A late post from me today as I've spent a lovely day crafting with friends, followed by James family piano lessons this evening (3 out of 4 of us are learning!) so have only just got around to it. Our craft session was fun - we finished off some projects we started a little while ago, which always gives a good sense of achievement. With Christmas creeping ever closer, today I thought I would share with you the advent calendar I made for the James juniors, which is a case of a project by the lovely Julie Kettlewell. I love the Tiny Treat Boxes in this year's Stampin' Up! seasonal catalogue, which are of course perfect for making advent calendars. The sample in the catalogue shows just how easy it is to make something to a basic design, however having seen Julie's project a little while ago - you can see her original project here - I knew I wanted to create something similar. So without further ado, here is my framed advent calendar in all its glory:

Isn't it beautiful?! It is framed in a 20" frame/50cm, so is a substantial piece in terms of size and it makes a real statement. I chose to make mine using the All is Calm Speciality Designer Series Paper, here are some close ups:

This is the central panel, with a sentiment stamped using the Epic Alphabet and some trees punched using the Tree Punch and decorated with some frosted sequins.

Each of the boxes is covered on 5 sides using the All is calm DSP, then a number label made from a layered section using a 1 3/4" scalloped circle punch and a 1 3/8" circle punch, and numbers cut out of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper using the Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die and the Big Shot.

This is a great project to showcase all of the lovely papers within the All is Calm DSP stack.

I adhered my boxes so that the flaps would open upwards and put my numbers in order from one through twenty four, however you could 'mix and match' if that's more your style. Each pack of treat boxes contains 25 boxes, so you have one spare to package an extra special treat for Christmas Day if that's your thing. I'm really pleased with how my calendar turned out and am busy acquiring lots of little treats to fill my boxes for the month of December. I can see this project becoming a real heirloom piece that we bring out year after year.

Hope you like today's project; back tomorrow with the new Wednesday Weekly Deals and my Design Team post for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die	1-3/8 Inch Circle Punch	1-3/4 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	Frosted Sequins	All Is Calm Specialty Designer Series Paper
Tiny Treat Boxes	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad
Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock	Whisper White 12 X 12 Smooth Card Stock	Tree Punch	Mini Glue Dots	Sticky Strip
Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week LeAnne has an interesting challenge for us:

I had a minor panic when I saw this week's challenge, for two reasons: firstly, vintage as a style is not my forte, and secondly, when I looked through my (extensive!) stamp collection, it was obvious I didn't have much in the way of vintage stamps either!! In fact, I only have one set that looks even remotely 'vintage' and that's my Traveler set - at that moment though, I relaxed. I love this set and suddenly remembered an idea I'd had way back when it first came out in July. I wondered what the vintage steam train would look like converted into the Polar Express, the famous train in the Christmas movie starring Tom Hanks - well wonder no more, here's my card:

I used Night of Navy for my card base, stamped with some grunge spatters from Gorgeous Grunge in Gold Encore ink, and matted my focal image with an offset piece of Brushed Gold cardstock. I stamped my image in black Stazon on watercolour paper, then sponged in my sky using Night of Navy and a little Pacific Point. I added more colour to the train using my Aquapainter and a touch of gold, then I used Whisper White kraft ink for the snow on the ground, the smoke from the train's funnel and I masked off an area and sponged white for the beam of light coming from the front of the train. I also stamped some falling snow using the snow stamp in the 'White Christmas' set. I wanted to frame my image with the 'On Film' framelit as per the sketch from The Paper Craft Crew because I wanted the connection to the movie, but in truth it does crop the image a little small and you lose some of the detail. I will probably make another version of this without such a tight crop, but as I was racing towards my deadline I didn't have time to make another for today so had to go with this one. I do love the overall effect though. The flags are made from striped gold vellum and gold foil, and the sentiment from 'Good Greetings', in keeping with one of the famous straplines from the movie, 'The bell still rings for all who truly believe', which I punched out with a small oval punch and finished with a small brushed gold star.

I hope you like my vintage festive train today; do check out the other design team cards over at The Paper Players - there is, as always, some fantastic inspiration to be found there.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Traveler Clear-Mount Stamp Set	On Film Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Stars Framelits Dies	Gorgeous Grunge	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper
Stazon Cleaner	Jet Black Stazon Pad	Aqua Painter	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
Gold Metallic Encore Pad	Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker	Brushed Gold A4 Card Stock	Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum
Gold Foil Sheets	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad
Sponge Daubers	Large Oval Punch	Whisper White A4 Card Stock

A quick post from me with today's card which is for this week's Merry Monday and Freshly Made Sketches challenges:

Snowflakes, naturals and dry embossing - and here is my card:

When I saw the challenge over at Merry Monday, I knew immediately that I was going to use the lovely Early Espresso/kraft paper in the DSP Under The Tree Speciality DSP pack; I teamed it with the Mingle All the Way stamp, stamped in Early Espresso on kraft, which also has little snowflakes on it and punched this out using a 2" circle punch and layered it using a couple of additional circles. I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder for my embossed panel and had to finish with one of the little wooden snowflake embellishments from the Merry Many Stars kit - I love these and with I could buy them just one their own, I could find so many uses for them!!

I usually find monochromatic colour schemes so tricky, but this card came together so well and I love the natural look that this card has.

That's me for today; back tomorrow with my Design team card for The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mingle All The Way Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Die	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Under The Tree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock	2" Circle Punch
2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Many Merry Stars Simply Created Kit

I'm off to a Halloween party today with friends and I wanted to do a quick post to share with you some of the treats I made to take for the children. I found these cute mini pumpkins for the girls and slightly more scary eyeballs for the boys, and just tied them in some cellophane with the White and Tangerine Tango Two-tone Trim and added some cute tags:

I also found these cute chocolate Halloween figures that I dressed up with some covers made using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch with a large oval punched out of the front section, and decorated with some colourful tags - I stamped the Halloween image from the 'Merry Everything' stamp set twice, once on Tangerine Tango then again on some scraps of retired Lucky Limeade cardstock and cut out the Dracula on the green cardstock and paper-pieced them together.

How cute are these? I'm entering these into this week's challenge over at Colour Q, as they were inspired by this week's colour scheme and challenge badge (I substituted Rich Razzleberry as my purple, since I didn't have and Concorde Grape):

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Merry Everything Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Note Tag Punch	Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
White & Tangerine Tango Two-Tone Trim	Extra-Large Oval Punch	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock
Basic Black Baker's Twine

Today I have something very special that I've had to keep under wraps for a little while: the latest Stampin' Up! UK Stampissimo video has just been published and guess what? I am the starring demonstrator! I was so excited to be asked by Paula Gorry, Stampin' Up! UK Business Development Manager, to create a project for the latest video with the theme of 'Winter Treats' that once I had a copy of the Autumn-Winter seasonal catalogue in my hands, it didn't take me long to decide what I was going to use - the fabulous new Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Die. You can make all kinds of customised boxes with this die, but for the theme of 'Winter Treats' I knew I wanted to create a range of Christmas characters, with Rudolf the Red-nose Reindeer being the star of the show. It meant I could combine the box die with another of my favourite catalogue products that you've seen me use so many times on different projects - the Autumn Wooden Embellishments (LOVE these and one pot lasts an age!)

Here is the reindeer box that I demonstrate in the video - how cute is this?!

The project itself needed to be simple enough to demonstrate whilst chatting at the same time - the purpose of Stampin' Up!'s range of Stampissimo videos is to spread the word about Stampin' Up! to both crafters and non-crafters who may not have heard of Stampin' Up! and give them some insight into the products and the demonstrators who sell them. Whilst they are based around demonstrating and sharing a particular product or project, the informational nature of these videos mean they last longer than your average tutorial so you need to get comfy!

You can get the details for how I made the box above and see lots of other boxes featured in the video itself, but I wanted to share with you some of the 'behind the scenes' photos from my day and give you a little insight into the fun that I had spending the day with Paula and Kelly in the studio, along with the now infamous 'Ben and Jerry' film crew of Ben and James, who do all of the filming for Stampin' Up!'s UK events and did such a fabulous job of recording the day and producing the final video.

This is what filming looks like from behind the scenes -  a real case of lights, camera, action! There are cameras that shoot from the front and from above in order to get a full range of shots and the necessary close-ups. When I shoot video tutorials at home I use an overhead camera, but I'm sitting at my desk. When you're standing up it is quite tricky because you have to be careful not to lean over your workspace, otherwise all the viewer sees is the top of your head! Sounds obvious, but I found out there is a real art to working with your arms outstretched and not leaning too far into your workspace.

