Inspiring Inkin’

Today is the first Inspiring Inkin’ team day of 2010, I run regular monthly evening meetings for my team but this is a special one as 3 or 4 times a year we spend the whole day together with lots of stamping, training, fun and laughter.  Now is a really great time to join Stampin’ Up! and become a member of my team, please see here for more details.

Here are all their name badges ready to go, I’m having a bit of a purple phase at the moment, the badges are stamped with Greenhouse Garden in Lavender Lace and Elegant Eggplant.

I have a tradition of making notebooks for my team and this time is no exception, these have been decorated with the Sunny days simply Scrappin’ kit and to match I have got them all a Stampin’ Up! Sunny Days pen, well how else will they take lots of notes ?

We will be making several projects and I will share those over the coming days, but today I will show you my new invention, and I’m really excited about it, everyone will be making their own version !

It’s an art journal decorated and designed to showcase all our Stampin’ Up! punches.

Here are some of the inside pages.

Have a great Valentines day I’ll be back on Monday with more projects.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

This week I have 2 Inspiring Inkin’ Stampin’ Up! team meetings.  On Wednesday we had a shoe box swap and on Saturday we have a full all day training.

Today I’m going to share with you the wonderful projects we made at the shoebox swap, so what exactly is a shoebox swap?

The idea of a  swap is for everyone to get together and assemble the “sample card” that is displayed by each swap participant. We set up stations with every one’s Shoe Box Swaps on a table and we make each other’s card and we all go home with a shoebox full of assembled cards!

Each person makes one completed sample card and puts all the materials for 12 (cardstock-pre-cut to size, stamps, inks, markers, punches, embellishments, etc.) used to make more of the same card in a Shoe Box or small box. They have to be demonstrable cards (meaning it would be something you would do in a workshop or class) using at least two accessories and layers.

We all made 7 projects, these 6 lovely cards using wheels, paper piecing, ribbons, craft ink I’ll be stealing lots of these ideas!

Some of the cards had stamped insides too !

This is my card

Now there is one project missing…..it had chocolate in it, but I have been good and not eaten it!

It was Hayley’s Easter treat and she has kindly agreed to share the instructions so my stampers 10’s and Technique clubs it will be your 3D project for this month! It is super cute and of course I will include the chocolate!  All my club meetings are in the next 10 days so I’ll share it on my website after that.

Thank you to my wonderful team for a fab evening and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Look at these wonderful ribbons……..!

This is just one of the ribbon bundles that have been parcelled up ready for posting and delivering.

Here they are ready to go.

Each one has a couple of Sale-a-bration stamp included along with 16 1/2 metres of ribbon all just for £13.  If you would like to get your hands on some please check out this post here.  I will carry on this ribbon share throughout February.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Last Friday it was my son Connor’s birthday he was 15.  We had a very busy weekend, meals and trips out and lots of fun and laughter. Both Connor and Kimberley ended the weekend with a Karate grading, it was to get 1st Kyu, Red, White and Blue Belt, they both passed and and are now looking forward to working hard for their next belt it’s Black. Needless to say I didn’t work all weekend, I so I’m now busy catching up with all my emails and messages.

Cards for teenage boys are never easy, particulary when his in colours of the moment are purple and green!

I turned to my favourite hostess set in the current catalogue it’s called Queue Up and has these wonderful candles 13 in all, so a little bit of masking and I had 15 candles, I coloured them in with my trusty markers.  Added a Sale-a-Bration stamp set and some grungy overstamping with the sanded background stamp in both Green Galore and Lovely Lilac.

The card got a grin, I reckon that’s teenager for thanks Mum x

Stamps : Sanded, Queue Up, Whimsical Words
Inks: Basic Black, Green Galore, Lovely Lilac
Cardstock: Whisper White, Green Galore, Lovely Lilac
Accessories: Stampin’ Write Markers, Blender pen

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

A very quick post today………I have been really busy this week with Issue 3 of Making Gifts magazine, some home workshops and preparation for classes too.  Who stole this week………..I can’t believe it’s friday!!!

A quick reminder for you to check out my class schedule here I have just added an additional date for the year in a day scrapbook class, this will be held in Fareham.  There are only a few places left on the mini madness class too, so please get booked up soon.

Todays card is using the wonderful Good Neighbours Sale-a-bration set, along with my trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig !  I’ll be demonstrating this card at my February home workshops. If you don’t know what a Stamp-a-ma-jig is or you would like to earn this stamp set for free……..book a workshop with me during February.

Have a great weekend.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Today I am joining in a Sale-a-bration blog hop with some very talented ladies from the ILWS forum. If you have joined me from Dawn’s blog a warm welcome to my website, whilst you are here do have a look around, there are lots of samples, tutorials and inspiration, the tabs at the top and links on the right hand panel will lead the way for you.

