Friday, 10 February 2012

Get started during Sale-a-Bration




Sale-A-Bration is a great time to get your friends into stamping, because they get so much more for their money! These cards are just the sort of thing you can make with a “starter pack” of Stampin’ Up!® products.

Here’s the shopping list:

Product name
Code
Page
Price
Assorted A4 cardstock: Brights (20 sheets)
121698
91
£6.25
A4 cardstock: Whisper White (40 sheets)
106549
94
£7.50
Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack: Brights (12 sheets 12”x12”)
117155
99
£19.50
Old Olive ink pad
102277
91
£4.95
Rich Razzleberry ink pad
115658
91
£4.95
Tombow multi-purpose adhesive
110755
114
£3.25
Mini silver brads
119740
109
£2.95
Sprinkled Expressions stamp set (wood)
125130
SAB
FREE
TOTAL
£49.35

This kit includes a versatile stamp set, featuring words and images, as well as a a pack of Whisper White cardstock, which seriously is the BEST cardstock to stamp on and you get 40 sheets which will keep you going for a very long time. There’s a selection of brightly coloured cardstock and a whopping pack of patterned paper in exactly the same colours! Choose two stamp sets from the same colour collection and you can co-ordinate perfectly. The Tombow adhesive is strong and versatile and ideal for beginners because it provide a bit of “wiggle room” before it sets. Finally, you can get the free set without the Mini brads but I do love these at the moment, so couldn’t resist adding them to the package!

If you’d like your friends to get into stamping (and why not? You’ll have more people to borrow stamps from!), why not “Like” this post and it will post to your Facebook wall so they can see. Go on – it took me AGES to get the “Like” button to appear and I don’t think anyone’s used it yet! I do believe you have to view the post on its own to make it work, which is probably why it’s not happened – to do that, click the title of the post and it should appear.

And don’t forget to let me know if you or your friends would like to place an order and earn some fabulous free products!

Stamps: Sprinkled Expressions (SAB)
Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Pacific Point (all in Brights assorted pack), Whisper White
Paper: Patterned Paper Stack - Brights
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Accessories: Postage Stamp Punch, 3 Hearts Punch, Velvet Ribbon, Real Red 1/8” Taffeta Ribbon, Crochet Trim - Victoria

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Valentine, collage style


Still not made your Valentine’s card? Here’s another idea, which I blatantly copied from the very talented Crafting Clare.  Well, I always set out to do a blatant copy, but things usually go “different” – largely because I craft in a different room to the computer so tend to forget what I’m copying on the very short walk to the kitchen!

The card uses a few stamp sets: the background and postmarks are from the very lovely French Foliage, which I can’t wait to get my teeth into and use properly. “Amour” is of course from Artistic Etchings, another favourite stamp set. And the heart image is from Perfect Postage – love it!

Stamps: Perfect Postage, French Foliage, Artistic Etchings
Cardstock: Confetti White, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Red Glimmer Paper
Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Real Red
Accessories: Postage Stamp Punch, 3 Hearts Punch, Velvet Ribbon, Real Red 1/8” Taffeta Ribbon, Crochet Trim - Victoria

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Enchanting (free!) papers


Aren’t these papers gorgeous? These are some of the fabulous designs in the new Everyday Enchantment pack of Designer Series Papers. You can’t buy this pack – it’s better than that... you can earn it FREE when you spend £45 on any catalogue products. This is part of our favourite promotion of the year, Sale-a-Bration, which runs until 31st March and which you can read about here.

Apart from the papers, which I absolutely love, this card uses a couple of  other favourite products of the moment: Curly Cute stamp set and the Blossom Party die. The flower is topped with a tiny clear button and some linen thread. Oh, and to echo the lovely distressed look of the papers, I added a bit of ink around the edges of the Very Vanilla panel, too.

