Welcome

Welcome to Snazzys blog where we hope to offer you regular inspiration using all the latest products both in store and the new Snazzys Online version. Plus, previews of upcoming workshops, product previews and reviews, mini tutorials and so much more.

Monday 28 December 2015

Snazzys Annual Winter Sale 2015

We only have one sale each year, it's always a good one but this year's one is a real biggie!


We try to stock products and brands that are not available elsewhere locally so, whilst some lines are generic and will be stocked by any stamping store in the country, if we find that brands we carry are becoming more widely stocked then we tend to retire them and actively seek out interesting new ones. We have therefore decided to retire some brands we have previously stocked - nothing wrong with the brands, we just need to freshen up our product lines and make room for some exciting new lines for the New Year. In addition to this, there are always product lines which are retired by the manufacturers and brands which are no longer distributed in the UK so, from 11am on Tuesday 29 December you will find fantastic reductions on..........

Stamps from PaperArtsy with all A4 sheets reduced from £19.95 to £12.95 and all Minis from £4.80 to £2.95.

Stamps from Dylusions all reduced from £19.95 to £12.95.

Stamps by Tim Holtz all reduced from £24.95 to £17.95, £19.95 to £12.95, and £5.95 to £2.95.

Stamps by Teresa Collins all reduced from £4.75 to £2.50.

Chocolate Baroque stamps all A4 sheets reduced from £22.50 to £14.95, all A5 sheets from £16.75 to £9.95, DL sheets from£13.95 to £6.95 and all A6 sheets from £9.95 to £4.95. Selected sheets are even less!

 

Darkroom Door stamps no longer have a UK distributor so regretfully we are reducing their rubber sheets from £19.95 to £12.95, their background stamps from £15.20 to £7.60, the collage stamps from £13.25 to £6.95 and the photo stamps from £12.50 to £6.25. Some of the rubber sheets are in the iconic tins which are no longer available and all of them are beautifully detailed.

Hero Arts not in the current catalogue,or going forward to the 2016 one, from as little as £5.

Chapel Road Artstamps have two sale price points with A plates and all plates in retired packaging at £5 and all B plates in new packaging at £6.

All Artistic Stamper sheets are half price or less.

Now to papers, all 12x12 sale papers and Bazzill Canvas card stock are any 10 sheets for £3. All sale corner sticker sheets and specialist acetates and vellums now just 50p. All 6x6 paper pads and stacks by MME, 7Dots Studio, Bazzill, Teresa Collins, Simple Stories, Photoplay, Prima etc are reduced to £4.25.

In the inks, powders and paints aisle we have........

All full size inkpads from Tsukineko, Eco Green and Ranger (excluding Distress pads) are on buy 1 get one free for the duration of the sale - lowest price items free!

All Ranger Distress Stains are also on buy 1 get 1 free.

All Ranger Adirondack paints are £1.65 each, any four for £5 or any ten for £10 way less than half price!

All Ranger Crackle paints are half price too.

Sadly no UK distributor for these lovely creamy paints so all Eco Green paints, including the metallics are reduced to just £1.25.

Selected WOW Embossing Powders reduced from £2.50 to £1.50.

All Pan Pastels, including tools and accessories have 25% off and all Cosmic Shimmer Mixed Media bags will save you more than 50% from the original prices.

All Herma items are also half marked price....

....and finally, all our blanks, Tando, MDF, Creativ, Graphic45 plus all Grungeboard are half price too, with all Ideaology Configrations reduced by 25%!

There are the usual bargain baskets starting at just £1 and we have two Marvy Fingerguard Trimmers with all the fancy edge blades reduced from £47.95 to just £25. Sale ends on 2 January (we are closed on 1 January) so just four days to bag a bargain as when it is gone, it is gone!

We will be closed on New Year's Day but open on the other sale days from 11am to 3pm, hope to see you then x

 

 

Monday 7 December 2015

December Workshops @ Snazzys

Hello and welcome to a rather short December workshop schedule. Over the years it has become clear most of you are way too busy to commit to attending workshops at this time of the year so although all the drop in sessions will run as usual, plus an extra Tuesday Croptime drop in on 8 December, there are no formal workshops other than the regular monthly Layout Workshop.
Anyway here's what we are up to in the studio in December.
 

