Getting organised....

I've wanted to get my head around storing my stash for a while now. I've pored over the IKEA catalogue and browsed a million and one craft storage websites and blogs for ideas but never hit on something that would work in my own space at home. Well I went out yesterday to a big bank holiday car boot with a view to finding a little shelving unit to alter and have a go at some painting techniques on.

As I was looking through the stalls I came across this FAB unit for sale. I couldnt resist snapping it up as it is PERFECT for my Stampin' Up stash! I spent the afternoon cleaning it up and getting it all clean and tidy, then carefully organising it with my stamps, ink pads, punches & accessories. I've even left an empty shelf for the 15 new colour ink pads that will be arriving in September! I was like the cat that got the cream all day yesterday. I kept just opening and closing the doors and admiring how tidy everything looked.

And I even managed to find myself the most perfect little chest of drawers and little shelf unit to sand down and alter. So my storage problem was solved alongside finding the right little crafty projects to work on ;0)

And it wasnt all tidying and organising this weekend. I even managed a whole load of crafting too. I can only post pics of a few things I worked on as some are for upcoming birthdays so will be posted in due course. But my favourite project of the weekend was my Starbucks Mini Album. I'd seen one of these in a mini album book a while back and have been dying to have a go. So a couple of weekends back Sam and I were over in Gunwharf and I got him to ask for a couple of clean cups for me (one extra in case I needed another go!). This is the result:

For this I used the Night and Day DSP from the mini catalogue (retiring September 30th). I've had these a while and been a bit stumped with what to use them for. This seemed like the perfect little project. Its sort of my "around the world in 80 Starbucks" mini-album (which is what I wanted to call it but didnt have anywhere near enough alphas for that long title!). I also coupled the black and white DSP with Garden Green cardstock (close enough to the Starbucks green). The circles on the front and tags are from the Cottage Wall DSP. Inks are: White gel pen, Black Journaller and Chocolate Chip for inking the edges.

The other projects I worked on this weekend were: a gorgeous card for my sisters birthday next month, my swaps for the High Wycombe training & a good friends 30th mini album ;0) I shall look forward to sharing these with you in due course ;0)

Any questions please do not hesitate to get in contact, poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

Scrap With Us Week 27- What Makes You Happy/ Alter Your Paper

I'm on a scrapbooking roll at the moment.... I completed another double LO last night with two photos I took a month or so ago in my garden (its hard to remember a time when the sun was shining and it wasn't tipping down with rain!?). The challenge was to scrap 'What Makes You Happy' and to 'Alter' your paper.

Well I sat down with a table full of 12x12 papers and cardstock in front of me a bit bewildered. I recently bought a stash goody bag with various papers and accessories in and in that I had 3 printed acetate sheets. One of which was printed with a stitched garden design in orange. I used this as my basis for 'altering' the summer LO. Its a bit of a cheat I know. But I altered the basic Yoyo Yellow CS by layering the acetate print over the top (creating my own designed background). I altered the Only Orange paper with a series of ladybird stamps I have collected over the years (the ladybirds in red are from the Garden Whimsy Stampin' Up! set and the ladybirds in black I bought on holiday in the states back in 2006). I then used my circle scallop and circle punches with the Schoolbook alphabet for the titles.

The colors I used were: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Only Orange, Real Red & YoYo Yellow. I combined this with the butterfly & ladybird papers from my stash. All in all, I am super pleased with how they turned out. In fact these LOs turned out better than the picture in my head for once ;0)

For any questions regarding Stampin' Up! products, workshops or hostess benefits, please do not hesitate to contact me on either poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

Scrap With Us Challenge- Week 24- Accessorize

Well, I am completely out of sequence now.... but I sat down last night and did a double 12x12 LO for week 24- Accessorize. I've been thinking about this one for a few weeks now and settled on Christmas themed LOs for some photos I took of two gingerbread houses Sam and I created for his nieces and nephews two Christmases ago. I thought these photos fitted well as Sam and i spent days creating, baking, making, glueing and accessorizing these lovely little houses. We were so proud of ourselves when we finally had them all wrapped and ready to deliver on Christmas day. They were a perfect pressie in a year when we were quite hard up for cash.

Funky Friday Craft Challenge #71

Here is my Funky Friday card challenge contribution for this week. I decided to use Taken with Teal and Rich Razzleberry as my colour theme. I also wanted to try out making my own DSP buttons with the clear buttons from the Stampin' Up! catalogue. I was amazed the buttons fitted my circle punch perfectly (good old SU thinking of everything). So I just punched a circle from the Cottage Wall DSP and glued it to the back of the clear button. I attached this to the card with linen thread. I adapted this card as a customer thank you card for the month. The only actual stamping involved is the greeting from Trendy Trees. The rest was all a combination of punches!

