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

Punch crazy!!!

So after a vase and a flower, in my insomniac induced punching frenzy, I through all punching control out the window, and thought I may as well go the whole hog....

This card used four punches and also the 'Big Shot'!

So here is the Hot Air Balloon Bauble!!!

A side view to show how i made a little easel card.

The baubles were punched out of whisper white card and then run through my 'Big Shot' with the 'Perfect Polka Dots' Stampin' Up! Embossing folder. They were inked with either 'Rose Red' or 'Wild Wasabi' SU ink, to add colour. Turned upside down and with a little SU 'Linen thread' added to make ropes, you soon have the makings of a 'Hot Air Balloon'

The lovely billowing clouds were created b sponging the 'Bashful Blue' SU ink along a scrap of paper, that had, had the 'Scallop Circles' Punched along it! The birds were added with a pen.

The baskets were created, by stamping the square patterned heart from the 'I {heart} Hearts' Stampin' Up! Stamp set, on to 'Chocolate Chip' card with 'Chocolate Chip' Ink. I then trimmed the little basket shape 'free hand'.

The sentiment for the main topper came from the 'Just Believe' SU stamp set, it is stamped in 'Chocolate Chip' SU Ink.

The easel card blank was created from a piece of A5 'Crumb Cake' card, that was scored in half and then had one of the leaves scored in half again. The stopper bar, was created by punching along both sides of a strip of 'Chocolate Chip' SU card stock, with the 'Scallop Trim Border Punch', I then added a label from the SU 'Four Frames' stamp set, with a sentiment from 'Just Believe', using the 'Stamp-a-ma-jig'.

I hope you have enjoyed my variations on a bauble, please get in touch if you come up with any more bauble ideas, I would love to know. xXXx

More of a 'Mist'!

Well I did as I said I would on Saturday, and created a Layout to match the card, all the products and techniques are the same, so I won't bore you with a load of waffle, I will just leave you with the pictures!!I am off now to entertain the children, and in Matthew's case he is sat waiting for me to strip the wallpaper in his new room, good job it is 'Creative Cafe' tonight, I will be looking forward to leaving the children at home and having some grown-up craft time! Everyone is welcome, the doors open at 6.30pm and we are at Delicachix's, Lane Ends, Ashton.

In a bit of a 'Mist'!

Yesterday I had fun playing with a canvas kit a facebook friend had given me, to complete it, I had to add spray inks, when I received my starter kit there was a re-fill of the 'Marina Mist' SU ink, so I added a few drops to a mister and had a fantastic spray ink to match the 'Stampin' Up!' Ink pads......note to self, I need more ink refills to make more colour mists!

The canvas kit called for me to colour a doily with the spray ink, but my scrap paper was left with a delicate silhouette, and it inspired me to make this card.

The card base is made from 'Crumb Cake' SU card stock, cut to fit a DL envelope. The doily is one from my stash....hmmm she hoards doilies....well the local village 'Flower, Produce & Handicraft show' have a Children's doily colouring class, and my two love to enter this, so when I see nice doilies I pick them up.....believe me not all doilies are pretty!! Anyway here is a close up of the 'Marina Mist' sprayed over the doily.
I then created a collage of items to create a focal point, across the lower third of the card base. The band of corrugated card was salvaged from some packaging, and a strip was ripped to fit across the card.

I gathered a short piece of 'Old Olive' ribbon and stuck it to the right, of the band.

I stamped the rose frame from the 'Stampin' Up! Four Frames' stamp set, with chocolate chip ink, on to a scrap of 'Crumb Cake' card and punched it out using the coordinating punch, I then splattered it with 'Old olive' ink and stuck it, so it was peeping out from under the top left edge of the band.
I stamped 'Friend' and 'Love' from the 'Tiny Tags' SU stamp set, in 'Old Olive' ink, on to 'Crumb Cake' Card stock, they were then punched out using the 'Jewellery Tag' Punch. the 'Heart from the same stamp set was stamped with 'Chocolate Chip' Ink and punched out using the smallest heart from the 'Heart to Heart' punch. This was mounted with a small foam pad on to another jewellery tag. I knotted these on to a piece of linen thread that had been wrapped around the band.

Just peeking out from under the bottom right edge of the band, is the bird frame, stamped as the rose one, and on top of this is a flower made with the 'Flower Accent'. It was stamped in 'Old Olive' ink, on to 'Crumb Cake' card stock, this was trimmed out and stuck on top of the bird label with a foam pad, the large glass pebble is from my stash, I picked a whole bag of them up for a couple of pounds, they are the ones used for putting in the bottom of bowls of flowers!

Before sticking the collage band to the card base I added some splatters of the 'Old Olive' Ink.
As my SU mum Julie would say...'here is an arty farty angle' of the completed card!

Right! I am off to re-work this in to a

Lay out for a scrapbook page.....

while the urge to mist is upon me! xxx

Something different!

I have had a complaint..........can you believe it?? (hmm no pun intended!!) My friend Deborah has asked me to stop using the 'Just Believe' stamp set, she has seen enough of it!!!

So following feedback, here is something I made last night, it's a fold out book, I have made this for Heathers class parents to sign over this week, to say thanks to the class teacher.

