Friday again!

Seriously, where are all the days going?! It has been non-stop this week, and looks the same next week, and the one after, and the one after ...

Anywho, last night was our WI meeting and was much fun as always. I did some crafting while I was there, obviously, and tomorrow I'm assisting Hayley on her fascinator workshop at the loval WI federation office.

So by Sunday I'll be shattered again!

Here's my quick card for today, and then I'm off to do some work and prepare myself for more madness!



This is one I made for my mum. She sends me a list of what cards she needs and I make her a big batch to keep her going.

This uses the matching Growing Green stamp set and Woodland Walk DSP. I went for the neutral browns to keep it quite classy, with a hint of Champagne Shimmer Paint and a Pearl to finish it off.

Oh, one more thing; I'm having a workshop on Thursday, April 14th here in Armley to celebrate the new Mini Catalogue. Details over there >>> or email/call me!

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More quick pics!

Here we go again, with three catch-up pics. These were from previous classes.



I love this bunting from the Party This Way set. I got these stamps FREE just for attending Convention. Two days of crafting fun with ace friends AND freebies. Heaven! The bunting was strung on to Linen Thread and secured with Brads. And check out all the balloons floating away!



Here's a card that is great for men. They can be so difficult even doing something nice for them is hard sometimes! I love the wheels and this one is right up my street! The DSP is Blueberry Crisp.



Finally, a gift tag in my favourite colour and a bit of glitter. Yum!

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A quick catch-up

Nearly time for bed, but I have realised I have LOADS of things to show that I must do before I can start sharing pics of projects made from the new mini catalogue when it comes out in April. And I have already done quite a few, so if I don't get blogging I will never be on top of things!

So here are two pics from Convention last November.



These are some of my swaps. With 100 card fronts to do I decided on four different designs. These are the flowery ones using the Two-Step Bird Punch and Cute By The Inch hostess set.



And I decorated these little bottles then filled them with bath salts. One was for my roomie Joy and the other for mummy Jules.

Two down ...

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200th post! I'm with the band!

Wow, 200 posts! Amazing.

I'm preparing for yet another manic week here. Honestly, it never ends!

Yesterday I re-sorted all my craft stuff. My yummy new goodies from the SU Mini Catalogue arrived and I had nowhere to put it all so I had to buy some new bookcases! So now my whole wall behind my desk is taken up with Stampin' Up! yumminess! I can't show you though, because there are things on the shelves that will give the game away about the new catalogue! I have been having a good play with it all and am very excited about the amazing new products we have. As soon as April 1st comes I'll be bombarding you with new projects!

In the meantime, here is a scrapbook page using photos of a band called Stone Sour. I have been lucky enough to tour with several bands in my time, and Stone Sour are one of my faves. I had to take some pics as part of a uni project and I asked Jim, the bassist, if I could use him as my subject. He did offer to pose naked, but I stuck with live shots on stage. I processed and developed the photos myself in the uni darkroom, which was great fun.

So anyway, here are Jim and Corey at Manchester Academy.



I kept this page nice and simple. The photos were mounted on Basic Gray card andedged with the Spiral Border Punch to give the roll of film look.





The names were added right on to the photos using the Rub-Ons. I think they look fab.



I also used the Rub-Ons for the title, as well as some film strip. And, of course, the Music Notes Wheel and Star Punch.

So, I am off now to tackle this week! Don't expect too much of me - I have exactly no spare time at the moment!

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And now for something completely different

No cards today - I have something even better to show you ...



It's Bodd! :-) I went up to the farm for tea yesterday so got to visit him. He has gotten quite fat - must be all the fresh milk from the cows! We had a good cuddle and I gave him some meat and sardines.



Here they are tucking in! Bodd is always first there. The little fudgey one is his best friend.

There are about 11 cats in total and they all cuddle up together in the hay or the troughs, so Bodd is being well looked-after.

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Just Believe extravaganza!

Today I have a whole host of cards to share using the Just Believe stamp set. This remains one of my favourite since we were given it at SU Convention in November. Yes, really, demos get quite a lot of freebies!

These cards were the ones we made at my SU mummy Julie's all-day training in January. We created five different designs based on the same set and then packaged them up into what is known as a baggie book. Each card is inside a cello bag and they are held together with eyelets. This is a great way to show samples without them getting damaged.

So here goes ...



Lovely bright colours on this one and some of the DSP and brads.



Another great colour combo and some shadow stamping here.



My favourite colour! The DSP is the beautiful Lap of Luxury and we used the Rub-Ons too. I had never tried these before and they are AMAZING!



This one is quite funky, with a scalloped trim and some paper piercing.



And a very dramatic card here.

So you can see how Just Believe is a really versatile stamp set and can be used in many different ways. That's why it is one of my favourites - I never get bored of using it!

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Spring has sprung!

Could spring finally be here?! I don't want to jinx it, but now the sun is making an appearance and I have seen the first lot of crocus and daffodils poking their heads out into the world I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy!

It is my mum's birthday today, so yesterday I journeyed back down to Chester for a few days with the family. Nightmare on the trains, but worth it.

Here's the card I made for mum.




She likes daffodils, so I think this will go down well!


I created the flowers using the Growing Green stamps and a the 1/4" Circle Punch all folded and squashed up. Inspiration from the lovely Vicky once again! The stems are from Just Believe and I added bees from the SAB Sweet Summer set. Mum loves bees - she is known as Nanna Bee to the kids!

So for the rest of the week I will be working and spending time with the rellies. Tea at my bro's tonight to meet his new daughter, lunch with nanna and granddad tomorrow, tea with mum at the farm to see Bodd, then time with my dad and step mum.

Will be good to get back to Leeds on Friday for a rest!

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What a day!

Well yesterday was super awesome. Stampin' Up! events are always great fun and it's brill to spend time with fellow demos.

At Leeds yesterday there were about 70 amazing women, together to play with some new goodies and learn lots about SU products and building our businesses. We were also priveleged to be joined by Derek from SU's head office in the US. He is a fab bloke and a very motivational speaker.

We got to see and try out the items coming in the Mini Catalogue in April, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to show you those yet! It's worth the wait though, so hang around until April!

In the meantime, here's one of my latest cards.



My good friend Helen (hi again!) needed a birthday card for her sister. Green and funky were the instructions so this is what I came up with!

The stamp set is On A Pedestal - one I got in my Starter Kit when I signed up last July. I lined the parts up using the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to make sure the cake wasn't wonky!



The colours are Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizazz and Daffodil Delight. The hearts and flowers were punched out with the Small Heart and Boho Blossoms punch. I added the highlight detail with a white gel pen.

I hope Helen's sister liked it!

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Stampin' Up! regional training

Today I am off for a whole day of crafting fun with my good friends at the Stampin' Up! regional training tour.

We will be seeing and playing with some new products. And talking and laughing lots too! I am so excited, we always have such a great time together.

Of course, we always do swaps. We each make a stack of one design of card and swap with each other. This gives us lots of inspiration - they are a really talented bunch of ladies.

So here is mine ...



I have used the Always Elegant set, which is very pretty and particularly good for weddings.





There are slight variations as I tried out different combos of colours, DSP and ribbon. Some of the DSP is the coordinating Elegant Soiree. And my fave ribbon is the Striped Grosgrain.

As soon as I've recovered from all the excitement I'll be back to tell you all about it!

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Pink birthday card for my special friend

Today's post is dedicated to my good friend Helen. Apparently she reads my blog every day so HELLO!

It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago, and this is the card I made.



I used the Punch Potpourri hostess set, which you can earn FREE by holding a Stampin' Up! party. There are four images and there is a matching punch available for each one, meaning card making is really quick and easy!

So thanks for being awesome Helen!

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Experiments in ribbon ruffling

At training yesterday my lovely SU mummy Jules showed me how to ruffle ribbon. I've seen this loads but never managed to get to grips with it.

The trick is to use the wider Taffeta Ribbon and pull out one of the strands. It is a little bit fiddly - you cut into the ribbon and fray it up then use your nails (or tweezers) to eek one of the threads out.



Here are the cards I made featuring this technique. I used the Color Coach to determine the combo - Crumb Cake, Real Red and Bashful Blue. I love the Color Coach because I would never have thought of utting these colours together, but they look amazing. The stamp set is the now retired SAB Bliss, but I've not yet been able to put it down!



On this one I pulled out a thread in the middle, so it went crinkly on both sides. You can loosen it up a bit as you go along or pull it really tight.



Here I pulled out a strand at the very edge, so it created a valance effect.

Now I just need some of this ribbon in different colours ...

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Punch art with Stampin' Up!

I have been playing with a bit of punch art recently. It's not something I've done much of, but now that I have a lot of the amazing Stampin' Up! punches I decided it was about time to make them the focus for once and, in this case, not use any stamps!

So my friend needed a card for a girl at work who is due to have her baby this month. She likes elephants apparently, so I made this little fella!



He was really easy to do. I cut out a few big circles and the ears were made from the Butterfly Punch and Scallop Oval! His tail was the branch from the Two-Step Bird Punch! The trunk I had to cut randomly, but it worked quite well and holds the tag from Punch Bunch for the baby's name!



Love the colours too - a nice change from the usual baby options!



And this is for my mum's partner. He is a farmer so I hope he will appreciate this. The scale isn't quite right but you get the idea! The wheels are chipboard shapes with Eyelets set using the Crop-A-Dile.

I still have a lot of commissions for cards, so my blog should be very full in the next few days!

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