Today I have some cards to share made by my team and friends during this past year, they are great inspiration.  I am so lucky to have such wonderful cards sent to me !

I hope you are enjoying the festive season.

Happy Stampin’

Good morning, have you ever been working towards a deadline and you get to the point where you are sure there is the Countdown TV program clock ticking in your ear?  That’s kind of how I’m feeling at the moment.  On Friday 1st April 2011 Stampin’ Up! UK launches a new mini catalogue it’s the BIGGEST one yet and is full of the most amazing products I am sooooooooooo excited I could burst, which to be fair wouldn’t be very pretty!

I’m ploughing through my to do list and making some gorgeous things for you but I can’t share with you just yet…….and I’mn sure you know what it’s like when you have new goodies, you just want to play with them, not your favourite stamps from last week, we crafters are so fickle sometimes!

I do have a card to share with you today, it’s for my husbands Aunt and Uncle who celebrate their Diamond wedding anniversary this week, that’s 60 years of marriage.

I have used an old favourite style of card, it’s been around for years, but was really popular about 2-3 years ago and has now disappeared a bit.  I call it a cracker fold (as it looks like a Christmas cracker), it probably has a proper name!  The front is shaped like a diamond so very appropriate.

The papers and colours are the same as yesterday. Do you like the 3 layers of punched edging I think it looks like antique lace.

Come back tomorrow to see lots of new goodies.

If you are on my mailing list mini catalogues have gone out in the post yesterday along with my new class schedule, lots of new clubs and classes for you. Email me if you would like your own copy.

Happy Stampin’

Today’s card uses the Christmas tree from the Contempo Christmas set.  It looks complicated with the different colours but it is easily achieved with Stampin’ write markers.

Ink up the tree in Wild Wasabi and then use your finger to wipe off the star and plant pot (sorry messy crafter here…….you could of course use a tissue!) then use the brush tip of the Cherry Cobbler marker for the plant pot and the star.  Breathe onto the stamp to re moisten the ink and stamp away.  I then used the fine tip of the Daffodil Delight marker to fill in the star.  The background is the Sanded stamp.

Back tomorrow !

Happy Stampin’

Typing this, I feel like I need to be in a confessional…It has been 13 days since my last post !

I can honestly say I have no idea where the time has gone, I have been really busy but that isn’t anything new now is it!  I think I haven’t got to the website because of the travelling I have been doing, lots of workshops and a launch workshop for a new member of my team the lovely Karen along with team trainings and family stuff, phew it’s no wonder I haven’t been around much huh!

Well I am trying to get back on top of my world this week, the kids are off school for half term and I have  plans to catch up and spend some time with my family so I’m not actually working that much.  Then there is the madness of next week, I have 2 workshops and then on Thursday I’m off to convention with 300 other European Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, 18 of my team and I’m so looking forward to seeing so many of my demonstrator friends, I have the small matter of 220 swap cards and team gifts to finish first.  I must say a big thank you to Kelly and Steph who have been great helping me make the swaps!

So some lovely things for you to see today, this is a little baby gift set, the box is a perfect size for a babygrow and some little socks.

The colour combination is Daffodil Delight and Marina Mist.  Here is the card in close up!

I promise to be back tomorrow!!!!

Happy Stampin’

I’m so sorry about that title……but I couldn’t resist it!

This monotone card is great for showcasing our fabulous wheels, this one is called So Swirly ! A scalloped edge, a little ribbon and a sentiment from Oval All and we are all done!  Speedy crafting!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Well what a blustery day it has been ! I’m in Farnborough at the Make it! Show on the Magmaker stand (H6) promoting Making Gifts magazine, Making Cards magazine and of course my decoupage book.

The wind has really been gusting today and making the roof rattle, so much so I had to find my big voice to be heard over the top of it!

Thank you very much to all those lovely people who stopped by to say hello! Crafters are such wonderful people. Shows are a great opportunity to meet new people and learn new things. Each day I demonstrate different projects because many people come to the show for all 3 days and it think it’s important that they get to see something new each day.

One of the cards I was demonstrating today was a spinner card like the one below, it’s very straightforward once you know how !

I will do a tutorial for it next week, when I’m back from the show.

I have used the Birdcage stamp from the FREE Sale-a-bration stamp set along with the scallop circle punch and some designer series paper.

Remember you have 2 days left to get your free stamps with Sale-a-bration, I know I’m away from home but I can still place orders and if you place a qualifying order for Sale-a-bration (£45 or more) I will pay your postage !

I hope you have a wonderful weekend

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

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 set is going to be one of my favourites I am sure, it’s a lovely little set with 2 sentiments.

Of course the more eagle eyed of you will have spied another new punch…….it’s called a Word Window punch and gives a lovely professional finish to the card.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

It was one of my friends birthdays last week, she doesn’t like lots of fussy things so a very simple card was in order, blues and browns her favourite colours.

The butterfly is stamped on vellum cardstock using versamark ink and heat embossed in gold.

Stamps : Occasional Greetings, Touch of Nature
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip Textured card, Bashful Blue, Simply Scrappin’ kit Love Stories paper, Vellum card stock
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Gold embossing powder, Chocolate Chip ribbon

I had a wonderful Christmas in July class on Saturday, thank you so much ladies for a great day, my new class list is going out to all my customers later today and will be on the website tomorrow.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

This was my hostess gift to Elaine to say thank you for hosting us on Saturday and my make and take.

I have a new favourite colour combination Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip so have designed my project around that, a very simple notebook.  Of course I needed to take the hostess a little gift, so have made a label for the bottle of wine, to match!

The tag is a luggage label attached with both Double stitched and Grosgrain Chocolate Chip ribbon.

For both projects I have used just the main Rose image and stamped in Sage Shadow first then the outline in Chocolate Chip, to get the glossy finish I over stamped in Versamark the background image and then clear heat embossed. The rose is then cut out and matted onto Naturals Ivory card, then Chocolate Chip and Sage Shadow card.  The note pad is covered with Kraft cardstock and a scalloped layer of Sage Shadow over Chocolate chip gives the final embellishment at the bottom.

Stamps : A Rose is a Rose
Inks: Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Versamark
Cardstock: Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory, Kraft
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Paper Piercer

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Three cards to share with you today, 2 from my lovely team of Inspiring Inkees Jane and Marilyn and one from a new customer who I met last week, Marcia.

Thank you so much for sending me cards.

This is from Jane, it’s a Whisper White card blank with 2 Ballet Blue layers the bottom one is has a scalloped edge, it has the So Swirly Wheel over the top with Ballet Blue ink.  The centre panel is stamped with Bravo Burgundy, Ballet Blue and  So Saffron ink using the leaf stamp from Very Versatile, and matted onto So Saffron and Bravo Burgundy card.  The sentiment is from Oval All and mounted on So Saffron Oval Scallop punch.

This is from Marilyn, it’s a wonderful stamp set from u-mount she has used some mica paints to colour in the embossed images, see the detail in the image below.

And now for the lovely Marcia, she has using a Penny Black hedgehog stamp to make this lovely card.

That’s all for today, I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Some more cards using the Fresh Cut stamp set today, it has seen so much ink recently, but it is so versatile!

This is a really simple one using an Old Olive standard card blank I have stamped the main image in Chocolate Chip ink, onto Whisper White and blended the Stampin’ pastels over the top using Sponge Daubers, So Saffron, Rose Red and a little Chocolate Chip.  A mat of Rose Red with a little bit of paper piercing, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon and a Scallop oval stamped and chalked as before.

Again starting with an Old Olive card blank, a mat of Night of Navy and the large stamp, inked in Old Olive on Whisper White card.  The large stamp is a little bit bigger than 3″ square, so to make it easy to cut I trimmed it to 3″ square so I could cut 3 x 1″ strips and then 9 x 1″ squares.  At a recent class Christine had the idea to put numbers on the back in pencil so it was less like a jigsaw puzzle!  Very handy tip, thanks Christine!  The card is finished with a strip of Whisper White with a rather wonky “for you” stamped on it, Straight is sooooooooo over rated!  With a scalloped edge and some Night of Navy Grosgrain ribbon.

And the last one for today a Rose Red card blank, a Pretty in Pink 3 3/4″ mat with the large stamp inked with Rose Red onto the centre.  Taking the front only of a Fresh Cut Notes card trim it to 3 1/2″, Use a piece of scrap paper so you can ink up the centre petals, using Pretty in Pink ink and a sponge dauber, just tuck the scrap paper under the petal but above the front of the card.  Then pop a 5 petal flower punch of Rose red under the inked petals and a Rose Red flower from Flower Fusion secure with a silver brad.  Attach the Whisper White card to the Pretty in pink card with brads and then stick to the front of the card.  Finally “Thank You” is stamped at the top and bottom in Rose Red.

I have a couple of places left on my new Stampers 10 club, details are below as soon as it is full we can get started, it’s a great way to get your goodies a little at a time and receive hostess benefits for a workshop without having to clean your house and make tea!

Stampers 10 Club

Would you like free stamps and free products?

Would you like to build up your Stampin’ Up! stash a little bit at a time?

Would you like to earn hostess benefits, but can’t or don’t want to host a home workshop?

Then joining my Stamper’s Ten club is a wonderful solution.

What do I have to do?

You would commit to a ten month membership, agreeing to spend £15 per month from the current catalogue including any current mini catalogues. (That’s £3.75 per week – the price of a magazine!) You can place larger orders, and if you know that you will want to spend at least £30 per month, then you can take two spaces in the club. If you can collect your products from me there will be no postage to pay, if not you will need to pay postage at cost.

What are the benefits?

You will receive a free catalogue from me and a new catalogue when it’s launched in October, a free mini project kit each month with instructions, and for one month (two if you take two slots) during your ten month membership you will receive a minimum of,  a free level one hostess set, and £15 worth of free products from the catalogue.

When does it start?

As soon as I have enough members, the club can start – so if you know anyone who would be interested please tell them.

If you are interested in signing up, or would like more details please email me.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Lots of cards to share with you from some very special people……

This first one is from a wonderfully talented ALMOST 9 year old!  She is the daughter of one of my team of Inspiring Inkees and is clearly following in her Mum’s footsteps!  The card uses Forest Friends stamp set, some ribbon and the scallop edge punch.  Thank you very much!

This second card is from another talented lady Karen, a friend and a financial wizz kid!  You may remember I did a tutorial on waterfall cards here, well this is one made by Karen, lovely tones of colours, the stamp set is Simply Said (one of my absolute favourites!)   Thanks Karen.

And finally from the wonderful Elaine also an Inspiring Inkee a card with a secret surprise.  She has used the  stamp sets Scene in a Garden and Curvy Verses and Haiki designer series paper.  The 3 little brads hold down a flap which you can see lifted in the second picture.  It is lovely Elaine, thank you.

Thank you so much for the emails and messages I receive daily, I’ve had visits,  flowers, presents and  calls it is so lovely to hear from you.  I am wading through the emails and will be making some of my own creations in a few days…….it is amazing how much you use your tummy muscles to stamp……..so I’m going slowly.

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

This was one of the projects on my Stamping but not on cards class.  It is made from Vellum, the great thing about Stampin’ Up!’s Vellum cardstock is it’s really strong but flexible so I have lots more projects coming up using it.

Now because pur classic ink is dye based it dries really quickly on cardstock but much slower on Vellum (as it’s non-porous) so you can use our classic coloured inks and heat emboss too! Make sure you only do about 10 stamped images though unless you are super speedy and then coat with clear embossing powder and heat. Because the Vellum cardstock is semi opaque I always use a slightly darker tone of ink when I am stamping, in this case I have used Really Rust.

Bag ‘n’ box

Card 5 ½ ” x 5 ½” scored at 1 ½ ” inch all the way around (Apricot Appeal)
Card stock 2” x 10 ¾ ” scalloped along one edge (Apricot Appeal card and stamped with Apricot Appeal ink)
Vellum cardstock 4” x 10 ¾ ”
Ribbon

1. Cut along the 1 ½” inch score lines at each corner of the card until you hit the 1 ½” inch score line in the opposite direction. Do this only on one line per side. This creates the tabs to hold the box section together.
2. Fold the box along all the score lines.
3. Fold all tabs in the same direction. Apply double sided tape to the four corners and fold the box to form the sides.
4. Decorate the vellum cardstock. Using Really Rust ink, stamp the images about 10 at a time then cover with clear embossing powder and continue until covered then heat.
5. Apply double sided tape to one of the long and one of the short edges of the vellum cardstock.
6. Begin by sticking the one corner of the vellum cardstock to the middle back of the box base. Wrap slowly and carefully around the base. Once you have stuck it all the way around join it to seal the bag section.
7. Scallop one edge of the strip of cardstock and stamp all over with co-ordinating ink. Wrap the scalloped edge around the box in the same way as before.
8. Gently crease the 4 corners of the bag and fold 2 sides in toward the centre to give the bag some shape.
9. Attach 2 x Round tab punches to make handles and tie with ribbon.

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

Lots of my lovely team have promoted during March so I’ve had a busy time making cards for them all.  Hopefully they have received them by now.  For these cards I have used Playful Petals which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite sets from the new mini catalogue.

I have taken a base Whisper white card stamped the stalks and leaves in Black Stazon and coloured with a Certainly Celery marker and a blender pen.  The flower heads I stamped onto a separate piece of Whisper White, coloured with markers Pretty in Pink and So Saffron and blender pans and then cut out and mounted onto the card using dimensional.  I have used the sentiments from Fresh Cuts and  Cheer and Wishes, cut out with the Oval and Scallop Oval punches.

For the next 3 cards I have taken a base card of Certainly Celery, added a strip of Tea Party Designer paper and a scalloped edge of So Saffron. I have stamped the leaves and stalk directly onto the card in Black Stazon on and then stamped and coloured the flower heads as before.  The sentiment is from Cheer and Wishes and I’ve punched it out of So Saffron card and added some little doodle dots with the white gel pen.

I have 2 more promotion cards to share which I’ll share tomorrow

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

At the team training last week I set a challenge with limited resources for my team, sort of homework…….!  They had a bag of   card stock and ribbon, and were allowed to add only one colour of   card stock and stamps and ink, nothing else.  They had a week to complete it and it wasn’t compulsory………Here are the 7 entries.  I find it amazing that they can produce so many different cards!

The challenge was judged by a lovely lady from outside the team, they were all so lovely I couldn’t choose!!

And this one was the winner, well done Vannessa!

and the reasons for the choice  ”All the cards were beautiful and it was difficult to choose, however after careful consideration my choice is card 7.  The reason for my choice is that, the design was simple, loved the triple scalloped edge feature and just reminded me of Spring.”

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

To all those wonderful mothers out there but especially to mine!!!!

Here is Mum’s card, I hope she likes it.  It’s made with 2 new stamp sets from the mini catalogue and some new Designer series paper called Tea party.

I’ve taken an A4 piece of card stock in Almost Amethyst and folded it in half to make an A5 card.  Cut off 1 1/2″ from the front and scalloped the edge and placed a 2″piece of the Tea Party paper on the inside to show through.  I’ve matted and layered Pretty in Pink, So Saffron and another piece of designer paper onto the front.  In white I have stamped and heat embossed 3 flowers on matching card stock and then re-stamped the middles and layered them with dimensionals using the Playful Petals stamp set.

I’ve used the fantastic Oval punch and Oval scallop punch for the sentiment which is from the Occasionally set.

I have stamped another sentiment on the inside from the Greetings Eight stamp set, this really made me smile………I’m not sure if it’s big enough for you to read but it says

” i just realised I’m turning into my mother… {lucky me!}   ”

So true…………

I hope you have a wonderful day

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Lots of votes for the Chocolate Lime card last week so here is another one just for you………

Using the same set Tart and Tangy as the previous card I’ve stamped the citrus image, to make a Lime in Green Galore, a Lemon in Summer Sun and an Orange in Pumpkin Pie.  I heat embossed them all with clear embossing powder to get a glossy look and matted them all onto a scallop circle of the same colour cardstock, each scallop was paper pierced.

The paper ribbons down the side are in the same 3 colours, the teeny tiny Ric-Rac in Pumpkin Pie was a bit of a mad moment!  I decided to see how small I could make it…..

I started with just a little bit less than 3/4″ of card stock and followed my Ric-Rac tutorial which you can find here.  I would suggest using 3/4″ or more it would make your life a little easier!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda