Thanks Sew Much

Howdy! It’s Saturday at last – I’m looking forward to a fairly chilled weekend, finishing off the odds and ends on the decorating, and hopefully playing with some of my new stash in preparation for my new catalogue launch event – more details on that one coming soon! In the meantime I’ve got a couple more cards featuring retiring products to share. the first one uses the Sew Lovely and the coordinating Sweet Stitches DSP.

I’ve created a stair fold card base using tempting turquoise DSP and stamped the cotton reel image over in the same coloured ink. The measuring tape is made from daffodil delight satin ribbon stamped with stazon. the end of the tape is made from some chocolate chip cardstock and an eyelet. The large button comes from the coordinating designer button pack. None of these items will be available in the NEW idea book and catalogue, so if you’d like to get your hands on them let me know ASAP! The card also features the tiny tags stamp set and jewellery tag punch, which are staying in the new catalogue .

Moving on to my second card today, it features more products from the mini catalogue – Baby Blossoms and Springtime Vintage DSP. The sentiment is from Occasional Greetings.

I’ve cut a freehand curved edge on the DSP and used it as a guideline for the flowers which are stamped in baja breeze, not quite navy, night of navy, pretty in pink, rose red, cherry cobbler, always artichoke and pear pizzazz. The sentiment was inked using baja breeze and pear pizzazz markers. I've added a length of ruffled baja breeze seam binding ribbon along the join between the cardstock and DSP.

That’s all for today, I have two more to show you on Monday, along with sneak peeks for the Christmas Club which starts next Saturday, 1st October. There are still a couple of spaces left, so if you’d like to join us then email me to book your place.

Because I Care…

Morning All! I’m back with yet more cards featuring retiring projects – I know, it’s a famine and then a feast . This card is based on some designs that my fantastic downline Rebecca came up with for one of our team training sessions. The papers are from the Springtime Vintage collection and I’ve used the colours which are in them – pear pizzazz and baja breeze. The focal hydrangea image is from the beautiful level 1 hostess set Because I Care, which I believe is now no longer available in the wood mount option.

I’ve stamped the image on naturals ivory cardstock and used the Stampin’ Pastels to add colour. I’ve then stamped over the image using the French Foliage stamp set in river rock. the card base has been stamped using the hydrangea in versamark ink and then a ruffle of baja breeze seam binding and some pearls finish it off. I’ve just noticed there are only 2 pearls in the picture – one must have fallen off somewhere along the way as there were 3 previously! The sentiment is stamped in early espresso ink, and I’ve used the scallop trim border punch to add a decorative edge under the DSP.
My pre-order goodies have arrived, so I’m hoping I’ll get some time this weekend to make a few samples to whet your appetites next week in anticipation of the NEW catalogue launch. Don’t forget to get in touch if you’d like your personal copy posting out to you!

Strength & Hope - time out with friends

Blimey, it’s nearly the end of the week already! I’m in the midst of preparing my class for this weekend, but I thought I’d pop by in the meantime and share a project that I made this weekend, when my lovely friend and fellow demonstrator Val came over for some inky playtime - we had a fab time nattering and crafting.

She brought with her some plain white frames from IKEA, and challenged me to work outside of my comfort zone with the ‘Strength & Hope’ charity stamp set. Now, if you visit me reasonably regularly, you’ll know I'm not really a ‘vintage’ or ‘distressed’ kind of girl, but I broke out my distressing kit, and my neutral ink pads, and here are the results….

It’s a mix of soft suede, crumb cake, early espresso and pretty in pink inks with a piece of pretty in pink satin ribbon. I’m in the process of planning an event for later in the summer, which will feature this stamp set and all proceeds will go to the local breast cancer unit. If you fancy joining in, then watch this space as details will be appearing in the next few weeks. who knows, this frame may yet make a reappearance!

Baby Blossoms

Morning Folks
can anyone tell me where the weekend went please? I cant quite believe it's Monday again and we're racing towards the end of April.I had a fabulous day on Saturday, firstly with my class of lovely ladies, who were making the AR designs Haute Tote and coordinating notecards using the Springtime Vintage Suite from the new mini catalogue.

The notecards were made using the one-sheet wonder technique. the baby blossoms stamps were used to create an A5 sheet of custom designer paper, which was then cut into panels and used to decorate the card.the eagle-eyed of you may have spotted a new border on the front not-quite navy notecard - is it a new punch I hear you ask? Nope - i've simply used the curly label punch to add the decorative edge, as demonstrated by an Australian demo Alisa Tilsner here.

