Stampin' Up! Circle Circus meets Clockworks

Isn't it funny how you're kids moan at you about cutting and sticking and stamping until it's a friend's birthday and they want a card to take to school....!  This is card for one such occasion.  Olivia's school friend celebrated her birthday last Friday and so I was tasked with making a card with the instruction 'not pink!'

I've used some of my last pieces of concord crush which retires on Sunday along with lucky limeade to create a funky card with some neat add ons like mini brads, baker's twine and itty bitty buttons which I've backed with concord crush dsp from the in colour stack and I've done some 'collage' stamping using circle circus stamp set along with clockworks which will appear in the new Annual catalogue from next Monday. 

I got this set early having been to Stampin' Up! 's Leadership training recently.  That's why it's so good to be a demonstrator because you get your hands on new sets earlier than most, cheaper than most and sometimes FREE! If you'd like to know more about reducing your crafting costs just let me know and we can chat about the advantages to you.

Many of my readers know that Stampin' Up! will expand it's European Market from 8 October and so if you know someone interested in joining Stampin' Up! in The Netherlands, Austria, Germany or France please do ask them to talk to me. 

Stampin' Up!'s expansion was announced in the Wall Street Journal with this detail.

 Stampin’ Up! Europe Expands into Austria, The Netherlands

Stampin’ Up!, the direct seller of decorative rubber stamp sets and accessories for greeting cards, craft projects, scrapbooking and home décor, announced that Stampin’ Up! Europe will expand into Austria and The Netherlands before the end of 2012.

Stampin’ Up! Europe has seen exceptional growth and demand for their crafting products outside of the United Kingdom, Germany and France. On average their growth has been 80 percent year on year for the last 4.5 years in the existing trading markets.

Axel Krämer, Managing Director Europe, said: “Our business model is flexible, allowing our demonstrators to enjoy our products as a hobby; and at the same time, it provides the chance to turn their hobby into a part-time or full-time career. Expanding our presence in Europe will increase visibility and opportunities for our demonstrators, allowing more people to connect with our brand.”

Approximately 3,000 Stampin’ Up! demonstrators are currently operating in Europe, and over the last few years Stampin’ Up! has received increased demand from many customers, specifically in The Netherlands. The Dutch market has recently experienced considerable interest in purchasing the English product offering, and similarly, the Austrian market has increased purchasing of the German offering.

Stampin’ Up! will continue to operate in three languages—English, French and German—and will not add the Dutch language. The expansion into Austria and the Netherlands will offer Stampin’ Up! products and the business opportunity to more people than ever before. Under the current business model, product sales can only be made within each specific country by hosting home parties and other events. However, as part of the expansion plans, Stampin’ Up! will now allow cross-market selling and recruiting between the five European countries.

“Our demonstrators’ businesses will now benefit from their extended contacts with consumers in other countries, as by removing the trading border controls, we are encouraging cross border selling and recruiting,” Krämer said.

Stampin’ Up! continues to drive the crafting marketing in Europe and recently announced that the European product catalogue will expand to be aligned with that of the North American market. This change to the Annual European catalogue strategy will ensure that all demonstrators have access to a significant increase in products from October 1, 2012.


Back soon.
Zx

Scrapbook Club with Circle Circus

Scrapbook Club started last night and everyone enjoyed it and also produced two lovely 12"x12" layouts which unfortunately I didn't photograph, but then they are very personal and everyone may not have wanted theirs on display.  You will just have to look at mine and accept that theirs were all very different but very well designed. 

If you missed it and were hoping to join us you can start the club at any stage.  At your first session you will receive the album of your choice and the materials for that nights double page spread or mini album.  You can then join in each month and add pages to your album.  If you can't make the date or time then contact me and we can try to arrange something to suit us both.

Thanks to everyone who came along.  I'm glad that you enjoyed the evening and am grateful for your texts and emails confirming it.  See you next time.

Hugs Zx

Circle Circus for Less is More Challenge

I can't believe a week has already passed and I seem to still have an ironing mountain, I'm still running the children everywhere and I'm still chasing my tail.  Anyone else feel this way?

However it's been a good week with Charlie gaining his badge 2 at gymnastics, he only has one more to achieve to have the full set and he also picked up 4 badges at Beavers and also news that he can move up to Cubs in September. So we have one happy gymnastical Beaver.  Olivia has also had a good week with a trip to London to ride the London Eye and see Billy Elliott.  She was so excited, but I can't say we felt the same excitement getting up at 5am to make sure she was at school by 6am!  Thursday was a long day.

I've also had a good week as Stampin' Up! have announced some very promising changes to the business that will make life as a demonstrator even more rewarding with the promise of lots of fun and interesting rewards.  If you'd like to know more and join in with the fun then contact me for a no obligation chat about being a demonstrator running it to your entire satisfaction at your own pace.

Now the other reason I know a week has passed apart from my tiredness level is there's a new challenge at Less is More.  It is no less fun than any other that the ladies have set and this week it has a theme which offers so much choice - CIRCLES.  I've used clear embossed circles from the Circle Circus and Medallion Background stamp sets to showcase some gorgeous buttons from the brights collection along with the odd one or two from the Oh Sew Suite big designer buttons in the mini and some circles from the simple understated bitty buttons.  For inside the card I have stamped Circle Circus circles (good excuse for alliteration or what!) in rich razzleberry ink to match the base card.  I love the simple but dramatic effects that the process of clear heat embossing achieves.

If it's not wet with you as it is across most of the UK then enjoy the sunshine and if you're getting rained on too then enjoy the perfect excuse for wallowing in your craft space!

Have a good one!

Hugs Zx

Father's Day Cards

Happy sunny day folks. It's lovely here today although if I'm honest the breeze has a chill to it that I wish would warm up. I can't believe that we are almost half way through the year and this Sunday brings Father's Day! I've been tinkering with designs and here's one I made and want to share with you. Circle Circus is such a fab set. It looks great in any colour and even with a flower design on one stamp in the right colours it can look good for Dads! I used the marker pens to individually colour the sentiment from Occasional Greetings and then chopped it to give more texture, along with some linen thread and a little bit of spiral punching. 'Simples' as the Meerkats say! Colours include, and the combo came from looking at the pelmet and curtains in our local cafe, choc chip, bashful blue, sage shadow and creamy caramel. The base card is kraft.
Back soon with more to share. Until then happy day!!!
Zx

Here's a taster of Melon Mambo

It seems a lifetime ago already since we were delayed on holiday in the USA. We visited with friends in Washington DC and then all flew to Florida to 'do' Disney. It was a fabulous holiday and none of us would complain about then being delayed once we returned to Washington. I was able to fit in a little stamping which was quite fortuitous as I met up with a US demo friend and ended up with some melon mambo ribbon which I've used on this simple card to share with you today. The melon mambo teams up well with pretty in pink, rose red and chocolate chip inks and the paper is melon mambo too! I just love this spotty, dotty ribbon which just adds fun and pizzazz to any project. Remember I'm offering free ink pads with orders of something from the new colour products listed in the post below if you order by 15 May. The stamp sets used are Circle Circus and Wow Flowers for the greeting. You could of course budget for your crafting needs by joining my virtual stamping club starting soon. Contact me for details of how you can join and earn some free hostess gifts including an Idea Book, Exclusive Limited Edition stamp set and free merchandise of your choice.

Hope the sun is shining where you are today.

Happy crafting

Zoë x

I've said it before..... Now I'll say it again!!!

I have said it before and I am going to say it again. One of my greatest pleasures of being an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the fact that I love seeing my customers enjoy making their projects and using our fab products. I really enjoy CASEing their ideas and watching their creative journey! One of the best times to see this is during my techniques club sessions that I run. This week has seen two clubs come to my craft room to learn something new about Stampin' Up! and its products.
We've looked at masking as a great way to give a project some depth and definition and here are some of the beautiful cards that everyone made. They chose their colour scheme and having shown them how to mask by making your own paper mask to cover the first stamped image and then build up the design, they were left to produce these wonderful cards.

Andrea



Louise




Jayne






Claire

Abi - take a look at Abi's blog here

Maria

Paul

Julia

Judy

Aren't they all fab!!!! They all used Circle Circle stamp set and added sentiments from our lovely new Sale-a-bration sets that are easily earnt for FREE by customers, hostesses, new recruits and demonstrators during January and February. Ask me for details of how you can get your hands on one or more FREE sets.

Many of my club members had never stamped before and so it's great to see how they get more adventurous with their creativity, and it also makes my job more challenging as I find techniques and projects to tickle their taste buds. It also never ceases to amaze me the different results you get from using the same materials. If you were stuck for ideas of how to use Circle Circus there's plenty of inspiration here. Thanks Ladies and Gents for a fun week and your continued support.

I hope you've enjoyed browsing these cards and hope you'll leave a comment to congratulate them all. Thanks for checking in and come back soon.

Hugs Zx