A Butterfly Basics Hostess Gift from Stampin' Up! UK Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

Good morning crafty friends.

I'm a bit later with my posting than normal this week. We returned from a lovely week away to France at the weekend so fitting in crafting amid washing and unpacking proved a little challenging. But I did manage to sneak an hour for creating last night. I have a Stampin' Up! crafty party this week and wanted to make something special for my Hostess. 

I found a pack of these little notebooks in my 'crafty inspiration' drawer full of things I will get round to making eventually. I thought they would make perfect gifts for upcoming new catalogue party hostesses.

I used my Butterfly Basics stamp set with the Butterfly Framelits (available together as a fantastic bundle for a 15% saving) to create the background and butterfly feature. For the background I stamped the flower from Butterfly Basics in Versamark and heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss powder. I then stamped the small butterflies in Watermelon Wonder ink.

I added the white film frame cut with the On Film Framelits and the larger butterfly cut with my Butterfly Framelits. To finish I added an In Color Blossom in Mint Macaron and Itty Bitty Flowers punched with the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack from Mint Macaron Cardstock (I added a White Candy Dot for the centre of the flower).

I have added a special Stampin' Up! pen to the gift and will set about designing a gift bag this evening.

If you would like to host your own Stampin' Up! party I would love to come and demo for you and your friends and family. I always make a gift for all my hostesses on top of the fab product freebies you will receive from Stampin' Up! themselves. I also provide all materials for you and your attendees to complete a stamping project aimed at all levels of experience from a new stamper through to the more experienced crafter.

Thank you for popping by today. Don't forget to check out this week's Weekly Deals. Please let me know if you have any questions about Stampin' Up! or our products. I would love 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 to Demo for you and your friends at a crafty party. As the hostess you earn lots of lovely freebies and you all get to make a fun crafty project too (no crafting experience necessary!)

 -XXX-

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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 

-X-