The Autumn Winter Catalogue is here

The new Autumn Winter seasonal catalogue from Stampin' Up! is here. Click on the picture above to link through to all the lovely new seasonal makings and craftiness. I have been sharing projects made with all the lovely new products over the last week and now the products are available to purchase. If you'd like a copy of the new catalogue, just drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk and I'll happily pop one in the post for you.

There are also two new promotions launched today from Stampin' Up!, one fab bundle discount  on Papillion Pot Pourri and the matching punch, and also the very lovely 'Best of Christmas' stamp set for September. More information on the promotions tab above.

And now for a quick crafty share to celebrate the new catalogue launch.

Just a quick and simple creative share with you today. My lovely Mum brought home a whole box of these black gift bags from work thinking I could use them for my Christmas day. I was more than happy to have a go at decorating them as I knew the black bag would work perfectly with the Stampin' Up! Glimmer Papers and the beautiful new Winter Frost Speciality Designer Series Paper.

Each of the bags originally featured a popular whisky brands logo on each side. So to cover these logos up and to create a lovely bottle gift bag I made these pennant style snowflake embellishments. The pennant was cut using the beautiful Winter Frost Speciality DSP. I then layered up snowflakes cut with the Festive Flurry Framelits from Silver Glimmer Paper, Bermuda Bay cardstock and then a smaller snowflake cut from one of the patterned foiled sheets from the Speciality DSP.  I made two of these pennants to stick to each side of the gift bag.

A quick and simple crafty project to embellish and personalise a quick bottle gift bag.

Thanks for popping by today. I know there is a lot to take in with all the news and a new catalogue launch. Please get in touch with any questions or to be sent a copy of the fantastic new seasonal catalogue. I'm always more than happy to chat Stampin' Up! and all things crafty.

Happy Crafting ;0)
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Festive tealight stamping tutorial

Good morning and welcome to the first of my festive shares of the week. This is one of our main projects from the Christmas Crafty Days, a stamped tealight holder with a set of matching tealights. I had seen this technique demonstrated at a Stampin' Up! Regional event and fallen in love with the idea as it makes a perfect technique to teach as well as providing a perfect Christmas gift project.

The tealight holders are thick glass and are able to withstand the temperatures of heat embossing. I purchased these from IKEA. I would suggest if you are going to give this technique a go that you are very careful with the holders you purchase as they become very hot during the embossing process.

Here is how we created the tealight holder:

1) Prime your glass tealight holder. I patted my embossing buddy all over the glass leaving a lot of the anti static powder all over the surface.

2) Choose which stamps you want to decorate your glass. We used Snowflake Soiree and Festive Flurry. Ink up using Versmark and stamp on to your glass. You need to use a rolling stamping technique to follow the shape of the holder. I pressed my stamp on to the glass and then carefully rolled to each side to ensure the whole image was captured. I stamped & embossed two images at a time. The beauty of stamping on to glass is if it doesn't go perfectly first time you can always wipe clean and start again.

3) Cover your stamped image with embossing powder (I used gold and silver). Use your heat tool to heat the embossing powder. The embossing powder takes a bit longer to heat up and 'change' than it would during normal papercrafting so don't worry if it doesn't happen straight away.

To create the matching stamped tealights:

1) Stamp your chosen image on to white tissue paper (I purchased mine from my local supermarket in the wrapping aisle). I used one of the snowflakes from Snowflake Soiree stamped in Cherry Cobbler.

2) Sandwich your tissue paper between normal copy paper and then punch using a matching size circle punch. I used my 1" Circle Punch. Which still sandwiched between the copy paper I also used my pokey tool to make a hole through the centre for the candle wick.

3) Place your tissue paper circle over your candle wick onto the top of your candle and then heat using your heat tool. Once the wax begins to melt you will see the tissue paper change colour as the wax melts over the top of your tissue circle. This then seals your image in to the wax. We created a set of 4 tealights to package away with our holder in the matching box.

To finish the project I used the lovely Season of Style Designer Series Paper (Page 23 of the Autumn Winter catalogue) to cover a Kraft Gift Box (Page 160 of the Main Catalogue). We then created a bow using the Gift Bow Bigz L Die (Page 37 of the Autumn Winter Catalogue) cut from Brushed Gold cardstock. To finish we stamped a piece of white tissue paper with snowflake images to create a perfectly matching insert for the box (to cushion the tealight holder and candles).

I have spaces available through September and October for my fabulous festive themed workshops. Please get in touch to find out more or book your date. My crafty parties are a fun filled evening of making with friends with product freebies and techniques included too. I'd love to chat to you more about Stampin' Up! and the versatility of our products across crafting techniques.

Thank you for stopping by today. If you have any questions about the products or techniques used today please get in touch directly on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. I'd be more than happy to help. 

Happy Crafting

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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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A little bit of festive sparkle

My share for today is this pop up card using a whole host of lovely Stampin' Up! products. It was inspired by a beautiful card I found on Pinterest created by a US Demo.

The card base is cut from Shimmery White cardstock which gives a lovely subtle sparkly effect to the snowflake themed card. I think this cardstock can often be overlooked in the catalogue but I love the subtle sparkliness (Page 156 of the main Catalogue). I used my Card Base Pop 'n Cuts die with the Label Pop 'n Cuts insert to create the overall card shape. 

The inspiration for the colours of the snowflakes (stamped and die cut using the Festive Flurry Framelits and stamp set available as a bundle in the Autumn Winter catalogue) is the beautiful Winter Frost Speciality Designer Series Paper. I cannot wait to share more projects created with this fantastic speciality paper as it features two beautiful foil accented sheets. These tones of blue, teal and turquoise are going to feature a lot in my Christmas crafting this year (or in Stampin' Up! speak thats Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Smoky Slate and Whisper White).

The sparkly accents were added using the lovely Silver Glimmer Paper and punched with the Scallop Edge Punch. And the final detail was added using a Bright Candy Dot and Brad Base to secure the two snowflakes together for the top embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will have more to share from our crafty days tomorrow. Please get in touch with any questions about the products or techniques used. I'm only too happy to help: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting ;0)
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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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New Colour Bundles

Stampin' Up! have released information today on some fantastic new colour bundles.

Having worked with these lovely new colours for a couple of months now I am loving the changes to the Stampin' Up! colour families and am delighted to share these bundles with you this morning.

The bundles detailed above help you to get your hands on cardstock and inks in all ten of the new colours at a bundled discounted price. Bargain!!!

If you'd like more information or to place an order for new colour product, please get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Thanks for stopping by today. I am super excited to share more Christmas crafting with you over the next week. I am sitting on my hands trying not to give more of the projects away before my Christmas crafty days this weekend. Be sure to pop back next week for project and gift ideas as well as tutorials and crafty tips.

Happy Crafting ;0)

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A little Christmas-y sneak peak

Evening all.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend. Another hectic one here on the Isle of Wight. Lots has been going on with summer fayres and music concerts and meteor showers. Summer has been keeping us busy with her constant exploring and toddling. 

And while most are still focused on the summer sunshine, my crafting has turned to Christmas and all things festive. One of the biggest perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the chance to preorder sneak peak products from new catalogue releases. With the release of the fab new Autumn Winter catalogue just around the corner I have been designing projects for my Christmas crafting days next week. I thought I would share a little sneaky peak of one of our projects and a fab new product from the catalogue too.

So here is one of the Kraft Gift Boxes from the main catalogue covered with the lovely  new Season of Style Designer Series Paper and topped with a paper bow made using the amazing new Gift Bow Bigz L Die. I cut this using the gorgeous Brushed Gold cardstock. I am just absolutely in love with this die and the fabulous effect of the paper bows. Last year I taught a similar handmade gift wrap embellishment and it took us most of the day to create. This die makes life so much quicker and easier. 

Here is a close up of the paper bow:

Now I wont share with you the contents of the box just yet. That I'll keep as a surprise for my crafty ladies coming along to my Christmas Crafty Days. But its a lovely altered project perfect for a Christmas gift for a loved one. Pop back next week for more info on our projects and I've got a couple of project tutorials to share too.

If you'd like to get hold of your own copy of the Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter catalogue please drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk and I'd be happy to pop one in the post for you.

Happy Crafting ;0)

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A couple of quick cards for the weekend

 

Good morning crafters!

It looks to be a lovely weekend here on the Isle of Wight. The sun is out and shining (and its only 7am!).

I was going through some files on my computer this morning and found a couple of cards I haven't yet shared with you. I am currently buried in Christmas preparation for my big all day Christmas Day next weekend so new projects are top secret for a little longer.

The first share today is a 'Thinking of You' card I made for a friend recently who had some sad news. I have had the Stampin' Up! Hopeful Thoughts stamp set sat in my stamping cupboard for a little while and never inked it up. It is such a lovely stamp set for creating those sadly essential sympathy or get well soon cards. I created the card above using a Stampin' Up! Naturals Ivory cardstock base and then layering with (now retired) DSP. I then coloured directly on to the tree stamp with Old Olive and Chocolate Chip and created the two tone inked image. I finished the card by layering this on to an Old Olive layer and creating the floral embellishments with my Itty Bitty Shapes floral punch and Rich Razzleberry (topped with Basic Pearls).

