You all know what a fan I am of Stampin' Up!'s kits - they make for a perfect crafty evening in with friends, whether you are a seasoned crafter or have never crafted before and would like to try something new. Kits are fun, quick and easy and all-inclusive so there's nothing to buy and nothing to store afterwards and with so many different styles and types, there's something for everyone. During August you can save up to 30% on all kits - what could be better?! You don't need a code - all kits have already been discounted in the online store - links to each of those currently available are below; I'll be sharing details on some of my favourites on social media during this month, but I just want to draw your attention to some recent new additions, including the Festive Tags kit that launches today:

If you would like to start crafting handmade creations for Christmas and New Year, the Festive Tags Kit has everything you need to create 15 festive gift tags in less than an hour - no stamping required! There are several other Christmas card and tag kits in the online store too, so definitely worth a look.

Another recently launched stamping kit is the Boho Beach kit:

This all-inclusive kit comes with everything you need to make eight beautiful beach-inspired cards. Send a friendly note to the people you love and don’t miss the acrylic-poured paint art style used in this kit for a dazzling marbled colour effect! It’s time to take a well-deserved break, sit back, and take friends and family to the beach from the comfort of your home!

Finally the Blossom Wishes Kit:

Celebrate your friends with special slimline cards from the Blossom Wishes Kit! With vellum blossoms and foiled details, you can quickly put together a fun paper craft! This kit also comes with pre-cut sentiments in Dutch, English, French, and German, so you can send a card and say hello to friends near and far.

Kits make great gifts too - you can make up the projects and then give them away for someone else to use or give them an unopened kit to bring them crafting pleasure of their own and there are some great kits for children, including the fun Love This Memory Notebook - this could be a fun way to record and document vacation activities:

To get your hands on a discounted kit, you can either get in touch to place your order or alternatively visit my online store. Or if you would like to arrange a 'kit together' event with friends for a fun evening out, then do get in touch!

As with all kits, they are available whilst stocks last; the online store will show a full range of what is currently available; to purchase, simply click on the links below. Happy shopping!

FESTIVE TAGS KIT (11.70)	BOHO BEACH KIT (ENGLISH) (18.90)	CONFETTI BIRTHDAY KIT (ENGLISH) (19.80)	FOREVER FRIENDS KIT (ENGLISH) (18.00)	COLORFUL KALEIDOSCOPE KIT (ENGLISH) (19.80)	LOVE TREATS KIT (ENGLISH) (15.40)
TIMELESS GREETINGS KIT (ENGLISH) (17.60)	CHRISTMAS GIFTING KIT (ENGLISH) (16.80)	COZY & BRIGHT KIT (ENGLISH) (17.60)	LOVE THIS MEMORY NOTEBOOK KIT (ENGLISH) (16.80)	THE BEST REMEDY KIT (ENGLISH) (17.60)	A MILLION THANKS KIT (ENGLISH) (16.80)
KINDNESS CARDS KIT (ENGLISH) (15.40)	ROBOT BUDDIES KIDS CARD KIT (ENGLISH) (15.40)	LIGHT THE CANDLES CARD KIT (ENGLISH) (18.90)	LOVE, SANTA TAG KIT (ENGLISH) (14.70)	CHRISTMAS WHIMSY CARD KIT (ENGLISH) (14.70)	SENTIMENTAL ROSE CARD KIT (ENGLISH) (18.90)
A LITTLE SMILE CARD KIT (ENGLISH) (14.00)	YOU ARE MY ANCHOR CARD KIT (ENGLISH) (14.00)	BLOSSOM WISHES KIT (11.70)	WREATH OF BLOOMS KIT (11.70)	SAYING THANKS KIT (11.70)	BIRTHDAY CARD ORGANIZER KIT (19.20)
CELEBRATE TODAY MAGNET BOARD KIT (16.80)	PETAL NOTES CARD KIT (9.10)	NOTES OF CHEER CARD KIT (11.70)	KERCHIEF CARD KIT (9.10)	PRECIOUS PARCEL CARD KIT (9.10)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a 'fill in the blank' challenge designed by me:

As a cardmaker I like to send all kinds of cards but my favourite type of card to send is a birthday card - I love to let people know I'm thinking of them on their special day. Here's one I made recently for a sweet friend of mine:

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

Celebrate with Sale-A-Bration - I used a single stamp set on today's card - the 'Happy Birthday To You' stamp set is one of the sets that can be yours free with a £45 purchase during Sale-A-Bration and is perfect for celebratory cards, including birthdays. It includes this gorgeous floral cake and a few sentiments and makes a great one-layer card - perfect for #SimpleStamping. I heat embossed my cake and sentiment in silver and coloured with my Blends markers in So Saffron and Seaside Spray - a little fussy cutting and some mats and layers in my feature colours, along with a few rhinestones for extra sparkle add a touch of glamour to this #SimpleStamping card and help to make it a real standout, yet it really is just stamps, ink and paper. 

Not Into Fussy Cutting? - I fussy cut the flowers and sentiment on my card today and it really was quite straight forward, but if fussy cutting isn't your thing, there is a set of co-ordinating Birthday Dies available as part of the Co-ordination Product Release (you can read more about that in my earlier post here)  that are useful for cutting out the cake and flowers. The dies would be especially useful if you wanted to make a batch in one go and save yourself some valuable time. 

Stampin' Up! Gift Vouchers - The Perfect Gift - My card was actually the second thing I created to share with you today. I designed it to co-ordinate with a gift voucher wallet, which is a replica of one I made recently for one of my lovely customers who was celebrating a milestone birthday. Did you know that I provide Stampin' Up! gift vouchers (for any amount) that you can purchase for yourself or a friend or loved one - there's nothing nicer to give a stamper as a gift!! When I have a request for gift vouchers, I love to create a fancy wallet for them - after all, they are a gift in themselves. The one below is a pared-down version of the one that I designed for the lovely Jane, as hers included big silver glimmer numbers too. I liked it so much I thought I would make another one - I find myself using gift wallets more and more, especially for my growing niece and nephew who appreciate money above most other things these days and it's nice to at least be able to make it look more like a gift than to just tuck a few bank notes into a card. For my gift wallet I fussy cut the cake too, and added the whole thing to a belly band of Seaside Spray DSP covered in some (retired) silver polka dot acetate and decorated with a ribbon bow, this time putting the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment front and centre:

So pretty, even if I say so myself! Here's a photo of both the card and co-ordinating gift voucher together:

I, for one, would be thrilled to receive this little combo for my birthday - or Mother's Day ... or pretty much any day really!! I'm also linking today's card up with the peeps over at Time Out Challenges who are celebrating their 6th birthday - congratulations! - since my project is for birthdays and includes the option of fussy cutting. 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. 

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Fill in the blanks with the words that are right for you and then create your project with those words in mind. Tell us, in your blog or on your site, what words you used.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a Fill in the Blank challenge, complete the sentence in the Challenge Banner with the phrase that is true for you and create your project using the words you used. Tell us what you said in your blog or on your site.

We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project and an update reading last weekend's successful craft retreat now that I'm (almost!) recovered! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Happy Birthday To You Cling Stamp Set (English) (£0.00)	So Saffron A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)
Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	So Saffron Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£8.50)	Seaside Spray Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£8.50)	Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)
Mango Melody Dark Stampin' Blends (£4.25)	Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.75)	Seaside Spray 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Metallic Ribbon (£6.50)

As promised in my earlier post today (you can read that here if you missed it), today I'm sharing something a little different that I gave a sneak peek of on my Facebook page the week before last - a 3D project! Today is the perfect day to share it since it coincides with the launch of the Snowflake Showcase product suite yesterday - you can read all about that here.

