Whooohooo!

This just announced on the SU website:

ORNAMENT PUNCH AVAILABLE FOR ORDERING

31 March 2011

We’re happy to announce the Extra-Large Ornament punch (item 116794) is available to order. The quality problems we were experiencing with the punch have been resolved and our supply is ready to go.

Thank you for your patience as we work to provide you with high-quality products.

So let me know when you want me to order yours! 

Calorie-free birthday cake

Here’s a cute little idea I picked up at Convention last year. It’s a calorie-free birthday cake in its own little box.

The “cake” is just a battery tealight (and it's VERY important that you use a battery tealight and not a real one), covered with a strip of Designer Series Paper. Actually, for this one, I used a border from a retired Simply Scrappin’® kit, but any co-ordinating paper will do. It didn’t stick to the plastic particularly well, so I tied a piece of ribbon around it, too.

The top and base are made by punching out a scallop circle. For the top one, I stamped with Circle Circus first – imagine how cool this would look if done in glitter, or embossed in white to look like icing! You punch a small hole in the top one and snip it with scissors to look a bit like an asterix. This allows the flame to poke through.

For the base, you punch a hole with a ½” circle punch, to leave room for the switch. Depending on the design of the tealight, you may also need some Stampin’ Dimensionals to give the scallop circle something to stick to.

The box is just made from a square of cardstock – 15cm square in this case. You score at thirds to create a grid of nine squares. Next cut along the scorelines towards the centre on opposite sides and then fold everything towards the centre.

The lid is made from a square of Pumpkin Pie cardstock measuring about 8.3cm square. Measure from each edge at 1.5cm and score to create the lid. But before sticking it down, punch out a scallop circle from the top and line it with a piece of vellum cardstock. You can decorate the top if you like, and the light from the tealight will show through the vellum.

Party This Way is perfect for this set and with these colours – very jolly. But you could make it in gentle pinks for a little girl or dark neutrals for a man. Have fun!

The final touch was a little heart – again from a retired scrappin’ kit. You could use a scrap of Old Olive cardstock and the small heart punch.

Stamps: Party This Way, Circle Circus

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Old Olive

Ink: Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8” circle punch, 1 ¼” circle punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Whisper White, ½” circle punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®            

Sympathy card

During Sale-A-Bration, demonstrators have the opportunity to earn free catalogue stamp sets, through sales and recruiting. I was lucky enough to earn four free sets this year and chose Hopeful Thoughts as one of them, because I thought it would be useful.

I didn’t think I’d need it quite so soon, however, but found myself needing a sympathy card this week, unfortunately. I wouldn't normally post a card on my blog until it had been received, but this has to go to America so could take a while to get there. 

I’ve put together some of my favourite colours for this card; Old Olive (naturally), Cherry Cobbler and Elegant Eggplant. I inked the stamp using markers so that I could get the flowers a different colour to the leaves. I masked part of the sentiment (which also reads “Please know that I care”) so that I could stamp just the words “Thinking of you” on the front. In retrospect, I should have mounted them separately, as I think I will use them separately more often than together. I stamped the rest of the sentiment inside the card.

The Designer Paper is from the Play Date collection – not the pack you’d usually pull out for a sympathy card, but the colour was just right and the pattern nicely understated.

Stamps: Hopeful Thoughts

Cardstock: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Paper: Play Date

Ink: Cherry Cobbler (ink pad), Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive markers

Accessories: Taffeta ribbon – Old Olive, Scallop Edge Punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

A monster creation

I cannot lay claim to this wonderful creation at all. It was made by Kelly during a morning’s craft session at my house. She said she was going to leave it behind for me to put on my blog but I insisted she took it home with her. Being a disorganised sort, I didn’t realise that she had left it behind until about six weeks after it was made!

Look at the way she has made the planets. The holes are made in a large circle with the Crop-A-Dile™ and overlaid on another circle of cardstock. But the smaller planet has an extra dimension in that there are three layers of cardstock. The bottom layer is a plain Daffodil Delight circle. The second layer is Real Red, punched with random holes. The top layer, in Tempting Turquoise, also has random holes. She has put them all together for quite a spectacular effect.

