Stampin' Up! Lots of Joy for Christmas Card Club

As my delightful children reminded me yesterday we are nearer to this Christmas than the one past and so I'm glad it is time to share another Christmas Card Club entry with you. In fact I have two to share.  Lorraine  is in charge this time and asked us to use 'Lots of Layers'.  I started with the card below inspired by so many shaker cards on pinterest.  I've used some of the Merry Moments designer series paper to create the tree laden background and added some snowy bumps with Festival of Trees stamped and punched trees too.  Some of my favourite bling in the form of metallic sequin assortment and of course some of my life time supply of silver thread.  For those who visit Stampingscene often you'll know that I bought 5 rolls each of gold and silver having not put my glasses on to read 4.5m per roll when in fact it's 45m per roll.   The decorative dots embossing folder added some texture to my overlay piece and  my sentiment is from the stamp set Lots of Joy.  A few doodle dots with the gel pen and it was ready to go! 

Quick Tip - Santa and his reindeer are stamped onto the window sheet encasing the sequins with Staz On ink.  You need to be careful that when you stamp you keep the stamp still so as not to smudge! 

My second card is truly lots of layers.  Again I've used my new stamp set Lots of Joy.  It's a real eclectic mix of Christmas images including a tartan tree which matches the tree punch from the Festival of Trees bundle and also this gorgeous ornament stamp and some super sentiments for the festive season.  See it in my Stampin' Up! UK online shop. As ever I've blinded it up with sequin trim and rhinestones and the layers are from Merry Moments designer paper again with smoky slate card stock to bring it all together.  I'm also loving that thick cherry cobbler bakers twine - make sure you get yours before everyone else takes it all for their Christmas makes and gift wrapping!

Quick Tip - I wanted a scallop edge to highlight my sentiment, but don't have a punch that was neither too small or too big and so I used the one I had and cut two and then cut them into pieces to layer them around the sentiment. Where is didn't quite match I added the star from the centre of the ornament.

Enjoy your Sunday! Zx

Challenges
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - anything goes
Moving along with the times - snow in summertime
Christmas Cards all Year Round - snowflakes
Christmas Card Challenges - anything goes

'PINK' Christmas Cards!!!!

Christmas Card with Stampin' Up! Festival of Trees Stamp Set

You've probably noticed my absence and therefore have guessed that life continues to be busy.  Olivia finally finished her GCSEs yesterday and now it's a waiting game for the results! She's got herself a job and so the next time she and I have our stand at the Portsmouth Sincerely Yours show she'll be able to pay for dinner instead of Mum! Well you can't blame me for hoping.

Time has whizzed by and I'm late for Christmas Card club with the challenge of pink and white with hints, but small, of silver, gold or other colour.  I hope this suits Karen our challenge hostess this fortnight.

I've stamped and embossed different trees from the popular Stampin' Up! Festival of Trees stamp set with it's coordinating tree punch. If you missed it in the winter catalogue you'll be glad to know it's now in the new annual Stampin' Up! catalogue and is still part of a bundle price giving you 15% when you buy the stamps and punch together. 

My chosen shade of pink is Pink Pirouette and a tiny touch of Melon Mambo on my sentiment.  I've used the new Washi Label punch also to frame the sentiments.  The lower part of the sentiment is too long for the Window punch, but if you cut a strip of card to ever so slightly less than the width of the window you can stamp the sentiment and then slide in each end of the card on the reverse of the punch to just round the ends therefore lengthening your window.  A little bit of smudging softens the punched circle edges and those of the pink matting layer and washi strips.  

I'm loving the new gold and silver thread that add some of my favourite bling without adding bulk and postage! 

I'm off now to blog hop around the ladies in the Christmas Card Club so join me on the tour! 

Zx

Shop for any of these products in my Stampin' Up! UK online shop.

Christmas Card Club with Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue Sneak Peeks

Stampin' Up! UK Annual Catalogue Sneak Peek with Christmas

I've been missing Christmas Card Club as I took a leave of absence while my kitchen was being renovated, but today we are moving back into the kitchen as it's almost finished  and also it's my challenge so I thought it was about time I got organised and got back into the swing of our fortnightly challenge.

We set our challenge at the beginning of the year, but like a sign I have on my wall at home says "if it wasn't for the last minute nothing would get done around here" hence I've just put this card together and in my honest opinion, (you can of course disagree!!!) I've incorporated a couple of the new incoming in colours from the 2015-2016 Annual Stampin' Up! catalogue and they are Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder.  I wasn't keen on the green when I first received it in my sneaky peek order, but it is going up in the popularity stakes.  

Another sneaky piece of info from the new catalogue is that Christmas stamps are back in all year YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even more YAY I have a couple already so I can share this fun card with you which has the fun Festival of Trees stamp set and its matching punch.  They will appear in the new catalogue as a bundle once more saving you 15% when you buy them as a double act.  

 One final sneak peek that I'm sharing is the cotton paper which is almost like a coated tissue paper with body, yes body and I've used it as the tissue in my gift bag, but because it has more body (a little like red wine) it will hold its shape.  

