Countdown to Christmas

Well it is the countdown to Christmas and we have been counting down with Stamin' Up! crafting here......This is a picture of my lovely tree decoration which is sitting proudly on my mantle with my Noel Garland I made earlier in the month. It is the Holly Berry Bouquet papers covering a template kit I picked up in a craft shop.  The numbers are fantastic and come in the current Medley Mix chipboard selection - perfect for scrapbooking or cards for birthdays.

Also, the crafty card factory elves have been busy with the Winter Post stamp set again for the latest flurry of Christmas Cards soon to be dispatched...............

And thanks to one of my recent hostesses, Nina, for a new suggested colour combination -Melon Mambo and Basic Grey - I love it!

 Last orders are TODAY for delivery in time for Christmas!  Be quick and give me a call if you wish to place an order!

Why Buy Shop Gift Bags?

I had made a few gift bags quickly myself for a recent Christmas Fair and hadn't got round to posting pictures.  A couple of ladies commented when I took them to last week's hostess party so it has prompted me to post pictures for you all to see how easy it is to produce your own good-looking (well I think so) Christmas gift bags.  Who wants to wrestle with rolls of paper and sticky tape when a simple bag and some tissue can do such a much easier job!

Here's a lovely Rudolph bag made with the Jolly Jingles Stamp Wheel in Cherry Cobbler and a small length of the striped Grosgrain ribbon in matching colour.

To finish it off I added a Rudolph topper made from the 2-step owl builder punch (body of the owl) and either the leaves from the 2-step bird punch if you have it or the Little Leaves Die for the Big Shot to make the antlers.

The  second bag is made from my favourite single stamp for Christmas, 'Dasher'.  Rather dashing, don't you think?  I love the white bag with the Bashful Blue contrast for my favourite Blue/White Christmas colours.

I have used the Season of Joy icicle and the Baroque Motif stamp for the decorative design with this, but you could just stamp a repeat of Dashers for a lovely alternative design too.

The sentiment is stamped from the Delightful Dozen stamp set from this year's catalogue which has multiple greetings for throughout the year so is a must-have staple.  I mounted it on a Top Note (Big Shot Die) and tied some of the gorgeous Whispher White ribbon for a bow.  I think this could even have rhinestones or glitter added for some Christmas sparkle too!

To Place an order, email me at craftyinkbuds@sky.com

Tis' the Season.............

Well I have been busy preparing for hostess parties in the run up to Christmas and so have been looking for inspiration for the card samples to show. This one came from the fabulous Ideas and Catalogue book which is full of card design ideas and it is a permanent fixture on my coffee table for browsing through.  The stamp set I used is the versatile Season of Joy set.

and two more cards I have made with my favourite Christmas set of the moment, Winter Post.  I really love the vintage style of this set. A great addition to this year's catalogue are the Antique brads which I have used on the second card here and I love using the snowflake in the Winter Post set as a background.  The Serene Snowflakes set in the catalogue is a complete set of snowflakes for those wanting even more snowflakes.

Here is also another version of the Noel Garland.  I made this one with my recent workshop ladies and it is in the Holly Berry Bouquet papers from the new catalogue.

To Place an order for your own Ideas and Catalogue book , email me at  craftyinkbuds@sky.com

More Christmas Gift Bags and cute 3D Tree Cards

Some more Christmas paper Gift Bags for you from the Holly Berry Bouquet papers.  These have been dressed up for Christmas, but I have used the ditsy little flower designs from the paper so could easily be made up as Birthday gifting too!  Great for small toiletries, chocolates or jewellery gifting.

and here are the photos of the cards from the Noel Garland workshop where we made three simple cards from the Jolly Holiday Papers (now retired).  These quick easy cards are made with papers and punching and decorated with lovely satin ribbon to make them look more luxurious.

Finally, some more fab Christmas cards made using the Pennants Builder Punch and Pennants Parade Stamps as featured in my last Blog post.  These are inspired from the last training session where they were demonstrated by one of the lovely ladies on the Inspiration Station tables.  They look great and can be folded flat to post too!

Stuck for Christmas gifts for Crafty friends, why not gift them something from the catalogue? To Place an order, email me at craftyinkbuds@sky.com

Pennants Builder Happy Christmas Card

What a fun night last night making Christmas garlands and cards with everyone, I can't believe Christmas is just round the corner, but it certainly feels more Christmas with all this Christmas crafting.

One of the cards I made recently is made from the Pennants Parade stamp set and the Pennants Builder punch.  It is fabulously easy to make your own cards, scrapbook pages or items decorated with pennants/banners and I used it here on a simple tri-fold card with lettering to make it a Happy Christmas.

It's a great set and I have seen many ideas using it and I love the bright colours for this one with the added gems of course to give it some sparkle.

To Place an order, just email me at craftyinkbuds@sky.com

Gifting for Christmas

What a busy week!  I have been busy busy busy working away on crafting for workshops and Christamas activities.  I will try and post some more pictures as I get time, but here is a gift bag I made for a recent workshop with the lovely scrapbooking club who invited me along to their day of crafting.

It was made from the lovely festive Holly Berry Bouquet papers and dressed up with a Fun Flower and handles made from the Top Note Big Shot cutting dies.  The papers have festive designs, but also include some lovely designs to be used all year round.  This bag looks so pretty it is a present in itself!

