A visit to Hobbycraft and a peek at my Smash Book

I don't often share my shopping 'hauls' but I was recently asked if I would mind popping into one of my local Hobbycraft stores in Chingford (I was last there for the big opening day before Christmas) to check it out. It would have been rude to refuse ;o) (currently sighing at that picture, what a lovely sunny day that was... *sigh*)

There were lots of new scrapbooking things in store which made me very happy!

a good display of Promarkers - very important!

some new things I'd never seen...

and lots of lovely Smash Booking stuff (yay!)

 

That branch didn't have my stamps though - boo! We'll have to put that right ;o) Here is a little of my haul that day...

 

and I know, thats a baby themed Smash Book (no, there are no pitter patters of tiny feet, just Fuzzybutt's tiny paws!) but I loved the colour and when I flicked through there are very few actual baby themed pages, the few that there are I can easily cover over with paper / pictures / doodles etc... I loved those die cut letters, especially B's one with the robots and that stamp was just £1 (seriously...)

Here is a little peek at what I've done so far with my Smash Book, one of my favourite quotes, with a Dylusions stamped image coloured with Pentel watercolour pens and some washi tape...

I love using my Smash Book for things that won't make it into my scrapbooks!

I really do have a gold sparkly / shiny thing going on at the moment,  along with my neon obsession, of course :o)

Now I must be off, I've got a train to catch! 

Thank you for dropping by today

Sarah x

Hobbycraft demo for Letraset

Just a quick reminder that I will be at the new Hobbycraft store in Chingford tomorrow for Letraset, I hope you can pop down and say hello!

I best go and get some things ready to colour...

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Hobbycraft Demo for Kuretake

As I mentioned last week, I spent Saturday at Hobbycraft in Romford, Essex, demoing watercolour and calligraphy pens for Kuretake. The Calligraphy pens especially were very well received and I spent most of the day showing people those, how to start basic handwriting, make flowers and flourishes and blend the colours together on the nib (one little girl was completely convinced that this was achieved by magic!) in fact the children who tried the pens seemed to take to it very naturally, its great to start them young! Maybe Calligraphy will be the next big thing?

I did also try to show the watercolour pens as much as possible throughout the day but only managed to get 2 full images coloured  in that time although lots of people were impressed by my 'bendy nib' demonstration (the pens nibs are made from rubber so don't split like fibre nibs)

I met lots of lovely people who stopped to chat, try the pens and tell me all about their crafting, if you were one of them then 'hello' and thank you for stopping to chat, it made my day very interesting and the time just whizzed past! One man who stopped to chat done the very traditional ink calligraphy with brushes and told me all about that and another man was starting a calligraphy course (if you're reading this, I hope it goes well!) Very embarrassingly, but very sweet, someone also went to the till to tell one of the ladies that they thought I was very pretty and had nice hair, that kept me blushing for a good long time! I don't who that was but it made my day and made me want to crawl into the back room and hide in equal measure! lol

The staff at the store were really lovely and made me feel very at home, popping by to make sure I was OK and see what I was up to at regular intervals :o) if you're local to Romford, please do pop in and check out the store if you haven't already!

Today I was going to have an extra day off to account for my working Saturday but I'm so excited about some of the projects I'm working on that I just can't tear myself away! I'll save my days off for the next bank holiday...

I should also mention that Friday I spent most of the afternoon baking up a storm and creating new recipes for my blog which you will be seeing very soon! One word of advice though, do not try to cook 5 things at once! I almost gave myself a breakdown as I juggled making Cornish (Essex) pasties, Lemon Tarts, Vanilla Cupcakes, Steak & Vegetable pie and a dreamy Apple Pie, yummy but tiring! It's been B's turn to cook since :o)

I'll be back tomorrow with the winner of the Rico giveaway and the stockist information I know you've been waiting for so you can get your hands on those scrummy papers and the lovely MyMemo range!

