Last Day for the Spring-Summer Seasonal Catalogue and 2013 Annual Catalogue

by Joanne James30. June 2014 21:02

It's the 30th June - which sadly means the end of the 2013 annual catalogue and the Spring-Summer seasonal catalogue. So if you have anything that you would like to order today, you only have until 10pm to do so, so get in quick! It's also the last day of the 'Sign and Save' join Stampin' Up! for £50 promotion - details and sign up form in the box on the right hand side of my blog.

Me, I'm already thinking about the new! I've had my launch party for the new 2014-15 Stampin' Up! catalogue today and it was tremendous fun. I saw lots of my existing customers and got to meet some lovely new people too and I thought today I would leave you with a few photos of the day:

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported my Stampin' Up! business. Congratulations to Clare, Julie, Lorraine and Joy who were the lucky prize winners in today's raffle and to Barbara who won the door entry raffle prize - I will be in touch with you all in due course with your gifts.

Back tomorrow with lots of new catalogue loveliness - until then, happy stampin'!

Tags: , , , , ,

Cards | Promotions | Stampin' Up! Events | Stamping

Last Reminder: New 2014-15 Stampin' Up! Catalogue Party Tomorrow!

by Joanne James29. June 2014 21:52

I have been busy crafting all weekend and apart from dinner with friends yesterday evening, have done nothing else! I am just about to have a quiet 30 minutes before bed, so I just have a last minute reminder for you all that tomorrow is my new catalogue launch party - details below, hope to see you there!

Back tomorrow with lots of photos and a project or two for you. Until then, happy stampin'!

Tags: , , ,

Promotions | Stampin' Up! Events

With Friends Like These - My Team Are Just Great!

by Joanne James28. June 2014 16:54

Another busy day of crafting today, with additional preparations for Monday's 2014-15 Stampin' Up! Catalogue launch party event - details here - I'm so excited and hope as many of you as possible will be able to join me! If you'd like some sneak peeks of what Monday has in store, do pop over to my Facebook Page and give me a 'like' - I am posting there daily to give you a flavour of the lovely things that you'll be able to see and do. In addition to next week's new annual catalogue launch, there are also 2 other important points of note:

  • Monday is the last day that you will be able to order from the Spring-Summer annual catalogue
  • Monday is the last day that you can join as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for the reduced 'sign and save' starter kit entry price of £50

If you've ever considered joining up as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, whether to earn an extra income or simply to purchase discounted supplies to further your papercrafting hobby, this is a great time to do it: whatever your motivation, for just £50 you can give it a go - with the new products on the way, there's never been a better time to see what Stampin' Up! is all about.

There are so many things that I love about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, but one of the best things is definitely the people you meet along the way. I have met some great people and found some new friends through my role as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, both in the UK and abroad, and none more so than the members of my team. We are all different, but we share a common love - for all things crafty and Stampin' Up! - and today's card is one I received from one of the members of my team, Samantha, recently. It was one of those cards that was unexpected but left me feeling so touched and I wanted to share it with you - here is Samantha's card:

Samantha's card is a riot of 'sneak peek' items from the forthcoming catalogue: a new hostess set called 'I Like You', new in-Colours of Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow - check out the gorgeous new satin ribbon! and her delicately stamped and blended paper-pieced flowers are just lovely. Samantha has been crafting forever, but has only recently started an online blog of her own called Stamp Delights - you can find it here if you would like to check it out, I'm sure she would love to see you.

I love managing a team of demonstrators and inspiring them creatively and supporting them in running their Stampin' Up! businesses in ways that suit them. I may never have met Samantha if it wasn't for Stampin' Up! and the same can be said for most of the other members of my team too - how great to be doing something that you love and making new friends at the same time too? If you are reading this and thinking 'that could be me', then give me a call or click here to join my team - I would love to hear from you!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Cards | Join My Team | Promotions | Stamping

A Little Something Cute ... Baby Girl Card

by Joanne James27. June 2014 10:18

Yay it's Friday - what more is there to say?! Today I have another new catalogue sneak peek to share with you, this time a cute baby card that I made using this week's sketch layout over at The Papercraft Crew (I haven't managed to play along with these guys for a while and this week's sketch layout really appealed!) and I'm also linking up with The Card Concept, where the challenge is to create a baby-themed card (mine is in the 'clean and layered' style):

