It's  the first of October and this month there is lots going on in the world of Stampin' Up!, with two promotions and new kits to boot! Firstly:

UP TO 30% OFF ALL KITS IN THE KITS COLLECTION

From 1 to 31 October, you can shop all kits up to 30% off. Shop card making kits, home decor, treat packaging, and so much more. Kits are all-inclusive and come with step-by-step instructions for easy crafting. There’s something for everyone! So don’t wait; start shopping now; kits are only available while supplies last.

2 NEW KITS COLLECTION KITS ADDED 

The Kits Collection discount also applies to the two new kits being added to our kit collection today: a card kit called the Alpine Air Kit:

 The Alpine Air Kit has all the pieces you need to create nine all-occasion cards with an elegant mountain theme. Whether you want to say hello, wish a happy birthday, or show support, you can pair each sentiment with the watercoloured mountain scenes and pre-cut paper pieces to make cards for any adventurer or nature-loving friend. Also available in French and German.

The A look Back kit is available at the discounted price of £21.60 this month (usual price £24).

£160 FOR £99 STARTER KIT OCTOBER JOINING OFFER

The Stampin' Up! Starter Kit is on offer this month in all markets: between 1-31 October, the starter kit has an enhanced value of £160! For just £99, you can choose £160 of products from the annual or mini catalogue, the clearance rack, our Kits Collection or items that are currently available on pre-order too - this includes the Online Exclusives that will be released next month. The starter kit also comes with free postage (and not just today!) and includes free catalogues and other useful business supplies too. There are so many benefits to joining Stampin' Up! right now:

• An ongoing 20% discount on all product purchases, for at least the next 6 months
• See and pre-order new products before they are released to the general market
• An invitation to Stampin' Up!'s exclusive Demonstrator Facebook Group
• An invitation to my Team Facebook Group
• Invitations to exclusive Stampin' Up! events
• The opportunity to build a business that could generate you an income if you wish

Or you could simply enjoy the great offer that is the starter kit itself this month - it's entirely up to you. If you'd like to join my team, then just click here and it will take you to the right place; there is always a 'join me' link in the right-hand column of my blog and if you have any questions or would like to chat through any of the details, just give me a call.

That's all for now - you can see today's creative post here in case you missed it!

Online Store Links to the new kits:

A LOOK BACK KIT (21.60)

ALPINE AIR KIT (ENGLISH) (18.90)

It's time to get festive - the new Stampin' Up! mini catalogue is here! Paper copies of the catalogue are on their way to those customers who have shopped with me in the last 6 months (slightly later than usual due to my vacation). If you don't have one, never fear - the catalogue is available right now for you to download by clicking here or on the image below:

It will be available until it ends on 6 January 2025 by clicking on the image on the right hand sand of my blog page. So many great stamp sets, papers and more for your Halloween, Autumn and Christmas projects.

Also launching today is the new Digital Scrapbooking Catalogue. Further to the purchase of Close To My Heart, Stampin' Up! is expanding it's 12x12" scrapbooking line. There are new packs of 12x12" coloured cardstock, new two-tone cardstock and some fabulous scrapbooking kits too. The scrapbooking catalogue is only available in digital format and the full product line will be available online and through me as your Stampin' up! demonstrator whilst supplies last. New products will be added to this line on an ongoing basis.  The catalogue is available right now for you to download by clicking here or on the image below:

Here are some useful links that show some of the new scrapbooking product in more detail - the first shows the new two-tone cardstock (this is an addition to our current solid core cardstock, not a replacement):

The second gives a closer look at the new scrapbooking kits in more detail:

I also want to bring to your attention two new kits that will be available later this month. The release date has not yet been confirmed, but as with other recent kits they are likely to be popular (the Haunted House Kit sold out in days!) so if either of these kits appeals to you, please let me know and send through your order now so that I can order for you as soon as they release to avoid any disappointment. The first of the kits is a Card Keeper Kit:

Both kits will retail at £24 each and make great gifts too. The ornaments would also be great to make with children  -a half-term project perhaps?

