50 shades of SU colour.......

Long before we had heard or even read the 'Fifty Shades' saga, 'Stampin' Up!' were leading the way with  their fifty shades of SU colour! My crafty friends tell me that I have a thing for 'Soft Suede' from the 'Neutrals' group, so following in the footsteps of 'Anastasia Steele'- and her trying something new!!! I turned to my SU version of 'Christian Grey'.......my trusty 'Colour Coach' for guidance into a new colour combo!! 

I had a desire to use the lovely 'In Colour'- 'Wisteria Wonder' and the colour coach suggested that a good tonal match would be 'Elegant Eggplant'- a combo that I have never tried before......... but what about a 'Neutral'....well SU may have a whole rainbow of Fifty colours in their range but they don't have fifty shades of grey, they only have one colour that is referred too as grey, and that is 'Basic Grey'- well there was nothing basic about Mr Greys, grey eyes, so I choose 'Sahara Sand' the colour that can sometimes looks icy grey or sometimes look warm grey!!! 

As it was my first time, I stayed safe, and made a few pillow box die, thank you's for my 'Stampers 5' group. The grey of the tea cup, from the 'Summer Mini' SU Stamp Set- 'Tea Shoppe' looks very warm on these, and you can just make out the over stamping, on the 'Cup of thanks' label, with the flourish, from the 'Creative elements' SU Stamp set.

 Each of the boxes got a little hand cut butterfly, that was stamped from the 'Creative elements' SU Stamp set, in the 'Elegant Eggplant' SU ink. 

 To finished each of the boxes, I gave each of the tea cups a little 'Itty Bitty' punched flower in 'Wisteria Wonder' SU card stock, with a little SU rhinestone gem for the centre, they also all got a squirt of the 'Champagne- Shimmer Paint' that has been watered down and put in a misting bottle!

So now I had dipped my stamping into a new colour combo, there was no stopping me.......

Getting braver, I made some little card blanks from some 'Sahara Sand' SU card stock, and decorated them with Stamping- using the same Stamp sets as the pillow boxes.

 For this card, I used the large tea cup from the 'Tea Shoppe' Stamp set and stamped the label from the same set too, it works with the large oval and scalloped punches beautifully.

 The other two cards were made using waste 'Wisteria Wonder' card stock, from when I die cut the boxes, to make a decorative panel with the addition of the flourish stamp from the 'Creative elements' SU Stamp set and as with the Pillow Boxes I used 'Elegant Eggplant' SU ink. 

 To add a little variation to the other, I just tuned the band horizontally!

The paper lunch bag was decorated in the same way too, using the larger label text stamp from the SU 'Tea Shoppe' Stamp set, it coordinated beautifully with the 'Extra Large oval Punch' too!

 To the bag, I added the large tea cup, which was stamped in  'Sahara Sand' SU Ink and hand cut. To finish  a butterfly, stamped in 'Elegant Eggplant' SU ink,  and was stuck to the top edge of the tea cup. 

I have enjoyed my foray into using different SU colours. and as the old adage goes......

'Don't knock it, till you try it!!'...

I am off to twiddled my colour coach,

a little more!!

If you would like to purchase a 'Colour Coach' or any other SU stash,

then please get in touch:

Telephone/ Text: 07891695129

Email: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

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

All at once..........

Last week has gone in a blink!........ What with 'Creative Cafe', Matthews School Play ( I did end up watching all three shows!!) and helping Heather turn Foxglove into a 'Sport Relief' Red pony, on Friday (they raised just over £50!!)- my blog has been  neglected, sorry!

Thank you to all. who left comments, its been great to have some questions too, so before I go off onto something else, I will get those answered:

Allie my SU sister, left a lovely comment and also asked how I got the wreath shape- well I drew around my red sticky strip and cut out a 'scratch' paper mask, I then stuck it to the centre, with a little making tape folded round on its self, and stamped around the edge of the mask. It does take a little fiddling and I had, had the practise at Christmas, but if I can do it anyone can!

Kate. a fellow SU sister, also asked with her lovely comments, the finished size of card- it was 21 cm's or for those who are more traditional 8 inches, which can be made out of two sheets of A4 card stock.

Here is a picture. of one of my Christmas wreath cards. created in the same way- just with poinsettias, made with SU punches, and the lovely Christmas sentiment- from 'Delightful Dozen' stamped to the middle.

Now I couldn't just leave you with a lone Christmas picture, especially as the sun has been shinning like it thinks it's the middle of summer here!! So I will show you the boxes I decorated for Linda's 21st gifts, she is back home in the Isle of Man now, and she reported back a nice cam ferry crossing!!

My special gift was a 'Simply Adorned' necklace, which got a touch of 'Crochet Trim' & 'Seam Binding' and one of the gorgeous 'Trinket Keys'

I used the same supplies as the card, but with the sentiments from 'Your a Gem' &

'Tiny Tags' to create a custom tag for each box.

 Here shows the insert I made for the large-

'Simply Adorned Charm'.

Here are the boxes all lined up, ready to go in the gift bag. Linda was very excited, opening them all and placing them on the chain, it was great to give a special gift to a special person xx

If you would like to create a special gift like this,

then you can purchase all the goods through me, Sally-Jo! 

Contact me:

sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

Don't forget....

SALE-A-BRATION ends on Saturday, and it would be a shame if you missed out on a fantastic FREE gift, with every £45 you spend! 

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