Five cards, two tags and a gift bag later, what else can I make?!? These stamps are making it too easy!

Food!

Ok, I've made two and a half cards and a tag - and now I'm off to eat a lovely smelling sausage and mash that has been cooked for me! I know, I know, I'm not as dedicated as some of you lovely crafters who might not stop to eat - but I am dedicated to food just as much as craft, haha!

see you in a bit x

What have I made?

The box of goodies is lovely - a pack of stamps, a pack of 12x12 patterned paper, coloured card, two punches, gorgeous ribbons, some ink pads...

I've made one card and one tag so far - not too bad for 35 minutes! I'm sure I'll slow down as the night wears on though...

And it's off... almost!

Tonight is a bit more rushed than I'd like, but I'm now home and just about have time to post about the blog candy prize before I begin!

So from midnight tonight, you have the chance to win a wonderful Stampin' Up prize!

There will be two prizes to give away, each one consisting of a punch, a stamp set and an ink pad ... a lovely little prize if I do say so myself! The first prize will be an early bird prize - to qualify you need to visit this blog between midnight tonight and 1am - this gives you precisely sixty minutes to win! All you have to do to be in with a chance is leave a comment, and if you are also a blogger we ask that you mention the challenge on your own blog, link through to here and then paste your blog link in your comment. If you don't have a blog, fear not, leave a comment and we will still enter you into the draw.

The second prize will run from 1am until 12 midday on Thursday, so if you aren't an early bird (or should I say late!), then you still have a chance of winning a prize. The same rules apply, leave a comment and link if you can. I will announce the winners chosen by a random number generator on my blog on Thursday so check back to see if you have won!

Don't forget, Lousette and Suzanne will also be giving away two prizes each, so you have six chances to win! I hope that's enough to whet your appetite - as I am now off to begin my crafting very shortly! (No pressure with all you watching, eh...)

A game of patience...

So the box has arrived but I am not allowed to open it!! The parcel is wrapped in some lovely brown paper with Stampin’ Up! images stamped onto it, and a lovely decorated tag. Hmmm... self-control is a difficult thing...

I can’t wait to see what goodies we have to play with and to share them with you later. No pressure on us though to create something good with you all checking in, eh! This is somehow very different to magazine deadline pressure – this is real life action, so I hope we do the products justice.

In the mean time, maybe I’ll share something else instead! To get me in the mood, I’ve been looking back at my old card designs, and some of those that I’ve used stamping on. Festive again, but I know so many of you will be organised crafters and working on those already – I wish I were!

Blog candy...

Ooh more Stampin' Up! news for you - BLOG CANDY!!! (As in, freebies!). If you weren't excited before, that should do it. More will be revealed...

These are a couple of the cards you could make from a Stampin' Up! simply sentiments card kit - when I had this kit, it was so nice to follow someone else's designs for once, and to have all of the 'ingredients' in one box for you. A refreshing break from thinking of new designs and all the hard work of coordinating is done for you, ah lovely.

Forgetting that not everyone is that familiar with Stampin' Up! (SU for short), it began as an American company, and the products (quality stamps, papers, ribbons, inks etc) are sold through demonstrators. This spread over to the UK at a time when demand was very high and everyone in the UK wanted to get their hands on these products, and so they eventually good, and its now going very strong over here too. If you want to know more about Stampin' Up! you can find a demonstrator near you by visiting their website, here

Time for celebration...

Did I tell you, it's time to celebrate? I'm taking part in a Stampin' Up! challenge! Oh no, I did tell you that. I didn't tell you who the third talented crafter is though did I?It's Suzanne Torr (http://fruitysuet.blogspot.com/) and I am sure most of you will know her already as she is very talented, and has been on the crafting scene for a number of years. The three of us will be taking part in the blog hopping challenge on Wednesday evening (explained below). Now that's a reason to celebrate! And I would like to point out at this moment, that yes I did, in fact, make these chocolate cupcakes - and although they look like they have been brought straight from the supermarket bakery, that is actually the very useful plastic container that our croissants came in! Honestly. I kid you not.

As much as I would love to tell you that I made these cupcakes this evening especially to celebrate that I am taking part in the Stampin' Up! blog event, I might by lying. Although I am that excited it may well have been true! I did make some cakes, however, to take to my friends when we visited them Sunday, to celebrate the arrival of their first little baby boy.

We took along this card creation (the grey splodge is for privacy, not my strange style!) - when I am crafting for something very specific and under a time restraint I find it so much harder - let's hope that doesn't happen Wednesday evening eh! A little bit of basic stamping to get me in the mood for Wednesday's festivities...

Lousette...

To share in the fun of the eagerly-anticipated new Stampin' Up! catalogue (see below post), you can follow Lousette Ashton as one of the other luck crafters taking part in Wednesday evening's fun blog hopping event. I have been lucky enough to have craft projects published in many of the same craft magazines as Lousette and have always admired her beautiful style of work, so whether you know Lousette already or not, here is a link to her new blog...

www.andthenicraft.blogspot.com

See you Wednesday!

Stampin' Up! on Wednesday

So the exciting news that I can share now is...

Image courtesy of Stampin' Up!

...I have been asked as one of three people in the UK to showcase some of the brand new Stampin' Up! products on Wednesday evening at midnight! The new catalogue is being launched on Thursday (1st October) and Stampin' Up! have asked three crafters who are independent from their demonstration programme to take part in this exclusive blogging event.

We are going to be sent a box of brand new materials, along with their current products, which we are allowed to open at 6pm on Wednesday evening. We then have six hours to create craft projects with them and we will be posting the first sneak previews of the new products and what you can create with them on our blogs at midnight! This will officially be the first unveiling of their new catalogue products. How exciting!

I really love Stampin' Up products as they are of such a high quality, that it makes using them so easy! So I'm really looking forward to this challenge. Will you join me? If so, spread the word on any forums that you visit and I will see you back here on Wednesday evening!

Oh my goodness! Stampin' Up! news

(image courtesy of Stampin' Up!)

Oh wow - I just had a telephone call from Stampin' Up! that I am very excited about but I can't share yet!!! I love Stampin' Up! products and they are so easy to use because of the wonderful quality, so this news is very exciting for me...

(image courtesy of Stampin' Up!)

Spread the news to anyone that loves Stampin' Up! as they might want to check back here soon for an exclusive!

Black is back...

These are a couple of cards that I made a year or two ago for a magazine project, I really love how the bright green contrasts against the harsh black. Certainly not colours that I would have thought of putting together instinctively, but I think it really works. The year that I made them, I think this ribbon bow present card proved to be the most popular one that my friends had seen.

Maybe I will make them the same but in all different colours this year - that would look quite spectacular to have a whole collection I think.

I am due to be making some more pretty cupcakes this weekend, chocolate ones loaded with chocolate icing and marshmallows - if they are successful, I will post for you to share!

I have a couple of new baby boy cards to make soon, I haven't done any like that for a while but it needs to be personalised. Any ideas, anyone?

Back to craft!

Ok so back to some crafting for if anyone is still reading this, although not new creations recently I admit - but for now, as many of you crafters will be getting ready for the Christmas season already (gasp!) - I'll post some festive creations that I don't think I have shared before.


It's made with a similar theme to the button wedding invitations that I made - in fact, that's where our idea came from for doing them! It's simply a present made from buttons, with some lovely embroidery stitching to complete the ribbon bow. Voila!


Continuing with the food theme, I tried another recipe recenty from the Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food book - Salmon pesto with green beans and I added lemon cous cous, it was lovely.

I tried a recipe from an Asda magazine recently - it's a quick make prawn curry. It tasted really nice and was easy to follow, completed with a few extra's that were shop brought. Hmmm.