Shelli and I at the Manchester tour event

Well here I am with Shelli Gardner Co- founder and CEO of Stampin'Up!This was taken on Tuesady night at the Manchester Stampin'Up! tour event. My guests and I had a fun time and it was lovely to meet Shelli and her sister Lesley and also Paula and Kelly from Stampin'Up! UK

I also got to try the Watercolour crayons....I am converted already. They were so easy to use and so versatile. They are now top of my own wishlist along with the markers.....

I will try and take a piccy of the projects we did at the event and post it here for you to see.

Garden Silhouettes

This is my first card using the Stampin Up Garden Silhouettes Hostess set. I adore these stamps and look forward to doing heaps of cards with this one set. The sentiment stamp is from Sincere Salutations and the dots were using the polka dot background stamp.

Be Happy

Here is one of the cards I have made for my Be Happy sample board.

I am not usually into bold bright colours but this stamp set just speaks " fun" to me so I automatically went for vibrant colours. I have made a couple of others too but will have to upload those later.

The ink and cardstock are Taken with Teal and Whisper White.

Stampin Up .........on candles

Well here it is.....

My first ever stamped candle.

I have been looking at samples of these for months over on Splitcoast and on other peoples blogs but have only just plucked up the courage to try it for myself.

I used SU set Lovely as a Tree, which I have to say I believe will always be one of my favourite sets. I actually stamped the trees twice to fit all the way around the candle so it was a bit tricky when I came to the ironing stage but just did it in two halves.

Can anyone out there answer a very important question for me regarding these stamped candles please. Are they still safe to burn or does attaching the stamped tissue paper design make them purely decorative ?

Stampin Up

Well I am back and with some exciting news. I have signed up with Stampin Up as a demonstrator and am just awaiting delivery of my starter kit. This should be with me next week sometime and I am like a child waiting for Christmas at the moment. I now need to get myself in gear and create the samples I will need for my first workshop.

Blog Candy at Funky Fairy

Hi there just to let you know that there is Blog Candy offered over at Funky Fairy Inspirations and you can find the link HERE

They will pick 3 winners on Saturday.

My first Bella card

I have just bought my first Bella stamps. There are hundreds to choose from and you can find them HERE They arrived yesterday and I finally managed to have a play with them around about 11pm last night. This is my first card using the Bella's and this one is called Savvyshoppabella.

Within my stamp collection I needed something which covers teens to young women and I think these images are perfect for that.

The papers are a download which I have printed off myself. These just three papers from the Preppy range, one of many sets available from Cuddly Buddly which you can view HERE

Off to do my chores now so that I can play again this afternoon.

Thanks for dropping by
Maria

Weekend fun

Hi there

I had fun this weekend creating these little card wallets. I saw them over on Jenny's Blog and was blown away by her example. Mine are not nearly as beautiful as Jenny's but I certainly had fun making them both. I decided to make my wallets as little gifts so will be including 4 cards and envelopes in each one.

The Unfrogettable wallet is the same size as Jenny's but the Heartfelt one is slightly bigger as I wanted it to hold standard C6 cards and envelopes (these were just a touch too big for the original sized wallet)

I loved the look of the fastener on Jenny's wallet but don't have any of those so I used ribbon instead. I just cut a slit in the two sides of my wallet, attached the ribbon inside and threaded it throughto tie at the front.

I don't usually do "Cute"

I do not usually do "cute" cards but thought I would share these three with you.

The first two are using Magnolia and Sugar Nellie stamps. I decided that I really needed something in my stamp collection that is perfect for really cute little girls cards and I think they will be perfect.

The third card is using a "Fluffles" Stampendous stamp. Janette is solely to blame for this purchase :-) She made me a gorgeous little Get Well card using this stamp, after my recent surgery and it cheered me up no end...... It was just one of those "must have" images

I need a lot more practice with watercolouring (not at all confident as yet) but I am sure I can learn if I practise enough.

Not just a card

Hi there

I have been having a play around with an assortment of 3 D items this week. I found all of the ideas over on Splitcoast Stampers and have had real fun giving them a go.

I have been having problems with my camera download program on my computer all week but my extremely obliging nephew has sorted it all out for me tonight .....thankyou so much Matt.

I can therefore upload a few pictures of my little projects. Hope you like them.

Guess who had their Stamping Up order today

Yipeeeeeeeee

I had my amazing box of Goodies from Stamping Up today. Ooooh I cannot go into too much detail ( who knows who could see this post lol) just suffice to say it was a rather large order

:-) and I am thrilled to bits.

There is a story behind this order.......

6 weeks ago just before my surgery I actually decided to try and give up smoking and I am delighted to say that I have still not had a single cigarette in all that time.

So this mega parcel I had today is my present to myself for not giving in and not going back to the cigarettes. How wonderful that all of the money I would have spent in the past 6 weeks has now bought me stamps, inks, cardstock etc etc instead of just going up in a puff of smoke.

So here is my first card made with some of the things I had in my box which arrived about 3 hours ago ( after I mounted all my new stamps)

Nestability Dies

Well I finally gave in and have bought my first Nestability dies. I bought the Classic scallop squares and circles and couldn't resist trying just one out this morning. I am soooooo going to love these little dies (when I am back to full health and am able to put them through my Wizard without hurting myself lol)

This little House Mouse card is only the simplest of quick cards but it has given me an idea of the Nestabilities effect.

Back at last

Well firstly I must apologise for being away somewhat longer than the 2 weeks I had expected following my surgery. I am now back and on the way to recovery.

I have also had my In Laws staying with us for 10 days so have been rather occupied with that.

I haven't been up to crafting for what feels like forever but yesterday I made a start and here are three cards I managed to create using the Stamping Up "In the Spotlight" and "Simply Said" stamp sets.

I love these two stamp sets and will have a more in depth play with them once my stamp-a-ma-jig arrives.

Last post for a week or so

Hi Everone

This will be my last post for a couple of weeks as I go into hospital at lunchtime today for surgery tomorrow morning. I will hopefully be home by this time next week . I wanted to share with you a card I have made to give to my hubby when he comes in to visit after my op tomorrow. Hope he will like it.

Anyway see you all soon....

Ooooohhh and special message to those ladies in my Favourite Blogs list....I can't wait until I am back next week to come and visit your blogs....so please post lots of new cards to inspire me until I am back crafting.

Hugs

Maria

Mother's Day card for MIL

As you know I fell in love with the Dahlia flowers which were in one of my earlier posts. My Mother in Law is also a card maker (my fault entirely as I got her hooked about 3 years ago) and she does like Tea Bag folding so I am hoping that she will like the Dahlia fold I have used on her card......

My first Bind it All book

Well here it is my first ever Bind it All book. I had real fun doing this one and have even got a few spare pages to add other photo's to when I get a chance.

The obvious subject had to be my Great Niece Jessica as I have sooo many pictures of her to hand lol, add to that her favourite colour is pink so it was a winning combination.

My Easter Basket

I saw this basket idea at Jenny's blog and fell in love with it. I followed her links to Laura's blog and found Laura's tutorial here.

wasn't at all sure if I would be able to follow the instructions but within the hour I had made my very first basket. I am so thrilled with it and will now have the confidence to make some more for little gifts.

Obviously it is not perfect as I found the skinny strips quite tricky to start with but I wanted to show you all my very first attempt to show if I can do it anyone can lol.

Award from Jenny

Wow I got this brilliant award from Jenny over at Stamping Moments. Thank you so much Jenny, I am thrilled especially as my little blog is so new and I am still learning.

Thank you for all the encouragement you give to me and thousands of others and the inspiration and ideas you share with everyone. Your blog is a joy to visit.

No double sided paper ?

Here's one especially for Jenny. I had a bit of a brain wave with regard to my problem of no double sided paper to do the Dahlia fold cards. I got a polka dot sheet of paper in pink.....then using my new SU wheel ( the wheel I forgot to order the handle for) and stamped the reverse of the paper. How about that for determination....no double sided ? stamp your own ! No handle for wheel, ink it up holding with thumb and forefinger and then just roll it along slowly holding the sticky out bit on the sides !

I am actually very pleased with my creativety today in more ways than one ha ha

And this is the result.

Hampton Art lady on Moonshadow ink background

This card uses a piece that I scrunched and then I used a versamark ink pad, rubbed over the top and then sprinkled with gold embossing powder (it only catches the versamark and powder on the higher areas so the gold is random when heated)

Although this is only printer paper it has the feel of real hand made paper.