Training makes 2

The second suite leans towards cards for men, the colours are grey, black and delightful dijon which I love. It is actually a feature wall in my living room....  muddy yellow as my other half calls it!

So, it has hammers, nails, a saw, a spanner and other tools. To create these I have stamped on smokey slate and crumb cake, die cut them both then cut some bits away to give different coloured handles.

This is the same style of pop up slider card as we did with the ice cream.

The little stamps of nuts and bolts, screws and nails are great. The sentiment is a good one too.

Love both of the designer papers used here too.

The second card is much simpler, however it features washi tape. Do you have a great stack of this stuff, do you ever use it? Bet I know your answers to that.

In this case I think the highlights of matching colour running across the middle are really effective. This uses another of the papers as a background.

The whits circle has been cut with the new stitched framelits.

The third card again is simple, the background is stamped with the hardwood which still makes a regular appearance. The washi tape again highlights the colours. and the stitched framelits hold the tools.

Thats the second suite. I am very tempted by this lot. Perhaps I will get another packet of the designer paper which I love.

Shopping

The stamps and the dies bundle giving you a 10% discount Nailed it bundle

Stamp set only Nailed it

Dies only          Build it

And remember the hostess code at the top of the page. Small gifts will be posted mid February for all January orders as a thank you from me.

Training makes.

All day training in our team is as much a social gathering as it is a business meeting. We didn't do much business talking, we did do lots of making and the socialising was as good as ever.
One of the benefits of the making part is that this month we used two suites of stamps and paper that I hadn't bought. Te first one is the 'ice cream' suite. I can see the appeal of this set and I love the little ice cream shop created as a card but is still isn't my type of stamp set. I can see a number of my customers enjoying this one.
The pictures are taken with my new phone, I must admit it is taking me a while to get the hang of it, my last one was very old (at least 7 yrs!) Hope they are ok.

This first picture shows the three makes and the swap from team leader Julie Kettlewell.

I love the little line of bunting along the top then the little fold for the shelf. I could always enjoy a ninety nine but I think it is just too cold at the moment.

This is a pop up card that bowl of chocolate coated ice cream scoops looks delicious 

And finally a note card holder. Love the use of the stripe stamp, one which I have dithered over buying. Its a great background stamp. Plenty of room to write a note on the slip that goes inside.

I'll show you the second suite tomorrow.



Shopping

The ice cream set is called 'Cool Treats' and comes as a bundle of stamps and dies. This gives you 10% off. here
To buy them separately
Stamp set   Cool Treats
Dies set     Frozen treats
If you buy online please add the hostess code from the top of this page. Then in February you will get a small gift from me.

Watercolour pencils, Mediterranean moments

Its our customer appreciation event tomorrow, I am so looking forward to meeting up with those customers I haven't seen for a while and those that I see on a regular basis. Thats one of the great things about Stampin'Up. We have 3 make and takes, CAKE, and some other bits and pieces going on.
Love the pencils, I have done lots of card fronts but not made them up yet and I have used a whole range of papers to use them on. On February 11th we are holding a workshop to really look at techniques using these pencils. There is such a range of stamp sets in the catalogue now to use the pencils with its quite hard to choose which to use.

Mediterranean Moments is a set of four stamps but it is one of those sets with no sentiments, I often avoid these for a customer based class as if all your customers are new to stamping its rare you would do a card without a sentiment. However its a great set for water colouring with the pencils.

Not my usual colour combo but the picture lent itself to them, love the new paper doilies, cream on one side white on the other.

Now isn't that a handsome cat............

What do you think? If you are local to Halifax (UK) pop in and have go 11.00 - 3.00 tomorrow
Unit G3 HX2 6EQ opposite the cafe.
Want to order online don't forget to use the hostess code at the top of the page, here is a list of what I have used you can click on the items and you will go straight through to my online shop.

Stamp set Mediterranean Moments
Watercolour pencils
New lace doilies

The romantic in me today.....

Its only a few weeks until valentines day, we don't 'do' it here like they do in America but we do seem to pay lip service to it. I know there are some of you out there who are very romantic and buy into the red roses and the rest, I would love my other half to buy into it for me but he doesn't so I don't!

Anyway enough about me. Our Creative Den craft studio where I spend all my days is on a business park in an old converted mill. Our unit was originally part of the weaving shed. Around us there is still quite a bit of work going on as well as the ongoing work on the flood defences. There are a lot of men in big boots, overalls and wooly hats around so we had to didn't we. Elaine and I have spent the day making Valentines cards. To top the day off a certain young man who late last year ordered a handmade anniversary card came in and asked about valentine cards. Today I am going to share 3. None of these is made with the new goodies in the spring summer catalogue as we had so much left from last year we haven't invested this year although I do like the papers.

This paper is from the neutrals pack onto real red card. The branch is die cut from best birds and the bird punch. The hearts are covered in glossy accents. The inside uses

For this one we have used the Bloomin Heart thin lets dies. The little flowers have been cut from red Stampin'Up red glimmer paper the whole card finished with a length of velvet ribbon. (That probably came from a box of chocolates!)

