All that glitters is.... Gold!

Wow! Who knew gold tones would be so difficult to photograph! This card was a real labour of love to get a picture of. I love how it turned out though. This is another version of the washi tape card I shared on Wednesday. I used an old star punch in my stash to create the windows through to the fabulous Watercolor Wonder Washi Tape.

All demonstrators who attended Convention last year received this fantastic gold patterned washi tape and matching Sequin Trim as part of an all attendee giveaway. I've absolutely loved creating with the gold patterns. For this card I used Whisper White for the base card and layered with a little Brushed Gold cardstock to highlight the gold theme. 

I stamped the sentiment from the Sketched Birthday stamp set using my Metallic Gold Encore ink pad (I hand cut and then layered with a scrap of Brushed Gold card which I then hand cut to form another gold accent). The final touch was the So Saffron button from my Subtles Designer Buttons pot which I tied with lovely Gold Bakers Twine from the Spring Summer Catalogue.

And as a crafty bonus I thought I would share a lovely thank you note I received from a Sale-A-Bration hostess over the weekend.  It really made me smile getting a fab handmade note in the post.

The outside of the card had the 'pssst' from Happy Watercolour stamped on it.

This was what was awaiting inside the card. A fantastic pop up banner using the Banner punch which is yours for free with a qualifying £45 order during Sale-A-Bration (which runs to the end of March so get your order in asap so you don't miss out!). I love everything about this card and just had to share with you all!

If you'd like to find out more about Sale-A-Bration, please pop by my 'Promotions' tab at the top or drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. Sale-A-Bration is the best time of the year for ordering Stampin' Up! products. Who doesn't love a good freebie? 

Happy Crafting

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Gingham Garden Washi Wednesday

Hello lovely crafty readers.

How is your week going? Can you believe there are only a few days left of February left? Where is 2014 disappearing too? Not that I'll be sad to see Spring and Summer and an improvement in our weather.

And speaking of better weather and Spring around the corner, today's washi tape creation was inspired by a sunny day over the weekend. Seeing the sunshine breaking through the clouds made me want to create something bold and bright to match the sky.

For this card I used Melon Mambo and Whisper White layered and punched with the Blossom Punch, Pansy Punch & Petite Petals Punch. I picked these three punches as I loved the decreasing sizes and how well they all worked together.

To create the background I stuck strips of Gingham Garden Washi Tape (a bargain at £4.50 for the three colour designs) randomly so they would show through the floral windows. To finish the card I picked three fab Brights Designer Buttons from my pack and tied with Bakers Twine. The sentiment from Itty Bitty Banners was stamped in Melon Mambo, hand cut and then blinged a little bit with Basic Rhinestones.

I love the simple effect of washi tape through punched windows. You could easily customise this with any punch shape or washi design for any occasion. I don't really need any excuse to break open a pack of washi tape though. I just love it and use it most crafty sessions.

Thanks for stopping by today and please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249 with any Stampin' Up! questions, to place an order, find out about joining my team or hosting a party. I'm only too happy to chat craftiness or stamping.

Happy Crafting

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My Digital Studio Double Page Spread

Good morning crafty friends.

I've been busy with My Digital Studio over the weekend (I can just about manage to balance the laptop on my knees while the baby dances around reminding me we only have a couple more weeks before she arrives!).

I had fun looking through some holiday snaps from last year and creating this double page layout using the Number One Kit in MDS. This is an 8"x8" designer template within the programme across two pages (they look lovely side by side as the lines carry over the two pages). I loved how the colours worked so well with my Cornish Adventure pictures of Sam and Summer.

I can see My Digital Studio becoming my best friend over the upcoming months. I have so many pictures to catch up on (my scrapbooking is so behind) and will have a number of new pictures upcoming in the next few months with Summer becoming a big sis and our new little one appearing.

Here is another quick share, I created and shared this project yesterday on my Facebook page. If you'd like to follow me on Facebook you can find me at:

https://www.facebook.com/stampinupiow

I created this little page using the fabulous Sale-A-Bration freebie download (you can choose this free with a purchase of £45) Hooray for Parties. I love the little pennants and the gorgeous floral papers too. I loved how the colours matched what Summer was wearing (not that you can see, but trust me it was very complimentary).

