Blasting Off - with Banner Blast.

So day 2 of my Banner Blast 'fiesta' and isn't this stamp set so versatile - suitable for cards for men or women!

Todays is another 'Unisex' card, it also incorporates another sneak peek of another Saleabration Sneak Peek.

The fabulous See Ya Later stamp set. I used the Chalk Talk framelits for the cut outs for the sentiment... and Gorgeous Grunge features on this stunner too.

Want to make this? Book a party in January and we'll make this card!

Give me a call - 07786 860438 or 01844 342494

Whatever you are doing tonight - have a great evening!

Paula xx

All about the boys! Sneak Peek!!!

It is atrocious out there... the wind is buffeting the house and the rain is lashing down! Thankfully I took the dogs out much earlier to avoid the awful weather. Unfortunately our boiler is leaking again - for the second time in about 6 weeks! Thanks Corgi Homeplan - you really are reliable!!! NOT! - We definitely won't be renewing!

Anyhow - as some of you know the end of January heralds the start of Sale-a-Bration... a FREE gift with every £45 you spend! I have completely fallen in love with 2 items. The Banner Blast stamp set and matching punch.

I like to experiment with colours I don't normally use - so decided on the colour combo - before I even worked out a design in my head - so I have used Soft Suede and Very Vanilla. Here is the front - I also used my Ovals Collection and Apothecary Accents framelits.

I thought it would be an excellent combo for a male card - though I think this is quite unisex and can be used for anyone. Here is the inside.

The sentiments are from Million & One and Blooming with Kindness.

I hope you like it!

I think Makita, our young kitten approved - I think she liked how it coordinated with her too!

I'm doing a series of posts with this stamp set so pop back tomorrow if you would like to see more!

Paula xxx

More Vellum...

Just before Christmas I posted my Pop Up flower card as an example of something else you can do with Vellum - well today I have a couple more cards to show you with 3 techniques for Vellum.

This first card is the simplest - I have used the World Map background stamp on the Vellum, The Open Sea and Simply Sketched stamps with the Decorative Label punch, the aperture is cut using the Ovals framelits, the Map stamped on the opaque Vellum gives a really interesting background.

For the second card I stamped the Poppy from Simply Sketched on the Vellum - then coloured it with my Blender Pens. I have again used the Decorative Label punch and Ovals framelits. The colouring technique gives a really soft effect.

Lastly - and again really simple but so effective is the use of embossing folders on Vellum. I have used two different ones here - the Adorning Accents and Needlepoint Border.

You will also see I have used the Expressions Thinlits for the word Love... only available until the 1st of February.

Have you noticed the Sneak Peeks I managed to sneak in here? The Decorative Dots embossing folder and the Banner Blast stamp set with coordinating punch will all be available from the end of January - you will be able to select from one of these or the other fabulous items free with orders of at least £45 during Sale-a-Bration.

Anyhow - that's all from me today. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to the weekend as much as I am - especially as I am getting a new hairdo, hubby is off out and I'll have 2 whole days to myself for crafting.

Pxx

Very Merry...

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my customers, friends and followers a very Merry Christmas. You have all made a contribution to my Stampin' Up! business and through Stampin' Up! I have made a lot of new friends.

Have a wonderful Christmas and I promise to share more creations soon - in the mean time here is a little something I made for my Mum.

***EDIT*** - Just to let you know I shall be making my last order from the Autumn/Winter seasonal catalogue on the 3rd of January - if you need to spend any Christmas pennies and want to collect from me and save postage - let me know by the 2nd!

Paula xxxx

Pop-Up Flower Card

Whilst poking about on t'interweb on Friday I came across a video and thought - Oooh - that would look so nice with some sponged Vellum... particularly as one of my customers said to me on Saturday "I haven't a clue what to do with Vellum!" I may share a few more tit-bits in the coming days!

So this afternoon I retired to my little craft room with my video camera and shot a little video tutorial for you.

I used the Boho Blossoms Punch, the Bird Builder Punch and the greeting from Blooming with Kindness...

So where's the Pop-Up bit I hear you ask... well here it is!!

Here's a close up of those gorgeous flowers - I expect you could do more with them... and the Video Tutorial is at the bottom of the page - just keep scrolling!

Enjoy - and please leave me a message to let me know how your creations turned out!

How lovely is it to move on from all those posts about Christmas Cards!

It's not just me!!!

Well - it's officially contagious!!!

I can now share the naked truth!!!

Even the kitten is addicted to Pinterest. I just had to share! Hope it makes you smile on this windy evening!




Now I'm off to do some sneaky reading as I'm part way through a Lee Child, Jack Reacher novel on my Kindle!

I did all the housework after work today - I have the washing to do tomorrow, the animals to clean out then I have until the 2nd of January all to myself! Loads of crafting to be done methinks!

Laters people xxx

Guess what?

Yeah - I found another Christmas Card I want to post.

But before I do... there is a lot of excitement surrounding Christmas, the chance to eat well, over indulge, spend time with family and friends. The whole kaboosh. But I would like you to all just take a second amongst the jollity and frivolity to think about those less fortunate than ourselves.

There are people who don't have a Merry Christmas, who have lost people close to them, have no family, have family they are not close to, experienced tragedy and even those who you think are having a great time - who struggle at this time of year with depression or other problems. It is not the great time of year for everyone - yet there is no escape and their noses are constantly being rubbed in it, making the whole experience even more distressing. Spare a thought for them... and if they aren't having a great time and don't want to join in, let them have the space they need to deal with Christmas in their own way. Don't make it harder for them than it has to be, sometimes they truly don't share your Christmas Cheer, they aren't being a Humbug - this time of year is genuinely really difficult, uncomfortable or painful.

And now back to that card I mentioned...

This is a complete CASE of a stunning card made by a fellow Pinkie - Suzette. You can visit her blog here.

She is a phenomenally creative lady and I love her work! You may remember the little jars with the Marshmallows... Yup they were her idea too.

Anyhow, here is the card -

How classy is that?

Here is a close up of that cute embellishment - these will be retiring when the seasonal catalogue finishes at the end of January - so grab them while you can!

I used the Lovely as a Tree and Wishing You stamp sets, Woodgrain embossing folder and the Simply Styled embellishments.

And I hope YOU have a Happy Christmas!

xxxxx

Last Christmas...

Well possibly the last of the Christmas cards I am going to post this year. Though I may post a couple more things before I finally tuck away my Christmas goodies until next year!

Just recently I have had a lot of people visiting my blog - so I would like to thank everyone who shares my posts or 'Pins' my creations... Thank you!

This first card was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest myself - it is such a fabulous source of inspiration.

I used the Ornament Keepsake Framelits to cut the aperture in the mat, then behind it I layered some of the silver foil sheet, embossed with the Delicate Designs embossing folder. The patterned paper is from the Winter Frost Speciality Designer Series Papers and the sentiment is from Greetings of the Season.

The snowflake from Festive Flurry was stamped in Versamark, I added Heat and Stick powder then Dazzling Diamonds before cutting it out on the Big Shot using my co-ordinating Framelit dies. Just gorgeous!

Here is another card made using the Festive Flurry set - this is a complete contrast as it is a simple layer stamped in Soft Sky then the sentiment from Sassy Salutations was added in Marina Mist. Lastly I added a couple of rhinestones.

Finally another Festive Flurry, This time I alternated layers of Silver Glimmer paper with the printed snowflakes. And I used the Northern Flurry embossing folder.

Back soon - in the meantime please keep sharing and Casing and I hope you find inspiration here.

Paula xxx

Undefined...

Well what on earth am I on about now?

Well it's not a random post title - it's a very special stamp set from Stampin' Up!.Very special because YOU get to carve the stamps!

We all got a little tester pack to carve at convention, but being the hoarder I am, I wanted to save it... and I'm glad I did! Whilst lying in bed last night... trying and failing to sleep, my mind went off on a tangent...

...and I decided I wanted to try and carve a Border Collie. Well I'm not the greatest illustrator. In fact I'm rubbish. Google to the rescue and here is the image I carved...

In fact there are two as I carved the holly leaf too!

How cool are they? Not the most amazing, but dead simple and unique! And check out the sneak peek of a new embossing folder coming soon... It's called Decorative Dots.

You'll notice the retired Paw print wheel on the card too - I'm glad I kept it. I couldn't bear to part with it! (the story of my life!)

Well it's 22:00 so past my bed time and the poxy kitten is crawling all over my keyboard!

Back soon! xxxx

Vellum LED Tealight Decoration - Video Tutorial

So I've seen lots of beautiful things made with Vellum, but I have very little patience and some of them seem very complicated.

I found something similar to these on Pinterest by various people so I decided to adapt them and make my own.

I spent hours last night crafting away and they are really rewarding.

