I'm Feline Crafty

Cupcake Class 11th February 2012

2012-01-27T20:43:00.002Z

Fancy having a play with some of the fabby new products from the Spring Mini Catalogue?

My next class (courtesy of the amazing Sara) is planned for Saturday 11th February and I have some places available.

Here is what we will be making.

The uses of this punch and matching stamp set are endless!!!

The class will be held on Saturday 11th Feb from 10am to 1pm at the Doghill Community Centre, Shafton. Cost is £10 which covers the cost of all materials, refreshments and hire of the hall.

Contact me for more details and to book your place now.
Jan
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Sale-A-Bration is Here!

2012-01-25T08:19:00.001Z

Yep, get ready for your chance to get free products during the BEST time of the year with Stampin' Up!

There are three promotions in one until the 31st March
1) Spend £45 on products and choose a free stamp set or 12x12 DSP pack
2) Hold a craft party during the promotion with sales over £300 and get a free stamp set or 12x12 DSP pack
3) Join my team and get a FREE stamp set ANY VALUE from the main catalogue. I will match this too so you will get 2 FREE stamp sets ANY VALUE. In addition to this, you will get full support and all the other benefits of being a demonstrator - contact me for full details!

There are also additional benefits for demonstrators - and if you join early, you will also have the chance to get these benefits too.

Here is a link to all the details. Don't forget, this is THE BIGGEST promotion of the Stampin' Up! year. Please don't miss it, contact me ASAP for more details or to book a craft party (I have a couple of dates available in February left).

Just one thing before I dash off. Here is the card I made for out Team Meeting Swap last Sunday (Hi Joanne, Sara, Hazel, Chrissi & Christa!!!).

This stamp set is rapidly becoming a favourite of mine, Its called Easter Blossoms and is stunning.

The tag was stamped using another favourite stamp set of mine, from the Tiny Tags set, onto a Mini Vintage Tag.

I stamped the little girl in Sahara Sand ink onto Very Vanilla card and then used the spritzer tool and Chocolate Chip marker to get the speckled effect. I tore the edges on three sides before using the Eyelet Border punch on the bottom then did this again with a mat of Sahara Sand cardstock, mounting the Very Vanilla on top. Then I put a strip of sticky strip near to the punched border, positioned the Mini Vintage Tag roughly where wanted it to sit and pleated some Very Vanilla Seam Binding Ribbon along the sticky strip, adhering it behind.

The Branch was stamped twice onto a mat of Very Vanilla card then I ran it through the Square Lattice Embossing Folder with the Big Shot. The edges were inked in Sahara Sand ink and I coloured the flowers using a Pretty in Pink marker. The card blank is pretty in pink which seemed a bit girly at first but I liked all the colours together. I did try a Chocolate Chip base card, but felt it looked a little bit dreary.

Off to get some work done now, but don't forget, if you want to hold a craft party or place an order to get some freebies, contact me ASAP - I don't want you to miss out!!!

Jan
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Baby Card

2012-01-18T18:27:00.001Z

Hi there,
I managed to sneek into my craft room yesterday to make a REALLY quick baby card. I was very good and even used up some of my old products - I need to use up some retired stuff for a change!!!

The card blank is 8"x8" and I used bits from the Nursery Suite Quick Accents kit and the matching Nursery Suite Designer Series Paper. Both of them are now retired and after over a year of gazing at them, I thought I would have a play. Even the ribbons are retired - Pretty in Pink Taffeta and Pretty in Pink Gingham.

The Quick Accents sets are lovely to use (as you would expect from Stampin' Up!) and because they are designed to work together, they coordinate perfectly.

The letters are die cut from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet and I just added a few tiny Basic Pearls to finish off.

Jan
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Craft Show

2012-01-17T07:39:00.004Z

Well, Me, Hazel, Sara, Joanne and Mari had our first craft show in Sunday at Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield and it was absolutely brilliant! In the past we have done lots of craft fairs where we sell small handmade goods, but at the show we spent all day talking to crafters about Stampin' Up!

As those of you who know me, I get a teeny weeny bit enthusiastic about Stampin' Up! so you can imagine that I was in heaven all day.

I was so surprised at how big the event was - there were loads of companies (and some big ones) - it was VERY professionally organised too. We are already looking at booking for the next one in May, So I will let you know more once its confirmed. I will need to take my thermals though as it was soooo cold.

We held a prize draw on the day for a free class for the winner plus up to 5 friends to attend and one of the winners was a lovely lady called Ruth from Barnsley (****Hi Ruth!!!!****).

We were so busy, that we forgot to take some photos, but the stand looked lovely. Me & Sara have just bought some banners with our contact details on which looked really nice - I was gutted when we had taken the stand down & I realised that we hadn't a photo of it :-(.

What else has been happening in the last week?
- Well, I had my Easy Events class on Saturday
- The show on Sunday
- We got a buyer for the house
- and had our offer accepted on the house we fell in love with 18 months ago!

As you can imagine, Ive not had any spare time the last week, but Im hoping to get back in my craft room soon.
Jan
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Don Valley Craft Show

2012-01-13T07:37:00.002Z

Hi there, just a quick post to let you know about a craft show that Me, Sara, Joanne & Hazel are doing on Sunday 15th January at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield. A map and details of how to get there is here.

The doors open at 10am and it runs until 3pm so come along and see the new Sale-a-bration stamp sets and Designer Series Paper. You can also get to see the new Mini Catalogue up close & personal.

We will be offering some suggested bundles to order (special show prices!) and there’s free parking.

We are also having a free prize draw!!!

Entry is £3 but I can send you a voucher for £1 off if you email me ASAP.

Jan
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Easy Events Class 14th January 2012

2012-01-08T20:27:00.002Z

Hello everyone.

I meant to get this post on yesterday but have been a little busy getting ready for the Craft Show at Don Valley next week.

The next class I am holding is a basic card making class where we will be using different colouring mediums (ink pads, crayons, pencils & markers) to make 8 cards for a selection of occasions. Its on Saturday 14th January 10am to 1pm at Shafton, Barnsley.

As there is lots of preparation needed for this class, I need to know by Weds 11th January if you would like to attend.

The cost of the class is £10 which covers the hire of the hall and refreshments.

To book your place, email me now to avoid disappointment!

Jan
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Adorable Simply Adorned

2012-01-07T10:09:00.004Z

Want a craft party with the chance to get freebies but havent any crafty friends who are into making cards or scrapbooking?

Well, theres now a range of new products from Stampin' Up! which they may like to get from your free workshop!

The Simply Adorned range of chains, charms and baubles offer more choice and creativity as they are great for decorating with ribbons, papers, pearls and rhinestones. There is even a stamp set designed for the range. Heres what I have been wearing for the last few weeks.

The glass locket opens so you can insert special momentos, or like I have done here, trimmed a small piece of desigher series paper, a scrap of ribbon and a tiny die cut and embossed butterfly which has a couple of adhesive rhinestones. A bow fastened on the top of the clasp finishes it off nicely. It took less than 5 minutes to make and didnt cost much as I only used up scraps of paper & ribbon I had in my stash.

When I saw all the charms and baubles, I was so excited! I have a few charm bracelets (the old fashioned - or should I say 'vintage' style LOL ;-) ). So I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the new items.

The ribbon I used is Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon on both the necklace and the bracelet with the ribbon on the bracelet just threaded through the links of the chain and tied in a not. I had lots of comments whilst I was wearing them and the best thing is that I can change the ribbons and insert in the locket to match any outfit - bonus!

Im hoping to get some crafting done this weekend as I am starting to feel better now. Thanks for stopping by, and if you would like to have a free craft party and get to see more of the new products, contact me now.

Jan

Its Here!

2012-01-04T18:24:00.003Z

Oh, I thought I was going to burst before I could tell you about the new Mini Catalogue. Its fantastic!

There are so many new products, including jewelry (yes, I know!!!) charms, velvet ribbon, new punches, stamps and Glimmer Paper.

Just click here to access the link and view it on line - and email me NOW to place your order!!!

I am still getting over a shocking cold and havent done much crafting but bob back over the weekend to see some items using some of the new products.

Jan
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Last Christmas Card

2011-12-31T14:13:00.000Z

Hi everyone!

Just a very quick post today as I am battling a streaming cold and my brains not working very well (what do you mean 'no change there, then' lol).

Its a 'joint' card I made for me & Ian - I cant bear the thought of him spending money on shop bought cards!

The card is an A5 gatefold using a sheet of A4 Basic Black cardstock with panels of the stunning Mocha Morning Designer Series paper on mats of Basic Black and then Brushed Gold card.

I inked up the tree and Joy images with Versmark, stamped them onto Basic Black card and then heat embossed with Gold Embossing powder. This was matted on more Brushed Gold card with gold and antique brads (the ribbon with the antique brad is Crumb Cake Seam binding ribbon).

I dont know about you, but even now when I see a solid stamped image I always think its not going to come out right for me, theres bound to be a bit in the middle which is missing. But nope, it came out perfect - FIRST TIME. I just love SU stamps!

Right, thats enough from me, I'm off for a lay down (again).

Hope you have a lovely night tonight, whatever and whereever you are going.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Jan
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Club Gifts for my Lovely Ladies

2011-12-28T09:30:00.001Z

Hi everyone!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas? Mine has been lovely - we did the family stuff Christmas Day and have chilled out the rest of the time. I bought Ian a really nice camera so hes been practicing taking lots of photos (its a cunning plan - he takes the photos, so I can do some scrapbooking!!!)

So far I havent done any crafting but I can feel my fingers starting to twitch when I walk by my craft room, so it wont be long before I am in there...

Anyway, here are the cards & gifts I made for my lovely Stamp Club ladies. The card has the cute little penguins on from Polar Pary - I was determined not to buy this set as I only bought two Christmas sets last month and hadnt even opened them let alone inked them up - but resistance was futile...)

And here is a little gift box, which could also double as the card if you like. Again, I used the tree & the Polar Bear from Polar Party (the Polar Bear is covered in Dazzling Diamonds!). The sentiment is from Perfect Pairs.

This is the side view. Inside each one, I put samples of the Glimmer Grads - my ladies love sparkle - and a little magnetic book mark that I brought them back from Convention in November.

I only have one more Christmas item to post on my blog, the card I made for me & my Hubby - and I will do that in a couple of days. So come back soon to see it - even I love it!!!

Jan
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At Last - I'm Back!

2011-12-23T18:37:00.002Z

Sorry I have not posted for a while, but all the crafting I have done lately has been for ladies who see my blog and I wanted to make sure that they had their cards / gifts before posting them here!!!

Here are the cards I made for our team, Joanne, Sara, Hazel, Chrissi & Maureen.

I made up my own background stamp a few weeks ago using scraps of rubber from stamps I have bought and attached them to a spare wooden block. The stamp was used to create the cracked background for the skaters - I love how this turned out, its much better than I thought it would be.

I used Winter Post (for the first time!) and started with the snowflake, stamping it on Crumb Cake cardstock with Versamark, sprinkling on Heat and Stick powder, adding Dazzling Diamonds and then heating again to set.

Mats of Very Vanilla and Early Espresso card were torn diagonally and distressed, then I positioned them roughly in place to work out where to stamp the stag. Once the stag was stamped I secured the distressed card mats to the card blank and the Post Card image was stamped in Early Espresso ink.

The skaters were stamped onto Very Vanilla card and then inked up my 'cracked' background stamp with Versamark and sprinkled clear embossing powder over before heating. To emphasise the cracks, I rubbed over the top with Sahara Sand ink on a sponge dauber. The ink doesnt stay on the embossed areas, it just soaks into the card between the cracks, leaving a lovely effect.

The edges of the Early Espresso mat I used behind the Skater image has been punched using something BRAND NEW! I cant tell you much yet - but if you bob back soon, I can explain...

I had to keep the card relatively flat for posting so I just mounted the Skaters on Dimensionals.

To finish the card I stamped the postmark image on to the Very Vanilla card, decorated the insert AND the envelope (which I nearly always forget to do).

I also decorated a little box to match and added a bookmark. Theres a little gift in the box too but I dont want to spoil the surprise if they havent opened the box yet.

Well, Im off to do some more cards - I really ought to make my Hubbys card didnt I?

Hope you have a wonderful, special and safe Christmas!

Jan x

Langsett Barn Craft Fair

2011-12-16T17:20:00.001Z

Hi there
Sorry for not posting anything crafty but the things I have been making lately have been cards and gifts for ladies who look at my blog!!!

I will post them as soom as I know that the ladies have recieved them, but I just wanted to let you know about a craft fair that Me, Sara & Joanne are doing tomorrow.

Its at Langsett Barn. Here is a link to the location for directions. We havent been before, so it will be nice to do a fair at a different location - plus we will be able to have another natter - LOL.

Hope you get the chance to bob along!

Jan
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Beautiful Wings

2011-12-10T11:31:00.001Z

First of all, Id like to apologise for not having the time to sort out the Class Bundle yet. I have been on a course all week in Derby and although I knew there was an exam to sit - I didn't know there would be homework too (I haven't had to do home work for nearly 30 years!!!).

The other thing that's kept me busy is that we have had all the work to the bathroom, so real life has got in the way lately. Thankfully, all the hard work in the bathroom is done now.

I had bought some new items to make the bathroom look nice and picked a lovely aubergine colour to accessorise the room, but its a really difficult colour to match up and after I put everything in place, there was a gap which NEEDED something else.

I had been given a photograph frame a few years ago but I just couldn't find a nice enough picture to put in it so to save traipsing around the shops to find something, I improvised a bit - after all, a photo frame doesn't have to have a photo in it!

I used a piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and trimmed it to fit the frame, then cut a mat of Whisper White card to sit inside. The butterflies are die cut & embossed using the Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die and they were then sprayed with shimmer mist to add a little sparkle.

The butterflies were just positioned on the Whisper White card and Basic Rhinestones added for some bling. It the only bit of crafting Ive done for at least a week (shhh, I still haven't started making my Christmas Cards!!!).

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Jan

Candy Boxs for Customers

2011-12-04T08:53:00.001Z

Hi there!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend, despite the weather!

I'm having quite a bust one as Ian is still doing all the work in the bathroom whilst I have been doing classes & getting other (far more important) crafting stuff done.

Yesterdays class was brilliant - although we surpassed ourselves for running out of time by only getting half of the projects done! But that was mostly down to me nattering on about Convention - Tee Hee.

I will be offering a class bundle and tutorial on my blog in the next couple of days if you would like to purchase one. More details will be posted soon (I need to take some more photos and sort out postage costs) so bob back soon for more details.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the little gift I made for my customers last month.

These boxes are the cutest! You get two out of an A4 sheet and are perfect for wedding favours.

I used the Candy Wrapper die to make the box out of Real Red card and filled it with some chocolates. Then all I did to decorate was wrap a strip of Holly Berry Designer Series Paper round the box, stamp a sentiment from the Tags Til Christmas set (thanks for the loan Maureen!) and mount on a mat of Old Olive card. So simple and if you are wondering how long they took - 12 took 40 minutes and that included cutting them out & filling with chocolate - simples!

Thanks for stopping by - don't forget to bob back soon for the details of how to purchase the class bundles.

Jan
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Tags Til Christmas Class

2011-11-27T11:23:00.001Z

Hello!

I wanted to invite you to my next class and show you some of the items we will be making.

The stamp set we will be using is called Tags Til Christmas (surprise, surprise!!!) but the items we will make will be great to use all year round by just changing the stamp set.

Intregued to see the items in real life?

The class is to be held at the Doghill Community Centre, Shafton, Barnsley on Saturday 3rd December from 10am until 1pm. The class costs £10 and includes use of equipment, all supplies needed for the class, refreshments, and hire of the room.

There is lots of preparation required for the class so you need to contact me ASAP to book your place.

Jan

Ps. If you cant make it to the class, I will be producing a kit for purchase after the class. The kit will include all the cardstock, ribbon, embelishments and full detailed instructions with photographs. (NB. No stamped images will be included), So watch out for more details coming soon.

Card Candy Swaps from Convention

2011-11-24T23:55:00.000Z

As I promised, here are the photos of the Card Candy Swap I took part in when I went to Convention.

This is the one I made using Forever Young.

This one was made by Hazel Ford, my lovely downline, using Faith in Nature.

Its absolutely stunning isnt it!?

Heres the one Sara made, Sara is my SU Mummy. She used Polar Party which is soooooo cute!

And this one was made by Jeannie Kupsh, She used Tags Till Christmas

This set is called Simply Soft and the candy was made by Emily Thompson.

Hayley Regan made this set using I {heart} Hearts

Here is Sarah Poulton's Card Candy. She has used Button Buddies

Carolyn Exwood used Winter Post

Here is Abi Bundy's. She has used a set called Every Little Bit.

And how cute is this!? Monica Gale used the Owl Punch to make the cutest candy.

Swaps from Convention

2011-11-23T08:23:00.001Z

Hi there

Well, I think I have just about caught up on my lack of sleep over the weekend. But I cant believe that Convention has been and gone :-(

Whilst I was away, my hubby decided to sort out a problem we had with our shower. We had noticed a couple of months ago that the cubicle may have been leaking as there were some strange marks developing on the landing wall so he decided to investigate whilst I was in France.

He was right, we had a massive problem which resulted in having to remove the wall between the bathroom and the landing! He has been so busy sorting it out, but were getting there now and have replaced the shower with a bath (which I prefer anyway) and have a separate bathroom & landing again!!!

Anyway, enough of real life, back to Convention! Here's a photo of the one I made - thank you Sara! (I had a problem with the photos I took and Sara rescued me last night by taking some for me LOL).

To start, I had a play with a technique that I really don't do enough. I'm not really sure what its called but I used a non stick craft sheet and swiped ink pads (Riding Hood Red, So Saffron & More Mustard) onto the mat and then spritzed the sheet with water. Then you put your card onto the sheet (this is quite messy, but you get some great results). You then use a heat gun to dry the card and repeat the inking if needed.

Now, one thing with Whisper White is that it DOES NOT LIKE GETTING WET!!! It is designed to be really absorbent to soak up ink and if it gets too wet it goes all bubbly and the fibres can come off. However, I found out that even thought this happened on a couple of the sheets after getting it too wet, once it dried the texture it left was really nice.

Once all the sheets were dry, I ran them through the Big Shot using the Leaves #2 die. This gave me leaf shapes in mottled coloured card. To make the leaf toppers, I ran some Riding Hood Red cardstock through the BS again with the Leaves die to give me the same leaf shapes and glued them, slightly off set, to the mottled leaves, adding some Linen Thread, tied around the stems. The 'Paris' image was stamped in Riding Hood Red ink onto So Saffron card and then punched out using the 3/4 circle punch. It was glued onto the leaf and then covered in Crystal Effects.

I made my own backing paper using sheets of Whisper White card and randomly stamped all over the sheet with images from French Foliage using the Baby Wipe technique (inks used were Riding Hood Red, So Saffron & More Mustard).

Then I cut strips of the backing paper and mounted them onto a mat of Riding Hood Red, scoring lines, really close to the edges (not sure if you can see it though).

The card blank was So Saffron and I stamped the En Francais background stamp on one corner (masking off the rest of the card blank) and then used the 'splashes' image from French Foliage to the rest of the card front.

To finish, the strip with the backing paper was adhered to the bottom section of the card blank and the leaf topper added. I didn't put a sentiment on them as I thought that if the ladies wanted to use them at a later date, they could add their own making them specific to the event.

Thank you for stopping by, I will be posting some photos of the Card Candy swap in the next day or two

Woo Hoo! Convention News

2011-11-21T13:58:00.001Z

O.M.G. Convention was AMAZING!!!

And just look who we bumped into...

Here is a photo of the craft bag we recieved when we registered. And inside were our free stamp sets!

Here is the binder with a loose leaf copy of the Ideas Book and Catalogue - and its orange!!!

The swaps I took part in were fab, and I will post some pictures soon, including the ones I made.

We went as a group, Me, Sara, Joanne and Hazel. It was Hazels first Convention and I was a bit worried that she might not enjoy it as much as I know we would, but she has already decided to start saving for next years!!! Its in Mainz, Germany on the 2nd and 3rd November 2012. So, come on, join my team and you will get the chance to come too.

Sara revieved and award for Leadership, and also won more freebies in the Prize Patrol (your name appears at random on screen) - well done Sara, you truly deserve it. You are such an inspiration and I was so proud of you when you walked on stage to meet Shelli.

Here we are, all glammed up for the awards night.

Mmmm, what else can I tell you about everything that happened, well...

- we got masses of inspiration and different ideas for using SU products in ways you could never imagine

- the Incentive Trip (an annual FREE trip) was announced - its in Salt Lake City, where the Stampin' Up! office is located!!! I wont tell you what Joanne said when she heard this!

- recognition for some of the amazing demonstrators across europe,

And the best bit.

LOTS and LOTS of NEW PRODUCTS coming in the New Year!! I am surprised that there were no reports of an earthquake in Paris on the news on Saturday morning. When they announced what we were getting, the room absolutely errupted with frantic shouting, clapping and everyone screaming with excitement. Honestly, I nearly fainted!

Im not going to spoil the surprise, you will just have to wait a while longer!

But its worth the wait. LOL

Jan

Have I Told You I'm Going to Convention...?

2011-11-17T09:09:00.000Z

OMG - I cant believe its here. I'm travelling to Convention - TODAY!!!

Had a manic day yesterday trying to get all my work done, and almost made it too. Then had visitors last night so didnt get any more swaps done. Oh well, Im sure I'll manage...

All thats left to do today is to nip round to the neighbours to warn them of the wild parties my Hubby will be having whilst Im away LOL. Hardly likely, as hes planning major work in the bathroom while I am out of the way!

I wont be able to access my blog for the next few days but I promise I will post loads of pictures as soon as I get the chance.

Anyway, as I mentioned the other day, heres a photo of one of the thank you cards I made recently (one of 70!). The stamp set is called 'Bundle of Joy', not quite what I was calling it by the end of my marathon cardmaking session, but it is a sweet set.

As you can see, I didnt make it easy for myself - but I did manage to experiment with lots of different colouring mediums. To speed the stamping, I put the tiny stamps onto one clear block and just went around the outside of the card blank, leaving the centre blank as they are going to include a photo.

I marked out the size for a 6" x 4" photo to sit on the front of the card and then secured punched shapes from my Photo Corners Punch (this is retired but was perfect for what I wanted!) and secured them in place.

The little flowers on the right hand side photo corners were just punched out using the 4 petal flower from Itty Bitty Shapes punch with basic pearls added to the centre. To finish off I stamped 'baby' and 'thanks (so much) from Tiny Tags and punched them out with the Jewelry Tag Punch.
For the colouring I tried lots of different items (with varying results to be honest).
- Copics and Flexmarkers were lovely for shading but the ink bleeds through, spoiling the underside. The shading took forever and the colours were slighly off.
- SU Watercolour Pencils have lovely bright colours, but it did take a while to get the blending done!
- SU Water Colour Crayons were quicker than the pencils and they are really easy to use, but the sheen they leave on the card looks a little odd (but thats just me being picky!)
- by far the best were the SU Marvelous Markers - really quick and the colours matched perfectly!!

By the time I was about half way through, I had reduced the time to make them from over an hour to 45 mins, which doesnt sound much - until you have to bake 70 of them!

Right, thats me done. Im all packed and ready to go!!!
See you when I come back.
Jan
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Fab Dabble Day

2011-11-13T10:20:00.001Z

Have I told you I'm going to convention?

Only 4 more sleeps before we set off and I am getting so excited!

Lots of stuff still to do, including my swaps, and having a quiet word with the neighbours to let me know if any parties are held at home whilst I'm away. Mind you, this is unlikely as my hubby's planning major work in the bathroom!!!

Yesterday, I went to Jeans' Dabble Day at Beighton, which was fantastic - as usual. Thank you again, Jean.

The projects we made were lovely, and here they are.

This was my favourate, I have seen these letters all over recently, but didnt have a clue how I would use them. We basically, got EXTREMELY messy using texture paste, PVA glue, tissue paper, acrylic & crackle paints.

Then we made this card.

The last project was making a box which opens to make a Christmass banner. Here is the front (sorry the photo is a bit wonky!)

And this is the back. There are two little pockets on the back which hold cute little tags, too!

Thanks to Julie for the fab designs - they have really got me into the mood for Christmas!!!

Ok, need to shoot, I have lots to get done today, but will be back in the next couple of days to show .you the thank you cards I made recently and my little customer gifts.

Jan
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Stampers Club Starts in November

2011-11-04T18:46:00.001Z

Fancy getting some of the Stampin' Up! Hostess Benefits without the hassle of inviting everyone to your home?
Join my Stampers Club to build your stash a little at a time.

What you need to do
You would commit to a ten month membership, agreeing to spend £15 per month, plus delivery, from the catalogue (That’s £3.75 per week - the price of a magazine!) More is allowed, and if you know that you will want to spend at least £30 per month, then you can take two slots. Delivery is only 50p per slot for club members!

What are the benefits?
• You will receive a free catalogue from me when the club starts
• You will be entered in to a free prize draw each month for goodies from the catalogue
• For one month during your ten month membership (two if you take two slots) you will receive £25 in free products, including the chance to purchase some EXCLUSIVE Hostess items at fantastic prices!
What I will do
I will collect all the orders, payment and if possible, additional orders leading up to the day the order goes in to help you get the maximum benefits. If you do want to hold a workshop when its your month to be the Hostess, I will gladly come and demonstrate some of the gorgeous products for you!

When does it start?
The club starts this month - so if you or someone you know who would like to join please email me now. Internet access is not essential for membership.
Please email me ASAP to book your slot - time is running out to grab your place! Ive only got three places left...
Jan
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Poppy's Card

2011-11-03T08:21:00.000Z

Hi everyone!

As I promised the other day here is my new 'Great Neice's' card.

The card is an A4 sheet folded to A5 and I ran a sheet of Whisper White card through the Big Shot machine with the Polka Dots and Square Lattice embossing folders. I wrapped a length of Whisper White ribbon around the join in the embossing and mounted it onto the card blank.

I used the 'Bundle of Joy' stamp set which is really cute and allows you to build up your images from just the pram on its own to having a baby plus lots of other items inside. Here I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to position Poppy in her pram and used my watercolour crayons to colour the image in. I used some thin circle dies to cut the image and a mat of Pretty in Pink card out and drew some faux stitching on the pink mat.

The sentiment was stamped onto Whisper White card and coloured the little hearts in before punching with the Decorative Label punch. I used the same punch to cut some Pretty in Pink card, cutting both shapes in half (one lenthwise, one widthwise) and attached them to create a border around the sentiment.

I had some scraps of ribbon to use up so to finish off, I tied a button around a couple of strips of the ribbon and secured to the satin ribbon.

Well, I have to crack on so Ill bob back soon.
Jan
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My New Display Book

2011-10-30T22:05:00.002Z

Hi there

Hope you have had a nice weekend? Mines been lurvely!

Today, I went to see my lovely neices new baby girl, Poppy May - I'll share the card I made for her soon. She so cute (and a bit loud and wriggly!!!).

Yesturday I went to Amanda's with Sara, Joanne, Hazel, Bev Kim (Hi ladies ***waves***) and we shared out lots of new goodies from the new Ideas Book & Catalogue we had each bought. .

Thank you for sorting everything out again Amanda!!!

And here it is - my new Product Display Book!!!

Yes, I know its pink - not orange. But, it does match my Filofax so that's my excuse - plus, I think people seem to think I have a bit of a problem with orange so I thought Id pick a different colour for a change.

Here is a picture of some of the fabby new designer series papers - Mocha Morning (the one on the right is stunning in real life).

And here are some of the brads - the glitter ones are so bright - but my favourite are the Antique Brads (top left).

I'm sorry for the poor quality of the photos but its quite late and I am just on a break from making 70 thank you cards! But, you know what you have to do to see this folder full of gorgeousness, contact me to book a workshop and see it in the flesh!

Jan
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French Foliage

2011-10-27T19:35:00.001+01:00

Oh, I am getting SOOOOO excited - at this time in three weeks, I will be in France getting ready for the Stampin' Up! European Convention. My hubby has convinced me there will be no parties at home whilst I'm away (but unfortunately, I cant promise not to party myself!!!).

I have started one of the organised swaps but have no idea what Im going to do for the rest - and being as I have just been asked to do a commision for 70 thank you cards, I really ought to get my finger out!

Here is a card I made recently using the French Foliage stamp set. I bought it ages ago and havent used it but I had so much fun making this card, I might just use it for my Convention swaps.

I used the babywipe technique again which is perfect for the leaves. The reinkers I used were Bravo Burgundy, Lucky Limade, Garden Green, Tangerine Tango and More Mustard.

I stamped the leaves and 'splashes' onto Whisper White card to make the backing paper and matted it onto some Lucky Limeade card. A length of Whisper White satin ribbon was wrapped around the backing paper & Lucky Limeade mat before attaching it to a Bravo Burgundy card blank.

Two Top Notes were cut from Bravo Burgundy and another in Whisper White card (I trimmed off the stitched area from the WW shape) then stamped the splashes and text onto the edges. The sentiment is from 'Heard From the Heart' and was stamped in More Mustard ink onto the Whisper White Top Note before aligning it onto the Bravo Burgundy one.

To finish off, I cut out a couple of leaves and mounted them on dimenstionals on top of the WW Top Note.

The colours are lovely - the Bravo Burgundy card looks really rich against the Lucky Limeade.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jan
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Thank You Cards

2011-10-20T20:34:00.004+01:00

Yey, the boxes I made for the Craft Fair at the weekend came home with me (maybe because I didn't put the prices on them (tee hee). Quite happy as I did like how they turned out - plus I can take them to workshops & show off the fabby papers!

We had THE BEST time at Elsecar. The other exhibitors were so nice and we had a massive table (well, 4 x 6" ones actually). Lots of our customers and friends came for a natter so the time went really quick. Saturday was manic - I only just had time to sneak a sandwich for lunch and the rest of the time we were demonstrating, chatting or selling things!

As most of my customers now have their thank you cards for their recent orders, I thought I would put a little picture of them here.

Actually, I had lost the photo id taken, so I ended up having to ask my Auntie Val to send me a picture!

The card stock is Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip with Pear Pizzazz for the branch and a tiny heart for his beak in Peach Parfait. The DSP is from the 2010 In Colours Paper Stack and I used Pear Pizzazz for the owl and Peach Parfait as a mat.

The sentiment was made using the baby wipe technique - dropping spots of reinker onto a folded baby wipe to create a custom ink pad! Really impressive when its done and so easy. The 'Thank You' sentiment is from Curly Cute and to add a bit of interest, I stamped it up the side of the card blank.

The reinkers I used were Early Espresso and Pumpkin Pie. I wanted to use slightly darker ink than the colours I used on the card to give a little more contrast on the card.

Hope you like him - I have hardly used the owl punch since I got it!!!

Jan
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Elsecar Craft Fair

2011-10-15T19:14:00.002+01:00

Well, my hubby, Ian, has finally managed to recover from his 8 day migraine and is starting to get back to normal, thank god!

Its been a fab day today as I have been at Elsecar with my 'partners in crime' Sara & Joanne at another two day craft fair.

Sold lots of stuff, met some lovely people and was so busy chatting that I never even had the time to walk around to see all the other crafty items for sale. But, we're back again tomorrow so I may get a few minutes to walk around.

We are doing a little make & take and have a prize draw so if you are in the area, bob to see us for a natter. Entry is free too!!!

Some of you may remember I decorated a little round box for the Blog Hop on the 2nd October - well, I had another play last night and made a couple more to match. Here they are all together.

This one is my favourite. Its the smallest of the three nesting boxes, but the flower was so easy to make & looks so nice.

Its just a strip of Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon which has been snipped at intervals of about 1" and then heat applied using a heat gun. The heat makes the edges melt and curl (obviously you have to be careful when doing this - as soon as the melting starts to happen, you move along the length of ribbon).

Then when you have melted the edges of the full length of ribbon, punch a circle of card and cover it in sticky strip. Starting at the outer edge of the circle, attach the ribbon onto the sticky strip and working in towards the centre of the circle, keep feeding the ribbon around. To finish off, I attached a Circle Ice brad and lightly inked the edges of the flower. If you want more detailed instructions on how to make the flower, just drop me a line.

Here are the three boxes stacked.

I really like how these came out (and I'm hoping that they don't sell tomorrow at the craft fair - tee hee!).

Well, have to go, my hubby has my tea ready, so off to chill & get ready for tomorrow.
Jan
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2011-10-09T09:28:00.002+01:00

What did you think of last weeks Blog Hop?

Weren't there some gorgeous projects!? I was so inspired after seeing everything the other ladies had made.

I was hoping to get my (BIG) order of goodies this week, buts not going to be here until Tuesday - when I am in Birmingham! I also have another smaller order coming soon (just for me!!!) as another lady ordered the SU Starter Kit in September so I have another promotion (Woo Hoo). That means a £100 product bonus, a certificate and pin. She has only just started making cards and it worked out cheaper for her to join and get the kit & discount than buy everything she wanted.

Hope you have been having a good weekend. My Hubby has had a problem this week with a persistent migraine so hes struggling at the moment, bless him - but after a trip to the doctors on Thursday, he could set up business as a pharmacist with all the tablets hes been given! They haven't really kicked in properly yet and he has to go for a CT scan but I'm hoping hes back to his usual self soon.

Ian even hopes they will find his brain in there too!

Anyway back to crafting. Here is a card I made for my Auntie Val & Uncle Bern's Pearl wedding anniversary a few weeks ago.

Auntie Val does the most beautiful parchment work you will ever see, honestly, its incredible. I only tried working with parchment once, a few years ago, but I just don't have the time or patience to do it properly.

The card black is an A4 sheet of Shimmery White with a layer of Melon Mambo attached. The top layer is also Shimmery White which was stamped in Melon Mambo Ink using images from the Wedding Sweet stamp set (My Auntie Val loves bright pink, so it just had to be Melon Mambo!).

The butterflies were cut and embossed using the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and the sentiment stamped in Melon Mambo ink onto Shimmery White card, before being punched out using the Extra Large Oval and then matted onto Melon Mambo card (which has been die cut using the Lots of Tag Sizzlits 4 pack dies).

