Note card using Sweet Summer

Don't you just love all the fabulous Sale-a-bration sets this year?! I do too - and I still can't decide which is my favourite! Today I'm going to show you a notecard I made using the gorgeous Sweet Summer set.

I have to say that the branch image in this set is already a firm favourite - you'll be seeing a lot more of it on my blog! Here I stamped it three times, coloured it and cut it out with my useful square punches - they are such a good investment. I also adore the little bird in the set - look how cute he is!

And I absolutely love the textured card stock too. It's a great way to add subtle interest and contrast.

Here's how to make this card:

• Stamp the branch image three times using Old Olive ink and colour it with the thin end of some markers. I used Certainly Celery and Elegant Eggplant.
• Cut each branch out with the 1 1/4" square punch and mount onto Soft Suede squares cut out with the 1 3/8" square punch.
• Cut a piece of textured Old Olive card stock 5cm x 14.8cm. Glue the three squares onto this and add a knotted ribbon. 
• Cut an A4 piece of Perfect Plum card stock in half. Score at 10.5cm (which will make a card base when folded) then flip the paper over and score at 13.5cm and 19cm (to make decorative dry-embossed lines). Fold the card stock in half so that the raised decorative lines appear on the front. Attach the focal panel between the lines.
• Stamp the bird image using Daffodil Delight ink. Colour it using the ink and an aqua painter or blender pen, cut out with paper snips and attach to the branch with a piece of dimensional. (TIP: The legs are too fine to cut out so I just cut out the body, drew some legs on the branch and attached the body on top.)

Supplies
Stamps: Sweet Summer
Ink: Old Olive, Daffodil Delight
Card stock: Perfect Plum, Old Olive textured, Soft Suede
Other: Markers, Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon

Hope you enjoyed the project today. I have heaps of other ideas to show you, so do come and visit me next week (next year!) when I'll be starting my new series of Mail-friendly Monday cards - flat cards for easy posting. Now, we're gearing up for a new year's eve party here so I'd better get on with the cooking or we shan't be eating tonight! Have a fun evening wherever you are and I wish all my lovely readers and customers a great 2011.

Happy new year,

SALE-A-BRATION IS HERE!!! Get FREE stamps!!!

Question: What do stampers love best in the whole world?
Answer: Free stamps!!!

Yes folks, the amazing Sale-a-bration promotion is actually here and there are three ways to earn free stamps:

• For every £45 you spend (before p&p) you earn a free Sale-a-bration stamp set
• Host a workshop! Guests get a free Sale-a-bration stamp set for every £45 they spend, PLUS workshop hostesses get an extra free set if orders total £300 (before p&p) on top of the already generous hostess benefits
• Join Stampin' Up and choose any set from the main Idea Book and Catalogue (valued up to £44.95)

This is such a very special offer and a brilliant way to add to your stamp collection. Just look at all these fantastic sets on offer:

All the sets come in your choice of wood mount or clear. And just look at the gorgeous Stampin' Up samples:

Looking at these makes me want to start creating right now! I shall be showing you a variety of cards made with these sets over the next couple of weeks - which is making me so excited! No matter how long I do this job, no matter how many new stamp sets I have, there is nothing to beat the feeling of having new stamp sets and seeing how many different things I can do with them!

If you were wondering what to do with your Christmas money, there really isn't a better time to be buying your Stampin' Up supplies! Enjoy making your wish list and then click here to email me with your order or telephone me on 01280 820593. 

What a great time to buy the starter kit too! It costs only £119 and you get £230 of products PLUS an extra stamp set. This is an astonishing bargain whether you want to start a business or simply get your own supplies at a discount. Click here to find out more. 

Looking forward to helping you,

Thank you using Vintage Vogue

Hello again! I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas and are all relaxed and ready for the new year. We've had such a lovely few days - a thoroughly enjoyable family Christmas day and then a little entertaining over the following couple of days. Our guests departed yesterday evening leaving the house strangely quiet!

We have all received some beautiful and thoughtful gifts and I do like to make cards to say thank you. The one I want to show you today is a flat note card which fits in a standard DL envelope.

Can you see? - you just write your note on the front!

I love this beautiful border image from the Vintage Vogue stamp set and feel that it's sometimes overlooked in favour of all the other gorgeous stamps in the set.

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut a piece of Whisper White card stock 20.5cm x 9.25cm.
• Using markers, colour the border stamp and, using a stamp-a-majig for accurate placement, stamp the image about 2.5cm from the top of the note card. Ink up the stamp again with the markers and stamp it about 1.5cm from the bottom of the card.
• Use the stamp-a-majig again to stamp the sentiment.
• Cut a piece of Soft Suede card stock 21cm x 9.8cm and mount the notecard onto it.

Supplies
Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Thank you Kindly
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Card stock: Whisper White, Soft Suede
Other: Real Red and Old Olive markers

Now, if you're planning on spending your Christmas money on the Vintage Vogue stamp set or any other Stampin' Up crafting supplies, my advice is... WAIT!!! I am really excited because there's an incredible promotion coming up and tomorrow I'll be able to share it with you! I can hardly wait!

See you tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve - and I'm as ready as I'm going to be...!

Yesterday, I promised to show you my favourite one-layer Christmas card design, so here it is:

I really enjoyed making this! The Merry Christmas and the swirl are stamps from Season of Joy, the stocking is from Gifted and the bird is from Cute by the Inch (I turned him into a robin with a couple of markers!) All I needed to put this together were markers and a stamp-a-majig - oh and a pair of paper snips to cut the stocking out and pop it up on a dimensional strip! Here's a close up:

And of course the card is perfect to just pop in the post with no worries about whether it needs a special stamp! If you're interested in more cards that are flat for posting, look out for my new Mail-friendly Monday series in the new year.

Now, I also promised to show you my youngest son's Christmas card design for his friends:

I adore this little owl and have dressed him in a santa hat before in this card! And look - here he is perched on the edge of the Christmas tree, but still looking completely astonished!

And now, before I close the gate for Christmas...

...the time has come to thank all my lovely customers and readers for visiting me and hope you've enjoyed your time here. I shall be back after Christmas with more thank you cards, birthday cards and also a very special offer... Don't miss it! Until then, I wish you a happy Christmas and all the very best for the new year. Take care,

Three Minute Thursday - teen thank you card

Hello - it's Thursday again and time for a quick three minute project! I don't know about you but we have lots of beautifully wrapped presents arranged underneath our tree and, after Christmas, we will be wanting to thank the kind people that gave them to us. I like to keep a stash of thank you cards - especially at this time of year! I have loads that I can send but that aren't so suitable for my teenagers, so I set to work on a design that would work for them. Here's what I came up with:

This is one of those designs that really appeals to me - loads of white space and the focus on colour. My teens gave them their seal of approval so I shall be making lots of them in a variety of colours.

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut a 9cm square card base from Whisper White card stock.
• Colour the top three lines on the Solid Stripes background stamp with markers and stamp on the bottom of the card base using a stamp-a-majig for accuracy.
• Add the sentiment on the top right of the block of stripes.
• Add a tiny rectangle of card stock in the same colour as the sentiment.

Supplies
Stamps: Solid Stripes, Basic Phrases
Ink: Tangerine Tango
Card stock: Whisper White, Tangerine Tango
Other: Markers (I used Pacific Point, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight

This is the last Three Minute Thursday of the year and I'd like to thank everyone who has commented here or sent messages to me about the series. It seems that time is an issue for lots of us, so Three Minute Thursday will definitely be back in the new year. Also, in response to popular demand, I'll be bringing in a new series show-casing mail-friendly cards. These will be mainly one-layer cards - lots of you will know that I'm a big fan of these!

