For the New Mr & Mrs Harrison!

by Joanne James2. October 2013 21:06

A quick post from me today to share a wedding card and gift box I made for my friends and neighbours, Annette and Jason, who got married at the weekend. The theme of the wedding was bright pink and the gerbera was a feature flower, both in the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets and on the invitations and wedding favours. Having made the wedding invitations (I will share these in a future post - I have 'mislaid' the photographs I took on completion!), I decided to make a wedding card that was pink but not flower-themed, but I did design a gift box that complemented the overall décor to house their gift.

Here is the card, using the lovely 'From This Day Forward' stamp, inspired by a similar card by Monica Gale here:

I also created a gift box with a belly band with a gerbera design, that echoed the design of the wedding stationery and favours. My box was inspired by this mini version by Sam MacDonald of Pootles Paparcraft here, and although whilst the shape is the same, the overall dimensions are considerably larger! here is my full size version:

 

Very large, with a 9cm x 9cm square base, and very pink, but more sturdy than a gift bag and much more personal. I finished it off with some retired Melon Mambo organza ribbon (currently available to purchase on the Clearance Rack!) and a die-cut flower with co-ordinating Chalk Talk gift label. here's a close up of the detail:

The sun shone and the wedding day was perfect - what more can you ask for? Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Harrison - wishing you a happy future together.

Back tomorrow with another project and the detail behind the 2 week £25 sign up offer that begins on October 7th; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up Supplies Used (for the card only):

 This Day ForwardPetite Pairs - Clear-Mount Stamp Set - by Stampin' Up!Melon Mambo 1/8 Taffeta RibbonLinen Thread - by Stampin' Up!

Very Vintage Designer ButtonsBasic Pearls Jewel Accents - by Stampin' Up!

Is it a present? No it's a card! FMS105

by Joanne James30. September 2013 15:57

Apologies for the lack of blog posts for the last couple of days - I've had a streaming cold (back to school sniffles passed on by James Juniors - gotta love 'em!) and I also spent all day yesterday at the wedding of my friend and neighbour Annette. I'll share the wedding card and makes another time, but today I've been feeling much better so have managed some crafting and I'm going to sneak in a last minute entry to this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge (and not a stamp in sight!). This is this week's sketch:

When I first saw this sketch, I immediately knew what I was going to do with it - I thought it would make a great Christmas present, topped off with a lovely bow; so, here's my interpretation:

I know this card will need a box rather than an envelope due to the size of the bow on the front, but I just couldn't resist - the new die cut bow provides a great focal point. I angled the ribbon 'ends' downwards rather than out to the sides, because I still wanted the four boxes and the connecting lines to be visible. These bows are so easy to make - they will be decorating lots of my festive packages this season.

I'm also going to link up with Just Add Ink where the challenge this week is 'bows' (JAI #184).

I think I've got the bug for challenges now; I was delighted that my Dasher card from last week was chosen by LeAnne Pugliese as one of the 'A Cut Above' runners up with the Paper Players - if you missed it, you can check it out here.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gift Bow Bigz L DieSeason Of Style Designer Series PaperBig Shot Die-Cut Machine - by Stampin' Up!

 

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3D Projects | Cards

Christmas is Coming - Time to Get Organised!

by Joanne James19. September 2013 21:29

Finally, my first post using some of the lovely items from this year's Autumn-Winter seasonal catalogue! This week sees us into double figures (yes, 96 days to go until the big day!!) so it's most definitely time to get organised! The Season of Style This and That Journal is just the thing to see you organised from now through to the new year: it has a 4 month day to day planner, space for jotting down ideas and plans, Christmas card lists and gift ideas, along with handy pockets to store your receipts and Christmas stamps as you go along.

The journal itself comes with a lovely embossed Crumb Cake front which would make a great cover as is, but I chose to decorate mine in colours that co-ordinated with the co-ordinating Season of Style This and That Designer Stickers and Washi Tape that I will be using on the inside just to give it a festive feel. Here's my finished cover:

I went with a fairly simple and 'flat' cover, as I wanted my journal to be practical and not have bits falling off as I put it through its paces. I covered it in Cherry Cobbler textured cardstock, with a strip of spotted Season of Style DSP. Some wide ribbon, chevron punched pieces and a decorated layered snowflake finished it off. Here's a close up of my feature embellishment:

The detail in the centre is one of the stickers from my Designer Sticker set and I included a Silver Glimmer snowflake cut with the Festive Flurry Framelits for just a hint of glitter - only because I know it won't shed sparkles over everything :-) Gotta love Glimmer Paper! I also tied some Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon to the spine to hang inside as a handy bookmark.

