Beth's Birthday Book

While I was in Wales a couple of weeks back visiting my daughter at uni she asked me if I could make something for her friends birthday, fortunately I rarely travel to Wales without card and stamps!  We bought an A5 notebook, I covered it with DSP and stamped the flowers from Blooming with Kindness.  The Lovely Letters were stamped, cut out and layered onto white and blue card which I had background stamped with the Confetti stamps and daubed the edge to soften it. The sentiment is from the Feel Goods stamp set.

 

Of course she then needed a birthday card too so I made this coordinating card, scoring the edges of the panels and completing with ruffled ribbon.  
I hope she liked it.

Papilon Potpourri

I have a very pretty card to share today.  It wasn't designed by me (no surprise there!) but by one of my Stampin Up colleagues Angela Blechynden and she demonstrated the card at the Sandown show in January. 
It doesn't show up very well in this photo but the background has been embossed with the Flower Garden folder and then the punched butterflies 3d mounted on top.

Celebration Virtual Party

It's such an exciting time at Stampin' Up! at the moment! In celebration of the launch of my Stampin up online store karengilchrist.stampinup.net I am holding a virtual party! If you place an order using my new store  and entering  Hostess code QBR3KDVA between now and May 30th then I will enter you in a draw to win the Hostess rewards.  Exactly what those rewards are will depend on the total amount of orders received but the goodies will be a minimum £25 value.

Lots of News from Stampin up!

Oh my goodness!  Where does the time go? I can't believe it's been so long since I was here.  
I have loads of projects to share with you and, after the regional training day in Telford recently, a lot of news from Stampin up too!

The most important piece of news for today is the launch of online ordering! 
You can now order from me at any time of the day or night, whenever suits you.  You don't even have to speak to me if you don't want to just head over to http://karengilchrist.stampinup.net and create your account.  The usual delivery charge of £4.95 will apply but if your order exceeds £150 then you will earn hostess benefits just as if you had hosted a workshop! 

I promise to be back soon with more updates and projects to share :)

New Wood Mount Stamp cases

Stampin Up! are really pulling out all the stops lately. Yesterday they announced that these wonderful new storage boxes for the wood mount stamps will be available from July along with lots of new goodies in the new Annual catalogue.
The new cases are similar to the existing clear mount boxes and therefore fit perfectly on the shelf alongside them. From July all wood mount stamps will come in the new style cases and you will also be able to buy empty cases so that you can transfer all your existing stamps into the new style storage.

Swallowtail Butterfly

Whenever Stampin up demonstrators get together we always swap ideas and inspiration and one way of doing this is to make a little something!  This is one of the swaps I received at a training day recently.  It showcases the beautiful Swallowtail butterfly stamp, I have seen so many beautiful cards made using this stamp and it is fast becoming one of my favourites.  The background paper is the First Edition designer paper and is matted onto Mavy and Melon Mambo card stock.  The greeting is punched using the new smaller size decorative label punch, that first appeared during Saleabration but has now carried over, and matted onto a scallop circle of silver glimmer paper. did you know that you can colour the silver glimmer paper using your markers, inkpads or reinkers? So cool!

Papillon Potpourri

Here's a card that we made at Make, Do and Send card club recently.  The base card is Wisteria Wonder and the butterflies are stamped in Wisteria, Pool Party and Lucky Limeade.  I'm so glad that Stampin Up will be retaining most of the current In-Colours although we will lose Lucky limeade at the end of June.
I also stamped the butterflies a second time and punched them out with the matching punch so that I could 3d mount them.  Some simple scoring and a little bling finish it off.

Asymetric Gift card

Today's card is from a shoebox swap that was held at our recent team day.  I can't remember who provided this one, sorry, but it I find out then I will point you in her direction. 
It's a great way to present a gift card as the clever fold creates a pocket on the front and also on the inside of the card.  Of course, it can be made for absolutely any occasion and decorated as you please but in this case we used designer paper in coordinating colours, the border punch and the ribbon flowers.

Exciting News!

Stampin' up! have this morning announced a Colour Refresh.  This means that a few of the colours will be retiring forever but also that we get some lovely new colours to freshen up the colour palette.  Some of the old In Colors will be making an exciting comeback! 

If you need to stock up on any of the retiring colours then give me a shout soon, they are sure to sell out quickly.

All Dressed Up!

The card I am sharing today was designed by Amanda Fowler, you can see her blog here. I had the chance to make it at a team stamping day recently. 
The base card is cut using the oval scallop framelits and the big shot, part of the background layers has been embossed too, you can just about see it in this photo. The dress and stand are from the Dress it up framelit collection.  We attached the fabric to card before cutting out which makes it much neater. 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  Yes I know it was yesterday but today is still a holiday right? Today I am sharing a little Easter basket and a card especially made for Spring, let's hope it is just around the corner at last.

Here's a closer look at the basket.  I ran the card through the textured embossing folder so that it looked a little more basket like.  The flowers are made using the boho blossom punch with dsp and card. Oh and I added a little pearl in the centre of each one.
Hands off! The eggs are mine!

My Spring card is a very simple design, definitely a "less is more" card. I used the Spring sampler stamps and layered the images using square punches and the postage stamp punch.

Cornish Sunshine

Happy Easter everyone!  I am posting this from sunny Cornwall where I am spending the Easter break with my family. We have had some gorgeously sunny weather while we have been here, not warm by any stretch of the imagination but definitely sunny. 

This scrapbook page shows off some photos of Cornish sunshine from June last year when we were here celebrating my mothers birthday.  I spotlighted sections of the dsp but punching circles from a matching sheet and 3d mounting them.

Swaps

Did I show you this one yet?  This is the card I designed to swap with other Stampin up demonstrators at convention in Germany last November. 
I love all the swapping of ideas, there is so much inspiration to be gained and so many extremely talented crafters out there.
My card makes use of the Clockworks stamp set, it is stamped very randomly in a collage style.  I stuck to a simple colour pallette of Soft suede, early espresso and vanilla.  I also used the new smooch spritz  over the top which gave a lovely shimmery effect. 

Gift bag with cards

This was a project that we made at Make. Do and Send card club recently.  The original idea came from Amanda Fowler, you can see her blog here. 
The little gift bag is made from just one piece of card which is scored using the fabulous Simply Scored board and then folded, it is held closed by ribbon. The bag is the perfect size to hold four 3x3 inch cards with their envelopes. I kept the decoration of my cards to a simple colour combination of Pool Party, Island Indigo and Calypso Coral, I shall be sorry to see these colours retire at the end of the current catalogue in June, do you think we can persuade stampin Up to keep them? 

Here's a closer image of the gift bag, you can see that I used the Mixed Bunch stamp set to decorate it.

Karting

Here's another scrapbook page I made showing a Karting activity from Summer camp last year.  The kids faces are so expressive, revealing the fun they're having. 
My base page is Bashful blue and my photos are mounted on night of Navy card.  The row of quad bikes from the Need for Speed stamp set was an obvious addition but it took me a while to decide on the pennants for the top edge; I used a combination of pennants using the Big Shot die, Perfect Pennants and the Pennant punch.

Back to Scrapbooking

It's a long time since I made any scrapbook pages but it is such a great way of showing off your favourite photographs.  This page shows some photos of last years Scout summer Camp, I think we managed to pick the only week of sunshine last summer! 
The base page is Rich Razzleberry cardstock with a layer of Betsy's Blossoms dsp. I matted my photos onto Daffodil card and cut my letters using the Big shot from daffodil and razzleberry card.

Beautiful Gift Bag

Isn't this pretty?! One of the girls in my team gave me this at Christmas with some extremely yummy cookies inside. You can see her blog here.  The cookies didn't last long enough for me to take a picture funnily enough. 
She has used the Mixed Bunch stamp set to decorate the bag in Melon Mambo, Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink ink and attached the tag with Bakers Twine.
Below are some close up pictures of the tag.

Happy Birthday Alice!

Today my daughter turns 19, not long now before she's not a teenager anymore and ceases to know everything! 
I made this card while I was demonstrating at the Sandown craft show in January and as Alice loves butterflies, just like her grandma, I knew it would be perfect for her birthday.
The butterflies are stamped using the rock and roll technique and the mixed bunch stamp set. I punched them out with the matching punch and then removed two of the petals and 3d mounted them to make the butterfly wings. The background has been embossed with stripes.

Patterned Occasions

I can't believe Saleabration is almost over for another year! There's still just time to order if you're quick though.  
Today's card shows off some more Saleabration goodies.  The stamp set is Patterned Occasions and the designer series paper, ribbon and buttons are all available with the current promotion too.

So simple

How's this for a quick and simple card? I decided to make a feature of the images from the Bloomin Marvellous stamp set (only available during Saleabration).  I have highlighted the image using the postage stamp punch and matting.

Here's another! I made a whole set of these.

Feeling Sentimental?

I think that Feeling Sentimental is possibly my favourite stamp set from this years Saleabration.  For this simple card I have used a monochrome combination of Night of Navy and Whisper White and added a little bling with some rhinestones.

Bloomin Marvellous

As there are still a few days left of Saleabration I thought I would share a card made using one of the free stamp sets, Bloomin' Marvellous.  There are various versions of this design to be seen on pinterest, splitcoaststampers and other blogs. 
It's a lovely simple design but quite elegant I think and you can make it extra special by adding some pearls or rhinestones and some ribbon.

Willow's Naming Day

Oh goodness, how long since I posted here?!!  I'm afraid that life seems to have got in the way again, poor excuse I know.  It does mean however, that I have a lot of projects stored up to share with you and I will endeavour to do just that over the next few weeks.

Before I do though I just want to remind you that there are only a few days left of Saleabration 2013.  There are so many lovely products available to you this year and they can be earned FREE with a qualifying spend of £45 or by hosting a workshop/party.  Don't miss out!

Anyhow, onto a project!  A scrapbook page for a change.  This is a 12x12 page that I made to record the day of my niece's Naming Day last October.  The little lady herself takes pride of place but I also included a photo of my daughter, who is now Willow's godmother and a feature photo of her beautiful shoes.