2010 Convention!

Shelli & I

Well after what seemed like a mammoth train journey (3 changes on the way there but oddly only needed one on the way back - moral of the story is to completley ignore online journey planners!), I am home tired and exhausted but had an amazing time. This was the second European Stampin' Up! Convention, and the first one that I attended, and it was such a fun time. I love meeting fellow demos and sharing ideas and being inspired by others. Not only was it great meeting all the wonderful demos from the UK, Germany and France but Shelli (the founder of SU) herself was there, and you could not meet a nicer lady! Her enthusiasm is totally contagious! Ohh, and we got lots of lovely free stamps - one of the perks of being a demo!

There are so many exciting things in the pipeline, some of which have to remain a secret for a little while longer but if you keep an eye on my blog I'll try and post some photos of the amazing make & takes that we made and the swaps that I received from fellow demos. And if you're thinking of signing up to become a demo, you'll be very excited to hear that next year's convention is going to be in ... Disneyland Paris!!! I can't wait.

New Christmas Bundles!

When it comes to Christmas cards, it's never too early to start making them and this year Stampin' Up! is giving us a helping hand with their limited edition Christmas Bundles. Choose one of the four bundles on offer and you can choose a gorgeous real of Christmas ribbon absolutely free. What's more, these ribbons are not in the main catalogue so this really is an exciting offer! There is no restriction on the number of bundles you can order. For each bundle you order, you will be able to choose a free ribbon real.

The Welcome Christmas bundle also comes with the limited edition Christmas Cocoa Speciality Designer Series 12x12 paper. This gorgeous paper is a combination of 2 single-sided flocked designs and 4 double-sided designs. Perfect for not only your Christmas cards but also for scrapping those precious photos after the big day itself. What's more these bundles make fantastic Christmas gifts for your friends.

This offer is only available whilst supplies last and is open until the 29 December. Please see the flyer on the right hand side of my blog for more details, or get in touch via email or phone if you'd like to place an order!

It's Christmas time!

Well not quite, but one of hostesses this week wanted a Christmas themed workshop so I've been playing with my new and not so new stamp sets and colours. They both use the gorgeous Cherry Cobbler and ever so essential Old Olive. I can see these two colours being used for a large number of my Christmas cards this year!






The first card is made using the un-Christmassy 'Circle Circus'. I decided that the circles would make lovely baubles. The middle bauble has been stamped twice - once directly onto the card and then onto a separate piece of card which was then punched out and mounted with dimensionals. The little ties were hand-drawn. A nice, quick card to make.

The second card is made with the new Christmas set 'Contempo Christmas'. Us demonstrators were lucky enough to be able to get this lovely set on pre-order before the catalalogue launch. The matching bauble punch will help to ensure that your Christmas cards are completed in next to no time!

These little cards are really quick and simple to make, perfect when you've got lots of cards to send out to friends and family.

It's the 1st October!!!

And that means it's the launch day for the new catalogue! There are lots of new goodies to get excited over, plenty of new ribbon, the gorgeous new colours, patterned paper, and of course lots of wonderful new stamp sets. I already have a long list of favourites!

Stampin' Up! have introduced new clear mount stamp sets in the UK! You still get the amazing stamping quality of Stampin' Up! red rubber stamps but now you can mount them onto clear stamping blocks opening up your stamping options and making storage of all those lovely stamps a lot easier.

The postage rates have also changed. Postage is now a flat rate £4.95 regardless of the size of your order, so you can now place larger orders without worrying about the postage going up.

With all the new exciting products on offer there is also an exciting new Starter Kit. The Starter Kit is at a special reduced price of £119 (valued at over £230) and contains all you need to get you started. There is also a scrapbooking add-on called Stampin' Memories for just an extra £50 (valued at over £80). What a great time to become a demonstrator! Feel free to email me if you're interested in becoming a demonstrator and would like more information.

If you've not already ordered a copy from me then take a peak at the electronic version in my sidebar. If you can't wait to have the glossy pages in your hands then get in touch and I'll happily order one for you. The new catalogues are £5.95 but throughout October I'll be selling them for £4.95 or if you host a workshop you can get your own copy for free!

I'll be back later tonight with some photos of the cards I've made with some of the new stamp sets but there are some gorgeous ones in there, and the new hostess stamp sets are divine.

Even more reductions!

Stampin' Up! have reduced the prices again on the retiring items list. If you still need to get your sale fix then click on the icon below. The list shows everything that will be retiring and won't be available in the new catalogue. The punches will be available in the new slimline format in the 2010/2011 catalogue. Some items are already selling out, so if there is something you want, grab it whilst you can. You can place an order directly with me by emailing me and payment is via paypal.

Retiring List

Can you believe that it's September already! Wow, summer has gone fast. I hope you all had a lovely summer break and are looking forward to the kids going back to school again.

Stampin' Up! have released their retiring list for the current catalogue. Items are only available whilst stock lasts. Most of the punches will still be available in the new catalogue but will be in the new compact format that the two-part bird punch currently uses. So if you are disappointed to see one of your favourite colours or stamp sets go, then order it now whilst you can!

2010-2011 Catalogue
The new catalogue will be available to view online and purchase from 1st October. However, if you'd like to get your hands on it as soon as possible then you can place a pre-order with me. I should hopefully receive my copies towards the end of September and will post them out as soon as we are given the go-ahead to do so. There is a slight price increase in the catalogue and it will now cost £5.95. If you'd like to receive a catalogue for free, why not book a workshop with me. All hostesses receieve a free catalogue and you could be one of the first to earn the gorgeous new hostess sets, and of course purchase some of the lovely new stamps in the catalogue.

Codicote Village Day

I had a stand at the Codicote Village Day on Saturday 17th and had a wonderful day. Thank you to every one who came along and said hello. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly windy day and I wasn't able to display my cards- I didn't really want to spend the day chasing cards around the field! The fair itself was a wonderful event and I hope to be able to take the boys next year.



I held a prize draw on the day to win this sweet starter card making kit with the lovely All a Flutter stamp from the mini catalogue. This has to be one of my favourite stamps from this year's mini. The lucky winner is ...

Charley Hurst

... so well done Charley, your prize will be on its way to you soon. I'm also offering 10% off your first order to everyone who entered my prize draw as a thank you from me.

Unfortunately, I've not yet worked out how to upload my photos from my phone to the computer (for some reason it didn't come with an instruction book!). But I'll post a photos of the stand and prize when I can.

Wedding Invites with SU!

A little while ago I took part in a wedding invite swap over on ILWS. The wedding season is fast approaching, so I thought I'd show you my card for the swap. There are so many stamp sets that you could use for a wedding card. There is the lovely Mr & Mrs and Special Blessings, but I choose to use one of my favourite sets: Baroque Motifs. I've paired it with Choc Chop ribbon, ink and cardstock (don't you just love how easy Stampin' Up! makes it to co-ordinate your cards!) and the lovely very vanilla. You could also add an extra bling to the card with a spray of one of the glimmer shimmers.

I need to update the photos with a watermark, but just whilst I'm trying to figure out how to do it, I should point out that all stamped images are (c) Stampin' Up!.

Become a Stampin' Up Demonstrator!

Have you ever wanted to become a SU! demonstrator? Well now is the perfect opportunity. In conjunction with the Hobbycrafts show, Stampin' Up! are offering a special 10% discount on the Starter Kit price. This means that you can get your hands on over £240 worth of business supplies and Su! goodies for just £125 instead of the normal £139! That in itself is a great saving, but should you want to take it further then you can start your own SU! business going into people's homes and demonstrating the great products at workshops.

If you'd like to find out more then please give me a call, or drop me an email. But remember this offer is only on for a limited period and orders have to be placed before 7th May.

All new colours!

I've got some exciting Stampin' Up! news to share with you. We are having Colour Renovation at Stampin' Up! As from October we will be getting four revamped colour families (now to be called collections). The Colour Renovation has been based on customer feedback and new colour trends. Twenty-five of our current colours will remain and they will be joined by 15 new colours in the core colour collections! The re-vamp does mean that we will be losing some of the old colours, so if they are your favourites make sure you stock up on them whilst you can! The colours below are the ones that will be retiring in October.

But look at all these lovely new colours that we'll be getting! The colour revamp applies not only to the cardstock, but also to the ribbons, ink, markers etc.

On top of all the lovely new colours we'll also be getting In Colours! These will be a range of five new colours that will be introduced every year and will stay around for two years before being retired. This year we will only have 5 In Colours but each year after that there will be 10 new In Colours running alongside each other, so at any one time there will be 50 colours - 40 core colours and 10 In Colours! Think of all the colour fun you can have with them!

Mini Catalogue Day!

Hurray! Today is the launch of the mini catalogue. All my regular customers should have received their copy now, but if you've not got one and would like one, please send me an email and I'll pop one in the post straight away.

There are some absolutely lovely new products in the new mini, new flat design punches, single stamps from £4.95 and some gorgoeus new designer paper. Even us demonstrators don't know which items will make it into the main catalogue in September, so if you see something you like, order it now. Two of the designer papers will only be available for the lifespan of the mini catalogue (April - Sept) or until stock lasts.

Click on the image of the new mini catalogue cover on the right to see all the loveliness that could be coming your way!

If you want to see some of the lovely new stamps for yourself then why not come along to my Open House on Monday 12th April from 8pm. We'll be making a card using the lovely Vintage Vogue set. If you'd like to come please email me so that I can reserve you a make & take pack.

Do you want another sneak peak?

Here is the last sneak peak until the mini catty goes live tomorrow - are you as excited as I am? I wanted to share a couple of cards with you that I've made using the fabulous new Vintage Vogue stamp set. I love this set, and I think it will be out on my desk for quite some time. Both of these cards were really quick to make, ideal for when you've suddenly remembered a birthday - or in my case realised that it's Good Friday and therefore no posting!

So here they are. The first card is a 4x4 card (I love this size) that I made for my friend Astrid in Austria. She sent me some lovely goodies for my birthday and I just wanted to send her a thank you card.




















The second card was a design that I saw over on Carole's blog and I just had to use it. The blank space on the left hand side would be perfect for a birthday or seasonal greeting. The card uses the fabulous new bird punch - with its new flat design, which is great for storage, and the co-ordinating wheel for Vintage Vogue. I've used colours from the Soft Subtles family. If you'd like your own copy of the new mini catalogue then please send me an email.

Things are not what they used to be

Once upon a time, going to see a gig meant seeing Manic Street Preachers or the Stereophonics, nowadays it means going to see Andy from CBeebies perform with his comedy partner Mike! I spent this afternoon in a very modern church hall (it used to be a warehouse) with 100 other toddlers and their familes watching Andy and Mike's Big Box of Bananas, and I have to say that I throughly enjoyed it! I just took my eldest son as I wasn't sure that my youngest would have sat all the way through it, but Robert loved every moment of it - especially the funny noises - amazing how a noise that sounds like a fart can always get a laugh! Robert got two more signatures for his autograph book and I got some slightly blurry photographs to hopefully make a great scrapbook layout! I'll try and upload a couple of photos tomorrow. In the meantime I really need to finish my ILWS wedding card invite swaps!

Sneak Peak

After receiving so many lovely swaps at the Reading Training, I felt it was only fair to share some of them with you. So here is just a little sneak peak of what's going to be coming on the 1st April. Sorry about the poor photo! This cute little owl is part of a new set of adorable animal critters ... make sure you check back on 1st April to find out more!

Reading Training - thanks girls!

One of the things I love about Stampin' Up! (other than all of the gorgeous products of course!) is the support that you get from SU! I spent Saturday in Reading for a training day and it was such good fun! We had lots of sneak peaks of the new products that are going to be in the new mini catalogue (come back on the 1st April for more details) and it was a great chance to meet up with fellow demonstrators. I was a tad nervous as I'd not met any demos yet, but I needn't have been.

The top photo shows me with the other Emma H (!) and fellow Stampin Star. It was great to meet someone else in our group, even if our upline Natalie wasn't able to make the training event. I really shoudn't let the camera anywhere near me though!

And here are some of the other lovely girls at our table busy making our challenge project (Emma, Alex and Jackie). I can't show you what we made just yet but all will be revealed on the 1st April! Big hellos also to Nickie, Carol and Sue who were also on our table but I got distracted and neglected to take their photo, sorry!

I received some amazing swaps and was blown away by some of the demonstrator's choices projects - in fact, make that all of them! Again, more pics to come soon!

Huge thanks to all of the presenters who showed us some wonderful projects and made it such a fantastic day.

If you're interested in becoming a demonstrator or want to come to my Open House for the mini catalogue launch then please send me an email.

Perfect Pairs promotion

I am so giddy with excitement, just when you think you can't beat the Stampin' Up Sale-A-Bration, they go and launch another fantastic offer! During the month of March you can choose your perfect pair and select a punch and the coordinating stamp set, and receive 20% off the punch!

