Beach Bag for Team Chat

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
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Mini Scrapbook

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
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Punched Animals Class

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

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!

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

x

Happy Birthday Anne!

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
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Welcome to the Colour Coach Blog Hop!

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