Clearly for You Class

Hello All! Thought I'd share a class that I've designed and there's still room to book your place!! it features the set Clearly For You (in the Spring Mini Catalogue) and as part of the class you will receive the stamps sets too! (RRP £17.95)

The class will be run on:

Thursday 15th September, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Saturday 25th September, 10am-12noon (NOT 1-3pm as it said on my postal class list if you received one of those!)

Places are £20 per person and need to be paid in advance. Hope you can make it!!!
A full list of forthcoming classes can be seen here.

Yipee for Mondays. It is so nice to be back in our "normal" routine. Munchkin and I had a great DVD afternoon, although Mummy fell asleep instead of Munchkin!!!

Birdcages in progress

Hello and Happy Friday! I've been organising my diary ready to run a fun night in for you and your friends and whilst I was at it I've planned my classes for the rest of 2011 - you can see the full list here.

Now, today's project was based on one I saw on Pinterest, originally from here. These are my first two attempts and they do look a little....shabby. And not in a cute way! The cage base is an old jar lid which I covered with circles of card and then the strips of paper cover the sides and the joins where the cages were stuck.

The birds were made with my trusty two-step bird punch. Gosh I love that punch. I hadn't used it in a little while and I'm back in love with it!!!

Today has been a busy day achieving....nothing. However, I am really excited about our little family holiday tomorrow so it'll be worth all organising today. I'll also be able to indulge in some fabby Pinterest surfing. I am still 100% addicted to this site! Hope you are looking forward to a fun weekend!!

Inspired by Monica

Hooray for Friday!

This card is inspired by one I saw on Monica Gale's blog quite a while back. The owls are so cute and having them gazing into one another's eyes is just lovely. The birds are on a hand-drawn swirl branch and then Boho Blossoms punch made the flowers and Bird on A Branch for the leaves.

Such a bright sunny card to match the weather. Hope you have something nice planned for the weekend - I'll be back soon!!

My lovely downlines!

Today I thought I'd share some of the creations made by my darling downline. They are a creative bunch!
First we have Amy who made me this GORGEOUS birthday card featuring Crazy for Cupcakes. She's my birthday twin so I hope she had a good day yesterday. I have a card and gift to drop off! Next we have Diane who makes fabulous cards and uses techniques that I am not great at. Her work is so inspirational to me! This card features masking which is a technique I'll have to try having seen how effective it is here. Diane used So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and Basic Black inks. The two step bird punch makes a fantastic silhouette and then the sentiment is from Sense of Time stamp set.

Next we have Katie who also came to the training with Diane and me. Katie used Cheers to You stamp set for the drinks and sadly retired So Happy For You SAB set. Love the colours she chose as she used a very funky combination.

Another downline with a sweet website is Bev. She lives over in Reading and has some wonderful creations on her website.

Hope these cards inspire you and you get a chance to see their blogs/websites. We're off to visit my grandmother who is still very poorly in hospital and before that we're going shopping to spend my birthday vouchers. Have a happy Sunday!!

Owl-licious

It's Thursday already! Can't believe how fast this week has passed...

This is a card I made using the fabulous Sale-A-Bration set, Punch Bunch. I am totally in love with this little owl and can't wait for the punch to be released in April. Another new product is on this card, the fleurette II. These little crochet delights add a touch of class to projects and you can even colour them with reinkers. I added a Basic Rhinestone to the centre of the flower to hide the hole at the centre of the flower.

The get a two-tone colour to the owl, I stamped him in Early Espresso on Whisper White CS and then stamped him again on a piece of Pretty In Pink CS. I cut out the owl's chest from the pink piece of CS and adhered it to the brown owl. Love him!!

Sentiment came from another Sale-A-Bration set, So Happy For You. The font is really sweet and fun, which was perfect for a card like this.

Less than a week til Xmas!

This card is made with new favourite stamp set. It's a Level 2 Hostess Set called Fast & Fabulous. It really is fast! I did these with markers and NO stamp-a-ma-jig (gasp!). Usually I am glued to my stamp-a-ma-jig but while I was creating I was too lazy to go and fetch it... but the stamp set still worked! The colours I used are Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue with Marina Mist taffetta ribbon. The sentiment came from the set, Just Believe.

This is Day 2 of my Journal Your Christmas project. Yes, I realise it's the wrong way around but I cannot get it to sit the right direction, so apologies. Loved this photo and couldn't resist using it. The Serene Snowflake set made making a background super simple.

Lastly, we made a chocolate log and I couldn't resist sitting a robin on it (SU punch, naturally). It was a Nigella Christmas recipe and it is yum yum yum. Munchkin is much better today so I am sure she'll be tucking in to a piece tomorrow.

3 Little Monkeys

Hello All! Hope you've had a good Sunday. I created this little monkey masterpiece whilst at the craft fair today. It features the monkey in Early Espresso from Fox & Friends - my current favourite set - as well as wording in the same colour from Curly Cute.
The Two Step Bird Punch punched the leaves out really easily in Garden Green for the little monkeys to swing from. The base card is River Rock - such a useful colour now I've finally taken it out of its packaging.

Here is my stall from the Craft Fair today. I met some lovely people and thoroughly enjoyed telling them about the fabulous products Stampin' Up! have to offer. I had to take the photo so you'll have to imagine me sat in that empty chair!

Have a good start to your week, I'll be back with more projects soon.

Christmas wreath

This card was heavily influenced by Kristin Moore. She inspired me to use the bird punch in a different way and also to crack open my River Rock CS. The Always Artichoke CS made a nice contrast for the wreath and it was so quick and easy to use the Two Step Bird punch to punch out all those leaves! I never would be bothered to do this by hand.

The sentiment was from Contempo Christmas and the card was finished with some Basic Rhinestones. I coloured the Rhinestones with a Real Red marker. (To be honest, this seems to rub off. I need to coat them with some Crystal Effects to seal the colour onto the Rhinestones.) The Real Red ribbon finished off the card beautifully, I think.
I hope you are having a good end to your week. Our heating broke yesterday so we had an adventure staying at my parents at the last minute! Fortunately it's all sorted out now. Phew! Have a good weekend!

CASE'd Shelli

Shelli Gardner is the Co-Founder of Stampin' Up! and I was lucky enough to see her crafting on stage at the European Convention. She showed a version of the card and couldn't resist having a go myself.

The base of the card is Real Red. The Crumb Cake layer had the Fancy Flower punch out of it. Underneath that layer I use a piece of scrap card and covered it with Sticky Strip. (This is super-sticky tape) I was then able to adher 1/4" grosgrain ribbon strips onto the base card, the colours I used are Real Red, Certainly Celery & Marina Mist. Shelli actually used taffetta ribbon but I wanted a brighter look.

The Crumb Cake layer and the Real Red card base sandwiched the ribbon layer to create the card. I then embellished with a little button (sadly retired) that was knotted with linen thread. The leaves were punched from Pear Pizzazz CS as I couldn't lay my hands on a scrap of Certainly Celery using the Two Step Bird Punch.

I stamped a little greeting in the corner using Early Espresso ink with the Tiny Tags stamp set. Easy and cute!!

Hope you are having a good week. I am working on a video tutorial at the moment - just a slight hitch getting the video from the camera to the computer but as soon as I can I'll be posting my first one!! Keep your eyes peeled...

Punch Class take 2

The card at the top is a variation on the pansy card that the ladies made at the class. As I'd made that card a number of times before I started playing about with my boho blossoms punch and created these flowers. I added detail to them with a white marker.

As it's August there were just two lovely ladies: a mother and daughter team! It was really fun to make the cards and they each added their own unique touches to the designs. Watching what other people do is my favourite part of teaching classes. It amazes me what wonderful ideas people think of using the same materials, so everyone learns something at the session!

Keep an eye out for details of future calsses I am currently putting together. I know a number of you have requested a magical folding mini book so I am busy scheduling dates for this before Christmas. There is also the new catalogue launch in October so I am also planning a catalogue launch party... keep your eyes peeled for more information.

Punch Art flowers

This card was also part of my recent Punch Art class a couple of weeks ago. The class is being repeated on Sunday 8th August if you'd like to come along! There are still a few places available.

The idea of the class is to think of creative ways to use punches. This one shows an alternative use for the butterfly punch. As you can see the butterfly punches were layered on each other to create pansy-shaped flowers. The idea was adapted from a box on Split Coast Stampers by Kiwiinaus.

It's tricky to see but the edges of the butterfly punches were dabbed with Champagne Mist shimmer paint using a sponge dauber to give them a subtle sparkle. The centre of the pansies are simply a clear brad. Simple but effective! Obviously since I love stamping I had to add some somewhere on the card and this took the form of Vintage Vogue. The little leaf print is just gorgeous and sooo versatile. It's stamped in Old Olive to match the grass at the bottom of the card. The darker grass was Garden Green (I think). The leaves were punched with the large bird punch, which I must admit is my most used punch!!

Hope you are looking forward to a fun weekend. Lovely husband has been painting our hall and bathroom this week so we are going to go buy some finishing touches: light fittings, mirrors, cupboards etc. Plus all the pretty pretty things. Can't wait!

The French touch

As many of you know we have a lovely French lady staying with us this summer. Yesterday I let her loose in my craftroom to decorate her holiday journal with my supplies. Above is an example of what she produced! I love the picture she took of the countryside near our home. I was also impressed with her creativity - I had never thought to use the bird punch as a template to stencil with. What a fab idea!

Fathers' Day

Last night I received a message from my brother saying "can you please make a card from me and give it to Mum so I can sign it when I arrive in the evening on Fathers Day". Cheeky wotsit! However, as I am a kind big sis I made the above card for him to give my Dad. I really like the zingy colour combination and I couldn't wait to use my new star punch.
Below is the card that I created for my Dad from me (and Immy). It's based on one of fabulous cards I received when I took part in the 'One For The Men' swap in April/May this year. I "had" to buy the stamp saying Fathers' Day as I didn't have one already but I can see that this stamp will get plenty of use in the future as it's so versatile and masculine. The heart stamps in the background are from the set called Hello Again.

Below is the card my clever 8 month old daughter made her Daddy. Ok, so I did help a bit! Still it was her who inspired the layout. The Bella Bleu papers always seem pretty feminine to me, as they are swirly and girly, but we managed to 'butch them up' with some Chocolate Chip cardstock.

Modern birdie

Here is a new card I created this week. It's using some of the patterned paper in the new Spring Mini which starts on Thursday! The bird punch also came from the Mini. I thought this card was a bit more masculine than my normal birdie cards... at least it was until I embossed the cheer & wishes sentiment in a girly font, which I am not sure many men would expect on their birthday cards!
Still the design is quite plain and simple, which is a style I am working hard to achieve. There is always the urge to add more and more to a card, I find!
The Easter sale was today and although I didn't sell a great deal (most people didn't expect cards etc. to be there I think) I did meet some lovely people who were interested in having a demonstration at their group and even one enquiry about becoming a Demo so quite a fun morning.

Nanny's birthday

Today was my Nanny's 84th birthday. I held a little tea party at my house to celebrate as things have been pretty tough for her this year and I thought that the day should be marked. Above is a picture of her birthday potplant and the card I made her.
The tea party ended up not being such a small tea party after all, with a total of 8 of us! Still, there was plenty of food to go around and it was lovely showing everyone my little darling.