Quick post...

Today is a quick post just to show you a couple of small cards i made a fellow demo who did not have one of the mini sets that I had puchased - I quickly stamped some of the imagrs just so that she could showcase the stamps if she wished! I also stamped and puinched out some of the sentiments so that she could add these elements to her own cards.
I love the this set and will use it more in the coming weeks - rather than use the set to create a card I think I will use it more to add something different to cards. Thanks for looking - Debbi x x x

Brights!

The card that I have to show you today is a card that I have made my neice who we have been to see today - the present that I got her was a Barbie playset and the box was in the colours that I have chosen to make her card in - pixie pink and tempting turquoise perfect for a little girl.
I have chosen to use one of my favourite stampsets Circle Circus and I have used card to stamp on that I have never really used before - confetti from Stampin' Up! It has the same texture as whisper white but running through it are the tiniest pieces of confetti that add little chunks of colour to the background of the image - you will see this if you enlarge the photo of the card!
I have then mounted this on pixie pink card that is placed the to the right hand side of the card and then onto tempting turquoise I have stamped for you from happy moments onto this in the bottom left hand side of the card and the card blank is sahara sand - again another colour that I don't use very often.
I have randomly stamped images from circle circus onto the white using only three stamps and the two colours.
I hope you like the card and thanks for looking - your comments are appreciated - Debbi x x x
STAMPSETS - circle circus, happy moments
CARDSTOCK - sahara sand, pixie pink, tempting turquoise, confetti white
INK - basic black, pixie pink, tempting turquoise

BAD BLOGGER...

Ok so where does life go?? I apologise for not blogging sooner and will try harder to get more crafting on here in the coming weeks... I have made two cards this evening cased from my very good friend Deb O'd who was mad enough to spend the day with me and my boys on Sunday on a freezing beach! (we were freezing) while the rest of them ran about paying cricket, football, flying kites and my beautiful 4 year old evening donned his swimming shorts to get wet in a large puddle!

For these cards I have used the I (Heart) Heart stamp set the full sized heart punch and the Three Heart punch - I chose two seperate colour combinations - real red, confetti white, and whisper white and orchid opulence, lovely lilac and whisper white.
I have also used the window punch to add the sentiment - stamped from happy moments one of the recent sale-a-bration sets.
I have used three punched large hearts for the background of the panel and added stamped hearts from the stampset stamped in the same colour to the foreground and stuck these with dimensionals. I have also mounted the panel onto cardstock. I have used the two way glue pen to stick the layers together and am pleased with the effect.
The card blank of the red card is sahara sand - a colour I have never used before, softer than craft but I love the subtlety with the red!

I hope you like the cards and I have added a link to Deborah 's blog - take a look! Thanks for looking and your comments are appreciated! Debbi x x x

Look at the Sun!

Hubby was banging on about the sun being brilliant red last night when it was setting - due to the volcanic ash and I was only half listening whilst trying to watch gossip girl! Then tonight whilst I was on the phone to my dad I turned around and saw this...
It was beautiful so I thought I would share it with you before I go to make some cards that I must post this weekend... Crafting either later tonight or tomorrow morning depending on how I get on! Thanks for looking - Debbi x x x

Sheffield Training Swap Swap!

When we got back from demonstrator training in Sheffield one of my good friends Deb O'd had the great idea that we do a swap incorporating our favourite and just changing the colour combination that we used. There were 5 of us that signed up and we had to have them in this week. I have made this one by Kelly Austin and she has used the Bird on a Branch... She used the combination bashful blue, basic black and stamped on whisper white.
I have made the card in the same way but changed the combination to taken with teal, basic grey and stamped on whisper white. I think that you will agree Kelly has done a great job! One of the great things about being a demonstrator is the swaps that we get involved in - this is only one that I am in this week. My second being Cards for Men - more on that later though.
To make the card I have stamped the image in basic grey on whisper white with the flowers of the tree stamped in taken with teal and I then rounded the top corners, this is then mounted on taken with teal card stock which also has the corner rounded at the top. I have used the stamp from love you much to stamp the sentiment and then punched this out using the window punch I have stamped on taken with teal. I have added a brad to decorate - as on the original and a piece of grey taffeta ribbon stapled to the card blank to decorate the left hand side of the card.
I hope you like the cards and the colour combinations chosen - more crafting to be shown later! Debbi x x x

Vintage Vogue...

