Jems July Blog Hop - Animals

Well it's that time of month again - time for our monthly blog hop,

 and as the title implies, this month, the theme is animals.

With the advent of the new catalogue we have oodles of fabulous animals available
for your crafting pleasure and I am sure if you hop round everyone's blogs,
you'll see some amazing projects that can be made.

This is the little menagerie that I made for our quarterly training back in January.

These were my swaps - I did take individual photos of the little critters,

but my iPad died on me and consequently, the pictures were irretrievable.

(This photo is one that Julie took - thankfully I now have a record of them all.)

All these animals were made using the Playful Pals stamp set and the matching 

Pyramid Pals Thinlits to make the fabulous pyramid boxes.

Here's a close up piccie of the cow, dog and mouse - I have managed to make these three again
as a reminder of my little menagerie!! You can see them in more detail on this close up.

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Here's a group of little Foxy pyramids - I made these (and a few more!) as swaps for
the most recent  Quarterly Training get-together a few weeks ago.

Here's a close up - you can see the separate parts that make him up.
Foxy is available to buy as a bundle, comprising of the stamp set "Foxy Friends"
and the matching punch at a saving of 10% costing only £36.00


To see more animal makes, do please hop on to Tracy's blog
by  clicking on the picture below, to see what she has made to show you .

Or if you want to go back and take a look at the ones before this,
click on the picture below now.

Happy Birthday Jan!

Today is one of our friends, Jan's birthday.  

As Jan is a crafter, I really wanted to make  something a little different for her.

 I had seen a card that I liked at Julie's Paper Haven

 when I went to Training in May and thought that Jan would like it too -

 here is my cased version.

I used the Swirly Bird stamp set with the matching Swirly Scribbles Thinlits dies

for this card, with a colour combination of  Sweet Sugarplum, Peekaboo Peach,

 Mint Macaron and Rich Razzleberry.

You may have spotted that I also used the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set for the splodges. For the 

banner outline, sentiment and the tiny flowers, I used the Number of Years stamp set.

Can you spot the really fine Silver metallic thread behind the punched Bitty Butterfly.

If you want to see more of Julie's makes click HERE

Birthday voucher holder

I am in a Ladies Wot Lunch group, where eight of us get together most months to have lunch together.

We also put money into a kitty to provide a voucher for each lady on their birthday.

As four of the ladies (myself included) are crafters, they opt for Stampin Up crafting vouchers.

Here's a voucher holder that I made at Chris's the other week.

A simple Night of Navy colour combination makes this really elegant.

And here's the voucher that goes inside of it

and the back of the voucher

Can you guess who this is for??

The stamp set is Floral Phrases and the matching Detail Floral Thinlits are available as a bundle
 with 10% off - just £44 in wood mount and £37.75 in clear mount.
A bargain that I couldn't resist!!

Detailed Floral Thinlits and Flourish thinlits Sympathy card

Had a shock today, when hubby phoned me up, after delivering a few of my Stampin' Up orders,

to say that one of the ladies (Sheila)had told him that she didn't know when she would be able to come to Saturday monthly workshops in future, as her husband had passed away on Saturday.

I set to and made this sympathy card and posted it to her so that she knows that she is in my thoughts and prayers.

Here it is.

The colour combo is Night of Navy and White.

The card uses the Floral Thinlits dies from the Floral Boutique suite on pages 66 and 67

These are the large die cuts top and bottom.

The Flourish thinlits dies on page 194 are the little fFlower sprays at either side in the middle.

The only stamping on this card is the sentiment which is from the Hopeful Thoughts stamp set.

A really sad day today.

Thinking of you Sheila xx

Jems Blog Hop - new In Colours

Well you may have guessed that as the title of this post suggests, 

this month we are showcasing the new 2016 -2018 In Colours.

My first card features my favourite new colour - Dapper Denim

Arty view showing the mechanics of the card

View of card opened

Closed view

Materials used : Dapper Denim and Thick Whisper White cardstock.

Dapper Denim Ink

Stamp sets: Playful Backgrounds, Perpetual Birthday Calendar, Petite Petals

and the sentiment is from Time of Year.

Pansy Punch and Petite Petals punch

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My second card uses Flirty Flamingo, which I wasn't too sure about at first sight,
 but it's growing on me now!!

As the matching Designer series paper wasn't available to preorder,
I stamped the background using the Perpetual  Birthday Calendar stamp set
- I think it is quite effective.
The greeting is from the new Hostess set "Time of Year"
and the beautiful matching 3/8" Ruched ribbon finishes it off nicely!!


