Sale-a-bration is here!

Hands up who loves free stuff?  I know! Me too!  And for every £45 you spend in the catalogue you can now choose from a selection of exclusive gifts....that's FREE stamp sets and paper packs for YOU!

Cllick on the Sale-a-bration leaflet in the sidebar to see the gorgeous FREE product on offer.  If you'd like to make an order and get your FREE stamps and paper, please give me a call.

Sneak peeks and belated birthdays

I'm back with a couple of sneak peeks from the upcoming Sale-a-bration promotion!  These projects feature a beautiful new paper pack that you'll be able to get your hands on for FREE from tomorrow!

First of all, a couple of valentine's cards:

The papers are beautifully distressed, so I've continued that with sponging on my card base.  I've used the Victoria Lace Crochet Trim to continue the vintage style.  I've used linen thread to hang a tiny tag stamped with "love" from the Tiny Tags stamp set, punched out with the tiny tag punch, and a heart embellishment cut with the Timeless Type sizzlet alphabet dies.  I've stamped the heart with a brocade style image from Tiny Tags and covered it with crystal effects for shine.

The second card uses two co-ordinating designs from the same DSP pack.  I've torn one layer for an aged, distressed look, and added a knot in Poppy parade stitched poly ribbon.  A different heart, but also cut from the Timeless Type sizzlets, is suspended from a little safety pin from my stash.

Now on to those belated birthdays.  There have been some birthdays in my team of late, but I've been a bit lax and a couple of them are going out a day late :(  However, better late than never.  And thanks to the fabulous hostess stamp set, Happiest Birthday Wishes, I've got a belated birthday sentiment!

Here's the card I made....

Isn't that paper scrummy?  The colours are pool party, very vanilla and cameo coral...I love that combo.  I've added a peek of scalloped ribbon border punched cardstock at the bottom, and ruffled ribbon at the top, and a distressed lollipop flower cut with the Circles No 2 die for the big shot, finished off with an In Colour printed brad.

I thought I'd make the girls a little gift too, so I threw together some matching skinny notepads.

I've used the new large scalloped circle punch from the mini catalogue, and made a monogram cut with the Timeless Type alphabet sizzlets.

Here are the sets:

And finally, all together....don't you love how easy it is to co-ordinate with Stampin' Up!

Hope you like my projects today...come back tomorrow to see these papers in all their glory, plus the free stamp sets on offer during Sale-a-bration.

Allie x

Getting ready to Sale-a-Brate!!!!

I am so excited about tomorrow!  It's one of the most rewarding times of the Stampin' Up year...the launch of Sale-a-bration!

Sale-a-bration is an annual promotion where for every £45 you spend in the catalogue or mini catalogue, you get to choose from a selection of fabulous freebies!  This special offer has been extended this year, to give you even more chances to earn your choice of four gorgeous free stamp sets.  And for the first time, there's also a free 12 x 12" designer series paper pack too.  I can't show you the goodies until tomorrow, but I can promise they are gorgeous, and bang on trend!

So, for every £45 you spend from  24 January to 31 March, you can pick a gift...with more than 2 months in the promotion, there's plenty of time to get as many freebies as you like!

Pop back tomorrow to see what's on offer and have a look at some sneak peek projects....I'll be posting links to the Sale-a-bration flyer on line, and as always you can check out the Idea Book and Catalogue and the new Mini Catalogue online, via the links at the top of the page.  If you'd like to make an order, or take a look in person, give me a call!

Get ready to Sale-a-brate! See you tomorrow!!!!!!

Swaps?

I am still not sure which of my latest projects will be my swap for training on Saturday!  I just can't decide!  Here are some more Spice Cake projects.  Are you fed up of Spice Cake yet? lol.  I just wanted to show you how versatile designer series papers can be.  And I still have more than half a pack left, so at £9.95 they are also amazing value for money!  You get an awful lot of bang for your crafting buck.  So first, a little handbag gift bag...

This cute little project uses just one 6" square piece of DSP, some scraps of card and ribbon, and some brads.

As you can see, I've made it deep enough to hold a fair-sized gift or little pack of sweets, so it would make a great table favour.  Next we have...clothes peg magnet calendars...