I punched the two of the corners of the top layer using the Scallop Trim Corner punch before assembling the card then added some pearls to the butterflies to finish.

Hope you enjoy your weekend, and thank you for taking the time to bob over.
Jan
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Forever Young for the New Catalogue Blog Hop

2011-10-01T19:57:00.003+01:00

Hi there!

Sunday 2nd October is the day we have our Blog Hop. All the links are planned to be live from 10am on 2nd Oct - however, if you have any problems with the links, just bob back a little later and I am sure they will be running like clockwork.

A group of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators who use the In Love With Stamping Forum have decided to do some projects using some of the brand new products from the 2011-2012 Ideas Book & Catalogue.

Hopefully, you will have come here from Sara's blog. Sara is amazing and I am so lucky to have her as my Stampin' Up! Mum!!!

At the begining of September, demostrators got to see the new catalogue on-line before customers could see it (just another of my favourate perks of being a Demo!) and we also got a list of items we could purchase to allow us to be ready for when the catalogue went live.

As soon as I saw the set called Forever Young - I just loved it. The tree is so pretty and I love the vintage look. I had bought some of these boxes a few weeks ago for our next craft fair so I just had to have a play.

The Designer Series Paper I used to cover the box is called Timeless Portrait (which is part of the matching Product Suite along with FABRIC!!!). The edges of the box and the Designer Series Paper were inked with sponge daubers in Island Indigo ink (one of the new In Colours for 2011) and I used Crystal Effects around the top rim of the box and added some Champagne Glass Glitter.

The tree image is stamped onto Very Vanilla cardstock in Basic Black and then die cut before being mounted on dimensionals onto a mat of Basic Black card die cut with the Scallop Circle die. To finish I used Very Vanilla satin ribbon, loosely pleated directly onto the edge of the lid using stick strip.

Here is a picture of all the stamps in the set.

The new catalogue is now available online and I also have some catalogues, so if you would like to get a copy, contact me now for details.

Well, thank you for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying our little tour of inspiration! I will now pass you on to Evy, who will provide even more ideas whilst your travelling through our little cyber space blog hop.

Have a great weekend.
Jan

2011-09-30T08:15:00.001+01:00

Ohhhh I cant wait unit tomorrow. Its my New Catalogue Launch Party ***PLUS*** we can start to order from the catalogue WOO HOO!

As a demonstrator, we not only get to see the new catalogue before everyone else - we are also able to order selected items from the catalogue during September. This gives us the time to make samples in plenty of time for the 1st October when its all systems GO!

Here is the invitation for my New Catalogue Launch Party.

I posted the invites out to most of my customers and my past hostesses and now I am inviting you too.

As those attending are getting some freebies, I have to know if you are coming to make sure I have everything ready, so please email me now to book your place.

There will also be the opportunity to purchase some of the retiring stamp sets - so if you are looking for a bargain...

Ok, off to prepare everything now. Hope to see you tomorrow?!

Jan
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Dabble Day

2011-09-25T19:00:00.000+01:00

All I can say about yesterday is WOW!!!

I was asked by the lovely Jean, from Busy Bees in Woodhouse Sheffield to do some demonstrations for her Dabble Day in Beighton, Sheffield and it was fantastic. Jean, thank you SO MUCH for letting me demonstrate for you and to all the ladies there on the day ****hello!****

Jean holds the Dabble Days every couple of months and I took my Mum to the one she had in July, just to get a feel for what happens. We loved that one, and was honoured to be asked to be a demonstrator for the September one (and rather nervous too - shhhh!).

But, I had no need to be so worried, the day was brilliant. I demonstrated how to make this bag.

I forgot to take a photo of the bag with the flower made from the Sizzix Fun Flowers but you can see the idea here. The card for the flowers, front & back of the bag are stamped using the Very Vintage wheel in Crumb Cake ink with Rich Razzleberry ink sponged around the flower petals.

The handles were made using the 1 1/4" Rich Razzleberry Striped Grossgrain Ribbon/ The handles are secured in place with brads, which are covered with tabs punched out of Rich Razzleberry cardstock using the Decorative Label Punch.

I made a similar bag here, but for the Dabble Day I wanted to simplify the design. The ladies did a brilliant job making thier bags and the day was manic. I was totally buzzing by the time I got home and just wish I could do the next one - unfortunately, its the Saturday before I go to Convention so I wont have the time to plan everything. Just hope that everyone enjoyed it and I get the chance to do another.

I need to get everything ready for my New Catalogue Launch Party now, so thanks for bobbing over to see me. Ill post details of my party in the next couple of days.

Jan
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New Catalogue Launch Party

2011-09-16T08:40:00.000+01:00

Good morning!

Are you ready for the weekend? I certainly am - its my first one 'off' for ages. I have lots of stuff to prepare for though so I am planning in front to try and get organised. I am doing a Dabble Day for Jean at Beighton, Sheffield next Saturday so have some card to prep then I have some bits to do for the launch of the new Stampin' Up! catalogue (woo hoo!!!).

New Catalogue Launch Party

I will be sending out formal invitations to all my past hostesses and customers - but if you would like to come along and see all the NEW goodies, email me so I can reserve you a seat.

Where & When

Doghill Community Centre

Shafton

Barnsley

10am to 1pm

There will be a free prize draw, previews of some of the new fa*** (oops, I nearly gave the game away there!!!) plus the most amazing change to the hostess benefits - you WILL NOT BELIEVE how good the new benefits package is for hostesses!!!

As I have some items I need to prepare for people who are coming to my launch party - I need to know if you are planning on coming. Please email me to let me know so I can get things ready for you.

I will also be putting some of my old Stampin' Up! stamps up for sale! So put the details in your diary and contact me ASAP so I can send you full details and directions.

Jan
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Update on Last Chance List, Photo Frames & Trinket Box

2011-09-09T17:44:00.000+01:00

Im glad this week is over and its the weekend - had lots of traveling around for work so Im glad for a bit of a rest.

Have you had the chance to look through the Last Chance List yet? The items are starting to sell out now so click here to see the ones that are still available. The items no longer available are:

Choo Choo

Sense of Time

Tart and Tangy

2010-2012 In Color Classic Stampin’ Ink Refills

Wild Wasabi 12″ x 12″ Card Stock

Riding Hood Red 12″ x 12″ Card Stock

Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper

Silver Elastic Cord

Antique Brass and Pewter Jumbo Eyelets

Star Punch

Afterthoughts [w]

Cute by the Inch [w]

These items are sold out and the rest of the products on the list can only be ordered before 30th September. So if you have your eye on something, dont leave it too late, email me now to order.

I thought I would show you the trinket box and a couple of matching photo frames I made for the Elsecar Craft Fairs (the next one is on 15th & 16th October!).

The box is one I bought from a local craft shop and I covered it with Springtime Vintage DS Paper. I had a piece of Rose Red cardstock left over from cutting out a Top Note mat and attached it to the box top - only attaching on three sides - to allow a photograph to be slotted between the layers. A long strip of Rose Red Seam Binding ribbon was gathered and attached around the top of the box lid.

The butterflies are die cut from Whisper White card using the Beautiful Butterflies die and then run through the big shot in the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder. They are then inked with Rose Red ink, mounted on dimensionals and basic pearls added to finish.

The two photo frames were made using acrylic frames and were just covered in the Springtime Vintage DSP.

Before I attached the DSP, I measured where it would fall on the frame and marked the centre front and ran it through the Big Shot using the Top Note to give me a nice apparture. A peice of Rose Red cardstock was secured behind to show through the apparture and then I just added more butterflies.

Hope you are doing something nice at the weekend.
Jan
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So Excited!

2011-09-04T11:35:00.001+01:00

Hope you are having a nice weekend?

I went to a Regional Training Event yesterday afternoon in Leeds organised by Stampin' Up! and was soooo excited by what we saw and did, I couldnt sleep properly last night - I was so giddy!!!

Unfortunately, I am sworn to secrecy as there are still other events organised around the country so I dont want to spoil all their surprises. All I can say is I cant wait to show you what goodies are coming in the new Ideas Book & Catalogue.

As I am so fired up with excitement, I have booked the room for my New Catalogue Launch Party. Its on Saturday 1st October from 10am to 1pm.

There will be a make and take, prize draw and demonstrations of some of the new products. So put the date in your diary, come along and bring a friend!

Anyway, enough of my excitement - here is a couple of photos of the swaps I made to exchange with the other demonstrators in Leeds.

This is one of the general ones.

And here is one mounted onto a Chocolate Chip card blank which also shows the dimension of the embossing.

I had planned to do something without any stamps as we wernt exactly sure which ones were going to retire. Instead I gambled on the fact that embossing folders & dies would stay in the new catalogue.

To begin, I tore Neutrals Ivory card into an oblong shape and then took my Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder and inked up one site in Crumb Cake ink before running it through the Big Shot. I did exactly the same using the Square Latice embossing folder on a slightly larger mat of Crumb Cake card and then mounted the Ivory card on top.

The butterflies were cut out using the Beautiful Butterflies die in Crumb Cake and Neutrals Ivory card and then embossed in the Perfect Polka Dots and Manhattan Flower folders and layered up. The butterflies were decorated with either Basic Pearls or Basic Rhinestones and then added to the bottom corner.

The last layer is a Chocolate Chip mat trimmed slightly smaller than a C6 card blank so the ladies can mount them if they like at a later date.

Ok, got to go now and look at the goodies we're getting soon - I think I may need to have a little word with the bank mananger...!

Thanks for visiting,
Jan
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Ps. For those who attended the Elsecar Craft Fair in August and were interested in our offer for the Starter Kit - I will still honour the offer until 24th Sept ****for ONE person ONLY**** For more details contact me ASAP. Once its gone, its gone...

Last Chance to Get Them!

2011-09-01T18:13:00.000+01:00

Its a sad day today.

Stampin' Up! have issued the Last Chance List which tells us which stamp sets are not going to be in the new catalogue. There are some old favourates in this one too - I am so sad to see them go, but they are making room for some fab new sets coming in October.

Here is a link to the Last Chance List. Dont forget, once they are gone, thats it - you wont be able to order them any more. So dont leave it too late to get in touch, email me now to get your order delivered.

Delivery is £4.95 regardless of the amount of your order - and if you have some friends who also want to order, let me know as we can split the cost of delivery if its all going to one address.

Birthday Pressies

2011-08-29T18:49:00.001+01:00

Crikey, I have been so busy this week - but none of it involved crafting (booo).

Lots of travelling around for work and then out to a barbecue on Saturday.

Yesturday we spent the day at Cadwell Park watching the British Superbikes in action. The weather wasnt too bad but it was so windy, heaven knows how they managed to wrestle their motorbikes around the circuit!

As I havent done any crafting, here is a picture of the items my friend Hazel made me for by birthday, and just look at the colour ORANGE!!! They look gorgeous on my mantlepiece (I keep forgetting to take them down...)

Thank you, Hazel - they are stunning!
Hope you have had a great weekend and thank you for taking the time to visit.

Jan
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And the Winners Are...!

2011-08-23T18:41:00.000+01:00

I think we have just about recovered from the craft fair at Elsecar. And WHAT A BRILLIANT time we had!!

We had lots of our lovely ladies come to see us (thank you ladies **waves**) plus other SU demonstrators, friends and family.

The fair was held over two days (the longest one we have done) but it was so much better than having to set up AND clear away all our items on the same day.

We are DEFINITELY doing the next one, so put 15th & 16th October in your diary and come and see us for a natter!!!

The winners of our prize draw were

First Prize - Tracey from Sheffield

Second Prize - Marilyn from Horbury

Third Prize - Denise from Rotherham

Well done ladies, hope you all enjoy your goodies!

Heres a picture of another of the decorated boxes. This one is made using Crumb Cake cardstock which has been distressed on the edges and then run through the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. I inked the raised areas of the embossing folder before running throught the Big Shot and glueing it to the box.

I ruffled the Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon before securing it to the edges of the lid and added a die cut Top Note shape which had been stamped with a sentiment from the Occasional Greetings stamp set (the edges were sponged to give a little definition).

The butterfly was die cut with the Beautiful Butterflies die with Crumb Cake cardstock and then stamped with the En Francais background stamp. The edges were sponged with ink and a little strip of Crumb Cake Seam Binding was added before the layers of the butterfly were secured to the box.

I loved this box and was gutted when someone bought it. Mind you I did well - it didnt sell until Sunday afternoon (partly because I kept hiding it!). I just hope its gone to a good home - sniff! I may just have to make some more...

Thank you for stopping by.

Jan

Elsecar Craft Fair

2011-08-20T18:40:00.001+01:00

Wow! Its been a brilliant day today. Me Sara & Joanne have a stand at the Elsecar Craft Fair and its been so much fun. Here is a picture of Sara at the stand this morning.

Come and see us tomorrow for a chance to enter our prize draw, make and take a card and see some fabby items up close & personal! Jan X

Getting Giddy

2011-08-19T17:32:00.009+01:00

I have had a shocking week at work this week and am soooooo glad its the weekend, yey!!! Me, Sara & Joanne have a stall at the craft fair at Elsecar tomorrow & Sunday so I am finally starting to chill out & look forward to some proper crafty chatting & a play with lots of new people. Hope you have a bit of spare time over the weekend to come an see us. We will have; - a prize draw - make and takes - some handmade items for sale plus a fantastic show SPECIAL OFFER. The show is FREE so bring your freinds & family for a lovely day out! Here is a photo of one of the items I will have for sale.

I bought the box from a craft shop and inked the edges and corners with Pear Pizzaz ink before decorating it to save having to fold the cardstock around the box & lid. The Whisper White cardstock was run through my Big Shot using the Square Lattice embossing folder, inked in Pear Pizzaz ink and then the edges were sponged in ink to soften them. A long length of Pear Pizzaz Seam Binding Ribbon was gathered and then adheared around the lid, then I added embossed butterflies cut from the Beautiful Wings die in Rich Razzleberry cardstock. The sentiment is from Just Believe and was stamped in Rich Razzleberry Ink onto Whisper White Cardstock. I punched the sentiment out using the Decorative Label Punch and then I used the punch twice on Rich Razzlebery card. These were then each cut in half to position them behind the sentiment and provide a coloured border around the sentiment. Sorry this post is a little rushed, I have everything to get ready for tomorrow! Hope you can come and see us for a little chat! Jan x

Desk Calendar & Memo Holder

2011-08-17T07:57:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post to show you one of the desk calendar & memo holders I made last week for the craft fair at Elsecar this weekend.

I bought the acrylic holder as part of a shared order from another demonstrator who arranged to buy lots of them and split them between myself and a number of other demos. I have mainly used them for holding small notices on stands at craft fairs until now, but I did make some calendars a while ago. Here is a photo from the side of the holder.

Newsprint DSP was used as a wrap to cover the whole of the acrylic holder with a shop bought calendar and part of a memo block secured to a mat of Basic Black cardstock. A loop of Basic Black Grossgrain ribbon was used behind the mat to hold the pen which was also decorated with the same DSP. The top of the memo block was decorated with mats of Basic Black cardstock & Newsprint DSP. Thanks for coming over to see me. Sorry its a short post! Jan x

Back to Work...

2011-08-14T19:08:00.001+01:00

The title says it all, I am back to work tomorrow after two weeks off. No more crafting, chilling out or just doing what I want - its back to the real world, sigh... I have even tidied up my craft room as it will be a while before I can play again.

But it was my birthday yesterday and I had the most amazing cards and pressies!

Here is the card my Mum made me. She hasn't been crafting very long and as she bought some flower punches the other day - she has obviously been practicing. She had mentioned that she was proud of the card she had made me but I got really emotional when I saw it - its beautiful.

Here is a card my Auntie Val made me - her parchment work is incredible and the colouring is stunning in real life.

Then there is this gorgeous card & pressie from the amazing Sara

She has all the information on her new website here.

And last but by no means least here is the card Joanne made me.

Can you spot a theme? Yep, lots of orange cards Woo Hoo! I love orange its such a bright, cheerful colour.

I had a lovely day too & also went out for a meal at one of our favourite restaurants La Fortezza in Wakefield. I was so full I couldn't even manage a sweet!

Well, thanks for bobbing over to see me, I will have some more photos of the items I have made for the craft fair at Elsecar soon.

Jan
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Mini Book for Craft Fair

2011-08-12T08:49:00.001+01:00

Hello!

I have had a fabby week, crafting! Yep, all week - just in my craft room, playing to my hearts content. Its been such a brilliant week.

Here is one of the many Mini Books I made for the craft fair (its only next weekend - eek!). The DSP, ribbon and flower are all retired products, but I used my new die cut alphabet set for the first time!

I have had a few die cut alphabet sets over the years but the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet is the PERFECT size for cards.

The images are from the All in the Family set which allows you to make your cards so personal. Every element is on a separate stamp so using the Stamp A Ma Jig you can 'build' the people with different hair styles, clothes, children & babies - theres also a cat & a dog in the set!!!

The basic photo album is of clear plastic with enough pages for about 36 pictures. I decorated all the inner pages with strips of DSP or stamped copy paper so you can make a cute little mini scrapbook with trimmed down photos.

I have lots of pictures to show you from all the stuff I have made so bob back soon for more sneeky peeks of some of the items I am taking to the craft fair.

Jan
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Whats been going on?