All the samples on this blog hop are featuring Sale-a-abration stamp sets available for free with a £45 Stampin’ Up! order.  I have used the Whimsical Words stamp set for my cards today and at the end there is a mini tutorial.  The colour combination for my cards is Close to Cocoa and Pretty in Pink, I have embellished the cards with the Pretties kit.

This first card uses the heart from Love you Much stamp set, stamped in Rose Red onto Whisper White card and coloured with markers before cutting out and raised up on dimensionals. A little paper piercing in the corners and the heart is cut through using a hat pin studded with pearls and a little Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon.

The card below is using Fresh cuts and decorated with 2 flowers from the pretties kit, the first flower is coloured using a Close to Cocoa marker and the second is seriously glittered……I love, love glitter!

This is a pretties white fabric flower, transformed with Stampin’ Up! Fine Cosmo glitter, here it is in close up! Very Sparkly !!

Glitter flower tutorial

You will need

Fine Cosmo Glitter
Pretties kit
Crystal effects
A small dish to hold the glitter

Squeeze the crystal effects all over the flower, it needs to be well covered as shown in the next 2 pictures.

Put the flower crystal effects side down, this is messy, press down hard into the glitter check for any bald spots and press down again, do use tweezers if you don’t like to be gluey and sparkly……..me I love it!

Then put it to one side to dry, make sure it’s a non-stick surface, I use a teflon sheet, but baking parchment will work too, you will know when it’s ready the flower will feel a little crispy!!

Below are 5 flowers coated using each of the colours in the Fine Cosmo glitter kit aren’t they beautiful, a little glitter goes a very long way brilliant value at £12.95.

Thank you for spending time with my, do come back again soon, and now off to your next stop   Jo’s Blog have fun!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Do you love Stampin’ Up! ribbon? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have the perfect colour ribbon on hand whenever we needed it. This dream can come a little bit closer with my ribbon share.

I have selected some of my favourite ribbons to make up a goodie bag of 16 1/2  metres of ribbon, you can see some of them in the picture below. It includes all 4 colours of the amazing 1 1/4″ Striped Grosgrain ribbon along with many others and costs only £13 including postage.

In each ribbon share you will receive:

1 ¼” Striped Grosgrain Ribbon in Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and Basic Black: 1 metre of each colour

1” double stitched ribbon Rose Red and Bashful Blue: 1 metre of each colour

½” striped ribbon So Saffron: 1 metre

3/8” Taffeta ribbon Kraft and Pretty in Pink: 1 metre of each colour

¼” grosgrain Elegant Eggplant and Tempting Turquoise: 1 1/2 metres of each colour

5/8” grosgrain Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip: 1 1/2 metres of each colour

3/16” Gingham Ribbon Black: 1 1/2 metres

As a bonus since we are in Sale-a-bration for each share you will also receive some stamps from one of the Sale-a-bration sets.

Please contact me if you are interested in taking part in this ribbon share. Email me. or you can buy now via paypal.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Do you have the Stampin’ Write Marker Pens on your wish list? If not, why not ? They are wonderful marker pens, a nice size, double ended, with a thick and a fine nib. Helpfully they have a thick and thin white line around each corresponding end so you know which lid to take off ! The pens can be used to directly colour onto a rubber stamp, allowing you to create an image with multiple colours. They are also great for colouring in, water-colouring, doodling and even writing.  They co-ordinate with our 48 colours so you will always have the right marker for your projects !

The markers come in colour family packs at £24.95 each but the best way of buying them is as a full set as they come with a very sturdy carry case, see the picture below.

The inside has sections for each marker and a colour chart on the back so you know where to put them all.

The complete 48 set of markers comes in a lovely carry case, costing £99.95. I understand that this is a lot of money to pay out in one go, so I have put together this club to help spread the cost over several months !

The important bit:

* The marker club will consist of four members, and run for four months.

* You must commit to participate for the whole duration of the club.

* Commitment will require post dated cheques, which will be deposited with the bank on the 5th of each month February, March, April and May.

During the club you will receive:

* One colour family  of markers per month, a total of 12 Stampin’ Write markers.

* One Stampin’ Write storage carrying case.

By the end of the four months, you will have:

1 x Complete set of 48 Stampin’ Write Many Marvelous Markers in storage case. (RRP £99.95)

And your choice of Sale-a-bration stamp set as a thank you from me!

Cost: £25.00 per month, for four months, if you are able to collect the markers from me, if not I will charge postage to you at cost.

Please contact me if you are interested in join this marker pen club! Email me.

Details of my ribbon share will be posted later today.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda