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Monday, 21 March 2016

Mix It Up Monday: Balloon Celebration floating seeds




It’s Mix It Up Monday and time for another colour combination from my In Color charts, a little late in the day perhaps but still Monday nonetheless.

I’m still recovering from a weekend of intense crafting with some of my stamping buddies. We hired a cottage for the weekend and spent the whole time making projects, eating and laughing. Ok, and perhaps some drinking. Certainly not enough sleeping, and I’m paying the price now!



I threw this project together quickly on Sunday afternoon and I have to say, you can tell that not a lot of thought went into it. I added some bling (including some Wink of Stella on all the seeds, which you can’t see in the photo) when I got home but I still can’t say I’m completely happy with it. Lovely colour combo though – but if you want to play around with this combination you’d better hurry up and start stocking up on Lost Lagoon, as it will be retiring at the end of May.  I know a lot of people will be very sad to see it go, and I will be one of them.



Saturday, 19 March 2016

Caturday: Oliver


If Oliver is still at Woodland Nook Cat Shelter when I next visit, I will be enormously surprised. He’s little and cute and so very, very loving. This photo is actually a selfie I took while he was snuggled up with me inside my jacket. And while this may not be the most flattering picture (of either of us!), he really is adorable, with a lovely ginger muzzle which makes him look like he’s been sticking his nose where he shouldn’t! He’s very, very thin at the moment after being found as a stray but I’m sure he’ll soon be back in full health.

Friday, 18 March 2016

Party Pop-up Stair step card




These Party Pop-Up Thinlits dies are not just for pop-up cards, oh no. The beauty of them is that, if you want to create a pop-up card like this one, you add the score-line yourself, by scoring your cardstock first then lining up the line with the guides on the die. 

That gives you the flexibility to create projects like the one above, where the Happy Birthday is used on non-scored cardstock to create a fabulous cut-out design element. I’ve added just a hint of yellow ink to the candles and saved some of the die-cut pieces from previous projects to use as additional embellishments. I keep the leftover pieces in an old button pot  - don’t throw away those tiny stars and streamers as they’ll come in useful next time, for projects like this and this.

The DSP shown here is FREE with a £45 order but only until the end of the month. It’s a really nice set of designs, in some of my favourite colours; in fact if you purchase the Farmers Market cardstock assortment you’ll find it co-ordinates perfectly. Top tip there. No charge. 


Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Pedal Pusher CASE with Love Blossoms DSP




This was the Make & Take at Friday’s party, showcasing the lovely Pedal Pusher stamp set, and the beautiful Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper Stack. I totally CASEd this project from the Stampin’ Up!® video about this stamp set; but that’s exactly what those ideas are for... to give us lesser mortals great ideas! I love the angled layer, that’s something a bit different for me. 

This stamp set can be yours FREE with a £45 order, but only until the end of March. After that it will no longer be available - eek!

Monday, 14 March 2016

Have a Cuppa with me - class announcement



No Mix It Up Monday today as I want to share details of an upcoming class. We all lead busy lives but it’s important to make time for yourself. I know how much you love a cuppa, a craft and a chat, so why not join me for my Teatime Treats class on Saturday, 23rd April, 1.30pm-4.30pm.

We’ll make two fabulous 3D gift items, plus a card, on a tea/coffee theme, using some of the products shown in the image*. If there’s time, we’ll make a mini gift card with envelope.

The cost of this class is £12 and includes all the supplies you need to make the projects, plus leftovers to take home and use for your own crafting creations. Please bring your own craft kit, including scissors and adhesives. If you have them, please also bring the Simply Scored tool and the Envelope Punch Board.

Tea, coffee and cake will, of course, be served!

The class will be held at my house (DE5), and there’s parking for eight cars so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Like the sound of it? Please register by clicking here but please don't delay as places are strictly limited and are being snapped up already! 


* Image for illustrative purposes only. We will be making entirely different projects!

Saturday, 12 March 2016

Around the World Blog Hop - Flowering Fields


It’s time for another Around the World Blog Hop, taking you on a tour of the globe without even leaving your seat. During the hop, you’ll visit a blog in each country served by Stampin’ Up!® and see some really beautiful projects by talented demonstrators.  You may have arrived here from the talented Julie Davison’s blog, but if not, don’t worry as there is a full list at the end of this post. 

Our theme this time is “floral” which, despite my brave foray into this area earlier this year, doesn’t really come naturally to me. I’m much more comfortable with leaves and animals. But for this project I dug out my trusty watercolour paper to have a play with an old favourite, the salt technique. 

For this technique, you create a watercolour wash (I used Old Olive and Island Indigo reinkers) and then sprinkle seasalt crystals on top. The salt absorbs the liquid around it, creating unpredictable and beautiful patterns. You must allow the paper to dry completely before brushing off the salt. 


On top of the dried project, I stamped flowers in Stazon and then coloured them using my Wink of Stella brush as a blender pen. Did you know you can do this? You can use the clear Wink of Stella brush pen to pick up ink from your inkpad lids and paint with it. Simply brush Wink of Stella onto scrap paper to clean it off again. So the flowers are beautifully shimmery in real life, although the photo doesn’t do them justice. 

I next stamped in Old Olive around the edges of the tag using one of my new favourite stamp sets, Timeless Textures (which I also stamped on the Whisper White card base). 

I was in full technique mode, so even dug out my heat gun to emboss the greeting. I love the look of white text on black and simply stamping is never enough. 

To make my efforts worthwhile, I made several of these tags which I have saved for future projects....



But now it’s time to head off to the next blog on your tour, which is in the Netherlands. Please check out Miriam’s project and be sure to leave her a comment! And if you lose your way, here’s the full list of blogs taking part. Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your journey!

Marie-Josée Trudel (Canada)http://alapause.blogspot.com 

Alisa Tilsner (Australia) http://www.alisatilsner.com
 
Julie Davison (United States) http://juliedavison.com
 
Helen Read (United Kingdom) http://allthingsstampy.blogspot.com
 
Miriam van Eyden (Netherlands) http://miriam-cardsandscrapping.blogspot.com
 
Kristine McNickle (New Zealand) http://www.creativestamping.co.nz
 
Anke Hämsch (Germany) http://leipzig-stempelt.blogspot.com
 
Liz Goldhawk (Canada) http://lgoldhawk.blogspot.com
 
Cécile Ortiz (France) https://lezardsdecilou.wordpress.com
 





The small print

This is my personal blog and my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. All images are © Stampin' Up!® All content including photographs, projects and text are © Helen Read, unless otherwise stated. Please feel free to copy my ideas for your personal use and inspiration - if you are a SU demonstrator you may use these ideas for your events but please give credit where it is due. Please do not use my ideas for monetary gain, competitions or publication. The images on this blog - including blog buttons - should not be copied and used elsewhere on the internet or on CDs.