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Celebrating World Card Making Day 2016

September 30, 2016 By

World card making day 2016 blog hop

Welcome to our Blog Hop for World Card Making Day 2016 using current Stampin’ Up!® products. You are currently with Catherine Carroll in the UK and there are so many other demonstrators sharing lovely projects for your inspiration today! There is a list at the end of the page which will help you to move along from blog to blog.

On my to make list for this week were my September thank you cards. I’ve also had Totally Trees on my desk for a while, so the two seemed meant to go together! It’s really feeling like Autumn here in the UK now (and it’s about time really), so I also reached for the Petals and Paisleys Specialty DSP as the colour combination is just perfect.

Mint Macaron Totally Trees

For quick and easy crafting, you can’t beat the note cards and envelopes. I was also really pleased to see the 3/8″ Ribbon Trio pack in the Petals and Paisleys suite. I have to admit that I would never have bought Delightful Dijon ribbon on its own, but having it along with Mint Macaron and Rich Razzleberry makes it really easy to coordinate with the DSP.

Totally Trees thank you cards

Of course I also wanted to include a little treat for my customers – something to keep them going when they start using their new goodies. I made a little diaper fold treat pouch from a 6″x6″ piece of DSP, which was just the right size for a Lotus caramelised biscuit packet.

Delightful Dijon Totally Trees

Thanks for visiting my blog today and I hope you like my projects. Keep hopping through the list as there are more amazing ideas waiting for you. Dawn Olcheflske is your next stop (and I’m a teeny bit starstruck that I get to send you to her wonderful blog….)!

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Filed Under: Blog Hops

Hang your Stocking from Stampin’ Up! for our Pinkies Blog Hop

September 8, 2016 By

Stampin' Up! UK Pinkies Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We’re showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin’ Up!® Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

I mentioned in our last blog hop how there were two bundles that really stood out for me when I first saw the Autumn Winter catalogue – I’m now sharing my other favourite which is the Hang Your Stocking bundle. Although I think that this could easily be one of my all-time favourites! I immediately thought of making a fireplace easel card, using the Hearth and Home framelits to help create my scene. Hanging stockings on Christmas Eve (and opening them on Christmas Morning) is something I loved growing up, and even now that’s still part of my Christmas routine. Of course, these two stockings are different colours as otherwise how would I know which one was mine and which was my husband’s?

hang your stocking fireplace closed

While I have to admit the greeting looks a bit odd sitting in the fireplace when you have the card flat, you can see why it’s needed when you try to set the easel up.

hang your stocking fireplace open

The Christmas Stocking Thinlit dies which are the second half of the Hang Your Stocking bundle also have this lovely NOEL die, which I’ve cut using the new Copper Foil paper. They look like marquee letters sitting on the mantle piece, which are on my shopping list to add to our Christmas decorations!

As you can see if you look closely, I’ve gone one step further to create my fireplace and put a flickering tea light behind the vellum panel. I think this would look lovely on a mantel piece in the depths of December. Here’s a deliberately dark photo to try and show the effect:

hang your stocking fireplace lit

I hope you enjoy the rest of the inspiration being shared by my fellow demonstrators – Sarah is the next stop on our blog hop today!

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

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Filed Under: Blog Hops, Christmas

Fruit Stand from Stampin’ Up!

June 16, 2016 By

Stampin' Up! UK Pinkies Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We’re showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

Well, it’s official. I’m suffering from TMSS (that’s too much stash syndrome!) – I could barely decide what I wanted to order once the whole of the new annual catalogue was available and up for grabs. Luckily I know the cure…. once I finish for the summer holiday, I am going to set aside a good few days and work through my new stuff set by set and see what I can create. As I teach at a boarding school, I’ve only got two weeks left and then I have the whole summer stretching in front of me to be filled with crafting (I hope). And I’ll have lots to share with you here!

Anyway, on to my projects. I picked up some of the Fruit Stand Designer Paper and Kraft cardstock, and my first idea was to make a crate using the Hardwood background stamp to make the timber texture. I was so proud of myself thinking of such a cute idea…. and then I realised where I’d seen that before – only in the catalogue! So I stuck with the idea of a box, and made these two:

Fruit stand bag and box

The bag is of course made with the Gift Bag Punch Board, using the measurements for the medium size. I love that you are only limited by the size of your paper when it comes to the height of the bag. Isn’t the Gold Binder Clip just gorgeous? I can see myself stockpiling those and adding them to everything. I added a few of the new In Color Enamel Shapes to the Kraft banner. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone to use Peekaboo Peach as I am NOT a fan of orange, but it’s starting to grow on me.

