One More Day!

Hey!

So today will be a short and sweet post as I am super busy preparing for the Spring/Summer Catalogue Open House at my home tomorrow. You are most welcome to come and see LOADS of samples, view the new seasonal catty in person (its always so much better in the flesh!) and have some delicious baked goodies along with your cuppa! 

Stamp Set: Fabulous Phrases

Ink: Pool Party

Carstock: Whisper White, Pool Party

Punch: 1 1/4" Scallop Circle, Bird Builder, 2 1/2" Circle

Extras: Essentials Pierce Pack

Acceessories: Whisper White Baker's Twine, Madison Avenue Button, Paper Doily

Snip in between each scallop to make a scallop circle into a sweet little flower (perfect way to stretch your punch!!) The 2 1/2" Circle fits perfectly in the middle of this little doily! I just love the white on white look with a little bit of pool party! A very clean and crisp look! 

Hope you enjoyed today's sneaky peak, if you want to see more pop over to mine to see lots more gorgeous new goodies! More details about my open house can be found in this previous post!

Now I am off to spend the day finishing off samples, tidying and baking!!

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xx 

Its A Bloomin' Marvelous Day!

Today I have a little selection of cards for you. I had an idea in my head for a clean and simple card using this set (its such an easy set to make gorgeous clean and simple cards!!) But I got beat to it by the wonderful Mary Fish. So my design is pretty much the same as hers but I used a stamping off technique for a lighter look. Lets take a look at the set...

Almost the same as Mary's but the Basic Grey and Sahara Sand are stamped off for a lighter look

Stamp Set: Bloomin' Marvelous (SAB)

Ink: Basic Grey, Sahara Sand, Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Midnight Muse

Cardstock: Whisper White, Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Midnight Muse

Accessories: Rhinestones

You can buy all you need to make these beautiful and simple cards and get the stamp set for free!! 

Whisper White (£7.50)

In-colour Cardstock (£6.25)

In-Colour Markers (£11.75)

Basic Grey Ink Pad (£4.95)

Sahara Sand Ink Pad (£4.95)

Rhinestones (£4.50)

Envelopes (5.75)

= £45.65 and get the stamp set free! 

Want to know more about this "stamping off" technique I keep mentioning? Its simple! Ink up a stamp, stamp it on scrap paper, then stamp it onto your cardstock. Less ink on the stamp will mean a lighter shade when stamped. Its a great way to stretch the colours your already own (especially if you're starting out and don't own many colours! 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xo

Betsy's Blossoms

Hi there!

I've got a card I a friend asked me to make a little while back for a colleague that was retiring. She wanted it big so there was lots of place to write, she seemed pretty happy with this creation!

1

Stamp Set: Betsy's Blossoms, Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Ink: Perfect Plum, Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, Daffodil Delight, Wisteria Wonder

Cardstock: Whisper White

Punch Modern Label

Accessories: Rhinestones

I love Betsy's Blossoms, its such a fun set. This card follows a rough diagonal, some of the flowers are stamped directly to the card base while others are layered over top. The flowers were cut around to follow the on a diagonal and the base folded on a zig zag. Its not an every day card but for a special event like retirement, a special card is called for! This fit he bill.

Get your Geek on!

I have a super geeky card for you today. My husband has been mentoring a trainee teacher at school and her placement finished at the school on Friday. He asked if I could make a card for everyone to sign for her. 

I asked Stuart what Erin liked - kind of hoping flowers or butterflies or something easy and girly would be on the cards. He took that as his cue to come with with some geeky idea for me. I grumbled a bit to begin with, saying it was going to be so boring but actually its turned out really well and pretty cute! 

Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise

Punch: Owl Builder, 1" Circle

Extras: Essentials Paper Piercing Pack

These are atoms! Er is Erbium and In is Indium. The rings that each electron travels around were made using the circles paper piercer template - it gives the shape while being subtle enough to look clean and neat which really helps the electrons to stand out. I jazzed it up but making a rainbow pattern  with the electrons! It was fiddly but I think it looks pretty great! Now who said science was boring!?

Happy Stampin', 

Amanda xo

Bloomin' Marvelous & Video!

Hi! 

