Big Day Sale-a-Bration sneak peek

I’m back! And I hope you had a lovely Christmas doing whatever you wanted to do. For me, it’s now a time to look ahead to 2015 and, in the stamping world, this means a host of brand new products to play with. Exciting, eh?

This project is one I made for my friend, Alison, who celebrates her birthday on Christmas Day. For this reason, I always try to make her card as non-Christmassy as possible. 

Two new products are shown here – can you guess what they are? The most obvious one is the stamp set, which is called Big Day and is FREE with an order of £45 during Sale-a-Bration, which begins on 5th January. 

The more subtle new product is the lovely flower, which comes from a brand new Artisan Embellishments Kit, featuring all manner of delicate little embellishments to pretty up your projects. This will be available from 5th January in the new Spring/Summer catalogue (which is gorgeous by the way!).

I embossed the greeting in Blushing Bride on some black cardstock and then swiped it with my white ink pad to give it the chalkboard look.  Inside the card, I couldn’t resist adding a little black cat as Alison does love black cats. 

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Calmly Bearing Gifts

It s the Christmas countdown and I only have a couple of cards left to show you. I do have some new samples from the Spring/Summer catty but the pictures I took are even worse than this one! I’d forgotten how difficult it was to get a decent picture when you’re in the darkest part of the year.

While I’m here I’d just like to remind you that I am now taking bookings for TWO events...

Launch Party
At my Launch Party, you’ll get to see samples, demonstrations and enjoy Make & Takes with products from both the new Spring/Summer catalogue and from the forthcoming Sale-a-Bration promotion. These are always relaxed events, with the odd game and, of course, cake and prizes. The cost is £7 (discount for Virtual Hostess Club members) and you can read all about it, and register, HERE.  Please book soon as the event is on 10th January, which isn’t actually that far away! But what better way to start the New Year than with some crafting?

All-Day Craftathon
My All-Day Craftathon is for those of you who like to get your teeth into a project. We’ll be making several exciting projects and playing with some fun techniques. You’ll get a generous kit to use on the day, with leftovers to take home afterwards to continue your crafting. All materials are supplied (please bring your own adhesives and basic craft kit) and brand new products will feature strongly. This event is more than half full already, so please don’t delay booking as I’d hate you to be disappointed. The cost is £30 which I know isn’t something you want to fork out before Christmas, so you can secure your place now with just £5. All details, and booking, are HERE.

You can also read about and book for either of these events using the buttons at the top of this page, or the links in your most recent newsletter. Not on my mailing list? Click the link on this page to join!

And now... remember that polar bear card at the top of the page? Here’s the recipe...

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Caturday: Christmas kitties

We had a fun morning at Woodland Nook last weekend, taking festive pictures of all the cats and kittens who needed new homes. We’d taken along some Christmassy props, including a small decorated tree, a garland and a stocking.

Needless to say, all didn’t go to plan. First of all, the tree had to be confiscated as the kittens were trying to chew the fairy lights! So we piled the garland into a heap and stood the cats in it. Of course, they kept moving. The addition of cat treats would surely help? But no, if you hide cat treats in a Christmas garland, all you get is crowd scenes... of cats’ bottoms.

In the end we managed to get semi-decent (ie cat in frame but not necessarily in sharp focus!) pix of about eight of the cats.

The winning formula was this. We pinned the garland around an empty window frame that leads from the bedroom to the TV lounge. Yes really... this is a cat shelter like you’ve never seen before – the cats all live together in reasonable harmony (most of the time). I lay on the settee below the window so I could look up at the cats and take pictures (no double chins!). Inevitably, my legs were soon hosting a rather (ie, VERY) large black and white cat, which hindered my movement somewhat. Daughter applied catnip spray to the garland then she and her friend methodically placed the cats in the frame.

The addition of catnip did result in a lot of cats sporting an unflattering “spaced-out” look, but we deleted all those... and eventually we managed to get just enough to warrant a photo gallery on the Derby Telegraph website. You can see it here – hope you like it!

Cheerful Christmas card... the final countdown

I ’m proud to say that this year every single Christmas card I have sent has been homemade. Admittedly, the last few were thrown together from bits and bobs I’d previously stamped out, but still... they’re homemade!

This was made from an image I’d stamped at a get-together with some of my team. It’s a really nice stamp set which looks best when inked up with markers as I’ve done here.

I just have a few more Christmas projects to show you then I hope to have some sneak peeks from the Spring/Summer catalogue. I have LOTS of goodies to play with but just haven’t had time yet. A little thing called Christmas keeps getting in the way...

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Curvy Keepsakes Box Christmas favours

Wouldn’t these make cute little favours for your Christmas table? You could even pack small gifts inside them and hang them from the Christmas tree.

I made these for my Virtual Hostess Club members, all in Kraft (which is my favourite) apart from the one for Grace as I know she’s not a fan of browns, so she received a special red one. The Stars Framelits are gorgeous, so useful for all kinds of occasions and perfect for Christmas. And the Alphabet Rotary Die makes gift tags so easy, as you can stamp any name you like.

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Ornamental Pine Takeout Box for Around the World Challenge 31 (AW31)

For the latest Around the World Challenge, I revamped an earlier project. This is a quick and easy way of giving a project a new look although, in my case, I admit it’s not a particularly radical new look!

I have always loved dark red and dark green for Christmas, so Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow are perfect. Add a splash of bling in the form of Gold Glimmer Paper and what could be more festive?

The AW31 challenge was to create a project inspired by this photo, which should be easy for everyone to have a go at in time for Christmas! Go on, give it a go... but not until you’ve taken a look at the other projects. I haven’t seen all of them at the time of typing this, but the one by French demonstrator Cécile Ortiz just blew me away! She’s so talented!

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