It's been a while........

 It's been a while since I blogged, but life has been a little hectic.  First of course there was the lead up to Christmas, which I hope you all enjoyed.  Our lead up was fine and we had lots of fun, including some funny moments one of which was when some Christmassy lingerie, I ordered as a treat for myself, arrived.  I showed it to DH who made all the right sort of noises, but neither of us were prepared for Charlie saying, in as raunchy voice as an 8 yr old can muster, "Santa Baby".  Shock was overcome with mirth and his cute innocent face sealed the moment.  I think he's going to be a 'boob' man when he grows up!
Life was ticking over nicely, we celebrated our Christmas meal number one with my folks the weekend before Christmas, at which time I CAME OUT! NO not that sort of 'CAME OUT' the sort when I finally let my family know I'd been secretly learning to play the cornet.  I gathered all of my best skills of 6 weeks lessons and managed my rendition of Good King Wenceslas.  It was hit and particularly shocked DH who thought it was Charlie and my father said it was me.  Martin replied "No Zoë might get a note out of it, but not a tune!"  He was impressed, but also wanted to know if I had any other secrets I needed to tell him!!!
We almost made Christmas and my father went to hospital for what we thought was a routine test, but they weren't happy with the results and wouldn't let him come home and so he spent 10 days in hospital.  It made life a little more varied than we had anticipated for Christmas.  Once home he called to talk to Olivia and Charlie to reassure them that he was OK.  Charlie spoke to him first and congratulated him on living through it! Thank fully he made it home for New Year's Eve and so we shared a meal with my folks and travelled home to see in the new year with tea and cake watching the London fireworks.  Not the most exciting, but relaxing and fun!
Stampin' Up! is running fast and furious now onto 2012's wonderful new offerings.  There's the all new, first ever Spring Mini Catalogue which is full of products you won't want to miss, including the gorgeous necklace pictured above.  As a demonstrator I was lucky enough to get my hands on the chain, charm and bauble all before Christmas and so I decorated the charm with the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set and a little bit of bling.  You can decorate your insert on both sides to have two designs or even add a photo.  You can then of course make inserts for different times of the year or whatever takes your fancy.  All the individual pieces come in chocolate chip gift boxes so they make beautiful gifts for crafters and non-crafters alike.  

In addition to the charms and baubles there are collections of crown and key charms that come with their own jump rings and lobster clips so that you can either add them to your pendants or charm bracelets or to cards and projects.  They'll be perfect for 'key to my heart', diamond jubliee, and 18th and 21st birthday projects. 

If you'd like a copy of the mini please do contact me.

That's me for now, will be back to all systems go very soon.

Hugs Zx

Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator

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

Stampin' Up! Vintage Wallpaper

 Well today is Less is More Day and I've spent ages fiddling, but couldn't get anything I was happy with until I revisted their challenge and read it properly and discovered that I could use white as well as a single colour in varying shades.  You can't believe the mess I've made trying to make a totally green card! Finally I came up with this and it's showcased our lovely vintage wallpaper embossing folder.  I embossed some pear pizzazz dsp from the in colour stack and then sponged with dauber to highlight the embossed pattern in always artichoke.  I've used the reverse of the dsp to stamp in different green shades one of the flowers from Ornate Flowers stamp set and used the decorative label punch to frame it.

For the scallop trim border to fit just perfectly around your centre strip you need to cut your background cardstock 1/2 inch wider than the decorative strip.  This gives you a lace effect along the edges and some structure and strength if you use dsp for the decorative centre.

Ruffled pear pizzazz seam binding and a triple bow just add a bit of luxury along with those elegantly useful pearls.  The sentiment is from Just Believe a gorgeous stamp set that I defy you not to love.  You can place a customer order for any of these products with your local demonstrator or me at any time. You don't have to wait for a party! Do email me if you need any help with that. martin.tant@homecall.co.uk

I also promised some pics from our day at the Sincerely Yours Show last Sunday.  It was such a successful day and great to see so many Stampin' Up! fans.  This is the team from left to righ Emma, Me, Mandy and Bridgette.  You can visit their blogs via my sidebar.

It's a lovely sunny day here at the moment so I'm off to enjoy it with a family bbq while it lasts. Have fun all.

Hugs Zx

Little fish, don't you wish.......

independent stampin' up! demonstrator uk

Little fish, don't you wish every kiss didn't swish!!! A silly rhyme I remember from my childhood. Yes I can just about remember that far back.  I wanted to share this card with you as it proves that the ornament punch, like a new puppy, is not just for Christmas.  Lovely Jules showed a version of this card at convention and I'd also seen various other versions a while back, but finally got around to having a go myself.  The body of the fish is made from the ornament punch with the fins and tail coming from the 5 petal flower punch and the twig from the bird punch works well as seaweed.  Kinda cute really and also reminds me of the time I asked my biology teacher as a naive first year in secondary school how you could tell if your goldfish was male or female.  He replied " Well you get up close to it and look for the twinkle in its eye and if you find it, it's a boy!"  I was a blushing girl, but now a yummy mummy who has to deal with that boy of mine and his questions.  Today's special  " Mummy am I cloned?" 
I'll leave you with that.
Hugs Zx

Serene Snowflakes are just beautiful

independent stampin' up! demonstrator

Plans just don't go the way you planned do they!  Today we have a burst water main and so now I have one child at home and one at school.  It has to be Charlie at home of course who will gloat when Olivia comes home and wind her up that she didn't get the day off!  She is so much more tactful and would have brushed it off. ' Ho hum' said Pooh. Just as well I made this card yesterday  to enter two challenges, one at  Sweet Stamping Challenge  where you needed to have snowflakes and also for a sketch challenge at Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #93  I've tried to use different products and colours a little different to the traditional Christmas themes.  The new designer series patterns stack of paper in brights came in handy here.  I've used pacific point, real red and tempting turquoise. The latter I embossed with white snowflakes from the Serene Snowflakes set which is also where the large flake comes from also: that has been embossed with white on different coloured cardstock and then carefully cut out for layering purposes and embellished with a sparkly rhinestone.  I've also used one of the sentiments from one of my favourite new Christmas sets Contempo Christmas which is so easy to use. 

It's sparkly and brights and fits the sketch and the theme. Hope you like it!

Until next time,

Hugs Zx

Shelli showed us cardmaking with Stampin' Up! supplies

As the Queen of Stampin' Up! Shelli's projects at Convention are always fun and inspiring to watch.  She showed us how to make this cute little number and we all ooed and ahh'd and then she pointed out how much nicer things look in real life and reminded us that this is a card featured on page 64 of the Stampin' Up! Idea & Catalogue Book along with the stamp set Artistic Etchings.  And like she said ' who would have ever thought of using a key as the body of a butterfly', but as you can see it works really well. 

Everything is filmed at Convention, well most things and thankfully not quite so fully as last year when those of us with ample cleavages felt that one particular cameraman was rather over enthusiastic with his filming!!!

So Shelli was filmed making cards and was surprised to discover that the cameraman wasn't Chris whom she thought is was , but actually John.

She then discussed how much she loved all the european accents.

She also mentioned how much she loved the idea of everyone hugging and kissing to greet each other.  John picked up on this and tried his luck.................!!!!

Shelli didn't even flinch!!!!! Great hilarity for everyone else watching though.

The banner behind her was the theme for Convention

Share What You Love

and Shelli really did.

Come back soon to find out what made me smile!!!!

It's almost here - So sneek a peek at the Mini today!!

Stamps - Vintage Vogue

Inks pretty in pink & close to cocoa

Papers - Sweet Pea

Brad - pretty in pink

Cardstock - pretty in pink

Dazzling diamonds, eyelet border punch, 13/4 " punch, sponge daubers

Happy Sunday to everyone visiting today and welcome particularly if you've come here from the lovely Carol's blog. What beautiful projects she has made for this hop today. Thanks for joining in the Inlovewithstamping Stampin' Up! Mini Catalogue Blog Hop. You can visit everyone in the loop by following the link at the bottom of my post to Sarah's blog or by clicking on the blog hop link in the right side bar.

When it was proposed that a mini catalogue blog hop take place on ILWS I signed up straight away and was supposed to nominate the stamp set that I would use. I chose 'tbc' (to be confirmed) as I was waiting for my free sets that I had earned as a demonstrator to arrive and

knew that I would receive a stamp set at our recent regional training. However I now have my sets and as all are so fabulous and have inspired me in different ways I couldn't limit my share with you to one! So I have a few projects to show you.

With the wedding season looming I thought this cute little favor box (above) would be super a table gifts for guests and the card below works nicely as an invitation or a wedding card. Further down is fun card for children using our new Fox and Friends set. The final cards are very simple 'thank yous' that are made in minutes and great as a quick thank you note for teachers, friends or whoever you need to show appreciation to....... I've put the supplies under each project.

Stamps - I {Heart} Hearts, Mr & Mrs, Tiny Tags

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Rose Red

Inks - pretty in pink, rose red, old olive

pretty in pink taffeta ribbon, linen thread

small heart punch, scallop border, eyelet border, medium jewellery tag

Papers - Sweet Pea

Adding several tags can say lots of different things!

Stamps - Fox & Friends, Tiny Tags

Cardstock - kraft, real red, very vanilla

Papers - Sweet Pea

Punches - 13/8" circle, small heart, scallop border

Button real red

Linen thread, chipboard die cuts, marker pens

Stamps - I {heart} Hearts, Happy Moments (retired Saleabration)

Cardstock - whisper white, elegant eggplant, orchid oppulence

inks - orchid opulence, elegant eggplant

punches - large heart, small heart

Before you leave here scroll down to my last few posts where you can see other projects using new products from the forthcoming mini. There are lots more blogs to visit, but the next one is Sarah's and she has some stunning ideas for you. Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.

Enjoy your hopping!!!
hugs Zx

How many will you get?

Valentines of course! I only need the one, but in case your short of ideas here is one I made whilst playing with some of our lovely bridesmaid specialty paper. It's nearer to a card in texture really but comes with a type of foil pattern and in ivory, but you can sponge or brayer it to add your own colour and then wipe off the excess with kitchen roll to reveal the pattern. This one was sponged with a dauber in real red. I've used the heart to heart punch in real red and basic black to add some love to my 13/4 inch circle and attached it all with dimensionals and a designer clip. The super basic black striped grosgrain ribbon finishes it off. The little wording stamp 'with love' is from our last year Sale-a-Bration set - Yummy.

Here's hoping we all get the cards we want this weekend.

Hugs Zx