Elzybells Blog

first set of winners!

Good afternoon!
Here are the first set of customer names randomly picked for today:

Roisin Mahon

Carla Evans

Samantha Rogers

Sylvia Shires

Congrats!! Your vouchers will be sent this week.
Pop back tomorrow at 4pm for the next four names - this is so much fun!!

ok, I've got it...

So, to celebrate my excitement over the milestone of hitting 4000 orders (simple things please simple minds!) for the next 4 days at 4 o'clock I will be randomly picking 4 people to receive a £5 gift voucher (a £4 voucher just seemed like a silly amount, lol).

Here's how it'll work - I have a long list of all the customers that have ordered since the online shop opened. If you ordered more than once, your name is listed more than once so you have an even greater chance of being picked!
Each name will have a number next to it and random.org will pick the winners!

How does that sound?
I love it when a plan comes together ;)

Pop back tomorrow for the first set of winners.

wow!

I had to stop working to tell you I've just printed my 4000th invoice!

That's quite a milestone wouldn't you say?! I feel like this shouldn't go uncelebrated and I want to give some stamping goodies away!!

I'm going to have a think and I'll be back later today to tell you what I come up with ...

 

Showcase Sunday 28th Sept '08

I hope everyone's having a good weekend? It's been warm and sunny here but I've come down with a bug so haven't been able to enjoy it - but it's a good excuse to snuggle down with a bar of chocolate and just surf the internet for a few hours! :) 

It's a busy showcase this week, I'm really pleased that so many of you enjoy the showcase and like to include your cards. 

Here's a beautiful card by Claire with some great layering and embellishments, I love the snow mesh!

  

 

Here's a lovely card by Lori Barnett. I love how Lori has incorporated the balloon from a clear stamp set with this image, it's great to see the versatility. For more info visit Lori's blog!

 

 

Here's a cutie by Donna Barber. Check out her blog for another gorgeous card using an elzybells penguin stamp!

Here are a couple of cards by Karen Walls. Karen has just set up a blog and you should go and see her adorable twins card!

Some of you may know Sally-Ann Hancock and be familiar with her gorgeous stamp designs over at Spiral Whisper. Here's a cutie she made:

Check out her blog and her gorgeous doodles!!

A huge thank you to everyone who showcased their inspiring creations!
Crafty hugs,

So many candles... so little cake...

I treated myself to a set of Koh-I-Noor woodless colouring pencils which I'd been drooling over since first hearing about them. It's my dad's birthday this weekend so I couldn't wait to try them out. Here's a card I made...

 

The pencils are just soooo lovely to use - so smooth and easily blendable. Although it doesn't seem like there are many colours in the set (24 pencils), just by adjusting the pressure while colouring gives you a lot of depth.

For the base of the cake I only used one colour across it, shading with the same pencil with added pressure and then I shaded with a darker brown ever so slightly right at the edges.

The images are not stamp designs, I drew them especially for this card... but I think they'd be great as part of a stamp set??

Just as well my dad has a good sense of humour!! ;)

 

Blog Candy Winner!

 Here's the randomly picked post number:

I've disgarded double posts and my own replies to questions so the winner is.... Nancy W, who wrote:

I have just started to buy a few unmounted stamps and I haven't thought about storage yet so I like the idea of those clear cases you've shown. Thanks for the "show and tell". Take care.

Posted by: Nancy W

 

Congratulations Nancy, please email me your adddress and I will send the cushion and cases tomorrow!

Showcase Sunday 21st Sept '08

This beautiful Christmas card is by Sue Baxter. I love the layout and the details are beautifully balanced. If you'd like to see more of Sue's creations, here's her blog!

 

Here's a cutie by Lori Barnett. Lori created a great little scene using 5 small stamps! I bet you have Lori's blog in your favourite's by now, but here's the link just in case ;)

 

 

I'm loving how imaginative you gals have been in turning normal designs into fun halloween images.

Have a look at what Cookie Groover has come up with using the bride and groom stamp....

 

... the bride of Frankenstein!!!

Isn't that just fantastic!! I'd have never thought of that in a million years!

 

Thanks to Sue, Lori and Cookie for their inspiring cards.

hugs,

 

 

 

 

Storage cases for your unmounted stamps

I've not really been one for unmounted stamps until I tried Kling-on cushion. I was won over by it, so much so that I decided to offer it in my online shop.

CD/jewel cases are a very popular and neat solution for storing unmounted stamps but not all sponge can be stored this way as the plastic can cause it to break down.

Well, here's introducing a case which is completely safe to use with Kling-on cushion! 

 

 

The case is similar to a DVD case in size and the plastic is specially formulated so it will not have any adverse effect on your sponge.

 

The case has a clear sleeve on the outside which you can simply slip in a piece of paper with your stamped images so you can easily see what stamps are inside. Here's a piccy with some images I stamped and coloured.

 

 

If using a sheet of paper to index the stamps, a tip would be to first put your blank sheet of paper into the sleeve and close the case. Then open it again and pull the sheet out - you now have the fold lines so you can easily stamp within the front panel and write within the spine.

 

Or if you haven't got time to stamp / colour a sleeve, you can simply stamp the designs directly onto the outside of the case with a permanent ink pad!

 

 

These cases are now available in the shop under 'mounting supplies'.

BLOG CANDY: I'm giving away a sheet of Kling-on cushion and two storage cases - just leave a comment and I will randomly pick a winner on Monday!

 

 

   

DT challenge no. 2

I have a fantastic round up of cards for the second challenge, I'm so pleased quite a few of you joined in!

Here's my attempt at the sketch, hmmm... although I'm not entirely happy with it

and here are just a few of the fantastic cards by the design team

 

 

All the challenge cards can be seen under the 'DT challenges' menu on the right (just click on challenge #2)!

Anyone can play along with these challenges, a new one is set every two weeks. The next challenge is the sketch shown below and the creations will be posted on Thursday 2nd October. More details can be found HERE.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

 

 

 

Copic giveaway - you have to be quick!

Elaine Livesey has some copic sketch markers to give away but as Elaine does not have a blog I was happy to mention it here.

The copics are practically brand new, they have hardly been used at all and Elaine very generously, does not want any money for them - she is just happy to see them go to someone who will make more use of them. However, to cover the postage cost, she is happy to receive any stamped images in return :)

Here are the colours available:

Yellow Y06

Cadmium Yellow Y15

Cerise RV06

Fuchsia RV09

Vermilion R08

Aqua BG15

Mint Green BG13

Teal Blue BG18

Apple Green G14

Malachite G16

Lapis Lazuli B18

Black 100

It is first come first served so please email Elaine directly to make arrangements. I will try to keep the list up to date and cross out any colours that are taken.

UPDATE: You lot were quick off the mark! all the copics have now been snapped up and will be on their way to loving homes tomorrow :)