Time Flies

Oh my goodness where has the time gone? One minute we were celebrating the new catalogue, the next we are looking forward to a new mini catalogue, sale-a-bration and Christmas has come and gone!

I am loving all the goodies from Stampin' Up! In December I took delivery of a package of freebies I could not believe, for what was essentially very little effort on my part. The aim was to get some bookings firstly for October, and secondly for the new year. In return I got 3 sets of stamps and 2 packs of brads - how fab was that?

If you would like the opportunity to get free goodies from Stampin' Up! and become a demonstrator, please email me about joining my team. Likewise if you would like to have a class or party for your friends or a copy of our new Ideas book and Catalogue along with the spring mini catalogue let me know.

So have a Happy New Year and I'll be back in a couple of days with the new mini catalogue.

:-)

New Catalogue Blog Hop!

If you've come from Hayleys blog - welcome. If you haven't and you're wondering what's going on - well the new Stampin' Up! Ideas Book & Catalogue is finally here. A group of us Demomstrators are doing a blog hop today to show some of the yummies we have made with the items we got on pre-order.

I got the Fliratious fabric set, which has been one of my favourite things especially since I found a gorgeouspattern for a bag online, and another demo discovered if you stiffen the fabric with PVA and water you can use your dies and Big Shot on it!

One of the other items I got was the Pennant Punch and matching stamp set, both of which are so cute. The new papers are lovely and after I made a mini CD holder calendar I had enough left from a strip of paper to punch some pennants and make a little banner, thats currently stuck along the bottom of my PC monitor.

And finally a card I made from the Pennant Parade Stamp set, using the new In Colour Inks and

a ripped strip of Pool Party cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed this little look, if you want to see some more, hop on over to my lovely upline Lauras blog here.
:-)

Mini CD Holder Calendar Kit

Ok I figured putting the piccies on my blog was the easiest way to show you the kit as if I emailed the piccies there would be too many and we'd all be waiting till next crop to see them!

So the kit is to make a calendar that fits in a CD holder, only this CD holder doesn't fit CDs as its a teeny mini one (yes you know me small is good). The holder measures approx 6 x 9cm. The kits includes:

1 strip of 6 double sided papers measuring 5.5cm x 12cm

1 mini CD case

12 pieces of 8x8cm plain card in assorted colours to coordinate with the above (not 12 different colours).

1 piece of ribbon 40cm long

1 Calendar

In addition I will provide the new In Colour ink pads, butterfly embosslits folder, Itty bitty punch set, itty bitty stamp set and the new pennant punch set for you to use.

You may want to bring any other little stamps, punches or embellishments you would like to use. If you want to use photos, I found that Boots do 9 mini photos on a photo and these fit on the calendar it you trim them a little. If you want to print photos on your own printer then then they need to be approx 4.5w x 3.5hcm which would give you a border round the edge but not really room to mount them.

There are three choices - all featuring new papers from the new Ideas Book and Catalogue which is out next Saturday. They are:

Flirtarious Specialty - this set includes a fancy doily cut piece of paper so as we cant really cut that into strips I will cut it into doilies and everyone will get one. I will include 2 pieces of plain vanilla card to use with the doily as the calendar pages.

This version is undecorated

This one is decorated with the itty bitty punches, stamps and the butterfly embosslit.

Just Add Cake

Cheerful Treat - This is a hostess item so not available unless you have qualify for the hostess reward.

After you cut the strips into your pages for the calendar there will be a short bit left over which you can either keep or use to make a strip of bunting using the lovely new pennant punch. A piece of ribbon, small pieces of plain card in the new In Colours, and some gems or pearls are included.

This is a strip made using Just Add Cake.

Its not really a class, since its so ridiculously simple to make I'm not going to stand and tell you all how to cut card! Instead I'm providing it as a kit so if you want to make it in your own time, add different embellishments or even use different papers you can.

If you would like a kit, they are £5 each or you can have just the CD case for £1.50. If you are interested please email me and let me know which paper type you want by next Wednesday (28th).

Please note: a couple of the papers have a border on them so all the pieces of those papers will vary slightly, as will the doily ones as some of the papers in that have large doilies printed on them. Also, these arent really suitable for posting unless you pack them really well.

Phew that was longer than I thought it would be!

See you all soon.

x

ally

WOYWW

Here we are at Wednesday again.

So this weeks piccie of my desk shows it in a much more untidy state than normal (and its usually pretty bad) but this was taken late last night after a session to make the christening card you can see along with an envelope - cos the card is 12" long but only about 4" wide so that was the only option. The two little very pink boxes are made from the new range of Stampin' Up! fabric (yes I did say fabric) - arent they cute? Dont worry the other colours in the ranges in the new catalogue are much less - well - pink.

Have a fun Wednesday.
:-)

Stamp Focus - Confetti

I thought I would do a little focus on some of the sets of stamps Stampin' Up! produce and show you some of the things I have done with them.

So first up - Confetti is one of my favourite stamp sets from Stampin' Up! I was so glad it wasn't on the retired list, it means I get to play with it for another year :) The set consists of 6 stamps each giving a little sprinkle of one of either leaves, hearts, flowers, dots, letters or sparkles (or snowflakes as I think they are). They make great backgrounds and could be used for a ton of other things.

The picture above is a LO I used the hearts on, I used a pink that was a bit to light in hindsight but I wanted a subtle background and so this is it!

The two cards are done using other stamps in the set - the tree trunk is drawn (but you could use Trendy Trees set, or add the leaves to any other tree branch set). The penguin is from Every Little Bit, and the iglu was a circle punch that I drew on and shaded with a copic pen.

If you would like to order Confetti you can do so from me - in wood for £16.95 or clear for £13.95 plus p&p.

Finally a sneak from the new catalogue which is available to order from 1st October - FABRIC! My best friend Kathy made this cute little bag for me using the pack I got on pre-order - isnt it gorgeous? The sides fold in and its teardrop shaped when its flat, but when you put all your bits in it opens up into a cube. This one fits about eight SU ink pads with room for a couple of stamp blocks and a few bits and pieces.

Dont forget you can order from the new catalogue from 1st October. If you would like to get a copy of the new catalogue from me they are £5.95 inc p&p BUT I will give you a £5 voucher off your first order of £35 or more - Email me for more details.

It's wednesday so it must be WOYWW

This is a teensy bit of a cheat, it's a photo I took a while ago but my desk is pretty much the same - except the knitting is gone. The LO is out again as I am sorting out stuff for a crop on Saturday and I am still procrastinating over what to do with these photos. We had a fab Armed Forces Day parade last June and I got some great photos but over a year later I still can't decide what to do with them!
Any other suggestions?
:-)
ally
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Its a Blog Hop!

Hi and welcome from Michelles blog if thats where you came from, or just welcome if you started here!

I havent taken part in a bloghop before, so I am going to be hopping around all my fellow hoppers today looking at the yummy things they came up with using items on the Stampin' Up! Retiring list. Whilst I'm sure we are all excited about the new catalogue there are still a lot of old favourites around, which I am sure we will all keep using.

I havent been a demo very long but I totally love the 'Because I care' set, so I am quite sad its being retired, but I will continue to use it for my own cards. One of my favourite colours is Rich Razzleberry and no dont panic thats not going but the gorgeous Striped Gosgrain Ribbon is. I have used all these in the set you can see which comprises of a couple of cards, a covered notebook and a little milk carton, using the Big Shot milk carton die.

The little calendar was made using scraps of Elegant Soiree which was one of my favourite papers.

Next up on the blog tour is Maggiemae, so please check out what lovely things she has created from the retired items.

Dont forget if you would like to buy anything from the list, please contact me ASAP as items are fast running out.

Thanks for hopping!

:-)

WOYWW

Its a bit late but its still Wednesday so it counts.

So still on the workdesk from last week is the cute butterfly clock, joined now by some work in progress christmas cards, and in the foreground a calendary type thing that just may be related to the 2SL event Julia was referring to on her page.

Nothing much else thats really new, except its been so long since I posted (except last week) that its probably all new to most of you.

Have good week!
ally

Bank Hols Weekend

Well its the end of a busy bank holiday weekend. I managed to persuade a friend to do a leaflet drop with me for my Stampin' Up! business and so this morning we went off on a tour of some of the front gardens of town. Despite my initial hesitations we ended up having a good time, with good company, admiring (or not) front gardens and being out in the sunshine.

