Just In Case........

OOOoooo my gosh, having realised that my blog posts are getting even more sporadic, I thought I had better share with you- what I was up too at the weekend, and if in case my cosmic star chart is dragging me away from the computer still and you don't get another blog post off me till the New Year, I had better send you my.......

What with all the holiday hullabaloo and my boy Matthew breaking his wrist, I was glad of the excuse, to shoot over the hill and join many of the Julies Jems- for a Shoe Box swap on Saturday! 

I have been tinkering around with this 'Top Note' wall hanging idea in my head for the last couple of weeks and was considering about it as my offering at the 'Shoe box Swap', but after making this late Friday afternoon/ evening I thought that we would be hard pushed, to get the whole thing Big Shotted, punched, stamped, cut and glued in the 30mins we had for each project!

But I risked it for a biscuit!!! And stayed up, till the very early hours, doing die cutting and punching, then my fellow Swap attendees could concentrate on the important bit- the stamping, well we are 'Stampin' Up!' Demonstrators after all!!!! 

I think the trickest bit, I left for the girls was that I was down to my last few peices of 'Very Vanillia Card after die cutting the top notes, so they only had a small peice on to which the had to stamp the letters from the 'Letter It' SU stamp set...... 

 This is going to be my favourite alphabet stamp set, although if Shelli checks this out- It would be awesome if we had a punch, to punch them out and it would double up for the 'Number It' SU Stamp set too!!

 In the little kits I put together for the 'Shoe Box Swap', I even drew on lines so the girls could get on with putting the stamped letters into place, i love how the words winter & warm over hang from the top note!

 In little envelopes I had put the different elements to decorate the wall hanging, in one were the punched leaves and flowers.....

 In another were the branch and the robins........

 And I had even put an envelope together for the embellies, yep! I had snipped the gem stones and the linen thread ready for use!!

As there were so many of us swapping we split into two groups, so her are links to the blogs, of the girls in our group, hopefully they aren't as behind as me and will have blogged about what they created to swap!!

                           Kate Martin 

Lynda Bradley

Allie Jolliffe

Evelyn Calder

Jill Jones

Victoria

Apoplogies to Karen Fagelman & Julie Wade- sorry that I can't link to  your blogs but I have googled you and cant find links, please get in touch, then I can correct xxx

It was a fantastic day, and it was great that we all brought such different ideas to the swapping table, I cant wait for the next one in the new year!!

But now for a little pop quiz!!

What I love the most about what I have designed and created, is the use of the most unusual stamp, to create the Snowflake background on the top notes......

In fact I have renamed it my...

'Hidden Snowflake'!!!!

Can you guess which  Current 'Stampin' Up!' Stamp set, it has come from????

Get your answers in my comment box, and I will put the correct answers in a box, and draw out a winner and will post the winner a kit and instructions to make this little wall hanging, I will do the draw on Saturday evening (25/08/2012) UK time.  

Thanks for stopping by

Sally-Jo

xXx

Whipped into action!!!

I have been led astray from the blogging world recently by a number of things, the biggest one being the end of an era as my daughter leaves primary school and gets ready for high school and the Summer holidays and entertaining two children, well one of the problems has been that they don't need entertaining just a mum to drive them here there and everywhere!!!


Another reason has to be also that I was led into the dark and mysterious world of 'Fifty Shades', I have to admit- I have read them all, even though I found them not to be of a great literary standard........ well she does use the word 'Flushed' 50 times in the first two chapters of the first book, but there was something there in all three that just had me turning the pages!!! Neither am I great writer, so hats off to her or rather whips out!!, that she has created the fastest selling book of all time, and will net herself  a pretty penny or two in sales and future TV & film rights.


Any way after a meet up- nearly a week ago with  my lovely SU daughter Tammy & the lovely Yvonne my SU friend & convention buddy- I said that I needed whipping into shape and need someone to nag me into getting back to blogging........ And Yvonne has been doing just that, every couple of days, she has sent me a text, sometimes in BIG SHOUTY LETTERS TOO!!!!

I am sharing with you the Card and wreath, I made for my SU mum Julie Kettlewells birthday, she loved it so much, that she used the design to create a Christmas card project for the recent training event she held. Forgive the photos but they were taken at night under a desk light, so the calypso coral looks a little brighter than in real life!! xx

The Diorama card is created by folding & sticking two sheets of A5 card. you score both sheets using the lovely SU 'Simply Scored Scoring Board' along the top side at 1/4", 6 1/4" & 7 1/4". Before sticking the two pieces together using the 1/4" flap. I die cut an aperture into the front panel, I using the 'Labels Collection; from the 'Stampin' Up!' Summer Mini Catalogue.

