Yesterday I had a class of little people at the Village Centre in Englefield Green,
It always surprises me how concentrated children can be when they do something they enjoy.
They had a choice of 3 cards and different papers to play with, as well as a variety of punches.
Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to take photos of the cards they made, as soon as they are fnished children become so excited they run off to show their parents.

I will be running another class for children in the Easter school holidays at the Village Centre in Englefield Green. Please come along.
Here are the examples they had to inspire them.

From stamping the Flower in five different colours you can, with the appropriate punches make two complete flowers of different colours. I have used  two additional circle punches to those detailed below.

I have fallen in love with this stamp.

It is called Quint-Essential Flower.

I am going to offer a bundle especially for the Make It Show.

For only £45 you get the Quint-Essential Flower stamp, a 2 3/8" Scallop punch, a 1 3/4" scallop punch and a 3/4" circle punch. This would normally cost you £50,45.

You also a get to choose something from the Sale-a-Bration brochure for FREE. I would suggest the Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper or the Sycamore Street Ribbon and Button Pack.

We are going to be at Farnborough next weekend. I hope you will come along to the Make-It Craft Show
Stampin Up! are doing a few workshops and there will also be a Make and Take on the stall every day. Come along and make yourself known to us.

I wanted to share with you some  colouring that I have been doing lately.
This is using the Swallowtail stamp from the Spring/Summer catalogue. It is one of Stampin Up!s 'big' stamps, so you can use the whole stamp or just a part of it. I coloured these with SU markers. I love to just sit and colour sometimes, it is so restful.

I have put the three images into a box frame and added some of the sentiments from Creative Elements, available in the Idea Book and Catalogue. What do you think?

Another example of using the Swallowtail stamp, this is a direct case from  Mary Brown aka StamperCamper and if you click on it you can see her original. I didn't have the same DSP as  she has, so I substituted Comfort Cafe DSP. I love the way you can colour the flowers to match your papers. The sentiment here is from 'Word Play'

Depending on how saturated you want your flowers to be, depends what you use to colour them. If you want a really deep saturated colour, press directly onto the ink pad, if you want a subtle effect use your marker to lightly brush across the Flower Trim, available in the current Spring/Summer catalogue.

I am going to leave  you with something very colourful that my daughter Cassie did yesterday using crayons. It is Crayon Art and after sticking the crayons with a hot glue gun to the canvas, out comes the heat gun and  they start dribbling!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

I hope you have a loved one who will spoil you today. However if we were really truthful we would like to be spoiled everyday and not just one day in the year!

so I am going to spoil you with a selection of Valentine cards...

This is created with the Scallop Envelope die and the sentiment is from the stamp set Word Play.  I cheated with Sent with Love as it is computer generated.

I have embossed these punched hearts with the Perfect Polka Dots, Adorning Accents and Petals a Plenty. The ribbon is the new Striped Organdy ribbon in Melon Mambo from the new Spring/Summer Catalogue

Small punched hearts using paper from More Amore DSP in a noughts and crosses design and the sentiment is Teeny Tiny Sentiments

En Francais stamped in Crumb Cake and LOVE cut out from the Natural Composition Specialty Paper using the Typeset Alphabet dies, then a small heart and rhinestone embellishment.

Lastly some punched hearts pleated to look like 

 balloons with the sentiment from Delightful Dozen.

I hope you have found the Stampin Stars Blog Hop inspiring.
They are a group of talented creative women and hopefully they will spur your imagination towards some fantastic creations.

I wanted to continue with my idea of the squashed bottle top.

These are hairpins, made with the smaller bottle top. They are made the same way as the fridge magnets on the previous post but I attached them to the hairpins with E6000, which is a very strong adhesive. I have pinned them to a card of Raspberry Ripple and More Amore, added a bit of Crochet Trim and the sentiment Just Because that is one of the FREE Sale-a-Bration products you can get when you spend £45 with Stampin Up!