I shall be back tomorrow to show you my one-layer Christmas card and also a card that my son and I devised for him to send to his friends. Hope to see you then,

Christmas Crackers using Jolly Holiday designer paper

We haven't bought crackers this year. We had a family discussion about this and came to these conclusions:
1. We only wear the hats for a couple of minutes until they break
2. The novelty gifts aren't much fun and clutter up the house until they finally go in the bin
3. The thing we love about them is that they contain those brilliantly corny jokes

After this discussion we decided to make our own. They wouldn't have a 'bang', which didn't worry us, but they would contain several Christmas jokes which we will look forward to sharing over Christmas lunch!
Here's what we came up with:

These are mini crackers which, as well as being a happy addition to the festive table, could work well as a tree decoration or as a gift wrap for something small (wrap it in tissue paper first). They're quick and easy to make and, because you get 8 crackers out of a single piece of designer paper, they are extremely economical! Christmas jokes are readily available on the internet (or you could just make up your own!) and I just printed mine onto copier paper and cut them up with my trimmer.

If you fancy making some, here's how:

Take a piece of designer paper 3 inches x 6 inches.

Fold it in half, then fold the edges back so that you end up with an M shape like this:

Make lots of snips about a quarter of an inch in on the two edges that form the top of the M shape like this...

... until you end up with this!

Roll the paper gently to start the cracker shape and add Sticky Strip to one side, avoiding the snipped areas. Now is the time to pop your joke inside!

Here's what it should look like now:

Now take a piece of linen thread and tie it around one of the snipped areas.

Pull it tight and it will pull the cracker in and form a 'waist'. Take the thread off, turn the cracker over and repeat this step to get an even 'waist'. Now do the same to the other end of the cracker. Remove the linen thread.

Now your cracker should look like this and it's ready to decorate!

I decorated mine with 1/8" taffeta ribbon and the Merry Christmas from the Occasional Greetings stamp set, which I cut out with paper snips.

Don't they look festive!

My youngest son is really embracing the Christmas cracker joke this year and every time I see him he hits me with another one:
"How do snowmen get around Mummy?"
"Hmm. I'm not sure sweetheart..."
"They ride icicles!" The punchline is followed by gales of hysterical laughter! I keep telling him that if he carries on at this rate he'll run out of jokes by Christmas! (But, you know, I don't think he will...)

Thanks for visiting me today - I really appreciate it, particularly when everyone is so busy.
It's Three Minute Thursday tomorrow and I'll be back with an idea for super-fast thank you card.
Hope to see you then,

Thank you card - using Lovely as a Tree

I have always adored those scenic cards made using a brayer but have always felt that they are a bit of a time commitment. My card today is a simpler, quicker version of that type of card and is made using wedges of sponge.

This winter tree stamp from Lovely as a Tree is perfect for after-Christmas thank you notes - and all the year round too! Just go to LABELS on the right-hand side bar of my blog and click on Lovely as a Tree to see cards with a completely different feel made with this stamp.

Here's how to make this card (don't be put off by the long list of instructions - it's actually pretty quick!):

• Cut a piece of Whisper White card stock 11.5cm wide x 7.5cm high.
• Ink up the tree stamp with any colour ink and stamp on a piece of scrap paper. Clean the stamp and dry thoroughly.
• Cut the ground off the stamped image on the paper, following its curves, to create a mask. Rub the sponge into Baja Breeze ink and, holding the mask in place, gently colour the sky area using circular motions. (TIP: Scrunch the sponge up so that the ink goes onto a curved piece with no hard edges - that way you'll get a smooth finish.) Using a separate sponge, add a little Pretty in Pink ink at the edge of the mask.
• Remove the mask. 
• Colour the trees and trunks (but not the ground) with an Early Espresso marker and stamp onto the sponged background, making sure the trunks go into the 'snow'. It looks more realistic to leave out the ground so just add little touches the thin end of the marker around the trees, remembering that less is more!
• Sponge some Marina Mist ink around the edges of the card stock just to the skyline.
• Stamp a sentiment in Real Red using a stamp-a-majig for position.
• Use the mask to ink more sky onto an A5 Whisper White card base and attach the main panel with dimensionals.

Supplies
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Thank You Kindly
Ink: Baja Breeze, Marina Mist, Real Red
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Early Espresso marker

I think we're getting a bit fed up with this snow now. Several people in the neighbourhood are without water because of frozen pipes and we have some kind of hot water problem. The usual dash to the shops to buy things we've forgotten can't happen and the social events we had planned have had to be cancelled. Having said that, nothing can dull my enjoyment of enjoying the company of my family every day!

Thank you for popping in today. See you here tomorrow for more crafting fun!

Thank you card - using Just Believe

Good morning - and a very snowy and icy morning it is too! I feel very lucky not to have to be anywhere and able to enjoy the scenery from the comfort of my home! All my Christmas cards have been sent off now and I'm turning my attention to thank you cards. Here's an incredibly simple design made with the gorgeous Just Believe set:

When making thank you cards at this time of year, I like the idea of taking a fresh image but continuing the winter theme with the colour scheme.

Isn't this stamp an absolute stunner?! It's so easy to colour the stamp with markers and using different colours will produce different effects. You'll definitely be seeing more of this set on my blog!

Here's how to make this card:

• I cut a 9cm width from an A4 sheet of Whisper White and folded it in half to make my card base. This is not a standard size, which was fine as I wasn't using an envelope with my cards, but you could vary the size of your card base.
• Colour the floral image with markers and stamp straight onto the card base. Stamp again, without adding more colour, using only the tip of the stamp so that you get a fainter image. Then colour the image again and stamp just the tip again.
• Add the sentiment using a stamp-a-majig for position.

Supplies
Stamps: Just Believe
Ink: Night of Navy
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Markers in Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler

Christmas is well on the way now and there are some very excited people in our family! (Yes, one of them IS me!) Our Christmas puzzle has been completed and the house is decorated. I can't tell you how exciting it is for someone in the UK to be buying their Christmas tree while it's snowing!

Hope your preparations are also going well.
See you tomorrow for more thank you card ideas.

Congratulations to my blog candy winner...

Since I started being a Stampin' Up demonstrator this year, I have been overwhelmed by the support and loyalty of my customers and, with Christmas coming up, I've been thinking about how to say thank you. I really wish I could give each and every one of you this kind of gift:

Well, that isn't possible. So what I've done is to give one person the chance to win it!  For every £25 spent with me this last month, my customers have received a ticket for the prize draw. All the tickets were put into a tin and this morning I asked my youngest son to draw out one ticket. 

I am delighted to announce that the name on that ticket was:

Colette McAleavey!

Congratulations Colette! I hope you have great fun with your goodies which I posted off to you this morning. Since then we've had what looks from my window like a couple of feet of snow, so I don't know when Postie will be able to get through to you, but rest assured your parcel is on its way!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to all my lovely customers for your support this year. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Have a fabulous weekend,

Bird house treat box

Yay! It's Friday! In a few short hours my older children will come scampering back from school and be home for the holidays! Then we'll enter that lovely phase of rustling wrapping paper, secrets, decorations and baking - AND we're expecting big snow! Bonus! I'm getting very excited now...

Now, don't forget that today is the last day to place an order with me for £25 or more and qualify for entry into my Christmas prize draw to win the blog candy at the top of my blog. I've been putting all your names into a tin and tomorrow one ticket will be drawn out. If your name is on that ticket, you will win a beautiful Stampin' Up bag, the One of a Kind stamp set, a pack of assorted 12"x12" double-sided designer paper and three metres of beautiful wide striped grosgrain ribbon. Will it be YOU?!!!

Today I thought I'd show you this bird house treat box:

The box is my version of this design by the talented Jo Dumbleton. I loved this photo because I thought the box looked lovely among the snowy twigs but it doesn't show the sparkle of the roof, which I covered in Dazzling Diamonds and my little robin looks a bit washed out too! It's easier to see in this photo:

Ah! That's a much healthier looking robin! It's really quick and easy to make him - click here for my video tutorial. To get the wood effect I drew wavy lines round the assembled box with the thin end of a Chocolate Chip marker and then sponged the box with Chocolate Chip ink. The roof was smeared all over with a versamark pad, then covered in heat and stick powder. After pouring the excess powder back in the pot, I heated it until the roof was tacky the poured dazzling diamonds over it. Again, the excess glitter went back into the pot to be re-used and I heated the glitter to set it. Heat and stick powder is great because it ensures that the glitter doesn't come off at all - I'm not a fan of opening a card and being covered in a shower of glitter!

If you have been one of my hostesses this year, you will be receiving one of these little treat boxes, filled with something yummy! It's my way of saying thank you for all the fun we've had.

Next week, I'll be showing you the last of the Christmas projects - and I'll be turning my mind to those all-important thank you cards for after Christmas. Do come and join me!

Until then, have a wonderful weekend,

Three Minute Thursday - embellishing Christmas chocolates

Good Morning! Welcome to another Three Minute Thursday - the place to visit for speedy ideas. If you've turned up here because you haven't made any Christmas cards yet - no problem! Just go to Labels on the right hand bar and click on Three Minute Thursday: you'll get loads of card ideas, all taking around three minutes to make!

Today though, I'm thinking not about cards but about chocolate (so no change there!)

These mini chocolate bars take about three minutes each to decorate and would make a pretty gift in a box or bag. They also make great stocking fillers or decorations for a Christmas table - each place setting getting a different design.

The best way to make them is to gather together designer paper, ribbons, punches and embellishments in one place, bring out the mini chocolate bars and enjoy letting your imagination run riot! I advise you to buy twice as many chocolates as you need in case you find yourself absent-mindedly nibbling on them...!

This one is wrapped in Jolly Holiday designer paper layered up with Old Olive satin ribbon and 1/4" Real Red grosgrain ribbon on top, tied in a knot. I used the two-step bird punch to cut out a stalk and added 'berries' with the 1/4" circle punch. The berries are highlighted with a white gel pen.

This gorgeous paper is from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' kit. I wrapped some Early Espresso 5/8" grosgrain ribbon around it and topped that with Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon tied in a knot. A leaf punched out of Early Espresso card stock with the two-step bird punch is tucked under the knot and I punched three 'berries' out of Real Red card stock with the 1/8" punch. Again, I used the white gel pen to add highlights.

Another design from the Jolly Holiday paper pack is used here. It is topped with a label cut out of Real Red card stock using the Modern Label punch. A piece of Early Espresso 1/4" grosgrain ribbon with the ends snipped into a V shape is laid on top. I made faux suede by running a piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock through the crimper repeatedly to break down the fibres and then splitting it apart into thin pieces of paper. The flowers are cut from the faux suede with the Boho Blossoms punch and decorated with Old Olive brads. Snipping between each petal gives the flowers more dimension. An Old Olive leaf adds the finishing touch.

This chocolate is the simplest and quickest of the batch. I wrapped it first with one of the striped designs from the Jolly Holiday papers, then with some Cherry Cobbler faux suede (see above). I cut the snowflake out of the Christmas Jingle paper with a 1" circle punch and added a Real Red brad before attaching it to the chocolate bar with a dimensional.

The poinsettia-style flower makes this chocolate look quite flamboyant! I cut two flowers out of Real Red card stock with the 5 petal punch and one pointed flower with the Boho Blossoms punch. The flowers are layered together, pierced in the centre and secured with an Old Olive brad. The chocolate is wrapped in Jolly Holiday designer paper, then Very Vanilla faux suede (see above). I tied Old Olive 1/4" grosgrain ribbon in a knot around this, tucked an Old Olive leaf into the knot, then added the flower with a dimensional.

I really enjoyed decorating these chocolates - it makes a fantastic therapy session when you're fed up with Christmas shopping! Hope your Christmas preparations are going well. My own will resume today as all the tummies in our house are well again and have returned (with their owners!) to school. Thank you so much to all who have sent get well messages - I really appreciate it.
See you tomorrow,