My catalogues have arrived but I can’t share a picture of it yet with you, but it will be online on Thursday with lots of projects for you to see.  My club ladies and October hostesses your catalogues are going in the post tomorrow!

If you would like to get your hands on a copy of the new catalogue the best way is to book a home workshop, I have a few dates left in October, but not many so do email me and book your preferred date.

Today’s shares are from the team meeting I held last week, this is some of them, the rest I will share next week.

These are projects from Michele, Tessa, Jane and Marilynn

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

More embossing on this card lovely vibrant card from Marilyn,

This card is from the lovely Michele, to remind me of the fun I had wallpapering over the summer!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Today’s share is the sunny Lincolnshire coast, my children have enjoyed a week at my parents home and Brian and I joined them for the weekend.  The weather has been wonderful, sunny days and blue skies.

Of course lots of fun in the sea and on the sand, burying the children seems to be Dad and Grandpa’s favourite game!!!!

We are visiting more family over the coming days, so it will be a little quiet for the rest of the week, I’ll be back full steam ahead next weekend.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

I met Sarah and Anna almost 2 years ago when they opened the store and have taught dozens of classes there for them.  5 weeks ago they found new premises and moved the entire store.  A tricky job but when the new premises was an industrial garage it is nothing short of a miracle!!!  With an army of helpers, they have cleaned, scrubbed, jet washed, used gallons and gallons of white paint and have made the most amazing crafting store.

Yesterday was the opening day and their 2nd birthday celebration, there were lots of tutors (including me)  running make and takes, the scrummiest cakes and lots and lots of very happy customers.

As you walk in the door and look left this is the view, Anna has painted an enormous pair of scissors and a button onto the wall, by the till is the lovely Rachael.  The wall under the scissors is ribbon and to the left buttons, threads and a mountain of beads.

Below is a picture of the workshop area which is beside the area above, more Anna painting on the walls, it’s such a light and airey place.

Yes that is a real ‘dead’ tree inside, and a shadow of a tree painted on the wall.

This a a diagonal view from the workshop area across the full length of the shop. You can see Sarah, Anna and I in this shot, we are sorting out buttons for a project I’m working on.

On the right is the lovely Fiona, trying out the new sofa,taking a well earned rest from keeping everyone supplied with tea and cakes, the wall of fabric behind her is a tiny proportion of what is available.

And finally a couple of photos of Jane Gill and her lovely icecream stamped creations, the stamps are a clear range she has designed sold by Woodware and they are fantastic.  Jane is joined here with Kim and Corinne who enjoyed a few minutes creativity after working so hard all day.

The new class list has been published, with lots of classes to choose from, both Saturdays and during the week.  Fabric, paper, buttons, my classes include, Christmas projects cards and Scrapbooks, Decoupage and Needlefelting.

If you would like to visit the store, they are open Tuesday – Saturday  10-5 and you will find them at  41  Terminus Road, Chichester   PO19 8TX  01243 788174

I hope you have a lovely Sunday

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Lorraine has made some lovely projects on her blog but this one particularly caught my eye.  The colours are stunning, it’s a great use of the stamp set.  Fantastic!

Many moons ago in my ATC ( artist trading card) heyday I made a tiny version of this to keep ATC’s in, this one is soooooo much better as it takes standard size cards !

To find out more please check out Lorraine’s blog here.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Debbie came to visit me a few weeks ago to find out more about Stampin’ Up! and becoming a demonstrator, she attended done of my class and we had lots of fun making cards.  I encourage all of my prospective demonstrators to ask lots of questions and come along to my meetings or classes to find out more.

Whilst we where talking she explained that one of her passions is making soap.  I love to find out more about all sorts of crafts and soap making is really interesting, there are several different types of soap so she was kind enough to send me some in a lovely little box.  Thank you Debbie.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

The card is Whisper White, Yoyo Yellow and Basic Black, the embellishments are flowers and gem brads from the Pretties kit.

The next 2 cards are from Karen, I visited her last week as she was hosting a fundraiser for Lepra.  I was having a major Mojo crisis and these cards put a smile on my face and helped my Mojo return!  Thanks Karen x

The main image is from Cheers to you and the strip is the matching wheel.

This card is using the stamp set Big Bold Birthday all in Tempting Turquoise and Brilliant Blue.  Lovely.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

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

I made a card of course which I will share with you at the bottom of the post, but these links are  for my Dad’s entertainment and any other special men in your life, so please share them.

A lawnmowing bicycle     and another

A tall bike

and finally

A table made from a bike

The links are all via    Dudecraft  a website with the most fantastic creations alongside the weird and wacky!  I hope they bring a smile to your face.

And some wonderful F1 at Monaco  For me as much as you Dad, Senna at Monaco 1990 !

So onto the card a square Z fold  12″ x 6″  scored at 3″ and 6″ in Close to Cocoa stamped with my new background stamp Sanded in Chocolate Chip.  A mat of Chocolate Chip 4″ square, with a 3 3/4″ Taken with Teal Square and a 3 1/2″ Very Vanilla Square onto which I stamped part of the clock face on taken with Teal ink.  Using a sponge dauber I edged the card with Taken with Teal ink and swiped over it all with Stampin’ Pastels.

