Holly Bough ….

Good morning everyone, the last day of November   …and with it comes a scary realisation that Christmas is just around the corner!!

It’s time for the last post from our guest designer Chrissie and she’s made us this lovely Christmas card using the Holly Bough stamp

You’ve enjoyed seeing the cards that Chrissie has made for us during November  …and I hope it’s given you a few ideas for using the stamps in a slightly different way

 

To make the panel for the card, the Holly Bough image was stamped with Versamark and then clear embossed

It was then inked with Shabby Shutters and Aged Mahogany Distress inks, using sponge daubers, blending the colours slightly where they overlapped

When dry, the image was coloured over the Distress inks using Promarkers

The border was made using a Martha Stewart punch, with a little hand embossing and a ribbon added.

The sentiment is from the Small Christmas Greetings set

***

It’s a bit different isn’t it – I hope you like it!

I’d like to thank Chrissie for all the lovely cards she’s made for us. If you do have a go at making your own CAS card then why not enter the popular Less Is More challenge that she runs with her friend Mandi

If you’ve been leaving us comments don’t forget to check back and see if you were the winner of our November voucher, I’ll do the draw tonight and let you know tomorrow

Anne xx

Cosy and Warm ….

 

 

 

Good morning crafters and thanks as always for stopping by

I have another Christmas card to share with you today, this is using the Cosy And Warm stamp and is by our Lou

I love how she’s made them appear behind a window  …and don’t they look all cosy and warm!!

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Lou pays such attention to the smallest details on her cards, you probably wouldn’t even notice on first look but can you see those little cards on the fire place? The heart is cut from one of our Christmas Mini Icon Tags and the other one that says ‘Noel’ is a one of our Christmas Grungy Messages that has been stamped onto shrink plastic. How clever is that …and so imaginative!

The sentiment is a stamp from our Christmas Handwritten Phrases set

 

Hope you like it, make sure you pop back tomorrow for the last card from our November guest designer Chrissie

 

Anne xx

Victoria and Pup …

Good morning everyone, I thought as Christmas is rapidly approaching you might be wanting some ideas for your Christmas cards as well as other occasions   … I have some amazing cards to share with you over the next few weeks from our Design Team

Don’t forget that we have a new card every day (sometimes 2!) to give you lots of inspiration

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This lovely card was made by our Gretha using the Victoria and Pup  stamp from this years Christmas release

The 2 images using Victoria were very popular with our customers, she’s a bit older and not as ‘cute’ as many of our other characters

The other stamp that features her is Victoria and Friends

The tag is from our useful Christmas Sentiment Tags

Gretha came all the way from Holland to join in the fun at our open day over the weekend along with her lovely friend Karin

It was a pleasure to watch her colouring, she gets such an amazing depth of colour using her distress inks

Everyone that did our ink workshop with Bev came out very happy with what they had learned, it’s a different technique to using the markers and gives a very different effect

***

You can get the gardenias, heathers and sweetheart blossoms in our shop or online from Wild Orchid Crafts. If they are out of stock then Mary at The Ribbon Girl has a nice selection of flowers

The die on Gretha’s card is Memory Box ‘Frostyville Border’ which we have in our shop along with a huge selection of other dies from Memory Box, Spellbinders, Marianne and Cheery Lynn

 

***

See you tomorrow, have a good day

Anne xx

Two cards from Fleur today …

 

 

Good morning crafters and thanks for stopping by

I have 2 lovely cards to show you today from our Fleur

Fleur’s cards are very popular with our customers. She came on Saturday for our open day and showed everyone how she colours the images and puts a card together  …that was a lovely treat for those of you that were able to get here

***

This first one is using Bath Time with a sentiment from our useful Simply Sophisticated set

 

 

The stamp Fleur has used on this second card today is Snuggle Time, again the sentiment is from the Simply Sophisticated set

 

 

 

Aren’t they lovely!

Enjoy the rest of your day everyone  …and don’t forget to pop back tomorrow when I’ll have some Christmas cards to show you

Anne xx

Telephone Ted …

 

 

Good morning everyone, sorry for the late post today we had to get the showroom back in order this morning after the open day so I’m running a bit behind!

