Stampin' Up! UK Curvy Keepsake Easter Chick

It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I was sharing my Stampin' Up! UK Curvy Keepsake Robin Tutorial with you and now the Easter eggs are in the shops we crafters are turning our thoughts to Mother's Day and Easter treats.  You can make it easy with this uber cute chick.

In daffodil delight he's going to be a big hit in our house and he's quick and easy to make. You can use various punches to add his wings, feet and beak and I decided I liked candy dots best of all for his eyes as they give him a really cute look.  The punches I used were modern label, petite petals and the blossom for his feet.

I love the Spring and all the beautiful flowers it brings including the Daffodils and so I've another box with Daffodils and Narcissi.  Just to make sure my little chicks aren't lonely there's a Lindt bunny family in a Berry Basket.  This one was brought as a swap to my demonstrate shoe box event by lovely Elaine Barr.  We all bring supplies to make one item and this was her gorgeous contribution.  Just love that pom-pom trim.

Which is your favourite season?

Back with more soon and I'll have projects to share from my all day class this Saturday.

Zx

Stampin' Up! UK Hexagon Punch Patchwork

I love the Stacked with Love Designer Series Paper stack from the Stampin' Up! UK spring catalogue and it is too gorgeous to have just used it for Valentine's treats and then discard it so I decided that a birthday card would be a good start.  I've also used a tried, tested and age old design i.e. the patchwork quilt to make the design on my card.  I remember cutting out card hexagons at school and tacking fabric onto them to then overstitch them all together to make a quilt.  This way seems much easier, just not as good at keeping you warm. Just by using the hexagon punch I've punched out the shape in the different papers and remember the stacks are double sided so you have plenty to choose from.

To add a sentiment you just need to punch out the shape and keep the punched out piece to mark push through the aperture when your top layer is in place. Remove the top layer leaving the punched shape in place. Draw around it so that you know the limits of your stamping.  Here I used the incredibly flexible Crazy About You stamp set which is lots of words that you can put together to build your own message.

A knot of silver ribbon just adds a touch....... and you're away.  It's also flat for posting YAY!!!!

Why don't you have a go with other papers you have and maybe use up scraps that you can bear to throw away, but feel you should move them on!  Of course you could try with any other punch to build a patchwork with a different shape.

In fact why not take a look at the triangle punch in this week's weekly deals and make a three sided patchwork!

I'd love to see what you create, so please do share you designs by sending me a picture to zoetant@live.co.uk and I'll share them here.

Zx

Christmas Card Club - Stampin' Up! Lovely as a Tree

Don't you find that time flies even quicker in the early months of the year!  I can't believe that already we are half way through February and it also is time for another Christmas Card Club challenge this time from Mary .  Snow covered trees is what she challenged us with and of course I instantly reached for my trusty Lovely as a Tree stamp set.  On kraft card stock I stamped the tall pine in black Staz On ink and then set an aperture over it.  A little 'smudging' and some defined snow flake stamps from Holiday Home set (AW 2014 catalogue) and some snow made with the white gel pen finished off the pine.

I've embossed in clear a few trees from the long winter scene tree stamp and again added snow with the gel pen.  My sentiment is stamped in Staz On too, onto vellum card stock and adhered to the matting layer with 3 mini brads.  I also softened the edges of the base and matting layers and very gently around the oval aperture using a sponge dauber and crumb cake ink. I wasn't really sure if I liked it, but it's growing on me.

Time this week will whizz with Olivia & Charlie on half term.  O's prom dress shopping with a girlfriend and me and C will be watching movies, eating popcorn and the inevitable spring clean of his room! Oh joy.

Have a great Sunday.
Zx

Valentine Treats

Ok so I caved in and started making Valentine treats for everyone!  Olivia claims her friends get Valentine's from their families so I'll surprise her this year with something like this.

It's so easy too and you only need the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies from the Stampin' Up! UK spring/ summer catalogue.  You can cut apertures to reveal the treat inside, decorate it using the cut out heart and yes again the Happy Hearts embossing folder, some ribbon, burlap and cute peg decorated with the hearts cut from the thinlit die strip in blushing bride.

They will be surprised this year that I'm this organised, just hope they remember my surprise even though I say 'Let's not 'do' Valentine's this year!'

Zx

Challenges - Sweet Stamping Challenge - add a heart!

Stampin' Up! UK Butterfly Basics make pretty thank yous

I've made lots of these this week to thank my lovely customers who've hosted parties for me this month.  The Stampin' Up! set Butterfly Basics is a set that is fast becoming my new favourite as it's similar in style to Stampin' Up! set Kinda Eclectic in that it is a pretty, eclectic mix of images that you can use to build up a collage.  You can also get the associate Butterflies thinlits dies to use with it and I'll show you more of their beauty very soon.  On this card I used the smallest die which fits around the stamp in the set perfectly just as you would expect from Stampin' Up!.

Now with the framelits, thinlits and other metal dies like your Spellbinders and Marianne dies they are so much easier to use with a magnetic platform on your Big Shot.  Conveniently this just happens to be in the weekly deals and is most definitely one of those purchases that once you have you just can't live without and the investment is so worth it! 

Tell me what you think of Butterfly Basics is it a keeper for you too?

Back soon. Zx

Stampin' Up! Flower Shop

Last week I visited a lovely craft group organised by Carol.  They meet every week and share various crafts and obviously have a lot of fun.  They invited me along to share some simple stamping techniques with them and I also took some supplies along for them to make a card.  This is very similar to what they made.  Our next session will be to look at heat embossing which I love as it there is so much that you can achieve through embossing both heat wise and folder wise.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the ladies again soon.

Like many they liked the Stampin' Up! Flower Shop and Petite Petals stamp sets and punches.  As ever they are easy to use to create pretty cards and in honour of Valentine's Day I used real red and basic black ink with some papers from the Stacked with Love mini DSP stack.

This card continues it's sentiment inside saying 'Just sayin' thanks' all taken from my new Crazy About You stamp set which let's you build up sentiments from individual words.

Have you made your Valentine yet or do you need more than one!!!!!

Zx

Sincerely Yours to share Stampin' Up!

I'm hoping for one of the best days ever today. I have a stand at the Sincerely Yours show where I'm sharing my love of Stampin' Up! with anyone who passes!  We're excited to be showing off some of the new products from the Spring catalogue and of course the free sets you can get your hands on with qualifying purchases or parties or maybe you'd rather benefit from your craft shopping at a discount for as long as you want by buying the starter kit and receiving extra goodies while this promotion lasts.

Best Day Ever stamp set is one of those 'free' sets and is great for any level of crafting as it has lots of shapes and a couple of sentiments. I'm sure just about everyone of you can claim to have had a 'best day ever' and could scrapbook it on a traditional layout or for the busier folk amongst you in a project life album where you can quickly record special memories with pre printed cards and journaling tags to add your personal record.

I've done a simple layout on this card that could upscale to a scrapbook page or be recreated for project life.  Some faux stitching with a pen, moonlight DSP mini stack papers and silver glimmer paper punched stars from the Itty Bitty punch pack and you have a card, scrapbook and project life layout.  Easy or what!

Colours today are blackberry bliss, lost lagoon and hello honey from the 2014-2016 in colour collection.

Hope you are having one of your Best Days Ever!

Zx

Stampin' Up! Happy Hearts for my sweetheart!

Now we're in the month of love with Valentine's Day looming on the horizon.  My hubby and I always say to each other something along the lines of ' Let's not worry about swapping Valentine's stuff' .  You might say sad, but usually we're trying to avoid chocolates and I really am very lucky and have all I need and with my new kitchen coming soon I don't think the expense is necessary.  That said he always surprises me with something like a fabulous bouquet and so I'm making cards this year.  This is very simple but says what it needs to.......  Again you can use the Stampin' Up! Happy Heart Textured Impressions embossing folder to create a backdrop and then add a simple, but heartfelt message using the heart punch from the Itty Bitty Accents punch pack and the Alphabet rotary stamp.

I think I will succumb and treat him too!

Zx

Stampin' Up! Happy Hearts for a thank you special

Last weekend Stampin' Up! held it's annual, but final Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. All demonstrators from around the world were entitled to attend, but with a new kitchen looming I didn't think it wise to ask hubby if he's mind me disappearing for a jolly in the sunshine, so I had to make do with the live links that Stampin' Up! arranged for certain sessions. One included a lovely project shared by Carrie Cudney one of the permanent staff at Stampin' Up!.  I'm sure you are all aware that you can ink your embossing folders prior to adding your card stock and then whizzing it through the Big Shot.  This can create a beautiful back ground piece and Carrie demonstrated inking your embossing folder using a combo of colours and using a dauber to add them.  I've cased most of her card, but added a few twists of my own.  Like her I embossed my sentiment in gold on to vellum card stock, but to add more detail I used my stampin' trimmer to add an embossed frame scoring on the reverse and I also used my paper piercer to add some texture with pierced holes along the frame I created.  To adhere the vellum I used a stapler to attach the twine and ribbon to my embossed background layer and a glue dot under each of the individual hearts. Saves any nasty glue marks showing!

I cased her colours of calypso coral, crisp cantaloupe and daffodil delight.

It's rather pretty all in all don't you think!

Zx

Christmas Card Club - Santa Ho Ho Ho!

Oh my I've been missing in action for awhile. We went away for Christmas and I've been chasing my tail ever since including missing the first Christmas Card Club, but at last I'm on time for this one with a challenge set by Lorraine  with a theme of Jolly Santa - Ho Ho Ho.  I think this fits the bill!

I've used my new Little Letters thinlits dies from Stampin' Up! to cut my 'Ho Ho Ho'. Don't you love it when you get to use new stash! It's great too, because unlike new clothes and shoes that your DH may notice and ask that fatal question "Is that a new dress?"  he doesn't know one end of your craft room to another and the only comment I usually get is when I've cleared my table and goes along the lines of "OMG we've been robbed!' So new stash today and also a cute Santa made with punch art.  There are lots around and I'm not sure who came up with this one, but I copied this from my friend Mikaela who added him to the curvy keepsake box for Christmas treats. Such a cute chap it would be rude not to CASE - copy and share everything!  I love his moustache which is a thin lit die too!

If you are looking for Santa inspiration and different styles and techniques be sure to pop by my love Christmas Card Club challenge colleagues whose blogs are listed in my sidebar.

I'm off now as I'm shoe box swapping with some fellow Stampin' Up! UK demonstrators today and need to tidy and prep the room!

Have a great Sunday!
Hugs Zx