Jollicrafts: 2014

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Silver swallowtail

My good friend Lesley loved the rolled flower art frame I made her so much, she asked me to make a companion piece, and this is what I came up with. I have silver embossed the swallowtail stamp and watercoloured it in pool party, coastal cabana and Bermuda bay. The background piece uses En Francais stamped onto very vanilla and distressed with sponging and gorgeous grunge ink splatters. I just love this stunning butterfly stamp! Hope she likes it, and I hope you do too. Xx

Monday, 31 March 2014

Flower art!

Today I am sharing a gift I made for a good friend who recently redecorated her lounge. She was struggling to find artwork to fit in with her colour scheme, so I decided to make her some :)

I used a piece of Retro Fresh DSP to back the aperture in the box frame, and then made roses using card stock and the spiral flower die from the spring mini. I created a trendy ombré effect by graduating the colour from Pool Party to Coastal Cabana and then Bermuda Bay. I spritzed the flowers with smooch spritz and added a rhinestone to the centre for extra glitz. I used Tombow adhesive and the excellent and oft overlooked rubber craft mat for my glueing.

My friend loved her gift, and has ordered another one. I hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by. Please do leave a comment, I love to read them.

Hugs, Allie x

Saturday, 29 March 2014

Happy Mother's Day to One in a Million!

I have a quick one layer clean and simple card to share with you, using the Simple Stems stamp set and the gorgeous sentiment set, Million and One. My colours are real red, costal cabana and pear pizzazz. I didn't have a suitable leaf stamp, so I made a stencil with the wing if the bird punch and sponged through. I finished off with a trio of rhinestones and flower centres stamped with a pencil eraser to tie in the black from the sentiment.

Hope you like it!

Stampin Allie x

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

New catalogue goodies!

I can't believe it's February already! In fact, I can't believe it's 2014...I don't know where the last year went. It was a year of massive upheaval and change for me, but an exciting one, as I am now full-time guardian to my wonderful year-old grandson Zachary. It's taken a bit of getting used to, but I'm getting there! I had let my dreams of a Stampin' Up business go on the back burner, but the new year has seen the ambition to work toward my own business start to burn again, so I have re-signed with Stampin' Up this week! I'm so excited for this fresh start and I hope that people will support me in this new phase of my life.

So, this week saw the launch of the gorgeous new Stampin' Up seasonal catalogue, packed full of fresh products and ideas for Spring. It was also the launch of this year's Sale-a-Bration promotion, which is so exciting.....a choice of free products with every £45 spent...who doesn't love FREE??? And the goodies up for grabs this year are awesome.....I'll be showcasing them over the coming days and weeks.

So, on to today's card. We often use a different sentiment to change up a card, but I thought it would be interesting to make two cards with the same layout and sentiment, but change the images to make the card suit different occaisions. Here's my first one:

The lovely flower image is from the Simple Stems stamp set, new in the seasonal catalogue. I love how the fresh colours (Crisp Cantaloupe, Strawberry Slush and Costal Cabana) pop against the background of Baked Brown Sugar.and the crisp clean white of the tea lace doily, banner and baker's twine. Did you wonder where the little scallop under the sentiment came from? It's one of the sides of the pennant from the pennant builder punch! Just the perfect little pop of colour. With the flowers and sentiment, I think this card works well for any occasion for a best girlfriend, or even Mum.

In this second version, all I've changed is the image, swapping the flowers for the hearts from the Language of Love stamp set, also from the seasonal catalogue, stamped in Strawberry Slush and Raspberry Ripple classic inks (mmmm, sounds like an ice cream sundae!) And now it's a valentine card!

I hope you enjoyed my makes for today. Look out for daily posts and a blog redesign coming soon. If you don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, and are interested in any of the items I've used, or would like me to send you copies of our catalogues, please contact me...details above! My online shop should be up and running again soon! And if you'd like to have a go at playing with some of the goodies and making projects like those above, I can show you how! Get in touch for a chat :)

Thanks for looking, and jolly crafting!

Allie x

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Julie's Jems Sale-a-Bration Blog Hop!

It's almost time for Sale-a-bration (SAB), one of the most exciting times in the Stampin' Up calendar! During Sale-a-bration, for every £45 you order, you can choose a product from an exclusive SAB range, ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!! What a deal!

Sale-a-bration runs from January 28 to March 31, and there is no limit to the number of free items you can snag in that time.

To celebrate the start of this fantastic annual promotion, the ladies in our team, Julie's Jems, are running a blog hop today, showcasing projects made with SAB goodies.

If you've found your way to me from my fabulous Stampin' Up Mummy Julie Kettlewell's blog, welcome! I know she will have wowed you with her creations. Please follow the link the the next blog in the blog hop, which should be the fantastic Sharon Glynn. I'll add a full list at the end in case you get lost!

So here are my two Sale-a-bration makes, using a SAB exclusive sentiment stamp set called See Ya Later. (Excuse the quality of the later photos, it was very late and I couldn't get the light right!)

This is a box card I made for my grandson Zachary's first birthday...the sentiment from the See Ya Later set really captures how I feel about my special little man...."Once in a lifetime you meet someone who changes everything" The box card was made following a fab tutorial by Monica Gale, you can find it here. The little animals are from the Zoo Babies stamp set and I've cut them out with my paper snips. I added some highlights of red glimmer paper for sparkle.

My second project is a simple card using another of the sentiments..I love the little alligator! You may have noticed another little sneak peek...the papers are from a gorgeous new pack called Fresh Prints, from the new seasonal catalogue which also launches on Tuesday. Please get in touch if you would like a copy of any of our catalogues.