Sale-A-Bration is here again!

Good morning,

It's my first blog post of 2016, so I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I've got a feeling that this year is going to be a good one. Just before Christmas, I sold my house in Leeds where I've lived for 9 1/2 years and moving to Wakefield with my partner. It's not too far a move at least, but we're looking forward to having a better house with a garden. I'll be getting back into my crafting again, and planning to start up my classes so I'll be sharing some of my makes in a few months time once everything has settled. 

So, let me get on with telling you about Sale-A-Bration! It's Stampin' Up!'s best time of the year, and it runs until the 31st March. There's something for everyone, whether you want to shop, host a party or join up as a demonstrator yourself. I'll explain in the next few days how you can benefit from each of them. 

For every £45 you spend during SAB, you receive one FREE SAB product. To view the catalogue, click on this link http://su-media.s3.amazonaws.com/media/catalogs/Sale-A-Bration%202016/20151005_SAB16_Core_eng-UK.pdf. There's no limit on how many products you can earn, that's up to you on how much you decide to spoil yourself! Be careful though, some of the products are only available for a limited time only, on pages 16-19, until 15th February only. The good news is that there will be a new set of free products available on the 16th February!

To place an order, visit http://www.alexspence.stampinup.net/ 24 hours a day and the products will be delivered to your door. Please use January's hostess code 6RATCZ6C, and if your order is between £25 to £150 you'll receive a free gift from me in February! If you're treating yourself, and your order is over £150, don't use the hostess code and you will be eligible to earn Stampin' Rewards, ie more freebies. 

Sale-a-bration Prize Giveaway...Win Free Stampin' Up! Products

Good afternoon! I know we haven't even got Christmas out of the way yet, but I'd like to tell you about a fantastic Sale-a-Bration raffle that I am running. 

I am selling 100 raffle squares, for £2.00 each. You can buy as many as you wish, or as gifts for family and friends. You could even tell your friends and family to enter for you! 

You can also earn a bonus tickets in the following ways during November / December:

• Attend one of my classes (1 square)
• Place an order of over £50 (1 square for every £50 spent)
• Book a private class or Stampin' Up! Party for during Sale-a-bration (1 squares)
• Host a private class or Stampin' Up! Party during November / December (2 squares)
• Join my team (3 squares)

The prize draw will be up to £200 of Stampin' Up! products of your choice (or the total value of squares sold) and you will also earn Sale-a-bration freebies too (up to 4 items). There will just be a charge of £4.95 for postage of your goodies. 

This is perfect for everyone, whether you are an experienced crafter or just a beginner. You can expand your craft supplies, or I can help advise you on the best products to choose to get you started.

I will be announcing the winner on the launch day of Sale-a-Bration, which will be on the 6th January 2015. Please share this with your crafty family and friends, the more people who enter, the bigger the prize!

Your order must be placed by the 31st March 2015.

Payment can be made in person, or by bank transfer. I will send confirmation of your number by email so you know which squares you have.

Best Of...Sale-A-Bration

Morning

Here's the latest Best Of 25 Years stamp sets, and this time it's the best of Sale-a-bration.  There's 5 stamps in the set, 4 from previous sale-a-bration sets so you may recognise a few of them.  The set costs £13.95 and comes in clear mount only.  The set is available until the 31st March 2014, or until stocks last.

January Team Training Swaps

Evening!

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I recently attended a team training event with my Julie's Jems team.  The event was cancelled a few weeks ago because of the bad snow that started the night before, and was rescheduled to a few weeks later.  This post is to share the swaps that I had made for the event.  I'd even taken the day off before the event to get all my swaps done. Never mind, at least they were done two weeks early instead!  

We had to use products from Sale-a-bration, or the Spring/Summer catalogue.  I had received the Patterned Occasions stamp set and the Sycamore Street DSP free as part of the Sale-a-bration promotion (free products with every £45 spent), and wanted to use the plaster stamp on my swaps.  I decided to make a gift box to hold a packet of pocket tissues.  I used Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo and Pool Party card stock for the boxes.  This was the first project I have made and designed the template all by myself!  I used the paper trimmer and the Simply Scored board to create the box, and embossed the lid/flap of the box with the Big Shot and the Square Lattice and the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  A strip of the Sycamore Street papers was placed around the box, which acted as a belt for the flap.

The assembled boxes.

A closer image of the Sycamore Street designer series paper.  I love the colour combo on these, and includes Island Indigo, Pool Party, Rich Razzleberry, Sahara Sand, Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango, and Whisper White.

A close up of the embossed Recover Rapidly plaster stamped image.  Created by stamping with Versamark ink, then covered with White embossing powder and heated with the Heat Tool.  The image was the punched with the Full Heart Punch.

The swaps all ready to go to the training event in the box.

I received lots of lovely swaps back on the training day, a few of which I can't wait to copy and share with you.  I'll be posting photos of the swaps very soon with you.

Spring has sprung!

The Spring/Summer Catalogue is here! It seems like no time at all since I was posting the launch of the Autumn/Winter catalogue.  The sun is shining today, such a difference since last week when the ground was covered with snow! I was meant to attend our quarterly team training event, with about 45 other demonstrators, and it was called off at the last minute! We were all so disappointed, but it was the best decision, as many people would have struggled to get there.  It's been rescheduled, so at least we won't miss out, and everyone should have finished their swaps early!

I also had a card class this week.  The venue where I have held the classes for almost a year, Dock Street Market closed down on the same morning my class was due to be there! After a bit of scrambling around and much assistance from friends and contacts through Twitter, I managed to find another venue to host at the last minute! I held the class at The Adelphi pub, in the upstairs function room.  There was plenty of space for us, and although the lighting was a little dim for crafting, everyone managed to finish their projects and had a good time.  

So, that's my crafting adventures from this week.  I hope you enjoy looking through the new seasonal catalogue, and if you've not your hands on a real copy, please let me know and I will post you one out.  It really does make a difference looking at it in your hands, I always spot so many things I hadn't seen while flicking through it online.

Don't forget that Sale-a-bration is on, so you've got all these new products to choose from, and for every £45 order, you can earn free stamp sets, papers and much more.  Click here to view my post about Sale-a-bration to learn a bit more.

Sale-A-Bration 2013!

It's that time of year again, and this year is even more exciting than usual! It's Stampin' Up!'s 25 anniversary, so there's more items you can get your hands on for free, and I'll let you know how!

For every £45 you spend from the Seasonal or Annual Catalogue, you can earn a free set of stamps, papers, embossing folders, punches, ribbons, buttons and card kits.  Click here to see the range of products on offer.

For the first time, there's also the opportunity for you to earn products from the Annual Catalogue, if none of the Sale-a-bration items take your fancy.  

There's a number of different ways you can earn yourself Sale-a-bration items.

If you host a workshop with sales reaching £150, you will receive a free pack of Silver Glimmer Paper (worth £4.50), as well as the usual benefits of £25 Hostess Credit to spend on products of your choice.  If the workshop sales reach £300, you will receive the Glimmer Paper, as well as a free product bundle from the Sale-a-bration products (a stamp set, buttons, and a pack of designer series paper), and not forgetting the £50 Hostess Credit and 50% off any full price item.

http://204.228.150.61/catalogs/flash/en-EU/2013_SAB_3mf903/20130122_SAB_en-EU.pdf

For every £45 you spend from the catalogues, you can earn one free Sale-a-bration item. There's no limit to how many you can earn, so if you were to spend £90, you'd get two free items, and so on.  You can receive the same benefits putting in an order as you would if you hosted a workshop, so an order of £150 would get you the benefits mentioned above.

https://ida.stampinup.com/

If the temptation of all the free products isn't enough to satisfy you, then join my team! It's a great time to join, because you will receive 25% more products in your starter kit, for free.  You can choose £162.50 worth of products and pay just £99.  What a bargain! You;'ll also the earn yourself 20% off any Stampin' Up! purchases, one of the many benefits to being a demonstrator.

Don't delay in contacting me to arrange hosting a workshop or to place an order. Workshop dates will fill up fast so don't leave it too long!

Final Stamp-a-stack card

Phew! I've got to the end of the six cards that I made at the Stamp-a-stack card class. This one uses the Sale-a-bration papers Everyday Enchantment, with the colour combo of Poppy Parade and Pool Party. The Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border was used for the border around the sentiment, and the flower cut from the Blossoms Party die from the Berry Blossoms product suite in the Spring Mini Catalogue. It was finished off with a Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, and a Red Rhinestone Brad. The sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations stamp set.

Papers / Card - Everyday Enchantment, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Whisper White

Stamp Set - Sincere Salutations

Embellishments - Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, Rhinestone Brad

Tools - Big Shot, Blossoms Party die, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, Mat Pack

Ink / Markers - Poppy Parade

I hope you've enjoyed these six cards from the Stamp-a-stack class.  If you'd like to learn how to make any of them, please contact me to book your workshop or class.

Coasters

I know I get excited quite a lot of the time about crafting and the things I am making, but sometimes I make something that is particularly exciting.  This post is about one of these occasions!  I've made coasters, and I'm really pleased with how they have turned out.  I bought a pack of blank coasters from my local craft shop, and decided to use the Sale-a-bration papers Everyday Enchantment to cover them. I cut the papers to just bigger than the coaster, and then used the sanding blocks to shape the paper to fit exactly.  I then covered the paper with sticky back plastic, and again, sanded it to give a clean finish.  I think they look quite professional, and I can't wait to try it again with different papers.  I held a workshop recently, and they looked great on the table amongst our make and take projects and catalogues. 

Here they are all spread out.

A close up view, you can see the shiny surface on this one.

Had to try them out with a cuppa!

After all that crafting, I deserved a nice glass of wine.

Don't forget, time is running out to get your hands on these lovely papers, I've nearly used all mine already! They're only available until the end of March, so place your orders now.

Celebrate

Here's the second card from the Stamp-a-stack class. It's another bunting card, there's quite a few of them appearing on my blog! The colour combo is Tempting Turquoise and Real Red. The flags were punched from the Petite Pennants Builder punch, and the Celebrate stamp is one of the Sale-a-bration sets Outlined Occasions. The mini brads were used between the flags, and the Real Red Glimmer Brads were used on the sentiment, which was punched with the Large Oval and the Scallop Oval Punches.

Card / Papers - Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Paper Stack Brights

Stamp Set - Outlined Occasions

Embellishments - Mini Brads, Glimmer Brads

Tools - Petite Pennants Builder Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, Mat Pack

Inks / Markers - Real Red, Tempting Turquoise

Don't forget, Sale-a-bration is only available until the 31st March. After this time, these sets and papers will no longer be available. They are the free sets you can receive for every £45 you spend, or when you host a workshop that achieves over £300 in sales. Book your workshop now before it's too late!

My team has expanded!

Afternoon,

I thought it was about time I shared some exciting news with you - I have recently acquired my first downline.  My friend and fellow crafter, Kylie has joined my team as a demonstrator.  It something she was thinking about for a while, and she decided to join during Sale-a-bration, as she could choose any stamp set for free from the catalogue. This is such an incentive, if you've had your eye on any of the more expensive stamp sets, could this be the time for you to join me too?  The starter kit is £119, and contains over £250 worth of products, and you can pick and choose your colours of inks, markers, ribbon, card and stamp sets.  Click here to find out more.

I'm really looking forward to having Kylie on board, we chat about Stampin' Up! and crafting regularly anyway, but it will really focus us to get together and try new ideas and techniques and share ideas.  The number of projects I have found on the Internet, and thought - "I'll try that one day", well now maybe I actually will have a go.  I look forward to sharing our creations with you.

Everyday Enchantment Papers

In an earlier post, I mentioned the great products that are available during Sale-a-bration. These cards and bags were made during the All Day Training event I attended recently. The two cards show examples of what could be made for a Workshop make and take project, and they use the colour combination of Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Crumb Cake.  The second card uses the gorgeous papers Everyday Enchantment, and both use the Elementary Elegance Stamp Set, both of which are available for free with every £45 order.  

Papers / Card - Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Crumb Cake

Stamp Set - Elementary Elegance

Embellishments - Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon

Tools - Curly Label punch

Inks / Markers - Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral

Papers / Card - Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Everyday Enchantment DSP

Stamp Set - Elementary Elegance

Embellishments - Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon, 2011-2012 In Colour Designer Printed Brads,

                           Mini Vintage Tags

Tools - Curly Label punch, Big Shot, Blossom Party Die

Inks / Markers - Calypso Coral

This was my favourite part of the training.  Julie shared with us a template to make a cute handbag gift bag, it was so quick and easy to make.  You can't quite see it from the pictures, but where the flower is at the top of the bag, is a velcro sticky dot, which can open and close, just like a real bag.  If you'd like to have a demonstration on how to make this, please contact me, I'd love to show you.

Papers / Card - Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Lucky Limeade, Everyday Enchantment DSP

Stamp Set - Elementary Elegance

Embellishments - Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon, Mini Vintage Tags, 2011-2012 In Colour Designer

                          Printed Brads

Tools - Big Shot, Blossoms Party Die, Crop-a-dile

Inks / Markers - Calypso Coral



Sale-a-bration

Sale-a-bration is here.  I'm a little late with this post, but it's not too late to take advantage of the three ways you can benefit from the offers from Stampin' Up! at this exciting time of year.

1.  For every £45 you spend, you receive a free product, a stamp set or papers.  Click here to view the products.

2. Host a workshop.  There are additional benefits for hosts during this time, more free goodies!  If your workshop sales reach £300, not only will you receive £50 hostess pounds to spend, and one item from the catalogue at 50% off, but you'll also get a sale-a-bration item free too. Of course, the more the sales are the better the benefits for you! See the table below for more information.

3. Join my team.  To purchase the starter kit, only costs £119, which contains over £250 worth of products.  You can customise your choice of stamps, inks, pens, papers, and if you join during sale-a-bration, you can choose any additional stamp set.  This is a great bargain.

Contact me to take advantage of these offers while you can!