Face of thunder!!!

A quick post today as the next 24hrs are going to be filled with excitement and 'OOhhh's' and 'ahhh's' for us demo's, but more on that lower down this post!

Today's make is a layout, I was inspired to do by an ultra cute pic of Matt, usually he has the nickname of 'Sunshine boy', but when he saw me photographing it first thing yesterday morning for my blog, his cuddly cute-ness turned into a 'FACE OF THUNDER', So I post this as he angelic has one of last few lie-ins of the school hollies, and he doesn't see that he is wide on the web for all to see!The layout is cased from a previous SU catalogue, do you recognise it?? it has had a few product changes but the colours and actual placement are the same.

I did some computer generated journalling, and printed it onto our 'Whisper White' card and the title was cut in 'Pumpkin Pie' using the 'Timeless Type' dies & the 'Big Shot'. I think this is the big he dislikes the most, as while glaring at me he read it, and then stomped off, but it's from the heart!

The hearts were all stamped from the 'Simply Said' SU stamp set, this one I punched out with the 'Heart to heart punch' it was smaller than the image, but I liked the shape. A small flowery button and a bit of linen thread add texture too.

A little punching of 'Old Olive' card under the photo, using the 'Spiral Border' punch. You can just see another of the strips of the 'Brights- Designer series paper' as well.

The cloud was cut free hand and 'Tempting Turquoise' ink was sponged around the edge, and the hearts were stamped from the same set as earlier and added up the side of the photo.

I hope you like it more than Mr. Face of thunder does, speaking of which, I have heard movement upstairs, so I will move on to the ultra important SU news..................................

Well it is a very exciting time at the moment, not just for me but for you my SU customers!

The LAST CHANCE LIST goes out at Midnight tonight, which means there may be reductions on retiring stock, So don't forget about the 'Retirement Party' I am hosting on Friday night, check out Mondays post or email me: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

Also the other big thing is that Tonight I get to PRE-ORDER lots of lovely new things from the New Catalogue and also to see the new catalogue for the first time! ( I am sooo excited ust to see the new 'IN colours'!!)

If you would like a copy of your own sending direct to you, they are £4.95 delivered direct to your door (RRP £5.95). Please email me at the above address, to arrange payment. Catalogues should be with you mid-September.

Right that is all for now, I will be back in the early hours of the morning, as I will definately be unable to sleep!!xxx

Throw'em at ya!!

Hmmmm my friend Deborah, says I am an 'All or nothing kind of Girl'!....well I am throwing all my takes on what else can be done with the SU 'Bauble' punch, straight at you while they are popping up in my insomniac induced mojo!

So here is today's take, have you spotted the bauble yet??!

I do admit to taking the scissors to it, just a little bit off, to make the bottom!! And the flowers...well I must not be able to sleep due to having Orchids on the brain! They were made using scraps of 'Melon Mambo'.....(yes I do love it & you get soooooo much in a single colour cardstock pack from SU!) & the smallest heart from the 'Heart to Heart' Stampin' Up! punch, to make the centres I just added some of the smallest SU bling (it is so, so sparkly, I may just stick it to my ears at convention and see if anybody notices!!).

My the stems were drawn free hand, with a 'Stamp & Write' marker. in 'Old Olive', the 'Stampin' Up!' People really are clever, to make everything co-ordinate, as the ;eaves were cut from some teeny tiny scraps of 'Old Olive' cardstock....(Hmmm if you know Deborah, at this point she would be saying ..'well she never chucks any scraps away and goes through the bin after mine!')

Here is a close up of the bauble, it was just punched out of 'Early Espresso' SU cardstock.

I have included a side on shot then you can see the dimension, I created and also how the main image goes off the top of the card blank!

To add a greeting, a frame from the 'Mini Catalogues' 'Four Frames' was stamped in 'Early Espresso' Ink, the 'Thank you' greeting is from the 'Just Believe' Stamp set and fits in the frame perfectly with the help of my trusty 'Stamp-a-ma-jig'! I used 'Old Olive' Ink for this and added a another little sparkly orchid bloom, and some ruched grosgrain 'Old Olive' ribbon to finish the card.

