Bag and card set

Afternoon all,

I hope you are all well.  I had a nice break away from work last week, visited my family and fitted in a bit of crafting too.  I'll be sharing what I made last week very soon.  In the mean time, here's a very overdue post about a project that I made at a team training day, I'm not even sure when it was, it was that long ago! I also shared it with my class ladies at my monthly class a few weeks ago.  It's a gift bag and four cards and envelopes set, and I love it!  The papers used are the Natural Composition Speciality Designer Series Papers, and have more of a feel of card, they are think and have a lovely glossy finish.  There's 6 different designs, and there is 2 of each in the set.  The colour combo used was Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals, two of the colours in 2012/13 In Colours.  I did get a little confused when I placed my order, and accidentally found myself with a pack of the Raspberry Ripple card stock, oops! I'm sure I'll find something to make with it instead.  

These are the four cards that we made.  The butterfly stamps are from the Papillion Potpourri, and they have been punched out with the Elegant Butterfly punch.  

This is the gift bag that the cards fit perfectly inside.  The bag was really easy to make, and the top has been made using the Big Shot and the Adorning Accents Edgelits dies.  The handles are two strips of Primrose Petals card stock, with a bow tied in the Stitched Satin Ribbon.  

This is a close up of the flower that was created by punching 6 flowers with the Blossom punch, wetting them with the Aquabrush, scrunching them up, and unfolding once they were dry.  A Vintage Faceted Button was placed in the middle, and the flower was spritzed with the Gimmer Paint.

Here's one of the cards from the set.  This one is made with the Summer Starfruit card stock.  One of the small Vintage Facted Buttons was placed on the butterfly, and the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set was used for the Thank You greeting.

Here's a close up of the Butterfly, stamped using the Papillion Potpourri, and punched out with the Elegant Butterfly Punch.  Look at the detail on the Natural Composition papers, aren't they lovely.

Here's a picture of the envelopes, stamped with the Summer Starfruit and the Primrose Petals inks.

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.

Blog Hop

Good morning! Welcome to the Julies Jems Blog Hop!  

This is a special opportunity for you to see the new products available from the Sale-a-bration promotion, and the new Spring Summer Seasonal Catalogue.  A few of us in Julie's Jems have got together and organised a blog hop.  The idea is that we share what we love, but also promote what our crafty friends do too.  Please take a look at the blog I have come from, and where I am going.  

http://nicolaworrillow.blogspot.co.uk

http://www.vonniesworld.co.uk/blog/

This is the card I am sharing with you today.  It's a card I CASED from my downline Kylie Henshaw.  I love this new stamp set from the Sale-a-bration promotion, and I can't wait to use it more. I love stamped images like this, they are so detailed and perfect! This card is from a stamp set called Feeling Sentimental, and is wonderfully British!  This card was made with Very Vanilla and Early Espresso card stock, and First Edition Speciality Designer Papers.  I love the effect that stamping onto patterned paper has like in this card.  Linen thread was tied into a bow around the First Edition paper, to create a lovely finish to the card.  This is one of the sets you could earn when you place an order of £45.

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think, and I hope you love all the cards and projects shared by my crafty friends.  Here's a list of the other Jems that are taking part in the Blog Hop.

Debbi Taylor - Bee Crafty and Stamp
Karyn Davies - KD Crafts
Elizabeth Youd - Stampin' and Creatin'
Rebekah Cornford - Stamping Becky
Angela Dawes - Sparkly Cards and Papercrafts
Nicola Worrillow - Crafting Out Loud
Alex Spence - My Cards and Crafts
Yvonne Hunt - Vonnies World 
Amanda Bates - The Craft Spa
Mel Hughes -  Mels Papercrafting World
Kate Martin - Krafts by Kate
Jane Bisby - Stamps and Paw Prints 
Sharon Glynn - Shari-Anne Happy Crafter
Angie Hutton - Feather Tassel
Emma Williams - Ditsy Daisy Stamper
Julie Kettlewell - Julie's Japes

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.

Last day to place an order from the Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue

This is just a quick post to remind you that today is the last day for placing orders from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue.  If there's anything that you fancied, but didn't get round to ordering, there's not much time left! Some of these products will not be available to order again, so I'd hate for you to be disappointed, or run out of any papers that you loved! 

Click on the picture above to view the catalogue.

Contact me asap to get your last minute orders to me.

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!

Talking Tags

Would you like to personalise your cards, invitations, gifts, letters, or anything you like? Talking tags are labels that can be attached to surfaces, and you can record a short message so your gift is really special.  You have to download an app to your smartphone, which then scans the code on the label, and you record your 60 second message. You can then listen to your message and re-record it if you're not happy with it.  To play the message, the recipient has to download the app too, and they just have to scan the code to listen to it.  How clever is that?!  They cost just £7.25 for ten labels.