Looking ahead to Valentine’s Day, here’s a simple gold embossed card using the Damask Hearts stamps and a beautiful filigee corner from one of the plates coming out on the new TV show.  No colouring or shading, just classic cream and gold.

We’re back home safe and sound after a long day.  Up at 5.30 to travel down to Peterborough to film “Glenda’s Colourful Collage Stamping” for Create and Craft.  I even have it’s official launch date – Tuesday Feb 10th at 1.00pm!  You probably want to set the video for this one as, there’s more (presenter free) tutorial time than ever.  There are four tutorial sections covering various things (come on, I’m not going to give it all away in advance) and when we filmed the main part of the show, we hardly had any time left – I literally had 30 seconds to put together the last card of the show!

You are all asking me for a DVD, but to be honest, if you tape these shows, it’s almost as good as a DVD because they really are giving me a lot of freedom to show you techniques.  Obviously they have to do a sales pitch too – at the end of the day they are a shopping channel, not an educational one, but I hope we have got the balance right.

To answer a couple of questions left in recent comments:

Jenny – I don’t have a show on TV in January other than the shows I have already recorded such as Winter Glimmer with Glenda. I may have confused you by saying I was filming in January, but the show isn’t going out til February – we need time to make sure we have enough stock of everything featured in the show.

Jane – I don’t have a team preparing demonstrations for me.  I have a wonderful design team who make finished samples, but I do all the demo preparation myself.  For this show, I ended up with about ten prepared cards and had to narrow the selection down to what was going to show off the techniques best.  So sometimes I may reject a card that I actually like better, but it duplicates a technique or stamp and another one fits the bill better.  I usually prep way more than I use, so end up with a drawer full of stamped bits and pieces which come in very handy when I need a card in a hurry!

Joyce – an alchohol ink tutorial is already on the You Tube list.  I know I was disappointed the very first time I tried them, but I persevered and like everything, you learn how the materials behave the more you play with them.  I have a definite project in mind for the alchohol video.  Something I made a couple of years ago and gave to a charity auction, so I’ve been wanting to make another one …. sorry, if that isn’t teasing, I don’t know what is!

Something else that has cropped up in comments is mention of my “talent”.  Thank you to those who have said something along those lines, I do try to accept all compliments gracefully, but I have a personal belief that talent is actually a mixture of practice, drive and passion, with a generous dollop of time, patience and tuition thrown in.  Yes I’m sure we have a certain amount of inclination in some direction, whether it’s music, art, sport or something else.  But I think that with the right nurturing, everyone can develop their talent and I guess it comes down to the passion and drive part of the equation as to how far you take it.

I also think that if you nurture and develop and grow the talents you have got, you get better and find it easier to pick up other things in the same sort of area.  Take Adrian, for example.  He spent years playing the organ and keyboards, but ten years ago he bought a guitar and taught himself to play.  About five years ago, he had some tuition and now he has four guitars and I think he’s pretty darned good.  He has a drive to play music and without the keyboard background, would he have picked up the guitar as well?

The nice thing about stamping is that you are working with great images to start with, so you’re half way to being talented already!  I’m interested to know if you agree – what was it someone once said, talent is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration!

Happy New Year everyone!

Sorry, was that too loud?  Well I hope you’re not too hungover because I have news of an exciting new stamp themeplate from Elusive Images.

Launching on January 14th, this is the Harlequin Rose A4 themeplate:

Isn’t it gorgeous?!  Well I’m busy playing with it at the moment for a Create and Craft TV show that I’m filming in a couple of weeks and it’s just a joy to work with.  Graphicus Guild members were given an early Christmas present when this was their featured offer of the month in December and I’ve already seen one or two samples on blogs – if you have this set and you’ve already done something with it, please leave a comment with a link to your blog and let others see what you’ve done.

Over on the Elusive Images blog, we’re giving you the chance to win this themeplate, so why not pop over there and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning.

And while you’re blog hopping, you might want to take a look at the Graphicus blog too – we’ve changed our old monthly website winners contest and turned it into a monthly challenge instead.  We’re looking for suggestions for future themes and colour schemes and there’s a prize to be won each month.

The TV show I’m working on also features Damask Hearts which goes very well with the Harlequin Rose and makes a great themeplate for scrapping a wedding or anniversary.  Adrian and I will actually be able to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year for the first time in about five years.  It always seems to fall within the dates of the trade show that we exhibit at and this year the show finishes the day before!  I’m planning a little surprise for him, but obviously I can’t reveal that here because he does actually read the blog!

With family commitments, today is my last full day to myself in my craft room, so I’m off to make the most of it – it’s a nice way to start the New Year.

All the very best for 2009 to you all!