What's in your Patterned Occasions cup?

Are you enjoying Sale-a-bration? Yes of course you are! A choice of 17 different freebies when your order is £45 or more - what's not to like?! And it's a wonderful time of year for me too - it feels as if it's raining free stamps at the moment!

Stampin' Up demonstrators really do get a great deal right from the start! For example, if you were to join during Sale-a-bration, you'd get £162.50 worth of products of your choice for only £99! And it doesn't stop there - demonstrators get discounts and commissions; there are cash bonuses, free products and luxury trip incentives for reaching goals; there's the satisfaction you get when you're making money out of something you love doing; and there are the friendships you make when you work with people that share your passion. If this sounds good to you, why not think about joining my team and becoming a demonstrator yourself? Click here to find out more, and do feel free to email me - I'll give you honest answers to your questions and you can mull it over and decide whether it would work for you.

Shall I get down from my soap box now and show you a card? Come on then:

Despite the fact that I've lost all feeling in my toes and it sounds as if the snow is returning to haunt us, I'm still in romantic mood! There's a great cup image in the free Patterned Occasions set that works really well for love notes with its 'whole latte love' sentiment but you know how I love changing sentiments round...

Half of the new sentiment I've made is from Tea Shoppe and the word Love comes from Field Flowers (a set worth its weight in gold!) The rhinestone is one of Stampin' Up's Basic Rhinestones coloured with a permanent marker; I never buy coloured gems, just colour one in on the rare occasions I'd like a coloured one.

I love things that fit into other things! Here, the cup nestles neatly into a trio of punched circles and the heart from my owl punch could have been tailor-made for the heart-shaped steam on the cup. I added a drop of Cherry Cobbler dazzling details to the heart - another way to add a touch of sparkle! The background paper is a beautifully understated design from my favourite range in the new spring/summer mini catalogue Tea for Two. There are some real show-stoppers in this pack and the colours are gorgeous!

Here's what you'll need to make this card

Stamps: Patterned Occasions (free Sale-a-bration set), Tea Shoppe and Field Flowers (sentiment)

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Midnight Muse

Card stock: Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Cherry Cobbler

Punches: 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8" circle punches, owl punch, corner rounder

Other: Markers, basic rhinestones, Tea for Two designer paper, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

• DON'T FORGET TO ADD ONE OF THESE FREE SALE-A-BRATION ITEMS FOR EVERY £45 YOU SPEND

People are always telling me about their cats having a thing about boxes but Tuppence is pretty anti them (unless they contain kitty kat krunchies that is!) She hates enclosed spaces and when she has to go to the vet we have to make military-style plans, weeks in advance to get her into her carrier. The only thing that makes her lose her head is canned tuna and that's because she disappeared during a neighbour's impromptu fireworks once when my brother was looking after her and he searched for her waving an open can of tuna; she soon came out of hiding and has always viewed my brother with candid approval ever since, meowing pitifully whenever he leaves here after a visit as if to say: "Please, take me with you - these people don't understand me!"

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow. Do come and join me for a fast card!

Happiness Shared with Watercolour Wonder crayons

I've been continuing my experiments with the Watercolour Wonder crayons and I'm loving them! One of the things I wondered about was how they'd look on darker colours of card stock than white or cream. Well I've used them to make a one layer card on Crumb Cake card stock - come and see the result:

Can you believe Happiness Shared is retiring at the end of this month? It's the most beautiful set and I for one am not ready to let it go! Anyway, I started by stamping the script background from French Foliage over a mask I'd made out of the Happiness Shared rose, then I used my stamp-a-majig to stamp the rose into the space left by the mask.

Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette crayons were used to colour the rose petals with So Saffron for the centre, while the leaves were coloured in Wild Wasabi and Certainly Celery. I used an aquapainter to blend the colours and highlighted with Pear Pizzazz and More Mustard markers when it was dry. I'm quite pleased with the translucent chalky effect.

This lovely sentiment is from my Tea Shoppe set.