It uses the gorgeous butterfly, from the 'Strength & Hope' SU charity set and also the rose frame from 'Four Frames' in the mini catalogue. The colour combination is 'Pear Pizzazz', 'Blushing Bride', 'Basic Black' & 'Whisper White'.

The boards for the front & back of the book were covered with pieces of 'Pear Pizzazz' designer series Papers.To add depth the base layer of the decorated panel was ran through the 'Big Shot' using the 'Vintage wallpaper' embossing folder, I then sponged the 'blushing bride' ink in from the edges to highlight the embossing.

I wanted to create a college style decoration for the top of the book, so I used the rose frame and a little masking to create a base layer, stamped in 'basic black', the roses and leaves were coloured using the 'pear pizzazz' & 'Blushing Bride' ink.

I stamped the butterfly twice and trimmed around them, these were given some shape in the wings using a 'bone folder' and then mounted to the rose frames panel, and some lovely SU jewels were added, to the bodies.

The sentiment banner was created by stamping the 'Thank you' (can you guess which SU stamp set I took it from??!!) and then using the 'Stamp-a-ma-jig' to use the edge of the 'rose frame' stamp to add decoration, the roses and leaves were coloured as before.

Now comes the inside fold out.......now it does look tricky, but if I can do it anyone can! You start with 3 squares of white card and you score them and join, together to make fold out pages. I have taken lots of shots of this so you can see the score lines and were they are 'valleys & mountains'!

The decoration of this was kept really simple and just the butterfly was stamped around the edge, in groups of two, in black ink. I did this before it was stuck to the covers, so the back of the fold out could be decorated in the same way too.

The back board was left plain, as a ribbon from my stash that was used as a closure for the book, looks nice tied across this.

Apologies for the photos, I took them under the day-light lamp in the 'wee hours' of this morning, as I wanted to start getting it signed today, If you would like to know dimensions etc. please email me and I will gladly share what I know.

I will be back tomorrow, with more Christmas in July! I had a very wet drive across to 'Pudsey', on Saturday, to meet many of my SU family and do 'Team Training'. I have come back fired up with lots of Christmas ideas, it was a fantastic day with inspiring people, and brilliant events like that add to the enormous pleasure that SU brings to me. xXXx

Does it feel like summer??

Today is the first day of summer, but as I look out the window, all I can see is puddles of rain!!

A couple of weeks ago, Heather and Matthew's school, had a float in the village festival, it was all themed around the circus big top and was really bright and cheery, Matthew dressed as a strong man and Heather as the ring Master, I had took a few snaps, but it was so bright it was hard to get a shot, LOL....we are never happy with the weather!!!

Anyway here is the page i created! To make the background,I used the star punch to make a mask, and then inked through it,to create a random star pattern 3/4 of the way down the page.The pictures were stuck, on a 1/4 of the way down, at 'Jaunty' angles and the over hang trimmed off. Next job was to make some kind of title....now when I had first signed up to demo a few weeks ago, Julie- my SU mum and up line mentioned that one of her jem's had used the four labels stamp set and the co-ordinating punch, to make bunting. Now I haven't seen that bunting, but with that idea in mind I went on to create my bunting, using the same ink colours that I had used for the stars-Pacific Point, Real Red, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo & the in colour 'Pear Pizazz. I made a score line about 3/4 of a centimetre, down from the short edge and used some wet glue to fix the flags to a piece of string.
The black title letters were die cut, using my 'Big Shot' & the 'Timeless type' alphabet dies, a little journalling was added to the bottom and a quick doodle around the photo's and my page was finished.

I hope you like it as much as my children do!

Tonight it is 'Creative Cafe' at

'Delicahix's'

Lane Ends, Ashton, Preston.

Bring your own craft project &

craft alongside fellow grown-ups,

Refreshments provided.

Email me to secure your place: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

Can't sleep because........

Sorry I haven't been posting over the weekend........I had so much planned, and had got lots of jobs done on the Saturday, then I could have some weekend craft time, but by bed on Saturday night, I was grabbing the tissues....yep I have a dreaded summer cold!!

Sunday was spent either dozing or reading 'The life of bees' book that my good friend, Deborah, bought my for my birthday, I have finished it, but can't say much as she hasn't finished reading her copy and I have also picked it, as my book club read, but anyway, on a caffeine and cold mixture high, I have just spent a few minutes crafting, errr yes, at this late hour!! making a little gift holder to send a little treat to a friends Grandson, when I post her SU goodies tomorrow.

I die-cut a top-folded card, using the lovely 'Top note' SU exclusive big shot die, I then added a couple of score lines to create the base, a couple of holes were punched at the top open edge, so the gift could be tied in place.

The fantastic, trendy spotty frame from the 'Four Frames' stamp set was stamped in real red ink and punched out using the co-ordinating punch, to add a quick and easy place to write the lovely 'little mans' name. And a little of the 'Designer series papers'-Brights, punched with the 'star punch', added a little quick and easy decoration!

This picture is at, a bit of a funny angle, but you can just make out the fairly flat base and also the back that were made with just a few cranks of the 'Big Shot' handle, also you can see my love of also using the fantastic 'designer series papers' as my card shoot backdrops!!

I can't wait to see a picture of the charming Alex with his gift xx

Using the die to cut along the top

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