Christmas Again!

Happy Wednesday folks!
Well, half way through the week again, which means it'll soon be the weekend!! I've just about finished making Christmas cards for this year, and here are two more to show you. The first features stocking prints from papertrey ink and the lovely Christmas Coca DSP in a joy fold. The second uses the wreath from 'Welcome Christmas' in an easel card with real red and old olive, the gorgeous red flocked paper on the base is again from Christmas Cocoa DSP - which is still available to buy in the 'Bundle up for Christmas' promotion until December 29th.

 

Lots of boxes keep appearing with backorder items for me to get inky with over the Christmas break, when I'll be busy designing classes for January, February and March next year. The next class dates are January 22nd, February 19th and March 19th - details and sneak peeks to follow soon. It'll be nice to make something other than Christmas stuff for a change. However, I've still got a couple more Christmas designs to share, so I'll be back later in the week with those. I'm hoping the weather holds in the meantime so that my cards and pressies will get to their destinations quickly - I'm thinking that there's little chance of that though!!

Well, see you later in the week
Linz
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Christmas Preparations....

Morning all
it's been a busy weekend as I had my last class for the year, where we were making a calendar for the new year and two matching cards. Here is the set we were making, the instructions and class kits are now available to purchase here.

Then on Sunday I braved the shops to take my Dad Christmas shopping, the good news is that I'm now finished, I just have to wrap it all and write my cards!! Speaking of cards, I managed to get a couple of pictures in semi-daylight this morning, so here are two of the cards that I'll be sending this year, both using the Serene Snowflakes stamp set and a neutrals colour scheme.
The first is an easel card with the large snowflake embossed using white powder on chocolate chip, layered on soft suede and then onto crumb cake. the paper is from the Christmas Cocoa speciality DSP which is still available in the Christmas Bundle offer until 29th December.

The second is a standard C6 card with a whisper white panel stamped in crumb cake, chocolate chip, sahara sand and soft suede, layered onto chocolate chip and then onto a soft suede base card. the greeting from curly cute is again heat embossed using white powder. the card is finished with a white satin knot and a few of the very sparkly rhinestones. 

Well, that's all for today - I've got a some more Christmas cards to photograph and upload later this week, and I guess I should get on with wrapping some pressies!!

Have a good week

Linz

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Ornate Flowers - Sneak Peek

Afternoon all, can someone please tell me how did we get to Thursday already??

I had a fab day on Monday as I had a day off work making Christmas cards - I've a few more left to finish and then I'll begin the mammoth task of writing all of them and wrapping gifts! I'm ready now for a change to something non-Christmassy. Speaking of which, I have a class this Saturday where we're making a calendar and a couple of cards using the Ornate Flowers stamp set and Greenhouse Gala DSP, which is really summery and bright. Here's a little sneak peek

Instructions and class kits will be available to purchase on my blog after the class on Saturday. And hopefully I'll get a chance to take some piccies of my Christmas cards in daylight before I write and send them all!
Until then I hope you're all keeping warm.
Linz

ILWS Design Team Challenges

Morning All,
I'm back again, this time with my design team entries for November on ILWS, I'd completely forgotten to post them last month, despite having completed them on time and uploaded them!

The first challenge was to create some gift packaging. I used the Lauren Meader 'catch all' template to make a gift box for my convention room-mate's pillow gift, which was a pamper kit of some yummy molton brown toiletries, a fluffy flannel, face packs and nail file. I used another of her templates to make a door hanger for some choccies for Val's birthday.

I combined the packaging challenge with the colour challenge to make a matching gift set in red, orange and yellow. I embossed the roses from growing green using white powder on coloured cardstock and cut them out to embellish the box, and I used some of the in colour ribbon in peach parfait to complete the ensemble. the sentiment is taken from the hostess set 'afterthoughts'.

 

My final colour challenge entry doubled as a birthday card for my friend's son - I'm loving playing with the make a monster set from the new catalogue, its a really fun one to use and I loved the bright colours.
I've got another couple to share when I manage to locate the photos and upload them!!

see you soon
Linz

Challenges part 2

Hey folks,
as promised, I'm back to show you my final three submissions for the design team challenges over on ILWS this month. the third challenge was 'ornaments' I'd been playing with 'Contempo Christmas' and 'Delightful Decorations' quite a lot recently, so decided to try something a bit different. I got my craftROBO doing some of the work for me, making hanging tealight holders. Here are the two designs I came up with - both featuring a stamp from serene snowflakes and containing battery tealights. The templates are available to purchase from the silhouette website.

 

the final challenge for this month was a sketch, and this is what we were given:

And here's my take on it, featuring the 'make a monster' set which I'm loving using (and thank you to the wonderful Darren for sketching the shadow for me as I can stamp but cant draw for toffee!!)

