Recipe for sneak peek 5 Circle Circus

Back home again now and still not a minute to spare because I'm busy washing and cleaning, lol. Oh I'm looking forward to a break. But I don't want to let you down so here's another full recipe for a sneak peek I shared with you earlier.

I love this new stamp set because when combined with the punches you have the perfect recipe for quick and easy but visually appealing cards.

The new catty also has a new 1-3/4" Circle punch to fit the large flower circle (the turquoise one in the pic above). Bright and bold suits this set I think.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Circle Circus, Oval All

Cardstock: Basic Black, Taken with Teal, Only Orange

Ink: Versamark

Punches: 1-1/4" Circle, 1/2" Circle

Other: Black EP, Hodgepodge

This card uses the reverse spotlighting technique from over at Splitcoaststampers.

Have a great weekend.

Sara xx

Recipe for sneak peek 4 Tree Trimmings

I think (and hope) that this card looks rather elegant. It could be done in any colour scheme that you choose, I went with purples (already admitted as one of my favourite colour sets for christmas) but traditional reds or greens would look equally good. Even better, why not make a set as a gift, in different colours?

This card uses the full set of 4 stamps from the Tree Trimmings stamp set.

Recipe

Stamp Sets: Tree Trimmings, Occasional Greetings

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White

Ink: Versamark, Elegant Eggplant

Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon: Elegant Eggplant

Other: White EP

I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to place the the smaller baubles in the background. The largest bauble is stamped with Versamark onto dark cardstock, heat embossed with white powder, cut out with a narrow border and raised on dimensionals.

Off again to do a quick bit of revision and then out for a curry with my classmates. Last day tomorrow and then back home - phew, thank goodness.

Sara xx

More details for sneak peek 3 Autumn Days

I already covered most of the elements of this card here so I'm just going to explain the new stamp set elements that I added to the card.

I used just 2 of the 6 stamps from the Autumn Days set. The 5 foliage elements are very versatile and although the set is called Autumn Days it can be used effectively all year round.

Here I'd stamped the little maple leaf? (don't really know my leaves so may have that wrong) in Versamark and heat embossed with gold EP to create a background.

For the pheasant I used markers direct to the stamp and stamped onto shrink plastic. I really should have gone a shade lighter with the colours because they intensify when shrunk. I used Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal and Close to Cocoa. Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise and Creamy Caramel would probably have been a better combination. Another lesson learned!

Hope you're having more fun than I am. Off now to do some more revision ready for tomorrow's test.

Sara xx

Recipe for sneak peek 2 Animal Stories

Hi folks. I'm back in Cardiff again and my brain is stuffed to bursting. I'm sure that other things are falling out of it now that I've got so many facts and acronyms crammed in there. I'll probably have forgotten at least half of them by the time the actual exam rolls around. Heyho, I can only do what I can do.

One of the brand new stamp sets in the lush new catty is the very cute Animal Stories, a set of four stamps.

These are great to use in full or you can think outside the box (or inside it in this case, lol) and zoom in on just a portion of the image.

Recipe

Stamp sets: Animal Stories, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip (textured)

Ink: Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink

Taffeta Ribbon: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Reinker: Apricot Appeal

Punches: Scallop Square, Scallop Oval, Large Oval

This card was actually harder than it looks because I had to measure and place the stamped images quite precisely to get the right bits to show through the windows, that's where my stamp-a-ma-jig helped. I knew I wanted to use Apricot for the giraffe but then I didn't have a matching ribbon so I used my matching reinker on some Whisper White - hey presto, matching ribbon! Gotta love those reinkers, so many uses in addition to the obvious.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

A roaring good fun tissue pack holder and news of SWU contest and award

First, an apology. I haven't hopped to as many blogs as I would have liked this week, or even blogged as much as I would have liked.

The hotel I've been staying in for the training course is so convenient (my room was on Level 2 and the training room was on Level 1), the food is great (breakfast, second breakfast (aka. morning snack), 3 course lunch and afternoon snack all included and yes I am now a hippo, lol) but the internet arrangements are rubbish! It's something like £15 a day for internet connection. I already pay about a tenner more than that a month for my mobile broadband dongle that I took with me but I couldn't get a strong enough signal in the hotel to use it. Coincidence? I suspect not. After a couple of days I found a local coffee house that had a good enough signal but we don't get much time free within their opening hours.

It's back to Cardiff this afternoon for another week so please bear with me if I'm slow to stop by.

Now - onto the crafting. This week's challenge on Stamp With Us is to create anything but a card. I make plenty of boxes week to week anyway and so I decided instead, to make another handbag tissue holder (see here for earlier version). I love SU punches because for once, they're actually designed for use with card - so many on the market are only designed to punch paper. This project uses no stamps, just card, ink and punches:

Recipe

Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Punches: Scallop Circle, 1-3/8" Circle, 1-1/4" Circle, 1/2" Circle, 1/8" Circle, Large Oval, Boho Blossoms, Corner Rounder

Non-SU: Small pack of tissues

The design is based on the one here by Angie Kennedy Juda. I adapted it for the punches that I have available. As we don't yet have the Small Oval punch over here I used the Large Oval, reinserted the Oval into the punch (as Angie does with the Scallop Circle to make the mane), to create a smaller oval (cut in half for the legs) and used the remaining piece for the tail. The 1" Circle punch is still on my wish list (I've gone for the new Butterfly, Heart to Heart and Eyelet Border punches, greedy aren't I, lol) so I used the 1-1/4" Circle punch instead. The tissue pack is then stuck to the inside back cover.

Please go take a look at the rest of the Design Team's creations and I hope that you have chance to play along this week. We have two new great incentives; a brand new blinkie award for the SWU top spot and a chance to win free entry to the Stamp With Us Winter online class.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sara xx

Hurray!!! The 2009-10 Stampin' Up! Catalogue and Idea Book launches today

Yes!!!

It launched today! I've been itching to share this with you. Click here for the 2009-10 Stampin' Up! Catalogue and Idea Book:

One of the new Level 2 hostess sets is Whimsical Wings, a set of four stamps:

As promised here is the recipe for sneak peek 1 which uses two of the stamps from this set:

Recipe:

Stamp set: Whimsical Wings

Cardstock: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Almost Apricot, Barely Banana, Pale Plum

Ink: Versamark

SU Markers: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Perfect Plum

Reinkers: Almost Apricot, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Pale Plum

Other: Black EP, Brads, Brayer

I used a brayer to create the background with the reinkers, stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with black EP. Each flower was stamped and the central tendrils coloured with a co-ordinating, darker marker. These were cut out and attached with brads.

Hopefully when studying is over I'll find time to make a vid to demonstrate the brayer technique.

Now grab a cuppa, put your feet up and have a browse of the new catty. If you'd like to place an order then please email me at sarastamper123@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

Sara xx

A final farewell to the For Father stamp set and sneak peek 8

Hi to you all from Cardiff today. This is a card for a male friend who's birthday is next week. I kept the design simple because I couldn't lug too much crafting stuff with me. I've used the For Father set which retires tomorrow (aah) - so last, last chance to buy it and with 50% off.

Recipe

Stamp sets: For Father, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Really Rust, Whisper White

Ink: Not Quite Navy, SU Markers

Other: Crafters Toolkit

Today's sneak peek 8 is from the very festive, Christmas Jingle, Scrappin' Kit.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the very last day to get items on the retired list and Thursday the new catalogue launches!!!!

Right back to the hotel now to complete my assignment and do some revision for the test in the morning, the tutors are slave drivers :-(

Thanks for stopping by.

Sara xx

SWU sketch challenge and sneak peek 7

Welcome to another Stamp With Us challenge. This week it's a sketch:

Now I almost always use stamps and technically I still have here (for the sentiment) but I thought I'd push a little outside my comfort zone and I've used a rub-on for my main image:

Recipe

Stamp set: Fresh Cuts

Cardstock: So Saffron, More Mustard

DSP: Haiku

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Rub-ons: Hidden Garden Blossoms

Other: Pretties Kit, Crafters toolkit

Non-SU: Cuttlebug embossing folder

I used the groove of my paper cutter and my bone folder to create the embossed square around the main image. The Haiku DSP is only available until Wednesday 30 September (but we have some fantastic new papers arriving in the 2009-10 catalogue on Thursday).

This weekend's a bit of a whirlwind for me. This afternoon I'm off to Cardiff for a week's training so poor DH is left at the ranch looking after Bess on his own. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary so I'm glad I was still at home for that. Today's sneak peek is the anniversary card that I made for him:

I'm feeling quite smug actually. I finished the card on Thursday evening, over a day ahead of schedule. Usually he's doing well if I make it on the day, lol.

Yesterday I was also out for a while delivering a workshop to a lovely bunch of ladies who already meet regularly for a crafting session and donate the money left out of the room hire kitty to the Air Ambulance Service. As usual my workshop overran and we had to rush the make and take a little. The ladies were pretty impressed with the quality of the punches and the DSP's and scrapping kits particularly. Scandinavian Season went down a storm especially with the different looks you can give it with the Dazzling Diamonds. The wheel guide for the Stampin' Around wheels even convinced some of them they'd be able to stamp in a straight line. Hmm, wonder why I overran ...

Looking forward to seeing you again soon ladies.

Please hop along and see what my fellow DT members have created with this week's challenge. Right now I'm off to go and check out any of your entries for last week's challenge that I didn't get to yet.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sara xx

A magic birthday card for a little boy and sneak peek 6

Today's card is a magical card created for my friend's little boy. The instructions are taken from Splitcoaststampers but I altered the sizing a little to use A4 size cardstock. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the new dimensions but I'm sure that I'll make this card again and when I do I promise to include them in the blog post. In the meantime you could always trim some 12"x12" to the US dimensions.

This card gave me an excellent excuse to use the For Father set before it retires, as the little dog is super cute to colour in. This set is still available to order (as at 12:48 on 25/9/09) and has a 50% discount. After 30 September 2009 it disappears from our catalogue.

Recipe

Stamp sets: For Father, Fun and Fast Notes, Occasional Greetings

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip

Ink: Versamark, Black Stazon, SU Watercolour Crayons

Other: Eyelet, Medium Window Sheet (sneak peek!)

Taffeta Ribbon: Chocolate Chip

Non-SU: Nestabilities

The stars on the front are stamped in Versamark. It's a really fun card and all the adults have asked how it works but of course a magician never reveals their secrets!

The sneak peek Medium Window Sheet is the acetate used in the slider. Pop back on Sunday to see how I've used this to make sneak peek 7, my anniversary card to DH.

Here is today's sneak peek 6 from the serene Garden Dream set. I had to photograph this quickly at lunchtime because a colleague spotted it and snapped it up from me to send to a friend.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Sara xx

A blog award and admitting my addictions

A huge thank you to my crafting friend and fellow DT member, Kate, for nominating me for this blog award:

The rules of the award are that I have to share 5 things that I am addicted to and then pass on the award to 5 other blogs that I love:

Hmmm, only 5 addictions from so many, lol. Well here are the top 5:

1) Crafting (of course). Mainly stamping and papercrafts but also beading and cross-stitch if I ever have the time.

2) Chocolate. This is a biggy and is only kept under moderate control because of number 1. Well, I don't want sticky marks or chocolately fingerprints spoiling my work.

3) Holidays abroad. I'm so ready for my next fix. I just wish I had more money and more leave to be able to indulge this one more often.

4) Internet browsing. I don't want to know how much time I spend on here. I'm so addicted that I got mobile broadband so that I can use my laptop while I enjoy a coffee at lunchtime. Sad I know :-)

5) Learning. I'm addicted to learning. At the work end of the scale, I'm retraining to be an auditor (first lot of exams in November). At the fun end of the scale I love learning new craft techniques and then sharing them with others (don't worry I don't try to pass on the audit techniques, lol).

And now to pass on the award to 5 fabulous bloggers:

1) Clare

2) Teri

3) Yvonne

4) Elizabeth

5) Emma

Please go check out their blogs. They are definitely all fabulous.

Sara xx