Tuesday 26 April 2011

Love is in the Air

Hello Everyone

I have had the opportunity to make some wedding and engagement cards recently. Catherine recently celebrated her Stampin' Up! themed wedding day - her colours were Old Olive, Very Vanilla and Sahara Sand - Catherine has beautiful long curly red hair and I think those would be the perfect wedding colours for her.

Also my lovely friend Laura got engaged on holiday and then my niece Sophie was engaged to Alex last month.

Here are the cards I designed...


This large double-fold card has vellum cardstock in the 'windows', showing monograms behind. I used the Broadsheet Alphabet for the initials and the flowers are stamped using Vintage Vogue, which makes a beautiful wedding card. The designer paper is from the Lap of Luxury set.


Now that is one of my more-is-more cards - my class ladies will be laughing reading this as I struggle with clean and simple designs.

But just to prove I CAN do simple, here is another design, this time done with a Big Shot embossing folder called Elegant Boquet.


I ran both the vellum cardstock and the card underneath through the Big Shot to get the embossed flower image. Inside I gently daubed the flowers to allow a little of the colour to show through.

The text is from Curly Cute - my favourite greeting set - also I have it in clear mount so it is always straight! LOL This is what is under the vellum.


I have been embossing and debossing envelopes too! There is no stopping me now I have my Big Shot!


Hope you like my wedding cards - back with more projects soon.

Friday 22 April 2011

Mini Book Class

Hello Everyone

I have had a few requests for a Scrapbook Mini-book Class, so ran one for 6 special ladies earlier this month. We made three little mini books, suitable for different occasions. In fact this class was so popular, I have to run it again for those that couldn't get a spot!

This is the room set up ready for everyone to arrive...



Inside the packs, which featured the fabby Elegant Soiree Designer Paper, were enough goodies to make all three mini books, with plenty of goodies to take home to do more craft projects. This is what was in each pack...



So do you want to see what we made....? We did three little mini albums for a range of occasions.



With the Royal wedding in mind, I though I would teach a wedding mini album. I designed this many, many years ago and updated it with some fabby Stampin' Up! stamps and pearls.



After unlacing the ribbon at the front the mini book unfolds....I love the paper lace and vellum layers...




Inside the mini book folds out to a 12" X 12" page with plenty of room for pictures and journalling. We used lots of stamps from Notably Ornate, Always Elegant and Baroque Motifs to create the panels.


Next we made a funky Top Note mini book. You will notice a colour theme here. The class included half a pack of Elegant Soiree designer paper, matching cardstock and pearls.


My lovely ladies could bring photos, or make up the mini books ready to add pictures and journalling later. We all had a go with the Big Shot and Top Note die, to make our chipboard, cardstock and designer paper pages - I love the way the Big Shot cuts through so many materials.

Inside we decorated those pages using punches and layers. You can see the Ornate Bloom stamp used as a background here.


So after a break for refreshments, we were back to make our final mini book - this time a pull out book, (similar to those we used to be taught to make with toilet rolls - so much nicer to do with card stock! LOL)


The front panel here is made with a mixture of punches and one of the Lots of Tags dies, made with the Big Shot. Inside is stamped with images from the Nature Walk stamp set - this would make a lovely summery album.

As you can see, Diana, Jan O, Jan S, Sophie, Rita and Sara had a great day - I hope you like our mini books.



We have more 'special' classes coming up shortly- let me know if you would like to come along.

Monday 18 April 2011

French Foliage Mosaic

Hello Everyone

Well I had a card planned for my technique class this month which featured a very pretty hostess set called Because I Care. I did have these cards on display during my class and will put them at the end of this post - but having received French Foliage, I couldn't resist a re-design!


I just ADORE this stamp set - you can't go wrong with it! First we stamped some random images on a rectangle of whisper white cardstock, then used the 11/4" square punch to punch out six squares. We then created a mosaic with the images, (some did them in the order they were stamped in as above, some were laid out at random, as below).

The background is Crumb Cake card stock stamped with the Very Vintage wheel to create a subtle effect.

We finished with the oh-so-cute buttons, created with the Big Shot machine and Sweet Buttons Embosslits die. That machine makes such great embellishments - we simply cut and daubed them with Crumb Cake ink and drew in the thread with an Early Espresso marker.

OK here are the original designs... Baja Breeze and River Rock


And a monochrome option...


I do like the Because I Care ones - but my favourite has got to be French Foliage - so what do you think? 


Friday 15 April 2011

Another April Wedding Project

Hello Everyone

As promised back with another wedding-flavoured project from our April class. This one was matching the little Baja Breeze favour box we made and features the first class outing for my Big Shot machine. (By the way, DH is calling it the Big Boy - he has heard about nothing else for weeks LOL)!





We used a simple fold by scoring down the front of the card half way across and then decorating the front facing portions using the hearts from Confetti - very wedding or anniversary apporpriate!

We cut a Top Note shape in Very Vanilla with the Big Shot, then stamped using Always Elegant, which makes a lovely wedding set. We added a couple of pearls, and finished with a couple of punches - the fabby Decorative Lable punch, which layers well with the Designer Lable.

Back with the final April class project soon...


Tuesday 12 April 2011

Royal Wedding Class

Hello Everyone

You may have noticed we have a bit of a big wedding going on in the UK this month - so with this in mind I planned a slightly wedding themed class for my lovely ladies this month.

We started with a cute all in one box with a pop up lid. I learned how to make this from lovely Catherine, whose wedding is also this month. (Different Catherine - I don't think Kate Middleton made her own invitations and decorations!)


Now we actually made a Baja Breeze one in class, but this is a similar style, (I don't think I have a photo of the Baja one). It is hard to see quite how it pops up - but you may be able to see from the photo below...



I did lots of wedding samples recently to inspire some special people. Laura who just got engaged, Diana whose daughter's wedding is this week and Jan S who makes and sells wedding favours.


I will share some more of these in more detail over the next couple of months, but in the meantime I will be back with more projects from our April class soon.

Saturday 9 April 2011

Family Creations

Hello Everyone

Today I sharing two little projects I made for my family members recently.

First my sister had her birthday a couple of weeks ago. Maria and I are buying each other a sisters' day out later in the year for our birthdays, (we are going to a show, cream tea and a fabby dinner), but I wanted to give her a little something to open on her special day.

I bought her a little pot of eyeshadow and made a pretty little gift box for it using the Big Shot machine and a Mini Milk Carton die.


It is closed with a paperclip with a little narrow taffeta ribbon in Marina Mist to match the ink I used. Did you notice the French Foliage stamps in evidence again? I am loving that set so much.

I finished the box with the M from Broadsheet Alphabet and a rhinestone for a bit of birthday bling!

My next card features another stamp set I really love - Just Believe. I made this as a Mothers' Day card, (for my US visitors, Mother's day is earlier in the UK).


I had a play with my Colour Spritzer Tool to get the speckled effect on the Sahara Sand card. The flower is stamped in White Craft Ink and I finished the card with a button threaded with Linen Thread.



Inside I used a top note insert, the butterfly comes from Nature Walk, (another lovely stamp set from the new Mini Catalogue) and the sentiment is from Occasional Greetings - a very useful set to own.

Back with some more projects soon.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Red Sails in the Sunset

Hello Everyone

Today's project would make a GREAT man card - something I know many of us struggle with. This sweet boat stamp is a single stamp from Stampin' Up! called Sail Away.

I stamped it on to watercolour paper in Stazon ink and used aqua painters and blender pens to colour it in.


Do you know the song, 'Red Sails in the Sunset'? I thought I would colour them in a mixture of Real Red and Riding Hood Red.

I know my watercolouring is not the best - must practice more - I bet you could do better, but I do love this stamp.

The frame is an off cut left over after cutting out a Top Note shape with the Big Shot - even the leftovers are fabby aren't they?

Colour combination is Real Red, Riding Hood Red, Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze.

Back soon with some family projects.

Sunday 3 April 2011

Mini Pillow Boxes

Hello Everyone

So did you miss my last post? Well scroll down if you did and find out all about my new favourite toy, (or tool as I am calling it at home), the Big Shot!

It appeared in our new Mini Catalogue and I have been having a great time creating lots of different projects to share with you.

Now if you came to my Blue & Sparkley Christmas class last year, you will remember painstakingly cutting and scoring our card to create a pillow gift box - now we can make them in a flash with Pillow Box die.

The one above was a distressed effect using Newsprint designer paper and the Music Note wheel. Below I have used my favourite stamp set from the new Mini Catalogue - French Foliage. I love everything I have made with this stamp set - it is so easy to create a lovely collage effect and works in lots of different colour combinations.



Back soon with some more cute projects for you.

Friday 1 April 2011

BIG Announcement!!!

Hello Everyone

IT'S HERE! The brand new UK Mini Catalogue from Stampin' Up! is here - and it contains something BIG!

The new big thing from Stampin' Up! in Europe is the Big Shot die cutting machine. Yay!

The Big Shot is a sturdy manual die cutting machine which can be used to die cut materials for use on crafts, home décor projects, and even clothing. We at Stampin’ Up! are very excited about it and you’ll love what the Big Shot machine can do for you!


Die cuts are an easy way to create elaborate-looking shapes and projects with minimal effort, and they look amazing on whatever project you're working on.

You will also appreciate the exclusive dies you can get in Stampin' Up!'s range - so you can always find coordinating products.

There are so many wonderful things you can create using the Big Shot, I hardly know where to start! I have been having SO much fun creating with it and will be sharing lots of projects over the weeks to come.

Today's project uses two of the 24 available dies, (18 of these, including the two below are exclusive to Stampin' Up!)




This card features the beautiful Top Note die that creates that fabby Real Red background - the Big Shot cuts and creates the stitching effect around the edge. I also used the wonderful Fun Flowers die - how beautiful is that flower? And SO easy to cut with just one turn of the Big Shot handle! The stamps are both from Notably Ornate, stamped in Soft Suede ink.

So if you are reading this and want to know more - why not book a workshop or come to one of my classes? The Big Shot will be featuring at them all.

Now there are also lots of other exciting goodies in the mini catalogue - you can see it now online here or contact me for your own copy to flip through!