An Autumn Winter Jolly Friends Sneak Peek from Stampin' Up! UK Demonstrator Sarah Poulton

Good morning crafters. How was your weekend? It was a beautifully sunny few days on the Isle of Wight which was perfect for our RSPCA Gala Day on Sunday. What a lovely day it was enjoyed by all. My girls love visiting and seeing the variety of dogs entering the dog show as well as seeing all the resident and visiting cats and rabbits. The day raised over £5000 for the Centre which was a fantastic day and well reflective of all the effort put in by the staff and volunteers.

For all those eager Christmas crafters awaiting the 1st September I have a fun little sneak peek for you today. This is a card I CASED from the new Autumn Winter catalogue featuring a fab little set called Jolly Friends. I adore moose and knew I had to have a go at this card as soon as I saw it in the catalogue.

Now for those eagle eyed Stampin' Up! fans you might see another couple of sneak peeks used for this card- the fab new Jolly Hat Builder Punch and Mini Jingle Bells. The new Autumn Winter catalogue is chock full of festive inspiration and if you would like a copy posting out to you direct you just need to drop me a line on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk and I'll get a copy straight out to you.

I know I'm biased as I love all things Stampin' Up! but this years Autumn Winter offering is one of the best I've seen in the 6.5years I've been with the company. There really are so many different styles and tastes catered for as well as beautiful Autumnal sets and fun Halloween crafting bits and bobs. There are also lots of fun embellishments and accessories and lots of glitter too.

Thank you for popping by today. 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-

Stampin' Up! UK My Digital Studio Summer Love

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2014 and a whole new year of crafty inspiration. I hope you have had a suitably fantastic festive season and that your New Year has started well. 

New Year's Day is my birthday so I spent the day doing lots of lovely things yesterday. A crafty friend popped in yesterday morning with some lovely flowers, then my Mum cooked my favourite spinach and pesto lasagne for lunch, Sam treated me to a trip to see The Hobbit, and then the day was rounded out perfectly with Sherlock in the evening. All in all a perfect day of fun and family.

I'm a bit sad that the festivities are all over for another year now. But there is certainly a lot to look forward to in 2014 so I should probably start getting organised and ready for Poulton-Williams the 2nd. Sam and I should really agree on a name for her too ;0)

This morning I was seeking a little creative inspiration for some of my December photos of Summer using Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio software. I was looking through some of the Designer Kits I had purchased and I came across the absolute perfect kit called 'Summer Love'.

Within the kit was this photo layout all ready designed within the software which I thought would be perfect for some of my outdoorsy pictures of Summer enjoying the winter weather on the beach, feeding the ducks and playing with our dog Kala. It really is as simple as opening your photo files on your computer and then dragging and dropping in to the template. And voila, your page is finished. I always like to add a few embellishments of my own. But the templates are designed to give you a perfectly finished page with a few clicks. Perfect for a starter scrapbooker or for getting to know the software a bit better.

I just love the simplicity of My Digital Studio, whether starting a page or card from scratch, or whether using one of the predesigned templates for a quick and easy crafty make. I am always left feeling very inspired after I've browsed through all the lovely embellishments, stamps and digital papers within the software. I cannot recommend MDS highly enough. 

If you visit the MDS page through my online store (click here) you can find the full version available for download (a bargain at £13.95) or you can download the free trial version for 30 days. The trial version is perfect for having a go at creating digital cards and scrapbook pages and getting to know all the features of the software.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about todays project or My Digital Studio, about placing an order or about Stampin' Up! in general. You can contact me on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249.

Happy Crafting

-X-

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

-X-

Try It Tuesday: Tutorial Make

I thought I would share something a little different with you for todays Try It Tuesday. I was procrastinating on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and came across this tutorial video for a box card. I'd never seen this fancy fold before so thought I would give it a go. I love the idea of a little box within the card. Perfect for flat chocolates or money or a gift card. Simple yet effective for building your packaging in to your hand made greeting.

 

For my version of the card I used the beautiful More Amore Speciality Papers paired with the gorgeous flower trim (both products can be found in the Spring Summer Catalogue).

 I used a Very Vanilla base and layered with Raspberry Ripple and the More Amore DSP. The inside section I stamped with the lovely tree image from the Forever Young stamp set (stamped in Early Espresso) and spritzed with Vanilla Smooch Spritz for a bit of glimmery glitz.

Hope you all had a lovely long weekend ;0) Its beginning to feel a little more Spring like here on the Isle of Wight. Keeping my fingers crossed for some better weather.  And if you wondered how Summer enjoyed her first Easter, I think this picture says it all!  Summer's first taste of chocolate ;0)

 

 

 

Please drop me a line if you'd like any further info on Stampin' Up! and their products: poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249. I love to help hostesses achieve freebies at their parties, so if you think this is something you might be interested in, please get in touch and I'll talk you through a crafty party for you and your friends. I bring the craftiness and you bring the friends ;0)

 

Happy crafting ;0)

-X-

Tuesday Scrapbooking: Divided Page

 

Time is running a bit short in the Poulton-Williams household at the moment. I am cherishing every minute with my little girl when I am not at work (which is proving slightly challenging at the moment as she is teething and letting us all know about it!). I wanted to put together a page for todays scrapbooking feature but didn't have hours to spend matching and creating embellishments. So I decided to put together a quick and easy 12"x12" Christmas page using one of Stampin' Up!'s divided page protectors.

 

I collected together 6 photos from our family Christmas and cut them to 4"x4" squares. I then used a 4"x12" strip of green chevron paper taken from the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper set to create the centre title strip. I cut the Very Vanilla and red spotted DSP using my Window Framelits Dies and used letters from my stash to create the title. I love how quick and simple this was to create and fills a Christmas shaped gap in Summer's scrapbook for 2012.

While we are talking scrapbooking, here is a little sneak peak of my Mum's Mother's Day present. She had seen mini scrapbook keyrings made from old credit cards on Pinterest. I decided I'd give it a go. This is not strictly Stampin' Up! (but could easily be adapted using all of SU's beautiful papers and embellishments).  I covered an old store card with pretty papers and then used tiny photos of Summer to create these two mini scrapbook pages. This is my first attempt at altering anything and I am happy with the result. I covered both with a thick layer of watered down PVA glue to protect them from the wear and tear of a keyring. I'll share a finished picture once I have finished them and attached them to their finished keychain ;0)

Thanks for stopping by today. Please leave a comment and say hello and I'll return the blog hopping favour ;0)

Get in touch on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249 to place your order or chat Stampin' Up!

-x-

Quick and easy Christmas

Here is a quick and easy Christmas card we made at last month's card class. I always like to include a quick and simple card to end the class as we're usually running late (too much chatting!) or all crafted out (used all our mental energy creating a beautiful box!).

So this was our class closer last month. The colours are Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green. We embellished with a simple length of spotted scallop ribbon and a small Cherry Cobbler bow on top of a Regals designer button. You cannot see in this photo but the Crumb Cake layer had extra detailing in a few scored lines along the top and bottom.

Our box for July was this petal card. I saw a similar project on a crafty blog and the lady had designed the box to fit an awkward shaped present. This box is perfect and simple to make as well. We stamped Rose Red and Marina Mist flowers from Vintage Vogue on to Bashful Blue card stock. We then cut the shape and put the box together. A perfect quick and easy wrapping for a gift.

I have one final Stampin' Up! project to share with you today.... my daughter's Christening cake. It was her big day yesterday and Mum and I had been coming up with all sorts of crafty makes for the day. The centre piece being the cake. We stamped a Whisper White strip for around the cake using Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade and the For Everything stamp set. We then crimped layers to go behind this in matching card stock and sent the  Beautiful Butterflies die through the big shot (and then textured with various embossing folders). To finish the butterflies we created their bodies and antennae using Lucky Limeade Bakers Twine. If you look closely at the pics below you will see butterflies were the theme of the day, both Summer and I wore butterfly covered dresses ;0)

Here we all are in our finery (Daddy's arm must've been really tasty!). This is Summer, Sam and me with Summer's godparents, Josh, Natalie and Sophie.

Back soon with projects to share from my Christmas crafting day at the weekend.

Happy Crafting ;0)

-x-

Mixed Bunch Butterfly Card

This is my favourite card from this month's card class. It uses a new technique I have taught myself, emboss resist. This card was inspired by a card I found on Pinterest made by a US Demonstrator.

This uses the stamp sets Just Believe and Mixed Bunch. The butterfly was made using the ornate flower from Mixed Bunch. I stamped it in versamark and clear heat embossed it. I then sponged Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo over the clear embossing and wiped away the excess ink. I punched it using the matching punch and cut away two of the petals to create the butterfly shape.

I also used the lovely new Framelits from the Summer Mini to create the matching frames. The striped background paper is from a retired set from the Spring Mini Catalogue.

And here is a little Summer update. With the beautiful sunshine we have been getting on the Isle this past couple of weeks I have finally been able to dress her in her beautiful summer wear. Here is a cute little piglet outfit a friend bought her. She looked so lovely in it.

Happy Crafting ;0)
-X-



Scrapbooking Class Part 2

Stampin' Up! recently ran regional training days around the country. Unfortunately I could not attend my local training as I was 39 weeks pregnant at the time. However, after the events someone posted an instruction sheet for the scrapbooking make and take at the training day. I just LOVED the layout so had to have a go. Mine isn't exactly the same as those completed at the trainings as I didn't have all the same embellishments. But this is my version of the SU layout.

The base colours are Wild Wasabi and Baja Breeze and the designer papers are the Twitterpated papers from the Summer Mini catalogue. I embellished with the matching Twitterpated mini buttons and buttons from my subtles stash. The stamping in the background and on the floral embellishments used the Summer Mini set Mixed Bunch (and matching tone on tone ink pads).

I'll be back tomorrow with a recent workshop make and take. In the mean time, happy crafting ;0)

-X-

A bit of Summer scrapbooking

Good morning all and a very happy Saturday to you all.

I am taking a little break from normal service for today to share with you some of my (non SU) scrapbooking.

I spent a lovely afternoon this week at Mum's house scrapbooking with my Mum and sister while Summer snoozed contentedly in her travel cot. I haven't properly sat down and scrapbooked for months and months. So I decided to limit my scrapping confusion by limiting my supplies to one bag that I carried from my craft room. I often get overwhelmed by my punches, my Cricut, my papers, my embellishments, my alphas, my stamps, my glues, my glitters, my inks, my dies..... so sometimes it is nice to just pack a bag of vaguely relevant and matching papers and see what happens. I already had a few packs of baby themed papers all together so that made life a little easier. And considering I haven't scrapped in a while I am really pleased with my results. It was super satisfying photographing these layouts and then putting them into their page protectors in my Summer album (which tells the story from scans and bump pics to date).

My partner took this pic of me the day before I went in to hospital to be induced. I was HUGE!!! But it is a lovely memory as now I have Summer here and all the uncomfortableness of pregnancy is a rose tinted memory ;0)

 I had planned a duck themed layout for these photos as I had specifically chosen this lovely pale yellow baby grow for Summer's 'going home' outfit but then I found this fab die cut paper in my collection and had to use this instead. I thought it matched the theme of the photos perfectly. Shame you cannot capture on paper how happy you were to leave your little hospital room ;0)

 And this final double layout uses some of the gorgeous snaps Sam took of Summer while I was still in the operating room. Sam left with Summer and the midwife as she was being cleaned up and dressed in the recovery room and he captured some beautiful shots of her as a newborn. I especially love the photo of her little feet beside her first nappy ;0) Would you believe these papers and embellishments were all free with a scrapping magazine. I usually discard the free A4 papers or add them to my family scrapping share box. But these just caught my eye and fitted my pages perfectly.

Right, thats me done for today ;0) Hope you all have lovely weekends planned and a very happy weekend of crafting to you all. Normal SU blogging service will be restored on Monday with some projects I have been working on.

-XXX-