EEEEEKkk new kitchen!!

The fun before the storm was on Saturday evening when we went to a friend's 40th birthday party.  I don't think you can ever be too old to open presents, but when you are a grown up it's always lovely to have them nicely wrapped and so that's what I did on Saturday afternoon between sessions of emptying our kitchen in preparation for day 1 of the new kitchen process!

I decorated a white gift bag with very girly crisp cantaloupe and pistachio pudding (similar to the shade of our new kitchen units!) and added hints of the Artisan Embellishment Kit on page 27 of the Stampin' Up! UK spring/ summer catalogue.  A touch of blackberry bliss velvet ribbon just added a little bit of wow to my gift bag and coordinating birthday card.  The kit includes two die cut cards which can be used as a stencil to create a wonderful pattern on your own punched or die cut shapes as I've done on the tag, bag and card.  Buttons and resin roses are also par of the kit along with blushing bride rosette trim which you can use individually like me or as a border.   

At the party the lovely recipient told me she'd kept every card I'd ever made for her which made my night!

Sunday was spent emptying, packing and labelling to make sure that the builder had the minimum amount to do before he got to grips with striping the kitchen bare.  Here's a before and after.

Before the builder arrived!!

After the builder left this evening

Our poor dog just can't work it out!! The Aga has gone on holiday for a little bit of pampering and will return in due course and there is much to be done before the new units arrive.  Exciting, but scary times.  

More soon

Zx

Stampin' Up! UK Sale-a-Bration ends soon!

You are now in the last few days of Stampin' Up! UK's biggest promotion of the year.  It's your last chance to get your hands on this lovely set Lotus Blossom or any of the other lovely free gifts that you can have with each purchase of £45.

These are the most recents set of gifts on offer and you can choose one with every £45 (excl. P&P) spent.  You can order via my Stampin' Up! UK online shop.

Have fun shopping and thank you for shopping with me! 

Zoe Tant Independent Stampin' Up! UK demonstrator

Cute Curvy Keepsake Bunnies!!

I just had to share these with you. My friend, Wendy, is Brown Owl to the local Brownies and she made these with all the Brownies this week.  I love how they've all personalised their bunnies with their own touches.  Some mums and dads will be very happy to receive these for Easter.

Zx

A 'wow' background with Stampin' Up! UK By the Tide

Stampin' Up! UK By the Tide 

I just love this Stampin' Up! UK By the Tide stamp set and I'm going to share the technique I've used to create this effective background at my next all day class on May 9th if you'd like to come along and learn some techniques.  This will be on that you will learn so book early to avoid disappointment.

Please contact me for more information about this and other classes.

See you soon.

Zx

Best Day Ever!

For those of you familiar with our biggest promotion of the year at Stampin' Up! Uk you'll know that it times out usually around the end of March and so sadly all these lovely free gifts will not be available beyond 31st March.  Best Day Ever is one of the stamp sets you can claim as yours with every £45 order you place.  Other choices of gift include designer series papers, accessory packs and now embossing folders and washi too!

My card today features the ever so useful crumb cake cards and envelopes, 20 in a pack which I've decorated with the Large Polka Dot embossing folder with dots just about 3/4" so you can make a paper stencil with the 3/4" circle punch and use it to stamp on random polka dots once embossed.  A piece of DSP from the Moonlight mini DSP stack, some silver glimmer paper and a sentiment from the Best Day Ever set as the focal point for your cards. Yes cards as a set of 3 with stamped  envelopes fit perfectly into one of the polka dot tag a bag gift bags to make a quick and easy gift for someone.

I have a current hostess code running which if you visit my Stampin' Up! UK online shop to order some new stash can be added on the submit page and you'll receive a thank you gift once the code is closed at the end of the month.  March code is GKPMMEWA.  Gifts also now include those detailed below.  Enjoy choosing. Zx

Bow Builder punch your day away!

This card is a CASE from the Stampin' Up! UK spring catalogue, well almost anyway. Don't you find that sometimes you are trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to design so a little CASEing - Copy and Share Everything is often the best way forward.

This punch is so cute and you can do more than just bows which I'll show you soon, but today it's bows or bow ties dependent upon the colours you use and who you want to send it to.  Here you'll see baked brown sugar, pistachio pudding and strawberry slush which are members of the 2013-2015 in colours so that means we'll sadly say goodbye to them in May when our retiring list is published by Stampin' Up!.  Don't forget to stock up your supplies before they disappear.