I'll let you know when they are available to purchase, but if you're interested you should get in touch now so that your order is ready to go. Back soon with a new project and some samples from new mini catalogue makes.

I hope you are all enjoying the start of a long bank holiday weekend. We have already enjoyed a morning of fresh air, followed by an afternoon of chocolate and a movie to avoid the return of the rain here in the UK. I am so done with winter now!

Today I thought I would share with you the first of the projects that I made with the ladies that attended my recent luxury craft weekend earlier this month. I won't be sharing any instructions on how they were made - these are reserved for those that attended - however I am sharing lots of photos of the projects that I designed as it is a great way for my readers to get a flavour of what a residential crafting retreat with me is like and the kinds of projects included. With 4 classes spread over 2 days, it's a great opportunity to tackle a variety of projects and also some that are a little more time-consuming than can be completed in a class that is of a shorter duration.

Today I'm sharing one of my favourite projects: a mini album I made featuring the Sweet Soiree Memories and More cards that are one of the current Sale-A-Bration gifts that can be yours free with a purchase of £45 or more, for just over another 24 hours:

Berry Burst cardstock forms the base of this expandable album and in addition to the Sweet Soiree Memories and More card pack, the Sweet Soiree Embellishment Kit has been used to decorate the cover and inside. 

This is what album looks when you first open it:

Fully extended, the album is four panels wide:

Each side then expands further to include additional flaps and pockets on both sides:

The album includes lots of areas to add photographs and capture memories, including this neat waterfall feature:

This album was certainly the most challenging of the projects we tackled during the retreat and was not for the fainthearted! The feedback was really positive though and everyone was so pleased with their creations; some ladies reported feeling truly amazed and thrilled to have tackled something like this, which they would not have ever contemplated on their own. I was personally thrilled with how positively this was received, as I've never led a class quite like this before. I'm already taking the learns from this project to create another version that is equally 'wow' yet a little easier to recreate.

If you would like to make projects like this one at a future retreat, please sign up to my newsletter by clicking on the icon in the right-hand column to ensure you receive the information for future retreats as soon as it is released or click here for more information - details for my next retreat will be announced in the coming weeks!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with one last project featuring Sale-A-Bration item. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sweet Soirée Memories & More Card Pack (£0.00)

Sweet Soirée Embellishment Kit (£10.00)

Berry Burst A4 Cardstock (£7.25)

I have had a busier than usual schedule this week which has necessitated a few blog-free days - I hope you will all bear with me, whilst I like to think I'm organised clearly I'm not organised enough! So much to share and so little time really is my motto at the moment.

Anyway, today I am back with it and I have something a little different for you - this week the team over at Global Design Project have a family theme and CAS-ual Fridays are challenging us to make anything but a card - so I thought I would share one of my recent scrapbooking layouts:

Here is my layout featuring the Color Theory Memories and More card pack:

Here's the low-down on today's project:

A Traditional Layout - Whilst I don't often share my layouts with you here on my blog, I'm a real fan of the pocket-style memory keeping that we introduced with the Project Life range and subsequently with Memories and More. The pocket cards make it so easy to put pages together quickly and I love that I can organise my pages with minimal supplies and 'pretty' them up as I go or add extra detail later. Here I've used the Memories and More cards in a traditional 12" x 12" scrapbook layout as I wanted to show how these cards can be used in a variety of different ways. The pre-printed sentiment cards mean that whatever type of layout you use, Memories and More cards make it easy to create a colourful layout with no stamping required.

