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.