12 Days of Christmas - Day 11

We're almost finished with the 12 days of Christmas. I was so sad that I made another video for you! Here is today's project:

A jar of tags to give as a little gift!!

 Here's a (rubbish) photo of the tag on the front. The stamp is from Word Play and stamped in Midnight Muse.

 Here are the tags inside the jar. Scentsational Season is such a lovely stamp set for making quick tags.

Check back tomorrow for the final installment of my 12 Days of Christmas series.

Christmas boxes

A colleague at work runs a dance school and asked me to make little gifts for her students. As most of them are girls, I thought I would make quite feminine boxes using the Cracker die on the Big Shot. The colours of the boxes were inspired by the colours in the paper from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue called Snow Festival (pg10): Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals and Soft Suede.

 Tags Til Christmas (pg11, main) is the stamp set used and was easily punched out with the scalloped square punch.

 The scalloped square was layered on a Large Oval punched out piece in a contrasting colour.

 The combinations are endless and by using a DSP pack you get lots of patterns that all co-ordinate together.

 It would be really sweet to have a basket of these filled with chocolates of Haribos by the front door to give guests as they leave.

Sorry about this last picture being blurry. It serves me right for taking the pictures with my daylight lamp instead of the natural daylight!!

Summer 's back?!

This card makes it feel like summer is coming back. It's inspired by one on Pinterest but I used Summer Silhouettes as the stamp set as I didn't feel there was enough stamping on the original design!

 

As you can see there are lots of nice floral images, which I can't wait to use. The background stamping was done with the border stamp in Crumb Cake to match the base card colour.

To make the patterned card to punch out the butterfly from, I used the arched blossom cloud to create a unique patterned card in Primrose Petals. This was layered on a large scalloped Tangerine Tango circle and a piece of Primrose Petals CS.

Covention Make & Take 2

This collage effect card was really quick and fun to make using Affection Collection. I was able to use nearly every stamp in the set layered up with different colours. It's best to do this technique by starting with the lightest colour first.

 

Up in the corner there is a little pennant and the heart is raised up with a Dimensional.

My convention swaps

This weekend I am at the 2012 Stampin' Up! Convention in Mainz, Germany. Very exciting!

 

One thing I had to prepare for the Convention was my swaps. There are 800 peope booked to attend, but I didn't feel that I could make quite that many! Instead I made a handful of these little sleeves that conceal some yummy sweets. My favourite swaps always contain an edible treat!!

 

 

Here's a view of how the sweets get in and out of the sleeve:

 

Here is a closer view:

The base is Crumb Cake cardstock. I used my lovely Scor-pal to score the lines for the folds before embossing on the Big Shot. The embossing folder is called Lace Brocade from the Autumn/Winter Seasonal catalogue.

To decorate the lovely punches came into use. The main scallop circle was punched from Very Vanilla card. Layered on top is a 1 3/8" circle of Tangerine Tango card. Raised on Dimensionals is a small scalloped circle punched from Pool Party spotty DSP. The stamped sentiment comes from one of the hostess stamp sets in the back of the Autumn/Winter seasonal catalogue. It is stamped in Tangerine Tango to match the larger circle.7 To finish a little bit of Victoria Lace was added.

I'm quite happy with them and can't wait to swap them at convention. I'll have to show you what I exchanged them for when I get home!

Time ticks by

Hello and happy Sunday! Can you believe it's the end of another week?! Well here is a card representing how fast time has been ticking by...

It features Clockworks and some yummy In Colors: Gumball Green and Midnight Muse. This was the same collage technique I used before but in a different colour combination than the note cards.

First Edition speciality DSP made it into the new catalogue (pg162) and this is great news as this paper set is super useful.

Hope you like the card. Are you doing anything nice today? I'm working in the morning and hope to do something with my lovely family in the afternoon if I'm not too pooped!

Scrapbook scraps

Having made a scrapbook page with Betsy's Blooms and the co-ordinating paper, Floral District, I had a small pile of scraps on my table, which is how this card came about.

Gumball Green is the base colour. On the white section I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from Perfect Punches (pg120) in Rich Razzleberry. By using a marker the outline oval was masked. A few Daffodil Delight blooms and jewels later plus some scraps of stitched Daffodil Delight ribbon and voila!

A sweet little card that was made using scraps!

Clockworks

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to a Leadership event that Stampin' Up! ran. It was an awesome day out and the best bit was getting a free stamp set! This one is called Clockworks (pg105).

We made these cute notecards and matching envelopes with some fab colours: Pool Party, Gumball Green, Calypso Coral, More Mustard and Basic Grey. The images all overlapped and made a sort of collage effect, which I love.

This isn't a stamp set I would have chosen at the top of my wishlist, but now I have started playing with it I am hooked! I'll have another card made with the same stamp set later this week.

It's Finally Here!

 

The NEW main catalogue has arrived!

 

Over 200 pages of lushness!! There are some great additions to the catalogue this year:

• Wider variety of stamps, accessories and therefore even more coordination.
• Ink pads have been reformulated, keeping the same colour range, but now with even better quality stamping.
• Beautiful close up photos of the products so you can really see the product.
• Almost identical products to the USA - no more lusting after products that aren't available over here!

Come along to my BOGOF Event at Aldershot & Fleet Rugby Club (GU12 4BP) at 7.30pm tonight to get your paper copy of the catalogue.

 

If you'd like to place an order but cannot attend, you're welcome to send me an email. I will be putting through orders regularly throughout October.

Now is a fabulous time to join my team too! Join as a Demonstrator for just £99, choose £130 worth of goodies AND get a free pack of paper EVERY month for 6 months. That's an additional £58+ of products!!! Plus there is no commitment beyond the original fee. Contact me for more information blueangelcrafts at gmail dot com

Here are the lush new In Colors for this year! From the top left going clockwise: gumball green, Raspberry Ripple, Midnight Must, Primrose Petals, Summer Starfruit. All extremely lush and even better in real life!!!

Party Invitations

Today I've got invitations to share with you made for Munchkin's birthday party, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I used the set Owl Occasions, which is super cute and has images for parties, Christmas and other occasions too! I used some of the new In Colors: Primrose Petals, Gumball Green and some older colours too: Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso.

I added some googlie eyes to the owl which I had left over from my Halloween kit - even though I used the eyes on the projects there was over half a pack leftover! The base was Crumb Cake and stamped in Woodgrain. Bakers Twine in Island Indigo finished off the design. Munchkin was thrilled with them and wanted to send them straightaway but I pointed out that really she needed to help me write inside them first so they have more meaning for the recipient!!!

Losing my mind

I heard that when you start living with the school terms for your child that things can go a bit mad. What I didn't expect was to lose my mind in less than 3 weeks! I could have sworn I left posts for you all this weekend, but hey-ho, the rather more speedy descent into maddness has begun.

Anyway, onto today's card:

It features a bunch of things from the new seasonal catalogue. I started with a Whisper White base that I ran through my Big Shot with the new Lacy Brocade embossing folder. There are couple of great things about embossing folders, but these new ones have something else to add: they are bigger! They now cover a whole card base front which is awesome as I always found I had to trim my cards before.

 

Next was a layer of vellum and Certainly Celery Spotty Grosgrian ribbon. The main embellishement was made with the large scallop circle on scraps of patterned paper. The stamps are from the Seasonal Hostess set: Mixed Medley. This set features all sorts of images, suitable for Christmas, valentines, halloween and friend cards/scrapbook pages. I stamped the small scallop in Raspberry Ripple and punch it out with the NEW 1 1/4" scallop circle. This punch is soooo great. I'll show you more things with it soon.

 

The centre of the embellishment was from the same set and stamped in Certainly Celery to match the ribbon. This was punched with a 3/4" circle punch and raised up on dimensionals. A little flourish of linen thread tucked underneath and voila! A slight copycat of the one on pg39 of the Seasonal Catalogue... but it has come to be mine now.

 

Check back soon (if I can find time to craft this evening!) for more projects.

Tweet Leaves

Half way through the week already! Today's card is made using a really cute individual stamp called Tweet Leaves from the Autumn/Winter catalogue (pg31). I used the rock'n'roll technique with three colours of ink: Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie and Soft Suede. I started with Pumpkin Pie as it's the lightest colour, then added a thick roll of Poppy Parade and then a tiny bit of Soft Suede around the very edges.

TIP: So long as you always roll in the lightest colour to the strongest colour you won't ruin your ink pads.

The image was stamped onto white shimmer card. So sweet and quick to stamp! This then had the corners rounded using my trusty corner rounder punch and was layered onto Soft Suede cardstock. The thin border allowed the colour to be seen more strongly at the corners. Scallop borders were then added to each side in Pumpkin Pie and mounted onto a Poppy Parade base. Naturally a few rhinestones are added for some bling and ta-dah! It's finished!!

Nanny page

This is a page I have been meaning to create for over a year. It's a photo of my Nanny who passed away in June 2011, which I have scrapped for Munchkin's scrapbook. She won't remember her great-nanny so I wanted this to fill in that gap.

I used some retired Everyday Enchantment paper for the green part and then floral part is a retiring hostess paper set. I then raided the scraps box to make some bits and bobs layered up and cut a Top Note shape on Very Vanilla cardstock as a journalling panel.

Again, the Big shot came into use to cut the title out of Bashful Blue cardstock.. The Rose Red seambinding ribbon created a block of colour to separate the two patterned papers.

I hope that Munchkin will enjoy look back at this page as she grows up and sees what a great woman Nanny was.

Shiney bright flowers

Today's card gives you a sneaky peek at another forthcoming In Color: Raspberry Ripple! Such a lush colour that you really need to see in real life to appreciate. It's gorgeous. It was recommended to me by Julie and I can't thank her enough for drawing my attention to it!

Started with a shimmery silver cardstock and then created a picture using the Perfectly Preserved stamps. Since I'm falling in love with Raspberry Ripple the main image was matted onto the colour and then finished with some rhinestones.

