Thursday 25 February 2016

Remembering to bring birthdays back

You may have seen posts and notifications about the #imbringingbirthdaysback campaign that Stampin' Up is backing. In this age of text messaging and facebook it is easy just to give a birthday nod to someone electronically, but to no longer send a card - and even better a hand crafted card you have made with love.
For me, making the cards is not an issue, it is remembering to send them. Stampin' Up have a solution to this problem. The "Perpetual Birthday Calendar Kit".

The beautifully presented kit with its coordinating (extremely useful) stamp set allows you to create a calendar on a clipboard, which you rotate monthly and onto which you write your friends and loved ones birthdays - so you remember to send them a card.

I made my kit up recently and like all of Stampin' Up's kits it is very generous in the resources it gives you.

now I just need to add in the people.








Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.


If you would like to make this kit, either by yourself, or with a group of friends, so let me know and we will arrange that for you.

Helen
xxx

Tuesday 23 February 2016

Wrap it up

We recently had a go at some basic spirelli style cards using bakers twine. For most of the cards I used one of Stampin' Up's scalloped circle punches-although I did start to experiment with different shapes by cutting snips around the edge, or using shaped scissors. 

If you have never had a go at this technique here are a few links to some useful tutorials here and here

And here are the different cards I made with variations in shape and in the number of valleys I skipped as I was working around the scalloped circles. A lot of it was trial and error. The ladies in my Monday afternoon Tesco class really enjoyed this.






Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Why not experiment with different twine and perhaps even ribbon that you have in your stash.

Helen
xxx



Monday 22 February 2016

A big hug for the weekly deals

It has been another busy weekend, so the weekly deal post is running late - but not too late for you to grab one of these bargains.


If you treated yourself to the Bear Hugs stamp set, but decided against the framelits - now is the time to rectify that. The framelits have been designed so they are symmetrical, which means you can stamp on both the front and back of them - and then fold the arms over so they can give something, or someone a hug. In this little Mother's Day card, Mummy Bear is giving her cub a squeeze. If you are buying both the stamp set and the dies, it does still work out very marginally cheaper to buy them as a bundle, but if you just need the framelits this is £6 saving.



When these Petite petal stamps were first released they flew off the shelves and with good reason. Along with their co-ordinating punch they are so useful, not only to create a whole feature of a card like on this example, but also to give finish touches to other projects. There are six different style of flowers, so something for every occasion and style. Here I used the coordinating punch and some dimensionals to lift some of the flowers off the page. Again if you want both the stamps and punch, the bundle is the cheaper option, but the weekly deal saves you some pennies if you just want the stamps.
The other punch from the weekly deal I used, was the confetti stars punch. I used the strip I had punched across the centre of my card and some of the confetti stars as flower centres and to decorate the greeting label. This is such a useful punch to have in your supplies - and up until Tuesday you can get it at £5 off its normal price.

There are a couple of  other items in the deals. One is the extremely useful and versatile envelope punch board. Not only can you use it to create custom sized envelopes, but also boxes, crackers and projects galore. Have a search on You Tube and pinterest and you will find lots of inspiration. No self-respecting crafter should be without one of these. It is a no brainer

The other item I have my eye on, because I don't yet have these - and what better time to rectify that than when they are available at £6 off. This is the Tags and labels framelits set. They do what they say on the tin - create tags and labels and also allow you to layer them up as there is 3 sizes for each shape. Matting and layering made easy - and that is something we all love.

So here are the 5 products that are available on offer this week:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

If you are interested in any of them, remember the offer finishes at 11pm on Tuesday evening.

Helen
xx


Thursday 18 February 2016

Bloomin' Birthdays


I said in Tuesday's post that this "Birthday Blooms" stamp set was becoming a real favourite. It was a delight recently to take this stamp set and the coordinating suite of products to put together a half day workshop. I ensured I used every stamp from the set in designing the projects. This beautiful card used the single flower stamped tone on tone onto pool party card and then highlighted with a wink of stella pen. A strip of the gorgeous Birthday Bouquet DSP backed with silver mirri card. The main image coloured with blender pens and die cut with the deco labels and some of the beautiful pool party glitter ribbon. This glitter ribbon is very soft and malleable.


This ice-cream DSP from the collection is in wonderful sorbet colours and teamed together with the ice cream stamp from the Sale-a-Bration set "Honeycomb Happiness" and one of the fabulous honeycomb embellishments, this creates such a delicious card that reminds us that summer will come.



This card combines the bright watermelon wonder with black and gold to create a dramatic card.
The image is stamped with versamark and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. A square of DSP from the collection was chosen to coordinate along with some gold mirri card and some of the beautiful watermelon wonder lace ribbon. I have admired this ribbon sitting on my shelf for months. I am now making myself use it! The final finishing touch was the adorable little bow paper clip.


It is hard to believe this final card uses the same collection, but this heart border stamp is included in the set. I stamped it in bright colours. I picked out some of the colours and using my Stampin' markers I coloured directly on my  greeting stamp. I die cut an oval from cucumber crush card and punched the ribbon slits with the curvy corner trio punch. Some melon mambo hearts and ribbon and a spot of faux stitching completed this bright and cheerful card.


The workshops are always such fun and I have a full programme listed under the tab at the top and on my facebook page. I would love you to join us. You go home with a stamp set, leftovers from your kit and with a fistful of projects.


Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.
.

Hope you have a bloomin' marvelous day

Helen
xxx