No cards... but some FAB offers!

I've not had time for any cardmaking today but I can tell you about the fabulous June special offers from Stampin' Up!®

There are two offers, giving discounts on  two products and a special bundle: 

Two For You offer
This is a fabulous 30% discount of on two Stampin' Up! products.

One is the Three for You Punch box (p80 of the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalogue) which is a fantastic kit to help you get started in cardmaking or scrapbooking. It contains a set of nine small stamps, three mini ink pads and a co-ordinating punch. It's normally £41.95 but, for this month only, you can buy it for just £29! I'm definitely getting one at that price!

The second is the Basic Phrases stamp set (p65) which is a really useful set of 24 word stamps for all occasions. I've been hanging my nose over this set for quite a while so this could well be on my June shopping list, too. It normally retails at £33.95 but, for this month only, it's a bargain £23.50 - that's just under £1 per stamp!

eScape with Stampin' Up!
The second offer is part of a challenge to eScape from technology and spend some time communicating "the old-fashioned way" - with a handwritten note. To help you eScape and make fabulous projects to make someone's day, during June you can buy the Circle of Friendship stamp set (p62), a pack of Love Notes (p78) and a 1¼” circle punch (p80) for £28.39 - a saving of over £9!

There's no minimum purchase for these offers and no limit to the number of purchases you can make. If you hostess a workshop you can earn these products at the promotional pricing, making your hostess benefits go even further! And, remember, you don't need to attend a workshop to benefit from these offers - you can place an order with me at any time.

To see these great products, click the picture of the catalogue on the right and go to the relevant page numbers. 

Pastel oak

It’s not a brilliant photo but I don’t have time to take another, I’m afraid. As you can see, I’m still playing with my Crop-A-Dile™, which makes setting eyelets so easy, even these jumbo ones.

The image is coloured using Stampin’ Pastels® on top of Versamark® - the poppin’ pastels technique, which you can read about here. It’s an easy way of getting more than one colour onto an image. The background is stamped with Versamark®, there’s a little bit of direct-to-paper around the edges of the Very Vanilla layer and sparing use of my new Linen Thread, too.

Stamps: Lovely As a Tree (p37)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla
Ink: Versamark®, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Jumbo eyelets (p85), sponge daubers (p81), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), Linen Thread (p87)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Striped cat with spots

This is a bit different for me. I made this for a friend of my daughter’s, hence the girly colours. The pink spots are holes, which I made with my new Crop-A-Dile™. I pierced holes around the white layer – they went a bit wonky because I was in a hurry!

Stamps: Little Hellos (hostess set, p18)
Cardstock: Pink Passion, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Black StazOn®
Accessories: 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon - Certainly Celery (p86), ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Whisper White (p86), Crop-A-Dile™ (p85), Crafters’ Toolkit (p86), Stampin’ Write® markers (p70-71)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Say it with flowers

This card didn’t quite turn out as I’d anticipated – they often don’t – but I quite like it anyway. In my head it had eyelets holding down the vellum but that didn’t work out; I was only looking for an excuse to use my new Crop-A-Dile™ anyway.

I made it for a challenge on In Love With Stamping – we were to take inspiration from a picture of a brightly-coloured floral lunchbag. Its colours were Rose Red, So Saffron and Taken with Teal but I have a few issues with Taken with Teal so I swapped it for Tempting Turquoise.

Attaching vellum can be a problem but there are many ways to overcome this and, on this card, I folded the ends round the back of the So Saffron layer and attached it there.

To curl the paper, I wet the edge and then rolled it up around a small paintbrush.

Stamps: Shapes & Shadows (p54), Wonderful Words (p60)
Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Rose Red, So Saffron, Whisper White, White vellum paper (p78)
Ink: Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Rhinestone brad (p85)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Small... but heartfelt

For the last card at last Saturday’s class we used that gorgeous set, Heartfelt, which is a Level 3 hostess set. This is a 3” square card and very simple. I dotted around the scallop with a marker to add interest.

Stamps: Heartfelt (p88)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Versamark®
Accessories: 1 3/8” circle punch (p80), Scallop Circle Punch (p80), Linen thread (p87), Chocolate Chip marker (p70).

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Wheely great idea!

Another Shapes and Shadows card using earthy colours. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to position the Always Artichoke outline over the More Mustard background of the flower. I really went for it with the distressing of the Old Olive layer, adding some doodling for good measure.

I feel really smug about the wheeling. A customer unwittingly gave me the brilliant idea to buy an uninked cartridge for my Stampin’ Around® jumbo handle and ink it up with a Versamark® refill. This way I can create tone-on-tone wheeled backgrounds in any colour. The Versamark® refill is thicker than standard ink so it doesn't go on as easily – I’m currently still building up the ink but so far so good!

Stamps: Shapes and Shadows (p54), Spot On jumbo wheel (p52)
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Old Olive, More Mustard, Whisper White
Ink: More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Ruby Red, Versamark® refill (p82)
Accessories: Stampin’ Around jumbo handle (p83), unlinked cartridge (p83), Always Artichoke marker (p71), Black gingham ribbon (p86)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Simple leaf

A simple little card using some of my favourite colours from the Earth Elements® family. The card measures 9cm square.

The leaf background is stamped off in Old Olive, ie it was stamped first on scrap paper and then on the cardstock to create a lighter shade. The Chocolate Chip was then stamped on top, positioned with the Stamp-a-ma-jig®.

The twill tape is fabulous because, as you can see, you can stamp on it! It comes in three widths, too.

Stamps: Shapes and Shadows (p54)
Cardstock: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Versamark®
Accessories: Twill Tape (p87)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Funky flowers

This is my favourite of the Shapes and Shadows cards we made at Saturday’s class - I just love the colours.

I stamped each of the flowers in a different colour and cut them out, leaving just a little white showing. The centres were stamped separately and punched out using the ¼” circle punch. I made the hole in the tag using my new Crop-A-Dile™ - not essential but it’s new so I just had to use it! The ribbon is tied up with a tiny piece of linen thread. One of the flowers is popped up using dimensionals. For the word “Happy”, I inked part of a stamp using a marker.

Stamps: Shapes and Shadows (p54), Cheer & Wishes (p63)
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Whisper White
Ink: Bordering Blue, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Versamark®
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Certainly Celery (p86), Linen thread (p87), ¼” circle punch (p80), Rose Red marker (p71)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Christmas in July

Have you thought about your Christmas cards yet? I haven't... and every year they creep up on me so that making them becomes something I do in an irritable rush, instead of enjoy.

But I'm not going to let that happen this year - I'm holding a special Christmas cardmaking event... in July! There will be mince pies, festive music, a prize draw and it should be lots of fun. And, of course, everyone will make four Christmas projects using Stampin' Up!® stamps and accessories.

It's on Saturday, 12th July, 2pm-4.30pm in a village hall in Derbyshire - not far from where I live. The cost is £5.50 per person which includes all materials and refreshments.

Places are limited so register early for this event - register during May and you'll receive extra prize draw tickets, too!

Please email me for a registration form.

My second challenge card

How I wish I’d bought this ribbon – thankfully I managed to scrounge some from Alison to finish off this card. And, luckily, she gave me enough for a second card, so I added it to the one I made the other day because I still wasn’t really happy with it.

The first card is clearly a remake of that old favourite, which you can see here and here. This version - the last in the Bonjour card trilogy - was for the colour challenge on In Love With Stamping. I’m not keen on the colour combination, to be honest, but thought I’d have a go… adding some Chocolate Chip to tone it down.

The second card is this card but with the ribbon added.

