Cupcakes in Tea Shops and Ribbons on Snowflakes

Hello Everyone

Today I am sharing some of my favourite things - hence the title of this post! The first is a card we made in August classes featuring the soon-to-be-gone Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set. We made a stamp set using the Edgelits Dies called Adorning Accents. We created the 'shop canopy' using the scalloped die topped with Word Window punches. We used the Tea Shoppe stamp set for the shop sign and the teacup.

Now on with with Snowflake no.2! Once again these were cut with the largest of the Snow Flurry die shapes. Next I inked them with Versamark and heat embossed with Cherry Cobbler, Gold and Silver embossing powder respectively. I finished them with Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding ribbon and some Basic Rhinestones.

Hope you like them - or did you prefer the sparkly ones from my last post?

Love Elizabeth X

Designer Paper Delight!

Hello Everyone

I just love the new Designer Series Papers that are in the new Summer Mini Catalogue from Stampin' Up! This is the the little show-&-tell book I take with me to workshops to show them off. They come in 12" X 12" (30cm square) sheets and are double sided, so perfect for all sorts of projects.

So today I am going to share two projects featuring papers from the Sweet Shop DSP pack....and also tell you how you can recieve a FREE pack of any Designer Series Paper during June.

The first uses the fabby cupcake paper which I loved using with the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set which has been a long-time favourite of mine. I used a little swirl of Pool Party ink on the cake icing to help match the image on the paper.

Using paper from the same set, a completly different project, this time featuring the Sail Away a la carte stamp. As soon as a saw this paper I thought of waves on the sea...

I simply cut along the wave edge and stamped the yacht three time. I first stamped on the card, then on Whisper White and finally on Island Indigo cardstock. I cut out the sails and boat and stuck them on to the card image to make it pop.

The compass image comes from Open Sea, which is in the Summer Mini.

And now as promised....drum roll....here is the special offer from Stampin' Up! which runs throughout June...

When you buy any three packs of Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper, you can choose another one, valued at £9.95 absolutely FREE! It is the perfect time if you want to stock up on our beautiful papers. Look at all of those you can choose...

And if you would like to host a party during June or July we have another fabby offer for you. Should your party total reach £300 or more, you will even more hostess goodies than usual...here are some examples.

Now I know what you are thinking...my party will never reach £325 - but you know what? I have had more parties above £300 than below £300 in the last year - so why not book with me for a fun evening with your friends?

Your Party Sales*	Regular Hostess Benefits	Additional Hostess  Pounds	Total Hostess Benefits
£325	£50 plus 1 item at 50% off	£30	£80 plus 1 item at 50% off
£400	£65 plus 2 items at 50% off	£30	£95 plus 2 items at 50% off
£500	£80 plus 3 items at 50% off	£30	£110 plus 3 items at 50% off

Hope you liked today's projects.
Love Elizabeth X

Anyone for Ice Cream?

Hello Everyone

Another cute selection from my party display today. I had SO much fun making these cards using the Big Shot to create embossed textures. First one that I pretty much CASE'd from many locations - my addition was using the owl punch to make the very top of the ice cream.

I also made a cherry and a chocolate flake! The cone is made with the Square Lattice embossing folder and the background is Blushing Bride Designer Series Paper.

Now this one I dreamed up myself. I always remember my Gran serving deserts in little cut glass bowls and I thought it would be fun to try to make one using Window Sheet from Stampin' Up! and the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.

Now this is hard to photograph - but see what you think!

Good idea eh? Gran would be proud of me!

The chocolate sprinkles are stamped using the Confetti circles stamp, the strawberry is from Tart & Tangy, and the sentiment is from Crazy for Cupcakes.

Now I didn't want to stop there - with ice cream in mind, I decided to create an Ice Cream Parlour -  no I don't do anything by halves! LOL

I started by googling images of Ice Cream parlours from the 1950s to get some inspiration. I love the deco feel and it went well with my In-Colour theme. OK - here it is...

I know! Isn't this the cutest thing I every made? :D  I actually found a box in my stash that had those rounded ends, which was just the shape I wanted for my counter. I covered it in DSP and used the lid to create the counter top.

I did the edge with the scallop border punch and added a length of 1/4" taffeta ribbon to give a neat edge. The tiny ice creams were fun to make. I stamped the top of the cupcake images from Crazy for Cupcakes to create the ice cream, then cut mini versions of my big cone. The ice cream cone stands are scraps of Window sheet, punched with the scallop circle punch and scored across the bottom. I was really pleased to think this up! The menu is the Curly Label punch and the bowls of sprinkles are a one inch circle punch, snipped around the edge. I filled them with Crystal Effects and sprinkled on glitter and 'owl eye' punches in red for the cherries.

