Colouring in for Mindfulness

This morning's session at Coffee and Card featured this fabulous stamp set called Lovely Lattice, perfect for those that love colouring in, using any medium you prefer.  This stamp set can be yours for free if you order £45 or more from any current catalogue or available products online from Stampin' Up! (Including the clearance rack). This is part of our
Sale-a-Bration offering which lasts until the end of March 2019.

For our session today, we stamped the image using Memento ink (black). We then used Stampin' Up! Blends pens which are alcohol markers and sold individually in a wide range of Stampin' Up! colours. You could also use our ink pads, and water based marker pens too.  I made some thank you cards as I use many of these in my business, and you can see my original sample below.

I also included a stepped up version, which features a new Lace embossing folder on the background layer as you can see below. I also cut out the image itself with our paper snips. The Fabulous Friend message was added to one of the Banners in our matching stamp and die set 'Banners for You' - a really versatile set. 

We used Whisper White notecards and envelopes (as we often do for coffee and card) and added a coloured layer behind, chosen to co-ordinate with the coloured flowers.

Card layers and sizes are shared below:

• Whisper White Layer 3 1/4" x 4 3/4"
• Coloured card panel 3 3/8" x 4 7/8"
• Whisper White notecards and envelopes 3 1/2" x 5" when folded. Supplied in packs of 20 cards and matching envelopes for £6.00
  
  If you want to see the other items you can get for FREE during Sale-a-Bration, then you can use this link here to view them online. 

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More ways for you to save on Stampin' Up! products

Well hello, and Happy New Year!

With the New Year of course, comes our brand new Spring/Summer Catalogue and our Sale-a-Bration event. The catalogue runs alongside our Annual catalogue and our annual Sale-a-Bration brochure runs from 3 January - 31st March. Click on either image to view online.


 



So how can you save money?

• Buy any of our bundles from any catalogue and you can save 10% on the list price
  
• With every £45 you spend (on any current catalogue) you can choose an item for FREE from the Sale-a-Bration brochure.  More choice than ever this year.

• Join our Creative Jems team as a Demonstrator, get a GREAT deal* on your starter kit, plus an ongoing 20% net discount. 

• Select option 2 when joining our team, get a GREAT deal** on your starter kit PLUS this exclusive Stampin' Up! tote bag.
  
  * £170 of products of your choice for just £99 including courier delivery.
  ** Option 2 is £125 which includes the above offer + the Tote bag

 

I have so much to share with you, so please watch out over the next few postings for great inspiration and ideas from the new catalogue. We have already welcomed 3 new team members to our Creative Jems group, and would love you to join us too.

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Last day of Sale-a-Bration 2018

I can't believe that March has flown by so quickly and that we are now onto the very last day of Sale-a-Bration (31st March 2018).  You may be fed up with all the sale-a-bration posts, or you may just love seeing all the ideas for using your free products. I do hope it's the latter!

As a reminder then, for every £45 you order, you can choose free products from the sale-a-bration brochures - these include exclusive items such as the Springtime Foils card, Tutti Frutti cards and envelopes. but also selected items from our main catalogue and Spring/Summer catalogue. To see the whole list on line  CLICK HERE.  There are 2 sections you can visit - depending on what you have ordered. Either £45 or £90. Of course, if you spend £90+ you can choose 2 x £45 qualifying items rather than a £90 qualifying item if you prefer. You will be prompted to add your free items automatically!

We had fun with the Springtime Foils this week at coffee and card.
Here are some samples for you. The free pack includes 12 sheets of sturdy foiled, glossy card, all of which are 12" x 12". You could make 72 A6 card front from this pack!

We used the Stampin' Blends pens to colour these foiled flowers and leaves. The ink dries very quickly, and the foil resists the colour, so you still get the foil shining through.

 

We stamped the sentiments onto Whisper White card and punched them out with various circle punches.  We then chose the foil card we wanted - silver - gold - copper and punched out a larger shape for the backing layer.