Again, this began as a CASE from a card on Pinterest but has morphed into something new. It was fun getting creative with the flowers in the jar as I'd not tried that before but I didn't even need to bother with a stamp-a-ma-jig as the set is so easy to use!

Come back tomorrow to see the final card I made while hanging out with Julie...

Preserved Pears

Hooray it's not long til the weekend now! Today's card was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest but it's gone under a transformation to make it my own design. I started with Island Indigo base to match the Orchard Harvest DSP. Gingham is sooo fun!

This was paired (!) with pear design paper from the same set and More Mustard spotty ribbon. There were a few bits and bobs cut out using the cannery framelits and then layered up.

I made this card when the lovely Julie came to visit. We had fun creating some designs and playing with this set. Check back tomorrow for another design!

Grateful Leaves

Hello and Happy Monday! It's been a busy weekend and I he been working hard on a Scrapbooking kit for you. I'll show you that tomorrow...

 

Onto today's card:

It's based on a card I saw on Pinterest (of course!) made by cardmaker2 on Splitcoast Stampers.

 

My version uses French Foliage leaves and I stamped them on white shimmer card in Certainly celery, Lucky Limeade, Gumball green and Garden Green. Don't recognise the name Gumball Green?! Yes it's a little preview of one of the new In Colors for 2012-13!!!!

The background card is Pear Pizzazz (so sad it's going in a couple of weeks :( ...) and I spritzed it with Chocolate Chip ink for interest. The main stamped image was matted on Early Espresso and a sentiment was added from Apothacary Art. Indeed you're right, you can't purchase this set but I'm here to reassure you it WILL be in the new main catalogue! The card was finished with a Very Vanilla satin bow, which I was glad to use as I'll miss all the satin ribbons.

The weekend has been fantastic: warm weather, BBQ, cycling trips, running, lie-ins and family laughs!!! Hope you've had a good weekend too.

September Scrap club

Last night was scrapbook club. I LOVE this monthly class. Such interested talented people attend!

This layout was based around the journalling box. We learnt to brayer an ombre background, this one was in Poppy Parade.

The patterned spotty background paper comes from the specialty papers Mocha Morning. LOVE these papers and I'm sad that they are retiring :-( This was paired with Concord Crush and Crumb Cake. The title was stamped using the Broadsheet Alphabet stamp set. It's great as when it's in clear as you can stick all the letters in a row on a long block and stamp the whole word in one go.

If you'd like to join us for scrapclub next month we are meeting on Tuesday 2nd October.

Floating Flowers

This card originally began as a CASE of Jenni Pauli and then morphed into something I think I can safely say is mine. The Reason to Smile set came out again today along with some In Colors that we will be saying goodbye to at the end of September: Pear Pizzazz and Concorde Crush. Some Crumb Cake was added into the mix for variety and some flowers were raised up on Dimensionals.

The sentiment was a much trimmed down version of one in the Hostess set, Happiest Birthday Wishes. The central part can be cut with a 1" circle punch. The next layer was trimmed by hand and then layered onto a 1 3/8" circle of Concord Crush.

Half way through the week and we're enjoying the last week before Munchkin starts Pre-school! She is so excited but a little part of me is already missing my sidekick as we won't have nearly as much time together soon.

Dear You

Hooray hooray for Bank Holiday Monday! What a great way to start the week.

Today's card was inspired by the flower. I found this flower ready made leftover from my scrapbooking class a few months ago. It explains how to make the flowers on that post.

This card had a simple Baja Breeze base with a Pear Pizzazz mat. The Whisper White piece had Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze and Pear Pizzazz spritzed over the top for interest, and the sentiment is from the Hostess Set, Happiest Birthday Wishes.

If you like scrapbooking and would like to add a page to your collection why not come to my scrapbooking class? It's held the first Tuesday evening each month at my home (GU12). At just £8 it's a fun, social night out and you get to go home with a beautiful 12x12" page all ready for photos. The next class will be on Tuesday 4th September at 7.30pm, contact me to book your place.

As it's a Bank Holiday, we will be catching up with the rest of the family and having some fun. Fingers crossed that the weather let's us spend some time outdoors.

Flutterby sponged butterfly

Hooray hooray for the weekend! Happy birthday wishes to my Aunty Rosemary too!

Here is a card that came about by trial and error. I found a cut out of a butterfly where the butterfly had been removed and then the original piece remained. This was laid over a piece of Whisper White card and then sponged with Peach Parfait and Poppy Parade inks. Once complete the stencil was removed and then cut out carefully with scissors.

This was layered on Peach Parfait cardstock that had been cut out with a framelit on the Big Shot. By the way, the sewing on the framelit was NOT real. I've totally lost my sewing mojo at the moment so I had to draw it on with a Peach Parfait marker.

The Poppy Parade base had a swirl stamped in the same colour from Everything Eleanor - what can I say, the stamp set was on my desk!

I hope you've got nice plans for the weekend. I'm off to a baby shower this afternoon which should be fun!!