How is everyone's week been? Mine is going pretty great! Sale-A-Bration has begun, there's snow outside (I'm like a little kid when it comes to snow - can't think of anything better than walking and playing in it!) and last night I got my Christmas present! Stuart got me tickets for Sleeping Beauty Ballet with the Moscow City Ballet! I love the ballet and haven't been in years so it was so lovely to get tickets and it made for a lovely treat in January. Not to mention it just happened to be 6 years since we've become an "item" - where has time gone, it feels like only yesterday. The only downer for the week is that our car died so we have been carless and either having to walk everywhere or beg for lifts! Okay, sorry, I'm babbling, on with today...

I'm posting later than I intended today as I wanted to shoot a video and had to wait ages while it uploaded to you tube, so thank you for being patient with me and I hope you enjoy it!

The card is just a variation on the card I showed a couple days ago but I thought you'd like to see it!

I just wanted to add that if you don't like the colours I've chosen for this card, its very easy to pick some different colours! If you're choosing a pattern paper, you might want to look at what colours the DSP uses and then choose colours to coordinate! 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xx

Exciting News!!

Good morning my friends! 

I've got some exciting news to share with you today! 

I'd like to tell you about a club for stamp junkies like you and me called Inky Fingers. It is run by the lovely Julie. So you pay a small fee to join and get access to loads of great tutorials by some amazing demos who design projects exclusively for Inky Fingers! Normally there is a weekly project and each Inky Fingers designer makes 1 card to share, however, 3 times a year, when a new Stampin' Up! catalogue is released they have a special session. Each designer makes 5 projects (not cards) for you. This means there will be a deluge of creative inspiration just waiting for you, and you won't have to trawl the internet, blogs, pinterest, google images or anything else to find inspiration!! How neat does that sound? What's more is that you have the chance to win the projects directly from the designers! 

So why am I telling you all this?! Well, a couple weeks ago I received an email from Julie asking if I would be interested in designing projects for the Spring/Summer seasonal catalogue special session in February. So I have been busy creating some stunning projects for you, but you won't find them on here! They're only for Inky Fingers club members! The other designers are awesome - I religiously read some of their blogs! I am so honoured to have been asked as they are truly wonderful designers and creators!! There are 14 of us all creating for you!

How much does this cost? $24.95. But wait! There is an early bird discount of only $19.95. Now $19.95 really isn't all that much, it works out around £12.50. With 14 designers, creating 5 projects each for you, at £12.50 that works out at a little under 20p per creation!!! Now that is an amazing deal!!

If you'd like to know more about joining the Inky Fingers club, and join in the fun you can do so on Julie's blog.

I really hope you'll join me in this! Look forward to seeing you there! 

Happy Stampin', 

Amanda xx

Pappillon Potpourri!!

Afternoon! 

So, now you've had a day to look at the Sale-A-Bration goodies, how are you liking them? They're fabulous aren't they?! And if you haven't seen them yet, what are you waiting for?! Grab a cuppa, sit down, put your feet up and relax for a few minutes and have a good browse!! 

So to get your day started I've got a cute card I demo'd for a bunch of lovely ladies back in October! Man it was that long ago?! 

Stamp Set: Papillon Potpourri, Fabulous Phrases, Alehambra wheel

Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Daffodil Delight, Primrose Petals

Cardstock: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals

DSP: International Bazaar

Punch: Decorative Label, Elegant Butterfly

Extras: Essentials Pierce Pack

Embellishments: Dahlias

So, this is a bit more of a complex card as I really wanted to show off lots of the awesome new things in the annual catty but a simplified version of this card would be equally effective. I think the two things that I love about and really make this card stand out to me is the paper piercing (a very cost effective way of adding detail to a card) and the different uses of the decorative label punch! I adore that punch and definitely recommend it to anyone that is starting out and looking for one or two punches to get them going!! 

So, how about a simplified version of this card - 

Decorative Label Punch (£15.50)

Essentials Pierce Pack (£7.25)

DSP (£9.95)

Coloured Cardstock (£6.25)

Rhinestones (£4.50) 

Dimensionals (£3.25)

= £46.70 and get the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set for free! 

It's got both images and sentiments in it so is the perfect SAB set for someone getting started on card making! If you don't have any ink you might want to think about adding an ink pad (£4.95) to this bundle instead of the rhinestones! 

The DSP used here was the Birds of a Feather which is very light, pretty and cutesy style!

I hope you enjoyed this card and the simplified SAB bundle version! 

Catch you again tomorrow! 

Amanda x