Stampin Up Goodies

Sooooo many lovely Stampin Up Goodies! I'm a very lucky girl - I had birthday money from Andy to spend and everyone who came to the party was very generous so I got lots and lots of goodies!

The things I bought with my birthday money.

Sale-a-bration stamp sets

 - lucky me I got 2!

Hostess set!

and more hostess goodies! 

I've always wanted the All in the Family set but had never saved up enough. I'm going to have fun with these!

I made these little Thank You gifts to go in with people's orders. They're based on the make and take Linda did at the party.

We had a bad week last week so the Newton Crop on Sunday was the first time to play. I came up with these cards

These two were based on the Demo Linda showed us. They use the swirly stamp from the Always Elegant set to make patterned paper, the scalloped square punch and the adorable owl from the Sale-a-bration set.

Background made with swirly stamp from Always Elegant set stamped with Versamark on Lidl card. Owl from the Sale-a-bration set and sentiment from the Level 3 Hostess Set

Background made with swirly stamp from Always Elegant set stamped with Versamark on Lidl card (I love that stamp - I can see myself using it lots). Toppers made with All in the Family set.

This is the Jumbo roller with babygros on it and I love it. I'm at the age where loads of my friends are having babies so I can see it having lots of use. I was just having a play here to see what worked.

Two final pictures - the first two pages to go in our wedding scrapbook. I've made up my Creative Memories Make a Wish album with 2 sets of pages and protectors so it's all ready to be filled.

I had a voucher for an enlargement from Photobox so decided to print this photo as 12 x 12 to fill a whole page of the scrapbook.

This is a really simple page, but I loved the idea when I saw something similar in a magazine. The leaf ribbon I found in Newton Abbot with Linda really finishes it off - it didn't look quite right before.

It was lovely to see everyone at the Newton Crop. Thanks for being so supportive everyone xxx

Black Tie Dinner Anyone?

Anyone fancy a posh dinner? Mum and Dad are having their friends over for a 'country house weekend' at their new house and asked me to make some invitations. I was going to design something myself but then found this stunning template by Sophisticuts on the Thyme Graphics website. Robo had other ideas to begin with but settled to cutting in the end. They take quite a while to cut and assemble but I'm so pleased with the end result. Mum was delighted when she picked them up this morning. It's totally tongue in cheek and they'll have a very silly time as they always do, but hopefully they'll have a great weekend.

Stampin' Up Party

Last Wednesday I had a wonderful evening with loads of friends over for a Stampin' Up party. Linda was our wonderful demonstrator and she gave us a brilliant party. Lots of inspiration and temptation (it's all so lovely!). She showed us a lovely card, then we made this valentines card and treat pouch (inspired by Andrea Walford)

Thanks to everyone who came. It was lovely seeing you all. Also thanks everyone who couldn't come - we know you would have if you could have.





I can't wait for all my goodies to come through. Saving my birthday money from Andy for this was definitely worth it.

P.S. We finished the last of the flapjack yesterday - mmmmm it was yummy!

Playing with Digi Stamps - 13th Feb

I had a day playing with Digi stamps and my promarkers today. I love Digi stamps because they are so flexible. I was just playing really so other than the valentines card I've not put any sentiments on them so I can add it as needed.

My Valentines card for Andy - the first one with 'Husband' on it. The Digi stamp was a freebie from Dustin Pike

This one uses the freebie - 'Lynda goes Shopping' from Little Claire. I made the backing by wrapping the card with shimmery ribbon. It's a bit different but seems to work well.

These two are also made with the new Digi Stamps from Little Claire

Finally this one is made with a Digi freebie from Bugaboo Stamps. It's not a colour I'd normally use but I thought I'd try something a bit different.











Well that's a few pieces of the mammoth pile of ribbon used up!

Scarves!

Now - how impressed are you? After being inspired by Sally knitting her lovely scarf at the Newton Crop I decided to be brave and attempt the Ondas scarf that Auntie Maggie gave me for my birthday. I'm not a knitter so I was rather nervous when I opened my present to find a ball of Ondas Wool, a pair of size 4 knitting needles and a sheet of instructions, but it was actually very easy. This Video from Black Sheep Wools shows how to do it in nice step by step actions.

I'm now hooked (or should that be needled) and have made 3 scarves already. I love the fact you don't have to be too exact and it grows so quickly - it only takes about an evening to make a whole scarf.

Lidl had some similar wool on offer earlier this week so I decided to see if that worked the same. You can see the difference - the Lidl's wool is the white/ light blue. It's slightly thinner so doesn't give such large ruffles, but it still looks good. It also works out at a 1/4 of the price as the Lidls wool was in packs of 4 for £2.99 and it only took 2 balls of wool to make a scarf.

Flower Arranging Course 8th Feb

I really enjoyed the flower arranging course today (not a stick or tin can in sight!). We were shown how to make a valentines wreath. It turns out it's amazingly easy - you'd never guess it started as a wire coat hanger would you!. I used some paper roses I bought in a craft shop sale last year. Ideal as they won't go off. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Digi Stamps from Little Claire! Get one FREE!

I've been a fan of Little Claire stamps for about a year now since being introduced to them by Linda. I have their monthly kit through (the one kit I subscribe to) and love it, but I've had an email through today saying they're now doing digi stamps! I'm so pleased as I love digi stamps - for their flexibility and for the fact that they don't need storage space. Head on over and have a look - here's the information:

Something for FREE! To celebrate the launch of our NEW DIGI DOWNLOADS, we have one of our designs for you to download for free.                 'Lydia goes shopping' will be yours for free from our NEW Digi Download section  on our web, here she is with a card made using the image printed from the download. What are 'Digi Downloads'? A very good idea!   You just choose your design, download to your computer and  then your design is there ready for you to use whenever you wish, you can even alter  the size so you can make it as large or small as you like depending upon your  project, just print the image onto thin card, then colour and mount just like stamps. The best thing is; your 'digi' images are a fraction of the cost of stamps, ours start  from 50p, you receive your chosen design instantly - no more waiting for the postie,  no more postage & packing costs, and less mess than using inks - no danger of  smudging or missed images (great also if your hands aren't working like they used to!) As the card above shows, the only difference is the amazing cost saving and convenience! What to do? Go to our web: www.littleclaire.co.uk click on 'Digi Downloads' in our left-hand tab,  choose 'Lydia goes Shopping' from the choice of designs and click on the button  that says 'Download Here'  this will give you your free image! Simply print out and make your card - it's that simple! All 'Digi Downloads' are clean, clear images without the 'Little Claire' watermark. Go and give it a try and enjoy your Free image   (we'd love to receive any card that  you make with this free image for our gallery - maybe a special newsletter could go out  showing all your cards!) Little Claire x

A Crafty Few Weeks

Well it's been a bit of a crafty few weeks which has been lovely. Rhiannon and me went to the Craft Show at Westpoint which was a lovely day out. It was her first time so a bit overwhelming but lots of interesting things to see. There weren't nearly as many people visiting as on previous years, but that was good as it meant less of a crush. We had a good wonder round and each made a dried flower keyring and a morsbag. Neither of us spent much but I did get a bargain - all these ribbons for £3!!!! I really have to squish them to make them fit in the A4 Really Useful Box. I think I need to be using lots more ribbon from now on.

Last Sunday was the Newton Abbot Crop. I havn't seen everyone since before our honeymoon so it was lovely to see them. I took Nona her birthday card and present. It was a week late, but not as late as her Christmas presents which I also delivered! We just havn't had a chance to see each other since the beginning of November.

It's the first time I've made a card based on an online challenge sketch. It was by Sweet Sketch Wednesday. I'm pleased with the finished card (Andy came up with the idea of 'Nona' on the camera strap instead of Nikon) but I didn't work out how to link into a challenge entry in time to enter it. I'm gradually learning how to do things (I've worked out links this time), but there's a way to go yet. The papers are from Papermania, the card from DCWV and the Digi stamp is a freebie from Dustin Pike. I'm also gradually beginning to get to grips with my Promarkers. The photo has come up a bit washed out for some reason.

I managed to get some crafting done at the Crop and worked on 5 scrapbook pages!!!!!! I can hear your shock! This from the person who hasn't done any scrapbooking for months and months and months! I got inspiration from several pages shown in Creating Keepsakes so finally broke into our Wedding Photos. I've got a bit more work to do on the pages before I show you, but hopefully I'll finish them this week.

Today I went to the Do Crafts demo at Trago and met a lovely lady demonstrating some lovely cards. They'd sold out of the few things I wanted and I managed to resist the goodybag (even tho it had a gorgeous wedding cake stamp in it). It's good as it means I can save my money for the Stampin Up party I'm having at our house on Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to it.