Birthday Gift Set

Yesterday it was my Mum's birthday, and I made a card and some matching gift boxes for the smaller gifts.

My Mum has a beautiful "cottage" style garden filled with so many flowers and it looks so pretty at this time of the year, so I choose to use the level 2 hostess stamp set Fast and Fabulous.

This is one of the gift boxes I made, using Pink Pirrouette card stamping the out line of the flower with Pretty in Pink ink. I stamped extra flowers on Shimmery white card and cut them out layering them with some leaves from the Bird on a branch punch.

Here is the matching card. I stamped and masked areas so I could build up the flowers to add depth to the card, popping a few different flowers up with some dimensionals. I coloured the flowers with Stampin' Write makers and the Blender pen. I added a length of double sided tape along the bottom of the flowers and gathered up some Pretty in Pink satin ribbon, layering the main panel with Pink Pirouette and Perfect Plum card.

There is a small pillow box (perfect for a Chamilla charm!) I used the exclusive Pillow Box die from Stampin' Up!, stamping the card as before and a length of satin ribbon tied around the box.

My Mum had a lovely day with lots of nice presents and cards too!!

Thankfully the weather has cooled down quite a lot today - Philip has chicken pox!!  It seems there are a lot of children suffering in his class, he doesn't seem too bad at the moment???  The only good thing  aabout it is we have time for Lucy to get it as well before we go away!!

Simply Stampin' Challenge Week 13

Good morning, Saturday comes around faster every week - there were some fabulous "male" cards entered into last weeks Simply Stampin' challenge, thank you to everyone who joined us.  

This week we have another fabulous sketch for your inspiration and as always the design team have made some stunning creations, you can see them here. I do love using a sketch as a starting point for my design and this was a really easy sketch to follow.

I used some Crumb Cake for my card base with some gorgeous Elegant Soiree papers and Pacific Point card and ribbon for my accent colour. I added faux stitching around the card and I think I will be adding this to a few more cards!! Not very much stamping this week only the sentiment from  the new level 2 Something to Celebrate stamp set in the mini catalogue a few tiny pearls to finish.

We would love to see your cards at Simply Stampin' this week, you can rotate the sketch for you design if you wish, don't forget to include at least one Stampin' Up"! product on your design.

Angela x

Strength and Hope Charity Event

Saturday 3rd September

1-4pm

The cost of this event is £25.00 and will include your own clear mount

 Strength and Hope stamp set, all materials and instructions to complete the projects shown.

Stampin' Up! are donating £1.00 from every Strength and Hope set sold to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

There will be home baked cakes and refreshments along with a raffle - the prizes are of course Stampin' Up! products!!! 

I will donate all profits from this event to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

 I have a few places still available if you would like to book your place please contact me for further details.

Angela x

Simply Stampin' Challenge Week 12

Its Saturday again already and that means its time for a new challenge at Simply Stampin'.

We have theme for your inspiration this week "you've got male".

I have to admit that I usually struggle with ideas for mens cards fortunately I don't need to make too many, so here is my card for this weeks challenge.

The colours are Marina Mist, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso.  I made a folded shirt with Marina Mist paper adding a tie made with Early Espresso taffetta ribbon. A quick punched tab, the sentiment is from Party this Way stamp set.

There are some wonderful creations from the design team this week so take a peak and share your male themed cards with Simply Stampin'.

It has been a really busy week for me and unfortunately I have had very little time again to spend on my blog, things are going to stay that way for a few weeks as I am spending more time in school with Philip.  This week for the very first time Philip tried out some new quad walking sticks - I was amazed!!!  It will be a long time before he will be able to use them independently as he needs two adults to help him learn to use them confidently.  I know there was a time when I never dared to think of this!! 

Angela x

Springtime Vintage Workshop

Yesterday afternoon I had a lovely workshop making some pretty projects using beautiful Springtime Vintage papers and the Baby Blossom stamp set. 

Everyone recieved a "goody bag" of Stampin' Up! products to use for their projects including a 6"x6" frame and complete instructions to take away so they can re-create more projects at home.

I had booked my local community centre for this event and it was perfect!! 

This is the room all set up just before everyone arrived, I had made a little mini milk carton box with a few treats inside as a "thank you" for the ladies attending the workshop.  I would also like to thank my friends Liz and Jo for helping me to set up the room, I wouldn't have been ready on time with out them!!

Margaret and Judith busy making their projects.

This is just one of the matching gift bags and cards I made to show the Springtime Vintage papers, I made 6 sets in total so the ladies could select their prefered  design - now all I need to do is find suitable gifts to fill them with for the teachers at school!! 

Jo busy getting to grips with gathering her seem binding ribbon.

This is my version of the punched collage the ladies also made.  It was lovely to see everyone being creative and so many different designs put into their collages.  This was certainly a popular choice and everyone enjoyed making the collage.

I had baked a selection of treats to have with a cuppa, the blueberry cake was very popular.

Congratulations to the lucky ladies who won some fabulous Stampin' Up! goodies in my raffle, I hope you enjoy using them!!!

I would like to thank everyone who came making yesterday a successful afternoon. If you would like to join us at the next event it will be held on Saturday 3rd September.  I will post more details later this week.

Angela x

Simply Stampin' Challenge Week 11

This week at Simply Stampin' Challenge we have a gorgeous colour challenge for your inspiration.  We would love you to join us this week, you can use a similar colour from your stash if you don't have all of the challenge colours. There are some fabulous cards made by the design team again this week you can see them all here.

I love this weeks choice of colours, they made me think of chocolate!!!  Mmmmm!!

I have used a tutorial Victoria at Blue Jelly Stampin' designed to make these yummy chocolates, I have to say it was very easy to follow and the results are beautiful calorie free chocolates - perfect!!

I used Crumb Cake to make a 4"x4" card base, the chocolates are of course Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla layered with Concorde Crush and some gogeous ribbon to match, the sentiment is from the Party This Way stamp set.

I'm off to do "another" check of the many boxes I have ready to put in the car for this afternoons Papercraft Extravaganza, we are making some lovely projects today and I have baked some delicious cakes to have with a cuppa too.  

I will be back tomorrow with photos from this afternoon and details of my next charity papercrafting event.

Angela x

Summer Wreath

I saw a lot of these paper wreaths around the blogs at Christmas time but never got around to having a go, so I thought as my Mum is giving her summer house a bit of a make over I would make one for her to hang in there.

I used Lap of Luxury papers from Stampin' Up! as the colours are really pretty and they are double sided so you get a contrast of colours throughout the wreath.

This is a close up of the papers, I sprayed it with some Champagne shimmer paint made up into a spray to add some sparkle, the hanging ribbon is Pretty in Pink satin.  This wreath is quite small I used a 4" ring , but I have been and got some bigger ones so hopefully I can share another project I have in mind soon.

The sun has gone and its really quite cold here again today!!  I'm off to finish the ironing as its back to school tomorrow and I still have some last minute prep to do for my class on Saturday.

Angela x

Simply Stampin' Challenge Week 10

This week at Simply Stampin' Challenge we have a fabulous sketch for your inspiration, as always the design team have made some wonderful cards for your inspiration, you can see them here.

I really like this weeks sketch, I used Circle Circus stamp set - one of the many sets that need to see more ink!!  It is a versatile set and suitable for so many different occasions too. I stamped the background on to Whisper White card.

I have used bright bold colours this week - Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise and Melon Mambo adding a few gems for a bit of bling and some lovely white ribbon, the border was punched with the scalloped edge punch.

The design team would love to see your  take on this weeks sketch.

I have had problems all week again with my internet connection and didn't manage to get to visit everyone who entered last week - it seems every night the connection is so slow and drops off - very frustrating!!

Angela x

Fabulous Offer from Stampin' Up

Stampin’ Up! have announced a fantastic new promotion throughout June and July, hostesses can earn £20 extra in free products when their party sales exceed £250.

That means a minimum of a level 1 hostess exclusive set and £45 to spend on anything in the catalogue!!

Invite your family and friends round for a fun and crafty get together and discover Stampin' Up! in the comfort of your own home.  I will demonstrate a variety of techniques, show you how our fabulous products work and more importantly give you the chance to TRY the product before you BUY.

I would love to arrange a date, daytime or evening with you so please email me.