Crazy About You - All Day Fun

Yesterday was a fun day. I had an All Day Craft Event in my craft room and 8 lovely ladies spent the day making the projects that I had designed for them.

This is one of the cards that was made. It's based on a project by Deb Valder, but I adapted it so that it could be made out of a sheet of A4 card stock rather than a sheet of 12" x 12". This means that the card measures 5-3/4" x 5-3/4" instead of 6" x 6".

This is the front cover featuring the Crazy About You stamp set

The inside of the card,  also using the Crazy About You stamp set

Everyone who came to the class received a Crazy About You stamp set (except Sheila who choose something else because she already had it) along with all the card stock, designer series paper and embellishments needed to make the projects.

All of the cards were made using colours from the Brights Collection - great colours to use on a wet day, although there were some sunny intervals.

With 8 people in the class I was able to rearrange the tables a little so that everyone could talk to each other and each person had a little more space. It didn't stop them from spreading though!! Why is it that us crafters see a space and just have a need to fill it (and more) with stuff?

These are the goody bags that I along with my trusty helper, Carol, put together for everyone.

If you fancy coming along to the next All Day Event on 11 July let me know. It will be featuring products from the new Annual Catalogue that will be available from 2 June.

Sketch Challenge project

There's so much going on at the moment that keeping up with things is making my life very interesting. One of the things I'm conscious of is that I've not taken part in a challenge recently, so yesterday I had a quick peek around the sites (not sure that there really is such a thing as a quick peek when it comes to paper crafting) and I found a challenge on the Freshly Make Sketches site that I quite fancied.

This is their Freshly Made Sketches Challenge # 183.

I have however put my slant on it by making a landscape card rather than a portrait one. The reason being was that I wanted to use the Hello You Thinlits Dies and the words are a little too big to fit portrait. I used Beach House Washi Tape, which is one of the items on the Retirement List, to make the stripes.

Here's my take on the sketch.

The " YOU" comes from the Crazy About You stamp set. This is a great set because you can make up our own greeting like above. Just so you know, the die from the Hello You Thinlits  should actually say "thanks" but I cut off the S. It's only card stock after all.

I also made another card along similar lines using the same Washi Tape and Thinlits but it does not quite follow the sketch so I've not entered it into the challenge. Either way, both cards were simple and quick to make and I just love the Real Red and Crushed Curry combination.

As always, please feel free to leave comments.

A Little Goes A Long Way - Designer Series Paper that is

I have to admit that I can't get enough of the Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper, and boy those 12 sheets go a long way.

I'm still working on using up some of the scraps, but have had to cut into a new sheet or two for these projects (sob).

I like to send thank you cards to those who place an order with me (direct or online). They do not always say thank you and I don't tend to sign them either. It's not that I don't want to sign them but simply that I like to give a card that the person can then send onto another person should they so wish.

These are the cards that I have been working on this week. They are based on a design that I saw on Pinterest by Chiaka Haverstick. Here's my take on it

These have Whisper White Baker's Twine bows in the buttons

These simply have large Basic Rhinestones set in the buttons

They are simple and fun to make and show off two of the sheets from the pack.

I cut into the Scallop Circles to make them into flowers. The top two cards have a cut in between every other scallop and the bottom two have a cut in between each scallop.

I also have some important Stampin' Up! news to share with you.

1. Some of you may have heard that Stampin' Up! have taken the decision to discontinue the Blendabilities. This is due to the quality issues that have arisen with some of the colours and the fact that there is no quick fix. Stampin' Up! pride themselves over the quality of their products and have not taken this decision lightly.

2. Because the Blendabilities have been discontinued it also means that they will not be available as part of the Sale-A-Bration (SAB) selection. The following products are now available instead as part of the SAB offering.

Don't forget that SAB ends on 31 March and with the exception of the stamp sets, items are available on a while supplies last basis.

3. The new Annual Catalogue is to be released on 2 June 2015. More information as to when products in the current 2014-2015 Catalogue will be retiring, will be released in April, but I can tell you that retiring items will not be available after 2 June.

A date for you diary, Saturday 6 June - I will be holding an Open House to introduce new products from the new Catalogue and attendees will be able to take home a free copy of the new Catalogue. More information about the Open House will be available soon.

A little late

I was going to share this with you yesterday but time got away from me.

This is the card that I made my Mum for Mother's Day. I know that she looks at this blog on occasions so it is probably better that I post the photo a little late.

I started by stamping the greeting in Blackberry Bliss and then stamped the leaves from the Painted Petals stamp set in Wild Wasabi, to frame the greeting.

The flowers themselves are punched from some scraps of Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper using both the Petite Petals and a punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. Some of the flowers have both shapes and others simply the smaller one from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack. The whole thing is of course finished off with some Basic Rhinestones.

The Stampin' Up! products used to make this card were:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Crazy Moustaches

It's been a while since I posted a card or two suitable to give to a male friend or relative. I have the Mustache Framelit Die and thought that I should give it a try.  Here are the cards that I made with it - seems that once I got started I just couldn't stop!

In keeping with my New Year Resolution I have still managed to use only one stamp set - Crazy about You, for these projects. This is such a great go to set which comes in Photopolymer, Clear and Wood Mount.

I used the Mustache Die to cut out paper from the Adventure Bound Designer Series Paper Stack. In both the card above and below I added the moustaches to the Whisper White card stock using Dimensionals.

In the card below I simply cut the moustache shapes from a piece of Whisper White card stock and then put strips of paper from the Adventure Bound DSP Stack behind. The whole thing was then mounted onto some Basic Grey card stock and then adhered to the Basic Grey card base with Dimensionals.

Last but not least, I couldn't resist making a card for Red Nose Day. I think that it would however make a great card to send anytime of the year. Just thinking of a poorly friend suffering from a very bad cold.

The Stampin' Up! supplies used to make these cards are:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Weekend Challenge

On Friday I set a weekend challenge to my team to create a card or 3D project using three colours - Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry and Melon Mambo. These colours are a little too bright for me and most certainly take me out of my comfort zone when it comes to using them. I also spotted the latest Create with Connie and Mary Challenge and thought I would have a go at creating something that met with both sets of criteria.

This is the CCMC343 sketch challenge on the Create with Connie and Mary blog -

So, here is the card that I made to meet the two challenges.

Anyone living in the USA and reading this post is probably wondering why I have made a mother's day card so early in the year. The short answer is that in the UK it is on 15 March and not 10 May as it is in the US. A whole 2 months earlier!

The Stampin' Up! products used to make this project are:

Stamp set : Crazy About You
Ink: Bermuda Bay (Melon Mambo on the inside, see photo below)
Card Stock : Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo and Whisper White
Designer Series Paper : Flowerpot
Punches : Petite Petals, Itty Bitty Accents Punch and Cupcake Builder Punch

Here's a peek of the card from the side - you can just see the image that I stamped inside it in Melon Mambo.

Now that it's finished I have to admit that I do like the colour combination, it's just not one that I would ordinarily use.

As always, please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments.

Happy Friday - Crazy about You

Happy Friday to you all. It's almost the weekend and that means I have a class tonight and tomorrow morning, the first of the New Year.

This week has been spent catching up on things. All the new catalogues went in the post on Tuesday and hopefully you all now have your copy, and I've been busy photographing and writing the instructions for classes as well as making a start on projects for the Sandown Show later this month.

So, today it's just a quick card made using the Crazy About You stamp set and the co-ordinating Hello You Thinlits Dies and the new Flower Medallion punch.

I stamped the flower from the Crazy about You stamp set twice in Bermuda Bay and the swirled scallop circle image once in Crushed Curry.  The bottom flower was simply punched out using the Flower Punch Medallion punch and the top part was fussy cut from the centre of the second Bermuda Bay flower. The Crushed Curry swirled scallop circle was punched out using the 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch and then I cut into the "petals" using my paper snips.

The background paper is from the Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper, another one of my favourites from the new Spring/Summer Catalogue.

It looks like I'm still managing to stick to my New Year's resolution to use just one stamp set per card!!

Details of all the products used to make this card are as follows:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Crazy About You - another sneak peek

Well, I'm getting to the end of my sneak peeks as the Spring/Summer 2015 Catalogue goes live on 6 January (tomorrow, Tuesday).

You might be able to tell from these photos (and others posted the other day) that I am really loving the Crazy about You stamp set. I think that this is going to be one of my go to stamp sets. I'm loving the images, but the choice of greetings is great because you can mix and match to make your own greeting.

Sorry, you can't see the card too well in this one, so hopefully the next two will be better. At least you can see the stamp set though!

Good one of the inside! But you can see the layering in more detail. I used Dimensionals.

That's better

I used the triple stamping technique and stuck to ink colours from the Subtles Collection. The colours being Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder and Pear Pizzazz.  I also used Calypso Coral and Whisper White card stock.

Just so you know, the stamp set will be available in three formats - wood, clear mount and photopolymer. I decided to go the photopolymer route for mine so that I did not have to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the words. It's certainly lovely to have all three options for this set, but not all sets have that. The words are in fact two separate stamps but I was able to put both of them on the one block so there was no risk of miss alignment.

I have a tutorial on how to do the Triple Stamping on my Tutorials Page - at least, I did but something has gone awry with it all so I need to go fix it. I promise to do this in the next day or two. I am about to head back to the UK (I am in fact at the airport as I right this - I must be mad) and won't have internet access for the next 18 hours or so. I have no idea what's happened but the page is there but not the tutorials. Eek.

Full details about the Spring/Summer 2015 Catalogue and Sale-A-Bration will be posted early on Tuesday. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about them - hopefully all good!!

Sneak Peek No. 3 - A quick challenge

I was thinking the other day that I've not taken part in a challenge for some time. It's not that I haven't wanted too, but that I've simply been too busy with other things and my timing has been completely off as well. I kept seeing one's I wanted to enter but had either missed the deadline or simply did not enough time to think/plan and make.

Anyway,  a couple of days ago I have found a new one on the Create with Connie & Mary webs-site - it's their sketch challenge no. 335 and it looks like this.

This is what I came up with using some new and soon to be released products from the Spring/Summer 2015 Catalogue -  Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper and the Crazy about You stamp set.

The Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper co-ordinates with quite a few colours including Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow and Tangelo Twist and I used these in my project.

Some of the images in the Crazy about You stamp set co-ordinate with punches - one of them being the 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch. I don't have my scallop punch here with me so I fussy cut the image twice. The bottom image is stamped in Crushed Curry and the top image in Tangelo Twist. To make things a little different I also cut into the  Tangelo Twist image (almost to the centre) following the white lines. I then fussed about with it a little so that it popped up. The nice thing about this is that it will lie flat again if I wanted to post the card.

Here's a view from the side so that you can see the popped up image on the front and some of the stamping inside of the card.

I hope you like this sneak peek. Feel free to leave a comment and I'll be back with another one soon.