Happy New Year!

ah hay, had some crafting time today so made the most of it!!

Here is a card made using the Itty Bitty Buds stamp set.  It has lot of different elements so you can let your imagination run riot and make your own images and backgrounds.

The sentiments are from the Fun & Fast Notes and were just cut out using my Word Window punch.

To make the flower centers I punched a small hole through the centre and tied a small knot in some ribbon, then threaded both ends of the ribbon through the hole - leaving the knot at the front.

I just used one of the small flowers with versamark ink to do the background which gives a really subtle effect.

Recipe;
Cardstock - Blush Blossom, Whisper White, Regal Rose; Chocolate Chip.
Inks - Blush Blossom, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip & Versamark
Stamp sets - Itty Bitty Buds, Fun & Fast Notes
Accessories - Whipser White taffeta ribbon,
Punches - Scallop square, Eyelet Border, Word Window.

Thanks for stopping by and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Jan
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A very Merry and Emotional Christmas...

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

We had an amazing, and very emotional day - with a special lady who, only a few weeks ago, looked like she wouldnt be here to share it with us.

And here she is, My Mum...

I havent had the chance to do any crafting, even though we are still struggling to get out of the house with the road outside being like an ice rink!!!

Thank you for taking the time to stop by.
Jan
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Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Only one more sleep...!

Finally got round to making my Hubby, Ian's, Christmas Card!!

The All In The Family stamp set is fantastic - so adaptable and brilliant for making the images look like the person you are making the card for!!!

I used the Neighbourhood wheel with Versamark ink onto Confetti White cardstock and heat embossed in black embossing powder.  Then had a ball watercolouring the houses in - I love watercolouring and cant wait to do more now that all my Christmas cards are done (phew).  To make it more appropriate for this time of year, I traced along the roof tops, steps and other areas with Tombow glue and sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds to give a 'snowy' feel.

To make 'Ian', 'Me' and 'Mrs Miggins' (our cat), I used my Stamp A Ma Jig to line up all the elements, coloured them in using markers and then cut it out.

Recipe:
Stamp sets - Neighbourhood Wheel, All in the Family, Season of Joy
Cardstock - Old Olive, Boardering Blue, Confetti White
Ink - Versamark, Basic Grey, Markers
Accessories - Always Artichoke ribbon, white gel pen, Dazzling Diamonds, black embossing powder, Large Oval and Scalloped Oval punches.

Well, I would just like to thank you for taking the time to view my blog, and to wish you and your loved ones a very

SAFE, MERRY and PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS.

Love
Jan
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Sale A Bration!

Fancy getting hold of some exclusive free stamps?

Stampin' Up are holding their Sale A Bration event between 30th Dec 2009 and 28th Feb 2010!

Spend £45 on products from the 2009 - 2010 Ideas Book And Catalogue and you get a free stamp set - its a simple as that!!! And the stamp sets are absolutely gorgeous...

You can also get one of the sets by hosting a workshop by holding a workshop with product sales of over £300.00

Stampin' Up are also offering those signing up as a Demonstrator during the promotion period, a free stamp set (to the value of £38.95).

So all you have to do to get free stamps between 30th Dec 2009 and 28th Feb 2010 is

  * Order products over £45
or

  * Hold a workshop with sales totalling over £300

or

  * Sign up as a demonstrator

Which will you choose...Mmmmmmm

When you decide, or if you just want more information, just email me!!!

Jan

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Blog Award

Way Hay!  I have news of TWO Awards!!!

The first one is from Stampin' Up! I have recieved my certificate and award pin for achieving Bronze 2 level.  They were delayed for some reason but am so chuffed to get them in time for Christmas!!!

I was also mentioned in the latest issue of Stampin' Up Impressions, the monthly magazine for demonstrators.  Really proud to get it - and thank you to Sara for all your help, ideas and inspiration!!!

My second award is from Sara - its a blog award - and I have to pass it on to others too...