The middle section has a little square of  Close to Cocoa card stamped using the Dad stamp from the Greetings eight stamp set from the mini catalogue in Versamark and heat embossed in gold, our Stampin’ Up! gold embossing powder is a really rich antique gold perfect for this card.  I cut it out and matted onto a chocolate Chip layer and then onto Taken with Teal.

And the final section inside is a square of very Vanilla with the edges of the cogs stamped in Taken with Teal ink then matted onto Taken with Teal card and a Chocolate Chip layer.

Happy Fathers Day

Amanda

My share for you today is a really helpful site for those days when you stare at a blank piece of card or Scrapbook paper and just cannot decide what to make….We all have them!

I have several notebooks on the go at any one time and scribble ideas for colour combinations, cards, scrapbook pages and 3D items where ever I am (and at 3am if I wake up, yes I know that is a little extreme !) but no-one but me would ever be able to make sense of them.  I am not artist that’s why I’m a rubber stamper!

At this site you will find free page maps (or layouts) for scrapbook pages cards and more, you can download them as PDF files and keep them for when your designing mojo has gone. There are also actual cards and pages for you to see. If you are a digital scrapper there are also payable services too, and you can download layouts etc

The links are all down the left hand side including archives, there are hundreds of maps to choose from.

Page Maps

Have a look!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

The great thing about it there is no glue required and so long as you start with a square you can use any size paper.

In order to make a top and bottom, just cut one of your squares slightly smaller.

I was going to do a tutorial for this, I’ve been making them for years but since I always teach the folds in class I’ve never needed the instructions but I found this tutorial on Splitcoast stampers so if you’d like to make your own please go and have a look, no need to re-invent the wheel…..well the box!!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Hands up all those who like me love to roam around the world wide web looking at all the lovely art work other people make?  At the last check I had over 300 places bookmarked ( or in my favourites) ARGH!

Now some places I visit every day, others now and then, but I waste so much time because not everyone updates every day so I see the same page again and again.  Now my friend the lovely Stella said the other day in passing something about a web reader……..I didn’t know what she meant so I went looking, and found Google reader here a quick tour and tutorial and I was all set.

All you do is copy and paste your favourite places into the reader and it checks them for updates, so I can go to one place and all the new updates are there right in front of me……….It’s amazing!

I’ve been able to sort out the websites into files, so all my team’s blogs are together, my other papercrafting ones are together, my needlecrafts, beading, and so on wow……….It did take me a bit of time to move all the bookmarks but it made me clear out the less inspiring ones.  There is even a feature where you can ’star’ items so you can find them again.

Go try it out, it’s fab !!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

The first page I have to share with you is made by the lovely Caroline, one of Inspiring Inkin’s newest team members, she has used 3 stamp sets and made a beautiful page.  You can see it here.

And then a page from one of my oldest team members………..Jane will kill me for saying that !  

Tee Hee, well she did join my team first that makes her the oldest doesn’t it……….!  

This great page showcases our Stampin’ Up! wheels and her lovely daughter!  You can see it here.

That’s all for me today, back at school and work this week, so the whole family has got that oh no it’s Monday tomorrow feeling…….

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

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

Today I have cards to share with you made by fellow demonstrators at the Stampin’ Up! field training I attended during the week, 6 of my lovely team where able to attend which was wonderful.

I’ll share my swap with you later in the week.

I can’t leave without saying Woo Hoo well done Jenson Button and Team Brawn……..in case you think I’ve gone a little crazy I love Formula 1 motor racing and the new season started today, I always cheer for all the British drivers and the British teams, and Jenson won today, well done.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

So first up is Rosie, She’s a fantastic stamper and makes amazing Scrapbook pages too. She has her own stampin studio and often runs classes in it, details on her blog.

You’ll find one of her cards here

And a lovely scrapbook page here.

Up second is actually Rosies upline, Jane, now Jane is very special she was my very first downline and signed up with me when I’d been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator for 10 days ! We learnt a lot together those first few months!

This first card of Janes, is a man’s card, why are men’s card so hard to do?  The card is here

And the 2nd is a project using the Petal Party Simply Scrappin’ kit you will find it here.

I hope you have enjoyed this little blog hop, do have a look around the rest of their blogs there are lots of lovely things to see and do leave a comment, they would love to know you have popped by!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

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

Firstly I have some presents to share, you may remember I went to Coventry last week to meet with the lovely Deb, we had a great workshop, the star of the evening was her son who made the most beautiful card and box!

The box below Deb has made using Sweet Always paper the card is using Polka Dot punches Sale-a-bration set and the Tigger mug…….I love Tigger, even to the extent of spending my 40th birthday in Disneyland Paris………My team know me so well !

The second picture shows what was, note I say was……in the box!

The 2 cards below arrived in the post this week from Marilynn and Vannessa, 2 of my team who are a long way from me, Vannessa is coming to team training in a few weeks but I think it might be the summer before I get to see Marilynn in Cornwall, I’m working on it though!

The card on the left is using the Level one Hostess set, A little bit of hapiness, I think I am going to ask Vannessa to give me some lessons, her cutting out is amazing! The card on the right is the set Doodle That, a great starter set of stamps a very elegant card from Marilynn.

I encourage all of the participants of my classes and workshops to bring along things to show everyone they have made, we all learn from one another in crafting, that is one of the biggest joys for me. I encourage you to show others, and especially me the things you have made, and I do love receiving things in the post!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda