Last Saturday was a busy stampin’ class day, 4 classes throughout the day 3D projects, scrapbooking, gifts, albums and an extreme cards class !

So what exactly is an extreme card?  These cards are not difficult, but time consuming, lots of layers, stamping techniques, embossing, cutting out, ribbons, crochet trim and the finished cards certainly needed an extra large stamp to post them, or even a box!

This is one of the cards, inspired by my recent trip to Paris !  There are so many components to the card and lots of embossing and distressing too.

The inside is decorated too, it’s really important to make sure you have enough weight at the back of the card so it doesn’t fall over!  Stampin’ Up! doesn’t sell C5 evelopes but these manilla ones are perfect and the stamping looks great on them too!

The second card I will share with you was inspired by one of my favourite bloggers Teneale Williams, she is a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator in Australia.  You can find her website here, I have put direct links to the cards under each picture.  Her cards are amazing, such attention to detail, I warn you now you will spend a long time looking at her site !!!!

The front of the card was based on this one here.

The inside of the card was based on this one here.

 Happy Stampin’

Wow, what an amazing weekend I had, Saturday was my hostess event where I launch the new catalogue.  I hold it every year as a special treat for the amazing people who invite me into their home and allow me to share Stampin’ Up! with them and their friends and family. They are the lifeblood of my business and it is my honour to be able to put on a special event just for them.

It was very busy with lots of new products to see, 4 cards to make, retired products to buy, a raffle and new for this year a fundraising table.  I am raising money for Breast Cancer Care and for a donation you could select my sample cards and 3D projects, it was fabulous and I think very well recieved.

Unfortunately I don’t have a single picture of the event, I was too busy chatting !  I do need to say a big thank you to Michele, Helen, Alex and Kimberley who all helped the event run smoothly.

Because we did so well with the fundraising at the weekend I am going to continue the fundraising this week, so here is the deal.  Any order placed between now and Friday evening at 6pm from the current catalogue will receive a 10% discount and I will match that by giving 10% to Breast Cancer Care.  The 10% discount will apply to all products in the current catalogue and the already discounted products on the retired list.

If you can collect the order from me there will be no postage to pay, if you need it sent direct to you the postage is £4.95 no matter how big your order.

Lets end the Stampin’ Up! UK year with a bang and raise some money for Breast Cancer Care.

I do have some cards for you today, a stamp set I can hardly believe is leaving the catalogue, Beware Pirates…….

Happy Stampin’

Somehow it is now the last week of the children’s school holidays, I’m not quite sure how that happened ! We are still rushing around trying to get all the back to school and college essentials.

Today however is a fun day, we are off to London, lots of places to go, first stop will be Brick Lane for the vintage shops, then Convent Garden for cupcakes and Macaroons, followed by Harrods and Oxford Street if there is time.  The real treat is going to the theatre this evening to see Wicked!

So whilst I”m off gallivanting I thought I would share a couple of flat Christmas cards with you,these will definitely be a standard rate postage stamp. I know it is still August but it’s never to early to start making your Christmas cards!

I have stamped the background with En Francais, the Wreath and the Joy stamps are from Welcome Christmas and are stamped on a Top Note.  I have used a marker to colour in the berries and a little bit of ribbon finishes the card off.

This second card uses the stamp set Every Little bit, it’s a huge set of tiny stamps that are so useful for every occasion.  The stamped images have been coloured in with markers, a very quick card and again flat for posting.  The sentiment is from Sparkly and Bright.

Happy Stampin’

This card continues the theme from yesterday of sharing.

Last November we went the the 2nd European Stampin’ Up! convention.  One of the presenters was the amazing Pam Morgan, she shared lots of things you could do with our paper daisies and this card is inspired by what she shared with us. This was one of the cards we made last Saturday at the Birthday Bash class. The paper daisies have been stamped, sponged and glittered.

Here they are in close up.

Happy Stampin’

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

We had and are still having a lovely time, and very pleased that both sets of parents braved the weather and came to visit.  I’m sure we have all chatted, laughed, been spoilt and eaten too much, but best of all we are rested and raring to go for the New Year.

Today my quarterly newsletter was posted, so do stalk your postman for your copy, there is some very special information in it including a leaflet about something that will start on the 30th December that’s tomorrow !  If you are not on my mailing list email me your contact details and I’ll get one in the post to you.

Today’s card is a vintage style, it uses a stamp set that I had completely missed in the catalogue, you would think that since I look at it every day I would know every item…….!

I adore roses, yellow ones are my favourite, blue ones are very rare and special and I had a “moonlight” rose ( a very pale blue/lilac) in the garden of my last house, I really need to get to the garden centre and get another one.  So once I had discovered this stamp set and in lieu of my trip to the garden centre I designed this card!

I have used the Newsprint Designer series paper, the fantastic distress kit and one of my favourite stamps En Francais.  The rose is from Happiness shared, it is stamped onto glossy paper and coloured with blender pens and ink.  A bit of distressing with both ink and the sanding block finishes the image.

Now you really do need to come back tomorrow………….!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Okay whilst you are reading this I will be in a coach heading from my hotel to the convention venue, 300 demonstrators 6 coaches…….you can imagine the noise……..!

Today’s projects are my team goodies, they will of course all get one of my general swaps from yesterday as well.

First up a notebook, this is one of my favourite things to do for my team , I really think it’s important that they take notes at any training event and convention is no exception.

Each one is different, not only because of the names but the placement of the images and the sparkly rhinestones, more pink Pirates…….!

Now for bag tags, there will be 300 demonstrators all with the same convention bag, so we need something to stand out from the crowd.  I love these key rings, they take the same beads as my team bracelets so the team can keep them year after year and I can add a bead each time we go to convention and a new tag.

3 beads including a cute fimo butterfly.  I have stamped and clear embossed the Pirates and then gone over the top of it with Champagne shimmer paint, again a Sparkly Pirate!

And finally lanyards, we will receive all sorts of badges and pins when we check in, last year I made ribbon lanyards for my team and decided to do the same again, this time using Pumpkin Pie ribbon.

The darling dragonfly ( our team mascot…….) is a hair clip, that they can take off and re-use. The crystals are very sparkly…….

When we check in we will find out how many of my wonderful team are up for awards and in the top 25 demonstrators in the UK.  I am hoping for lots of them to receive awards, since I don’t have my laptop you’ll have to wait until Sunday for the full report.

Wish me luck for my presentation !

Pop back tomorrow though to see my business swaps, lovely flowers.

Happy Stampin’

Well I’m almost on my way………Car is packed, I’ve been up for ages…….excitement!

Today’s cards are my general swaps, I wanted something to fit my theme but be sparkly and bright……

Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo Pirates anyone?

I don’t think the photo does these justice, they are VERY bright and VERY sparkly, I sprayed them all with Champagne Shimmer paint, I hope you can see the sparkles on this close up.

I will have my team goodies to show you tomorrow.

Happy Stampin’

Well actually they arrived on Friday as expected……but an all day class on Saturday and the garden on Sunday put paid to my playing !

The stamps have now seen ink and they are still my favourites !

First up a non traditional card, what I mean is it’s bright and cheery not exactly what you would expect from a pirate.  I have used the fabby new spritzer tool on this card, it’s so easy to use and lots of fun and a little bit messy, my type of crafting!

Then some more new toys, Glossy cardstock !  Brayering is one of my favourite techniques and glossy cardstock makes it so much easier.  I have used Wild Wasabi and Marina Mist a great sea colour combo.

And now for my “grungy” card, love, love,love the distress kit !  The inks are fabby, blend easily wow we will have fun with this !!!

I have put lots of dimension into this card.

That’s all for me today, I have lots of lovely ladies making 20 cards on Saturday to prepare for, let alone it’s 3 weeks until Stampin’ Up! convention and I have the small matter of about 300 swaps to make……!

Happy Stampin’

And finally some new samples……thank you so much for bearing with me, what an amazing week I have had !  The new catalogue is causing so much excitement, I had had 4 workshops  this week along with planning for my 2 card clubs today I have certainly been busy.  The very first orders I placed minutes after we where allowed to will be with me today, unfortunately my pirate stamps won’t be here till tomorrow…..!

Added to that children’s shopping trips ready for school trips and a sick car ( which is now all fixed), phew I’m exhausted just typing that!!  I am certainly looking forward to having Sunday off and tackling the jungle in my garden!

So new samples, well this first card is my thank you card for October, I make more thank you cards than any other type so I do them in a bit of a production line.  I have used the most amazing Newsprint DSP, you NEED this!  The papers are all double sided there is newsprint, maps, music score, notepad, text from gardening journals, it is wonderful!  I have used it lots…….

The colour combination on my next card of Cherry Cobbler and Crumb cake with Vanilla is fast becoming one of my favourites.  It sounds like the menu in a very exclusive cake shop!!!! Crumb Cake was Kraft in our last catalogue, it has been renamed and we now have inkpads, and markers too.  My Artistic impressions is clear mounted so making the background takes seconds and I have over stamped with the En Francais background stamp.  If you are coming to Card club today this is one of the cards you will be making.  You will find more information about card club along the top opf the website.

Well that’s all for me today I will be back as soon as those pirates have been inked up!!!

Happy Stampin’

Today’s card showcases the amazing Shimmer paint that is in the mini catalogue, you really do need to see it in person to get the full effect of the sparkle it is wonderful and there are 3 colours to choose from, 2 translucent ones, one with a silver tint and one with a golden tint, on one which is opaque Platinum, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, did I say that already………?

Rose Red, Regal Rose and the ever so versatile Chocolate Chip is the colour combo, all of the large flowers have Rose red and Champagne Mist shimmer paint on them, as does the Chocolate Chip circle, here is a closer look…..

So how do you get Rose Red and Champagne Mist onto your stamp……..carefully……..tee hee………….sorry for teasing……..but you do need to be careful and have your stamp ‘n’ scrub at the ready.

Ink up your stamp with Rose Red, put a little Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint into a saucer, use a sponge dauber to pick up the shimmer paint and tap onto the stamp, stamp the image as normal, you can get 2-3 images from one application, they do get paler but that’s part of the fun!   Then clean your stamp……….IMPORTANT………..Do this before you re-ink the stamp.  If you don’t you will end up with a sparkly inkpad, which looks pretty, but might not be good for it.  (I’ll let you know……I have several sparkly inkpads now………shimmer paint and dazzling diamonds adorn many of my inkpads!)

As you carry on your sponge dauber and the shimmer pain in the saucer will get pinker and pinker, this is why you don’t want to take it direct from the bottle!

To make your Chocolate chip card stock sparkly just rub the dauber over the card with Shimmer paint and allow to dry.

I hope that is clear but do leave me a comment if not, actually please do leave me a comment, it is so lovely to hear from you!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

As promised here are some more scrapbook pages for you. This double page spread was part of my recent Scrapbook in a day class, 25 pages in one day! It’s sounds impossible but it is achievable……….the pages are all stylish and yet simple and all ready to pop your photos on when you get home along with the very important journaling. If you’ve never scrapbooked before journaling is the important information about the photo’s…… dates, memories, names, places and so on so that people who see your scrapbook in the future will be able to make sense of the photos.

Scrapbooking in a day is speedy, it’s a different way of scrapbooking to many as traditionally we scrap around the photos and when we scrapbook that way it can take hours………days even to finish a layout as we re-live memories with each picture. Scrapbooking in a day means you can have a whole album ready for your photo’s and journaling, I love speedy!   Then I can take my time adding the photos at a later date.

The pages are on Blush Blossom, teamed with Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip.  I have used the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set and co-ordinating Butterfly punch too.

Here are a couple of close up’s.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

A new favourite card of mine, if you are coming to one of my home workshops in the next few weeks you will see me demonstrate this card.  It’s five minutes to stamp and assemble and looks great.

This one is all in purple, Lavender Lace and Elegant Eggplant. But it also looks fab in Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate chip too.

I’ve almost finished the Spinner card tutorial so do pop back tomorrow to see it.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Morning !

It’s half term here in the UK and it’s been a busy week so far, I’m going to Margaret’s for a home workshop this morning we are going to have lots of fun with wheels!

The card for today is using lots of stamps, I love the vintage look of layering stamps, but instead of going for neutral style colours I’ve gone for a real spring look, using Barely Banana and Apricot Appeal.  I have used the background stamps of Medallion and En Francais along with Happy Moments a Sale-a-bration stamp set that is still available for free with a qualifying £45 order.

One of my team showed us how to pin the ribbon down with a brad at our recent shoebox swap, it makes a great topper for the birdcage.

Day off tomorrow, we are going to see Avatar and then it’s the craziest week of this year so far…………. Sunday and Monday off to Peterborough to finalise Issue 3 of Making gifts, 3 home workshops and then Friday, Saturday, Sunday I’m at the Make it ! show at Farnborough on the Magmaker stand, I’ll be demonstrating for all 3 days, do come along and say hello.

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

My friend Liz had a baby boy on Tuesday, his name is Bailey, big congratulations !!!!

This is the card on it’s way to her, I can safely put it here as she is way too busy to visit my website at the moment!

The little bags are part of the present, some Choccies and English Rose bath melts for Liz, Bailey has got to wait for his pressie till I see him!  But rest assured it has stamping on it and I will post it here soon.

I think it’s important to make sure that new Mum’s have a little something to congratulate them, after all they did all the hard work!!

Below is a close up of one of the tags and the inside of the card, stamped immediately after the front of the card so I got a soft look from the ink.

Stamps : En Francais, Medallion, Whimsical Words, All in the Family
Inks: Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Night of Navy
Cardstock: Whisper White, Ballet Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, 1 1/4″ circle punch, 1 3/8″ circle Punch, Scallop Circle punch, Scallop Oval punch, Oval Punch, Blender pens, Double stitched ribbon, Paper Piercer, Silver cord, Cello bags

Finally a quick request, I have a workshop booking for Teresa Jones and I cannot get through on the telephone, it is really important that i speak with her, I have written to her as I don’t have an email address, so Teresa, or if you know Teresa please call or email me.  Thank you x

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

To my Mum and Dad for yesterday ! 43 years wow !

Here is their card, I can safely show this it as it did arrive on time, Phew!  This is a 6″ square card using Real Red textured cardstock.  Some clever trickery enabled me to get a scallop edge around this 1 3/4″ circle, demonstrated to us by the wonderful Shelli Gardener CEO of Stampin’ Up! at the Convention in Germany I will share all with a tutorial early next week.

This is the inside, to get the faded look with the En Francais stamp, I repeatedly stamped it onto my grid paper until it was very pale and then onto the card insert, ready for me to write over the top.

Stamps :Mr and Mrs, En Francais, Love you much
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Cardstock: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Heart to Heart Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1″ circle punch

Exciting news, tomorrow I am taking part in a blog hop……..come back to see what it is all about !

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Some more lovely cards to show you today, from Stella, Jane and Vannessa.  Wonderful new stamps, this catalogue is fantastic!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Here is one of my Chocolate bar cards we made at my For the Love of Chocolate class.  A variation of these you will find in the current ( May 09) issue of Making Cards magazine.  You can pick up a copy at your local craft store or visit the website here and treat yourself to a subscription.

I do have some places left on my summer classes, please click here to see all the details.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

I have 2 wonderful cards to share with you today, made by 2 of my fantastic team of Inspiring Inkees.  They sent me these cards this week to say well done for my recent promotion to Silver 3.

The first is from Amy, this is a tent card, the base card is a 4″ square which she has stamped and embossed with silver.  The top part of the card is a 3″ square  with the bottom 1″ stuck to the 4″ card.  The Close to Cocoa frame has been made using the Scallop edge punch on a 2 5/8″ square piece of card.

This second card is from Elaine, she has made a gatefold card 8″x 5 3/4″ and scored at 2″ and 6″ the front panels are En Francais stamped and silver embossed onto vellum cardstock, absolutely stunning in real life.  The front fastening is very clever, it’s a ribbon slider from the Hodgepodge hardware set and both pieces of ribbon are threaded through one from each side to secure.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

I love this stamp set, it makes really quick cards look really classy.  In all three cards I have used the En Francais background, but each one is different. 

Sage Shadow

Chocolate Chip for the base card, stamped En Francais Background in Chocolate chip, the mat layer is textured Sage Shadow with a little bit of paper piercing around the edge and the flower is stamped in Stazon onto Naturals Ivory and using the blender pens and ink I coloured it in Sage Shadow for the leaves and Rose Red for the flower.

Pumpkin Pie

Apologies for the wonky photo……..A square base card in Ballet Blue with a bit of doodling on the corners, a mat layer of Pumpkin Pie and the main image stamped in Stazon onto Naturals Ivory.  I stamped the image again on a post-it note and masked it then overstamped the En Francais background in Close to Cocoa.   Water coloured the image using Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red and Old Olive water colour crayons and then I used my aqua painter and brushed clean water over the background to give a softer look to the text.

Chocolate Lime

A base card of Chocolate Chip, with 1″ cut off the front and the edge scalloped.  A 2″ strip of  Gable Green stuck onto the inside to show through, with Chocolate Chip ribbon tied around, and knotted……..you do know I’m bow impaired……..can’t tie bows!!!!  The main image stamped in Stazon and watercoloured, Gable Green and Chocolate Chip water Colour Crayons and then cut out.  The mat layer is Gable Green with the En Francais background stamped in Chocolate Chip, the main image mounted with Stampin’ Dimensional foam pads.

I have a definite favourite………..which one is yours?

Happy Stampin’

Amanda