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

Are you feeling Christmassy yet?

Today was the first frost of this winter, I’m so pleased I wasn’t driving and I could stay snuggled up inside.  I do love the frost though, much better than the rain !

Well we survived the inflatable rings on the dry ski slope, it was wonderful, the birthday girl and her friends and even her big brother had a great time, I do think I gave them the biggest giggle when I fell off the ski lift, I have lots of bruises…..!

So back to Christmas, I’ve been trying out all sorts of ideas for a paper based Christmas Wreath and a few days ago I found this idea here. It’s wonderful how people share their ideas, here is my version, it is more rustic and a recycling dream!

I have ironed, yes ironed don’t faint…..( I hate ironing ) the brown paper that comes inside our Stampin’ Up! parcels, the wreath backing is the cardboard from the inside of one of our 12 x 12 designer paper packs.  I have used 1 sheet of designer paper from the Christmas Jingle kit, some ribbon and Dazzling diamonds glitter and lots of staples !!!

Here is a close up, the ribbon is Chocolate chip wide ribbon that I have coloured 2 stripes Real Red and Old Olive.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Welcome  to the 12 blogs of Christmas Stampin’ Up! cruise !

If you are a regular reader of my website you may be wondering what is going on, but fear not I will explain all ! Of course you many have arrived here from Elizabeth’s blog if so welcome to Inspiring Inkin’ with Amanda Fowler.

Our cruise is 12 blogs of Christmas, follow the links to 12 websites and blogs and you will find lots of inspiration and ideas for your Christmas paper crafting all using wonderful Stampin’ Up! products.  Please leave comments as you visit, you may find giveaways on your journey, certainly I have one, you need to leave a comment to be entered, details are at the bottom of this post. A big thank you to Carolynne for organising this for us.

So onto my projects, they are both based on the fantastic Simply Scrappin’ kit Christmas Jingle, the first is a set of 7 cards, all straightforward to make, just add a little ribbon and brads to the kit.  I have used only a fraction of the kit to make these cards and they are so quick to do, perfect if you are a last minute Christmas crafter like me!

Here they are in a little more detail

And now to a matchbox advent calendar, a variation of this project was featured in the first issue of Making Gifts magazine ( I’m the Editor and this was one of my projects), it uses 24 match boxes stacked in towers of 3 I have used some more of the Christmas Jingle kit, with it’s diecut stickers it’s a breeze to make.  Some of the stickers have Crystal Effects on them to give them a glossy raised effect. I have used gold brads and a gold pen to detail the numbers 1 -24.

The type of goodies you can fill the drawers with will depend on the size of the matchboxes, mine are perfect for M&M’s, Jelly Bellys ( my favourite) and some small choccies, of course you could use huge match boxes and get whole bars of chocolate in!

And now to my giveaway, to get your hands on a Christmas Jingle kit and a copy of Making Gifts magazine  please leave a comment, I would love to know what is on your Christmas list !

Just to confuse you on my website the comments button is at the top of the post just under the title.

I will draw the names at noon on Monday (UK time).

And now for the next stop on the tour off to Zoe, please click on the logo below

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

Well my lovely Mum is 60 today, a very special birthday and she is now officially retired, though she works harder than most people I know!

Here is her card, quite bright very simple on the front……..

But the inside is a little bit special!

I have made the pop up using a very simple technique which I will do a tutorial on later during May.  But for those who can’t wait here is a picture of the mechanics……..

The card is a Basic Black textured card, with a Pink Passion inner and a third layer of Pink Polka dots Designer paper from the Playful Petals Simply Scrappin’ kit.  I have stamped the cupcakes onto Whisper white, coloured them with my lovely new markers and then gone over the  frosting with versamark and heat embossed clear to give a lovely glaze.  The front ‘mum’ is chipboard letters coloured with markers and heat embossed with clear powder.

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

Some of my Inspiring Inkin’ team of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators took part in a challenge I had set over on my team blog, I sent all those who participated a little thank you.

These are small shopping notepads covered in double sided paper from the Love Stories Simply Scrappin’ kit. I’ve cut out from the paper the little blue flowers and mat and layered them onto Night of Navy and Bashful Blue cardstock.

I’ve used the template from the tool kit to paper pierce evenly spaces holes in 2 of the cormers ( it makes it so easy and looks fab). Then a little Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon finishes it off.  Oops I forgot the glitter……….., well what’s a present if it doesn’t have glitter on it!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend, I’ve got some more magazine work to finish and then I shall start with my new goodies……..Yes I have new stamps………..Pop back next week and see!

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

Today I’m running my Stationery Box and Card keeper classes.  Both classes are designed around the Love Stories Simply Scrappin’ kit.

The pictures above are of the card keeper, which has 12 monthly pockets in which to keep your cards safe and ready for posting.  We are also making 6 cards in this class, I have gathered from the comments your favourite card from the other day was Chocolate Lime ( mine too! they are one of my favourite sweets) so below is a picture of one of the cards we are making another Chocolate/Lime combo!

If you would like to make this card keeper and the 6 cards I am selling kits, the cardstock is cut and scored for you and the kit comes with full instructions, the bookrings, ribbon, printed calendar dates, 6 envelopes, and my phone number just in case you get stuck !  You will need your own glue and a cropodile or other hole punch.

A kit costs £12 plus £1 p&p please email me to order.  I can only send to addresses in the UK.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

This is a minibook, made from the Simply Scrappin’ kit ‘I wish”  you can get 2 minibooks from one kit, and if you order a kit from me I will send you  a copy of the the instructions.

Thank you to Amy Celona for the original idea of the book and for allowing me to share it with you.

Have a very Happy New Year

Amanda