Peeping Panda

I CASED this project from a similar one by a lady called Nichol Spoor, whose creation was made with non-Stampin’ Up!® stamps. It seems pandas are a trend so are cropping up all over the craft world.

I teamed the Party Pandas (Sale-a-Bration stamp set) with the leaves from Pop of Paradise to give him a tropical hideaway. I inked the leaf stamps in a pale green, then sponged some darker green around the edges. Lemon Lime Twist with Emerald Envy, then Emerald Envy with Tranquil Tide.

Some sparkly black ribbon finishes it off.

Mix It Up Monday: Bonus combo - with Birthday Wit

A bonus combination for Mix It Up Monday today; a combination that uses two In Colors but doesn’t feature on my In Color charts. 

It’s a bit of a cheat actually, as they are the colours from the Picture Perfect Party Designer Series Paper Stack, but I thought they were perfect for this card using my new stamp set, Birthday Wit. Also, it forced me to use peach, which apparently is going to be a Big Trend this year, according to my research I did for this article on 2018 papercraft trends.

The nice thing about this DSP is that it does all the work for you, with its photographic images on one side - but if you need a smaller pattern, you’ll find those on the reverse. 

Caturday: Mr W

While the cat (daughter/Pooboo) is away, the mice (Mr Winky) will play. Hmmm, that metaphor doesn't really work, does it? Anyway, daughter is away and Pooboo was out ("busy", apparently), so Mr Winky took the opportunity to grab the vacant bed. It's all about mind games with cats, you know.

Party Pandas - such fun!

These Party Pandas are proving really popular this Sale-a-Bration. They're free with a £45 order and top of many people's wish lists. I paper pieced some Pool Party cardstock to create the balloon, finishing it off with a swipe of chalk marker to bring it to life.

Sale-a-Bration runs until 31st March and there are loads of benefits, the best of all is the opportunity to sign up as a demonstrator and earn an extra two catalogue stamp sets in your starter kit, which is already a bargain at £99 for £130 of craft items of your choice. I signed up over 10 years ago and have never regretted it - what I love the flexibility to choose how I work... or not!

Please get in touch if you'd like more information!

Bird Banter with Wood Textures DSP

Sticking with the Tree Rings theme from Monday but this time with the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper, which provides the backdrop for a solemn-looking parrot from Bird Banter. Love this stamp set, love this paper!

Mix It Up Monday: Best Birds and Tree Rings

I was in Ikea last weekend – twice, for my sins – and I saw some of their Christmas ginger biscuits on sale for 50p. I just knew they had potential so grabbed a couple of packs. 

My hunch that they would fit in the mini pizza boxes was correct, although they do need twisting a little, so I decorated a box and made a matching card for Mix It Up Monday, using a Fresh Fig combination from my In Color charts. 

I promise you there is Blushing Bride on there; I used it with my blender pens to colour in the flowers. Admittedly it is a little obscured by the Rose Red on top, but you know how I feel about pink!

For a tip on using background stamps, please head over to my Facebook page for a short video. It’s a fab tip, although I say so myself, and will save you both time AND money. Can’t say fairer than that!

Caturday: Myth busted

Cats are clean animals, right? Wrong. I present Exhibit A in the form of Mr T, who has returned home in this state several times in the past few days. 

No, we don’t know where he’s been. No, he’s not allowed upstairs like this (although he did slip through security yesterday and cause untold damage on daughter’s clean quilt). 

Another myth worth busting while I’m here is the one that cats don’t like their tummies being rubbed. Ok, that’s not exactly a myth... we just have one very unusual cat. As a general rule, if a cat rolls over for you, DON’T rub its tummy. Mr T is just special. 

Lots of Lavender - three projects in a serene colour scheme

To showcase the Lots of Lavender stamp set at a party recently, I demonstrated these projects, beginning with this fun box which I created with the help of this fabulous tutorial from Crafty Caroline Creates. 

This pretty stamp set is FREE with a £45 order during Sale-a-Bration, which runs until the end of March. It’s a great choice as you have the option of stamping the colour, or colouring in using your favourite method. I demonstrated several colouring methods which I don’t have room to show here today and also showed the guests how to speed up stamping the leaves and stalks using my top tip, which you can find here. Fussy cutting the lavender is not for quick makes at parties, so we kept things simple for the Make & Take... 

 But here was a project I’d prepared earlier, to thank our lovely hostess, Kelly...

Panda photo opp

How cute are these pandas? These are going to be the Big Hit of Sale-a-Bration this year. Yes, they are part of a FREE stamp set you can earn with a £45 order before 31st March.

I gave them a wood-effect background and a Polaroid photo-style frame and backed it with some zingy Lemon Lime Twist, my favourite In Color, possibly of all time! Fun projects are so easy with these cute pandas.

Mix It Up Monday: Where's the peacock?

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and I’ve used the Sale-a-Bration stamp set Beautiful Peacock… although you won’t find a peacock on this card! I used the curved stamp that can be used as the tail or leaves to create a lovely two-tone green wreath, dotted with tiny flowers in Elegant Eggplant and Fresh Fig. 

The colour combination is, as always, taken from my In Color charts and is quite timely as purples are making a big comeback this year, according to my analysis. I’ve written an article on this topic for my Facebook page, taking a look at some of the big trends we can expect to see in papercrafting this year.  Please take a look – you don’t have to be a Facebook member to view but, if you are, why not give my page a Like while you’re there?

Caturday (and Dogurday): Why I was running behind this morning

I went for a walk with a former work colleague this morning but was very nearly late. Why? Because of this. Who could resist snuggling with this very obliging boy?

I made it for the walk in the end, and this happened... Ernie got very, very wet and dirty. That's what happens when you go swimming in the River Dove!

Flying Home - which do you prefer?

Crafty Friday – a class I run on the first Friday of the month – is a relaxed affair, sometimes with me making it up as we go along. 

This month for one of our projects I gave the ladies a choice of making the card above or the card below... which has a couple of subtle differences. 

Leaf background or Pinewood Planks background? Bermuda Bay birds? Or Rich Razzleberry birds? Which do you prefer? 

The stamp set is called Flying Home and is from the new Spring/Summer catalogue. I was lucky to receive a copy of this set at the Centre Stage event at OnStage in Solihull last autumn, and it's just perfect if you enjoy the relaxation of colouring. 

Petal Palette thank you card

A straight CASE of a project from Stampin’ Success, the quarterly newsletter we receive as demonstrators, this project uses the new Petal Palette stamp set from the Spring/Summer catalogue.

Mix It Up Monday with Lots of Lavender

Today sees the return of Mix It Up Monday, although the technical difficulties I had trying to create the colour combo image make me wonder if it was worth the effort! 

I used the gorgeous new Sale-a-Bration stamp set, Lots of Lavender, which seemed the obvious choice for this colour combination. It’s a beautiful two-step stamp set, which also lends itself well to colouring. 

Here’s a top tip for stamping the leaves and stems. You can position them individually if you like but, if you’re making a few cards using this stamp set, my tip is to stamp the outline image first, then lay down the leaf and stalk stamps (uninked) on top, then apply the block to them to pick them up. You’ll have all three stamps on a block ready to use over and over again. 

Please join me for January Hygge Night

Please click here for more details and to register

I hope you can come!

Caturday: Tabitha checks out the new Spring/Summer catalogue

It’s the first Caturday of 2018 and Tabitha is starting the year as she means to go on... by trampling all over her owner’s catalogue. Tabitha was recently adopted by long-time customer Tracey and her daughter Emily. As you can see, she’s embracing their hobbies wholeheartedly!

CAS card with Bird Banter

Oh how I do love this stamp set... even more so because I WON it at OnStage in Solihull. It’s always exciting to win a Prize Patrol and even more so when it’s a set you really love.

The birds are such fun to colour with our new Stampin’ Blends, so I kept the card really simple, with just a doodled line around the image to frame it on the Whisper White cardstock.

Sale-a-Bration 2018 and Spring/Summer catalogue go live!

Sale-a-Bration has begun! 

Here’s the brochure link

And here’s how it works...

SPEND £45 and choose a free item from the brochure - marked with this symbol:

SPEND £90 and choose TWO free items with the above logo, or one marked with this symbol:

HOST a party and if your total reaches £200, you get an extra £20 in Stampin’ Rewards!

JOIN as a demonstrator, and choose TWO STAMP SETS from the Annual Catalogue or Spring/Summer catalogue to add to your Starter Kit

(There are even rewards for being a demonstrator, too... as well as the opportunity to earn free SAB items along the way)

Here’s the link to the brand new Spring/Summer catalogue

Beautiful Peacock - available from tomorrow

Welcome back! I hope you had a good and relaxing break. I ended the Christmas holiday with a fun evening to thank some of my club members for their loyalty over the year. Unfortunately, due to various festive bugs, only three people could make it in the end, but we had a lovely evening crafting and completing challenges.

For this challenge, I gave them all the elements to create the above card, with all the necessary stamps mounted on blocks ready to use. The only difference to a usual Make & Take was that there was no demonstration and no card to copy! The challenge was to make a card as close as possible to mine.

And I have to say, I was REALLY impressed! These are the cards the ladies produced. They all stamped the peacock in the same colours and Karen’s, on the right, is almost identical to my version. I forgot to award a prize, which is probably as well as Karen does have something of a reputation for winning everything!

This cute stamp set is available FREE with a £45 order when Sale-a-Bration (SAB) begins tomorrow. It’s the most wonderful time of the year to be involved in Stampin’ Up!® so please pop back tomorrow for links to the SAB brochure and an explanation of how it works.