Stampin' Up! UK Undefined Stamping

Good morning all and welcome to another crafty day!

Good news, I found my Undefined stamp that I created. It was hiding from me in one of the many pockets in my fab Convention bag (a pic to follow once the lighting is a bit better). I was so relieved to have found it. It is not a masterpiece but I had worked on it for Summer and was sad to think that I had left it Manchester.

The picture above shows the stamped image on the block. Once you have designed and carved your image you can then ink it up with black Staz On and stamp your wooden block so it looks and feels like a normal Stampin' Up! stamp. As you can see I tried to carve a sunshine image with Summer's initial. I spent ages coming up with an idea as I only had the one piece of rubber and didn't want to waste it. This was inspired by Summer's nickname, Summer Sun.

Here is the carved rubber view of the stamp:

And while I have you here today, I just wanted to remind you about my Gift Card/Voucher service. Once again it is proving very popular this year and with Christmas fast approaching, a gift card for a friend or crafty loved one is a brilliant idea. What better way to give someone exactly what they want for Christmas than to give them a Stampin' Up! voucher to spend on whatever they like from the catalogues. And it can be spent in the New Year and Sale-A-Bration and they might just qualify for additional freebies when they order.  I can create a gift voucher for any value and I will create a lovely unique holder for the voucher too.

Here are some examples of recent Gift Voucher makes:

The first was made with the Season of Style Designer Series Paper and embellished using my lovely new Christmas Ornament Punch (I received so many lovely swaps at Convention using this punch I couldn't resist investing in it myself!) and Gold Foil Cardstock. I love the extra embellishments created with our fab sparkly glimmer paper too.

The second I used the Winter Frost Speciality Papers for and created a matching embellishment with the Festive Flurry Framelit Dies. I layered snowflakes with DSP and Silver Glimmer Paper then finished with a Frosted Finish Embellishment (my favourite accessory for the upcoming festive season!).

Please get in touch if you would like to order a gift voucher for a friend or loved one. Or if you'd just like to treat yourself to a pre-Christmas crafty gift. I'd be more than happy to help you place an order or help you with your Stampin' Up! queries. I can be contacted via email on poulton_sarah@Yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. 

If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Happy Crafting

-X-

Home from Convention

Happy Monday Crafters ;0)

I am home from a crazy week away campervan-ing around Wales in the lead up to Convention in Manchester. Convention itself was crazy and HUGE. So many people to meet and chat to and swap with. I came home with the HUGEST bulging box of swaps (photos to follow very soon!). There is everything in there from wrapped chocolates to a Stampin' Up! necklace to lovely cards and cardfronts to brooches and even a paper crafted fascinator. It is always amazing to see the levels of creativity and the ideas people have. But, as I said, that's a whole post for another day......

I've come home and looked through my photos to realise I only took pictures of cards and samples. I havent a single picture of the stage, the fabulous presenters or any of my team mates. What a wally I am!! I got so caught up in the creativity that I forgot to take pictures I'd be able to share and scrapbook. I will be sharing some pictures over the upcoming days of the amazing swaps I received and share some crafty projects too. I have a super busy crafty week ahead and have lots of things to share.

It was announced that for the next 3 years Stampin' Up! Convention will be held in Brussels, Belgium. Next years event is being held from 16-18th October. I would love to welcome you to my Island Inkers team and have you join me and some current members of my team for a crazy weekend of crafty creativity. If you click on the 'Join My Team' tab above you can find out more information about joining Stampin' Up! either as a hobby demonstrator or to build yourself a creative business. I have a lovely team and we meet monthly to chat and craft. And the pic below shows the welcome pack I give to all new joiners to my team. 

And while we are chatting about exciting Stampin' Up! announcements. It was announced at Convention that Stampin' Up! are launching the FAB Undefined line in the UK (available now). If you click on the flyer below it will direct you through to my online store for more info. Undefined is a fantastic and new creative stamping product for carving your own images. The Carving Kit includes the tools and product needed to make your own stamp set. You are completely unlimited in what you carve and create.

We were given a sample kit at Convention and there was a devoted area for giving carving a go. I created a little stamp for Summer which I was actually really pleased with. And would you believe it, I cannot find it anywhere!? I'm going to have to have another look tomorrow and then I can share my stamp with you.