 

I wanted to use a set from the new catalogue called 'Something for Baby' - a lovely set with lots of baby motifs; not only that, it also has a set of matching framelits - perfect! My card is in fact stacked with new product - see if you can spot it all:

Did you get it all? My card base is Crisp Cantaloupe and I then matted two of the different patterns in one of the new DSP paper packs called 'Lullaby' onto a base of Baked Brown Sugar, and used a strip of the same colour to tie them together. I stamped the central strip with the heart stamp from the 'Something to Say' stamp set to echo the hearts on the bottom panel, although you can't really see them as they are obscured by the frame. I then created a frame using my Big Shot and square framelits and stamped the second half of my sentiment in the box. The first half I stamped in a contrasting colour onto a word bubble cut out with my framelits - I cut first and stamped second, which I don't usually do but I wanted my word bubble to 'hang' the opposite way (hope that makes sense!) - another sentiment from the 'Something To Say' set. I then embellished my card with a cute Crisp Cantaloupe babygro, complete with a Calypso Coral flower, and pair of booties, all popped up on dimensionals.

Hope you like my cute little baby girl card - lots of great sneak peeks there; only 5 more days to go until the new annual catalogue is here! And only 4 more days until my 2014-15 catalogue launch party: full details here and lots more to see so do come along!

Back tomorrow with a special project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Something for Baby stamp set and co-ordinating framelits - available 1st July

* Something to Say stamp set - available 1st July

* Lullaby Designer Series Paper - available 1st July

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Make A Wish Come True Watercolour Card

by Joanne James26. June 2014 19:03

This is a super-speedy quick post from me today, as I'm just managing to write in between school plays, swimming lessons and an evening out with friends to say farewell to two who are returning to their homelands in a matter of weeks - one to Ireland and one to Australia. This week's challenge over at Less is More is watercolouring and I decided to get another use out of a set that is retiring next week - Make a Wish. Here's my card:

I've been wanting to have a go at watercolouring the candle 'i' on this stamp to see if I could create a realistic-looking glow and I'm quite pleased with the effect. I simply inked the stamp in stazon then used a variety of yellow and orange inks and my aquapainter to achieve the effect I was after. I then watercoloured the word 'wish' in Melon Mambo and chose my base and mat panels to tie in. I also added a small ribbon tie just to prettify my card a little, but hopefully not stray too far from the clean-and-simple look that the LIM ladies are after.

I'll update this post with the supplies used for my card tomorrow when I've a bit more time, but meanwhile I have to be on my way (done!). Back tomorrow with another project - until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Cards | Stamping

Paper Players Guest Designer Announcement - And A Happy Day Card!

by Joanne James25. June 2014 13:00

Today I was all set to share the card I made for this week’s challenge over at The Paper Players, where Nance has this great sketch for us to work with:

 

But before I get to my card, there is an exciting news announcement over on the Paper Players blog today involving yours truly: I have been asked to feature as one of their guest designers, starting July 6th - how great is that?!

I am excited and truly honoured that this wonderful bunch of papercrafters have asked me to join them for a three month period through to September. You can check out the details and the other guest designers that will be featuring at the same time by clicking on the link here and you will of course be able to see my weekly submissions right here on my blog in weeks to come.

Anyway - back to today's card! I love a good sketch challenge and Nance's sketch can be used in so many ways. Given that we are transitioning between catalogues, my choices for my card today were driven by the (relatively!) fewer stamps that I currently have in my collection and also a desire to use another piece of Designer Series Paper that hasn’t yet made the cut – here’s my card:

I decided to use the ‘Oh Happy Day’ stamp from the Starburst Sayings stamp set and wanted to use the bold black and white zebra-like pattern from the Kaleidescope DSP set; this layout allows for the use of a bold patterned paper without it overwhelming the rest of the card. Black and white alone was a little stark for me though – but I had the perfect antidote with a burst of Melon Mambo, a great hot pink to liven things up a bit! I used the black and white DSP for my central panel, matting this on a piece of Basic Black and then a strip of Melon Mambo, before adhering to my Basic Black card base. I stamped my sentiment focal point in Versamark on Basic Black and then heat embossed in Melon Mambo, which adds great texture and sheen, and cut out using the co-ordinating framelit. I then popped the starburst onto a Melon Mambo circle cut with my Circle Framelits using dimensionals to give added depth. I also decided this card was worthy of some serious ‘bling’ and adhered small rhinestones to each of the circles on the word ‘happy’ – this made this card so sparkly! To finish, I added two small banners cut with framelits as per the sketch, finished with a Melon Mambo button and a few extra rhinestones for good measure.

I think this card has a real ‘rock chick’ feel to it and would be great for an uber-cool teenager; I have a very discerning teenage niece that this card will be perfect for and as her birthday isn’t until October, I guess that makes me look super organised too – win, win! Or I could just send it to myself since today is indeed a happy day, given the announcement that I am going to be a Paper Players Guest Designer - yay! Decisions, decisions....

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin’!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Weekly Wednesday Deals - Lots of Sparkle This Week!

by Joanne James25. June 2014 09:31

It's Wednesday already so that means a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced.

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for June (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right). 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Some great products on discount this week: Champagne glimmer paper and both gold and silver metallic Encore ink pads (the new catalogue will have refills for these too!), along with some MDS, the petite curly punch and the lovely chevron ribbon in Calypso Coral and Wisteria Wonder inkpads - great bargains!

Back later with today's creative post - if you think  today's offers are sparkly wait until you see today's card! Until then, happy shopping!

 

 

Tags: , , , ,

Promotions | Shop Online

White With a Hint of Gold - Gratefulness Card

by Joanne James24. June 2014 13:00

This week the peeps over at CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion have joined forces on their challenge blogs with a great sketch and inspiration photo:

I took the inspiration for my card from both the photo and the sketch and came up with the following card:

For a largely white card, there's a lot going on here; all-white cards are also incredibly difficult to photograph well, so I hope you can see some of the more subtle elements of design. Firstly, I used a Whisper White card base and ran this through my Big Shot with the Wildflower Meadow Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to give a nice relief pattern that I thought worked well with the butterfly. I created a layered banner using my Banner Framelits, cutting one in Whisper White and another slightly longer one in gold foil to extend beyond the length of it. On the uppermost white banner, I stamped my sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder - this sentiment is a 'sneak peek' from a new set called 'Something to Say', out next week (not long now!).

I then did something I've never done before: I glittered a butterfly! Now whilst my 9 year old daughter loves anything with glitter, I'm generally not a fan of the stuff. I love Stampin' Up!'s glimmer paper as this is a great no-shed alternative, and I've had 2 pots of glitter sitting in my drawer since before Christmas and until now unopened for fear of the ensuing mess that would be created! As my card came together, I knew that glitter was going to be the only way to go to get the look I was after and create the contrast in texture of all the gold elements. So, I was brave - out came the heat and stick powder and gold glitter, and this sparkly vellum butterfly is the result. And I love it - even though I think I will be brushing gold glitter out of my butterfly punch for some time to come. Lastly, I substituted the stitching in the sketch layout for two rows of sequins to add one last gold element to my card.

I made this card with my Mother-In-Law in mind; she is always there to help me out of a fix and last week was no exception: Rebecca came home from school the week before last with instruction to make a weasel costume for the forthcoming production of 'Wind In the Willows' - to be held this week! Not only did she need a weasel costume, this weasel required a brightly coloured waistcoat and cravat to look the part. Fortunately for me MIL came to the rescue and a few days later had managed to tailor the most amazing waistcoat and cravat I've ever seen just from bits and bobs in her sewing box. Rebecca is destined to be the best dressed weasel around at her production on Thursday (I'll post a picture of her in costume later in the week!); as for me - my Mother-In-Law's goodness does indeed make me very grateful, so Kathy this one is for you!

Back tomorrow with another project and this week's Wednesday Deals; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Something To Say Stamp Set - available 1st July

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Oh Snap! - A Perfect Belated Birthday Card

by Joanne James22. June 2014 16:31

Happy Monday everyone - that sure did come around again quickly! I am now officially counting down - 9 days until the launch of the new 2014-15 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue and more importantly 8 days until my official launch party!! You can read all about it here and I hope to see as many of you there as possible. Meanwhile, lots of jobs to do this week, the first of which is to share today's card.

