So many reasons to celebrate today - or should I say, Sale-A-Brate?!

First up, we have a new mini catalogue, with everything you need for your seasonal and festive crafting, to take you from autumn, through to Halloween, Christmas and beyond! Here is the new mini catalogue, in all its festive glory:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator; paper copies have been sent to my regular customers. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

And as if that wasn't enough, we get a second bite of the Sale-A-Bration cherry this year too, with our second 2 month long Sale-A-Bration promotion! Starting from today 3rd August until 30th September, you can once again get more bang for your buck when you shop, host or join. You can click on the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page or below to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet to download a copy or click on the icon above or on the right to go directly to my online shopto place an order - we are LIVE!

So a reminder of how Sale-A-Bration works: for anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host. You can earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £45 you spend between 3 August and 30 September. There is also the opportunity to earn even bigger rewards with a £90 purchase. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for free! Here's a link to a video from the nice people at the Home Office that lets you see each of those free products up close in more detail:

I hope that was useful and rest assured I will be sharing plenty of additional projects on my blog in the next few weeks that show these items in more detail. 

It’s also one of the best times of the year to join Stampin’ Up! There is a fabulous joining option during this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion: as usual, you can become a demonstrator for just £99 and choose £130 of FREE products for your Starter Kit. In addition to an extra £31 worth of product in your starter kit, you can select an additional one of 12 bundles FOR FREE. Here are the bundles that you are able to choose from:

There couldn’t be a better time to join the Stampin’ Up! family. Plus, the whole kit ships for free! There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. 

Hosting is also even more rewarding during Sale-A-Bration. When you host a party and reach a certain amount in sales (see the Stampin’ Rewards chart in the Sale-A-Bration brochure for more information), you can earn a free stamp set - this time the 'In Your Words' stamp set shown above. Even if your order reaches the qualifying amount on your own outside of a party, you can earn the same free stamp set too, both in person and when shopping in my online store. What's more, you can even apply your Stampin' Rewards to a Starter Kit and become a demonstrator yourself - I would love to welcome you to my team!

If you would like to host a virtual party, please do get in touch. Equally if you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

If you would like more information on any of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Thanks so much for popping by - it's always nice to share good news! Back soon with lots of projects showcasing products from the new catalogue and today's clean and simple post for our new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy shopping!

Happy Monday everyone! My week has started at full speed as usual but I'm here today with two projects that are both quite different that feature projects from the Heartwarming Hugs Suite. First up is a clean and simple card using the colours over at Just Add Ink this week (thank you ladies for selecting my candle card as a winner for the 'Just Add Two' challenge last week!) and this week's sketch layout over at CAS Colours and Sketches where they have a great sketch requiring a small, repeating image of some kind:

I decided to go with the coffee cup in the Warm Hugs stamp set and paired it with a sentiment from the same set that I've been wanting to use for a while - take a look:

 The sentiment is quite long so I turned my card to make use of a wider card front, and having stamped my mugs in alternating colours, I added a sentiment across the central row that I heat-embossed in silver on vellum so that it didn't totally obscure the mugs. I also added small rhinestones to the top and bottom row of mugs for a little added silver sparkle:

Finally some stamping to decorate the envelope and inside my card to finish:

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on this 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.

The 'Warm Hugs' stamp set is part of the Heartwarming Hugs Suite which includes lots of fun items and packaging ideas, including mini coffee cups and carriers. I made a few hot chocolate sets to share with some of my lovely customers as gifts recently using the items in the suite and decorated the cups and carriers with some of the papers in the Heartwarming Hugs designer paper pack, with a hot chocolate-filled cup and a bag of marshmallows to go with them and this seemed like a good opportunity to share a project that shows how easy it is to create a heartfelt yet relatively inexpensive gift to share with someone. Here's a close up of my completed carrier:

And here's a photo showing the detail on my decorated hot-chocolate themed cup:

I love the traditional colours that feature in this suite - isn't the dressed mug just adorable?! The textured coffee collar and sentiment added to the cup adds a nice personal touch I think. I'm linking this project up over at Color Throwdown where they are featuring the exact palette of kraft, reds and greens that feature on my decorated cup and gingham carrier.

 Here is the visual summary of the key products used on this 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.

Everyone that I've given one of these to so far has loved them - I'm thinking of making them for my UPS delivery driver and postman too, for them to take home for a warming drink after their rounds! Who would you give one to?

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project and news of two fabulous new launches: the new Paper Pumpkin kit and the Curvy Celebrations bundle! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WARM HUGS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£44.00)	WARM HUGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	WARM WRAPS DIES (£33.00)	MINI COFFEE CARRIER (£4.75)	MINI COFFEE CUPS (£7.00)
WRAPPED IN TEXTURE EMBOSSING FOLDERS (£7.50)	MOSSY MEADOW 3/8" (1 CM) DIAGONAL STRIPE RIBBON (£7.00)	HEARTWARMING HUGS DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MAGENTA MADNESS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	SILVER STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

There are lots of Christmas In July challenges about at the moment so I thought I would combine a couple and squeeze in an extra post today and share a couple of sneak peeks from the upcoming Autumn-Winter Catalogue with you in the process:

The team over at The Spot are looking for any kind of Christmas card creation and The Card Concept has a great inspiration photo that lead me to take my inspiration from one of the presents under the tree (front row, second from the right) to create a card and a matching gift card holder using some fun new products - take a look:

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

Trimming The Town - The designer series paper that covers the front of my card is from a new pack called 'Trimming The Town' - a pack full of contemporary designs featuring cosy villages and winter scenes. Some are really large and some really small and detailed, like the fun design I used to mimic wrapping paper on my gift parcel card.

Gift Wrapped Bow (And A Trick) - My bow comes from a new stamp set called 'Gift Wrapped' and is stamped in Real Red on Whisper White cardstock and punched out with the new co-ordinating Gift Bow Builder Punch. I added a handcut tag and some 'ribbon' too - and therein lies the trick! I actually used a current DSP for the ribbon strips that co-ordinate with my bow; can you tell which one? It's actually the reverse of one of the patterns in the Playful Pets DSP pack - isn't that a great shortcut? I added a little more stamping on the inside of my card too:

Gift Card Holder - I thought my gift-inspired card would be great to go with a co-ordinating gift-card holder too - I always need a few of these at Christmas time:

I can't take the credit for the design; it's based on one designed by the talented Erica Cerwin of Pink Buckaroo Designs (you can see the measurements for her original project on her blog here). It's a great little make, where the lid pulls out of a sleeve and you can add a message and your chosen gift card:

I think these make a cute pair of projects and are a great start to my Christmas crafting. I'm slowly but surely increasing my Christmas crafting - it always seems harder to do when the sun is shining outside though!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

To be updated 4th August.

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has an interesting colour challenge for you to work with:

First up, I have a confession to make: I couldn't find my Tranquil Tide ink pad so substituted with Garden Green. I have a few projects for you today; armed with Narelle's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches I decided to use some retired designer series papers in the challenge colours and my 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set to make a couple of teacher thank you cards and some cute gift packaging.  Here's the first of my cards:

Some simple layering of my DSP and a stamped and punched apple, along with a 'thanks' diecut courtesy of the Well Written Dies, completed my card. I actually made two - on the second one, I reversed the layering of the papers and had the letter paper in front as opposed to the numbers:

 I added some simple stamping to the inside of my card from the same set:

 Here are the two cards together - which one do you prefer?

I had picked up a couple of cute apple notepads that I thought would be perfect for some extra small teacher gifts so took the opportunity to create some co-ordinating boxes for my cards, complete with tags:

And here's another view:

And that cute apple notepad that is in the box? Here it is:

The apple folds flat but when clipped open it forms an apple shape, so I just had to create a lidded box that could present it whole for full effect - here are both projects together:

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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

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 day; the weather was glorious here in the UK yesterday so I'm hoping that will continue today and I can spend some time in the garden. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HARVEST HELLOS CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	APPLE BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)	WELL WRITTEN DIES (EN) (£37.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a couple of projects from one of last month's classes that featured the Peaceful Moments bundle, part of the Painted Poppies Suite. First up a birthday card:

I used the designer series paper from the Peaceful Poppies Suite beneath a diecut layer and embellished with two layered diecut poppies and a banner sentiment. We also made a co-ordinating hanging ornament using the same diecut poppies and a sentiment stamped directly onto a wooden circle:

We don't often make 3D items in our technique class, so this was a change for us. It was a great way to make use of the dies which we were featuring and it's fair to say the ladies loved it too.