Please get in touch if you'd like any further information about Stampin' Up!, joining my team or the Undefined kit, please get in touch. I'd be happy to chat to you about anything crafty or Stampin' Up!: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

 If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Convention Swap Special

Convention is here!! Woohoo! Hopefully as you read this I will be getting ready for my first full day of Convention fun (and *fingers crossed* a few sneak peaks of upcoming new products!)

Today I wanted to share the swaps I created for my fellow Demonstrators. It is one of the highlights of Stampin' Up! events, creating a unique card or creation, to swap with other Demonstrators. It is a brilliant way to gather new ideas and meet new people.

The picture above shows my swap box full with 90 swaps ready to meet new homes in Manchester. For this years main swap I created a fridge magnet inspired by a creation on Pinterest. For this you just need a pretty patterned paper (which Stampin' Up! has in plentiful supply) and those glass beads/pebbles you find with the candles and vases in the supermarket or garden centre (I found mine in Tesco!). I purchased some super strong magnets from Ebay and borrowed my Mum's glue gun.

I used the Blossom and Pansy punches with the Gingham Garden and Winter Frost Designer Series Paper to create these layered fridge magnets. The centre pebble pulls away to be used to hold papers or photos on your fridge.

The following pics give a bit closer view of the designs.

While I was in the swap creating mood I decided to make 50 separate swaps for the larger team I am a part of, the Pinkies. I had a bit of a brainwave and sent my sister, on one of her work trips to London, to the M&M store to purchase a HUGE bag of Pink M&Ms. 

I used the M&Ms with Stampin' Up!'s thin cello bags to create these little sweetie treat swaps. I am so looking forward to getting together with the Pinkies and meeting all the new faces and chatting to all the friends I have made since joining SU 4 years ago.

I hope you've enjoyed my swap shares today. I'll be back from my Convention adventures over the weekend and look forward to sharing lots of pictures of all our crafty antics. 

Pop back Monday for an update and news from Convention.

Happy Crafting and have a lovely weekend ;0)

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK WInter Frost Card Candy Convention Swap

Good morning Thursday crafters.

As Stampin' Up!'s Convention will be kicking off this evening with lots of over excited Stampin' Up! lovers all in one room, I thought I would share my Card Candy Swaps. I organised a swap of these little card toppers amongst the Pinkie team. There are 10 of us all signed up to make a set of card candy and we will all be meeting up tomorrow ready to swap.

I had seen a lovely card on Pinterest that used this idea of lots of little winter squares. I decided to use this as my punch art inspiration for my Convention Card Candy. I loved the excuse to get our all of my punches and have a play (as well as a good reason to use lots of lovely silver glimmer paper). You can't see too clearly in the picture, but the snowflake piece is actually a mini shaker with glitter in. Our shaker frames make creating these so easily (and they fit perfectly with our circle punches too).

To create each piece I used the following items:

• Bobble Hat: Large Oval Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punches, Word Window Punch
• Trees: Merry Minis Punch Pack (available to order through me for £15.50)
• Snowman: I layered up various sizes of scallop and normal circles finishing with 3/4" circle for the snowman face. I hand cut the hat from Basic Black.
• Snowflake: Snowflake Soiree stamp set, Shaker frames, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
• Coffee Cup: A Fitting Occasion stamp set, 1" Circle Punch
• Polar Bear: 1" Circle Punch, Word Window Punch

Here are all 10 waiting to be packed away and swapped.

To create the label for the title I created a customised project in My Digital Studio and used the stamps and papers within the digital software to create my little labels (that I printed on to normal office labels and cut to size and attached to my Winter Frost toppers).

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

I'll be back tomorrow for the last of my Convention excitement posts. I have the last of my swaps to share tomorrow (my general swaps and the swaps especially for Pinkies).

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Sliding Chalk Talk Christmas Creation

Happy Wednesday Greetings! Just over a month to go until the big C day. Where is this year flying by to? I am now amazingly 23 weeks pregnant. I cannot believe how quickly time is going. I keep putting off baby preparations until after Christmas. But with the speed that the festivities are coming around I really should be thinking in a bit more detail about what I should be getting ready!

Today's festive share was inspired by this lovely creation I had seen over on Monica's blog. I just absolutely loved the sliding element of the card coupled with the Stampin' Up! Chalk Talk window. I loved the shape of the card and the use of the lovely Floral Fusion Sizzlits (which I purchased especially for this card creation).

This card uses a colour palette of Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler (my four favourite festive colours!). I used the Season of Style Washi Tape to seal the edges of the base of the card. I then cut the insert slightly smaller to create the sliding element. The image was stamped using the Chalk Talk stamp set and by coloring the For You and label in festive colours it gives a festive edge to the card.

For the floral embellishments around the frame we used the small floral punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes punches and the branch from the Bird Punch accessorised with Basic Rhinestones.

For more information on the Chalk Talk stamps and framelits (available as a Bundle from the catalogue or my online store) please click on the image below.

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK 3D Christmas Star Card

Morning all and welcome to day two of my festive makes week. I have so many projects waiting to be shared with you that it is lovely to be back blogging daily on the lead up to the crafty highlight of my year, Stampin' Up! Convention. An event for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from around Europe to gather, share and create. It is always incredibly inspiring and we are only two days away from the fun in Manchester kicking off.

So today's project uses the fab new single stamp from Stampin' Up!, the Christmas Star. I taught this card as the final quick make in my October card class. I wanted to illustrate how quick and easy it is to make a card with a bit of 3D dimension using this lovely (and economical!) single stamp. We inked the stamp in Real Red and stamped the image. After cutting around the star image I showed my ladies how to score along the white lines on the star image and then fold the star to create 3D popped up image. To maintain this dimension on the card front we stacked up 5 Dimensionals on top of one another and mounted these on the back of the star image (centrally).

This picture gives a bit better perspective on how the star stands up from the card.

To finish the card we used a strip of Season of Style Designer Series Paper coupled with a fine strip of Red Glimmer Paper. The greeting is from the Wishing You stamp set.

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting & pop back tomorrow for more festive makings.

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Zoo Review Christmas

Morning all and a very Happy Monday to you ;0) I am sharing a whole week of festive makings with you this week on the lead up to our big annual Stampin' Up! Convention. I have a lot of lovely Christmas creations to share so please pop back each morning and say hello.

How was your weekend? How are your festive preparations going? I have been busy finalising my Christmas shopping. Just the wrapping to go now. Oh and the Christmas card writing too. But that is a job for December......

I thought I would share a card with you today using the fab Circle Card Thinlits Die coupled with the penguin from the Zoo Review stamp set. This penguin image was inspired by a beautiful card I saw over on Vicky's blog. I loved her beautifully coloured penguin image and decided to give it my own take using the Thinlits dies and the lovely Winter Frost Designer Series Paper. I created a mask using a post it note.  After stamping the penguin in black Staz-On I laid the mask over the top and then sponged the sky in Pool Party ink over the top. I created the snowflakes with a white gel pen and also used my two way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds to give a bit of festive shimmer. I coloured the penguin using my Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker and I also blended inks using my blender pen for the penguin's chest. The sentiment was stamped from the lovely More Merry Messages stamp set.

The Circle Card Thinlits Die set I have used for this card comes with 9 matching dies to create greetings and embellishments for your fab flip cards. The set costs £29.95 (133480) and you can find more info by clicking the image below which will link you directly through to my online store.

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Joyful Christmas Gift Set

Good morning all. How has your crafty week been? I'm busy prepping today for the Cowes Christmas Fair tomorrow kicking off at 10.30am. I have two lovely make and take projects for you to complete. One design for children to have a go at and another for adults. Would be lovely to see you and I would love to say a festive hello.

My creative make for today uses the Merry Little Christmas Simply Created Card Kit from the Autumn Winter catalogue. I had received a sample as part of a Demonstrator sample swap of all the items in the new catalogue and when I came across this card blank in my stash I wanted to give it a go. I love the colour palette of this kit and all the elements that make up these lovely cards. The kit contains all the elements to make 8 cards. And the beauty is that you can use any of your festive stamps to create a lovely festive greeting card. Within the catalogue there is a matching Merry Little Christmas stamp which fits the die cuts perfectly. 

I used the Joyful Christmas stamp set to complete my card. I stamped the image twice, once on the die cut and once on a piece of scrap Season of Style Desginer Series Paper. I cut the smaller floral image from the patterned paper and layered this over the main image.

I used the same technique to create this party door prize gift bag full of stamping and crafty goodies for a recent crafty party I demo'd for. This time I stamped the image on patterned DSP and a scrap of Cherry Cobbler cardstock. If you'd like to book your own party to receive a crafty handmade gift from me, Stampin' Up! freebie goodies and the chance to win a crafty door prize, I have dates available in December and January and in to the best time of the Stampin' Up! year, Sale-A-Bration. To find out more, drop me a line on 01983 609249 or poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk.