I have already started scribbling on the inside - I'll share my pages as they get busier! - and think this is a must-have item if you like to be organised for the festive season. Here's a short video from Stampin' Up! that takes you on a mini-tour inside the journal itself:

 

Back tomorrow with a fun birthday card; until then, Happy Stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

 Season Of Style This And That JournalSeason Of Style This And That Designer StickersSeason Of Style Designer Series PaperChevron Border PunchCherry Cobbler Textured 12 x 12 Card Stock

Cherry Cobbler 1 Grosgrain Stitched Edge RibbonFestive Flurry Framelits DiesSilver Glimmer Paper - by Stampin' Up!Crumb Cake 1/2 Inch Seam Binding Ribbon - by Stampin' Up!

 

 

 

The Great Outdoors and Other Things!

by Joanne James10. September 2013 19:52

Well, I can't believe it's actually been six days since I last posted a blog entry, but it has! It's not that I've not been 'making', far from it; just that I've had some urgent makes that I sent even before photographing (oops!) and it was my birthday at the weekend and whilst I didn't make myself a card, my parents celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary on the same day and I have two friends who also share my birthday so I was busy sorting cards for them. I have lots of friends and family with birthdays in September, so am still trying to finish these cards before I really get into the Christmas spirit! And this week I have two card classes too, so busy, busy!

Anyway, today's share is a quick 'make' and birthday card with the 'Great Outdoors' stamp set. I play an active role in the Parents' Association at James Juniors' school and last weekend was the now annual Dads, Lads and Lasses Camping Weekend. No Mums allowed, except to help with the planning, organising and shopping beforehand! The weekend was choc-full of great activities: a treasure hunt, mini beast hunt, stargazing and campfire breadmaking to name but a few. Another of the activities was to create a mini camp journal; everyone had a mini journal to stamp, colour and decorate and the 'Great Outdoors' stamp set was just perfect for this. Here's the simple one I created to give the children some inspiration:

The children created some fantastic journals and filled them with tales and memories of their weekend. The photo at the end of the post shows Rebecca's 'work in progress' (and this is just the outside of the book!) alongside mine.

I have one other photo to show you from the weekend; not a great picture I'm afraid, but it was a last-minute one taken with my phone - shock, horror!! One of the young campers was celebrating his birthday on the Sunday, so I made a themed card for the children to sign collectively as a special way to remember how he spent his 7th birthday. Here it is: 

I made a mask to enable me to stamp the tents in a row and fussy-cut the campfire and popped it up on dimensionals. Lastly, here's a picture of my happy campers eating their campfire-baked bread with jam:

I will be back tomorrow with another of my recent cards; hopefully blog normality is about to be restored! Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: The Great Outdoors, ABC-123 Sketch Alphabet, Memorable Moments

Cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers:  Old olive, Soft Sky, Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip

Tools: Scallop Circle Punch, Circle Punch

 

Oh Happy Day - A New Crafty Owl has joined the Team!

by Joanne James24. August 2013 08:26

I was recently fortunate to gain another member to my growing team of Crafty Owls, so as is customary I like to make a card and gift to welcome them into the fold. Here is the card I made to welcome Samantha to my team:

 

This card was inspired by one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers by Pretty Paper Cards. I cheated a little with the background, using my retired spritz tool and the 'grunge' stamp from the retired 'French Foliage' set, as I have yet to invest in the grunge stamps in the new annual catalogue. I took the opportunity to use another of the lovely new in-colours - this time Crisp Cantaloupe. I also made a co-ordinating decorated notebook for those all important notes, dates and business tips that will be heading Samantha's way; when you're new to Stampin' Up!, there can be a lot to remember, even with a helpful upline in place to guide and support you. You can see the book in the picture below:

If you would like to join my team, whatever your motivation, then do get in touch. Stampin' Up! can be a great way to earn an income whilst doing something you really enjoy, whilst also making new friends and providing you with access to some of the best paper crafting products on the market at a substantial discount. I can support you, whether you wish to build a profitable business or simply become a hobby demonstrator and feed your crafting habit! If you are interested in joining my team and would like to benefit from the incentives and training opportunities that Stampin' Up! has to offer, please give me a call or drop me a line for a chat about what's involved ato how to take the next step. 

