Stampin' Up! Meets the day job!

Hiya!!! I'm back after an amazing weekend camped alongside the Thames in the caravan with my niece and the dog!

It's an odd post today because rather than focusing on SU i'm kind of focusing on me - which I'm not great at!

So you already know I earned a promotion and one of the reasons, is that I was selected along with 130 other Civil Servants from 1500 applicants, to join a development program, so I'm pretty chuffed on both accounts!

I managed to incorporate a little crafting as we were asked to create an inspiration board...

So I used my Project Life pocket pages, cardstock, ink, stamps, embossing powder... I am so pleased with it!

And this weekend Blaze won the obedience and dog the judge would most like to take home!

You know what? With the new catalogue coming soon too - Life is pretty fabulous right now!

xxx

Stampin' Up! Project Life - Mini Journal

One of my downline came to craft with me at the weekend and wanted to make something she had seen on Becky Higgins' blog... it was designed by Constanze Wirtz - I fell in love and had to give it a try too!

Long story short - I decided to make a video tutorial - it's slightly longer than usual but does have measurements in Metric and Imperial. I also include instructions for the gift box! This was the original based on Constanze's one.

And this is the other one I made for the tutorial!

 

How fabulous it that? I had amazing fun making it and am going to do a class if anyone is interested. It takes a while to make so it will be a Saturday or Sunday afternoon - Just message me if you are interested!

Here is the video - I hope you enjoy it!

Celebrating in style!

I have just come back from a 5 day break in the most amazing property, Wortham Manor, owned by the Landmark Trust. www.landmarktrust.org.uk

It's a stunning building and there were 14 of us celebrating my friends 50th birthday. Complete with a resident ghost - though I didn't see it! The manor is in Devon, not far from Okehampton just a few miles from Launceston (Cornwall).

I have so many photo's in my 'to Project Life' folder - I must get on with some!

I combined the old and the new for my friends 50th birthday card and obviously couldn't post it until I got home!

There were 3 hand made cards as three of us make them and I have to say the others were stunning! I just wish I had taken photo's!

I coated the butterfly with Dazzling Details again!

The flowers and leaves were all fussy cut, I will miss this stamp set!

I have a class tomorrow night so I will be back soon - don't forget you can book classes for dates to suit you as I am flexible, or you can attend the monthly class in Thame on the 2nd Monday of each month.

Happy Wanderer

Well tomorrow I have promised I will get the caravan out for her first outing... If I don't bite the bullet I'll just keep procrastinating. So I've loaded her up and am heading off after lunch.

I'm not going far and leaving hubby home to look after the cats... I'm going to do some walks on The Ridgeway... more Project Life!

I thought I should post though so you don't miss me too much...

It's just a little card I made with the Lotus Blossom set, Free during Saleabration... you only have until next Tuesday to take advantage of the great offers so don't miss out!

Gorgeous isn't it?

I think it was probably the fastest one off the shelf this year during Saleabration.

These diddy little flowers are so sweet!

I'm off to bed now - so see you again soon and have a fabulous weekend, you can still shop whilst I'm away - just use the Shop Now button at the top right of the page. xxx

Nearly Here!

I'm so excited that it's nearly Christmas! Where has the year gone? The great news is that for the first time I have truly preserved some memories using the Project Life products... rather than just downloading all the pictures to the PC never to be seen again!

I've been finishing up some little bits and pieces... including all the wrapping! Goodness it gives me backache!

I made a little keepsake box for each and every lady I work with - 20 in total. I LOVE the Curvy Keepsake Die!

I'm afraid the pics aren't great as I was in a bit of a rush! I cut out the Curvy Keepsake boxes and I stamped the Very Vanilla card stock in gold with the I Love Lace background stamp.

I cut out the corresponding tags and heat embossed them in gold too with the Bright & Beautiful small star.

I popped a little scented tealight in each one, decorated with gold Washi Tape and then closed them up and tied on the tags with a little Gold Bakers Twine.

I think they're really cute and hope everyone will like them. The men are each getting one of the Traveler desk calendars I posted a short while back.

I am placing a final order on the 16th of December which may arrive for Christmas! So if there's anything you would like to add - please send it to me tomorrow.

Love Paula xxx

Convention 2014

Well here is my convention update!

It really was an amazing few days in Brussels!

Here are my room mate Lizy and I with the amazing Michelle Last - founder of the Pinkies and our esteemed leader!

I was totally in awe of this lady - the co-founder and CEO of Stampin' Up! Shelli Gardner

Here I am on the steps of the Mont Des Arts where the convention centre was - what an amazing view over the city!

These are some of the swaps I received from my fellow demonstrators - they are all so talented. Can you see yours?

Here are just SOME of the gifts Stampin' Up! gave us - we all got a set of Project Life cards and the Four Feathers stamps and Framelits too.

Had such an amazing time with an amazing group of people and cannot wait until next year!

If you would like to join just get in touch and be part of this amazing company and experience the excitement and fun!

What a load of Scrap!

You all know me well enough by now to know I'm not a natural when it comes to scrapbooking!

So I decided to give the new Stampin' Up! Project Life products a test drive and am pleased to say I'm loving every minute! Which is one of the reasons I've been a bit lapse posting!

Project Life has given me to confidence to have a go at 'proper' scrapbooking too - I like to have a header page before each section of my album - so I thought I would share a couple with you.

This is actually a double sided single page that will be the front of the section containing my journal from our recent holiday in Wales.

It's not perfect - and it's probably not that impressive but I so love it as it is the perfect introduction to our holiday!

This is the first side.

I heat embossed with Iridescent Ice and the map was printed from t'Interweb. I cut out the photo of my car and van and thought it would be fun for them to be following our route.

The reverse side is dedicated to the area we stayed in... the camp site is Aberafon - it is amazing and in a fabulous location! I would heartily recommend it... and the general area.

As you can see the Framelits got a good outing.

This map was also from the web, I was camped for the first two days here. because I decided to travel a couple of days early and they squeezed me in. I marked the main places we visited on the map, then found icons on the web that reflected the activities we did there. I am so excited about getting the 200 photo's in the photo pockets with some notes.

It is such a shame these days, you take loads of photo's but never get them printed any more, they just sit on the computer gathering binary code... It is so lovely reliving the activities we have done so far this year through Project Life and having something 'tangible' to show for it.

So long Secret Garden

Thank you to everyone who got in touch to ask about my holiday - we had a wonderful time - the temperatures went over 40 Celsius on a few days so I kept out of the sun with my fair skin!

I took over 600 photos and have managed to whittle it down to about 75 (whilst I was washing the holiday clothes!) for the PL album I am going to do...

Here are a few of the pictures...

The main church in Skala

Fishing boat going out at sunrise

Me sitting on a wall in Metochi


OK folks - this is it! You have about 18 hours to order this amazing stamp set, Secret Garden with matching framelits before it is gone for good!

I must admit I'm gutted to see it go - and whilst I've been falling in love with the Blendabilities - this is what I achieved with the Blender Pens.

Nowhere near as good as the Blendabilities but still stunning - here is the whole card...

Tomorrow I'm planning on showing you what I was practicing on the flights with Blended Bloom and my Blendabilities... as well as shooting a video tutorial so don't forget to check back!

Place an order from the new catalogue by 8pm on the 1st July and collect from me for FREE P&P!

Secret Garden

£22.95

Secret Garden Clear-Mount Stamp Set

£17.95

Secret Garden Framelits Dies

£20.95

Blender Pens

£8.95

Table by StampinBuddy. Try it FREE.

Project Life...

I'm not a scrapbooker... you may have noticed. I fancied it but had no clue where to start and am always daunted by the prospect of designing a whole 12x12 page!

Stampin' Up! obviously knew this and as I mentioned previously, they have teamed up with the amazing Becky Higgins, to bring us an exclusive selection of Project Life products.

I ordered everything I could on Pre-Order, and it's now available to you. Just check out my on-line store.

I have had the most amazing fun because I can break down my 12x12 page into sections using the Photo Pockets. So I don't have to make a huge page in one go.

I also bought the framelits, journalling pens, accessory pack, corner rounder and of course the Project Life card pack.

These are my creations. (never has my mobile phone camera had so much use!)

The card stock here was cut with the framelits and I rounded the corners with my punch.

I used my Label Bracket punch to make the labels.

The pre-printed cards are fabulous... and I may have rubbish handwriting but I don't mind as my notes are personal to me. I used the Scallop Border punch and the flower from the new Itty Bitty Accents set on the picture above.

How cool are these pages? Honestly I had a ball - it was so easy and I have totally changed my mind about scrapbooking - I can't wait to get the album... I am going to take some serious pictures on holiday next week.

I've not really exploited my Washi Tape - But I think this looks so effective. I may be officially converted!

More labels - this time using the Curly Label punch.

Again, as you can see here the pre-printed cards are fabulous and I even just cut backgrounds from my DSP. I'm sure you are bored with my pictures - But I simply can't express how much fun I had creating these!

Back soon with another new product!

Open House...

Well we had a brilliant time at the Open House today, I think because there was no pressure to finish the projects in a given time everyone had a chance to chat and stroke their new catalogues and the new products.

I bought Macaroons and fresh fruit... we never did make it to the cake... though apparently I make nice coffee.

As it was a smaller group than I expected I gave each of the ladies a photopolymer stamp set to try out with a pack of ribbon with matching buttons. I think they were a bit surprised but hopefully in a nice way.

We used the new Something for Baby set - which will be available from the 1st of July, we also used the coordinating framelits as well as the Hearts Collection framelits and Decorative Dots embossing folder.

Here are a few of our creations.

The sentiment is from a new set too... Something to Say. Hope you like them!

Back tomorrow with some Project Life!

Project Life from Stampin' Up!

YES! You read that title correctly.

If you are a Scrapbooker you may have already heard about or used Project Life products... and if you haven't and have always fancied giving Scrapbooking a try but not known where to start... Stampin' Up! have collaborated with Becky Higgins and the Project Life team to bring you a whole suite of products just for you!

Check out the video and I will bring you more news as I hear it!