Crafty Catch Up

After a very busy weekend of crafting and classes. I've finally managed to catch up enough to take photos to upload here. Saturday was my first class at Norton Grange in Yarmouth. It was an enjoyable session on a very rainy day ;0) The cards seemed to go down a treat and I look forward to demo-ing there again next Saturday.

Then Saturday afternoon was my normal monthly card class. At the request of my lovely card ladies I did a Christmas themed class. Here are the projects I put together for the session.

The first card was inspired by a similar card I saw the lovely Marguerite demo at a recent Pink Ladies training session. This uses the flourish from the Baroque Motifs stamp set along with small flower and greeting from the Season Of Joy set. DSP is from the Merry Moments set. Colours: Old Olive and Real Red. The finishing touch was a bit of Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Linen Thread and a button.

Our second card of the afternoon was this lovely trifold/twister card using the Dasher stamp from the mini catalogue. We gold heat embossed Dasher onto Real Red cardstock (layered over Very Vanilla). The main card was real red with DSP from Merry Moments. Real Red Satin Ribbon to finish. I'm in the process of putting together a little tutorial for the trifold card as this is my new favourite card to make ;0)
I was attempting to demo different types of card as well as techniques. This was our final project for the afternoon, a lovely easel card using the greeting from Season of Joy. We heat embossed this in gold, outlined the Real Red with a gold pen and layered it onto Very Vanilla again. This was mounted onto a Chocolate Chip easel (also used another small piece of Merry Moments DSP again). The greeting was embossed and cut using the oval punch on Real Red and mounted with a Very Vanilla Scallop oval. I hadnt realised this card was stuck slightly wonky till I took a photo of it. It doesnt look so wonky up close ;0)I couldnt remember if I had uploaded a photo from my workshop demo last week. I demo-d a variation on my Loads of Love truck and Neighbourhood wheel card. I chose to keep it within the Soft Subtles colour family as it is works beautifully with these stamps. I mounted the picture onto Barely Banana cardstock and finished with Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon and greeting punched using the scallop circle punch.
And one final photo for the day. As Mum and I were driving towards Yarmouth on Saturday for my first card class we were held up going through Carisbrooke. There was a long tail back and the traffic was barely moving. I was getting increasingly stressed about it until the source of the traffic jam turned out to be a swan with her babies walking down the middle of the road. I managed to get a photo of them once they'd waddled on up to the pavement and we drove past ;0) Right, off to get ready for another demo tonight. I'm going to be demo-ing the swirly Christmas card from Saturdays card class for some friends of my Mums.

Any questions about Stampin Up or to order products, please do not hesitate to get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

Funky Friday #70- 'Anything But A Square'

My work colleague had her baby early this past weekend so I didnt have as much time as I had originally anticipated to make her a card. But I decided to give it a go last night with the Funky Friday challenge in mind as I did so. This week's challenge was 'Anything But A Square' and you know what, as soon as I started, every idea i came up with had some sort of square in. But here is what I came up with. I designed this card to match the gift box/wrapping I already made for her when she left work on maternity leave.

For this card I used:

Stamps: Fox & Friends, Tiny Tags, Just Perfect Alphabet, All In The Family
Punches: Scallop Circle, 1-1/4" Circle, Heart To Heart, Word Window.
Ribbon: Certainly Celery 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon
Colours: Gable Green, Ballet Blue, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip (Baby Outline)

If you have any questions about Stampin' Up! or would like to find out more about ordering any of the products above, please feel free to get in touch: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

Wight Craft Circle- Scrap With Us

Saturday was the Wight Craft Circle crop. I was having a bit of a creativity block (I blame it on the late night Friday at Sam's Stampin Up workshop followed by sitting on the Downs watching the meteor shower!) so only completed two LOs. At the time I really didn't like them and felt like I was banging my head against the scrapbooking wall. But then when I took them out yesterday to show Mum and take these photos I was much happier with them. I really love the 'My Lucky Guilty Pleasure' one. I bought these papers on the off chance having seen them online and they turned out to be perfectly matching (I knew I wanted to use the scanned image of the lucky scratchcard I bought the other day). So, from being disappointed on Saturday it actually ended up that I love them. And to celebrate I made the 6x6 mini LO yesterday ;0)

Scrap With Us:

Week 25 "Guilty Pleasure"

Week 26: "Life's A Beach"

Pictures taken in Hawaii of the Lost location beach. Sadly no cast members or filming the day we were there. But we did get to see all the key beach locations.... Locke's sweat lodge, the burial mounds of Shannon, Boone etc., Sawyer's tent, parts of plane 815 and rows of Dharma Initiative cans and food.

