Sale-a-bration, Spring/Summer Catalogue, Valentines - its all happening at Stampin Up!

Well, Stampin Up! have certainly been busy with producing a new seasonal catalogue for Spring/Summer as well as our yearly Sale-a-bration period (where you can redeem free products for every £45 that you spend from either of the current catalogues).You can see these new catalogues by clicking on the images on the side of this page.
For Januarys class, I thought I would introduce one of Stampin Up's! Sale-a-bration stamp sets that is a 3 stage design, Lotus Blossom.

 This proved a bit tricky to get the hang of but does create some fabulous images.  The flower, a lotus blossom, is created by building up layers of contasting ink to highlight the details of the petals.  The first main part of the flower was stamped using Soft Sky, then the larger detail of the petal was stamped in Lost Lagoon using the stamp-ff method and the edges of the flower were stamped using the Lost Lagoon (full intensity).The stems were stamped using Pear Pizzazz.  The DSP on the card is taken from the Moonlight DSP Paperstack and if you wanted to make this design, to buy all the prodcuts would cost you £45 hence you would get the stamp set for free!
As our next class will be after Valentines Day, I thought we could make a card suitable for a Valentine, or birthday or wedding/anniversary.  I found this design on Pinterest and as I enjoying created projects using punch-art, couldn't resist using it our class. Even though I have had the Hardwood Stamp for a while, I hadn't actually got around to using it and thought it created a great 'floorboard' effect for the mice to sit on. The Real Red hearts were punched using the Itty Bitty Accents heart and the Owl Builder punch.  The  mice were made using the Sweetheart and 1 3/4" Circle punches.  The main colours are Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla.  The greeting is taken from the Itty Bitty Banners set.

And finally we couldn't not make a mini treat holder for our Valentine! This Ferror Rocher holder uses such a small amount of card stock and is very simple to make.  We also used the Hearts Mask set which is great for backgrounds. The greeting was made using the Label Love stamp set and punched out using the Artisan Label Punch.  The main part of the box (just a long rectangle) was punched either end with the Scallop Tag Topper (one of my favourite punches as it has so many uses).  Finally the project was tied up with some Whisper White Organza ribbon and Real Red Satin Woven ribbon.

Start of the Christmas Season!

Well, with only something like 10 weeks to Christmas, I thought I would start to show off the lovely Christmas products form the Autumn/Winter catalogue. It is full of wonderful stamp sets, embellishments, accessories and ideas it was a struggle to decide what to buy. So this week I chose to demostrate the Festival of Trees and Bright & Beautiful sets to create a 3-in-1 project!

As you can see form the picture, we made a card with a circular cut-out using the Circles Framelits and then 'hung' a star from the Bright & Beautiful stamp set, embossed in silver and cut out using the Stars framelits.  The circle that was taken from the card was then stamped and again embossed in silver using a masking-off technique witht he greeting in the centre to make a gift tag.  A 'ring' of champagne glimer paper was used on the card to hide the bakers twine and the centre of this was decorated with a stamped tree from the Festival of Trees set to make a second gift tag!

Our second Christmas project this week was a mini treatbox in the shape of a birdhouse with a little robin.

This is an ideal 'thank you' gift for a teacher/neighbour/friend or a table favor etc and can be filled with a few Elizabeth Shaw mints. The stamp set that was used for the snowflakes (stamped in Whisper White Craft ink) and greeting tag (Real Red and Early Espresso markers) was Endless Wishes, another lovely stamp set with lots of  seasonal greetings and different sized snow flakes.  The box was made from Crumb Cake card stock and the roof from Always Artichoke.  The robin was made using the Bird Builder punch in soft suede.

Earlier in the year, Stampin Up! introduced Blendabilities. These are marker pens in 3 shades of several of the main Stampin Up! clolours and are used to create a subtle shading effect when colouring stamped images. So far I hadn't found time to introduce these new items into my classes so thought it was about time.
Plus it gave everyone the chance to indulge in a bit of colouring. 

This card uses two punches, the Pansy and the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border.  The DSP was taken from the Moonlight DSP stack and the stamp set used was Flower Shop, stamped using Memento Ink to ensure that the ink did not 'run' into the Blendabilities colours. The two colours used were Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry.  The Blendability pens can also be used to colour in Stampin Up! Pearl Basic Jewels (and Rhinestones) so that you can have matching emblishments to compliment your design.  The greeting was stamped in Rich Razzleberry ink using the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set.

July New Products Class

Sorry for the delay in this post, its the school holidays so my crafting and administration time is very limited!
Our last class held in July showcased some new products form the new annual catalogue as well as the new in-colours :- Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow and Tangelo Twist (what fab names!!) They all have a good earthy but bright feel to them and can see that we will be using them a lot.
So, here are the projects that we created:-

So here we have a lovely mini box that contains 4 gift tags. Just two main colours are used here, Whisper White card stock and Wisteria Wonder cardstock and ink with 1/8" Silver Ribbon and Rhinestone Basic Jewels as embellishments.  The two stamp sets used were Label Love and Work of Art, and the two punches that were used were Scalloped Tag Topper (one of my favourtie new punches) and the flower from the new Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack - more of these later!!  The stamping off technique was used on the front of the tags and box and the Wisteria Wonder flowers were daubed with Craft white and and the Whisper White flowers daubed with Wisteria Wonder ink. You could utilize this design for different occasions by changing the colours and using with the star or heart from the punch pack.

Here we have a card with a new technique - Room Divider, and uses the new In-Colors.  This is a simple technique where 1/2 a piece of A4 is folded into 4 and the bottom cut out on each of the panels using Curly Label to give the effect of 'legs'.  More of the stamps taken from the Work of Art stamp set are used here with most of the new In-Colors ink and card stock, and the 'stampin off' technique is again used.  The sequins are taken form the Gold Sequin Trim and the bow is made from Gold Metallic Bakers Twine.

And finally my favourite card made from my favourite stamp set, Life in the Forest (and carried over from the Spring/Summer catalogue).  This seet has some cute animals in it, a raccoon, mouse, hedgehog and a rabbit as well as the toadstool, fox and trees shown here.  Ideal for childrens cards and great for colouring in as the stamps are outline ones.  The colours used here are Mossy Meadow, Crushed Curry, Tangelo Twist, Night of Navy, Soft Suede with Real Red and Cajun Craze markers.  The 'background' was created by sponging Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky and Old Olive ink onto Whisper White card stock.  The 'grass' was created using the Fringe Scissors and the sun rays by double punching with the 1 1/4" scallop circle.  The greting taken from Itty Bitty Banners. Some Gold Metallic Bakers Twine wraps it all up!
 I hope you have enjoyed seeing these creations and don't forget to get in touch with me if you would like to come along to my next class in September where I will be albe to show you the new Autumn/Winter catalogue! Its never to early to get organised for Christmas.

Aprils Punch Art Class

One of my favourite ways of making cards is using the technique Punch Art.  This is where multiple punches are used to create the card designs.  At this months class, both cards used a variety of common punches to create quite effective results.

 

The first, a piano card also used a Stampin' Around Wheel with the Music Notes Wheel to give a background image.  The only colours used were Whisper White, Smokey Slate and Basic Black with StazOn ink.  The main keyboard was cut using the Top Note Big Shot die and the keys were punched out with the Word Window punch.  The greeting was taken from the Perfectly Penned stamp set.

 By popular request we made a neutral birth contragulations card with a pram treat holder designed by the fabulous Brenda Quintana.  This American designer has created so many Hershey Chocolate treat holder designs that are just so easy to make but look wonderful.  The card is a step-design and used So Saffron, Pistachio Pudding and Very Vanilla card stock with Gingham Garden DSP as the background.  The panels were embossed using the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder ( my favourite folder and I apologise that I may seem to over use this!). The pram was made using 3 circle punches:- 3/4", 1" and 2 1/2",  and the Scallop Trim Border punch with the handle made from a sliver of card cut using the Large Oval Punch.  Hearts made from scraps of Pistachio Pudding, So Saffron and Very Vanilla card stock were punched out using the small heart punch to add to the card. The greeting was taken from the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set and stamped using Daffodil Delight ink.
The pram treat holder was made with Daffodil Delight card stock.  A perfect card and gift to give to new parents!

Mothers Day Sale-a-bration and Some Embossing Techniques

This month we went for a more subtle note and used the current in-colors Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding (what lovely names!!) for a Mothers Day card, which could also be used for a birthday card or get well wishes.  The main card uses Crumb Cake card stock and was 'distressed' around the edge using the Stampin' Distress Tool.  The DSP is from the Sale-a-bration pack, Sweet Sorbet and the ribbon is Crisp Cantaloupe Ruffle Stretch Trim.  The flowers were stamped using the Flower Shop stamp set and punched using the Pansy punch with the centres being stamped using Crushed Curry and punched out using the 1/2" Circle Punch.  The leaves were created from Pistachio Pudding card stock and cut using the Little Leaves Sizzlits.  The Pistachio Pudding cartdstock on the main card was edge with the Needlepoint Border Embossing folder.  Finally the greeting was taken from Delightful Dozen stamp set and cut out using the Large Oval Punch.
We also made a matching bookmark using some Sweet Sorbet SAB DSP mounted onto a piece of Pistacthio Pudding and the end punched with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch.  Some Crisp Cantaloupe twine taken from the Sweet Sorbet Accessory set was threaded through the hole.  For a personal touch, we added the inital of the recipiant by using the Bigz Alphabet die and Pistachio Pudding and then coated with some Crystal Effects.

Our second card used a variety of embossing techniques! First we stamped the image from So Very Grateful using Versamark onto Vellum cardstock and then heat embossed it using White Embossing Powder.  Then by using a Simply Scored Stylus we dry embossed the flower image on the reverse side of the stamped vellum to give a raised effect. Then we coloured in the leaves using the Pear Pizzazz marker pen, this is called a stained glass effect.  The Pear Pizzazz frame was cut out using the Labels Collections farmelits and then attached to the Marina Mist base card with dimensionals.  The main card was also stamped with the So Very Grateful stamp in Versamark and the greeting was taken from Itty Bitty Banners and stamped in Marina Mist.

January's Class - Hearts a Flutter and Rev Up The Fun

A belated Happy New Year! For January's class we created a card suitable for a wedding, anniversary birthday or Valentines day by using the Hearts a Flutter stamp set; and a male card using the Rev Up The Fun stamp set.

First the romantic card! This card uses a tri fold technique where a sheet of A4 is cut with an off-set diagonal with the card in landscape so that two can be made from one sheet.  The card is then folded into three which I hope you can see from the photo.  Most of the hearts were stamped using the Hearts a Flutter stamp set in the current in-color Raspberry Ripple onto Whisper White card stock and then cut out using the matching Hearts a Flutter Big Shot Frame-lits. Other hearts were made by stamping the larger stamp from Creative Elements onto Whisper White and then cut out using the Full Heart punch, by cutting out Whisper White hearts and then embossing using the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder.  The hearts were randomly adhered onto the angled edges of the card as seen in the photo.  Little silver hearts were added for a bit of sparkle and punched from Silver Glimmer paper using the Small Heart Punch.  The greeting was stamped using the Teeny Tiny Sentiments and punched out using the word window punch and backed with a piece of Raspberry Ripple cardstock punched out using the Modern Label punch.

