Stampin' Up! Another Great Year

Ooh I've been so busy today but not quite ready to share my exciting news just yet so instead I'll share one of my latest creation with you instead!

It's a larger card than the ones I normally make so not sure I've got the balance quite right! I've been playing with embossing powders and different colours of card to create this one. The stamp set is another new one - Another Great Year and I've stamped and embossed it three times with a little cutting out to create this effect.

The banners are quickly made using our new Banner Punch - which by the way you can earn for FREE with a spend of £45 with me on Stampin' Up! products during our Sale-a-Bration promotion. I know you'll probably ask how I stuck down the bakers twine so I made a thin line with Tombow glue and left it to one side for 5 minutes to allow the glue to change from wet to tacky and then placed the bakers twine in place, this way the twine doesn't absorb the glue and move around, it just sticks straight in place where you need it.

Right got to dash, painting to do in the new conservatory - cannot wait for the boys to have their playroom!

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Petal Parade with Spiral Flower Die

I braved it today and let myself loose with a hot glue gun, last time I did that I burnt my wrist so I was extra careful today and am pleased to report - zero accidents!

I decorated up a note book for my project today, it's a gift for a friend:

It's the same colour combo I used a few posts ago, Wisteria Wonder, Coastal Cabana and Pear Pizazz. The stamp set is one of Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration freebies which can be yours with a spend of £45 or more with me. I cased the stamp layout from a card my lovely friend Jo made and added a banner out of the Heartfelt Banner Kit (another Sale-a-Bration freebie). Then I got the glue gun out........to make the cute flower I used our Spiral Flower Die and then popped a Subtles button in the centre. 

Here are some close ups:

To see how to use this die, watch this fabulous video from Stampin' Up!

 

 

I had planned to write more today but Blake wasn't at all well yesterday and whilst his temperature seems to have gone down he's really tired after school so I'm off for a snuggle up with him.

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Sweet Sorbet and Perfect Pennants

At last we have a lovely sunny day and I've actually got the washing hanging outside to dry! The boys have gone to Granny's for a sleepover, The Spark has been painting in the conservatoire and it won't be too much longer now until the boys can claim it as their playroom. I can't wait to set it all out with their toys and make it perfect for them.

Meanwhile, I popped up to the room of craft and had a play with the Sale-A-Bration Sweet Sorbet Accessories Kit - yours for FREE when you spend £45 with me on Stampin' Up! products during the promotion.

This was so easy to make and really quick too which is a bonus. I made a card base and a layer with Baked Brown Sugar and then wrapped some of the Crisp Cantaloupe  Twine around. The oval is a die cut self adhesive piece from the Celebration Basics Add-On Kit in the new Stampin' Up! seasonal catalogue. I've added the cork with Dimensionals (even though they are self adhesive) and popped Candy Dots in the centre. My sentiment is stamped in Calypso Coral onto Whisper White and it's from another new stamp set Perfect Pennants.

Want to see close up detail of these fabulous cork flowers?

I'm sure since I got my new computer my photos look darker to me - can you tell the difference? I'd love to know what you think.

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Life in the Forest On Film

We're having a very animal time in the house of jelly today. The boys have set up a play pet shop downstairs and we've even made pom pom ball and pipe cleaner spiders and parrots out of coloured feathers and cardboard tubes. To top it we're about to watch Turbo. So it seemed right that whilst the boys did their sticking and colouring I did some animal craft too.

When I first saw this stamp set I wasn't sure about it but now I'm absolutely in love with it - Life in the Forest. I think the outlined images give us lots of scope for colouring, paper piecing etc. I've taken a break from my usual neutral card base and opted for Coastal Cabana stamped with the new Hardwood background stamp - isn't it gorgeous? 

Zac insisted that if I was nipping upstairs to the Room of Craft to update my blog that I'd put a photo of him with his creations on too:

I feel we'll be making more of these fellas later!

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Word Bubbles meets On Film

Cor it's Thursday already, this half term is really flying by. The boys and I have done so much and I'm enjoying every minute. We've been to a theme park, watched the Lego Movie in 3D, went to visit my Mum in her new home in Bollington, today they are having a few hours with their other Granny whilst I tidy up a bit and then we still have tomorrow and the whole weekend left.

So I printed off a few of the photos from the theme park visit and actually made a scrap layout.

 

I let the photos choose my colours: Pear Pizazz, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake and Marina Mist. Zac is doing the assault course on these photos, he absolutely loved the giant skateboard even though he was determined it was a surf board. He rocked it from side to side to keep his balance.

I've used a mix of Framelits on here. Word Bubbles, Banners and On Film but I think they go together really well. Stampin' Up! products do that and make creating so easy.

I've used a mix of stamp sets too: Just Sayin' Says it All and Gorgeous Grunge. Love the effect of them together too.

You may have noticed Zac is wearing his underpants over his trousers, let me tell you it wasn't by mistake. we all wore them that way! It was Superhero day at the park and if we all rocked up with our pants on the outside (superhero style) we got free tickets to another theme park. You want to see me in mine?

And here are Zac and Blake rocking the superhero look before we set off:

Great fun!

hugs

Victoria

xxx

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Stampin' Up! See Ya later Meets Petite Petals

Day one of half term and I'm still here! We had a fab family day yesterday and got up nice and early to get into the city centre to go and see the Lego Movie in 3D. I think there's a chance The Spark and I enjoyed it more than the boys, if you love Lego you'll love this film. So onto the crafting 'cos that's why you visit....

I got to play with the Sale-a-Bration stamp set See Ya later and mixed it up with Petite petals, Flower Shop and Summer Silhouettes. Who says you have to stick to one stamp set? Here's how it turned out:

I've used Baked Brown Sugar for the base and other colours Bermuda Bay, Wild Wasabi and Perfect Plum. I wrapped the Bermuda Bay Taffeta ribbon around the card layer, making three loops round two fingers before tying a knot - then you can can snip to create all the different lengths. Colour the image with Markers and stamp onto Whisper White card and die cut with a Labels Collection Framelit. I stuck that down with Dimensionals so it didn't scrunch up over all that ribbon!.

Next I stamped and punched my flowers and the leaf stem from Summer Silhouettes, all finished with some Candy Dots. I'm loving these colours together. Must make a note of them on the back of my Colour Coach.

I took a few photos of the boys and The Spark whilst we at the cinema, obviously they are a little dark because that's how it is in the cinema:

The boys were thrilled there was a Lego stand and a competition to join in with. Don't they look total dudes in their 3D glasses? Oh and can you see how handy the Stampin' Up! Chevron Bags came in for sharing out the popcorn? Didn't feel the need to decorate them, just put them to good use!

Back tomorrow with more.

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Jelly Gets Published!

I'm soooo excited today. I got up BEFORE the boys which is absolutely unheard of and had to wait impatiently for the shops to open because I've been published! Yippee. 

A fab newish to the shelves magazine by Practical Publishing called Get Stamping is available now. It's issue 7 and here are my bits, I'm sorry the photos are dark, it's not the quality of the magazine, it's simply very dark and overcast here today, I'll re-take them when the sun comes back.

The stamp set actually comes free with the magazine but as you can see I've used mainly Stampin' Up! products on my projects.  Like these cute treat bags using our cello bags, card, punches and designer papers:

Wow I wasn't expected my projects to span over four pages so as you can imagine I'm doing a happy dance right now.

All the instructions to make these projects and supplies are listed in the magazine.

In the next issue I'll show you some fab ideas using the Stampin' Up! Undefined Stamp Carving Set.

p.s. - I didn't get blown up in a mad science experiment yesterday - more on that later.

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Tag Topper Meets Upcycling Project

Wow I officially deem myself a technological genius - that's thanks to all the videos I watched on You Tube and also the help I got on the Microsoft forum. I have now successfully retrieved my hard drive from my broken PC and installed it to my new one without losing a single file. So much more than switching it off and switching it back on again......

So my mum in law asked me to make her some simple ' use for any occasion' gift tags and I thought what a great excuse to use our new Scallop Tag Topper Punch. Here you go:

I made 10 tags from one sheet of Crumb Cake card. Not bad going and so easy to do too. How much do you WANT the new Gold Bakers Twine?? Carrying on the gold theme, I added a little Watercolor Wonder Designer Washi Tape across the edges and then rounded them off using the Envelope Punch Board.  They still seemed a little too plain for me so I embossed a gold star on each of them too from Perfect Pennants stamp set.

 

I decided I needed to put the tags in something and rather than a cello bag I thought I'd make a box but needed a sheet of 12x12 card and I've run out of Crumb Cake - I know - emergency or what? So I've up cycled a piece of card that came out of one of my Stampin' Up! kits, you know the ones at the back of the pack to hold it all flat? It's the same colour as Crumb Cake but a little thicker.

I hope she likes them. Tomorrow is looking exciting and I'll make sure I have my camera with me, I'm off on another school trip. This time Zac and his classmates are off to Make It Discovery Centre and I believe we are having a science day. So if I don't blog tomorrow night you can safely assume that ninety 6 and 7 years old blew me up in an experiment that went very wrong.