Stamps: Curly Cute
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede, Poppy Parade
Paper: Everyday Enchantment (SAB)
Ink: Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Big Shot, Blossom Party Die, clear buttons, linen thread, distressing essentials

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Monday, 6 February 2012

Simple Valentine

There's only a few days left to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount on my next class; the One-Sheet Wonder. 
Please click here for details and here to register. 
Remember, payment must reach me by the end of 10th February for the discount. The final closing date is 8pm on 2nd March.

Now, to today’s card. It’s only just over a week until Valentine’s Day – have you made your loved one a card yet? This idea is really simple but effective – it is inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest.

You can’t tell from the rather dark photo but I pushed the boat out for this one; the card base, the white layer and all (but one) of the hearts made with Shimmer White cardstock.

I began by punching hearts and laying them out on my grid paper, to work out what size panel I would need. I stuck the hearts down using Tombow adhesive as this gave me “wiggle room” so I could get the hearts exactly where I wanted them. The red heart is punched from our new Glimmer Paper and popped up with a Stampin’ Dimensional.

Stamping the word “love” was a nerve-wracking moment but the Stamp-a-ma-jig® ensured it landed in the right place.

Stamps: Tiny Tags
Cardstock: Shimmery White, Cherry Cobbler, Glimmer Paper
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Small heart punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Sunday, 5 February 2012

More Hopeful Thoughts


Am living in a winter wonderland right now so really should have something snowy to show you but I don’t, I am staying with the sympathy theme.  I made this card recently for one of my team members who had suffered a loss within the family. I wanted to keep it pretty plain but, because she’s a stamper, thought I could risk a few pearls to add a touch of elegance. Of course, this design could be made for any occasion, and there are lots of greetings which could be substituted using Curly Cute. It's a gorgeous set and one of my favourites at the moment - can't believe I held off buying it for so long. 

If you invested in both of these stamp sets in wood-mount, it would come to £46.90, earning you a Sale-a-Bration stamp set or Designer Series Paper. If you chose the clear-mount version of Curly Cute (Hopeful Thoughts is only available in wood), you could add the Basic Pearls for a total of £47.40 to earn yourself a freebie. Click here for more details. 

Stamps: Hopeful Thoughts, Curly Cute
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy, Confetti White
Ink: Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Basic Pearls

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Friday, 3 February 2012

Simple get well/sympathy card


Hopeful Thoughts again, this time used for its original purpose: a Get Well card. This design is probably more suited to a sympathy card, being pretty plain. I don’t like to go over the top for sympathy cards.

In fact, this is not quite finished as we actually added at tiny flower and a pearl to the tree. But if I decided to dig out the card and finish it off properly it would never ever make it to the blog.

And with that, I believe here endeth the Stamp-a-Stack projects at last! 

Stamps: Hopeful Thoughts
Cardstock: Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Itty Bitty Punches and Basic Pearls (not shown)

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

You're so square card


Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive is a tried and tested colour combo but here I’ve given it a bit of a twist with the subtle addition of Pumpkin Pie. This is a 5” square card to fit the new Whisper White square envelopes we now have in the main catty. To make best use of cardstock, for my Stamp-a-Stack I cut the card blanks from sheets of 12x12 - you get two from a sheet with a useful strip of cardstock left over. The Rich Razzleberry square has been cut with the Scallop Square die and then embossed with the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder.

The main image is from Hopeful Thoughts – not just for get well cards and sympathy cards! It’s been coloured using Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry markers, then topped with a few tiny pearls. A Pumpkin Pie greeting completes the card, and picks up the very narrow Pumpkin Pie cardstock layer.

Stamps: Hopeful Thoughts, It’s Your Day
Cardstock: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive markers, basic pearls, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, Scallop Square die, Big Shot

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

The small print

This is my personal blog and my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. All images are © Stampin' Up!® All content including photographs, projects and text are © Helen Read, unless otherwise stated. Please feel free to copy my ideas for your personal use and inspiration - if you are a SU demonstrator you may use these ideas for your events but please give credit where it is due. Please do not use my ideas for monetary gain, competitions or publication. The images on this blog - including blog buttons - should not be copied and used elsewhere on the internet or on CDs.