 

For the pink card above, we used the sponge brayer and layered over some ink directly onto the foiled card. We built up the colour by adding more layers - it gives a really pretty effect.

In the card on the right hand side, the flowers and leaves were coloured first, and then the Smoky Slate ink was applied over the top!  The Blends pens create a surface that resists the water based ink, We used a piece of kitchen roll to buff over the card layer, revealing the ink underneath. Everyone did a great job.

Can you see the Old Olive ribbon in the card on the left ? That is actually our white/silver ribbon coloured with the Old Olive Blends pens. The ink from the pen dries almost instantly - and it means you can make coloured ribbon to match your card/paper/ink.

Enjoy the last day of sale-a-bration! Happy Easter!

 
 

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A host of golden daffodils

When making Easter cards featuring daffodils, there is little choice but to take my title from  William Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".

When I first saw this stamp set in our Spring/Summer Stampin' up! catalogue called "You're Inspiring" I knew I had to buy it.  Not so much for Easter cards, as I don't usually send them, but for the 2 lovely daffodil images.

It was an obvious choice for coffee and card, as it is perfect for stamping and colouring in. I decided to layer it onto some Old Olive cardstock, which I had embossed using some of our embossing folders which fit in the Big Shot die cutting machine.

The 3 folders I chose were:

• Layered Leaves
• Basket Weave (free with a £90 order)
• Quilt Top

Here are the results, details of how the cards were made are underneath. If you wish to order this stamp set and any folders, you can order here.

Basket Weave embossing folder on the left, and Layered Leaves on the right.

Envelope decorated, and the Quilted Top embossing folder

Daffodil cards can be used for many occasions, not just Easter.

 How we made them

1. Cut and score card bases in Daffodil Delight card to 99mm x 99mm (gives you 3 cards for A4 sheet)
2. Cut a layer of Old Olive, 95mm x 95mm and run through your choice of embossing folder
3. Cut an oval,circle or square die cut from Whisper White cardstock.  I used the stitched shapes framelits.  You get 12 dies for just £27, 4 each of circles, ovals and squares.
4. Stamp the daffodil image of your choice on the white card
5. Using Blends pens, colour the image in with yellows and oranges as required. (we used Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral and Pumpkin Pie)
6. Stamp the sentiment of choice and punch out using the Classic Label Punch
7. Layer the embossed card onto the base card
8. Add the image and the sentiment using dimensionals.

I hope you like these cards we made. My lovely friend Lynda popped me some daffodils during the coffee and card morning - and these are the ones you can see in the photos above - Thanks Lynda.

Thanks for popping by today.

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Celebrating with my team

One of the lovely aspects of being a team leader with Stampin' Up! is celebrating the successes of my team, whether it is because they have marked an anniversary, or have been one of my top sales people for any given month.

Each month I send out cards to the top 3 sales and recruiters in my direct team, plus additional 'just because' cards and since January I have been recognising all the anniversaries of my team as they come around. I send them a card and a little gift to mark the occasion.

Two of my team celebrated their 6th anniversary recently, so these are my 'longest standing' team members, so they received an extra special gift this time round.

Here are an assortment of cards sent out recently. You can see I made use the fabulous FREE foiled papers from the Sale-a-Bration paper stack.

It is absolutely NO surprise that the majority of my team join between the months of January and March, when our Sale-a-Bration offer is on. Joining the team at ANY time of year is always the best deal, and currently in addition to the usual offer, you can also choose an EXTRA 2 FREE STAMP SETS as well.

That could be a maximum of £220 of products for just £99! In addition, you get 20% minimum net discount for 3 months, free delivery of your starter kit and a chance to join in with all the fun of being a Demonstrator. That includes monthly meetings, opportunities to go to UK and worldwide events with Stampin; Up! and of course, the ultimate.... an all expenses paid holiday for 2 people.

If you would like to find out more, just hop to my team page for more information.

All you need to sign up is your £130 wish list, 2 free stamp set item numbers and your credit/debit card! Simple as that, and for just £99.

