Stampin Up Everything Eleanor

Hi there

Today I am sharing with you a gift and matching card set I made this week using Stampin Up's Everything Eleanor stamp set.

My downline Jennifer asked me to assist her to provide a project for a craft evening for a group of ladies she knows. We went with a simple bookmark and holder in Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo and every one of the 18 ladies who took part were pleased with their finished project. I had a lovely evening sharing my love of crafting and as always, I got a real buzz from seeing even non-crafters achieve a great finish using Stampin Up products AND how easily those same people grasp how nice it is to be able to use matching cardstock, ribbons and inks. A couple of ladies were really taken with the whole concept of Stampin Up and may be coming to classes very soon. I look forward to hearing back from them.

This was a simple little thank you gift for a lady who hosted the craft evening for her group. I made a relatively plain and simple card to go along with the bath crystals gift tub and I know she was thrilled with the unexpected gift. Everything Eleanor is still one of my absolute favourite stamp sets from our main catalogue and I thoroughly enjoyed using it again.

I will be back tomorrow to show you a special Birthday card I made today (once I have given it to the lady in question later this evening and I know it doesn't matter if she comes on here)

Stampin Up Ribbons Storage

Apologies for not sharing a card with you today but that's because I have been so busy this week but not with making new cards. I am attending an event with one of my downline this evening and there have been lots of things to prepare for that. On top of that I am in the initial stages of preparation for my next day event which will be held on Saturday 28th April so have been out shopping for various things I need for that. I have also finally been to Ikea and bought the shelves for my SU ribbon storage, a job that has been in the pipeline for the past couple of years. I first saw this storage idea at my uplines and vowed that I would have the same one day. Well I finally talked hubby into putting the shelves in my cupboards and taaaaadaaaaa here is the finished job. I know that I have lots of gaps still as I don't yet have all of the gorgeous Stampin Up ribbons....but come on! all you crafters out there know that the best storage ideas are those that are "expandable" lol. The little tubs to the right of the picture are another neat tidying up tip. I have used up all those thin strips of cardstock that we all get left with. I stamped mixed sentiments and punched them out using the Word Window Punch and then grouped various ones together in old buttons and brads pots. I now have a nice selection of pre-stamped sentiments ready to use and in the process have put a stop to my over-spilling strips box.

In amongst all this tidying and prepping activity I have also got to show you the biggest distractions of all........my 3 Siamese babies. We have had a seriously worrying time with my little boy kitten as he has been very poorly. However over the past two weeks Mr Darcy has been recovering well and is now happy just being a naughty little boy as kittens are meant to be. He plagues the life out of Eleanor now but it is so lovely to see him thriving at long last so even she seems to let hime get away with murder lol. Both the kittens spend all their time out in my craftroom with me and they just love it when the sun is shining. This week we also had a bit of a breakthrough when my older Siamese cat Sapphire chose to get up and sleep with Darcy on their chairs, and she was followed later on by a very tentive Eleanor. As any of you who have added young cats to an existing older cats home will know this is THE picture you all want to capture when you can finally see that the older cat is mellowing towards the interlopers ! ! ! So we have now finally entered a new regime of me opening up the craftroom each morning and them all wanting the best sun chair in the house.

Stampin' Up ! Love Blossoms Wheel

As promised albeit a little late, here are the first two cards created with one of the new wheels from the Mini Catalogue. This wheel is called Love Blossoms and it is designed to co-ordinate with the beautiful "You are Loved" stamp set, also from the new Mini Catalogue.

I have shown that our wheels are versatile as you can ink them up in various ways. You can choose to ink the image in just one colour using either an ink pad or adding re-inker to an un-inked cartridge ( this is perfect if you wish to stamp further than a standard card length ie on a 12x12 layout) Alternatively you can ink the image up in various colours using our Stampin Write Markers (just give the whole wheel a good huff to reactivate the moisture of the inks before wheeling along) The multi-coloured choice really shows off the intricate pattern of the wheel image.I have lots of Stampin' Up wheels and I am the first to admit that I have just realised that I really haven't used them enough lately. I have made a promise to myself that I am going to get them all out of the cupboard and play with them. They are so simple to use and you can achieve simply stunning results in no time.

The other item I have used from the Mini Catalogue is the gorgeous Blossom Party Die for the Big Shot machine to create the 3-D flowers. I have simply layered a few die cuts and spritzed them before scrunching up, re-opening the petals and leaving to dry before adding them to the card. I hope you like the colour combinations.

Stampin' Up Easter Blossoms

Hi there everyone

I cannot believe how time has flown this past couple of weeks and I am pleased to say I have finally got some projects finished and will aim to share them with you over the next few days.

I have been so very busy working on classes but have taken a few days out from that to create a few cards and box sets for selling at an event later this month.

This first boxed cards set I am sharing with you uses the stunning blossom image from Stampin' Up's Easter Blossom stamp set, which has to be one of my favourite sets from our Mini Catalogue. As soon as I saw this set in the catalogue I said to myself I would have to have it as it is soooo much more than just an Easter set. The image speaks of Cherry Blossom to me and therefore is perfect for birthday cards as well as Easter. I have used the Faux Mother of Pearl technique to create a unique background paper using our Frost White shimmer paint and sponged with Pretty in Pink ink. I made four little mixed occasion cards and decorated the little box to match (this could also be used as a gift box once the cards have been used) I am going to make a few more of these box sets in various different colourways and hope they will be popular. This little box also folds flat so is perfect for any of us crafters who make sets for craft fairs as they can be simply packaged flat in a cello bag once they are made.

I will hopefully be back tomorrow to show some more of the individual cards I have been creating using products from the Mini Catlogue.