hand made christmas trees

i've not had time to craft this week so far, been busy with school concerts and playgroup christmas parties, hopefully i will have time over the next few days as i have no cards made yet. i thought i'd share these decorations i made last year but never blogged this wooden tree is my favorite decoration (my merry christmas banner is a close second) it really catches the light with all the glitter along the egdes of the papers

and 2 polystyrene cone trees- i love using up scraps of patterned paper on these, the more different patterns the better

off to bag up the teachers pressies - they have bath fizzers, bath salts and soaps- all home made. i'll share pictures once they're done

christmas blog hop

Hi, welcome to the tartan stampers christmas themed blog hop, you should have come from lorraone at http://lorrainecardsandmore.blogspot.com this is a polystyrene cone decoration, its about a fot high, made with real red and old olive dsp cut with the oval punch- this is for my gran, she dosn't put a tree anymore but likes a few decorations dotted about and its traditional colours just as she likes.

a6 sized note pad covered on baja breeze, early espresso and vary vanilla ribbon- i have a stack of these made for small gifts, the note book below uses melon mambo card and baja breezed dsp from a greenhouse gala pack

Jars of bath salts decorated with (left)old olive card and real red ribbon (right) dsp from simply scrapping kit, old olive card and very vanilla ribbon, they still need tags listing the ingredients

This is a pizza box styled box only its longer than normal to hold 2 bars of home made soap, its real red, with old olive and very vanilla card, and a strip of dsp from a simply scrapping kit

wooden heart, painted blue with marina mist ink, baroque motif stamps and marina mist and rich razzleberry ribbons, it was covered in dazzling diamonds

now hop over to Diane at http://craftwithstyle.blogspot.com

mdf christmas tree

Jacqui over at www.simply-create-alford.blogspot.com set a challenge - something festive with sparkle - well this tree has very fine glitter embedded in the embossing but its not showing in the photos, the edges of the branches also have blobs of stickles down them to try and look like frost/snow - again it dosn't show well but it is really very sparkly in real life.

stamps used - serene snowflakes and baroque motifs

ink pacific point, baja breeze and bashful blue

clear embossing powder (all over) dazzling diamonds glitter and stickles

stamped christmas decorations

this is frosty the chipboard snowman!! painted white, stamped with serene snowflakes using bashful blue and pacific point then clear embossed all over with glitter sprinkled on white it was hot

this is a wooden bauble, this time i stamped the snowflakes using night of navy and pacific point and set gems in the hot embossing powder as well as glitter

christmas glitz

heres a very simple but stunning card. the trees are actually covered in very fine dazzling diamonds glitter- it just dosn't snow in the photo. the trees are on acetate over night of navy and baja breeze card with snowflakes stamped in shimmer paint as a background

playdate papers

christmas jingle kit

This is a cheap canvas from poundland, i sponged rich razzleberry ink around the sides of the canvas and also sponged shimmer paint (but it dosn't show in the photo) it gives a lovely rich shimmery effect. i thin stamped using Baroqu Motifs and made a flower using the scallop circle punch, i also used the yelet border punch a length of taffeta ribbon - it's well worth a pound!

Heres a 12x12 page using real red card and greenhouse gala papers- i kept the page simple although i will add journalling to it once its out of my sample book and into my scrapbook

Now this wee box is away to go into mass production for christmas. i used cherry cobbler a. ind old olive card. i cut an aparture using the ornament punch and used acetate as a window. i stamped using white stazon and used dazzling diamonds on the image while the ink was still wet so it stuck without glue. it holds 4 chocolates- perfect for the christmas table instead of crackers, or as small gifts, i would also be perfect for jewellery.

convention swaps

the photos were taken in the marquee so the colour is terrible- sorry. i realised i had better get photos of my swaps before they were all gone.

top- is pretty in pink and melon mambo, with greenhouse garden flowers and pocket sils for the background

middle - baha breeze background with real red

bottom- crunb cake (kraft) background with early espresso, beware pirates stamp set- i embossed the images with clear embossng powder (twice) then put them in the freezer so it would crack like broken glass

stampin up convention

I thought I'd share a couple of photos from the gala dinner/awards night. We were at Addington Palace, it was beautiful inside the building but as there were so many of us we used their huge marquee, the atmosphere was amazing, everyone was genuinely happy for each others achievements

the photo above is me up on the stage meeting Shelli who is CEO of SU. i was placed in the top 25 demonstrators of the year, Dawn and Elaine were also in Demo of the year, and they both received awards for their sales aswell (photos below) Dawn had a stunning teal dress on and Elaine wore her favorite - Ness, she looked fabulous and was so easy for me to spot on the stage so i could zoom in for photos.

i came home with over 150 swaps, so instead of blogging this week i've been sorting through them and doing some crafting- i came home so inspired i didn't want to waste my evenings on the computer.

i would like to thank my customers and hostesses for their support and custom since i started, i am so lucky to be able to do the job i do, i meet so many lovely people and i'm lucky enough to now count many of them as my friends.