Here's a photo of both items together:

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. 

I've had one of those days when I've been seriously fighting technology today with nothing going right and the internet is clearly not appreciating all of the at-home Jameses running multiple devices at once! I feel exhausted by the whole thing and like I need to step away - so I'm off to finish my online groceries shopping and then am taking the night off!! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Peaceful Moments Bundle (English)	Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper	Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock
Real Red A4 Cardstock	Old Olive A4 Cardstock	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

As promised I have another quick make to share with the lovely team over at TGIF Challenges as they are featuring the Best Dressed Suite this week:

This time a fun gift bag using the papers from the Best Dressed suite along with some Purple Posy cardstock and a fun keyring made from shrinky plastic - take a look:

The sweet little bag was easy to create using the All Dressed Up Dies - just diecut everything and put together. I used some scraps of gold foil for the button and buckle clasps - I just love that added detail! - and added a tag stamped and punched with the new Label Me Fancy Punch and just tucked it into the pocket. My little bag houses this cute keyring that I also stamped using the 'Dressed To Impress' stamp set then coloured with Blends and punched out using the other new label punch, the Label Me Lovely punch, before putting into the oven to shrink and adding to my keychain with a co-ordinating ribbon - here's a closeup of my keyring:

In hindsight I should have taken a 'before' they went into the oven photo too so you can see how much smaller they are - I will try and remember to take one next time! I love that sentiment - I thought it would be perfect for a little keyring embellishment. It has become customary for the ladies attending my Creative Escapes Weekend Craft Retreats to receive a keychain like this at the end of the weekend - the regular attendees have quite the collection now! Here's a photo of all of them jumbled before packing:

 - to be updated -

And one last one of both the bag and keychain together:

So what do you think - have you ever used shrink plastic in any of your projects? Better still, would you like to receive a keyring just like this one, or to be more precise the one that I will be designing for my next residential weekend craft retreat? If you need something to look forward to (and right now, I'm thinking we could all do with a little of that!) my October retreat, to be held 3-4th October 2020, is now open for booking and I'd love you to join me! You can see full details on my website here or just get in touch with any questions.

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. 

Back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It; Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Best Dressed 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Dressed To Impress Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) (£17.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	All Dressed Up Dies (£33.00)	Purple Posy A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Gorgeous Grape 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Mini Striped Ribbon (£7.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

I have a fancy card to share with you today that is perfect to give someone special for the festive season - take a look:

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

A Card In A Box - Is it a gift? Is it a card? I guess it's a little of both! When closed it looks like a gift box, but undo the ribbon and the top and bottom of the box separate to reveal an accordion-style expanding card:

I made a holly-themed 'card in a box' project at my October Creative Escapes Craft Retreat using the Christmas Gleaming Stamp Set and made a few other versions to show the attendees how they could use the same concept using other papers and stamp sets - this is one of them. They are quite straightforward to make and rather addictive; I've had lots of photos from my retreat weekend attendees after the event showing me more examples of ones they've created too, so it must be catching! One of my top tips when making this type of card is to use temporary adhesive or a couple of glue dots to hold the last panel in place so that you can remove it to write your message to the recipient before gluing it in place; this is much easier than trying to write it when it's already in the box.

Let It Snow - I used the 'Let It Snow' papers for the accordion-fold of my card and the letters that spell out 'snow', which I diecut using the Hand-Lettered Prose dies and I used the adorable Let It Snow Embellishment Kit to dress up the snowman on the front of my box - how cute are those little felt accessories?!

Snowman Season - The sentiment on the front and inside my card are from the 'Snowman Season' stamp set. The 'Let It Snow' stamp was perfect for a partial stamp to then finish the sentiment with the diecut letter panels. I also used the snowflakes in the stamp set with some Stampin' Glitter to add some sparkle to each of the Coastal Cabana panels and a snowman on the first panel that I coloured with co-ordinating Stampin' Blends markers:

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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

I'm also linking today's project up with the current fancy fold challenge over at Inspire Create.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

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 day; as it's the first of December we are going to begin decorating the house for Christmas today, much to the children's delight! Especially as we have a couple of extra Christmas trees and some new rainbow baubles too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Let It Snow Embellishment Kit (£10.25)	Snowman Season Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£17.00)	Snowman Builder Punch (£17.00)	Hand-Lettered Prose Dies (£35.00)	Let It Snow Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)
Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£5.50)	Coastal Cabana A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Real Red 3/8" (1 Cm) Cotton Ribbon (£6.50)

Just a quick post to let you know that the Everything Is Rosy Product Medley is now available to order. You can read all about this kit in my earlier post here; also here's a quick reminder of what is included:

Contact me to order yours or alternatively click on the link below that will take you directly to my online store to purchase:

Everything Is Rosy Product Medley (£74.00)

Good morning lovely readers! An apology is in order for the lack of blog posts this week. I have been fairly tired following another successful Creative Escapes Weekend Craft Retreat last weekend and whilst I've spent my days catching up on household chores and preparing for next week's card classes, when it comes to the evenings I've been good for nothing; I've fallen asleep in the chair for three nights in a row way before bedtime, much to the amusement of the James Juniors! So today I thought I would make time to blog early so that you didn't miss out!

I'm sharing a card for a couple of challenges this week: The team over at Global Design Project are all about the candy and the folks at Stamps Ink Paper are asking for cards featuring gingham, plaid or stripes:

Not only does my card feature lots of sweet treats and some fetching candy pink stripes, it's a shaker too - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

How Sweet It Is -  If you have a sweet tooth, the 'How Sweet It Is' Suite is for you! Bright and fun, with bold patterns of sweets and traditional sweet jars, it's great for cards and packaging alike. The papers, which feature bold stripes and spots in addition to candy-inspired patterns, really are good enough to eat. I used a pink stripe for the front of my shaker and a sweetie print for the inside at the back of my window, I also used the Jar of Sweets Framelits to cut out one of the sweet jars directly from the designer series paper to decorate the front of my card - I love it when dies and paper co-ordinate like this!

Jar Of Sweets - I used another of the Jar of Sweets Framelits to cut out the aperture for the window of my shaker, stamping the same image onto Whisper White and fussy cutting the jar lid to adhere to the top of my window section. I filled my shaker with a selection of sequins and some diecut sweets in bright, co-ordinating colours; you can see from the extras that I added to the front of my card these dies emboss a pattern onto the diecut sweet shape too which adds an interesting textural detail. There's very little stamping on today's card, save the sentiment and jar lid. A little extra stamping on the inside of my card courtesy of the 'Sweetest Thing' stamp set too:

Sweeter Than Candy - The 'How Suite It Is' Suite also includes some fun treat cups, that are perfect for dressing up to contain some sweet treats for your loved ones. I managed to snag these shots with my phone of some of the decorated sweet cups that filled with a selection of jelly beans and gummy bear for the lucky ladies on my retreat as one of their little gifts - I do love to spoil the whilst they are with me! 

I covered the cups with designer series paper and stamped a simple label for each of them decorated with a sweet jar cut from the DSP, and tied the tags to the cups with some of the very yummy Coastal Cabana/Granny Apple Green 3/8" reversible ribbon:

So cute and easy to decorate and I know from the feedback that my ladies loved them!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

How Sweet It Is 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	Sweetest Thing Photopolymer Bundle (£43.00)	Jar Of Sweets Framelits Dies (£28.00)	How Sweet It Is A4 Cardstock Pack (£8.00)	Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies (£33.00)
Foam Adhesive Strips (£7.25)	Window Sheets (£4.75)	Sweet Cups (£8.00)	Coastal Cabana/Granny Apple Green 3/8" (1 Cm) Reversible Ribbon (£6.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)