Beautiful You Paper Piecing from Stampin' Up! UK Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

A very happy Sunday my crafty friends. I thought I would take some time out of my Sunday afternoon patchwork piecing schedule to share a set of paper pieced cards I created with some crafty friends last weekend.

If you've been on Pinterest recently you will have come across a multitude of cards created with the Stampin' Up! Beautiful You stamp set. I wasn't a big fan of this set from the  pictures in the catalogue until I saw all the creative things people have been making with it. And then once I'd seen the different paper piecing variations I knew I had to treat myself to the stamp set to have a go myself.

Paper piecing is my all time time favourite stamping technique and this stamp set lends itself perfectly. I began by cutting my layers of Whisper White and DSP from the Blooms and Bliss Designer Series Paper set. Once I had decided on my floral layers I then kept the offcuts of DSP for the stamping of the dresses/hats. I used Memento Black ink and stamped the elegant ladies once on to my Whisper White layer and then again on to my DSP scraps. I chose to turn my DSP over and use the coordinating papers on the other side (and I deliberately chose prints that would look like lovely elegant dresses).

Once you have stamped the image again on to DSP you simply take a sharp pair of scissors and cut around the dress elements from the image. Once cut you simply adhere on to the Whisper White stamped image giving you a simple but effective patterned fill on your stamping.

I love the simplicity of the technique and I felt the images were enough without making too much additional fuss on my cards. So once I had stamped the matching sentiments I simply added a hand doodled frame to each card and voila they were complete!

I am in the middle of so many crafty projects at the moment. I am hoping to share some progress pictures very soon. I have recently started a new charity Stitch Along for Mind and I am loving trying a new style of cross stitching. Once I've finished the colour I am stitching I'll take some pics to share. Similarly I am alternating the SAL with piecing together lots of patchwork hexagons for a quilt for my daughter's birthday (it is a real family affair as Dad is cutting paper patterns, Mum is tacking them and then we are all getting stuck in to stitching the hexagons together- a month till her birthday- wish us luck!!!)

Please let me know if you have any questions about Stampin' Up! and their products. I would be happy to help. All items can be purchased online via my shop or get in touch directly and I can order them for you to be delivered direct to your door. I'd also love an opportunity to Demo for you and your friends at a crafty party.  As the hostess you earns exclusive free products and all guests get to create a fun crafty project to take home too! Get in touch if you'd like any further information.

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Blessed Easter Paper Piecing

Good morning and a very Happy Tuesday to you all.

Sorry about the late posting this week. I flat out came to a creative standstill with projects to post to my blog over the weekend. I just haven't had a spare minute to create new projects. And time just ran away with me over the weekend. It was our last weekend with Sam home as he has returned to work today so we spent it doing fun family things. Oh and I did a spot of Ebaying on Sunday too to raise funds for our family holiday in the summer.

Yesterday I took charge of the situation and spent  a couple of hours in my craft room accompanied by Pinterest and BBC Iplayer and created some lovely projects to share with you over the next week.

Today's card was created for a friend as an Easter card. It is her little boy's first birthday in a few weeks so I am going to be posting a parcel with a birthday gift and a little Easter treat. I wanted a little note card to put in with the parcel too. I found this card on Pinterest and loved the paper piecing of the Blessed Easter stamp so decided to give it a go with a Stampin' Sarah spin.

This is my version of the paper pieced Easter Blessings. I love the simplicity and the white space focusing on the beautiful tulip image.

I used 4 designs from the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack to create this finished image. I stamped the tulips in Basic Black 5 times (once on the Whisper White card layer and then on to each of the 4 patterned papers). I then carefully cut each element from the patterned paper using my super sharp Paper Snips (perfect for fussy cutting and cutting detailed images) and glued with Tombow to the original image stamped on to the white card layer.

To finish I stamped the sentiment from the My Friend stamp set using Jet Black Stazon (quick drying and smudge resistant) on to a pennant I'd cut from Stampin'  Up! high quality thick Vellum. I secured with a glue dot under the button so the adhesive would not show through the vellum. I used a button in Real Red to highlight the colour in the Fresh Prints paper. 

Thank you for stopping by today. Don't forget all products can be purchased directly from my online store. You can click on each product link within the main text above and you'll be connected straight through to my store and each product used.

Please pop back again tomorrow for some exciting news from Stampin' Up! as well as another crafty project to share. In the mean time, please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249 with any questions.

Happy Crafting

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Vivid Vases Paper Piecing

Good morning and I hope your crafty week is going well so far. I am completely cream crackered after a busy weekend with my card class and family fun. Sam treated me to a lovely evening out for Valentines over in the West Wight at one of my new favourite places, The Freshwater Bay House. We had an absolutely lovely 3 course meal and a fun night out to boot.

 I have since been chilling with some cross stitch and lots of cups of tea to recover (my belly is now of such huge proportions that moving from the sofa is proving more challenging each day!). I haven't cross stitched in a long time so I am finding it very therapeutic. I am working on a blanket for my new little arrival (3 weeks today and counting!!). I'll try to get pictures to share in my next post.

Back to craftiness, today I wanted to share two of the projects we made at this month's card class. I absolutely love the Vivid Vases single stamp in the Spring Summer and had seen this fabulous card by Maria Theresa. I decided to give this a go for my class and teach how to use the fantastic Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for stamp positioning. As you can see from our version of the card we used just the Vases image from the stamp and repeated the stamped image (using Stazon Black ink) in rows, being sure to line up the images carefully with the Stamp A Ma Jig. The colours are taken from the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack (Real Red and Coastal Cabana).

We used the Fresh Prints papers to paper piece the vases together (stamping the image directly on to patterned papers and cutting the vases from the patterns and attaching to our stamped base). We then coloured with ink directly from the ink pad using blender pens to give detail to the flowers. The frame was cut using the fab On Film Framelits Dies. The little banner was stamped and punched using the brilliant Banner Blast and Punch from our current Sale-A-Bration promotion (choose one item for free with a purchase of £45).

Now, you may, like me, love a stamp but have less use for the attached sentiment. Just as a quick tip I will show you how I have mounted the Vivid Vases single stamp to show that you can separate the image from the sentiment. When it came to mount the rubber I simply snipped off the 'You're A Whole Lot of Wonderful' and mounted on the end of the wooden block. I then mounted the main image as usual. I also snipped the sentiment from the mounting sticker and mounted this at the opposite end of the wooden block. A quick and easy way to give you more uses from your stamps.

At Saturday's class we also created a matching Sweet Dispenser using Real Red, Coastal Cabana and the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack.

Here is the matching set together.

Thank you so much for popping by today and sharing in my crafty creations. Please get in touch directly if you have any questions about Stampin' Up!, placing an order, joining my team or hosting a party: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. 

I am taking a short break from my classes till April to celebrate my new arrival next month (and recover from my Op). But if you'd like to find out more about joining a card class I will happily let you know when I have a date booked in for Easter craftiness. Just get in touch and let me know your contact details and I'll be in touch once a date is in the diary.

Happy Crafting 

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