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Oh, I love how this card has turned out. I have been debating whether or not to have the Party this Way stamp set for ages and I finally got it last week, FREE, as part of my demonstrator goodies. If you join Stampin Up as a demonstrator, not only do you get commission off all your sales, you can also earn lots of FREEBIES. You don't need to do classess or workshops, you can be a hobby demonstrator and just buy goods for yourself to use. If you would like to know more, please contact me.

Anyway, back to this card. I made this for someone at work and used my Colour Coach to come up with the colour scheme. Many people overlook the Colour Coach in the catalogue but it's a great tool, and only £13.50. It has all the current colours of cardstock on a ring and on the back, it suggests colour combinations that work well. I wanted to use Melon Mambo and it suggested Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant. Now, I don't have Elegant Eggplant, so used Concorde Crush instead and this is the result:

I also used my new Timeless Type Junior Sizzlet Alphabet and the Big Shot to cut the letters out of matching cardstock. As it was my birthday this month, Stampin Up gave me an extra 15% off one item of my choice and I choose to buy this alphabet. This photo shows the colours better and shows how beautifully the stamps stamp (?!) on Whisper White card.

In America they have a punch to match the pennant banner, so here's hoping we get it when the new catalogue comes out in October. x

Owl Card class today

Hi all, well Wednesday is finally here and it's card class to night. This is what everyone will be making:

I will post more details of all the cards throughout the next week or so but here are the Christmas cards. Remember it's never too early to start making Christmas cards. Here are the penguins, they are owls with their ears cut off (!)

I have seen quite a few versions of this card, so don't know who came up with the original idea. I used Bashful Blue card and Whisper White card for the snow- the card was torn and the edges glittered with Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I stamped some snowflakes with a non-Stampin' Up punch and added them to the sky. I love the 'embossed effect' you get by using punched shapes in the same colour as the background. The greeting is from Sincere Saultations. Here are some close ups:

Then we have Rudolph:

I used Real Red and Old Olive cardstock for this card and some Real Red designer paper. I used the scallop punch and the Scallop Trim border punch. Rudolph's antler were made using the Little Leaves Die and his nose was covered in red glitter. The greeting is from the Contempo Christmas stamp set.
Hope everyone enjoys making these tonight and I will tell you about the other cards later. If you want to join us in any of the classes, please contact me. x

More Baby Blossom Cards

These are the last of the Baby Blossom cards. Using the same colours as before: Daffodil Delight, More Mustard and Pear Pizzazz designer paper. We also used the Scallop Oval punch and the Oval punch (large) on these cards and created the holes in the scallops using the Piercing Tool. 

Now before I show you any more, I really do need to give credit to the person who designed these cards, Jenny Moors. She does some wonderful tutorials and this is one of her sets. Here's a close up of the detail on the 'label':

The 'Happy Birthday' sentiment is from one of the level 2 hostess sets called Something to Celebrate. Remember you too could earn FREE stamp sets by hosting a Stamping Up! workshop at home. Give me a ring if you would like more information. Here's the last card:

For this card we used Very Vanilla for the background, although it looks white in the photo, and we embossed it using the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and the Big Shot. Quite a few of the flowers and leaves in the Baby Blossoms stamp set come in different sizes and here you can see the small rose and the larger rose being used. 

I hope you have enjoyed these cards and that they have inspired you. Please don't hesitate to email me or phone me if you would like to order anything or if you just want a chat about anything on this blog. x

Baby Blossom cards and a quilt

Hi, today I wanted to show you one of the cards we made at card class on Wednesday. We all had a lovely time and everyone worked hard to complete their box and 3 cards, but there never seems to be enough time. Foolishly, I didn't take photos of what everyone made which is a shame as the sets looked completely different when done in different colours.

Some of the girls weren't able to make the class so they will make their projects this Wednesday. I'll try and remember to take photos of the pink set. The blue set was really vivid but you'll just have to take my word for it as no-one is making a blue set on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the rest of us will be making projects using the Owl punch, so I'll post photos of them later in the week. Here's a close-up of the card, above.

For the yellow set we used Daffodil Delight and More Mustard card and ink, Very Vanilla for the background and some Pear Pizzaz. The Baby Blossom stamp set is absolutely lovely. You can make such a variety of background papers with it, the possibilities are endless. The edging was done using the Scallop Trim border and corner punch.


Now, it was my birthday last week and my mother-in-law made me this beautiful quilt:

Photos could never do it justice but it is absolutely gorgeous. It is backed with this lovely Japanese fabric:

She gave it to me during card class, and I think most of the  girls now want to take up quilting too!
Hope you're all having a lovely weekend, despite the rain.x

More Owls

Good morning, I'm trying to be good and blog more regularly so here are the close ups of the owl bookmarks, that I promised you yesterday:

I took these quite late in the evening which is why the light is a bit funny. I put a plain owl on the back, so the paperclip is 'trapped' between the 2 layers:

Here's a photo of the green one:

Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea. These are great fun to make and use hardly any materials, so why not have a go.

I wasn't totally ready to put away my owl punch yet, so made this anniversary card:

I used Night of Navy card and cut a circle from Whisper White. I used my daubers to ink the circle with Daffodil Delight and More Mustard ink, to give it a yellow glow. The Owls are cut out of Basic Black card using the Owl Punch and the leaves are from the Bird Punch, again using black. The little hearts are on the Owl Punch.

A closer look:

The 'Happy Anniversary' sentiment is from one of the free hostess sets called 'Something to Celebrate'. I love this stamp set as it covers all sorts of occasions. Remember you could earn free hostess sets too by holding a workshop at your house or by joining the hostess 10 club.

Well, I'd better be off to work now. Have a good day. x

Owl Bookmarks

Hi all, Just a quick post today. I was having a play with my Owl Punch on sunday in preparation for next weeks class. What a great punch! I decided to make everyone coming to my class this week, an owl bookmark. 


This is just a teaser for them as some are coming to the owl class next week. Remember it's not too late as there are a few places left. Here's what I made them:

These owls are just made out of scraps and stuck to giant paperclips using glue dots and some Tombow glue. I should have taken a close up but didn't. (Couldn't wrestle the i-phone away from my husband for long enough) I'll try taking a close up tomorrow.
There will be more cards and projects posted over the next week, so keep checking back. If you would like to come to the Owl Punch class, give me a ring or email me. See you back soon. x

Birthday Flowers

Hi everyone, Do you remember the picture of my mother-in-law receiving her Big Shot? Well, this is the birthday card I made for her:

The card base was made out of Pretty in Pink card stock. I used my Big Shot and the Fun Flowers die to create the flower, and the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing folder to create the background, using Ver Vanilla card. I used Pretty in Pink ink and my sponge daubers to go over the embossed background, highlighting the pattern.

The flower was cut out of Pretty in Pink and Very Vanilla cardstock, and the purple flower was cut from Lap of Luxury designer paper. Some of the flowers were embossed using the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder.

I used a Rhinestone Brad in the centre of the flower. You get lots of these in a packet (approx 84), and they come in various colours. All for just £8.75.

The sentiment was stamped using Curly Cute - this is quickly becoming a favourite. You may see it slightly better in this photo:

I hope you like this card. Remember if you would like to buy any of these products, please contact me. Have a great day.

Golfing Owl

Hi everyone, I haven't done much blogging lately and I will try and make up for it - promise. Here's a card I made for my father-in-law's birthday, last month:

As per usual it's a pretty bad picture but my husband has a new i-phone and much as I hate to admit it, we can get far better quality photos on that, than we do with our fairly new camera - typical. Unfortunately though, this was taken with the camera. Here's a close up, which is a better picture:

I used Chocolate Chip as a base card, Bashful Blue card for the background and the Owl Punch to create the owl out of scraps of Chocolate Chip; Real Red; Pumpkin Pie cardstock and Springtime Vintage designer paper. The leaves were cut out of Certainly Celery card using the Little Leaves die and the Big Shot. I happened to have a golf club die but you could easily handcut a golf club.

I decorated the inside of the card to make it a little bit more special. The card seemed a bit boring to me but my father-in-law liked it and we all know how difficult cards for men are.

I used the Curly Cute stamp set for the Greeting, and the Scallop Trim border punch for the edging. You can adapt the Owl punch to almost any occasion by 'dressing' the owl and the Owl can be turned into lots of other things which is what we'll be doing in the Owl class on the 20th July.


I still have some places left on the Owl punch class, so have a look at the 'classes' tab at the top of the blog for further details and contact me if you would like some fun and play with the punch yourself. x