I went to town with the punches and created 3d flowers on top of the water coloured wreath- stamped from 'Apothecary Art' stamp set. The banner was stamped again on to extra card and the greeting added from the same set and raised up, you can also make out the 'On colour' stamping on the soft suede labels die cut, using the flourish, from the 'Creative elements' Stamp set. The same stamp was also used to decorate the panel behind the diecut, again with more 'On Colour' stamping. 

I added a 'Friend' label using a stamp from the 'For my Family' stamp set, and even more punched flowers!

The envelope got some stamping and craft TLC too......

Complete with more punched and spiral flowers and bird builder leaves.

I made lots of 3D flowers in Calypso Coral card stock, using the Bigz 'Fun Flowers' die and the 'Big Shot' to decorate the wreath, I made a video on how to do this check it out here:

http://stampin-sally.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/back-with-premier.html

The top got some simple long loop bows of 'Soft Suede' striped grosgrain & Ruffled 'Calypso Coral' ribbon, 

I love it that the SU products all co-ordinate!

To break up the calypso coral blooms, I added some flowers created with the new 'Blossom' punch, from the Summer Mini, using 'Newsprint DSP' and an 'Antique Brad' to hold them together.

To secure the blooms on to the wreath I used, a hot glue gun and whilst the glue was still drying pushed a pearl headed pin into the centre of each of the 'Calypso Coral' bloom. I also pushed in some leaves that I had die-cut using the 'Little Leaves' sizzlit die.

I promise that I will be back- sooner than last time with a blog post, thank you for sticking with me, like a trusty 'Tombow'!!!!

And if you are in the UK and would like to purchase some of the lovely 'Stampin' Up!' craft goods, or even become a demonstrator like myself, then please get in touch....

My email is: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co,uk

or you can call: 07891605129

Thanks for stopping by

xXXx

Getting it together- at the last minute!

You may not be one who believes in star signs. but as a 'Gemini' goes I am fairly true to the star sign attributes... Chatty, Bubbly, Out going- Personality, and as in the 'Old school' 'Cadbury's' egg adverts, I do bite it and lick it! But I also have the awful traits of- never being on time, juggling too much, and being unable to say 'NO!'..... but these could be traits of any mum...... from any star sign!

Gemini's are know to make plans and not act on them...... I do make plans- surprising as that may seem! Quite often, I write them down- the only problem with these ones is that they get hid under the clutter on my desk!

And sometimes no matter how much I plan and try, I can never get it together till the last minute!

Well this card is one of those, what with an eventful morning yesterday- time to craft went out the window till 1pm and it had to be envisaged in my head and created in time for the school run at 3pm!! It had to be a 'special' card too, for Matthew to give his Auntie, I had already made Heathers and one from me & farmer Johnnie......And once you start sending people your handmade cards they do notice when you send them shop bought, so my mojo was whipped into action!

I had been stroking the lovely 'Apothecary Art' stamp set from the 'Summer Mini', for inspiration for a large card, I had made some note-lets with it, but hadn't drummed up the courage for a larger card and this design popped into my head...well minus the ribbon and brad!! 

My colour scheme is- 'Pool Party', 'Wild Wasabi', 'Very Vanilla', 'Soft Suede' & 'Crumb Cake'....

A bit of a wild card- as this Auntie loves pinks and purples!!

 I stamped & layered up the large wreath from the 'Apothecary Art' stamp set, using the coordinating 'Framelits- Decorative label dies' & It was water coloured in, using an 'Aqua painter & some ink off the tops of my ink pads. The sentiment is from the same stamp set, I made another stamp of the wreath and then 'Stamp-A-Ma-Jigged' the greeting on to the banner, then I could cut it out and raise it up. I added some spiral flowers and some layered up punched 'Itty Bitties' & 'Boho Blossoms' in 'Pool Party' and some leaves, using the leaf from the 'Bird Builder' punch in 'Wild Wasabi' & 'Crumb Cake'

After I had made the large focal image, I felt the card looked a little bland, so I added some of the lovely striped grosgrain ribbon and fastened it with one of the antique brads. To add an 'Auntie' sentiment, I stamped and then die cut the small lined stamp from the set & added the  wording with a coordinating SU marker,  finished it with an 'Itty Bitty' bloom and a pearl and popped it under the brad and ribbon.