There are a few rules that have to be followed with this award and here they are.

1. Copy this award to your blog

2. Link to the person who gave you this award

3. Identify 7 interesting facts about yourself

4. Choose 7 other bloggers to pass this award on to

5. Link to their blogs

6. Leave them a comment to let them know about this award

So, 7 interesting facts ... Well, facts - not sure if they are that interesting but here goes.

1) I was born in the same year that England won the world cup - not at all interesting to me as I hate football.

2) Next April I will have been married to my amazing hubby Ian for 24 years!  I love him to bits, and I think we ought to start looking at how to celebrate our Silver Wedding in 2011!!  Where did that go?  We had our honeymoon in a two birth caravan in Bridlington - in April! 

3) I love motorcycling and watching MotoGP, World and British Superbikes and have met James Toseland (World Superbike Champion 2004 and 2007) a few times - he has given me a kiss (after winning two races at Brands Hatch in 2007) and even touched my left shoulder twice (Oooh, sorry I forgot what I was doing for a mo..). 

4) Didn't know what I wanted to do when I left school so didnt study much at all.  But in the last 10 years I have trained and studied really hard to gain all my qualifications and am now a Health and Safety Consultant.

5) I have always been creative.  I worked as a florist when I left school and ran my own business, designing wedding flowers for a few years before deciding to concentrate on health and safety.  Thankfully, I never lost the bug of making things!!!

6) I have been driven around Donington Park in a Ferrari - my hubby arranged it for my 40th birthday, bless him.  I seem to be a bit of a petrol head and love driving our Focus ST.

7) After a very 'trying' few months I have learned to appreciate what I have got, where I am and where I want to be. 

Life is for living and is too short to take for granted!

Here are the people I would like to pass the award on to

Elaine
Steph
Debbi
Jenny
Claire
Abby
Abi

Over to you ladies...!

Simple Crimble

Heres a card I made in about 10 minutes!!

I used the swirl stamp and stamped the image twice onto a panel of Whister White card - flipping it over for the second image.

The Poinsettia images were stamped out and then trimmed leaving a white outline then mounted on Dimensionals. 

A couple of the small flowers were stamped in Real Red next to the swirls and then matted and layered the panel onto Real Red cardstock.  The Poinsettias were then added, slightly overlapping the panels.

The sentiment is from Occasional Greetings (a brilliant selection of stamps covering almost all occasions!) and is just matted onto Real Red cardstock.

This has to be the quickest card I have ever done!!!

Jan

Cute Christmas

I do find it hard sometimes to do cards for men, but with these stamp sets its a breeze!

Loads of Love has the truck with a selection of different 'loads' and sentiments.  The Loads of Love Accessories can make your cards REALLY personal as you can put people in the truck too!!!

I used my Stamp A Ma Jig to line up the images and coloured it in using my markers, then used two jumbo eyelets for wheels.

Recipe;
Cardstock - Boardering Blue, Whisper White, Real Red
Ink - Basic Grey, Marvelous Markers
Stamp sets - Season of Joy, Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Designer Series Paper - Ski Slope (retired)
Accessories - Jumbo Eyelets

Thank you for taking the time to view my blog!!!
Jan

Christmas Cringle

Its been a busy weekend, spent a fab crafty afternoon on Saturday with Sara Stamper, then had to go to our works Christmas Party.  Thank you Sara for a brilliant time!

Thought I would post pics of the Christmas cards I made for Sara and Abby - it would be a bit rude to post them before passing them on LOL!

All the images were stamped using Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I highlighted some areas with Dazzling Diamonds using tombow glue.

I used my round tab punch to cut out the Holiday Greetings sentiment, cut out and mounted the snowflake onto the round tab shape and used silver elastic cord to hang the cut the mittens (I glued them together but left them to swing loose from the card).

