Convention Swaps

I thought I would share with you today a couple of pictures of a couple of the organised swaps I signed up for at Convention. My offering for the 3-D Swap was this one with the Pheasant from the Autumn Days stamp set (I love the versatility of this set) This is a covered photo album with space for 36 photos. I thought they would be a great idea for my swap buddies to have a lasting keepsake of our amazing experience in Bad Homburg. They can use them for either photos or even pop some of their received swaps inside.

The other organised swaps I joined were for Card Candy and these are my two offerings for those. I was amazed at the card candy sets I received and so glad that I took the time to join the swap.

If you too would like to be able to join in the fun at our next European Convention which will be held in London AND if you would like to become part of my Stampin' Up team then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Back from Convention

Hi everyone

I am back from my trip to our FIRST ever European Stampin' Up Convention in Bad Homburg Germany.Before I say anything else I want to say the hospitality I received in Germany was second to none. I travelled with my husband and nephew and we all had a wonderful time. We did not stay in the actual Convention hotel but the one we did stay in , the Park Hotel was lovely and the staff there were brilliant.

I have been counting down the days to Convention for months and it was EVERYTHING I expected it to be and so much more. So many different things made this an experience that I will remember for a long long time.

• The sample boards which were filled with some awesome projects


• Workshop WOW demonstrations on stage


• Gorgeous make and take projects packs


• That unique special feeling of being part of an amazing event in our European SU journey


• Seeing the pride on the faces of every one of those demonstrators as they were welcomed on stage to receive the awards for their hard work

There were two other things that made MY Convention experience for me...........

The first is the many swaps I received from all the other demonstrators who attended Convention, their work is awesome and I will be aiming to share many of those swaps with you here on my blog.

And finally.................

the joy of spending two whole days in the company of some lovely people who I hope will become real friends as we continue our Stampin' Up journey together. I hope we will all get to meet again at the next Convention in 2010 and that by then we will be joined by many more. Here is a picture of just one of the groups of existing internet friends I have made since joing Stampin' Up! It was so wonderful to be able to meet these people in real life and put faces to names at last. Also present here were my Upline Jenny and my Downline Jill.

SU Convention Bad Homburg, Germany 2009

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post to say "hello" from Bad Homburg in Germany, where I am attending the first ever European Stampin' Up Convention. I met up with my Upline Jenny and another Demonstrator Jo for a quiet drink this evening and here is a picture of us just relaxing in the bar at their hotel.

I must get off to bed now as I have an early start tomorrow morning and don't want to miss a single thing. I will try and get online tomorrow night to share some Convention pictures with you.

New Catalogue Launch Party

Apologies to all for being such a bad blogger this past 2 weeks. As a result of my rather nasty bout of flu it took me all my time to get everything ready for my launch party so I just wasn't organised enough to update my blog.

I am thrilled to say that my party went like a dream on Tuesday and everyone had a great time.

Congratulations to Maureen who won first prize in my raffle. Your big basket of goodies is on its way to you and I am sure you will enjoy all of it. Other congrats go to Jen W, Suzy, Sheila, Vikki, Jenny S, Gillian and Cathy who all won prizes too.

My thanks go to all my ladies who attended and who made the day such a wonderful success. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Here are a few pictures of my samples to share.

Bella Bleu NEW designer papers

Just had to share this card with you to showcase just one of the NEW Bella Bleu papers from Stampin' Up!. ( I used Night of Navy rather than Not Quite Navy on this particular card) I have also used the brand new Eyelet Border Punch which is gorgeous.

I got my first order from the brand new catalogue yesterday and I am blown away by this paper. It co-ordinates perfectly with Kraft, Very Vanilla and Not Quite Navy cardstock and inks. It is such an elegant and stunning set of papers and I already know I will be ordering loads of it over the next year. I am already in the process of creating a concertina box and six cards with this set so class ladies watch out for more details and the samples at my launch party on Tuesday.

Launch Party Invite

Sorry for the lack of posts this past fortnight. I have a few days away on holiday and brought the flu back with me as a souvenir which wasn't good.

On top of that we have just started work on our new kitchen so I had to empty it all which took forever. I am now without a "working" kitchen for a few days whilst the main work is done so it's all a wee bit chaotic here, however it is going to be gorgeous once it is completed.

So all in all I am a wee bit behind with my prep for my launch party on the 13th so will now be spending the next 9 days frantically creating lots of nice samples for all my guests to enjoy on the day. I thought I would share with you the invite I made for all my existing customers and extend that same invite to any of you who would like to pop in on the 13th. Just email me me for further details.

Happy New Year

No I haven't gone completely mad, REALLY I haven't.

I am of course referring to a new Stampin' Up! catalogue year.

Today is the day that the brand new 2009/2010 catalogue is launched and I am thrilled with the goodies it has in store for you. I personally already have a whole new wish list with "must have" new stamp sets, gorgeous ribbons, accessories, punches and Designer Papers.