Regular readers, you know who you are, know that I love a bit of bling and my gold glitter paper adds that touch of Christmas sparkle on my Christmas Card Club challenge Gift card.  

Wishing you all a good weekend and a happy browse around the other ladies blogs in our friendly club.  You can find them in my right hand side bar sharing lots of Christmas card inspiration and styles.  

Zx

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

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

Gift Wrapping Stampin' Up! Style

Gift wrapping can turn a simple gift into a treat!  If you have school age children and are like me you've had to buy either   teacher gifts or pressies for your children's friends  that can soon get very expensive.  So if you shop savvy and wrap them really nicely you can turn a gift into something rather more exciting.  Here's a couple I've done. 

Top pic shows boxes that I made in the good old fashioned way of measuring my Body Shop soaps and then scoring and cutting card stock to make the perfect box.  

The second box I made using the Stampin' Up! gift box punch board using the given measurements and instructions on the punch board.  This one is from a piece of card stock 8" x 8".

So are you ready? Have you wrapped?

Zx

Christmas Gift Tags

Are you like me and find it hard to throw any scraps away however small?  I made this tag from scraps and used the tag cut from my previous stampin' post to make a seasonal gift adornment.  The stars, washi and lace trim were all from oddments left on my craft space and the tree was using up a last piece of champagne glimmer paper with the tree punch from the Stampin' Up! winter catalogue.

A variation on the traditional colours of Christmas, but as you know I love a bit of sparkle and hence the glitter!

Hope you are up to speed on your tags and wrapping!

Zx

Christmas Card Club - Non traditional colours

Wow what a busy week. Last weekend my lovely Stampin' Up! friend Emily and I had a stall at the Heighington Christmas Street Market.  We were delighted when a chap came along with a big professional camera and said he wanted to take our picture.  Emily was very excited, but mainly because she didn't hear where he said he was from..........."Sheep wash Times" the village newspaper. 

Well the week continued, but improved on the publicity shots as I drove Olivia to Leeds United Football Club to an awards ceremony for her to receive a Diana Award. The Diana Awards are the only charity to be named after Princess Diana and as you can imagine I was  a very proud Mum to see Olivia receive a champion fundraiser award from the Chief Executive of the charity.   We met some stars of the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, had lunch and listened to some amazing achievements by young people including the school council from Olivia's school who also received an champion fundraiser award.

We've also attended the school Christmas Carol Concert which was fabulous and in particular because my wee boy Charlie played his cornet with the brass group from school which consists of 6th formers, two teachers and him as a first year and also at a local village church service which was lit solely with candles. Not unusual you might think but there is no electricity to the church and no heating either as some kind person pinched first the oil and then the tank from the church, but a wonderful way to remember that Christmas begins with Christ.  Again a proud time for us as parents.  The days continue to be busy with more concerts and church services not least in our own village which makes me smile every year as it is not dissimilar to the Vicar of Dibley!!! 

Today I'm sharing with you my card for the Christmas Card Club Challenge which was set by Margaret who wanted us to use non traditional colours.  I hope you'll agree that crushed curry, blackberry bliss and cajun craze are most definitely not traditional colours for Christmas, but they work well with my one of my favourite Stampin' Up! Christmas stamp sets Festival of Trees along with washi tape and a back ground stamp from Work of Art.  

 Have a great week. 

Zx

Stampin' Up! Convention More Swaps

This is another swap I made for Convention in Brussels last weekend.  It features the Festival of Trees stamp set from the Stampin' Up! UK Autumn/Winter catalogue and sentiment from Endless Wishes.  I embossed in gold one of the trees onto a tag made with the tag topper punch which I edged in gold with a Stampin' Dazzle Marker.  The washi tape Watercolour Wonder held my tag in place and the sequin trim adds the bling!!!

It was such a fabulous weekend you should think about joining me next year again in Brussels - Just a couple of days left to join and gain a free pack of designer series paper every month for six months. At Convention next year you can join in with lots of crafting, party fun and of course chocolate and waffles!!

Stampin' Up! UK Festival of Trees is a winner!

This stamp set has been the best seller in the UK Stampin' Up! market on several occasions and when you see how easily you can create beautiful post friendly cards like this you'll understand why.  

You can either stamp and punch one of the Christmas trees or simply use the punch to create a sparkly tree from champagne glimmer paper or your own favourite patterned papers.

Both cards feature the stamp set Good Greetings which is free to hostesses this month with qualifying sales or you can buy it in my Stampin' Up! UK online shop.  I have a couple of openings for workshops still this month for anyone who would like this set free. Please contact me at zoetant@live.co.uk for dates or more information.

Back with more soon.

Zx

Unique Blog Hop

I was honoured to be nominated by my lovely customer Jane to take part in the Unique Blog Hop.   If you've arrived here from Jane's blog welcome and if not you are still very welcome, but I encourage you to visit Jane's blog and to visit her other link on the Unique Blog Hop.  Jane's work is beautiful so do click backwards on the blog hop to check out her work too!

Part of the unique blog hop is to answer questions when it reaches you and they are
1. What am I working on?
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
3. Why do I write/create what I do?
4. How does your writing/creative process work?

Well the first question is easy.  I've been working on using all my goodies from the relatively new Stampin' Up! UK Annual Catalogue and the very new Stampin' Up! UK Autumn/Winter catalogue.  Here is a stepper card that we made at my monthly card club class using the Flower Patch stamp set and matching Flower Fair frame lits.

I've also been busy with dare I say Christmas cards, but then as crafters we always try to be ready early!!!!  I did say try!

This is using a paper piecing technique. You stamp the main image onto your card base and then stamp it again onto firstly very vanilla card stock and then onto brushed gold card stock. Cut out pieces that you can then match onto the whole image on your card base.  It creates different dimensions and depth to the image.  It also doesn't require more than one ink pad!   You can also colour in the odd element on the trees to 'lift' the image further.   I've also made several with the gorgeous stamp set Festival of Trees. There's a simple example here and you can see a more detailed version on my post Stampin' Up! UK Winter Wonderland Christmas card club with Festival of Trees.

Clean and Simple Festival of Trees and Chalk Lines 

I'm also learning how to use my new computer so that I can use the Stampin' Up! digital package - My Digital Studio - to create scrap book pages of some of my favourite pictures and memories of great days out. Here's my family at Blenheim Palace this summer. Sadly my dad is missing as he didn't feel well that day and so didn't join us.

Finally I'm working on encouraging others to tell their stories via memory books with all the wonderful Project Life products now included in the Stampin' Up! range or by building their own story in a locket from my new direct sales role as a South Hill Designs Artist.  It's easy to do either shopping online www.southhilldesigns.com/zoetant for yourself or by sharing the fun of building yours and your friends stories at a party! The choice is yours, but if you'd like more information about Stampin' Up! or South Hill Designs please do email me at zoetant@live.co.uk 

The remaining questions or should I say answers.  My work differs from others as I don't think I have a particular style, although like Jayne, I'm erring more on the side of less is more or  clean and simple rules!  There is a myriad of products around and the beauty for me of being an Independent Stampin' Up! UK demonstrator is that I can resist other products in favour of Stampin' Up! which saves me time and money. I know what I have available to me to buy and don't crave others even though they are tempting sometimes!  Stampin' Up! allows me to be simplistic in my design, but also if I'm feeling a little more inclined to be flamboyant I have the products available to me for both styles.  Arguably the first card I've shared today isn't simple and is busy with flowers, but the nativity scene is very simple and of course perfect for posting purposes!

I create and do what I do because I love seeing others creativity evolve. Many say 'I'm not crafty or creative' but with simple tuition and encouragement anyone can create cards and with social media like Pinterest the inspiration is there all the time. However I often find my inspiration from fabric patterns, colours of nature and the world around me in general.  

All of this has brought me some fabulous friendships, self confidence to deliver classes and presentations including some to large rooms full of people, a little extra income and job satisfaction.  This is why I do what I do and I love to share it with others.  

The same can be said of story building in lockets.  

This lovely lady was given her locket from her fiancé in honour of their first anniversary of dating. He added hers and his christian name initial and the first letter of their joint surname to be along with a coin saying 'love'. He ordered it via his sister in law as a surprise.  He won so many brownie points! 

My creative process works because I enjoy what I do and I love sharing what I enjoy with others so that they can enjoy it too! Simples!!!

All I have to do now is introduce you to my 2 nominees.  They will be joining the Unique Blog Hop on Monday 29th September. 

Please visit Dawn who is a member of my Stampin' Up! UK team. She's a talented crafter and busy Mum,  who runs classes and parties and likes to help others enjoy craft.  

Also Victoria is a mum of two young cheeky boys. She is multitalented when it comes to crafting as she is a keen scrapbooker, card maker and more recently a successful sewing bee making the most gorgeous hand sewn animals and cushions.  

Enjoy your journey along the Unique Blog Hop.

Zx

Christmas Card Club Winter Wonderland

Stampin' Up! UK Festival of Trees

At last I'm back with Christmas Card Club and hope to keep on top of the challenges.  This time the theme from Christine is Winter Wonderland. I thought these lovely trees on whisper white were just right and the back ground paper (Trim the Tree Paper Stack) is very scandanavian in its design and so lends itself well to the thought of winter and a wonderland of snow!  I love these trees from Stampin' Up! UK's winter catalogue stamp set Festival of Trees.  They have a coordinating punch so it makes it easy to stamp them and punch them with no fuss.  It's also a two-step stamp set and in photopolymer so you can see straight through it and then add the red trimming again with no fuss which has to be a bonus when you are making Christmas cards.  Some rhinestones for the sparkle of the snow and a simple but well meant sentiment for the finishing touches.  This is also a great way to use up those odd strips of patterned paper as of course it doesn't need to go right across your card, but just from the sides once the white layer is added you'd never know.

Do pop back tomorrow as I've been nominated by my lovely friend and customer Jayne, to take part in the unique blog hop! Come back to find out more about it!

Also don't forget to visit all the other lovely ladies in The Christmas Card Club for inspiration.

Zx