Stampin Up Training Event

Yesterday I attended my first ever event with my upline Jenny and some of the other members of her team. It was a Stampin' Up demonstrator training event in Taunton. I travelled approx 250 miles to be there and I am sooooooooo glad I made the effort to attend as I had a ball.

I met Jenny's downline ladies for the first time which was lovely, hello again to Val, Jane, Judy, Kate and Jo it was so nice to meet you all. In addition there were lots of other demonstrators from the surrounding areas and it was a real pleasure to meet with you all and also to swap cards with each of you.

I have received some beautiful little pieces of art in this card swap and I will share them all with you in another post (once I have photographed them ) I absolutely adore receiving cards from other card makers as I am inspired so much by their creativity.

A huge amount of my inspiration comes from my upline Jenny. She had obviously been really busy before this event yesterday as she had made each of us in her team a beautiful gift set of decorated notepad and pen to go with the swap card she gave to everyone.

Jenny's set is simply stunning and it has definitely inspired me to make these myself as gifts. However I have to say I am dead jealous Jenny as I do not have this gorgeous stamp set which is so obviously perfect for the job hee hee

The stamp set is a level 3 Hostess Set called "Happiness Always" and is a very special one as it can only be earned and not bought. Click on the online catalogue link and go take a look at the whole set, it really is a beautiful set.If you too love the look of this stamp set and have a few like minded crafty friends why not see if you can gather them together and contact me to arrange a workshop. You could perhaps then earn this set for yourself. You can contact me via my email link on my sidebar.

How lovely is this gift set. Thank you so much Jen I love it.

Summer By the Sea Shadow Box card

Hi there

I am back from a mini camping break in the Lake District. We didn't have the best weather but it was still lovely to chill out for a few days and the bad weather enabled me to get my swap cards all finished for my Stampin' Up field training day this coming Saturday. The field training is for demonstrators and they tend to take this opportunity to swap cards with each other. This training day is the first one I have been able to attend so I am looking forward to joining in with the card swap. I will show all the cards I receive next week along with the card I made to give out.

My upline Jenny gave instructions on her BLOG for a shadow box card today and I just had to try my first one. You can make 2 of these cards out of just one A4 sheet of cardstock and they even fold flat into a normal C6 envelope.

I had to make my card quite simple in design as I am really busy today. I was supposed to be typing up instructions this morning for my card classes on Thursday and Friday but got distracted when I popped over to Jenny's blog and saw this little box card..........so all your fault Jen.....but thank you for the card ideas lol.

I used the beautiful little girl stamp from "Summer by the Sea" stamp set from Stampin' Up! I love this set of stamps. The cardstock is Pretty in Pink and Elegant Eggplant and I watercoloured the image using SU markers and aqua painter.

Anyway hope you like this card for today.

Organisation....almost

I am sharing a little Bind it All book I have made this morning. The image is from the gorgeous Stampin' Up set "Summer by the Sea"

I wanted to create a handy little reference guide for all of the copics colours ( ok so I don't have all of them but my collection IS growing lol) I do have a single sheet blank colour chart that I got from the Copic site and I have been filling that in myself in order to get a "true" colour but I wanted something more substantial.

I thought of a little book with pages of charts of all the colours and I am thrilled to have found a website of a wonderful lady called Gale who created mini charts of ALL the Copic colours and made herself a little book. You can find her website HERE I have added about 12 blank pages at the back of my little book and will use those to show blending combinations that I discover and like.

Sugar Bowl challenge

I have been a fan of Sugar Nellie stamps for a while now and this little girl has to be one of my favourite images. She reminded me of my Great Niece, Jessica and I had to buy her immediately. Over on the Sugar Nellie challenge blog HERE they run regular challenges and this week it is a sketch challenge with the added extra requirement that you should use blue and green on your card.

At my local craft shop demo evening last night I met Kirsty Wiseman and bought her printables CD and was therefore able to print off some very bright green patterned papers this morning. I am still a wee bit uncertain about this "busy" style of card with these "loud" papers but even though it feels really weird for me to be trying them out, I have to say I do like the finished results.

So anyway this is my first ever challenge card and I am thrilled that it is for the Sugar Nellie Sugar Bowl blog.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh no it's Copics again !!!!!!

As you can see I have still been experimenting with my new Copics pens. I think they should come with a health warning to say they are addictive, once you start playing with them all sense of time is lost hehe.

These couple of cards are my latest batch and they came about when I was trying to design a card for my local craft shop card competition. The top card is the one that I chose to enter.

Copics Creativity

Well I am absolutely shattered from my day out to Leeds for Maddys copics class, but it has given me such a creative buzz today. I had to have another go at this copics business.....and get out my scrapbook papers as well.

I am still blown away by both the copics effect and this busy style of card and find it unbelievable that I am able to do it. I have made this card today and again I find myself liking the finished design.

What do you all think ?

Maddy's Copic Class

Hi there

As you know from my previous posts, I have recently bought some Copic markers and have been experimenting with them over the past 2 weeks. Well today I attended a Copics workshop with Maddy over in Leeds. I went with my friend Vikki and we had a brilliant time. Here is the card I created today along with a close up of my coloured image.

I am blown away by the stunning results which can be achieved from these marker pens and I'm truly inspired by Maddys amazing card creations which she shared with us today. This is one colouring technique that I will be practising an awful lot.........it brings a whole new dimension to a stamped image.

I was thrilled to meet with 3 other ladies namely Gay, Lauren and Eileen and hope they will keep in touch after such a fun day. Whilst there we were also treated to a meet and greet with Calvin Mouse and his Teddy Bear. He watched over us at lunch to ensure we did not polish off all of the cake, and then joined us ( along with his Bigshot machine and teddy) at the craft table for our afternoon session. I took a photo to show you how at home he is with a roomful of other crafters.

Baroque Border Wheel

Hi there

I thought I would share this card with you today. My SU upline Jenny occasionally sets those of us in her team a challenge with a chance to win prizes. This month's challenge was to make a card using one of the Stampin' Up wheels so here is my entry. I wanted something quite plain and simple to show off the wheel design, but wanted the embellishment to also stand out so used Real Red for the stamped flowers. I also added a black button and Linen thread to add a wee bit of texture to my card. Hope you all like it.

There are 10 standard sized wheels available in the current catalogue and 13 Jumbo ones and I love them all. They really are so simple to use and they can give an almost instant card design in minutes. I admit I do have LOTS of these wheels and I am glad that Jenny posted this challenge as she has reminded me how good they are to use.

Thanks for the challenge Jen.

Petal Pizazz

Hi just a quick card to share with you again today as I have a heap of ironing to get through before it gets too hot.

I am attending a Stampin' Up Demonstrator event at the end of this month and have joined in with the card swap which will take place on the day. With this in mind I have started to play around with my stamp sets to try and come up with a card design that I like enough to make the 15 or so cards I need.

This card won't be making it to the final selection but I enjoyed making it all the same. The small flower used on the backing panels is from the gorgeous "Baroque Motifs" set and the main flower image is from the "Petal Pizazz" set. Cardstock is Whisper White and Real Red.