SU promotion for Nov and Dec

sorry the picture isn't great- details can be found here http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/eng/7028.asp

catch up

Real Red and the new Pacific Point My new favorite colour combo, Rich Razzleberry and Baja Breeze

Perfect Pear and Red Riding Hood

Real Red and Pacific Point again, with Shimmer painted stars in the background

Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake(kraft) and Very Vanilla, with a dazzling diamond swirl

All suplies are stamping up, some of these cards are from a 4 hour class i did in Huntly, the ladies worked very hard and we just had a short tea break but they all completed the 7 cards and gift bag bang on time.

appologies for not posting for so long, i'm off to london in a couple of weeks and i've been very busy making swaps for the SU convention, i'm doing cards, card candy, 3d projects and gift item swaps, so far i've done 120 but i'm aiming for more.

stampin up blog hop

welcome to the retiring product blog hop

you should have come here from Kim at http://kimfeecrafter.blogspot.com/

the church is from Silent Night, which is being retired. i used bashful blue (which is still current) and brocade blue which is being retired on the 1st Oct.

the bottom card used Lovely as a Tree, the card is sage shaddow and always amethyst which are going and bashful blue again

from here please hop over to Emma at http://emma-daye.blogshop.com

stamping on canvas

i've had lots of fun experimenting on these, i've used shimmer paint on both which gives them a lovely subtle sparkly shimmer but its not showing up on the photos.

the butterflies are made with the Flight of the Butterfly stamps and punch. i sponged on bashful blue and pretty in pink inks then stamped in pretty in pink using the background Bella toile stamp and the swirl from Baroque motifs in regal rose ink.

the christmas tree was made from handmade card buttons(this was not my idea - a friend showed me it and she'd seen it on a blog- i can't remember the blog but if i find it i'll link to it) , I used Crystal Effects to add the sheen. i sponged close to coco ink and champange shimmer paint and used the En Francais background stamp (which i use on everything at the moment) some of the buttons have a sprinkling of dazzling diamonds to give them a bit of christmas sparkle.

thanks for looking - i will be doing the christmas tree as a class shortly, so drop me a note if you fancy making one yourself

Stampin Up Retirement Party

its the products thats retiring not me!!

i'm going to have an evening of make and takes and demonstrations on Friday the 3rd September. It will be a nice way to catch up with some of my customers i don't see as much as i'd like- i've met so many lovely ladies over the last year and a bit and many have become friends- so this will be a chance for me to say thanks to my customers with a goodie bag and a chance for all my guests to grab their last chance to order the retiring products before they are gone forever.

if you'd like to come along please call or email me, i have to know numbers for preparing make and takes and goodie bags- so get your name down- spaces are limited

The cards above were made with the Greenhouse Garden Set, pretty in pink, melon mambo and rich razzleberry inks. i used the left overs from the patterned paper i made for my scrapbook page i posted last week.

2 step stamping blog hop

Heres a few pages from a star book made with Nouveau Chic papers, so saffron, sage shaddow and basic grey

Big Bold Birthday in Bashfull blue and certainly celery

greenhouse garden in pretty in pink and melon mambo

i'm part of a stampin up blog hop today, if your already doing it you'll have come from Jo at http://stampinmidlands.blogspot.com/

if your new to blog hops - there are 10 of us in a ring each linking to the person before and after us in the ring so you can follow either way to get round and get lots of new ideas

next in the ring is Sue at http://frankiesue.blogspot.com

Jelly Roll Quilt

i've been busy sewing this week, just a break from my normal paper crafts. i only ever get a chance to do big projects like this in the holidays, next i have to do the boarders- i have dozens of wee squares waiting to be sewn up - hopefully tonight so i can get my kitchen back to normal.

20% off 2-step stamping

Augusts Promotion is a fab 20% of the stamp sets below - time to grab a bargin! Loads of love £15.16
Big bold birthday £19.16
Trendy trees £10.36
Greenhouse Garden £18.36
Something sweet £19.16
Tiny tags £15.16
Bird on branch £11.96

same card, different colours

i spent last night playing about with new colour combinations, i have a few i'm not sure about yet- so heres one card in an old favorite - real red and tempting turquiose, and a new combo- rich razzleberry and old olive(which goes with just about anything). they are both 4x4