There is also a Stampin' Up! Creative Tour coming to a town near us soon; if you would like to 'try before you buy' and experience first hand some of the corporate benefits that Stampin' Up! offers its demonstrators, then I would be happy to take you along as my guest - get in touch if you would be interested in taking advantage of this exciting opportunity. 

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

 

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Happy Day, French Foliage (retired)

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Crisp Cantaloupe, Very Vanilla

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Crumb Cake, Crisp Canteloupe

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Honeycomb Embossing Folder

Finishing Touches: Basics Pearls, Linen Thread, Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon, Tea Lace Paper Doily

Christmas Ornament and Decorated Box

by Joanne James9. August 2013 22:13

Today I'm sharing the last of the projects we made at last weekend's Christmas workshop: a stamped clay ornament and a decorated kraft gift box to put it in. Here's a photograph of the ornament:

These clay ornaments have a natural finish and can be stamped straight onto the surface, without any additional preparation. As we were going all out for Christmas, once we had stamped our design onto the ornament we stamped the pattern again with Versamark, sprinkled with Heat and Stick Powder and heated with the heat gun, then sprinkled with Iridescent Ice glitter and heated once more. This gives the finished item a more muted colour and a lovely sparkle that catches the light.

We also decorated one of the lovely ready-made kraft boxes from the catalogue to go with it - here's the top of mine:

Together they would make a lovely gift for someone, if you could bear to part with them of course! I will be using mine to decorate my tree during the festive season, but I'm sure I can make another one or something else to go in the box! I hope you liked my first Christmas projects of the season - there will be lots more where this came from. If you would like to join any of my classes, do get in touch for more details; my September card classes will be featuring the Mosaic Madness stamp set and then from October we will be doing Christmas cards all the way through until the end of the year.

Back tomorrow with the first of the weekend birthday cards: my brother-in-law is celebrating his 'big 40' with a party tomorrow and then my own 'Baby James' will be 6 on Sunday, so I've a few birthday cards to share. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Sweet Essentials, Four Seasons (hostess - retired)

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Be of Good Cheer Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Real Red

Tools: Simply Scored, Big Shot, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 7/8" and 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punches, Merry Minis (star)

Finishing Touches: Champagne Glimmer Paper, 3/4" Cherry Cobbler Chevron Ribbon,  Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon (retired)

 

Christmas Tea Lights

by Joanne James8. August 2013 09:44

Another week, another late post - I'm loving the summer holidays but when school's out it sure is tricky to keep everything else on track! So today I'm posting nice and early, so that I don't run out of time again!

Today I'm sharing another of the makes from my Christmas workshop that I held last weekend: a lovely set of four tea lights in a handmade box. This workshop was less about the stamping and much more about the scoring - if my ladies weren't proficient with their Simply Scored scoreboard beforehand, they sure are now! So here is our finished box:

 

We made a box with a sliding sleeve cover, from which we cut out an oval aperture with the Oval Framelits and backed with a window sheet, to allow a glimpse of our lovely hand-stamped candles inside. Here's a picture of the open box, with a peek at our 'dressed up' tea lights:

We edged each of them with a strip of DSP; I'll be making more of these when my festive washi tape arrives, as this is perfect for this kind of project. The candle stamping was really easy to achieve and as none of the ladies present had done this before, was a real 'wow' moment for them. I suspect lots of their friends and neighbours will be receiving stamped tea light gift sets for Christmas now that they've learned this clever technique!

I love this spotted star/snowflake paper from the retired 'Be of Good Cheer' paper set; with so many designs to choose from, we all made different ones though - here's one of the other finished sets made by Kathy during the workshop:

These papers are just so lovely, but don't be too sad that they are now retired; I have had a 'sneak peek' of the new Autumn-Winter seasonal catalogue and can honestly say, you will not be disappointed with this year's offerings!

