I have a super quick post for you today to share a super-quick card that I've been trying to find the opportunity to blog for a while now that fits in perfectly with the current challenge over at Fab Friday, where the designers want us to use any or all of the retiring 2013-15 in-colours:

I like to make a little thank you card and co-ordinating bag tag for my local customers to hand out with their orders and in March I decided to feature the in-colours to remind them of their forthcoming retirement and to stock up on re-inkers, cardstock and so on before the retiring list launched. Here is my card:

Quite self-explanatory - I used a bunch of the Stampin' Up! notelets and envelopes and used one of the 2015 Sale-A-Bration promotional stamps 'For Being You' across the centre of my card stamped in Momento Black, then went across the letters and highlighted each one with a fun splodge of Gorgeous Grunge in each of the in-colours and starting and finishing with the same one on each card. I then added a piece of co-ordinating thick baker's twine and tied in a bow - job done! A little extra stamping on the envelopes, and then a bag tag to match, this time stamped with the heart stamp from the thank you set 'For Being You' as the background:

A super - quick and easy card and tag to reproduce, just what you need for mass stamping and a perfect reminder to my customers to order their retiring in-colour supplies before it was too late.  It also illustrates another way to combine stamps to great effect; one of my customers in particular loved the 'For Being You' stamp set, yet she isn't into colouring with marker pens at all and so had been asking me for other suggestions as to how she could use her stamp. Along with paper-piecing, watercolouring or embossing, combining stamps is another great way to introduce colour without resorting to colouring in with pens.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with this week's card for the new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. Until then, happy stampin'! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

All now retired, except for the notelets and envelopes!

Well, what a Sale-A-Bration this has been! I have enjoyed it immensely - some of the best free products we've seen as part of this promotion and I would like to thank everyone who has shopped with me, hosted a party or joined my team during the last 3 months. Today I wanted to share some little packages I made last month for my recent Stampers Six Club customers and new recruits using the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies. I've had to make quite a few of these so I was glad to be able to make good use of some of the fabulous Best Year Ever paper I earned free during Sale-A-Bration:

These treat bags are so easy to make and come with a range of fun thinlit pieces that can be used to decorate them or embellish cards or other projects. I kept these quite simple, with a layered panel on the front in co-ordinating cardstock and added some Calypso Coral pompom trim to the decoration with a mini peg to hold the bags shut - here's a close-up:

Whilst the paper may no longer be available, the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies are in the seasonal catalogue and still available until 2nd June and there are a whole bunch of other DSPs available that would look just as good. These bags really are so cute and it's easy to make lots of these in no time at all; they would make great party bag favours too. 

That's me done for today; back tomorrow with a fun card and news of a new set of Wednesday Weekly Deals. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies	Calypso Coral Pompom Trim `	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Mini Metallic Clothespins	Fuse Fast Adhesive
Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana

It's Monday 30th March and that means only one thing - only 2 days left to go until the end of this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion! With this in mind, today's cards features one of the additional products introduced as a free gift when you spend £45 - sheer perfection vellum. I am entering today's card into both the Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown challenges:

 I love this sheer vellum - it is printed with a variety of different patterns that are great for colouring with Stampin' Write markers. The sheet with the butterflies is a favourite, but today I chose one of the floral patterns - here is my card:

I used So Saffron for my base and then used a mat of Pear Pizzazz and a piece of Whisper White beneath my piece of vellum so that my colouring would be true. I coloured the flowers on my vellum piece with So Saffron and highlighted some areas with Daffodil Delight, then coloured the leaves with my Pear Pizzazz Stampin' Write marker. Before adhering my vellum to my base layer, I turned it over and rubbed over the reverse wide with my stylus to create a slightly raised effect when viewed from the front. It's quite difficult to see in the photograph, but adds a nice texture in real life. I finished my card with a banner, stamped in Basic Grey with the sentiment from another Sale-A-Bration free stamp set 'Simply Wonderful', and a layered butterfly, punched with my Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches and using a scrap of retired 'Riding Hood Red' cardstock for my pop of red. A few pearls to finish and done!

This Sheer Perfection Vellum really is lovely; it's such a shame that it's only available for two more days! You still have until 10pm tomorrow night to place an order for £45 and get yours for free - if you shop online with me and use the current code 4AHTZQVW, you will also receive an extra gift from me to say thank you (shipped separately) - so now there's two reasons to shop!

Right - I'm off to make a whole bunch of thank you cards and bag tags for this month's local customer orders - I'm using another Sale-A-Bration freebie this time, the 'For Being You' stamp set - getting inky is always fun and with free product, it's even better!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sheer Perfection Designer Vellum Stack	So Saffron A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers
Simply Wonderful Clear Stamp Set	Elegant Butterfly Punch	Bitty Butterfly Punch	Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Gray A4 Card Stock
Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

It's Wednesday 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 March 4AHTZQVW 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:

Card Stock A4 Crisp Cantaloupe	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Envelope Punch Board
Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Regals Designer Series Paper Stack	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock

My all-time favourite product in there, the Envelope Punch Board - an absolute bargain at only £13.46 - and also some great offers on paper. I used the Gold Soiree paper on the card I shared on Monday - see it here - and you can stock up on A4 cardstock in two of the soon-to-be-retiring 2013-15 In-colours. Cardstock, along with markers, ink pads and re-inkers in Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana and Baked Brown Sugar are all set to leave us at the end of May and are usually the first things to run out when the list of retiring products from the current catalogue are announced, so if these colours are favourites of yours, stock up now before it's too late.  

This is the last opportunity you will have this year to place an order where your Weekly Deals purchases can go towards earning a free Sale-A-Bration product with a spend of £45. There are a whole host of catalogue and exclusive products that you can receive free with a £45 order - see them all on the links in the side bar on the right hand side.

Here is a card I made with one of the free Sale-A-Bration stamp sets, called 'A Happy Thing':

This is a card I made a few weeks ago and haven't yet shared with you, which in addition to the lemon stamp also features one of the patterns in the Best Year Ever DSP pack, another exclusive Sale-A-Bration item. If these or any other Sale-A-Bration items are on your wish list, you have only 7 more days to acquire them. So what are you waiting for? I'll be back tomorrow with a card for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Marie. Until then, happy shopping!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A Happy Thing Clear Stamp Set	Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Ovals Collection Framelits Dies	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Blender Pens

This is my second post for today - scroll down or click here for my earlier creative post featuring today's card. Blendabilites may now be discontinued, but today Stampin' Up! has announced a number of additional catalogue products that you can earn for free with each £45 spend until the end of March while supplies last. Here are the details of each of the products that will form part of the offer:

Don't forget if you're ordering online to include the hostess code for March - 4AHTZQVW - and to ensure that your contact settings on the page tab headed up 'My Demonstrator' are set to 'YES', so that I can keep you informed on the progress of your order and send you a little thank you in the post.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with a new set of Wednesday Weekly Deals and another project. Until then, happy shopping!

It's Sunday - my favourite day of the week! Why? Well, I usually get a cup of tea in bed before I start my day (and I definitely will today, as it's Mother's Day here in the UK) and it's time for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. This week the hugely talented Ann has a great clean and simple challenge for us:

I love CAS cards and decided that this week's challenge was the perfect opportunity to use my Lotus Blossom stamp that I received during the current Sale-A-Bration promotion. I also paired it with the colours over at Color Throwdown this week as I just love the purples and green of the inspiration photo - here is my card:

This set has been the most popular of all the Sale-A-Bration promotional items that you can receive free with a £45 spend amongst my customers and whilst I've used mine to demonstrate how to stamp the flower to my customers on a number of occasions, this is the first time I've actually used it to make a card - shocking! It's a great flower and perfect for CAS cards. I stamped the sentiment and my first image of the flower in Elegant Eggplant and the same for the second one, having stamped off first. I then stamped the third solid image in Perfect Plum. I used Old Olive for my stem and then stamped the first image again in Versamark, and overstamped the sentiment in Versamark too and heat embossed both of them in clear embossing powder. Try as I might I couldn't get it to show up in the photo, but this does look lovely in real life with a lovely glossy sheen and it adds a little texture to the flower. I matted my stamped panel on a piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and a Whisper White base, which really allows my blossom to take centre stage. To finish, I added a trio of pearls that I coloured with the darkest of my Wisteria Wonder Blendabilities (I'm not ready to part with these just yet, even though they are sadly no longer available). If the Lotus Blossom stamp is still on your wish list, you have until the end of March to receive it free with a £45 spend - 16 days left, so don't leave it too late. 

There are a whole host of amazing floral CAS cards from the Design Team this week; do pop by their blogs and take a look:

I look forward to seeing your floral CAS creations in our gallery this week. 

I am off for a morning of hockey and then hopefully home to roast dinner cooked by the men in our house! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Lotus Blossom Photopolymer Stamp Set	Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Elegant Eggplant A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour challenge for you:

This week's card was a challenge for me in so many ways! I have no Irish connections so St Patrick's Day isn't a big thing for me, although I often make at least one project to celebrate and I thought these colours would be perfect. I decided on my design and really wanted to create a four leaf clover to tie in with a 'lucky' theme, however I couldn't make it work with my layout, so went with a three leaf clover and decided that for my card this would be just as lucky (cardmaker's prerogative ;-)). Here it is:

I made my simple clover leaf using the smallest heart from the Hearts Framelits set, and freehand cut the stem, then offset my sentiment, a combination of stamps using the 'lucky' from the Project Life sentiment set 'Remember This' and the 'you' from the Sale-A-Bration set 'Simply Wonderful'. One last confession from me - I actually used a sheet of Garden Green from the Regals DSP stack for my card - when I went to my folder, I had no Wild Wasabi - oops! The effect would be just the same with a Wild Wasabi polka dot paper though, so I went with it.

Do check out the gallery to see what the other members of the CCMC design team have come up with this week - we look forward to seeing your creations!

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

I've been busy working with my 'Indescribable Gift' stamp set as it is the stamp set that I'll be using in my technique class this month so I decided to use it to create a card for this week's Mojo Monday challenge:

I thought the circle would make a great space for the apple blossom to peek through - take a look:

I used a base of Pink Pirouette and matted it with a piece of the 'Irresistibly Yours' embossed paper - free with an order of £45 or more before the end of March - that I had sponged with Pink Pirouette ink, to add a little interest but not detract from my flower branch. I used Wild Wasabi for the panel and having stamped the blossom onto Whisper White, I coloured it with my Pink Pirouette, Wild Wasabi and Crumb Cake Blendabilities and fussy cut it out. I then positioned it through the aperture and and finally added my sentiment panel across the bottom.

This card was not quick to create - the fussy cutting took a while! - but it was well worth it. I love the finished effect.

Back tomorrow with my card for this week's new Paper Player's challenge. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Indescribable Gift Clear Stamp Set	Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Project Life Corner Punch	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad

This is my second post for today - scroll down or click here for my earlier creative post featuring today's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. I just wanted to share the exciting news that in addition to the 6 stamp sets, two paper packs, accessory pack and Project Life cards, oh and the Blendabilites range, from today Stampin' Up! are offering four additional products that you can earn for free with each £45 spend during the month of March only. There will be a link to the leaflet in the side bar on the right for the rest of the month - you can also click here or on the image below for the details of each of the products in all their glory:

Two great stamps sets to colour, some beautiful printed vellum and an in-colour accessory pack. A great way to make the most of the last month of this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion.

Don't forget if you're ordering online to include the hostess code for March - 4AHTZQVW - and to ensure that your contact settings on the page tab headed up 'My Demonstrator' are set to 'YES', so that I can keep you informed on the progress of your order and send you a little thank you in the post.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another card for spring. Until then, happy shopping!

Good evening blog readers! A busy couple of days so a later blog post today. Just time to share with you another card using the Butterfly Thinlits, this time including the largest of the trio: 

This is a larger than usual card at 6" x 6", as I wanted to allow enough cardstock to frame this rather large butterfly and set if off to true effect. The base of my card is Crumb Cake cardstock, onto which I added a raised mat panel consisting of a piece of the current Sale-A-Bration 'Best Year Ever' Designer Series Paper onto a piece of Coastal Cabana cardstock. I love this bokeh-inspired patterned paper - it saves the time of creating your own and makes for a lovely background effect. |Even better still, it can be yours free with an order of £45! I then added a piece of Strawberry Slush cardstock, and wrapped some linen thread around the panel before adhering to my card. I then added my layered butterfly - the largest butterfly cut from Crumb Cake and the smallest butterfly cut from Coastal Cabana - and finished with a bow of Strawberry Slush thick baker's twine. A no-stamping card, that really shows these delicate butterflies off to great effect.

I'm linking today's card with the sketch challenge over at Fab Friday (I turned the sketch through 90 degrees and used my linen thread in place of the flagged banner in the sketch).

Back tomorrow with my card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players and news of some new Sale-A-Bration goodies that you can earn during the month of March. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Butterflies Thinlits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper	Card Stock A4 Strawberry Slush
Crumb Cake 12 X 12 Smooth Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Strawberry Slush Thick Baker's Twine	Linen Thread