Welcome to the new Idea Book & Catalogue 2011-2012

Hello and welcome to the new Idea Book & Catalogue with lots of lovely new stamps, a fabulous range of five new In Colours, some fantastic new papers, ribbons and embellishments, not to mention some wonderful new punches (the Petite Pennants Builder punch is my favourite so far). If you would like your own copy of the new catalogue or would like to place an order please contact me, details above.

Sorry I have been AWOL lately. I have been preparing for an All Day Christmas Event which was held on Saturday in Tidworth. It was a wonderful day with lots of lovely ladies and a good time was had by all. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended, and thanks to Amy my daughter who supplied us with refreshments throughout the day. We made lots of Christmas Cards, yes Christmas on possibly the hotest day of the year so far! My sister-in-law Lynne came along and took a class making a beautiful Christmas Canvas, and I am sure she will be showing it on her blog soon - click here.

Showing a few of the cards we made on Saturday, this set of four cards feature the Top Note Die shape and are all a similar design, but by using different stamps, shapes and colours they can look quite different. Stamp set used on all of these cards is Season of Joy.

Here is the detail on the first card where I added white dots to the flourish. I know some of the sentiments on my cards are not from current sets but with so many cards to make on the same day I had to use some from my own stash.

And two more cards in a red and green colourway.

Thanks for droppng by and over the next few weeks I hope to show some more samples from my All Day Christmas Event.

Have a good week.

Julia







Retired List

Hi Everyone, the Stampin' Up retired list is now available. Some of the products have been discounted and will sell out fast but just a reminder that all of the retiring items will be on a first come first served basis. The list is available here.  

If you would like me to order any products for you my contact details are above.

Please also see details of my forthcoming All Day Christmas Card-Making event to the right of this post. This is going to be a fun day with a chance to try out some of the products from the new Stampin' Up 2011-2012 Catalogue which launches on the same day. I will be giving a free Catalogue to anyone attending my event. Places are limited so please contact me as soon as possible if you would like to secure a place.

Happy crafting, Julia

Altered Tag - Sunny Garden DSP

Just a quick post today to share with you an altered clothing tag.

Have you noticed that a lot of the clothing ranges in shops now have lovely tags, some even come with buttons sewn on to them already. However this one did not have buttons but I added a Springtime Vintage 'Big' Designer button and some buttons made with the Embosslits Sweet Buttons Die.

I tore some Sunny Garden DSP and sponged the torn edges before fixing to the tag. The flower at the top right was already on the tag so I took my lead for colour from this when choosing the paper and used Poppy Parade ink to stamp the images.

Stamp sets used: 

French Foliage (for text background)

Strength & Hope (swirl image)

Broadsheet Alphabet (my initial 'J')

Punches used:

Circle 1 1/4" and 1 3/8"

The ribbon, eyelet and twine were already on the tag.

Thanks for dropping by.



Mini cards - Take Flight

Hi, showing you some mini cards today made with a mixture of stamp sets.

I used strong bold colours with black stamping on white card for a striking effect. I am really pleased with them.

The 'starburst' of colour across the card is actually the large flower centre from Greenhouse Garden and the bird is from Notably Ornate.

The sentiments are from Just Believe, Afterthoughts and So Many Thanks.

Cardstock colours used: Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mango, Daffodil Delight with Basic Black and Whisper White.

Ink colours: Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mango, Daffodil Delight and Basic Black.

Add some rhinestones and they are finished.

Back soon, Julia

Happy Birthday Sweet 16

Hi, just a quick post today to show a card-in-a-box I made recently for a work colleague to give to his daughter who lives in America.

And the little 'handbag' shape card on the inside .....

I think one of the things that makes this card so cute is the size, being only 7.5cm square. He was very pleased with the card and said it made his day.

Cardstock:  Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink
Ink:  Melon Mambo
Stamps: Butterfly Prints, Season of Joy (Swirls)

Back soon, Julia



Nature Walk with Botanical Gazette Papers

Hi, it has been a lovely sunny start to the week here, and I now have a very tidy front garden thanks to my sister and brother-in-law who worked very hard today in the sun. My little two year old grand-daughter Daisy helped to pick up the trimmings transporting them to the garden rubbish sack in her little truck, and I am sure they couldn't have done it without her help!

Now on to cards, and today I am showing a card I made for my husband's Birthday later in the week. I like to use  papers on my cards and the fact that Stampin' Up make papers to match many of their stamp sets, and to co-ordinate with their card colours, makes it easy to design a card.

Stamps:  Nature Walk, Afterthoughts (Hostess Level 1)

Cardstock:  Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla

Inks:  Old Olive, Early Espresso

Paper:  Designer Series Botanical Gazette

Ribbon:  Taffeta 3/8ths" Early Espresso

Punches:  1 3/8ths" Circle

Not too sure what my husband will think of ribbon on his card, but it just needs to be there.

Thank you for visiting,

Julia



Nature Walk - Butterfly Bees

I am still going strong with the Nature Walk set of stamps. This time using two bee images inside an aperture cut with the Butterfly Punch.

Punch a 7.5cm square of  Basic Gray card stock and emboss using the Square Lattice folder.

To line up the bees to fit inside the butterfly, I just placed the punched and embossed piece of card on a slightly larger piece of Very Vanilla and made a light pencil mark at the dip in each of the butterfly wings. I stamped the bees with Basic Gray ink, using my pencil marks as a guide and angling the bees towards the centre. The bodies of the bees have been coloured with a Daffodil Delight marker. 

To add depth, although it is not clear from my picture, when layering up the card I used dimensionals to fix the butterfly layer on top of the bees and used the Snail tape runner to fix this to a square of Daffodil Delight card. The Jewellery Punch and Tiny Tags stamp set have been used to make the little tag and this has been tied around the layers with some silver Elastic Cord, before mounting onto a Basic Black 10cm square card. Finally I added some Rhinestone Jewels to form the body of the butterfly.

Back soon,

Julia