Here are a couple of shots of Ben and James, the guys that produce the video - I struggle to tell them apart - they're twins! - but as you can see, one is slightly more camera-shy than the other:

They really are the nicest chaps you could wish to meet and I think they did a great job with the final edit, although I'll admit I'm biased!

This is my favourite photo of Paula and I on the day, taken mid-take once we were properly relaxed and into the swing of things - we really were having fun:

Lastly, here's one of us all post filming each displaying our favourite boxes, the chaps included. They decided the boxes were so easy to make, they might even have a go themselves at making some to grace their family festive table. At the UK training day at Telford earlier this year, the Stampin' Up! demonstrators were treated to a video of Ben and 'Jerry' making their first foray into crafting Stampin' Up! style, so this may well be their second!!

Also, note the festive pot plant on the edge of the desk and the Christmas tree in the video - Kelly and Paula did their best to make the studio look festive, which was quite tricky given that this was filmed some time ago when the sun was shining gloriously outside and it was not even remotely autumnal, let alone wintery! A big thank you the lovely Kelly Francis, who took all of the above pictures - she is an absolute star!

Here are some additional pictures of some of the finished boxes that feature in the video - this is Santa's helper, the mischievous elf: 

This is the man himself, Santa Claus - with his head!:

This one is Santa - without his head! Perfect if you are short on time or want something that's a little more adult-oriented:

Then we have the cutest snowman - check out his twirly carrot nose! 

Here they are altogether - one big happy Curvy Keepsake Box festive family:

I hope you found the 'behind the scenes' tour interesting - now here's the video that you've all been waiting for:

In summary, a truly great experience and yet another of the fantastic opportunities available to me as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator working with this amazing company that allows me to share what I love, be endlessly creative, manage and motivate a great team and have a job that totally fits around my family commitments and enables me to achieve the best work-life balance I've ever had.

If you're reading this and thinking that you would like to know more about the benefits of becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, then do get in touch with me on 07773 421446  - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you and tell you more.

If you would like to make Rudolf, the supplies list that links to my online store is below.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Fuse Fast Adhesive
Autumn Wooden Elements	Chocolate Chip A4 Card Stock	Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker	Basic Black A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment
Endless Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set	1-3/4 Inch Circle Punch	Owl Punch	Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive

It's Wednesday and time for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! where we have not one but two colour palettes for you to choose from this week:

I'm playing along with option 2 this week, so I have the colour combination of Chocolate Chip, Lost Lagoon, Blushing Bride and a neutral (I chose Very Vanilla) to work with. Using the above sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches as the inspiration for my layout (I turned it through 90 degrees), I decided to make (another!) baby card using one of my favourite baby sets, Baby We've Grown. Here is my card:

I stamped my focal image in Chocolate Chip and coloured in using ink and my blender pens, to give a slightly vintage look to my owls. I matted this panel onto a piece of Chocolate Chip Cardstock, which overlays a vertical strip that has been edged with a piece of Lost Lagoon punched with the hearts border punch. I added my sentiment, again stamped in Chocolate Chip on Lost Lagoon cardstock, to finish. Although the base is Blushing Bride, I think this could be a good unisex baby card; you could always alternate the pink and blue elements if you wanted something more masculine in appearance.

So what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment on today's card, before hopping over to check out the amazing cards by the rest of the Colour Me...! team:

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Baby, We've Grown	Hearts Border Punch	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad	Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock
Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad	Chocolate Chip A4 Card Stock
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock

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 October/November (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right) 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:

Autumn Traditions Kit - Digital Download	Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Decorative Window Gift Box	Epic Day This And That Designer Washi Tape
Natural 7/8" Cotton Ribbon	Pool Party Stampin' Emboss Powder	Word Bubbles Framelits Dies

I'm very late posting today - eek! - having had a fun day with the James juniors, amongst other things shopping for the contents for our annual Samaritan's Purse Shoeboxes. This is something we really enjoy and is a great way to encourage the children to think of others less fortunate than themselves as we are about to embark on one of the most commercial seasons of the year and to be grateful for all they have.

With gratefulness in mind, I thought I would share a little pumpkin that I made using the Curvy Keepsake Thinlit Die - this would make a perfect Thanksgiving table favour for my American readers and equally with an alternative tag would be suitable for Halloween too. There are tons of variations on pumpkins made with the thinlit die out there in blogland, but this is my version:

So simple to make: just cut two pieces of Pumpkin Pie cardstock with the thinlit, stamp the inner sections of the box with one of the stamps from the Work of Art set, then finish with some Old Olive leaves cut using the Fun Fall Framelits, some twisted tendrils, a couple of my favourite Autumn Wooden Embellishments and a tag from the Merry Everything set, all tied on with linen thread. I love this die and have made so many gorgeous boxes with it; I am hoping to be able to share some of them with you later this week.