Other supplies include Say Something stamp set, modern label punch, word window punch and the 1/2" circle punch.

Check back soon for ideas of what else you can do with this punch!

Hugs Zx

Very Proud Mummy!

Yesterday was Mothering Sunday here in the UK and I spent a wonderful day with my family. Olivia stayed over with my parents Saturday night and we went to their house before my parents treated us all to a very delicious lunch at The Woodhouse, Corby Glen. 

Many of my readers have met Olivia at the Sincerely Yours shows where she often comes along to help me and keep me in order!! She is fast growing into a clever and beautiful young woman.

At my parents, Olivia had used my mum's crafty stash to make me a lovely card, but the real gift was the poem she wrote inside.  With a tear in my eye I'm a very proud Mummy! 

Mum,

I love you for all the times you picked me up when I was down

For all the times you traded your smile for my frown

For all the times you brushed my hair, tucked me into bed.... 

or needed something for yourself and put me first instead

For all the dreams that we have shared, the tears and laughter too

I love you Mum with all my heart

There's no one quite like you.

I'm so proud of my gorgeous daughter.  Thank you in return Olivia for the joy and pride you bring us! 

Anything goes for Christmas Card Club

My first job today is to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to each and every MUM out there.  I know I'm in for a special treat with my family and my parents so I hope you all have a very special day too!

As time marches on to Spring, you'll find me in another seasonal world i.e. Christmas for my card share today. Sylvie has set our challenge this fortnight and the theme chosen is 'Anything goes'. Not as easy as you might imagine with daffodils beginning to bloom in the garden and although cool several days of sunshine brightening everyone's spirits.

I was inspired by one of the Stampin' Up! Artisan Designer's cards fro my layout.  You can see her card here  I've used materials from the Stampin' Up! UK Spring catalogue including the Adventure Bound Designer Series Paper which is a mini stack and home to lots of prints including the log stack, pine needle with wooden board back drop and tartan and I've also popped in a stamped circle using the hardwood stamp.  The popular Festival of Trees is still in the spring catalogue along with the matching Tree punch which I've used to punch out my trio of trees.  I love adding texture so I've added some wooden cut out stars which were left overs from the Hooray It's Your Day project kit and a cute heart (essential wooden elements) with an epoxy star.  One of my all time versatile and useful stamp sets is Gorgeous Grunge which you can use to add speckles, spots or splodges.

Have a lovely day!
Hugs Zx

Challenges
Crafty Hazelnut's Extra Christmas Challenge - Anything goes
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - dies and punches

Happy Mother's Day

My wonderful Mum is becoming more and more of a techie; she even suggested she look for directions online last night, but I'm safe in sharing this with you now as she hasn't reached blogland just yet, but it won't be long.

She adores flowers and so I've made a card for her, to celebrate the UK Mother's Day this Sunday, using the same base card as I used on my post Christmas Card Club - Poinsettias to showcase these beautiful flowers that I stamped with the Flower Patch stamp set and matching Stampin' Up! Flower Fair framelits.  I've also added a sentiment again from the Crazy for You stamp set with it's co-ordinating Hello You thin lit dies.  They come as a bundle in the spring catalogue saving you 15%.  You can see them and other bundles in my Stampin' Up! UK online shop.

Quick Tip Time!
This is a big set and comes only in photopolymer. It has BIG stamps in it and so you'll find it easier to get good images if you put your card stock on your stampin' pierce mat so that all areas of the stamp meet with the card stock.  This makes sure you get a good clean image with lots of colour!

Before I give this to my Mum on Sunday I just might add a butterfly using my elegant butterfly punch which comes with good news if you visit my previous post!! But only until next Tuesday.

Hope you are organised with your cards for Mum if you're in the UK and if you're beyond our shores I think you have weeks still to prepare with Mothering Sunday being in a different month to ours.

More soon.
Zx

Gorgeous Stampin' Up! UK Elegant Butterfly Deal!

So many of us love butterflies and I'm included in that bunch!  They are even more lovely when you team them up with Stampin' Up! stamp sets like Papillon Potpourri and Kinda Eclectic and when Stampin' Up! UK offers them with a deal, well it would be rude not to love them more!

Of course you don't have to be satisfied with just one butterfly, you can invest in more and choose the Butterfly Basics stamp set and coordinating frame lits to make cards like these.

It's a beautiful day at the moment in sunny Lincolnshire so I'm off to play tennis in the sunshine.

Have fun!
Zx

By The Tide from Stampin' Up! UK - Perfect for Men

I've just been part of a card swap kindly organised by Julie McCartney another Stampin' Up! UK demonstrator.  She teamed folk up in pairs to make a card along a theme of Easter or male cards.  Once made you send your card to your partner and gain inspiration from their design.

This is the card I made using Stampin' Up! stamp set By the Tide. I've had my eye on this set for such a long time and finally caved and got it as a free prize I'd earned for my achievements with Stampin' Up!.  My colour scheme is lost lagoon, cajun craze, night of navy, very vanilla and crumb cake.  I 'smudged' the base card and matting layer with lost lagoon, yes tone on tone to give a softer edge to the card stock and then stamped and in some areas embossed the seaweed in the same colour or clear embossing powder.  My sentiment is stamped onto a piece from the essential wooden elements embellishment set and I've added linen thread over the washi tape which sadly is now retired.

Sometimes highlighting some of the images from a set onto a punched shape, in this case 21/2 inch circle, allows you to create a collage of the set and then spotlight one image i.e. the lobster on top.

Thank you to Julie for organising the swap and I hope to soon share my partner's card with you.

Zx

Class cards - Join my next Stampin' Up! Class

I have been busy with several weekend classes recently and parties. At one of the classes the ladies made a whole selection of cards and they requested that they made some Christmas cards to help with their build up to dare I say Christmas 2015!

The card on the left uses the gorgeous Stampin' Up! Wondrous Wreath stamp set and framelits and also some designer series paper all in the Spring catalogue.  The paper is called Stacked with Love which is appropriate as it's a mini stack of papers perfect for adding accents to cards like this and for any projects with a theme of Love.

The card on the right is one I cased  from Helen  and it uses the very popular Stampin' Up! set Festival of Trees which you can see more examples of on previous posts.

I'll share other class cards soon and you might like to come to one of my classes by looking at the dates via the tab at the top of this page.

More soon. Zx

Who doesn't love a freebie!!

I just adore the effect of these new papers that I got free from Stampin' Up!.  They are 6x6 sheets of printed vellum with 24 sheets in a pack.  Their name says it all really ' Sheer Perfection Designer Vellum Stack'.

I've used just under half a sheet and popped it face down on my piercing mat. I used a stylus to 'colour' the leaves turning them white by applying gentle pressure on the stylus.  Flip it over again and you've got embossed leaves.  I've matted the piece on to a piece of soft sky card stock and then added a basic grey and smoky slate banner, the thank you is part of the Stampin' Up! set An Open Heart.

The Wren is part of the same set and appealed to me as today I get quite a few of them visiting my garden and in the past I was a Jenny Wren in the Royal Navy.  This one is stamped with tuxedo black memento ink onto whisper white card stock and yes I cut her out with scissors not a die!!

And to close I'd just like to say 'Friday is my favourite F word!'

Zx

Christmas Card Club - Poinsettias

I've been so busy with classes and stampin' parties this past fortnight I completely lost track of our next Christmas Card Club Challenge set by our lovely organiser Margaret. Margaret is a big fan of Poinsettias and she asked us to use them on our card in whatever colour combo we wanted. I'm a bit traditional with them and so I've stuck with gorgeous shades of red using my cherry cobbler blendabitlities to colour my flowers and also the holly berries along with the rich golden centres that Poinsettias have in daffodil delight and old olive for the  holly leaves.  I also covered a couple of the blooms with Versamark and embossed the surface with clear embossing powder to give some more depth.

I started out stamping the holly onto very vanilla card stock and coloured it in. I carefully cut out the image, but inevitably the stems were thin and weak and there was a substantial amount of vanilla showing. So  I thought about how I could have the holly without the vanilla and decided to stamp in Staz On ink on window sheet and colour on the back again with my blendies! I cut the window sheet to fit the flap I created with my Stampin' Up! trimmer.  The card base came to me from Sue who was at my class last week. She'd made some super cards using this type of card base.

My sentiment is 'large' and is from Seasonally Scattered a stamp set that was in the Autumn/Winter Stampin' Up! UK catalogue.  It too is stamped in Staz On.

Now I hope you'll visit the other ladies in the Club who are detailed in my side panel.  I've visited most of them already and I have to say they've done a fantastic job with Margaret's challenge and you will be inspired by how many different and stunning ways you can feature Poinsettias on your Christmas cards.

Back with more soon. Zx

Challenges
CHNC - Anything goes
Sweet Stampin' - All or nothing