Christmas Extravaganza!

Make Stampin’ Up! your one-stop Christmas shop for all the special people in your life!

The Gift-Giving Guide has ideas for kids, teens, neighbours, scrapbookers, and more! Plus, from 1 November-29 December 2009, receive a FREE Tag or Small Tag punch (a £12.50 value!) when you spend £45 on products from this guide.

Click here to download a PDF copy of the guide. Contact me here to place an order.

I am hosting a Christmas Extravaganza event on Saturday 7th November and Wednesday 11th November - if you would like more details, please email me!

And they're off....

The girls have been furiously crafting away all evening ready to bring you lots of gorgeous eye candy made with the new products and will be posting their makes on their blogs right now! As well as eye candy they have 2 sets of blog candy EACH to give away from their blogs - go visit, leave a comment and see the loveliness and possibly win some fab Stampin' Up! products to boot!

Lousette Ashton - And then I craft

Suzanne Torr - A bowl of Cherries

Jenny Cocks - Don't get mad get crafty!

Well thats it....

....out with the old and in with the new! Stampin' Up! is officially in changeover as of 11pm this evening - Last Chance to buy is now no chance - the old catalogue is consigned to the recycle bin and the new one is ready to go.

Just 30 mins till we see what Lousette, Suzanne and Jenny have come up with on their blogs and get a sneaky peek at some more of the new products - but don't forget to go on a cruise round some Demos blogs too (see my sidebar for a few links) - everyone is celebrating launch day in different ways and with lots of yummy stuff to upload there will be loads to see - grab yourself a cuppa and take a wander!

The new catalogue will be online after 11am tomorrow morning to browse through if you haven't already got a paper copy on its way then please go take a look! The current catalogue is on this page here - you should find the NEW one linked there tomorrow morning. Some of my personal fave new items:

White craft ink!!
New punches galore.
Trendy trees and Medallion stamps especially but oh so many fab new stamp sets.
Wheel storage - oh how I have longed for this!
Kraft cardstock in single colour 12x12 packs
Paper pricking template/mat pack!

and so so so much more - but I'm not going to spoil the fun of reading through and discovering the new bits for yourself - go look!

So its almost time......

.....how excited am I? the new catalogue is full of fab new products Im sure everyone is going to just love. To celebrate the launch, 3 very talented designers are participating in a blog hop after midnight tonight - Lousette Ashton, Suzanne Torr and Jenny Cocks - all well known names from the crafting world, all 3 girls regularly have work featured in various UK magazines and I'm sure you will be familiar with their fabulous work as it definitely stands out. I'm fortunate to have worked with all 3 at various different mags over the past few years and am very lucky to count both Lou and Suzanne as personal friends. I ADORE their work, all of these girls will rock the new products!

Just before 12 midnight I shall post links to each of their blogs - go take the tour and see what they have done with some of the new products! There will also be 2 lots of blog candy to give away from each of the girls blogs - don't miss out on a chance to win!

T-minus 19 days and counting....

...till the NEW Stampin' Up! catalogue is out! And I can promise - no one is going to be disappointed. It's stuffed FULL with some fabulous new products, new stamp sets and new papers. I know I'm a tease dropping all these hints when it's still 19 days to go till the launch - so how about I share of couple of new things right now?? Want to see a new set of Christmas stamps that are PERFECT for this years cards, tags and gift wrap? Want to see a great new product for making boxes, shaker cards, overlays and much more? You do? Well read on McDuff!

Lets start with Window sheets! 12x12 sheets of acetate in 2 weights, medium and thick. Even the medium weight sheets are sturdy enough to make into boxes, and the thick are really sturdy, great for acetate cards, pages and heavier boxes. Use them whole in your scrapbook albums or chop them up and use them how you want! The possibilities are endless. Once of the first things I have done with mine - used them to make swatch books as hostess gifts. This is the 'Soft Subtles' family:


Using the large punch tag, I created clear divider sheets for each colour family. The medium sheets go through a punch really easily. Once I had them punched out, I stamped the design on them in black Stazon.


I wanted to create a uniform look for the swatches which meant the images all had to be stamped in the same place on each tag. I did this using the Stamp-a-ma-jig and SU! grid paper. I put a little bit of repo adhesive onto the grid paper to hold the tags in place as they are too small to use with the Stamp-a-ma-jig alone. I carefully placed the tag over the adhesive and made sure it lined up with the grid lines along one edge to make positioning each new tag to be stamped nice and easy. I then stamped the first of the images - the flower and swirls design from Simply said stamp set - on to the stamp-a-ma-jig sheet and positioned it over the tag. I slid in the stamp-a-ma-jig handle and removed the sheet - and drew lines along the side of the stamp-a-ma-jig handle to mark its position. I now had a quick way to stamp lots of tags with the flower image in the same place over and over by simply adhering the tag in place, lining up the Stamp-a-ma-jig handle with the guide lines drawn on the sheet and stamping away! I repeated the same process for each stamp I wanted to use all on the same sheet of grid paper. Each section of the swatch books has an acetate divider stamped in black with the first letter of the family name - B for Bold Brights, E for earth Elements,R for Rich Regals and S for Soft Subtles using Big Deal alphabet stamps. This is repeated on each of the cardstock tags in the corresponding ink shade. The colour of the card/ink is written on the back of the tag.


