Each month I run a scrapbook club where we make 3 pages a 12″x12″ single and a 12″x12″ double page spread. The page below was the single page from our “Babies” month. You can find out all about the club here it’s called Scrapbook Sisters and the information is about half way down the page.

Now there is a little tale about this page, I have two copies, one in blue as above and another in pink……… you see when I was looking for the baby pictures to put on it I couldn’t find any of Kimberley, all the photos where in Connor’s boxes.  Now I know we took lots of photos when Kimberley was born, so I was a little panicked by this!  It seems that several packs of photos got jumbled up in one of the 5 house moves we have had since the children were babies and we can’t be sure exactly which one of our 2 children this is………!  Ooops !

The rest of the photos have dates on the back so we could sort out into the right piles, so for fairness sake I have made a pink and blue one and they will go into both children’s albums!

This second page is just for fun, I found the cute picture of Kimberley in the boxes and it matched the daisies and paper I had on my desk, a page in about 7 minutes!

Who said scrapbooking is difficult?

Happy Stampin’

Today is my darling husband Brian’s birthday, we have a day of fun, walks, cake, lots of cake and just a bit of chilling and time out.

I have 2 cards for you today, the first is from me, using my new favourite set French Foliage and one of my oldest sets Lovely as a Tree.  French Foliage is very versatile and I love to make the cards really distressed and grungy, but grungy isn’t Brian’s style so I have made this card with really clean lines.

I did sneak a little bit of  grunge on the inside……I’m hoping he won’t notice!!

The children’s card is also clean and simple, but he certainly is a star so very apt I think!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Stampin’

A lovely starry quick card ideal for the boys and men in your life.  The three mat layers means you can have a coloured star by punching out the Whisper White layer.  I have cut the bottom layers of the modern label punch in half and used tombow glue to stick them all together.

I’m off to Stampin’ Up! regional training tomorrow, there are 27 of my team attending of the 73 demonstrators, I think we will need several tables!  I’ll share the goodies I have for them tomorrow.

Happy Stampin’

to Connor, my baby boy is 16!  I’m not quite sure how that happened, or indeed how I am old enough to have a son who is 16……but apparently he is!

We had a great weekend, which included band practise, a Chinese meal and an apple pie not a birthday cake!

Connor’s band is called Fools and Scissors, they have a facebook page and a my space page here where you can listen to 2 of their recordings, the band is classed as aletrnative/electro/rock, I’m not sure exactly what that means but I do like it.  Both songs are very different from one another, do go have a listen !

So back to cards…….

This is Connor’s birthday card, mens cards are always hard but a teenage man…..hmmm……. out came the star punches, Love Letter designer papers, alphabets sets, Very vintage wheel and my distress kit.

It seemed to get a nod of approval!

I’m off to Brighton to set up for the show today, we have some lovely make and takes for you so do pop by and say hello.

Happy Stampin’

I am here honest………! I feel like I’m a little hamster running in a wheel and going nowhere!  Do you ever have days…….weeks like that?

This past week has been full of classes, workshops, training events, all day training with my team and designing new projects. It has been wonderful crafting with so many amazing and talented people.  I have the best job in the world!

A big thank you to all my lovely customers ordering from the last chance list, they are getting lots of half price bargains !  If you would like to see the list please scroll down to the post below this one for the link.  I have orders going in most days, your goodies can be delivered direct to you or you can collect from me which ever is easiest.

The following items are no longer available:

Stamp sets
Old Fashioned Christmas
A Tree for all Seasons
Seaside

A4 Cardstock
Close To Cocoa
Sage Shadow
Creamy Caramel
Blush Blossom

12 x 12 Cardstock
Very Vanilla

Designer Series Paper
Autumn Meadows
Bridesmaid
Merry Moments

Punches
Round Tab
Spiral
3/4″ circle
Large Oval

Ribbons
Chocolate Chip 1/4″ Grosgrain

Embellishments
Playground Buttons

Ink refills
Earth Elements
Rich Regals

Ink Cartridges
Chocolate Chip Standard Cartridge
Close to Cocoa Standard Cartridge

Hostess Level 1 Stamp Set
Darling Dots
Studio Sketches
Out of the box

Todays card is from last year, a pop up star card, this In the Stars stamp set is now only £18.71, better get it quick!

I’m off to run a technique class this morning and then finalise my preparations for my hostess Appreciation event on Saturday, I’ll be back soon.

Happy Stampin’

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

Stampin’ Up! has an idea book and catalogue, in which you find all our products, it’s called idea book first because although it catalogues all our products; on each and every page you will find ideas and inspiration for cards, scrapbook pages, home decor and other papercraft projects.

Last week I ran a home workshop for the lovely Rachel and her friends, she asked for a Christmas card similar to the Reindeer one on page  24.  This is my version, I’m pleased to say she loved it and we had a great evening.

Stamps : Sparkly and Bright
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories: Star punch, Mat Pack, Paper Piercer, Markers, Ribbon

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

It’s my baby girls birthday today she is 13 !!!

We have a busy weekend planned, with a houseful of teenagers tonight, pizza, chocolate cake (is there any other sort??) and dry ski slope action in inflatable rings………..I hope to survive that………..yes Mum and Dad get to play too!!!

Then over the weekend shopping and more visits on Sunday, lots of fun.

I went for a less is more card in her favourite colour combo, purple and black, this new black glitter is FANTASTIC !!!!!!

And here is the glitter in close up!

Stamps : Schoolbook Serif Numbers
Inks: Versamark, Orchid Oppulence
Cardstock: Lovely Lilac, Bride Designer paper, Basic Black
Accessories: Heat and Stick Powder, Brayer, Star punch, 2 way glue pen, Fine Galaxy Stampin’ Glitter

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  Life is running at top speed here at the moment, I’ve got several projects and deadlines all running at once and I can’t share yet…….so my time for crafting I can share has been almost non existant!

Christmas has certainly arrived in our house, I am busy designing and finalising a huge number of Christmas projects for my wonderful Stampin’ Up! customers, my craft stores and of course the brilliant Making Cards magazine too!  Publishing seems to be an alternate universe you work so far ahead!!!  But I adore Christmas so Ho Ho Ho !!!!! ( Do expect to see some Christmas cards this week!)

So onto my card for today, my fantastic team of Inspiring Inkees have set up a challenge blog and I am soooooooo behind with completing the challenges so this is my first card to get caught up. This is for Challenge No 4 here.

When my daughter saw the front of this card, it was “well that’s rubbish Mum” no holding back that’s my wonderful Kim!  I do agree though, quite plain but it’s a card for a man and I like to have the element of surprise !

This is the inside.

A side view for the mechanics!

Now I am trying a new way of detailing out all the products I have used to make it easy for you my dear readers, Please let me know what you think, is this easier?

Stamps : In the Stars
Inks: Red Red, Brilliant Blue
Cardstock: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White
Accessories: Star Punch, Silver Brads

The most important thing to remember with this type of pop-up is to use 2 layers of cardstock.  Paper for the inner layer will not have the strength to hold up the pop-up.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

I hope you have got your sunglasses ready for this Sunday Share………..it’s very bright!

Now this card is my very first Challenge card………..The challenge was set by the wonderful Vannessa over at our new Inspiring Inkin’ Challenge blog.  Many of my team love to take part in challenges and they wanted to complete Stampin’ Up! only challenges on a site that was purely for fun!  Vannessa kindly said she would set it up and it looks wonderful!  You can visit it here.

Now the way challenge blogs work, bear with me because I have only just learnt……….is a challenge is set and people make cards within the set criteria, this time it was a sketch and a second challenge of using a colour you don’t normally use!  This is why my card is so loud!  I have used Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow and Green Galore.  I Have never used the Only Orange and only once Yoyo Yellow so it was definitely a challenge for me.  But that is the fun of it.

I hope you will join in with us, if you make a card there is a way of linking your picture on your blog to the challenge blog so we can all see it, all the details are on the blog and if you get stuck please email me.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda

With 3 new Inspiring Inkees signing up with Jane’s team and 2 promotions this month, I needed some lovely quick cards.  I have used Whisper White card stock in a variety of sizes.  I cut a matching piece of scrap paper for each card front and laid it over the top, I then punched out random stars through both the card front and the scrap paper.  I used the scrap paper as a mask to sponge ink onto the inside of the card which made sure they aligned perfectly.  I then used the In the Stars stamp set to decorate the front.

I hope they like them.

Happy Stampin’

Amanda