Stampin Up Experience Days

Here are the dates for 2012 Experience days that Lisa & myself have organised.

Now Booking

Sunday 29th April - £25 for a whole day of cardmaking or scrapbooking or a mix of both - the Choice is yours.



Future Dates:

Sunday24th June,

Saturday 6th October

Saturday1st December ~ Christmas gift event

And don't forget for every event you attend you will receive a FREE raffle ticket which could win you a BIG SHOT BUNDLE.
(Draw to take place during December's Event)

All DAYS HAVE VERY LIMITED PLACES SO BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.

Please note due to problems in the past we now need payment on booking & as before there will be no refunds without 48hrs notice.

Thursday 4 November 2010

Recent All day Event

Last Sunday saw my 3rd all day Stampin Up event which I run in conjunction with 2 other demos – Lisa & Michelle. Once again the event was great fun.

Here we are before the event started. I meant to have got a picture at the end of the day as I can assure you we did not look this fresh.

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Here is a closer look at our display.

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And these are some of the projects we did during the day.

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Lastly these are just some of the lovely ladies who attended all showing off their bags they made. I’m so jealous of them as they are much better than my effort.

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If you like what you see & want to book a provisional place at our next event in February then get in touch with me.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Ornament Punch

I’ve been playing with the new ornament punch & to get some more ideas I searched the internet & here are some of my favourites:

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I did not note where the original ideas came from so if one of these are your designs than thank you for the inspiration.

Thursday 14 October 2010

Kelling Cards

Sorry for taking so long to post these. I just got to grips of Windows live & then I made the mistake of accepting a recent update & then could not fathom out to blog using it arghhhhhhh.

Here are the cards as promised.

Card 1

On this card we stamped using the Fine Flourish (115709) & versamark ink before embossing with white embossing powder (100963). We then overstamped again using a butterfly from Flight of the Butterfly (111564) & embossed it carefully again with white embossing powder. You do need to be careful not to burn your previous embossing.
It was then coloured from the underneath before finally being cut out.

On the border strip you will notice 3 pearls which are from our new basic pearls. I'm sooooo excited about them, they come ready glued & you get 150 in a pack. Previously they were only available in the Pretties Kit & those of you who know me well, will know I loved the pearls so much that I resorted to sawing the pearl beads in the kit up so that I did not run out of my beloved pearls. So I'm now 1 very happy bunny :-)


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Here is a close up of the butterfly
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RECIPE
Card:
Melon Mambo, Very Vanilla, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Versamark, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise,Crumb Cake
Stamps: Baroque Motifs (113490), Flight of the Butterfly (111564)En Francais (109521)
Punches: Butterfly(119848), Eyelet border (119853)
Misc: Basic Pearls (119247)

We then made 2 quick Christmas cards using the new Ornament punch & stamp set

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Recipe
Stamps: Delightful Decorations (116517) Contempo Christmas (118734), Serene Snowflakes(115438)
Punch: Ornament (119847), Scallop Edge (119882)
Card & Ink: Real Red, Bashful Blue

Saturday 9 October 2010

Kelling group

Well today I had the pleasure of teaching at a lovely craft group that meets at High Kelling in Norfolk.

I showed them 3 different cards using vellum card stock. We also used the new Ornament punch & the Delightful Decorations stamp set. Unfortunately I forgot to take some piccies of the cards we made before I lent them to one of my upliner for her open house tomorrow :(
So when I get them back on Monday I will upload them to this post then.

I know that some of the ladies read this blog so I just want to say thank you to them all for making me so welcome & once again the homemade cake you gave me at afternoon tea was delicious YUM YUM.

I have set these ladies a challenge to use the left over bits from the cards today on their own project & when I visit them again in November I will be awarding some prizes for the best entries - so that's something for me to look forward to.

Well I better continue getting ready for my 2 classes I have tomorrow & Sunday at Aylsham & Hethersett so I hope to see lots of you ladies there.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Halloween Version

As promised here is the Halloween version of the bag I showed you yesterday. I’ve used punches to make the pumpkin (Oval large), bat (scallop square) & gravestone (extra large tag).

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SUPPLIES

Punches – Large oval (119863), Scallop Square (119856), Extra large tag (119866)

Card – Old Olive, Basic Black, Whisper White, Basic Gray

Tuesday 5 October 2010

Back at last

I’m so sorry that it has taken this long to get back to blogging but you can appreciate that there has been a lot going on in my life recently but I’m back now & I promise to do my best to be a good blogger from now on & post regularly.

On Saturday I was invited to demo at a new craft group that will be meeting monthly here in Norwich. If you want more details about the group that just get in contact with me.

I did a couple of Make & Takes for the group & here is the morning projects which use a couple of our new stamp sets – Contempo Christmas & Delightful Decorations in conjunction with the brand new ornament punch.

The bag was shown to me by my friend & colleague Michelle – thanks Michelle. It uses Avon bags but any strong bag (i.e. Pick & mix bags) will do. I’ve done this bag on a Christmas theme but if you come back tomorrow I will post a Halloween version.001

This view shows how the bag inside looks.

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This is the card that we made to go with the bag & uses the leftover card from the bag. You may notice that the glitter I have used is blue but that Stampin Up do not sell blue glitter well I got it by using the reinkers (Tempting Turquoise in this case) to dye my Dazzling diamond glitter. A word of warning though, you need to use the SMALLEST drop of reinker unless you want to be like me & have enough blue glitter to supply the whole of the UK.

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RECIPE

Stamp sets – Contempo Christmas (118734/120594), Delightful Decorations (116517), Serene Snowflakes (115438)

Punches – Ornament Extra Large (119847), Eyelet Border (119853)

Card & Inks – Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red

Misc – Dazzling Diamond glitter, Classic Stampin’ Ink Refill

Monday 12 July 2010

Thanks

Well what a week I have had. Its been one of highs & lows.

The high was my birthday last Wednesday(7th) & I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who sent me birthday cards (especially the homemade ones), emails/ecards & facebook messages they all helped to make the day very special. I also received some lovely pressies from my family so I was thoroughly spoilt.

Unfortunately my low came on Friday when sadly my Father in Law passed away following a long illness. As he lived in Dorset & us in Norfolk it has meant my husband has been down there since last Thursday & will be there for the next 2 weeks trying to sort all the arrangements out.

This has meant I have become an overnight lone parent family to a very upset 8 year old daughter. The situation would have become unbearable if it were not for some very special people that I know. So I would just like to say a big thank you to all my friends who have supported me with their kind words, big hugs & late night phonecalls I really am eternally grateful to you all.

I'm afraid that until everything in Dorset is sorted I will not be posting but I hope you can understand the reasoning's & that you will visit this blog again in a few weeks time.

Wednesday 30 June 2010

Wow what a weekend

As you may have gathered from the title of this post I've had a rather busy weekend.

On Friday was my daughter's school annual fete & as I'm vice treasurer on the PTA & chief ice cream seller in the school my day was rather hectic. I did not stop from 7am until 8pm that day, but it was well worth it as it looks as though it may have been our best fundraising fete ever - YIPPEE.

Saturday saw me doing a home workshop for the lovely Jayne. Unfortunately we think mainly due to the heatwave, she did not have as many people attend the event as we hoped for, but those that did, including 2 crafting "virgins" did a great job on the projects we made. One of those virgins - Stephanie has even signed for the next all day Stampin Up Experience Day which is this Saturday.

On Sunday I then did a stall with my lovely upliner Lisa, her daughter Abby & 1 of the Mums from school Sally. The day was an absolute scorcher & unfortunately the attendance was not as great as the organiser had hoped for but at least we covered our pitch fee & even managed some profit. We all managed to get a tan as well which can't be bad.

Here are some pictures of our stall, which stood out a mile due to the beautiful bunting that Lisa makes. She has just started a company to hire or sell the bunting so if you want to know more let me know & I'll put you in contact with her.


From left to right we have Abby, Lisa & Sally
A close up of our SU display

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Day 2 of Stamp Camp Remakes

As promised here is another of my Stamp Camp remakes.
In the original we used a make of brush pens to apply the colours to the stamps, then before we stamped the images onto glossy card we used the kiss technique to apply the words to the stamp using silver ink. If you do not know what the kiss technique is, there is a clear tutorial here.

On my Stampin Up version I have used the lovely Vintage Vogue set from the mini catalogue, which conveniently has the words already incorporated in the design. I used the brush end of our marker pens to apply the colour to the stamps before using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the images onto Whisper White card stock. Looking at the top image on screen it appears crocked but I can assure you in real life it is straight.