And if that wasn't exciting enough, for a limited time you will be able to order the Full Heart Punch that is not currently available in the main catalogue. This punch has been out in the States for some time now but this is the first time that we've been able to buy it in the UK! It's a gorgeous punch and coordinates perfectly with the Simply Said stamp set. This punch will only be available whilst stock lasts and then once stock sells out you'll have to wait until the release of the new catalogue in September to get your hands on it, and who wants to wait that long?! So, if like me, you can't wait to own the Full Heart punch then get in touch and I can place an order for you. The punch is available on its own for £12.50 or at £10.00 if you buy the matching Simply Said stamp set at £22.95 (or any other set in the offer). Postage is £3.95.

SU! Help for Haiti

It would be hard not to be affected by the devastation of the earthquake in Haiti. Companies and individuals everywhere are helping in whatever way they can and Stampin' Up! is no exception. In the past SU! have made donations through designated stamp sets and from now until 28th February Stampin' Up! will donate £1 from the sale of every Greenhouse Gardens stamp set and donate that money to the Red Cross. This will be a worldwide effort, with demonstrators in the USA, Australia, Germany and France all having a similar offer.

You can see example cards made using this stamp set on page 43 of the catalogue. If you'd like to order either a catalogue or the stamp set, then please contact me. I will also be donating £2 for every Greenhouse Garden set sold to the Red Cross. If you want to find out how the Stampin' Up! headquarters are helping the relief effort for Haiti, please read Shelli's blog.

Stamp with Us Challenge

There is a lovely sketch challenge over on Stamp with Us this week and you can see my entry below.

Alas, there is no patterned paper in the SU! starter kit and I'm suffering slightly from withdrawal symptoms so I had to break into my non-SU! stash for this one. The paper is such fun and slightly mad that I thought it would look better if the lines were all out of kilt, but actually once you put the butterfly on, it just looks like I can't stick paper on straight! I've embossed the centre of the flower to give it a lovely shine. Sorry about the poor lighting, I will try and replace it with a better photo on Monday.

Cardstock: all from my scrap stash except the yellow & orange which are SU! Summer Sun & Pumpkin Pie. Similar SU! colours would be: Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise and Lovely Lilac.

Stamps: Garden Whimsy, greeting from Fun & Fast Notes

Inks: VersaColor: Boysenberry & Raspberry

Paper: Love Elsie

Time to play!

I've had great fun playing with all of the wonderful stamps that arrived in my starter kit. The first one that caught my eye was A Rose is a Rose. I have to confess that the rose is not my favourite flower and at first I didn't intend to purchase this stamp set, but when I saw all the gorgeous cards that had been made with it, I had to have it! I've made two cards to show how adaptable this stamp set is. The first one is quite grungy and I've aged the paper torn from a book with Choc Chip ink. The second one has a more contemporary feel to it, and is a gorgeous design that I CASEd from someone (who I need to go and search for so I can credit properly!).

Applogies for the poor photo setting, but the best light is from my son's bedroom window! I really do need to find somewhere more scenic to take photos from! Anyway, I hope you like them, and please leave a comment if you do. It's always nice to hear from you.

Ingredients: (all are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted)

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel

Patterned Paper: Doodlebug Designs

Stamp set: A Rose is a Rose

Inks: Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Garden Green, Old Olive

Ribbon: from my stash

Ingredients: (all are from Stampin' Up!)

Cardstock: Ruby Red, Old Olive

Ribbon: 1/4 grosgrain ribbon in very vanilla, which I've coloured with my pens.

Stamps: A Rose is a Rose, It's Beautiful jumbo wheel

Inks: as per the previous card

Open House

I'll be holding my first Open House on 1st February! There will be lots of fun things happening as well as some lovely samples on show to get your creative juices flowing! Come along for:

• tasty nibbles & wine
• Makes & Takes
• door prize raffle
• a chance to get creative!

The night will be lots of fun and a chance to catch up with everyone for a good natter. I'll be posting some sneak peaks of some of the cards I've made in the next two weeks, so do check back if you want to see what will be on show.

Sale-a-bration 2010!

Hurray! I'm so pleased that I've already managed to fulfil one of my new year's resolutions - to craft more! I've just signed up to become an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator in Herts & Beds, and I'm really excited about it - after all, what could be better than working by making cards and scrapbook pages! And to top it all of, SU! have a great offer on this month.

Everyone likes a freebie and this month, Stampin' Up! are offering you the choice of three exclusive stamp sets when you spend £45 or more, before the 28 February. These yummy stamps are only available whilst the SAB offer is on, and are not in the main catalogue. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these lovely stamp sets - deciding which one is going to be the hard part!