Both the Santa (from Santa's List) and the Poinsettia (Joyful Christmas) are printed directly onto the vellum using MDS (My Digital Studio) which was fabulous as I was able to make them the exact size I wanted. Who would have thought you could print directly on Vellum - not something I ever considered doing previously! The nativity scene is from the 'Best of...' Christmas set as was the reindeer - who is embossed using black embossing powder.

I also added some Dazzling Diamonds... gotta' have sparkle at Christmas!

I'm not very good at colouring but the Vellum makes it so easy - and I couldn't live without my blender pens...

I will apologise that in places things are slightly out of shot. I have a trapped nerve in my neck and am really struggling - even worse now than earlier when I made the video - so there was no way I could re-shoot it - but I really wanted to share so you could all get creating before Christmas.

Have fun!

Award Winning Stampin'!

A huge 'Thank You' to the ladies at Dynamic Duos for voting my card as a runner up in this weeks challenge.

Thanks again ladies - at the moment my craft room is inhabited by a house guest... but I'll be back crafting later on when I've kicked the men in the house out of bed! They were out gigging with their band - King Loud until about 2:30 am so I'll give them a little while!

xxx

Double challenge entry! I'm Back!

Well you will have noticed I haven't been doing much creating as my business has been so busy since convention.

This week I was determined to get to grips with a couple of challenges and Dynamic Duos and Less is More Challenge blogs gave me a combination that I could work with.

Dynamic Duo's Here wanted you to use Midnight Muse and any other colour - I hope silver counts!

Less is More Here wanted some sparkle - well heck, we 'do' sparkle!

So here is my entry, combining the two challenges I used my Festive Flurry stamp set, coordinating Framelits, a sentiment from Greetings of the Season.

I used Versamark to stamp the images, added Heat and Stick powder, heated then sprinkled on Silver Glitter, then heated again to set it.

I couldn't resist adding some rhinestones for a bit of extra sparkle and hope the design teams love the simplicity of the overall effect.

I'll be back soon - in the meantime - keep safe out there in these dreadful weather conditions.

Pxxx

Make and Take...

At all our Stampin' Up! events we all get to Make and Take a project or more... and Convention was no different. In fact there were quite a few.

Here is the card we all got to make using Gorgeous Grunge and Hello Lovely stamp sets.

Don't you just love the fact we have decorated the envelope to match the card inside?

The Very Vintage designer buttons are so sweet, there is just a hint of sparkle with the Silver Glimmer Paper... and have you spotted the Washi Tape?

You and your guests could all make a gorgeous card like this if you have a Stampin' Up! Party! It doesn't cost you a penny!

If you would like to order for Christmas, the last day I will be placing orders for guaranteed delivery, via me, before Christmas is the 12th of December! So please get your orders in now! I can place orders for direct delivery to you any time... I just can't guarantee when they will arrive.

Don't despair if you wanted to get someone a Stampin' Up! gift though - I will be dispatching vouchers up until the 20th of December - but please remember, unless you collect, I cannot guarantee the services of Royal Mail will be reliable during this period.

I can't believe it is nearly the end of the year!

Paula xxx

...On the theme of Love!

Stampin' Up! Have released for sale today their range of Valentine products... but why only use them for Valentines day - just think how much love you could share with these products EVERY day!

You only have until the end of January - so why not add them to your order now?

Want to see more? Well here you go!

Don't you just love those little monsters? They are called Monster Hugs and they cuddle sweets or chocs - or anything you can fit in those arms!

The little red, heart covered bags are just the sweetest and the card blanks with matching envelopes are the perfect canvas for these stamp sets!

So if you want to see some prices - here you go!

Don't forget you only have until the 27th of January to order so why not add them to your Christmas list and ask friends and family for Stampin' Up! vouchers from me, or just give me your wish list so they can order direct? Contact me on 07786 860438 or via e-mail

A CASE of true love!

I have a lady who regularly comments on my Blog - and I am ashamed to say I often don't get a chance to comment back - even though I absolutely LOVE her work... even if she doesn't use SU product.

So although I haven't had a chance to craft since I got back from convention - here is one of her cards I CASED using SU products - I hope she likes it and I have done her original design justice.

Here it is!

So is it you??? - It's Chrissy from Chrissys4Cards - you can visit her blog here - Chrissys Blog

Its a lovely design I'm sure you'll agree!

The two stamps that I inked with Versamark and embossed with white embossing powder are from Papillon Pot Pourri and  Summer Silhouettes.

Here is a close up. Thanks for the inspiration Chrissy! xxxx

And now for something a little different. I run a Stampers 6 - this is where 6 people each commit to spending a minimum of £25 per month - which means each month there are £25 worth of FREEBIES!

Each of the Stamper 6 members takes turn to 'earn' the freebies and if, in the month they choose/are allocated, sales reach the higher level for hostess benefits - the hostess that month gets any extra too!

It is a fabulous way of budgeting and so I have decided to offer it to my blog readers and customers. So if you are interested please call me or e-mail me for more information.

I am adding a tab at the top of the page so you can get more info.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

Back Soon!

Paula xxx

Stampin' Up! European Convention Manchester - Sneak Peeks

Well guys, it's Thursday and I expect you have probably heard enough about Convention - but I am still buzzing and STILL haven't had a chance to play with MDS (My Digital Studio) - we had an awesome session on it at Convention and I am dying to have a play!

In addition I have some NEW products that I must get on and create some sneak peeks for you with.

Oh - and some of the freebies I forgot to show you were the Make and Takes - which I still have to create!

AND - "c'mere there's more!" (you may 'get' this depending on your generation) There was an awesome Christmas Card from one of the Dutch Pinkies that she demoed and I am determined to CASE.

Anyhow... here are a couple of sneak peeks... These stamps and the watercolour card blanks will be coming to a catalogue near you soon! LOVING that Poppy!

And there are a couple of new stamps used here - but they are very subtle... I am CASEing this too!

Blimey - just remembered I need to add the Hearts Collection Framelits to my next order!

Well that's it from me for today... tune in for more posts - though maybe it's time for a few of my own projects... D'ya reckon?

Laters!

Hugs,

Paula xxx

Stampin' Up! European Convention - Part 3

So here are the swaps I received at convention... Aren't they just stunning!

So many fabulous ideas and samples I can share in my business.

Love this cute little calendar!

If you can see your swap in here - please leave a comment to say 'Hi' - and feel free to include a link to your blog!

Back tomorrow with a couple of sneak peeks!

Paula xxx

Stampin' Up! Convention, Manchester, 2013 - Part 2

Part 2 of my manchester experience at convention is the most amazing swap - don't get me wrong - there were absolutely tons of gorgeous swaps I received, but this one tickled me and shows a great use of the Bigz Bows Die.

It was swapped by a young lady called Claire Dean - unfortunately I can't find a blog but Claire - it is stunning so if you (or anyone who know you) reads this... a big thank you!

So here are some piccies...

How cute is that? Just read the poem too!

Just adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back soon with some more photo's.... my zillions of swaps!

Stampin' Up! Convention Manchester 2013 - Part 1

Hi Folks,

As I expected I was far too exhausted and busy yesterday sorting out my haul from convention and getting the house back in order - I still haven't had time to play with my new Stampin' Up! Goodies!!!!

This was my first convention and exceeded all my expectations - imagine nearly 1000 excited people, loads of freebies, fantastic company, amazing and inspirational talks and demonstrations. Not to mention a whole raft of sneak peeks! You are going to love all the goodies coming up in the next few months - just scrummy!

AND whilst we were at convention Stampin' Up! released their 'Carve your own' stamp kit - Undefined - in the UK.

So just to share a few piccies - I have so many!

Me and my convention 'Roomie' Lizy - fellow Pinkie and a fabulous companion! You can check out her Blog here. 

The CEO of Stampin' Up! Shelli Gardner was seriously injured in an accident recently , so her equally amazing daughter Sara Douglass took the helm for convention - she was amazing and did her Mum Proud!

The head of the Pinkies team, Michelle Last, not only did a business talk for everyone, she also won all the available accolades at awards night, making her the top performing demo in Europe! Respect! And a lovely lady to boot - I am so lucky to be part of her team! There were 85 Pinkies at convention. Here are just a few!

We were the largest team and the noisiest crowd - and the Pinkies are a fabulous, warm, welcoming and supportive group!

I spent most of convention with the 2 lovely ladies with me here, Lizy and Caroline (her blog is here) 

Last of all, here is my haul of freebies from Stampin' Up! I can't show you some as they are new products - but as you can see we were spoiled rotten!

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my favourite swap that I received. I would do a double post today... but don't want to spoil you!

Paula (Still on cloud 9 and brimming with inspiration) xxx