Well, that's all of this months entries, and I've just realised that I didn't blog any of last month's, so I'll try and post those tomorrow! In the meantime I'd better go and get on with making some more projects.

ttfn

Linz



December Design Team Challenges

Morning all
just popping by to share a couple of my entries for this month's design team over on ILWS. The first for this month was the colour combo challenge of real red, tempting turquoise & old olive, my colleague's daughter turns 18 later this month, so I combined the two to make this stand-up card, using my craftROBO, the playdate papers and the funky four stamp set.

The next challenge which I attempted was the technique challenge, which this month was to create an entry with no layers, although some embellishments were allowed. I have to admit struggling with this one as I'm a matting and layering kind of girl and adore using papers, but back to basics I went, creating these two cards with little more than 4 rubber stamps, versamark ink and embossing powder - it just goes to show that we dont NEED lots of stash - we just want it!!

Well, that's all I've got time for today I'm afraid, but if you fancy playing along, then why not hop on over to ILWS and then leave me a comment here sharing your entries! I'll be back tomorrow with my last three submissions.

Linz
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Ornate Flowers Class - Saturday 11th December

Evening all
just popping on with a quick reminder that my next class is a week on Saturday (11th December) and we'll be focussing on the new year, making a calendar and a few cards using the 'Ornate Flowers' stamp set and greenhouse gala papers. I'll be back later in the week with a sneak peek of the projects.

There are still a few spaces left if you'd like to come along then please email me to reserve your place. The cost is £21 for the stamp set and class or £10 for the class only.

I'll hopefully see you there!
Linz
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Contempo Christmas Creations

Morning All!
Gosh, I hadn't realised how long it had been since I last posted - mainly because I've been waiting for some daylight to try and take some decent photos for my posts! It's been a busy few weeks, what with the frantic preparations of swaps for convention, then class preparations and of course starting to get ready for Christmas! There's been lots of crafting going on behind the scenes, so I'll have to try and share some of it over the next week or so, to make up for the recent drought!

Last Saturday I held my last Christmas themed class of the year, and we were creating cards and tags with the Contempo Christmas stamp set.this is the set we made

And here are the cards in more detail

 

 

 

 

and finally a divided matchbox-style gift tag box.

The instructions will be available to buy here.
until later
me
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Exhausted but on a high!

Happy Tuesday all!
I cant quite believe it, but after all the frantic preparation over the few weeks, it's been nearly a month since convention and i'm back down to earth and busy with class and Christmas preparations! I had an absolutely fantastic time meeting my fellow demonstrators from around the UK, France & Germany in Addington Palace and came back with lots of new ideas and inspiration - now I just need to find some time to implement them all - roll on the 8th day in the week :)

We found some crafty time too, and there were a number of fantastic demonstrations up on stage - I could have sat there all day watching Pam and Shelli making pretty things with our products! The awards night was a truly glitzy affair, although I had to be on my best behaviour as I was sitting next to the new SU president Rich Jutkins. I had the pleasure of seeing my Stampin' Up! mum walk up on stage to claim third place in the 'Demonstrator of the Year' award - congratulations Monica!!

There were a couple of very exciting announcements, including details of our promotions for January/February. I can't reveal any details as yet, but suffice to say it's worth getting your workshop bookings in for January/February as there are additional rewards for both customers & hostesses. Contact me to book your workshop and beat the January blues.

We were also given details of the location for next year's convention - we're going to Disneyland Paris!!!!!!!!! So, do you fancy coming along and joining in the fun? To register for convention you need to be a Stampin' Up! demo, read here for more details, or feel free to contact me for a chat about the opportunity to join my team!

So enough waffle - I'm guessing you'd like to see some piccies! Unfortunately I didn't take too many photos as the lighting was really poor, but I have some good ones of the swaps I made, and more to follow of the lovely cards I got back - there are some truly talented ladies out there. The first is the 'general swap' which I made 200 of (with thanks to Pat, Rebecca, my mum & Darren who were helping me with the frantic preparations)

Then there was the 'gift item swap' organised by Karin - the challenge was to make a gift for five of my fellow demos, and I came up with a convention memory scrapbook in a tin, here's the finished item

I'll be back later in the week with some more pictures when I've had a chance to photograph the gift items that I received in the swap. I also need to show you my samples for the design team challenges on In Love With Stamping this month.

Until then, have a great week.
Linz
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He's Making a List and Checking it Twice!

Happy Friday all - it's nearly the weekend again! and I've just realised that it's less than a month to Christmas, so I guess I'd better get my skates on and start making some Christmas cards! (normally I'd have them finished and written by now, but no such luck!!)

 Well, with Christmas just around the corner, I'm guessing your thoughts are going towards the gifts you need to buy and wrap and the other preparations you need to make, but have you stopped to think about what YOU would like for Christmas?

Are you tired of receiving the same gifts year after year? Would you like a surprise, or a gift that you haven't had to buy for yourself? Well why not send me you Stampin' Up! wishlist, then pass my details to your family and friends and when they contact me I'll help them to select some gifts for you. I'll even gift wrap them and deliver them in advance so that it's a surprise on the big day! Simply email me and I'll send you a wishlist to fill in, then I'll take care of the rest.


Alternatively, I'm also offering the option of gift vouchers, which will enable you to choose your own goodies in January. They'll come presented in a handmade gift wallet and are available in a range of denominations. Email me for more details.

Hopefully you'll all be receiving lots of lovely crafty stash under your trees!

Linz
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Bundle up For Christmas

Morning all!
just popping by to share the latest promotion from Stampin' Up. Between 1st November and 29th December, we've got some fantastic bundles to help you with your Christmas preparations, including a new speciality designer paper - and the opportunity to earn some gorgeous free ribbons! Host a qualifying workshop/place a qualifying order (£150 or more not including p&p) and you'll also get to choose a free spool.

Here are the bundles you can choose from:

	Description	Wood Mount	Price	Clear Mount	Price
Gifted Bundle	Gifted Set and Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper	124051	£35.70	124052	£30.70
Welcome Christmas Bundle	Welcome Christmas Set and Christmas Cocoa Speciality Designer Series Paper	124063	£36.90	124064	£31.90
Season of Joy Bundle	Season of Joy Set and So Swirly Stampin’ Around Wheel	124055	£36.45	---	---
Delightful Decorations Bundle	Delightful Decorations Set and Ornament Punch	124058	£37.45	---	---

Here's the gorgeous Christmas Cocoa Speciality designer paper included in the Christmas Bundle - 12 Sheets total: 2 ea. of 2 single-sided, flocked designs: 2 ea of 4 double- sided designs. This one's on my wishlist!!

And when you purchase one of the bundles above, you can choose from these ribbons:

Picture	Description	Item	Retail Value
	Mistletoe Ribbon Originals	116792	£11.50
	Sleigh Bells Ribbon	116795	£8.50
	Riding Hood Red 1-1/4” Striped Grosgrain Ribbon	113099	£10.25
	Real Red 3/4” Polka-Dot Grosgrain Ribbon	115608	£10.25

Bundles and ribbons are available while supplies last, there is no limit to the number of bundles and free ribbons you can order.

Contact me to place your order!
Linz
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All Day Christmas Class Projects

Morning All
well it's been a busy week here, I'm frantically trying to finish all of the projects I need to have completed before going to the Stampin' Up! convention next week, i have a lovely group of ladies coming to help me with some swaps on Sunday, but before then I have 6 design team samples to finish before Sunday, and 6 gift items.  in the meantime I thought I'd better pop by and show you some of what we got up to last weekend at my Christmas class.  We had a full day session, and I for one was exhausted by the end of it! in the morning the ladies made six cards using the one sheet wonder technique and Serene Snowflakes stamp set

 

We used a slightly unusual colour combo for Christmas cards - cherry cobbler, marina mist, crumb cake and whisper white. For those of you who'd like to give it a try at home, there is an instruction download and a class kit purchase option available - just click here for more details.   we then made a couple of 'make and take' style projects, unfortunately I don't have any photos of these at the moment, so I'll have to share those at a later date. in the afternoon, following a yummy lunch (including of course mince pies!), we went on to make a flip album to record our Christmas memories using half a Christmas Jingle scrap kit.

 

That's all for now, thank you to the lovely ladies who came and took part in the class. The next one for your diaries is Saturday 20th November from 1pm-4pm, and we'll be making some last-minute Christmas cards using Contempo Christmas. Please call or email me to book your place - the class cost is £10 for the class only or £20 for the class plus the stamp set (RRP £15.95).

I'll be back at some point over the weekend with pictures of my design team projects for this month, and a sneak peek of my swaps for convention.

Linz

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Join My Team and Earn Free Stamps

Have you been considering signing up as a demonstrator?
Well there's never been a better time, as well as the fantastic benefits and the reduced price starter kit offered by Stampin' Up! I myself am offering an extra bonus of a free stamp set, to anyone signing up as my downline between now and Friday 29th October. If you've been considering it, there's further information here

Please do get in touch for a chat!
Linz
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And the winners are...

Thank you all for your orders, the winners of the prize draw were as follows:

Ladies, if I could ask the winners to contact me ASAP with their product choices please and I'll place the order first thing in the morning.

Many thanks
Linz

New Catalogue Celebrations!!!

OFFER CLOSES AT 5PM TODAY - PLEASE ENSURE YOU HAVE SENT YOUR ORDER TO ME BY THEN IF YOU WISH TO BE INCLUDED IN THE DRAW.

Well folks, 

it's been out for a couple of weeks now, so hopefully you've had a chance to get inspired, compose your wish-lists and decide which of the yummy new products you'd like to get your mitts on!  

If you place an order of £45 or more with me between now and the 25th October, you'll get a chance to win even more goodies. For every five orders I receive, there will be a draw for the following prizes:

1st prize 

£45 towards a stamp set and punch of your choice from the new catalogue (or merchandise to this value) 

2nd prize

a level one hostess set

3rd Prize

£15 to spend in the catalogue 

if you spend £90, then you get two entries, and if I receive 10 orders then there will be two prize draws, each with the same prizes etc.

Please note, prizes are in addition to your order and cannot be subtracted from it. the draw will be filmed and posted on my blog the day after orders close, and you will have 24 hours to make your selections - winners will also be notified by email. This is an offer from me personally, and is not part of any current promotion from Stampin' Up, it cannot be combined with any other offer, and previous orders/class kits can not count towards it.

Linz

Peterborough Training

Happy Monday all!

apologies, I meant to share some more crafty items with you last week, but before I knew it, Saturday morning was upon me and I was busy with my all-day Christmas class, I'll share some photos of the projects from that later in the week. In the meantime however, I realised that I hadn't shared any photos of the projects I made for our demonstrator training event last weekend in Peterborough. My lovely upline Monica asked me to make and demonstrate some samples using a selection of our products. Given the fantastic range of new punches that we have in our catalogue, I opted for punch art, and here are some of my creations 

(thanks to Monica for the photos - I completely forgot to take any!!) my favourites have to be the reindeer in the treat box and the singing reindeer, and the best of it is, they can all be created using SU punches. I'll try and prepare some tutorials in the next couple of weeks - once I've managed to complete a mountain of swaps!

I'll be back shortly with my prize draw for qualifying orders.

L

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Pretty Post!!

Morning all
once again the weeks are whizzing by, and seem to pick up speed as we're approaching the end of the year! I've been busy designing swaps for our demo training session in Peterborough last weekend, I'll share a piccie of those as soon as I have chance to take one! In the meantime I wanted to share a thank you present that another demo, the lovely Vannessa, made for me

 Isn't it gorgeous? Thank you sweetie!! I keep opening it, taking out the yummy contents and then popping them back in, and I'm simply in love with the colour combo and papers.

 

I'm in the midst of preparing for my all day Christmas class, so I'll have a few more projects to share over the next few days, and then the fun of making 200 swaps will be looming on me, not to mention Christmas preparations!

Well, that's all for now folks
See you soon!
L
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Challenges Part Deux

Hello Again
Twice in one week! I'm back with the second instalment of my entries for the ILWS design team this month. The lovely Karin set us a 'Halloween' theme challenge - to make an item/card for Halloween, which I know isn't massive over here, but I think she's missing home in Canada where it's a big thing.  Well i went off blog hopping, itching to do something a bit different, and found triangle treat pouches decorated as scary halloween characters, and so batty was born.

And finally, Sara set the challenge to make a project which didn't use any card.  Circle circus was sitting on my desk, still inky from Jim's birthday card, so I decided to have a go at melting wax and decorating a candle (it's fiddly, but quite easy to achieve!) so here is entry number one

Then I used up some scraps of the sweet peas DSP stack to create a treat pouch cover, ran a glassine bag through an embossing folder, and used it to make a co-ordinating ribbon gift pouch, decorated with felt sweet pea flowers, which are now sadly retired.

Well, that's all I have to share today - be sure to pop over to the design team gallery and have a peek at what the other lovely ladies have been up to!

until next time
me
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I've not been idle, I promise!

Evening All!
Well a couple of days ago I promised some piccies of my recent design team cards from the ILWS October challenges, so I thought I'd better get around to actually posting them!  the first one is my sketch challenge entry, here's the sketch we were given to work with

And this is my entry, which having used masculine colours (yum - crumb cake, chocolate chip, sahara sand and early espresso) with the circle circus stamp set, happily doubled for Darren's Dad's birthday :) Happy Birthday Jim!!

Then I made two entries for the colour combination challenge, which this month was Real Red, Whisper White and Basic Black - three of my favourite colours together as they make a real statement! I'm still desperately trying to use up scraps of retired papers and ribbons, so out come the 'Day and Night' papers, and here's what I came up with for one of them

I can't show you the other until next week as it's a birthday card for my friend Emma and I don't want to spoil the surprise as she sometimes pops on here!


Well, that's all for this minute, i'll be back tomorrow to show you my entries for the 'Halloween' challenge and the limited supplies challenge. Hopefully the UPS man will be visiting me then with a box full of goodies from the NEW CATALOGUE - I cant wait to get my hands on the new punches!!


Keep your eyes peeled, as later this week i'll be posting some prize draw offers, so that you too can share in the excitement of the new catalogue.


Until tomorrow, ttfn
Linz
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