Recipe for first card (details of second card are in the link)

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57)
Cardstock: Apricot Appeal, Brocade Blue, Only Orange, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bordering Blue (yes, wrong ink pad again!), Versamark®
Accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware® - Pewter, 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Brocade Blue

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Candle gift idea

This is a really quick and easy gift idea. I bought a cheap candle from InStore and took off its outer wrapper. Health and Safety experts will now be gasping in horror as into the bin went the warning not to leave candles unattended. You would, of course, have to remove the decoration before lighting. 

I cut a strip of Very Vanilla cardstock that was slightly narrower than the height of the candle. I wheeled it using the Watercolour Vine jumbo wheel and then inked the edges of the cardstock with a Mellow Moss ink pad. I did this to make the edges stand out from the candle, which is pretty well Very Vanilla itself; I didn’t want to layer the Vanilla cardstock on to another colour as this would make it hard to wrap around the candle.

I didn’t measure or score the cardstock at all, I just rested it on the candle and carefully wrapped it around, folding it as I went. I glued it together and then tied round some of my beautiful new taffeta ribbon.

I kept the tag small so it didn’t overwhelm the candle and tied it on with my new linen thread; I need some exciting ideas for the linen thread as I seem to have a lot of it!

Stamps: Watercolour Vine jumbo wheel (p40), Circle of Friendship (p62)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss
Ink: Mellow Moss cartridge, Mellow Moss ink pad
Accessories: Jumbo handle (p83), Taffeta ribbon - Mellow Moss (p86), linen thread (87) 1” circle punch (p80), ½” circle punch (p80), handheld punch (p80)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Crème de menthe?

I fancied making a really simple monochromatic card using my favourite colour, Certainly Celery. But what’s in the glass? Crème de menthe? Or limeade? And one of those hideous green cherries, ugh!

I coloured the image using my Certainly Celery ink pad and a blender pen – I squeezed the closed pad to create a pool of ink on the inside of the lid. A little doodling around the edges gives the image a “frame”.

Stamps: Cheers to You (p35)
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Whisper White
Paper: Prints Designer Series Papers - Certainly Celery
Ink: Staz-On (p82), Certainly Celery
Accessories: Blender pen, Stampin’ Write® marker, 3/8" Grosgrain ribbon - Certainly Celery

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

French trio

I was playing around after making this card and came up with a few extra little square cards. As you can see, I accidentally used Bordering Blue to stamp the flowers on the Bonjour card – on the second picture you can clearly see the difference between that shade and Brocade Blue on the other two.

To get the subtle images on the background of the card, I stamped off on to scrap paper before stamping on my project.

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57)
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Ink: Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Summer sunshine

I rarely use the colour Summer Sun but it was a gloriously sunny day when I made this card so it seemed appropriate.

I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig® to line up the crocodiles and words.

Stamps: Wild About You (p32), Happy Everything (p65)
Cardstock: Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Rich Regals® Brads (p78), Crafters’ Tool Kit (p85), Stamp-a-ma-jig® (p81)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Elephants never forget

They say elephants never forget but I do and I completely forgot where I put this card after making it last weekend. I looked everywhere but it’s so tiny I couldn’t find it. Finally it turned up!

The elephant is stamped in Versamark® and chalked. The flower is stamped conventionally, using Old Olive ink and the Stamp-a-ma-jig® for positioning (click here for tutorial).

To make the scalloped edge, I very carefully removed the black plastic guard from my corner rounder and then punched slowly along the edge of the Designer Paper. I won’t claim that it was easy but perhaps it gets easier with practice!

Stamps: Wild About You (p32)
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Whisper White
Ink: Versamark®, Old Olive
Accessories: Home Again Simply Scrappin’® kit (p16), Stampin’ Pastels® (p82), Stamp-a-ma-jig® (p81)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

In love with stamping?

Are you in love with stamping? Well a new website has been created just for you!

In Love With Stamping has been created by a British Stampin’ Up demonstrator and her husband to give everyone a fabulous source of inspiration and a place to chat about stamping.

We demonstrators have been testing it out over the last week or so and trying to fill the gallery with lots of lovely samples (oops, just typed “stamples” which is probably more appropriate!). Sign up as a member and you’ll be able to post your own projects in the gallery, too!

There will be weekly challenges and I took part in the first, which was to create a card using Brocade Blue, Apricot Appeal and Only Orange. Here’s my challenge card – you’ll notice that I couldn’t resist adding some Chocolate Chip, too!

So hop on over to In Love With Stamping for a visit – I’m putting a link with the others on the right, too.

Stamps: Polka Dots & Paisley (p51)
Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Apricot Appeal, Only Orange, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Bordering Blue (yes, yes, I picked up the wrong ink pad and didn’t notice until it was too late)
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, Crafters’ Tool Kit, Rich Regals® brads

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Bonjour... the sequel

This card is a remake of this one – the first version is in Earth Elements®, while this one uses colours from the Rich Regals® family. I’ve made another one, too, but haven’t quite finished it because I need to scrounge some ribbon from Alison first.

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57)
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Brocade Blue, Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Ink: Bordering Blue, Brocade Blue, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Elegant Eggplant, Hodgepodge Hardware® - Pewter

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Wild about this card

I LOVE this card… and yes I am allowed to say that because I didn’t make it. I had LOADS of handmade birthday cards and they were all fabulous but I’m posting this one because it’s 100% Stampin’ Up! 

It was made by my friend and downline, Alison, and she says she copied the idea from somewhere but I don’t know where. I think I’ll be copying this one, too!

But first I think I'd better get on with some thank you cards...

Stamps: Wild About You (p32), Welcoming Words (p15)
Cardstock: Bordering Blue, Elegant Eggplant, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Bordering Blue
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White; Gingham ribbon – Moss, 1¼” circle punch

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

An old bag...

Not a particularly thrilling project but a very quick way to liven up a plain brown paper bag. This one was scrounged from Alison, who bought it in Walmart in America. The nearest I’ve seen here is a pack of slightly larger brown paper lunch bags in Home Bargains (my favourite shop!).

To decorate it, I simply wheeled along some Very Vanilla, layered it on to torn cardstock and added a tag.

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57), Watercolour Vine jumbo wheel (p40)
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Ruby Red, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Mellow Moss (ink cartridge in the wheel), Ruby Red
Accessories: Gingham ribbon – moss, Rich Regals brads, Stampin’ Around® jumbo handle

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Wild about elephants

Two baby cards – one to send, one to keep as a sample. They are gender non-specific not because I don’t know the sex of the baby but because the lady in question is expecting twins... one of each!

Eagle-eyed Stampin’ Up! fans will spot the Sage Shadow grosgrain ribbon on the bottom sample. How can this be? We don’t sell Sage Shadow grosgrain! But… I dyed some Whisper White Grosgrain with the Sage Shadow ink pad by pressing it firmly into the pad. It’s a messy job and it takes a while to dry but it’s worth the wait.

I love using the little bird stamp and flower stamp with this elephant – it’s really easy with the Stamp-a-ma-jig®.

The Stamp-a-ma-jig® comes in two parts – a black plastic T-piece and a square of thick acetate. Just to recap – and this time with pictures! – this is what you do:

1. Position the square of acetate in the corner of the T-piece. On the right if you’re right-handed, on the left if you’re “special”.  Holding the acetate in position, square up your stamp into the corner of the T-piece and stamp on to the acetate.






2. Take the stamped acetate and position it over your project, exactly where you want your image to appear. Now take the T-piece and square it up to the acetate again. Remove the acetate but keep the T-piece in exactly the same position. It has a non-slip base which helps.

3. Now position your stamp into the corner of the T-piece again and stamp. Your image should be exactly where you want it.

It sounds long-winded but it’s very simple really. I also used it to position the polka dot background exactly where I wanted it.

Stamps: Wild About You (p32), Polka Dots & Paisley (p51)
Cardstock: Barely Banana, Sage Shadow, Whisper White
Ink: So Saffron (elephant – it was too pale in Banana), Barely Banana, Sage Shadow
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Whisper White, Stamp-a-ma-jig®

All products by Stampin’ Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.

Breaking the rules

Here's a tiny card which blatantly ignores the Rule of Thirds! Who cares, anyway? 

This is a "tidying up" card - thrown together while clearing my crafting supplies away, using scraps and pre-stamped images. I found the Fleur de Lys, rounded the corners and mounted it on some scraps, then stamped the swirl on a Love Note and assembled. It was quicker than finding the right folder so I could put the scraps away!

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57)

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Mellow Moss

Accessories: Love Notes (p78)

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

PS: Oops - this wasn't supposed to post until Tuesday! I seem to be ahead of myself! 

The Rule of Thirds

Yesterday Lori asked about the Rule of Thirds. Well, I'm no expert but this is what I know. 

It's a rule used by photographers when composing their photos and artists when composing a picture... and it works just as well when designing a card or scrapbook page. 

In your mind's eye you section off your card/page into a 3x3 grid, like a noughts and crosses grid (see right). You have now created four areas, where the lines cross, which will all make good focal points.  So, if you're positioning an image or an element on a card, one of these four points would be a good place to start. 

To me, yesterday's card was lacking because the image sat in the centre of the card. While there's nothing wrong with this, I felt that, on this particular card, it would have looked better higher up, which would have place the image and ribbon on the top two focal points. 

Naturally, rules are made to be broken... as you'll see from the card samples in the next few days! 

More French flavour

Just playing around with Carte Postale and some Earth Elements. I wasn’t 100% happy with this card because I think I should have put the band and the image higher… you know, using the “rule of thirds”.

But I wanted to combine the gorgeous En Francais background stamp with Carte Postale as I think they are made for each other. I must have another go and see if I can come up with something I like.

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57), En Francais (p58)
Cardstock: Really Rust, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Really Rust, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 5/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Old Olive

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Ooh la la!

The Carte Postale stamp set and Earth Elements colour family lend themselves perfectly to the “shabby chic” look, so I demoed this card at a workshop this week.

The great thing about Carte Postale is that it co-ordinates with so many other products. There’s the Leaves à la Carte jumbo wheel (p56), the French Flair background stamp (p56) and the Le Jardin designer paper (p73).

To make this card, I started by stamping the main images on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. If I’d been on my own I’d have just guessed but, with an audience, I thought using the Stamp-a-ma-jig® would be safer, to ensure accurate results! I used the direct-to-paper technique to add some colour around the edges, then layered it on to some pieces of distressed cardstock.

I did the direct-to-paper technique on the body of the card, too, using Really Rust ink on Really Rust cardstock for a tone-on-tone effect. I also stamped the big swirly thing using Versamark® - don’t know why as I could easily have used Really Rust.

Some Old Olive ribbon and a piece of Hodgepodge Hardware® completed the card.

Stamps: Carte Postale (p57)
Cardstock: Really Rust, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Really Rust, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Versamark®
Accessories: 3/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Old Olive, Hodgepodge Hardware® - Pewter

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the picture of the catalogue on the right to view it online.

Deals on Wheels!

Stampin' Around™ wheels are a great way to add borders and backgrounds to your projects. They're always popular at workshops and demonstrations because they're so easy to use and so much fun!

If you're a fan of wheels, you'll love this great offer from Stampin' Up! Throughout May, if you order selected stamp sets, you can buy the co-ordinating wheel for half price. 

Here are the special deals on wheels:

• Carte Postale + Leaves a la Carte jumbo wheel  = £29.93
  
• Seeing Spots + Spot On jumbo wheel = £19.93
  
• Polka Dots & Paisley + Petals jumbo wheel = £22.93
  
• Close As a Memory + Watercolour Vine jumbo wheel = £22.93
  
• Close As a Memory + Watercolour Joy standard wheel = £21.93
  

Please email me if you want to take advantage of this offer.