A celebration of crafters and their imaginations.

Have you ever really sat back and thought about dies?

We've just had a delivery, and in there were quite a few architectural dies and stamps.

Poppystamps Die Gothic Arch

Poppystamps Die Gothic Window

Now these vary from Gothic windows and arches to French style doors, fireplaces, roofs and doors, including louvre windows, windows boxes and walls, diverse to say the least.

As with all dies and stamps, decoupage or anything else to do with card crafting, it certainly the case the sum is greater than the parts.

Looking at these dies individually I don't personally know where to begin, but someone passed behind me while my desk was full of the new delivery, and said "Oohh they're nice, that would go really well with this particular die to make a 3D effect card on a back ground with such a border"

Poppystamps Die Grand Madison French Doors

Poppystamps Die Grand Madison Fireplace

A crafter at work there, an amazing talent to be able to look at a collection of things, and work out in your mind what goes with what to look great, or at least have a basis of what to do, it might all look very different on paper, but no doubt once that's been done I'm positive you'd be able to turn it all round and make something great.

Poppystamps Die Madison House Set

Poppystamps Die Madison Window Set Large

So, to all crafters, thank you for your flair, skill and imagination. Please carry on, you make my/ our job all the more exciting because of you :o)

St Patrick's day

Here it is again, St Pat chasing snakes out of Ireland, drinking Guinness and having a bit of a good time to boot, and not only that, but I've also discovered that he's also know as being the Apostle of Ireland.

Did you also know that whilst it's a public holiday on The Republic & Northern Ireland, but also in Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada ( No I didn't either)
Source here

And of course the day is celebrated around the world with each Countries spin on things.

How shall be be celebrating? Well be having a quiet cup of tea, couple of biccies and putting our feet up, it falls on a Tuesday, and we're working Wednesday, well we're working everyday at IconUK

Sláinte cairde!

Mothers Day

This Sunday is of course Mothering Sunday, well in the UK. In the UK & Ireland it ties in with Lent, the rest of the world seems to be based on something I can't work out, have a look at other dates here.

Anyway, to all Mothers, thank you :o) if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be loved, cherished, spoilt, adored and cared for.

My kids are excited for this Mothers Day (same as every year really) because their Mother, my Wife is well, an incredible person. 

She is unfortunately working this Sunday, so the cherubs and I have a 4 hour window to make a special Sunday lunch, which will undoubtedly involve a leg of lamb and all the trimmings, but here is our problem, we like food, we enjoy the whole cooking process and of course eating it, the problem is this, what to have for desert?

Now that we have the Mothers eulogy sorted, I'd like to mention a few other holidays and important dates, and this is the only way I can tie in something to do with the shop and web site.

Easter isn't too far away, we have lots of dies here and here

Also spring seems to be peeking it's head to see us, we recently received a thank you card with a spring theme on it, ideas for dies here

And of course, in the not too distant future, but in the spirit of getting in early there is of course Fathers Day and naturally we have appropriate dies here and here.

Only thing left for me to say is, have a great weekend, and to all Mothers, I hope you all get spoilt rotten and have a great day.

Mark

Ooohhhh, look, it's the weekend again

I say that like it's a surprise, Friday follows Thursday, just like it's been for the last 104736 weeks (I have just worked this out from 0 AD, or rather 0 CE (Common Era) as it's now known, and BC is now known as BCE (Before Common Era) either way, that's an awful lot of Fridays.

Which then brings me quite nicely to those of us who don't have to work weekends (I used to have to work 7 days a week, and the concept of a weekend was vague at best, I only really used to be able to tell what day it was if I the kids had to go to school, a mental flow chart of Do kids need to be up? Yes - it's a weekday, No - either holiday or weekend.

Forgive me I'm rambling somewhat, the point of this particular post is: Is there anything you'd like to see on our site, and particular designer, style, brand etc.
The reason I ask, I had an e-mail from a customer asking if we could show some bigger pictures of some of our dies, there are 160 of these dies in stock, and many many more to come from the Manufacturer, so now faced with a difficult choice, do I grab 1 of each die and take an enlarged picture of said dies, or try and grab them from the Manufacturer???

Choices, decisions etc...

As I'm staring out of the office window, I notice ...

That today, truly is 4 seasons in one day, not the Crowded House song, but the actual weather, it's currently bright and sunny, but 10 minutes ago it was grey, sleet and miserable, before then we had howling winds.

Lunch devoured, pondering on the very British weather I started searching through our site for dies and stamps relating to Seasons, and was surprised (I really shouldn't be by now) at the vast array of choices available, and that's not to mention holiday specific ones, Christmas, Easter (just round the corner) and any others.

Have a look here at some of the season themed dies we have available.

And I have no idea who I need to mention about the picture above, cannot find any copyright information for it, whoever created it, thank you :o)

The weekend hoves into view ...

If Friday's aren't on your calendar, then they really should be!

Make a new calendar, lots of resources available to make one by hand which brings me nicely to these, a couple of dies which have Months and dates on them.

We have both of them in stock, we also have 1000's of other dies too, have a look at these and the rest of our dies.
AND!!!!!!!!!!! ignore the prices in the picture above, they're now actually only £4.95 each and all our orders are free delivery too.

Die-Versions Complements Make-A-Date 1 and Die-Versions Complements Make-A-Date 2

And all that's left to say is....

I've been thinking ...

Whilst driving home I was listening to the windscreen wipers squeak across the screen, the car in front's brake lights dazzling me, and I thought about this new blog. We ought to have our creative customers, sharing their tips and trick, advice and know how.
I'm not a crafter, I don't claim to be, however,  sure that with some guidance I might be able to make something pretty, then again it might be an absolute mess, but I could then just say it's a modernist interpretation of a card, with an ironic twist to it.
We'll see :o)

I'm back! Well, sort of

Years ago, I used to be IconUK Idiot Web Master, a title bestowed on me by a customer who couldn't quite manage to work out how to do something, and them blamed me for their own failings.
Thus, they left a review saying ... I blame the idiot Web master, it's all his fault.

Thus a blog was born.

I've found the blog again, but can't get back to it for some reason, well it has been about 7 years since I wrote that particular blog.

But I'm back with IconUK and better than ever before, there's been some huge changes, a change in products is a complete opposite of what we used to do, from PC building, mending and peripherals, we're now a leading light in the craft die market.

Back to there here and now though.

A new site beckons, a new set of products in the shop, a new challenge and best of all, new people to connect to and with.

We source paper cutting dies from around the world, and associated products likewise.
When a delivery arrives, it's with a great amount of interest, where was this packed, who packed it etc etc etc.