Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday with your loved ones - I certainly did. I shared some of the fun of my day over on my Facebook page - be sure to follow me there for more adhoc Crafty Owl fun! As well as today's card today, I have some important reminders for you: today is your last chance to purchase the limited time Sale-A-Bration gifts: Perfectly Artistic designer series paper and the 'Sky is the Limit' and 'Hello' stamp sets. Here are a few of my projects featuring these items to remind you - all of them have been very popular free gifts so far during the Sale-A-Bration promotion:

For my card today I am using my favourite of these sets, 'Hello', once again. This is my card for this week's colour challenge over at Pals Paper Arts; I also used this week's Retrosketches sketch:

The lovely Katy McGloin chose the colour palette over at Pals Paper Arts this week and whilst this isn't a colour palette I would have put together myself, I loved the design team cards so decided I should have a go! This is what I came up with: 

I chose to feature a piece of the Pretty Petals designer series paper for my main panel, stamping the 'Hello' stamp in Lost Lagoon with a Calypso Coral border on the top panel of Very Vanilla and layering this with a piece of Venetian crochet trim across the join. I heat embossed the 'birthday girl' portion of my sentiment onto a banner of Lost Lagoon and fussy cut some co-ordinating flowers and leaves from another of the papers in the Pretty Petals DSP stack, along with a few pearls, to embellish my card. As my regular readers will know, I'm not one for vintage or shabby chic generally, but I absolutely love the softness of this card that this colour palette gives - what a great combination! This stamp set is so very versatile - I just know it will be a 'keeper' for me. 

If you want to get your hands on this set, or one of the other limited time offer items, you will need to place an order for £45 or more today. If you miss this deadline the good news is there are three new limited sets arriving tomorrow; pop back then for more information!

Enjoy the rest of your day; I'll be back tomorrow with another project, until then happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Pretty Petals Designer Series Paper Stack	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad	Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock
Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Venetian Crochet Trim	Pearl Basic Jewels	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Hexagon Punch

It's time to shake off the January blues, today is THE day - yes, the highlight of the Stampin' Up! calendar, Sale-A-Bration is here! No more sneak peeks - the catalogue is available, the shop is live and from now until 31st March the benefits are yours for the taking. You can click on the icon above or the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet to download a copy or go directly to my online shop to place an order - we are LIVE!

So what is Sale-A-Bration? For anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, party or join:

Earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £45 you spend between 5 January and 31 March. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for free! 

Pages 4–15 of the Sale-A-Bration brochure show products available throughout the entire Sale-A-Bration sales period (5 January–31 March 2016); Pages 16–19 show limited-time products available only until 15 February, after which another batch of limited-time products will arrive on 16 February!

Earn an additional £20 in hostess credits when you host a party and have party sales of £200 or more (this also applies to individual orders). So for party sales of £200, that makes a whopping £40 of Stampin' Rewards - more freebies! 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!

It’s the best time of year to join Stampin’ Up! During Sale-A-Bration, you can become a demonstrator for just £99 and choose £30 more of FREE products for your Starter Kit. Plus, the 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.

If you would like to host a party, real or virtual, please do get in touch; my diary is filling up fast and I would love to share these great benefits with you. 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.

As if that wasn't enough, today also sees the launch of the new Spring-Summer catalogue - full of gorgeous new products:

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. 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!

Thanks so much for popping by today - it's always nice to share good news! Check out today's creative post to see a card made featuring a lovely new catalogue product that you are going to be seeing a lot of - click here for more details!

Well, what a Sale-A-Bration this has been! I have enjoyed it immensely - some of the best free products we've seen as part of this promotion and I would like to thank everyone who has shopped with me, hosted a party or joined my team during the last 3 months. Today I wanted to share some little packages I made last month for my recent Stampers Six Club customers and new recruits using the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies. I've had to make quite a few of these so I was glad to be able to make good use of some of the fabulous Best Year Ever paper I earned free during Sale-A-Bration:

These treat bags are so easy to make and come with a range of fun thinlit pieces that can be used to decorate them or embellish cards or other projects. I kept these quite simple, with a layered panel on the front in co-ordinating cardstock and added some Calypso Coral pompom trim to the decoration with a mini peg to hold the bags shut - here's a close-up:

Whilst the paper may no longer be available, the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies are in the seasonal catalogue and still available until 2nd June and there are a whole bunch of other DSPs available that would look just as good. These bags really are so cute and it's easy to make lots of these in no time at all; they would make great party bag favours too. 

That's me done for today; back tomorrow with a fun card and news of a new set of Wednesday Weekly Deals. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies	Calypso Coral Pompom Trim `	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Mini Metallic Clothespins	Fuse Fast Adhesive
Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana

It's Wednesday so that means a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced.

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for March 4AHTZQVW and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Card Stock A4 Crisp Cantaloupe	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Envelope Punch Board
Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Regals Designer Series Paper Stack	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock

My all-time favourite product in there, the Envelope Punch Board - an absolute bargain at only £13.46 - and also some great offers on paper. I used the Gold Soiree paper on the card I shared on Monday - see it here - and you can stock up on A4 cardstock in two of the soon-to-be-retiring 2013-15 In-colours. Cardstock, along with markers, ink pads and re-inkers in Pistachio Pudding, Crisp Cantaloupe, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana and Baked Brown Sugar are all set to leave us at the end of May and are usually the first things to run out when the list of retiring products from the current catalogue are announced, so if these colours are favourites of yours, stock up now before it's too late.  

This is the last opportunity you will have this year to place an order where your Weekly Deals purchases can go towards earning a free Sale-A-Bration product with a spend of £45. There are a whole host of catalogue and exclusive products that you can receive free with a £45 order - see them all on the links in the side bar on the right hand side.

Here is a card I made with one of the free Sale-A-Bration stamp sets, called 'A Happy Thing':

This is a card I made a few weeks ago and haven't yet shared with you, which in addition to the lemon stamp also features one of the patterns in the Best Year Ever DSP pack, another exclusive Sale-A-Bration item. If these or any other Sale-A-Bration items are on your wish list, you have only 7 more days to acquire them. So what are you waiting for? I'll be back tomorrow with a card for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Marie. Until then, happy shopping!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A Happy Thing Clear Stamp Set	Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Ovals Collection Framelits Dies	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Blender Pens

This is my second post for today - scroll down or click here for my earlier creative post featuring today's card. Blendabilites may now be discontinued, but today Stampin' Up! has announced a number of additional catalogue products that you can earn for free with each £45 spend until the end of March while supplies last. Here are the details of each of the products that will form part of the offer:

Don't forget if you're ordering online to include the hostess code for March - 4AHTZQVW - and to ensure that your contact settings on the page tab headed up 'My Demonstrator' are set to 'YES', so that I can keep you informed on the progress of your order and send you a little thank you in the post.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with a new set of Wednesday Weekly Deals and another project. Until then, happy shopping!

It's Sunday - my favourite day of the week! Why? Well, I usually get a cup of tea in bed before I start my day (and I definitely will today, as it's Mother's Day here in the UK) and it's time for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. This week the hugely talented Ann has a great clean and simple challenge for us:

I love CAS cards and decided that this week's challenge was the perfect opportunity to use my Lotus Blossom stamp that I received during the current Sale-A-Bration promotion. I also paired it with the colours over at Color Throwdown this week as I just love the purples and green of the inspiration photo - here is my card:

This set has been the most popular of all the Sale-A-Bration promotional items that you can receive free with a £45 spend amongst my customers and whilst I've used mine to demonstrate how to stamp the flower to my customers on a number of occasions, this is the first time I've actually used it to make a card - shocking! It's a great flower and perfect for CAS cards. I stamped the sentiment and my first image of the flower in Elegant Eggplant and the same for the second one, having stamped off first. I then stamped the third solid image in Perfect Plum. I used Old Olive for my stem and then stamped the first image again in Versamark, and overstamped the sentiment in Versamark too and heat embossed both of them in clear embossing powder. Try as I might I couldn't get it to show up in the photo, but this does look lovely in real life with a lovely glossy sheen and it adds a little texture to the flower. I matted my stamped panel on a piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and a Whisper White base, which really allows my blossom to take centre stage. To finish, I added a trio of pearls that I coloured with the darkest of my Wisteria Wonder Blendabilities (I'm not ready to part with these just yet, even though they are sadly no longer available). If the Lotus Blossom stamp is still on your wish list, you have until the end of March to receive it free with a £45 spend - 16 days left, so don't leave it too late. 

There are a whole host of amazing floral CAS cards from the Design Team this week; do pop by their blogs and take a look:

I look forward to seeing your floral CAS creations in our gallery this week. 

I am off for a morning of hockey and then hopefully home to roast dinner cooked by the men in our house! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Lotus Blossom Photopolymer Stamp Set	Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Elegant Eggplant A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

This is my second post for today - scroll down or click here for my earlier creative post featuring today's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. I just wanted to share the exciting news that in addition to the 6 stamp sets, two paper packs, accessory pack and Project Life cards, oh and the Blendabilites range, from today Stampin' Up! are offering four additional products that you can earn for free with each £45 spend during the month of March only. There will be a link to the leaflet in the side bar on the right for the rest of the month - you can also click here or on the image below for the details of each of the products in all their glory:

Two great stamps sets to colour, some beautiful printed vellum and an in-colour accessory pack. A great way to make the most of the last month of this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion.

Don't forget if you're ordering online to include the hostess code for March - 4AHTZQVW - and to ensure that your contact settings on the page tab headed up 'My Demonstrator' are set to 'YES', so that I can keep you informed on the progress of your order and send you a little thank you in the post.

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

I'm just popping in to share with you a card that I made for this week's Mojo Monday challenge; I was going to share this yesterday, but was so tired when I got in from taking the James Juniors to their swimming gala I just wasn't awake enough to type! So here is this week's challenge sketch:

This is a great sketch for a feature sentiment; I built up my layers and took the opportunity to showcase not one but two of the great free gifts that you can earn with a £45 order during Sale-A-Bration: the stamp set 'Simply Wonderful', and the 'Irresistibly Yours' Speciality Designer Series Paper. Here is my card:

I stamped my sentiment in Island Indigo then added the flower stamp from the same set and a punched Itty Bitty flower finished with a candy dot centre. I layered this central circle to echo the colours and layers on the base of my card and used the central section of the base layer to feature the beautiful 'Irresistibly Yours' Specialty DSP. This white paper with its pre-embossed glossy white patterns could easily be overlooked in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue, yet when you colour it, it really brings it to life. For my card today, I chose to sponge mine with Crisp Cantaloupe ink to show the embossed flowers - isn't it pretty? the stamp set or the DSP could be yours with an order of £45 - or since you get to choose one free gift for each £45 spend, why not splash out and treat yourself to both? Sale-A-Bration runs until 31st March, so you have plenty of time to take advantage. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper	Simply Wonderful Clear Stamp Set	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
1-3/4 Inch Circle Punch	2" Circle Punch	Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Crisp Cantaloupe	Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad
Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad	Island Indigo A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Sponge Daubers

Today's card is for this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch, where Chrissy has this rather intriguing sketch for us to work with this week:

Whilst musing the best way to create a pattern with diagonals that had a readable sentiment and used a design that was different from the designers' inspiration (some lovely plaid patterns there), I remembered this lovely card by Heather Klump that I saw on Pinterest the other week and I decided to combine both inspirations to come up with my card today. Here it is:

Using my stamp-a-ma-jig, I carefully stamped rows of love hearts from the 'You Brighten My Day' Sale-A-Bration set in Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette and Pool Party, aligning them to re-create the diagonal pattern of the sketch. I used a silver foil 'you' cut with my Big Shot and my 'Hello You' thinlits, popped up on rolled glue dots, for the final piece of my sentiment. 

I love this card - another pink and pretty affair this week! Looking forward to my first Project Life class of the year this morning and catching up with some of my lovely ladies who I haven't seen since before Christmas. Back with you tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello You Thinlits Dies	You Brighten My Day Clear Stamp Set	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack	Paper-Piercing Tool
Stampin' Pierce Mat	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Strawberry Slush	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad
Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad	Silver Foil Sheets

Friday already - where did that week go?! I've had a lovely day today, with lots of people coming and going for my informal open house to showcase the best of this year's Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration offering. Today's card is one that I designed for this week's challenge over at Fusion where they are celebrating their first birthday - I used the photo inspiration but not the sketch, instead using the sketch over at Retrosketches this week for my layout:

The photo inspiration was the perfect opportunity to make a card with my new Chalkbox Chalk inks and blackboard paper, along with the 'Big Day' stamp set - yours free with each purchase of £45 or more during Sale-A-Bration. Here is my card:

On a base of Pink Pirouette, I added a few layers including another of the great patterns from the 'Stacked with Love' DSP stack. I stamped my chalkboard using Rose Coral chalk ink on blackboard paper, stamping the banner separately in pink and stepping up on dimensionals. I added a side tag, stamped with a sentiment from 'Simply Wonderful', another Sale-A-Bration set. I stamped the cake on pink cardstock and coloured with my Blendabilities pens and popped this up on glue dots. I also decorated the inside (but forgot to photograph it - doh!) The chalk inks have a lovely finish on the smooth blackboard paper that give a rather realistic finish.

I hope you like today's card; my technique class next week is featuring chalk inks and by popular request from my class ladies today this will be one of the cards that we will be making! If you live in or around Northampton and would like to join me for one of my classes, You can find my 2015 updated class schedule here. Crafters of all abilities are welcome so whether you've stamped before or fancy trying out a new hobby, do get in touch to find out more. We would love you to join us! Back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Chalkboard Paper	Rose Coral Colorbox Chalk Ink Pad	Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack	Big Day Wood Stamp Set	Simply Wonderful Clear Stamp Set
Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Pink Pirouette Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment