Well so far I have shared 3 page layouts for the simple weekly challenge that Kim and I are doing.

Alongside that challenge we are also doing a Monthly one and this will be for pages that are possibly more intricate,  just take longer to put together or they can be a double page spread. We are taking it in turns to choose a layout design and this first one was my choice.

I have used the Stampin Up Rose Garden thinlits and the Little Letters dies and a simple heart punch. The cardstock colours used are Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron and Pool Party which co-ordinate beautifully with Birthday Bouquet Designer Papers which are simply gorgeous  (note to self.....I seriously NEED another pack of this on my order) The pictures are again from Portmeirion on our Valentines Weekend break.

Scrapbook Challenge Week 2 and 3

So here I am, back with two more completed pages.

 For week 2 the layout design was picked by me from a gorgeous page I have pinned on Pinterest.
I chose to use my Stampin Up Botanical Builder flower dies to create the banner across the top of my page and I used the papers that are part of the same bundle. The colours used are Pool Party, Cajun Craze, Old Olive and Mossy Meadow.....I love the look of this combination. I stayed with our 2007 first holiday to Cornwall and this time picked our day out to the Eden Project for the theme. I have tons of pictures from that day out so the hardest part was limiting myself to only 3 for this layout (no doubt I will be making lots more pages for the rest of the photos)

For Week 3 (so this week itself) Kim chose the page layout and I have to say I do love the simplicity of this this one. It was quite a challenge for me to do such a plain design but I knew I wanted to use pictures from our day out to Portmeirion and I love how it shows the photos off clearly. I kept the embellishments to an absolute minimum as I wanted it to look bold and clean as a design. The paper I used is an old retired Stampin Up baby themed set that I have been hoarding for years. I used it because the colours were Marina Mist and Blushing Bride which went perfectly with the photo colours. I added the gorgeous, gorgeous Blushing Bride glimmer paper die cut heart as it was a page about our Valentines weekend away.

Now to pick the design for next weeks challenge.......

Scrapbook Challenge week 2

Well who will believe this......two posts in less than a week and even more importantly two scrapbook layouts created in less than a week too. This  page is not quite complete as I have not printed the photos but I know which ones I will be adding so hopefully I will print those next week. One panel will be for journaling (that's the part I struggle with along with many other novice scrapers) so that will be the description of our wonderful day we spent at the Eden Project.

Fresh Start

As a long shot that anyone still visits my blog I am posting this picture of a scrapbook page I created this week. Myself and a good friend have decided that we seriously NEED to get ourselves motivated this year. this covers many aspects of our lives but we have chosen to tackle one of those together.

20+ years ago this lovely lady inspired me with her scrapbooking even though I was strictly a card maker. Throughout those years in between I have had the occasional dabble and done a few pages but it has been a very hit and miss attempt. I have been saving pictures of layouts, embellishment ideas, alphabet stamps, papers.....more alphabet stamps, papers etc. and still not really made any headway.

Well Kim and I got chatting a little over a week ago and she admitted she has been unable to do any scrapbooking for months. Her hubby is in the process of a complete kitchen and dining room revamp so most of her scrapbook supplies have been packed away for ages. She had also lost her mojo like me but as we chatted we realised that we really want to get ourselves back into it so we have decided that together we could make 2016 the year we get ourselves organised and productive.

We have created two Pinterest shared boards , one for inspirational layouts/ embellishment ideas etc and one that we have named Completed Layouts/Pages. Each week one of us will pick a straight forward simple layout from the inspiration board, move that sample over to the Completed Board and then we will create out own pages using the chosen page as a starting point. THEN ......and this is the most important bit !!!!!!!!  we have a week to upload our own finished page to the completed board (we know that this will make us get them done as we have to show each other on there. In addition to this simple weekly challenge we are also doing a monthly one, picking one much more detailed layout and that's why we are giving ourselves a month to complete that one. So the page I am sharing today is my offering for our very first weekly challenge. For some reason I had these two pictures in my selphy printer box so I decided to just use what was at hand rather than "getting side tracked spending hours browsing computer photo albums looking for perfect pictures" I am really happy with how my page has turned out, especially as it is the first I have attempted in ages.