Please check out my blog tomorrow, when you will see more evidence of the insomniac induced punching frenzy, off to do School Holiday duties and entertain the children. xXXx

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

Taking Flight!

As on Sunday, it was the Christening of my littlest cousin Mia, who just turned One in June! On Saturday, I tried to make a card for the occasion, but my 'mojo' failed me! So I was very happy when it returned with the help of Victoria, early on Sunday morning!!
At our team training at the start of the month, the lovely Victoria Rogers had designed some fab Lay outs to go in shadow frames, using the SU square punches, now unfortunately for me, I don't 'yet' have the square punches, and had put this project idea on the back burner even though, I had sourced the fantastic frames.
check out her blog: http://bluejellystampin.blogspot.com/
So when when sat at my desk, the frame was there 'staring' me in the face! And I thought 'ooo' it doesn't have to be a square punch and the butterfly idea took flight!
I did a bit of 'two-step stampin' using my much loved but under used 'Stampin' Up!- Flight of the Butterfly' stamp set and the tool of perfect stamp placement-the 'Stamp-a-ma-jig'! Using all the scraps of whisper white card that I cannot bear to throw away!
The colour of ink used for the block wing colours were 'Melon Mambo' & 'Pink Pirouette' and because this stamp set has a co-ordinating punch, this project was scissor free! The butterflies were then given a slight fold to the wings, and stuck to a base of 'textured Whisper White' card using wet adhesive. I choose to stick mine in a heart shape, with them going all which ways, hopefully making them look like they have come to rest like that randomly!!
I added a hand journalled tag, that noted the date of the christening and Mia's full name, that was punched out of another scrap of 'Whisper White' SU card, using the decorative label punch. I sponged 'Melon Mambo' ink to the edges, so that it co-ordinated with the rest of the project.

I used the spare butterflies to decorate a brown paper bag, in which we gave the frame in. As I had added the personal details to the frame, I decided not to make a card and wrote a personal greeting to the reverse of the frame, hoping that it will become a decoration for Mia's bedroom.

I must say that given the cloudy start to the day, the sun shone for the garden party that followed the christening at church and it was great to get together with family and celebrate. Mia was so adorable in her Christening gown and hopefully a few of the pictures I have taken will make it to some scrapbooking layouts.

Friends xx

Over the last 24 hours I have had the pleasure of catching up with friends- last night I had a lovely surprise phone call from a friend across the Irish sea, It was great to catch up, and hear that she is settling into her new home so well xx, Today I assistted 'a school' mum friend in shopping for a new kitchen- the choice of door knobs is unbelievable!!, finishing for a girly chat and lunch xx And also my thoughts are with a very good friend, as she copes with the hassels of work, she deserves her well earned breakxxx

It has been great to know I have such good friends, and so when my Heather put in a request for a card late last night, I can understand the heartfelt love, friends can bring....one of her classmates, is moving schools and she requested a card, they could all sign, and then they wouldn't be forgotten.....weepy mummy moment xx

So here it is, using the lovely

'I [heart] hearts' stamp set from SU.

I made a little montage of hearts cut with the co-ordinating SU punches,to decorate the front of the card.

The colour scheme is 'Tempting Turquoise',

'Melon Mambo' & 'Pumpkin Pie'

The back panel, that held the ribbon tie in place, was decorated with random stamping of the hearts from the set, in the choosen colour way.

The fold out leaves were made by simply cutting three strips of 10cm x 30cn white card, scoring at 10cm intervals and then sticking together.

These were also stamped along the corners and the edges, to add decoration, with the 'I [Heart] Hearts' stamp set.

Heather was really pleased when she saw it this morning, and I was lucky enough to be in school and see, that many friends had wrote messages.

So cheers to friends and friendships, may we all be blessed with good ones xx

CAS......Christmas!!!