The little box is also made with the same punch board, using the “side” score lines to create the facets on the box:

fruit stand faceted box

I am definitely not dedicated enough to come up with this on my own – I think we all have the fabulous Artisan Design Team member Jessica Winter to thank for this one, and I have definitely seen them on lots of blogs! The Whisper White Mini Pompom Trim came to my rescue as the lid just needed something extra to finish it off.

I’ll be using the gift bag as a hostess gift and the boxes as thank you presents at an upcoming workshop. Have you got yours booked? Don’t forget that you can earn an extra £25 Stampin’ Rewards during June.

Enough of my rambling – you have other lovely projects to hop on and see!

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

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Filed Under: Blog Hops, Boxes

Shadow Stamping for our Sale-a-Bration Blog Hop

January 28, 2016 By

Stampin' Up! UK Pinkies Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We’re showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using new Stampin’ Up!® products that you can earn free during Sale-a-Bration. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

Are you enjoying the blog hop so far? I always love organising these events as I get to see all the amazing projects in advance. As I’m guilty of procrastination A LOT of the time, this always means I see other products that I *should* have added to my order to use in my project… this time it was the Botanicals For You DSP vellum stack! But I think I’ve come up with a good substitute until my next order arrives.

Botanicals for You Stampin' Up! sale-a-bration set

I took some plain vellum and embossed some of the tiny flowers and leaves from the Botanicals For You Sale-a-Bration stamp set in silver. I’ll have to try it out with the white embossed vellum stack when it arrives. I am absolutely loving the “Just for You” sentiment in this set. It’s an added bonus that I didn’t have to pay a penny for it. I haven’t tried shadow stamping for a while, but it is one of the many techniques that such a large sentiment stamp lends itself to. I stamped it in Wisteria Wonder first, and then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to position the second stamped image in Elegant Eggplant over the top. Just offsetting it slightly causes the Wisteria Wonder to look like a light shadow.

Botanicals for You Stampin' Up! sale-a-bration set

I couldn’t very well leave the inside of the card plain now, could I? The tiny flowers in the stamp set are perfect for adding some extra detail and colour to the inside panel.

I think I need to go through and search for some more techniques to use with this set, but I hope you make it through the rest of the blog hop as there are some great projects still to come!

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

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Filed Under: Blog Hops, Just Because!

Pinkies Blog Hop for the New Spring Summer Catalogue from Stampin’ Up!

January 7, 2016 By

Stampin' Up! UK Pinkies Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We’re showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin’ Up!® Spring/Summer Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

It seems so long ago that I first set eyes on the new Spring Summer Seasonal Catalogue from Stampin’ Up! – it was really nice to leaf through after all my Christmas crafting was complete and get excited about the new products all over again. If you are a regular reader of my posts, you’ll know I’m a complete sucker for a bundle and a bargain, especially if framelits are involved. The Cups & Kettle Framelits and matching A Nice Cuppa stamp set were number one on my wish list.

Cups and Kettles Framelits from Stampin' Up!

The teapot framelit (or is it supposed to be a kettle – the name of the set is confusing me now!) even cuts off the lid perfectly for you, so I knew I had to come up with a way of the lid being removable on the project. The result is a slider pop up card!

Stampin' Up! slider pop up card

I took inspiration from the Have a Cuppa Suite pages in the catalogue, and used Wisteria Wonder as my main colour with the gorgeous new Bermuda Bay ⅛” Stitched Ribbon as the accent for the “pull” of the slider mechanism. I never would have thought of putting those two colours together, but trust Stampin’ Up! to get it right and surprise me. The heart shaped steam accent from the A Nice Cuppa stamp set, stamped in Smoky Slate, creates the perfect background for the pun-tastic “you are Tea-riffic” sentiment. I’m not 100% sold on the Decorative Dots embossing folder for this one. The teapot definitely needs some form of decoration. Maybe I’d better have another look through the catalogues to see what else I could use….

Enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

Stampin' Up! Pinkies Blog Hop

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Filed Under: Blog Hops