New Summer Mini Catalogue share - only £20

Would you like to get your hands on some of the gorgeous new products in the mini but not sure what to choose?

How about a sampler pack of some of the gorgeous papers, ribbons and buttons in the new catalogue?

Your pack will include the following:

12 6"x6" sheets of the Springtime Vintage paper (2 of each design)
12 6"x6" sheets of the Botanical Gazette paper (2 of each design)
12 6"x6" sheets of the Sweet Stitches paper (2 of each design)

2 metres of Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon
2 metres of Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon
2 metres of Rose Red Seam Binding Ribbon
2 metres of Pear Pizazz Seam Binding Ribbon

12 Springtime Vintage Big Designer Buttons
12 Sweet Stitches Big Designer Buttons
16 Bitty Buttons

3 Beveled Windowpanes (one of each size)

All for the low price of £20 delivered anywhere within the UK.

To order please email me at thefineartofstampin@gmail.com

Happy Mother's Day

We've had a lovely weekend here. Kirsten was at a loose end yesterday ("I'm boooooored - well it is the first day of the school holidays!) so we decided to make Cinnabons. Mmmmm.

Unfortunately after 5 minutes Kirsten remembered that she'd tried them at Universal and didn't like them so she left me to it. But I persevered! OMG they were delicious (even if I do say so myself). I got the recipe from here http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4727/clone-of-a-cinnabon.aspx

Next time I make them I would just make half quantities as it made about 10 ginormous buns!
Or maybe freeze half. To give an idea of size that dish is the one I use to make lasagne or pasta for all of us!

I was also spoiled as Kirsten made me breakfast in bed for mother's day. She gave me a lovely card that she'd drawn herself and a "Mum's survival kit" which included a jar of Nescafe Gold Blend, some Nutrigrain bars, a star bar, three Yankee candles and a Burt's Bees lip balm. Smart girl.
I also got some chocolates from Kenneth when he eventually surfaced post noon and a lovely bunch of flowers from both of them.

This is the card I made for my mum (whose favourite colour is Turquoise) and I stamped some kraft parcel paper when I realised I had run out of gift wrap. Always useful to have my craft supplies on hand.


I am working out the details of some new classes I will be running soon. Hoping to do a scrapbook/minibook/3D project class and a card making class every month - watch this space for more information coming soon.

The Tartan Stampers Mini Catalogue 2011 Blog Hop!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. Thanks for "hopping" by. (sorry!)

If you've hopped here from Sharon's blog, weren’t her projects gorgeous? And doesn't her blog look fab? All posh and everything!

If you’re one of my usual blog readers and have come straight here and are not sure what’s going on, I am taking part in a Blog Hop today to launch the new Stampin’ Up! Mini Catalogue 2011.
There will be a link at the end of this post to Fiona's blog, where she will also have fabulous projects, and a link to the next blog, and so on. There are 10 blogs in total in this hop, so pop the kettle on and settle back with a cuppa while you browse.

First of all I can't quite believe how amazing the new mini catalogue is. Stampin' Up! really have excelled themselves this time. If you'd like your own copy of the mini catalogue please get in touch - contact details in the side bar <<<<<<< over there :-)

First up is a set of three projects I made using the Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum and Rose Red colour combo that are all in the subtles collection.

Look I actually made a scrapbook page - I first got in to scrapbooking way back in 2004 but for some reason this is the first scrapbook page I have made in about two years. I'm really not sure why that is but I really enjoyed making this page so who knows maybe I'll try it again some time soon!

The photos were taken when my mum, Kirsten and I took our girlie trip to Paris last summer. I should mention that Kirsten's Esmerelda figure came along too - so she could "see" Notre Dame again!

The new products from the 2011 Mini catalogue used to make this page include the Flower Burst Embosslit Die (114515), Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die (114507) and the Extra Large Decorative Label Punch (120907).

Other supplies include patterned paper from the Subtles Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack (117152) - as an aside this is seriously good value for money at £15.50 for 40 (yes that's forty!) sheets of double sided papers. I made the third flower using the scallop circle punch. The flower centres are some wee subtles designer buttons (119745) and there's a bit of Rhinestones (119246) bling on there as well.

The stamp sets used were Artistic Etchings (W 118517/C 120573) and Schoolbook Serif Alphabet (113510) - perfect for scrapbook pages as well as for personalised cards.

And because I'm basically quite lazy and everything was lying about on my work table already I used lots of the same products to make my next card.

What's new here though is the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder (114517) - how gorgeous is that? I really, really love that Stampin' Up! now have embossing folders so we can add lots of lovely texture to our cards.

Other supplies used include the Curly Label Punch (119851) and the Tiny Tags (W 118091/ C 118592) stamp set.

The last of these three is all sparkly and pretty! I used the waste piece from cutting out the Beautiful Butterflies die on my Big Shot (113439) - oooh that's right we have the Big Shot now. Did I forget to mention that? :-) - as a stencil. I used a sponge dauber and ink from the ink pads to stencil three butterflies on some Whisper White cardstock. I then went over the butterfly images with a 2-Way Glue Pen and added some Fine Cosmo Stampin' Glitter (108796).

I then used the Scallop Trim Border Punch (118402) to make a fancy edge and the sentiment is from the Level 3 hostess set Occasional Quotes. One of the perks of being a demo is that we get to purchase a Level 2 and Level 3 hostess set before the launch of each main catalogue.

As well as this blog hop the Tartan Stampers Team have also organised a card swap to celebrate the launch of the mini. Here are the cards I made all packed up and ready to go.

And here are the second set I made. One of my downline had only recently signed up and didn't have enough supplies from the new Mini catalogue (yet!) to make up cards for the swap so I kindly volunteered to make some for her - yaay me! ;) - so she would have some more cards to show her new customers.And here are these two cards close up:


I used the Manhattan Flower Embossing Folder on vellum paper (108631), Four Frames (W 123440 /C 123442) stamp set that co-ordinates with the XL Decorative Label Punch and some Pear Pizzaz Seam Binding Ribbon (122330). This is gorgeous stuff, its very light and so easy to work with and it comes in three other fabulous colours Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake and Rose Red.

For the card below I used the fabulous Top Note Bigz die (113463) ( I have been coveting this ever since I saw it in the US Stampin' Up! catalogue what seems like eons ago!), the Little Leaves Sizzlets Die (114511) which is so, so useful. I can see myself using this lots. The flower is made from four of the smallest flower on the Fun Flowers Bigz L die (121812), crumpling them up and then fastening them together with a brad.

The designer series paper is the wonderful Springtime Vintage (121782). I've only used the teeniest of pieces on this card but hope to share some more projects with more of this gorgeous paper very, very soon ;).
The sentiment is from that old favourite, a classic, but a goodie Sincere Salutations (105156)

I really hope you've enjoyed looking at my projects made with some of the new products. Look out for some more blog posts showcasing even more in the next few days. If you'd like to place an order or host a workshop (where you can earn FREE stamp sets and product) then do please get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

And now its time to say goodbye and for you to hop on over to the Fabulous Fiona's blog for some more amazing projects.

Bye for now and thanks for visiting.