Maternity Leave Gift

A colleague of mine is off on maternity leave tomorrow. I wanted to give her a little something to wish her well over her last few weeks of pregnancy so I bought a couple of Mum to Be products. Originally I wanted to make a gift bag or box for both products. But try as I might I couldnt find a piece of card stock big or strong enough. So I decided to personalise each product with a baby/good luck theme.

I wanted to buy something for her and a little something for baby Max too. Thats why I chose the Mum to Be cream and the baby bath soak. She is having a little boy so I coloured the wrappings to suit a boy colour scheme. For this I created a wrap for around the bottle. Using Versamark I stamped a star from one of the Christmas sets all over the wrap. I the punched the heart window using the Heart Punch and lined it up with the product logo. I punched the two stars on co-ordinating Designer Series Paper and hung them from the bottle with linen thread. I then finished the decoration off with Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon.

This was my favourite piece of detailing on the little mini pizza box style gift box I made. I used the Certainly Celery Grosgrain ribbon to tie up the box. I then used the mini tag punch to make these coordinating tags. I used a needle and the linen thread to set the tags into the bow and finished off with a button from the Latte set. The box was stamped with the 'Baby' stamp in the Tiny Tags set and various animals from Fox and Friends (stamped in Green Galore on co-ordinating textured cardstock).

If you'd like any further info on Stampin Up and their products, please do not hesitate to get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

And one more final post for the day.....

I have finally gotten around to starting to catch up with the Wight Craft Circle Scrap With Us challenge. I am still two behind. But here is my LO for Week 22 Days Gone By. I borrowed a huge box full of photo albums and loose prints from my Nanny a while ago. I had my fingers crossed for a wedding print of my grandparents and I found a whole wedding album full of beautiful pics of their big day. I think I might be scrapping a fair few of them as they are all so elegant and gorgeous.

So here is what i put together. I wasn't 100% happy as once again the image in my head looked a lot different to the finished product. But I will have another go at a later date with a picture of my Nanny in her wedding dress and try and create my perfect vintage LO.

Products used: Mini Catalogue Night and Day Papers, Pretties Kit.

Card Class Gift Box

I had another great card class on Saturday. This time I had the lovely Chris, Pat, Sandy and my mum in attendance. We ran slightly over again as I think my projects were slightly more complicated this time around plus we chatted far too much over coffee and cake.

I have previously posted photos of the card projects from Saturday. Here is the simple yet effective gift box I put together using the flowers from the Simply Said stamp set. I wanted to demo this box as it is versatile depending on the occasion or stamp set used. To design a box using a few colours and various stamps to decorate is a simple yet highly effective addition to any present or gift. I was happy as each of the ladies took the measurements to make this themselves at home.

The next card class I will be running is:

Saturday August 21st 1-4pm

My next class is going to be Christmas themed at the request of my card class ladies. I am so pleased as I have a fair few Christmas card ideas jumbling around in my brain and I am so looking forward to having the excuse to finally start making samples up (I feel like I have been given the green light in July to get excited about Christmas already ;0).

Future card class dates:

Saturday September 25th 1-4pm

Saturday October 23rd 1-4pm

If you are interested in attending a card class or would be interested in another date I am happy to put together classes for a different evening or weekend. Just get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

Mini Scrapbook Pages

It was my partner Sam's sisters 30th birthday on Monday. We all got together for a big BBQ to help her celebrate. While i was on a mini-scrapbook page roll I thought I would use a couple of gorgeous photos of her son and daughter to make her two little pages to go in a gift bag with her birthday card. For the card I adapted the Pumpkin Pie design that I taught in Saturday's card class. For the Liam page I used Brilliant Blue with Barely Banana & Chocolate Chip Cardstock. Inks: Chocolate Chip & White Craft. The stamp set is Life's a Breeze.

For this My Sweet Pea themed mini pag I used Pretty In Pink with Chocolate Chip & Old Olive. I used Choc Chip Grosgrain Ribbon with the Heart to Heart Punch, Stitched Felt & Just Perfect Alphabet stamps.

I adapted the card class card by using a different Birthday greeting (from Cheers & Wishes) and two mini hearts punched with the Heart to Heart Punch (I used the White Gel Pen to put the 3 & 0). I used the Pumpkin Pie designer series paper to complete this card.

Race For Life- Sunday 25th July 2010

My sisters and I ran the Race for Life at Seaclose on Sunday. Neither of my sisters had done any training for the event so I was incredibly pleased and proud of them for completing the 5K course in 41mins ;0) When I got home I printed out the photo above 4 times and made 4 mini scrapbook pages (6x6 inches) for Mum, Natalie, Sophie and one for my new mini scrapbook too.