2011-08-08T08:54:00.000+01:00

I have been on holiday this week, but have been too busy to craft!!!
Its been a great week though, we went to Doncaster Wildliife Park on Wednesday and I have fall in love - with Vladimir..

Unfortunately, hes only two so I may have to wait a while before anything happens between us!! We had to go twice to see him awake - he was fast asleep until about half 4 but the wait was so worth it!

The lions from Romania have settled in now and have lots of space to play in.

Here is another cutie - a baby camel!

I also had my Big Shot class on Saturday, which was fab. Thank you for driving all the way over Hazel & Cheryl - it was a brilliant day!!! We went though LOADS of techniques using the Big Shot machine, including partial cuts, cutting different materials (card/paper, tin, chipboard etc) and embossing (general, frames, embossing ribbon, double embossing etc). Hope I didnt overload you with all the ideas ladies?!

Sunday was lovely too. I met up with my SU friends Sara & Joanne to go through what we need for the Elsecar Heritage Centre Craft Fair on 20th & 21st August.

The craft fair is FREE and will be a brilliant weekend. We are planning a prize draw, make and takes, live demonstrations and an unbeatable exclusive show offer on the Starter Kit!! So if you fancy finding out more, come and see us for a natter!

Jan x

Hidden Message for July Customers

2011-08-01T18:13:00.000+01:00

June and July have been great months for me as the two month Stampin' Up! promotion was a big one for Hostesses. Workshops for £250 meant an extra £20 in freebies - so £45 in FREE products PLUS a free stamp set.

I had THREE lovely hostesses who achieved it during the promotion too, well done Jean, Sue and Anne ***waves***!

As I give all the ladies who place an order with me a thank you card - there were quite a few this month!!

They look quite simple at first, but I made them so that there was a little hidden message behind the topper.

The flourish and text clear mount stamps from the Strength & Hope were mounted on a large clear block, stamped onto Pear Pizzaz card in Bravo Burgundy ink. As I was making so many cards, it was so quick to do as I had a sort of conveyor belt system for the stamping and just had to line the block up once to stamp both images.

The Hope image and Thanks {so much} from Tiny Tags were stamped in Bravo Burgundy ink onto Whisper White card and punched out with the Large Square and Medium Jewellery Tag punches.

The butterfly was stamped diagonally in Regal Rose onto Blushing Bride card and then two holes were made in the top and bottom of the card.

The Hope image was mounted on the diagonal onto a mat of Bravo Burgundy card and then the butterfly mat was layered over the top of the Bravo Burgundy mat a hole made for a gold brad to fit through both layers. The Thanks {so much} tag was added in the same way to the bottom of the Blushing Bride butterfly mat.

The topper was added to the Pear Pizzazz stamped mat and this was then secured to the Blushing Bride card blank. It was a really simple card to make, however making over twenty took a while to do!

Anyway, I would just like to say a massive thank you to my hostesses for June and July as they helped me to smash my sales target for the promotion - meaning I get extra freebies from Stampin' Up! too

Woo Hoo - I just lurve this job!

Thanks for stopping by
Jan
x

Beach Bag for Team Chat

2011-07-30T02:23:00.000+01:00

Hi there

A couple of weeks ago, some of our merry little team (Myself, Sara, Joanne & Hazel) met up for a natter and a play at Sara's house. Unfortunatley, Chrissi couldnt make it but I am sure we'll all meet up again soon.

Hazel hadnt met Joanne or Sara before, but it didnt take long for us all to get on like a house on fire. Lots of excitement talking about everything thats happening in the world of Stampin' Up!, craft shows and Convention (have I mentioned, I am going to Convention this year...?) Sorry - you will get a little tired of me mentioning it soon!

Here is a picture of the gift bag I made for each of them - its a really cute beach bag.

The main bag and the handles were made from two sheets of A4 cardstock so its a really nice size. If you would like more details on how to make the bag, just email me.

To decorate the beach bag I used a strip of Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper, mounted on a mat of Old Olive Card.

The flower is made from the Fun Flowers die, with each layer mounted on dimentionals. A couple of die cut leaves from the Leaves #2 die were added to the back of the flower before it was secured to the bag.

Cardstock - Bashfull Blue, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red & So Saffron.
Designer Series Paper - Greenhouse Gala
Accessories - Big Shot, Fun Flowers, Leaves #2, Round Tab Punch, Gold Brads.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jan
x

Mini Scrapbook

2011-07-27T02:39:00.000+01:00

Some of you may remember that in April this year me & my hubby celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary - where on earth did 25 years go...?

Anyway, we dont usually do photos but I managed to scrape a few together to include in a little scrapbook I made at a class with the lovely Joanne - you can see the details of it on Joannes blog here.

For my album I used a Simply Scrapping kit called Love Stories. Here is the main front cover

The inside of the front cover has a pocket for keepsakes - for mine, theres just going to be the two tags and I will do some journalling on them soon.

Each of the pages has a tag and the stickers from the kit look really nice on the tags, just adding that little extra touch.

I wont bore you all with the rest of the photos, but the scrapbook is lovely, I am so impressed with the items in the scrapping kits. I had only ever bought one of them before, but have 'collected' nearly all of them since making the album!!! Considering the amount of product included in the kits they are brilliant value and the quality is excellent.

Thanks for bobing over to see me!
Jan
x

Punched Animals Class

2011-07-24T12:21:00.000+01:00

Well, at long last, heres a photo of the cards from my Punched Animals Class from the beginning of July.

I used a class from Kim Score here but as some of the cardstock and papers she had used are now retired, I redid all the instructions for the cards.

As usual. we over ran a little (well, quite a lot actually!) but the ladies took away everything they needed to complete the 5 cards. Everything was included in the class - card, punches, ribbon, brads etc. I wont list all the punches & cardstock used as it would be a VERY long post!!!

My next class is going to be on using the Big Shot! I have been asked for this class by lots of people so if you would like to come, you will need to book your place early. Only by pre-booking can I save your seat.

The Big Shot Class is on the 6th August 2011 from 10am to 1pm. More details here.

Workshop - Christmas In July

2011-07-20T07:51:00.002+01:00

Sorry I havent updated my blog lately, I have been SO busy with everything I have hardly had time to think!

Anyway, here are the items I demonstrated in last nights workshop for Sue and all her LOVELY crafting friends. Thank you for making me so welcome ladies ***waves***. There was a great turn out for the workshop - I think the most I have had yet! - and Sue will get even more free products as she acheived the £250 target for this months Stampin' Up! promotion. Well done Sue!

Everyone made the card on the left hand side of the photo and I used the same colours as my last post - Rose Red, Perfect Plum and Very Vanilla. At there were quite a few ladies there I tried to keep the design really simple to make sure we kept on time.

The bauble (from Delightful Decorations) was stamped three times onto Very Vanilla card using Rose Red ink and then all three were punched out with the ornament punch. They were all scored once down the centre and creased then glue applied to attach them together. This allows the bauble to fold flat for posting but also it can be unfolded for display - really clever! It wasnt my design though, we made a similar one at a SU training session.

A Rose Red mat of card was torn along one edge and then attached to a strip of Very Vanilla. The Very Vanilla card was torn, following the same shape and then a strip of Very Vanilla ribbon tied around the mat.

To assemble, we stamped the sentiment on the top of the Perfect Plum card blank in Perfect Plum ink and the mat with the ribbon was glued on. The bauble was attached and then some silver elastic cord tied in a bow around the bauble.

The little box at the side is just a peice of A5 cardstock which has been scored to fold into a little bag. I demonstrated how to make the bag (and left the ladies the template so they could duplicate it!). Sorry, but I dont have a photo of the template, but I will try and update this post soon to show you how its made.

Inside were some little thank you gifts for the hostess as a thank you for arranging the night - hope you like them Sue?!

I would also like to thank the lovely Hazel for all her help last night - you were brilliant and I know that your open house tonight will be great!!! Good luck, Hazel.

I have some more items to add to my blog so will add them as soon as I get the chance. Also, we have a few events planned in the next few months so bob back for more details!

Thanks

Jan x

First Christmas Card!

2011-07-10T18:45:00.000+01:00

Hope you are having a nice weekend?

I had a lovely day yesterday. I met up with Sara for a little natter and then spent a couple of hours with Hazel (a very talented lady and a member of my new team). I was hoping to hold a training session with another of my team but unfortunately she couldn't make it.

Hope your workshop goes well, Hazel ***waves*** keeping my fingers crossed for you to get all those freebies!!!

Well, I thought I would have a play with a Christmas set today! I know, its only July but I haven't used this set since last year and I hadn't even inked the wheel up until today!!

The stamp set is Contempo Christmas and I also used the matching wheel. The card blank is Rose Red with a mat of Perfect Plum.

I stamped the 'Merry Christmas' from the set in the top corner using Perfect Plum ink then used the wheel with Rose Red ink in the cartridge (this allows longer runs of the wheel without running out of ink) on to some Very Vanilla card stock.

The bauble image from the set was inked in Rose Red ink and then I used my craft knife to cut out the centres of the pointed ovals. One thing I would recommend is if you are thinking of making lots of cards like this it takes a while...

The bauble was punched out using the Ornament Punch and then mounted on Perfect Plum card using dimensionals. I tied a bow using silver elastic cord and then put to one side.

The strip stamped with the wheel was mounted onto a mat of Perfect Plum card and then I added Chrystal Effects to fill the cut out areas and sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds glitter on before leaving to dry.

This was added to the card blank with the bauble added to finish.

Jan

Happy Birthday Anne!

2011-07-04T14:18:00.000+01:00

Oh, I have had a lovely weekend!!!

I had Friday off to get everything ready for the class on Saturday (hello ladies ***waves***).

The class was great fun and the ladies loved the punch art animals. I will post some photos of them soon.

On Sunday I finally got round to making a mini album of the photos we took in April when we renewed our wedding vows. As I havent done any scrapbooking for ages it was lovely to sit and chill whilst looking at the pictures & it brought all the feelings back.

Today has been another day off (I have been so ready for a break from work I can tell you!). And I have just been chilling out with my Mum & her sister, my Auntie Val. Anyway, enough of me rambling on! Here is a couple of picures of a birthday card I made for the lovely Anne, not just one of my customers, but a real friend too.

The outer petals are punched out of Perfect Plum card using the Decorative Label punch - trimmed to a point at one end and then curled using a bone folder. The next row of petals were cut in half and then trimmed and curled similar to the first ones.

You might not be able to tell from the photos but the third row of Perfet Plum petals were punched out with the Curly Label Extra Large punch and then curled into a cone shape before being secured in the centre of the flower.

To cover the centre I punched 6 Scalloped Circles out of Whisper White card and punched a hole through the centre. I sprayed them (very lightly) with water, then scrunched them each into a tiny ball. Whilst they were still wet, I threaded a brad throught the centre hole and arranged them so they looked like a carnation.

Once dry, I glued the 'carnation' into the centre of the flower and sprayed with Shimmer List to give it some sparkle and then attached it to the card blank (Melon Mambo with a mat of Whisper White card). The mat was randomly stamped with Purfect Plum ink using the little flourish from Tiny tags and the sentiment is from a lovely set called Curly Cute.

If you would like some instructions on how to make the flowers, please contact me. I cant remember the name of the ladies blog I saw some similar flowers on - If you have seen it, please let me know so I can giver her credit.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jan
x

Welcome to the Colour Coach Blog Hop!

2011-07-01T09:30:00.001+01:00

Hello!!!

Welcome to the Colour Coach Blog Hop! There are 2 groups of 12 ladies taking part in this event so hopefully, you will get lots of inspration on putting colours together - something I used to struggle with all the time.

The Hop goes fully live at 10am so all the links should be up an running shortly afterwards. Group 1 starts here with Anthea and group 2 here with Emily.

Hopefully, you will have arrived here from Vicky's blog here.

Here is a set of coordinating gift cards I have made using a colour scheme I would never have dreamt of using without the help of the Colour Coach - Cajun Craze, Perfect Plum and Always Artichoke.

I used the inlaid embossing technique and my Square Lattice embossing folder which gives fabulous texture on the cardstock. Some of the hearts were cut and embossed using the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslits die - its is the first time I have used it (I rarely do romantic cards) but it is so sweet.

For this card I used the Embosslit folder to cut out the heart from Whisper White card and then added a strip of Perfect Plum card before running it card through the Lattice embossing folder and Bog Shot. I added a strip of Organza ribbon around the area with the Perfect Plum strip and then mounted it using dimensionals onto a mat of Always Artichoke card.

I attached a couple of Cajun Craze hearts cut using the embosslits die, again mounting on dimensionals, and then secured it to a mat of Always Artichike and the Cajun Craze card blank. To finish I added basic pearls and a couple of punched jewelery tags to the know of the ribbon.

For this card I used the offcuts of card from using the embosslits die - the outside of one of the Cajun Craze hearts from the first card and the peice of Whisper White heart.

Two Always Artichoke hearts were punched out and attached to the whisper white card with a strip of Perfect Plum card. This was then run through the Big Shot using the Lattice Embossing folder similar to the first card.

I realised that the Full Heart punch shape was slightly smaller than the embosslits shape so I secured it behind the Cajun Craze card, to leave a very thin border, and added a flower brad and two tiny tags. To work out where to attach the whisper white heart I positioned the Cajun Craze & Perfect Plum off cut heart on the card glued the whisper white heart in place then mounted the off cut heart on dimensionals directly above.

A peice of whisper white 1/8" taffeta ribbon was wrapped around the mat before attaching to the Cajun Craze card blank.

This was the quickest and easiest of the cards with hearts punched from Perfect Plum and Always Artichoke card and attached to the top left and bottom right of the whisper white card before running through the lattice embossing folder. A piece of Cajun Craze card was cut using the Heart ot Hearts embosslits die and then mounted onto the whisper white card.

The sentiment is from Fresh Cuts and was stamped onto Whisper White card and then punched with the Curly Label Punch. Two Always Artichoke shapes were punched out with the Curly Label punch, with both cut in half - these were glued to the back of the whisper white sentiment, with a little of the green showing to provide a border.

The mat was attached to a slightly larger peice of Always Artichoke card and a strip of organza ribbin attached to the corner before securing it to the Cajun Craze card blank.

The last card was made in the same way as the previous one, but the hearts postioned to the top section. The border at the bottom was just made by punching along the strip continuously with the Curly Label punch.

The sentiment, again was made in a similar way to the previous one, but just one Always Artichoke punch (cut in half) was used. I attached this to a Perfect Plum shape punched using the Decorative Label punch. Two tiny basic pearls were added to finish off.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my crafty rambling!? I will now pass you over to Emily's blog here for you to continue your cyberspace tour.

Thank you for 'hopping' over to see me.
Jan x

Colour Coach Blog Hop!

2011-06-29T08:29:00.000+01:00

Are you having trouble deciding what colours to use in your projects?

Not sure what colours work together?

Want some inspiration?

Come back to my blog on Friday 1st July for masses of inspiration on colour from ladies who are part of a Stampin' Up! forum called In Love With Stamping. There are 25 blogs to look through so theres bound to be something you see that inspires you to use colours that you never dreamed would go together.

One of the fab tools Stampin' Up! have is called the Colour Coach which helps you see what colours work together. Theres also a selection of examples to take all the hard work out of deciding which colours to use in your projects.

Basically, each person on the Blog Hop has chosen a colour combination from the Colour Coach and made a project to show you what the colours look like together.

Want to see the Colour Coach in action? Email me for information.

Jan
x

Punched Animals Class

2011-06-25T22:06:00.002+01:00

I am holding a class on Saturday 2nd July and here is a very sneaky peek of the cards we will be making.

We will make five cards using Stampin' Up! punches to make a hippo, giraffe, ostrich, zebra and crocodile.

The cost of the class is £15 per person, however if you bring a friend you both get a reduction to £12 each.

The class is to be held at the Doghill Community Centre, Shafton, Barnsley.

All materials are included in the price, as well as refreshments and room hire. The class starts at 10 am and should finish around 1pm - however, I suggest you bring some lunch just in case we over run!!!

Booking is essential to attend the class, please email me ASAP to book your place.
Jan
x

Customer Thank You Cards & Workshop Basket

2011-06-25T07:47:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I held a workshop for Jean at Busy Bees in Sheffield and for the make and take we made a little basket - its made from a peice of card 7 1/2" square and went down a storm. I have heard that there are now hundreds of them taking over the area now!!!

Once the card for the basket has been cut, the off cut is just big enough to make a matching card so I made all the ladies who ordered a litte thank you card to match the basket they made on the day. Here is a photo of them together.

To make the basket, take the 7.5" square peice of card (here we used Rich Razzleberry card) and score at 2.5" and 5", turn the card 90 degrees and score again at 2.5" and 5". Fold and crease the score lines then turn the card over and score from where the score lines cross to the corner of the card, creasing these too.

The Crop a Dile was used to punch little holes near the corners and ribbin was threaded through to pull all the corners together.

The box was decorated with 2" squares of River Rock cardstock stamped with the flourish from the Vintage Vogue stamp set. The flower which was stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink onto Whisper White card and cut out. Basic pearls were added to the centre before adding onto the River Rock squares to finish.

I sent the cards to all the ladies who placed an order with me this month as a little thank you but I dont write on the card - so they can use the card again if they like! Heres a photo of the cards as they were ready to be sent.

Ok, have to start getting ready for my class next week - we're going to do some punched animals - No animals will be hurt in this class!!! They are SOOOOOO CUTE - Check back later for more information...

Hope you have a nice weekend!
Jan

Another Birthday - This time its Jeans!

2011-06-19T11:02:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying the weekend?

I had a lovely day yesterday as a lovely lady called Hazel, signed up to join SU as an Independant Demonstrator with me - Hello Hazel!! **waves**. Hazel joins me with Chrissi in our little team and has made some beautiful cards. I know that she will absolutely love being a demo. Shhhh, don't tell her but I have some pressies I will be giving her as a little thank you!

I was so excited I managed to do all my ironing last night (I can always think of better things to do - so there was about 3 months worth!!!) but the good thing is, I have some clothes to wear now! So feel even better.

Anyway, back to the crafting. It was Jeans birthday on Thursday (one of my lovely customers - and friend!). I made the card before her birthday, but realised that I couldn't risk it getting squashed by putting it in the post. So I bobbed it through to her yesterday.

Here is the card

I attached a strip of Woodland Walk DSP to the Wild Wasabi card blank and then wrapped a piece of Certainly Celery Striped Grosgrain Ribbon around a mat of Melon Mambo card, adding it onto the card blank.

The pansies are made by punching out two butterflies (Butterfly Extra Large punch) from Shimmery White cardstock, spraying them until they are totally covered in water and then using an aqua painter to add tiny drops of reinker to the edges. The ink instantly mixes with the water and spreads like magic over the card. I used Melon Mambo to the outer edges and then a tiny drop of Daffodil Delight to the centre.

I left them to dry, drew thin 'veins' to the centre of each shape and then curved the shapes with my bonefolder and piercing tool before adding a brad through the centre. They look so sweet and watching the ink spread is amazing - but be prepared - its messy!!!

The sentiment is from Perfect Punches and I just stamped it in Melon Mambo ink onto Whisper White card and cut it out really close to the oval. Then I punched out an Oval Extra Large shape and mounted it behind on dimentionals to give a bit of depth.

Heres a picture from the side.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post today. I will be posting information on my next class shortly - its going to be using some of the punched animals we made at the Stamptacular - there is a Hippo, Crocodile, Giraffe (he is Soooooo cute) plus an Ostrich and a Zebra.

We didnt make all of the animals at the Stamptacular and those who came to the Stamptacular will get a reduced rate for coming to the class! You will get full detailed instructions and all materials.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Jan
x

Happy Birthday Sara!

2011-06-10T17:38:00.001+01:00

Its my SU 'Mum' Sara's birthday today and, breaking with tradition, I managed to remember a couple of weeks ago AND got her card to her in plenty of time. I am so proud of my self - its normally a mad rush the day before for any birthday cards I need to make!!!

Heres a picture of her card - thankfully, she likes the distressed effect!

I used one of her favourate colours, Baja Breeze for the card blank and ink on the flower. And as they love to travel, I used the map DSP from the Newsprint set for the flower.

A mat of Newsprint DSP (lined paper) was stamped with the Sanded background stamp and the edges darkened using Soft Suede ink and a sponge dauber. Then I inked the large image from Notably Ornate in Stazon ink and stamped onto the mat.

Then I used the Texture Wheel with Versamark ink and clear embossing powder to heat emboss some texture onto the mat. Once this cooled I inked the edges more with Early Espresso do give a bit more contrast.

The flower was cut from the Sizzix Fun Flowers die and the edges curled before mounting with dimentinals and a button added to the centre. The little tags attached to the button are from the Tiny Tags set and punched out with the Medium Jewelery tag punch.

To finish off I stamped the bird from Notably Ornate on the top corner of the mat, punched a thin strip of Very Vanilla card with the Eyelet Border punch, attaching it to the opposite side and then secured the flower.

Well, thats all from me today. Sorry, but I have to prepare for a large workshop tomorrow in Sheffield in the morning. But I will bob back to update you with things again soon.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend
Jan
x

Faux Suede Card for Chrissi

2011-06-03T21:10:00.000+01:00

It was the lovely Chrissi's birthday yesterday and here is the card I sent her. Unfortunatley, I took the photo with my mobile phone and the lights not that good so you cant see the faux suede effect too well.

I used the Blossom Petals punch to make the flower and leaves with the 3/4" circle punch for the centre, adding dots and lines of detailing with a Rose Red marker.

The sentiment is from Afterthoughts, a Level 1 free hostess set. I just highlighted 'Just for You with my Rose Red marker, leaving the rest of the stamp (...so you dont have to share) uninked. I stamped it onto a mat of Whisper White which had been die cut using the Top Note die.

I used a Regal Rose card blank and added a length of Rose Red Seam Binding Ribbon onto a strip of Designer Series Paper from Springtime Vintage. Then the Top Note mat was attached with the petals and leaves arranged on top.

Well thats it for now. Hope you have a great weekend.
Jan
x

Workshop Promotion - Ooooo its a good one!!!

2011-06-01T19:40:00.000+01:00

Wow, the June promotion form Stampin' Up! has been announced and its a beauty...

Host a workshop or place an order in June or July for over £250 (not including shipping) and get an

EXTRA £20 in FREE PRODUCTS

So you could get a free Level 1 stamp set plus £45 in FREEBIES

How good is that!!?

There's also a cracking bonus for demontrators, so its a fantastic time to join and get EVEN MORE for your money. Contact me for more information.

Jan x

2011-05-29T19:04:00.002+01:00

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend?

This is my first weekend off for over 5 weeks so I have finally been having a proper play in my craft room.

A few weeks ago I took my Mum to a shop near Sheffield where the lovely Julie was doing some demonstrations using distress inks and I have finally been able to sit and do the same techniques but using Stampin' Up! products - and they work!!

I dont know why I thought that they wouldnt - they are waterbased, so theres no reason for them not to. I havent done that much distressing with inks for the last couple of years so it was fantastic to play and get really messy. Heres one of the cards I made.

I took a piece of Botanical Gazette Designer Series Paper and used the Freindly Words Wheel in Early Espresso ink along the bottom. Then I wheeled a couple of times over the entire piece in Versamark ink using the Texture Wheel (I am now in love with this wheel!!!) and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The sides of the paper were torn and distressed and then I used sponge daubers to apply Early Espresso and Marina Mist ink, gradually blending the edges. The embossed areas from the Texture Wheel are protected from the ink, giving a gorgeous mottled effect.

The DSP was then mounted on a mat of Early Espresso card which was torn slightly larger than the DSP and the edges on two corners curled (you could use a coctail stick, but I used a round file from my Distressing Essentials kit). This was then mounted on a Marina Mist card blank.

I inked the edges of a die cut butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies and then stamped it with the En Francias background stamp in Early Espresso ink. A line of basic pearls was placed down the centre and it was attached to the card.

To finish off I used my Tiny Tags set and the Medium Jewelery Tag punch, attaching the tags with linen thread.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a lovely weekend.

Jan
x

Stamptacular Pics

2011-05-25T18:04:00.000+01:00

Wow, what a fantastic day we had on Sunday!!!

The Stamptacular was so much fun, but I must admit, we were shattered at the end.

We did a purse with matching cards and tags, a gorgous chocky bar holder and matching card, some card toppers with punched animals and a little folded brag book using a sheet of 12x12 paper.

Everyone attending got a Fine Flourish background stamp and a pack of Basic Pearls in their goody bag, along with everything they needed for the projects. We also provided a light lunch to keep everyones strength up!

Heres a picture of the sample cards I made for the punched animals.

I am sure Sara will post some of her photos soon - you will love them, they're gorgeous.

If you would like more information on the projects, just contact me.
Jan

Sneek Peek for the Stamptacular...

2011-05-20T17:53:00.001+01:00

Heres a little sneak peek at one of the projects that we'll be making at Sunday's Stamptacular. In the card at the front you'll see that we're using the Fine Flourish background stamp. Everyone who attends the Stamptacular will get a goodie bag that includes this fabulous stamp along with another surprise item!

It's not too late to book but we do need to hear from you very soon, so that we can make sure that we cater for enough people. The cost of the day is £30 for a single ticket or 10% each place booked when when you bring a friend. More details about the day are on Sara's blog here.

Have a great weekend.

Jan
x

SUDSOL Blog Hop & Stamptacular

2011-05-17T17:01:00.001+01:00

Just a very quick post to let you know that Sara is taking part in the SUDSOL Blog Hop today.

SUDSOL stands for Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing On Line, a 24 hour network of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. The ladies are located in the US, Australia & Europe and there are some gorgeous projects on the blogs so grab a cuppa and settle down for some real inspiration!

The other thing I wanted to mention is there are still some places left on the Spring Stamptacular that myself and Sara are holding THIS SUNDAY, 22nd May.

You need to book and pay in advance to enable us to provide the food, refreshments and all your items for your goody bag!!! So dont delay BOOK NOW to avoid disappointment.

Jan
x

I'm Sorry!

2011-05-15T18:35:00.001+01:00

Its been a week since I posted anything but I have been a 'bit busy' lately. I wont bore you with all the details but I have been designing and making wedding favours for a commission I got from a local craft fair. The lady is going to decorate the boxes herself to match her invitations so you can see the ones I made for her lower down this post.

Then I sorted the silk flowers for my neices wedding this Friday. I am not posting the photos until after the wedding so bob back in a couple of weeks to see them!

I managed to have a play this this afternoon and made a one of the favour boxes using the same colours just to see what they looked like. Heres the one I made.

I used two die cut milk cartons for the box and joined them together to make a tall box. Heres a couple of photos of how I did it. The first shows the two cut boxes.

This one shows where I joined them.

As you can see, you get upto about an inch across the middle of the box where you can adjust the height of the finished box - you just have to make sure that you line them up properly!

I used one of the flourish stamps from Tiny Tags and stamped randomly in Early Espresso Ink on the Very Vanilla cardstock before folding on the score lines and assembling the box. A 1" strip of Early Esspresso card was run through my Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder and attached to cover the join in the box.

To decorate I stamped the flowers from Punch Potpourri (Level 1 Hostess Set) and punched them out, attaching some Basic Rhinestones to the centres. The 'love' and Mr & Mrs' stamps from Tiny Tags were stamped and punched out before being attatched to each end of some Very Vanilla 1/8" Taffeta ribbon and a bulldog clip from the Clips Assortment was used to keep the top of the box closed.

Here is a photo of some of the boxes I made for the commission.

Ok, I have to go now and do some more preparation for our Stampacular. Oh, its going to be FAB, I cant wait...

Jan
x

Strength and Hope

2011-05-08T12:39:00.002+01:00

I have decided - I need to win the lottery! There just arent enough hours in the day for all the playing I want to do.

I have been getting ready for mine and Saras Spring Stamptacular this week (I can't post any pictures, you will just have to come and see on the day!!! ) Heres a link to Saras blog with all the joining details and payment info.

Lots of other things have been happening too, we changed estate agents last week, and had someone come to view the house on Friday (mad rush needed to tidy my craft room - eek!!!). They need to sell their house too so it may still be a while before anything happens, but they were very impressed with the house.

I had to cancel the Crop and Vintage Vogue Class I had planned at the local Community Centre on Saturday as they had to have a new kitchen fitted. So I went to a demo day at a craft shop in Sheffield, that the amazing Julie was demoing at and met some brilliant ladies - HELLO *waves*!

Anyway, heres a picture of a card I made a while ago for my Mini Catalogue launch party.

I used my Big Shot machine and the Beautiful Butterflies die to cut out the large butterfly from Bashfull Blue card and embossed it with the Manhattan Flower embossing folder. Then I ran a strip of Bashfull Blue cardstock through my Big Shot using the Square Lattice folder and gently rubbed my Marina Mist inkpad over the raised areas of both the strip and the butterfly.

The butterfly from the Strength and Hope stamp set was stamped in Marina Mist ink onto a mat of Whisper White card - making sure that the antenna from one of the stamped images was going to sit where the large die cut butterfly was going to be. Then the embossed strip of Bashfull Blue card was attached to the bottom of the mat of Whisper White card and a strip of Marina Mist Grossgrain ribbon wrapped around before securing it to the Marina Mist card blank

The body of the butterfly was made using the Word Window punch and trimming to a point at the bottom and I used a 1/2" circle punch to make the shape to define the head and body. Basic Rhinestones were placed along the body before attaching it to the butterfly.

For the sentiment, I stamped the Hope stamp in Marina Mist onto Bashfull Blue card and punched out with the Curly Label Extra Large punch. I used this punch again on a peice of Marina Mist card and cut it in half, attaching to the back, but slightly over the edge of the Bashfull Blue card then attached it along with the butterfly, to the finished card.

Right, I have to go now and do some samples for a possible commission for some wedding favours from a lady I met at our local craft fair in March. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Jan
x

Its Back - Spring Stamptacular 2011!

2011-05-02T21:18:00.001+01:00

Due to popular demand, myself and Sara are holding another Stamptacular event, a full day of crafting goodness, goodiness and maybe a little giddyness!

Where and when?

10:30 - 15:30

Sunday 22 May

at St Saviour’s Church Hall

(postcode S35 3HS but please note that it is next door to the Parish Council meeting rooms located at the junction of Mortomley Lane and Pack Horse Lane)

How much?

£30

Prices held! We have kept them at the same level as last year’s introductory offer:

Bring a friend and you both get 10% off, reducing the price to just £27 each!

Price includes:

Goodie bag

3 complete projects with full demonstration and printed instructions

All materials needed

Bonus project to complete on the day or take away

A light lunch (please advise of any dietary requirements)

Refreshments throughout the day

Prizes

... and more!

Booking Essential

Spaces are limited and will be allocated on receipt of payment. Bookings are

non-refundable but if after booking, you find cannot attend, we will send you

your goodie bag complete with all project materials.

How do I book?

Please email Sara to book. Please note that their are two options; single rate and reduced, Bring a Friend rate. To get the reduced, Bring a Friend rate you will need to purchase both tickets at the same time, using the drop down menu.

If you would like more information, please contact me.

Jan

Easter Bunny Lolly Holder

2011-05-01T21:48:00.000+01:00

Woo Hoo, another Bank Holiday!!!

Its been a great one for me too, I went to my first Zumba class on Thursday evening and spent most of the time giggling whilst trying to keep up with everyone. I think I did ok and am looking forward to going again.

Friday was nice too, like most people I watched the Royal Wedding and chilled out in the afternoon. Then yesterday I had my first bicycle ride in about 30 years! And it was a long one - 10 MILES!!! I am struggling to move today though, and even sitting down is proving to be challenging...

Today has been brilliant too, Sara and Chrissi came round for a crafty morning and we have been working out the projects for our next Stamptacular. Its on 22nd May and there will be loads of projects, freebies, prize draws and crafting. So if you fancy a day of fun with some lovely ladies, please contact me or Sara for more details or to book.

As I have been quite busy, I forgot to post a photo of the make & take project for my last workshop. We had a theme of Punched Animals and as it was the day before Good Friday, we just had to have this cutie.

He's really easy to make using Stampin' Up punches. The colours are Pink Pirouette, Always Artichoke, River Rock, Whisper White & Basic Black. For more information on how to make him just contact me.

Hope you have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by.
Jan
x

Vintage Vogue Class 1pm to 4pm 7th May 2011

2011-04-27T18:24:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post to let you know about my next class. Its using the gorgeous Vintage Vogue stamp set and will be an intermediate level class lasting 3 hours.

Date & Time 7th May, 1pm to 4pm.

We will make a gift bag and four matching cards which fit inside.

As it is a three hour class, the cost is £15 which covers the cost of the room hire, all materials and refreshments. There are limited places available and in order to attend, you will need to prebook and prepay. If you prepay and are for any reason, unable to attend, you will recieve the full kit and instructions on how to make the cards and bag.

Please contact me as soon as possible if you would like to attend.
Jan
x

St Georges Day!

2011-04-23T14:14:00.000+01:00

I have just been listening to the radio and heard that its St Georges Day - why dont we make more of this (like St Patricks Day in Ireland & St Davids Day in Wales)?

Anyway, I did a workshop on Thursday (Hi ladies *waves*) and as I was asked to do some punched animals for the evening, I looked at some sites on the internet and came across Kim Score here. She has some fabby ideas and this was one of the first ones I tried.

I love them - and they were really easy to make with the Stampin' Up! punches. I made some other punched freinds and will post them some other time, I just wanted to do 'my bit' to celebrate St Georges Day!!!

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Happy Easter!!!
Jan
x

Mums Day Card

2011-04-20T19:08:00.000+01:00

Ooops!
I forgot to post this picture of my Mums Mothers Day card - what am I like!?

As those of you who know my Mum, she has a teeny bit of a problem with glitter. Well, a big problem actually - in fact, I have to hide it from her to stop her bathing in it!!! You think I am joking - I'm not.

Here's the photo.

I inked and then covered the chipboard letters from the On Board Alphabet Soup set and then covered them fully in Tombow glue and Champagne Glass Glitter. These letters are the perfect size for cards and there are lots in the pack.

The card blank is a sheet of A4 shimmery white which has been folded in half. I just randomly stamped the flower from Happiness Shared in Stazon ink and watercoloured them using my aqua painters and ink pads in Pretty in Pink, Rose Red and Old Olive.