I can't quite believe it, but this was my 12th class since becoming a demonstrator - I'm not too sure where that time has raced away to, but to celebrate my 1st birthday as a demo, I think we'll have to have some blog candy this week, i'll have to go and have a rifle through some stash to find a prize, but check back later in the week to see what's up for grabs!

I'll also be celebrating with a 'Birthday Party' for my May class - all of the projects will be on a birthday theme and it'll be an all-day event including a party bag (with £25 of goodies), lunch, jelly & ice cream and possibly even 'pass the parcel' for £40. If you'd like to come along and join in the festivities then it'll be on Saturday 28th May from 10am-4pm, email me to book your place!

Speaking of parties, I followed class with my little friend Lydia's crafty birthday party for her & 12 friends - we used A LOT of glue, but they seemed to have fun and all went home with lots of hand-decorated goodies. I'll have to see if I can borrow some of Lydia's creations to photograph this week as I didn't get chance before the party. Yesterday was spent tidying up my craft room, which had got into quite a state last week with all of my preparations for the weekend, and then catching up on chores.

I've got several swaps to make for my team training session later this week, so I'll be back to share those later in the week, then I'm looking forward to starting the decorating, which will mean limited inky time over the next couple of weeks whilst we try and change the hallway landing and stairs from a shade of cherry cobbler to something more akin to crumb cake/sahara sand!

Baby Bloom Sneak Peek

Happy Friday all!!
i'm not too sure how it's got to Friday, but I'm hoping to get a chance to put my feet up for a little while tonight (after I've assembled 13 tote bags, cut out pillow boxes and assembled a birthday banner that is).

It's been rather manic this week as I've been preparing for my class tomorrow (the projects didn't even exist on Wednesday -  that's how far behind I was this month!) AND designing projects for little Lydia's birthday party tomorrow - which reminds me, I must add a birthday card to the to-do list.

So please excuse the fact that the sneak peeks for tomorrow's class are a little later than usual, but you cant photograph something that doesn't exist! The kit list for class is here and if you'd like to order a class kit so that you can play along at home, it will be available here shortly.

I'll be back tomorrow morning to reveal all!
Until then, hope you have a relaxing evening

Let’s do the hop……

Good morning again! If you've joined me as part of the blog hop, then welcome! Hopefully you've arrived here from the lovely Rachel's blog, if not then keep following the links and you'll end up back here via there!

This time I'm back to share some projects made with supplies from the all new mini catalogue - I've been playing for a couple of weeks now, and have been desperate to share some of it! First up, here's the make and take card that the ladies at my launch party made last night

It features the top note die (courtesy of my new favourite toy, the Big Shot), springtime vintage DSP, baja breeze seam binding ribbon and the gorgeous 'beautiful wings' embosslit. The sentiment is  from the Occasional Greetings stamp set, coloured with baja breeze and not quite navy markers. I'm loving the papers - I didn't think I'd like them at first as they seemed a little chintzy for my tastes, but having designed my next class using them they're fast becoming a firm favourite!

Staying with the springtime vintage collection, here is a card front that I made for a swap over on ILWS, organised by the lovely Pat (aka cupcake). The same colour scheme with an added hint of river rock, but this time featuring the 'four frames' stamp set and coordinating punch, which is a fantastic shape and size for fitting many of the existing SU sentiments - I can see this being one of my most used and abused stamp sets! The scalloped baja breeze layer is not a new border punch - instead I've used the curly label punch to create a different decorative edge.

And finally for this morning, a swap that I made for a recent training session, hosted by my lovely Stampin' Up! 'sister' Bekka. A completely different colour scheme and style for this one - I used the 'Summer Splash' stamp set to create a bold & bright beach scene. The colours are pacific point, real red, daffodil delight pumpkin pie, crumb cake and tempting turquoise.

That's all from me today, your next stop on the hop is Theresa's blog where there's lots more inspiration!

There are four hops in total running today - the first in the chain for each of them is listed below (this post is part of group one).

Group One - Erika

Group Two - Angela

Group Three - Rita

Group Four - Karen

Tomorrow's Mother's Day, so I'll be back to show you the cards I've made for that then!