Our second card for the evening was made using the Rev Up The Fun stamp set - ideal for any male.  I gave my ladies a choice of which design to use, with the motorbike or the car. The stamp was inked using the Real Red and Basic Grey Marker pens.  The 'sand' was created using the exhaust stamp in Versa Mark.  The sky effect was created using the daubing technique with Pool Party ink on a sponge and masked using a scrap piece of card punched out with the 1 3/4" Scallop Circle.The main colours for the card were Pool Party, Real Red, Basic Grey and Crushed Curry.  Three Candy Dots from the Brights collection were used to represent traffic lights.  A strip of I Am Me DSP was used to back the piece of Real Red 1/4" stitched grosgrain.  My ladies had the option of using the greeting from the stamp set or one from the Itty Bitty Banners. 

July's Class....

Summer is most definitely here, and this card reflects this lovely time of year! Using the lovely Summer Silhouettes stamp set the ladies set about creating this easel card at July's class. The colour scheme I have used is Gumball Green teamed with Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Elegant Eggplant and Pumpkin Pie.

The greeting used stamps from Memorable Moments a lovely stamp set that adds a touch of elegance. I have used the En Francais background stamp inked in elegant eggplant stamped on sahara sand card. I used the Boho Blossoms & Scallop Trim Border punches for the inside of the card to enable the card to be  opened up.

I am really chuffed with the butterflies and the effect created by stamping and daubing the punched out Bitty Butterfly in elegant eggplant, it is so effective! 

Using pumpkin pie ink and cardstock just adds a splash of colour. Hope you like! Happy Summer everyone.  Alli x

Oh my, the summer will be gone by the time I get myself organised! I had completely forgotten about sharing my card with you that we made at July's class.

This used the the Pennant Parade stamp set and coordinating Petite Pennants Builder.  I had found the basis of this design on the internet and just had to share it with our ladies as I thought it a good basic birthday card suitable for all ages and genders. The card stock colours used were Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake and Whisper White, with Gumball Green, Primrose Petals, Daffodil Delight and Midnight Muse inks.  I used the paper piercing tool along the scallop edges of the Crumb Cake to add a bit of detail and some rhinestones were used in the centre of the Daffodil Delight flowers (cut using the 4 petal flower punch from Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack) to add a bit of sparkle. The top layer of pennants were strung together using Whisper White Bakes Twine and a bow made from 3/8" Whisper White taffeta ribbon finishes off the design.  The greeting was stamped using the Itty Bitty Banners set in Midnight Muse.

A Bit of Sparkle and Daubing

For our May card class, we decided to add a bit of sparkle by spritzing the main card with a mixture of Champagne Mist and rubbing alcohol. We also introduced daubing which is done using a sponge dauber dabbed onto an ink pad and lightly rubbed around the edge of the greeting strip (here we used Certainly Celery) and the vase (using Midnight Muse). The vase was cleverly created by partly punching out a piece of Baja Breeze with the Ornament punch. The pattern was stamped with the flower from 'Itty Bitty Bits' in Midnight Muse which co-ordinates well with the larger flowers taken from 'Printed Petals', stamped in Baja Breeze. The stems/leaves were stamped with Certainly Celery and the stamp set 'Just Believe', the greeting 'just for you' was also taken from this set. The card stock used was also Midnight Muse and Certainly Celery, and the Scallop Trim Border was used on the Certainly Celery layer.

The second card project of the evening was using the lovely Hopeful Thoughts stamp set.

I wanted to show the ladies how well the Simply Scored Scoring Tool could be used to add lovely detail to a card project. The colour combination used for this card was Sahara Sand for the main card, very vanilla and early espresso card stock. I also choose to use Rich Razzleberry, as it works so well with this colour combination and adds a lovely splash of colour; I have used this with the greeting and the co-ordinating 1/4" stitched grosgrain ribbon. The Itty Bitty Bits stamps have been stamped onto Sahara Sand cardstock using versa mark and rich razzleberry inks and punched out using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack to produce a lovely effect on the tree. I hope that you enjoy the simplicity of this card!