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

Christmas Spirit.....

Whooo hooooo......... It was probably a good idea that last week, my Internet connection was very limited, as yes I made a start on my Christmas shopping!!........At least a whole week earlier than last year!!! This year I have been very honest with the children, that Santa's gifts are not an endless pile of stuff, and that there is more to Christmas than presents. I think that I may have got this across to my 10 year old, who acts like she is 19!! When sat on the sofa having an extremely late night cuddle because she couldn't sleep, last night, she was peeking at the ads on TV, she saw the 'John Lewis' one come up and my!, does it bring a tear to my eye! So when it finished I asked did she get the meaning.... there was a short pause.....'Yes! Its better to give, than to receive!!', all of a sudden her being a rubbish sleeper and still being awake at nearly midnight was manageable!!

Anyway with my brother coming around yesterday, the technical glitch is now sorted, with a little grey flashing box- like- thing, stuck to the side of the lappy, I can now upload and type, with out it having some kind of hissy fit, crashing and losing it all!!

So here is a Christmas Scrapbook lay out that utilises some none Christmas papers, can you guess what they are?? Yep- Timeless Portrait, the cherry cobbler is just right for Christmas lay outs- so get using up your odds and ends, on your last minute Christmas projects, and if like me you are counting the pennies- get out your stash and create a few lay outs as gifts!! 

The embellies were created by stampin' and punchin' the tags from 'Tags till Christmas' & also the spotty frame from 'Four Frames', they look good as cluster of 'bits' and because I stamped them, they all match, as I could use the same Ink... 'Cherry Cobbler'!

Even though its a christmas layout, I have kept it very masculine,

and the rouched 'Striped Grosgrain Ribbon' helped.

Here is a straight on view, the picture isn't too good, but at least you can see my positioning.....and now that I have looked at it like this, I feel that the top left corner is a little bare.... hmmm what do you think it needs??

I should be back tomorrew, the rest of today is planned out helping santa and maybe a little christmas craft too!! And if you havent seen the ad, here it is xxxx

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

Alot to get excited about......

There is so much going on at the moment.....school open evening, High school applications, Getting ready for training & SU Convention,Getting ahead for Christmas.....I know I keep mentioning this, but we only have 73 days to go to the day!!!

Its is hard to fit it all we want to do, and it was the same for so many people I spoke to last night, making calls for the 'Book-A-Thon', and it was great of them, to make time, to let me in to there homes and Craft Clubs to Share my love of Craft & 'Stampin' Up!, by hosting a 'Workshop'. Thank you so much for booking and our fantastic 'Idea Book & Catalogues' are winging there way to you!....Did you know that you get one for FREE for hosting a workshop?? And that they are so glossy and Packed full of more Craft ideas than any UK craft magazine.....well that is my opinion, but book a workshop to find out for yourself!

Well as I have already mentioned that we are firmly on our way to Christmas, so how about a little Christmas Card? It showing one of the new stamp sets from the New 'IB&C'

It's called 'Beautiful Season'

(Wood mounted 122680 £20.95/ Clearmount 122682 £16.95)

And it really does show how beautiful the season can be!

The swirls on the base card were created with 'Baroque Motifs'

(Woodmounted only 113490 £28.95)

The Big Shot & Glimmer paint came out for this too!

And the decorative label punch!!

Right off to make swaps for Saturday........OOOOOoooo so so excited!!!

Sally-Jo xXx

Christmas punch...es!

Over the weekend I did manage some blog hopping and came across an American Su demonstrator, Angie Kennedy Juda, who is very inventive with punches, she had made a Father Christmas using the very versatile Stampin' Up! punches. Inspired by this I had a bash at doing my version.



Can you guess what punches I used?? And I have just realised that i have given him a dimple on his nose & chin (NOTE TO SELF....less force with the tweezers for placements of bits and bobs!!)



I also made a little box, using the 'Top Note' Su exclusive 'Big Shot' die, on which I could stick the FC!!



The Box was made out of 'Crumb Cake' card and was stamped with the little trio of snowflakes stamp from the 'Serene Snowflakes' set, using crumb cake ink.



Here is a picture of the inside, the top just sits over the bottom when shut.
Have you guessed what punches I used, have a go via the comments section, it would be great to see what you guess!

Tomorrow is 'Creative Cafe' and we will be having a 'Make & Take'- creating a none Christmas version of the Top Note box.

Everyone is welcome to attend, just email or ring me, then i will know how many kits to make. We start at 6.30pm and run to after 10 as it's the school hols!! The venue is Delicachix's, 14 Woodplumton Road, Lane Ends, Ashton, Preston. xXx

Only 166 days til Christmas!!

Am I the only person to be thinking of Christmas in July??!!

Well it is fast approaching........I have already done some Christmas shopping, it's not that I am ultra organised, it just happened to be a good offer.....one that i couldn't miss!!

And the other week, I made a start on my Christmas craft projects, by attending Julie- my SU mum's 'Christmas in July' class, it has been ages since I had been to a craft class, and it was great to make new friends and share our love of craft. Julie had come up with some fantastic ideas, and is happy for me to 'CASE!'- Copy And Share Everything! Because when it comes to stamping, great ideas are meant to be copied and shared!

Here are some photos of a fantastic gift card holder we made,

you can get 2 out of an A4 sheet of card!

The 'Stampin' Up!' 'Ornament Punch' is used to make an aperture.

And also to cut out the bauble,from the SU 'Contempo Christmas' stamp set.

It is such a clever design as the gift card pops up when it is opened...note that I didn't have a gift card to hand so used a piece of paper to show this!!!

If you would like to make something handmade, this Christmas, then book on my own

'Christmas In July Class' on 24th July.

This class is suitable for non-crafters...

as well as 'old-hands'

& promises to be the start of a Joyous creative Christmas!