Creative Fun - On Tour!

I am very excited today, as this evening I am going with some of my team to the Stampin' Up! UK Creative Tour in Wokingham. I will be there when you receive this posting!

Stampin' Up! put on regular events for us, either by way of training, or the tour like today. They will be showcasing some new products for us, there will be lots of free goodies given away, and there will be plenty of swapping. These are just SOME of the benefits of being a Demonstrator with Stampin' Up!

If you would like to find out about joining my team, please look HERE. I do have a special offer for September -  A FREE This and That Journal (RRP £9.95) of your choice when you join my team, plus my usual welcome pack.

Back to this evening; I have created some swaps and a name badge for myself - using the Gently Falling Stamp set.  I stamped the leaf in the background with Crumb Cake ink, then added the central leaf and outline on top in Crushed Curry and Pumpkin Pie. 

When we get to the event, we swap our samples with other demonstrators, so I will take 30 of these samples and come with with 30 different ones. It's a great way to get new ideas and samples for future workshops and classes.

I love the 'Just Because' typeface from A Dozen Thoughts sentiment set.







As you can see better from the photo on the right, I added some Crystal Effects to lacquer the front leaves, and I used the 'rock and roll' technique for the same two-tone leaf.

Crystal Effects really make the image pop out and almost 3D. Its a great way to step-up a card or project.

Crystal Effects can be found HERE on the online shop.


As the Crystal Effects need a while (approx 1 hour) to dry, I had to set all my samples out across my craft room, to allow them to dry carefully. Here is the chaos:

Card Swaps as far as the eye can see! and on every flat surface. When allowing your Crystal Effects to dry, do make sure it IS a flat surface or you may find the glue pools in one direction! YES - you can use it as clear glue too!

I will follow this posting with some photos of my swaps.. so come back and have a look for some ideas and inspiration.

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Why do we struggle with men's cards?

One of my most requested class and workshop designs are mens and/or boys cards. I wonder WHY we have such difficulty in creating them - especially when there are so many images around that are suitable. 

I have just had a flick through our main Stampin' Up! catalogue and I counted 61 stamp sets or wheels that would be ideal for a mans/boys card.  We have plenty of colour choice too -  blues, greens, oranges and browns, not to mention a whole set of 10 neutral colours... so I wonder why we struggle so much.  If you know the answer, I would love to hear it!

So with this request in mind, here are 3 cards I made recently for my Brother-In-Law to mark his birthday in May.

The first card on the top left was made using an embossing folder and a die cut shape with the text stamped on top.  The card on the right uses a set of stamps called Gently Falling - a set of 12 stamps which include a lovely oak leaf, and acorn as well as the leaves shown above.

The final card uses Established Elegance with the typewriter image and the Occasions Alphabet for the 'H is for Happy' sentiment. The backing uses our First Edition Designer Paper - available in a pack of 24 sheets of 12x12" paper for £11.50, working out at £0.48 per large sheet. The typewriter image was particularly appropriate for Andrew, as he is now an editor of a local newspaper.

To the right is a close up of the first card - very simply created using our Honeycomb Textured embossing folder on the Chocolate chip card. I then ran the Designer paper through the same folder, and hand cut the honeycomb shapes out using the embossed line as a guideline.  Let's hope that we get a new Honeycomb shaped punch to match this folder when the new catalogue comes out on 2nd July.
I also embossed the envelope flap - which came out really well indeed.

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