Stampin' Up! Weekly Deals - Sheltering Tree

As you know Stampin' Up! have weekly deals that offer a limited time discount on selected products. This week is no exception, but hosts the fabulous Sheltering Tree stamp set.  It is such a beautiful group of stamps that can be used all year as the tree lends itself to every season of the year depending upon how you use it.  There are, somewhat early, signs of spring around us with the blossom and snowdrops appearing.  Can you remember the last time you saw daffodils in January.....?  Hence I've turned my tree into an early blossom tree.  Along with paper from the Love Blossoms 6" x 6" stack in the Stampin' Up! spring catalogue, a doily and some embossing using the Softly Falling and  Large Polka Dot embossing folders.  You can use the banner punch in reverse by sliding a strip of card 1.5cm wide into the punch from above to just banner punch the end of your sentiment strip.  Here the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

You might remember I made a bit of a stunning (if I say so myself) birthday card for my Mum with this set. You can see the full details in my stampin up post, but here are a couple of pics for more inspiration.  You can also see a winter version in my Christmas card club post.

 

I love for you to have this stamp set in your collection and it is always nice to get a bargain so please do choose me as your demonstrator and shop in my Stampin Up online shop.

Christmas Card Club - Let it Snow on a Sheltering Tree

You know it's a bad day for taking pictures when it's raining, cloudy and the battery is flat in your camera!  However I've managed to get a picture of my card for Christine's challenge in our fortnightly Christmas card club.  'Let it snow' was the challenge and I've used a part of the Sheltering Tree Stampin' Up! set  and to create the sound along the ground one stamp from Work of Art.

I used a brayer to add different shades of blue to some whisper white card stock and then stamped the tree silhouette twice allowing some shadowing with the craft white.  I've cut an aperture in my card base and added a layer of vellum before adding my picture behind.  On the vellum I heat embossed with white craft ink some of the snow using another stamp from Sheltering Tree.

My sentiment is from the Alphabet Rotary stamp which is versatile obviously because you make it say what you want.  Some Everyday Chic Designer washi tape adds a touch of silver with silver foil card to add a banner and a frame for my scene using two oval frame lit dies together to create the frame.

Don't forget to pop by the other members of our Christmas Card Club and let's hope the sunshine is back soon.

Zx

Eureka Challenge - Christmas in July
Christmas card challenges - Anything goes

I love Stampin' Up! By the Tide stamp set

This past weekend along with several members of my Tantalizing Stampers team and many other Stampin' Up! demo friends attended Stampin' Up! UK's regional event at the International Centre at Telford.

The weekend started on Thursday night really with a family meal to celebrate my birthday before Charlie headed out to Normandy at midnight on a school trip.   At 49 I'm a proud member of the junior Banovallum Brass Band playing alongside my children and other juniors much, much,......much younger than me, but I love it and my enthusiastic attempts to play my cornet. Well for my birthday my family bought me my very own cornet and now I just hope that I can improve to justify their purchase!!!

Friday, late morning saw me head out with friends for the Tantalizing Stampers on Tour as we journed to Telford and stayed in a beautiful B&B that provided afternoon tea in the stunning garden before we got ready to go the The Woodfield Inn at Coalport with 22 crazy stampin' ladies!  We had a ball and I had lots of lovely gifts and cards for my birthday.

Saturday was the usual early start for Stampin' Up! events and we were wow'd by lots of fab presentations highlighting new products from the upcoming Stampin' Up! 2015-2016 catalogue and techniques that I will share with you over the coming months at classes.

Back home for the remainder of the weekend with my wonderful family, now waiting patiently for the arrival of a tired, but hopefully french improved small boy!!

My card is an example of my swaps that I made for the regional event. Regular readers will know that it is a pastime/tradition for Stampin' Up! demonstrators to share ideas and inspiration in the form of swaps at events.  I used my now favourite stamp set By The Tide which includes all the stamps you see on this card and more.  The colour combo is simple and elegant in crumb cake, very vanilla, pink pirouette and early espresso and as you know I like a little bling so there is a little glitter on the pretty seashell.  I used strands off of a piece of burlap to add a little fishing net to the banners along with a simple staple!

Quick Tip
I stamped the seashell onto the pink pirouette layer and punched it out with the decorative label punch before cutting it out with that old, but faithful tool a pair of scissors!  I also punched out the small pink banner using the mini banner punch prior to using this as a matting layer and hence saved card stock without affecting the design as the punch outs were covered by the vanilla top layer.

Have a great week.

Zx