This is a new stamp set called 'Tree Trimmings'. Its a set of 4 stamps, 3 baubles and a tied string to 'hang' them. I've used them on a simple card made with perfect Plum card and Perfect Plum ink, and little bit of Whisper White.



....and because I'm feeling generous - here's another new product....... GLITTER! The glitter comes in 2 colourways for 5 pots, I've used the Gold from the Galaxy colourway, medium window sheets and tree trimmings stamps on this card, along with a frame from the 'Frames with a Flourish' set.



So.... has that whet your appetite for the new catalogue a little? I hope it has!!

Last Chance to buy!

The new catalogue is almost with us - and so its now time to announce the retiring products from the 2008/9catalogue! This year for the first time Stampin' Up! have released a 'Last Chance' list of products you can purchase from today, through till 30th September 2009 - many products at 25% and 50% reductions! To bag yourself a bargain today, check out the list here, then email me for info on how to order - but hurry - last chance items are selling fast!

Loads of Love!

I do love this stamp set - its got heaps of potential and when you add the accessories set in with it then you have a set for virtually any occassion. For this card I stamped the truck twice, and cut out one and layered it over the top of the first image to give depth to the wheels and, the load on the back and the driver. I used watercolour wonder crayons and an aqua brush to colour the body of the truck to give a cloudy effect, and the crayons with blender pens for the other areas. I also used a little of the ribbon from this months promotion. The Stamp-a-ma-jig is an essential tool to use with this 2 step stamping set to line up your chosen 'load' in the back of the truck, as well as the driver in the cab!

• Stamps: Loads of Love, Loads of Love accessories
• Ink: Classic ink - Basic Black and Basic Grey
• Watercolour wonder crayons: Neutrals set, Soft Subtles set
• Cardstock: Basic Grey, So Saffron, Whisper White
• Paper: Washington Apple
• Ribbon: So Saffrom 5/8 grosgrain (free ribbon bundle from August2009 Promotion)
• Punch: Scallop edge
• Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Paper snips, Aqua painter, Blender pens
  

Tip: when using dimensionals to layer up tiny parts of your image (like the thin edge of the truck rook here) - use your paper snips to cut into smaller pieces while still attached to the backing sheet and use a paper piercer or fine tweezers to lift the small pieces and place on the image.

Baby cards and a reminder.

It's been a while since I updated here! I have been on holiday and with the schools off its very difficult to get time to create anything to share with you!

First, here are a couple of birth announcements using 'Bundle of Joy' stamp set, found on page 28 of the current 2008/09 catalogue. The cards are 10.5cm square. I stamped a bear and a giraffe onto white cardstock, coloured with water colour wonder crayons and an aqua painter, then cut out the images. the bear is layered on foam, the giraffe straight to the card. I stamped the giraffe onto the front of the card before layering the cut out giraffe image over the top, so that the ears and mane detail were on the card front itself, as these are very fiddly to cut out!

• Cardstock: Basic Grey, Whisper White
  
• Stamps: Bundle of Joy
• Water colour Wonder crayons: Earth Elements set, Naturals set.
• Ink: Classic ink pads in Basic Black, Basic Grey

Next is a another 10.5cm square card, using 'A little bit of happiness' hostess set. Again I stamped the image onto white cardstock and coloured with watercolour wonder crayons and blender pens, then cut out each section of the image with my paper snips and reassembled the stamp on the front of the card. I stamped the large heart section twice and cut it out to layer it up on foam. To decorate the front of the card I used a background stamp over a mask to create a 'space' for the image to go.

• Cardstock: So Saffron, Whisper White.
  
• Stamps: A little bit of Happiness - Hostess set, Polka Dot background.
• Water colour Wonder crayons: Earth Elements, Naturals, Soft Subtles.
• Ink: Classic ink pads in Basic Black, Pretty in Pink.

A little reminder about the Stampin' Up! Summer design challenge - all your entries must be in by 30th Aug!

This months ribbon offer is proving a real fave with customers, 18m of ribbon *free* is not to be sniffed at! There's still time to get your orders in for this promotion, to qualify for the free ribbon bundle your order total must be £45 before shipping - don't forget you can combine with a friend to make the £45 and share the bundle - that's still 9m of ribbon each! Orders and payments must reach me and be banked/cleared by 28th August.

I don't know about you but I'm very excited about the new catalogue! Demonstrators are kept in suspense as to what is being added just as much as our customers! I hope to have stock of the new catalogues by 1st October. I am now taking workshop bookings for the new catalogue for October to December. Current available October dates are 4th - 10th, to book a workshop Nov 1st onwards please contact me for available dates.

FREE ribbon!

From 1-31 August, you can get an exclusive ribbon bundle* FREE when you:

spend £45 on any Stampin’ Up! products as a customer

OR

host a £300 workshop

Please contact me for more details.

*Ribbon bundle includes 9.1 metres each Certainly Celery 5/8” poly-twill ribbon and So Saffron 5/8” grosgrain ribbon.

Fancy a free Catalogue?

Get a free copy of the current Stampin' Up! Idea book and catalogue packaged with the September issue of Crafts Beautiful Magazine exclusively through Tesco's - September issue on sale in Tesco's stores at the end of July 2009.