I used this week's sketch layout over at Pals Paper Arts today along with the colour palette over at Create with Connie and Mary:

 

 I've had the idea for today's card in my head for a while and the combination of the sketch and colour scheme were perfect for my card - take a look:

Having bought the Hip Notes stamp set because I thought it would come in useful with my Project Life memory keeping, I have also found a few other uses for it: the 'oh snap!' stamp seemed to tie in perfectly with the little crab from the Sea Street set to make a belated birthday card. I love these bright colours and decided to let the graphic red and yellow designer papers feature here with the Bermuda Bay as the supporting accent colour. My Banner Framelits made light work of the pennants and the same for the circles around the crab motif, which were made from a variety of framelits and punches. The card is quite simple with a very clean and layered look and I expanded on the sentiment inside the card:

I stamped this sentiment with the new Alphabet Rotary Stamp that will debut in the forthcoming annual catalogue; I love how you can use it to make quick bespoke sentiments like this to add to a card. I'd like to say as a card maker that I never forget people's birthdays, but as a number of my closest friends will attest, that is sadly not the case! Maybe I should make a few of these cards to have on standby ready for the next time I have a moment of forgetfulness!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Sea Street - available 1st July

* Alphabet Rotary Stamp - available 1st July

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Maritime Designer Series Paper Showcase Card

by Joanne James22. June 2014 15:23

Hello everyone! I can't quite believe it's Sunday already - the weekends truly go too fast these days! I've already been on a long bike ride this morning and following a BBQ lunch am actually typing today's post while sat in the garden enjoying the warm weather - bliss! Today I have another card featuring the octopus from the Sea Street stamp set, this time using this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

There is a sheet of DSP in the new Maritime set that has a really busy pattern that can be difficult to incorporate into a project but when I saw this sketch, I thought it would provide the perfect opportunity to use it. Here is my card:

I cut a piece of DSP that showed a selection of the graphics and then sectioned it as per the sketch. I wanted to create a focal sentiment but figured it needed to be big and bold in order to stand out against the background, but at the same time not overwhelm it. I decided on a fun sentiment from the 'Really Good Greetings' stamp set which I inked up with my Stampin' Write markers alongside an off-the-edge octopus in Real Red. I matted this panel onto Night of Navy and popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals to make it stand out. I love the fun print of this DSP and am really pleased that I managed to incorporate it into today's card - these are the sheets that I normally end up keeping to admire, rather than use!

I'm also going to link this card up over at SUO Challenges where the theme is summer time - this card has a definite beach feel to me!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Sea Street - Available 1st July

* Maritime DSP - Available 1st July

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Cards | Stamping

Mini Catalogue

BROWSE THE CATALOGUE

The mini catalogue is now live! Read and download your copy here.

Shop Online

Access my online shop 24 x 7, 365 days of the year:

Current March hostess code:

S9F2XJJW

Shop Online

Join My Team

It's always a great time to join Stampin’ Up! New team members can get £130 worth of products for only £99 + free business supplies + free shipping + all the fun being a part of Stampin’ Up! Stampin' Up! has something for everyone: join my growing team and benefit from my support to enjoy Stampin' Up! however you choose.

If you're interested, call me for a chat to understand how I can help you realise your goals. Alternatively, if you have already decided to sign up and you just can't wait, please click here for the link to the online form where you can sign up and order your starter kit right away! 

Latest Kit!

Stampin Cut and Emboss

The Rock Legend Kit has all you need to make 8 cards with coordinating envelopes. Along with the new Panda Friends Kit, both are available from January 4th for just £14 each - get yours here!

2023-24 Annual Catalogue

BROWSE THE CATALOGUE

Click on the catalogue for a full list of current SU! supplies - if you would like to order any of the items featured, please drop me a line at [email protected] or give me a call on 07773 421446 - I'd be happy to help.

New Online Exclusives

There will be new products available exclusively in the online store from 5 March - check them out here.

About Me

Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

Follow Me

Monthly Newsletter

Box Builder

Click the button above to use Box Buster to create your custom box design using the Envelope Punch Board!

Kits Collection Now Available!

Stampin Cut and Emboss

The new Kits Collection from Stampin' Up! is now available!

Click here to see the current kits available and order yours online today.

I Design For

 

 

 

Stampin' Up Stuff

This is my personal blog and is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up! I hope you find it a plentiful source of ideas and personal inspiration but please don't copy my designs for contest submission or use for classes, publication or sale without express permission.