I made a card very similar to this a little while ago and thought you might be interested to compare the difference in the colouring. Just click on the image for a closer look.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Happiness Shared (retiring), French Foliage, Tea Shoppe (not available)
Ink: Early Espresso, Basic Grey
Card stock: Crumb Cake
Other: Watercolour Wonder crayons in Subtles, markers, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

My daughter attended her first day of sixth form looking like a supermodel yesterday while my youngest son broke my heart by setting off with a huge bag on his back looking no bigger than my thumb! He bounced back home though and told us he'd had a great day, so of course I needn't have worried at all. My eldest son got an extra day off, to his deep satisfaction, and spent the first half of it in his pit bed until I hauled him out by the ears. (Not really to anyone who's just about to call Childline!) When we were on holiday, he answered "lunch and a trip to Poundland [where he buys cereals]" when my husband asked him how he'd like to spend the afternoon. "Is that all you want in life?" said my outraged husband. "No!" said my son indignantly. "I need my xBox too and some sleep!"

Thanks for visiting me here, I love reading your comments and hearing what you think. Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you very soon.

Tea Shoppe - cup of thanks

It is a great pleasure to me to make little gifts for the ladies in my Stampers 6 groups and it's always fun to think up new ideas. One thing I've been enjoying lately is making envelopes with my diagonal Simply Scored tool, and that gave me the idea for this little teabag favour:

The envelope is just 3 1/4" square and it's decorated with this pretty doily paper from the beautiful Attic Boutique range. I masked and sponged a background panel and topped it with the pretty label from the Tea Shoppe stamp set. The cups from the set were stamped, cut out with my sharp paper snips and stacked on top and I added one of the sentiments.

The back of the envelope fastens by tucking the flap into this label. Tea Shoppe is perfect for these kinds of projects because there are lots of labels and sentiments to choose from. When you open the envelope...

... you find a teabag tucked inside and you may also notice that I lined the envelope with the same paper as I used on the front.

Here they are ready to be tucked into my lovely ladies' parcels along with all their lovely goodies!

If you love Stampin' Up products and would like to build up your collection, you might consider joining my Stampers 6 club. There are all sorts of benefits, including free catalogues, at least £25 of free goods of your choice, the opportunity to get exclusive hostess stamp sets and papers, personal coaching from me, handcrafted gifts and cards in your parcels... Click here for further details or email me here. With a new seasonal catalogue coming out next month and the main catalogue in October, there couldn't be a better time to join!

Here's what you'll need to make today's project
Stamps: Tea Shoppe
Ink: Melon Mambo, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Card stock: Island Indigo, Whisper White
Other: Markers, Attic Boutique designer paper, scallop oval and modern label punches, Simply Scored and diagonal plate, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. If you are placing an order of £60 or more, you will receive a free Reason to Smile stamp set in your choice of wood or clear mount. The set is also available to buy for £18.95 wood mount or £14.95 clear mount.

My teenaged son came downstairs late yesterday morning and announced that his mate would be round in a minute. "Is Daddy having a lie in?" he asked. "Because I don't want to disturb him."  - his room is on the same floor as our room and his father's office. I stared at him. "It's nearly 11 o'clock," I said. "Your father has been at work for over two hours!" I didn't know whether to be proud at having such a thoughtful son or horrified that he has such little knowledge of a working day!

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I have a set of fast cards to show you. Hope to see you then.

Three bits of CAS sunshine!

Aargh! What a day! My husband is away today so I gleefully spread my crafting supplies around the house and got down to catching up with my favourite challenges. I was thrilled to see that the challenge at Less is More today is 'Three of Anything' which, I thought in my innocence, would fit in nicely with the new CASology challenge of 'Sun' and I could even use this week's gorgeous ColourQ palette... Here's the card I came up with (see if you can spot the problem):

Three sunflowers! I used my large square punch to make them into faux chipboard tiles by glueing together a stack of Chocolate Chip squares (am I making you hungry?) and topping with the flower image.

Before stamping the flowers, I coloured the rubber directly with Daffodil Delight and More Mustard markers. Once they were stamped, I blended the colours with the Daffodil one. The centres were stamped in Chocolate Chip ink on More Mustard card stock, cut out with my 1/2" circle punch and popped up with dimensionals. Using an image from French Foliage, I added Pear Pizzazz leaves after masking the flower and sponged round the edges of the tiles.

The tiles are mounted on textured card stock and then attached to a Naturals Ivory card base which had been scored to make a home for them. The sentiment is from the wonderful Pocket Silhouettes set and was added with my stamp-a-majig to make sure it was straight.

Of course you all know what's wrong don't you: while this card fits well with the Sun theme at CASology and the colours at ColourQ, it's one layer week at Less is More and I don't think Chrissie and Mandi will let me get away with this one! Grrr... of course I had to go off and make another card then!

This one uses the group of three tea cups from Tea Shoppe - very handy! I stamped them onto a Naturals Ivory card base and added definition with a blue watercolour pencil. Then I masked them and made a swirly tablecloth pattern with a couple of the Everything Eleanor stamps.

I was rather proud of my 'steam' - can you see it? To make it I squashed the lid of my Baja Breeze ink pad so that when I opened it there was a pool of ink in the lid, and used my aquapainter to paint a wavy line from each cup which fades as it goes up.

The cups needed 'grounding' so I scribbled shadows with a So Saffron marker and added a hint of blue. Finally, I stamped the sentiment, using my stamp-a-majig.

Well this is a mammoth post so I do beg your pardon if you've all gone to sleep and I won't list the supplies I've used as I would normally (just email me if you want more info). Instead, I'll leave you with a giggle: I was planning to take my youngest son to a party in Towcester earlier. "I wonder how long it'll take to get to Towcester?" I wondered aloud. "Oh, it's only a few seconds to get to the kitchen," said my daughter waggishly. Yes, this is the kind of smart talking I have to contend with!

Edited to add: Towcester, by the way, is pronounced 'toaster'.

Thanks for looking here today and putting up with my waffling. See you soon,

Mixed Bunch with free ribbons and brads

Are you loving this month's free ribbons and brads? I know I am! If you haven't got yours yet, they come free with any order of £45 or more - and that's the best excuse I know of to treat yourself to some new goodies! The ribbon is beautiful, really delicate with a lovely shimmer, and I've come up with a way of using it to make a quick background for a punched flower. Come and have a look:

The delicious Calypso Coral ribbon is wrapped randomly around a piece of textured Very Vanilla card stock. TIP: To do this quickly, put lots of Snail adhesive on the back of the card stock and also on the front where the flower's going to go. I really love this ribbon with its darker edges and the different shades you get where it overlaps.

I stamped the flower in Poppy Parade onto Calypso Coral card stock to get this monochrome effect. One of the free brad designs matches exactly which makes me very happy! To keep things super fast the flower is cut out using the coordinating punch.

You get heaps of ribbon on each spool and there are two spools in the free pack as well as the brads! I've just thought that I could also use this design for a fast Christmas card using the Lucky Limeade ribbon with the Ornament punch.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Tea Shoppe (sentiment)

Ink: Poppy Parade

Card stock: Very Vanilla smooth and textured

Other: Free ribbon and brad set, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

STOP PRESS: If you love the 12" x 12" linen post scrapbook albums, it's just been announced that they're being discontinued after September. They cost £23.95 and there are limited stocks but Stampin' Up is also offering the album in gorgeous Real Red. If you prefer a 12" x 12" ring album, this is now available in Natural, Real Red and Navy.

Now, the house is crying out for a bit of a wash and brush up, so I'd better get on with that... although I can see my tin of Watercolour Wonder crayons looking at me. Hmmm. You know I'll do the right thing don't you?! See you tomorrow,

Everyday Enchantment for a man!

Did you see the announcement yesterday? Yes! There are gorgeous freebies on offer during July when you spend £45 or more and also the Everyday Enchantment designer paper range is back and is now available to buy at £9.95 a pack. I'm certainly not the only person that is delighted with this news! I wanted to get creating with the range straight away and, since I always start the week with Masculine Monday, set myself the challenge of making a male card using the papers. Here's what happened:

I cut one of these gorgeous floral medallions out of one of the papers, mounted it onto some Early Espresso card stock and cut round it. It was decorated with some mini brads before being attached to a ribbon tailed card stock strip. Florals can be okay for males in small doses and there's a touch of the William Morris about this I thought.