Here is a close up of the counter at Elizabeth's Ice Cream Parlour...

Now there are a few more projects that went with this set, which I will show later - including a closer look at those cute umbrellas - but I hope you like my Ice Cream display. 

So - who is for a chocolate chip cone?

More Mini Milk Cartons

Hello Everyone

Just a quick post today to share a couple of cute Mini Milk cartons made using the Big Shot die. I found lots of little images to decorate them. I started with the new Itty Bitty Bits from the mini catalogue and then added the mushrooms from Funky Four and cup cakes from Crazy for Cupcakes.

Hope you like these little boxes. Back in a couple of days with more!

Card for Chloe

Hello Everyone

I just realised there are a few birthday cards I haven't yet shown you - even thought I made them last year!

This is the first for sweet little Chloe, who is my downline Nina's little girl. She is now a big sister, but I made her this card just before her sister Isabel was born.

The card is made with four stamp sets. The main image is from Crazy for Cupcakes and features a few of those adhesive diamontes as sprinkles. The sentiment is from the hostess set Afterthoughts. The background is done with Confetti - currently my most used background stamp option. And finally those sweet little toadstools come from Funky Four, which also has the flowers and leaves that I used on the envelope.

I used the Stampin' Up! cutter kit to create a tear off down the side, so that the edge can be removed and used as a bookmark. With that in mind I used my crop a dile to add a jumbo brad and ribbons to the top of the card.

Back soon with another 'forgotten' card!

Cupcake Spiral Pop-up Card

Hello Everyone

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As promised, here is the final project I taught at our August classes.

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I decided to break out one of my favourite stamp sets, Crazy for Cupcakes - I had been promising Tracey, one of my lovely class ladies, that we would do a cupcake card for so long!

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The front was just a pretty watercolouring project. We also used the so swirly wheel for the background and the cupcake wheel for the envelopes - it is illegal at my classes to have naked envelopes! LOL

But the best bit of this card is the inside - where we have a spiral of pop-up mini cupcakes. The are stamped with the wheel and coloured and then punched out with the 1/2" circle punch.

I love this card - one of my favourites of the year.
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Do leave a comment and tell me what you think!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Hello Everyone

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It's my birthday - so what better than to share two birthday cards featuring cupcakes with you.

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They both use the Crazy for Cupcakes stamp set and the beautiful Pink Flamingo designer series paper from Stampin' Up!

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On this first card I used the paper pricking tool and mat pack to embellish the background mat and the cake images are coloured using an aqua painter and inks.

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The second card also uses the cupcakes wheel, which makes SUCH a cute feature. The big cupcake is frosted with dazzling diamonds.

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Well I am off to eat my own birthday cake right now! See you soon.

Cupcake Tags

Hello Everyone
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Today's post is from another special request - this time from lovely Michelle who wanted to see a cupcakes project at a recent workshop.

I used the lovely 'Crazy for Cupcakes' stamp set from Stampin' Up! The one I demonstrated is the pink tag which starts with a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock measuring 4" X 2".

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I first daubed around the edge of the cardstock with pretty in pink ink and then stamped the sentiment on the bottom.

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Next I took a 1 & 3/4" strip of whisper white cardstock and stamped the image on the lower portion chocolate chip ink. I then threaded the strip through the 1 & 3/4 circle punch to create the arch shape. I daubed the edge with close to cocoa ink.

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I coloured the image using pretty in pink, so saffron and creamy caramel ink and an aquapainter. After adhering using tombow glue, I punched a chocolate chip tab shape, using the round tab punch and used my crop a dile to set a jumbo eyelet.

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I finished the project with regal rose grossgrain ribbon and the new chocolate satin ribbon.

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Hope you and Michelle both like my cupcake tags.

April Class Boxes & Cupcakes

Hello Everyone

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You have seen a few boxes on my blog lately and this is the reason why! I have been teaching box making at my April classes. This one is made using two 8"X 8" squares of cardstock, stamped in mellow moss ink using the 'It's Beautiful' wheel - and now I know how it got its name - as everyone rolls the wheel, they say "It's Beautiful"! Absolutely true!

The box is simply finished with a scalloped edge border and we made a matching gift tag. These boxes are also great to layer other images on.
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I made this one for my friend Susie, who is celebrated her 40th birthday recently with a girls afternoon tea at a very posh hotel! She loves cupcakes so I found a decorated cupcake cookie and chocolate and put them in this box. I used Crazy for Cupcakes - one of my long term favourite stamp sets - to make the appropriate decoration.

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If you look on the close up below, you will see I stamped the pretty in pink background twice, with one of the images from Vintage Vogue, once using pretty in pink ink, once using the white craft ink. I love the delicate effect and will definitely be doing this again.

Hope you like - back soon with more!