Don't forget, if you are unsure about digital scrapbooking or cardmaking, Stampin' Up! offer a free 30 day trial of My Digital Studio. Just click this link to be taken to my online store where you can download your free trial today.

Please get in touch with any crafty questions. I'm always happy to help:

poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk 

or

01983 609249.

Happy Crafting 

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Hardwood Background Petite Petals Birthday

Good morning crafty friends. How goes your week? It has been a busy one here preparing for our new little one. I sent Sam in to the loft to recover the moses basket and other baby essentials. So I have been busy washing and prepping things for our new arrival. It really does feel like everything is ready, I really just need the baby now ;0) Oh and a name might be helpful. Hopefully Sam and I will agree on something in the next two and a bit weeks.

On our recent Pinkies Blog Hop to celebrate the Spring Summer catalogue I fell in love with this card by a fellow Pinkie, Caro. I decided to create my own version of the card using Baked Brown Sugar textured Coredinations cardstock, Very Vanilla cardstock and Naturals Ivory cardstock.

I absolutely adore the Hardwood background stamp. It is just so perfect for masculine or nature themed cards and is just so effective. I think this might be a stamp easily overlooked in the catalogue but it stamps so beautifully. The Hardwood background worked so well with the Petite Petals stamp set and punch  (available as a bundle here) to create this wreath window effect.

The colour scheme used for this card: Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Baked Brown Sugar and Naturals Ivory (for the stamped background). I also used Soft Suede ink for the sponge daubering of the edges.

I hope you enjoyed my crafty make for today. I'd be happy to help with any questions or queries about Stampin' Up! so please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. And don't forget I also have an online store that is open 24/7:

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/stampinsarah/

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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Happy Watercolor Tags

Good morning lovely crafty friends. How has your crafty week been? I have been tucked away in the warm of my craft room working on my card class projects all week (lots of lovely pictures to show you next week!). So sorry blogging has been a bit slow but I've been super busy creating ;0)

I thought I would share with you some pictures of a recent workshop order (and this box contained an amazing £65 of freebies for my hostess too!). My favourite part of a workshop is delivery of the big box of goodies. I have them delivered to me so I can check everything and package the goods for my hostess. It also means I can create a little handmade card or tag to go with the order to say thank you for ordering. I really do appreciate each and every crafty order placed with me.

At last weeks party I demonstrated for a lovely bunch of crafty friends and we had fun creating with the Happy Watercolor stamp set. I wanted to create a quick and easy tag to attach to the workshop orders using the stamp set to say thank you.

This is what I came up with using my Scallop Tag Topper Punch and the watercolour stamps:

I love the absolute confidence I have in my White Craft Ink Pad for creating beautiful outlines even on Basic Black card. It made such a striking contrast for this tag. I was then able to finish with Real Red Ribbon to tie around the bag handle. I used my White Gel Pen for the name and some super sparkly Basic Rhinestones to give a little blingy finish to my tags.

If you'd like to find out more about hosting a party you can click on my 'Host a Workshop' tab at the top or drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249 for more info. I'd be more than happy to chat you through the kind of projects we could create or talk you through the organisation of a party. I love demonstrating and sharing creativity so would love to chat to you about demo-ing for your craft group, friends or family.

Happy crafting

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Gorgeous Grunge Valentines

Good morning crafters.

Here is another project from our monthly team shoebox swap. This fab Valentines inspired card was designed by Charlotte using the Gorgeous Grunge and Crazy, Mixed Up Love stamp sets.

I love the messy effect of the inky splodge stamps in Gorgeous Grunge. A great effect achieved with no mess or inky fuss. And Crazy, Mixed Up Love is a stamp set I must have overlooked in the catalogue but I just love all the images in the set now, especially the little Bee. To find out more click on the picture below and you will be connected straight through to my online store.

The final element of this card that I loved making are the little spiral flowers. These are more distressed and grungy than the larger Spiral Flower Die roses. We created these by punching a small circle from cardstock and DSP and then ripping a spiral in to the circle. In the exact same way as the Spiral Flower Die you just wrap the spiral around and then glue down with a glue dot or hot glue.

If you'd like any more info on Stampin' Up! or our current promotions, please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. I'd love to chat to you about our fantastic crafting products, or maybe you'd like to join my team too and purchase products with our Demonstrator discount (as well as potentially building a flexible crafty business). Just get in touch to find out more.

Happy Crafting

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