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Monday 30 December 2013

Happy 2014 - wishing you a happy Stampin' Up new year!

In all the excitement of preparing for Christmas you may easily have missed the gorgeous new releases Stampin' Up brought out in December! I've been using some of them today - come and see:


You might be wondering why I've been making all these New Year cards... well, it occurred to me that while I was writing Christmas thank you notes I could be sending happy wishes for 2014 too!


I used the Sweet Sayings card bases and the globe from the fabulous new Love You More set, proving that there's much more to Valentines stash than romance. The numbers from Memorable Moments team beautifully with the pre-printed card bases and it's easy to stamp the year 2014 neatly using a stamp-a-majig.


I'm loving the card bases. They are the perfect start to any kind of card and conveniently come with envelopes in coordinating colours - you get four each of Real Red, Crisp Cantaloupe and Coastal Cabana in this pack for example. In the photo, I teamed my card with the lush Coastal Cabana envelope but they're all as fab as each other!

If you'd like to send out some special thank yous, what could be more perfect than Stampin' Up's little Monster Hugs? How cute are these?!



The new Stampin' Up releases are available only until 27th January 2014 or until stocks last so don't miss out! See all the new stash here.

There's a New Year card theme at CAS on Sunday and  CASual Fridays at the moment so I'll link this card up with them.
Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Love You More, Memorable Moments
Ink: Real Red, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana
Card stock: Sweet Sayings card bases/envelopes,
Other: Basic rhinestones, stamp-a-majig

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

It's definitely time to take down the Christmas decorations now and clear the decks for a nice uncluttered new year celebration. Last year's delicious meal, prepared for the family by my three children, was such a success that they've offered to do it again - yay! My husband and I will have nothing to do but arrange ourselves on the sofas and talk about home improvements (which we'll probably never get round to doing!)

Wishing all my customers and readers a very happy new year,

Saturday 28 December 2013

A Clockwise countdown to 2014

Have you had a lovely Christmas? We certainly have! But it's over now for another year and in just a few days time, 2013 will draw to a close and a brand new shiny new year will start! I've been making cards to celebrate - come and see:


This design is based on Stampin' Up's fabulous Clockworks stamp set along with some die cut numbers but I've added elements from other stamp sets too...


... So, for example, I've sprinkled a little Coastal Cabana magic using Gorgeous Grunge, added my favourite arrow from Hello Lovely, used the Hello from Four You and the perfect new year message from Remembering Christmas. It's great fun making collage-style cards - as my daughter would say: "10 out of 10 - highly recommended!"

Here's what you'll need to make this project
Stamps: Clockworks, Gorgeous Grunge, Four You, Remembering Christmas
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Elegant Eggplant, Coastal Cabana, Pumpkin Pie
Card stock: Elegant Eggplant, scrap of Whisper White
Other: Notecards with matching envelopes, markers, Big Shot, Timeless Type sizzlits alphabet (retired), paper snips, stamp-a-majig

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Top moments from our Christmas? Of course there are far too many to choose from but I loved it when all my children ganged up together in the kitchen on Christmas Eve to make special truffles for me...


They melted dark chocolate, whipped it up with double cream, left it to set in the fridge and then rolled balls of the mixture in chopped nuts, chopped coconut or cocoa powder - I nearly fainted with pleasure when I tried them!

Then there was the bit when my youngest son, who was already sporting a striking onesie and furry slippers ensemble, unwrapped this frog hat from his uncle...


 and declared his Christmas outfit complete!

And then there was the moment when our spoilt puss looked under the Christmas tree and seemed outraged to discover that there were no pampered pet pouches for her!


At the risk of sounding sentimental, the best bit was spending time relaxing with the people I love best in the whole world (ahhhhh!) Hope you had a lovely Christmas too and are looking forward to a shiny new year.

No holiday would be complete without a moment or two spent playing with my gorgeous new Stampin' Up stash so I'll be back in the next day or two to show you what I've been up to! Happy holidays!

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Lovely as a Tree - That's the Ticket!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... but it wouldn't be Christmas if I hadn't made at least one card using Lovely as a Tree! Come and have a look:


This card was made by cutting out a 2 1/2" circle and creating a snow scene with ink pads and the 'direct to card stock' technique ( I love doing this and it's so easy!) I stamped the fir tree image from Lovely as a Tree several times in the foreground and added snow to the branches using the Stampin' Chalk marker.


This beautiful label from That's the Ticket gives the snowy scene a bit of a twist. I stamped in it Cherry Cobbler ink, cut it out with the coordinating punch and attached it to the circle with a staple. A tiny bakers twine bow is the finishing touch.

Here's what you'll need to make this project
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, That's the Ticket
Ink: Soft Sky, Crisp Cantaloupe, Summer Starfruit, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Stampin' Chalk marker, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, 2 1/2" circle and Label punches

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Well you know, I think it's time to wind down here and take a break for the holidays. I'd love to say I'm all prepared but the reality is that there's lots to be done! Yesterday I finally got round to finishing writing my Christmas cards and when my husband came in from work he found me chopping up salad for dinner and muttering about which postage stamp to use. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Oh nothing," I said separating lettuce leaves. "Do you know how thick first class letters can be?" There was a pause. "Er, I'm not sure," said my husband. "It's not really the season for them is it?" I looked up in disbelief. "Don't be ridiculous," I said crossly. "It's Christmas! Everyone's sending cards!" There was another pause and then my husband asked: "What have cards got to do with lettuce?"

Have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are and I'll be back soon with some new and exciting projects!

Hugs,

Tuesday 17 December 2013

One layer Christmas card - and some winners!

I have an exciting announcement to make today so scroll right down to the end of the post for that. Meanwhile, I have a card to show you - probably my favourite Christmas card I've designed this year in fact! Come and see:


I love this flowing sentiment from Delightful Dozen. I stamped it in Early Espresso ink onto Stampin' Up's ready-made note cards - these are the perfect weight for one layer cards, are made of beautifully smooth, quality card stock and come with their own envelopes to make life even easier!


Here's a close up of the stamping and you can see that I made my spray of foliage fit the shape of the sentiment. The stamps were chosen from three different stamp sets because it's always fun to put different stamps together and you always come up with something unique - why  not try it?!

I'm going to link this card up with Make My Monday where the theme is a Clean and Simple Christmas card; and 52 {Christmas} card throwdown where we're picking a previous challenge (I've chosen the July colour palette of dark red, dark brown, dark green and ivory.)

Here's what you'll need to make this project
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Joyful Christmas, Bright Blossoms, Delightful Dozen (sentiment)
Ink: Gumball Green, Early Espresso plus markers
Card stock: Notecards and envelopes
Other: Stamp-a-majig

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Can you hear a drum roll?! Yes, it's time to make that exciting announcement...

My Christmas prize draw winners
As a special thank you to my customers, I laid on a special prize draw at the end of last month and everyone who placed an order with me between 25th November - 15th December was automatically entered.

I have used a Random Selector to choose the winners and they are:

Ann Rosie from Fife wins 1st prize, a cling mount Gorgeous Grunge stamp set
Stephanie Brown from County Down wins 2nd Prize, a cling mount Oh Goodie stamp set
Irene Dunn from Tyne & Wear wins 3rd prize, a Tag-a-Bag accessories set

Congratulations ladies, I'm delighted for you all! Your prizes will soon be winging their way to you through the post.


I've been out Christmas shopping with each of my children and have found that some have been more prepared than others... Yesterday evening was the turn of my youngest son and suffice it to say that eventually I found a bench in the shopping centre, sat down with him and said we weren't moving from it until he'd thought of a great gift for each of the people he was getting presents for! It all happened quite quickly after that!

I'll be back tomorrow with more of my Christmas makes. Hope to see you then.

Hugs,

Monday 16 December 2013

Season of Style Christmas boxes

So it finally happened - there's been so much demand for Stampin' Up's brilliant envelope board that it's sold out for the moment! I'm not at all surprised: this tool not only makes envelopes in every size you can imagine but also enables you to come up with the most astonishing variety of gift boxes and favours AND incorporates the best corner rounder ever too - and all for just a couple of quid more than a standard punch! You might want to order yours now...

Today's project is a little box I designed while playing about with the board. Come and see:


I made these for the ladies in my Stampers 6 club back in November. They are just the right size to hold one of Stampin' Up's Dazzling Details which I thought would come in handy for their Christmas makes, but it would also be perfect for packaging a large lipstick or any other gift of a similar size.


Here's a close up of one of the boxes. I used a different paper from the Season of Style range for each box and decorated them with a sumptuous bow using the stitched edge grosgrain ribbon, and a layered tag.

I'm planning a tutorial for this quick box so look out for that in the new year.

Here's what you'll need to make this project
Card stock: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Envelope board, Season of Style designer paper, Cherry Cobbler stitched grosgrain ribbon, Merry Minis punch set, 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" scallop circle punch, glimmer paper, white bakers twine.

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Our practice Christmas went very well this weekend with great company, excellent food (even if I do say so myself!) and a roaring fire. The only thing that marred the proceedings was that my daughter got so fed up with my youngest son leaving the light on in his room every morning that she took all his light bulbs away and hid them! I managed to get her to restore them and suggested that he made a poster to put up next to his bedroom door reminding him to turn the lights off... unfortunately we're still working on it!

See you tomorrow when I'll be revealing the winners of my Christmas draw!

Friday 13 December 2013

Christmas gift packet tutorial

One of my favourite things to do with designer paper at the moment is using it to make packet-style envelopes for gift cards, money or small gifts using just my Stampin' Trimmer.  I've put together a quick tutorial to show you how I do it - come and see:


First cut a 12 cm square of paper. Check out the gorgeous checked design I'm using from the Season of Style pack - gorgeous! Now score at 5.5 cm and 11 cm. Turn the paper 90 degrees anti-clockwise and score at 3 cm and 11 cm...


... and you should end up with something that looks like this! Now you need to cut some parts of the paper away and rather than tie myself up in knots trying to explain in words, I've shaded the bits that need to go:


Paper snips do the job very efficiently! (I've just realised that I inadvertently turned the paper 180 degrees in this photo!)




Decide which side of the paper you want to show (it's that beautiful check for me although there is a fabulous pattern on the other side too!) and fold all the creases crisply with a bone folder (you might notice that mine has seen a lot of action!) Hopefully you can now see how this is going to turn into a packet now.


I like to angle the flaps at the top and bottom with my paper snips but you might prefer to curve the corners with a corner rounder instead...


... or as well!  And yes, that IS the new envelope board (not so new actually - it's already had plenty of use in the Crafting Square Metre!) and I am in love... sigh!


Put some sticky strip on the 1cm flaps (you can see I added some on the top one here and I'm just about to add some to the flap on the left). Then remove the red backing tape and stick together...


... like this, adding a layered 'button' on a dimensional so that the flap tucks behind it neatly to fasten. I made my buttons with coordinating card stock, the 1" and 3/4" circle punches and the Merry Minis punch pack.

Here's everything you'll need to make this project
Card stock: Gold foil sheet, Cherry Cobbler textured, Old Olive smooth
Other: Season of Style designer paper, Stampin' trimmer, 1" and 3/4" circle punches, Merry Minis punch pack, paper snips, bone folder, corner rounder, Sticky Strip, dimensionals

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

I must dash now as I have a Christmas day dress rehearsal to prepare for tomorrow! No it's okay, I haven't lost the plot - we're having a bit of a get-together with family that can't make it on the actual Christmas day!

See you tomorrow,

Thursday 12 December 2013

A quick Festive Flurry

If you're anything like me, you're sure to run out of cards and need to produce a load more at the drop of a hat! Well, it's Three Minute Thursday today and I thought it would be a good idea to show you another quick Christmas card:


I'm always very attracted to cards with a single snowflake on them, especially if they have a special feature - like the layering on this one. I used the smallest stamp in Stampin' Up's Festive Flurry set which has defined shapes that work really well for layers.


I stamped the image three times, once on the Soft Sky panel and twice more on spare Soft Sky card stock. Using my  sharp paper snips, I cut out the star shape from one of the spares and the central hexagon from the other, layering them on top of the first stamped snowflake using dimensionals. You may think that cutting things out with scissors is hardly the quickest technique, but these are very simple shapes with straight lines so it really is remarkably fast!


The edges of the card stock were I distressed with my finger nail for a bit of definition and I added a gem to the centre of the snowflake.

I'll link this card up with CASology where the cue word is Snowflake. I always love playing along there although time has been an issue just lately!

Here's what you'll need to make this project
Stamps: Festive Flurry, Remembering Christmas (sentiment)
Ink: Midnight Muse
Card stock: Soft Sky, Whisper White (for the insert)
Other: Basic rhinestones, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

I don't know about you, but there's not even been a hint of snow here in Buckingham so far this winter and not much frost either thank goodness. I've never been much of a snow fan but when the children were smaller, I dutifully got excited when it snowed. I have an abiding memory of getting my daughter all togged up in snow clothes and letting her go out to play in the snow while I got my eldest son dressed up warmly too - only to find that when he was ready, the novelty had worn off for my daughter and she wanted to come back inside!

I have a tutorial to show you tomorrow so do come back and join me then!

Hugs,

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Grab a Stampin' Up bargain - up to 80% off!

If you're looking for today's project, scroll down to the previous post but oh my goodness, I had to let you know about the Clearance Rack: new items have been added and many prices have been slashed to 80% off!


Beautiful papers, ribbon and other accessories all in the Stampin' Up colours you know and love... well I won't keep you as I know you'll be itching to have a look!

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Hugs,

Merry and Bright Blossoms

I've been mulling over the Metallic Element plus One Other Colour challenge over at Less is More this week and finally hit on an idea using the berries from Stampin' Up's Bright Blossoms set. Come and have a look:


Gold is my metallic of choice at the moment and I love the way it looks with the gorgeous Gumball Green. The berry image is quite small but you can repeat stamp it to make a larger-looking image - here I surrounded the sentiment on my tag with versamarked berries and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder.


Your eyes aren't deceiving you - these are Stampin' Up sequins! They're not available to buy yet but coming soon I promise! The gold twisted cord is what the sequins come threaded on - isn't it gorgeous?!
Here's what you'll need to make this project
Stamps: Bright Blossoms, Delightful Dozen
Ink: Early Espresso
Card stock: Gumball Green, Very Vanilla for insert
Other: Versamark, gold embossing powder, heat tool, gold sequins and cord (coming soon!), envelope board for rounding corners, stamp-a-majig

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

We finally got our tree decorated! My husband has been away this weekend but got straight onto it when he returned. "Any instructions for sawing the bottom off the Christmas tree?" he asked. "Yes," I replied. "Don't take any height off it and if it won't fit into the stand, take some off the trunk vertically." He stared at me blankly. "Shall I draw it for you?" I suggested. "No it's fine," he said. "I think I understand. Alarm bells started ringing in my head. "You THINK you understand?" I said and then, half joking: "Please ask questions now won't you - I'd much rather answer questions now than shout at you for getting it wrong!" He side-eyed me as he walked past with the saw. " Is this what you say at the hairdresser?" he said.

See you tomorrow,

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Gift wrapping with my Stampin' Up stash

Some of my Christmas presents needed to be wrapped and sent off last week and I thought you might like to see them.


Don't they look exciting?! I didn't have long to prepare them but my Stampin' Up stash is perfect for prettying up parcels - come and take a closer look:


This is my favourite! I wrapped the gift in Season of Style designer paper which instantly gives a luxurious look, adding a tag (which is actually a Season of Style journaling tag) and finishing with Cherry Cobbler stitched edge grosgrain ribbon tied in a neat flat knot.


This large parcel is wrapped in recycled wrapping paper but is given a special touch with Burlap ribbon tied up in a great big bow.  The tag is made with Crumb Cake card stock and stamped with Festive Flurry snowflakes in Real Red ink.


I showed you this tag the other day - I'd made lots of them! It's stamped with an image from the Tag It stamp set and cut out with the coordinating framelit. I re-used some striped gift wrap and tied it up with white stitched grosgrain ribbon. By the way, the Tag it set is not only a great purchase for your creativity but also to help others: for every set sold, SU donates £2 to RMHC, a charity which provides accommodation to enable families to stay together when a sick child has to travel to get medical treatment.


This is a great tag for children's parcels and is very quick to make using your circle punches. I stamped the fabulous hat image from Embellished Events in Real Red ink on Whisper White card stock, cut it out with the 1 3/4" circle punch and mounted it on a larger red circle cut out with the 2 1/2" circle punch. The pom pom is a 1/2" circle.


This paper had been around for a very long time but it's come into it's own with a Wild Wasabi tag stamped with an image from the Four Frames set and cut out with the coordinating Decorative Label punch. I added some lush stitched satin ribbon in Gumball Green to finish.

Crafting Clare online shop, shopping with Vicky Hayes, Stampin Up clearance rack
You can order from my online shop any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

A beautifully dressed parcel really can make a impact and the same is true of clothes it seems! My husband came back from a weekend away and noticed my outfit immediately. "You look nice!" he said. And then spoilt the effect a bit by adding "You look like a Caramel bar!"


See you tomorrow,