Christmas Treats!

Stampin' Up! have really gone to town this month, with 2 great offers:

If you order or host a party/workshop with me between 1st November and 31st December not only will you get the usual free hostess set and free products if the total order is over £150, but you will also get an extra stamp set free (worth up to £24.95) in addition to those usual hostess gifts. Your free set can be any one of the following: Wondrous Gift (page 17), Snow Flurries (page 20), Friendly (page 56), Seasonal Wishes (page 60), Dotted Autumn (Page 91), Cold Play (Page 91) (the last 2 are retired stamp sets and are only available while stocks last.)

You can host a workshop in your own home, or simply just email me your order for £150 or more. (I only have a few dates left between now and the beginning of December.)

The 2nd offer is for Rub-ons and Textured Card - for any orders placed up to 30 November 2008 there is a special price on the rub-ons and textured card packs when you spend £20 or more on other items from the catalogue! Please contact me for more information on this.

Su

Organic Grace Thank You Card

Hi - I'm back!

I'm having so much fun with the new Stampin Up! Idea Book and Catalogue - I love all the new card and papercrafting ideas - and of course lots of fab new stamp sets and punches too.

I spent last night making a dozen of this particular card - for recent customers who have ordered from the new catalogue. I wanted to show them a card using one of the free Level 1 sets and chose Organic Grace. It's my absolute favourite free set at the moment, so I know I shall be making loads more.

I loved the way the pale inks (soft subtles) worked with the plants being in the background, whilst the dragonfly stands out (inked with a richer earth elements colour, night of navy.) I inked the flower in night of navy and stamped onto bashful blue and then roughly cut it out and mounted using 3D foam. Also inked the edges of the white stamped card with night of navy. Of course, I just had to use the new Scalloped Edge punch - not once but twice to give a great finsih to the card.

I used SU Supplies: Organic Grace Stamp Set, Pocket Sillouettes, white cardstock, Not Quite Navy Cardstock and Ink, Certainly Celery Cardstock and Ink, Bashful Blue Cardstock and Ink, Bashful Blue Gingham Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch.

Thanks for looking.

Su

Cardmaking Mania!

Well I've almost been eating , sleeping and dreaming cardmaking parties, workshops and classes these last couple of months. I also have a few special Cardmaking Events lined up for this month - after that, I think I need a little breather!

Tuesday 10th June, 9.45-11.45am - Hucclecote Community Centre (at my monthly club.)
Tuesday 17th June, 9.45-11.45am - Quedgeley Community Centre (at my monthly club.)

Wednesday 25th June, 12.30-2.30pm, Trefoil Centre (Guide Hall next to Dinglewell Schools) Hucclecote, Gloucester

and

Stamping & Cardmaking Day - Saturday 28th June:
10am-3pm - Trefoil Centre, (Guide Hall next door to Dinglewell Schools) Hucclecote.

Join us and raise funds for the Guides - pop in for an hour and make a card or two, (adults £1 a card, children 50p a card) or book a morning/afternoon/whole day Stamping & Cardmaking Workshop (£6/£12).

Proceeds are going towards a much needed extension to the Guide Hall.

Due to limited places, advanced booking is required for all the Workshops. Please ring me on 07906 111796 for more information or to book a workshop; or for details about Stampin’ Up! Home Workshops, Craft Parties, Clubs, Group Demonstrations and Demonstrator opportunities.

June Special Offers

Hi,

Sorry for the looooong silence. I have a stash of cards to post, but no time to do it!

I'll post a few more cards later on, but for now here are details of Stampin' Up!s fantastic (yes the big offers have finally arrived in the UK!) Offers for June, along with some of the cards I've made with these stamp sets:

Circle of Friendship Set Cards:

Three for You Punch Box Cards:

ESCAPE Bundle of Goods Promotion Details:

Description Page Number Price
Love Notes assortment p. 78 £5.95
Circle of Friendship stamp set p. 62 £17.95
1-1/4" Circle punch p. 80 £13.95
Total (non-bundled) £37.85
eScape Bundle price Ref.113702 £28.39

eScape with Stampin' Up! Why not eScape from technology and spend some time communicating "the old-fashioned way" - with a handwritten note. To help you eScape and make fabulous projects to make someone's day, during June I have some special eScape Events – look at my SU website for more info http://www.stampinstudio.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/page14.html or ring me for details/to book a place.

TWO FOR YOU PROMOTION

Item Number Description Page Number Regular Price Sale Price
110530 Basic Phrases stamp set p. 65 £33.95 £23.50
109971 Three for You Punch Box p. 80 £41.95 £29.00

The Three for You Punch Box (p80) is a fantastic kit to help you get started in cardmaking or scrapbooking. It contains a set of nine small stamps, three mini ink pads and a co-ordinating large punch - which not only punches 3 lovely little flowers, but also curls the edges of the them too!

The Basic Phrases stamp set (p65) is a really useful set of 24 word stamps for all occasions. At the offer price of £23.50 - that's works out at just under £1 per stamp!

Promotion Dates: 1-30 June 2008 (for both the Two for You offers and eScape bundle.) Stampin’ Up! usual p&p rates apply for both promotions. There's no minimum purchase for these offers and no limit to the number of purchases you can make. If you host a workshop you can earn these products at the promotional pricing, making your hostess benefits go even further! And, remember, you don't need to attend a workshop to benefit from these offers - you can place an order with me at any time. To see these great products, click the picture of the catalogue on the right and go to the relevant page numbers. Do ring me for more info.

See you soon with more card ideas.

Where did March Go?

Hi,

I can't believe we are already in April - just where did March go? I have been working flat out with workshops and planning.

So here are a few of the cards that I have made recently:

The first 3 are cased from Ronnie, and given a watermarked background so that I could make larger cards for Mother's Day:

I really love the Stampin' Up! Doodle That set - as well as being one of the cheapest in the catalogue, it's really versatile and I love doing a watermark background using the same stamp and a versamark ink pad (you could use the same colour card stock and ink pad for the same effect.)

I also did a card class for the kids at church - with the potential of having over 40 kids, I had to come up with something quick and easy and settled for a Die Cut Monogram 'On Mother's Day' Card, giving them the option of a die cut (Sizzix Bigz Sassy Alphabet) M (mum), G (gran/grandma), N (nana) and A (aunt). The left over kits came in handy for my own DD and DS - here are their creations! (They are looking sleepy as they'd only just got up!)

I'll post more later.

BFN

Su

Cheltenham Stitch and Creative Craft show

Here are some photos from the Show held at Cheltenham Racecourse:















Yes this is me - wearing the lovely SU apron! And of course here is Ronnie too, who came up with the great idea of exhibiting at the show. Ronnie was a demo before in Australia, so had loads of great card samples and ideas.


















I made up some cards using the great Office Accoutrement Set and matching Round Tab punch (which I think I'm right in saying isn't sold by anyone else in the UK?) It's just great and I must do a separate post on these cards and punches soon. And as for the spiral punch - that really is the business. I also demonstrated the Crop-o-dile.

The last photo shows a couple of the Door Prizes that we made up. We had one for each day, which included a small stamp set along with a few finished cards to inspire the winners.



Can't wait for my next show now - as long as it's a few months away!



Su

A Couple of Cards

It's been one hectic month with the Cheltenham show and workshops. The Create & Stitch Show at Cheltenham Racecourse earlier in the month was great. I shared a stand with a fellow demo, Ronnie from Swindon and it went really well. We had lots of interest, loads of workshop bookings and several demo leads. People were really 'wow'ed by the demos! So all in all, it was lots of fun, we met loads of great ladies and it was very worthwhile! But a lot of work and effort - as evidenced by my lack of blogging lately, sorry!

So here are a couple of recent cards for you:

- after seeing Ronnie demo the Bold Butterfly set, I just had to get it and this is my first, fast and furious card made with the set. I just used the 2-step stampin' technique with pixie pink, stampin off the bold image first to give a lighter inked image and then stamped the outline in the same ink colour.

This second card was made with a Sizzix Bigz 'J' letter die - for my nephew Joel's birthday.

I cheated with a patterned card blank, stamped a happy birthday sentiment, wrapped some ribbon around the J and stuck it on with 3D foam. Most of the Bigz letters are too big to fit on an A6 card - but the J was a perfect fit.

BFN - I will be back soon, I promise!

Su

Blog Givaway

Hi,

Now I know you all love blog candy - so check out this fantastic new blog, their great products, cards/layouts, and a great bumper stamp givaway - http://www.melissafrances.typepad.com/ Closing date is Wednesday night (US time.)

Valentine Card

Here is the card I did for this last week's Challenge:

I stamped the large background SU French Flair stamp on red card with Versamark ink.

Then added a small All My Love greeting (SU) in black to the top left of the red card.

Black grosgrain ribbon wrapped around the red. And to finish, the swallow from the SU Carte Postale set was stamped onto white card using black ink.

I love the way these 2 stamp sets work together and can't wait to try out the matching wheel, Leaves A La Carte!