The alien is stamped on Daffodil Delight cardstock and cut out. The eye and tongue are stamped directly onto the yellow and also on white, cut out and overlaid.

Stamps: Make a Monster, Party This way

Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Basic Black, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red

Ink: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black

Accessories: 1 ¾” circle punch, Wide Oval punch, 1 ¼” circle punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®            

Joseph's Coat technique

The final project from my Brayering Class used the Joseph’s Coat technique. Here’s what you do:

1. Brayer random colours over a piece of glossy cardstock. You can sponge the ink on if you prefer to be more precise
2. Tap or swipe all over with the Embossing Buddy® - this really does make a big difference
3. Stamp solid image in Versamark and clear emboss
4. Brayer over the top in a darker colour – here I’ve used Not Quite Navy
5. Gently wipe away the ink from the embossed areas

And that’s about the size of it really. This, I believe, is called a tent topper card and, while it’s a novel idea, this one was born from me finding a piece of Pear Pizzazz in my scraps box that was just the right size to make the card base. The leaves along the bottom are stamped in Versamark. Pear Pizzazz would have done the same job.

And here is a version which didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. As you can see, I haven’t stamped firmly enough, so the image is incomplete (if this was a small amount, you could fill in the gaps with a Versamarker). You can also see speckles all over where the embossing powder has spread beyond the image – this is because I forgot to use the Embossing Buddy®! Told you it works!

Stamps: Just Believe

Cardstock: Pear Pizzazz, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Glossy White

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Versamark, various Subtles and Brights

Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Taffeta Ribbon – Daffodil Delight

All products by Stampin’ Up!®            

Stampin' Up! relief efforts in Japan

Just thought you'd like to know how Stampin' Up!® has reacted to the recent natural disasters in New Zealand and Japan. Below is a message to demonstrators on the SU website, which I'm sure they won't mind me sharing with you.  This is just one of the many reasons I love Stampin' Up!

"Like all of you, we are deeply saddened by the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and our hearts go out to all those who were affected. On behalf of our demonstrators and customers, Stampin’ Up! is making a donation to the American Red Cross’ Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief fund. If you feel so inclined and have the means to do so, we encourage each of you to make a donation to the relief organisation of your choice.

"While we always strive to make a difference, how we support relief efforts for natural disasters is decided on a case-by-case basis. In countries where Stampin’ Up! has a presence, we look to our local market management to determine how we can best support our demonstrators, customers, and the local relief efforts. 

"For example, during the flooding in Queensland, Australia in February, the local market management arranged to donate $2 AUD from the sale of every stamp set with a value of $30 AUD or more to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal. 

"After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, the local country management felt it was most important to support our demonstrators and customers directly, so we are waiving the registration fee to the Christchurch regional* and turning the event into a fun day of crafting for both demonstrators and their guests. The company is also supporting demonstrator fundraising efforts related to the earthquake by donating free products.

"In the case of Japan, because we do not operate in that country, we feel the most effective and efficient way to provide immediate support to those affected by this terrible tragedy is to give a monetary donation."

* This is a training day for demonstrators

Brayered triptych

Triptych? Is that even the right word? Anyway, it's another project from my Brayering Class. Sorry it’s taking me so long to post these – it’s still a bit of a building site here with work going on in a bedroom and the bathroom.

I modified this design a little for the class-goers – I thought the squares were a bit big on my card, which didn’t leave much room around the edges to show off the lovely Baja Breeze cardstock.

We began by brayering onto Shimmery White cardstock. Sadly, you can’t see just how beautiful and shimmery this cardstock is so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  It’s shimmery on both sides, too.

By beginning brayering on the corner, we created this lovely shadow on the diagonal.

And, by a happy accident, on this cards I’d used three products which feature in the March Frenzy offer: Shimmery White cardstock, Hodgepodge Hardware® and Greenhouse Gala Designer Series Paper.

Stamps: Just Believe

Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz

Paper: Greenhouse Gala

Ink: Baja Breeze, Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz

Accessories: 1” circle punch, Modern Label Punch, Hodgepodge Hardware®, Scallop Edge Punch 

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Leeds training day swaps

Here are the swaps I received from the Stampin' Up!® training session in Leeds. I can't say too much about the day because there are still training sessions ongoing and I don't want to spoil any surprises for any demonstrators attending them, but suffice to say, we had a blast. One of my new team members said she hadn't laughed that much in ages. 

The day was a mixture of business training, demonstrations, make and takes ... and we all had a good look at (and play with!) some of the new items from the forthcoming Mini catalogue. And, of course, we got to meet up with demonstrators from all over the area and swap projects, which is always fun. 

If you're a demonstrator and have never been to SU event, I highly recommend it. You'll learn loads and have a great time. If you're not a demonstrator and this sort of event sounds like fun, why not get in touch for a no-obligation chat about signing up?

Looking at the picture of the swaps, I see one there that shouldn't be there - the Eiffel Tower bookmark was actually a swap from a French demonstrator last year at Convention. I also notice that I've missed this fab little box off, so here it is. Cute, eh?

Brayered card

It’s still a bit gloomy but it was bright enough for a photo so, as promised, here is the first of the projects from this weekend’s brayering class. We made three cards, using different brayering techniques.

For this card, I had the brainwave of providing black and white layers, so that each person could make the card in colours of their choice. We started by changing the colour of the ribbon, which started out as Basic Black with Very Vanilla stripes (or Very Vanilla with Basic Black stripes, depending on which way you look at it). We placed a small piece (you know me, when it’s one of the more expensive ribbons, it’s only ever a small piece!)  directly onto the ink pad and brayered it to squish it into the ink. If necessary you can turn over the ribbon and do it again on the other side. This is a brilliant way to colour your ribbon, especially if you don’t have the correct colour marker. However, it does take absolutely AGES to dry. We did this right at the beginning of the class and put the ribbon on one side to dry, for assembling at the end. But the ribbon pieces still weren’t dry, even when we had a go at them with the heat gun.  In fact, my sample card has ink stains on the crease, where the ribbon has bled onto it.

Onto the brayering... we were brayering onto glossy cardstock, which gives fantastic results. What’s more, the glossy cardstock is on special offer at the moment, in the March Frenzy promotion. That was a happy accident for me, as I’d planned to use it long before we received details of the offer.

We each chose two inks, mostly from the Subtles range, as here. Some people picked brighter colours and they looked absolutely fabulous. One of my favourite combos was Judie’s Wild Wasabi and Rose Red.  Here I’ve used Daffodil Delight and Baja Breeze.

We stamped onto the brayered backgrounds using Black StazOn® ink, which is ideal for non-porous surfaces such as glossy cardstock and gives a really crisp, dark image. This second picture here shows what it looks like stamped in Basic Black ink.  This ink is perfect for Whisper White cardstock, but not so great on glossy, as you can see. You can also see where I had a go at some white highlights with a gel pen, but it didn’t quite work out. I make mistakes so you don't have to! 

And you can’t see it but the card base is Shimmery cardstock, which is absolutely gorgeous. It’s shimmery on both sides and really sparkles in the light. It makes really nice card bases as it’s heavier than our Whisper White... and it, too is part of the March Frenzy promotion.

Stamps: Just Believe

Cardstock: Shimmery White, Glossy White, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: Jet Black StazOn®, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Brayer, wide striped ribbon – Basic Black, Neutrals buttons, linen thread, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Something's coming...

I'm so sorry I haven't updated recently. I do have some projects to show you from yesterday's brayering class... and all my swaps from the Stampin' Up!® training session in Leeds.

Also I've been working on some projects with my NEW goodies from the forthcoming Mini catalogue. I'm very excited about these ... and have been making some cards with them.  And if you place an order during March, I'll send you one of them as a thank you and a little sneak preview...

Anyway will try to photograph my projects if and when it gets light!