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Sweet Sorbet meets Kraft Box

Can I just start by saying 'Yay!', the builders came today and fitted the last two pieces of glass to our conservatoire roof! Only taken them 6 months but am I glad it's finally done. I can't believe we can actually start to decorate, lay flooring and turn it into a playroom for Zac and Blake.

So whilst the builders were busy fitting glass I got busy spilling glitter and whoa did I spill it good!  Let me show you what happened when our Sweet Sorbet Designer Papers met a Kraft Box.

Do you like? It's one of our Kraft Boxes decorated with the Sale-A-Bration designer papers Sweet Sorbet, aren't the colours so pretty? I wanted to make a flower and put to use the Crepe Filter Paper from the Stampin' Up! main catalogue. I thought it would be cheating to use the pre-cut round pieces so cut strips, punched the edges and daubed them with ink using a Finger Dauber before pleating together. Then the mess started.

I thought it would make it look even more pretty to add glitter to the edges, so I carefully applied Tombow then ever so gently scattered on my gold glitter. Then I sneezed. Then the whole tub of glitter fell on the floor (glad for laminate). I retrieved what I could and the rest went to the Dyson. Would love to do that at a hostess' house!

Back to the project, I popped the flower onto a Tea Lace paper Doily - covered it with Versamark ink first and then used Gold Embossing Powder (made sure I didn't spill that).

Other bits and pieces I've used; our gorgeous Gold Glimmer Paper, Subtles Button, Gold Linen Thread (thank you Stampin' Up!), Foil Embossed Vellum and the cute little Petite Petals Punch.

Here are some flower close ups:

 My disaster.....

If you'd like to know more about how you can get Sale-a-Bration products for FREE, please just click HERE or you can go direct to my online shop HERE.

Hugs

Victoria

xxx

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Stampin' Up! See Ya Later

Wow today has been one of those random days I wish I had taken photos at regular intervals. 

This morning when I took the boys to school it was so cold, one of the other Mums said it might snow. I got home, started work, looked out of the window and it was raining absolute buckets. Literally three minutes later the rain turned to snow - I mean big chunks of snow falling from the sky and sticking even though it had just rained. I had to go out in the snow but it was OK. Then I go to collect Zac from after school club and I had to take my scarf off and pop my sunglasses on the sky is as clear and blue as anything. Random!

Anyway - I'm going to share with you a project I created last week and couldn't blog due to the absence of the PC:

LOVING this stamp set. It's called See Ya Later and is one of the freebies you can get your crafty mitts on during Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration promotion. More about that HERE.  My card base is Pear Pizazz and I'm not a clever fancy fold kind of girl so I used our Card Circle Framelits Die to create the cut and folds for me. I did however use a lot of patience to colour and stamp just the alligator part of the stamp all over the right side of the card. Thank goodness for a Stamp-ma-jig that's all I have to say on the matter.

I've stamped the main image and sentiment onto one of our new Watercolor Wonder Designer Note Cards and Envelopes (Convention freebie thank you!!!!) and die cut with a Circle Framelit. The note cards are pre-printed and have a texture just like water colour card too. I added some accents from the Thinlits set and created my 'alligator teeth' edge using Whisper White card and Finishing Touches Edgelits dies.

Got to dash, reading time with Zac now before Blake gets home from Granny's!

hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Language of Love Treat Box Tutorial

It's confession time......

Who spends at least 10 minutes every day scouring through Pinterest and other blogs etc to find inspiration to create? I know I do, and I look through my Stampin' Up! catalogues and the magazines I get from Stampin' Up! for being a demonstrator. But do you know, sometimes it's just as much fun to seek inspiration by looking back through your own creativity. See I found this cute Valentine's project I made back in February 2010 and thought wow - why don't I re-make that using current projects?

Here it is, complete with matching card:

Quite easy to make too so I'm going to give you the measurements in a moment. I've used Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette and the beautiful new Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack.

The card itself measures 4" square and I've used the window sheet from Quatrefancy Specialty Papers. I'm loving the thick twine that comes in the Sale-a-Bration Sweet Sorbet Kit too, it's so soft. At convention in Manchester there was an all attendee giveaway which was this stamp set Language of Love. I'm ashamed to admit this is the first time it's seen ink!

OK - here's how to make the box. Cut a piece of card measuring 6" square and score along all edges at 1/2" and 1 1/4". Reinforce the creases and cut as in the photo below. Die cut shape of your choice in the centre and pop Window Sheet behind. Cut another sheet of card 3 1/2" wide. I've used the Deco Label Framelit to shape the top of mine. Stick sides of box to the backing card - leaving the top flap as an opening for your treats.

I've always been told red and pink don't go together - never did like following the rules and our Red Glimmer Paper looks fab with the pink I think. I obviously thought so before - here is the original project. Look at the old style punches and ink pads!

Why not have a look back through some of your old projects to see if you can re-purpose them with new products too?

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Life In The Forest

I'm back, woo-hoo. My PC totally died on me last week and I've had to wait incredibly impatiently until today to buy a new one and get it all set up. Patience isn't one of my strong points and whilst I've been crafting and updating Face book, I haven't been able to pull photos through from my tablet to my blog, felt like part of me had gone missing.

 Pity party over - Jelly's back!

So do you want to see a set of three cute cards using one of the sets in the new Stampin' Up! seasonal catalogue?

LOVE them! The stamp set is called Life in the Forest and features cute animals and greenery too. I'm adoring the simple outline stamps and decided they were perfect for paper piecing so that's what I've done. Keeping it nice and simple with a Crumb Cake card base.

I've used our brand new Just Sayin' stamp set and coordinating Word Bubbles Framelits Dies - aren't they cute? I've added sentiments from Perfect Blend and From My Heart too. just shows how well you can mix and match your existing Stampin' Up! products with the new ones.

I feel the need to create a scrap layout next, I've got some photos of the boys taken recently and they are too gorgeous to just put in a photo book. Watch this space....

Hugs

Victoria

xxx

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Stampin' Up! Perfect Pennants and Banner Framelits Bundle

So.....

 You know when you leave stuff out on your desk (c'mon you know you do!) from the project you made yesterday? Do you find it inspires you to create something else too? Well today that's what happened to me. I used different stamps and dies etc but basically the same card and style as yesterday's project. Want to see it?

I've used two fabulous new products from Stampin' Up! - Perfect Pennants stamp set and Banner Framelits. They are a match made in heaven and because of that, Stampin' Up! have put them together as a bundle so that if you love them both - you get a little savings too, 15% in fact. Bonus.

I've used Soft Suede, Melon Mambo, Wisteria Wonder and Coastal Cabana for my colour combo. really easy to create, just stamp in Versamark, heat set with White Embossing Powder and die cut with the coordinating Banner Framelit. I also added some arrows from the Card Dies Thinlits set.

If you want to see more ideas on using this bundle from Stampin' Up! watch this video:

If you've fallen in love already, click HERE to visit the products at my online shop. I'm open 24/7 so shop anytime you like! Oh and remember during Sale-a-bration you can earn yourself a FREE gift with every £45 you spend on products!

Hugs

Victoria

x

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Stampin' Up! Crazy Mixed Up Love

Oh the house seems to quiet today after a noisy fun filled weekend! So a little peace and crafting was the order of the day and today I've made a really cute but simple card for you:

I've used Crazy, Mixed Up Love which you'll find in the main Stampin' Up! catalogue. My colour combo is Soft Suede, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Pink Pirouette and Raspberry Ripple.

A bit of heat embossing and some die cutting and Bob's yer Lobster!

The arrow is from the Card Thinlits Dies and you can see a video of how to use them here:

I mentioned yesterday that my boys were really excited as they were going to a Birthday Party. Well it was a dance party and Zac and Blake loved it - here's a shot of Blake throwing some shapes on the dance floor:

And the traditional filling your face with sugar pic too:

And on that note I feel the need to go and make myself some lunch!

Hugs

Victoria

x

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Stampin' Up! Happy Watercolor

Back again - this time I have a new project to share with you. I wanted to make something pretty and simple and came up with this:

It's a 5" square card in Smoky Slate with a layer of Whisper White. The torn designer series paper is Eastern Elegance, just love it. All stamped images are from Happy Watercolor which you can find in the new Stampin' Up! Seasonal Catalogue HERE.

I stamped the flowers in Versamark ink onto Vellum and heat set with White Embossing Powder. Next flip them over and colour the backs with Markers. I used Smoky Slate, Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana. Cut them out and stick down with a Dimensional and pop a large adhesive pearl in the centre. Simples.

My boys look so cute now, all dressed up ready to go to their friend Darcy's Birthday party. They can't wait, even though it's not for another hour and a half!! 

Hugs

Victoria

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Stampin' Up! Last Chance

Happy Sunday everyone. Just a quick reminder from me that tomorrow booking closes for my next Stampin' Up! card making class.

You can see all the details HERE.

Hugs

Victoria

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