if you had heard of Suzicraft.  Barbara was the first one to go, she came and told me all about it, said I would love it there.  So I nipped along to check it out.  Tom Whisked me off upstairs once I told him about my classes and website and utube - and he talked of his plans and we were both really excited about crafting, Sue was there welcoming everyone into her shop dishing out Tea letting everyone know they could come and use the crafting table.  I loved the place straight away and my first Impression of Sue and Tom was of two very enthusiastic, hardworking, sociable people with a vision for the future.

I told Tom about how excited I was to go to Annette's demoes and classes and I told Annette about Toms vision and enthusiasm and we all ended up being part of the same team - but the main factor in all of this is Sue and Suzicraft - its not just a shop its a community, a place to craft a place to meet new people a place to nip in for a cuppa and buy all your Crafty Goods at the best price you will find anywhere! I wrote a peom about Suzicraft when I hadn't been going there long because I was so inspired by the shop and Sue and Tom - it now sits on the wall in the shop, I am proud of it but it took nothing to write because the essence of what Suzicraft is just popped out of the ink in my pen. So why not nip along on Saturday 15the September 2012 to http://www.Suzicraft.com to celebrate the shops 1st Birthday. you can read my poem, have a cuppa, buy some goodies and most of all your can watch Annette Lee, Maria Simms and Mr SplodgeAway himself demonstrating new products.  There will be food and drink and a friendly atmosphere.  AND I WILL BE THERE!  Ok that might put you off but go along anyway!

http://www.suzicraft.com

More of my SplodgeAway xmas cards

Another little project that I did to demonstrate the SplodgeAway Words.  It didn't get to be on TV, understandably - I am learning! But I personally still like it, a little rushed so could have been better!?  The SplodgeAway wording masks are great.  I have always said to Tom that crafters just can't get enough wording in stamps, embossing anything and he has certainly come up trumps.  Just a quickie tonight as I have put lots of splodge work on Facebook etc from our blog but this is just for my crafting blog - its just more of an impersonal scrap book page really!  I enjoyed doing this but would have worked on the layout more if I hadn't been doing it last minute. Bye for now, Sam

TV Famous Cards

Yesterday was a good day for SplodgeAway and a good day for me personally.  I had three cards on TV and one made an appearance twice as an extra show was put on at 6pm.  This restores my faith in my work because I know my cards wouldn't be shown if they weren't good enough.  I am trying not to get all excited about this like a teenager, but it is very hard to contain myself, in fact I think I may have already not been cool about this.  I have thanked Maria about three times in various places on the web for mentioning my name, and I sat all night checking Facebook and the blogs for any glimpse of a conversation about our DT cards appearing on the TV.  Soo - Hungry for fame? maybe in the past, hungry for Praise?  ALWAYS!!  But to console myself I don't think I am alone in this, I did notice a few comments on facebook, by the other DT members, seemed to have been written with a rye smile on their face.

I sat half the night wishing I could put the "Most Famous" card on my blog but thought I should wait to get the go ahead.  Then I noticed Karen had already put hers on and so PM'd her "are you sure we can put our cards on the blogs now"!  Yeh sure go ahead and blog away" so I quickly updated my SplodgeAway blog just to realise that actually I was probably the only person still up and checking, apart from Karen off course.  Never mind - the buzz hasn't quite gone yet!


So what do I do with this Card fame now?  Nothing? Wait and see what happens?  What do I want to happen? Oh I don't know, I will just enjoy the fact that the dream I had a year ago of getting one of my cards in a Magazine on the "Over to you" page has been completely topped by getting (in all) four of my cards on TV.  I will just enjoy the moment and then get up to my Craft Room to do the weekly DT project that I was supposed to do yesterday!!  But I would like to thank Tom & Sue and Annette for putting me on the DT in the first place. and would like to thank Tom, Annette and Maria for all the classes of theirs I have attended which have brought me to this level of crafting - and still lots more to attend.

I promised you Tags



It started with this image

Turned it blue on IPhone Like this.

This took 10 mins!!

Spoilt this with spray?

Speak, See, Hear No Evil

My first ever Tag- Take the time to do it properly!

Hi there I'm back already, I promised you Tags so you shall have Tags!  Not fantastic tags by any means but Tags - I am still working on it.  You see I have done some Twinchies "2 by 2" and I have done some mini tags i.e tiny folding card type that you put on presents, but TAGS as in here is just a completely over the top decorated beautifully tag, well I haven't done many of them.  In fact to speak of I would say I really have only produced ONE!  Now I didn't even realise this myself, I LOVE tags, I blog hop all the time just to see some of the gorgeous tags that people are producing, you should look around, it is unbelievable the work that is out there, especially anyone who has a bit of a Tim Holtz inside them the images they are useing are amazing.  So back to mine, the main problem? 1 - I get an idea stuck in my head and even if it is not working I find it hard to give up on it!  2, there isn't a lot of space on a tag so positioning is harder than you would think if you don't want to centre it.  Mind you, I thought I would never be able to do much with the Twinchies but the one I did useing the Clarity Stamps was highly praised by the Twinchie Challene DT Member, and I was quite surprised by it myself.  I am starting to see the effect of the clarity classes I have done with Annette and Maria creeping into my other work.  Soooo, I am not enthralled by these tags, in fact I have added the first one I did to remind you (it has visited this blog before) of what it looks like because I think it was much better than these.  But not all work has to be your best, I use pieces like this to learn from them - I already have another Tag drying upstairs with Gesso paint and Distress Inks sprayed all over it.
Comments good bad or constructive are welcome! Please- otherewise I will think I am talking to myself again! Bye for now, Sam







Bit of a Dry Spell

Hi there, To start with I would like to welcome Bernice as my latest follower, thank you.  I appreciate all my followers.  Well after having a couple of weeks of producing all sorts of different cards and various tags and things, I have gone through a slight dry spell, well in terms of crafting that is.  I have been writing poetry but I will come back to that another day.  Do you ever get those moments when you have a new stash so you quickily run to your craft room and spread it amongst the shelves so your Hubby doesn't have time to realise how many things you have bought?  Well I found a few of these stashes a few days ago, so I got them all out on my Craft table, then proceeded to tidy all other items away to give me plenty of space to play, then I tidied my ribbons, and papers before I set up my cricut machine, got my Spellbinders out, my heat gun was put in place and I put new batteries in my glue gun - then it was bed time?  Sooo the next day I looked at my craft room all neat and ready and waiting and decided to just quickly check my emails, then feed the kids, then take them and the dog out for a day trip, the same the next day - and tonight? well why didn't I just get myself up to that room? I have a plan - I will Make a Plan, list what I want to make and stick to it, then I can concentrate  on one tag, one card, one up-cycled item instead of sitting staring at my stash with so many ideas that I don't know where to start. I will pick up one stamp, one item to make and 1 (or 3 ?)  inks to use.  There, that feels more organised, I will show you the result tomorrow! Am I the only one who gets days when they want to get to the craft room, and could go to the craft room but just doesn't get there for some reason?

 
In the meantime as I have nothing brand new to show you, I will show you what I currently have on our www.splodgeaway.blogspot.com  site I normally keep this blog and splodgeaway seperate as I use my samshomecookeddesigns blog and my main GBlog for that, but just so you have some visual I will break the rules! Right I am off to make a Tag! Good night.