Well did you remember to put your clocks forward? It certainly meant a very, very early start for me this morning as the Australian GP started the new Formula 1 season.  I have been a huge fan since I was a small child and never miss a race.  McLaren is my favourite team and the fact that 2 British boys race for them is a wonderful bonus!  The race was a great start to the season with Lewis 2nd and Jenson 6th.

I think that’s enough motor racing for now…….

I promised to draw 3 names for a handmade brooch today, several of you had 2 entries as you linked to your websites, thank you so much for all your comments.

Here are the 3 winners

Julie said:

So pretty, will definitely have a go at making these once the cast comes off!! Thank you for sharing x If I’m lucky would like any colour as I love them all!

Taniaj said:

great brooch i would love the marina mist if I were lucky. Thanks for sharing the idea Tx

Sharon said:

WOW! Fab easy to follow tutorial, with clear step by step photos. Brooch is stunning.

Sharon and Julie please can you let me know which colour you would like and I’ll get busy making them !

I have some notebooks to show you today, a few weeks ago we attended a Stampin’ Up! regional training with more than 20 of my team attending I wanted to make them something lovely.

I have used the in colour designer series paper stack, Pear Pizzazz ribbon and decorated them with punched flowers.

Since we now have a gentleman in our team, Trevor I made his notebook a little differently.

Happy Stampin’

More from my team training yesterday, it was a wonderful day.

These are the 3 cards they made, all showcasing our fabulous buttons.

And a close up of each one.

And the final 3D item they made was a button bracelet, I have been making these for a long time as a friend and store owner Anna has been designing and making button jewellery forever and has shown me lots of tips and tricks!  I haven’t made much jewellery for a while and when I decided to focus the training on buttons I knew I just had to make some jewellery with the team.

I was then reminded of the bracelet idea via a post from an American Stampin’ Up! demonstrator Patty Bennett here, she in turn got the idea from Jill Olson, isn’t this so great we all share from one another!

The buttons Patty uses are bigger than the ones we have currently in the UK, but we just used a few more ! These are modelled by the lovely Kimberley.

I have used a clear stretchy thread as I wanted the buttons to be the star of the show, but you could easily use our stretchy silver or gold thread.  You could put rhinestones or pearls in the centre of the flower buttons too, that would make it very sparkly!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the mini scrapbook details.

Happy Stampin’

or card by it’s cover !

A very simple card front, hiding a lovely surprise !

Anna-Marie asked me to showcase this type of card at her workshop this week, she had seen this card and wanted to learn how to make it.  So I tweaked and made it all girly and full of sunshine!

The mechanism is straightforward, you just have to be brave with your cutting.

I know I have been quiet with my posts this week, I have been busy though, this is what i have been doing….

It might look messy but there is organisation in there, I have my quarterly team training tomorrow and those pictures how just some of the boxes I’m taking with me, I am getting a little concerned that I won’t fit it all in the car!

We are making 7 projects tomorrow, swapping cards, business training and lots of fun, laughter and stamping! I’ll be posting the projects over the next couple of days so do pop back.  I have to go shopping for cake!

Happy Stampin’

So are you feeling festive yet?  I managed to get some Christmas shopping done yesterday but I’ve still got a way to go……….. At least all our snow has gone now, I know that for many of you the snow is still causing major problems, do keep safe and warm x

Today’s projects are a little gift bag and card, perfect for small items of jewellery, do you think if I leave one for Brian he would find a diamond ring for me to fill it………?  Joking aside, the bag is a perfect fit for a small jewellery box, but I actually designed it to fit our new Pendant notes.  The small cards fit inside and if you make a few of them pop them in the bag it’s a perfect gift for someone who is always tricky to buy for, we all need cards to send don’t we!  A homemade gift is always something special.

I have used the Elegant Soiree Designer paper, and the silky Satin ribbon in Very Vanilla.

For the cards I have popped out the diecut, stamped in Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze onto the card using Baroque Motifs and decorated it with a punched flower from Boho Blossoms and a rhinestone.

Happy Stampin’

These are the projects I completed at Elaine’s on Saturday.

Jane designed this first card, well something very similar……….you see I was busy chatting ( not like me at all !  ) and stuck my ribbon on too central then the mat layers didn’t fit so I adapted the design……..I’m really pleased with it and the technique, I will be demoing this technique at my workshops during July.

Stamps : Wow Flowers
Inks: Green Galore
Cardstock: Green Galore, Whisper White
Accessories: 1/2″ circle punch, White grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Pastels, Sponge Daubers, Paper Piercer, Scallop circle punch

This is a bookmark designed by Vannessa, it showcases the wonderful Season of Joy, a Christmas stamp set that’s not just for Christmas!!!  I love the Summer Sun, Cameo Coral combination, just right for a summer holiday read.

Stamps : Season of Joy, One of a Kind
Inks: Cameo Coral, Summer Sun, Old Olive
Cardstock: Cameo Coral, Summer Sun, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Round Tab Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, Brads, Paper piercer

This card was Amy’s make and take with a difference, she gave us all a bag of bits, cardstock, designer paper, confetti white card.  Black Stazon ink, watercolour crayons and the choice of 2 stamp sets, Scene in a Garden or the one I chose Soft Summer.  The ribbon embellishment uses a loop of Linen thread to attach the button, simple and stylish.  Love it!

Stamps : Soft Summer
Inks: Black Stazon
Cardstock and Papers: Confetti White, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Summer Picnic DSP
Accessories: Button, Linen Thread, Bashful Blue Double Stitched Ribbon, Watercolour wonder crayons

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

As a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator each month I receive a mini magazine called Impressions and it has lots of hints and tips about building our businesses  and some great ideas for demonstrations.  This month one of the ideas was to use the Tag punch to create flowers, a very simple technique but very effective.  

To make the flowers you fold a tag in half vertically, taking the right side over on top of the left side ( which ever pattern of paper is inside will be the one shown) and then keeping the fold on the right hand side you fold the top half back making a diagonal crease going from the bottom left corner to the centre fold.  Layer the petals onto a 1 3/8″ circle overlapping them slightly, like teabag folding to make your flower.  

As always actually folding the paper is much easier than reading the instructions………..

My card is pretty much the same as the one shown in the magazine, I have used Tea Party designer paper from the mini catalogue, the patterns showing are 2 sides of the same paper.  Almost Amethyst is the main card blank and So Saffron as the sentiment layer scalloped with the edge punch they also make up the centre of the flower where I have punched out using the Boho Blossoms punch.  All finished off with a Rhinestone brad and some wonderful Button Latte from the Mini.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Happy Easter, I hope you are enjoying your weekend, it’s been really rainy here so plenty of time for crafting, which is great since I have several deadlines looming………..My parents are visiting with us this weekend and as always are busy helping out, Mum is doing a grand job helping me with my crafting projects and my Dad and Brian are both ripping up carpets, painting skirting, door frames, fitting a new door bell, rehanging doors and goodness knows what!  Fabulous work!

The Easter bunny visited the children too…………..There is far too much chocolate in this house now!

So onto a Chocolate based card, well what else today……..

These are 2 cards sent to wonderful team members who have promoted recently.  The flower pots are Chocolate Chip cardstock with the lip punched with the scallop edge punch.  The flowers are made with two of the 5 petal punch using Designer Series Paper from the Love Stories Simply Scrappin’ kit and the smallest flower from the Boho Blossoms punch and stuck together with a Bashful Blue brad.  The sentiment is from Oval All and punched using both the Oval punch and the Scallop Oval punch.

My share for today are two wonderful forums with a huge amount of Stampin’ Up! inspiration in the galleries

This one is a USA based forum, not all of the stamps shown are available in the UK ( at the moment) Splitcoast Stampers 

The second one is based here in the UK and is very friendly  In Love With Stamping   

You will find me on both of these sites, my forum name is Emerald Tigger.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

 This is a bookmark we made at my Mum and Me class last September for some reason I never posted the tutorial so here it is, better late than never!

Embellishments and Tools

3” Paperclip
Hot glue gun or other strong glue
Old Olive Ribbon
Black marker pen and White gel pen
1 3/8 ” Punch
½ ” punch
Boho Blossoms punch
Scallop circle punch
Round Tab punch

1. First punch and cut out all your pieces 1 3/8” punch 4 x Chocolate Chip, 1 x Close to Cocoa, ½ ” Circle punch 2 x Old Olive, Round tab punch 1 x Chocolate Chip, Boho Blossoms punch 2 x Creamy Caramel. Cut a small triangle for a beak from Creamy Caramel.
2. Stick 1 of the Chocolate Chip circles to each side of the top of the paperclip.
3. Draw black and white eyes onto the Old Olive circles and attach them with the beak onto the Chocolate Chip round tab punch.
4. Make wings by punching part of the Chocolate Chip circles through the scallop circle punch, about 4 scallops is the right size.
5. Stick 2 of the small flowers underneath the Close to Cocoa 1 3/8” circle to make feet and attach the wings to the top section., Then add the head.
6. Put glue onto one of the Chocolate Chip circles attached to the Paperclip and stick the owl to it.
7. Tie the ribbon to decorate the bookmark.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda