Latest Classes

Hi there

The pictures I am sharing with you today are from my latest 2 classes. This month I moved away from the blues and brights colours and went with very feminine Pinks, Purples and Green.

The first class was using the ever lovely Fast and Fabulous Level 2 Hostess set and we made three cards. I coloured our Stampin' Up Basic Pearls using Frost White Shimmer paint and Regal Rose re-inker and this created pearls to match the cardstock and ink in the card designs.The 2nd class was using the Nature Walk and Fresh Cuts stamp sets. In this class we made a card, gift bag and bookmark. If you would like to have a go at either of these classes please email me for details of a repeat class.

I am currently working on my next All Day event which is with a Christmas Theme. I have already filled two dates and there will be two Saturday over-flow dates in August available. Please email me asap if you wish to take part as I need to place an order this week for the correct amount of supplies. There will be a minimum of 5 projects, a raffle, table gifts and lunch is provided.

Earl's Birthday

As you all know I usually am 100% Stampin' Up! in my crafting supplies. However today I am sharing something different with you as I needed to make this birthday card and gift-wallet for a 60th Birthday gift for one of my friends husbands. I wanted to use my little Border Terrier stamp as Earl and Glynis have a pair of these lovely dogs and I know Earl will love it.

I made the card first and then made a large wallet to hold a brochure and gift card for our local gym which is a joint present from my family. Well must dash now I have completed these and now need to get ready to go to the actual party.

3-D Christmas Frame

Hi there

Today I am sharing with you my latest Christmas Class project. This class is not my own design, it comes as a complete copy of the frame I received as a gift from my lovely upline Jenny at last years Stampin' Up! Convention in London.

Jenny kindly agreed for me to case her idea and use it as my Christmas class for this month as all my ladies loved the original which was done in various shades of green. I wanted to show how different it could look just by changing the colour so I went with various shades of blue for this sample. Every one of my regular class ladies have signed up for this class so if you too would like to join them please get in touch.

New Craftroom helper

Introducing my new craft room assistant...............Sapphire

I set my table up this afternoon to take pictures for my Cottage Garden class notes and once I had done the first lot I moved over to my computer area to upload them and check they were okay. I was busy typing up the notes when I looked back over to the photo set there was Sapphire sat on the white cloth along with the cards and wallet. She had flicked a scrunched up piece of card onto the cloth and was sat there looking at me as though she expected me to take more pictures. Needless to say I couldn't resist as she did look very lovely so here is my little class addition

Father's Day

Today I am sharing with you the card I made for Father's Day for both of the very special men whom Gordon and I are proud to call Dad.

I decided that I wanted to use a nature style images for this year as my Father in Law works hard in his garden and it always looks amazing and my own Mum and Dad are currently having their garden landscaped and I just know their garden will soon mean a lot to them too.

I have always loved the Lovely as a Tree stamp set (in fact it is one of those sets that I bought before I was even a demonstrator) and I tend to use it a lot for male themed cards. I do have to admit that I tended to only use the row of trees image or the Christmas Tree one but this past few months I have begun to use the oak tree and leaves images too. I think I avoided those images in the past because I wasn't confident about my colouring abilities, however once I discovered the blender pen and ink pad technique I realised that even I can create a nice colouring effect with a bit of practice.

Well I hope they both enjoy their cards, I am now off to work on some ideas for my July classes

Afternoon Tea anyone ?

On Sunday afternoon I attended a wonderful craft event over in Hebden Bridge, thank you Sue for the invite. I met some lovely people so thanks to all of you who stopped by for a chat. (If you are reading this Elaine I will be in touch early next week)

I made this cake to take with me and I have to say that most of the ladies agreed with me that it was the best sort....no calories but still pretty ! My cake may not have the calories but it does have some hidden extras. Inside each slice is a ticket with details of an extra special free gift if you book a party with me during the months of June or July. This is a gift from me and is in addition to the already generous freebies you can achieve from Stampin' Up! As detailed in my previous post, during June and July you can earn a massive £20 of extra benefits if your party total reached £250 or more.