If you are ready to give it go, just use this link to get started and join our team today.

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Card making fun featuring a free cute stamp set

We had great fun recently at our regular coffee and card session using the FREE stamp set Party Pandas. You can get this set for free if you order more than £45 between now and the end of March 2018. As you can see from the photo below, it includes 3 cute panda bears, 3 sentiments and additional little background stamp. Perfect birthday cards ideas for all ages, plus, of course this would suit a new baby, new arrival card.

 

As well as just stamping onto white card and layering onto a base card, we used some of the In Colour Designer paper packs in the background. You can see these in the photos above and below.

We made the cards at both coffee and card sessions, on Monday and Wednesday. You can see some of the finished cards from the Monday session below:

I love that the ladies mixed in items from other stamp sets, like the flowers and curly bit in the cards above. This also made a great Valentines or anniversary card, as the cute panda with the little letter featuring a heart for a stamp was very popular.

The promotion in which you can get this set for free runs until the end of March 2018, so you still have plenty of time earn to choose your free set of stamps, papers, ribbon or kit from our brochure.  If you have not seen the brochure, you can download it here.

I hope you have enjoyed watching these fun pandas today, there are plenty more examples from our sale bochure n the pipeline, so please do check back at regular intervals.

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Card Making classes - Handmade birthday cards

Perennial Birthday - not just flowers.

I am so looking forward to our card making classes this month.  I chose the new Perennial Birthday stamp set as it was one of the first that jumped out at me when I opened the new Stampin' Up! catalogue.

Featuring 6 floral images, leaves and dots, as well as 6 great sentiments for both inside and outside the card, it really is a good all year round stamp set.

Our classes in January will feature 3 cards with different techniques, and a cute gift card holder and envelope - perfect to make that gift voucher just a little more special.

Easy colouring in.

 Our first card uses one of the individual floral stamps in the background, stamped onto the base card (Berry Burst) with Berry Burst ink.  The other images are then stamped using Memento Black ink, and coloured in using our alcohol makers.
 
These make colouring in so very easy. One additional main flower was stamped onto spare white card, and then cut out with scissors after colouring in. 

This additional image was then added using dimensionals (3D foam pads) to give some height and interest. If you look at our Spring/Summer catalogue on page 17 you can see the inspirational card I used for this design.

 Multiple Line Stamping

 For the next set of cards and the matching gift card holder, I decided to go for multiple line stamping - not always easy, but in this case I used our brand new Stamparatus to make the lining up, and inking so very very easy.

As you can see from the above photo, I included a non-floral option for the cards, including this sweet set of trainers/sneakers which you can get for FREE as part of our Sale-a-Bration offer. Order more than £45 of products this month and you can choose this stamp set (Epic Celebrations) for free - it includes the Epic Celebration sentiment you can see, as well as a guitar and headphones.

The matching gift voucher was made using our new Narrow Notecards and envelopes, which fit a credit card sized voucher just perfectly. You could also use them for a £5, £10 or £20 note if you wanted. This makes a gift card just that little bit more special, especially when sending it in the post.

Incredible Watercolouring

The last card uses some more new products - Brushos, which are deep watercolour pigment powders which give an amazing effect when mixed or sprayed with water. Here is just one sample:

 

Look at the depth of that colour. The words and flowers have been embossed with white embossing powder, then heated before adding the Brusho watercolour. 

 Book your class today

So, if you would like to join us in January, our class dates are as follows:
 

Thursday 11th January 7-9pm Milton Keynes.

Tuesday 23rd January 1-3pm and 7-9pm, Evenley, Brackley.
Saturday 27th January 10am-2pm Milton Keynes.

Just EMAIL me to book your space today.

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Pretty team gifts to celebrate the New Year

Thanking my team for their support

I have a lovely team of Demonstrators based around the UK, many of whom have been with me for a good number of years, and all of whom have been with me for the last year.

I wanted to send them something to thank them for their support over the last 12 months and to look forward to the year ahead with them. I am always on the look out for suitable gifts for team and customers, so when I saw a range of brightly coloured pens with messages on, they were perfect.

Of course, I had to have cards to go with them, so I grabbed a sheet of the brand new Petal Passion paper, and set to colouring in. I used my blends pens, coloured the whole sheet and then cut it up ready for popping onto the base cards. You can see the before and after shots below!  

Once I had the finished cards, I then designed a small holder for the pens. It's just a piece of Basic Black card, with holes punched in using the half inch circle punch. I threaded the pens through, added a sentiment and a little ribbon.... and we were good to go. Here are some of the finished ones waiting to be sent.

Below is a sample of the finished card and pen.

It's a great time to join Stampin' Up!

There are lots of benefits of being a Demonstrator, and not least the 20% net discount that you will get on all your purchases. Being a part of an active team, whether you are a hobby demonstrator and just joining for yourself, or want to run it as a business will bring additional rewards; as we have regular team meetings, an active Facebook group and great friendships and support network.

This time of year is a great time to join, as your starter kit will include £130 of products of your own choosing, catalogues and supplies, PLUS an additional 2 FREE stamp sets of your choice (worth an additional £90). All of that for just £99 and free courier delivery.

For more information, you can go to my JOIN MY TEAM page or go straight to join our team by this link. Make sure you have your shopping list ready!

If you any questions, please just contact me for more details, as I am more than happy to answer any queries you may have.

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Did you know?

Did you know that we can provide gift vouchers all year round? These can be personalised with a name and event, and can be used either for craft products purchased through us, or for craft classes. All are valid for 6 months from issue.

Here is one I made at the weekend, ready for the lovely Jill 

who was lucky enough to be treated by her family.

And why not add a matching Birthday Envelope? I just took a sheet of 12"x12"  Whisper White paper, stamped Happy Birthday all over it, then used my Envelope Punch board to make the custom envelope (7 x 3.5")

All wrapped in some matching ribbon - and VOILA! the perfect craft present.

If you would like to order a GIFT VOUCHER for use in the UK, France, Germany, Austria or the Netherlands, just contact me today. 

Do you struggle to make envelopes to the right size without wasting loads of paper? 

Never had the right envelope to hand for the card you have just made? 

Then DO try our Envelope Punch Board - with 66 different sizes, printed on the board for easy reference, a handy corner rounder tool included, and the ability to make envelope boxes too - it could just be the new tool you need.

At just £18.00 it's worth a look.

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Colour Therapy #colourtherapy at coffee and card

As promised, here are the results from our Wednesday session of coffee and card in Brackley.

Firstly I thought I would share a photo of everyone hard at work play whilst they were colouring in! You can see what a fantastic location the Hummingbirds Bistro is.

And here are some of the great finished samples from the group. 

Aren't they all just stunning? 

 and how about these beautiful poppies:

 It would be hard to choose my favourite, so I am not even going to try! Remember the Inside the Lines colouring paper is FREE with any order over £45 between now and the end of March 31st. Contact me for full details, or click on the Sale-a-Bration image on the right of this page.

If shopping online, don't forget to use this month's code for your free gift:

Thanks for popping by today.

 

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Colouring In therapy at #coffeeandcard

This week's coffee and card design was inspired by our free Sale-a-Bration paper, Inside the Lines. It features some lovely black and white line drawings, some with intricate detail, others with larger detail.

Here is the card I prepared for our two sessions this week:

We used the watercolour pencils and a blender pen to fill in the coloured sections. 

I then went on to show the ladies how they could stamp line images using existing stamp sets, and create their own colouring paper. 

Here are some of the fantastic results below:

 

 I will be running the same session tomorrow in Brackley, I can't wait to see the finished results and share them with you. They are all so individual.

To get your papers, just place an order over £45 (exc P+P) and you can choose this item as your free sale-a-bration set (143830).  If you don't wish to order online, just EMAIL me your order and I will be in contact for payment.

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