Busy, busy, busy

I've been too busy to blog lately, and it's been nearly a month! I have made a few cards lately though and have a scrapbook page I want to try. I've been busy with birthday celebrations (not mine!), which included a lovely meal at a specialist fish restaurant, an overnight stay in a country manor house and tomorrow - a day at Billingsgate Fish Market Cookery School in London. I'm excited! We will learn how to cook recipes and prepare fish such as these....

Not so sure I am going to like the preparing of the fish from scratch, I like the 'not too fishy' type of fish, but should be an experience to remember and it was a gift well received which is what counts.

I've made a couple of new baby cards for new arrivals, and then have continued trying to make a few more Christmas cards - it's a good job the Stampin' Up challenge started us off in September as it's nearly December and I've still not managed that many. I will share again soon...

Other's designs

Is there ever such a thing as a tidy craft space when there is work in progress? I don't think so.

This was my area last week when I finally returned to my Stampin' Up! projects, weeks after our last blog challenge. I have been ridiculously busy lately and so I only managed to return to it a week ago, but then it's taken me the whole week to post this. Madness.

So with Christmas cards in mind, I decided to stamp some images in bulk, with a view of making lots of cards in one day. Only with the help of my two nieces, I didn't quite get as many made as I planned...

Trying other people's designs is something some people are shy of, or feel bad about, but I think its a great way of expanding your own styles and pushing yourself in areas that you wouldn't usually, so I recommend it. I wanted to have a play at making the cards both Lousette and Suzanne both created in the blog challenge, so here is the first of Lousette's designs, chosen as my first because I loved the way that the ribbon was folded and layered. I also loved this swirl stamp when I used it on white paper so I was naturally drawn to this design of Suzanne's.

I began some more of the other designs, but only got half way through them so when I am back to them again, I will share them. Five Christmas cards done, only about another 30 to go...

Time flies!

Wow, time has just disappeared these last few weeks, with a busy work, a house move in the family, lots of social things - so I haven't been able to blog for a while. And disappointingly, I still haven't got back to my lovely Stampin' Up! Christmas stamps either.

I would like to say a thank you to the Stampin' Up! press office as I received a lovely little card in the post to say thank you for taking part in the blog hop challenge event - it was my pleasure! I've seen more people signing up to be SU demonstrators recently too, I must say, the demonstrator's package has been enough to make me consider it and I didn't even have it in mind!

Are you looking for a nice way to deliver a gift and card in one this year? If your friends or families like jewellery, then these are easy presents to incorporate into your cards. I've decorated a card in the usual way - patterned paper, scalloped edges etc, and then I've created two circles and punched a hole through the centre of each. If this is already attached to your card blank when you do this, it's easy - simply hook the earrings through the holes and voila! A quick card and present in one.

Quick makes

I'm going to share just a couple of quick makes with you, Christmas themed again, as who doesn't need a quick-make Christmas card at some point?

I am still itching to get back to my Stampin' Up! cards and make some duplicates of what I made on the night, and then try out some of Lousette and Suzanne's - I think I should be done for all my Christmas cards by the time I've done that! The only snag is, I've got a manic few weeks coming up so I'm not sure that is going to happen.

I was flicking through the new Stampin' Up! catalogue partly to browse, and also to see if I could see any sets designed for men's birthday cards. Now yes, I know, any stamps can be used for men if you just give the card a male twist, but I can't be the only one who struggles with male cards? As an experienced crafter, I still find it hard to sit down and create a card for a man off of the top of my head. I would like SU to have created a Simply Sent card kit just for men, but as they haven't, I might sit down and choose some versatile stamps, some masculine papers, a greeting and some coordinating ribbon. And order my very own card kit! If you have got links for male cards (not just SU) I would love to see them. Paula does wonderful cards for men and women over here.

Another year on...

Well I haven't made it back to my craft table yet, I had too busy a weekend, but I do have other cards to share. I am looking forward to getting back to my desk as I thought I'd try making the cards that Suzanne and Lousette made during the Stampin' Up! blog event too - trying other people's styles is a great way of stretching your own.


These are some cards that I made for a 'Crafting for Christmas' publication last year or the year before, using the Blonde Moments stamps. My colour scheme was black paired with bright pink, orange and lime green, sounds horrid, doesn't it?


And although this calendar is clearly now out of date, I thought it might be good to share for an idea of what you could make someone as a handmade gift this Christmas. If you want to personalise it and add photos to make it more like a scrapbook calendar, you can of course do that. I created the date pages in a word document and printed it onto card.


I've added lots of stitching, just because I love it! And have used book rings to hold it all together, with the base folded into a triangle. I actually made the base have four sides, so that two can overlap and be stuck together.

Happy crafting!

what next?

So when do you ladies receive your new Stampin' Up! orders that you've placed? I was thinking about how much of a success this blog hopping event was and how much everyone seemed to enjoy it, and was thinking that there is nothing to stop you guys that are demonstrated from doing your own between you! You could each pass a box of goodies onto each other or something similar.

Thank you to everyone who came over here to have a look at my work, and for all of the comments that you left, I really enjoyed taking part.

This was what my craft desk looked like when I set up to begin the blog event... I'd love to see some links to what any of you make with your new orders - so please let me know your links and I will come over and have a look! I had no idea that my kit was going to be Christmas themed, and that was actually a huge help so while all of my SU materials are out on my craft desk I might make some good progress on the rest of my Christmas cards....!

And the winners are...

Early bird -

Tara said...
It's lovely to see so many different ideas made with the same products... well done!
01 October 2009 00:06

and the second prize goes to...

Lesley said...
You have been working very hard - there are some fantastic items in this new catalogue by the look of your samples - I won't see the new catalogue until Friday :( I have left a link on my blog
http://lesleyscards.blogspot.com
01 October 2009 08:21



Time to celebrate! Well done, I hope you enjoy playing with them as much as I did. Send me your details to jennyscreations@hotmail.com and I will pass your details onto Stampin' Up! to forward your prizes!

I'm still awake...

Wow, so many comments from all of you, I have hardly had a chance to read them all. Thank you all for visiting! I had a wonderful time with this challenge and really enjoyed using the new Christmas stamps and products, and it was so much faster to create using these materials that I realised it would be!

It certainly was a challenge for me as at I love to use scalloped edges and punches (I wish I had thought of doing what Lousette had done!), lovely buttons and crystals for texture, decorative edge scissors etc and I didn’t have any of those from Stampin’ Up! so I had to work out of my comfort zone a little. But I enjoyed this challenge so much and I think that is partly because it was a refreshing break not having any theme to stick to – I could be truly creative and make whatever I felt like! That was such a nice change.

So I will be back later when I have a bit more time – for the all important Stampin’ Up! prizes to give away!!!

The official launch!

Ta da!!!!!!!! It's midnight! And we are now officially celebrating the launch of the Stampin' Up brand new catalogue for 2009 - 2010! This was the box of beautiful products that I received, and here follows my papercraft creations from 6pm until midnight this evening...

In the kit were packs of coloured card, 12x12 patterned papers, ink pads, punches, ribbons, glue and brads. I had to stop creating a bit before midnight to take the photos and load them up here, and it's taken a while! I will start by saying though, that I made far more than I thought I would and I am sure this is due to how easy the Stampin' Up! stamps are to work with, and the fact that all of the colours and ribbons work so well together that everything just seems to fit before you start.


So I began with a tag - and if I'm honest, this was because I thought it would be the easiest and quickest thing to do, and I wanted to feel like I'd got at least one thing finished incase I didn't produce many items... it's a stamped background design, patterned paper and main stamped image.

This was my first card, and is actually becoming one of my favourites now I have looked at it for a while, I think its the overlapping stamped stars that I like! I've used the star punch (which obviously fits perfectly as SU designed it that way!), ribbon and an oval stamp - these don't need much explaining really, do they?

I have opted for what I would call simple cards, partly because that is my style, and partly because I wanted to make sure I didn't run out of time and only have one or two cards made. This one made good use of the vertical patterned paper design, and I really love this oval stamp (used with the oval punch, again fits perfectly), with a ripped, curled and inked edge.

A very quick tag using the clear stamp pad and the star and oval stamps. I threw in an additional bit of SU orange card that I had here for variation.

This card was to show that the Christmas set can be used for more than just Christmas, I think this card is quite versatile. I really loved working with the wide brown ribbon.

For some reason I really like the ribbon down the middle of this card, finished off with the cut edge. Not sure why! This swirl stamp makes great background papers with SU inks on white card, its so clear and would be great for scrapbook layouts too.

This stamped image has been punched with a circle punch, then it has an oval red punched shape behind it, you can just see the edges poking out.

It is hard to see the dimension element of this card, but the green stars are stamped directly onto the white card, the red star is raised with one level of foam pads and the brown star has two levels so stands out the furthers. Very simple but cute! And would be good for birthday cards too.

By the time this creation came along, I was looking for a break from red and green, and I found it with this purple patterned paper. Ok, ok, I know it still has green on it but it has a different look because of the colour mix. Again I created the background white paper with the swirl stamp.


This final card is a mix of papers/card with holes punched around the outside of each piece with a paper piercer.

And for my final offering of the evening - a decorated gift bag! This is pretty simple too, but starting with a brown base makes it easy peasy. A few swirls stamped in red, coupled with the brown oval stamps here and there and the background is covered. The centre piece I made with six red punched ovals, with the centre of the flower being the 'Joy' stamp punched with a circle punch.

Don't forget to check out what Lousette created here and what Suzanne made here - they both have some amazing projects on their blogs!

That's all folks - it's taken me nearly an hour to finish adding to this original post and add my text, so I'm off to bed and shall be back here tomorrow!