If you would like to host a fun workshop/party with your friends then please do not hesitate to contact me and make the most of the offers currently available.

Fantastic Stampin' Up offer for June

What a fantastic offer from Stampin' Up. See the flier HERE
Book a workshop anytime this month and if your sales total reaches £250 you will get to chose a free Level One stamp set and £45 of free product of your choice (this is a massive £20 extra for each qualifying workshop through June) Don't have time for a workshop evening ? you can always host your own virtual party, just put together an order for yourself and /or friends and send it to me. So long as you reach the qualifying figure, you too will earn the extra £20 of freebies.

Vintage Christmas

Hi there

Happy Bank Holiday weekend to you all.

Today I am sharing with you my Vintage Christmas gift box and card which was my class on Thursday. My ladies really liked this one and even those who don't usually like sponging/distressing liked the effect it created on this particular project and they also loved the Early Expresso and Cherry Cobbler combination. At my suggestion some ladies just added the sticky strip to the areas needed for putting the box and lid together but didn't actually remove the backing so the whole thing can be easily stored flat until Christmas when they will be ready to use it. This will work really well if you want to make a few of them and don't have an enormous storage area in your craft space.

The next Christmas class is a wooden shadow box picture and the class is on Thur 30th June. If you are interested in taking part in this class on that date or an alternative date please do get in touch as you will need to book your place in order for me to get your frame.

Gift Boxes

Hi there

Today I thought I would share one of the items I made for my recent church fete.

I had these papier mache boxes left over when I did the Clock and Gift Box class last year and have been meaning to do something with them ever since. When I decided that I WAS doing the fete I spent a day making up a couple of clocks and the rest of the time decorating these gift boxes. I used a different decorative paper and cardstock on each and did the stamped tag and flowers to match. Thanks must go to my downline Sheila who worked with me to get them all done in time.

I have had a couple of my ladies express an interest in my repeating the clock class as they didn't get to attend the class last time around so who knows if I do get enough interested parties for a full day class it may well convince me to offer it out. If you are interested please get in touch.

Challenge for May

As you know my upline Jenny offers up a challenge each month to all of us in her team. We don't have any pressure to play along but a growing number of us ARE joining in each month and I think it is a brilliant way to get us thinking creatively.

Some months Jenny's challenges have us all scratching our heads to come up with a card that fits the bill and other months it comes to me immediately. This month Jenny set us the task of doing a card with a different fold than a usual run of the mill opening. I had no hesitation in the fold I chose to do and it was lovely to re-visit one that I haven't even thought about for a year or so. I also wanted to use my new Wedding Wheels stamp ( I love the quirkiness of this image) I decided to keep the actual card design fairly simple so as to not distract from the unusual explosion card fold. I therefore used Vanilla and Crumb Cake papers from the Elegant Soiree set and Crumb Cake ink and I think it pulls the card together in a nice understated way.

Please let me know if you like this little card

Thank You cards for April and May

Hi Everyone

Yet again I find myself apologising for a lack of posts, sorry there has been nothing new to look at for a little while.

I had a stall at the church Summer Fete on Saturday and I have spent the last couple of weeks preparing goodies for that in addition to my usual weekly classes so I have not had a moment to spare for my blog. The fete went well, I had a lovely sociable day and a big thank you to those of my class ladies who called by to support the event. Hopefully I may have some pictures to show you later in the week if my nephew's photo's come out okay ( guess who forgot to take her camera with her)

The cards I am sharing with you today are the simple thank you cards that I make for any of my ladies who place an order with me each month. The tiny Baby Blossoms card was for April orders and the Stength and Hope Butterfly card is my card for those who order during May ( my Stampers 6 and 10 ladies have already received theirs) Rather than writing on the inside of the actual card I write on a post it note inside and this has proved popular with all my ladies as it gives them a little "usable" thank you card to pop away as a stand-by card in case they need one in a hurry.

Anyway I have Thursday's Greenhouse Garden class to prepare today so I had better get my finger out and get to work. I do still have a couple of places left for the afternoon session this week so if you are interested please give me a call or email me to prepare a class pack for you.

Last weeks Christmas Class

Here is a picture of my Christmas Card class from last Thursday.

My ladies wanted to use the gorgeous Stampin' Up set "Lovely as a Tree" and I decided to go for a fairly modern look using Basic Grey, Real Red and Whisper White. The Whisper White against the grey cards looked very crisp and with just a hint of Dazzling Diamonds glitter it finished off the frosty look perfectly.

The most important thing is that my ladies loved them, they thoroughly enjoyed this class and we have now already completed our first 4 months of Christmas Card classes this year and therefore have 4 very different sets of Christmas cards done ready for December.

The next Christmas class at the end of this month is in the Vintage Style so will be very different to last weeks. If you would like to take part in this class or any of my other weekly classes please contact me asap to book your place.

Springtime Vintage Suite with Baby Blossoms

As you know from previous posts, my lovely upline Jenny sets us a team challenge each month and this months challenge was to make something using products from one of the new "suites" in the Stampin' Up Mini Catalogue.
Well my absolute favourite has to be the "Springtime Vintage" so I knew I would be using the Baby Blossoms stamp set but I had none of the matching items from the suite.............. well that was until late last week when the lovely vintage papers arrived. They are gorgeous and the only difficulty I had was in deciding which ones to use first.
I decided to make a slider box containing 4 very simple cards which I have left blank so they can be used for any purpose. You would be able to make three of these sets using just one sheet of Designer Paper and I think they would make a lovely little gift set to give to a non-crafter.

Hope you like my simple offering for today.

New Classes on offer

Hi there Apologies for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks or so. I have been beavering away on a heap of new classes and they have taken all my attention. For such a long time my regular ladies have been asking for more classes and I have finally worked out a timetable that will allow me to do a regular Thursday class. I will be doing the class at 12.30pm and then again at 6.30pm for those ladies who cannot make the daytime class. The new timetable of classes commences on Thursday 28th April with my "Lovely as a Tree" class ( this is our regular Christmas Cards class which will now be set as the last Thursday of each month) Please book your places in good time as space is limited and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Please also advise if you would like to be at the afternoon or evening session.

The next 5 Classes are as follows;

28th April Lovely as a Tree Christmas Class

5th May Clearly for You Wallet and Cards

12th May Baby Blossoms Box and Cards

19th May Greenhouse Garden Fancy Folds

26th May Vintage Style Christmas Class

For those of you who have expressed an interest in classes for you and your own group of friends please contact me for further available dates. I am happy to discuss your individual requirements with you and I will seek to provide alternative dates where possible.

Spring All Day Event 2011

I have just realised tonight that owing to the excitement over the new mini catalogue I only showed you the card box from my recent Spring All Day event and not the contents. So I thought I would share a picture of the box AND the 6 cards that all my ladies had to create to go inside. I loved these flowers and most especially as I water-coloured them with "In Colours" markers and they just speak "spring" colours to me. Mind you here in Lancashire we have had awful gale force winds and rain and on top of that it is really cold tonight so it doesn't feel at all Spring -like.

(I have to say that my ladies were worn out with not only all the stamping and water-colouring but all the cutting out so perhaps a little less cutting out will be the order of the day for my next Event "Christmas in July")

I will hopefully be back soon with a few creations using the new goodies from the mini catalogue

Stampin' Up! 2011 Mini Catalogue

Well what can I say ???????

The new Mini Catalogue from Stampin'Up! goes live today and it is simply the best yet. The most exciting NEWS of all is that we now have the Big Shot die cutting machine and an amazing collection of dies which feature Stampin' Up! EXCLUSIVES including the best selling SU die of all time the "Top Note" In addition to the cutting dies we also have a range of textured impressions embossing folders, sizzlets, medium sizzlets and Embosslits dies. I have been waiting for the day when we could lay our hands on the wonderful Stampin Up Big Shot machine and accessories and I just know that it is going to open up a whole new world of creativity for all of us. I have not yet taken up ownership of my new machine but rest assured it will be with me shortly and then there will be no holding me back.

