Friday 30 September 2016

World Card Making Day special offers - for five days only!



Tomorrow is the first Saturday in October and therefore it’s World Card Making Day! To celebrate, Stampin’ Up!® has some special offers on selected cardmaking essentials. But don’t delay, as these offers last for just five days!

Take a look at what’s on offer in the table below, and contact me ASAP if you’d like to order. Alternatively, you can order any time of day or night at my online store here.


In other news, tomorrow I will be at Belper Fun Palace with my able helper and downline Jacqui, where we will be offering a free craft project to visitors. We’ll be making a festive gift tag using the Jolly Friends stamp set, so should be fun! Why not pop in and say hello? It’s at No.28 on the Market Place (free parking in the big car park behind the Market Place) from noon to 4pm.

In other other news, my first Hygge Night is now fully booked. Sorry if you missed out on a place, they went pretty quickly! Don’t worry, details of the next one will be coming soon.

Oh and finally, in other other other news... tomorrow I will be taking part in another Around the World Blog Hop which, due to the international nature of the participants, takes place in the UK at around 9pm. So be sure to come back after Caturday!

That’s me done for today, I promise!

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Marquee Messages birthday gift tag



It was birthday time in my Virtual Hostess Club again this month. My club ladies commit to spending a minimum of £15 a month for 10 months of the year and, as a thank you, I give them a Stampin’ Up! gift in their birthday month. This time it was the turn of Mandy, although I’m sorry to say I didn’t manage to make her a matching card as I was feeling poorly. But I did wrap the present by creating a box using the grid paper to make a template. It came together quite well, I thought. And I found a new use for Marquee Messages: to make a funky retro gift tag. 

Monday 26 September 2016

Mix It Up Monday: Hang Your Stocking




Yes, it’s Mix It Up Monday again and time for another project made with a colour combination from my latest set of In Color charts


I was lucky enough to get a play with the Hang Your Stocking bundle at the weekend, and had great fun stamping and die-cutting lots of socks! They’re for a future project, but I preserved one for this colour combo. Not your traditional Christmas combo but why not? It is Mix It Up Monday, after all. 

I kept things simple with the fantastic Pine Bough embossing folder. I’ve had this a few weeks but not had chance to use it yet and now I’m kicking myself as it’s fantastic. Hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot more of this in the run-up to Christmas. 


It’s finished off with a tiny bell (love these!) and some linen thread. 


Linen Thread
[104199]
£4.25

Saturday 24 September 2016

Caturday: Kitty


Sorry for a quiet week, I’ve been battling the lurgy and on essential duties only. Feeling a bit better in time for Caturday, though - phew! Today it’s another turn in the spotlight for Kitty, who grudgingly shares her home with Maggie and Eddie. She’s clearly queen of the blanket in this picture. And that’s all I have to say as I have a plaster on a key typing finger and even this short post has taken me ages!

Monday 19 September 2016

Mix It Up Monday: Mountain Adventure with a llama



It’s Mix It Up Monday again and time for another project made with a colour combination from my latest set of In Color charts

Have I mentioned that I love llamas? Just a few times perhaps? One of the reasons I ordered Mountain Adventure was because of the llama possibilities - I honestly think these sets must have been made for each other. There will be more llamas and mountains to come, I promise! 

And I’m still enjoying the use of a (so on-trend!) photorealistic background in the form of Serene Scenery DSP. I’ll be running out of sky sheets soon though so will have to come up with another idea.


This project uses a Flirty Flamingo colour combo which, I confess, I had to force myself to use so that I don’t spend all of next spring making cards in Flamingo because I’ve neglected that chart. I’m not a pink fan and Flirty Flamingo definitely isn’t my favourite new In Color. So I’ve toned it down with some Island Indigo stamping.

You know how there are no mistakes in rubber stamping? This card was meant to have just two mountains but, in the time-honoured way, I messed up the stamping of the greeting on the otherwise finished project. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I settled on adding a third mountain in the foreground... and this time I stamped my greeting before sticking it down!


Saturday 17 September 2016

Caturday: Maggie


It’s Maggie again - I love how I accidentally caught her mid foot wash; looks like she's doing an advanced yoga pose!



Friday 16 September 2016

Sweet Sugarplum gift and card combo


As I mentioned on Wednesday, my club members now get a present in their birthday month. I knew Kelly had made a recent U-turn and adopted Sweet Sugarplum as one of her favourite colours, so turned to my In Color paper stack to create a box using the Gift Box Punch Board. As always, the contents are a secret; suffice to say, one part of the present only just fit as the box was exactly the same size as its chipboard backing. 


Kelly’s card uses the same colours as her gift. I was aiming for clean and simple and started by stamping some Timeless Textures spatters in Tip Top Taupe. They weren’t doing it for me so I added some Sweet Sugarplum spritzing… and when you start spritzing with ink, anything can happen, as it did here. It’s hard to tell from the photo but I also spritzed some Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper with Sweet Sugarplum ink to match the project. 




The small print

This is my personal blog and my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. All images are © Stampin' Up!® All content including photographs, projects and text are © Helen Read, unless otherwise stated. Please feel free to copy my ideas for your personal use and inspiration - if you are a SU demonstrator you may use these ideas for your events but please give credit where it is due. Please do not use my ideas for monetary gain, competitions or publication. The images on this blog - including blog buttons - should not be copied and used elsewhere on the internet or on CDs.