So - off you hop now to the next blog - Tracy will show you her offering!!
Click on this box

Or if you want to go back to the previous blogger Yvonne -
click on this box

Enjoy your blog hopping - have a great day!!

Jems Blog Hop today - Retiring Products

Today marks the start of a regular event for our Team of Stampin Up Demos - Julies' Jems.

A Blog Hop - and today's theme is Retiring Products.

Here's my project -it uses three products that will be retiring at the end of May

Flowering Flourishes stamp set, the Curvy Corner Trio Punch and the Circles Collection Framelits.

The colour combination is Crushed Curry, Delightful Dijon, Whisper White and Gold.

The Flowering Flourish has been stamped in Versamark and embossed in Gold embossing powder.

The coloured overlapping circles were sponged through a die cut circle stencil.

The top one in Crushed Curry, the bottom in Delightful Dijon

and the middle one in a blend of both.

So if you want to reproduce this card, these products are only available 

until the end of May, or as long as supplies last!

So hop right on to the next blog hopper by clicking  on the picture below

Or if you want to go back and see the previous one - click on this picture below

Baby wipe technique butterfly

At our last monthly training, we revisited the Baby wipe technique 

and made a couple of cards and a tag.

Here's one of the finished cards, that I matted and layered onto a larger base card.

At my Tuesday class today, I have demonstrated this technique again 

and a couple of ladies have had a go, with very pleasing results.

Liz's Golden Wedding Anniversary

On Saturday it was my friend and punch art expert Liz's Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Here is the card that I made for a friend to send to her and Alan, and the card that I made from Barry and me.

This card used the Blooming Heart thinlits die with Gold Folied card and one of the nesting Heart dies.

Sentiment was computer generated.

This card uses a card blank that was one of a few given to me by a friend, that came in a wedding invitation kit.  I stamped the Mr and Mrs in Versamark and heat embossed in Gold embossing powder.

The greeting was computer generated, and layered on a Decorative Label punch in Gold Foiled card.

The various sized hearts were punched using the Heart border punch.

I have seen Liz today and she was delighted with the cards she received for her birthday and Anniversary, quite a few of these were hand made. She had a lovely day!!

Congratulations Liz and Alan - what an achievement - 50 years!

Stampin Up On Stage Local - Telford

N.B.This post has been updated to give details of products used

Phew, I am exhausted ! Yesterday, Chris ( sister-in-law and my down line), Anita (Chris's down line) and myself travelled down to Telford to attend the Stampin Up On Stage Local Event.

Chris and I shared a room, and Anita drove us there - for which we were extremely grateful!

Last night I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Centre Stage event for Silver Elites and above.

It was a fabulous evening.  I will share some pictures later this week, but first, I will share with you the swaps that I made.

I made several variations on a theme.  I think that I have explained before that I have a low boredom threshold, and couldn't bear to do loads of swaps all the same.  Consequently I did several different colour combinations on the same theme.

So here are the photos of the different ones that I made.

All these use the Timeless Textures stamps, Petite Petals Stamps with matching punch, the Bird Builder punch (for the leaves) and the sentiment from Sheltering Tree.

Black and White card stock, Black ink,  Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper

Black and White card stock,  Black ink, Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper

Black and White card stock,black ink, Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper

Black and White card stock,  Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper

Black and White card stock,  Black ink, Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper

Black and White card stock, Black ink,   Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper and Gold Foil Card

Black and White card stock, Black ink,   Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper and Gold Foil Card

Black and White card stock, Black ink,   Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper and Gold Foil Card

Black and White card stock, Black ink,  Gold Glimmer paper and Gold Wink of Stella

Black and White card stock, Black ink,   Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper 

Black and White card stock, Black ink,   Versamark and Gold Embossing powder, Gold Glimmer paper 

Kraft, Black and White card stock, Black ink,  Gold Glimmer paper

Kraft, Black and White card stock, Black ink,  Gold Glimmer paper

Happy Birthday Liz

Today is Liz's birthday (my friend who does the punch art fellas!)

Here's the card I have made for her.

This is the card closed, complete with it's belly band, ready for posting.

Here it is with the belly band removed ready for opening.

Here's the view of the card opened.

I decided to write on the back of the card rather than the middle, 

but it would look OK with a message here if you were a neater writer than I am!

The colour combo is Pool Party, Blushing Bride and White.

The flowers  and greeting are from the Birthday Blooms stamp set 

and the lacy border is from Grateful Bunch .

The three circles that carry the sentiment were cut with the 2.1/2" punch.

I used Birthday Bouquet DSP for the belly band  and covered the join

With the beautiful Pool Party Glitter ribbon.

Liz is very lucky because I have actually opened my pack of Bow Paper Clips embellishments

just for her!!

Hope you are having a fabulous day Liz and I will see you this evening to celebrate!!

Table decorations last night

Here's a close up photo of last night's table decoration, one of which I was lucky enough to be given.

I took the photo early this morning in the hotel room, and it was a beautiful spring morning!

I felt really honoured to be taking this little beauty home with me - thanks ever so much Liz,

Guess where I am tonight!

     Clue number one

     Clue number two

Clue number three

Did you guess? ....

It's Liz's Ladies night at the Holiday Inn!

LIz is my good friend who comes to my Tuesday Class, so she has been kept busy making the 

Table menus, place cards and floral decorations that you can see here (and I helped her a little too!)

Just for info - It's Liz who does the punch art fellas.

Doesn't the room look beautiful,

Looking forward to an excellent evening.

March thank you cards

When I pack my customers orders each month I like to include a little thank you card inside.

Here are the ones that I have made this month.

I don't generally put a thank you sentiment on the cards and this month I have left 

most of them blank, so a sentiment can be added when the card is sent.

Thanks for your orders ladies!  Appreciated!

Birthday Blooms

Here's a card inspired by one that I saw whilst browsing the internet recently.

It's quite a CAS card, with a touch of elegance I think.

Colour combo is Smokey Slate, Soft Sky and White.

The the flower and leaves are inked, onto watercolour card, in versamark 

and heat embossed with White embossing powdery these are then coloured using a blender pen and Smokey Slate for the leaves, and Soft Sky for the flower.  

The leaves are arranged and glued at the bottom of the flower, then the thin silver thread is stuck underneath the flower and leaves in a loopy pattern.

These are then glued onto the White card and layered on a Smokey Slate mat 

on top of a White base card. Then the sentiment is stamped in the bottom corner.

This will be sent to one of my April birthday girls, but I'm not saying which one!!

Get well soon Julie and Linda

Two of my crafting ladies have only recently been discharged from hospital, 

so we missed seeing both Julie and Linda at our Saturday morning workshop yesterday.

I made similar cards for both ladies to wish them a speedy recovery .

Kraft card layered on a White card base with Blushing Bride and White flowers

with a Mossy Meadow fern (cut using the Botanical Builder Framelits)

The silver SAB Glitter tape was used as a change from ribbon - as Sale a bration 

has now finished I will be really sorry when my stock of this glitter tape has gone!

The greeting is from Hopeful Thoughts.

I have used the Decorative Label punch to make the fancy edges on the Sentiment piece .

Get well soon both of you lovely ladies!!

Retirement card

Yesterday my good friend Carol (W) spent her final day at work!  

To mark the occasion, I made her this card.

The colour combo used is Blushing Bride, Mossy Meadoe, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso and White.

The DSP is Botanical Gardens and the flowers and fern are cut using

the matching Botanical Builder Thinlits dies.

I cut the edges of the card with the sentiment on it, using the Decorative label punch

and the sentiment is from Wild about Flowers.

Did you spot the doily?

Zoo Babies for Hayden

On Sunday it will be my great nephew Hayden's 2nd birthday,

he is the son of my God-daughter (who is also my niece) Emma.

I wanted to make a fun card for him and I reached for my Zoo Babies stamp set

and combined it with the Party pop-up Thinlits dies.

Here it is.

I love this cute little card and hope that Hayden will love it too!

First Christmas card

I have noticed that a few bloggers are well on the way with making their Christmas cards,
 so I decided that I had better get on the band wagon and join them.

Here's the first.

I used the Woodland Textured Impressions embossing folder which featured in the 

Autumn Winter catalogue, but is making Stampin Up history by returning

(after being retired) to the Annual catalogue in June this year.

So if you didn't get it last year, you may well wish to buy it this year!

I used the Christmas Greetings Thinlits dies to cut the word "peace" with Gold Glimmer paper

and used the Jolly Holly Greetings stamp set for the rest of the sentiment.

I used Wink of Stella on the trees for a subtle shimmer.

Right - only 97 more to go!