Gift rucksack

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned but I really love these felt flowers. Here I’ve used them on this rucksack box which I made for a little girl’s birthday. I can’t remember where I saw the idea initially I’m afraid (can’t claim it as my own) but it’s quite simple really – just a tall box with a flap, and a very thin box with a flap stuck on the front.

The back has holes punched in it with ribbon threaded through to create straps. It grieved me to use so much of my new stitched grosgrain but the colour was perfect so I bit the bullet and just did it.

I made this one evening and, next day, realised that this Summer Picnic paper uses Real Red, not Rose Red, which is what I used for the body of the box. But I think I got away with it because the Real Red cherries are small.

My daughter had the idea to put the present in the body of the rucksack and make a small card to put in the front pocket - a great idea but it did mean the card was very, very tiny. Quite cute though.

Stamps: Tart and Tangy
Cardstock: Rose Red, Bashful Blue, Old Olive textured
Paper: Summer Picnic
Ink: Rose Red, Old Olive markers
Accessories: Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon - Rose Red, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon – Whisper White, Crafters’ Toolkit, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8” circle punch, rhinestone brads, Flower Fusion felt flowers

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.

I'm taken with Taken With Teal

What’s this? Taken with Teal? Now there’s a colour I don’t use very often. And do you know what? I actually like it! I will try to use it more often.

I never thought I’d team Taken with Teal with Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red but it could be my new favourite colour combination.

I really like these felt flowers, too (have I mentioned that?) – I think they look fab layered up with a punched flower and a brad.

Stamps: Best Wishes & More, Basic Phrases
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Whisper White
Paper: Cutie Pie
Ink: Taken with Teal
Accessories: Flower Fusion felt flowers, Rich Regals brads, Boho Blossoms punch, Stitched grosgrain ribbon – Rose Red

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.

Fun with felt

I really love these felt flowers – have I mentioned that already? And I’m enjoying this colour combination, too; I never thought I’d like Pumpkin Pie quite as much as I do. The stems of these flowers are created with the wavy stamps from Best Wishes & More. The buttons are attached to the felt flowers, and the flowers attached to the cardstock, using Glue Dots. And that’s it really – it’s a really quick and easy card.

Stamps: Best Wishes & More
Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red, Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Flower Fusion felt flowers, Earth Elements buttons, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Pumpkin Pie

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.

Two little dickie birds...

Something a bit different for spring... Soft Subtles. I’m attending a craft club in Derby this month to show them the beauties of Stampin’ Up!® They’ll all be making three cards so I thought I’d do one from each of three of the colour families.

The cards need to be really simple as there could be up to 25 people and we only have two hours!

So this simple card is what we’ll be making with Soft Subtles, if I can scrounge some Whisper White ribbon from someone (and to think I placed four orders at the weekend – doh!). I love this little bird and haven’t used it half as much as I should. The flower detail is made using the Boho Blossoms punch, which punches out three different flowers at once. You can use them separately or layer them, as I’ve done here.

Stamps: Best Wishes & More, Seasonal Greetings
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Paper: Cutie Pie
Ink: Bashful Blue
Accessories: Boho Blossoms punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Whisper White

And, while I was making the above card, I had the idea to make a second card with the little bird actually saying something. I think it’s quite cute but need a branch or something for the bird to sit on.

I made the fancy corners using the ½” circle punch – just push the corner of the cardstock in halfway; there’s even a little cross on the punch to make it easier. I wanted to keep this card really stark and white but couldn’t resist doodling around the edges a little.

Stamps: Best Wishes & More
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Stitched ribbon - Bashful Blue, Rich Regals brads, Bashful Blue Stampin’ Write marker

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.

Mother's Day gifts - and an inverted scalloped edge!

So sorry for the lack of posts – I don’t know where the time’s gone! Well, most of Saturday was spent preparing for and holding a Mother’s Day class, attended by 17 eager stampers who each made four projects.

There was the joy fold card, very similar to this one but we used True Friend instead of Pocket Silhouettes – I can’t show you the real one as it’s gone awol. There was a little gift pouch; again, I don’t have a completed one but I’ll make up another (one day!). And then there were these two gift items; a chocolate box and a post-it note holder.

The box was made using this grid paper technique, although I didn’t make the class go to such lengths – all their templates were cut out for them. The box holds two Ferrero Rocher chocolates, which are slippery customers so someone had the great idea of putting a glue dot under each one to hold it still.

The post-it note holder is a simpler version of this one, made in cardstock as it’s sturdier. I love these colours together – the combination was inspired by the Felt Flowers, which we used on the card.

Do you like the inverted scallop edge along the top? I thought of that all by myself, which is a rare occurrence! Here’s how to make it with your Scallop Square Punch:

1. Insert your paper or cardstock into the punch, as shown, and punch. I always work with punches upside-down so that I can see where I’m punching.

2. This is what you will have punched.

3. Re-insert the piece of paper into the punch, lining it up against the last rounded piece that you punched.

4. Punch again and you will get this. Mine is very wonky but bear in mind I had a camera in the other hand!

Stamps: Best Wishes & More, Basic Phrases, Doodle That
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Rose Red, Whisper White
Paper: Summer Picnic
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Old Olive
Accessories: Scallop Square Punch, 5/8” Grosgrain Ribbon – Old Olive, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Pumpkin Pie, corner rounder

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.

£240 of craft supplies for just £125!

Would you like...

• ... never to have to pay full price for craft supplies again?
  
• ... to get paid for doing something you love?
  
• ... to meet new people who share your love of stamping?
  
• ... to run a business where and when you want to – with no set hours and few obligations?
  
• ... the opportunity to attend Stampin’ Up!® events, including a crafting convention in Frankfurt?
  
• ... to see the latest Stampin’ Up!® products before they’re released to the general public?
  

and, best of all...

• ... more than £240 of craft supplies for just £125?*
  

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then being a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator could be just what you’re looking for.

Whether you want to build up a full-time business or simply buy a Starter Kit for the fabulous discount – or, like most of us, somewhere in between – there’s no better time to sign up than this month as you can get 10% off the Starter Kit from March 12th to 25th.

Being a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator is great fun – and I would be delighted to welcome you into my downline. If you’d like to find out more, please email me - there are also more details here.

*Normally £139, reduced to £125 during the period March 12th to 25th.

Sticky notes

It's World Book Day today, which I've only just realised - I was asked recently to name my favourite book, which is SUCH a hard question. Is it a book  you've enjoyed and remember fondly, or one that you return to again and again? The publication I return to most of all is, of course, my Stampin' Up!® Idea Book and Catalogue but I didn't think that would go down very well so held back! I really should have a handmade to show you but this will have to do.

This is so easy to make that it’s almost rude not to – especially when you can buy 12 pads of sticky notes for £1.47 in PC World at the moment.

Yes, it’s a Post-It note holder made from a strip of cardstock or paper, scored to create a narrow spine. This one is made from Designer Series Paper, so you get a nice inside, too – although I do think the paper isn’t quite heavy enough for the purpose, so I have since made one (but not photographed it yet) using cardstock which was much better.

The paper is from the Haiku collection, which I absolutely love... which is why you don’t see me use it very often (too nice to cut up!). The pad is embellished with a felt flower from the gorgeous Flower Fusion Accents & Elements pack (LOVE these!). On top of that is a Pumpkin Pie punched flower made with my new Boho Blossoms punch and, finally, a rhinestone brad. The larger rhinestone brads, like this one, have quite a wide “neck” so I find they work best if you punch a large-ish hole for them to go through, so that the brad sits flatter. I used the Crop-A-Dile™, which meant I could cut through the felt flower, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite manage to get all these floral elements centred but I decided I didn’t care – I quite like it quirkily wonky.

One more tip: don’t stick the spine to the pad, as I’ve done here – it works much better when you leave it free.

Cardstock: Old Olive
Paper: Haiku
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Pumpkin Pie, Flower Fusion felt flowers, rhinestone brads, Boho Blossoms 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.

Tutorial: Using grid paper to make box templates

Grid paper is so much more than a work surface. Among other things, you can use it to help you line things up, to measure and... to make box templates.

Now I know some of you panic when it comes to boxes (*cough* Mary *cough*) but they really can be quite simple. This rather lengthy double tutorial will show you how to make a simple box template to fit your contents and, secondly, how to make a box template to accommodate a stamped image.

To see the pictures in more detail, just click on them and they should enlarge. If they don't, just email me for a PDF of this tutorial.

First, making a box to fit a gift. I couldn’t find anything fun to put in a box so settled on these three mini highlighters. I forgot about the stash of Mini Ritter Sport under the stairs, but they'll wait for another day.

1. First lay your gift on the grid paper, making sure it’s straight and roughly centred within the lines. Then draw around it, along the lines, to create a template for the base of a box.

2. Next “measure” the sides of the box by checking the height of your gift against the paper.















3. Draw the sides on your box. Make these ever so slightly wider than the height of your gift.













4. Now you can build up your template by adding a lid (same size as the base) and a flap (make it narrower than the sides).

5. You need to add flaps, as shown in the photo, to hold the box together. Now you have your template. If you like, you can cut this out of the grid paper and work from there.

6. Alternatively, mark the measurements on your template. You can either measure them with a ruler or simply count the boxes - the paper is marked in centimetres.

7. Now cut out a piece of cardstock of the correct size and score to match the template. I’ve shaded the areas that need to be cut away.











8. You can see where I’ve folded the cardstock – I’ve marked the cut lines in black.

9. This is the template folded and cut in the appropriate places.

10. Here I’ve turned the template over (this is the outside of the box) and marked the areas that need adhesive.

11. Assemble the box and there you have it. If you make this much larger, it would be helpful to have flaps on the sides of the lid, too, but you will get away without them on a small box.

12. And look! The pens fit perfectly.

Now to make a box to accommodate a stamped image. I usually make boxes and then search around for an image but if you want to use a particular stamp, it’s handy to be able to work the other way round.

1. For this project, I wanted to make an upright box with an elephant stamped on the front, so I started by stamping the elephant on to the grid paper and marking a rectangle around it to represent the white cardstock I would be stamping on.

2. Next I built up the front of the box – I added a rectangle to represent a layer ½” cm larger all the way around, then drew a larger rectangle to represent the front of the box.

3. I added the sides and base of the box – they need to be the same width. Next I added the back of the box (same size as the front) and a flap (narrower than the sides). I’ve shaded the area that needs to be cut away from the template.

4. This is the template cut out of cardstock, scored and folded (all folds go in the same direction).

5. I forgot to take a photo of the assembly – you need to apply tape down the side flap and join the box to make a rectangular tube. Turn the box upside down so all the flaps are sticking up, then fold the small sides flaps in with the long flaps on top. You only need adhesive on the last one.




6. Now you have a box which you can decorate with your stamped image which should fit perfectly.

Hope this makes sense! Making boxes can seem complicated but I’ve found this method makes it really simple.

Oh and by the way, I made the border on this box using the corner rounder, then punched holes using the Crop A Dile.

Stamps: Wild About You
Cardstock: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Paper: Sweet Always
Ink: Basic Gray, Rose Red
Accessories: Square Scallop Punch, Stitched Ribbon - Rose Red, Corner Rounder, Crop-A-Dile, Rich Regals Brads, grid paper

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

Get On Board with chipboard!

Well it's a new month and we have a new special offer for you! This month it's all about chipboard. In my opinion, you either LOVE chipboard... or you've just not tried it! There are so many uses for this grey board which can, at first glance, appear quite uninspiring. You can ink it up, you can cover it with funky papers, you can leave it naked (!), you can stamp on it. But whatever you do with it, it adds a satisfying depth to your projects.

It's been much-loved by scrapbookers for a long time, and now card-makers are discovering the benefits of chipboard shapes, too. The great news is that, during March, you can buy Stampin' Up!®'s great chipboard assortments at 25% off!

Stampin' Up!’®s On Board chipboard is designed to coordinate with many of our stamps and accessories and is perfect for adding dimension and colour to cards, scrapbook pages, or any other project you can think of.

There are four assortments to choose from. Two are in the main catalogue, while the other two are at the back of the catalogue, with the retiring products.

Check out the table (click it to enlarge) for the details of the chipboard assortments on offer, with prices. Please get in touch if you'd like to order any - remember you don't have to live near to me as products can be delivered to your door.

And, if you still need convincing that chipboard is fabulous, please click here for some projects made using On Board chipboard products.

More joy... and punch drunk!

This is another Joy Fold card, in the pretty patterns of the Sweet Always Designer Series Paper.

It’s pretty much the same idea as the previous Joy Fold card but I was playing around and trying to come up with a project for my next class. I stamped directly on to the paper to create the busy floral effect for the centre panel.

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Circle of Friendship, Daily Flexible Phrases
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Paper: Sweet Always
Ink: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Round Tab Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8” circle punch, 1 ¼” circle punch, 1” circle punch, Crafters’ Toolkit, Flower Fusion felt flowers, Rich Regals brads

And I just had to show you this! I received a rather large Stampin’ Up!® order a few days ago and couldn't resist taking a photo. These are just the punches! There were also piles of stamp sets, stacks of inkpads and loads of cardstock and Designer Series Papers.

And most of the customers at the workshop managed to earn a free stamp set through Sale-A-Bration, too! Sale-A-Bration has finished now - but there will be plenty more special offers throughout the year. Keep checking back for details. 

Accessories: Punches – and loads of them!

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.