Open Day - Friday 30 September

Stampin’ Up! Open Day

New Catalogue Preview
&
Last Chance to Buy Retiring Products


Dip n’ Doodle, 6 Gallowgate Lane, Largs

Friday 30 September - from 11 am to 6pm


Why not come along and see what Stampin’ Up! is all about?

* Free Make & Takes *

* Prizes *

* Book a home workshop *

* Find out about upcoming classes *

* Brand new Idea Book and Catalogue available to purchase *

Just pop in any time on the day – no need to pre book your slot.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Last Chance Blog Hop

Today I'm taking part in a blog hop showcasing some Stampin' Up! products that are just about to retire at the end of this month.

If you have been following the hop from the beginning of the circle (from Alison's blog),
then a warm welcome to you! You will have just seen some fabulous projects from Ally.
If you have just popped in, don't worry, you can follow the links from here and enjoy the full blog hop circle!

This card was made for my friend's daughter's birthday and uses some of the gorgeous Nursery Suite Specialty Designer Series Papers (117165 £9.95) that retire at the end of this month.


The next three cards were made using one of my favourite Christmas sets Sparkly & Bright (115346 £16.95) and the Jolly Holiday designer series papers (unfortunately the papers are now out of stock - sorry!) If you are planning on buying any products that are retiring then I do recommend you do so as soon as possible as stocks may be running low on more items.



The Merry Christmas sentiment on these two cards is from the Occasional Greetings set (110520)which is also retiring. This has also been discounted by 40% so is available at the bargain price of £18.57 while stocks last.

This last card has been designed to attach to the front of an envelope to enclose money or a Christmas gift card.
This next card was made for a friend who was in hospital (excuse the fuzzy picture taken from my phone). The buttherfly stamp is from the Strength & Hope set (Wood: 118100 £15.95, Clear Mount 123660 £12.95) Stampin' Up! will donate £1 to the Breast Cancer Research foundation for each set purchased before the end of September.



By the time you read this I will be on my way to Edinburgh to meet up with my fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators for some business training. As always when us demonstrators get together we make lots of cards to swap. I was very organised for once and made these cards a few weeks ago.



However when my pre-order goodies arrived on Tuesday (one of the perks of being a demo is that you get to order some of the new stuff from the new catalogue early!!!) I decided I couldn't resist making up some swaps using one of the new hostess sets (did I mention that as a demo you also get to pre-order two hostess sets as well! )

I finally finished these this morning and I'll be showing you the card in more detail next week.

Look out for more posts soon when I'll be letting you see some of the new products.
Hint: I had to dig out my sewing machine for the first time in ages!

Finally I have just set up a Facebook page and if you'd like to "like" it I'd be very grateful. Just click on the link that is (hopefully) on the sidebar on the left over there <<<<<<<<<<

I hope you have enjoyed my projects! Now it's time to continue the hop by going to visit Evy's blog here. Have a great weekend everyone!!

And just in case there are broken links along the way here is the full list of everyone taking part today:
1. Alison http://craftyalisoninlyon.blogspot.com/
2. Erika http://twintroublescreations.blogspot.com/
3. Lauralou http://airingcupboardstamping.blogspot.com/
4. Sarah http://www.stampinsarahiow.blogspot.com/
5. Theresa http://my-next-chapter.blogspot.com/
6. Rozelle http://thepapercraftsessions.blogspot.com/
7. Valerie http://stampingwithval.wordpress.com/
8. N/A
9. Emma http://emma-letsstamp.blogspot.com/
10. Donna http://www.head-over-heels-by-dlm.blogspot.com/
11. Julie (The Crafty Bug http://the-crafty-bug.blogspot.com/
12. Elaine http://www.thesassystampers.blogspot.com/
13. Sandra http://www.kraftybiker.blogspot.com/
14. Natalie http://www.natalieoshea.co.uk/blog.html
15. Kim http://kimfeecrafter.blogspot.com/
16. Caroline http://stampinupandbranchingout.blogspot.com/
17. VickyLou http://www.vickylouscorner.blogspot.com/
18. Michelle http://michellescraftypaper.typepad.com/
19. Ally http://www.serendipitypapercuts.blogspot.com/
20. Maggie http://thefineartofstampin.blogspot.com/
21. Evy http://www.evyscraftycreations.blogspot.com/
22. Niki http://www.mygroovystampinup.blogspot.com/
23. Sarah-Jane www.cardsandacuppa.blogspot.com
24. Tina http://littlewhitehousecrafts.blogspot.com
25. Sally http://pinkskysu.blogspot.com

Retirement List Updates

An up-to-date version of the retiring list can be found here.
The following items have already gone out of stock so if there is anything you were hoping to order this month please make sure you get your order in to me as soon as you can to avoid disappointment.

Stamps sets no longer available
Choo choo
Sense of time
Tart & tangy

Accessories no longer available
2010-2012 In Color Classic Stampin' Ink Refills
Wild Wasabi 12" x 12" Card Stock
Riding Hood Red 12" x 12" Card Stock
Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper
Silver Elastic Cord
Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelets
Pewter Jumbo Eyelets
Star Punch

I've just uploaded some photos from my camera and I found a couple of projects that I hadn't shared with you yet.

This little gift bag was made using a tutorial I purchased from a US demonstrator, Inking Idaho. It was very simple to make using Poppy parade cardstock, ribbon and the square lattice embossing folder.

And this was a card made following a challenge set by Lorraine. The challenge was:
- Use three different colours of blue and a technique from one of the following: shaving cream, marbles or crayon resist.
I stamped a piece of whisper white card with a snowflake stamp and basic black ink. I then used a white crayon to highlight the areas I wanted to stay white before brayering the card with Baja Breeze ink (my first blue).

This was then mounted on Night of Navy and Not Quite Navy card.

Added some pearls and satin ribbon. The stamp sets used were Serene Snowflakes and Curly Cute (both of which are carrying over to the new catalogue).

And finally if you would like to get hold of the new Idea Book & Catalogue now then I have them on hand and ready to post.

As an introductory offer, throughout September, you can purchase the catalogue at the special price of only £4.95 including delivery direct to your door (RRP £5.95 plus P&P). Just click on the paypal button below to purchase.

That's all for now but be sure to check back tomorrow at 10am when I am taking part in the retiring list blog hop. See you soon!

Retired List

As promised here are details of the items retiring at the end of this month.
Click on the link on the right hand side to see what items are going and if you'd like to place an order please contact me as soon as possible as stocks of some items are limited.

New Stampin' Up! Catalogue - Coming soon!

The new Stampin' Up! catalogue is only a few weeks away (1 October) and as a demonstrator I get to see some sneek peaks and preorder some new products later on this evening. If you'd like to get a copy of the new catalogue as soon as possible just click on the paypal link below and I'll send a copy of the catalogue out to you as soon as they arrive.



As an introductory offer, throughout September, you can purchase the catalogue at the special price of only £4.95 including delivery direct to your door (RRP £5.95 plus P&P). Just click on the paypal button below to purchase.

Please note that you cannot place an order from the new catalogue before 1 October but that gives you plenty of time to have a good look at all the gorgeous new products and decide which ones you just have to have. I'm sure my list will be huge!


If you'd like to get a catalogue for free please contact me about hosting your own in-home workshop, joining my new stampers 10 group starting in October, or placing an order for £150 or more.

And check back later on this evening for details of the retiring list!

Bye for now

August Promotion - Ending soon

Only a few days left to take advantage of this month's offer.
Free gift with any purchase of £75.

Includes a roll of the beautiful Rich Razzleberry 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, a 24-piece Clip Assortment and an exclusively-designed cosmetic bag.

Free gift with £75 order

Stampin' Up! have another offer this month.

When you spend £75 (or host a £250 workshop) you will receive a gorgeous bag (see details above), a reel of Rich Razzleberry wide Grosgrain ribbon and a box of Clips.

This offer is only available for the month of August, so why not order today and treat yourself to a FREE gift bag of Stampin' Up! goodies, or contact me to see about hosting a workshop.

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.