And one final 6x6 just for fun in my mini LO album. My sister when she was little causing havoc in the local nativity play ;0)

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Any questions or queries about Stampin Up or to find out more about the products, just email or call (poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830).

20% off selected 2-Step Stamp Sets in August

Stampin' Up! have announced details of their August 2-Step Stampin' promotion. I will keep this post at the top of my blog till the end of August.

Stampin' Up!'s Two Step Stampin sets allow you to quickly and easily take your creativity to the next level. From 1-31 August, you'll get 20% off select Two-Step Stampin' Sets from the current catalogues. Choose from any of the stamp sets listed below:
Item Page Description Regular Price Sale Price

104606 31 Loads of Love £18.95 £15.16

109439 35 Big Bold Birthday £23.95 £15.16

113258 39 Trendy Trees £12.95 £10.36

113824 43 Greenhouse Garden £22.95 £18.36

117688 8* Something Sweet £23.95 £19.16

118091 15* Tiny Tags £18.95 £15.16

113266 18* Bird on a Branch £14.95 £11.96

*Items from the Mini Catalogue

The picture above is taken from the Stampin' Up! Idea Book 2009-2010. This features cards made with the Loads of Love Set. I will be featuring cards in the upcoming weeks that use the two step stamps to highlight the techniques involved.

I, for one, am quite excited about the 20% off sale as I have had my eye on Trendy Trees for a while now having seen a beautiful scrapbooking LO Paige completed with chipboard trees in a similar design. I've also seen some stunning samples and cards made up with the Bird on a Branch set too.

For any further info or to place an order for any Stampin' Up! products, please do not hesitate to drop me an email, call or text. I can be reached on: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

Happy crafting ;0)

Super Sweet Pea Deal - £25

Would you like to get your hands on a co-ordinating kit of Sweet Pea products from the current mini catalogue? All for one great price of £25 delivered direct to you.

I've put together another of my sample product packs. I've put together papers and stamps from my favourite coordinating range from the mini.

Each kit contains:

My Sweet Pea Stamp Set (P12 of the mini catalogue)

Sweet Stitches Roller Stamp Wheel (P12 of the mini catalogue)
Stampin Around Handle (P92 of main catalogue)
24 double sided designs of Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper in 6 x 6" (P 13 of the mini)
Half a pack of Stitched Felt which will comprise of:

• 4 three petal flowers


• 10 french circles


• 8 leaves


• 4 six petal flowers

If you already own the Stampin Around Handle, let me know and I will substitute it for another batch of the 6x6" Sweet Pea Paper (you will receive 48 sheets in all).

You are welcome to order ink cartridges to fit your wheel handle and these will cost an additional £4 (inc P&P).

Cartridge Colour

Certainly Celery Bashful Blue So Saffron Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Chip Pixie Pink

This is a great summer holiday crafting deal and a must if you love the Sweet Pea series as these are only available till the end of the mini catalogue order period (September 30th). I don't have the stock for these kits at home and so will be ordering as per your requirements. Each order should take approx 5-7 working days to be delivered to you.

You can pay using the Paypal buttons above (I have added a 4% transaction fee for Paypal payment) or contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk / 07830 343830 to pay by cash or cheque. Any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch. I will be keeping this offer on my blog through August to celebrate summer. Keep reading below to see newer posts....

Happy stamping ;0)

-XXX-

Funky Friday Craft Challenge #69

I have been looking online for new craft challenges. I love my weekly scrap challenge so have had my eye out for other challenges to join in with for a while. I came across this one last week, The Funky Friday Craft Challenge, and decided I would have a go. As it uses mainly Stampin' Up! I am all set with the stash and materials. This is the card I came up with last night inspired by the weeks challenge theme, the Cornish St Pirians Flag.

I bought the Baroque Motifs stamp set for my Mum last month (and borrowed it back quite quickly after giving it to her!) and have found so many uses for it so far. I had always overlooked this set in the catalogue. But now I think I have used it more than any other. I've used the set along with my Eyelet Border & 3/4" Circle Punches. The card has been finished off with stick on jewels from my scrapbooking stash.

A busy crafting week

I've just about recovered from two long days at the Chale Show over the weekend. Paige and I had a lovely time chatting and talking craft bits and pieces (I am sure I bored her silly talking too much Stampin' Up!). It was a good couple of days for the experience. But its sad to realise that the market for good quality handmade items just isn't there as neither of us came away having made more than the cost of the table for the weekend.

I did love meeting new crafters from the island and chatting about Stampin' Up! and workshops. I hope I'll hear back from a few people that I gave details too as I do so enjoy putting workshops together and showing SU products to new people.

In other news, it is going to be a busy couple of weeks craft wise for me. I am Demo-ing this Friday for the lovely WCC Sam and we then have the WCC crop on Saturday. I'll then have Sunday to prepare all my card class packs for Saturday 21st when I have two classes lined up. I'll be teaching my first class at Norton Grange at 10am (£10 for 3 cards) and then my monthly card class at my house at 1pm! I can foresee the need to be super organised that day! ;0) I've got most of my projects sorted though. I just need to cut, score and bag up each class pack!

I still have a couple of places available for my own card class at home. This month we are starting our Christmas preparations with a festive themed Stampin' Up! class:

Christmas Card Class, Saturday 21st August, 1-4pm, Newport.

Places for the Norton Grange card class can be booked through the Hotel reception . Yarmouth classes will launch:

Saturday 21st August- 10am (£10 for 3 cards)

For any further info on the above, on ordering Stampin' Up! products or to find out about becoming a hostess, please do not hesitate to contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 07830 343830.

News and a date for your diary

Here is a gorgeous little twister tri-fold card I made last night for Sam's niece who is celebrating her birthday this weekend. I've seen so many Demo blogs with twister cards and wanted to have a go myself for ages. So I downloaded a tutorial yesterday and made this last night using Pink Passion Cardstock & Tea Party DSP. I accessorised with Melon Mambo Polka Dot Ribbon. Stamp sets: All in the Family & Birthday Best. I had my Soft Subtles Stampin' Writes open in front of me so they are what I used to colour the balloon and girl. I also made a matching insert with the Birthday Best cupcake stamp.

I have some exciting news to share. I had a meeting earlier this week in the West Wight. And will hopefully *fingers crossed* be offering card classes every Saturday morning over there for anyone to join in with. Once I have a confirmed start date I will post venue and cost information. I am so excited to be branching out with my Stampin Up! card classes and have been developing some beautiful projects to share.

Advance notice: Date for your Diary: September 26th

I will be holding a New Catalogue launch Open House on Sunday September 26th from 10am-2pm. I am hopefully going to have my advance copies of the catalogue and sample new colours and products available for people to play with and make a couple of new catalogue projects. I will also have order forms for anyone wishing to have their order ready to be placed on October 1st when the new catalogue goes live.

If you'd like to pre-order the new catalogue for delivery asap in September when I receive them I am offering a special pre-order price of £3.50.

Scrap With Us Week 21

Wight Craft Circle Scrap Challenge- Home is Where the 'Soul' is.
I've set myself a bit of a personal challenge scrapbooking wise. My storage box full of odds and ends and scraps seems to be getting a bit out of hand. So I am attempting to use up old bits of card stock and oddly shaped bits and pieces to tidy up and make things a bit more manageable. At this rate I'll need a brand new mansion just to house my crafting supplies ;0)

For this weeks 'Home is Where the 'Soul' is' challenge I went round to my Mum and Dads house and took photos of their house and a lovely home sampler my Mum stitched a few years back. I wanted to give this LO a bit of a home stitched feel. Unfortunately (after all my drawing effort) the photos havent picked up the cross stitching detail I drew on all the way round the outside. Oh how much easier life would be with a mini sewing machine *lol*

I tried out a couple of new tricks as well. Whilst last crafing with Paige I watched her sew buttons onto one of her LOs so I gave that a go (using up the remainder of a box of Playground SU buttons I've had for a little while). And the linen thread matches the feel of the LO a treat ;0)
All in all, a good LO for me! I am getting a little happier and more confident with each scrap challenge week that goes by. I am reading more online (and watching the odd tutorial too) so I am able to think a bit outside the box scrapwise. Although I still see very strong straight lines running through every LO.

Also really enjoying the Paperclipping roundtable blog. Makes me smile each week and has good info on where to go for tips and tutorials.

Right, now two more LOs to catch up with (still stuck with 'A cherry on top')....