Thursday 25 April 2013

Watercolour farm animals workshop ...

 Here are the results of the watercolour farm animal workshop this morning ...






We created each painting small enough so that they could be mounted up onto cards or they could be framed to hang on the wall!

Thanks fro coming ladies!

Happy Painting

Wednesday 24 April 2013

More paper flowers ...

This morning we had some fun shaping and setting paper into 
flowers using water and starch on the coffee & craft demo  ....



We added a spritz of colour and here is the final card ...







I'm off to do a little watercolour painting now before the workshop tomorrow!

Friday 19 April 2013

New opening hours in the Shop ...


Shop online


Just though that you would like to know that from the 1st May we have some longer opening hours during the week as follows:


Monday 11am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 8pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 8pm
Friday 10am - 2pm

If you need to do a bit of late night shopping we will be here until 8pm on a Tuesday & Thursday.

From tomorrow (Sat 20th April)

 We will be CLOSED on a SATURDAY other than the 2nd Saturday of the month.  Opening on these Saturday's will be 10am - 5pm.

This new Saturday opening will be in place until the Autumn so that we can have some family time to enjoy all of this lovely sunshine that we are having (not!).


Thank you for reading and have a lovely weekend!








Thursday 18 April 2013

Join us for a FREE workshop ...




{Spaces are limited and bookings will be taken on a first come first served basis}.

If you would like to view details of the workshops click on the links below:




If you would like to book either of the workshops please e-mail (teresa@philpotts.com) 
or phone (01462 813546)
 BOOKINGS CANNOT BE MADE ON LINE FOR FREE WORKSHOPS. 

If you contact us via e-mail or leave a message on the answer phone we will come back to you to confirm whether we still have a space available.  Please make sure that you have had the booking confirmed by us before attending.

We are sorry but we are not able to refund the cost of a workshop if this has already been booked and paid for.  Free workshops will be released each month and so it is likely that you will be able to join in with one that you have not booked in the future.

If you do not have a completed VIP card yet then you are still welcome to join us and can book the workshops in the usual way (including on line).  Payment of the workshops counts towards filling your VIP card and once this is full you will be able to join in with future VIP workshops!

If you do not have a VIP card yet please ask for one the next time that you visit us!

For more information including terms and conditions of booking FREE workshops please see HERE.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Coffee, Craft & Demo Morning ...

 A lovely morning was had by all on the Coffee, Craft & Demo session this morning.  

We looked at creating watercolour techniques with marker pens, watercolour pencils and stamps ...


(here is the effect using pencils)


(here is the effect with marker pens)


(here is a card to show off the technique)

If you would like to know more about watercolour techniques from your stamps then join us on the Combining stamps with watercolour techniques workshop on Thursday 23rd May ...

Watercolours for Cards (Combining art stamps with watercolour) - Thursday 23rd May - 10am -1pm

We still have some places for the demo morning next week so if you fancy popping along just e-mail, book online or call us to confirm a place.

Enjoy the sun!

Wednesday 10 April 2013

New workshop list ...

I hope that you are all enjoying the sunshine!  




The new workshop list for May and June is out and all of the workshops are online for you to view.  Just click onto the image above or click HERE

There are lots of new workshops including cardmaking, clock making, teddy bear needle felting and lots more!!

For those of you who used to visit us in the old shop in Letchworth you might remember 'Tool Time' which is returning as of the first Thursday in May.  The session will be on a 
Thursday evening from 6pm - 8pm.  

You will be able to come along to the workshop, enjoy a coffee or a cup of tea and a biscuit and have space in the workshop to do your own crafting.  We will have punches, stamps, die cutting machines and dies out along with some other bits and pieces for you to borrow and use during the session.  There will also be lots of projects around the workshop for you to use as a guide or for a little inspiration.   IN ADDITION we will have another 'quick' repeat of some of the techniques that we went through on the Wednesday Demo morning for those of you who would like to see the technique again or simply were not able to come on the Wednesday.

Spaces will be limited and you will need to book for the session just as you would for other workshops.  The cost is £5 for the 2 hours including tea/coffee and a biscuit and of course you will be able to borrow tools etc.  Hope to see you if you can pop along.

There are lots of other workshops for you to join if you are note able to make the Tool Time.  Take a look and let us know if you need any more help!

Monday 8 April 2013

Carousel Circus pop up card ...

Where did all of this sunshine come from?  Has Spring finally arrived? answers on a postcard!




Well, it is a little later than promised but here is the video for the Carousel Circus pop up card ... 
I warn you, it is quite a long demo as there are quite a few stages. To save a bit of time I have concentrated on the creation of the 'pop up part' and then 'explained' the decorating of the card rather than demonstrating each and every step!  

[We have just noticed that there are a couple of bits missing from the video. We have missed out the scoring and folding of the second easel part of the card {just score and fold at the half and quarter lines as before}. The video has also jumped and we have missed the part where the 'life is a circus' sentiment is created and adhered. This was stamped using one of the stamps from the set and backed onto black card before sticking to the card with foam tape.  Sorry about that!]



Here are a few more images of the final card and the template (for the curtains) is at the bottom of the post for you to print and re-size to suit your card ...









 Shopping List:

My Girl - Rainbow - GB1032  My Girl - Kite Strings - GB1036  My Girl - Bouquet - GB1033 

 26-CBAJS12-3012 - ALPHABET JUNCTION - ALPHA STCKERS -12 "x12"  2313S - ACRYLIC BLOCK - SQUARE 130mm x 130mm x 15mm 25-BD000-82 GRAPHITE -DEW DROP BRILLIANCE

  26-T604- TONIC STUDIOS - SUPER TRIMMER WITH ARMS 12"x12"  Carousel Circus CLEAR STAMPS  WHITE NUMBERS


26-SAK - 849 - SAKURA GELLY ROLL - GLAZE GLOSS BLACK   25-2377 - WATER COLOUR PENCILS - PACK OF 25    26-GG20 - STICKLES - GLITTER GLUE - ICICLE   Daisy Border Punch




Friday 5 April 2013

Following on from the Coffee & Craft morning ...

I had a lovely morning on Wednesday showing the ladies who came to the Coffee, Craft & Demo Morning how to create a 'pop up circus card'.    I promised faithfully that I would have a video with instructions to support the BLOG post (which is almost ready) and I know that some of you are waiting for this so that you can recreate the card at home.    I promise that the instructions and video will be posted shortly for you!  

This week has been an absolute 'whirl wind'. Between entertaining the girls whilst they are on holiday and getting all of my other work done I had completely forgotten that we had a deadline (today) for our new advert in Period Living Magazine.  So today, all of our attention has been given to creating the new advert which is due to go out in the June Magazine.

The advert is all finished ... and just to prove that I have been working, here it is ...



Hopefully I am back on track now so watch this space and the circus card instructions will follow soon!

Enjoy the weekend and don't forget that the new workshop list is out at the end of next week.

Bye for now


Tuesday 2 April 2013

A few days off ...



Did you all have a wonderful Easter?  I hope so!

We made a new rule last year here at Philpotts that we would not open on the Saturday of a Bank Holiday Weekend any more.  Quite honestly, we work hard enough throughout the year and so felt that we could justify taking time off with the girls on a Bank Holiday.  

So this weekend we had 4 days off .  Most of the time was spent chilling in front of the TV or walking the dogs (I must confess that I did do some work on the ipad but, you know me I never actually feel like I'm working because of what I do so it really was not a 'hardship' at all)!

Easter Sunday was the best day of all as my Mum and Dad came for Lunch. Here are a few highlights ...



Mum knows how much Mr. P loves her Christmas cake so she made the recipe, drenched it in brandy, decorated with icing and chocolate eggs and brought it for him as his Easter Present.


We all had a doodle on the notice board in the Kitchen and yes they are still the fairy lights left up from Christmas which I cannot bring myself to take down yet (I need the sparkle to offset all of the wintery weather that we had been having!).


The Chickens were on top form and laid us some beautiful eggs which we used as part of the table decorations (not the chocolate ones of course, we had to get those from the Supermarket!)


Mia made some beautiful cup cakes for after Easter Lunch!


Mum brought the most delicious lemon curd Victoria Sponge cake for after Easter Lunch as well!


We wrapped everyone their favourite bar of Green & Blacks chocolate in brown paper which we decorated with paper bunting and some small letter stamps to make place settings.


We used some washi tape to hold a paper doily in place for place mats and tied some polka dot ribbon around the cutlery.


We used some more washi tape around glasses for decoration and used doilies and bakers twine to decorate jam jars to hold the flowers.

No one really drinks in our house (unless you count the bottle of brandy that Mum has put into Mr. P's cake)
so we all had cordial with sparkling water to drink and lots of tea!


And finally ... here are Miss Squirrel and Mr Fox (handmade by Powel Craft in Devon), two new playmates for the girls ...


Refreshed and revitalized ... we had a lovely few days off ...but we are back in work mode today preparing the new workshop list which is due out very soon.

I hope that you had a lovely Easter!