The ribbon is gathered by pulling on a few central strands and attaching to a strip of Old Olive card which had been punched using the Scallop Trim boarder punch. I used the punch on the front edge of the card blank then added the ribbon strip and glittered letters.

Can you see the little butterflies? These are fabulous - I just had to get this die as soon as I saw the detailing on it. The die is called Beautiful Wings and it cuts the shape AND embosses!

As you can imagine, my Mum LOVED the glitter - and I do admit, I liked the glitter that much I have just bought it in another colour, Baja Breeze.

The problem I have with glitter is that I end up wearing it for days after using it. Plus, there is a trail of glitter in the house which just wont go. The new Glass Glitter though is really chunky - and controllable! So I can play with it and there's no evidence. LOL

Hope you are enjoying all the sunshine.

Jan
x

Bright Gerbera

2011-04-15T18:57:00.000+01:00

Hi there.

Its the weekend and earlier today I decided to have a proper play over the next few days (yes!!!). Trouble is, my DH has just come home from work and has bought me a little present. Its got two wheels, 18 gears - but no engine (sob). Yes, he has got me a bicycle, and as the weather looks like it'll be nice, my little plan may have to be put on hold for a while.

Anyway, as I haven't been able to do any crafting this week (its very inconsiderate that I have to go to work!) here is a picture of a card I made for my Mini Catalogue Launch Party.

I don't normally do bright colours but after seeing a video on how to make gerberas using the new Flower, Daisies #2 die I just had to have a go - and the colours just seemed to come to me. Here is the design of the die - it has three different sizes of petal circles so will be so adaptable.

I used the die in my Big Shot (or Bess as we like to call her!) to cut 3 of the larger petals, two of the medium and two of the small - all out of Delightful Daffodil delight card. Then I cut another small one in Early Espresso, trimming the petals to about half their original length.

All of the petal circles were shaped to curl by using my bone folder and then mounted in size order. The circle centre was just punched out of a scrap piece of Early Espresso and mounted on a dimentional.

The card blank is an A5 sheet of Tempting Turquoise and I cut - yes, I know - I cut into some of the new Sweet Stitches DSP!! Not only that, but I used my paper peircer and guide to do the tiny holes along the top and the bottom of it! I did have to sit down to recover afterwards.

A thin strip of Pretty in Pink card was punched using the Scallop Edge Border and added to the bottom of the DSP before securing it onto the card blank. Once the flower was mounted onto the card, it really took shape (if you pardon the pun) and almost looks real!

For the sentiment, I stamped 'Thank You' (from the Just Believe stamp set) in Early Espresso ink onto Daffodil Delight card and punched it out with the Large Oval punch and added a tiny basic pearl before mounting it onto a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock punched using Decorative Label Punch.

OK, off to 'admire' my new toy - DH had better get ready for some serious complaining when I am out on my new bike!! I wonder where I can buy a balaclava from...

Anyway, have a fab weekend! - and don't think of me, peddling frantically along, trying to look healthy...

Jan
X

Baby Blossoms

2011-04-10T15:11:00.001+01:00

Hi there!

Its been lovely and sunny and thoughts of the summer came to me the other day whilst I was playing in my craft room. The Baby Blossoms set is in the new Mini Catalogue and has cute little roses, freesia, leaves and tiny blossoms.

The tiny roses are really sweet and remind me of an old set we used to have called 'A Rose is a Rose'. I made the upper panel using the Baby Blossoms set and the One Sheet Wonder technique on Whisper White cardstock. Inks used were So Saffron, More Mustard, Certainly Celery and Old Olive.

I used a So Saffron card blank with mats of More Mustard and Cajun Craze. The bevelled window pane is held in place by the ribbon and has a small square of Whisper White card, stamped with images from Baby Blossoms to match the main panel. As this didnt stabd out quite as much as I wanted, I punched a Decorative Label Extra Large Punch shape from Cajun Craze, cut it straight through the centre and glued it under the bevelled window, as close to the ribbon as I could get it.

To finish off, I stamped the flourish image from the Strenth and Hope set on the More Mustard mat with Cajun Craze ink.

The bevelled window frames were a real surprise - you dont really appreciate what a difference they make until you use them. Its almost as though they magnify whatever is behind them. They are so nice, I ordered more the other day (you might get sick of seeing them if I am not careful!!!)

Hope you are enjoying the weather. Thanks for stopping by.
Jan x

New Catalogue Launch Party & Competition Result

2011-04-08T08:23:00.000+01:00

I think I have recovered now from my hectic week. As promised, heres a picture of the items from my launch party last Saturday. All the items were covered in a table cloth to stop people sneeking a look before the party started.

It was brilliant (thanks ladies) and no one peeked under the table cloth before they were supposed to either!!!

Everyone received a little goody bag which you can see on the table - the pink square bags with the rose red butterflies and H toppers on. Inside, there were samples of the new ribbons, die cut shapes and stamped images. If you want to get a goody bag - I have a few spare ones, and will offer them as prizes for workshops booked in April. So contact me to book yours now.

Also, I held a competition a few weeks ago to celebrate it being 2 years since I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. And the winner is...
.
.
.
.
.
Kim, **Yey!!!***

Hope you have a fab weekend.
Jan
x

Wow

2011-04-06T08:25:00.000+01:00

What a MEGGA Week.

I havent had much of a chance to update my blog as its been a really busy week for me.

On Saturday, I held our Barnsley Crop and New Catalogue Launch Party and it was brilliant - thanks Ladies *waves*. I hire a room in a local community centre and set up our usual area as normal, then had a separate table set up with lots of samples and some of the new products. I used a couple of table cloths to cover the new stuff and everyone was really good - no peeking, at all! All the ladies left with goody bags and examples of ribbon/stamps (I will post pictures in the next few days).

We had our Silver Wedding yesterday so we renued our wedding vows and went out for a lovely meal. It was a last minute thing really as my DH isnt the most romantic soul and wasnt too keen on any fuss, but it was beautiful - I dont know how I stopped myself from blubbering during the service.

We received lots to pressies and some stunning cards. I told Ian not to buy a card (I havent converted him into making them yet...) so I made a joint card for us both. Here it is.

The card blank is an A4 sheet of Baja Breeze, folded in half. I stamped our names in Versamark onto Shimmery White cardstock using the Monogram Sweet Alphabet and heat embossed with silver embosssing powder. The numbers from Schoolbook Serif, and 'years' from the Just Perfect set were all stamped and heat embossed in the same way. Thank goodness for the Stamp-A-Ma-jig - I would have been stumped without it for this card!!!

The hearts were punched out of the Bride Specialist Cardstock (now retired) using the Full Heart Punch with a tiny bow added to one, and Basic Pearls to the other. I used the Scallop Trim Border punch on a strip of Baja Breeze cardstock and added the punched hearts. This was then mounted on some more Bride cardstock.

I trimmed a strip of Baja Breeze cardstock and used the Scallop Trim Border punch along one edge and wrapped strips of Whisper White Organza ribbon and silver elastic cord around it before mounting on more Bride cardstock.

I used the Scallop Trim Border on the top and bottom of the Shimmery White cardstock and then assembled everything onto the Baja Breeze card blank. To finish off, I stamped the 'friends' and 'love' from the Tiny Tags set and punched out with the Medium Jewelry Tag punch and added the bow.

Thanks for stopping by, I will post pictures of the samples of the items from my Launch Party in the next few days.

Jan
x

Here it is.... THE MINI CATALOGUE!

2011-04-01T08:10:00.001+01:00

You would not believe how long I have wanted to share this. The new Mini Catalogue is the BEST EVER - and we not only have the Big Shot (Woo Hoo!) but we also have exclusive dies plus the Owl Punch!!!

Just click here to view the catalogue on line, or here to see a printable copy!!!.

And, if you would like to see some of the items, up close and personal - I am having a Mini Catalogue Launch Party tomorrow. Its at the Doghill Community Centre, Shafton near Barnsley from 1pm to 3pm and you are invited!!! So bring a friend and see all the scrummyness in real life.

We will have some prize draws, goody bags and of course - Chocolate!

Please email me for directions on the venue , or if you cant make it on the day, but would like to place an order.

Hope to see you on Saturday!
Jan
x

Invitation to Mini Catalogue Launch Party

2011-03-28T10:00:00.002+01:00

Hello!

Here is a quick post to invite you to my Mini Catalogue Launch Party on Saturday 2nd April.

It starts at 1pm and finishes at 3pm and you will get so see some of the fabby new products from the new Mini. I cant tell you anything about the actual products until the 1st April (otherwise I would have to shoot you!) but I LOVE them.

As we are having our monthly Crop in the morning its going to be a brilliant day, lots of fun and crafting with a lovely bunch of ladies. The Crop starts at 10am and we have a technique club too!

So if you fancy coming to see everything, please do - you will be made more than welcome. There will be refreshments (and chocolate!) with some prize draws and other little goodies...

Jan
X

Thank You Cards for Customers

2011-03-27T19:28:00.001+01:00

I have had a lovely crafty weekend. Yesterday, I did a Craft Fair at our local church, St Peters at Felkirk and today I have been having a proper play with all my new toys to get ready for my Mini Catalogue Launch Party. YEY!!! Also, here's a picture of the cards I made for all the ladies who placed an order with me this month.

The little square envelope near the bottom of the card opens to reveal a little message.

I stamped the outline flowers from Fast and Fabulous (which is a level 2 hostess set) in black Stazon onto Shimmery White card and then stamped the petal overlay in Rich Razzleberry ink. To intensify the colour I used my aqua painter and reinkers then added a little glitter to the centre of the flowers.

The edges of the cardstock were punched using the Scallop Edge border and corner punches and then to add a little colour to the rest of the image I masked off the bottom left and top right corners and used my spritzer tool and Stamping Pastels in Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue. Its a subtle effect but looks quite effective.

The little envelope is made using a punch, which I haven't used before but I do quite like, but I wish now that I had used vellum cardstock instead of Rich Razzleberry.

Hope you had a nice weekend.
Jan

Craft Fair Crafting

2011-03-23T18:39:00.000Z

Hi there!

I have been beavering away getting some items ready for my next craft fair on Saturday (26th March) and here is a gift box I decorated using some handmade punched flowers. I bought the boxes off the internet around christmas time without realising just how big they were going to be - they are 9" square and about 3 1/2 inch deep! So they have taken some decorating!!!

The pansies are made by punching out two butterflies from Shimmery White cardstock, spraying them until they are totally covered in water and then using an aqua painter to add tiny drops of reinker to the edges. The ink instantly mixes with the water and spreads like magic over the card. I used Melon Mambo to the outer edges and then a tiny drop of Daffodil Delight to the centre.

I left them to dry, drew thin 'veins' to the centre of each shape and then curved the shapes with my bonefolder before adding a brad through the centre. They look so sweet and watching the ink spread is amazing!!! But be warned, if you are going to try this - its VERY messy!

Heres a close up of the flowers.

The little carnations were made by punching out 6 scalloped circles out of Whisper White card, wetting them and then screwing each one tightly. Then carefully open them up, layer them all one on top of the other and punch a hole through the centre for a brad to be added. (You have to be REALLY careful not to tear the card as WW card doesnt like being wet). Then I screwed the layers tightly and left to dry.

I have made some more flowers using this technique but I cant show you them until 1st April (I used some items from the new Mini Catalogue - I just couldnt resist).

Right, have to get more crafting done (tee hee!). If you fancy bobbing over to the craft fair its at St Peters Church, Felkirk, South Heindley from 10am to 4pm, on Saturday 26th March. Its a beautiful little church near Royston & Wakefield and is worth a trip just to look inside.

I will post some pictures over the weekend showing the stand and also some more little projects!
Jan
x

2011-03-19T11:51:00.000Z

Its been a really busy week at work and I have had lots of things to get ready for so I haven't been able to do that much in the way of crafting. I did have a workshop on Thursday night though (hi Kim *waves*) which was brilliant - and we were joined by the lovely Chrissi!!!

Here is a photo of the make and takes that were made.

Its a lovely little gift box which is made from a square of card only measuring 7.5". You can also make a cute little gift card out of the remaining piece of A4 card! Thank you to Sara for her instructions (here).

I also made a 12x12" version which is stunning! I think I may have to make a couple more for the craft fair I am doing on the 26th March...

The 12 x 12" card was scored at 4" on all sides and then scored diagonally from the each corner to the point where the first score lines cross. All score lines were creased to give nice sharp edges. Then holes were punched in each corner to for ribbon to be threaded through later.

I coloured the stamp from the Just Believe set using markers in Pretty in Pink & Pear Pizzazz and stamped onto Shimmer White card (this card is on offer until the end of March -30% off) repeating the stamping twice onto each of the four pieces. The stamped card was mounted onto mats of Pear Pizzazz and put to one side.

Squares of Pear Pizzazz DSP were put on each corner and the stamped mats secured with glue (remembering to put them so they show the right way up when the box is finished!). A square of DSP was also put on the inside (bottom) of the box. To finish, ribbon was threaded through the holes of the corners of the box, pulled tightly and fastened in a bow.

Recipe
Cardstock - Pretty in Pink 12x12", Shimmer White, Pear Pizzazz
Stamp set - Just Believe
Designer Series Paper - Pear Pizzazz
Accessories - Whisper White Satin Ribbon, Crop-A-Dile.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.
Jan
x

Technique Class and Competition!

2011-03-13T10:15:00.001Z

Hi there!

We had our crop and technique class yesterday and it was brilliant - thank you for coming ladies!! Its always lovely for us to all get together so we had a proper chat and loads of time to craft.

We did a couple of baby wipe techniques using reinkers - and both of them had the WOW factor. The first technique was making an ink pad out of the babywipe (and this really is my favourate) with the second, using a baby wipe to make a striped sunset background. The ladies found this a little fiddly, and VERY messy (note for next time - take some disposable gloves!!!).

I showed the ladies the techniques and then left them to have a play with all the goodies. As I was chatting so much I didnt get my finished items done at the time so completed them at home later.

Heres the card I made.

And heres the 6" x 6" scrapbook page.

As its almost 2 years since I joined Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator, I am going to have a little competition where you can get your hands on the Punch Bunch set from the recent Sale-A-Bration promotion. The two people in the photo are me and my little brother Tim - he is SO not going to be impressed when he sees this LOL. Hes not so little now (about 6' actually). To be in with a chance of getting the stamp set, all you have to do is guess how long ago the photo was taken and post your guess in a comment on my blog. The nearest guess in years will get the stamp set!

The competition closes on the second anniversary of me joining SU, which is the 7th April. Please note - if any of our family decide to cheat and post, I will find out where you are and set my Mum on you - you have been warned...

Recipe
Stamp Sets - Garden Whimsy and Tiny Tags (on the card)
Cardstock - Whisper White, Regal Rose, Elegant Eggplant
Ink - So Saffron, Regal Rose and Elegant Eggplant (Rich Razzlebery on card)
Accessories - Scallop Edge and Scallop Corner Punches, 5/8 Organza Ribbon, tag punch, Basic Rhinestones (coloured using permanent marker) Boho Blossoms punch and flower brad.

Leeds Regional Training Day and Swaps (Part 2)

2011-03-07T19:58:00.001Z

I am sorry for not posting the pictures as I promised on Saturday. I had quite a busy day yesterday so just didnt have the time.

Anyway, the Leeds Regional Training Day on Saturday was INCREDIBLE!!! 70 demonstrators in a flashy hotel frantically swapping, stroking and cooing over all the new products which are coming in the Mini Catalogue.

I cant tell you any juicy details just yet, but I cant wait to get hold of them. As demonstrators, we get to see and can even pre-order the new products - its one of my favourate things about being a demonstrator, well that and getting freebies, and discounts and...!!! Sorry, I am going off on a bit of a tangent arnt I?!

Here is the second swap I promised to show you.

I used the same stamp set, Sense of Time, plus the 'For You' stamp from the Fresh Cuts set. I stamping the clock in Cajun Craze ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock, and added the 'For You' image in Not Quite Navy ink. The bottom dial was covered in Chrystal Effects and left to dry overnight before a gold brad was put through the centre.

As there were so many swaps to do, I decided to keep this design simple so it was basically just matted and layered with the Photo Corner Punch which I used to accent the corners of the clock.

The More Mustard cardstock mat was run through my crimper (only for about 3cm) but I did like the texture. Then I stamped the sentiment and wrapped a strip of Twill Tape around the mat before securing the clock image. Nice and simple but the colours are fab and it seemed to go down really well with everyone.

Recipe
Cardsock - Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Not Quite Navy & More Mustard
Stamp sets - Sense of Time & Fresh Cuts
Ink - Cajun Craze & Not Quite Navy
Accessories - Photo Corner Punch, Chrystal Effects, Gold Brad, Crimper & Twill Tape

Thanks for stopping by and if you want to see the special offer I have on at the moment for buying the starter kit, click here.
Jan x

Stampin' Up! Training Swaps

2011-03-05T13:05:00.038Z

I am going to the Leeds Stampin' Up! Training Event today, so I think I am safe to post the pictures of my swaps as all the ladies going will be far too excited to look on here!!

The events are held by Stampin' Up! to support demonstrators and provide training and information on new products and techniques. Its also a great time for us all to meet up and chat about crafting!!! The training days are only open to demonstrators, but we come away with some fabby ideas and info to share with you all!

