CAS Colours & Sketches - Challenge # 212

This is the last sketch for February. I have to say that Jane has given us some great challenges this month. The last one is a sketch one, so why not give it a try?

I have a bit of a blue theme going on with my card as you can see from below.

Have you seen...

the really cute egg boxes that are in the Spring/Summer catalogue? They are the sort of thing that you pass by unless you specifically look for it. I decided to use one as a project for last week's team training. There were in fact two projects, but this one is my favourite which is why I am sharing it with you.

March Classes

I have a busy diary next month but there are still spaces on some of the classes.

Regular Monthly Classes on 10th march at 7.30 pm, repeated 11th March at 10.00 am 

The card above (and the projects behind) is a sneak peek for March's regular classes themed Spring.

We will be using cardstock and ink from the Subtles Colour Collection and also the Special Reason stamp set and co-ordinating dies.

The cost of the class is £15.00, and booking closes on Tuesday 28 Feb at 8.00 pm for these, and the Stylishly Simple Saturday class (see below).

Stylishly Simple Saturday - 11th March at 2.00 pm

This month we will be using the Bookcase Builder stamp set.

The cost of this class is £15.00 but if you attend one of the regular monthly classes the same weekend, there is a £5.00 discount.

All Day Event - Saturday 25 March from 10.00 am to 4.30 pm

After some deliberation I have decided to design the class around the Dragonfly Dreams stamp set.

If you already have this stamp set but would still like to attend, you will be able to order any other Stampin' Up! products to the value of £19 (the cost of the Dragonfly Dreams set) on the proviso that you bring your stamp set to the class for your own personal use. Those attending the class who don't already have this stamp set will receive one as part of their class kit.

Other things to think about

• Because the class kit is worth over £45 you will be able to choose one item from the Sale-A-Bration catalogues for free. Please let me know what you would like at the time of booking.
• If you don't already have the stamp set you will be able to add the Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies for £23.25. This is the difference between the Bundle Price and the price of the stamp set you will already be receiving. A saving of £4.75

• If you do have the stamp set but would like the dies I can order these for you to be collected on the day. The cost will be £25.20 - a 10% saving for those attending.

Booking for this class closes on 11 March, and full payment for the class and any extras is required by then.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see you in class sometime in March.

Fiona xx

Global Stampers - February Blog Swap

Hello and welcome to February's Global Stampers Blog Swap. We are nearly 2/3rds of the way through this year's Sale-A-Bration (gulp) so this month we decided to feature projects made with one of the stamp sets that you can get for free with a minimum spend (£45 here in the UK).

After some discussion as to who had what, we went with the very cute Tasty Trucks stamp set. This is a photopolymer set which has 9 images (the main one being the food truck) and 7 sentiments.

Here's my project, which is a slider card. 

A quick look at the inside. You know how I always love to do something inside too!

I had a lot of fun making this card and it was surprisingly simple to do. I used another Sale-A-Bration item for the background - the paper is part of the Carried Away Designer Series Paper pack. If you haven't seen it yet you should. There are cute designs with fields, balloons and some great simple background papers.

Here is a peek of the fabulous ideas from everyone else. You can click on each photo to be taken to the appropriate blog, where you will be able to find out more details.

Ann

It's lovely to have Ann back on the blog swap. She's paired her truck image with the tree from the Sheltering Tree stamp set.

Alicia

Alicia has made a couple of projects for you to check out. I love the little truck at the back which has been made into a box front.

Robbie

Robbie  features Flirty Flamingo, Peekaboo Peach and Mint Macaron inks in her card. I love how she has used them to make the background for the sentiment.

Valérie

I love how Val has used a window (acetate) sheet for part of her card front. A very clever idea.

Don't forget to pop back here tomorrow to check out the projects I designed for my team training event which was a couple of nights ago (Friday).

Fiona xx

Make It 2017

I'm off this morning to help set up the Stampin' Up! stand (D28) at this year's Make It show. The show is the largest in Southern England and is always busy.

I'll be at the show tomorrow (24 Feb) and Saturday so if you are planning on going to the show pop along and say hi.

There will be a Make n Take for you to do (no need to sign up) and some Stampin' Up! classes too. You will need to pay and sign up for these.

Case Colours & Sketches - Challenge # 211

Oh boy how the month is flying by.

Jane's third challenge of the month is a colour one. I love this combination - so sunny. Fingers crossed that Spring is finally on it's way.

I wanted to try something a little different today so I actually have three cards to share with you.

Coming Soon - Part 2

Today I'm sharing a sneak peek of projects made using the second new Sale-A-Bration (SAB) that will be available tomorrow until 31 March on a while supplies last basis.

The second stamp set is called Reverse Words and it consists of 2 red rubber stamps that will be available in either Clear Mount or Wood Mount sets.

Coming soon - Part 1

Just stopping by really quickly to share a couple of projects I've made using one of the new Sale-A-Bration (SAB) stamp sets that will be available from Tuesday, 21 February.

Both of these cards feature the Make a Medallion stamp set. This photopolymer set has 8 stamps which can be stamped in the same colour or different ones.

I've used Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo and Pool Party inks on both cards along with the Lovely Lace embossing folder. The bottom card also features some of the new Glimmer Paper that comes as a pack of 6"x6" sheets (4 each of Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaron and Sweet Sugarplum).

I've designed a third card but I'm saving that as the Make n Take for team training which is next Friday.

I think that this new stamp set could quickly take over as the most wanted SAB item. At the moment the most popular item is the Hey Chick stamp set. Then again, I suspect that the glimmer paper will be really popular too.

You can get a hold of these new items from Tuesday, and you can choose one item per £45 spent (excluding P&P).

Fiona xx

PS On Monday, I'll have another couple of projects to share made using the other new SAB stamp set.

An old favourite

This week has been spent preparing for the Make It show (which is on next week) and also catching up on bits and pieces.

I've also done a little stamping (and colouring) and the following are one of the projects I've been working on.

I've used the Lovely As A Tree stamp set and the new Watercolor Pencils to decorate these notebooks and also the gift bags.

I used a Blender Pen to colour in the leaves and acorn. 

For the bags I cut out the image using the largest of the square framelits from the Stitched Shapes framelits. All of the images are layered onto a piece of Old Olive cardstock and then a piece of Soft Suede that has been embossed using the Woodgrain embossing folder.

These bags and notebooks will be winging their way to new team members who join during the rest of Sale-A-Bration (ends 31 March 2017).

Don't forget that during Sale-A-Bration, you can purchase a starter kit for £99 and for that you get to choose £130 worth of Stampin' Up! products plus two extra stamp sets (any value) for free. If you would like to find out more, please check out the following link - Join In the Fun

Fiona xx

Please note that the Watercolor Pencils are on limited supply. Once out of stock, you will not be able to order them until sometime nearer the end of April.

If you are interested in finding out more information about the products used, details are as follows:

Case Colours & Sketches - Challenge # 210

Happy Valentines Day.

This week Jane has a sketch challenge for us, and seeing as it's Valentines Day I decided to go with this theme.

Here's my take on the sketch.

I used products from the Sending Love Suite to make the card and the following is a quick guide to how I did it.

• Stamp three of the larger hearts in Real Red onto some Whisper White cardstock.
• Die cut out the hearts using the large heart die from the Love Notes Framelits - this is a cute die because it cuts a frame around the heart and allows you to fold the heart up.
• The white ribbon (from the Sending Love Combo Pack) was wrapped around a strip of Sending Love Designer Series Paper and the whole thing was glued to the Whisper White layer on the card front.
• The hearts were then adhered onto the ribbon using Glue Dots.
• A large sentiment was stamped in Real Red to finish the card.

The heart die is so cute, and I think it would be really useful for other romantic events such as weddings, anniversaries and engagements.

Don't forget that you have until 11.00 pm on Monday 20 February to enter the challenge so please give it a go. I'm looking forward to seeing your entry.