It was a really good day and we’ve come in to work this morning to find lots of  lovely e-mails from customers saying what a great day they had. We appreciate that some of you travel a long way so it’s good to hear that it was worth the journey for you to come and visit us

***

The lucky winner of our fabulous crafty hamper was Clair Galloway

Well done Clair, we will email you but if you read this first then please contact us

***

It was our last open day of 2012, the shop will be open as normal Monday to Friday 10 – 3  until the 12th December. This week (December 1st) will be the last Saturday that we are open until the New Year

The website will close for the holidays on December 12th and will re-open for orders on January 4th

We will send out an e-mail with the Christmas opening times and they’ll also be put on the website

***

Onto todays card and I have another one to share with you using the new stamps which went on sale yesterday;

This is Telephone Ted and was made by our Pops…

 

 

 

We’ve been very busy for the new stamps so be sure to get your orders in while we have plenty of stock

You can find the full set of new ones on the website here

See you tomorrow

Anne xx

You are my sunshine ….

 

 

Good morning all, hope you’re having a lovely weekend

Thanks to everyone that came to our Christmas open day yesterday and also those of you who joined in with our Facebook party

Can I just also say a huge THANK YOU to our fabulous design team who helped out and shared both their knowledge and their time – thanks ladies, you’re the best!!

***

Onto the new stamps, they go on sale at midday (UK time) today so be ready to get your order in as they’re sure to be popular!

This little cutie is You Are My Sunshine …and this lovely card was made by our Dena

 

 

Dena has also used our Bonnets And Bowties paper pad

Hope you like it, enjoy the rest of your weekend

Anne xx

A little Christmas project …

 

 

Good morning everyone!

I’ve saved this little project to show you because Lou is bringing it along to our open day with her today

It’s a clever little advent calendar and it’s going to have pride of place on our counter for the countdown to Christmas!

She’s put full details of how she made it on her blog and if you’re coming along to the shop today you’ll be able to meet her and see it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have a few of our talented design team at the showroom today, Gretha is coming all the way from Holland and will be showing everyone how she does her amazing colouring

Fleur, Dawny and Bev are also going to be here for you to meet and chat to

 

***

 

If you’re not able to come along you then why not join in the fun with our virtual Facebook party

Lucy is holding the event live from our showroom, you can chat with her and there will competitions and prizes throughout the day

Our lovely design team members from the US will be taking part so make sure you don‘t miss their slots;

Elise 2.30-3.00

Mindy 6-7pm

Dena 8-9pm

(these are UK times)

Click on this Facebook logo to go straight to our page for more details

Have a lovely weekend

Anne xx

Our prize winners ….

 

 

Hi everyone, as promised here are the winners of our 2 prizes from the blog hop yesterday

 

Our first name drawn from the comments left on Dena’s blog is ….

Jacqui’s Little Piece Of England

and the second lucky winner, this time drawn from Moni’s comments is…

RibenaRuby

 

Well done ladies, email us with which 6 stamps you’d like along with your details and we’ll get your prizes sent out to you

 

Thanks to everyone for supporting the hop and I hope you enjoyed seeing all the sneak peeks

Don’t forget our Christmas party tomorrow, directions to our showroom are on the website …and if you can’t make it why not join in with our virtual party on Facebook

Be there or be square!!!!

Anne xx

 

New Sentiments …

Hi everybody, I hope all our friends in the US enjoyed the Thanksgiving celebrations yesterday x

Thanks for joining in with our blog hop, we’ve had some really great feedback about the new stamps and our design team made some lovely cards to show them off for you!

If you made a note of your favourites you can get them tomorrow at our Christmas open day or alternatively they will be for sale on the website from Sunday midday (UK time) We’ve extended our free postage offer too so you can get them delivered to your door without having to pay shipping costs!

If you are near enough to visit tomorrow we’d love to see you for our last open day of the year. We still have a few places left on the distress ink workshop and there will be demos throughout the day from our design team. There will be some special one day offers in the shop and also FREE mulled wine and mince pies!

 

To try and include our overseas customers we are holding our ‘virtual’ Christmas party on Facebook. This is a bit of an experiment but we hope it’s going to be really good fun! Do visit our facebook page here and Lucy will tell you more about what’s going on tomorrow. Lucy will be here tomorrow hosting the event live

 

***

 

 

Today I have some little tags to show you using the new Everyday Grunge Sentiments

 

 

You LOVED our Christmas version of these and you will need to have this set in your crafty stash   …in fact you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them they are so versatile!

 

Hope you like them, I’ll put all the details of what I used on my blog if you would like to have a go

 

Don’t forget to check back tonight to see if you were one of our blog hop prize winners!

 

Have a lovely Friday everyone

 

Anne xx

Design Team Blog Hop …

Good morning crafters, thanks for stopping by!

Today we’re holding a sneaky peek blog hop to celebrate the launch of the gorgeous new stamps!

There are 18 of the cutest baby and animal designs (unmounted rubber) and also 2 new A5 sheets of clear stamps (a companion set and also an everyday version of the hugely popular Grungy Christmas Messages) The stamps will be available to buy from midday on Sunday the 25th November (UK time) and you will also be able to get them at our fabulous Christmas party on Saturday (24th) if you are able to make it. Full details about what’s going on and directions to our premises in Leeds are on the website

The fabulous Design Team are all joining in, you just need to ‘hop’ from one blog to another following the links and leave a comment on each card. We’ve used all the stamps between us so hopefully we can give you lots of ideas and inspiration

We don’t know where the prizes are so make sure you visit every blog. We will let you know tomorrow evening which were the ‘lucky’ blogs and 2 winners will be drawn at random from all the comments that were left

There will be 2 prize winners, each winning the 2 sets of clear stamps and 6 rubber stamps of their choice from the new designs (each prize value £52.00)

Here's a list of all the blogs taking part ...and remember you will need to visit them all to have the best chance of winning;

Ideas to Inspire (you’re here) Anne
Bev  Claudia Rosa  Dawny
Dena
Elise  Fleur  Gretha  Katarina
Mindy  Moni  Pops

Unfortunately our Lou can’t join in the hop due to some computer problems so here’s her card using Present Kitty

…and here are a few more cards to get things started;

Walkie Time

Snuggle Time and Companion Set

Bath Time

***

This is a full list of the new stamps if you want to make a note of your favourites ready to order;

FOOTBALL BEARS

IF FRIENDS WERE FLOWERS

PRESENT KITTY

TEDDY WITH BALLOON

TELEPHONE TED

WOOF YOU

LETS PARTY

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

THINKING OF YOU

POTS OF LOVE

STARRY TED

STARRY BUNNY

BATH TIME

SLEEPY TIME

WALKIE TIME

SNUGGLE TIME

PLAYTIME PUPPY

PLAYTIME KITTEN

BABY COMPANION SET

EVERYDAY GRUNGE MESSAGES

***

Make sure you pop back tomorrow evening when I’ll let you know where the hidden prizes were, the winners will then be able to choose their stamps before they go on sale

Enjoy the hop …and good luck!

Anne xx

Our guest designer …

 

 

 

Good morning everyone, a little break from sneak peeks today as I have2 cards to show you from our guest designer for November Chrissie

Chrissie has use our Kitchen Herbs stamp to make these 2 very different cards

 

 

 

Here are a few instructions if you would like to have a go yourselves;

Wishing You Luck

This is simplicity itself. the frame was cut with Nesties and decorated using the foliage section of the thyme stamp from “Kitchen Herbs”. A simple image was stamped in the centre and the sentiment added directly onto the card base. The ink used is Pear Pizzazz from Stampin’ Up

Just to say...

The frame was cut with Spellbinders Square Nesties and mounted over an embossed square. The image from “Kitchen Herbs”, was coloured with Promarkers, cut out and mounted on the edge of the frame. The whole square was then added to the card using dimensional pads and the simple sentiment stamped in the corner

Chrissie has used sentiments from the Handwritten Phrases sheet on both the cards

Hope you like them and that they’ve given you a few ideas for using our stamps to make a slightly different style of card

***

Do make sure you stop by tomorrow, we’re having a blog hop with the full design team to show you the full set of our latest stamps with some great prizes up for grabs!