Meanwhile, today I'm going to leave you with a fun photo that is destined for this year's Halloween Project Life page for sure - whilst out shopping today, we treated ourselves to some Halloween 'trick or treat' donuts at Krispy Kreme; sure enough, we had one of each filling:

The oozing green filling was actually quite nice, but the appearance was definitely a surprise!

Back tomorrow with this week's Wednesday Deals and my Design Team post for Colour Me...! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Dies	Merry Everything Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Note Tag Punch	Fun Fall Framelits Dies
Autumn Wooden Elements	Work Of Art Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive A4 Card Stock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Linen Thread
Fuse Fast Adhesive

Happy Monday everyone! I've had a fun day today: made today's blog card first thing, caught up with a friend who's been away for a while, then spent the afternoon with the lovely ladies that attend my monthly card class - there can't be a better way to start my week! I tell you, those ladies are an absolute hoot and there are some real artists amongst them for sure (yes Chris, the reindeer was inspired!!) Pictures to follow on my Facebook page!

We used the Endless Wishes stamp set in my class today, but today's blog card is back on the theme of Halloween - I need to get the use out of my Halloween sets before they get retired for another year! I took my inspiration from the photo over at Fusion, but didn't double up and use their sketch too (I might have another go at this later in the week) - instead I used the rather interesting layout over at Pals Paper Arts:

I knew I wanted to use orange with a touch of black and definitely needed to incorporate the pumpkin in the photo - this is what I came up with:

I used Sahara Sand for my card base, and used a piece of the Motely Monsters DSP that is covered with happy smiling pumpkins as my first angular layer. For my top piece, I used a piece of Tangerine Tango cardstock and cut out a pumpkin shape using my Fall Fest framelits, so that the DSP beneath would show through. I then stamped another smaller pumpkin is Crushed Curry onto Whisper White, stamped a face in Memento Black, cut this out with a framelit, tied it with a piece of linen thread and adhered to the edge of the open aperture. I popped this whole section onto dimensionals to give a little extra lift and depth. To finish, I stamped my sentiment from 'Good Greetings' in Memento Black onto the base of my card.

I hope you like today's card; back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fall Fest Photopolymer Bundle	Motlley Monsters Designer Series Paper	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Linen Thread
Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad

Sunday means it's time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players where this week Nance has a great sketch for us to play along with:

I love a good sketch challenge so decided to use this one to make a Christmas card using The Newborn King, a set I haven't inked up in a while. Here's my card:

I stamped just the stable image on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock in Night of Navy, and stamped it again on Brushed Gold cardstock and fussy cut out the stable itself and adhered this to my stamped image. I stamped my sentiment in two halves: the first half, the 'glory' in Versamark and heat embossed in gold, and the second part in Night of Navy, masking off the respective elements in turn. I toyed with whether or not I should stamp a sentiment on this section at all, given the sketch, then having decided that the sentiment here was as much a part of my image as the nativity, I then wondered whether I should dispense with the vertical sentiment element as per the sketch. In fact, I decided to use the word 'believe' from the Good Greetings set here, as it seemed to fit with my main focal panel. I edged my vanilla cardstock with a piece of gold washi tape and matted this section onto a piece of Brushed Gold, which overhangs the many section to show a border. Lastly, I stamped the star from the Newborn King stamp set in Versamark and heat embosses in gold, the filled in the outline with my gold marker for added definition and punched it out using my mosaic punch and attached it with a dimensional. I used Night of Navy for my cardbase, which I think is the perfect pairing for the gold and vanilla elements. I liked this card so much, I managed to make two (always good for my growing pile of cards!) - at this rate, I might just be ready for Christmas in time!!

Do check out the amazing cards produced by the rest of the design team for this week's challenge; as always, the standard is incredibly high and there's lots of inspiration to choose from.

Right - I'm off to hockey and then lunch with the extended James family, which will be nice for a change. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

The Newborn King Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock
Watercolor Wonder Designer Washi Tape	Brushed Gold A4 Card Stock	Mosaic Punch	Project Life Corner Punch
Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set