I have a number of areas in my life where I need motivation but hopefully this one will be one of the most enjoyable.

Team Colour Challengen No 1

Hi there
Sorry I have been away for such a long time.

My lovely upline Jenny has come up with a new idea which is a colour challenge for those of us in our team who are able to play along. We are allowed to create whatever we like be that a 3-D item, tag, card, scrapbook layout but we have to adhere to the colours she has given. This is our first ever colour challenge and she picked Basic Grey , Pear Pizzaz and Bermuda Bay. I have added white as my neutral and although I would never have put these colours together I am really pleased with how well they worked. The card layout was inspired by one I saw online ages ago and I love how bold the design looks in this colour combination.

There are so many new Stampin Up goodies available now from the the new annual catalogue and the brand new seasonal catalogue.  All catalogue items and also the brand new My Digital Studio computer software are now available  to purchase immediately through my online store HERE  Please contact me if you wish to receive any of the current publications or wish to place an order.

I will try and upload more details of the wonderful exciting things that are now on offer later this week.

Stampin Up French Foliage Stamp Set

Today I am featuring a simple card I have made using one of my all time favourite Stampin Up sets.
This set is called French Foliage and I have done numerous classes using this beautiful set of images. It is currently on the Retiring List in USA so pretty soon it will no longer be available. I have to say a large number of my customers have bought this set over the past 2-3 years and they all love it as much as I do. This is one of those sets that I will be keeping for myself regardless of the fact it won't be in the new catalogue which comes out in July.

This quick and easy card was created by simply adding two strips of torn computer paper across the top section and then sponging various greens and yellows inks to create the wave of colour

I then removed the torn paper and stamped the leaves and splatters in Stazon Black Ink over the colour wave. The stamped panel was then embossed using the woodgrain embossing folder and mounted onto a Basic Black base card. Quite a striking card and produced in minutes which is perfect when you need a card in a hurry.

Now then how about some fantastic Stampin Up news. . . .

As of today I now have a brand new Stampin Up website where you can go to browse all current catalogues, see all the latest offers from Stampin Up and the best bit of all is that you can place Stampin Up orders with me anytime night or day directly on the site. Those customers in my Stampers Group will still order with me personally once a month but for all of you who like to place additional orders can do this whenever you choose.

Please head off over there and bookmark my site today.

SHOP

Stampin Up Regionals 2013 General Swap Card

 

 

Hi there, three blog posts in a week...this must be a record for me in the past year.

Here is the card I made for my general swaps for our Stampin' Up! Regional event at Telford last weekend.

I made a WOW team swap and designed a shoebox swap for each of the Bloomin Buds team members that attended this event last Saturday but also need a swap idea for general swapping with some of the other demonstrators who attended. As we already knew there would be over 300+ taking part I quickly realised that there was no way I could make a swap for everyone so I just made 56 of these emboss resist cards. One for each of the Buds who were there and 50 for general swapping.

 

My base card is Early Expresso followed by Pool Party and Primrose Petals for the two embossed layers. This was topped by a further layer of Early Expresso onto which I adhered my stamped piece(using the beautiful Postage Due stamp set , thanks Jill) . To achieve the coloured effect I first used a Versamark clear inkpad and heat embossed the image using Clear Embossing Powder. Once this had cooled ever so slightly I sponged over the Pool Party and Primrose Petals colours using a sponge and then buffed up the embossed images using a soft cloth to remove the excess ink. I then simply added an Early Expresso Stitched grosgrain ribbon and mounted the whole panel onto dimensionals for added height. A tiny rhinstone was added to a die cut layeredflower and this completed my simple card.

 

I hope everyone who swapped with me liked my little offering.

Stampin Up Regionals are the best . . . . .

Hi there
I bet you cannot believe I am posting for the second time in a week ? Well neither can I hee hee

I am back from an incredible weekend away with some 300+ Stampin' Up! demonstrators from Scotland, Uk and Ireland who all attended and SU regional event in Telford .

I am a member of the Bloomin Buds Team and our upline is the lovely Jenny Moors from Poole in Dorset. Six of us from the team met at a lovely Premier Inn near the venue and we spent the afternoon and late into the night crafting together and we had a blast. How we have never been asked to leave due to noise levels I will never know because we are always in fits of laughter and somewhat rowdy when we get together. We each brought a shoebox swap with us and we had all made a WOW swap for the rest of the team too. There can be nothing better than sat around a table doing what we love with a bunch of like minded team members.  Our next big get together for the team will be at Convention in Manchester in November so if you would love to be part of the craziest team around the dont hesitate to get in touch and ask for more information about joining us.

So here are a few of our team swaps

 

And here are a selection of swaps I received in return for my own general swap card ( I have misplaced my own sample so will have to locate it and share it with you possibly tomorrow.

 

 

As always I am blown away by the quality of these swaps and love each any every one of them. I am so grateful to all of the other demos who happily share their talents and ideas. Thank you to every person who was kind enough to swap with me. I am inspired.

 

A little bit of "This and That" Brand New Product from Stampin' Up!

Are you looking for something completely fresh and new ? Do you struggle to find time for full size scrapbooking but love the idea of recording all the little things in your life that make it complete ?Then the brand new "THIS AND THAT" product suite from Stampin' Up! will be exactly what you are looking for.

As European Demonstrators we have just seen this wonderful new idea debut in the USA and have been keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we would also be getting this suite in our new catalogue which is due out in July. Imagine our excitement when we were told told that not only will it feature in the new catalogue but that we will be able to order it as a special discounted bundle for just one month until 31st May.  And this offer is NOT just for demonstrators it is for all of our customers too. 

    Stampin' Up! tell us that the This and That product suite will have further items added to the range in subsequent catalogues but for the debut offering we have a gorgeous debossed chipboard journal (complete with designer paper pages inside), stunning seperate pack of matching Designer Series Paper, Stickers Pack, Washi Tape and Rotary Stamp.
 I am delighted to note that this range has everything in just one bundle that we need to begin this amazing venture. 

Stampin' Up! say this range is all about you....... Your journal, your life, your ideas and your stuff !
A place for you to pop inside those bits and bobs that we all collect, for you to record all those silly little events that mean something just to you. Snapshot photos, tickets, creative doodles or design ideas anything that makes up the person who is you.

No worries if you cannot quite stretch to the whole bundle just now.....all items are available seperately so you can build up your range bit by bit.


I will be ordering my bundle this weekend and cannot wait to get started on my first ever journal Stampin' Up style. I have great plans for a new and organised way forward and this magic little package is going to help me with that. No more tins, boxes, folders full of silly little scraps of paper, card sketches, tickets from days out etc etc they are all going to be in one place. My journal, my life, my ideas and my stuff.


Will you join with me in this "Epic" journey ?

Welcome 2013...........the wanderer finally returns

Well I simply cannot believe how long it is since I last updated my blog. For those of you that have persevered with following me even though it has been some months....thank you so much.I truly do not know where the past 3 months have gone and I am quite ashamed that I deserted my blog and my followers. My crafting life has had to take a bit of a back seat lately and although I have been busy with my regular weekly classes I have not been able to focus on my blog, browsing or crafting just for me. I have just been ticking over and am now coming back to face the New Year with fresh eyes and hopefully with renewed energy.

This card is one from my upcoming Pleasant Poppies class. I have used a gorgeous new embossing folder which is coming in the new Seasonal Catalogue which goes live on 1st February. I have used the combination of Crumb Cake, Whisper White and Raspberry Ripple and this gives this class a lovely fresh and crisp look. This class is for the week commencing 4th Feb so if you are interested in attending please contact me for details of class spaces.  In addition I am now offering additional class sessions at my local library on Wednesday mornings and as this is a lovely new group I do have spaces available.  

I will hopefully be back tomorrow to share another card with you

Just a brief post to let you know that I am holding my Christmas All Day Event on Saturday 27th October 2012.
I now have a strictly limited number of places left so please contact me if you do wish to attend. The price of this event is £35.00 and your gift bag will include a free stamp set for you to take home. Your lunch and all other refreshments throughout the day are included in your entrance fee. Please get in touch asap if you wish to join me and arrange for payment this week..

Autumn / Winter catalogue is here

Stampin' Up! released the brand new Autumn / Winter catalogue on Saturday and it is fabulous.

I was actually away at Reading for our first UK Stampin Up Leadership event and I got to see virtually all of the new products available in this new seasonal catalogue. I am truly delighted with the wide range available and there are TOO many things that have found their way onto my own personal wishlist. As you know when we are away at any SU event we all exchange cards and the samples shown here are fantastic Halloween swaps that I was lucky enough to receive from a few of our amazingly talented Demonstrators.   All of these samples are created with "Googly Ghouls" (a 6-piece stamp set priced from just £11.95 for the clearmount ) We are just missing a super cute Frankinstein image so I will have to create something showcasing him once my own stamp set arrives.

With the arrival of this brand new catalogue Stampin Up has introduced us to a whole new concept and this is the "bundle" idea. Instead of buying all themed items individually you can now buy very special bundle packages at a 15% saving. In the catalogue there is a matching Designer Kit with tags, twine, googly eyes and glassine bags which co-ordinates perfectly with this lovely stamp set. I decided that the kit was a must have as well as the stamps but luckily for me they can be purchased as a bundle so I have been able to buy both at just £15.95 which is fantastic. I am going to have so much fun with this little set making my first ever Halloween cards this year and I am quite sure my little Great Niece would like to join me and make some for her cousins and friends too. If you would like to view the new Autumn / Winter catalogue just click on the link picture on the right hand bar of my blog.

 

And now a brief note to remind you that the 2012 Retired List has now been published by Stampin Up. You will find links to both the Stamps and the Accessories lists on the right hand side of my blog, just click on the pictures and you will be taken to the lists.

 

 

So what does this mean for you as a customer ? It simply means that as of now, all of those items which are NOT being carried over to the new catalogue are now only available WHILST STOCKS LAST. There are quite a number of things that are already sold out so if you spot items on the list that you have been putting off buying for a while then you will need to act quickly if you don't want to miss out. Once they are gone they really are GONE........ I must also mention that there are lots of items that have been significantly reduced in price, up to 40% reduction in some cases so if you have an eye for a bargain then you cannot afford to delay.

 

Well I have 101 things to work on today so I will be back later this week with a creation made with further brand new items.

Stampin Up new Framelits

I thought I would share something brand new from Stampin' Up today.

  
My card features two sizes of the gorgeous new framelit dies which will be available from September 1st when our new mini seasonal catalogue goes live. There are 6 graduated dies in this set and are designed to go through your Big Shot die cutting machine. Stampin' Up have also created beautiful stamp sets to co-ordinate perfectly with their dies and they too feature in the new seasonal mini. Today is the first time I have had these dies out of their storage wallet and I love them already. If you look closely at my card you will spot a sneak peak of another fun item coming our way from Saturday and it is already one of my absolute favourite new tools.

I have a very small class this evening so are having a bit of a change and playing with one of my old Stampin' Up sets "A Rose is a Rose" Sadly this set retired a couple of years ago but it is one of those sets I will probably never part with as it is lovely use on those larger cards we all like to make for those special occasions. My class ladies all adore this set and a few even have their name down if I ever do decide to part with it........they may have a long wait lol. I know my ladies like purples so have used Elegant Eggplant and just used 1st, 2nd and 3rd stamping to get various shades of the same colour for the flowers.

Anyway for tonight's class I decided we will make a large card and also a little gift box bag made with a set of framelit dies that are in the CURRENT Summer Mini catalogue. Please note that if you want these now (and why wouldn't you, they are gorgeous!) then remember they need to be ordered before end of August otherwise you will have to wait until they re-appear in the new Annual catalogue which will not be available until October 1st. The little box style bag comes from my fab upline Jenny. Look in her blog sidebar for her class titled Reason to Smile and this is where you can purchase the instructions from her. Thanks Jenny for a lovely gift bag idea. 

Well I must dash again as I still have a few bits and bobs I have to get done before this weekend when I head down to Bournemouth to join  my Stampin Up upline and fellow team buddies for our Regionals Training Day. Woohoo to a crazy get together with almost 100 other demonstrators from around the country. Believe you me noise pollution in the Reading area is guaranteed on Saturday, squealing is all part of the atmosphere when we all meet up at events.

Stampin' Up! Pincushion

Well now for something completely different.....................Back in January I told my class ladies that 2012 was the year I was going to finally learn how to sew with a sewing machine. I was kindly given a little machine by someone but when we came to try it out last week we discovered it was no longer working. A quick trip to our local sewing machine guy and I am now the very proud owner of a different machine. It isn't a new machine but I love it already and I am sure it will become my new best friend over the coming months as I finally learn how to sew.

I had my first ever sewing lesson today with friends, and look at what I created, My very own pincushion ready for all the sewing I am going to be attempting from here on in. I know it isn't exactly the most intricate piece of sewing but it was a first for me with a sewing machine and I was thrilled to bits that I managed to make ANYTHING at all. I have also made another small project but that one isn't quite finished yet..... however I WILL have it done by the weekend.

The best thing about my first attempt is that I have used some of my little hoard of Stampin' Up fabric and I know I will be "needing" lots more.

Well off out now so must dash. I will be back by the weekend to share my other stitched project.

French Foliage

Well as promised I have returned to share another new card with you.

I have just prepared a new emboss resist class for my Monday night ladies and I am using a set which is just perfect for this technique. 

The class came about as a result of my showing these ladies the beautiful calendar that was made for me by the very talented Carole you can see her blog HERE 

One of the months featured an emboss resist sample and it reminded my ladies that we had not used this technique in ages so a re-visit to French Foliage AND Resist embossing was called for ! Using Carol's original Rich Razzleberry as a starting point, I have spend this morning playing with ideas and creating the class using Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry. The class features Triple Stamping, Emboss Resist and Joseph's Coat (or emerging colour technique) The cards are striking in these colours to say the least but I have no doubt my ladies will love the combination. Thank you so much Carole for the inspiration and also for my lovely original gift.

Well of course once I had played with the French Foliage set I remembered just how much I like these images so I got sidetracked into blog hopping looking at creations by other talented stampers. I came across a lovely CARD by an Australian Demonstrator called Christine Blain. Her colour combination of Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo and River Rock just blew me away. I needed a few simple Men's cards so out came the ink pads to go with the stamp set and this little card was created in minutes. I am also going to make a note of that particular colour combo and use it with other stamp sets because it is truly gorgeous.
So thank you Christine for giving me a new colour idea to work with.

Please accept my apologies for my prolonged absence from blogging. I am hoping to get myself back into blogging more regularly so thank you for persevering with me over these past few months.

For today's post I am sharing a set of cards I have made using some images from the ever so lovely Reason to Smile stamp set which is a limited edition stamp set available for this month only.
There are two different ways for you to obtain these gorgeous stamps but only until the end of August. You can purchase them for £18.95 in Wood or £14.95 in Clear or even better you can EARN them for FREE if you place a £60 order from the Main Catalogue or Summer Mini.

Talking of the Summer Mini, this catalogue finishes on the 31st August so if you still have items from that catalogue on your Wish Lists you will need to get those ordered asap especially those items which are not being carried forward to the new Main Catalogue which comes out on 1st October.

Anyway I do hope you like my offering today and I will endeavour to share another project with you tomorrow.

Stampin Up Summer Mini Catalogue Launch

Well my post today marks the launch of a Stampin Up "first" in our European market. For the first time ever we have a Summer Mini catalogue following directly in the footsteps of our Spring mini which ended yesterday. Although I personally loved many of the items we had in the Spring mini I have to say I am completely bowled over by this new catalogue and that's because there are so many new things that we have only dreamed of so far.

Summer Mini Click Here

One of the most exciting items to showcase simply has to be the new Simply Scored scoreboard. The standard board comes with Imperial measurements, 3 marker pegs and the Stylus tool. The board makes scoring so simple and with tracks every 1/8" you can score paper or card up to 12" x 12" with ease.

With one of these amazing new boards in your crafty stash you will be able to join in the fun of making these 3-D papercrafted wreaths. They are lovely to look at and are very quick to make with the aid of this brilliant new tool. The picture above also shows the all new European additional plate which is available seperately for those of us who like to also use metric measurements. This plate fits snugly over the top of the standard board and does not slip.

In addition Stampin' Up ! have also released a brand new Diagonal Plate today 1st May

This fantastic additional plate alows you to simply and easily create standard or customised envelopes, boxes, background designs and more. It really is the "must have" accessory for the Simply Scored board and features at the very top of my shopping list for this month. I am sure this whole new scoring system will revolutionalise your crafting experience. Please click the video below to see a simple demonstration of the new Diagonal Plate in operation.

So if all of this news isn't enough excitement for you then I have some news that will surely be guaranteed to take your breath away.

Stampin Up! have today also announced a complete re-vamp of the kit available if you sign up as a demonstrator. As a company Stampin' Up are constantly looking at new ways to appeal to it's varied audience whether that be customer based or for those interested in joining the company as a demonstrator. They understand fully that some people want different things when they sign up to join the Stampin' Up family. With this in mind they have completely changed the starter kit format and SIGNIFICANTLY lowered the price to just £99.

For this minimal outlay you will get to choose ANY products you like up to a value of £130. Gone are the days when your starter kit items were picked by someone else ! you will now be able to taylor your kit to your own exact requirements and on top of this you will receive £45 worth of business supplies.

With a brand new mini catalogue just gone live today, the chance to create your own bespoke starter kit package and the new low price of just £99 there can be no better time to start your very own Stampin' Up journey.

And just wait for the final bit of news...........................

If you sign up as a Demonstrator during the month of May you will automatically qualify for a free entry pass  to this year's annual Stampin' Up ! Convention  which is being held  in Mainz, Germany in November 2012 ( Convention entrance costs are £149) This is the icing on the cake for anyone who has ever considered becoming a demonstrator as there is no better creative buzz than being part of a Stampin Up Convention experience.

If you are interested in more details about signing up as part of my Stampers with Style team or just want to know more about all the new products available please don't hesitate to contact me for an informal chat.

 

Hi there
 Just a quick thank you to all my ladies who attended my first All Day Event for 2012 on Saturday. It went very well and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment so thank you for joining me for a fun crafting day. I was asked on Saturday if my next one will be my Christmas theme as usual so I will be giving that some thought for July/Aug time. Please let me know if you are interested and I will get back to you with a date.

So here is the little set of cards I made to go with my bag that I promised to share with you all. These cards are made with Stampin Up Whisper White notecards which come complete with matching envelopes. They are a lovely size and it is refreshing to work with something a little different than the standard C6 cards we all tend to make. I love this Bordering on Romance stamp set and although I have used markers for this first set of cards I just know I will be playing with it a lot most especially with my Water Colour wonder crayons which I have recently re-discovered in my craft room and have been using more than I have ever used before.

I hope you like this little offering.


Stamp Set
Bordering on Romance
Inks/Markers
Stazon Black
Baha Breeze
Blushing Bride
Pear Pizzazz
Tools/Other items
SU Notecards and Envelopes
Framelit Dies Labels Collection
Edgelit Die  Adorning Accents
Embossing Folder Adorning Accents