Before attaching the strip to the Crumb Cake card base, I stamped the gorgeous ships inventory background stamp from The Open Sea and stamped a sentiment...

... and made this little tab with a piece of card stock and the label stamp from Tea Shoppe to balance out the design.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: The Open Sea, Tea Shoppe, sentiment (retired)

Ink: Early Espresso, Poppy Parade

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Other: Square punch (to make ribbon tail), Simply Scored, mini brads, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

One of the many events I attended last week was a fund-raising fashion show at which my youngest son was modelling (there is no end to his talents!) He threw himself into it with his usual enthusiasm and came out buzzing. After congratulating him on a great job, I suggested that he consider joining the drama club when he moves to senior school in September as he loves performing in public. I warned him that he might have to take minor parts at first and work his way up. He nodded. "Like a bush," he said. "I'd be quite happy being a bush but I'd want to be the best bush ever! I'd want people to come out saying 'that was a great play but did you see the amazing bush in the third scene? Man that bush rustled!'" If you ever see an oscar nominated bush, that'll be my son!

I'm continuing to receive lovely messages to wish him well after his cycling accident at the weekend. Thank you so much - he and I really do appreciate it. I shall be taking him to the dentist today and we'll see if anything can be done to save that tooth.

Have a happy Monday!

Going dotty with Fox and Friends

Over at the St Lukes Charity Challenge this month the challenge is 'Furry Friends'. Tara, who set the blog up, works so hard to raise funds for the St Lukes Hospice - and often under very difficult circumstances -so do lend your support and join in with the fun this month. I have to confess that cute and furry isn't really my style when it comes to cards, but I certainly wasn't going to let that stop me! Come and see what I've made:

I love the little fox from Fox and Friends and I thought he'd look pretty cute popping out of this tea cup from my new Tea Shoppe set! But that isn't what excited me about this card - it's the split panel! I embossed one side with my Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and left the other side smooth, then I joined the two sides together with post it notes before cutting a shape out of them with one of the Labels framelits.

The aperture is the perfect size for my tea cup of foxy goodness! His paws are circles cut with my cropadile and coloured with a marker and I cut his tail off and arranged it the other way up (it's okay, he assures me he didn't feel a thing!) The little tag is from Tiny Tags and is tied to the cup handle with a piece of white bakers twine - I go through boat loads of this stuff!

With all this dottiness going on, I felt this card should be entered into this week's CASual Fridays 'Sweet Spot' challenge too - my second entry!

While I was all excited about the split panel, I thought I'd make another one for the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where the challenge is a white on white festive card - how could I resist?!

Impossible to photograph but SO fun to make! The split panel is landscape this time and I tied bakers twine round each side of the dotty panel where the framelit made an indent before attaching to the card base.

The tree is from Season of Joy and is stamped in versamark then covered with Heat and Stick powder before glittering to prevent the glitter from coming off. Have you tried this? It's brilliant for large areas of glitter! I tied more bakers twine round the tree trunk for a bit of extra texture and added a rhinestone to the top of the tree.

The sentiment banner is rounded on one side (I used my word window punch for this) and ribbon tailed on the other side (a square punch is the easiest way to do this.)

Here's what you'll need to make today's cards:

FOX IN A CUP CARD

Stamps: Fox and Friends, Tea Shoppe, Tiny Tags

Ink: Cajun Craze, Bashful Blue

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Markers, Basic Rhinestones, white bakers twine, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Labels framelits, Big shot, jewellery tag punch, cropadile

CHRISTMAS CARD

Stamps: Season of Joy, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Basic Grey

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Basic Rhinestones, white bakers twine, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Labels framelits, Big shot, versamark, Heat and Stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Word Window and Square punches, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Yesterday my daughter, who is in the middle of her GCSEs, came home from her Biology exam and said with a big smile on her face: "And I never did Biology ever again!" My poor love, she has another week to go but is still smiling.

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I'll have a very fast male card to show you. Hope to see you then,