Colour Coach Blog Hop- July 1st

Happy July 1st and welcome to my little part of the In Love With Stamping Stampin' Up! Colour Coach Blog Hop. You should have hopped here from Sara and her project made with Sahara Sand, Bravo Bergundy and Pink Pirouette.

I had a couple of projects planned for todays hop but my life seems to have run away with me. So I am just including the one Pear Pizzazz Colour Coach combo . This card is inspired by the Creative Combination on the Pear Pizzazz card which combines Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise. I recently saw a similar pennant style card in the US Stampin' Up! catalogue so I thought I'd give it a whirl with my own take on it. Plus it gave me an excuse to dig out a stamp set I haven't used in a while, Flight of the Butterfly.

For this card I used a Pear Pizzazz base with a pennant cut from the In Colour DSP stack. I then used a strip of Pear Pizzazz Poly Ribbon to create an edging and then finished with a Rich Razzleberry edge punched from the Scallop Trim Border Punch. The butterflies are stamped with Rich Razzleberry ink and then punched with the Butterfly Punch. The centres of each butterfly are punched using one of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punches and then finished with a basic rhinestone. The sentiment is from the Level 2 hostess set in the Mini Catalogue, Something to Celebrate and punched with the Modern Label punch,

I'm sure other Demos on the hop have already explained the Colour Coach, but it such a great tool for inspiring your colour combinations. It is a handy colour swatch full of Stampin' Up! combinations to mix up your creations and make choosing colours for your projects fun and easy. Hopefully along the blog hop you'll have seen many different colour combinations to get your creativity started. And now to continue with your journey, hop on over to Claire to see what colour combination creation she has made.

-xxx-

Eclectic Card Class

I'm a couple of days early with this one (my March class is this Saturday). But as I have been so super busy here with so much going on, my creativity has taken a bit of a hit recently. And I miss blogging. So I wanted to post something new. I have been making a few bits and pieces but they are all using my new stash from the Mini Catalogue launching April 1st (pictures to be posted then!). So in the mean time to tide my poor neglected blog over I have a couple of pictures of cards we will be making this Saturday.

The first is a side step dresser card. This was was inspired by a beautiful card over on my Stampin' Up! friend Peg's blog. I have made a pink version and a blue version using the Teddy from the Every Little Bit stampset and the baby grow cut from the Baby Tees Jumbo Wheel (this way everyone at my card classes gets to have a unique card as each baby grow is different on the wheeled image). The 'Baby' sentiment is from the Tiny Tags stampset. The punches used for this card include: Curly Label, Eyelet Border Punch, Small Heart and various circle punches for the sentiment. And to finish I embellished with brads for the drawer handles from the Metallics collection. The colour combination is Bashful Blue with a hint of Soft Suede for the aged effect.

The second card is made using the curled Crystal Effects flower technique I perfected at Michelle's Bicester Craft Day. For this you need to remember to make the flowers first to give them plenty of time to dry. You can then curl the petals around a knitting needle or pencil to give the petals their shape. The stamps used for this card are: Vintage Vogue, For Everything, Flight of the Butterfly & Curly Cute (Sentiment). I embellished with Dazzling Diamonds sprinkled over the flowers, a pearl for the flower centre and the butterfly body, clear embossing powder for the sentiment.

These are just two of our March projects for the month. I also have a sliding draw box and a card using Lovely As A Tree to finish the afternoon off ;0)

And finally, while not technically crafty, it was my partners 36th birthday yesterday. He is notoriously difficult to buy for so I decided to make him up a 'Make Your Own Sushi' hamper. I bought all the ingredients for us to make California Rolls and then various other rolls with tuna, salmon and king prawns. We've eaten plenty of sushi in our time together but never had a go at making our own. We were pretty impressed with our first attempt. Although we'd definitely make each roll a bit more petite next time. I think we also slightly overstuffed the middles ;0)

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. If you'd like any further info about Stampin' Up! and their products please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can get in touch with me on 01983 609249 or poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk.

Happy Crafting ;0)

Workshop Demo

Here is the workshop demo I did for Tuesday's evening with Chris. I filled the sweet treat cup with Bold Bright buttons. Unfortunately the photos I took with the buttons in the cup havent come out clear enough to post. The workshop went really well and I enjoyed meeting all the lovely ladies. There were a few hiccups (I stuck the card all together and then realised I had completely forgotten the sweet treat cup! So I'd essentially made a card with a hole through it! But i managed to get it apart again and fix the 'blip'!) but all in all we all had a great time.

Each of Chris's guests completed the following make and take. I adapted a bag I had made at my last card class for them each to have a go. I let the ladies loose with the Tiny Tags stamps and each chose their own greeting in place of the 'Handcrafted' one I used. I saw a great array of sentiments used and i was happy to see each lady putting their own 'stamp' on their project (sorry I couldnt resist that one!).

Tomorrow is my monthly card class from 1-4pm. Its going to be a full house but I've lined up some fun cards to make and I'm well prepared. No doubt I'll spend the morning practicing and remaking all my samples again like last month *laugh* Photos on Monday...... (along with the two LOs I'm behind with Scrap With Us! Oops!)

A few crafty updates....

Spent yesterday in Bicester with my Mum. We went for a crafty day out at the Pink Ladies Quarterly Training hosted by my upline Michelle. Mum and I had spent the previous Friday designing and recreating 16 swaps to share with other demos at the training session. We decided on an Isle of Wight postcard theme using retiring colours; 'My fond farewell' swap as I called it ;0) I was really pleased with the result. I forgot to take a photo of the reverse which I had designed as a postcard complete with a Stampin' Up! stamp and address details for the Centre we were training at.

It was lovely to have a day out with Mum as well as meet other demos in the team. I was so pleased to win the second prize in the raffle. I've been umming and aahing over the 'Thank You Kindly' set for a while as I make a fair few Thank You cards so I was made up to be able to pick this as my prize. We worked on a mini scrapbook/flip album for the make and take. I chose to work with the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' which felt a bit weird as its only July. But I love those papers. Picture will be posted once I've done a bit more decorating and embellishing. The album is fairly bare at this minute.

For my swap (below) I used the 'Life's A Breeze' stamp set with Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion & Barely Banana Card Stock. I used my Bold Brights Stampin Writes and various punches to create this seaside postcard design ;0)

I will take some photos tonight of the lovely demo swaps I received in return ;0)


I have a jam packed crafting week this week with a workshop tomorrow and a card class on Saturday. I still have some prep to do for both so I'm going to be busy busy busy this week. Wanted to just give a little preview of some of the class and workshop projects i have been working on.

At the request of my lovely hostess Chris I will be demo-ing a variation on the A4 gift bag we made in last months card class. This is not the final version but one of my works in progress. I've used Orchid Opulence card with the Cottage Wall Papers. I have teamed this with the Flight of the Butterfly & Tiny Tags Stamp Sets, Rich Razzleberry Ink & Ribbon and the scallop punch. I'll post a clearer photo tomorrow once I've finalised the design tonight.

I've also put together designs for two of this months cards for my Saturday class. For my first card I was attempting a card for a man. I tend to fall to pieces a bit when crafting for the men in my life. So, using the Fox & Friends set (with embellishments from Tiny Tags) I set about creating a more masculine colour scheme. I used the Hostess Designer Series Paper in Mellow Moss with Brocade Blue and Chocolate Chip. I used the Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon (Choc Chip), the word punch and a sentiment inked from the 'Fun and Fast Notes' stamp set. I finished the card off with two brads taken from the Earth Elements colour set.
The second of my cards is one of my favourite creations to date. Mainly because it is my favourite SU colour- Pumpkin Pie (with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds thrown in for good measure). I used the Simply Said stamp set to stamp the background with Versamark. I then used Heat and Stick powder with my heat tool for the bold flowers to stick the glitter to the card. I embossed the outlined flowers with Versamark & White Embossing Power. I punched the heart with the large heart punch and used paper from the Pumpkin Pie designer series for the backing. I actually dont think the photo can do this card justice because of the glittered effects and the tone on tone use of Pumpkin Pie/White. I'm so pleased with this effort I may even be brave and post it to the gallery of InLoveWithStamping ;0)

Right, so I've given you a bit of a sneak peak into my crafty week creations. I'll post again with clearer photos of some of the other projects I have on the go......

Happy Crafting ;0)

-XXX-

New Colours from Stampin Up Card

Here is a 'thank you' card i made last night using my new colour goodies. I took the inspiration for this card from a tutorial I saw on juliesjapes.blogspot.com a few days ago. The coloured papers are from the Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper, the cardstock is A4 black, Old Olive and Rich Razzleberry (with matching InkPad too). The stamp sets are: Vintage Vogue, Flight of the Butterfly & Oval All. I've also used the butterfly and scallop oval punches.

I think I need to invest in a better camera and I should find a better area of the house to take photographs as they all seem to come out so dark!! But here are my best attempts at photographing my creation from last night:

Last post for today

I spent Mothers Day afternoon with my Mum and sisters yesterday with all our Stampin Up crafting supplies laid out in the conservatory. Here are the two of the cards that we produced:

Using: Happy Moments SAB set, butterfly punch, Pink Flamingo Series Paper, Pumpkin Pie 1/4" Grosgrain ribbon, scallop edge punch, Cameo Coral & Only Orange card.

Using: Tea & Crumpets Designers Series Paper, Flight of the Butterfly stamps, butterfly punch, chocolate chip grosgrain & taffeta ribbon, scallop edge punch, close to cocoa card, Vintage Labels Sale-A-Bration set.

Some recent efforts....

Using: Pink Passion Card Stock, Garden Whimsy Stamp Set, Oval All Stamp Set, Bold Brights Stampin Writes & Stampin Pastels for the background multi coloured effect.

Using: Lavender Lace Card, Flight of the Butterfly Stamp Set, Butterfly Punch, Cheer and Wishes Stamp Set, Tea Party Designer Series Paper.

Using: Chocolate Chip Ink, Cheer & Wishes Stamp Set, Close to Cocoa Card, Seaside Stamp Set and Stampin Pastels for shading on seashell & aging effect on card edge.

Using: A Tree For All Seasons Stamp Set, Cheer & Wishes Stamp Set, Stampin Pastels for background.