Christmas in July …

Well – it’s never too early to start, as they say!

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The gorgeous everyday enchantment designer series paper is still available until the end of July – just a few more short days.

It is so lush and so versatile and the colours are just perfect for any occasion – including Christmas!

When my friends came round the other night, we made 3 Christmas projects …

I love the colours on this card –

real red and lucky limeade go so well together …

I wrapped a length of organdy ribbon around the card, and tied in a neat bow.  This ribbon is so pretty and is absolutely FREE with a £45 spend during July – don’t you love freebies?!

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Then we made a square acetate card … (not so easy to photograph).

Love the snow flurry on the acetate – so pretty in real life and certainly had the wow factor.

You can see the snowflakes a little better on the photo below …

We added more of the very pretty ribbon, and a few of the tiniest adhesive pearls to the bauble …

… do you recognise the sentiments yet ?

The sentiments on both cards come from the jolly jingles jumbo wheel which I’ve cut up into separate stamps - there’s a free tutorial showing how to do this on my blog here.

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To go with the cards, we made a matching pillow box and gift tag.

We used the triple treat flower to make the poinsettias -  stamped, punched out and adhered together, with a little dimension added by curling the petals and leaves with a bone folder.

More of that pretty ribbon attached the gift tag to the pillow box.  The ribbon is just the right size for tags, and ties in perfect tiny bows – cute!

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We also learned how to make envelopes of any size using the simply scored scoreboard – no measurements to remember!  Never be lost for an envelope for your projects again!

And here’s all 3 projects together in a different colourway…

I loved taking non-Christmas stamps and paper and turning them into festive fun!

Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: real red, whisper white, lucky limeade; Inks: lucky limeade, real red, so saffron, white stazon; Stamp sets: triple treat flower, serene snowflakes, jolly jingles jumbo wheel; Punches:  1 1/4″ square, fancy flower, 5 petal flower, Accessories: everyday enchantment dsp, adhesive pearls, stampin’ dimensionals, sticky strip, tombow liquid glue. *a

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Polar party gift tags …

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As promised, these are my swaps I made for the Stampin’ Up! craft day at Michelle’s.

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I love Christmas and, as so many of us are already starting to think about our Christmas make and takes, I made Christmas gift labels using the two tags die and some Christmas stamp sets…

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Do you recognise the sentiment I used?

It’s from the jolly jingles jumbo wheel which I have un-mounted from the wheel and cut into separate sentiments – there’s a free tutorial on my blog here showing how to do this.

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Our team of Pink Lads ’n’ Ladies is growing all the time so there were lots of swaps to make. Here they are altogether … all 38 of them!

Handmade gift tags can make any present look extra special, and making your own gift tags is a great opportunity to use up your scraps of cardstock, designer series paper and ribbons.

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I used whisper white craft ink to stamp the snowflakes several times on the tags, and tore strips of whisper white cardstock for the snow.

Each polar bear was stamped in black stazon ink, then coloured with various colours from the in-colour 2010-11 range, applied with my aqua pen.  The colours go together so well and looked great when I put contrasting colours together.

I then cut the bears out with paper snips and used tombow liquid glue to attach them to the tags.

I cut lengths of grosgrain ribbon and attached to the tags with linen thread.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment in black stazon ink and added an adhesive rhinestone.

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It was good fun swapping with everyone.  So after another great day at Bicester, I came home once more inspired by our team’s creativity, having had such a great day of craft, fun and laughter!

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Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: pear pizzazz, peach parfait, poppy parade, concord crush, blushing bride, whisper white; Inks: pear pizzazz, peach parfait, poppy parade, concord crush, blushing bride, melon mambo, whisper white craft, black stazon; Stamp sets: polar party, serene snowflakes, jolly jingles jumbo wheel; Accessories: grosgrain ribbons in pear pizzazz, peach parfait, poppy parade, concord crush, blushing bride, linen thread, adhesive rhinestones, aqua painter, two-tags die, big shot, stamp-a-majig, paper snips.

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Stampin’ Up! day of fun …

At Michelle’s Stampin’ Up! craft day in Bicester there were inspiration stations, workshop wows and, of course, swaps!

When Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators get together they love to share their creativity, and how better to do this but to make craft examples to swap with each other.  This is such a fun part of the day – great for getting to know each other and also to share ideas and learn techniques.

These are some of the beautiful swaps I received -

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loving the swaps made with the Stampin’ Up! material …

the gorgeous little lavender bag made by the very talented Rachel – just lovely! And her inspiration station was just amazing!

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…  love the bicycle stamp which is part of the hostess set in the summer mini catalogue …

… can’t wait to ink up my set …

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And look at the cute little Santa!

… made by the lovely Lynne …
- she has a free tutorial showing how to make him on her blog here.

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… some great 3D swaps including a cake pop, a crown topper, a button ring, a business card holder and fridge magnet made by Anthony, and a very pretty flower which Suzette demonstrated how to make on her inspiration station. She has a tutorial on her blog here.

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What a talented team of Pinkies!  Of course there was much, much more to see on the day - with lots of crafting talent on display.

I made swaps too, so do pop back again soon …

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Creative elements stationery set …

I wanted to make a special gift for my best friend, Debs, as a thank you.

Debs and I travelled together to the Stampin’ Up quarterly craft day in Bicester, run by Michelle Last, and we always seem to have such a good time – chatting and laughing with her certainly makes the 340 mile round trip go by quickly!

I used the beautiful attic boutique designer series paper and my simply scored scoreboard from Stampin’ Up to make this personalised stationery set.

I love the colours of the attic boutique dsp – the different shades of pink and yellow, and my personal favourite - pool party, mixed with soft suede here and there… just beautiful.

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The inside was lined with designer series paper from the same paper pack, so everything colour co-ordinated. 

I stamped the flourish image from the creative elements stamp set on the little pocket I made to hold the stationery.*

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To personalise the stationery, I stamped in soft suede ink with the broadsheet alphabet stamp set, and stamped a decorative image underneath using my stamp-a-majig for perfect placement.  I stamped the flourish in the bottom right hand corner, bringing all the matching elements together.  Finally, I stamped onto the very vanilla envelopes from Stampin’ Up – these envelopes are made of really smooth paper and are ideal for stamping on.

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I love the words of the sentiment on the label -  from the friendly words wheel, which I cut up and mounted each sentiment separately – a great way to get more for your money – and there’s a free tutorial on my blog showing how to do this here.

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Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: soft suede, pool party, very vanilla; Inks: soft suede, rose red; Stamp sets: creative elements, broadsheet alphabet, friendly words wheel; Punches/dies: scallop trim border, labels framelits; Accessories: attic boutique designer series paper, crumb cake seam binding ribbon, linen thread, simply scored scoreboard, stamp-a-majig, tombow liquid glue, sticky strip, stampin’ dimensionals, very vanilla envelopes.

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