A bargain and a video tutorial to brighten your weekend!

Everybody's talking about the 'join Stampin' Up for only £25' offer! But what's it all about?! Well, the Stampin' Up starter kit is normally £99 (a great bargain as you get to choose £130 of products to put in your kit and you get free business supplies too); but as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, Stampin' Up has devised a way for you to experience for yourself the discounts, the resources and the family feel of belonging to the Stampin' Up family for only £25. There are no strings attached and if you don't feel it's for you, there are no penalties for dropping. Here are the details:

• For two weeks only (7th October - 21st October) the usual starter kit will be suspended and you'll be able to buy a starter kit for only £25. You'll get to choose items worth £26.95 and will get business supplies for free.

• You can buy the kit just for yourself or you can decide to share Stampin' Up with family and friends.

• After you've received your starter kit, you'll get a 30% discount on your first order of £150 or more placed within 45 days.

• You'll get 20% discount on orders of any amount after that.

• You'll only need to place orders of £275 or more by 30th April 2014 to be able to carry on being a Stampin' Up demo!

• There'll be lots of chances to earn freebies if you choose - and you'll also be in time to book yourself in for Stampin' Up's exciting 25th anniversary Convention in Manchester!

If you'd like to know more, feel free to email me or phone me on 01280 820593 for a 'no pressure' chat.

And now for something quite different:
I was staring at a Ferrero Rocher chocolate the other day, wondering whether I could turn it into a pumpkin...

... and this is the result! How did I make them? Well, I've put together a video tutorial so you can see!



I am frequently asked to do video tutorials and today's pumpkin treat is hopefully the start of a whole series of them. Even if you don't celebrate halloween, you'll love this quick little treat box, and it could work as an apple for going back to school treats, or a tangerine for Christmas...

I was rather late with this post today so I do apologise if you were wondering where I was. My daughter made me laugh at breakfast the other day when she turned up late and I asked crossly where she'd been and complained that her breakfast was going cold. "Never," she said, "ask a girl who wears cats-eye eye-liner why she's late!"

Have a great weekend, enjoy world cardmaking day and I'll see you soon,

Halloween sweeties in three minutes

'It's all about the candy' states the sentiment on today's card - and that describes the card very nicely! I've used just two stamps from Halloween Hello to make a really quick, fun card for Three Minute Thursday - come and see:

The sweeties were stamped randomly over one half of the smaller panel and the sentiment added to the white space using a stamp-a-majig to make sure it was straight. The sides of the panel were tapped gently into a Summer Starfruit inkpad to make a subtle border.

I stamped the sweetie image one more time onto a scrap of Summer Starfruit card stock, snipped it out with my sharp paper snips and attached it under the sentiment with a dimensional. Very quick and easy!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Halloween Hello
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso
Card stock: Whisper White, scrap of Summer Starfruit
Other: Paper snips, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.
• Customers placing orders of £250+ will get a whopping £65 worth of freebies during October!


Talking of sweet treats, do you remember this cute little pumpkin treat I showed you on Monday?

Well, tomorrow will see the relaunch of my video career as I show you how to make it! Be kind!

Hope to have news about joining Stampin' Up for the mad, crazy sum of £25 too! Don't miss that!

See you tomorrow,

Another Halloween Hello and a witches broomstick treat

I love Stampin' Up's Timeless Talk stamp set for its beautiful vintage images but the thing that made me want it most of all was the speech bubble! The size and shape are perfect and the possibilities are endless. It makes the skull from Halloween Hello in today's cards REALLY say hello for instance! Come and see:

How can a skull be cute for goodness sake?! I have no idea, but it sort of just is! And have you spotted the witches broom in the front? There seem to be a lot of sugar-crazed tots around at halloween so here's an idea for an alternative, non-sweet treat for someone smallish.

It's inexpensive and so simple to make: take a length of black card stock; snip it into a fringe; roll it tightly around a black pencil and secure with sticky strip; decorate with striped designer paper and a topper. The striped and spidey papers I used are from the Witches Brew pack and you could make loads of these out of it.

Here's a close up of the cards:

A Summer Starfruit card base contrasts nicely with the black panel. The skull has been heat embossed with white embossing powder and has been given googly eyes!

I've stamped one of the sentiments from the Halloween Hello set in the speech bubble but you could make the skull say whatever you like. Scary or rude, it's up to you!

This skull seems to have a more feminine feel... perhaps it's the rhinestone eyes?!

I do love the stripes on the designer paper and if sweets were going to make an appearance, I'd probably go with liquorice all-sorts which would coordinate beautifully!

Here's what you'll need to make these projects
Stamps: Halloween Hello, Timeless Talk
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie classic inks, black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Summer Starfruit
Other: Witches Brew designer paper, Corner rounder, versamark, white embossing powder, heat tool, googly eyes (from stash), Basic rhinestones, 3/4" and 1/2" circle punches for pencil topper, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.
• Orders of £250+ get a whopping £65 worth of freebies during October!


My boys would have loved the pencil broomstick treats for playing quidditch with. They were both Harry Potter mad and once spent the best part of the holidays lovingly making a quidditch pitch out of lego and toilet rolls. They both had such imaginations but I do remember the yearning in their eyes when they tried to come up with a way of making the snitch - one that actually flew!

See you tomorrow,

Oh Hello at Halloween!

The summer is over; there's an autumn chill in the air; Christmas seems a long way off... what are you going to do? Have a party of course - that would cheer everyone up! And with Halloween just round the corner, you have a ready-made theme! All that's needed now is an invitation - like this one:

This amazing paper from the Witches Brew pack takes all the effort out of creating a bit of atmosphere...

... you wouldn't want these blood suckers getting tangled up in your hair - aaaaaargh!

I thought the gothic shape of the 'you're invited' label was appropriate - I cut it with framelits using my fabulous magnetic platform (highly recommended!), added some gems for drama and stapled a strip of striped paper and a banner over it for a touch of colour.

I thought the inside could say something like: Come over for a quick bite - you can be sure the claret will flow... mwah ha ha ha ha!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Oh Hello
Ink: Pumpkin Pie
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Summer Starfruit
Other: Witches Brew designer paper, Apothecary Accents framelits, Big Shot, Basic Rhinestones, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.


My husband was nearly killed by bats once... well perhaps that's overstating it slightly! We were on holiday in a house with an ancient tower. The tower was blocked off from the house but you could get in through an ivy-covered arched door outside and climb its ancient, stone stairs. My husband, who isn't much given to flights of fancy, decided to see the view from the top one evening while out on a solitary walk. Here's the photo he took of the place:

I mean, would you have climbed the tower? He said afterwards that he did feel a bit spooked by it but told himself to pull himself together and set off up the steep stairs. As he climbed, all senses began to jangle until somewhere near the top there was a rustling noise and several bats swooped past his cheek nearly giving him a heart attack! He said the journey down the stairs took a fraction of the time it had taken to go up!

See you tomorrow for more spooky nonsense,

Bats about you at halloween!

Good gracious - it's October tomorrow and not long until halloween! Now, I don't normally 'do' halloween but I was so bowled over by the halloween stamps in the seasonal catalogue that I just had to have a little play... and now I think we might have to have a halloween party this year! Come and see what I've made:

I used the Halloween Hello stamp set which has all sorts of fabulous images in it including this brilliant sentiment, but my favourite is this gorgeous bat:

Oh stop it now! He's absolutely gorgeous! And there's no shortage of lovely old bats in my household so this card would be perfect for any of them!

The bat is flying scarily (well okay, perhaps not that scarily!) out of an oval aperture cut into some designer paper from the Witches Brew range. I added some of my beloved candy dots and eagle eyes might spot the Lucky Limeade organza ribbon that was a freebie earlier in the year... Stampin' Up are very good at coming up with special offers - check out the Special Offer tab at the top of my blog to see current offers.

I'm so excited about the coordinating pumpkin treat - made to my very own design! If you're interested in how it was made, hang on to your seats as I'm hoping to produce a video tutorial later in the week.

Here's what you'll need to make the card
Stamps: Halloween Hello
Ink: Early Espresso
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Witches Brew designer paper, Extra Large Oval punch, Candy Dots, paper snips, Summer Starfruit marker, ribbon (retired), stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


There's a Bat Society where we live and my husband sometimes takes our youngest son out bat spotting. One evening before they went out, we got chatting about bats which led us onto a discussion about Batman, the cartoon strip figure. Who decided that the hunky hero of Gotham City should wear a hat with ears and pants over his trousers - and why is it supposed to be impressive?!

See you tomorrow,