Thanks for popping by today
Sarah x

Hobbycraft Demo - Romford, Essex

Tomorrow I will be taking a break (ha!) from my manic schedule and demoing at Hobbycraft in Romford, Essex from 10-4 - I hope some of my fellow Essex crafters will pop along and say hello! :o)


I'll be showing the Kuretake watercolour and calligraphy pens, come along and take a look and try them out, I look forward to meeting some of you then!

Sarah x

A Princess Card

This week has gone so quickly, I can't believe I haven't blogged since Monday! Where does time go... Today I have a card to share that I actually made a couple of weeks ago and forgot to photograph - I found it yesterday while I was trying to create some order in my studio (ha!)...

The stamps are from DoCrafts, I picked them up from Hobbycraft when I was up north visiting my parents and sisters (I can't keep away even when I'm on holiday! LOL) and they are coloured with promarkers. The background stamp is from Hero Arts. I popped the little frog on a spring so he hops about :o) Here are a couple of close ups... (you can click to make them bigger)

The last few days have been pretty crazy, a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, some absolutely exciting fantastic stuff has happened which I will be sharing with you soon! Actual jumping up and down excitement going on here at Hurley HQ!!! But there have been a few difficult stressful things too, not everything works out quite how you hoped but usually thats because there is something better around the corner - I keep reminding myself that everything will be OK in the end - as someone very wise once said to me, if its not OK then its not the end!

Thanks so much for dropping by today - I'm off to cook for B (miracle I know, it doesn't happen often! Please pray for us as I try to make something edible, LOL) and then I'm back to work, my schedule has gone slightly crazy with all the new projects and I have some planning to do before I get back to lots of design work!

Sarah x

End of the Week....

......and to be honest it'll be a relief! With one thing and another this week has not been a great one! and I'll be glad to see the back of it (not that I'm usually one for wishing my life away) anyway, I've decided every day is another chance for a clean slate and i'm trying not to let things get me down. I've been through worse than this and know that every bad thing has led me to a better thing, even if that has taken some time, I have to remain patient and be grateful for the many good things I do have. I'm digging out my copy of 'The Secret' tonight and giving it a jolly good read!! it always picks me up and refocuses my mind. If you haven't heard of it, try it! Its a great book on the Law of Attraction by Rhonda Byrne, and will help you to think positively, not that by sitting back and imagining I have a Bentley outside I imagine one will suddenly appear!!! But by thinking positively it helps you to deal with problems more constructively instead of being worn down by it all as I was this week!

Now onto crafty stuff! My sneak peek for tomorrow is almost ready! can't wait to show it and get some feedback :o)

Secondly, I was asked on my blog and by e-mail yesterday the best place to get Promarkers - at the moment Hobbycraft are having a half price sale and I hear on the grapevine that they have just re-stocked! So make sure you get to your local one or to their website quick and order up - you won't be sorry!

Once you've got them have a look at Debs blog as she has posted a fab Promarker tutorial with the Woodland Whimsies designs - love the cute feathery effect on the owl - will definitely get round to trying that this week! if you want to get your hand on the owl design, you can get your CD here!

I also managed another Layout - can you believe it! thats two in as many days!! some kind of record for me recently!

This one was done with a past Studio Calico kit and some lovely Adirondack inkpads from Ranger.

Now I must get on with that sneaky peek!

Sarah x

Not Grim Up North!

Have arrived safely in "The North" albeit to freezing temperatures and lashing rain! Can't have it all, at least I'm tucked up in my jamas being fed and tea and biccies at my parents house :o)

Tomorrow we have a trip to a new Hobbycraft to look forward to - looking forward to seeing what goodies I can treat myself too! Although after raiding two deliveries at ScrapShed yesterday I should be being good! Have got the lovely Paper Doll range from Crate Paper and all the new My Little Shoebox collections waiting for me back in my studio. I'm sure they will be added to......

Right,I'm off now to scrapbook with the little squishies as I have a Pyjama Party tonight - wooo!

Ta-ra! x