Tuesday 1 December 11am to 3pm

Croptime £5

Are you a scrapbooker? Thinking about trying scrapbooking? Got lots of photos but don't know where to start? Stuck for layout ideas? If this sounds like you then why not pop along to our new Croptime drop in session between 11am and 3pm on the first Tuesday of each month. It is not a taught workshop but more of a social session where we are happy to share all our tools and equipment with a few ideas thrown into the pot too! Kettle and coffee pot are on so just bring along whatever want to work on, beginners very welcome.

Wednesday 2 December 11am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm

Stop By and Stamp £5

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced crafter, make cards, scrapbook layouts, art journal pages or create Mixed Media pieces, stamps are a great addition. In these sessions we make all our workshop tools, stamps and consumables available to you so you can have fun experimenting and creating without having to buy all the bits and pieces. Why not drop by, enjoy a cuppa and have a go!

Tuesday 8 December 11am to 3pm

Croptime £5

Are you a scrapbooker? Thinking about trying scrapbooking? Got lots of photos but don't know where to start? Stuck for layout ideas? If this sounds like you then why not pop along to our new Croptime drop in session between 11am and 3pm on the first Tuesday of each month. It is not a taught workshop but more of a social session where we are happy to share all our tools and equipment with a few ideas thrown into the pot too! Kettle and coffee pot are on so just bring along whatever want to work on, beginners very welcome. This is an extra session this month and from Tuesday 5 January 2016 this will become a weekly session!

Wednesday 9 December 11am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm

Stop By and Stamp £5

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced crafter, make cards, scrapbook layouts, art journal pages or create Mixed Media pieces, stamps are a great addition. In these sessions we make all our workshop tools, stamps and consumables available to you so you can have fun experimenting and creating without having to buy all the bits and pieces. Why not drop by, enjoy a cuppa and have a go!

Tuesday 15 December10.30am to 1.30pm

November Monthly Layout Workshop £15/1SWV

Time to select your favourite photos from Autumn and we will make our own leaves, pockets, tags etc to add to a beautiful background and create a page which preserves your Fall memories. I have used a 6" x 6" and a 3" x 3" photo but the layout can be adapted to suit the photos you select.

Wednesday 16 December 11am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm

Stop By and Stamp £5

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced crafter, make cards, scrapbook layouts, art journal pages or create Mixed Media pieces, stamps are a great addition. In these sessions we make all our workshop tools, stamps and consumables available to you so you can have fun experimenting and creating without having to buy all the bits and pieces. Why not drop by, enjoy a cuppa and have a go at the last sessions of 2015!

I am sorry I couldn't make a slot for Art Journal Sunday this month, I simply ran out of days, but it will be back in 2016.
 
Now a few words about Christmas arrangements and or course our Annual Winter Sale Event!


Christmas Opening
Wednesday 23 December CLOSED
Thursday 24 December CLOSED
Friday 25 December CLOSED
Saturday 26 December CLOSED
Sunday 27 December CLOSED
Monday 28 December CLOSED
Tuesday 29 December 11am to 3pm
Wednesday 30 December 11am to 3pm
Thursday 31 December 11am to 3pm
Friday 1 January CLOSED
Saturday 2 January 10am to 5pm
 
We only have one sale each year and this year our Annual Winter Sale Event will run from 11am on Tuesday 29 December to 5pm on Saturday 2 January. As usual all stock we are retiring will be on sale at up to 50% off the original price with some products offered at even larger discounts to make way for the new seasons lines which start to trickle into the studio from week commencing 4 January onwards. Watch out for a couple of brand new stamp lines we will be introducing, just saying ;0)

And finally........ as our drop in sessions are gradually increasing in popularity, space can sometimes become an issue so, from Tuesday 5 January we will run three sessions every week. The Tuesday Croptime will become a weekly session 11am to 3pm, and the Wednesday Stop By & Stamp sessions will remain weekly at 11am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm. I have been asked about a Tuesday evening Croptime session but feel I want to wait and see how the weekly daytime one works out first, but I am not saying no and will keep you posted! The Art Journal session on the last Sunday of the month will also continue in 2016.
The January Workshop Schedule will be published later this week and there are some beautiful projects in the pipeline so do keep an eye open for that.
Hope to see you soon x

 

 

Saturday 5 December 2015

Star Book Tutorial

Hello, December is with us again and way back in 2003, very disappointed with a kit version I had bought, I designed this very simple version of a Star Book which I made, and then taught a variation of almost every Christmas since. This year's has die cut snowflakes cut through the front layer and for a more contemporary look made in Kraft card with Echo Park's Hello Winter papers. As I have decided not to use the project as a workshop again - enough already! - and, as it is nearly Christmas I thought I would share this tutorial - I simply ask no one uses this as a workshop project or for any other commercial gain. Here goes...

