Hello, long time no entry.

I don't get to come on here as often as I would like to, but I had to show the Team swaps I made for our latest Stampin' Up! get together in Telford last weekend.

Oh what a fabulous weekend it was. We got to spend three days with our Stampin' Up! family. Lots of fun, crafting and swapping of items we have made with others for new ideas.

My team swap was inspired by a German demo called Stampin Fee. Her address is http://stampin-fee.jimdo.com/anleitungen/adventskranz-to-go/ I would recommend you go and have a look at her lovely blog.

I used the latest Cookie Cutter DSP from Stampin' Up!
If you would like to see any products, I have an online catalogue (link at the top of my blog page).

Well here are the photos of my swaps.

Lots of people said they loved them. I have been making more to sell at a craft fair later this month.

Here are a few other examples.

They are very easy to make. Stampin Fee has a tutorial on her blog and a PDF you can download.

Here are the basic instructions I followed...

Cut card stock at 29cm x 8cm
Score at 8, 10, 18, 20 & 28cm

Box part

Cut card stock at 11.6 cm x 11.6 cm
Score at 1.9 cm on all sides
Cut and stick as you would a usual box.

Decorate to your liking.


Thank you for looking.

Valentine Inspiration from a mug.

I was out shopping with my friends one evening and we went into a well known coffee shop. One of my friends was after a thermos type mug for when she is out on playground duty at school.

While we were in there, I got my eye on a lovely, colourful china mug which had a lid. It's perfect for when I'm crafting in my craft room. Time passes so quickly when I'm busy in there, and before you know it, the nice cuppa has gone stone cold. I am fussy and don't like the thermos type mugs as they have a plastic lid you have to drink through.

I love my new mug and it inspired me to make these cards...

I used the baby wipe technique where you add drops of different coloured inks onto a baby wipe. Making sure you don't leave any gaps. Then use it as an ink pad and stamp as usual. You must remember to clean the stamp after each use or you will end up with a brown mess.

I couldn't decide which card to give to my husband. In the end I made him a different one using more traditional Valentine colours.

He was very happy with it. 

Case(ing) the Catty.

Stampin' Up! catalogues are full of inspiration and they love it for us to copy and share the ideas to everyone and anyone. As Valentines was coming up, I thought I would use these little heart frames and I love the idea in the catalogue so I copied it.

I also made a card to go with it.

It took a while to get back into stamping and making after the Christmas break.

Luckily we had team training in January and we all make swaps to hand out to everyone there, so I had to get my mojo back.

I had seen a card on pinterest using the Ballon Builder stamp set and came up with these cute little cards. Just shows how versatile the stamp sets can be with a bit of imagination. 

T

Team training is a get together of our extended team of demonstrators. It is a great social occasion as well as lots of information and tip sharing between us all. We have a make and take session too. We used the new Going places DSP and the Going Global stamp sets.

These are a couple of cards I created when I got home, (you are supposed to make while you are there, but me and my fellow team mates usually end up chatting too much to concentrate).

If you would like to learn more about being a demonstrator, please message me and I'd be happy to 

explain. 

Christmas cards from 'me'

I had an idea to invite a few of my non crafty friends around to my craft studio and get them making their own Christmas cards from me.

They thought the idea was great and with the lure of nibbles and wine, they were there in no time.

This is the card they made from me haha! I may do this every year from now on.

I had it all cut ready for them. They really enjoyed themselves and a couple of them made a few more cards to give to others. It was a lovely evening and we did get a bit tipsy. 

Catch up

Oh wow! Time goes so quickly these days. I have so much to update on the Blog.

Where do I start???

After Brussels it was all go getting ready for a Christmas Fair.

Some of the items I made 

These are lovely bags made using the 12x12 Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up!

I got the idea from Elaine Jackson (Papercraft Button). She has a video tutorial. They are really easy once you get going. I added the poinsettia for the Christmas effect. They were very popular Teacher presents filled with a few chocolates or a gift card.

I also had fun making these

Lovely vellum lanterns made using the curvy keepsake die. I put a battery operated tea light inside.

These little wreath tea lights were popular too.

These Jolly Santas are wallets with a chocolate bar inside. They made very popular stocking fillers and teacher gifts.

I made these little 4x4 inch cards.

Here was my set up at the Shrewsbury House Christmas Fair December 2015