Combining the old with the new

Hello everyone, it has been a lovely sunny day here in Farnham and as hubby and friends were trying to finish putting up our fence panels (not as easy as they thought!) mini monkey and I spent the day with his Granddad. While he is only two he has already decided on the hierarchy within the family, his Granddad being right at the top, so a day spent with Grumps is the best thing for Ethan. I thought I was a pretty safe second until the other day when I asked if I could have one of his cheddars, at which point he said 'No Mummy,' took one out of the packet and fed it to Pearl, my mother in laws lovely dog! Hopefully I'll be able to stay in third and not slip any further down his hierarchy.

Anyway back to today's card, I thought it was time I tried another card challenge and I really liked this weeks Freshly Made Sketch. I also wanted to do at least one more card with some items that are retiring tomorrow. Here is the original sketch we were given to play with.

I really liked the simplicity of this sketch because I am still a relative beginner and get scared off from time to time by the more complicated sketches. As I said before I wanted to use some of the retiring products before we have to say good bye for good. The two stamp sets used are both retiring but the colours are a sneak peek of the brand new In Colour selection for 2014-2016. I absolutely love these new colours, the orange is so bright and vibrant while the purple is a really deep juicy colour.

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Morning Post Alphabet and Bring on the Cake

Card: Whisper white, Blackberry Bliss and Tangelo Twist

Inks: Blackberry Bliss and Tangelo Twist

Tools and Embellishments: Corner rounder punch

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Create and Share Everything - Part two

Evening everyone! This is part two of my CASE post from yesterday (Click here if you missed it). For the second part I wanted to show you how you could take different parts of a card and use it as inspiration to make something of your own. Below is a copy of the card in the Spring/Summer catalogue that inspired me.

I really liked the frame at the back (made using the On Film Framelits again) and the banner sentiment but I needed another thank you card so the Peachy Keen sentiment didn't quite work. The little banners are made out of washi tape, I had never thought of using washi tape for something like this. So simple now that I've seen it but I would never have thought of it! The wooden element on the card above didn't really fit in with what I was trying to do so I chose a small heart as this just finished the card off nicely. I've left the wooden element as it comes this time but I love the fact that you can stamp on them (as in yesterday's card), distress round the edges with ink or completely colour them with an ink pad or Stampin' Write marker. Below is my finished thank you card and as you can see the bits that inspired me are still present it's just been changed to suit what I needed.

The new catalogue is now just 3 days away (arriving 1st July) and is jam packed with lots of inspiration to make your own projects, many brand new items and some firm favourites from previous catalogues too! I can't wait to make my first order of all of those brand new products! If you would like a copy of the catalogue then drop me an email and I will post one out to you on 30th June. The cost is £5 (including first class postage) but if you make an order through me I will take £5 off your first order.

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Hip Notes

Card: Whisper White, Crisp Cantaloupe and Coastal Cabana Card Stock

Inks: Strawberry Slush

Tools and Embellishments: On Film Framelits Dies (Save 15% when bought with Peachy Keen stamp set until 30th June), Essentials Wooden Elements, Retro Fresh This and That Designer Washi Tape and Silver Bakers Twine

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Copy and Share Everything - Part one

Hello everyone! This is a two part post with the second part hopefully coming out tomorrow. There are so many things I love about Stampin' Up! but the one I'd like to talk about today is their Copy and Share Everything or CASE policy. This means that as long as someone hasn't specifically said you are not allowed to copy their work you can search for ideas and then copy them straight off or maybe make some tweaks to add your own style as long as you let people know where you found your inspiration.

Sometimes when you look at a project or photos in a catalogue it can be quite daunting and you begin to wonder whether you'd ever be able to create it yourself. Well I wanted to show you how easy it was to copy the ideas from the Stampin' Up! catalogues. On the very first page of the Spring/Summer catalogue (finishing 30th June) are some really nice thank you cards using the Retro Fresh Designer Series. A friend asked me if I could make some for her as she was looking for some thank you cards and really liked the style. 

One of the things that is really handy is that Stampin' Up! tell you what products they've used so you don't have to go searching through the whole catalogue trying to work it out yourself. Once you've bought the products it's then up to you whether you copy it completely or tweak it in some way. For the first one below I copied it pretty much exactly (except I forgot to order the sequins!!) The frame at the back was cut with the On Film Framelits, the wooden arrow is pre cut so all that was left was to choose my patterned paper, stamp the sentiments and then stick it all together!

I then decided I wanted some in slightly different colours so just changed the patterned paper or the colour of the frame. They were so easy to make because all of the framelits, inks and papers make it easy.  I was even able to do a batch of them in an evening. Now I just hope she likes them!

 

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Hip Notes

Card: Whisper White, Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler, Retro Fresh Designer Series and I Am Me Designer Series

Inks: Basic Black and Costal Cabana

Tools and Embellishments: On Film Framelits Dies (Save 15% when bought as a bundle with Peachy Keen stamp set before 30th June 14), Essentials Wooden Elements, SNAIL Adhesive, Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive and Big Shot Die Cutting Machine.

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Blooming with Kindness - Thank you

Morning everyone. I hope you've had a lovely weekend so far. I'm still recovering so trying to take it easy while also attempting to potty train mini monkey, I'm not sure the two go together very well! It's just a quick post today with a nice simple thank you card, I love the fact that even a one layer card can look so effective. Blooming with Kindness is one of my favourite stamp sets at the moment and I'm really glad that it's staying in the catalogue. For the flower and butterfly I used Stampin' Write markers to allow ease of colouring different parts of the stamp, no more oddly coloured flowers for me. I used to try and colour different sections of stamps by attempting to line up the stamps on the edge of ink pads, needless to say it didn't work very often! These markers match the ink pads perfectly and the brush end of the marker really does allow you to colour different sections of stamps easily while the pen end allows you to write your own sentiments to match. This card is one of many that will be appearing in the Cards For Sale tab very soon.

If you fancy having a go at making similar cards yourself and live in the GU9 area check out the classes tab at the top of the page. I am going to be running informal card making classes once a month from my home in Farnham starting in September, places are limited so book while there is still space. 

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Blooming with Kindness, Best of Butterflies

Card: Whisper White

Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Crisp Cantaloupe and Early Espresso Stampin' Write markers

Tools and Embellishments: SNAIL Adhesive

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Burlap And Blooms Wreath

Afternoon everyone! I'm sorry there haven't been many posts this week, I've not been well and so have ended up spending most of the week either in bed or crashed out on the sofa with no energy. Even sitting at my crafting table was exhausting! I'm feeling slightly better today and as hubby keeps telling me to sit down I thought I would finally write this post. 

I wanted to share this lovely Burlap and Blooms Simply Created Wreath Kit with you, be warned there are lots of photos! This amazing kit is only available until 30th June as it is part of the Spring/Summer catalogue and it is so fun to make. The first photo is what comes in the kit, all you need to have to be able to complete it is a hot glue gun and some scissors, everything else is in the kit. I always get excited like a little kid when I have a kit like this to make, spreading out all the pieces and trying to decide where to start!

The first step is to make all of the flowers to go on the wreath. The kit comes with full instructions and each flower is so easy to make. I really enjoyed making them, the fringe flowers come pre cut so just needed rolling together, and the star flowers just needed layering. I have to admit I wasn't convinced at by the circle flowers (the red, blue and two yellow ones) when I first put them together as I thought I must have done them wrong. However as soon as I glued the buttons into the middle they looked a lot better, I hope you agree!

The next step was to wrap the burlap round the cardboard circle, simple!

Then put it all together and ta da.... see below for my finished wreath!

I cannot tell you how happy I am with the result! Now all I need is tall hubby to hang it up for me. If you fancy making one yourself make sure you grab the kit before the catalogue ends. 

Supplies:

Kits: Burlap and Blooms Simply Created Wreath Kit

Tools and Embellishments: Hot glue gun, Fringe Scissors (The effect could also be created using Paper Snips)

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Weekly Deals

This weeks Stampin' Up! deals are here. Every Wednesday Stampin' Up! offer a new set of deals on some fantastic products. Every week you can expect to see between 6 and 12 products on offer and there will always be an MDS download. These deals go live on a Wednesday and are only available until the following Tuesday night so make sure you don't miss out! This week several of the products are also on the retiring list so it's a great opportunity to grab those products before they are gone and at a great price. If you click on the image above it will take you straight to the weekly deals page where you can see for yourself what's on offer, alternatively feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page.

Retiring Products - Only Two Weeks Left

As the title suggests, there are now only two weeks remaining to buy the hundreds of products that will be retiring before the launch of the new catalogue. They are only available until the 30th June and while stocks last. I have done so many orders of these products for myself (I keep thinking I can do without something then changing my mind!) that the delivery man even asked me today what was in the boxes....one way to drum up business I suppose!

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Final Father's Day cards

Good afternoon all, this is the first of two posts I am planning today as this first one should really have been done on Sunday! As promised here are the other two Father's day cards I made this year. The first one I made for my dad and is using one of my favourite sets at the moment but it is retiring in two weeks! I will be quite sad to see this one go but I'm really looking forward to the launch of the new catalogue. You can't see very well in the photo but I had great fun playing around with my aqua painter to slightly colour the edges of the vanilla cardstock and the blender pens to lightly colour the bird and around the grass. These are so easy and fun to use, I can't believe it's taken me this long to try them! One thing to remember when using these is if you are using normal cardstock rather than watercolour paper, try not to add too much water as it can damage the paper.

This next one is a bit of a cheeky card as I have used hardly any Stampin' Up! products on it but as it's the first card I have made for my Father in law that I have actually been pleased with I just had to share it! I used quite a few bits of scrap paper that I had in my scrap box. I love to have a sort through every once in a while just to see what I can find and to stop it from overflowing!

Ok that's it for now but another short post will be following soon!

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Simply Sketched, Delightful Dozen, Perfectly Penned (All three of these are retiring to grab them before they are gone!)

Card: Basic Black, Baked Brown Sugar, Very Vanilla, Whisper White and Pool Party

Inks: Early Espresso, Baked Brown Sugar and Island Indigo

Tools and Embellishments: Woodgrain TIEF, Decorative Dots TIEF, SNAIL Adhesive, Neutrals Candy Dots, Antique Brads and Decorative Dots TIEF

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Father's Day Card - Simply Stars

Good evening! I'm popping in quickly with the first of three Father's Day cards. As hubby is working away this weekend monkey gave him his card and presents last night which is why I can share it with you now. I saw a similar card to this on Pinterest and wanted to see if I could make it using Stampin' Up! products, I'm really pleased with the result. One of the things I love about Stampin' Up! is the amount of colour co-ordination you can achieve. For example in this card alone I was able to match the ink used for the stars and sentiment with the buttons. Also I'm pretty sure at least one of the stripes in the patterned paper matches too! I also love how quickly you can get results, I managed to make this card in about 20 minutes, 5 of which were spent waiting for the glue gun to heat up! 

Both the stamp sets and designer paper series that I used on this card are retiring at the end of the month so don't forget to grab them while you still can. Items are selling out already so click on the Stampin' Up! link on the right hand side then check out the retired list before they go for good. As I mentioned hubby is working away this weekend so once I get little monkey to bed I get an evening to myself for some much needed crafting! I'll be back soon to share what I have been up to but before I go, I always like to give credit where credit is due but I couldn't find a link for the card that originally inspired me. If you feel I might have used your card please leave a comment below and I will happily add a link if it was your card.

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Simply Stars and Delightful Dozen

Card: Whisper white card stock and 'I Am Me' Designer Series

Inks: Garden green, Island Indigo and Cherry Cobbler

Tools and Embellishments: Regals Designer Buttons, SNAIL Adhesive and cool melt glue gun (Not Stampin' Up!)

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

A Simple Wedding Card

Hello everyone, I have a really simple wedding card to show you today. I have found that sometimes the simple cards are the ones I enjoy making the most and with the help of the matching banner punch this was simple and fun. This could also easily be turned into an Anniversary or Valentines card. I used Stampin' Dimensionals to make the banners stand out a little which I think was just what the card needed rather than putting too many fussy bits on.

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Banner Blast and Express Yourself (Retiring at the end of the month)

Card: Whisper White and Real Red

Inks: Real Red, Cherry Cobbler and Night of Navy

Tools and Embellishments: Banner Blast Punch

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!

Christening card - A bit pink

Morning everyone, this is my first ever blog so hopefully I won't make a mess of it! Those of you who know me know that I am not usually a fan of pink but when I was searching for a Christening card for my God-daughter I came across this communion card by Narelle Farrugia and I just couldn't resist making one similar. It also happens to fit well with this weeks Cute Card Thursday Challenge which is Challenge 324 - Perfectly Pink! I am really pleased with the way this card turned out and we had a fabulous day on Saturday, especially considering it started off with a thunder storm but ended with bright sunshine!

Supplies:

All supplies are from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise stated.

Stamps: Petite Petals and Crosses of Hope (This is now retired but still available to download on My Digital Studio)

Card: Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride and Whisper White. (I also used some pink patterned paper from my scraps box)

Inks: Pink Pirouette and Blushing Bride

Tools and Embellishments: Petite Petals Punch, Modern Label Punch, Little Leaves Sizzlits (Retiring soon), Circles Collection Framelits, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, SNAIL Adhesive and Stampin' Dimensionals

If you would like to order any Stampin' Up! products feel free to contact me using the details at the top of the page or alternatively you can order from Stampin' Up! directly using the button on the right remembering to find my name in the demonstrator list before completing your purchase!