As SU do not do a silver inkpad I used the new shimmer paint from the mini instead. I found the easiest & most precise way to apply it to my stamped image was to use a blender pen which we sell in packs of 3. Just remember to scribble off any excess ink after you have finished, to ensure you do not damage the pen as the ink will dry hard if left on any brush.

You can hopefully see in this picture what a lovely shimmer it gives to the finished card. I also used this same technique to apply the paint to my sentiment stamps before stamping.

Recipe

Stamps: Vintage Vogue (117690) Happy Everything (107375)

Markers: Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace, Orchid Opulence

Cardstock : Soft Suede, Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant

Misc: Shimmer paint in Platinum (116807)

Do remember to pop back soon for more Stamp Camp remakes.

Monday 14 June 2010

Stamp Camp

Some of you may have known that for the past 3 days I have been at Stamp camp where I got to be taught lots of different projects using non Stampin Up products.

I went with 2 friends & here they are hard at work.
Smiling at the camera we have Veronika & trying to ignore me is Greta, who I know regularly reads this blog. It was Greta's first time at a Stamp camp & I think we nearly frightened her off when we said how hard you have to work.
We started classes at 8.30am & went through until 10.30pm stopping only for meals. This year was a lot more relaxed affair, as there were fewer attendees & I think we all enjoyed it all the more for it.

Here are some of the projects we made over the weekend. I loved making the mirror at the back, which is made up of lots of different techniques.


I thought as all the projects were made with non Stamping Up products it would be a nice idea to take some of the projects & make them again using only Stampin Up products. I will try to upload a project every couple of days but as I'm unable to schedule any posts please bear with me as I'm having to fit this around work & my other commitments.

So here goes with the first project. Here's what we made at camp:

And here's mine made with SU's Tart & Tangy stamp set (111514) & the words are from the Trendy Trees set (113258)


And this version uses one of the hostess sets from the mini catalogue called Studio Sketches & is only available to hostesses who have a workshop, so if you love this set then get booking those workshops.

Monday 7 June 2010

Leaving Gifts

Sorry I have no cards today but I thought you might like to see the beautiful presents the girls from my old ward bought me as a leaving present. They are just so me & everytime I wear them I will remember the fantastic team I had the priviledge to work with.
I also had a lovely time Saturday evening & I ate far too much but I did remain sober despite drinking rather a lot of cider!

Thursday 3 June 2010

One for the men

What a surprise I had today when I visited my blog - my visitor counter had gone mad & when I looked more closely I saw I was having a huge volume of visitors from our friends over the pond. Being the curious girl that I am, I investigated your visits more & found I had been listed on this blog.

Well I can only say thank you to the blog owner Kelly for listing my little old blog there & having viewed some of the other blogs I feel it's a great honour to be listed amongst them so thank you again Kelly & I hope that my new visitors will take the time to comment on what they see & please visit again.

So today's card is a continuation from playing with my brayer yesterday, I think this card may be perfect for the man in your life. I've again used the lovely Autumn Days stamp set but this time I have used the partridge stamp.

To make the partridge different colours I've used both my inkpads & markers. I know a lot of people use just their markers to colour the stamp in but I found if I applied the green ink first using my inkpad & then coloured in the different colours with my markers I did not run the risk of any "white" areas appearing on my stamped images. Any contiamination of colours I got on my markers can easily be repaired by just scribbling the unwanted ink off on a scrap peice of paper.

Recipe

Stamps: Autumn Days (115452), Forest Friends (113748)

Inks: Bashful Blue, Gable Green, Green Galore, Summer Sun, Really Rust

Card: Tempting Turquose, Whisper White

Markers: Ballet Blue, Creamy Caramel, More Mustard, Garden Green

Paper: Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack (117161)

Ribbon:Chocolate Chip 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon (110111)

Hope you all enjoyed today's card & please do pop back soon to see what I've been up to.

Wednesday 2 June 2010

It's a girl

Well now I've got all your attention I hope you are all keeping well. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who have sent me good luck messages & cards for my new job. I'm really starting to enjoy it although I still miss all the girls I use to work with, but I will get to see them all on Saturday as that is when my leaving do is (I know it's a bit belated but I had to be persuaded to have this one as I did not want a fuss made).


