Late Blossom-er!

Well I can't say that I was a late blossom-er, in many aspects of my life, but sometimes things have passed me by and I have thought 'Hey! Why didn't that happen for me?' or maybe 'Hhhmmm! I wish I had taken advantage of that offer!'. So as we go in to the last few days of the fantastic 'Stampin' Up!' Promotion of 'Sale-A-Bration' please take my advice and dont forget to take part, you can.......

For every £45 you spend you can earn one of 17 different items for FREE

And this year you can select 6 different existing catalogue items - how fantastic is that!

You can view them HERE!

But more importantly the best offer during SAB is to....

 If you join my team during Sale-A-Bration

(22nd January - 22nd March)

You will get an extra 25% worth of product FREE,

in your Starter Kit!

This means £162.50 worth of product

for only £99!

AND you also get a free business pack

worth £45!

Its the best deal on the Starter Kit out there!

Over £200 worth of SU craft Stash of your choice for £99!!

To sign up all you have to do is click HERE and you can join my team online!

BUT ARE YOU A 'LATE BLOSSMER'????

Have you been waiting, contemplating, maybe holding back because you are a little nervous?

It is not too late!

And to make it even more worthwhile,

if you sign with me,

I will give you 3,

of the exclusive Sale-A-Bration Gifts

And an SU shopping bag to put them in!

If you would like any further info, about this then please send me an email:

sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

And we can arrange a convenient time,

for me to call you.

Anyway..... in honour of the 'Late Blossm-er!' post title, I will leave you with the Scrapbook layout I created for my Daughter- Heathers Birthday the other weekend, I can't take credit for the lovely candid shot of  Heather and her Pony- Maggie, having a kiss in the show ring, it was taken by the lovely Beth Eastham- of Just Be Photography.

I have fallen in love with many things out of the SU Spring Seasonal, 

but the 'Feel Goods' sentiments work really well withmy annual cattie stash too!

A 'decorative label punch'and a 'Stamp & write marker' to add the time and date detail.

 A sentiment that 'Feels Good'!

  The gorgeous vintage chintz look with 'Stippled Blossoms' from the annual cattie and

some stitching from my old hand powered singer.

 A little background detail with the text & splatters from 'French Foliage'.

 Had to get a few hat pins in there!!

And here it is in my rummaged frame.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my ramblings,

thanks once again to Beth, for this charming picture,

and please dont leave it too late, get in touch and make it happen!

Love

Sally-Jo

xXXx

In a hurry... I am off of a curry!!!

Yesterday I chatted about special cards, done in a hurry, well here is a special card blogged in a hurry!!

I created this 8"x8" card for Matthew, to give to his Granny for her birthday, which is the day before mine!!

I created a lovely bunch of flowers for her using the 'Mixed bunch' stamp set & coordinating punch, see them blinged here with the gorgeous jewelled SU brads!

 I created the tag using the 'My Family' stamp set & the decorative label punch.

 The stalks and leaves were cut free hand out of 'Wild Wasabi' card stock.

 I love creating a decorative band for projects using the lovely 'Doily Lace Border Punch'.

I also used the stamps to decorate the inside of the card and also to make matching stamped front for the card too, I love that SU designs stamp sets that can be used in so many ways, being a Lancashire lass I like value for money!!!

Anyway must dash, off out for a curry tonight with the lovely Linda and discuss her random picks for her 'Stampers 6' order with me!!

Thanks for stopping by

Sally-Jo

xXXx

A drama & a diorama......

I had well and truly abandoned the keyboard and even my scissors, over the past couple of weeks!

My mojo had left me, it had gone on a 'long haul' holiday, not only was my back still niggling me but last Thursday farmer Johnnie had an appointment with the MRI  scanner, after his run in with a wayward wheel barrow over the festive period, and even though he looks like he as tough as anything, he needed some support, as they were sticking needles in him, in a very sensitive area too!

Any way with attendance at SU mum- Julie's training event, on Saturday, I was planning to force myself to sit at my desk, later on the Thursday night and come up with something for a swap, well a headache struck and with Farmer Johnnie feeling sorry for himself too, we only managed a cup of tea and some painkillers, so Friday came and Johnnie even though still hobbling donned his boiler suit and got back on the farm and I had to get my swaps done.... 

Well after a little faffing around and poking at bits of stuff I had started on ages ago, and squashing the massive box of rubbish at feet into a smaller pile, I came up with an idea- a friend and regular hostess, Linda King, had posted on their fb page (click here to see) a lovely diorama card, she had made, featuring the 'Spring Mini' stamp set- 'Marry Me'. Well at the training we had to focus on using some top secret SU stash ;-) and so my swap was created using lots of secrets, but was a diorama too!  

And today in honour of Linda Kings inspiration, and mojo boost, I have done my take on a 'Marry me' diorama, and I have included the discreet use of two new products that 'Stampin' Up!' are launching on the first of May!! I can't name the new products I have used, but everything else used will be given a label, so a little guessing is involved!!!

A colour combination of 'Pink Pirouette', 'Very Vanilla' & 'Basic Grey',

the card base was created from one A4 sheet of  card stock,

It was given a makeover with some simple score lines and and a bit of cutting with the 'Big Shot!' ;-)

 The set contains 6 stamps, one of which is this beautiful quote by William Shakespeare

 The front of the aperture was given a little stamping with the simple flower stems that are included in the 'Marry me' set, and some little punched 'Itty Bitty' flowers and SU gems added a nice touch.

 For the centre piece of the diorama I stamped the main bride & groom stamp, from the 'Marry Me' set and cut it out with a 'new tool' and my SU 'Big Shot'!!! ;-)

 I created some curled paper flowers out of 'Very Vanilla' card stock and dusted their edges with the 'Pink Pirouette' Ink, I also gave them lacy doily petticotes, using the 'triple layer doily punch'.

 I embossed the very back panel of the diorama, with the 'Manhattan Flowers' embossing folder and used my 'two way glue pen' & 'Dazzling Diamonds Glitter' to add a little sparkle, I also added a couple of pins with some 'Pink Pirouette' punched 'Itty bitties' on the end.

Here is a birds eye view of the diorama.

I am glad, I spent time crafting today, it was great to combine something old, with something new....

Also thank you for sticking with me through diorama & dramas XX

Details on the lovely SU stamp set 'Marry Me' that I have used today can be found in the link to the top right of this post, which takes you to an on-line copy of the 'Spring Mini'........

Remember that the UK 'Spring Mini' ends monday 30th of May,

and even us demo's are not told what, if anything out of it, is going to be carried over to future product lists...

So my advice is get it, while you can!

From Friday I will be placing orders every evening, till the close of sales on Monday night,

and what's more is that if you spend £45 or more, you are eligible for a free pack of DSP.

Contact me to find out more:

sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

Tel. No: 07891605129

A little under the weather......

Sorry for being AWOL folks, but the first week of the Easter holidays has left me drained, and suffering from a really bad back, I know exactly what I did to set it off,  I dangled from a tree, but teamed with the general bits and bobs that life throws at you in the holidays, I am feeling a little under the weather and have only just ventured back to my desk tonight, the first time since Tuesday!

Anyway feeling a little brighter after a chat with my mum this evening, I got heather to help me shoot a little video, on an ace technique, I shared with my 'Creative Cafe' ladies at our last session.....

I think I may have managed to refrain,

from my favourite phrase too!!

I was inspired to create, after seeing the cards & projects in the May edition of Craft Stamper, in the 'Stamping Contrasts' section. There were a few inky backgrounds and I fiddled around getting that effect with my SU stash!

Here are some pictures of the cards, as the film doesn't show the colours of the purple one well....

 Shades of yellow, with 'Soft suede' stamping

& card stock trim... 

Purples with 'Basic Black' stamping & card stock trim...

And my final colour combo.....

 Blues with 'Basic Black' stamping & card stock trim.

Here is a close up of the greetings, which are all in the stamp set, they were punched with the 'Decorative Label' punch & given a little stamping with the frond that is in the stamp set too!!

 The inside was given a little stamping too!

 And here is a list, were I jotted down which markers I used for my colour combos.

I hope you give this technique a try, as I say in the video...

If it isn't quick easy and achievable, then I wouldn't do it!

And do get in touch, and let me know if you come up with some different colour combos.

xXXx

Half done Projects.......

Is it just me that has half finished projects, that languish, waiting to be completed??? 

And is it just me that starts a project at the totally wrong time, like the idea jumps into that fuzzy box of space between my ears, just as the rest of me or that fuzziness is meant to be doing something else???

This card I sharing with you today, started life like that, as I was packing for last weeks 'Creative Cafe' the stamps sort of jumped into my hand, and the ink pads into the other!!!

And as I think about it, I was cooking tea, dealing with the my 'Darlings' (clenched teeth there), Showing my brother the problems that I have been having with my PC and wondering why Johnnie was so long at the doctors!!

Anyway in between hearing some great news from an SU sister today and catching up on some bits and pieces, I gave it a greeting and a few embellies, as it was shouting to be finished off.......

Yep! So when it was all going on...

I decided to do a little simple stamping,

with a moonlit, faux brayer-ed background!!

And today I finished it off with a little label

and stamped greeting......

A simple Knotted piece of grosgrain ribbon and 'Antique Brad'

And a trail of gems and pearls to add to the magic....

(I needed one to cover a 'boo boo' in the middle of the panel, but even I thought that just one lone gem looked odd,

so I turned it in to a trail!!)

But one 'boo boo' leads to another.... can you spot it here???

And here you can see the tone on tone-stamping,

to decorate the inside.

Well I hope you like the project, now its complete,

don't forget that SALE-A-BRATION ends on Saturday

so if your after the FREEBIES get in touch and I would love to place an order for you xXx

Back with a 'sugar rush' hit!!

Well since I last put my fingers on the keyboard, I have had a bout of the most horrendous cold, spent a lovely day crafting with a friend, assembled more flat pack, had a lovely workshop with the 'Preston Card Club' ladies, had the children's friends for a sleepover and fun swim, and have now got to the last day of the half term holidays .......still with the cold!!!


So my scissors have languished untouched and the computer has sat in darkness, until today when fuelled with the sugar rush of a 'Galaxy- Orange & Shortbread' choccie bar, I have made the an attempt to photograph, the card I made when at my lovely SU friend- Yvonne's, last friday!

Check out her blog here: 'Vonnies world'. Even though I was feeling totally ill, she lent me loo roll for my nose and cooked me the best Chorizo & lentil stew, that helped to perk me up!! Yvonne is addicted to rubber more than me, and has the lovely baby set- 'My Special Day', it isn't a set that I would have 'HAD TO HAVE'!! if you know what I mean?? But I had a little play with it and I am now feeling the urge to get it, and also the Iris set- 'Love & Sympathy' on the same page! Her is what I created.....

I went for a 'Crumb Cake' card base, with a punched Collage of  Stamped images, with a little 'Baja Breeze' Seam Binding, and a little snippet of 'Crochet Trim'.

I inked around the edges with the co-ordinating 'Crumb Cake' ink.

And even over stamped the tags, to add decoration. As Yvonne was so kind to share her stash and her hospitality, I made her one of these too, as a sample for her SU workshops!

Before I left Yvonne, rolled me a couple of sheets of the 'Jumbo Wheel'- 'Baby Tees' Item no. 118621 on pg. 42, here are a couple of quick and easy cards I created with a couple of the cute images...

These are really 'Clean & Simple' and they would make great baby announcements, just with a change of greeting, the dotty background border comes from the mini catalogue set- 'Borderlines'.

I coloured these while feeling ill, using the SU markers, and even did a few extra for a couple of layout ideas, so while the sugar rush is still with me, I will get them done!

xXXx

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

French Foilage Frenzy!!

November is going to be a month of madness.....well more of a frenzy of activity, action & excitement!

Its 12 days until my good friend- Katies', charity ball, in aid of the 'North West Air Ambulance' and I have a table plan to make, and then it's only 16 days until I set off on my first ever trip to the 'Stampin' Up!' convention, this year it is being held in Paris. It will also be the first time I have flown or been abroad, so I am more than a little excited!!

Whilst waiting for some 'Crystal Effects' to dry on an altered Jewellery piece, I was making this morning, I decided to put to use, a sheet of card I had stamped the other week, after being inspired by a lovely swap by Jules Kirkham, check out her blog: www.ribbonkisses.blogspot.com

Well here is my card, and yes its another big one, it will fit a C5 envelope though!!

This leaves, splats, text & postal frank are all from the lovely 'French Foliage' stamp set, it's quite apt that this is the stamp set I am featuring while gushing about my excitement at the Paris Convention!!The sentiment came from the 'Petite Pairs' Stamp set, I stamped both parts together, and punched out and stamped and inked around the edges.The base layer of 'Sahara Sand' was stamped with matching ink to add depth and a strip of 'Whisper White' card stock, was embossed with the lovely Square lattice embossing folder, and the lovely New 'In Colour ink pad- Pool Party' was sponged along the edge, a few of the lovely SU pearls were added for interest too!Simply decoration was added to the inside of the card base, again stamping colour on colour, makes a nice surprise for the recipient and takes the hassle of sticking in an insert!I hope you like my make and thanks to Jules Kirkham, for the inspiration, this was a stamp set that I had so over looked, but beleive that it will now become one of my favourites! xXx