OK I have mentioned the dreaded 'C' word again.....but teamed it with CAS, this stands for 'Clean and simple'. This is- sort of a less is more approach to your card lay outs, and can be a good approach to bulk card making!

For these cards I came up with one layout/ design idea and I just changed the ink colour, for variation! It's a great way to make each card slightly different!

Using the snowflake from the 'Winter Post' SU stamp set, I inked it up in my chosen colour and stamped it on the top 2/3's of the card blank, to get a shade variation I used the 2nd and 3rd impression from the stamp too.......this means that I didn't add anymore ink, I just stamped it again for the 2nd time and then the 3rd, again not adding ink, so the shade goes lighter.......it's amazing what you can do with ink!!

The colours I have used for these samples are from the 'Stampin' Up!- Brights' collection and are 'Tempting Turquoise' and 'Melon Mambo', but don't be held back by this....your cards can be made in a colour of ink of your choice!

The sentiment is from the SU stamp set 'Heard from the Heart', this set of stamps has lots of different sentiments and I used the Christmas one, they all have hand written look to them, and the sweeping line in and away just calls out for some of our SU bling, on both sides-the camera never really picks up how super sparkly this is! To add a bit more of a sparkle I added a tiny 'bling' to the centre of three of the snowflakes too!

To follow on from the front design, I have added stamping directly to the inside of the card......it saves the hassle of cutting an insert, decorating that and sticking it in too, but the main reason is that the 'Whisper white' card stock is perfect for stamping on so why waste the inside area?!!

I have just realised that I haven't decorated any envelopes to match, but this would be easy to do along the same lines......hmmmmm I think I will just nip and do that now! Please leave suggestions of your 'CAS' Christmas card ideas via the comments, it would be great to know what people are making xxx

Chariot at 7.30pm please!!

Today has been one of those day's were I have been here, there & everywhere- apart from at my craft desk......that is until an hour ago!!

Tonight Johnnie & I, are at a 'Toga' party for a family friends 18Th, so I have been mooching around the shops, trying to put together a Roman-esque outfit, I hit it lucky on the Gold bangles as ASDA were having a sale!!

Anyway I wanted to create a card, that was suitable for a trendy lady, who is now 18 and came up with the colour combination of- 'Melon Mambo' and 'Basic Grey' 'Stampin' Up! Classic Ink pads', 'Whisper white' card stock with a touch of 'Tempting Turquoise' grosgrain ribbon.

The stamp set is 'Just believe'

I cut the numbers using my 'Big Shot' and the numbers from the 'Timeless Type' Alphabet die set, from a few scraps of 'Melon Mambo' card stock. The frame was stamped once in each colour and layered up to create an area, on which to stick the numbers.

A bit of stamping to the insert and the envelope, I felt gave the card a pretty finish.

Right got to dash, my chariot is waiting, it's just a shame Russell Crowe, isn't going to be there!!

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

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

Soooo excited!!!

Over the last week I have struggled to get to sleep (it explains why i quite often post in the wee hours!!) and have nearly been heard to shout in the morning 'is it Saturday?'. I am so excited to show my friends all the lovely the fun I have been having, and share with them, how 'Stampin' Up!' can put the SPARK, back in their craft life!

Ok....you may have seen these pics before but 'Vintage Vogue' is one of my all time favourites out of the lovely 'Stampin' Up!' Ideas book & Catalogue, and I have decided that this stamp set is going to be the focus of my first card class! Advanced booking & special stamp set included deal, will be announced at the launch party, this Saturday night, if you want to attend, please email ( sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk ) as spaces are limited x

PS. Love to Linda K, who has booked a workshop in June to make the most of the extra Hostess Benefits offer, that runs for June & July, ring or email to discuss your free, at home,workshop.

PPS. Have you noticed I changed my profile pic-do you like?? The other one was a couple of years old, and didn't do much for me (well Vin Diesel may be following my craft blog. just to get to know me before he asks me out!!) and I didn't realise how much weight I have lost till lately, and let's say that the before and after shots have helped me decide that I won't be having my hair back in a bob, like my mum keeps suggesting!!