Today's card is a simple one using my brayer loaded with 2 colours to make the background. To ensure the background is a rectangle shape I used a stencil to brayer through. The pram is made using a 1" circle with a quarter cut out & then a scrap of white card punched with the scallop border punch.

To get the tree in 2 different colours I have used my markers to colour it in I then "huffed" on the stamp to reactivate the ink prior to stamping. I also used the ink on just the words on the stamp as I did not want the whole image.


Recipe

Stamps: Tree -Forest Friends (113748), Words -Fun & Fast Notes (113500)

Card: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Gable Green, Bashful Blue

Misc: 1" Circle punch, Scallop Border punch, Buttons from Bold Brights set (103977), Markers in Glorious Green & Creamy Caramel

Autumn Days

This post is going to seem really weird now & I was in two minds about posting it but it seemed a shame not to share it with you. I also knew if I left it until a later date I would only forget it totally & then you would never get to see it!

I think this card came about due to the awful weather we had yesterday - cold, wet & windy, it reminded me of Autumn hence the title of this post. This is in sharp contrast to today - hot & sunny hence why I was dithering about posting it.

I've used the rock & roll technique on the leaf in the card centre & the ribbon is the new Soft Suede colour, which I have to admit was not a favourite of mine but is slowly growing on me.

Recipe

Stamps: Autumn Days (115452), Polka Dot (109276)

Card: Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Sage Shadow

Ink: Sage Shadow, Soft Suede

Ribbon: Soft Suede (115612)

Sunday 30 May 2010

Garden Greenhouse

Hope you are all having a good weekend & have managed to dodge most of the rainshowers.

Here are a couple of quick cards using the Garden Greenhouse stamp set. As this a 2-step set you will need to use a Stamp-a-ma- jig to get the best results.

On this card I stamped a large sheet first then gradually I am cutting it up to make indivindual cards from it, so watch this space for the other cards I plan to make.


On this card I have just 3 of the flowers out & then mounted them onto the background made with the stems that are in the set.
RECIPE
Stamps: Garden Greenhouse (113824), Oval all (113790)
Cardstock & Inks: Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose, Handsome Hunter, Gable Green, Pretty in Pink, Brilliant Blue
Punches: Eyelet Border, Scallop Oval, Large Oval, Boho Blossoms
Ribbon: Regal Rose 5/8" Grosgrain

Friday 28 May 2010

A little bit of Rock & Roll

What a great afternoon I have had today.

I was invited to demo at Gem Crafts, which is a craft group who meet fortnightly at High Kelling, which is near the beautiful North Norfolk coast for those of you who do not know.

What a wonderful group of ladies they were. They really made me feel welcome & they spoilt me rotten with tea & a choice of 2 different cakes Yum Yum

They were all so enthusiastic to learn some new techniques so I decided to teach them the rock & roll stamping technique, which is explained really clearly here :
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/rock_n_roll/.

Here is the card I cased using this great technique

The colours used are Sage Shadow & Close to Cocoa which I love together & it also uses my new favourite stamp set - Vintage Vogue.

Unfortunately I did not have enough of the Sage Shadow card to demo it so I designed this card using the new Stamping Up colour Melon Mambo, which I am totally in love with despite not being a "pink sort of a gal".

And don't get me started on the new polka dot ribbon, which if you do not know is plain on the opposite side, so it's a 2 for 1 look YIPEEE........




RECIPE

Stamps: Vintage Vogue (117690)

Inks & Card : Melon Mambo (card:119980, ink:115656) Chocolate Chip (card:109982, ink:110065) Whisper White card (109899) Sage Shadow ink (110085)

Ribbon: 1/2" Polka Dot in Melon Mambo (115611)

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Sweetpea card

Hi everyone & so sorry about the lack of posts but for those who do not know I started a new job last week & I'm afraid that this has been taking up the majority of my time.


I have changed to a completly different field of nursing & I'm having to learn everything from scratch so until I find my feet my crafting has had to take a back seat but hopefully things will gradually improve.


I did find time today to play with my punches again & having seen some different flowers made from the punches on the web I came up with this card.


I do hope you like it.

Recipe

Punches - Butterfly (117404), 5-Petal Flower (112829), Extra-Large Two-step Bird (117191)
Cardstock - Pretty in Pink, Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Orchid Opulence, Lavender Lace,
So Saffron, Old Olive
Misc - Polka Dot Background Stamp (109276), Whisper White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon,
Melon Mambo 1/2" Polka Dot Ribbon (115611)



Wednesday 12 May 2010

Part 2 of the Mini Swap

Sorry this is a couple of days later than promised as yet again my scheduled post did not work AHHHHHHHH!!!! If anyone has a solution to this problem PLEASE let me know what it is.

Here goes with part Two of the Mini catalogue swap.

We are on page 18 where we find...........
Bird on a Branch (113266)
This is a recent addition to my ever growing collection so I'm looking forward to playing with this later tonight & I just love what Tara has done on this card & I know I will be copying this layout.

By Tara

Page 20 - Serene Snowflakes (115438)

This is my contribution to the swap & its one of the card I used for blog hop. I love this set despite saying I did not need any more Christmas stamps but these snowflakes are just so LOVELY.....


By Sharon March (that's me in case you have not guessed yet!)

On page 22 we have several stamps & as you can buy these singularly they are all very affordable. So we are going to start near the top of the page (unfortunately no one did Flower Accent)

All a Flutter (118284)
Which is a lovely little butterfly that has such detail on it & at £4.95 is a bargain.

By Kara M

Next is Dasher (116816) now have you ever seen a more elegant reindeer?
And again I love the simplicity of this card by Diane .
By Diane P

Then we have Elegant Thank You (114484) The designer Margaret has taken the name to heart & made a very elegant card with very few supplies. Which just goes to prove the old saying "Less is more"

By Margaret Rose

Lastly on this page we find Sweet Birthday (115564). This stamp is versatile as you can use the script on its own, which is how Victoria has used it.



Page 23 has our new smaller background stamps, which are going to be great for those people who like me who have "small" hands & who find the usual background stamps a bit of a handful (sorry please forgive the pun)
A to Z (115711) is a small alphabet stamp that has been used as the background on the butterfly picture at the top of this page
By Linda
Next is Fine Flourish (115709) which you are going to love if you love the medallion stamp in the main catalogue.
Lastly we have Dot, Dot, Dot (115332) as unfortunately we had no one doing the Solid Stripes sample.
On this card Clare has used the stamp in conjunction with our punches to give a different look again.


By Clare

Well that concludes our tour of the mini catalogue I hope you enjoyed all these cards & if you want to order anything then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Monday 10 May 2010

Mini Swap

I recently took part in a swap over on the forum In Love with Stamping. We all had to use one the lovely new stamp sets from the mini & I thought it would be lovely to share all the great samples I received. As there were quite a few cards involved I thought so you can savour them I will do this in 2 parts with part 2 tomorrow.

I also thought it would be nice if I gave you the cards in order of where the stamps appear in the mini so this can be you own virtual tour of the mini.
So here goes with Part 1

On Page 6 you will find the
Extra-Large Two-Step Bird Punch (117191)
I know this is not a stamp set but it was far tooooooo lovely to leave out of the swap.

ByKara Watson

Page 7 finds versatile - I {Heart} Hearts (117010) which coordinates with our heart from the main catalogue.
By Emma Crockett

Page 8 & 9 - Something Sweet (117688)
This set can make great cards when used in cojunction with the Sweet Treat Cups (116802)
But here my lovely downliner Sarah has used in another way & 2 of the cute fishies even "swim" around.

By Sarah Horan

Page 10 - Framed with Love (114389)
Another really versatile set that I think gets somewhat overlooked but I know I will be using a great deal

By Amanda Bates

Page 11 - The ever so cute Fox & Friends (117020)
> By Emma H

On page 12 you find My Sweet Pea (118506)

Which was one of the sets we used at my recent all day event

ByPat

Page 14 is where we find one of my favourites Vintage Vogue (117690)

We also used this at the all day event & it had to be the set that you all wanted to have. Carolyn has kept this card very simple but its still really elegant.

ByCarolyn

Page 15 has Tiny Tags (118091) which coordinates with the Medium Jewelry Tag punch (117190) which you can find on page 6
By Jan Jackman

And finally for today we come to page 16 & 17
Autumn Splendor (116503)
By Kirsteen Gill