For this page I used Pink Passion, Orchid Opulence, Very Vanilla Card Stocks with Rich Razzleberry Ink and Ribbon. I embossed the hearts with my heat tool and glitter from the Cosmo collection. I used a whole bunch of different punches for the hearts, letters and edging.

Workshop Demo

Here is the workshop demo I did for Tuesday's evening with Chris. I filled the sweet treat cup with Bold Bright buttons. Unfortunately the photos I took with the buttons in the cup havent come out clear enough to post. The workshop went really well and I enjoyed meeting all the lovely ladies. There were a few hiccups (I stuck the card all together and then realised I had completely forgotten the sweet treat cup! So I'd essentially made a card with a hole through it! But i managed to get it apart again and fix the 'blip'!) but all in all we all had a great time.

Each of Chris's guests completed the following make and take. I adapted a bag I had made at my last card class for them each to have a go. I let the ladies loose with the Tiny Tags stamps and each chose their own greeting in place of the 'Handcrafted' one I used. I saw a great array of sentiments used and i was happy to see each lady putting their own 'stamp' on their project (sorry I couldnt resist that one!).

Tomorrow is my monthly card class from 1-4pm. Its going to be a full house but I've lined up some fun cards to make and I'm well prepared. No doubt I'll spend the morning practicing and remaking all my samples again like last month *laugh* Photos on Monday...... (along with the two LOs I'm behind with Scrap With Us! Oops!)

A few crafty updates....

Spent yesterday in Bicester with my Mum. We went for a crafty day out at the Pink Ladies Quarterly Training hosted by my upline Michelle. Mum and I had spent the previous Friday designing and recreating 16 swaps to share with other demos at the training session. We decided on an Isle of Wight postcard theme using retiring colours; 'My fond farewell' swap as I called it ;0) I was really pleased with the result. I forgot to take a photo of the reverse which I had designed as a postcard complete with a Stampin' Up! stamp and address details for the Centre we were training at.

It was lovely to have a day out with Mum as well as meet other demos in the team. I was so pleased to win the second prize in the raffle. I've been umming and aahing over the 'Thank You Kindly' set for a while as I make a fair few Thank You cards so I was made up to be able to pick this as my prize. We worked on a mini scrapbook/flip album for the make and take. I chose to work with the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' which felt a bit weird as its only July. But I love those papers. Picture will be posted once I've done a bit more decorating and embellishing. The album is fairly bare at this minute.

For my swap (below) I used the 'Life's A Breeze' stamp set with Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion & Barely Banana Card Stock. I used my Bold Brights Stampin Writes and various punches to create this seaside postcard design ;0)

I will take some photos tonight of the lovely demo swaps I received in return ;0)


I have a jam packed crafting week this week with a workshop tomorrow and a card class on Saturday. I still have some prep to do for both so I'm going to be busy busy busy this week. Wanted to just give a little preview of some of the class and workshop projects i have been working on.

At the request of my lovely hostess Chris I will be demo-ing a variation on the A4 gift bag we made in last months card class. This is not the final version but one of my works in progress. I've used Orchid Opulence card with the Cottage Wall Papers. I have teamed this with the Flight of the Butterfly & Tiny Tags Stamp Sets, Rich Razzleberry Ink & Ribbon and the scallop punch. I'll post a clearer photo tomorrow once I've finalised the design tonight.

I've also put together designs for two of this months cards for my Saturday class. For my first card I was attempting a card for a man. I tend to fall to pieces a bit when crafting for the men in my life. So, using the Fox & Friends set (with embellishments from Tiny Tags) I set about creating a more masculine colour scheme. I used the Hostess Designer Series Paper in Mellow Moss with Brocade Blue and Chocolate Chip. I used the Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon (Choc Chip), the word punch and a sentiment inked from the 'Fun and Fast Notes' stamp set. I finished the card off with two brads taken from the Earth Elements colour set.
The second of my cards is one of my favourite creations to date. Mainly because it is my favourite SU colour- Pumpkin Pie (with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds thrown in for good measure). I used the Simply Said stamp set to stamp the background with Versamark. I then used Heat and Stick powder with my heat tool for the bold flowers to stick the glitter to the card. I embossed the outlined flowers with Versamark & White Embossing Power. I punched the heart with the large heart punch and used paper from the Pumpkin Pie designer series for the backing. I actually dont think the photo can do this card justice because of the glittered effects and the tone on tone use of Pumpkin Pie/White. I'm so pleased with this effort I may even be brave and post it to the gallery of InLoveWithStamping ;0)

Right, so I've given you a bit of a sneak peak into my crafty week creations. I'll post again with clearer photos of some of the other projects I have on the go......

Happy Crafting ;0)

-XXX-

Re-jigged Fox & Friends Card

It is my partner Sam's nephews birthday today. I am terrible at boys/mens cards. I tend to lean towards the girlier/glittery stamp sets and accessories. So a birthday card for a boy always proves a bit of challenge. For this card i decided to slightly rejig a card i have previously made using the Fox and Friends monkey stamp. I added 'Liam' using the Just Perfect Alphabet and circle punch. I was quite pleased with the result. I also went off on a bit of an envelope decorating tangent with the 'Life's a Breeze' stampset, purely because it was open on the table in front of me!! ;0)

I have been super busy craft wise. I am putting together some wedding invite samples for a couple of friends that are getting married. I have been having a lot of fun coming up with new ideas and trying new techniques. I am also keen to post my card class cards as I've been glittering & embossing like crazy at home. Would like to get a bit of feedback. But that will have to wait till next week now.....

Saturday's WCC Crop & Scrap With Us

Well first, apologies for my long absence from blogging! I cannot believe its mid July almost already! I took last week off work and have had sporadic internet access. Had a brilliant week just chilling. Went camping for a couple of nights with my mum and sisters (I say camping, we slept for one night in a tent, the next I chickened out as it was too chilly and slept on a blow up bed on my Mum and Dad's front room floor *lol*)

Saturday was my third Wight Craft Circle crop in Binstead. And what a productive day I had! Probably due to 1) having some great photos to work with and 2) I had actually done some design and planning towards my LOs before leaving the house (which is invaluable when packing stash to cart along with me on the bus!). I decided to work on a few of the current and previous Scrap With Us challenges. I created LOs for:

Week 08- Scrap Your Family

This is my absolute favourite LO to date. I took inspiration from a poster i have seen about the island which has used a similar tree photo idea. I took the idea and drew this myself free hand and made it my own. It takes up almost a full 12x12 piece of paper. I had thought about adding a title and embellishment. But actually I love it just plain and simple as is. I didn't want to overcomplicate it. I'm letting the photos speak for themselves with this one....

Week 20: Cream of the Crop

Well, this scrap challenge came along at the perfect time! I had just spent last weekend repainting the exterior of my house with Mum and Dad. I had chosen a beautiful shade of Cornish Cream. My house now looks like a gorgeous cornish fisherman's cottage (well with a bit of imagination it could!). I had looked at a few of Paige's LO's using acrylic paints as a background and had wanted to have a go. Well, rather than use real artists paint I used Sandtex exterior masonry paint instead! I wanted to capture the exact shade I had used to paint the house ;0) And many thanks to Sam for use of her fabulous Cricut for the alphas. I've so got to add this to the top of my 30th birthday pressie list ;0)

And my last LO was just for fun and practice really. My Mum, sisters and I spent a day at Marwell Zoo last week. I have wanted to do a Cheetah (my favourite animal) related design for a while as I received the animal print tissue paper used on this LO as wrapping round some craft supplies I bought a while ago. It was too beautiful to throw away so I have been neatly keeping it in my cardstock box. Mixing the Marwell cheetahs with the photo of my Mum and sisters worked rather well considering the randomness of it.

I have quite a few things to keep you all up to date on in the upcoming weeks. (And I'll also have a lot of pictures to post soon too!) I have a workshop next week which i have designed a lovely make and take for and a gorgeous demo too. My next card class is Saturday July 24th 1-4pm which I also have a few things in the pipeline for (Pictures will be posted asap). And lastly, Mum and I are off to Bicester on Sunday for my upline Michelle's quarterly training. Should be an exciting day of meeting other demos and just generally talking Stampin Up which I cannot wait for ;0) Mum and I spent a whole day last week designing and making (production line style) 16 swaps for the training. Looking forward to seeing what projects other demos bring along to swap.

And a quick advance notice that the lovely Paige and I are sharing a table in the craft tent at the Chale Show in August. If you'd like to come along and find out more about Stampin' Up! I'll be there to answer any questions ;0)

-XXXX-

Hostess Promotion- Extra £20 in Hostess Benefits

Due to some local advertising for this promotion. I have bumped this back to the top of my Blog until the end of the promo period. For anyone thinking of hosting a workshop, July is your last chance to take advantage of the additional £20 of free product mentioned below. Excellent opportunity to get your hands on some additional SU goodies ;0)

Stampin' Up! have launched a new promotion offering all hostesses who hold a workshop between June 1st-July 31st with sales of £250+ an additional £20 in hostess benefits. So alongside your usual exclusive Hostess Stamp Sets and free merchandise from the catalogue you can add an additional £20 in free product on top ;0)

If you'd be interested in hosting a workshop please do not hesitate to contact me: Sarah @ poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.