Jelly Bean machine

Noticing a trend? Yes, I really do like playing with the Something Sweet stamp set! This design was cased from one I saw on SCS - but don't ask me which as I can't find it again now.
This card was more an experiment with colours as I just could not decide what colour to stamp the jelly bean machine! In the end I plumped for Basic Grey. I think maybe a lighter colour would have been more effective in hindsight. Perhaps Certainly Celery? The other colours on the card are So Saffron and Regal Rose.
Today I've been a complete misery guts as I am so tired! So not much creativity at present but hopefully my mojo will return soon.

Sweet Pea felt

Love love love the stitched felt! This has to be one of my absolute favourite things in the new Mini catalogue. The patterned paper is from the Sweet Pea DP stack (of course!) and the sentiment came from the Fun & Fast Notes set.
Little one was unwell last night and we were a bit worried. Lovely husband slept next to her all night, which was a relief as she woke up every couple of hours with her temperature and cold. So a bit knackered today but at least she's bit better today. Phew!

Vintage flowers

Isn't it great when things match?
Personally, I'm a sucker for anything that matches. I just love it! This is why I have slowly but surely worked my way through my Sweet Pea DP stack and this card is another sample made with it. The brads make the flowers "pop" even more and the sentiment stamp seems to work with the flowers on the paper. Oval All is an under-rated gem in the current catalogue.
Today I had a lovely Mother & Daughter pair over to figure the design for the daughter's wedding invitations and it was really good fun. Tomorrow is my April One Sheet Wonder class and I can't wait. Even more Vintage Vogue!!

Yes, yes I have been a bad blogger recently. I have so many cards to show you but it feels like no time in which to post them currently!
The above card is Bashful Blue and was used to display some of the gorgeous Sweet Pea stack of papers. Various circles from different patterned papers and then they were layered up with Dimensionals (foam pads). The sentiment is from Something Sweet and is embossed using white embossing powder. Simple but quite sweet, I think.
This card is using the lovely Vintage Vogue set. The large flowers were stamped using Versamark ink and then clear embossing powder. The Chocolate Chip ribbon is pinched with a decorative brad. I rarely use this green colour (I can't remember the name, it might be Garden Green?!) but I think it makes it quite striking.

Starter Kit Special Offer!

Stampin Up! are offering a fabulous 10% off the regular price of the starter kit! Now is the perfect time to join my team!!
On top of £115 of FREE products you get:

• Discounts and special offers available to Demonstrators only
• Creative and inspirational contact with other Demos
• Attend exclusive Stampin Up! events
• The chance to earn income & rewards
• Much much more!

On top of the above offer from Stampin' Up! I am offering a FREE gift if you sign up during this period through me!!!

The starter kit costs £125 with this offer instead of £139. Contact me if you are interested or would like to ask questions. The offer is available from 23rd April until the 7th May 2010.

Beautiful baby

Another card from my Open House. This one has mint imperials inside it. The design is super-simple and would be easy to make for birth announcements. The stamp set used is called Something Sweet and goes perfectly with the treat cups. The hole made for the treat cup is made using the 1 3/4" circle punch. Easy peasy!!
Who wouldn't like a sweet treat to come through the post?
Oh and don't think that the whole card would be ruined if you removed the sweeties. The back panel was stuck with repositionable adhesive so it's easy to stick back.
Today I'm off to a carboot sale, which should be great as the weather is so bright and springy. More photo opportunities for my Week In The Life project....

Boy birthday bugs

At long last here is a card from my Open House. This card has inspiration taken from the fabulous Mrs Wonka, who did a card a bit like this but her bugs were ladybirds. The other inspiration was a post on Andrea Walford's site.
The bug bodies are made from punched circles of Sweet Pea designer paper. Love that stack! The bug bodies are made from the word window punch and the small circle punches. The leaves come from the bird two-step punch. The magnifying glass contains Smarties mini eggs as they had the funkiest colours. The stamp set for the maginifying glass handle is from Something Sweet.
The tab has been punched out and the sentiment comes from the Fun & Fast Notes set.
TIP: Do not place a chocolate filled card in the sunshine! The poor little eggs on this card cracked from the heat!!
Hope you are outside plenty and enjoying the sunshine.

Grace's birthday

Today is my cousin's little girl Grace's 2nd birthday. We went to her birthday party which was just gorgeous in the sunshine. She had so many people to see she didn't know what to do first! So long as she wasn't separated from her new toy doggie she was happy!!
The card was a quick card to do. It's featuring Pretty in Pink and So Saffron on a Whisper White base. Since trying out the blender pens recently (I know, I know I got them in my starter kit when I joined SU! 18 months ago!!!) I am addicted to them. The sprinkling of Dazzling Diamonds made a simple card quite eye-catching, even if I do say so myself.
The envelope had some hearts stuck onto it, also embellished with Dazzling Diamonds, as I daftly bought some envelopes with Postcode boxes in orange on the front. D'oh! So I'll have to be quite creative with my envelopes from now on to disguise the unwanted boxes. Still, I like a challenge so look out for more decorated envelopes.
The other thing that has been occupying my time this week is thinking about the project I am going to do. It's called A Week In The Life by Ali Edwards and it's a way to document a regular week so that you can 'oooh' and 'ahhh' over all those silly little details in years to come. I think my little one will like to see how she spent her time and this project is the perfect way to do it.

Still here

Just a quick note to say that I am still here. I've been a bit under the weather this week so I've not got much done in terms of crafting. There are projects all over the place that need scanning so I can share them with you. I will do it soon, I promise.

Small person creation

No my 6-month old is not that advanced.... this card was made by my God-daughter (8 years old) this morning. Isn't it sweet?
The funny thing was I put out loads of stuff - some Stampin Up! some not - and she zoomed straight in on the SU stuff! What a compliment. Weirdly she chose Easter as her theme. I asked her whether this was to get ahead for next Easter but she said it was for this Easter, even though that's over a week ago! Still, better late than never.

I've not been feeling to great recently. I think it's just tiredness as the little one, who has always slept through at night, had started getting up at 4am since the clocks changed. Plus I had crafty things on 5 days last week. I guess you can't have it all. So this week I am focusing on being a Mummy and not worrying so much about everything else I need to do. Well, that's the plan....

Open House

Here is the Open House display from Saturday. I've tried to use everything I bought from the Mini catalogue so there are patterned papers, punches, stamps, shimmer paint, stampin wheels etc. galore!
For those of you not attending the Open House today (Sunday) I will be posting pictures of the individual cards in the coming week so you can see them closer up.
Hope you are having a fabulous weekend in the sunshine!!!

Happy anniversary to us!

Today is our first wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe a year as passed so quickly. So much has changed: we have bought our first house together, had a baby, got chickens and become ridiculously Surrey.
Still, it was a great excuse to use my pretty Bride DSP paper on this card for my gorgeous husband. I love this paper so much... if only it had been around when I was making our wedding invitations! I kind of stole (ahem!) I mean borrowed the idea from Monica Gale (are you spotting a pattern for my inspiration?!). The Flight Of the Butterfly is such a pretty stamp set and the matching punch makes this sort of card a breeze to make.
Tonight we're going for a meal at the venue we had our wedding reception and we're even eating the same dishes! This is great news as I was bang on 12 weeks pregnant on our wedding day and could barely breathe in my wedding dress, let alone eat anything the entire day!!
Have a great sunny day and I hope to see you at my Open House this weekend.

Spring Special

I am sooo excited about my Open House this weekend!!! I've been crafting like mad and will share it with those of you who are attending my Open House and on this blog next week if you are not able to attend. Today it really feels that Spring has finally sprung. I've actually been WARM out in the sunshine!