Color Theory For All Seasons - This layout is one of four that I created using the Color Theory Memories and More card pack, as I created one for each season. I will share the other layouts in a future blog post; as you can see this page is my Winter layout featuring the rest of the James family on our annual ice skating trip. This is something we love to do every year and make a point of doing together, just the four of us - it has become a tradition and is generally accompanied by different novelty hats each year - in the photo above Rebecca is sporting a Christmas tree whilst Ben's has elf ears! In addition to the Memories and More cards, I used some coloured embossing paste with my Pattern Party Decorative Masks to add some texture and interest to my background, along with some diecut snowflakes courtesy of the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, a little glimmer paper and some glitter enamel dots to add some festive sparkle. I added stickers from the Color theory card pack for additional sentiments and accents.

Hidden Thoughts - My layout features space for journaling on the card above my photograph, but it also features a 'hidden journaling' card concealed beneath the photograph and revealed by pulling the tab on the left hand side attached to the card that says 'Details'. The circle tab punch is great for adding tabs to your journaling cards in this way.

I'll be back tomorrow with another project for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Color Theory Card Pack	Whisper White 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock	Embossing Paste	Pattern Party Decorative Masks	Palette Knives
Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Circle Tab Punch	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Glitter Enamel Dots	Marina Mist A4 Cardstock
Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies	Silver 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Ribbon

It's Wednesday already? The week is zipping by! I'm sure that time moves quicker the nearer to Christmas we get! I have a great festive monochromatic Christmas card for you today: big on layers, easy to recreate - just what we like at this time of year! I made today's card with a couple of challenges in mind:

The sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch this week is a classic and I just love the inspiration photo at CanYouCaseIt - so much shine! I took my inspiration from the red and white elements and the shiny foil which I incorporated into the border frame for my card:

Isn't that striped Holiday vellum just gorgeous? I matted it on a piece of Whisper White cardstock before adhering to my Real Red base so that the red foil stripes would really stand out. For the focal point of my card, I used the sentiment from the 'Cheer All Year' stamp set - so versatile - and my little hot cocoa mugs are from the 'Project Life Hello December 2015' stamp set - another one of those sets that is useful for so much more than its designed purpose.

Are any of you out there joining in with the #decemberdaily project? I love to create a Project Life mini-album each December documenting the goings on in the James household during the festive season, so the above stamp set was a must for me to decorate this year's journalling, along with the Hello December 2015 Project Life Card Collection and Accessory Kit:

I'm mindful that I don't often share my Project Life documenting here on my blog - I just tend to get on with it! - but I'm trying to consciously change that, so throughout December I will be sharing some of the inspiration for my daily journalling and occasionally some of my completed pages in the hope that they will inspire you to get involved in active memory keeping too. Yesterday's page will feature the arrival of our Christmas Elf Charlie, who often gets up to mischief in the run up to Christmas and yesterday appeared with a fun piece of home decor I made to remind the James Juniors that good behaviour is important more now than ever since the elf will be reporting back to Santa on everything he sees and hears:

Isn't that fun? Surprisingly easy to create with the help of my e-cutter and some Stampin' Up! cardstock. Here's a picture of Charlie as he made his first appearance of the year:

This morning Ben was out of bed, up and dressed in record time and off on the hunt for Charlie to see what mischief he had got up to overnight; he eventually found him hiding in the basil pot amongst the herbs on the kitchen windowsill. Here's to more mayhem as the month progresses!

If you would like to join me in documenting your December, it's not too late to order the supplies to create your own album; just click on the links below to go to the online store or give me a call and I would be happy to place an order for you. More tips and Project Life #decemberdaily inspiration to come! Equally, if you would like to share your own #decemberdaily memories, feel free to upload them to my Facebook page here - I would love to feature them.

That's all from me today; I'll be back tomorrow with a festive card for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Project Life Hello December 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set	Cheer All Year Photopolymer Stamp Set	Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Cardstock
Whisper White A4 Cardstock

Project Life #dailydecember Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Project Life Hello December 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set

Hello December 2015 Project Life Card Collection

Hello December 2015 Project Life Accessory Pack

Kraft 6" X 8" Project Life Album

Variety Pack 6" X 8" Project Life Photo Pocket Pages

Project Life Journaling Pens