A few weeks ago I was with Helen and we had a play with our sets from regional training and Helen had made a card similar to this one which I decided to make - I have stamped the vine from the set in the bottom of the left hand corner of a piece of whisper white card stock I have used the colours tempting turquoise and close to cocoa I have inked the edges of the piece with close to cocoa. This is mounted on craft card stock and then on tempting turquoise behind that and I have also inked the edges to this. On the piece of tempting tuquoise I have again stamped the vine in the corner using close to cocoa and tempting turquoise. The card blank is close to cocoa and I have inked the edges to this also the vine is also stamped in this too. I have added the large and small flower from the set to the bottom left of the card The flower is held together by an ice circle brad and have used stamping dimensionals to attach the flower. in the top right of the card I have stamped the friend sentiment and decoupaged this with dimensionals. This is stamped on whisper white with both close to cocoa and tempting turquoise, I have inked the edges to this and then mounted it on craft card stock. This is also attached with dimensionals.
I hope you like the card and thanks for looking - Debbi x x x

MINI LAUNCH..

This week I held my mini launch and here are a couple of the things that we did on the evening! I knew as soon as I saw the catalogue I would have to demo Dasher - even though we are only at the beginning of Spring this was one of the first stamps that I purchased I love him and think he is so versatile and will work so well with the other Christmas stamps that I have! So for a quick demo I used night of navy card and craft ink - inked up Dasher and stamped him inked the edges of the card and added dazzling diamonds to the antlers using the two way glue pen. I love the sparkle to such a simple card.

The make and take that we made - instead of doing a couple of cards we made a matchbook holder (cased from Michelle Last) and a set of cards to go inside - I used bright colours yoyo yellow, only orange, lovely lilac and orchid opulance and the sweet pea stamp set. To decorate the holder I have used the sweet pea roller then stamped some sweet pea birds on whisper white card and mounted this on yoyo yellow card stock. Inking the edges to add definition. We then made 4 cards to go inside the holder and for these I have used whisper white card stock to stamp sweet pea on and then mounted these on contrasting card stock...
I hope you like my cards and thanks for looking - your comments are appreciated - Debbi x x x

Stampin' Up! Colour Renovation...

Are you ready for some really exciting news in relation to Stampin' Up?? It has been announced today that the colour's that we currently have available will be renovated! This will keep us aligned with the rest of the global catalogues from the US, Australia, Germany, France and New Zealand. So the new colours will be available to us from the start of the new catalogue October 2010. So it is with great excitement that I show you the new colour palette but sadness that we will also losing some old favourites! Have a look and let me know what you think!!

First scrapbook...

My friend was 30 a few weeks ago and I made her a scrapbook with photos from when she was a baby up until now - her mum and I made the book together and we spent a weekend putting it together. She is not a very girly girl and is really hard to buy for but this I knew she would love as her family and friends mean the world to her!. So here are some pictures of the book and what we put together - everything through the book co-ordinates and I have mainly used the scrap booking kit sunny days from SU! and other accessories. I loved making this book and it will definately be something I do more of in the future and I did some laughing with Lisa's mum looking through all their family pictures!
Some of the pictures are priceless! So what we did for her party was say that her mum was unable to make it and she turned up on the night as a surprise - with Lisa's niece and we did a This is Your Life sketch for her - Mo had even written her a poem to correspond with the pages of the book - brilliant! and what a great night!

ILWS CHALLENGE NIGHT...