Fiona  xx

If you are interested in knowing more about the products used, details are as follows:

Party Animal Gift Box

I'm looking forward to this month's regular classes tonight and tomorrow morning. This month we are making projects using some of the products in the Party Animal Suite.

Everyone will get to make this cute box along with the three cards that are currently sitting inside it.

Sorry, no spoilers on the cards.

Next month the theme is Spring and will be making some fabulously floral projects using some of the colours from the Subtles Collection. The dates are Friday 10 March from 7.30 pm or Saturday 11 March from 10.00 am.  Drop me a line if you are interested in coming along.

CAS Colours & Sketches - Challenge 209

It's February which means that it's Jane's turn to host the challenges. The first one for the month is a pretty colour one.

February is the month of love, what with Valentines Day being only a week away. I'm a bit of a romantic at heart so I decided to go with something that could be sent all year round.

The sentiment and banner come from a stamp set called Beautiful Banners.

The banner image was stamped in Sweet Sugarplum and then cut out using the Banners Framelits Dies. I then re-stamped the banner on a scrap of Whisper White in Cherry Cobbler and stamped the sentiment in the middle in Rose Red. There was a little bit of fussy cutting involved because I then cut around the sentiment, using the thick Cherry Cobbler line as the guide.

The Banner Framelits were used again to cut out a Cherry Cobbler banner one size up from the Sweet Sugarplum image.

The banner was put together by gluing the Sweet Sugarplum banner image to the Cherry Cobbler cardstock banner and then adding the sentiment to the centre of the stamped banner using Stampin' Dimensionals. I finished off the sentiment with a Sweet Sugarplum enamel dot from the 2016-2018 In Color Enamel Shapes.

The Rose Red cardstock base has a piece of embossed Whisper White cardstock glued to it. I used the Happy Heart embossing folder but the side showing is the debossed side (the hearts are indented).

I hope you give the challenge ago and look forward to seeing your projects.

Fiona xx

Any one for a spot of Window Shopping?

Yesterday was the first all day class of 2017. It was a fun day filled with lots of chatter and crafting.

I had some fairly simple card ideas to share and some more complicated ones too, along with a 3D project or two. All were made using the Window Shopping stamp set and or the Window Box Thinlits Dies.

Here's the studio all set up and ready.

Of course there was a little treat for everyone too. These was made using the Window Box Thinlits and the White Gift Boxes which carried over from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue.

Here's one of the projects that everyone got to make.

The colour combination is Pool Party, Marina Mist and Pear Pizzazz. All from the Subtles family.

I had been promising to make a tutorial for a slider card for everyone, so the class seemed like a good opportunity. I've also posted the instructions on my Tutorials page, and I hope you will give it a go.

Fiona x

If you would like more information about the Stampin' Up! items I used, details are below.

Not just for Valentines

I have fallen in love with the Sending Love Designer Series Paper. This 48 sheet pack of 6" x 6" paper can be used for all occasions. The paper is great value because there are 6 each of 8 double sided designs. This means that there are 16 different designs that can be used alone or in combination.

I've been playing with the DSP and also the Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies and here are a couple of the cards that I've come up with.

The Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies have squares, circles and oval dies that give a faux stitched look. There are 4 of each in differing sizes. I worked out how to use the square dies to make a rectangle - as you can see from the bottom card. I used the same technique on the scallop square to make the other rectangle.

The trick is to start off with a square much larger than the sentiment and then run it through the Big Shot three times. I'll be adding a quick tutorial to the files to show you how, over the weekend.

Both cards feature the Suite Sentiments stamp set. The set contains 11 different stamps with some really great sentiments.

I hope you enjoy these cards. Don't forget that Sale-A-Bration is on at the moment and for each £45 spent (excluding P&P) you can choose an item for free from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue. My next order is going in on Sunday (5 Feb) so if you can collect your order from me you can benefit from free P&P if you let me have your order by 8.00 pm on Sunday.

Fiona xx

If you would like more information about the products I used, details are below.