Quick Make Challenge

At  my Stampin' Up! Team day this weekend I gave everyone a packet that contained supplies and challenged them to make a card in 30 minutes.  They all had the same supplies and were able to use the new stamp set Label Me Bold in the Spring mini along with Poppy Parade and Memento Tuxedo Black ink pads.  They also had access to a pot of the Peaceful Poppy sequins to use.  I only used one for my card, but have since cheated and added two or three red rhinestones. 

I love the modern on trend feel of the Label Me Bold stamp set. It's great for creating backgrounds to bold images like these poppy die cuts.  I used two of the stamps with the black ink and stamped off to get 3rd generation ink to make it a softer shade of black.  I added the bold hearts and then stamped two sentiments and free hand cut them out.  It was really quick to do and is a great way to have a bunch of cards made quickly for adding a sentiment to later or for one when you need a card in a rush. 

The Poppy Elements are worth looking at closer.  They include embossed black borders and label shapes, vellum embossed poppy flowers and leaves and also on watercolour card and finally these fab printed die cuts that make it really easy to add a pop of colour.  You get 2 sheets of each and they only cost £6.  They are a great add on for all sorts of designs, but as well as working particularly well with our lovely new poppy stamps and die sets they look great with this modern set Label Me Bold.

You can see them all in my Stampin' Up! online shop.

Any questions about them or anything else Stampin' Up! related drop me a line at zoetant@live.co.uk  and I'll do my best to help or point you in the right direction of someone who can.

Happy crafting

Zoe x

Craft Stamper and Stampin' Up! Swirly Scribbles

Last year I did some design work for Craft Stamper magazine.  The colour theme was Lemon Lime Twist, Berry Burst and Fresh Fig.  I was also asked to use the Stampin' Up! Swirly Scribbles dies.  This was the third card I created and I'm sharing today as tomorrow the June 2018 issue will be available in the shops and I have some designs in this issue also.  The magazine is fabulous and full of tips and techniques as well as lots of inspiration.  Earlier this week I shared the projects that the magazine Editor produced for the same article in the magazine and details of how you can get your hands on a copy of the magazine both in the UK or digitally elsewhere. You can see more in my   guest designer post.

For this card I created a back ground using embossing paste with one of the Stampin' Up! Pattern Party Decorative masks.  I added die cuts using the Swirly Scribbles dies and and made some spiral flowers by using the offcuts from the die cutting and cutting in a spiral before rolling into flowers.  You'll find that these stick better with either tombow and a patient person to hold it while it sets and dries or a hot glue gun.  The leaves are also die cuts from the same dies and I did some free hand veins.  I've stamped my sentiment using the co-ordinating inks and the Alphabet Labeller stamp set.
I added a touch of sparkle to the flowers using fine tip glue and glitter and a mini pearl in each flower.

I've layered the whole design onto Berry Burst card and then on to a base card of Tranquil Tide.

I'll be sharing my new designs very soon and they feature the very popular stamp set Beautiful Day. Once again Trish has produced very different projects also so do come back and visit.

Look out for this cover in the shops for the June issue on sale from Friday 4 May. 

More soon Zoe x

Thailand Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip Blog Hop

Welcome to July's Stampin' Up! Incentive Trip Achiever's Blog Hop. We're sharing all our experiences from the recent incentive trip to Thailand.  Hop through them all to see what everyone did.  

My daughter, Olivia, was my guest on the trip as a treat for finishing school, but when space is available Stampin' Up! allow you to also buy in extra spaces and so Charlie and Martin joined us too and what a wonderful time we had.  We made it our family holiday especially as Martin and I will celebrate our Silver wedding anniversary later this year.  

The main highlight for me was obviously sharing the trip with my wonderful family, who support me with my Stampin' Up! business, but also it is always good to catch up with friends from across the globe and make new friends.  For instance Charlie spent hours in the pool playing polo with other kids and some dads. Even when the rain crashed down they carried on playing and as a water polo player at home he was in his element and now hopefully will become pencils with a couple of the friends he made.  Stampin' Up! really is one big family. 

The hotel was beautiful and had the most amazing pools with a lazy river that linked one pool to another and so on.  Olivia loved joining me for the general session where we were treated to a copy of the upcoming winter catalogue and presentations using the products.  Of course another highlight of the incentive trips are the very generous pillow gifts we receive. One was the bag Olivia is modelling above and we also received a Thai ornament and elephant pendant.  Other gifts included product, but I can't share those just yet! 

I joined the card swap and made 26 which I handed in on the first day and on the last day I received all of these beautiful swaps from other demos.  Great for inspiration to share with my team and lovely customers and of course you my blog followers.

A special day arranged by Stampin' Up! to visit islands around Phuket, a floating village with floating football pitch and some interesting sights and smells as you can see from Olivia's face below.  It was also funny to watch our boys 'nod off' in the back of the bouncing speed boat. 

The Flying Hanuman - Our first taste of zip-lining through the tree canopy

So proud of these two amazing kids!

 Fun nights out with family and friends

 James Bond island with lunch on the beach

Our final night

Next stop Alaska for the 2018 incentive trip which I have earned now too! 

If you would like to join Stampin' Up! and my team of Tantalizing Stampers and earn your own incentive trip please do visit this page for more details or contact me to discuss the options.

Enjoy visiting the other achiever's blogs to see what adventures they participated in.  Currently you are with Zoe Tant in the UK.

Christmas Card Club - Poinsettias or Angels

Oh I don't know about you, but this last week or so we've gone into hibernation.  It's been so cold and what with snow and frost the log fires have been burning in our home.  At last though a few signs of Spring are returning and once again the sun is shining here in Lincolnshire this morning.  However that didn't stop us having a Sunday lie in.  Our plan if the weather holds is to play tennis later and walk the dog, so the slow start was fair don't you think!

Our Christmas card club challenge was set this fortnight by Mary who asked for us to use Poinsettias or Angels. I went for my trusty retired stamp set with these fabulous holly berry sprigs and the gorgeous water colour style Poinsettia.

I started with vanilla card and stamped in tip top taupe using the fabulous texture set from Stampin' Up! Timeless Textures to set up a subtle background with just basic stamping.  There's a neat little stamp with spatters that just added a little 'vintage' style and i also used my gold Wink of Stella pen on this stamp to add just the smallest amount of sparkle.  You might just catch it in the picture.  This ties in with the gold heat embossed outline of the flower and the gold foil matting layer.

The remainder of the flower was stamped with cherry cobbler ink in a two step stamping process and the holly i stamped in archival black ink and then used ink from the ink pad lids of always artichoke and cherry cobbler with a blender pen to add colour.  It allows you to add different depths of colour for a little shading if you wish.

Finally a sentiment from Good Greetings which was a freebie a season or so ago.

I hope Sunday is going well for you and wish you a sunshine week.

More soon.
Zx

Timeless Textures

140514

£25/€34 

wood mount

As this is a set that you will mix and match the textures and many of the stamps use the same size block I'd advise a purchase of wood mount so that you can pick them up easily and use without having to change block every minute.

You can find it along with ink pads, card stock and gold foil card in my online shop by clicking on the stamp set.