The 'bones' of this book is simply 15 pre-scored square cards, I tend to use quite heavy cardstock for this, around 300, as I like to think having invested the time in creating it that is robust enough to last a good number of Christmases used either as a hanging ornament or a 'coffee table' piece. The measurements I will give are for 5" or 13.5cm square cards but you could adjust them for other sizes.

 

If you think of the book as 5 segments each containing 3 cards, pre-scored crease to the centre pointing away from you. I lay them out on my desk as in the photo above which I find helps me focus on which patterned paper I want to put where in the next stage. Now for the first set of 5 cards, the back row here, taken straight out of the packet folded, always with a bone folder for crisp perfection, and stand them in a row in front of you - I told you is was really easy! Second set of 5 cards, the middle row in the photo, fold and use your trimmer to cut 2cm from the open end and stand in front of the first row. Third set, front row in the photograph, fold and cut 4cm from the open end and stand in front of the previous two rows. There you have the bones of this book and I'm pretty sure many of you will have worked out where this is going.


You are now ready to select and cut the patterned paper for your pages. Firstly you will need 2 pieces 13.5cm x 13.5cm for the first and last pages (back row, facing away from you in the photo) which will become your front and back covers, plus 10 pieces 12.5cm x 12.5cm, one for each back row page facing you. The second row needs 10 pieces 10.5cm x 12.5cm for the pages facing away from you, and another 10 for those facing you. The front row similarily needs 10 pieces 8.5cm x 12.5cm for the pages facing away from you and another 10 for those facing you. I usually stand all my cut pieces in front of me, in the places I intend to fix them, to check I like the overall effect.

Before I stick anything, I figure out how I am going to decorate front row pages which become the outer segments of the star when it is displayed. In this version I stamped, embossed with WOW Bright White embossing powder, and hand cut some wonderful Hero Arts Monogramme stamps I have had in my stash forever plus a 'merry' stamp from Stampendous of a similar age. You might die cut them or do something entirely different.

Having decided the position for each word/letter I then die cut two different snowflakes using really beautiful dies from Impression Obsession the larger from the patterned paper, with the smaller lined up and cut from the card base underneath so you are peeking through to the paper on the reverse of the paper on the back of the page. I love double sided paper for this!

You are now ready to stick all the patterned paper in place except for the front and back covers.

Once this is done and using 3mm ultra clear tape (the red backed stuff) for strength, tape along one edge of each segment in the back and centre rows, then line up and stick each edge as above. Repeat with the other edge of each segment and you have the five star segments complete and ready for assembly.

Close the first segment (merry and C in mine) and use the same tape to stick the second segment H and R in mine) on top, I do what will become the points of the star first then go back and stick what will be the centre, rather than both sides at the same time, as I find it easier to keep everything perfectly aligned this way.

Your star is complete and all you have left to do is add the ribbon, the paper for the front and back covers and any decoration, I used yet another snowflake.

Here is my book tied closed, I will make a box to present/store it in....

..and here it is tied open.

It is currently in the glass display in Snazzys Studio but it might yet have to spend Christmas at home with me.

Well I hope you can follow my rather lengthy instructions for what is actually a very simple project, perfect for cosy winter afternoons by the fire, and you are inspired to have a go yourself. I have made this book with photos, with pockets and tags between the layers, with flaps to hide journaling and with removable hinged photo mounts - how will you make yours, I would love to see.

I will be back early next week with step outs for my Snow Queen canvas which I will post over on my own blog http://inkyexploits.blogspot.com/ as it was a piece I made just for me rather than as a workshop for Snazzys.

Thank you for joining me, if you make your own version of this then do leave a link in the comments below as I would love to see it x