Stampin' Up! UK Favour Tin Advent Calendar

Happy December 1st to all my lovely blog readers and followers!

Let the festivities begin. I love December 1st as it symbolizes the official beginning of my Christmas celebrations. I have refused to watch Christmas films or click on the Christmas CDs. But from today, it is all fair game. And I should probably warn you (and my neighbours!) I did find the Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack on offer in Tesco yesterday. That will be my festivity music of choice for the foreseeable future I am sure.

So with December 1st brings lots of traditions including my annual Christmas scrapbook album which I complete with prompts and ideas from Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class. This years album is suffering a slight delay due to a customs hold up. I purchased a lovely kit of bits from the US but it has yet to arrive so I'll probably have a mad catch up once everything arrives (I realise a kit is sort of cheating but with my time constraints with Summer and Bump, I tend to prefer stash restricted crafting for this annual project. It means I don't spend 3 hours deliberating over papers or embellishments and just get on and make something every day).

Anyways, enough of my chatter. I was talking about traditions and the date. Here is a new creation, and something I intend to make in to a new family tradition, my favour tin Advent Calendar. I have seen so many lovely examples of these on Pinterest and purchased all the tins in time for last Christmas. But I never actually had the time to sit down and create the bones of the calendar itself.

So yesterday, with a little help from my Mum, I actually set about creating:

 The calendar itself is made from a baking tray, some fancy Designer Series Paper (the spotty design is from Stampin' Up!'s Season of Style DSP) and 24 wedding favour tins (I found mine on Ebay). I punched circles in Gumball Green, Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake and layered these with slightly smaller circles punched from the Season of Style DSP. I then used glittery Mod Podge to seal these circles into the inside of the tin lids (which have a pre cut and fitted thick acetate window lid).

I then stamped all 24 images from the sadly now retired 25 and Counting stamp set and punched with my square punch to layer on to the top of each tin. Now, while the stamp set itself may be retired, it is still very much available to use within My Digital Studio. Another of the great perks of using our MDS software, stamp sets never retire! You can find more info on purchasing these images through MDS here. To finish I glue gunned magnets to the back of each tin to ensure the tins stay put against the baking tray.

 Here is today's tin filled with a little chocolate-y treat for Summer:

And here is the little girl herself (complete with fancy Christmas jumper) finding her way in to today's tin:

A closer look at some of the stamped number images:

I had such fun creating this project and I am glad I made the time to create my calendar in time for December 1st. I have plans to add details to this calendar year on year to make it a living activity as Summer grows. I have plans for added embellishments and Christmas activity inserts as well as sparkle and glitter. Hopefully along the way Summer will be interested in joining in and adding her own little touches too. 

So I say again, Happy December 1st to you all and I hope you liked today's creative share. I look forward to being able to share the calendars evolution year on year ;0)

Thanks for popping by today. Please say hello and leave a comment. I have set myself a target to find new blogs to read throughout December with some creative makings, so leave me a comment and I'd love to stop by and say hello.

And if you'd like to find out more about any of the Stampin' Up! products used for today's creation please drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. Or alternatively pop by my online store which you can find here:

http://stampinsarah.stampinup.net

Happy Crafting ;0)
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Quick and easy Christmas makes

Today's crafty shares are two quick and easy Christmas makes. Both would be perfect for a Christmas table decoration or place setting.

Here are the two projects together. A stamped muslin bag and a decorated Ferrero Rocher chocolate:

I stamped the fantastic new Mini Muslin Bag (Page 36 of the Autumn Winter Catalogue) using the frame from Morning Post Numbers and the sentiment and present image are taken from the Wishing You stamp set on Page 23. I stamped the images using Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive and then sewed matching Designer Buttons on to the bag using Stampin' Up!'s fabulous Linen Thread.

We created this pennant embellishment by adding lengths of Bakers Twine to the muslin bag tie and then wrapping lengths of Season of Style Designer Washi Tape around the Twine and then cutting the v-shapes into the sealed tape. It is a great way of adding an extra little detail and showcasing the different uses for our Washi Tapes.

This was my favourite project of the day, a wrapped Christmas pudding Ferrero Rocher chocolate. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and knew it would be perfect for my Christmas Craft Day.

To create this project I cut a lattice shape in Early Espresso using the Lattice Big Die. I then attached a small piece of Sticky Strip to the top of the chocolate and then stuck the four corners to the sticky strip. I then covered with a small scallop circle punched using the 3.2cm Scallop Circle Punch (punched from Very Vanilla and sponged around the edges using Baked Brown Sugar). To finish we glued a small length of Gumball Green Stitched Satin Ribbon to the scallop circle and punched an Itty Bitty Shape from Red Glimmer Paper.

Thank you for popping by today. I am going to be working on my project tutorials over the weekend to share the main projects from my craft day with you over the weekend and in to next week. Looking forward to sharing some new ideas and techniques with you then. In the mean time, a very happy weekend to you and, as always, happy crafting.

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Christmas comes (very) early to the Isle of Wight

Good morning and welcome to a Christmas-y crafty week here at Stampin' Sarah.

This weekend saw the first of my Christmas Craft Days (the second starts today at 10.30am). I had a lovely group of crafty ladies come along on Saturday and we spent the day making a whole series of festive items from a Christmas planner to a stamped candle holder along with cards and gift wrapping too. I took the picture above to show the projects we'd be making over on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/stampinupiow). It gives a little sneak peak of the projects and techniques I will be sharing with you over the next week. Its never too early to get thinking about Christmas crafting ;0)

The first project I am sharing with you is this foil cardstock embossed poinsettia card which uses lots of fab new product from the Autumn Winter catalogue launching on August 29th.

The silver layer is the fab new Foil Sheets (Gold and Silver - Page 28 of the Autumn Winter Catalogue- £3.75) embossed with the new Pretty Print Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (Page 24 A/W Catalogue).

We then stamped the Poinsettia image from the new Joyful Christmas stamp set (Page 27 A/W Catalogue) on to Bermuda Bay cardstock using the new Silver Metallic Encore Pad (Page 28- gives a beautiful shiny stamped result and is quicker than heat embossing). We cut the centre leaves from one image and layered these with dimensionals on to the other. We then finished with a fabulous Frosted Finishes Embellishment (Page 28 A/W Catalogue- I have already used an entire pack of these in my Christmas crafting so far!! Lots more will be purchased in the next couple of months I am sure).

To finish this card we stamped the Joyful Christmas Wishes sentiment from the same stamp set on to the cardbase.

I love the colour scheme of this card. Not traditionally festive but Christmas-y feeling all the same. This was inspired by a lovely card I had seen on a US Demonstrators blog as part of a Christmas-y blog hop. As soon as I saw all the lovely layers to the card I knew I'd have to give it a go.

If you'd like me to send you a copy of the new Autumn Winter catalogue please drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk and I'll happily pop one in the post to you. So many lovely ideas launching with this new catalogue on August 29th. I am counting down the days to the catalogue release so I can start using all the new products in my upcoming crafty parties. Please get in touch if you'd like to find out more about booking a crafty party in your home. I'd love to help you get your hands on lots of lovely hostess freebie products to say thank you for hosting.

To find out more or to have a Stampin' Up! chat please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

I'll be back tomorrow to share another Christmasy project with you.

Happy Crafting

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