Leeds regional training - Swaps!

The best thing about the Stampin' Up! training event I attended last week, was swaps!!  The idea is everyone makes a huge pile of cards (or other small projects) and then swaps them with everyone else.  You end up with a huge pile of projects, all completely unique, and often using products you don't own.

I decided to make 50 cards using my current favourite stamp set - Apothecary Art. 

I really fancied doing a bit of colouring in so I stamped onto Crumb Cake card stock and coloured the little blossoms with the Whisper White inkpad and a blender pen.  I went over a few of the flowers with a Baja Breeze marker.  The white 'base' really made the colour stand out on the Crumb Cake.

My swaps:

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Everything Eleanor

Inks: Baja Breeze, Basic Grey, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade marker

Card stock: Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Equipment: Framelits dies, Perfect Dots embossing folder, Corner punch

Accessories: Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon

Completing all 50 of these, especially with the colouring in and running card through the big shot (x 150!), took longer than I anticipated, but it was worth it to get such amazing things back from the other talented Demonstrators...

 Thanks to everyone who swapped with me!  I love them all!!

Leeds Regional Training - name badge

As a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator I get the chance to attend training events - which are a fantastic opportunity to meet lots of other Demonstrators, share ideas, learn lots and generally give my motivation levels a bit of a boost!

Last weekend was the regional training event at Weetwood Hall in Leeds.  75 demonstrators attended and it was a really fun day.  I came away full of new ideas, a box full of projects I swapped with other demonstrators, and some free goodies!

We were asked to bring some things with us to the training.  The first was a handmade name badge!

I wanted to use some of my newest goodies to create mine - and I thought the Sweet Cake stamp would be perfect with a ready made space for my name.  I realised I had the exact font they use for the sentiments in the Sweet Cake stamp set, so printed out my name onto cardstock.

Stamps: Sweet Cake

Inks: Pool Party, Real Red

Card stock: Pool Party, Real Red, Whisper White

Equipment: Framelits dies, Perfect Dots embossing folder, Word Window punch

Accessories: Rhinestone Brads, Real Red Satin Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Crystal Effects

Beautiful wings

I have used lots of butterflies on cards lately and these cards seem to be among the most popular with the people I show them to.  So I really feel justified in purchasing the Beautiful Wings butterfly die!

So here is the first of what will probably be many butterfly cards!!

I stamped the background with the Fresh Vintage stamp (sale-a-bration set) which I coloured in with stampin' write markers - quite time consuming but I love the effect!  I also finally worked out how to ruffle the seam binding ribbon!  My favourite bit though, which I copied from a picture I saw online, was using linen thread for the butterfly's body!

Stamps: Elementary Elegance (SAB), Fresh Vintage (SAB)

Card stock: Crumb cake, regal rose, very vanilla

Inks/markers: Baja Breeze, Regal Rose, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake

Equipment: Beautiful Wings die, Perfect Polka Dots and Vintage Wallpaper embossing folders, Curly Label punch

Others: Linen thread, Baja Breeze seam binding ribbon

Baby, Baby!

This week my friend asked to make four new baby cards, in the same design as the one I made for her and her husband when their bundle of joy arrived 2 months ago!  She doesn't know whether she'll need cards for girls or boys, so I made 4 of each so she would have them to hand when she got the announcements!

The cute baby vest stamp is from the retired Slice of Life stamp set, but there's a similar one in the Bundle of Love set in the current catalogue.

Stamps: Slice of Life, Pennant Parade

Card stock: Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Whisper White

Inks: Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Basic Grey

Papers: Subtles paper stack

Equipment: Scallop Border punch, Oval punches, Corner Rounder punch

Others: Whisper White satin ribbon

Cheeky monkey

Yet another birthday card commission and this one was for a 2 year old boy.  I got out one of my favourite stamp sets - Fox and Friends and selected the very cute monkey stamp...

I was asked to personalise the card with the little boy's name so I used the Just Perfect Alphabet stamps using the Stamp-a-ma-jig to perfectly position the letters (kind of!!!).

Stamps: Fox and Friends, Just Perfect Alphabet

Card stock: Old Olive, Crumb Cake, So Saffron

Inks: Soft Suede

Equipment: Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Scallop Border Punch, Simple Numbers Dies

A wedding card

Another card commission - this time a wedding card and the brief was for a neutral colour scheme with birds! I first thought of using the Bird Builder punch but changed my mind. This is what I ended up creating...

I also made a coordinating gift tag and wrapping paper.

And my favourite part of the whole card was spritzing it with the shimmer mist I made by mixing a drop of champagne shimmer paint with some alcohol in a spray bottle - FUN!  You can just about see the subtle sparkle on this close up...

Stamps: Clearly For You, Tiny Tags, Elementary Elegance (SAB)

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake

Ink: Crumb Cake

Equipment: Heart Punch, Wallpaper Embossing Folder

Others: Very Vanilla satin ribbon, antique brads, champagne shimmer paint

New home card

I saw a really lovely bird house card on a blog (click here) this weekend and wanted to recreate it to make a New Home card.

The fence is particularly effective I think - it is punched with the scallop border and then scored using the new Simple Scored tool.  Simple!

The paper I have used for the bird was the Sale-a-Bration papers Everyday Elegance, and the cloud stamp is from the retired Good Neighbours stamp set.

I printed out the sentiment and used the word window to punch it out.

Stamps: Good Neighbours

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Poppy Parade

Inks: Whisper White

Equipment: Simply Scored, Scallop Border punch, Bird Builder punch, Itty Bitty punches, Circle punch, Word Window punch

Others: Linen Thread, Brads, Pearls

Sweet Cake

The second of my Summer Mini projects uses the very very gorgeous Sweet Cake stamp set.  It's so retro and yummy. I have a feeling I'll be using this a lot, but for this project I wanted to try something new.

I had seen some examples online of a technique involving embossing with clear powder in several layers to give a cracked glass effect.  But this stamp reminded me of the vintage signs you see everywhere so I wondered if I could use the same technique to make it look like a vintage metal sign.

I inked up the stamp with the marker pens (it takes a little while to colour it in so you need to breathe on it to re-moisten just before stamping!). Then I aged the card using sponge daubers and marker pens round the edges - it is supposed to look like rusty metal! 

Next I dabbed Versamark ink all over it covered with clear embossing powder and heated to melt.  Once completely dry I repeated with another layer of embossing powder, and a third.  I could scratch and crack the surface a bit then.

I mounted the 'sign' onto very vanilla which I had scored on the diagonal using the new Simply Scored scoring tool.  It's hard to see how well it turned out from the pictures but I was very pleased with the results!!

Stamps: Sweet Cake

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, So Saffron

Inks/Markers: Wisteria Wonder, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette, (for the edges: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze)

Equipment: Clear Embossing Powder, Simply Scored

Others: Brads

Fancy a cuppa?

So I got my big box of goodies delivered on Friday.  I had a busy weekend making a stack of cards commissioned by friends (pictures of these to follow...), but I managed to make 2 cards using the new products from the Summer Mini Catalogue.

The first uses the Tea Shoppe stamp set and new Framelits dies.  It's a fairly simple one - I needed a change from some of the more elaborate and labour intensive cards I've been making for my friends!!

It also uses the flourish from Everything Eleanor to make the steam coming from the teacup! The 'steam' is stamped sraight onto the card base and a window was cut out of the very vanilla using the framelits and then embossed.The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Stamps: Tea Shoppe, Everything Eleanor, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Inks: Crumb Cake, Regal Rose

Equipment: Framelits dies, Perfect Dots embossing folder, Word Window punch

Others: Pearls and Chantilly Lace Trim

Summer is here!!

Well, the new Summer Mini catalogue is anyway!!

And I have already fallen in love with most of the products inside.  Especially the lovely vintagey floral tea cups and cute sentiments in the "Tea Shoppe" stamp set, and the good enough to eat "Sweet Shop" product suite which includes ice-creams, lollipops and cupcakes and some scented embossing powders to make your projects smell as good as they look!!!

The Summer Mini also introduces the Simply Scored scoring tool - which makes light work of any project that involves scoring.

I am waiting impatiently for my order to arrive so I can start using some of these products - then I can post some pictures to share with you.

In the meantime, if you want to check out the new products online - click on the Summer Mini Catalogue picture on the right hand side!

I would be happy to post one out to you - just email me at hellostamper@gmail.com

So - what's your favourite product in the new Summer Mini?