At long last the great unveiling!

So, it's the 1st of October, so you know what that means - Stampin' Up!'s new Idea Book and Catalogue goes live at 11am today!!

Being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator I was very fortunate to be able to pre-order certain items to have a 'play' with before today. This is my first offering to you - I used the gorgeous, gorgeous new Designer Papers called Greenhouse Gala along with the new dark brown (my new black!!) Early Espresso.

These papers have three of my 'got to have' new colours, Baha Breeze, Early Espresso and the new In Color Pear Pizzazz. "What's an In Color?", I hear you say - we are getting an extra five new colours every year that will last two years, and Pear Pizzazz is amongst our first release! Stock up, it's gorgeous!

Stampin' Up! have made soooo many changes for me to tell you about that this would be a very long post. The main changes come in the form of; out with the old and in with the new colours (we have been telling you of this for a while); flat rate of £4.95 postage per order, by the uber-efficient UPS (no more will it or won't it come today!!); a different designed punch and LOTS more shapes; ribbon galore; and, more importantly, more stamp sets!

If you haven't got a copy of the new Idea Book and Catalogue, order one now!!!

Take care until next time ......

Kelly

Bella Bleu Iris Folding-ish box

Ok, so I went the whole hog and made a bag to go with the card and tag!!

Instructions for the Iris Folding as earlier post. The bag is a simple 7, 14, 21, 28cm box.

That's the last of these projects, honest....................

All the 7's Vintage Vogue bag

I saw this bag demonstrated by Monica Gale at our Stampin' Up Demonstrator training day in Sheffield recently. She used the gorgeous Vintage Vogue stamp set from the Mini Catalogue.

I call this bag the 'All the 7's' as it is so easy to make. Take a piece of A4 cardstock and score along the landscape edges at 7cm, 14cm, 21cm and 28cm. The thin piece that is left on the end is the flap and the bit you put your sticky strip on to fasten it together. Turn the card to portrait and score at 7cm down one side to form the bottom of the bag then cut along the first score lines up to this 7cm score line and cut off that little piece at the end (just upto this 7cm score line). Assemble, pinch in the top to shape and add a handle/tie of your choice to the top. I used the Round Tab punch cut in half with a hole punched out of both pieces. These were stapled to the top of the bag and then a piece of ribbon threaded through the holes and tied in a bow.


I demonstrated this bag at a party yesterday and the ladies loved it.

All Items Stampin' Up!
Stamps: Vintage Vogue (Mini Catalogue), Totally Tabs
Card: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla
Ink: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum
Punch: Round Tab punch
Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon

Bird on a Branch in an air freshener!!

Do you have those gel-scented air fresheners that dry up and leave you with a glass thing that you don't know what to do with?

The papers are from the new Sweet Pea designer paper stack and the bird and branch is the new Extra Large Two Step Bird punch, both of which can be found in the new Mini catalogue. The flower is punched with the Boho Blossoms punch.

Cute isn't it?

Altered Coffee Tin

My husband gave this tin to me and said "Can you use this?" - I wanted to say "Don't be silly I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, of course I can use this!", but I smiled sweetly and said, "Yes dear, thank you."



So, out came the Sweet Pea paper AGAIN (actually I haven't put it away since it was delivered!) and this is what happened.



The only problem is, even though I washed the tin, it still smells of hazelnut coffee!

All Items Stampin' Up!
Paper: Sweet Pea designer paper stack (available from 1st April)
Card: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White
Stamps: My Sweet Pea (available from 1st April)
Ink: Old Olive, Sage Shadow
Ribbon: Old Olive Grosgrain

Sweet Pea note pad

Apologies for lack of posts, just recovering from the headache from hell!!

I found these little note pads in Wilkinsons and knew they would look cute covered in the soon-to-be-released Sweet Pea designer paper stack.



What do you think? I love these bird images!

Really Nervous!!!!

My first Stampin' Up! workshops start today and over the next two days I have fifteen crafters coming to create a gorgeous project. I hope they all have a great time and I don't make too many mistakes!! Here is one of the bags they can choose to make.

Wish me luck and hope I won't be cowering in a corner eating all the chocolate biscuits!

Bella Bleu B-Side book

So, I finished the card below and then inspiration struck again for this little book using the B-Side to the Bella Bleu papers.

The inside is 3 pieces of 10cm x 20cm Kraft cardstock, scored at 5cm and 15cm. These 5cm flaps are stuck together to make the 'pages'. A front Kraft card cover measuring 10cm x 28cm, scored at 7cm, 9cm, 19cm and 21 cm. The 2cm strips form the 'spines' of the book.



The book was decorated using Barely Banana cardstock, Kraft cardstock and Bella Bleu papers. The centre panel has more of the daisy flowers and faux stritched stems on it. I stamped a couple of labels with sentiments using one of the stamps from the Sale-A-Bration Vintage Labels set. Some So Saffron striped grosgrain ribbon ties the book together. I put another flower with faux stitched stems on the front.

Took me all afternoon - had to have a lie down afterwards!!

Stamp With Us Challenge

Deep breath.....relax..... OMG, this is my first attempt at a challenge!! PANIC!

I adore these colours and would love to be a good enough knitter to produce something like these scrumptious looking cakes! As soon as I thought about the colours in this challenge I could see the project I wanted to do.

A recent parcel through the post brought me Michelle Powell's new book and this little bag is on the front. This is my interpretation of it.



I started off with a 10cm x 29cm piece of Creamy Caramel cardstock and formed a basic bag shape that is 3cm deep, 10cm wide and 7cm high. I used the 1 3/4" circle punch for the handles and the 1 3/8" circle punch for the inner hole. Using the Mat Pack and Paper Piercer I pierced holes around the top edge of the bag, around the circular handles and to form the stems of the flowers. A white gel pen was used to make faux stitching in between the pierced holes.

I die cut several flowers in Sage Shadow, Blush Blossom, Pale Plum and Bashful Blue cardstock and stuck some of them on the front of the bag with Tombow adhesive and some were popped up on dimensionals. A small knot of Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon was tied around the handle.

When my husband saw it his first thought was "ooh, that should be filled with Mini Eggs!", and looking at it, the colours would match perfectly!!!

All items Stampin' Up! unless stated:
Cardstock - Creamy Caramel, Sage Shadow, Blush Blossom, Bashful Blue, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Punches - 1 3/4" circle, 1 3/8" circle
Ribbon - Bashful Blue Taffeta
Uniball Signo white gel pen
Mat Pack
Paper Piercer
Tombow multi adhesive
Stampin' dimensionals
Miscellaneous - flower dies.

Sunny Days Scrunchy Flower Brooch

First of all I would like to apologise for the quality of these photographs - I'm not the worlds best photographer!

I found this gorgeous flower on Carrie Stamps blog. It is so easy to make as it only uses the Scallop Circle punch!



I used the Sunny Days Simply Scrappin kit for the flower and I punched two of the 5 Petal Flowers in Old Olive for the leaves.

Kaleidoscope Handbag

This is my take on a bag I saw on Becky Roberts' blog, Inking Idaho, and it is sooo cute! I don't have the Chocolate Chip stitched ribbon so used cardstock instead and added faux stitching with a white gel pen!

Love it!!

Hello Tall Tales and Animal Stories Cards and Bag

On ordering the Carousel Notes, my lovely upline, Helen, said to me "what on earth do you do with Chocolate Chip envelopes?" - was that a challenge?





I know what you are thinking "So where are the Chocolate Chip envelopes?"





In here.......





I used the envelopes to create 'pockets' for the cards and white envelopes to fit in!! I made four recess cards using the Animal Stories stamp set and the Tall Tales DSP along with Chocolate Chip ribbon in various forms and Funky Forest standard wheel makes an appearance too, oh, and Pocket Silhouette.

Trying to do four recess cards was a bit of a nightmare, but I think they turned out OKish.

Julie's Circle Circus Birthday

You may have gathered by now that I love Jenny Moore's classes. I decided to use one as the inspiration for a birthday gift for my wonderful friend, Julie.

Where Jenny used Earth Elements, I used Soft Subtles and Night of Navy. I loved making this set so much I ended up making two (one to keep).

The colours used were Perfect Plum, Night of Navy, Sage Shadow and Barely Banana, both cardstock and ink.