I am now spoilt for choice on what to send my DH on Thursday, as tonight at craft club we made Decoupage Cards and I am definately sending him one of those (Bears in the Bath!) Will post that before then for you to see - it's so cute!

Su

I've been tagged!

Thanks Julie!

I've been tagged by Julie (http://juliescraftycorner.blogspot.com/) and like her, have never been tagged before!
So, here goes - I think the rules of the game are:
Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Wierd Facts (ok - I'll go for random!):
1 - I absolutely hate marmite, mussels and mustard (separately of course) and which my kids delight to remind me as they love them all!
2 - Have been to New Zealand twice and absolutely love it (Australia close second of course) and would move there tommorrow if the opportunity arose. (Hi Lisa!)
3 - Am an awwful correspondant - haven't you noticed on my blogs!
4 - Am now a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
5 - Got married in our our placement year whilst at college.
6 - In our last year of college shared a house with 7 blokes and yes the bathroom was gross (though obviously only shared a bedroom with my DH.)
7 - Our son Benjamin has his name after Benjamin Sisko in Deep Space Nine (as well as it being a Biblical name!)

and the tag is on its way to:
1. Alison - http://www.paperpiecing.blogspot.com/
2. Jacki - http://thecardcastle.blogspot.com/
3. Annette - http://muckyfingers.typepad.com/
4. Cherylann - http://wingandaprayercreations.blogspot.com/
5. Leonne - http://www.totallyaddinktive.com/
6. Samm - http://samm-l.blogspot.com/
7. Nancy - http://myspecialpages.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Su
(PS - another fact - I can't spell and blogger's isn't working at the moment, so apologies!)

Mixed Bouquet Birthday Card

Hi,

Here is the card I did yesterday for my great card making pal, Alison:

Quite a challenge for me as Alison always makes such wonderful cards!

Check out her blog - Alison's creations are just perfect - http://www.paperpiecing.blogspot.com/ and a real inspiration for those of you with die cutters!

Back to my orange creation (I tried to think of something else beginning with O, but it's just too late to think properly!) Have you noticed, I am quite into orange at the moment?! Let me know of any great colour combos that work with Only Orange, as I now want to branch out a little...lol!)

I used the Mixed Bouquet SU Stamp Set of course! For the orange background card, I have stamped the flower/seeds stamp and leaf with versamark ink. The top white card has been randomly stamped with same flower stamp in Only Orange (but only after wasting the fresh ink by stamping on scrap paper 3-4 times first) to give a nice subtle effect, and the same has been done with the leaf and Green Galore Ink.

The birthday greeting is from Sincere Salutations SU set, which I love as the font, style and wordings are so classy.

I used my circle punch to get the reverse corner effect on all the matts of card - and finished it off with 4 white eyelets, using my crop-a-dile.

Stampin' Up! Special / Promotion

Hi,

I have an SU Promotion to share with you! It's called the '2-Step Stampin’ Promotion' and will run between 1– 29 February 2008.

So what's the deal? Purchase £35 of Stampin’ Up! products, and get 25% off one of the following 2-Step Stampin’ sets (the prices shown include the discount.)
105755 - Mixed Bouquet - £21.71 (page 42)
109439 - Big Bold Birthday - £20.21 (page 35)
104014 - Shapes & Shadows - £22.46 (page 54)

There is a limit of one 25% off stamp set for every £35 spent. For example, if you spend £35 in regular merchandise, you may purchase one of the three discounted stamp sets. If you spend £70, you may purchase two of the three discounted sets, etc.

'Two-step' stamping is a great, easy technique, which layers one image over another. To try it out, why not book a Stampin' Up! At Home party with me? It's a fun way to get together with some friends and family, do some stamping, make some cards, and earn free products!

Alternatively, you can order any of these sets by contacting me direct.

You'll find all the details and some lovely pictures of the stamps at http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/documents/UK_2step_Promo_0208.pdf. Or check out the SU Idea Book & Catalogue link on the right.

So - if you've been thinking of booking a party with me - now is a great time to do it!

(I should have also said that this is the 2nd promo that SU UK have run - the first is still current. Until 29 February, 2008 you can get the demonstrator Starter Kit - regularly priced at £155 - for only £139. That’s £265 worth of stamps, accessories and business supplies for only £139! This is the kit/offer that started me off as an SU Demo, so if you want to find out more, please give me a call.)

Su

Giant African Land Snails!

So I finally have some photos to share of my daughter's snail!

She has called it 'Slipper' and is very attached to it! I even had to email the ebay seller to get it's date of birth/hatching, so she can celebrate it's birthday later in the year!

So the slimy details: the shell is currently around 5cm long, it's an Achatina Fulica - which basically means it's an East African Land Snail, it hatched on 10th August 07, his or her mummy is called Tweedle Dee (Tweedle Dee is is 4 years old and a very large snail at a 7 1/2" shell.) It likes to each fruit and veg - especially cucumber and pears, and has to have some form of calcium like a cuttlefish bone (for its shell.)

I now know why folks in the States haven't heard of them - apparently it's illegal to have/keep them as pets over there - as they are simultaneous hermaphrodite and very invasive as it only takes any 2 and they breed like wildfire! We are certainly going to just keep to the one as I don't want to wake up one morning to find 100s of eggs in the tank! (Lots are sold on ebay.co.uk as reptile owners buy them to breed - for feed!) Having said that I have just read 'Instances of self fertilisation are rare' - so I had better not be too complacent!

Cleaning out is like a military operation - done out the back with a hose pipe, rubber gloves and lots of face pulling (uggghhhh!) Would I recommend one? Yes, my daughter loves it and it's not too hard to clean I guess. Certainly easy to feed! The good news - it was only 99p to buy on ebay - the bad, it cost around £50 to buy a tank and kit it out - but still pretty cheap for a pet!

Su

It's a Challenge!

A couple of weeks ago I had a search around and was surprised that I couldn't find a challenge site for us UK Newbies to Stampin' Up! As we are only on our first stash of SU stamps/first UK SU Catalogue, I thought a weekly challenge would be great to get us going!

Of course, there are a lot of fantastic cards with Stampin' Up! stamps out there, including more and more from UK stampers each day, but it would be nice to have a central blog/challenge showcasing just the Stamps available to us in the UK (so for now, just from the first UK SU Catalogue)? So I set up a separate website/blog for this and you can find it, along with all the details at http://StampinUpChallengeUK.blogspot.com/.

I hope you like it - and that you'll rise to the challenge and join me every week! So - the Card, ATC, gift or papercrafting item will have to use a Stamp or other product from any UK Stampin' Up! Catalogue (of course the first and only one at present!) based upon the challenge.

Naturally this doesn't exclude any of you from outside the UK - and I expect most of the stamps we have in our SU UK Cattie are already out there in America, Australia and NZ, etc. So please join in the fun!

To give you a flavour - here is this week's challenge layout and the cards samples I used for this week's challenge:

The solid flower was stamped onto pink passion card, using a Versamark ink pad - with glitter added in the centres. Wide pink organza ribbon was wrapped around the pink card before it was matted onto the white basecard. Another flower was stamped onto a scrap of pixie pink card using a pink passion ink pad, then cut out and all the lines on this flower were glittered apart from the outer edge. This was then stuck to the card using 3-d foam.

The Elephant card sample uses the cute elephant stamp from the Year After Year Set, along with the greeting from the Birthday Best set - using the same techniques as for the pink card, but using Tempting Turquoise card and ink, with the white grosgrain ribbon.

I have to say I really like this layout, as the possibilities are endless for a lot of the Stampin' Up! sets - especially the Year After Year one, as all the stamps will work (and I got to use my fab new SU Round Tab (109974) punch!

Su

Happy Birthday Samm!

Here is the card I made for Samm, a blogging friend at SBS8. Happy Birthday Samm!



Samm set a birthday blog candy challenge and this is my entry - Samm's blog is at http://samm-l.blogspot.com/ and is well worth a visit.


I used the Stampin' Up! Feathered Friends set, along with a Stampin' Up! Nature's Seasonal Border set.


The images were coloured in using pearlescent watercolours. A white organza ribbon was added before the blue card was matted onto the white base card.


Hope you like it Samm!

Card Making Magazine Offers

You know I like a bargain - so here are a couple that I have just taken advantage of - I have done it before, so I know they are genuine offers. 3 magazines for £1 - that's right just one pound for the lot! Of course there is a hitch - you have to set up a direct debit for the £1 and then the full quarterly amount every 3 months thereafter - so if you forget to cancel your subscription & direct debit after your first 2/3 issues, it's no longer a bargain.

But hey - with a calender (belt and braces, I'll set a reminder on my mobile phone too!) it's not too hard to cancel!

The first is £1 for 3 issues of Crafts Beautiful magazine - and they are also throwing in a free gift!
Go to: http://www.crafts-beautiful.com/qvc, (weird website, but it works) put in UK and ensure you check the £1 button. If it asks for a code, its QVC0108 and you will need to provide your bank details.

The second one is for Papercraft Inspirations, same trial offer, you just need to cancel within 60 days if you don't want to carry on, and its at: http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/qvc. Again bank codes needed.

Card Blowout Week!

Hi,

I've been kept busy this week as we had our monthly craft night - Hillview Creative Crafters - at church this week, as well as my running a Stampin' Up! workshop/class.

I can't find my stencilled cards at the moment, so will show those another time. So here are the 3 cards that we made last night at my SU workshop/party:

This first one is made with the Stampin' Up! 'Birthday Best' set - it's so cute and really quick and easy to use.

I've used the cupcake with candle stamp, along with the birthday greeting - with the Bold Brights colourways. It's nice and bright and cheery, which makes a change to all the dull and wet weather we've been having. It was really nice to be able to colour in the stamp to the same exact shade as the cardstock - I used black ink to stamp the image and then coloured it in with Rose Red, Green Galore and Only Orange Stampin' Write marker pens, with a thin red ribbon to finish off. I'm really into card tearing at the moment, so you'll see lots of my cards with that!

This next card was also nice and quick and easy, which is ideal for workshops - looks so elegant too!

I've used 2 different flowers from the Stampin' Up! 'Mixed Bouquet' set. The first is the solid flower inked with Versamark (a watermark inkpad) onto Pink Passion cardstock - and the flower centres are then glittered using a Gelly Roll Stardust pen. We stamped the larger flower with Pink Passion ink onto a scrap of Pixie Pink card. The inside inked lines of this flower were also drawn over using the Stardust Pen to add extra sparkle. It was cut out and mounted over a piece of organza ribbon, which finished the card off - have to say I changed the width of the ribbon for my ladies as the wider one looked much better than the thin one I used here. Matting the pink card onto a white card base gives the opportunity to wrap and adhere the ribbon to the pink card for a neater finish, before sticking the pink onto the white.

And my favorite Stamp at the minute is this Poppy one, using the Stampin' Up! Hostess Set called 'Oh So Lovely' - which it is!

We stamped the long background rectangle stamp twice on scrap paper to get rid of the excess black ink to give a lighter stamped background. Then stamped the Poppy in black on top of the background. It was very easy to line them up. Using a scrap of white card, 2 stamped images of just the poppy heads were made, again in black. Back to the main poppy flower, all the edges were roughly torn and this was matted onto a piece of Only Orange cardstock, and this stuck onto the white basecard - on the left hand side of the card.

3 of the poppy heads were then coloured in using Only Orange Stampin' Write marker pens. They were then cut out, and the edges gone over with a black marker pen to give a neater edge. The 3 poppy heads were then stuck onto their respective plain flowers on the main card, using 3D foam squares. A message of Thanks was then stamped to the bottom right of the card, using black ink.

And if you live in the Gloucestershire/Cotswolds or Swindon area and would like to host a free cardmaking workshop, do get in touch with me. You are sure to have lots of fun with your Friends learning new stamping techniques, making some cards and looking at all the gorgeous Stampin' Up! products.

I'm Back!

Well Christmas and New Year were like a whirlwind and I am only just getting back into the swing of things - hence my long absence, apologies!

But, in those great words from Independence Day - 'I'm Back' and I suppose my NYR should be to blog every day - we'll have to see!

Here are some of the cards that I made over the holidays:

I used the Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls as the background and a cute House/New Home Stamp (Katie&Co) which I coloured with Gelly Glaze pens. Added a ribbon and some mats.

Sympathy Cards are always hard to make.

I used some notepaper from Sainsbury's as the background as it has a faint watermark type pattern on it - really lovely. I bought the block of paper thinking I wouldn't have to cut the squares down, but I did to get the brown card matt to fit onto the card! Used the Fiskars Imperial Corner/Photo Punch.

A Sizzix cut & emboss flower was highlighted with some pearlescent ink and the message is a Rubber Stampede one I have.

Changing from my brown theme, the Cuttlebug embossers again came in handy for 2 quick cards. The heart one combines a sizzix heart with a cuttlebug love embossing folder which just fitted the small heart. I guess I may make a few more like this one for next month!

I liked the way the Get Well Card eventually turned out. I'm still working on getting the colouring right on the embossed backgrounds. Here I used a waterpen with tri-colour Brilliance Pearlescent ink pad - as it matched the stamped greeting. I jazzed up the white card by notching the corners, using a small circle punch the wrong way. Looks good with the lilac scalloped matt.