Have a good day

Anne x

 

Teddy With Balloon …

 

 

Good morning crafters, I have another sneaky peek today for you and this gorgeous card is by our Moni

The stamp is Teddy With Balloon and Moni has used papers from our Bonnets and Bowties pad

 

 

 

I also have some good news for you  …we’re going to be extending our free postage offer until we close for Christmas so you’ll be able to get the new stamps and any other goodies you’ve been wanting without paying shipping costs. This includes overseas orders too!

** please note that as before this offer doesn’t cover our paper pads, because they are so heavy we do make a small charge towards the cost of posting them

 

Have a lovely day, see you tomorrow

Anne x

Playtime Kitten …

Good morning, hope you all had a lovely weekend

 

Can you believe it’s Monday again, where do these weeks go? We’re all looking forward to the release of our final set of stamps for 2012 this weekend, we really hope you’re going to love them as much as we do and here’s another little taster for you…

 

 

…this gorgeous card was made by our Dena and she’s used Playtime Kitten

 

 

 

How perfect is this for a new baby card   …you could make it blue or pink to suit a boy or girl

 

See you tomorrow, have a lovely day

 

Anne xx

Baby Companion Set, Sneaky Peek …

Good morning crafters, I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend

***

I made these 3 little mini cards to show you using the new baby companion stamp set

It will be on sale next Saturday at our open day along with the other 18 stamps that we’ve been sneak peeking for you this past week

If you can’t get to visit us in Leeds then they will be for sale on the website from midday (UK time) on the 25th

   

Aren’t they the sweetest little images!

There are these 3 cuties on the sheet along with more designs, the handy stitched border, some numbers, tags and sentiments – great value for money at just £12.50

Hope you like them – I used backing papers from our Bonnets and BowTies pad and lots of goodies from The Ribbon Girl to embellish

I’ll put details of everything I used on my blog here if you would like to have a go

Enjoy the rest of your weekend   ...and don't forget to leave a comment! We love to know what you think of the new designs and all the comments left go into a draw at the end of the month to win a £25 voucher

Anne xx

Another sneaky peek …

 

 

Good morning crafters, here’s another little sneaky peek from the new release for you…

 

 

 

This image is a bit different from the other ones in the set  …but we think you’ll love it!

The sentiment is included with the stamp and it’s called If Friends Were Flowers

This lovely card was made by our Lou – what a great colour scheme!

 

***

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and make sure you pop back tomorrow for another sneaky peek of the new stamps

Anne xx

Football bears …

 

 

Good morning everyone, I have another sneaky peek for you today…

…this cute little stamp is called Football Bears and Elise has used it to make this gorgeous bookmark

 

 

 

 

 

Elise has put her Son’s name on this one, what a lovely idea for a little personalised gift!

I think this stamp will be great for any football fans …you can color the shirts whatever colour you choose to match their favourite team!

 

Have a look at Elise’s own blog if you would like more details   …and have a lovely weekend

Anne xx

Some exciting news today ….

LOTV Christmas Party around the world!

Saturday 24^th November 2012

Hi everyone, Lisa here!

 Laila and I and the whole LOTV team hope you’ve been loving all the stamps, die cuts and papers we have brought out this year. We hope you managed to bag a bargain in our recent sale and thank you for all your custom & comments this year!

We’ve got lots of exciting plans for 2013 which we look forward to telling you all about in the coming months.

Our final launch and event of the year is on Saturday 24^th November. We have our Christmas Party and Winter Open Day at our shop in Farsley, Leeds …plus we also have a Virtual Party on our Facebook page. As we are now an International Company (thanks to all our lovely customers and design team members around the world), we want to try and hold a worldwide LOTV event at the same time! It’s never been done before but we hope you can join us to make it the biggest online crafting party whether at home or away!

For details of both events, please see below…

SATURDAY 24^TH NOVEMBER – 10AM – 4PM

AT THE SHOP – 51 SPRINGFIELD CENTRE, BAGLEY LANE, FARSLEY, LEEDS LS28 5LY

· 10% off everything

· Free Gift for all visitors

· Demonstrations including stamping on candles

· Meet some of LOTV’s DT & see more great card-making techniques

· Refreshments including hot drinks, lovely homemade cakes, rolls, mulled wine and mince pies

· Book on our Fabulous Workshops - Bev and Dawny P have kindly agreed to run two final classes in 2012!