Most of the ladies going to the events make 'Swaps'. This is where each person makes a number of copies of the same card or item. When we all meet up, we swap one of the cards we have made with each other so we come away with examples of lots of differenct cards. Here is the first of one design of swaps I made (there are about 70 of us going and I got a bit bored of the same design).

To start, I stamped the clock from the Sense of Time stamp set in Chocolate Chip ink onto Neutrals Ivory card. I stamped another clock image onto a post it note and cut it out to create a 'mask' which was placed over the clock stamped onto the neutrals card. Then I randomly stamped the cogs from the stamp set around the clock, overlapping in places. The mask protects the image underneath, so when I pealed the mask off it looks like the clock is sitting in front of the cogs.

For the dial at the bottom of the clock image, I stamped another dial, cut it out and mounted it on a dimensional then used Chrystal Effects over the top. It was left it to dry overnight before piercing a hole through the centre and adding a gold brad.

To make the sentiment, I only inked the part of the stamp with 'Live for Today' using my markers and stamped it onto Crumb Cake cardstock. I used the Oval Large punch though the clock face image and mounted the 'Live for Today' on dimensionals behind the clock face - literally, giving it more depth.

The rest of the card is just matted and layered with a piece of Designer Series Paper and a brad to finish off.

Recipe

Stamp Set - Sense of Time

Cardstock - Neutrals Ivory, Soft Suede & Crumb Cake

Ink - Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake

DSP - Neutrals Paper Stack (Crumb Cake)

Accessories - Gold Brads Chrystal Effects Oval Large Punch

I will post my second card swap tomorrow and will also share what I can from the day.

Jan

March Frenzy and Thank You Cards

2011-03-01T18:16:00.001Z

Is it March already - WOW!

I have a couple of things to show you today and one of them is the cards I made for my lovely Stampers 10 Ladies.

The butterfly from All a Flutter and the dragon fly from Natures Nest were both stamped in Crumb Cake ink onto squares of Neutrals Ivory cardstock and mounted onto a piece of Soft Suede card. This was then mounted onto a mat of Early Espresso cardstock.

I wrapped a length of twill tape around one end of the mat and then some wrapped linen thread over the top, finishing off with a button from the neutrals collection. This was then attached to a 6x6" square Crumb Cake card blank.

There were two versions, one which was distressed as I know some of my ladies love the distressed look. Here is the other version.

The sentinemt is from the Sense of Time stamp set, which I seem to be using quite a lot lately. So which one do you prefer?

Here is the other item I want to mention. Its the March Frenzy promotion from Stampin Up! The list pages refer to the 2011 Idea Book and Catalogue and as you can see, some of the items are up to 30% off.

Item	Page	Description	Discount	Retail Price	Sale Price
109679	40	Fast Flowers Stampin’ Around Wheel	20 %	£6.50	£5.20
109685	48	Neighborhood Stampin’ Around Jumbo Wheel	30%	£8.50	£5.95
110528	61	Friendly Set	30%	£16.95	£11.87
107559	69	Spot On Stampin’ Around Jumbo Wheel	20%	£8.50	£6.80
109675	70	Baroque Border Stampin’ Around Wheel	30%	£6.50	£4.55
110524	75	Cheer & Wishes Set	30%	£16.95	£11.87
121717	87	A4 Shimmery White Card Stock	30%	£7.50	£5.25
106555	87	A4 Glossy White Card Stock	20%	£6.25	£5.00
117167	89	Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper	20%	£8.75	£7.00
113659	93	Hidden Garden Blossoms Rub-Ons	30%	£8.50	£5.95
111325	99	Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware	20%	£25.95	£20.76
120963	102	Stampin’ Pastels New Color Kit	30%	£11.25	£7.88
102845	102	Blender Pens	20%	£7.95	£6.36

This is the printable version of the promotion which also shows images of the items. All of the itemsare limited in quantity at the discounted price - approximately 1,000 of each are available, so if you would like any of them, email me know to place your order.

Jan
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Thank You Cards

2011-02-27T11:44:00.001Z

A few weeks ago Me, Sara and Joanne did a mini Blog Hop showing Card Candy made using some stamp sets which seem to get a little over looked (here is a link to the Hop). Sara used Natures Nest, a stamp set I really couldnt see me using - thats until I saw her Card Candy!!!

Here is one of the cards I made last week to thank a couple of ladies for placing their orders with me.

I stamped the nest from Natures Nest and then the sentiment from Sense of Time in Chocolate Chip ink onto Naturals Ivory. I tore and distressed the edges of the ivory card, mounted it on to a mat of Chocolate Chip cardstock and then tore and distressed its edges too.

2 jumbo eyeletts were attached before adding drops of Chrystal Effects onto the eggs then I left it to dry.

The card blank is River Rock (I love this colour!) and all I did was add a strip of distressed DSP from the Neutrals Stack then add the distressed and stamped nest image.

I didnt add a sentiment to the card or write on the inside as I thought they the ladies could use the card again (one of my efforts for recycling!).

The cards I made for my Stampers 10 ladies went down really well. But I will have to post pictures of them later as trying to blog and watch a recording of the first round of the World Superbikes is a little difficult.,,

If you have the time, bob back later to see the cards I made for them.
Jan

Large, Fast and Fabulous

2011-02-21T20:45:00.002Z

Hope you had a great weekend?

Mine was brilliant! I had a few hours crafting with Sara which really spurred me on so I have lots of plans for crafting. We are going to a Stampin' Up! training event on 5th March and I made a start on my swaps - well, when I say made a start, I know what stamp set I am using!!!

I have a craft fair booked soon at our local church and we are thinking of holding another Stamptacular (we did one last year and it was fantastic). So we have lots of plans and I will update you with them all soon.

Anyway, back to the actual crafting - here is a card I was asked to do for a lady at work who has decided to become a stay at home Mum.

The card is a sheet of A3 card folded in half to leave an A4 card blank. So it is a really big card - but as there are lots of people signing it, I needed to make it as big as possible.

The sprays of flowers from the Fast and Fabulous set were stamped in black Stazon ink onto Shimmery White cardstock to create a natural looking group of flowers. Fast and Fabulous is one of the 2 Step Stamping sets and the overlaying stamps are perfect for giving a watercolour effect. I stamped the overlay image (using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig) in Rich Razzleberry ink and then used an aqua painter to smooth out the shading. To create the depth of colour, I added more ink to the centres of the flowers. To shade the stems and leaves I used my aqua painters with Old Olive stamp pads. Orchid Fine Cosmo glitter was added to the centre of each flower with Chrystal Effects.

The daisy type flowers were stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink with the overlying image stamped in Pretty in Pink ink. Again, I used my aqua painter to smooth out the shading and add a little more ink to the centres.

The card was assembled with a mat of Old Olive card beneath the stamped card front and the topper with Ruth's name added to finish off. The bow was attached as a last minute emergency plan as the punched corner of the topper just didn't look quite right. This ribbon is a retired one from last year, but is Rich Razzleberry.

Thanks for visiting me today, bob back soon for more details of upcoming events!
Jan
x

Time is running out...

2011-02-19T21:06:00.003Z

Its nearly the end of Sale-A-Bration (how quick is this year going?!) so if you want to get your hands on the fantastic FREE stamp sets you need to email me ASAP! For more details click HERE.

This is also THE BEST time to get the Starter Kit (full details here).

For £119.00 you will get £230 value in products

PLUS a free stamp set from Stampin' Up!

AND another from me

(Free stamp sets upto £44.95 from the current Ideas Book and Catalogue).

If you want more information please contact me ASAP. The offer finishes on 28th Feb 2011.

Anyway, back to crafting. I had a play with Natures Nest after Sara made her fab Card Candy recently. You can see it here.

The tortoise was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink onto Naturals Ivory cardstock and the Happy Birthday stamp from Curly Cute aligned with the Stamp A Ma Jig before stamping in Chocolate Chip. The shell of the tortoise was covered in Chrystal Effects and left to dry. I dont know why the card underneath the chrystal effects has changed colour but I love the effect, it really stands out.

The sentiment stamp from Sense of Time was stamped in Chocolate Chip ink onto Naturals Ivory card and then both pieces were distressed, mounted onto layers of distressed Chocolate Chip card.

I disressed a thin strip of Sahara Sand Designer Series Paper, adhered it onto a C6 landscape Sahara Sand card blank and attached the tortoise and sentiment images. To finish off, a strip of linen thread and a button form the Designer Buttons (Neutrals) was secured to the card front.

The card is bit of a mixture of stamp sets, but they all work well together, thats just another great thing about the SU products!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.
Jan
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Twisted Easel Card

2011-02-11T08:23:00.001Z

Its nearly the weekend, YEY!

I have been travelling around for work this week so not had chance to do that much but here is a card I made using some of the items I had set aside from my crop last week.

Its a twisted easel card and there seem to be lots of them around lately so I cant take any credit for the main design.

The top flowers were done using the 'kissing' technique using Bella Toile and the Flower Accent stamps. The plum coloured flowers underneath were made using the water spot technique.

To get the twisted shape for the card blank I took a piece of A4 card and trimmed off a 4" strip from the long length and scored it in half. Then I measured 4" down from one side of the score line and scored from this point back to the main score line. Once you crease and fold the two score lines you will get the twisted shape - simples!

Recipe
Cardstock = Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum and Whisper White
Ink = Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum
Stamps = Flower Accent, Bella Toile, tiny triple flower from Cottage Garden and Occasional Greetings.
Punches = Eyelet Border, Designer Label Large, 1 3/8 - 5/8 Oval Large.
Accessories = Basic Pearls, Whisper White Taffeta ribbon
I have seen double twisted easel cards too but haven't had the chance work out how they are done yet - may need to have a play this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jan

Crop & Technique Club

2011-02-08T20:29:00.001Z

Well, as I promised, here are some pics of last Saturdays, Barnsley Crop.

Thanks for coming ladies, it was fab!!! The next one is on Saturday 12th March and we will be doing a couple of techniques using re inkers - I cant wait, this is my favourate one! If you would like to come to the crop, please email me so I can make sure I have everything ready.

Here is a picture of the 6" x 6" scrapbook page I made - the other ladies used the same template but made a card front instread of the scrapbook page. We covered a few techniques, Water Splash Stamping, Kissing and Kissing with a Twist.

Scrapbook Page Recipe
Cardstock = Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum and Whisper White
Ink = Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum
Stamps = flourish stamp from the Bliss Sale-A-Bration, Flower Accent, flower from Cottage Garden.
Punch = 5 Petal flower
Accessories = Rhinestone brads

This is the Technique Booklet each person gets for taking part in the club. The booklet is plain so it can be decorated in any way you like. There are about 4 pages in the booklet to start with but more pages are added as the club goes on and its a great way of reminding you how to do various techniques.

Heres a photo of the inside, as you can see there is a page for each technique with a guide page so you can see what is needed for each class.

Technique Booklet Recipe
Cardstock = Basic Black Smooth and textured, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White
Stamp Sets = Artistic Etchings (front cover) Flight of the Butterfly, Flower Accent, Garden Whimsy
Designer Series Paper = Neutrals Paper Stack (this is absolutely lush!!)
Ribbon = Basic Black 1/8" taffeta
Accessories = Pretty in Pink and Perfect Plum Ink, re inkers.
Thanks for bobbing over! Dont forget, there are only 3 more weeks to take advantage of Sale-A-Bration and get your hands on the fab FREE stamp sets. And if you and thinking of signing up for the Starter Kit NOW IS THE TIME! Contact me for more details.

Jan
X

Teeny Tiny Blog Hop!

2011-02-06T10:00:00.004Z

Hello!

Me and my lovely uplines, Sara and Joanne are have our very own mini blog hop today. From 10 am you will be able to look at some card candy which each of us have made with various stamp sets.

You should have arrived here from Saras blog, here - I bet you want this set too now just like me!!! The tortoise is fab.

Here is my card candy (must make note for next time - take photos before putting in the cellophane...)

The stamp set is called Happiness Shared and the image detail is stunning, it is just shouting to be coloured in!!!

I made this set in the same way, but used Whisper White taffeta ribbon and coloured in the edges of the ribbon with a Blushing Bride marker. It is a very subtle change but I think I prefered this one out of the two.

Here is the link to Joanne's blog, just wait until you see her 'Bundle of Love' Card Candy...

Directions

I am not sure if you can tell on the photo but the background on the largest image was created by inking up a clear acrylic block (yes, the ones we attach unmounted stamps to!) with Blushing Bride ink and stamping the block directly onto Confetti White cardstock.

The flower image was stamped in Stazon (I just HAD to watercolour the images!) and I coloured in using my inkpads and aquapainters with Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Certainly Celery and Old Olive. A thin strip of Rose Red card was punched using the Scallop Trim Border Punch and Taffeta Ribbon was gathered up and wrapped around the strip before it was attached to the Confetti White card.

I used my markers to ink just the word 'Happiness' from the sentiment in the set and stamped it twice onto pieces of card. I ramdomly stamped the single leaf stamp around one of them and then punched it out with the Large Tag Punch. A peice of Pretty in Pink cardstock was punched out with the Extra Large Punch and attached to the back before making a hole with my Crop-A-Dile and threading a small peice of Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon through the hole.

The other 'Happiness' image was simply punched out with the Word Window punch and it was then mounted on punched shapes (Modern Label Extra Large and then Oval Extra Large).

To get the long hexagan shape of the image for the full sentiment I stamped it onto Confetti White card in Rose Red ink and trimmed to fit through the top section of the Large Tag punch, punching both ends. A small strip of Pretty in Pink Taffeta was wrapped around one end and secured round the back. I did the same with a strip of Rose Red card and mounted the Confetti White on top. The flower was made by punching out Confetti White, Rose Red and Pretty in Pink with the Boho Blossoms punch and stacking them up, one on top the other.

The final peice was made by stamping the small flower in Rose Red ink onto Confetti White card and then colouring in with Pretty in Pink ink and aquapainters. I punched this out using the Designer Label Large punch and mounted it on a punched circle (1 3/4 Extra Large Circle). A strip of Rose Red card was wrapped in Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon and was attached to a strip of Pretty in Pink card, which had been punched using the Scalloped Trim Border along one edge. The small flower topper was attached and basic pearls were added as a finishing touch.

Ok, thats all from me for today. Hope you have enjoyed your little tour through cyber space. I will post some pictures of yesterdays technique club projects in the next few days so bob back soon!

Jan
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Sweet Summer Pastels

2011-01-30T12:55:00.001Z

Hello!

The blog hop last week was fantastic wasnt it? There were some incredible projects and I was itching to have a play after going through all the loops. Dont forget, you only have until the end of February to get your free stamp sets!
1) by ordering the starter kit - (free set from SU + an extra one from me!)
2) by placing an order for £45 or more (not including delivery charge)
3) by holding a workshop with sales over £300.

I havent used my Stampin' Pastels in at least 12 months, even after getting the update set with all the new colours in. But I was in my element colouring this set, Sweet Summer is THE BEST set for for using pastels, markers, watercolour crayons or pencils!!!

The flower stems were stamped in Pear Pizzazz ink onto Whisper White card then the heads stamped (lining up with the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig) in Cherry Cobbler. The leaves and flower heads were coloured in using blender pens and my pastels. A small rhinestone was added to the central flower.

I do struggle for ideas with layouts for cards but as I was placing all the elements I wanted to use, I came up with this and I quite like it. The Peach Parfait designer series paper was lined up with a mat of Wild Wasabi using my grid paper and then adhered in place. Then I wrapped a length of Peach Parfait Stitched Poly Ribbon around the layers and attached it to the Cherry Cobbler card blank. The stamped card with the flowers was raised up on dimensionals and attached to the Wild Wasabi cardstock.

The bee and the butterfly were left overs from the ones I used for last weeks Blog Hop project and were just raised on dimensionals before placing on the card.

With a bit of luck, Sara, Joanne and myself will be having a mini blog hop next Sunday to show you some card candy each of us made with some of the current stamp sets including Natures Nest, Bundle of Love and Happiness Share. They are gorgeous and I am sure they will give you some great ideas so make sure you bob back to look.

One more thing before I go, I we have our next Barnsley Crop next Saturday, 5th Feb at the Doghill Community Centre in Shafton. So if you want to come over and have a play, please do! Our Technique Club is starting and will cover two different techniques you can do with plain stamps to get various effects. We all want to get the most out of the stamps we already have, dont we?!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend?
Jan
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Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop!

2011-01-23T09:00:00.002Z

Oooo, are you in for treat today!!!

Its the In Love With Stamping Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop.

So grab a cuppa and settle down for some serious chill out time and inspiration from SU Demos from all over the country.

With luck (and fingers crossed, technology) you should have arrived from Natalie's Blog. She has some amazing projects on her blog hasnt she? Well she is a hard act to follow but, here goes...

The card is a CASE of one demonstrated at the European Convention in November last year and has a real wow factor when you see it done. The swirly stem from Sweet Summer was randomly stamped in black Stazon ink onto Glossy White cardstock and then a white crayon was used to trace selected parts of the design.

Baja Breeze ink was applied to the card using a brayer and where the crayon has been traced, the ink resists leaving the area white. All you have to do then is just wipe over the card to get rid of any stray ink and the white card underneath 'pops' out. The 3 flowers and tiny butterfly were done in the same way and cut out.

The glossy card was trimmed and then matted and layered onto So Saffron card and a strip of Peach Parfait 1/2" Stitched-Poly ribbon was wrapped around the layer before it was applied to the Peach Parfait card blank.

The sentiment is from the So Happy For You SAB set and was stamped onto Glossy White card and punched put with the 1 3/4" Oval Large punch. It was then mounted on a punched 1 3/8" Oval Large piece of Baja Breeze cardstock and added to the card blank.

The flowers and butterfly were mounted on dimensionals and Basic Rhinestones added to the flowers before they were positioned on the finished card.

The stamped candle is something I have been thinking about for a while. The candle has square sides so all I did was use my heat gun to gently heat the area I wanted to stamp on, to soften the wax (taking care not to melt it!). The stamp was just pressed into the wax and left for a few seconds to cool before removing.

I was a little worried about damaging the stamp with the heat, but it was fine as it was only in the wax for a few seconds. The photo isnt too clever but I am really impressed with the result. Heres another picture showing the candle just after I stamped it.

To finish it off I just used my Eyelett Border punch along a strip of Baja Breeze card and wrapped a lenth of Peach Parfait ribbon around the bottom of the candle.

Heres the other project I made - a last minute substitution - using the Bliss set. This is my favourate SAB set and works great with the Vintage Vogue set and Very Vintage wheel. I will apologise now for the poor quality of the picture, but it was quite late when I took the photo (if I get the chance I will try to replace with a better photo!)

I have had some canvas's in a cupboard for a few years and never really knew what to do with them so decided to make something different for a change.

I used the Very Vintage wheel and Bashful Blue ink to cover the whole of the canvas. The edges of the canvas didnt cover very well, so I used the flourish stamp inked in Marina Mist and made borders for the top and bottom.

The letters for 'Love' are from On Board Alphabet Soup and I used Whisper White Craft ink on them as a base before sponging Marina Mist ink on the edges. Then I inked the flourish stamp in Night of Navy and stamped directly over the top.

I have seen these large ribbon flowers quite alot lately and they were really easy to make. I just did a running stitch along one edge of Bashful Blue 1 1/4" Grosgrain striped ribbon and pulled it tight to gather up. The edges were stitched together to keep them tidy. I just added buttons to the centre and stitched them in place.

The small flowers and butterflies were inked using the Rock and Roll technique in Marina Mist with Night of Navy and Rose Red with Pink Pirouette. They were then cut out, had basic pearls adhered were and attached to the canvas along with the ribbon flowers.

Well, thats it from me for today (unless I manage to sneek a few hours in my craft room that is!). Thanks for stopping by, I will now pass you over to Anthea who is the next blog on your tour.

Jan
X

Blog Hop 23rd January and Make & Take Church Group

2011-01-19T07:53:00.002Z

Hope you have some spare time this coming weekend - were having another Blog Hop - and its a big one!!!

Its going to start on Sunday 23rd January at 10am.

There are about 40 of us from the In Love With Stamping website, split into 4 groups of 10 and we are all making projects using the stamps from the Sale-A-Bration promotion. If you have seen the Blog Hops in the past they are amazing and give you dozens of ideas for colours and designs. All you have to do is start at one blog, read the post and then click on the link to take you to the next one.

Make sure you put some time to one side on Sunday to have some proper relaxation and inspiration!!!

Anyway, back to reality, heres a picture of the make and take from last weeks church group workshop.

I purposely kept it really simple as there were some there with mobility issues and lots of new crafters but I did take lots of stamps for those who fancied having a play.

The Bashful Blue A4 card was cut lenthways and scored at the centre point to give a C6 card blank. We tied a knot in a strip of the beautiful 5/8 Organza Ribbon (this is so soft and sits perfectly on cards!) and then wrapped it around some Rose Red card. This was just attached to one side of the front of the card blank.

The bird was punched out of Bashful Blue card using the Two Step Bird punch and the leaf / wing from Wild Wasabi card. They were just mounted onto a square of Whisper White and mounted again on a slighly bigger square of Rose Red card.

As I took a few stamp sets for people to chose what they wanted to do, I used one of the litte stamps from the Tiny Tags set for the sentiment (here I used 'Friends').

To finish off, I punched out a scalloped square from So Saffron card, cut it in half and attached it to the back of the bird topper before adding it on to the card blank - simples!

The ladies loved it and seemed to really enjoy the afternoon. Hope to see you all again soon!

Thanks for stopping by. And dont forget to come back to look at the Blog Hop on Sunday!!!

Jan

Church Group Workshop!

2011-01-16T15:08:00.001Z

Its been another busy week for me with work and also getting ready for a large workshop I did yesterday.

The workshop was so much fun. There were 14 of is alltogether with only a few of the ladies who were into crafting. So the look on some of the ladies faces when they had finished their make and take was brilliant and made it so worthwhile.

I did a couple of demonstrations. The first one was making a little gift box Monica Gale showed us at a Stampin' Up! training day last year and its so easy to make!

For the demonstration, I decorated an A4 sheet of So Safforn card by stamping the flourish from Vintage vogue in So Safffron ink.

To make the box, place the landscape A4 sheet of card in front of you and score lines down at 7, 14, 21 and 28cm. You will find that you have a narrow strip of card left at the end which will be the side flap to fasten the box.

Turn the card (to portrait) and score a line down 7cm from one edge (these will become the bottom flaps of the box). Make cuts along each of the vertical 4 score lines (but only up to the 7cm scoreline!).

Where you cut along the scoreline for the thin strip of card (side flap) cut vertically upto the 7cm scoreline and then diagonally across thin strip so you are removing of a small oblong piece of card. This helps when you are folding the box into shape. It also makes it easier to fold the box together if you make very narrow v shaped cuts when cutting upto the 7cm score line.

Fold and crease along all your scorelines, adding a strong adhesive to the side flap and then the bottom ones.

Use a small clip (I used one of the mini clips from the Clips Assortment) to hold the front an back of the box top together and fastened a strip of 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbon in Pumpkin Pie around the edges to secure the box.

The topper was made by stamping the F image in So Saffron ink onto Whisper White cardstock and cutting the 'F' out as close to the ink as possible (so I cut off the 'Friends'). Then I stamped the image again in Chocolate Chip ink onto Whisper White cardstock, mounted the trimmed So Saffron 'F' on dimentionals and positioned it directly over the Chocolate Chip image (leaving the 'Friends' part clear). This was just mounted onto a mat of Chocolate Chip card and adhered to the front of the box.

I put a couple of little things inside to thank the hostess and gave it to her as a thank you gift for arranging the workshop. But I am not telling you what they are - its our little secret...

The other demonstration I did was to decorate a small food bag using the Beware Pirates stamp set. I had already made a card, but wanted to show how easy it would be to make coordinated items for childrens parties.

I love distressing card & paper - the texture you get is fab and this stamp set is perfect for distressing.

The Neutrals Ivory card was stamped in Soft Suede with all the images in the set. The shape of each image was then torn and the edges distressed. Then I used sponge daubers in Soft Suede ink and the Spritzer Tool to age the card even more..

Once I was happy with the effect I tore Soft Suede cardstock mats, making each shape slightly bigger than the main image so they would show on the card/bag. The mats were then screwed up and flattened out to adhere the main image on top.

The card blank was Sahara Sand and is just A6 in size. I stamped the Arrrrr! randomly onto the card and bag (bought from a local homeware shop) and just mounted the images onto them. Heres the inside of the card.

As this is such a long post I will post the make & take card everyone made another day. Well, I say what everyone made quite loosely - everyone wanted to make theirs different!!! It was brilliant to see how each one looked and considering that not many were crafters, they all had some fab design ideas!!!

Bob back soon to see the make and take card.

Thanks for coming to visit. Enjoy your weekend!!

Jan
x

First Crop!

2011-01-09T16:57:00.001Z

We held out first crop on Saturday and it was brilliant!!! A lovely, relaxed morning with amazing crafters - we had an absolute ball.

As much as I love holding classes, it was so nice to just sit and spend time with everyone and just craft.

I will be starting a Technique Club for the February Barnsley Crop, so I had a bit of a play last week doing techniques I havent done in ages. Its strange how quickly we forget some fabulous ways of crafting and get into a rut doing the same sort of thing. Heres a card I made to show one of the techniques we will be covering later on in the year.

The tecnhique is called Faux Silk and was included in our recent SU Impressions publication (a monthly brochure SU Demonstrators receive). I have seen the technique before but it is so nice when its done (and so easy too!).

The next Barnsley Crop is planned for February 5th at the Doghill Community Centre Shafton and marks the start of the Technique Club. The Club costs £5.00 - is totally optional - and we will be doing two techniques (Kissing and Water Spot Stamping) so bob the date in your diary and come and have a play!

Recipe
Stamp Set - Just Believe
Cardstock - Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush and Whisper White
Ink - Concord Crush
Designer Series Paper - Concord Crush
Accessories - Curly Lable Extra Large
Non-SU - Tissue Paper.

Jan
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Oh - its here SALE - A - BRATION

2011-01-01T11:01:00.000Z

I have been itching to show the free stamps available through this years Sale-A-Bration ever since we saw them at Convention in November!

The sets this year are stunning, but this one is DEFINITELY my favourite. How gorgeous is this stamp set?

I think the next one is a very close second. How cute is the owl?

Each of these images has been designed to fit into current SU punches (or ones which are coming really soon!!!!)

This is the extra set all demonstrators present at the end of Novembers Convention received.

And here is the sweetest sentiment set.

As you can see there's a little bit of everything in this years Sale-A-Bration. The hardest thing will be for you to decide which one you want first (tee hee!).

Here's how you can get your free sets.

1) Get one free Sale-A-Bration stamp set for each £45 you spend with me on Stampin' Up! goodies (before shipping and handling). For every £45 you spend, you choose another FREE set!

2) Get an extra free Sale-A-Bration stamp set when you host a workshop with least £300 in product sales(before handling and shipping) - in addition to all of the regular hostess benefits!

3) Join as a SU Demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration and you can choose any stamp set (a value of up to £44.95) from our current Idea Book and Catalogue! This is in addition to the other benefits you get by joining me. You can join (for just £119, getting over £230 of products) and either run a business or be simply a hobby demo, getting discount on your own purchases - and we ALL love discounts dont we?!

You can come and see the new stamp sets in the flesh at my Barnsely Crop - details here.

Contact me today to get your hands on these scrummy free stamp sets!

Jan
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Last Christmas Card

2010-12-31T18:57:00.010Z

Heres the last Christmas card I made. I cant believe its over for another year...

I ran out of cards and as usual struggled for inspiration. But thankfully remembered that I had lots of swaps on my display boards from demonstrators I have met over the last few months. The inspiration comes from a swap done by Carol, who I understand CASEd it from a card made in September by DianeP on the In Love With Stamping gallery. Heres the link to the one Diane did and her blog is http://craftwithstyle.blogspot.com/. Thanks Amanda for reminding me who made the swap!

I coloured some Platinum Shimmer Paint with Not Quite Navy ink from my reinkers, applied it to the circle image with a sponge dauber and stamped onto Whisper White card. Then I stamped the oblong star eight times around the circle in Marina Mist ink. The spacing was so easy with the clear mount sets - I didnt have to do any measuring and they are almost evenly spaced!

As the sponge dauber was still loaded with the blue shimmer paint (and I didnt want to waste it!) i went around the edges of the card in a stroking motion to apply the paint to the outside edge. This didnt quite work on the first few I made, but as I the ink became less heavy and I got the hang of the effect I wanted, it did look better.

To decorate the star I used one of the large brads from Hodgepodge Hardware in the centre and some basic rhinestones (boy, do these sparkle!) before wrapping the ribbon around the card. The ribbon was just Whisper White 3/8 Grossgrain which I dyed - again using reinkers in Not Quite Navy. Another brilliant way of colour coordinating everything from SU.

The star topper was just matted and layered in Not Quite Navy and Marina Mist, applied to the card blank and the sentiment added.

The reinkers came in really handy with this card. At first, I just wanted to colour the Shimmer Paint - it was only as I was layering the star and the mats of card up that I realised that we dont have any Not Quite Navy ribbon (great planning there then!). The ribbon came out very slightly lighter than the card (but it was such a slight difference, you could hardly tell).

Ok, thats my last Christmas Card post - for this year anyway.

Happy New Year Everyone - hope its a good one for you!!!

Take care
Jan

2010-12-30T18:44:00.000Z

I hope that you have had a great time with your family and friends over the Christmas period.

Apart from having a really bad cold and cough its been a lovely Christmas for us. My Mum and brother came over for Christmas Day lunch and then we went to DH Dads for tea. All the family in a two bedroomed flat (about 28 adults and loads of children!!!). It was a bit like musical chairs though - if you went for anything to eat or drink, you lost your seat!

Santa brought me money this year as there are lots of things I would like to get from SU - wah hoo!! I also bought a nice bracelet with some of the money (this was partly because DH was wanting me to get a bicycle with it - yer, right...!)

I was quite ill over Christmas and couldnt deliver some of the presents and cards until recently, and I didnt want to post any pics of the items I made before everyone had seen what they were getting. As I delivered my last items yesterday, I thought I would share them.

Heres the mini calendar and note holder. Yes, its using my favourate DSP - Lap of Luxury - its so nice, I just couldnt resist using it. I also made these for each of my lovely Stampers 10 ladies (hope you liked them!?)

The acrylic holders were part of a share over at In Love With Stamping ages ago and I hadnt had much chance to use them. The holders are designed to hold paper between the layers so I just cut the DSP to size and slid it in. The pens were a little bit fiddly, but I loved how they looked when they were done. I bought the little calendars from a local craft shop and they were just adhered to the front of the holder with post it notes attached to the back.

I struggled to find a way to hold the pens but the ribbon seemed to work OK. For the ones at the front (using the narrow Grossgrain ribbon) I made loops of ribbon which the pen nib sits in. Then I wrapped a strip of ribbon around the holder to hold the top of the pen. The wider ribbon did work better though and I didnt need to do anything else to hold the pens as the ribbon is strong enough on its own.

Heres a photo of the back showing the post it notes attached to the rear of the holder.

The friends sentiment is from Tiny Tags and was mounted onto a scalloped oval stamped with Perfect Punches.

Sorry its taken so long to post photos of the holders. I will post a picture of the last Christmas cards I made (not using a Christmas themed stamp set though!) in the next couple of days.

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas period and thanks for bobbing over.
Jan
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Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-24T16:08:00.000Z

As I have a shocking cold I havent been able to do any crafting or pass on the cards and gifts I am wanting to post on here. The last thing I want to do is pass on this horrible cold.

So, I just wanted to wish everyone a

Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I will post pictures of the cards and other items as soon as I can.

Jan
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Serene Snowflakes

2010-12-22T08:40:00.002Z

I think I am safe to post this now as most of my ladies have their cards.

Heres one of the cards I made for my past hostesses and some of my customers.

I got the idea from some Card Candy made by Sara here.

The snowflake paper was made using the one sheet wonder technique - covering a sheet of Whisper White cardstock with stamped images in different sizes and coordinated colours, here Night of Navy, Bashful Blue and Marina Mist inks. Spots of Chrystal Effects were applied to the tiny snowflakes and Dazzling Diamonds glitter sprinkled on to give some bling. Once this was dry I trimmed it to fit the card blank

A thin strip of Marina Mist card was punched using the scalloped edge punch and attached to the back of the snowflake card - it doesnt need a wide strip of card as most of it is covered. The top of the snowflake card was covered in a strip of 3/8" Night of Navy Grossgrain ribbon and it was then attached to the card blank.

To make the large snowflake topper I stamped the large snowflake onto Whisper White card in Night of Navy ink and used my paper peircer and mat template to decorate the corners. Then I stamped the large snowflake again with Versamark onto Night of Navy card and heat embossed with white embossing powder. The main four large points of the snowflake including the centre were cut out and mounted with dimentionals onto the Whisper White topper and a large rhinestone brad put through the centre. This was then mounted onto Marina Mist card and attached to the card blank, overlapping the snowflakes.

I have some more photos to share but they will have to wait as I wont get to see everyone before Christmas.

There would have been more photos, but had a slight problem... I made lots more cards last week after running short. I handed these out to some people at work on Monday, then realised that I hadnt taken any photos of them (DOH!).

Hope you are keeping warm and safe.
Thanks
Jan
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Its coming too fast...

2010-12-20T08:00:00.000Z

OMG how quick is Chistmas coming this year?

Sorry, but I cant show you any pics for anything as I have been frantically making cards & gifts for people and I havent delivered them yet! I just wanted you to know I am still here and to promise that I will get some posted in the next few days.

Its been mad lately here - I even went to Meadowhell on Saturday - with Ian! I refuse to go in December as it gets so mad near Christmas but I was gobsmacked at how quiet it was. I have seen it busier mid week!!! Ian refuses to go at any time but with the threat of snow lurking he said that he would come too (bless him).

Anyway, almost sorted for Christmas now - I hope you are too - just have to hope that all the pressies I have ordered on line for Ian come in the next few days. Otherwise I may be out on Christmas Eve to get him something to open - Ahhhh.

Thanks for stopping by.
Jan
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