We also ended up with a whole new appreciation for the work of our trusty posties. By the end of the first road we had scraped and bruised fingers and knuckles. I had been worried we might get our fingers nibbled by dogs lying in wait, but we were far more likely to loose them to the spring loaded letter boxes, and I'm not quite appreciating the free exfoliation from the brushes inside - or maybe I just need to get the other hand done so they are evenly red!

Second job today was to finish up some work on this years 2 Scrapladies "Year in a Day" class, which the above piccie is a sneak peek from. There are more piccies and information over on the 2SL blog - here.

Hope you all had a fab weekend.

ally

Time for WOYWW

Its ages since I posted on WOYWW, in fact when I checked back it was over a year, so its way time I caught up with everyone!

So here is a bit of my desk. I got the shelves recently from Ikea and they are great. I can hide things under them and I have a little space on top for placing things for photos - hence the piece of white card.

On the desk is part of a project Mrs Dunnit and I are working on for 2 scrapladies and on the shelf is a little clock I decorated last night with some Stampin' Up! papers and butterfly embosslits (it cuts and embosses them all in one). You can't really see in the piccie but the clock is spotty on the front but the sides has the reverse of the paper which is a paler blue typeface print. There is also a ribbon tied round it. Here's a close up of it. I love it, might have to make some as Christmas pressies.



Happy Wednesday everyone.
:-)

On line stores

I have no idea if they work, if people use them much, but in the spirit of nothing ventured nothing gained, I now have both an Etsy and a Folksy shop (the European rival). Links in the sidebar if you're interested.

And cos a post is boring with no pretties to look at, here is one of the cards I made for a friend at work, whose Neice turns one soon. The pink base is SU Pink Pirouette card, the little flower stamp is from the Itty Bitty Bits set, the rest are various papers, stickers, gems and ribbon I already owned. The card and lettering was cut on my Cricut using Base Camp.

:-)

ally

Mostly Marina Mist

Its been a busy weekend. Yesterday was the regular Ludgershall crop, where we had a couple of new faces (hi Lunchlady Jan and Morti) and we lunched on pizza and lots of cake. Oh and we did a little scrapping too.

I dont get to scrap much at home, I tend to only at crops, but thats difficult too as I dont have all my stuff with me so I have to think of what I might want and take along all eventualities. So I was quite pleased with the outcome of this LO. The photos are of a day trip I took to Marseilles back in June, when I visited a friend in Aix (just half hour away from Marseille). Almost everything on the LO is a Stampin' Up! Marina Mist product. The background is the plain textured cardstock, the mounts are the patterned paper from the paper stack. Theres the pen I used to write in the top right corner, and the ink I used on the mounts. In fact the only thing thats not Marina Mist is the very thin mount round the photos in Nearly Navy.

Obviously I was having a blue day!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

:-)

ally

PS dont forget if you would like some Marina Mist, check out the link to the catalogue on the right and email me your order. If your order is over £75 you qualify for the yummy free gift above. If you'd like to join my stampers 6 - I have some places left. This will start in October with the launch of the new catalogue which you will get free if you sign up.

Want a party, but don't have the room?

Don't know that many people who would be interested?

Too busy to have one?

Still want to take advantage of the great new benefits of being a hostess?

Why not join my Stampers 6 Club which will start in October with the launch of the new Catalogue?

So what is a Stampers 6?

Its basically a party without having to hold the party.

6 of you join the group and commit to spend at least £25 a month (plus a small contribution to the p&p) for 6 months. That is a total of £150 which is the minimum a party needs to order so that the hostess qualifies for the benefits.

Each month one of the members is the hostess and so gets the hostess benefits for that month.

From the 1st of October the hostess benefit system is changing so that the hostess will be paid in 'hostess pounds' that can be used to purchase either exclusive hostess items or other catalogue items, so that's even better value than at present.

As part of the club you will receive a free Stampin Up catalogue (worth £5.95) at the start, plus any further mini catalogues that might appear during the length of the club. You will of course benefit from any other offers Stampin' Up! may make.

In addition, as a reward for sticking with it :-) Everyone taking part in the full length of the club term will receive a small gift at the end.

If you would like to sign up, or get more information please email me - allyeff@virginmedia.com (cos I don't think the link is working)

:-)
ally

Pinch Punch First of the Month!

Just a quickie to let you know that for this month (yes its August already) Stampin' Up! are giving away a free gift. With either an order of £75 or a workshop total of £250 you will get the following:

A beautiful, exclusively-designed cosmetic bag.
PLUS
Rich Razzleberry 1-1/4” (3.2 cm) Striped Gosgrain Ribbon.
PLUS
A 24-piece Clip Assortment.

The ribbon alone would normally cost you £10.25 so you can see this is a real bargain, and you could use the fab cosmetic bag for keeping your smaller tools in.

If you would like one of these lovely sets, I can take orders by email (payable by paypal) or if you would like a workshop then please email me.

Right I'm off now to see what I can order for myself so I can get a set (not that I need anymore ribbon...)

Goodies

I realised I never showed you the bunch of goodies that came in my Stampin' Up! Starter kit. So here is a piccie of them in their box (less the ton of brown paper it was stuffed with).

Here are the contents once I'd unpacked them.






Don't forget I will be placing an order over the weekend so if you would like to add to it and save on postage then please email it to me Saturday midday at the latest.
:-)
ally

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stampin' Up! here I come!

Well I am pleased to say I have joined Laura and become one of her downline in Stampin' Up!

I got my fab starter pack last weekend and it was like Christmas in my craft room. It was quite a big box but of course it was mostly packaging, but the suspense while I pulled all the crunched up brown paper out was worth it. Having thought there would be some things I would be less pleased with I can honestly say there isnt a thing I dont love and wont use. So check back and see what I do with my starter pack goodies.

In the meantime, I am organising a ribbon share. There are 4 options - the Gosgrain Stripe, the 0.25" Plain Gosgrain or the lovely Seam Binding Ribbon. You sign up for wichever you like (or all three for a discounted price) and receive a meter of each colour along with a colour project leaflet. Spaces are limited and I will be ordering at the end of July if enough spaces are filled.

If you are interested please email me and I will send more details.
:-)

CR84FN colour challenge

I came across this colour challenge site - I've been lurking a while, and decided to join in this week.

There's quite a bit of white on my card cos I don't have much pink card in my stash - not sure if that's cos I've used it all or dont buy it much - probably both :-)

So here was the challenge over on http://cr84fncolorchallenge.blogspot.com/

and here's what I came up with:

I used papermania cupcake stamps, which are singular cucake stamps and I arranged them to look like a pile. Coloured them with my Copic pens and added some ribbon - very simple but very pink!

:-)

Grrr

What do I have to do to stop the stupid big gaps between lines in my posts? Answers on a postcard (or by email) please!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

And I must have been cos one minute I blog and its December and next its the end of June - where has the time gone?

So a quick update. The Slice went back to the shop cos as soon as I said how lovely it was it stopped being so lovely and refused to cut properly. I did some more Copic classes for Kraft Crazy in Tidworth, got a new camera whcih I am seriously in love with. Went the annual SF ball in Bournemouth, went on a fab holiday to Rome and a Supernatural tv show convention where I met the very lovely cast. Went on another shorter holiday to the South of France by train, came home and 2 Scrapladies Mid Summer Madness Card Marathon was upon us.

So I was busy but yes its been fun and I have a ton of photos to crop as the ladies at my two crops will vouch.

Next up is the 2 Scrapladies Calendar Class and more imminently I am going to be a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, which brings me to my photo. Since I have yet to get my starter kit, and I only have very few SU bits and bobs, I was quite pleased to be able to produce something using only SU products.

I made the card on the right for an ex boss. He has bees - hence the bee and honeycombe paper. It was the first time I have pleated ribbon on anything, and the seam binding ribbon made it so easy. I liked the card so much I made another almost the same to keep. Once I get more stamps I'll put a better one in the middle - or maybe not, I'll see - what do you think?

So for these cards I used:

Botanical Gazette paper (the bees are one side the honeycomb the other)

So Saffron cardstock

Certainly Celery Inkpad

Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding Ribbon

1 beige Spring Time Vintage Big Designer button

(all the above are from the Mini Catalogue)

Just For You Stamp from the Sale a Bration Punch Bunch set (I think no longer available)

For the card I am keeping, I used almost the same, obviously no stamp and the buttons are from the Designer Series in the Main Catalogue with a large Jewel stuck in the middle.

Definately going to be doing some more cards with ribbon on, I've fallen in love with it all over again.

:-)