. Colouring with Distress Inks - £30 – with Bev Rochester (All materials provided)

. Beginner’s Colouring with Marker Pens - £10 – with Dawny P (All materials provided)

. You need to book classes in advance so if you are interested please email: Erica@liliofthevalley.co.uk

SATURDAY 24^TH NOVEMBER – FOR 24 HOURS!

JOIN OUR VIRTUAL PARTY ONLINE:

· Prizes and Competitions throughout the day

· Meet and chat to some of the LOTV’s International DT. Members of the DT will be logging on at various times over the 24 hours with tips and answering your questions. We’ll have a timetable soon of who’s up when.

· Including ‘follow along with Dena – a live tutorial!’

· Join in by having your own LOTV party and post your own LOTV cards. We will upload photos of what we are up to in the shop and would love to see your photos too.

· Visit facebook.com/liliofthevalleycrafts and go to our events page and click Join!

· If you have any questions, please email Lucy at admin@liliofthevalley.co.uk

Happy Crafting!

Lisa x

PS. It's time for the monthy design team mini blog hop so start at Anne's blog here and make sure you visit them all to be in with a chance of winning some prizes along the way

Another sneaky peek …

Good morning all, hope this finds everyone well today

 

Before today’s card just some news about the workshops you’ve been asking about at our Christmas open day on the 24th. We’ve had so much interest that we’ve managed to squeeze a couple in but places are limited so if you would like to attend then please contact our Erica either by email or phone (contact details are on the website here) to secure your place

 

Firstly we have the popular beginners ProMarker colouring class with Dawny – this lasts 1 hour and costs £10 (11am – 12pm)

 

…or if you’re wanting an alternative to the marker pens, you may like to join Bev who will be showing you how to colour with Distress Inks onto water colour card. A few of our designers use the inks to colour their images and we always get lots of questions about the techniques. This workshop costs £30.00 and lasts 2 hours (1pm – 3pm)

 

All materials will be provided for them both
 

***

 

Onto my card for today and I have another little sneaky peek to show you this morning by our Bev…

 

 

 

 

This little chap is ‘Teddy With Balloon’ and the sentiment and little heart stamp are from the Love Sentiments sheet

 

 

Hope you like it, make sure you keep popping back as I have plenty more to show you over the next week and you are gonna love them all!

 

Have a lovely day

 

Anne xx

A Christmas project …

Good morning crafters, I have some gorgeous little Christmas tags to show you today that were made by our ever creative Lou…

She sent the three tags to us and they are on display in our showroom   ...the pictures really don’t do them justice!

Here’s the list of stamps and papers that she used to make them;

Christmas Icons

Krafty Christmas

Christmas Sentiment Tags

Grunge Christmas Postmarks

You can find more details on Lou’s own blog if you would like to have a go

***

See you tomorrow

Anne xx

A Sneaky Peek …

Morning all, how was your weekend?

 

I have a little treat for you today, a sneaky peek at one of the new stamps that will be out later in the month. They will be launched for our final open day of the year at our showroom in Leeds on Saturday November 24th and then on the website at midday (UK time) on Sunday 25th

 

This is by our Gretha and she has used Bath Time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

How cute is this ‘lil bear all snuggled up after his bath  …and I love the duck too!

 

Gretha has used backing papers from our Petal Fresh pad – it’s one of the 6 fabulous patterned paper pads that you can find on our website here

 

There are 18 stamps in total so be sure to keep an eye on here, on all the Design Team blogs and also on our Facebook page for more sneaky peeks

 

See you tomorrow

Anne xx

Sale finishes today …and our guest designer for November

Hi everybody, hope you’re having a lovely weekend

The weather has been fabulous here in Leeds – lovely sunny Autumn days, perfect for a long walk to blow away the cobwebs!

