Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stampin' Up! Glimmer Papers are tops!

I know you've wondered where I have been, but here's a quick pictorial explanation.  Firstly above is my project for this fortnights Christmas Card Club.  Not quite a card, but they do open like cards and hold a lovely treat of tic tacs inside.  These cute Santa treats are great for young and old and fit with the challenge set by Carol   as they have no patterned paper.  The eyes are really easy to create with pearls coloured with a sharpie pen.  This will also go in the Crafty Hazelnut Anything Goes Monthly Christmas Challenge.

Also here's the picture of more ornaments that I promised way back long ago.

Stampin' Up! DSP makes fabulous ornaments!

So just a the Christmas hols loomed Charlie ran into another boy in the playground at school. Cheek bone hit eyebrow bone and cuts requiring attention were the result.  That was two days out in A&E Louth and the Facio Maxilliary Dept at Lincoln. Thanks to all the fabulous staff for a great job repairing him.

I was very brave and held his hand whilst trying not to look at the flesh! I managed not to faint.

Then some of you know we got a new dog back in Aug 2012 and he's gone from being very quiet and unassuming to a very large character.

Ben

He's discovered that sofas are rather comfortable, but also that he needs to vacate them at speed!

He enjoyed bringing in the Christmas tree.....

and also removing the ornaments!

Playing in the snow..............or eating a broom is fun!

We had a fabulous Christmas avoiding all the bugs, but sadly food poisoning took me out for over a week earlier in the month and life has just been one steep behind since visiting A&E.  I cautiously say I'm back on track and am grateful that my recent hiccups are just that hiccups when so many others have had to endure real sadness, loss or hardships. 

Last weekend saw my quarterly training event for my team and other demonstrators joined us and are always welcome.

Now I'm ready to tell you about our biggest annual promotion, Sale-a-bration (SAB) and the launch of our Spring/Summer catalogue as well as classes for the coming months.  Check back soon for the details. 

But here's a quick SAB card.

A perfect quick, simple elegant card with the opportunity to get your hands on a complimentary punch or stamp set and more.

Stampin' Up! Window Sheet Flowers

Here's a really simple technique that I'm sure you'll love.  You can make flowers with Stampin' Up! window sheets, Staz On ink, a flower punch like the Blossom Punch (125603 £15.50) in the Stampin' Up! UK Summer Mini and your heat gun.

1. Stamp a background image in Staz On ink onto your window sheet. A piece big enough for your chosen punch.
2. Punch out your flower.
3. Use a paper piercer to put a hole in the centre of the flower and keep the flower on the paper piercer.
4. Gently heat the flower edges until they start to curl.  Keeping it on your paper piercer makes it easier to hold onto while you heat it.
5. Add your chosen decoration to the centre of the flower with a brad and then use your flower on your chosen project.

I've added my flower to a card base that I've texturised using my crimper and a couple of coordinating matting layers.  You can try different textures if you have a big shot like the one below along with punches like the scallop trim border punch (118402 £14.25 from Stampin' Up!)

Let me know how you like this technique which is simple and effective.  Don't forget to check out the blossom punch in the summer mini by clicking on the catalogue link in my sidebar.

Have a great weekend!

Zx

Supplies

cardstock - whisper white, basic black

ink - black Staz On, basic black

stamps - Thank you kindly, dot dot dot

tools - blossom punch, scallop trim border punch, big shot, perfect polka dots embossing folder, paper piercer, heat gun, 1/2" circle punch, crimper

accessories - window sheets, scallop dots ribbon, brads

Stampin' Up! Creative Elements

stampin up creative elements

At times do you ever think that your hobby is overtaking your life a little too much...........!  My children thought that I'd really lost it over half term when a lunchtime meal in a nice restaurant turned into Mum stealing their notebook to write down the colours and sketch the design of the wallpaper in the restaurant.  It was really lovely and here I've made my version of it with a few Stampin' Up! additions, having patiently waited for the cherry cobbler embossing powder to arrive last week.

