Back To Basics - Background Stamps

Another Back To Basics video for you today with tips on Inking up your background stamps and an easy way to stamp exactly where you want to using a Brayer.
Firstly let me share a little card I made using the Hardwood stamp and the little mouse from Friends of the Forest. The sentiment is from Just Sayin' and cut with the Word Bubbles framelits.

Hey - I'm on a roll - this would also be suitable for kids!

Here are the products I used today: where there are 2 options for the stamp sets, the first is wood mount and the second is clear.

Life In The Forest

£18.95

Life In The Forest

£14.95

Hardwood

£15.95

Hardwood

£12.95

Just Sayin'

£23.95

Just Sayin'

£18.95

Word Bubbles Framelits Dies

£20.95

Just Sayin' Wood-Mount Bundle

£37.95

Just Sayin' Clear-Mount Bundle

£33.95

Brayer And Rubber Attachment

£10.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Simply Sketched

Well folks - it's Friday and I'm hitting the M25 Car Park!

Hubby is going to be home alone with his drum kit so get out the ear plugs!

Today I'm sharing 3 beautiful cards made with the soon to be retired hostess set - Simply Sketched

This set is available ONLY if you order at least £150 worth of products as it is only available with hostess benefits/stampin rewards.


I used the Woodgrain embossing folder and Ovals collection framelits on all the cards, I swapped the embossing folder on the last card... I quite like it that way round. All the ovals and sentiments were sponged with a Sponge Dauber using the corresponding ink and the images were coloured with Blender Pens.

The paper piercing was done using the Occasions Paper Piercing templates and piercing tool. 

Here are the product details if you are interested in buying them. Just click on the links.

Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

£7.50

Ovals Collection Framelits Dies

£22.95

Big Shot Die-Cut Machine

£87.95

Occasions Paper-Piercing Pack

£7.25

Paper-Piercing Tool

£3.50

Stampin' Pierce Mat

£4.50

Blender Pens

£8.95

Sponge Daubers

£9.95

Simply Sketched Wood

£13.00

Simply Sketched Clear

£10.00

Back To Basics

Today is the first of my Back To Basics posts.

As a new crafter I was completely bemused by everything and it would have been so much easier to have some simple instructions to get me started.

So I have created a few short videos, these may even be of use for you to send to potential customers or friends who need some simple instructions to help them master the basics and gain confidence.

So - to start with Stamping itself. The very root of our hobby...

Here are a couple of cards I made using the stamp set from the video - Zoo Babies

I'm really excited about the new catalogue as I hope there will be some new sentiments to compliment this set!

I find making cards for children probably harder than for men! Can you believe that?

Did you spot there are a couple of this years Sale-a-bration stamp sets here? Some very lucky recruits will receive one of these sets in their welcome pack if they join my team with yesterdays offer!

The alignment of these images will also be covered on a later Back to Basics video.

Zoo Babies Wood

£24.95

Zoo Babies Clear

£19.95

Special Gifts

For the next month, new recruits that join Stampin’ Up! can do so at the traditional Starter Kit priced at £99 with £130 product value, or for a limited time, a reduced priced Starter Kit at the low price of £50 with £55 product value.

What a fabulous deal! AND if you join from Friday you also get to select Pre-Order products from the new catalogue as part of your starter kit!

It doesn't end there... Stampin' Up! are also giving new recruits during the promotion period 2 months of DBWS FREE - that's your very own Stampin' Up! website and shop.

But there's more... really? Yup! As well as all this I also have a recruit pack for you... each one is tailored to each recruit and includes one of these gorgeous hand covered notebooks.

Aren't they gorgeous? I used the Swallowtail Stamp and Watercolour wonder DSP.

I would love you to join my team, so get in touch NOW and secure your goodies before the offer ends on the 30th of June.

Magic Card

I have spent the evening merrily editing a whole series of videos! They will be coming soon, but today I'm just sharing a quicky - this is the 'Magic Card' I made having seen a few yesterday.

How cute is that? I was so excited I took it to work to show my colleagues.

I'm thinking this would be a great thing for one of the projects in my next class.... what do you think?

The stamp sets are, Life in the Forest, Sassy Salutations and Just Sayin'.

Back with some videos and some more gorgeous projects soon (maybe even tomorrow!)

P xxx

Customer Gifts

Well I showed you the cards we made at class on Friday and I have delighted you with a short video tutorial and today, rather later than usual I wanted to show you the goodies that were awaiting my class attendees on Friday!

I have spent the afternoon recording videos so I just need to edit them and I'll be posting those soon. The series is a Back To Basics look at stamping... so watch this space.

Anyway as well as cherries and grapes we had fresh filter coffee and cake, as always!

Here is the breakfast bar all set up... can you see the gifts yet?

No more teasing - here they are, beautifully decorated notebooks using In-Colour DSP in Crisp Canteloupe, then I decorated labels made with the Scallop Tag Topper Punch and mounted them on a doily after I stamped them with a design from Happy Watercolour and water coloured them with an Aqua Painter.

That cute butterfly is from the Beautiful Wings embosslit.

Well I'm off to make up the rabbit hutch so I can put her to bed and I'll get editing those videos... I have about ten to upload!

Night for now!

P xxx

Quick Tip!

We had a great class yesterday and it was brilliant to be joined by such lovely ladies! I will be posting details of more classes soon, but I thought I would share this super quick, video tip, for tying the perfect bow!

How cool is that?

Back with more videos soon as I have LOADS of ideas.

P xxx

Papillon Potpourri Class

Well guys... this evening is my Papillon Potpourri card making class and I thought I would share the cards we are going to make tonight.

So we have plenty of time I have pre-cut and scored the card stock so we just have to stamp and stick... well a bit more but it should be great fun!

Hopefully we'll have time to make five cards and my criteria for a great class are:

• Beautiful, effective projects

• Great company and a warm welcome

• Relaxed environment

• Tasty treats.

Hopefully I manage all three, so here are the cards we are making this week... and we are going to do some masking and sponging...

This final card was inspired by a fellow Pinkie and I must give credit to the lovely 

Aida Dominguez Vd Veeken 

Here is a close up of the butterfly

I don't know if you noticed there has been a definite 'trend' with my colour schemes this week! I LOVE these colours!

Have a lovely weekend and I'll be back with something completely different tomorrow!

Pxxx

Home Decor

I saw the most fabulous piece of home decor on Lizy's blog here

I'm a great admirer of her work but am always a little reluctant to CASE in case people get upset. (You can CASE my work any time as long as you give me credit please. Thank you.) In this case however I could not resist, particularly as I had bought this gorgeous Box Frame in Sainsburys in Ipswich 2 years ago! In fact I bought a whole basket of them in 2 sizes and 3 different colours as I loved them SO much. (You may have seen one of the smaller frames at Telford if you were there.)

This one just happens to coordinate with Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay, the colour scheme in my craft room! So it had to be done!

It is the gorgeous Swallowtail butterfly stamp, heat embossed using Pool Party embossing powder, I then coloured it using Bermuda Bay and Coastal Cabana and a Sponge Dauber.

The En Francais Stamp is a firm favourite and I think it looks lovely as a backdrop for the butterfly. It was a little fiddly 'fussy cutting' the antennae, but worth it! I also sponged around the outside of the butterfly in Bermuda Bay.

The En Francais mat was sponged with Coastal Cabana.

I used a sentiment from Blooming with Kindness in the bottom corner and a few Rhinestones... they are so sparkly you can see the colour of the frame reflected in them - stunning!

You can buy all the products for the project from my On-Line shop (Link at the top right).

Back soon!

xxx

Coram - Cards for Keeps

Stampin' Up! is an amazing company to be affiliated with - they do so much for charity including the Ronald Macdonald House charity and Coram.

You may not have heard of Coram - I certainly hadn't and just before the training at the weekend an Ebay auction for some cards, created by celebrities, was held by Stampin' Up! Each member of the regional design team and all demonstrators were invited to submit a card for the auction, the winner, selected by the CEO Shelly Gardner, was included in the auction...

They raised well over £8000 with the auction. You can read about the charity here.

Coram is the UK’s first children’s charity which today helps a million children and young people every year. It helps children and young people develop their skills and emotional health, find adoptive parents and uphold children’s rights.

This is the card I made, unfortunately it didn't make it into the auction - but the charity would love your donations I know - they make such a difference to young peoples lives!

I used Flowering Flourishes, Petite Petals and Papillon Potpourri.

I hope you like it! I am back tomorrow with something totally stunning!

xxx

NEWSFLASH

For a limited period only - you can join Stampin' Up! for just £50 and choose £55 worth of product! That's almost half the usual cost to join.

You would be eligible to join the rest of us at convention in Brussels... get 30% off your first order if it was over £150 and 20% on all other orders!

You could also join for the usual £99 and get £130 worth of product - it's your choice!

Want to know the benefits and more information? Email or call me using the 'Contact' page.

You could earn extra money for yourself or just benefit from the discounts - you have the freedom to do as you choose and will have my full support.

I also have some special gifts waiting for my new team members.

Look forward to hearing from you!

xxxx

Super Swaps!

Two lovely ladies (in addition to Lizy) took pity on my at Telford as I had no swaps.

Both of them gave me a swap... and they were really beautiful.

Fellow Pinkie Deanna gave me this gorgeous swap made with the Envelope Punch Board... inside is a lovely hand stamped tealight candle - but I don't want to open it as it's too beautiful.

The other came from a lady called Rosie who saw me helping out on the day putting all the swaps up on the display boards and gave me one of hers.

I must admit it came in handy as I'm partial to the odd bite of chocolate (or 3) isn't it a lovely idea? Would make fabby wedding favours!

Well that's it from me for today... tomorrow I'm going to show you a lovely card that I made for a fund raising effort from Stampin' Up!.