In addition to all the excitement surrounding the Stampin Up Bigshot launch here in the UK I have to say that the new mini catalogue is, in my opinion, the best we have ever been given. We have gorgeous new stamp sets, designer papers, ribbons, buttons and many other accessories. We also now have the oooohhhhhh sooooooooooo cute 2-step Owl Punch, a fantastic Blossoms Petal Punch with matching stamp set and a stunning Decorative Label frame punch with a set of 4 matching stamps too.

To sum it all up we now have a Mini Catalogue with 32 pages of goodies that are begging to find their way onto your wish lists as they have found their way onto mine.

I have not yet had time to play with my new goodies as I have just got back from a mini family break to Amsterdam but I shall endeavour to create a few samples over the weekend to show you next week. If you wish to place an order or have not received your catalogue from me then please do not hesitate to contact me. I am also gathering people for the start of another Stampers 6 group this month so if you are interested in joining in with one of my monthly groups then please get it touch asap.

Those Little Extras

As promised here is a picture of the little extras I made for my ladies who joined me for my Day Event on Saturday. The bag is simply what holds their packed lunch ( most ladies do keep these lol) the Bunny is their table place marker and the little notepad, ruler and pen is their door gift as they come in.

I also make sets of spot prizes that I dish out during the day and there is one gift for each attendee ( this ensures that everyone goes home with a prize even if they do not win in the main raffle)

Spring All Day Event

Well here I am, back at last and sharing with you pictures of my projects from my first Day Event of 2011 which took place yesterday. I had 20 wonderful ladies join me for the day and we made the two projects shown. "Spring" was my overall theme for this first event of the year so I decided to use only our current Stampin' Up! In Colours as they just speak of spring to me.

The morning was dedicated to creating a 12 month Card Organiser and we used the often overlooked "Cottage Garden" stamp set to decorate the covers. We then used the matching Sunny Garden papers for the inserts and again used the Cottage Garden stamp set to decorate the month cards on each page. The designer papers contain Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait so worked perfectly with the In Colours I had chosen to use throughout the day.

The project I designed for the afternoon was decorated cards storage box with 6 cards ( the box could easily fit 12 cards) I chose to use the very beautiful Growing Green stamp set along with Curly Cute for the card sentiments. For the colouring we used In Colour Markers and aqua brushes. My ladies were horrified when I told them they had to stamp, watercolour AND cut out almost 45 flowers, ferns and leaves for the box and all the cards but all agreed that it was worth the effort to create the finished project. It was so nice to see how unique everyone's creations looked just because each person water-colours differently.

Come back tomorrow when I will show you the little table gifts I made for each attendee along with their other little surprises.

Team Challenge for March

Once a month my fabulous upline Jenny challenges our team to create something using a particular Stampin' Up! product. This month her challenge is to use glitter somewhere in our creation.

I decided I would use my favourite of all our existing glitters and this meant I immediately reached for Dazzling Diamonds. I teamed the glitter with Heat and Stick powder and a Versamark Inkpad and this is the gorgeous effect I achieved. Although this does look sparkly in the picture nothing can really do justice to how fantastic this looks in real life, diamonds is exactly the word you need to use.

Please bear with me this week for a lack of posts. I am busy preparing for my Day Event for this coming Saturday and still have a few finishing touches to complete.

Happy Birthday card for my downline

Today one of my downline team celebrates her birthday so I need to say Happy Birthday Jill, hope it's a good one.

Here is the card I created for her birthday card. I have used one of the stamp sets that I know Jill loves and made sure I used her favourite colour blue in my design. I was very tempted to go totally mad and make her a real "girlie" card in every shade of pink I could imagine but she wouldn't have been at all impressed so I thought she would much prefer this one.