Finally a selection of retired papers punched with the sweetheart punch, daubed with crumb cake ink curled then added with dimensionals. The sentiments are cut from a vellum sheet which was in my stash.

They all have a suitable sentiment inside, we made another seven, all very different just using up stash. Lets hope they all sell and we have to make more!

Available in my online shop

Bloomin Heart dies

matching stamps

Red glimmer paper

Neutrals Designer paper stack

Best Bird dies

Sweetheart punch

Don't forget if you order any of these from my online shop to use the hostess code at the top right hand side of the page, if your order is over £25 you will get a small gift from me in the middle of February as a thank you. 

Final Pop of Pink

Of course I have to show you the final couple of cards in this set.

I have coloured the dress using the melon mambo ink and a blender pen, you could use the aqua painter or the new watercolour pencils.

Don't you agree this is a wonderful stamp set.

Everyday Hero

Today is all day training and in good Stampin'Up Tradition everyone takes swaps. I haven't done much with this set yet but can see lots of potential. Those that I have seen have had lots of the images on and bright colours but I have continued to work with the neutrals, today going for Basic grey which is quite dark and smokey slate which is a pale grey. This is just a quick little card. The birds are from the 'High Tide' set which I love and I have some great makes in my head to bring you using that set.
The sentiment is from one of the hostess sets, No Pun Intended . This is a quirky little set and now its been out on my table once I think I shall be using a bit more in the near future.

The Everyday Super Hero set does have 25 images, this card only uses one of them......... so lots more to come.

Another pop of Pink

Those first two worked so well I thought I would do a set, so here are the next 2. Love this lady, very elegant. I have a thing about hats but struggle to buy them as I have a very small head and those in the children's departments just don't cut it!

I have played with this one a little more, stamping the image on some of the designer paper then fussy cutting. There are 8 sentiments in the set which does give you lots of choice.

Stamp set: Beautiful You

Designer paper Pop of Pink

Ink Pad Melon Mambo

Don't forget if you order online from my shop and spend more than £25 to use the hostess code ZK7NK3J9 then in February you will get a thank you gift from me. Also if you spend £45 or more you can get a free item from the  Sale-A-Bration Catalogue (if this link doesn't work please get in touch and I will post you one out!)

Pop of Pink

Its funny how some creations happen...... I had gone to the cupboard that had all the designer paper in as someone had asked about the background to my chicken picture, the blue wood and I went to look, unfortunately I couldn't find the cover to the pack that had come out of but I did find what is left of our pack of 'Pop of Pink'. It was the black sides that were facing me and I had an idea about the "Beautiful You' set. When I turned it over and saw the pink I knew exactly what I was going to do. I started with the pink then made a black set as well.
Very little colouring, just stamping and putting pears together. A great way of using some of those small pieces that you just can't bring yourself to throw away!

Everything you need in one stamp set, one pack of designer paper, 2 ink pads and 2 colours of card.

Love this, so fresh.

The Clan

Today as promised my first ever scrapbook frame. I have used a picture taken at Christmas, so I have used some of our left over christmas designer paper for the background then some of the strips we used for the peg wreath. I chose the tartans as my inlays are from Scotland. If there is ever an England v Scotland match of any sort my husband supports Scotland.  Hence 'The Clan'.

The picture is taken in Matthew's living room with his fiancé Amy, her Mum and sister, then Christopher and his partner Sarah and Robert with his fiancé Rhiannon, plus me and David. Of course one of the cats got in on the picture although he wasn't keen to stay, this is Toby. Matthew hosted Christmas this year as he and Amy were spending there first Christmas in their own home.

We had a brilliant time.

What do you think?  Have I got the knack? Why not pick out your favourite picture and have a go.

Scrapbook Frame

I have never done one of those 12" x 12" scrapbook pages before but there is always a first time. You will have to pop back tomorrow to see mine, today I am going to show you one made by Elaine.
She started with a sheet of white card, now that as a beginning filled me with horror, I really don't like large spaces of white to work on. She picked her colours from the photos, then kept it very clean and simple. What a lovely gift this would make.
The other bonus is that when you want to change it you create another page and pop this one into a scrapbook album.

I think this is really pretty. Please pop back tomorrow to see mine.

Blooms and Bliss meet Hearts

I am back from my 2 weeks in the sun, swimming in the sea everyday and making a good meal for the mosquitoes. I can highly recommend Cape Verde for sun sea and sand.
Back  to crafting... have you seen the Blooms and Bliss designer paper from Stampin'Up it is gorgeous, every single sheet is just beautiful. In the Den we have teamed it with punches, dies we do have ribbon and buttons to match but we haven't used them.......yet.

So here is what we have done

The flowers on the green/blue heart use the 'Botanicals' dies, on the pink heart the flowers are a mixture of punches and the centres are from the botanicals, the leaves are dies from the 'sensational stems' in the new spring summer catalogue.

Fancy joining me to make one of these pop over to Our Creative Den and book your place online.

The paper, dies and punches are available in my online shop. Don't forget to use the hostess code if your order is more than £25 and less than £150 then I will send you an extra little gift in February.
Hostess Code ZK7NK3J9