Even more Hostess Benefits on Offer

Stampin’ Up! UK have just announced a brand new promotion for all hostesses of Stampin’ Up! parties between the 1st November and the 15th December 2011.

Get the Paisley Petals Set and coordinating Paisley Petals Designer Series Paper for FREE—up to a £33.90 value—when you host a £300 workshop! This brand-new stamp set and Designer Series Paper are in addition to all the other exciting and generous benefits you get as a Stampin’ Up! hostess.

For a workshop total sales of £300 you will get this exciting new set of papers and stamps along with your benefits of:

• £50 hostess pounds to spend in the exclusive hostess section or anywhere else in the catalogue
• 1 item (any item) from the catalogue for half price

What a great time to host a party and whilst having a fun night of crafting earn yourself fantastic goodies!

Second Chance - Noel Garland Workshop Thursday 17th November 2011

Another chance to make the gorgeous Noel garland as I still have some of the materials available and I know some of you could not make the original date. I will provide all materials for the evening to make the garland along with some additional make-and-takes.

The evening will be full of crafting, fun and chat and better still you will be taking home your very own garland that everyone will be envious of.  The night will include learning techniques for working with exciting products and what's more you will also go home with a bag of goodies to add to your crafting supplies.  As there are some lovely materials provided the cost of the workshop will be £12.

The 17th is fast approaching and it will soon be time to dust off the jingle bells and glitter balls for festive decorating, so let me know by 10th November if you are interested.

Lettering fun

Well after a fantastic fun evening demonstrating last week with one of my customers, I had a day of training with the other demonstrators in the team.  It surprises me everytime the imagination everyone has for items to make with the products.  I came home with so many new ideas, a box of lovely swaps people had made and a larger wish list too!  I can't wait to share some of the new makes in our forthcoming workshops.

Just a couple of cards I have made too with one of my new stamp sets - Broadsheet Alphabet.  One is a lovely RSVP our friends getting married in December using their theme of purple and icicles.  I really enjoyed making this card and the lucky couple really loved it too!

The other card, well, guess who's birthday was this weekend.............

I used simple layering of Designer papers and the cute little Owls made with the Owl 2-Step punch with matching papers.  Of course, both cards used some added sparkle with some Rhinestones on the lettering.

New Catalogue, New Exciting Hostess Sets

Wow, well the new catalogue here and I can't wait to share all the exciting new products.  There are lots of new exciting stamps, the exciting new introduction of fabric and there are lots of new dies for the Big Shot too!

I could not wait to get started with my new stamps so spent some time yesterday playing with the fabulous new Hostess Set - Happiest Birthday Wishes.  This is such a fantastic set for all those birthday wishes.  I used it to create some birthday cards which I enjoyed then adding to and dressing with ribbon too.

For the butterflies I used the Big Shot Beautiful Wings Embosslits (which cuts and embosses all in one).  I used the Decorative Label punch first to cut the feature window on the card and then used the gorgeous 'Cheerful Treat' Hostess DSP paper as a background and for the feature scallop edge which co-ordinates with the 2010 and 2012 In Colours.  You could use the eyelet border punch, but I have used the scallop border punch then used my crop-a-dile small hole punch to punch the holes evenly along the scallop.  The greeting is from the Happiest Birthday Wishes Hostess stamp set and I punched this with the Extra large tag punch and then created a border with the DSP paper.

This one was a quick birthday card for a male relative.  Again I have used a greeting from the Happiest Birthday Wishes.  I have cheated and used a luggage tag which I have then added ribbon to.  I have used the Big Shot Circles dies to cut the various circle sizes. The back card is textured card stock and I then embossed some of the circles with the Big Shot Perfect Polka Dots folder to give all the different textures.  A quick card and a really great use of odd scraps of card stock too.

Christmas Workshop Event - Thursday 29th September

For those of you I have not contacted already, I am planning a Christmas workshop on Thursday 29th September (next Thursday) or Friday 30th September depending on numbers.

Here is a sneek preview of the gorgeous garland I am planning for the evening along with some additional make-and-takes.  The evening will be full of crafting, fun and chat.  You will be taking home your very own garland to proudly display over your mantlepiece or on a feature wall and learning techniques for working with exciting products.  Included will be demonstration of working with the on-board to create the 3D lettering.

All materials will be provided and you will go home with a bag of goodies to complete your own projects at home.  The cost of the workshop will be £12 which is the cost of the product including the luxurious satin ribbon.  You must book in advance for this so I can prepare the materials, so don't delay, get in touch.

Cheeky Monkey Cards

I have finally got round to taking some more pictures of the wonderful cards and items I have been busy making.  Here are the pictures of the Cheeky Monkey Tea Party cards and items I made for the NCT fundraiser (I am not quite sure why the blog has rotated the pictures back round).

All the cards are using my favourite stamp set 'Fox and Friends' which was perfect for the fundraiser with it's little monkey stamp.  I made some simple lollipop covers using my scallop circle and the box bag was from a template I found online.  Attaching a big designer button with linen thread and attaching the handle with matching grosgrain ribbon made the bag look fabulous.

NCT Cheeky Monkey Tea Party

Well I have just got back from the NCT fundraiser where I setup my first stall to showcase my work so far and see if everyone likes what I have been doing.  I was really pleased with how the stall looked after dressing it and received some great comments on my cards.

Welcome all - here is my new blog space

Welcome to my newly created blog.  I hope to add posts here and photos of all my crafting activities as an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator.