Simon and Kerry's Wedding Anniversary.

Today my son Simon and his wife Kerry have been married 11 years and of course I had to make them a card and here it is - a little Owl bride and groom.
I have used Cherry Cobbler for the base card and the letters are die cut using Brushed Silver cardstock with the Timeless type Junior Alphabet medium Sizzlit Dies.
Embellished with Basic Rhinestones (of course)
Happy Anniversary to you both.



















And here's a close up of the Bride (think I went overboard a little with the mascara!)

Spring Mini Sneak Peek

Here is a card that I made yesterday, using a new punch and a couple of new stamp-sets that you will find when the Spring mini Catalogue launches on the 4th of January.
The Colour Combo used is Pool Party and Early Espresso.
The colours have not come out as good as I would have hoped, but the light has not been too good for photos, as it rained all day yesterday.

Our Christmas card from Chris

Couldn't miss showing you this beautiful Christmas card that Chris (sis-in-law) made for Barry and me - especially made to match the colours of our lounge!

Jan's Ladies Night Gifts

At the end of November it was Jan's Ladies' Night (Jan's one of my Thursday Craft Class ladies.) It is quite difficult coming up with an idea for a Ladies Night Gift that no-one else has thought of and this is what we came up with between us.
It is a little handbag made of Mocha Morning DSP and Jan made over 70 of these.
And to make them extra special she handmade chocolates to gift wrap and put inside them - round about 400!!
Needless to say they went down a treat.

The last Christmas card

This is the very last Christmas card that me ladies made this year - they wanted a quick card that they could have in reserve - just in case.
Once again its Polar Party that came to the rescue.

Our Wedding Anniversary

Christmas Eve is our Wedding Anniversary and we have been married 43 years now - please remember that I was a child bride!

Here is the Anniversary card that I made for Barry using my favourite love themed set - I heart hearts.





















And here is the card that Chris (sis-in-law) sent us.

Lavender Bag

Just as a change from Christmas projects my Crafting Class ladies made a little Lavender bag.
The inspiration came from a swap that I received at convention.
I changed the design somewhat, and as soon as I can find the original, I will post a link to the lady who's little bag inspired me to have a go at this myself.

Merry Christmas to all my very special friends.

Well it's here at last!
Merry Christmas to all you special people who come and visit my blog on a regular basis. I have made a great effort these last two weeks to post something every day so that you have a reason for visiting!
To thank you for your support I have made this special card just for you!
Enjoy!!

Candy Galore

Hi there, well just one more sleep and then it's here!!
Here are some of the little candy boxes that I made to give to my Stampers 10 and and my Craft Class Ladies. They are made using the Candy wrapper Bigz L Die and I have used various peel offs to decorate them.














And here's a close up of one o them



.

Happy 60th Birthday Liz

Today is one of my Wednesday Class ladies' 60th birthday and here is the card that I have made for her. Once again, the light is no good for piccies and my camera is not so clever (a poor workman blames his tools!!)
Anyhow .... Happy 60th Birthday Liz!!

Happy Anniversary Christine and David

Today its Chris's (sis-in-law) Wedding Anniversay, so here is the card that I have made for them. The colour combo is Pool Party, Whisper White and Brushed Silver.
The flower is made using another NEW Originals Die that you will be able to purchase when the Spring Mini launches on the 4th of January - Blossom Party - it will here so soon - bet you can't wait to see it!!
Apologies for the poor quality photo, but the light is just terrible at this time of year.

More Textured Impressions

I also made a series of these cards, as once I got started I found it difficult to stop!! I used the Holly Berry Bouquet Speciality papers and the Textured Impressions embossing folder














































I even used the tiny scraps that were left over to make another card!!

Embossed Contemporary Christmas Wreaths

This has been my main Christmas Card this year, a Pocket Silhouettes Wreath.
You can see it here in three different colourways.

Firstly - embossed in Silver and White






















Secondly embossed in Melon Mambo and Silver























And thirdly, embossed in Silver and Gold

Petal Cone Santas

I found the inspiration for this little Santa table favour whilst blog hopping on Kay's "Creations on paper"
I have improvised a little but am quite happy with the result.
My Tuesday Class made these and were thrilled to bits with them.
























And here's my little army of Santas all ready and waiting to decorate the Christmas Dinner table

Gold Medallion

What will I do when Christmas is over and I have no more cards to make?? Apart from giving a huge sigh of relief! Why do I always leave it to the last minute to get my cards done and posted out?
Anyhow - I digress.
This is quite a simple card that uses the beautiful Medallion stamp, embossed with Versamark and Gold EP. The sentiment in the centre is from the Perfect Punches stampset in Real Red, and I have used the large tree from the Lovely as a Tree stampset for the foliage corners in Garden Green.

Textured Impressions - Designer Frames

Spent a few hours playing with the Designer frames embossing folder and various papers and stamps. Here are two of the first ones that I came up with

This one uses the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder and the Contempo Christmas stampset. Sentiment from Season of Joy. Colour Combo Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive (although you wouldn't believe it from this picture - the light is not conducive to good photos!)






















And this one uses the Holly Berry DSP punched out and layered onto an Extra-Large Oval punched in Early Espresso in the middle of the frame. Colour Combo Wild Wasabi and Cherry Cobbler.

Guarding the Christmas Tree!

And here's our little soldier guarding the Christmas Tree!!
Notice what the flower pot is made of? It's fabulous Glimmer Paper - which will be available in the Spring mini catalogue which will be available on the 4th January...... watch this space!

Lovely as a Tree

This card is made using the Lovely as a tree stampset, Old Olive ink on Very vanilla cardstock, this is then layered onton Early Espresso Scalloped Oval (non-SU) on top of a mat of Crumbcake that has been embossed in the Square lattice embossing folder. This is then distressed with Old Olive ink and a 1/4" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon bow.
Rhinestones coloured red with marker pen in Real Red. Sentiment from Four the Holidays (now retired)

Merry Mocha Morning Christmas

Here are two cards that have been made using the fabulous Mocha Morning DSP - quite simple to make - just the Ornament Punch and the Scallop Trim Border Punch.
Very Vanilla and Early Espresso cardstock and the Delightful Decorations stampset. Crumb Cake Seam binding ribbon and a gold brad complete the bow.

Seasons Greetings Owl

This owl may well look familiar but can you spot his waistcoat and hat are glimmering!!
This is the lovely new Glimmer Paper that you will find in the Spring Mini Catalogue, but as a privileged Demo I was able to pre-order some of these goodies so that I can make up samples to show you!!

Liz's Toy Soldier Owl

This is a little Toy soldier made by one of my Tuesday Craft Class Ladies - Liz - isn't she just too clever!!. I told her that I would feature it on my blog.
Can you spot how she has used the Owl Punch?? (Along with other punches too)
The rifle she cut freehand.

Folded Stars

This is one of the swaps that I received at Convention




I can't give credit to the lady who swapped, as there is no identification on it, but it was also demonstrated on the stage at Convention - and I can't remember who did that either.
Anyway...... Chris and I had a go at making this using the Holly Berry Bouquet DSP and here are the results

Happy Birthday Heather

Today it is my niece Heather's birthday (Chris's daughter) and here is the special card that I have made for her.

Shazza's Doiley Punch Card

Hi everyone - well I'm alive and feeling somewhat better than I have since I got back from Paris. Travelling on planes does me no good - I end up coming home coughing, sneezing and wheezing having picked up everyone else's germs on the plane!
Am a lot better than I was, and am actually going to show you what has been keeping me busy this past fortnight.

I have done a few Christmas cards, some inspired by fellow demo's swaps and others from Blogs and fellow Jem.
This card is one that Shazza let me take a photo of when we were at Julies for our December Training. I think that I have done it justice - although it took some time to fathom out how to make the medallion (I haven't done one of these cards before today, and I never thought to ask Shazza how to make it) Anyhow, Chris and I have crafted together today and both made this card. Here's my version























Chris did this - the only difference being that Chris put a button in the centre, whereas I used an Antique brad.

Convention 2011

Hello everyone - well I am back safe and sound.
Had a great time in EuroDisney but am absolutely exhausted now. Haven't stopped since I came home. Had overnight visitors, unpacked, then Craft Class yesterday afternoon and Golf Club Ladies'meeting last night - so still no rest for the wicked!
Have quite a few cards to make this week, so will make a start on them tomorrow.
Will try and post some piccies tomorrow - meantime here is the group photo of all the Jems who went to Convention.

Convention Swaps

Well I ended up making 150 swaps - I decided to do something that wouldn't take up too much room in my suitcase, so I made Flower shaped Fridge Magnets.
I used the Fancy Flower Punch with various colours of cardstock and used the NEW Coloured Embossing Powders - you can see I have used the Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquise (as well as the usual Black and White). I have used the Hostess stampset "Posy Punch" and used offcuts of green for the leaves which were punched using the Bird Builder Punch.
They turned out to be very labour intensive, so I just hope that the SU Demos that I swap with will like them.

Gifts for the Girls!

Traditionally, our Team, Julie's Jems, make little Convention Gifts to commemorate the occasion and here's what I have made for them - little Lavender Bags. I die cut a little flower using the Flirtatious Designer Fabric and tucked it inside the organza bag before filling it with Provence Lavender, then punched a tag with the Decorative Label Bunch and added a die cut letter (from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet die set)
using Wisteria Wonder cardstock and added a few basic rhinestones just to finish it off.
This is Yvonne's (in case you were wondering!) Think that everyone will be safely on their way by now and once we all get together we will exchange our gifts.

SU Convention 2011 - Disneyland Paris!!!

I can't believe that tomorrow I will be in Disneyland Paris for the Annual Stampin' Up! Convention. Approximately 400 SU Demonstrators from the UK, France and Germany will get together and have two wonderful days (Friday and Saturday).
I am flying tomorrow, from Manchester, to CDG Airport Paris, with two of my SU buddies Lynda and Karen. The three of us are sharing a room together - that will be fun!!
Here's a piccie of the little gift that I will be giving to Lynda and Karen. Sorry I can't show you what's inside, but that would spoil the surprise for them! (Apart from which - I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped them up!! Duh!!)




















Tomorrow, when we are safely on our way, I will post a piccie of the little gifts that I have made for the rest of our Team - Julies' Jems- there are 18 of us going to Convention, so we are in for a great time!

Come back on Friday and you can see what I made for swaps - at this moment in time I have made 125 of them!!