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Festive Gift Card Holder

Evening all. Hope you're having a good week so far. Have you started on your Christmas preparations yet? I'm still in the midst of my shopping and card making at the moment. 

For my last card class I wanted to create a 3D project that would help along the way towards Christmas preparations and I came up with this gift card holder using the Envelope Punch Board. The beauty of the new Punch Board is that it comes with all the measurements pre-printed on the board and to create the little envelope inside I just made the smallest envelope listed on the measurement guide perfect for a gift card.

To create the gift card holder base itself I used the Pop' n Cuts Cardbase. I folded my card in half (using a full length of A4 cardstock) and ran that through my Big Shot to create a folded card with the lovely shaping provided by the Pop' n Cuts base. I then scored at half an inch either side of the centre fold mark to give the base for the holder to stand on. I used my large oval punch to create the handle.

To embellish the holder I used Gumball Green cardstock and stitched ribbon along with a slim strip of Season Of Style Designer Series Paper wrapped with Victoria Crochet Trim. The stamped banner is from the Perfectly You hostess stamp set embellished with Basic Rhinestones.

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Sweater Weather Hostess Club Gifts

Good morning and a very happy (rainy?) Sunday to you. I hope you have a lovely crafty day planned. I have a long list of crafty projects that need tackling today starting with some lovely festive card candy for my Pinkies team Convention swap (Convention is just around the corner now so I really must get my candy designed and made!).

I'm up early today editing and watermarking photos ready to schedule some posts for when I am away. I am so excited about this years Convention as I have a member of my team attending too. I am hoping for lots of big news and exciting sneak peaks too. Of course, I'll be straight home blogging upon my return to share photos of the experience.

Today's crafty share is a project I am really pleased with, some Sweater Weather inspired 2014 diaries that I included with this months Hostess Club orders. I found some lovely little pocket sized diaries in Tesco that I realised would be perfect for covering. I had a new and unopened pack of Sweater Weather Designer Series Paper sat in my paper box and thought this would be perfect to colour match with the stamped sayings (not Stampin' Up! I am afraid. I saw these stamps online last Christmas and my other half bought them as a Christmas gift as I am so addicted to stamping!)

The labels for the front of the diaries were cut in Very Vanilla and Early Espresso using the fabulous Chalk Talk Framelits Dies and finished with the small flower punched with the Itty Bitty Punches using Champagne Glimmer Paper.

I have included links to the products used for today's project either by clicking on the photos or the direct links above. If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about today's project or about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-

Stampin' Up! UK Joyful Christmas Gift

Good morning and welcome to a crafty Wednesday here at Stampin' Sarah! Hope you all had a lovely Bonfire Night. As the weather was a bit changeable, Summer and I opted for a night in with indoor fireworks at Mum and Dads. She was fascinated by the sparklers so it was a big success (and the drive home got her to sleep which is always a big plus!).

Today I thought I would share a hostess thank you gift I made for my friend Hayley who hosted a Stampin' Up! party at her house in Southampton on Saturday. I had seen lots of variations of this idea across Blogland and Pinterest. I loved the idea of making seasonal coasters for upcoming festivities. I searched online for cork coasters and also purchased two shades of Stazon ink to colour the image with (I could have used a spray sealant with Stampin' Up! inkpads but as I wished to demo the technique it wouldn't have left enough time to dry the coasters).

I began by stamping the Poinsettia image from the Joyful Christmas stamp set using Black Stazon on to the 4 cork coasters. I then used a sponge dauber to ink the red on to the image.  I finished by stamping the leaves in green and then added a touch of sparkle to the centre of the flowers.

I was really pleased with the result and thought these would make perfect little gifts for a neighbour or friend. And if you package them up using the current Stampin' Up! packaging promotion they will fit easily in the post of through a letter box with a lovely handmade touch. Please click here for more information on the fantastic packaging bundles featuring Stampin' Up! gift boxes, ribbon and gift tags. Or to order the bundles directly through my store, please click on the photo below.

The last image is a close up the packaging for the coasters which uses:

Decorative Window Gift Box (132146 £4.50)

Cherry Cobbler Chevron Ribbon (130012 £8.25)

Burlap Ribbon (132140 £6.95)

If you place an online order for any Stampin' Up! products through my online store remember to add the code below and I will add your name to the draw to win the hostess benefits for the month's combined orders (with a minimum of £25 in hostess freebies):

V99TUSS2

Please get in touch if you have any questions about todays project or My Digital Studio, about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-