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

 

 

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Art Journal Sunday

On the last Sunday of every month we welcome Art Journalers into our studio. Whether you have been journaling for a time, or are just curious and would like to give it a go to see if it might be for you, you will be very welcome. We provide everything except the journal, but don't worry if you don't already have one as any notebook or stack of paper that is sturdy enough to take ink and paint will do. All our workshop stamps, stencils, paints, inks and other consumables are available for you to use.

You don't even have to book, just drop in between 11am and 3pm, grab yourself a cuppa and stay as long as you like. The cost of the session is just £5, but do remember the sandwich bar is only open Monday to Friday excluding Bank Holidays but we have a fridge and microwave if you want to bring your own lunch.

Everyone tends to work in their own journals, sharing ideas along the way and some are following the Kate Crane Calendar so work on that. This month I was working on my April calendar page on what turned out to be a very wet and wild day, so thought I'd have a go at creating my own rainbow to cheer me up.

I gathered together some stash on a theme but ended up using very little of it which is not normally the way my journal pages go!

Using Tsukineko Memento inks I started by blending two shades of each ink colour onto the stamp to give me some shading from the top of my stamp to the bottom - this is a favourite Hero Arts stamp from a couple of seasons ago so I am not sure it is still available. I stamped the green of my rainbow centrally on both edges then continued out from there overlapping each image to give me a wider spread of shades. I repeat stamped the month along the central space of the piece using the same colours of ink blended each time.

I'm afraid I then got very absorbed and forgot about taking more step out photos but it seemed to take me an inordinate amount of time to do very little!

I cut myself a little square stencil from scrap paper and used thin layers of gesso to create semi transparent areas for each day as I didn't want to cover all the lovely drips - I used three thin layers letting each dry in between but only used the stencil for the first layer and just did the others by eye. I cut a piece of stiff card the same length as the squares and used that to roughly stamp the frame of the squares in white acrylic paint.

I then masked the gesso squares and stamped the umbrellas which are from Dylusions Ruby Rainbow plate, in black Versafine so I could paint in the spots and stripes on them with colours blended with Dylusions inks to match the original stamping. I often use Dylusions ink sprays to paint with as you get that wonderful combination of fabulous vibrancy of colour with translucence. All that was left to do was to use some small number stamps to add the dates.

I had such plans for this page with spritz and drips plus coloured texture paste raindrops but, unusually for me, I managed to stop myself and kept it very simple with some white space left too!

Not at all what I had 'made in my head' but I think I like it, what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by, if you want to come along to next month's AJ session it will be on Sunday 26 April.

Back soon, hope you will join me again x

 

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A Frugal Journey Through January Day 28

Hello and welcome back. Yesterday I shared the covers of my Junk Journal and today I'd like to let you have a peek inside.

My pages are not all the same size and only around six of them are as sturdy as the covers. I chose to do this so I could cut and peel back the surface of the corrugated card for added texture.

You will have gathered I am a huge fan of JOFYJO stamps designed by Jo Firth-Young for PaperArtsy, the are just so versatile!

 

Simple shapes work just as well.

I have added some layers and pockets and tags to some of my pages, all just from leftover paper, stickers and packaging, a few stamps and a bit of stencilling.

 

 

These have been interspersed with pieces of product packaging - I always think Prima packaging in particular is so beautiful it needs to be recycled in the studio rather than the recycling bin lol!

Some pages have some texture paste words from a favourite Wendy Vecchi stencil, and are still awaiting decoration, photos and journaling.

 

My favourite Scribbly Birds stamps from Dina Wakeley had to feature too, each on square pages made from packaging plus some Dylusions stencilling with ink and Crafters Workshop stencils with texture paste which I applied over wet ink so it would steep up through the paste.

 

 

My Junk Journal is by no means finished, it needs some more ink and paint, and of course the photographs from the 1940s and 1950s I have in mind for it, including one of my Uncle's first car and my Grandfather's workshop.

That's all for today, I hope to see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place for frugal idea #29!

PS If you are looking for the February Workshop Schedule then please just scroll down a little x

 

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A Frugal Journey Through January Day 13

Hello again. Today I have a project for you which I made some time ago but is one of my favourites, and was a very popular workshop project too. I love Dylusions stamps with all the interesting elements that can be endlessly mixed and matched to suit your project. Great fun!

The base for these is a paper mâché hanging which I painted black. I cut a piece of white card just smaller than the hanging, tore up leftover scraps of paper which I randomly glued to the white card covering with a couple of thin coats of gesso both to knock back the pattern on the papers, and to stop my ink runs from soaking too quickly into the background.

When the gesso dried I stamped the background with various Kaisercraft Texture stamps in Versafine Vintage Sepia then allowed some black and brown Dylusions ink sprays to run down the background. I also added splatters in the same black and brown, with a little white too.

I added a few extra ink runs on the second background then glued both backgrounds to the hangings. Not sure which one I prefer.

I stamped the full Dylusions figures, which were constructed from elements from various Dylusions stamp sets, onto white card to provide a sturdy base, then stamped the elements individually onto a selection of patterned paper. These papers were from Basic Grey Little Black Dress and Teresa Collins Vintage Finds. After cutting them out I glued the pieces onto each figure then cut the finished figure out and used foam pads to position it on the hanging.

All that was left was to add a greeting to each and these fab black arrow paper clips which I found in IKEA.

There was quite a bit of fussy cutting with these but with the radio on the time just flew, and I loved the finished characters! Hope they inspired you too.

Same time, same place tomorrow when I will have some distressed backgrounds to share. Hope to see you then x

 

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June 2014 Workshop Timetable

Finally, here is the workshop timetable for June.

I'm afraid that as a result of all our computer problems I am still not able to add 'photos to the blogs or to access the main website to update the information there. All the samples can be seen in the workshop and I will also try to add the 'photos for each week's workshops to our Facebook page as we go along.

I have listened to all your comments on the new timetable layout and as some of you travel quite a way to attend our workshops we will in future have at least one all day workshop each month, plus I have tried to timetable similar half day workshops together so you can combine them to make a day of it if you wish - hope that helps! I have also moved the Mixed Media slot from a Tuesday to a Wednesday evening each month (to suit our youngest son's rugby training!)

Outside of these timetabled slots I am happy to organise custom workshops at a time to suit you and your friends with project(s) designed just for you, or from previously timetabled workshops, do just ask!

Tuesday 3 June 11am to 3pm 

Stop by & Stamp Fee £5

This month's session is all about clean & co-ordinated cards featuring some of the great new mixed font greetings stamps from Hero Arts. Just drop by and join in, all tools and materials to make up to 6 cards are included, kettle on for tea/coffee & biccies too!

Wednesday 4 June 10am to 1pm 

Dylusions Divas £15 or 1 Snazzy Workshop Voucher

In this workshop we will be using Dylusions stamps and inks to create our own quirky diva hanging, with matching card and gift tag. 

Saturday 6 June 11am to 4pm 

Style Canvas Collage £30 or 2 Snazzy Workshop Vouchers

Make you own stunning wall art on a fashion theme using stamps, inks, paints, stencils, texture paste, papers and old dressmaking patterns.

Wednesday 11 June 10am to 1pm 

Saturday 28 June 2pm to 5pm

A Little Bit JOFY £15 or 1 Snazzy Workshop Voucher

In this workshop we will make a selection of cards using the gorgeous new stamps by Jo Firth-Young for Paperartsy.

Thursday 12 June 11am to 3pm

Technique Thursday Fee £5

The focus of this month's session is Alcohol Inks and I will be sharing lots of ideas for making beautiful backgrounds and a really clever resist technique on glass. Just drop by and join in, all tools and materials are included, kettle on for tea/coffee & biccies too!

Saturday 14 June 10am to 1 pm 

Cards from Scraps £15 or 1 Snazzy Workshop Voucher

I seem to accumulate leftovers from 6x6 paper pads so often make cards simply to use them up, so in this workshop we will create 5 clean and simple cards that you can use for any occasion, rustle up quickly and have in your stash for when an unexpected birthday or other celebration appears.

Saturday 14 June 2pm to 5pm

Wednesday 18 June 10am to 1pm

Clean & Simple Cards £15 or 1 Snazzy Workshop Voucher

Come along and make 5 fresh, summery cards you can adapt for any occasion.

Wednesday 18 June 6pm to 9pm

Saturday 28 June 10am to 1pm

Dragonfly Collage Frame £15 or 1 Snazzy Workshop Voucher

This pretty mixed media piece uses a variety of materials and consumables in the colour way of your choice.

Tuesday 24 June 2pm to 5pm

Wednesday 25 June 10am to 1pm

June Layout Workshop £15 or 1 Snazzy Workshop Voucher

This month's layout has a very summery feel with bright colours and will use 1 6x4, 1 4x4 & 1 2x4 'photos.

Sunday  29 June 11am to 3pm

Art Journal Sunday Fee £5

Join us and have a dabble with Art Journaling. We provide all the inks, paints, stamps, masks and stencils and you just fetch your Art Journal - or if you are just starting out we will provide the paper too!

A little peek.....

Oh, isn't it wonderful that the sun has started to shine, even if it is still a bit chilly in the mornings and evenings. Cheers you up no end!

Over the last month we have had lots of new bits in store and I thought I'd give you a quick peek at some of the products I have been using.

Firstly we had the stylish new Couture range of clear stamps from Dylusions. There are four plates all together, three in a fab size ideal for featuring in your Art Journals but then they have cleverly combined all three of the large size images onto a Mini Couture plate which is ideal for cardmaking, and great value at just £12.95.

 (You will find them in our online store too over at http://www.snazzysstore.com/dylusions/ )

 

I used them to create a display board for the store combining the stamps with the very striking 6x6 patterned papers from Bazzill's Basics range which had also just arrived in store. These are beautifully co-ordinated in six colourways to a scale that is perfect for cardmaking.  These packs have 24 double sided sheets, four in each of six designs at just £6.35.

 

We also have all the new colours of the Dylusions Spray Inks (still just £4.35 each) in store which I used with the new JOFY stamps, designed by the very talented Jo Firth-Young for Paperartsy.

 

 

There are 4 A5 plates and 8 Minis in the range, ideal for your Spring projects and they too can be found in the online store at http://www.snazzysstore.com/jofy/

 

 We have also increased our range of stamps from Chocolate Baroque and I had some painty, inky, waxy fun on a canvas with the lovely A5 Honey Bee plate - makes you long for Summer!

 

 

And yep, you guessed, this plate together with all the new Chocolate Baroque plates are available from our online store over at http://www.snazzysstore.com/chocolate-baroque/ I also used a lovely 6x6 Honeycomb stencil and a dusting of Ranger's Perfect Pearls, which are wonderful with wax, on this project and although we have the entire range of Prima 6x6 stencils and all 32 Perfect Pearl colours individually in store at £2.95, I haven't yet found the time to get them into the online store, must try harder!

 

We also have all the latest stamps in from Tim Holtz (new Blueprints etc), Prima (Sunrise/Sunset and Engraver), Kaisercraft (over 50 designs delivered this very afternoon, so guess what I will be doing this evening!) and I will try very hard to pop back soon, share some more samples, and add the new stamps to the online store as soon as poss.

 

We are off to Artstamps Cornwall (Stand 4) this weekend so the store will be closed on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 May but open as usual from Monday 6 May, yes, even tho' it is a Bank Holiday. The following weekend we are off to HSNW at Port Sunlight (Stand 32) and the store will again be closed on the Friday (10th) and Saturday (11th), unfortunately due to family committments we will also be closed on  Monday/Tuesday 13/14 May too.

 

On the subject of shows, we have had a number of enquiries regarding our 'no show' at the Creative Crafts Shows at both Malvern and Shepton Mallett this year.

 

It is always a fine balance between keeping our store open and getting out to meet you all at shows and other events. This year we are reducing the number of shows we exhibit at from 16 to 12 and have reached the decision on which shows to miss on the basis of how good a fit we are to the show. As we are very much a specialist stamping store many of the general craft shows are not the best arena for us so in the main we will be sticking to the specialist stamping shows such as Artstamps (4), HSNW (2), BSSS Ally Pally & possibly Kettering (3), the Craft & Hobby Show (2) and no matter what, Gateshead Stadium in October!

 

That's it for now, have a great Bank Holiday weekend.

Back soon xx

 

 

 

  

 

 

Remember this?

Last time I said I would come back and share my finished 'for instance' using this paper. Better late than never........

 

It was a sheet of 12 x12 paper from Anna Dabrowska's Dreamer collection for 7 Dots Studio which I used as the starting point for my 12x12 art journal style canvas for a workshop at Snazzys last Sunday week. I simply tore out shapes from the paper allowing the design on the paper to suggest how I used it.

I painted a 12x12 canvas randomly with three colours of acrylic paint, which turned out darker than I planned so I added a layer of gesso to knock it back a bit. I then added some texture paste through a stencil and some sticky back canvas rings (I drew round the circles on the stencil to get these).

A liberal spritz with Dylusions Ink Spray which I encouraged to run, some white paint circles (stamped with the lid from the paint), some text stamping also with the white paint, and some stamped words in die cut frames to finish.

So.....

 

 

 

...and here's the finished piece, with some charcoal shading around the distressed, inked paper and canvas pieces to add definition.

 

 

Soooo not me really but I have hung it on the wall in the studio and it's growing on me.

 

During the workshop I created a second canvas, using another paper from the Dreamer collection as my starting point, but with a completely different feel.

 

 

I used the grid in the paper as a frame for my pieces and allowed the painted background to show more with inky splats and stamped script to make it more interesting. From there I played with the idea of sqaures and rectangles in paper, sticky back canvas, plastic (coloured with alcohol inks), texture paste and some torn tissue tape again with some charcoal shading.

 

 

In the next canvas Jane really made fantasic use of the paper she chose which was from Prima's Almanac collection.

 

 

She partially cut out each of the pieces from the background curling, distressing and inking the cut edges to show snippets of her painted, stamped and inked background behind.

 

 

With the addition of some stamping from several Darkroom Door stamp sets the finished piece was simply stunning.

 

Andy, who was spending his birthday with us (and even supplied the cakes!) created a beautiful study in subtle blending and elegance featuring paper from Prima's Engraver collection (which is also featured by Snazzy's DT this month over here where you still have a few days to leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning a DT kit of your own just saying!).

 

 

You can pop over to Andy's own blog here to see some thumbnails of all the lovely details - grab yourself a cuppa though, you will be some time as you won't be able to resist scrolling back through his fabby projects.

 

We had a great day and I am planning another similar day in April so, if anyone is interested keep an eye on the Workshop Timetables on the main Snazzy website.

 

Before I go, due to a cancellation we have two spaces on each of this weekend's (16/17 March) workshops with the fabulous Hels Sheridan. Here's a couple of thumbnails of the samples and you can find all the details on the March Workshops page of the main Snazzy website here.

 

 

Thanks for visiting. Back soon xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be Still My Heart - A very Studio 490 week!

 

Oh the excitement when this little delivery arrived on Thursday at Snazzys! Mostly all the new Studio 490 goodness from the wonderful Wendy Vecchi, with the new Art for You stamps and

co-ordinating Bugs & Butterflies Art parts at the top of my shopping list!

 

 

For those of you who are not quite sure what to do with all her lovely goodies Wendy has designed the three different Kits for Art you see in the (bad) photo above. Each include all the Art Parts you need to make the illustrated project, and the Be at Home kit (centre) even has her Blossom Bucket embellishments too. 

 

All of the Studio 490 product range, except for the Blossom Bucket embellishments are in the online store now, just click 'online store' to pop over for a peek, and I am working on some samples for the store which I will share next week.

 

The Headmaster has spent two days shuffling all the stamp ranges around the store to make the new bits fit so I thought you might like a peek, and maybe a drool too - no, not at the Headmaster just at the lovely new stamps etc from....

 

 

 

Studio 490 and...

 

 

Tim Holtz - including all the Classic and Blueprint ranges - looking very depleted already, but no worries as more stocks of these are due in next week, .....

 

 

......the new Christmas stamps from Dylusions - we have the stencils and restocks of the ink sprays too plus .....

 

 

 

Hampton Art, which I will try to get into the online store later this week, after the Blossom Bucket embellies, and after the new Christmas Hero Arts, and after the new Chocolate Baroque stamps, and ........ you get the picture lol!

 

I will pop back tomorrow with the new Design Team kit, which the DT will be using from Monday, and which will be available from the online store early next week if you want to play along with the team.

 

I will leave you with the new (re-arranged) view from the front door of the store.

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by xx