At last - the best party of the year has begun, and will last right through until the 22nd March 2013! Stampin' Up's Sale-a-bration is here and has to be one of the best times in the Stampin' Up calendar to get involved: whether you're an avid crafter or a newbie who fancies some free gifts to get you started, then read on for ways in which you can join the party!

PARTY ON YOUR OWN - During Sale-a-bration, you can earn a free gift for every £45 you spend. There are 17 different items to choose from and best of all you can order as many times as you like! The full set of sale-a-bration items can be seen below:

Better still, get together or host a PARTY WITH FRIENDS who share your love of crafting and you can get even more for your money:

WITH ORDERS OF £150 OR MORE, you will receive:

• A free sale-a-bration gift for every £45 spent
• A free pack of silver glimmer paper
• At least £25 of free products from any current catalogue too!

WITH ORDERS OF £300 OR MORE, you will receive:

• A free sale-a-bration gift for every £45 spent
• A free pack of silver glimmer paper
• At least £50 of free products from any current catalogue
• A great free sale-a-bration product bundle (Sycamore Street designer paper, Madison Avenue stamp set and Sycamore Street ribbon & button embellishment pack)
• At least one item at 50% DISCOUNT as well!!

PARTY ALL THE TIME - As if that wasn't enough, there are also great benefits to joining Stampin' Up as a demonstrator during sale-a-bration: you'll get 25% more in your starter kit than usual, that's £162.50 worth of products for £99 and you can choose what you'd like - your kit, your way. I'm quite new to Stampin' Up but I love being a demonstrator and sharing my ideas; if you'd would like to share my enthusiasm and become a member of my team, please email me at [email protected] or call me for a chat - I would be happy to talk about the possibilities and where I can add value.

I've already shown you a couple of card sets made with the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set and today I would like to share with you some of the swaps I made for a recent team training that showcase a number of additional free products: 

So what are you waiting for? All this and more could be yours! Drop me a line at [email protected] and arrange to book a party or place an order today.

Keep watching my blog for lots of other great ideas and ways in which you can use the great free sale-a-bration gifts.

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Madison Avenue, Vintage Verses

Paper: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango, Sycamore Street (DSP)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit

Tools: Scoreboard, 11/4" circle punch

Finishing Touches: Sycamore Street Ribbon and Button Pack

Having spent most of the day outdoors today buidling snowmen and sledging with my children and generally making the most of the snow and an unexpected day off school, it's nice to sit all cosy and warm and share another card set with you.

So here is the second trio of cards I made with the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set, this time introducing the butterfly too:

A slightly more feminine colour palette I think, with the latest in-colour inks of Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple for the randomly stamped flowers and butterflies and some Gumball Green for the stems which I think just adds a bit of 'zing'.

I also hand cut one of the butterflies on the central card and popped it on a dimensional for added interest:

It was easy enough with my Paper Snips, but if you're not great with fiddly cutting out it can be punched in seconds with the Bitty Butterfly Punch, a new product in this year's Spring-Summer Seasonal Catalogue and available from the first of February. I have also used a mat of Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals or Gumball Green cardstock respectively and a little ribbon accent just to finish off. I really love this stamp set - and the sentiments are generic enough that they suit lots of occasions.

If you would like to recreate these cards yourself, the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set is one of 17 items that you can obtain for free for every £45 spent during the promotional period, starting tomorrow! Please drop me a line or give me a call if you would like more information.

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: *Bloomin' Marvelous (Wood 129651, clear 129654)

Paper: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, Gumball Green

Ink: Gumball Green, Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals

Punches: *Bitty Butterfly Punch

Finishing Touches: Stitched Satin Ribbon Raspberry Ripple, Stitched Satin Ribbon Gumball Green

*Available to purchase from 22nd January.

Today I wanted to give you a 'sneak peek' of some of the amazing goodies available as part of this year's Sale-a-bration promotion. Sale-a-bration begins on 22nd January to coincide with the launch of the new Spring-Summer catalogue and and runs until 22nd March. I've made a trio of cards using the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set, which is a great set with lots of uses and I think will become a firm favourite of mine.

Using a Whisper White card base, I stamped the flower image freehand on all of the cards in a combination of crumb cake, midnight muse and raspberry ripple. On the centre card, I randomly stamped each of the red and blue flower images a few times without re-inking to add depth. A sentiment and a touch of raspberry ripple stitched satin ribbon on each to add extra interest and done! The perfect card if you're running short on time.

I'll be back soon with another set of cards using this stamp set so pop by and have a look.

If you would like to recreate these cards yourself, the Bloomin' Marvelous stamp set is one of 17 items that you can obtain for free for every £45 spent during the promotional period. Please contact me if you would like more information.

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps:*Bloomin' Marvelous (Wood 129651, clear 129654)

Paper: Whisper White (106550), Midnight Muse (127546)

Ink: Midnight Muse(126860), Raspberry Ripple (126859), Crumb Cake (126975)

Finishing Touches: Stitched Satin Ribbon Raspberry Ripple (126845)

*Available to purchase from 22nd January.

So this is it - a new year, a new venture for me. I have finally taken the plunge and decided to devote some time to sharing some of my crafty thoughts and ideas with the world at large and one of the ways I'm going to do this is through my love of all things Stampin' Up. I will be using my blog to share my progress as I build my crafting business and hopefully in turn will inspire you to create some amazing things.

I'm not generally one for new year's resolutions, but this year I did set myself the goal of making every card I send, whatever the occasion. So here's the first one: a New Year Thank You card. New Year's Day saw the first James family get-together of the New Year and the first opportunity for my offspring to meet the newest member, a cute spaniel-poodle-cross puppy named Ollie, so I made this card as a thank you for my mother-in-law for hosting.

This card uses two of my favourite things: my owl punch (you will be seeing a lot more of him over the coming months - he was my first investment and is so versatile - I LOVE him and he inspired my logo!) and my new typeset alphabet. The sentiment is from the hostess set 'Wacky Wishes'; I simply inked up 'happy new year' with my Rich Razzleberry marker, omitting the 'merry christmas &' then added in the 'wishing you a' afterwards, using my stamp-a-ma-jig to ensure alignment.

I hope you like it. I'll be back tomorrow with some sneak peaks of what this year's sale-a-bration has to offer.

Stampin' Up Supplies

Stamps: Wacky Wishes (126410)

Paper: Crumb Cake (121685), Brights (121698) Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo, Regal Rose

Ink: Rich Razzleberry (126950)

Tools: Owl Builder Punch (118074), Typeset Alphabet Bigz (127553), 3/16" Corner (119871), Big Shot (113439), Stamp-a-ma-jig (101049)