The second card is a beautiful layered card one of my downline designed for a recent shoebox swap. It uses a scored Perfect Plum base which we then sponged over with the same tone ink to give a suede effect. We then layered Whisper White cardstock cut with the Adorning Accents Edgelits (and embossed with the matching folder) and ruffled Organza Ribbon. We punched Whisper White butterflies and raised these with dimensionals. The final detail was to add Basic Pearls to the scored lines and the three butterflies.

Thanks for popping by this morning. I hope you have a lovely crafty weekend planned wherever you are in the country. I'm off to have a bit of breakfast and dive back in to all my Christmas-y preparation. Projects to be shared very soon ;0)

Please get in touch for more info on Stampin' Up! or to find out about signing up as a Demonstrator yourself or hosting a Stampin' Up! party.

Happy crafting 

-XXX-

A little bit of Hostess Club craftiness

Good morning and a very happy Tuesday to you.

Today I thought I would share some little makes I created over the weekend for my Hostess Club ladies.

This is the first month of the club so I thought I would share the Stampin' Up! joy and get everyone started with some crafty essentials, a sheet of Dimensionals, an Anywhere Glue Stick, a Sponge Dauber and some different ribbons all tied up and ready to craft with.

I created a personalised monogram on the side of each gift using the fabulous Occasions Alphabet punched with the Petite Curly Label punch and layered over a little length of Gingham Garden Washi Tape.

 And here is the Thank You label stamped with one of the frames from the Four Frames stamp set. The Thank You is from a new set called Lots of Thanks. The colours used are Melon Mambo and Old Olive. I finished the label with a Melon Mambo Candy Dot and two Rhinestones.

I'd love to welcome you to join a new Hostess Club and I can help you benefit from all the lovely freebies & promotions on a month to month basis (as well as one month you will receive all the hostess benefits for the months combined orders). I need 10 people to run another club, so please get in touch and register your interest and I would be more than happy to start another club very soon. Please click here for further info.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are having a sunny and crafty week wherever you are. It looks to be getting brighter again here on the Isle of Wight. But the weekends rain was a much needed break in the hot weather. My garden is much happier for it.

And just before I go here is one more little crafty share, my little Summer indulging in my ribbon share package! This delightful package arrived from a Demonstrator friend on the mainland who had organised a product share and Summer was desperate to get her hands on all my lovely new ribbons. She gets into more mischief with every passing day.

Happy Crafting

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Lots of exciting offers for August

Happy Friday to all.

Only one work day to go and it'll be the weekend. And how lovely that the beautiful weather has returned just for the weekend. Lots happening here on the Isle of Wight this weekend from summer fayres to visiting friends so hopefully it'll be a busy (and fun!) one.

So lots of craftiness to share with you today. With a new month brings lots of new crafty announcements. The first of which is August's 'Best of...' stamp set. And this month Shelli (co-founder of Stampin' Up!) takes centre stage with the Best of Shelli. I am super excited about this set as I just love all the images within it. As with Butterflies and Flowers, this set will also be available through to March 31st next year. But best order yours now to avoid disappointment in case they sell out.

And even more exciting, Stampin' Up! have also announced an exclusive Designer Paper promotion for August. Order 3 packs of paper and get a 4th for free. This includes all the £9.95 beautiful packs of papers from the Annual Catalogue (Speciality Papers & Paper Stacks are excluded from the offer). To take advantage of this, please get in touch today on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

And finally, here is a bit of crafty creativeness for your Friday morning. This is one of the cards we made at our July card class. When i first got my hands on a copy of the Stampin' Up! catalogue I fell in love with the Wetlands stamp set. I adore the sketchy designs of the seashore birds and the accompanying sentiments and grassland stamps. It is such a beautiful and versatile stamp set.

We created this card using an Apothecary Accents mask secured with post it notes. We then used a sponge to ink Tempting Turquoise and Soft Sky ink for the sea and sky and So Saffron and Crumb Cake for the sand. We then stamped the grass in Wild Wasabi and the birds and sentiment in Baked Brown Sugar. We then mounted the Whisper White layer on to a card base cut from the beautiful Natural Composition Speciality papers and tied with (still one of my all time favourite) linen thread.

Thank you for stopping by today. Please get in touch with any questions or queries or to place an order or book a workshop. I can be contacted on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Have a lovely sunny weekend wherever you may be.

Happy Crafting

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