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

Oooo my gosh......

Sorry I didn't post as promised yesterday, time ran away with me!

Well thank you for all the responses to Fridays 'Blog Candy' giveaway, It has taken a bit to go through them all, and check that the choice of punches were the same as mine, but out of them all there was only one that matched my punch list.....and that is 'Linda Walmsley'! Congratulations and a parcel will be in the post to you soon!! xx

My children go back to school tomorrow, so I have a few homes jobs to get done, so today's post is just a quick one showing how the pig was made from the various punches.

I will hopefully get some craft time tonight, so will be back with something else tomorrow. If you have any questions please do get in touch xXx

Pennants for Sail!!!

A few years back, before I had discovered the joys of 'Stampin' Up!', I can remember trawling round a craft show, and stopping to look at a stand, whilst there a lady with a personality bigger than myself, started telling me that she would never buy a rubber stamps, unless she could think of at least 7 ways to use them!

I have always liked the idea of getting your moneys worth out of your craft stash and this new set out of the NEW 'IB& C' is fantastic for versatility! Its called 'Pennant Parade' (122740 Wood mounted £20.95/ 122742 Clear mounted £16.95) and when used with the matching punch-'Petite Pennants Builder' (122361 £15.50), it makes mini bunting a 'doddle'!

But hey! Us crafters want to get more out of it than that,

don't we???

Well here is my take on a card for a young boy!!

I did a bit of folding to give the card a '3D' effect.

I was a bit punch crazy too, but they do take the hassle out of cutting fiddly shapes like the circle for the sun, for the rays I used the end, of the pennants builder punch & the boats were made out of ovals, cut in half length ways. Even the waves were cut with a punch too, can you guess which??

I have included a picture from above, that shows that the banner was given a little dimension, and that the sails of the boat were not stuck completely down, but just to the masts which were made from half a cocktail stick........a Cheese & Pineapple moment!!

This is a side on view, then you can see the fold, The whole card will fit nicely into a DL envelope too, which would be cost effective to post.

I hope you like my pennants make, I have a few more makes planned to show the versatility of this set & and I will offer free P&P (in the UK) to anyone who purchases both the stamp set & matching punch, from myself, until Midnight on Saturday 8th October!

Email me: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you

Sally-Jo xXx

Fresh Cuts!

To days blog project is something which out of my sample box. that has never graced these pages, so apologies to those that have seen it at my workshops and events!

It features a retirement set, which is perfect for making note cards:

Fresh Cuts, Item Number: 111634 Price £21.95

It contains 5 stamps: A large focal college, a small flower, a branch of foliage & the sentiments: 'For you' & 'Thank you'

Using just Whisper White & Very Vanilla Card stock, you get a different look with different inks!

Here I used a 'Old Olive' Classic Stamp' Pad.

And for the other two note cards I used the same colours of base card, but stamped the image using a 'Chocolate Chip' Classic Stamp' Pad.

The set was finished with a label made from the stamp images and punched out with the Oval & Scallop Oval punches, the band to fasten them together is just some packaging, I am hoarding!

This is a lovely set for those just beginning to stamp, as the main image fills the front, of a small card and shading to the flowers is easy to add, using a water brush and ink out of the stamp pad lad lid!

I know many of my regular event attendees have already purchased this, and many other retirement products, and i would hate you to miss out too!

Please get in touch with me: sally-johoughton@hotmail.co.uk

or ring me Tel: 07891605129.

Even if the retirement products don't sell out they are not available after September 31st 2011, Also at training yesterday it was confirmed, what is not being carried over from the 'Mini Catalogue' so email me if you would like to know too!

Right off to brave the rain at the 'Westmorland' Agricultural Show, does anyone know if it will be better to travel by boat, up the M6, after all yesterdays showers??!! ;-) 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

A busy day!!!

Morning all!!! As I type this it's just turning 2am, and I can't sleep as I am excited about going to SU team training today.......I have to set off to Pudsey at 8.30am at the latest! It's the first time I have been to one of these events and I am looking forward to learning more about Stampin' Up! and also making some lovely things to boot!

Everyone at home has extra activities tomorrow....Johnnie & Heather are off to help take the stage down at school and Matthew is off to a friens, 'Laser tag' party, so here is a little card I created for him to give.

I still had a few monsters from the 'Make-a-monster' stamp set stamped and coloured in, so thought i would use them up, along with some of the party this way papers Julie gave me, so I sat down thinking I would soon have something put together......NO SUCH LUCK!! My creativity was drained, so i messed around with something totally different.........this time i got ink smudges all over it, and it wasn't something I could have worked in to the design, so it went in the bin!!! I know, nothing on it was salvageable!! Do you ever have crafting days like this???

So I went back to my monster, and here is what I came up with.

It's not the most stamped or creative card, but I did get a few ideas that could be used for future projects.......

The background matt is made up or scraps of the 'Party this way' papers, stuck flat to the card base

I made a tab, to stick to the edge of the topper, with an off cut of the paper that happened to have an eight on, which is how old he is, but this could be tabs of your off cuts just to add dimension.
Don't be afraid to chop at your punched shapes.......originally I had planned to use the sentiment set in the entire oval and scalloped oval punched shapes, but when done, it made the card look un-balanced,,,,,,,so I took the top edge and stuck it to the line of one of the background mats, giving me a different tab style finish.

Not forgetting the inside, and yet more scrap usage.....a small off cu of white card, was stuck to the inside back panel, for a clear area to write a personnel note, to make this area tie in with the front of the card, another scrap of the DSP was added to the top edge as decoration.

Anyway I am off to pop for a nap.....

will have to be up and doing, shortly! xxx

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