***

Before todays card, just a reminder about our special ‘stay at home and save’ sale which ends at 4pm today (UK time)

You can get any 5 of our small stamps (priced £4.50) for only £20, our A5 Stamp Sheets for only £12.00, 3 of our Paper Pads for £20 and any 12 Die Cut Sheets for £10.00*!

We are also extending our free postage offer to help make your savings go further**

*all products are while stocks last   **the free postage excludes the Paper Pads as usual 

***

Onto todays card and it’s time for me to introduce again our Guest Designer for November Chrissie…

Chrissie runs the Less is More challenge along with her friend Mandi and we wanted to see if she could come up with some clean and simple cards using our stamps – a very different style of card to the ones we usually have to share with you!

This time Chrissie used our very popular Posy Trio image to make this lovely card…

Here are a few instructions if you would like to have a go;

The bear from the Posy Trio was stamped directly onto the card front and coloured with Faber watercolour pencils. A smaller rectangle of matching card was cut, leaving approximately 2cm of the card front showing all around the edge. A circle was die-cut from this piece, to reveal the image beneath. The edges were then hand embossed to match the die-cut circle. This piece was added using dimensional pads, once the sentiment from the Handwritten Phrases set had been stamped

Isn’t it lovely. I think I’d just be itching to fill all that white space with flowers and ribbons  …but it’s perfect, the little bear is the main focus (as he should be) and it really doesn’t need anything else!

Hope you like it, there will be more from Chrissie later in the month

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday

Anne xx

Good morning …

 

 

Hello everyone, and a very good morning to you

It’s the weekend again (already!) so hopefully time to get some crafting done

Today’s card is sure to give you some inspiration …its by our fabulous Dena

 

 

 

 

Another unusual colour choice for Christmas but I really like it. Dena has used Christmas Star, papers from our Frosty Christmas pad and the little tag is from the useful Christmas Sentiments Tags sheet

We have the Frostyville Wreath that she has used around the image for sale in our showroom in Leeds along with a huge selection of other dies and crafting goodies. There are only a couple more Saturdays when we will be open so if you can’t visit us during the week then don’t leave it too long

We will be open the next two Saturdays and then Saturday 24th is our final open day of the year – more details about that coming shortly

Have a lovely weekend

Anne xx

Hanging The Stockings …

Good morning crafters, I thought I’d go back to Christmas for our card today. I try to vary it from day to day …I  have so many fabulous cards to share with your from our Design Team that it’s hard to choose!

Our Mindy made this lovely card and she’s used one of this years Christmas images – Hanging The Stockings

I love the unusual colour scheme she’s chosen for this card, not typically Christmas but it’s worked really well and makes a nice change

***

Don’t forget that we have the special offers on the website at the moment, there are lots of lovely discounts and also free postage on most items. Take a look at the website here for more details

Anne xx

Two Fairies …

 

 

Good morning all,  don’t forget that from 10am this morning to Sunday 4pm, you will be able to take advantage of our special exhibition prices, even though we are not at the HobbyCrafts show!

You can get any 5 of our small stamps (priced £4.50) for only £20, our A5 Stamp Sheets for only £12.00, 3 of our Paper Pads for £20 and any 12 Die Cut Sheets for £10.00 so it’s a great time to stock up on all those goodies that you’ve been promising yourself!

We’ve extended the free postage** offer too to give you some fantastic savings – this includes overseas orders too - but it is only for a limited time so make sure you don’t miss out

Please note that as this is a ‘show offer’ the same rules will apply   …it’s while stocks last so don’t wait to get your favourites …when it’s gone it’s gone!

**as before the free postage offer doesn’t apply to the paper pads, because of the weight we do make a small charge towards the cost of shipping these items

 

***

 

I have 2 lovely cards to share with you today, these are by our Bev and are using the 2 new fairies from our latest release…

…this first one is Bumble Bee Fairy

 

 

and this one is Fairy With Dove

 

 

Bev has used papers from the gorgeous Bonnets And Bowties pad and the sentiments are from the Vintage Labels – Just To Say set

Make sure you keep visiting all our DT blogs as they will be starting to show you some sneak peeks shortly of the next set of stamps we have due to be released in a few weeks

Have a good day

Anne x