The inside need some TLC-  so I added a little stamping to the base using the flourish from 'Creative Elements'- I have forgotten to mention that I did this to the base of the front of the card too! I then had a root in my bits box and came across a 'Pool Party' die cut framelit, that was perfect to put under a vanilla one, to give somewhere nice for Matthew to put his own personal greeting.

I hope you like my getting it together at the last minute card, do you ever get yourself into situations like this? I would love to know.

Thanks for stopping by

Sally-Jo

xXx

Tag a Tree.....

While blog hopping a couple of weeks since, I saw a post about a tag tree and I thought it could be great way to use the sticks I had collected for my Christmas display.

And when I walked in to team training last Saturday, with an armful of sticks, I think they wondered what on earth I had planned, but as you can see from the pictures, it becomes a lovely feature and would be great as focal point for lots of situations.......a wedding one would be lovely.....with blank tags for guests to leave good luck messages!

The main products used are totally gorgeous 'Stampin' Up!' silhouette stamps-'Forever Young' (Wood mounted 122570 £23.95/ Clear mounted 122572 £18.95) The new 'In Colour- 'Indigo Pool' and the lovely 'Basic Black' & 'Cherry Cobbler' Classic Stamp' pads.

The lovely doiley tags were cut on my SU 'Big Shot' Using the new 'Bigz- Perfect Pennants' Die (123126 £28.95)

This lovely tag shape came from the new die- Two Tags' (115954- £18.95), the swirl came from Baroque Motifs (113490 £28.95) and was decorated with some flowers, punched with the little flower from the 'Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack' (118309 £15.50) from some scraps of 'Indigo Pool' card stock and some SU Bling!The lovely cameo is stamped from the 'Forever Young' Stamp set & 'Indigo Pool' ink sponged around the edge, this is the second doiley shape on the 'Perfect Pennants Die'(.....I have yet to get round to the lovely bunting shapes on there!!)And this is the second tag, from the 'Two Tags Die', it even comes with a score line, so you can make a little tag, with a hidden area for a gift card or message ( this will be good for my future scrapbook pages!!) The foliage image stamp on these is just the top of the tree, from the 'Forever Young' Stamp set and the nifty 'Decorative Label Punch' trick, makes an appearance too!I also made some little birds, using our 'Bird Punch' and some scraps of the lovely 'Timeless Portrait' Designer series papers.I really love the little birds and think I may do some 'Christmassy' ones.I hope you like my 'Tag Tree' and I will be back over the next few days to show you some more delightful makes from this product range in the NEW- 'Ideas Book & Catalogue'

Thanks for looking

Sally-Jo xXx

Laugh, love & live.....

Last year a friend gave me a lovely set of wall art, with the words Laugh, Love & Live on, I have always liked the wording and last night started out making my own little version, I hope you like it as much as I do!!

I have used the fabulous 'crumbcake' and 'topnote' die as the base. and stamped around the top edge of each, with the swirl from the 'Simply Said' stamp set.

The letters were cut with the 'Timeless type' alphabet dies, Birds cut with the 'Two step bird punch' in 'Rich razzleberry' & 'Old Olive', you may be able to see that they were over stamped in co-ordinating ink, with the 'Fine flourish' stamp, the branches were cut out of chocolate chip, using the branch, from the same punch.I added some hearts stamped from the 'I heart hearts' stamp set and punched out with the hearts punch, some were dangled from linen thread, for the centre love panel.

To finish it was tied together using some of the 'Linen thread' to give it a rustic look.

In a hurry today as I have my class and a chocolate treat yet to get!! xx

Power to the Punch!

Thank you to all for the kind birthday wishes and cards for my birthday, yesterday. It was one of those days that started early and finished late too........Heather was on a trip, Johnnie was silo-ing and and luckily he fitted me in a tea out!!

Here are a few cards that I made for my recent launch party, that show the how versatile a few humble punches can be, and yes the 'Stampin' Up!' punches work with the SU card!!

Using the 5 petal flower you can make a lovely bloom!

The lovely two step bird over stamped with the 'Fine flourish' Stamp.

A mini bouquet made with the boho blossoms and a scalloped circle.

A floral cluster, created with the scalloped circle and the boho blossoms and using the branch from the two step bird.

Combined with some faux ribbon trim made with the eyelet edge border punch and some backgrounds made with the fine flourish stamp, I think these cards pack a punch!xx