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

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

A bit of bunting......

At half seven this morning, the sky looked promising there was a hint of blue sky and sunshine, and when seeing a Heather off to a friends birthday celebration, at 8am (yes! I was up and dressed, this Sunday morning!!!) I thought they may have been blessed with some sun.... now looking out of the window, its dull, grey and damp, so lets hope the card brought some sunshine!!

It's a take on a lovely card we made, at the recent 'Julies Jem's' training event, Julies 'Baggy Book' showcased 5 different card using the new 'Pennant Parade' SU stamp set (wood mounted 122740- £20.95/ clear mounted 122742- £16.95), and all I did for my version is add, 'Ella' & '8', using my SU 'Big Shot' and my 'Timeless Type' dies.

Here you can see the dimension of the little flower embellishments. It was created by simply rubbing the end of the bone folder in the centres of the punched 'Boho Blossoms' flowers, whilst they were on the 'Foam SU Mat'. The colours are all the New 'In Colours' apart from the colour I have renamed as 'Indigo Pool' which is really 'Island Indigo'!! And the offer to get these free, when you sign up as a demo, finishes at the end of the month, email me for details: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk And if you don't want to do workshops the 'Starter Kit' is packed with loads of really usable stuff, and you can pick your own stamps to the cost of there suggestions too, all with a massive saving off the catalogue price!!

The inside was given, a tiny bit of simple decoration, using a nifty punch trick, have you worked out how yet? Email me for details xx

The sentiment is short, sweet & sassy- for a small persons birthday, and a little SU bling, really makes it pop!!

So what are you up to today?? The reason I was up early, is that Heather was choosen to attend a very different kind of party.....she has gone to do some serious outdoor activities....Archery. Absailing & A 30ft Leap of Faith!!! (I cant hold scissors as my hands are shaking......at the thought of my 10yr old doing such amazingly brave stuff with her friend, who is only 8!!)

I know they will be supervised, but mums cant help but worry! xXx

When is a bauble not a bauble?!

While messing around late yesterday afternoon, I was wondering what else I could make out of the fantastic bauble punch, blog hopping over the weekend I had seen it as a Hot Air Balloon and a vase! I punched a few, out of 'Whisper White' card stock and jiggled them about on my desk and came up with grouping three of them, as an Orchid bloom. I had a go at adding colour by sponging them with 'Melon Mambo'.....My favourite Pink! And centre detail was added using the 'Boho Blossoms' punch, and 'Old Olive' & 'Daffodil Delight' Ink.

This morning I have made another 'Top Note' box for it to sit on and added some SU bling, to the centre, to finish it.

A couple of curls, made from scraps of 'Old Olive' card curled around a pencil, were added to added dimension.

The sentiment came from the 'Just Believe' SU stamp set.

I embossed the top note die using the 'Perfect Polka Dots' SU embossing folder, the front was only half embossed and the back completely.

As the box was made out of 'Whisper white' SU cardstock, colour was added to the box by sponging it with 'Old Olive' Ink.

I hope you like my alternative use for the bauble punch and would love to know what you have made with yours, mine has also been busy making baubles ready for my Christmas party, that I am holding in September, i will be showing you a sneaky peek of those closer to the date!! xxx

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