Nine Lives - grey cat with Call Me Clover background

What I love about the new Rectangle Stitched Framelits is the way they stitch the frame as well as the shape they cut. Here I’ve placed some Call Me Clover Designer Series Paper behind the aperture and topped it with a lovely stamped and punched cat from the fabulous (must-have!) Nine Lives stamp set. The bow, stamped in Call Me Clover, finishes it off nicely. 

Home to Roost copper tin and cards

At my Hygge Night last Friday, we made this lovely tin of cards inspired by the Sale-a-Bration brochure. I’ve been looking for a reason to use these Copper Tea Tins, and this was it. 

For the samples, I used the Grapefruit Grove foil from the Sale-a-Bration brochure, but gave the guests Copper Foil, too, so they could choose. It has been run through the Big Shot using the Tin Tile Embossing Folder.

The tin is stamped with Versamark ink then embossed with clear embossing powder to create this lovely subtle effect.

The cockerel is coloured with Stampin’ Blends. I used Old Olive (light and dark), Night of Navy (dark), Calypso Coral (light and dark), Crumb Cake (light and dark), Daffodil Delight (dark) and Cherry Cobbler (light).

For the cards, I used four different dies from the Stitched Shapes Framelits set, so they could all be run through the Big Shot together, to save time.

This is a gorgeous stamp set which is one of my favourites from this year’s Sale-a-Bration collection. You can earn it FREE with a £45 order... if you’re in the UK, just click here to start shopping!

Flowering Desert Week: Party time!

To mark the end of Flowering Desert Week, I have the projects from last week’s party to show you. All the guests made the card above, adorning their cacti with a wooden flower from the Butterfly Elements Sale-a-Bration pack, and I demonstrated this fab little box below...

The box is made using the Stitched Rectangle Framelits which are hidden away on Page 28 of the Spring/Summer catalogue. I used a tutorial from Chicnscratch.com to make this cute little box from two of the largest rectangles, which gives the box a cute stitched edge.

The ribbon is dyed using Stampin' Write Markers. You just have to make sure you leave it time to dry. For instant drying, use Stampin' Blends, which are alcohol markers so dry much quicker.

I hope you’ve enjoyed Flowering Desert week and are inspired to take another look at this fabulous stamp set.

Flowering Desert Week: when two heads are better than one

I made this card by stamping the cactus onto Wood Textures Designer Series Paper, but I didn’t love it. I was all for rejecting it when my friend Kelly said it needed a Very Vanilla flower. It made all the difference and there we have it – rescued from rejection!

Note the Braided Trim – this is a carryover item from the Autumn/Winter catalogue and still available. Don’t miss it, as it’s gorgeous.

Flowering Desert Week: cacti get the blues

Thinking – and stamping – out of the box... I opted for a blue colour scheme for this fun cactus card. I used the same arrangement of stamps, just changed the colours for all the blues. Too wild? I love it!

Flowering Desert Week: Hot and fiery sunset cactus scene

This month I celebrated my team achievers with some colourful cactus cards with a brayered sunset background and the Dot to Dot embossing folder. I love the warmth of this colour combo...

If you’d like to join my Stampin’ Up!® team, there really has never been a better time to join. Right now you can join for £99 and get £170 of craft supplies of your choice. Upgrade to the tote option, for £125 and you get all those craft supplies AND the beautiful tote!

Please get in touch for more info, or you can join right now by clicking here.

Flowering Desert week: A colourful start

Okay, let’s have a Flowering Desert week with a post every weekday to celebrate this much-neglected stamp set from the Spring/Summer catalogue.

When I first saw this set, I loved it... but I knew it wouldn’t be a big seller as I do tend to favour the slightly off-the-wall stamp sets. So if you’ve rejected this set out of hand, this week I am going to attempt to change your mind by sharing the cactus love.

I found the idea of sponging a sun from US demonstrator Mary Fish, and this colourful combo uses some of my favourite bright colours and In Colors... what could be cheerier?

Video tutorial: three ways to dye your own ribbon

This spring-like card showcases a variety of products from the Spring/Summer catalogue, including the fabulous Stitched Rectangle Framelits - which stitch outside AND inside the cut line. As you can see above, this creates a really lovely frame.

I’ve added my flowers and leaves from the Well Written Framelits set (it’s not just words!) and finished off with a Pool Party ribbon, which brings me to the reason for this project...

The pastel ribbons from the Sale-a-Bration brochure have proved so popular – staggeringly so – that they are now all gone and won’t be available again. But this needn’t be an issue... as you can easily make your own using supplies you are sure to have in your craft stash.

Watch the video below to see how...

Home to Roost: Simple or stepped up?

Stampin’ Up!® has challenged us, as demonstrators, to show off more simple projects, which I think is an excellent idea. So often we are keen to use ALL of our products, throwing everything at a card, which ends up costing hundreds of pounds to make, assuming you are starting from scratch.

But not everyone has the luxury of a packed craft room, which is where the #simplestamping hashtag comes in – look out for it across social media. These projects are ideal for beginners, for people who don’t have loads of products and even for seasoned stampers in a hurry.

You can, of course, step up the projects to add a little more interest, as I've done with the card on the right. Simply adding an embossed (Pinewood Planks) layer and some new Old Olive linen thread takes the card to the next level. Which one do you prefer?

I love this Home to Roost stamp set, which you can earn FREE with a £45 order during Sale-a-Bration.

Brayered sunset Flowering Desert card with video tutorial

I love brayering and the new sponge brayers are so much more user-friendly than the old rubber one which people seemed to have trouble with.

I created this colourful sunset background to show off my new favourite stamp set, Flowering Desert. Take a look at how to make the brayered background in my short video below...



I’ll have lots more Flowering Desert projects to show you in the coming weeks, so please watch this space.

Simple Stamping: Happy Tails

I couldn't resist these cute dogs in the Happy Tails stamp set – I love how you can stamp them to resemble various different breeds. Above the dog is stamped in Soft Suede onto Crumb Cake, with Crumb Cake patches stamped on top, while below, the dog is stamped in Soft Suede onto Whisper White, with Crumb Cake spots. Cute, eh?

Wonderful Romance - Stampin' Blends or Blender Pens?

Stampin’ Blends or Blender Pens - which do you prefer?

The image on the left is coloured with Blender pens in a mixture of greens, including Granny Apple Green, which is why it is more vivid. The one on the right is coloured with Old Olive and Calypso Coral Stampin’ Blends (light and dark), with an outline of light Pool Party.

Both are stamped onto Very Vanilla cardstock and cut out with the fabulous new Stitched Rectangle Framelits.

But the most important thing to remember when colouring is this...

Wonderful Romance in Calypso Coral

Last week was my monthly Crafty Friday event, where we used the new Wonderful Romance stamp set.

This has a variety of sentiments, for weddings, anniversaries, Valentine’s, even sympathy (see above), but can be used for any occasion, even a simple notecard, as below.

We coloured the image above using ink pads and Blender Pens. Come back later in the week to see another version coloured with Stampin’ Blends.

All the products to make these cards are available at my online store

Nine Lives: simple and stepped-up

A simple cat card... and a stepped-up version for the more avid crafter. For the simple version, I left the Big Shot in the craft room and stuck to stamps, ink and paper. However, I did make the cat into a tabby using the clever two-step stamps in the Nine Lives stamp set. I stamped in Gray Granite and added just a tiny touch of Pool Party around the base.

For the stepped-up version, I coloured the cat using Stampin’ Blends and cut out my layers using the fabulous new Rectangle Stitched Framelits. I used Braided Trim instead of Linen Thread, added a background of Wood Textures DSP and finished off with some sequins. Which one do you prefer?