All being well, I will be back tomorrow with the last of my Christmas workshop projects. I'm off to have a quick spot of making before meeting friends in the park for a picnic - lovely! Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Four Seasons (hostess - retired)

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Be of Good Cheer Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Cherry Cobbler

Tools: Simply Scored, Big Shot, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punches, Oval Framelits

Finishing Touches: Creped Filter Paper, Window Sheet,  Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon (retired)

Tag A Bag Pocket Book

by Joanne James30. July 2013 14:35

An early post from me today (or a late one from yesterday, depending on your perspective!) as I'm off to London; not to see the Queen, but to meet the nice people at DK Books to talk about all things crafty - should be fun! For today's post, I've another project made at our recent quarterly team training session, this time a Pocket Book designed by Bekka Prideaux and made using the Tag A Bag Gift Bags as pockets in a book. Here's a picture of the finished mini-album, with one of the Tag A Bag Accessory Kit Gift Tags making a nice cover label:

 

This is another project that makes use of the Crushed Curry/Bermuda Bay colour combination and features the Flower Shop stamp set, both on the cover and inserts and punched to make the flower embellishment on the front of the card. This is what the book looks like inside:

The bags are decorated with alternating colour stamps and each small section has a section of card in the corresponding colour. This little pocket book could be used in a variety of ways; you can write on the bag pages and card inserts, fill the bags with small items and seal using the other items in the accessory kit (twine, mini pegs, tags and tape) or use to mount photos or clip notes to. The whole thing fastens neatly with chevron ribbon. One last picture to show you a close up of the lovely embellishment on the front cover:

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

  

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Flower Shop

Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry

Tools: Simply Scored, Pansy Punch

Finishing Touches: Tag A Bag Gift Bags, Tag A Bag Accessory Kit, Crushed Curry 3/4" Chevron Ribbon, Coastal Cabana In Colour Boutique Details

 

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3D Projects | Stamping

Tag-A-Bag Gift Bag Hostess Gift

by Joanne James28. July 2013 19:50

After all the excitement of yesterday's pop-up card, today I'm sharing another of the projects I made at my recent quarterly training. The new annual catalogue has some great new packaging options; today's project is a great way to dress up one of the bags from the 'Tag a Bag Gift Bag' kits for a quick gift:

A simple outer open fronted box adds some structure and the addition of a bright Chalk Talk gift tag, with a flower punched from one of the tags in the gift bag kit, finished with a Strawberry Slush embellishment and a showy bow of Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon; a simple bag is turned into something truly gift-worthy with little effort. Great for a small thank you or hostess gift.

Back tomorrow with another project featuring the Tag-a-Bags; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Chalk Talk

Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Strawberry Slush

Tools: Chalk Talk, Pansy Punch

Finishing Touches: Tag A Bag Gift Bag, Tag A Bag Accessory Kit, Crushed Curry 3/4" Chevron Ribbon, Strawberry Slush, In Colour Boutique Details

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3D Projects | Boxes | Host a Party | Stamping

Raspberry Ripple Covered Notebook

by Joanne James16. July 2013 21:59

A really quick post from me today to share a covered notebook I made for Rebecca's teacher last week to go with her end of term thank you gift. As someone who loves arts and crafts herself, Rebecca was keen to give her teacher a special book she could use to jot down notes and such like and was adamant that it should sparkle! So this is what we made:

Some More Amore DSP, glimmer paper and trusty elegant butterfly punch were all that we needed to turn a plain notebook into something special. We also added some in-colour satin stitched ribbon to the bind as a finishing touch. We also added a personal message inside, along with the poem 'Unity' by Cleo Swarat, which is all about the role of teacher and parent in educating a child and talks of the teacher being a sculptor, which given Rebecca's teacher majored in Art seemed appropriate for her.

That's all for today - back tomorrow with another project. until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Cardstock: Raspberry Ripple, More Amore (DSP)

Tools: Elegant Butterfly Punch, 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punch, Itty Bitty Punches

Finishing Touches: Raspberry Ripple Satin Stitched Ribbon, Silver Glimmer Paper, Basics Rhinestones

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3D Projects

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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!

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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.