A wee card I made for my daughter for her friend's birthday. Both fans of the show Supernatural :)

Dress up birthday card

FREE CLASS with every Epic Day This & That kit pre-ordered by 1 May 2013

 Stampin' Up! have a new product launch on 1 May. It's a fantastic journal for recording your memories and saving your photos and memorabilia - see below for more information and pictures.

 

If you are interested I will be running a FREE class on Thursday 23 May for everyone who purchases the complete kit (133905 Epic Day This and That Bundle £29.94) to give you some ideas of how to put it all together - please note this willl not be a step by step class as everyone's journal will be different depending on what photos/memories you want to record (eg baby/child, wedding, holiday, day to day life etc) but I will be able to help with the layout of your book and will provide additional stamp sets and die cuts to add to your kit.

TO QUALIFY FOR YOUR FREE CLASS PLEASE CONTACT ME TO PLACE YOUR ORDER FOR THE COMPLETE KIT NO LATER THAN 1 MAY 2013. 

If you are interested in hosting a Stampin' Up! party at your home you can find out more about what's involved here and how you can earn products for FREE. Please give me a call on 07949 101534 to arrange. Thank you :)

Lots and lots of offers this month

Stampin' Up! have so many offers this month to help you get ready for your Christmas crafting:

Dates: 1 November – 16 December 2012

Promotion Details: Hostesses who hold a minimum £325 party during the promotion period will receive a FREE collection of Classic Stampin Pads—they can choose from Brights, Subtles, or Regals—a £44.50 value! Plus, the free ink is in addition to the regular hostess benefits—INK-redible!

Dates: 1-30 November 2012

Promotion Details: It’s only November, but Stampin’ Claus is coming to town! Get a FREE Festive Paper-Piercing Pack when you purchase the Ornament Keepsakes Stamp Set and Candlelight Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper Bundle.

Dates: 1 October – 30 November 2012

New demonstrators who join during October and November, will get a FREE package of Designer Series paper every month for SIX MONTHS!
Recruit a new demonstrator during October and November, and you will get a FREE package of Designer Series Paper every month for SIX MONTHS too!

 And remember the first person to sign up with me this month will also receive an exclusive convention bag.

Special offer for the next person to join my team!

Back safe and sound from a fantastic weekend away in Germany at Stampin' Up!'s European Convention. 

It was, as usual, an amazing weekend shared with great friends and some wonderfully creative people.

Me and my friend Lorraine were staying at the Hilton and this was our view over the Rhine. Stunningly pretty

 
 As usual we received a free bag from Stampin' Up! and we also received 5 FREE stamp sets along with some other gifts. 

 At the end of the weekend we were able to purchase some of the surplus convention bags so I managed to get one for each of my downline.

 I have one more bag spare which I will be giving FREE to the first person who signs up with me this month. Just click on the link above and you can do all the paperwork online. For only £99 you can chose £130 worth of product and you will also receive £45 of business supplies free to kickstart your business.

You will also be eligible for this month's special offer

• New recruits who join in November will receive one free package of Designer Series Paper of their choice per month starting December 2012 and going through to May 2013.
• New demonstrators may choose from any Designer Series Paper in any current catalogues. Designer Series Paper that is part of a new-catalogue preorder is not eligible.
• This offer does not include Specialty Designer Series Paper.
• New demonstrators who join during the promotion period will be eligible to start redeeming their free Designer Series Paper on their first demonstrator order in December.
• New demonstrators must place a demonstrator order each month to redeem their free Designer Series Paper. If a demonstrator order is not placed in a given month, that month’s free Designer Series Paper will be forfeited.
• If a new demonstrator’s order only contains the free Designer Series Paper, he/she will pay shipping charges. 

So to recap the first person to sign up with me this month will receive £130 worth of product and £45 worth of business supplies for the low starter kit price of only £99, plus free designer series paper every month for the next 6 months (RRP£59.70) plus an exclusive convention bag (priceless!).
If you have any questions at all please give me a call.

Free Designer Series Paper!

Dates: 1 October – 30 November 2012

Details: An almost unbelievable offer for new demonstrators

• New demonstrators who join during October and November, will get a FREE package of Designer Series paper every month for SIX MONTHS! 

That’s right! Get FREE Designer Series Paper for
SIX MONTHS when you become a Stampin’ Up!®
demonstrator during October or November.

As a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, you’ll enjoy exclusive benefits like

• A 20 percent product discount!
• A free subscription to Stampin’ Up!’s demonstrator magazine!
• Access to a thriving online community of stampers and
paper crafters from around the world!
• An open invitation to fabulous Stampin’ Up! events!

Don’t wait to get started—contact me today!

It's never been easier to become a demonstrator - just click on the link below when you're ready to join Stampin' Up!
Join Now!

Autumn Accents Ornament Wreath Tutorial

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my little autumn decoration, both on here and elsewhere on line.

As I mentioned before this was based on the Holiday Ornament decoration on the front page of the new Autumn Winter catalogue and I just used the same technique to make this.

First of all cut 20 large leaves using your Autumn Accents die and More Mustard card stock

 (you will need about 3 1/2 A4 sheets) and another 20 smaller leaves using Old Olive card stock

 (less than 2 full sheets of A4)

  

Ink all the edges using a sponge dauber. I used Pumpkin Pie ink on the More Mustard leaves and Always Artichoke ink on the Old Olive leaves. 

 

Then stamp all over each leaf using the script and water splash stamps from French Foliage. Again I used Pumpkin Pie ink and Always Artichoke ink.

WARNING! Now you may notice in the picture above that I have die cut, inked and stamped the oak leaf, which was fine and dandy until I realised that it wasn't symmetrical and that I couldn't fold it in half to make a mirror image - whoops!

 

So then I die cut another twenty of the smaller leaves - now these are not quite symmetrical either but they are close enough that when you ink the edges you don't really see the bits that don't quite line up.

If you really wanted to use the oak leaf you could do this by folding your card in half BEFORE running it through your big shot. If the fold of your card runs down the middle of any of the leaves then you will end up with a mirror image leaf.
Then I took 5 of the More Mustard leaves and 5 of the Old Olive leaves and set them to one side. I scored the remaining 15 leaves in each colour down the centre using my Simply Scored tool.

 
 HELPFUL TIP!: You might notice that I have marked lines on my Simply Scored. This makes it easier to make sure you are scoring the correct line as the Simply Scored has so many grooves on it. I just used a Stampin' Write marker and ran it down the 2", 4", 6", 8" and 10" lines.

Now you need to fold all your scored leaves in half

 

Glue the three folded leaves together, making sure the shape lines up, and then glue these on to your unscored leaf base. I used my tombow liquid glue for this.
 

Once your leaf is assembled it should look like this.

Then I used the largest flower from the Fun Flowers die as a base. You don't need to do this but I found it helpful as it has 5 petals so it makes it a bit easier to place your leaves evenly. The next one I make I would probably put the leaves a smidgen nearer the middle than shown in the photo below.
I used a hot glue gun to attach the leaves at this stage.

I then cut 5 lengths of Cherry Cobbler Scallop Tulle ribbon - about 4 scallops long in each case and sort of pinched the middle and folded them in half before gluing them in the spaces between the 5 larger leaves using my glue gun.

I then cut 5 lengths of linen thread, folded them in half, and tied a knot. Use your glue gun to place a large dollop of glue in the middle of your wreath and then add the linen thread so it more less lines up over the large leaves.

Add another large dollop of glue in the middle and add the Old Olive leaves.
A mini rosette was made using a 1/2" strip of paper cut from the Candlelight Christmas Speciality DSP and finished off with an antique brad.

To finish it off I cut a small length of Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon and glued this on the back to make a loop to hang the wreath up.

Hopefully that is clear but if you have any other questions please do let me know.

New Autumn Winter Catalogue is on its way...

...and as a demonstrator one of the perks is getting to order certain items from the catalogue early.

Now I can't show you the catalogue until it goes live on 1 September but there is an amazing Christmas ornament on the front page using some new stamps called Ornament Keepsakes. Unfortunately the stamps were not included in the pre-order this time, so I will have to wait until 1 September to get hold of them. But in the meantime I thought I would see what I could come up with along the same lines, using some of the new products that arrived today.

Autumnal mini wreath/ornament

The new products I used were the Autumn Accents die (which has 5 different leaf shapes, and there is also a matching stamp set) and the Cherry Cobbler Scallop Tulle ribbon that is just lush. I also used a little strip from a sheet of Candlelight Christmas Speciality DSP.
The leaves were stamped using stamps from the French Foliage set.

The card stock is More Mustard and Old Olive.

If you'd like a step by step tutorial please let me know by leaving a comment and I'll see what I can come up with over the weekend.

Craft Fair

I promised I would share some photos of the craft fair last weekend. This was our stall all set up (I say we as I had my daughter Kirsten to help me out and she did a really great job helping to arrange the stall). Apologies for the quality of the photos as they were taken using my phone.

Some cards:

My little sewing kits and owl tissues

Covered notebooks and keyring post it notes

Magnetic note pads

Tealight birthday cake in a box

The notepads in more detail

And a close up of the post-it note key rings

Magnetic notepads

Peg Magnets

 2013 calendars on acrylic holders

Acrylic post it note holders and matching pens