I have just placed my first "New Year's" order and as soon as my parcel arrives I will be busy beavering away to make all new samples for you to view at my Catalogue launch party on the 13th October.

I have a nice stock of the new catalogue ( Stampers 10 copies are already reserved for you) so if you are not yet in my Stampers 10 group but would like to purchase your own copy then please contact me. The on-line catalogue will be available shortly and I will post a link as soon as I am able to do so. Please feel free to email me if you wish to place and order.

New Catalogue Launch Party

I have now set the date for my party to celebrate the launch of the brand new Stampin' Up! catalogue.

Launch party will be held at my home
Tuesday 13th October from 10am to 6pm.

I would be delighted if you would join me at this event. The choice is yours to either just drop in or stay for a while and have some fun. There will be a free make and take project for everyone to create , nibbles, sample boards with lots of ideas and ample opportunity for you to browse the new catalogue.

As a party special I am offering FREE postage for all orders over £40 placed on the day (usually a minimum of £3.95)

My other party special is the new catalogue at a discounted price of £3.00 (usually £4.95) Please email me to reserve your copy by 1st October.

Please email me to confirm you will be attending and if you wish to reserve your catalogue or if you do just require more information.

New ideas for a tidy craft room

I was trying to tidy up a wee bit in my craft room the other morning and for the hundreth time my glue bottles/tubs toppled over ( I used to keep them altogether on a little tray) In that instant I decided I had to stop what I was doing and come up with a more practical solution. I dug out some beer mat coasters, covered them with our beautiful SU designer papers, punched holes and made a desk tidy...................and within the hour I had a really sturdy new desk container in which I fitted ALL the items perfectly.

As soon as my class ladies saw it they decided they would like to make one too so that is one of the items we shall be creating in my next class which is 17th September.

After creating this first basic one I decided to go a step further and make one with an added memo sheet holder for my desk area as I am always hunting around for a snippit of paper. So now I have my own bespoke desk tidy complete with a stash of 4x4 memo sheets. I do have a few pens and pencils in it but as you can see it is mainly for all my Stampin'Up glues, tools etc.....all those things that I reach for EVERY day when I am crafting.

Stampin' Up! Last Chance items

Hi there

Just to let you know that Stampin' Up have released their "LAST CHANCE" list today. This is a fanatastic chance for you to grab yourself a bargain as there are many items with a 25% or 50% reduction in price.

Please be warned that you will need to act quickly if you do want to order anything from this list as these retiring items are guaranteed to fly out the door, especially with such massive discounts off of some of them. All items are only available whilst stocks last so please act fast to avoid disappointment.
You can view the list HERE

Amazing August offer.......Free ribbons ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Please note that this post will remain at the top of this page until the 31st August when this very special offer finishes.

For more up to date posts please scroll down the page

Do you love ribbon, would you love a FREE ribbon bundle even more ????????????

For the month of August ONLY you can earn free ribbons as a special offer from Stampin' Up!

These gorgeous ribbons are very special as they are not even available in the current catalogue. The ribbon bundle consists of 9.1 metres EACH of Certainly Celery 5/8" Poly-twill Ribbon and So Saffron 5/8 Grosgrain Ribbon.

You can earn this ribbon bundle in 2 ways. As a customer you just need to place an order with me for £45 (before postage)and you will receive one ribbon bundle pack completely free of charge. The other way to earn this set is to HOST a £300 workshop/ party, so if you have a group of friends and would like to host a party please email me to arrange a workshop date asap.

Please remember that this ribbon, as with all Stampin' Up ribbon, matches perfectly with the range of inks, cardstock and marker pens to give that ultimate perfectly co-ordinated look.

Dont miss out on this fabulous offer, email me today to place your order.

December Picnic anyone ?

In my class this week we are all making picnic baskets and in addition my ladies will be rubber stamping on candles for the first time.

Having just finished preparing the materials packs and class instructions for the Pumpkin Pie set we are making on Thursday, I decided to make a completely different one using some of my Retired SU Wintergreen papers and Always Artichoke cardstock. I love the sturdiness of this basket and have decided I am going to go ahead and make a few to house Christmas gifts for family and friends regardless of the fact that you don't usually have picnics in December. It doesn't matter to me that they are called a picnic basket LOL

A picnic basket template by Lauren Meader is available for purchase at Papertrey Ink

Inky Fingers

I thought I would again share something a little different with you today. I haven't seemed to have a lot of time to actually "play/ experiment" in my craft room lately but I did make this card and I am quite pleased with the effect.

I began by stamping the trees on Whisper White cardstock in versamark and basic black ink and embossed them using clear embossing powder. I then tore a sheet of plain copier paper and used it to mask the cardstock whilst I sponged on the Old Olive ink for the grassy area. Using that same mask, turned over the other way to cover the green I had just sponged, I covered the top half of my cardstock with Summer Sun ink. I cut a 1 3/8" circle out of a sticky post it note and used it to create a sun in the sky area, slightly overlapping the far left trees. I then sponged over the whole sky area using Pumpkin Pie blending it softly in some areas with the Summer Sun to create a mottled effect. I finished off by using Really Rust along the outer edges and then using a very soft tissue I buffed up the embossed trees to remove the excess ink. I then over stamped the leaves and flowers all around the edge to give the effect of a foliage frame.

I haven't really experimented a lot with this ink effect but as it has turned out well I will definitely be practising more in the future. NEXT TIME THOUGH I will be using those surgical type gloves as I got my fingers totally covered with ink.

Please feel free to leave your comments and tips

Time out ! ! ! !

Unfortunately I am not sharing a card creation with you today as I have not been able to get a spare moment to craft over the past four days. I do usually get withdrawal symptoms if I don't get into my craft room for at least a short time everyday, yesterday was an exception as we took my Great Niece out for the day which was just a fulfilling.

We went to Lakeland Animal Park in the Lake District for the day. On the drive there we had bouts of torrential rain but luckily we only had one more really bad shower just after we arrived and then it was gorgeous weather for the rest of the day. I took this giraffe photo which shows how sunny it was and how beautiful the blue skies looked with those cotton wool fluffy clouds.

I am hoping to get some serious crafting done later today and tomorrow as I have two classes to prepare for Thur and Fri. I will show the class samples once I have them made.

Baroque Split Negative

My card to share with you today is using the split negative technique.

I started by stamping the Baroque swirl image twice. The 1st onto Whisper White using Versamark and Chocolate Chip ink and then covered with Clear Embossing powder and heated. The second time I stamped using Versamark onto Chocolate Chip card and covered with White Embossing powder and heated. I then slit each image down the middle and joined a piece of each colourways together.

As you can see you get two cards out of this technique by using both sides of each of the colours stamped.

I then made two different cards by added different embellishments to each. I hope you like this technique as much as I enjoyed making the cards.

Pocket Silhouettes Wallet Class

Just thought I would show you what my ladies will be making this morning at class. We are making the wallet and 4 cards and all using the resist stamping technique. This class was requested by two of the ladies as they are relatively new to stamping and have not done the resist method before. This Pocket Silhouettes stamp set lends itself perfectly to this technique.

And especially for Jenny.......I have your gloves ready so you wont get inky lol !

Scallop Square Box

Just thought I would share with you a little decorated box I have made. The stamps are from Playful Petals set and I made the scallop box topper using my scallop edge punch and a 3 x 3 inch piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock. You just line up the centre point of your scallop punch with the centre of each of the four sides and punch out just once for each side.

I think this is so pretty in comparison to just a plain top layer. You can adjust to any size.

At last a card to share

I was up at 7am today and decided it was about time I got a card made....not a class card just a card for my own pleasure.

I absoloutely love the "Mr and Mrs" stamp set so that was the set my hand reached for today. The detail on the flowers is so crisp and clear so I have just randomly stamped on Whisper White in Pale Plum and Perfect Plum. I came across this folded flower over on Splitcoast Stampers. There are lots of samples using designer series papers which are beautiful but I wanted a plain and simple purple flower to go with my stamped background so I used whisper white cardstock ( this is slightly thinner than the coloured sort so easier for the folding) I scalloped one edge with the scallop edge punch, then used my brayer and lightly inked the strip in Pale Plum. I then sponged the edges and the creases in Perfect Plum.
This whole card took me less than 10 minutes to make and I am pleased with it's simplicity.

Hope you like it too

Christmas 3-D Class today

Here are the projects that my ladies are making in class today. They made christmas cards and a wallet two weeks ago and we have now moved on to gift packaging ideas for Christmas. I am addicted to 3-D projects and I am so glad my ladies are too !!!!!

The stamp set used is Season of Joy and the papers are Ski slope which are stunning.

Swap Card

Firstly I must apologise for not posting for a few days.

I've been mad busy with everyday life as we are about to completely renovate our kitchen and utility room, which has meant we have been here there and everywhere looking at kitchens, appliances etc. I have now made up my mind about all of it and are now waiting for my new appliances to be delivered. Hubby has started work on making the utility room bigger ( this has to be done first in order to move 101 things out there instead of in the actual kitchen) I am really excited as we have waited 15 years to tackle this mammoth task but I also know we are going to have a few weeks of uproar whilst it is done. It will soooooooooooooooooooooo be worth it though when it is finished.

Rightio....now back to the proper stuff hee hee

I belong to an internet group called In Love with Stamping . It is a great community and although it does deal mainly with items using Stampin'Up! products there are also places to show your creations for other companies too. There are card galleries, monthly challenges, forums with technique tips etc or just places to chat with like minded crafters. It is a growing community and real fun to belong to. If you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator or simply a stamper who loves to create then head on over and join.... you can find the link HERE

I have recently joined in with my first card swap on this group and it was a swap using the amazing Stampin' Up! wheels. This is my card for the swap. I love these wheels as they have to be the quickest and easiest crafting tool I have ever used. Stamping Up has lots of these and the designs are gorgeous.

If you would like to purchase them or anything else from the current catalogues then please just email me to arrange this.