Yep, a regular wooden clothes peg, covered with a little strip of DSP (I attached it with sticky strip for a good bond) and decorated with a ribbon bow and a bitty button backed with punched cardstock.  Add a magnet to the back and a calendar, and you're done!  How easy?  But very cute!

These would make a great gift.  You could make two or three co-ordinating ones, leave out the calendar, attach them to a stamped card and give them as fridge magnet memo holders.  I'd be happy with that as a little gift.  Finally, here they are all together.

I'm expecting the lovely UPS man tomorrow, with a little box of new goodies...so you might get something that's not made from Spice Cake papers! lol....or...maybe not!  See you tomorrow to find out!

Hugs

Allie x

You can never have too much cake!

Firstly, apologies for the lack of post yesterday, it seems I haven't yet got the hang of scheduled posts!  So, today we'll have a "twofer" :)

I hope you aren't too fed up of my adventures with Spice Cake!  I promised you a 3-d project and here it is...(apologies again for the photos...are we ever going to see sunlight again?)....a lovely bit of Spice Cake gift packaging...

I love these cute little stacks of pillow boxes, which are great for packaging little gifts like earrings, sweet treats or gift cards.  Here I'e used Soft suede, more mustard and pool party cardstock and three co-ordinating Spice Cake designs, all held together with my favourite pool party ruffled ribbon.

For added decoration, I've added a leaf from French Foliage, stamped in soft suede ink onto more mustard cardstock, and cut out.

And because I love a matching set, I thought I'd make a matching card...this one was inspired by a card I saw online.  I could have sworn I pinned it, but I can't find it anywhere, so I'll keep looking and come back and give credit when I find it again!

It's very simple, using another of the leaf images from French Foliage.

I think this could be a more unisex card, so I've used some linen thread instead of ribbon.  I've decorated the inside with a strip of designer paper and punched cardstock.

And here's the set together.

And now for part 2...I thought I'd create another gift and card matching set...so I came up with these.

This time I've used the medallion birthday stamp from Happiest Birthday Wishes.  And to go with it, a matching notepad holder containing a long skinny notepad I got from The Range, and decorated with a monogram cut from my Timeless Type sizzlet alphabet...

And finally, all together...

Phew! That was a long post!  Hope you like my gift sets!  I'll be holding a class based around some of my Spice Cake designs soon.  I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peak at my swaps for Team Training next weekend.

Supplies Used: (All Stampin Up! Unless Otherwise Stated)

1. Card – Very Vanilla, Pool Party, More Mustard, Soft Suede

2. Papers – Spice Cake

3. Stamps – French Foliage, Happiest Birthday Wishes, Perfect Pairs

4. Embellishments – Linen thread, Pool Party ruffled ribbon

5. Tools – Dotted scallop ribbon border punch, scalloped circle punch, 1 inch circle punch,  circles #2 big shot die, pillow box die, timeless type alphabet dies, big shot

6. Mediums – Soft suede classic ink

Vintage hearts

It's day three of my projects using the new Spice Cake designer series papers, and I've still got plenty of inspiration left!  You can't help but be full of ideas with these gorgeous designs.

Today, I have a vintage style card, inspired by old fashioned Victorian valentines.

I've used two co-ordinating paper designs from the pack and covered the join with Victoria lace crochet trim.  This is an idea taken from vintage decor, where a floral and stripe wallpaper were often separated with a picture or dado rail.

 I've used a fabulous new Charming stamp set from the mini catalogue to stamp the frame around the sentiment and the script on the heart (you'll be seeing a lot more of this stamp set from me!)  I also used the crochet trim around the punched heart.  I've sponged with crumb cake ink to distress and age the card, and spritzed it with a marker and the spritzer tool.

I love the dimension of the gathered trim around the heart punch...very vintage looking.  Again, a very different style for me.  Hope you like it!

Back tomorrow with a Spice Cake 3d project!

Supplies Used: (All Stampin Up! Unless Otherwise Stated)

1. Card – Very vanilla, river rock

2. Papers – Spice Cake

3. Stamps – Charming, tiny tags, petite pairs

4. Embellishments – Victoria crochet lace trim

5. Tools – Full heart punch, decorative label punch, extra large oval punch, Eyelet border punch, spritzer

6. Mediums – Soft suede ink, crumb cake ink, soft suede marker

More cake :)

Welcome to day two of my Spice Cake DSP projects! Today's card again showcases the papers and matching big buttons, but with a totally different look.

The brown button backed with a more mustard scalloped circle reminded me of a sunflower, so that's what I've made!  I used a circle punch for the leaves and threaded the button with a thin sliver of cardstock.

The base of the card was inspired by the shape of the sentiment, a fab new hostess set.  I traced the shape I wanted freehand and then cut it with my paper snips in the green stripe paper, but it looked a bit bare, so I added layers in two more of the papers.

I finished the inside of the card with a piece of very vanilla cardstock, a strip of co-ordinating DSP and another stamp from the birthday set.

I hope you like today's card...it's a very different style for me.  Back tomorrow with something a bit romantic ;)

Allie

Supplies Used: (All Stampin Up! Unless Otherwise Stated)

1. Card – Soft suede, very vanilla, more mustard

2. Papers – Spice Cake

3. Stamps – Happiest Birthday Wishes

4. Embellishments – Spice Cake Designer Button

5. Tools – 1 3/4 Circle punch, scallop circle punch

6. Mediums – soft suede classic ink

Yummy new spice cake and BIG buttons

So here I am with the first of my projects using items from the new Spring Mini catalogue.  I'm so excited!  I shall be using the new Spice Cake designer series papers over the next few days.  They are absolutely GORGEOUS!  I wanted to show how versatile these papers are by making several different styles of card with the papers as the focus.

The papers feature the new in colour, Pool Party, which is one of my absolute favourite SU colours, teamed with very vanilla, soft suede, river rock, pear pizzazz and more mustard.  I've not been a fan of more mustard, but in this combination, I love it.  The designs feature medallions, geometrics, stripes and paisleys, which are everywhere in design and fashion right now, so they are bang on trend.

My first card is a valentine/love card, or it could be used as a thinking of you card, so it's quite versatile.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures, I kept waiting for the sun to come out, but the light here has been terrible all day!  I'm looking at light boxes so that I can get better ones in future.  I wish you could see the vibrancy of the colours better!

Notice that embellishment?  It's the new Spice Cake Designer Buttons, and they are HUGE!  I've threaded the button with pool party ruffled ribbon and tied a bow, and then tucked the sentiment panel behind.  Here's a close up.

I've decorated the inside simply with a panel of very vanilla, embellished with strips of pool party and soft suede cardstock,  punched with the new dotted scallop ribbon border punch.

And here, in honour of my Stampin' Up mummy, Jules, is the arty farty angle ;)  Look at the dimension that button gives the project!  Lovely!

If you're wondering about the rounded ends of the strips of DSP, I cut 3.5cm strips and then used the 1 3/8" circle punch, upside down, inserting the strip in through the punch hole itself and centering it in the circle before punching (I hope that made sense!)

Supplies Used: (All Stampin Up! Unless Otherwise Stated)

1. Card – More mustard, very vanilla, pool party, soft suede

2. Papers – Spice Cake (Spring Mini)

3. Stamps – Petite pairs (sentiment)

4. Embellishments –Spice Cake Designer Buttons (Spring mini), ruffled ribbon in pool party

5. Tools – 1 3/8" circle punch, large oval punch, scalloped oval punch, dotted scalloped ribbon border punch

6. Mediums – Soft suede classic ink

Hope you like it!  Back with another card tomorrow!

Allie x

Wooohooo! The new Spring Mini is here!!!!

I'm so excited!!! For the first time ever, the UK has a Spring Mini Catalogue, and Stampin' Up has done us proud. It is packed full of gorgeous new crafting goodness, including some long anticipated new punches!  Anyone who has used Stampin' Up punches will know they are the best, and one of the most exciting new additions is the cupcake builder punch with its co-ordinating stamp set.  Together with the new large scallop circle punch, which sits perfectly behind the 1 3/8" circle punch, they make for cute cards in an instant!

The other big news is the addition of the Simply Adorned jewellery range...a selection of glass locket-style charms, into which you can slip your little works of art.  There's also a matching necklace chain and bracelet and jewelled charms, which all together will make unique art jewellery.

On top of all that, there are some fabulous new product suites, including designer series papers, stamp sets and trims.

I'll be back later with some new projects made with items from the Spring Mini, and news of some exciting upcoming events and classes.

Allie xx