Exciting Stampin' Up! News!!!

Right, there's two bits of news for all you Stampin' Up fans out there!

First of all, effective throughout all of March, Stampin' Up! are offering a whopping 25% discount on all their “On Board” chipboard packs! There is no minimum qualifying purchase and no limit to the amount of packs you can purchase. There are four packs to choose from and these are shown on pages 78 and 94 of the current catalogue.

Secondly, and this is where I got very excited, Stampin' Up! have put together Europe's first Mini Catalogue which will run from 1 April to 30 September 2009. Let me tell you, it's gorgeous! I had a hard time limiting myself when I placed my pre-order, and I have already earmarked quite a few more bits and bobs for future orders :) There are stamp sets, there are Designer Series paper packs, there is ribbon, rub-ons, buttons, punches - the lot! If you're interested, send me an email, and I'll post a copy of the catalogue out to you as soon as I've received them (hopefully sometime next week). Bear in mind that most of the products in this mini are likely to be limited to the duration of the catalogue, so if you see anything you like, best to order sooner rather than end up missing out :) I am eagerly awaiting my new stamp sets, so look out for some new projecst on here in the very near future.

Candy Alert!

Pop on over to the very talented and lovely Deb's blog, she's offering a very generous helping of candy to celebrate her making the design team for Whimsy Stamps and also for reaching over 60K hits! Well done, Deb!

Friday Sketchers 41

It's about time for me to take part in another challenge, and when I saw the new sketch at Friday Sketchers, I immediately thought of this Sugar Nellie image I'd coloured a wee while ago. It's "Luvvie" by Leanne Ellis, and I think she's rather sweet :)



I'd coloured her with this Doodlebug paper in mind and I'm very pleased with how it all turned out. I've also used Basic Gray and Pink Passion cardstock by SU!, the grey embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, small Prima flowers, big flower from Poppicrafts and ribbon from Ribbon Oasis. Added a bit of bling to the flower centres, doodled around the image and also inked with Basic Black round all the edges.

I'm enjoying an uncharacteristically quiet evening tonight :) Youngest daughter has been in bed for some time, and the older two are at the Sports Centre with hubby playing table tennis. All hell will break loose when they return in a little while, but I shall enjoy until then! Have a good weekend, everybody, thanks for stopping by!

Sings of Spring - Cute Card Thursday

Every week, I religiously look at a number of challenges, only to end up not doing any of them (most weeks)... But as I received my new Sugar Nellie stamps last week, the latest challenge over at Cute Card Thursday just begged to be entered. So here is my card:

Image is by Elizabeth Bell for Sugar Nellie, watercoloured with my trusty pencils, papers are from Little Sizzles pads I've had for ages, and the ribbon, flowers and brads are from stash. Sentiment is by SU! I just love the image, it's very sweet, and the blue and yellow combo for me has something very spring-y and fresh about it. Hope you like it, too.

I've also completed another layout, to add a few pages to youngest daughter's scrapbook:

Again, it's bright and colourful, using Doodlebug paper (circle) plus scraps of the good old Costco papers, the title was cut with Sizzlits dies again, and I've raided my stash for buttons, ribbon and die-cut the felt flower with a Sizzix die. Cardstock is from the Paper Mill Shop.

Birthday cards

It was my brother-in-law's birthday two weeks ago, and this simple card is what I made:

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Set: Summer by the Sea

Colours: Whisper White, Creamy Caramel, Not quite Navy, Ruby Red

Other: linen thread, silver brads, distressing tool, Watercolor Wonder® crayons

It was also my friend's birthday last week, and this is what I made for her:

Images Copyright 1990-2009 Stampin’ Up! ®

Stamp Sets: Live Your Dream, Occasional Greetings

Colours: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink

Other: distressing tool, Stampin' Write markers (soft subtles), whisper white grosgrain ribbon, buttons (from stash)

Hope you like, thanks for stopping by!

Just a few pix...

... seeing I've been MIA again :( It's been a funny, busy old time round here. First, we were taking as much advantage of the snow as we could, knowing that it never really sticks around for that long. Then, middle daughter had to be kept off school for a couple of days with a sore throat and head. And then, as hubby headed to Germany for a table tennis course, my mum came over for a visit and to help out a little. So not much computer and/or crafting time for me. Oh yeah, and then youngest daughter took ill as well, with similar symptoms to middle daughter. Never mind, they're all feeling better now, and that's the main thing!

I'm going to post a card and a layout that I made probably about two weeks ago, but never got round to showing here.

First, an anniversary card for my in-laws:

This uses a Stampin' Up! image from "Summer by the Sea" which has been watercoloured, SU! sentiment, various cardstock and SEI "Winnies Walls" paper, plus a punched flower with gem centre.

Second, a bright, colourful layout of youngest daughter, just because:

Papers are Doodlebug and Costco pack, flowers are from Poppicrafts, ribbon from Ribbon Oasis, buttons and brads from stash. The title was cut with Sizzlets round-a-bout alphabet, and there is a journaling tag behind the right photo. I've enjoyed putting this together, I'm starting to find it easier to match different papers :) I love that it's so bright, it's a lot brighter in real life!

I have made another layout, but have not had a chance to photograph it since hubby took my camera away on his trip :( And I might have bought a few new Sugar Nellie stamps that were so irresistibly cute, have a couple of them coloured, so I'm hoping to make a couple more cards this weekend and have something more to blog about very soon.

Have a good weekend everybody, thanks for looking :)

Birthday Card

Wow, I'm back after only two days! Made a card for middle daughter's best friend's birthday - middle daughter had this image on her birthday card (which we've not been allowed to put away - since July!), and her friend requested the same image for her card :)

Image is by Sarah Kay, coloured with water colour pencils, cardstock is Paper Mill (green) and SU! (pumpkin pie and ruby red) and patterned paper is by SEI. I've based this card on a Sketch Saturday sketch from a couple of weeks ago, and I do like the layout a lot. Sentiment is by Cuddly Buddly, btw. Hope MD's friend will like her card!

Thanks for stopping by!