NEW SEASON = NEW PRODUCTS!                       

THE NEW SPRING / SUMMER CATALOGUE from Stampin Up!

Available from TODAY 1 February - 30 June 2013        

Our new catalogue is full of wonderful coordinating products - perfect for each and perfect for your creativity!                         

Click on the side bar link to take you to the catalogue, or email me to get your hard copy in the post.                                  

Join in the Stampin Stars Blog Hop below to get a taste of what some our fabulous team have created just for you!                            

Hi and welcome to the Stampin Stars Spring/Summer Blog Hop.  You may have come here from the very creative Esthers if not don't worry, if you want to join the Blog Hop there is a list at the bottom of this post.

As Stampin Up! demonstrators we get the chance to play with new products a month or so before they come to the public domain and that is Today. Yes, from today 1st February you can order from the new Spring/Summer 2013 Catalogue. There is a link on the side bar which will take you to the catalogue. If you would like a catalogue of your own to browse with a coffee please feel free to drop me an email and I will pop one in the post.

so, what do I have in store for you today....

I would like to start with a gorgeous stamp set which caught my eye when I first looked through the catalogue. Everyone needs a fun set and this is it.

The fun thing about this stamp set Oh Whale is, it has a co-ordinating die to go with it aptly named Happy Whale. I have also used a new Embossing Folder for the clouds, called Cloudy Day. The DSP at the bottom of the card is called Sunshine and Sprinkles and it has the most wonderful colours and patterns. I sponged Marina Mist ink onto white card stock that has been embossed with clouds. This brings the dots where the clouds have been embossed a bit darker, emphasizing the shapes. I used Marina Mist c/s in the Big Shott when I cut out the whale flukes, anchors and fish.

For my next creation I used a stamp set called Collage Curios and some Soda Pop Tops. This is where the Americans should translate better and call them bottle tops!

I stamped and cut out with the 1" circle punch then attached to the tops with a glue dot and then I squashed the lot in the Big Shott. You need to use a couple of old plates for this as after a couple of times they mess them up a bit.  The inside paper part is then covered with Crystal effects to give it dimension.

Wait til dry and then attach a magnet circle to the rear and pop on your fridge!

I was having a play with the new Artisan Embellishment Kit which includes some lace, seam binding, buttons, flowers, ticket stubs, a  heart and round doily and some resin bits. I am not really a vintagey (?) person but this is what I came up with...

and no stamping at all.!! The lovely paper is More Amore DSP which includes a die cut sheet of hearts of which I cut one out and the beautiful background paper. The vanilla c/s is embossed with Stampin Up's embossing folders available in the main Idea Book and Catalogue. The butterflies are a new punch called Bitty Butterfly.

Lastly today I want to share with you a quirky birthday card that my daughter wanted me to make for her friend Emma, whose birthday is today. Happy Birthday Emma.

The pinwheels are new. They are a Sizzlits Die which alleviates all the cutting making putting these pinwheels together a cinch. However they are tricky, but there is a knack to it!

The arrows are from a lovely new stamp set called Oh Hello and the DSP and saying is from Sale-a-Bration freebies!

I hope you have enjoyed my offerings from the new catalogue. Please check back over the next few days as I will be adding new projects and products regularly.

I may also give some hints about those pinwheels.

Now you need to pop over to the lovely Pips blog to oogle her creations.                  



The list of everyone taking part is listed below. If you get lost along the way come back here and find the trail again.



Fiona Whitten 
Louise Sims  
Lesley Gillett  
Esther Boulter  
Nicky Johncock          ***you are here***

Pip Todman
Sarah Piggott
Jan Frances  
Nic Parr 
Natalie O’Shea  
Lesley Lendon  
Jade Stutely 
Cary Buckham
Victoria Rogers   
Kim Gibbons Fee  
Emma Goddard
Di Richardson  
Emma Burgess 
Teej Clout  
Joanne Penny