Recipe;

Cardstock - Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White

Stamp Sets - Scandinavian Season, Sincere Salutations, Punches Three

Ink - Versamark

Accessories - White embossing powder, Round tab and Eyelet Border punches, brad, silver elastic cord & Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

On Abby's card I wanted to do something a little different!

 

I stamped the bird in Versamark and again heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I stamped another image in Versamark, slightly off the first one, which gives a 3D shading effect.  When the Versamark had dried, I highlighted areas of the image with Tombow glue and sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds over the top.

For some reason the Dazzling Diamonds also adheared to the versamark - and wouldnt come off!!!  But it gave the whole image sparkle!

I used my Eyelet Border punch along the bottom and then matted onto another layer of card, just leaving a tiny bit of the Chocolate Chip card showing.

The Merry Christmas sentiment was stamped onto Sahara Sand and Chocolate Chip card then trimmed the image on the Sahara Sand following the outline of the stamp.  This was then raised using Dimensionals directly over the chocolate chip image.  This sentiment is called Punches Three and is a Level 1 Hostess set - you can get it free when placing an order, or holding a workshop, with sales totaling over £150! 

Recipe;

Cardstock - Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip
Stamp Sets - Whimsical Wings (Level 2 Hostess Set), Punches Three
Ink - Versamark
Accessories - White embossing powder, Scallop Square and Eyelet Border Punches, Whisper White ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Tri-Shutter Card

I have been meaning to have a go at this card for months and finally got round to doing it today.  Sarastamper inspired me (as she always does, thanks Sara!).

I stamped the tree first in Real Red and stamped a second image in Old Olive, cut inside the outline of the Old Olive image and mounted it over the top of the red one with dimensionals, leaving the red outline showing.

Its a Tri-shutter card and although it looks complicated it is really easy to do, just a few scorelines and two cuts!!!  Here is the same card with the photo taken at a different angle.

Recipe

Stamp set: Season of Joy

Ink; Real Red and Old Olive

Cardstock; Old Olive, Whisper White, Real Red

DSP; Old Olive (retired)

Accessories; Scalloped circle punch

Thanks for looking!

Jan

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Silent Night

I love this stamp set, it doesnt need much at all to finish the card off and the colours are so bright and cheerful!!

Heres another card I made on Sunday.

To shape the corners I used my 1" circle punch to snip off each corner which reminds me of old fashioned photo corners!

Recipe:

Stamp set; Silent Night

Ink; Brilliant Blue

Cardstock, Whisper White, Real Red, Ballet Blue

Accessories; Real Red ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, 1" curcle punch.

Fab Weekend!

Been crazily busy lately with work and havent had a minute to myself but I took Friday and today off as holiday which gave me a lovely long weekend.  I put my Christmas tree up on Friday and got loads of other bits & bobs done which has been great. 

I even had some time on Sunday to get some cards done (being as we sold most of the ones we had at the Felkirk Church craft fair in November!).

My Mum is feeling much stronger and I have had a fantastic day today - I took her Christmas shopping, to Meadowhall!!!  She had to stop for a sit down every now and then but she loved it - we are SOOOO looking forward to Christmas.

Here is one of the cards I made on Sunday using the Silent Night set, but to make it slightly different I made a tag from the sentiment stamp.

To make the topper, the church image was stamped onto Whisper White card and mounted it onto Boardering Blue cardstock. Then I turned it over and put Sticky Strip really close to the edges and the bottom.  This created a pocket when it was stuck onto the front of the card.

I trimmed the card with the sentiment on and again mounted it onto card, trimming really close to the edge.  I then created a hole and threaded ribbon through.  The tag then slips nicely between the card blank and topper.

Havent had the time to add the glitter yet. Thought I would have a 'glitter day' and do all the glittering for my cards in one go.  At least then I will only be wearing it for one week instead of 2 or 3!!!

Recipe:

Stamp sets; Silent Night, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock; Whisper White, Real Read & Boardering Blue

Ink; Bordering Blue

Accessories; Real Red ribbon, Scalloped Oval punch.