Santa's List with chevrons

Have you planned your Christmas cards yet? If not, I can highly recommend Santa’s List. It’s proving a very popular stamp set among my customers, who love the fact that you can stamp him without having to colour him in. At least, that’s what I love about him!

Here’s an early card I made with the set, before I mastered the art of not getting the edges of the rubber inked, too! But, as I tell my customers, we like to build in these little imperfections so that the recipient knows for sure that the card didn't come from a shop. 

Love this colour combo – and I love him stamped in Cherry Cobbler onto Crumb Cake. A classic Christmas combo.

And that’s enough alliteration (albeit unintentional)  for one morning, here’s the recipe:

Stamps: Santa’s List, Chalk Talk

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Paper: Season of Style

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Chevron Embossing Folder, 1 3/8” circle punch, Scallop circle punch

Kraft box with Season of Style washi tape

I love these Kraft boxes, because they’re a really cool size, shape and colour – and they’re so cheap! They’re only £2.75 for four, so it’s really not worth going to the bother of trying to make them at that price.

For the Creative Tour, I wanted to jazz one up with washi tape and decided to do things a little differently. I wanted to punch holes in the box and have the washi tape showing through. This was no mean feat because, as you know, punches don’t have a particularly long reach. So I dismantled the box and punched in as far as I could. There was only one section where I couldn’t manage it – on all other sides, I punched two holes.

Next I made panels for inside the box and put strips of washi tape on them, to show through the holes.

The tag is made using the Chalk Talk framelits and the bow is that lovely new Cherry Cobbler ribbon from the Autum/Winter catalogue. A few rhinestones added a bit of Christmas bling.

Stamps: Chalk Talk

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Chalk Talk Framelits, Kraft Gift Boxes, Season of Style Washi Tape, Basic Rhinestones, various circle punches, Cherry Cobbler ribbon

Caturday: Dennis and Twinks

Remember Dennis? Shy, scared Dennis? He came to the shelter after being found injured, presumed hit by a car. The shelter owner believes he was feral. He's gradually coming round to human contact and now loves a tummy rub. But there's something he loves even more... Twinks.

Yes, crazy, hyperactive Twinks, who dangles from roofs and chases anyone and anything, has formed a very special bond with Dennis, and they sneak off to quiet corners whenever they can.

Here they are in the "Lindee-Lou", a two-storey cat house sometimes used as an isolation unit (hence, the dark, fuzzy picture) They've found the heated blanket and they're not sharing with anyone else - they just want to be left alone.

For more pictures of their beautiful friendship, please visit the Woodland Nook blog.

Season of Style washi tape Christmas card

Another of my Creative Tour projects was this card. I made the trees using the Perfect Pennants die. One was embossed using the Fancy Fan embossing folder – the other was Whisper White covered in washi tape.

Stamps: Greetings of the Season

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler (textured), Whisper White, Early Espresso Core’dinations

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: Perfect Pennants Die, Season of Style washi tape, Fancy Fan embossing folder, Brights candy dots, Expressions Thinlits

Told you I’d bought a lot of pegs! Here are two more, decorated with Season of Style washi tape (it’s so easy!) and topped with a monogram. The theory is that they will stand up and act as place cards. They do stand up, honest – just not on this particular surface.

Stamps: Morning Post Alphabet, Merry Little Christmas

Cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive

Accessories: Apothecary Accents dies, Season of Style Washi Tape 

Expressions Thinlits and Washi Tape napkin holders

Staying with the clothes peg theme (well, I did buy 50!), here’s another of my Creative Tour creations. Not sure what to call them… I suppose they are a kind of napkin holder. They would make your Christmas table look pretty festive anyway.

I happened to have some Ikea napkins in Old Olive (somehow I keep being drawn to that colour, even after all these years), so I dressed them up with a doily and a Cherry Cobbler “merry”. The pegs are just decorated with Season of Style washi tape. Very easy to church out lots of these!

Accessories: Season of Style washi tape, Expressions Thinlits, Paper Doilies

Tag a Bag gift bags with Chalk Talk tag

Bit behind in posting this, but August’s gift to my Virtual Hostess Club members was this little goodie bag, made using the Tag a Bag gift bags from page 158.

I teamed the bags up with the oh so fab Chalk Talk stamp set and fastened them closed using a clothes peg, decorated with Mosaic Madness paper. A bit of a mish-mash of products, but quite cute I thought. Inside they each had a chocolate treat and a tea bag, so they could sit down with a cuppa and enjoy their Autumn/Winter catalogue.

Stamps: Chalk Talk

Cardstock Whisper White

Paper: Mosaic Madness

Ink: Black Stazon

Accessories: Tag a Bag Gift Bags

Caturday - Twinks

It’s Caturday and I’ve realised I never showed you this fab picture of Twinks having a mad moment, climbing the cat shelter roof!  To give you an idea of how high that is, you can just see Pasca at the bottom left of the photo, sitting on the porch roof, which is standard doorway height.

Daughter says that Twinks is a lovely, quiet, calm young cat, but this photo and...

...this photo tell a completely different story.

I kind of want Twinks to stay at the shelter for a while. As much as I would love for her to have a home, she has forged a beautiful friendship with Dennis, the lonely boy who is still a bit scared to be loved and is not quite ready to leave the shelter. Daughter has a great photo of Twinks and Dennis curled up together, padding on each other’s tummies. Must get it from her for next week.

It’s Caturday all the time at the new Woodland Nook blog, which I seem to have taken over. Because I just don’t have enough to do, right?

Wetlands ornament - and a £25 sign-up offer

First of all, I am desperately trying to fill my Epic Day of Crafting, as unfortunately someone has had to drop out. I have three places left, so if you want to spend a fun day making  beautiful things, please click the link at the top of the page. 

Also, I have more information about that tempting £25 Starter Kit, but first I wanted to show you this little beauty. 

It was made under the expert tutelage of my friend/downline Kelly, with whom I spent a lovely crafty afternoon during the summer with a couple of other friends.

We were playing around with Wetlands (current favourite stamp set and possibly my biggest seller so far!) and I showed her some little wooden hearts I’d purchased recently.

I’d painted a few of them in white undercoat and sanded them down. I’ve experimented with stamping on them but not quite had the results I wanted yet.

Kelly to the rescue! She pressed one half into a Pool Party ink pad and the other into a So Saffron ink pad and smeared the ink around with kitchen roll. Next she stamped the lovely sandpipers across the centre to create this beautiful scene.

Soon we were all making them! And now we’re all arguing about who gets to make these as a Convention swap or team gift! It may have been Kelly’s idea … but I bought the hearts… LOL

Stamps: Wetlands

Ink: Pool Party, So Saffron, Black Stazon

Accessories: Pool Party Seam Binding Ribbon, Linen Thread, wooden heart (not SU)

Now for the Starter Kit offer. Take a look at the table below to compare it with the standard Starter Kit. You’ll see that this deal is aimed at those people who are serious about starting a business, but perhaps already have quite a lot of SU supplies (*cough cough*). You can turn those hoarded supplies into business tools for just £25 when you take up this offer. 

However, you don't get masses of craft supplies with this one - it’s merely a cheap way into running a business. 

Check out the table to see which kit will suit you best. If you decide it's the standard Starter Kit, act fast before this offer starts, as the Standard Kit won't be available during the special offer. If you want to join during the offer, wait until Monday. 

And when you decide to join my team, all you have to do is click this link. Simple as that. 

Christmas note pad with Season of Style washi tape

A little notepad is handy to have in the run-up to Christmas. I have a dedicated “Christmas book”, listing all the people I send cards to and any presents. This little book would be ideal – it’s just a cheap one from Wilko, with the cover cut off and replaced with this crazy, washi-striped front!

Stamps: Happy Day

Cardstock: Whisper White, Red Glimmer Paoer

Ink: Old Olive

Accessories: Season of Style Washi Tape, Apothecary Accents Dies, Brights Candy Dots

Special offers for everyone!

At Stampin’ Up!® we like to look after everyone, so October sees great offers for customers, hostesses and new recruits.

Best of… Sale-a-Bration

Another new stamp set to celebrate our 25^th anniversary, this time featuring some of the best Sale-a-Bration images from the past 25 years. This stamp set will be available until March 31, 2014, or while stocks last, and is only available in clear-mount, at £13.95. A bargain, I think you’ll agree.

Party more, get more!

Hostesses can clean up this month, with a special boost to their hostess benefits. A party of £250 or more will earn you an extra £25 of hostess benefits! So, a £250 party will get you a whopping £65 of freebies!

Sign up for £25

Yep, you read that right – you can sign up for just £25! This is a very limited time offer, running from 7^th to 21^st October. Full details will be released soon but it seems this will be a smaller Starter Kit, with business supplies, aimed at those who are keen to start running a business, who probably already have a rather impressive collection of supplies!

Please get in touch if you’d like more information about any of the above!