Stampin' Up! Musical Youth!

The sun is shining here again today and I spent a lovely day crafting yesterday.

One of the cards I made recently was a birthday card for our extremely talented musical niece. It was hard to know what to make but once I got an idea in my head I was away! Please excuse a few retired and non SU elements but I loved this so much I just had to share!

Isn't it lovely? The purple is Perfect Plum and I used a sponge dauber to colour the flowers and a Sharpie for the pearls in the centres.

I used Dazzling Diamonds embossing powder for the little musical notes and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Card for the numbers.

She absolutely adored it and I was so pleased. It's nice when you go to a lot of effort and people appreciate it. That's why I love making cards!

June's classes are booking up fast so get in touch if you would like to book and don't forget you can order on-line 24/7!

Hope you're having a fab weekend! I'm just off now to collect the caravan from the service engineer as I'm planning a weekend away with another of my nieces and one of the dogs... should be fun!

xxx

Stampin' Up! Wedding Celebrations

Well - I'm not going to be about for the next week so I thought I would share a card I made for my cousin.

It's amazing that I can still remember changing his nappies and him running up the garden with no clothes on as a toddler in the summer!

It's hard to believe he's 30 years on and embarking on a new part of his life with his lovely new wife!

This is the card I made for them to celebrate their wedding.

I stamped the flowers from Birthday Blossoms on Vellum with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

The butterflies are cut from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.

This time tomorrow I'll be in a Greek bar, Katie will be staying here looking after the cats who will no doubt, as usual, treat her with contempt for as long as it takes to realise she holds the tin opener!

I'll schedule another post for in the week... Something for him!

All White Again

Some time ago I designed and blogged a couple of cards that were 'all white'. The new studio has given me loads of inspiration and so I have 3 cards on the same theme.

I'm just posting one tonight - but it is one I absolutely adore, I have a few weddings going on at the moment so this is for one.

It's predominantly white on white with accents of Sahara Sand and some Dazzling Diamonds glitter, I used the Deco Labels framelits and sentiment from the Tin of Cards stamp set.

Butterfly from Bold Butterfly framelits,

The leaves were from the Bird Builder punch, flowers punched using the Fun Flower, Pansy and Petite Petals punches. The stamp sets were Beautiful Bunch, Flower Shop and Petite Petals.

 I'll not be around tomorrow as I have a class - though I might get to share this on Facebook!

Have a great Friday... and weekend!

Thank You Gift

My poor dog was injured earlier in the year and has been having Hydrotherapy from the most lovely compassionate, gentle lady. So I wanted to say Thank You.

I made her a little gift and matching card.

It is a little box (that I made) containing some scented Tealights, I used Chalk Talk for the label and the Itty Bitty Accents flower punch. The leaves were from the Bird Punch. I love the Organza ribbon too - it's such a useful size!

The card was made using the Swallowtail butterfly, sentiment from Sassy Salutations, Apothecary Accents dies and flowers punched from Something to Say, Petite Petals and Flower Shop using the coordinating punches.

As well as a couple of Rhinestones I also added Dazzling Diamonds to one of the flowers... I do love that stuff!

Well tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn I am heading to the airport for this years Stampin' Up! Convention in Brussels. There will be 700 of us all mingling, swapping, crafting and seeing new products and techniques. It's so exciting!

Tomorrow here I'll be sharing the Pillow Gift I have made for my room mate, this is a Stampin' Up! tradition, Friday I'll be sharing my swaps that are just for other members of the Pinkies (Over 70 of us will be there!) and on Saturday I'll be sharing the 'General' swaps I made.

The idea of swapping is to give and receive small items made with current products that you can use as inspiration or to share as samples with your customers. I'm sure I'll be sharing some of those next week! xxx

Didn't make the cut...

Thought I would share these cards that didn't make the cut for Monday's class.

I'm not sure what it was about this one - can you think of any possible improvements? Was stamping the house on Cajun Craze the wrong thing to do? Just can't put my finger on it!

I did LOVE this bit though... and can you see the sparkle added by spraying with Vanilla Shimmer?

This one was lovely - but by the time I had settled on 3 of the cards for class I sort of had a colour scheme going on so this was discarded.

I'm a little gutted I went over the lines a bit on the roof with my Blendabilities. Sweet though isn't it?

Another class to go on Monday... I really should think about what to do for the next class! Mmmm, ideas on a postcard please!

xxx

Gift Tags

Whilst I was coming up with designs for my class I created these cuties!

Holiday Home stamp set, Dazzling Diamonds, 1/8" Silver Ribbon, Word Window, Angled Tag Topper and Confetti Stars punches.

It's supposed to be cooling down now... I really hate Winter! But it's like June outside, just a shame the days are so short now!!

September/October Classes

I have 2 class dates coming up, the 29th September and 6th October at 7 for 7:30pm in Princes Risborough.

I have a space on each one if you are interested! We would love to have you along - we are a small, intimate group and have a lovely evening together.

These are the cards we'll be making using the Holiday Home set of stamps and matching framelits.

The first is actually the last one I decided upon and is CASE'd from the catalogue - the Stampin' Up! catalogues are such a fabulous source of inspiration!

I made a few tweaks - but I think it's gorgeous!

The next also uses the Northern Flurry embossing folder. It's hard to see the Dazzling Diamonds here - maybe the next image will help!

There we are - a little sparkle!

The next card also uses the Northern Flurry folder. (And more Dazzling Diamonds!)

I had fun with the house stamping on different coloured card stocks, cutting and layering them for a 3D effect.

Lastly I seem to be getting a 'new wind' using the Flip Card - Circle Card Thinlit - I thought this was so cute!

I used a clever technique to get the glitter on the gold lights - I'll be making a video and posting it soon! Do you like the little shower of stars? They are thanks to the Confetti Stars Punch.

That's it from me for today... check out the supplies list below!

Hope to see you in class! xxx

Holiday Home Photopolymer Bundle

£28.75

Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set

£13.95

Silver 1/8" Ribbon

£4.50

2-Way Glue Pen

£3.95

Stampin' Dimensionals

£3.25

Northern Flurry Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Die

£7.50

Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter

£4.50

Heat & Stick Powder

£3.75

Versamark Pad

£6.75

Circle card Thinlits Die

£29.95

Confetti Stars Punch

£19.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Double Challenge Entry

I can't believe it's been 4 days since my last post! Where on earth has the time gone?

On reflection I have been super busy, I bought a caravan so have had a towing lesson as I've not towed for years and wanted some practice. Went to pick up the caravan, sorted dog cages and a tow bar for my car, a close friend has had a baby so I drove over and visited her, I've been sorting out everything I will need for my Wreath Class and ordering all the materials, then last night we went and had dinner with hubby's business partner and his wife.

Today I am stopping for breath!

Somewhere in there I managed to make a card for two challenges this week. CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge, it was a colour challenge this week. and the Freshly Made Sketches sketch for this week.

Sometimes it's really hard to think of something for these challenges but I really needed some 'structure' to get my creative juices going, as you can imagine with everything going on my creative mojo took a hike!

I used the Zoo Babies stamp set, Bring on the Cake birthday sentiment set, the Scallop Dotted Ribbon border punch and the Label Bracket punch.

I used Iridescent Ice embossing powder in the word Birthday and Dazzling Diamonds on the strip of ribbon. Want to know how I got that straight line? I used a thin strip of double sided tape and then sprinkled on the Dazzling Diamonds. Neat trick isn't it?

So I have quite a few bits to share over the next few days. Particularly as things have hopefully settled down for a while.

Paula xxx

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

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!

Sweet Goodbye

Hi folks - I'm back from the sunny continent. We visited a number of 1st and 2nd World War, sites of interest in Belgium and Holland. Luckily we were accompanied by some really knowledgeable people and it was an absolutely awesome experience, but humbling and at times emotional. I shall share some pictures once I have been through all 250 of them!

Last week I said goodbye to a lovely friend and customer who has moved abroad.

I will miss her so much - she is a very special person - and I hope to stay in touch.

I thought I would share the card I made for her. I was so pleased with it and I think she loved it too - though she refused to read her cards at her leaving do, for fear of shedding more tears than absolutely necessary!

Firstly I stamped a blank card with one of the Flower Shop images, then I rounded the corners with a Circle Punch. 

Next I cut a Top Note out of some of the Venetian Romance DSP using my Big Shot. I stamped the flower from Blooming with Kindness and over stamped it with the sentiment. Finally tying some Organza Ribbon round it before adhering it to the card.

I cut the leaves from my Little Leaves Sizzlits, again using the Big Shot.

Finally the flowers were stamped on Vellum, punched out using the co-ordinating Pansy Punch, curled slightly with my Bone Folder and then I added a little Dazzling Diamonds and a Pearl in each centre.

I also decorated the envelope, just with a couple of the stamped flowers.

I can feel another tutorial coming on!

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend - it has been hoofing it down with rain for the last couple of hours... Hopefully the grass will grow a little for the rabbit and guinea pig!

Back soon!

Pxx

Celebrate!

I hope you enjoyed my post yesterday - just something a little different!

Today, as promised, I am sharing another card. Oh, and I'm here a little earlier as I have taken a couple of days off, to enjoy the sun AND because my order from the new catalogue arrives today so I have deliveries to make and goodies to play with.

The card I am sharing is one I made for one of my downline, she's had a tough time lately but never moans about it, well she and her lovely husband celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary on Sunday so I made this little card for them.

I used the new Crisp Canteloupe and Pistachio Pudding as the colour themes, using the Crisp Canteloupe re-inkers to colour the Simply Pressed Clay. There was a little Dazzling Diamonds left in the mould from an earlier project that added a gorgeous dash of sparkle and glitz to the flowers.

The flourishes are from Flowering Flourishes and the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Sentiments. Finally I added a few pearls.

I hope you like it. Join me tomorrow for another post - possibly a challenge entry... you'll have to see!

Pxxx

Monday... Eugh

Well we were supposed to have torrential downpours yesterday and they didn't materialise so hopefully the weather is improving!

Hubby disappeared off to an open mike session at The Swan in Thame and left me to my own devices so I made a couple more cards for a couple more challenges!

This one is a MEGA simple one and once again I got to use my Simply Pressed Clay, some of the retiring Designer Series Papers and a different sentiment from Bring on the Cake. Please note there isn't a hint of Mosaic anything!

The two purple buttons were coloured by adding re-inker and then I put Dazzling Diamonds in the moulds... the pink one at the bottom I embossed with Melon Mambo embossing powder.

It is an entry in the Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge and you can visit the blog and look at the other entries Here

Here is my card - I forgot to say I coloured in the letters with my Stampin' Write Markers!

Hope you like it - It's a bright, fresh and fun card... ideal for a youngster!

Back tomorrow!

Pxx

Sneak Peek Week - Day 4!

Yup - Back again, I do keep my promises most of the time.

Today's little offering is a bit of fun and shows just how versatile that Simply Pressed Clay is - Check out my little pink pig! See how he sparkles? It's hard to get it on camera but I mixed Dazzling Diamonds in too when I coloured the clay.

I tried to 'varnish' him with some clear nail polish - just to see if it worked - as you can see it was no-where near as effective as the Crystal Effects. So I know what I'll be using in future! By the way - I think I forgot to mention - the clay AIR dries so no baking!

The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned - This pattern DSP is also retiring as there will be all new designs on the DSP this year! Oh - sorry - DSP = Designer Series Paper.

Back again tomorrow with yet another creation! Hope to see you - and please do leave comments - I love to hear from you!

Pxxx

Stampin' Up! Christmas Cards

I cannot believe I have been so lapse in posting. I must admit I had such a heavy schedule last week!

Wednesday we went out for a meal for hubbies birthday, Thursday I went to Wycombe for a comedy club night out, Friday we went to a friends wedding and Saturday we had friends over from Ireland to stay and went out for a meal!

I have hardly had time to craft! I did feel a bit of a fraud at work as it is so quiet - I'm not one for doing nothing so I have booked tomorrow afternoon off! Today I received my last order of the year from Stampin' Up! Some of the goodies have been confiscated by hubby and my Mum as they are going to be wrapped up for Christmas!

I will be able to show you a few sneak peeks of things you will be able to get in January... so remember to pop back soon!

These will probably be the last Christmas cards I will post this year. I must admit I never thought I would get so into Seasonal Crafting and had avoided going mad on the Christmas Stamp sets but I have really enjoyed making cards.

The card below shows that you don't have to invest in things just for Christmas, the Elegant Bouquet Embossing folder works really well with the Punched Ornament stamped using the Delightful Decorations set.

 

 

The second card was a complete fluke... I had one of those moments when I thought "What can I do with...?"

I punched out two large ovals and scored them with my Simply Scored, added 3 blobs of glue with my hot glue gun, that I sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter whilst they were still wet, and BINGO! You have Mistletoe.

The glittery edges of the card and the Die Cut Labels Collection Framelit were done by just putting sticky strip carefully around the edge then removing the backing and dusting with Dazzling Diamonds.

I hope you like my little offerings from today. Hopefully I will have some more things to share with you before the week is out!

If you wish to place an order, join as a demonstrator or have a party, do get in touch!

Paula xx