It's a little bit of emboss resist with the swirls being stamped in versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder on river rock cardstock.  You can see other examples of emboss resist here and here . Using a brayer you can then cover the card with a different colour, here soft suede.  Emboss again with cherry cobbler embossing powder,  add yourself some stunning flowers from the creative elements stamp set and you've got wall paper from a restaurant on your card.  Of course you can also have lush cherry cobbler seam binding, rippled over soft suede designer series paper with a subtle, but rich early espresso scallop trim border backing.

And of course it's sale-a-bration time so you can use the free gift with purchase to add a perch for the beautiful butterfly from the creative elements set.

The swirl is part of the exclusive hostess stamp set Precious Butterflies and is also free if you host a party with qualifying sales.  Can you also spot the antique brad which adds more luxury to this very rich card.

Don't forget the inside of your card can be decorated too, but they didn't go this far in the restaurant!

Supplies

Stamp sets - Creative Elements, Precious Butterflies (hostess), Elementary Elegance (SAB)

Inks - versamark, cherry cobbler, soft suede, early espresso

cardstock - early espresso, river rock, neutrals designer series paper stack

accessories - cherry cobbler seam binding, scallop trim border punch, antique brads, paper piercer and mat pack, curly label punch, marker pens

Challenges

Creative Mondays - Anything goes

Make it Monday - anything goes

So Shelli Creative Challenge

Stampin Up Elizabeth

Click on the image for a larger view

Looking at challenges in blogland you can get lots of inspiration for projects.  This one is inspired by this week's Mojo Monday challenge and also by the lovely ladies at St Luke's Hospice Challenge.  The Hospice challenge this month is for cards following the idea of Love and Lace. 
The sale-a-bration designer series paper has a very vintage feel and so compliments the lace ribbon and beautiful Elizabeth stamp really well. Elizabeth is one of Stampin' Up! 's a la carte stamps which means it is a single stand alone stamp that can be purchased along with an ink pad and pack of mixed cardstock and that's how easy it is to start stamping.  You CAN  make your own cards and bring out your creativity!! It's in all of us just hidden a little bit deeper in some folk!!
Once you've found your creativity pop over to the St Luke's Hospice Charity Challenge, look at the cards for inspiration and maybe you can enter a simple card and win yourself a prize.  It doesn't have to be super fancy, it can be something simple.  I've also entered this into the Sweet Stampin Challenge where you have to choose a trio of accessories. I've used lace, brads and flowers.

More soon
Happy Stampin'
Zx
Supplies
Stamps - Elisabeth, sentiment from hostess set Ain't Love Grand, SAB Fresh Vintage
Cardstock - soft suede,pool party, peach parfait,  naturals ivory, SAB Everyday Enchantment papers
inks - versamark, soft suede, poppy parade, pool party
accessories - in colour designer brads, pearls, boho blossom punch, 5-petal flower punch, crumb cake seam binding, victoria lace ribbon, sponge daubers, gold embossing powder, stampin dimensionals, glue dots, colour spritzer tool

One for the boys!

stampin up demonstrator zoe tant

Life is back now to it's normal taxi service this week after the end of the panto and the usual extra curricular activities have kicked in for my children.  However apart from my MIL staying I am free to get back to crafting a bit and so made this card for a friend and as it was for a chap thought I'd share it with you because I think it is fair to say that it is a theme that we all struggle with.

The Celebrations DSP are fab for this type of male card with rich primary colours and I've teamed them up with various shades of blue and used a retired clear button to add some texture.  Under the button I punched several circles in matching colours to make a different feature and I've sewn on the colours with silver elastic thread.  Paper piercing and the crimper add more texture and the sentiment is from the Punch Bunch sale-a-bration set.  This was embossed in white using the craft whisper white ink  pad and white emboss powder and I've also stamped it in poppy parade on poppy parade cs and cut out the piece I wanted to highlight the greeting. 

Happy Birthday Stuart.

Back soon with more.

Hugs Zx

Stamping Halloween

Following the excitement of the new catalogue launch, I decided it was time to get a few projects ready for the display that Emma, Ann and myself will have on our stand at the Sincerely Yours Papercraft Show on Sunday at the Hinckley Leisure Centre. With Halloween fast approaching this is one of the simple projects I've put together. I've also entered it in the Stamp Something Challenge which needs punchy projects this week. It folds flat to fit in an envelope or storage unit and pops up.......................

to reveal this array of Halloween haunters!!!! The skeleton is very cute from a retired US stamp set Scary Skeleton and the bats, moon and pumpkins are all made with punch art.

Happy Halloween is from occasional greetings with boo! from tiny tags and the embossed design on the rich razzleberry box is from Baroque Motifs. To distress and spook up the pumpkin striped grosgrain ribbon I gently frayed and pulled apart the fibres and then just singed them with a lit match. Be careful here of course!!!

Finally can you find the wing of the bird punch in my design? The idea came from my clever team mate Emma.

So if you're at loose end on Sunday come and see us at the Sincerely Yours Show in Hinckley.

I'm off to play now with my new stash from the new 2010 - 2011 catalogue which arrived yesterday. Don't forget that you too can order now and enjoy all the new lovely goodies.

Hugs Zx

Happy Birthday Carrie!

One of my lovely customers recently asked me if I would do a childrens birthday party with craft for her daughter Carrie. I love working with children because they lack inhibition and often do things with their craft that grown ups never would. So I set to and put a plan together. The children did a fantastic job of making these lion punch art finger puppets. Who'd have thought that one simple lion could have so many expressions just by the way you added a smile or the freckles on his face!

They also used the neighbourhood wheel, some punches and designer paper to decorate their own place mat and this is one I made to show them what they could do. I didn't get any pictures of theirs unfortunately but as I said they were far more adventurous than mine.

They also made a quick diaper fold pouch which allowed me to give them all some chocolate. As you can see they loved it and all did a marvellous job. They were aged from 4 1/2 to 7.

I have to say I enjoyed myself too as did the other grown up helpers.

Hope you enjoyed the rest of your day Carrie.

More soon

Hugs Zx

Kids Halloween Class - What fun!!!

Oh wow what a great way to finish a week that has been draining to say the least. Our beloved Meg became very ill last Friday; so much so that we thought it was goodbye time, but thankfully the vet identified that she had Vestibular Disease which I can only describe as being similar to an inner ear infection and affected her balance amongst other things. She is now much better after some antibiotics and I'm glad to say so am I as my cold has been dire.

So back to today and my first Kids craft class. What a hoot!! Great children made some fabby things and as you can see from below they had a ball!

Here's what everyone made!!!

Concentration required to make a spider for masks!

We made a halloween party kit! A spooky box for trick or treat goodies, a ghostly, keep out/beware door hanger, party straws and finally our mini costume a scary mask. The masks were very popular and are due to go out to scare the neighbours tomorrow.

I have a Christmas Kids Class scheduled for 22 December if you think you'd like to join the fun. Please be sure to book your space. Grown ups welcome also. Look here for more details.

Now I need to get back to my swaps for convention next week. I'm really looking forward to getting lots of ideas from the Stampin'Up! team and of course my fellow demonstrators. I've never been to Frankfurt either so I'm sure on the Sunday before I fly home I'll have a browse.

I'm also preping for my stall at a craft fair at Coronation Walk Community Hall in Woodhall Spa tomorrow. It's on from 10am-2pm so why not come along and say hello and pick up some Christmas goodies & presents.

Off to keep working.

Hugs

Zoë x

I love school holidays!

Whilst many mums dread the summer hols, I love them. It gives me a chance to chill not having to whizz all over getting the children to clubs and parties. It also means I have more time to let them go mad in my craft room and do some stampin'! So much so that Charlie decided that he would do a picture for the ladies and gentleman (yes I've had my first man or should I say the dashing Paul is my first and very talented male customer!). Charlie also wanted me to tell them how to do it just like his submarine picture and I just managed to persuade him that I didn't need to rush to a copy shop to produce a copy for the guests at the workshop! As you can see he had lots of fun creating and I'm glad to say he received several very favourable comments written on the back of his picture from the workshop guests. Thanks everyone he was thrilled.

He's also been to a session at our local library to learn about and meet a hedgehog called Zippy; so called because sadly at only 4months he had unceremoniously been unzipped by a strimmer. He is recovering well though and entertained many children with his tales of life thus far. At the session the children were all able to make a cute hedgehog and learn a little about mini beasts and in particular the ones that Zippy likes to eat.

Meanwhile Olivia has been busy earning more skills as Drama Queen Extraordinaire!!! She's been at the drama club summer school learning circus skills, musical routines and stomp music, Morris & Modern Dancing, mime and voice exercises with the week culminating in a play in a day production of Alice in Wonderland. Olivia was the queen and shouted that famous line ' Off with her head' often and loud!

I have managed to craft also and here is the card I demonstrated at my friend Maria's workshop for everyone to try as the make and take. As usual I found that everyone gave their own interpretation and I've made a note of things I might try in the future. That's one of the main reasons I love being a demonstrator because I can always learn something from each workshop even though folk think I'm an expert. We all are as there is no right or wrong way to make cards. They all create a special joy for the recipients as they are individually handcrafted.

Maria has recently invested in our Many Marvellous Markers and asked if I would show some uses for them. I coloured the stamps with the markers to get different colours across the flower and stems.

The recipe for this is :-

Stamp sets - Live your dream & Circle of friendship

Designer paper - Haiku

Cardstock - so saffron & old olive

Punches 1'' & 1 1/4'' circles and spiral

Markers - really rust, pumpkin pie, so saffron, old olive

Ribbon - pumpkin pie1/4'' grosgrain

I love how the spiral punch offers a different decor element to the scallop edge. We had a great discussion about individual preferences over this.

Moving into the weekend and I'm hoping the weather will let us get out in the garden. So wishing you a good one too I'll close.

Have fun

Zoë x

Techniques Club

At techniques club this month my hostess wanted me to give her some inspiration for Christmas. I made lots of cards which I will photograph and share with you soon, but I also showed everyone how to make the cute bags that I made for my children's teachers. The girls loved these so much that they chose to make these instead except for Wendy who did make a gorgeous Chrimbo card, but she had to dash and so I missed photographing it. These are some of the others bags.

ANNETTE'S

ANGIE'S

CAROLE'S

It never ceases to amaze me how many different approaches have to their projects and the different effects that people make. These are all super and I've got lots of inspiration myself from them. I just love watching folk create and that's probably why I enjoy being a demonstrator so much. It's fun to teach others techniques and also to learn ideas from others. One day I wonder if all cards will be handmade. There is so much satisfaction to be gained from the making of them and from the responses you get from recipients. I'm sure all the people who receive these lovely bags will be thrilled.

Thanks ladies for another fun evening. Roll on the next.

Hugs

Zoë x

Sweetie Box

The music concert at Olivia's school last week was fab. All the children played and sang their hearts out. They all really enjoyed themselves along with all the mums and dads. It was such a pleasure to attend.
The week progressed with regular trips to our lovely mini theatre where Olivia was playing a nun in Robin Hood and the Horrible Haunting of Horncastle. It was such a wonderful production with all the parts played by children aged 7-11. It was written by a great guy called David for the kids theatre group last summer. They performed it after just 2 days at the summer school and did such a good job that David extended the script for it to be a longer play that was the groups production this year. Again all the children had a great time and all their hard work paid off as it was brilliant and very enjoyable. They are such lucky children to have folk like David, Sheena the director and Gail, Wendy & Becky who give up their time to encourage them with their theatrical performances. Although I have to say my daughter is a drama queen at the best of times!!!!
Life continues to be busy, but I did manage to try out some instructions I received from a friend for this cute box which was so easy to make, but did take a little bit of time. You can make it in a size that suites you, but this one is just big enough for a couple of luxury chocolates or a mini stamp and ink spot and therefore a lovely gift. I made this one in real red and decorated it with Washington Apple Designer Series Paper and picked out the Pumpkin Pie and Real Red spots using various circle punches and the Circle of Friendship stamp set. It's finished off with Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon. Scrummy especially if it does get filled with chocs or sweeties.
I hope you've had a look at the details for the Stampin'Up! Summer Challenge. It's a great prize and there's no reason why it can't be yours. Get your summer fun hats on and design a winner!
Back with more soon.

Hugs

Zoë