Customer Thank You Cards & Workshop Basket

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

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

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

Church Group Workshop!

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

New Catalogue Launch Party

Its here!

The new Stampin' Up 2010-2011 New Ideas Book and Catalogue is available now. Yey!!!  Its a big file so takes a while to download - but its worth it!

As demonstrators we got to see the new catalogue at the begining of September, and its been soooo hard not letting everyone see how good it is.

I am having a party tomorrow so all my friends and regular customers can see some of the new products including the new colours, clear mount stamps, Colour Coach etc.  Here is the invitation I sent to them.

As I wanted to show them some of the gorgeous new colours I used Marina Mist, Cajun Craze and Crumb Cake.  Now, you will probably look at this combination and think 'I would never have put these colours together'.  But the new Colour Coach takes lots of the hard work out of choosing colours as it has examples of colours which work really well together.

I would also like to invite anyone else who wants to look at the new stuff to come to the party. My friends and regular customers are having the first look - so this invitation is for you to come between 11am and 2pm. Please contact me so I can give you directions to the party!


Recipe
Cardstock - Cajun Craze, Marina Mist and Crumb Cake
Ink - Cajun Craze and Marina Mist
Stamp sets - Vintage Vogue, Sincere Salutations, Tiny Tags
Accessories - Two Step Bird Punch, Medium Jewelry Tag Punch, Linen Thread

I will post some pictures soon of the swaps from a Stampin' Up! training event I went to in Manchester recently so you can see the amazing work of some of the other Demonstrators.

Hope to see you in Saturday, dont forget to contact me for details!!!!
Jan
X

Getting Excited...

Oh, I am getting soooooo excited, the new Stampin' Up! catalogue is coming out soon and I cant wait!

The current catalogue runs until the end of September and the list of retiring stamps and products comes out on the 1st September - its always an exciting time but this year is even more so as we know that lots of colours will be going.  But they are making way for new cardstock and ink colours so the suspense of actually seeing the new catalogue is almost unbearable!

I have been busy with work and things this week, but heres a photo of the card we made last Saturday - the one at the back of the photo that you couldnt see (I would never make a David Bailey would I?).

When I showed the ladies the card we were making and that we would be scrunching and tearing the card, the look of terror on their faces was hilarous.  In the end, I explained that they could do different versions - using less 'traumatic' techniques like using the edge punches instead of tearing and distressing the edge which calmed some of them down.

This one is slightly less distressed and just involved tearing the edges of the Regal Rose and Old Olive cardstock.

To make the layered flower, I stamped two large flowers from the Vintage Vogue set in Bravo Burgundy onto Whisper White card and then stamped between the petals of one flower with the small leaf in Old Olive.  Then I stamped a small flower in Regal Rose and cut them all out, leaving a thin white boarder around each image.  They were then layered up using Dimentionals and a brad secured them through the centre.  I got the idea from Jenny Moore who makes some gorgeous stuff.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the extended weekend - hopefully, I will be able to do a bit of crafting tomorrow.  But bob back on Weds and I should be able to show you the list of retiring items - they wont be available after the end of september so it will your the last chance to order them.

Recipe

Cardstock - Regal Rose, Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive and Whisper White
Stamp sets - Very Vintage Wheel, Fresh Cuts and Vintage Vogue
Ink - Regal Rose and Bravo Burgundy
Accessories - Circle Fire Brads,
Thanks for looking
Jan
X

Mini Blog Hop!!

Ooooh, you are in for a real treat today - its the Mini Blog Hop!!!

There are three groups (each with 15 ladies) from the In Love With Stamping forum posting examples of projects made using the stamp sets, papers and products from the new Mini Catalogue.

If you have come here from Dawns blog, I hope you enjoyed looking at her gorgeous creations and that you have a cuppa handy to carry on through all the sites in this loop. 

I have made two projects using an absolutely stunning set called Vintage Vogue.

The first is a scrap book page with photos of me and my DH.  The first photo was taken the year before we were married (its our 24th wedding anniversary soon - where did that go?!!!)  and the second was taken about 10 years ago.

I used the Very Vintage wheel inked with Versamark to do the background, and inked the edges with Old Olive using a sponge dauber.  You can see the detail a bit better in the next photo.

The photos were stuck onto Old Olive card and the border stamp was lined up using the Stamp-A-Ma-Gig to outline each photo.  This was then cut out close to the outer edge, the edges distressed, inked with a sponge dauber and raised on dimensionals on to the background.

To give the background a bit more interest I stamped the 'Friends' and flourish images, little leaves and 'Love' from the Wonderful Words stamp set.

Another 'Friends' stamp image and some flowers were stamped in Old Olive ink and the 'F' and flowers were cut out -the flowers were secured with brads. The twill tape was inked using Old Olive and threaded through jumbo eyelets.

Recipe;
Cardstock - Old Olive
Ink - Versamark, Old Olive
Stamps - Vintage Vogue, Very Vintage Wheel and Wonderful Words
Accessories - Sponge dauber, twill tape, Jumbo eyelets, brads.

My second project is a card made for my Mums birthday yesterday.  My Mums sister asked me to make a card and I used photo of my Mum and her sisters when they were little. 

I used the Just Perfect alphabet set (and my Stamp-A-Ma-Gig) to stamp the word 'sisters' above the 'Friends' stamp image (both in Night of Navy ink).  Then stamped the 'Friends' image again in So Saffron ink and just cut out the F.  This was mounted directly above the first image using dimensionals.

I made a frame for the photo using So Saffron Designer Series Paper and inked the edges.  I wasnt happy with the corners of the frame so stamped the  border image onto So Saffron card and used a scalloped Square punch to cut out triangular corners.  These were then glued on to each frame corner.

The flower was stamped using the 'Rock and Roll' technique and secured using a brad and dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by - its over to visit Theresa now for more inspiration!

Recipe
Cardsock - Bordering Blue, Whisper White, So Saffron
Ink - Night of Navy, So Saffron
Designer Series Paper - So Saffron
Stamps - Vintage Vogue
Hope your having a great weekend?

Jan
X