The weekend before last I held my second residential craft retreat this year. I love these weekends: they are a great opportunity for me to spend quality time with my customers, some of whom I see at my regular classes but for many who follow my blog and shop with me online and for whom this is an opportunity to get away from it all for some quality crafting time amongst friends. I am grateful that they choose to spend a weekend with me crafting and as such in addition to their goody bags, they receive lots of little pillow gifts and table favours throughout their stay as a token of my appreciation. When they leave at the end of the weekend, I like to gift them a key ring that is unique to that retreat as a reminder of the fun time that they've had. It has to showcase some fabulous Stampin' Up! product too, both on the keyring and the packaging so for this one I just had to feature the limited edition, exclusive Snowflake Showcase products that went live on sale yesterday. So first up here is the packaging for my gift:

I dressed up one of the kraft pillow boxes available in the annual catalogue with some silver-trimmed ribbon and added a sentiment banner stamped tone-on-tone with the border stamp and then heat-embossed my sentiment in silver over the top. I then added the fabulous string of snowflakes diecut to the front of the box for a real 'wow'.

It didn't end there; I continued the snowflake theme inside with a keyring, that had a snowflake tree, a teeny-tiny sentiment and one of my craft retreat logos all stamped onto shrink plastic and reduced in size, along with one of the gorgeous snowflake trinkets that are also part of this suite. I made them in two colourways, Pool Party and Balmy Blue:

Here's a picture of them both together - gift and packaging. What do you think - cute enough to hang your keys from? 

I received such lovely comments from the ladies who attended my retreat, who all said they felt truly spoiled all weekend. Here's one of the pictures I shared over on my Facebook page of us at dinner on the Saturday evening, with some of them sharing another of their table gifts:

Christmas crackers, what else?! I will have more projects using the fabulous Snowflake Showcase in the coming weeks so look out for those and meanwhile do get in touch with me directly or via my online store to order yours whilst supplies last.

Equally, if you would like to be similarly spoiled and enjoy a fabulous crafty weekend away from it all, there are still spaces available on my March 2019 retreat which will be held in the West Midlands on 2-3 March - you can read more about it here and I would love it if you could join me! The dates for next October will be released soon and I already have a waiting list for this event, so if you would like to be one of the first to receive the details as they are published then do get in touch with me via [email protected] to register your interest as spaces are likely to be snapped up quickly!

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Snow Is Glistening Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Snowflake Trinkets (£7.50)	Snowfall Thinlits Dies (£36.00)	Silver 3/8" Metallic-Edge Ribbon (£6.50)	Kraft Pillow Boxes (£4.75)
Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Balmy Blue A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Versamark Pad (£8.25)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)	Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.75)

Happy Friday everyone! I've had continuing blog and website issues to contend with this week, so all of my carefully scheduled blog posts have gone awry and you haven't heard from me in the timely manner I had hoped this week! This one should have gone live yesterday, but I'm pleased to be able to publish it finally because this is news of the release of an exclusive limited time collection of products called 'Snowflake Showcase' and trust me you are not going to want to miss it!

It seems following the success of the Blended Seasons stamp set and co-ordinating framelits a few months ago that you love an exclusive, limited offer - so here's another one: two stamp sets, one for Christmas and one all-rounder that both co-ordinate with the Snowfall Thinlits dies - available now until 30 November or whilst stocks last. What's more there are some co-ordinating Snowflake Trinkets and White Velvet paper sheets too. Here's a close up of the products in more detail:

I'm sure this set will be popular and I've taken orders for a few already having given the customers in my Facebook VIP Customer Group a sneak peek a few weeks ago (do get in touch if you would like to know more about the benefits associated with belonging to this group), so don't delay in placing your order - I wouldn't want you to be disappointed. Don't forget if you are placing an order online to also include this month's hostess code RW3QD6VN to receive a free thank you gift from me too! 

For more information on this set, please see today's second post here, which also includes a 3D project made using this gorgeous suite.

If you have any questions on any of the above, then please do get in touch - I am always happy to help!

Back shortly with my second post of the day; until then, happy shopping!

 Links to purchase the above items in my online store:

Snow Is Glistening Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)

Happiness Surrounds Photopolymer Stamp Set (£16.00)

Snowflake Trinkets (£7.50)

Snowfall Thinlits Dies (£36.00)

White Velveteen Sheets (£4.75)

My team and customers know what a fan I am of Stampin' Up!'s kits - they make for a perfect crafty evening in with friends, whether you are a seasoned crafter or have never crafted before and would like to try something new. Today I want to share with you one of the two popular card kits in the Stampin' Up! range that are retiring at the end of May with the end of the current annual catalogue. 

The Designer Tin of Cards Project Kit features on page 160 of the annual catalogue. Here's a picture of everything that's included:

This generous kit contains blanks and envelopes to create 16 cards and comes with a lovely card organiser storage tin and dividers to keep them in when you're done. Add a Designer Tin of Cards stamp set (this set contains some great stamps to decorate your envelopes and the inside of your cards too), a couple of ink pads and some adhesive and you are good to go! Or if you're an existing crafter with supplies, you could use any ink pads and sentiment stamp set to achieve great results. Here's a picture of the finished cards in the set:

First, fiesta-inspired birthday cards:

 Moroccan-inspired thank you cards:

Floral-inspired sending love and best wishes - great for a variety of occasions:

Lastly, some pretty congratulations cards:

Aren't they great? What's more, the kit has been reduced from £24.50 to just £14.70 - that's less than £1 per card and a fabulous tin to store then all in! 

If you would like to order the above kit, please click on the links below to order from my online store or if you live in or around Northampton, please email me or give me a call to get them added to my next order. What's more, if you would like a bargain impromptu get-together with friends where you each get to make one of these kits, then do get in touch and we can book a date in the diary.

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

Links to my Stampin' Up! Store - Designer Tin of Cards Kit:

Designer Tin Of Cards Project Kit

Designer Tin Of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set

My regular readers will know what a fan I am of Stampin' Up!'s kits and today I want to share with you the latest all-inclusive kit offering - the Oh Happy Day Card Kit. Here's one of the finished cards from the set:

And here's a catalogue image that shows all of the cards that can be made with this kit:

Here's the low-down on the Oh Happy Day Kit and why I think they are perfect for just about anyone and everyone:

All Inclusive - The Oh Happy Day card kit is one that contains everything you need to create 20 unique cards: card bases, co-ordinating envelopes, die cut images and shapes, a Stampin' Spot ink pad, set of 13 photopolymer stamps and an acrylic block and a range of accessories and embellishments. Simply add your choice of adhesive and you are good to go. 

Great Value For Money - At £31.50, this kit offers exceptional value for money - where else could you buy 20 handcrafted greetings cards at less than £1.60 each and have a stamp set, ink spot, block and a range of embellishments left over to create even more things with too? Not to mention the creative fun you will have putting them together along the way!

The Perfect Gift -  Whether young or old, experienced crafter or new to crafting, this kit is perfect for you. Follow the instructions included or unleash your own creativity and do your own thing - and if you're trying to buy for 'the person who has everything' - I bet they don't have one if these! The kit comes in a lovely gift box too, so all you need is some ribbon and a tag and you are done.

Here is a reminder of this fantastic kit if you are getting organised and want to pin it to your Pinterest 'Christmas Gifts' board 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. 

Also the lovely people at Stampin' Up! have also produced a video showing this kit in more detail if you'd like a close look:

I truly do think that this is one of the best kits yet - it's the bright and colourful equivalent of the equally good Watercolour Wishes kit - you can read all about that one here. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Oh Happy Day Card Kit

Multipurpose Liquid Glue