Congratulations card

Last weekend I received this gorgeous vintage style card from Julie for getting my first Stampin' Up! promotion last month!  It was easy - I just bought loads of nice things from the catalogues so that I could make even more beautiful cards and gifts.

This card uses one of my favourite stamp sets Apothecary Art.  It's a really popular stamp set and you can find it in the Summer Mini catalogue (see links on right) until 31 August.

Thanks Julie - I love it!

Christmas swaps

Once a quarter, Julie Kettlewell hosts a team training day for her team - Julie's Jems.  Since joining Stampin' Up! in February I have missed a couple of these, but managed to get myself booked onto the most recent one in July.  It was really great to meet other demonstrators in the team, and to get lots of tips and ideas from Julie.  We did lots of crafting too, and there were gorgeous cupcakes which seems to have become a tradition at these events.

There was a Christmas theme at this training day, and we were asked to make some Christmas swaps using a non-Christmas stamp set!  I used  Everything Eleanor, including the little bird which I coloured as a robin, and some festive colours (Real Red and Old Olive) to create my swaps...

Products used:

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Petite Pairs

Inks: Old Olive, Soft Suede, Real Red

Card stock: Real Red, Very Vanilla

Ribbon: Very Vanilla Satin

Punches: Large Scallop Circle

It was great to swap these for some really lovely and unique projects from the other ladies!  It certainly got us thinking about Christmas and all the exciting things that will be coming in the new Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue which will launch on 1st September!

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

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

Beautiful bows

I attended one of Julie Kettlewell's Saturday classes recently - it was all about the bow!  Julie taught us how to tie five different beautiful bows to give our cards a professional finish!  I'm looking forward to using these techniques on my own cards, but for now, here are pictures of the five cards we made at the class...

The standard bow

The faux-bow

Julie's trademark flat bow

The 'forking' bow (a tiny bow made using a fork!)

The very glamorous double bow

The stamp set we used was Everything Eleanor, plus various sentiments from the Sincere Salutations and Petite Pairs sets.  Colours were very vanilla, pool party, lucky limeade and crumb cake.  The ribbon we used was very vanilla satin ribbon - great for tying beautiful bows.

I'm looking forward to trying these out on my own cards!