It's Wednesday and you know what that means: not only a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals - today it's only 2 days until the end of Sale-A-Bration!

If you missed it or need a reminder, you can get the full low-down on Sale-A-Bration here; I've had lots of lovely ladies join my team during Sale-A-Bration and I've always room for more, so if you're undecided about whether or not Stampin' Up! is for you, give me a call - this is the best time to give it a try. 

It's also your last opportunity to benefit from extra Stampin' Rewards for orders over £200 and a free gift with every £45 spend; I will be placing my final order tomorrow at 6pm, so if you live local to me and would like to save postage, then call me or email me with the details. That is also when I will be ordering anything from this week's Weekly Deals.

If you want to take advantage of Sale-A-Bration or any of the weekly 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 new Hostess Code for April UD3KDWM4 if your order is under £150 and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

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:

2014-2016 In Color Designer Washi Tape

Go Wild Designer Series Paper Stack

Metallic Foil Doilies

Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

You can see today's creative project here; until tomorrow, happy shopping!

It's Wednesday and you know what 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 UPCSWX2C and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

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:

And Many More Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Banner Banter Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Early Espresso 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon	Silver Basic Metal Buttons	Tiny Triangles Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Zig Zag Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Another week where embossing folders dominate, however I would draw your attention to the stamp sets on offer this week: the Banner Banter set is perfect for quick cards and when paired with the co-ordinating banner punch makes light work of mass production (or equally a nice and reasonably priced birthday gift for a crafty friend!) The 'And Many More' set is one of those incredibly useful sets of sentiment staples - something in there for most occasions.

Don't forget Weekly Deals, just like Clearance Rack, can be included in your starter kit too if you are thinking of becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator yourself - along with this month's offer of an extra two free stamp sets when you join, there really has never been a better opportunity to get more crafty goodness for your £99 spend! If this is something you've been considering, then check out the details here or give me call for a chat about what's involved - I would love to hear from you.

Back shortly with today's creative post; meanwhile, happy shopping!

It's Wednesday and you know what 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 May FZZMG3JY and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

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:

1" Square Punch	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Cards & Labels Project Life Framelits Dies	Fun Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Vanilla Coaster Board

Lots of great bargains again this week: the 2 1/2" circle punch is one of my most used punches, along with some buttons and embossing folders and even something for the Project Life fans amongst us with the Cards and Labels Framelits - very useful.

Back shortly with today's creative post; until then, happy shopping!

Yay - it's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! Today Nance has an interesting colour challenge for us:

Today I have an unusual card to share with you, in more ways than one! When I saw Nance's colour palette, I immediately thought of the Simply Created Banner Kit that I used for the decorations for Rebecca's recent birthday party; I knew I had a few offcuts and leftover pieces of DSP from the kit and that Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride and Basic Grey were 3 of the feature colours of the add-on kit, so using this week's sketch over at Create with Connie and Mary as my starting point (perfect for using up scraps!) I set to work. Here is my finished card:

Using Calypso Coral as my base, I layered a number of strips of DSP in varying widths/lengths across the front of my card, alternating between the Calypso Coral/Blushing Bride chevron pattern and the Basic Grey/Smoky Slate chevron pattern. I then embossed a strip of Blushing Bride cardstock with the Arrows Embossing Folder and cut one end to a point. I layered some Calypso Coral chevrons that I had cut out with one of the framelits from the Circle Thinlit card, then created a tag, again using a pre-printed leftover tag from the kit. I added some black chevron ribbon (a little bit of a liberty as far as the colour scheme is concerned, but the closest match I could get from my stash!) and tied it with some retired Calypso Coral baker's twine in a double bow. I finished my tag with a die cut 'thank' in Hello Honey, part of the 'thankful' framelit from the now retired Expressions Thinlits set (still available on the European Clearance Rack if you fancy snapping up a bargain!) and the YOU cut out of Basic Grey with my Big Shot and the new Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz die. lastly, I added an Essentials Hardware Clip to my tag before adhering it to my card with dimensionals.

I love the idea of collage cards but find them really difficult to create, so am quite pleased with the way this arrow-filled card turned out. Also, on completion I realised that I hadn't done any stamping at all on this card - how unusual is that??! For more inspiration from the Design Team and to see the fabulous cards they've made using this colour palette, pop on over to The Paper Players blog to see what they've created and to link up your own card.

Back tomorrow with a fun birthday card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Calypso Coral Celebration Add-On Kit	Celebration Basics Kit	Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz Die	Expressions Thinlits Dies	Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	Basic Gray A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Essentials Hardware Clips
Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Circle card Thinlits Die	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Stampin' Dimensionals

Today I'm sharing some of the cards I made using the Happenings Simply Created Card Kit that features in the Spring-Summer catalogue. The kit contains everything you need to make 15 cards, including envelopes and costs just £13.50 - that equates to 90p per card, which is great value for a hand-finished card. It doesn't include inks or stamps - you can use the 'Says it All' set suggested in the catalogue, or you can use whatever sentiment sets you already own. I used a selection of stamps on my cards, and added in a few additional items on a few of them too. So here's my first card, which is made up following the basic design that is included with the kit:

I then added in some co-ordinating accessories just to change things up a little on some of my cards - I created some embossed sections using the new Arrows embossing folder and the Hexagon embossing folder:

I also used some punches to create shapes that mirrored the patterns of the die-cut accents to add some interest:

These kits would be great for a beginner or someone who hasn't stamped before, as a gift for someone or even just when time is short and you want to create a whole bunch of cards in one go, but that can be varied such that each is unique. If you would like to buy the Happenings Simply Created Kit or any of the other items I've used on my cards, just click on the links in the table below to go straight to my online store or give me a call if you're local to me and I can place the order for you. We are using these kits in my classes this week and I can't wait to see what my ladies will come up with. I managed to decorate all of cards and still have some embellishments left over to decorate a gift box to hold some of the cards I made - come back tomorrow to see a video tutorial showing how I made it using a new tool that I'm sure you will find useful!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

So here is my second card of the day, just in time for this week's challenge over at Less is More where the theme this week is 'masculine cards'. I decided to use the 'Cool Kid' stamp set for my card; when I saw this stamp set I just had to have it - my children always get so excited if they have been chosen as the class 'cool kid' for the day at school. So here is my card:

I chose to use the Brights colour combination of Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Tangerine Tango for my card - all colours my son would love! - and having stamped the dog in orange, I coloured in his scarf and boots with my Stampin' Write markers. I used the blue to outline both my circle and sentiment panel, then picked up the orange with a thin strip cut from a piece of cardstock embossed with the new Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I inked up the sentiment using my markers too, so that I could have multi-coloured lettering - I love the effect that this give on this card.

I used this week's sketch over at Create with Connie and Mary for my layout.

Back soon with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Just a quick post from me to let you know about another new product that is now available - the Texture Boutique Embossing Machine!

I uploaded the flyer to the bar on the right hand side of my blog yesterday, but just wanted to bring it to your attention as it's such a cool gadget if you're into embossing but don't necessarily have the budget or require the additional functionality of a Big Shot.

This machine is embossing made easy! Manufactured by Sissix, the Texture Boutique Embossing Machine works with Stampin' Up!'s range of embossing folders to transform ordinary cardstock, paper, metallic foil or vellum into a textured masterpiece. Here's a short video that shows you how it works:

There are some great new embossing folders in the new Spring-Summer catalogue that would pair up nicely with this machine:

• Ampersand Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
• Scallops Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
• Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

You can find more details on each of the above if you click on the product links below. If embossing is your thing, if you order the Texture Boutique Embossing Machine and all three of the new folders, you order will come to £49.45 and you will qualify for a FREE Sale-A-Bration gift - and the Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder would be the perfect choice! Just click on the links to go to my online store to purchase.

Back shortly with today's creative post; happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Texture Boutique Embossing Machine

Ampersand Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Scallops Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder