Time to say Goodbye

I always grow so fond of each years Stampin' Up! catalogue and I'm sad to say goodbye to some of my favourite stamps and products (I'll be saddest to say goodbye to Season of Joy- my most used stamp set of the past 3 years!). My catalogues come to bed with me, I read them in the bath, they get tatty in my handbag and I take them on holiday with me too. So as you can imagine, I grow quite attached to the Ideas Book. So today is the last day for ordering from the 2011- 2012 catalogue and from the Last Chance List. Tomorrow I will be back to share the fantastic (and HUGE) new 2012-2013 catalogue with you.

I have just worked out how to add a Facebook 'Like' feature to my blog. So please click on over to my Stampin' Up! IOW Facebook page which I set up a couple of months ago to promote my classes and events. Click on Like below to ensure you are kept up to date with all things crafty and Stampin' Up!

A quick reminder, I am holding another new catalogue Open House next Saturday from 10.30am-3.30pm (October 6th). Please pop by anytime during the day for a new catalogue and a Make and Take (and a Starbucks coffee of course ;0)

And just before I go for the day, I thought I would have a quick reminisce to some of my favourite Season of Joy projects I have made over the years. I love this set, but as of tomorrow I will have a whole host of new favourites I am sure. Roll on the new catalogue.....

And we cannot forget dear old Dasher. He has been a staple of my Christmas makes for the last two years.

Any questions or for a crafty chat please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

 

Happy Weekend Crafting

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A very Happy Birthday

Well technically this isn't entirely current Stampin' Up product but I wanted to share my sister's birthday cards with you all the same (and wish Natalie a very Happy Birthday today too ;0)

 

These are the two designs I came up with for Natalie's birthday today.

The first was inspired by a beautiful button rainbow I'd seen on Pinterest. I decided to give it a Stampin' Up! spin and create this for Aunty NatNip from Summer. I'm not sure where the sentiment came from off the top of my head. I think it is a retired Hostess sentiment set. I thought it worked perfectly with this rainbow design. I punched a scallop circle and inked the edges with Tempting Turquoise for the clouds and then created the rainbow with Bright and Regals Designer Buttons.

I have seen a lot of these Beautiful Wings Embosslit card and frame designs. I wanted to give one a go as I just adore this Embosslit (I don't think a crafting session goes by without me creating something with these butterflies). The papers I used are a now retired Stampin' Up! design. However, I wanted to use them as Nat and I had crafted together with them last year and they remind me of her ;0) I accessorised the butterflies with various sized basic pearls and raised some with dimensionals. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

 

Hope you like my projects today and will join me in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday to you" for my sister today who is busy working but will hopefully have the energy to enjoy our Chinese Takeaway this evening.

 

Happy Crafting ;0)
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Hello from the Isle of Wight

 

Welcome to our first ever Pinkies Blog Hop. We’ll be showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin’ Up!® Autumn Winter Seasonal Catalogue. Our blog hop buttons will help guide you on your way. We love comments, so please do tell us what you think!

 

Thank you for joining me today on the sunny Isle of Wight for my little piece of this fabulous Pinkies Blog Hop. You may have joined me today from Suzette's blog. What stunning projects using the Friendship Preserves set and Orchard Harvest Suite.

 

I absolutely adore all the new products from the Autumn Winter Catalogue so I was hard pushed to choose what to use for my project. I decided to let my photos guide my choice of product as I discovered the new Orchard Harvest Suite matched perfectly with my pumpkin photos for this double scrapbooking page layout.

 

 I used 12"x12" Very Vanilla and More Mustard as my base colours and then designed my embellishments to match. One of my favourite new additions to the Autumn Winter Catalogue is the fantastic Core'dinations card stock which I have used here in Early Espresso. I ran this through the Big Shot using the Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and then sanded with the new Stampin' Sanding System.

 To create my leaves I used In Color Cardstock to match the beautiful Orchard Harvest Designer Fabric in Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple and Island Indigo and ran this through my Big Shot using the new Autumn Accents Bigz Die. The patterned leaves are cut from the Designer Fabric. I finished each page with a strip of lovely new 2.2cm Cotton Ribbon (also fantastic for stamping on I have discovered!), a Flourish Designer Frame and a Brushed Bronze Designer Button.

 

Thank you for joining me today. You can continue hopping by jumping on over to my upline Michelle Last's blog. She has made some beautiful Christmas projects using the Ornament Bundle.

 

Flowery Season's Greetings

So it is that time of the year again. The time when crafters minds skip forward a few months and we start to plan for Christmas. For this month's card class we created this aperture 'Showstopper' (any Great British Bake Off fans will understand the idea of a showstopper ;0). I'd seen a very similar card over on Julie Kettlewell's blog and wanted to have a go with my fab framelits and Apothecary Art stamp set (another set due to return in the new Annual Catalogue).

 The colours we used were Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green (such a classic Christmas colour combination). 

 We embellished the stamped wreath with swirly paper flowers and flowers punched with the Boho Blossoms punch (and leaves from the Bird Punch). Each flower was accessorized with a Basic Pearl.

Here is a quick close up of the swirly curled paper flowers.

 

I loved creating this card. It would be perfect for that extra special someone at Christmas (or adapted for a birthday or special occasion). It is so effective yet deceptively simple to create.

 

I am so enjoying Christmas crafting again. This is my favourite time in the crafting calendar and I love designing my festive workshops and classes (please get in touch to book a party or a space in a festive class- poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249). I have just had a fantastic delivery of new seasonal products and stamp sets from the Autumn Winter Catalogue. I am itching to get started with my festive crafting.

 

Please pop back on Saturday to join in with the Pinkie's blog hop. I have a project to share using the lovely Orchard Harvest Suite and Autumn Accents Die.

 

Happy Crafting ;0)

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A Cup of Thanks

Here is another of our card class makes for the month. This card was inspired by a card and technique I had seen over on the fantastic Monica Gale's blog earlier in the year. This uses the fab Tea Shoppe stamp set which was a popular feature of our Spring Summer Catalogue. Now a little bird told me this may be returning in the new Annual Catalogue so I don't mind sharing a project made with the set.

The colours are our new In Colours Midnight Muse and Raspberry Ripple (with added Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla for extra flavour- sounds like a rather delicious ice cream sundae if you ask me!). The technique is the faux tile effect created using the scoring board and stamping over the scored tiles. I created the background using the En Francais background stamp with Crumb Cake ink.

 

I hope your week has started well. Lots of exciting things happening here on the Isle of Wight. I have been making final preparations for a Pinkies team blog hop which is happening on Saturday morning. Please pop back then to see all the lovely projects made by the team ;0)

 

In the mean time, happy crafting ;0)

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Flourish Thank You

Happy Monday to you all.

 

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. It was a mixed bag weather wise here on the Isle of Wight but we still managed to get out and take Summer for a walk on the beach (with a stop off for some gorgeous sweet potato fries).

 

I held my monthly card class on Saturday and this is one of the cards we made this month. This was our quick stamp class closer (for when we're all tired and need an easier project to finish the class). It was inspired by this card that I had seen on Pinterest and knew would be perfect for our new Flourish Frames. My Stampin' Up! version of the card uses the flourish from Creative Elements stamped with Black Stazon on to a Crumb Cake card base. We then coloured the outlined areas with a White Gel Pen. We attached a gorgeous new Flourish Designer Frame over part of the stamped flourish with dimensionals. To finish we glued butterflies cut with the Beautiful Wings Embosslit on to the stamped card. These butterflies are cut from lovely new In Colour Primrose Petals cardstock.

 

Last Chance List items are selling out fast so please get in touch asap to place your order. And another date for your diary, I'm holding a new catalogue launch Open House on Saturday October 6th from 10.30am- 3.30pm. Please pop by and pick up your copy of the new Stampin' Up! Catalogue.

 

Happy Crafting ;0)

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Folded star card

Happy Thursday to all. We're only one day away from the weekend ;0) We're all busy here preparing for a trip to Yorkshire next week for my cousin's wedding. It will be Summer's first little holiday away from the Isle of Wight. We're travelling via the Harry Potter Studio Tour which I am so stupidly excited about you would not believe.

 

Anyways, enough about life, back to crafting. I have so many projects building up that I have photographed but not posted yet. I really must share these with you before the end of the month to showcase our beautiful retiring items (see this post about the Last Chance List). Todays project is a folded star card we made at my Christmas is August day inspired by this card I found on Pinterest.

 

 

This card started with a Crumb Cake 30cm square base. The colour scheme is Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler and Lucky Limeade. We also used the glittered sheets from the Holly Berry Bouquet Designer Series Paper to create the glittered exterior. I have loved using this paper for all my Christmas-y projects and will be sad to see this leave (it is currently retiring and featured on the Last Chance List).

This is the centre of the card (the Merry Christmas is from Contempo Christmas). The flowers were made using the Boho Blossom punch and a rhinestone as the centre. The leaves were punched from the Bird Punch.

 

Please get in touch if you'd like any further information on Stampin' Up! and the Last Chance List. I'd be only too happy to help: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

 

Happy Crafting ;0)
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Lovely day for an Isle of Wight Open House

Thank you to all the lovely ladies that came along to my Isle of Wight Open House yesterday to celebrate the launch of the Autumn Winter Seasonal Catalogue. I had a lovely time chatting about all the lovely new products and showing all my samples and swaps.

 

We made the card above, inspired by this card on the talented Jill Hilliard's blog, using the fabulous Scentsational Season stamp set with the Sugar and Spice scented embossing powder. The little pennants are cut from the lovely new Snow Festival Designer Series Paper. I had my Teeny Tiny Wishes set out on the table so that guests could choose their own greeting as this design works well for many different occasions (by interchanging the greeting it could just as easily be a Get Well Soon or Hello notecard). We embellished with one of the fab Brushed Bronze Designer Buttons.

 

I had a really lovely day yesterday and it was lovely to share the new products (and a tiny sneak peak of new main catalogue too) with crafters just as excited about them as me. Really looking forward to next month's workshops with Charlotte and Sharon.

 

I also have another quick project to share with you this fine Sunday morning. I saw this lovely tags over on my lovely Demo friend Gill's blog a liitle while ago and decided to have a go myself using the new Dazzling Details glitter glue. I love the Polar Party stamp set  as it lends itself beautifully to being coloured using ink pads with a blender pen.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you are all enjoying the lovely weather and having a great weekend.

 

Happy Crafting ;0)

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Hello and Goodbye

 September is here which can only mean one thing (well actually, two things!)- the Last Chance List is here!!! Click on the picture above to link through to the two Stampin' Up! lists of retiring products. Items are selling out fast so if you see anything on there you want before it retires, let me know asap and I'll add your items to my next Last Chance List order.

 

Secondly, the first Autumn/Winter seasonal catalogue is here. Click here or on the picture below to connect through to the fantastic new catalogue. For the first time we have a season specific catalogue full of Christmas, Halloween and Harvest themed stamps and accessories. If you'd like to have a look I am holding an Open House on Saturday September 8th. The Open House is running from 10.30am-3.30pm so feel free to stop by anytime to have a look at the new catalogue and take advantage of my on the day ordering incentives and free prize draw.

To celebrate the Last Chance List I thought I would share a surprise box and paper bow we made at my recent all day Christmas event using the Holly Berry Bouquet Designer Series Papers (soon to be retired).

To create this paper bow I followed this tutorial which I found on Pinterest. I love the contrast of the Holly Berry Papers.

 This is the surprise box once open.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about any of the current promotions and products from Stampin' Up! Contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

 

Happy Crafting

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