Therefore, I have the following offer open to EVERYONE in celebration of arrival of Spring! Place an order of £45 or more with me before Midnight on Sunday 11th April 2010 and be in with a chance to win one of the following extra prizes.

For each set of 11 people ordering, you can WIN one of the following:

FIRST PLACE - A £100 Stampin' Up! Shopping Spree!

SECOND PLACE - A free Level 2 hostess stamp set of your choice including
a new one in the Mini Catalogue

THIRD PLACE - A free level 1 hostess stamp set of your choice
including a new one in the Mini Catalogue

FOURTH PLACE - £25 worth of money to spend as you wish

FIFTH PLACE - £25 worth of money to spend as you wish

SIXTH PLACE - £25 worth of money to spend as you wish

This means that out of 11 people, 6 will get an extra prize on top of your order. How fantastic is that? You have a 55% chance of getting something for nothing and who doesn't like that?

Don't forget, if you spend £90 or more - you get TWO chances to win!

The winners will be notified by email on the 12th of April. Good luck !!!

Please note that this is my offer and not one run by Stampin Up!

Goodbye & Hello Colours!

Super exciting news arrived today from Stampin' Up! As of the beginning of October 2010 Stampin' Up! will be introducing many new colours to the colour families for the UK market. This will mean that you can have even more colours to play with!! There will be 15 new colours AND we get the In-Colours that the US currently get - that will be 20 new colours to play with in total. Hooray!

Here is a closer look at the new colour families:
Don't panic, this isn't going to happen today, but with the arrival of the new catalogue in October. So, I am just letting you know this now:

If you are building up your colour collections, you may want to take a look at the list above and only buy colours that are staying.

If there is a colour that you adore which will be retiring at the end of September, you've got six months notice to stock up on your inkpads, refills, cardstock etc. before you won't be able to get it again. This is important if you are planning your wedding stationary & thank yous!

Here is a better look at the colours that will be going at the end of September:

This is all that we know at the moment but I will keep you up-to-date with more information over the coming months.

However, in the meantime, there are six months left of the current catalogue and a BRAND NEW Mini Catalogue to get excited about - you can see both of these electronically on the right. Don't forget my Open House this weekend too! I've been busily working away preparing Make & Takes and decorations so I can't wait to share them all with you.

Easter weekend

Hope you have had a good one! We had quite a quiet start that built up to a hectic end! There's been lots of food and relaxing.
Fingers crossed I'll have some crafting things to add tomorrow if I can stop gorging on chocolate long enough to create.

April Class - One Sheet Wonder

Here is the class I am holding on Sunday 25th April at 1pm in my home classroom. It would be lovely see you if you can make it. The class is using the gorgeous Vintage Vogue stamp set (from the Spring Mini, of course!) and you will make 6 cards and this sourcream gift box all from ONE basic sheet of A4 Very Vanilla cardstock!
The class costs £10 per person and places are going fast so email me to book yours!!
Other news is that we have a guest this weekend which is fun. We're going to lots of family lunches with the little one and I am doing a party on Monday morning. It's great being so busy!! Below are some Easter nests I made from plain chocolate and shredded wheat, topped with Smarties eggs. Yum! Isn't Easter tasty?

Mini Catalogue day!

Hooray hooray it's mini catalogue day! Stampin Up! have brought out this AMAZING mini catalogue filled with such gorgeousness we'll all need to have everything. (I've decided there is no such thing as want any more, it's need!) Email me if you would like to place an order.

There is also a reminder for you about registering for your FREE place at my Open House on Saturday 10th April and Sunday 11th April. There are still places available for you and your friends. There will be lots of products to play with and try, a complimentary copy of the Mini catalogue, Make & Takes as well as door prizes each day! Hope you can be there on one of the days as it's going to be a lot of fun!!

If you cannot attend the Open House but would like a copy of the Spring Mini catalogue I can post you one. Just drop me an email: blueangelcrafts@gmail.com