Last night saw the ILWS Challenge Cup where we were split into four teams Giraffes, Lions, Owls and Monkeys. The fun started at 7.00pm and we were all set ready to craft! The first challenge was posted and it was to incorporate the babywipe technique into your card. I managed 3 cards for this challenge and surprised myself as I have never done this technique before and was not really sure what to do as I don't have reinkers! So in true crafter style - I just squished the lid and loaded my babywipe with colour. For this technique I just rapidly wiped my piece of whisper white card with the babywipe - I hope you like them! I have used Lovely as a Tree and Bloomin with Beauty as the stamp sets.

The second challenge was something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. So for this old - fun and fast notes from starter kit, new - dot, dot, dot borrowed - card candy and blue was bashful blue card and ink. Quickly stamped some images and made the cards up inking the edges to add definition to the layers. I hope you like these cards - this was a fun challenge trying to find something crafty you have borrowed - when in a rush and it also have to matches!
Challenge 3 was a real challenge for me - punch art - not my cup of tea at all but I gave it a go - made a flower using the three heart punch and matted and layered it and added the stamp from Bloomin with Beauty. Some people made loads and managed to have up to 10 added - my lowly two did help the team though

Challenge 4 was a little easier - doodling your project had to incorporate The first one I did was a quick wedding picture and I added a frame around the photo and also stamped using vintage vogue available in the mini. The cards I just added a quick faux stitch to each layer and the card blank. For these cards I used circle circus, with rose red and black.

Challenge 5 was an inspiartion challenge - so difficult as it was very late and I was so tired I found this very hard. I think I did ok though!
It was a very eventful night and a lot of fun! make sure you take part in the next one - one final point to make it was a very close race in terms of the number of cards loaded - but the giraffes were just a neck ahead! and we won! HHOOORRRAAAYYY

Stamp With Us!

This afternoon when blog hopping I saw what the challenge was over on Stamp With Us! A colour challenge perfect for the Spring weather - although here we have had nothing but rain today! So I decided that for this card I would use my Lovely as a Tree set that has been unmounted for many weeks since I bought it! (as usual I am terrible with new stamps and don't mount them until I want to use them - unlike so many other people that I know that cannot wait to get them mounted!)
So I have done something a little bit different for this challenge - I have taken a piece of very vanilla card stock and daubed the background onto the card, using barely banana and pretty in pink. I have then used a piece of sponge and stamped cameo coral underneath this. I then damped the card down a little and blended the colours. For the image I chose the line of trees and stamped this in garden green - to add deeper colour I held the image down for a couple of seconds - this tip really makes a difference to the depth of the colour. After I had stamped the image I used a piece of sponge to add some green to the ground below the trees (when I say sponge I mean I have cut one of my kitchen sponges up - as I wanted different texture than a dauber would give - asda kitchen sponges do the job lol)

EASTER FUN...

This morning I have taken my boys to my friends house who lives over the road to do an Easter egg hunt - There is no where really to hide eggs in our back garden so I used hers! I have had the eggs since last year and the rest I put in treat bags with ribbon around them, there was even Easter crackers that got soaking wet, as of course the great British weather - it was chucking it down! So I have taken some snaps of the boys as they were hunting. What a great way to spend an hour on a rainy Saturday morning!
So here are some pictures of them as they ran around! Crafting pictures to come later! Debbi x x x Today I think a challenge!

ITS HERE!!.... STAMPIN' UP!'s MINI CATALOGUE

The long awaited mini catalogue is here for a limited time only and with some brilliant new products in it... As I showcased yesterday the shimmer paint is brilliant and I am sure you will agree a great effect. There are loads of new stamp sets, designer papers, ribbon and embellishments to be had. If you would like your own copy of the catalogue please email me - also if you want to attend my mini openhouse please contact me - 6th April. Over the next couple of days I will be showcasing more of the products that are now available to you.
Thanks for looking and enjoy the catalogue! Debbi x x x