Wow - what a day!

Well Saturday the 16th dawned at stupid o' clock for me due to the adrenalin flowing - it was the day of my first ever Stampin' Up! one day retreat and boy was I nervous!!! Despite the full run through with my willing volunteer, Wendy, last week, it was still uncharted territory for me - and I still had to get rid of Roger and Katy before I could finish clearing up!!

The sound of the Dyson blaring and slightly later but still stupid o' clock for a Saturday got them up and out leaving me about half an hour to nip to the shops for some cooked ham (our little village shop does it own home cooked ham and it is to die for...) and get showered and dressed before my guests arrived!

This is what they were coming for - a whole day of creating and crafting with products from the new Stampin' Up! mini catalogue which launched on the 1st April. We were going to be making a mini album, two 12x12 scrapbook pages and a box with 6 cards - all using items from the gorgeous Springtime Vintage range of papers and accessories! (I will admit to having a little help with the cards from the lovely Stephanie Mayne (the cream one) and the mini catalogue (the red one) and the basic album was designed by Andrea Walford!

I had spent a while creating a fab display of cards, pages and card candy (mostly from swaps I have been in) and actually had enough to set up two separate displays - this was the main one.....

 

and this was the second and smaller one....

I had made all the attendees one of these lovely little brooches made out of the striped grosgrain ribbon - and with Easter only a week away - a chocolate Easter bunny hopped into the little gift bags....

This was the table set up before everybody arrived.....

and a closer look at the place setting - everyone got a lush kit of papers and cardstock with a whole roll of the new seam binding ribbon, a bag of buttons with half a pack of the basic pearls, linen thread and vellum cardstock...... as well as a folder containg full colour step by step instructions for the projects we were going to be making so they could recreate them later!

We stopped at 12:30 for a salad lunch - the menu was cooked ham, pork pie and quiche with a green salad, coleslaw and potato salad and a bread roll, followed by a piece of fresh fruit. Although everyone had several cups of tea and coffee through the day - Katy was delighted to get home and find that we had barely touched the biscuits and cake I had bought! Everyone was far more interested in getting on with the crafting!

Here they all are (from L-R) Beryl, Joanna, Julie, Lynn and Linda , beavering away on a scrapbook page.

From the feedback received - they all enjoyed their day so it was all worthwhile!

If anyone is interested in doing the same projects - I am happy to run another day along the same lines  - do get in touch if you are interested!

StampaholixUK@aol.com

(01892) 724030

Sneak Peeks inside!

Well I have finally finished off all of the projects for the one day retreat - and now have only got my least favourite part of the process to go - writing the instructions....

To put off the fateful moment when I have to sit down with the ruler and actually work out proper measurements and describe what I did in words that any reader will understand - I thought I'd come and show my blog readers sneak peeks of the projects we will be doing on the day!

All of the projects use the gorgeous Cath Kidston-esque (or if you are an old bag like me - vintage (c1970s) Laura Ashley!) "Springtime Vintage" papers and accessories and we will be making a mini album, a box of 6 cards and two scrapbook pages - and I think that all of them are totally lush - I wouldn't mind a dress made out of some of the papers - or even a room wallpapered in others.... The ladies will be walking away at the end of the day with all their makes - and should have lots of stuff left for more creating when they get home as their kits include a whole bag of buttons and a whole reel of the gorgeous new seam binding ribbon!!

Here is the cover of the mini album.....

And the box of cards.......

And the first scrapbook page.......

and the second scrapbook page

This running of the retreat is completely sold out - but if anyone is interested in doing the day on another weekend or in purchasing a kit pack (with full colour step by step instructions when I finish writing them) please get in touch. I can take a maximum of 6 people at a time for the face to face classes - and obviously as many kit packs as you want!

StampaholixUK@aol.com/ 01892 724030

Welcome to another Blog Hop!

Well, it seems like only yesterday I was saying welcome to a blog hop featuring products from the new mini catalogue - wait -  it WAS only yesterday LOL!!


Anyway - there is enough lushness in that catty to allow lots of creativity so here we go with today's offering - all different to yesterdays!


You may have joined me from Vicky's blog and or you may be one of my regular visitors - either way when you are done here I will be passing you on to to Jeanette to see what she has done with the new goodies - but please carry on round this cycle and take a look at what the other demos across the UK have done!


First up is this little card.

We have been asking for more "masculine" stamps in the catalogue for a while now - and this mini has certainly given us quite a few of those!! With a sailor in the house, buying this Sail Away stamp (#123013 - £8.95) was an absolute must....its is stamped in Basic Grey ink onto white card before being mounted onto a Basic Grey background trimmed with a scap of white puched with the scallop trim punch and a piece of Marina Mist ribbon before being plonked onto a Baja Breeze base. The sentiment is from the Curly Cute stamp set.


Next is a fabulous little stepper box using Springtime Vintage  papers with Rose Red and Always Artichoke cardstock for the trimming.

I often demo these at my workshops and give the finished item to my hostess as a gift at the end of the evening. I got the instructions courtesy of my SU sister Maggie (who can't find the original source to credit) and up until now - I never got round to making one for my self - so this is now going to contain my trollbead collection on my dressing table!


Its worthy of a few close ups - here's the lid. The rose is made using the fancy flower punch and the leaves are the new Little Leaves sizzlit die (#114511 £4.95) - I think I'll add a few rhinestones to finish it off when i've finished here

This is the front panel - these roses are made using scallop circle and circle punches.

and the inside - with the 4 hanging drawers made using an origami technique!

Next prohject features another one of the new dies.

This little treat bag was my swap at the recent Stampin' Stars training day I went to, It  is made using no cutting at all (apart from chopping a sheet of A4 in half!) just scoring,  folding and a bit of glue. The flower is made using one of the shapes on  the Fun Flowers die (#121812 - £28.95). I used 3 layers - and cut them all at once using Pretty in Pink cardstock. These were layered up and pinched to give them a bit of texture then the centre was made with a circle punched out of So Saffron mounted on a dimensional and the leaves from Old Olive and ithe whole thing was finished with a scrap of striped ribbon tied through handles punched with the XL oval punch!


My last offering is this scrapbook page.

Yesterday's pages featured new papers but this one has NO DSP on it at all - just cardstock! I die cut the butterflies using Shimmery White cardstock  and the new Beautiful Butterflies die (# 114507 - £18.95). Some of them were embossed using the Vintage Wallpaper folder (#120175 - £6.95) before being inked with Pink Pirouette in and a dauber. I added some rhinestones for the bodies and drew the antennae on using my black marker pen.

Tempted? Well if you like the sound of these products - I am offering 10% off any product from the new mini catalogue until the 15th April - Let me know if I can help!

StampaholixUK@aol.com/ 01892 724030

Now I pass you on to the talented Jeanette to see what she has for you.

There are 13 of us in this group - but there are several other loops running today - you can find the starting points of them all below

Group 1
 
Group 2
 
Group 3 (that's this one!)
 
Group 4

Welcome to the Tartan Stampers Mini Catalogue Blog Hop!

Good morning campers!

Welcome to a day which is going to be a lot brighter once you have cast your peepers over this little beauty!

Yes, after all the hints and mystery over the last few weeks we are finally able to bring you details and pics of products in the brand new mini catalogue which goes live today! There are 32 pages of goodies - including the brand new (to Europe) Stampin' Up! Big Shot die cutting machine along with 13 exclusive dies/ sizzlits/ embosslits and 5 exclusive embossing folders as well as stamps. papers and lush new PUNCHES!!!

Click on the picture on the right to be taken to the online catalogue - or ask me to pop a real one into the post for you!

My team mates and I in the Tartan Stampers decided that rather than all of us rushing to produce loads of different things, that we would share the creativity with our blog readers and each other and so we are taking you on a tour of Bonnie Scotland (with a detour to Kent!) to see what we have all come up with for you!

You may have joined me from Lorraine's blog, and when you have finished here - I will be handing you on to the very talented Diane. If you are starting here please keep going round the rest of the ring until you get back to me!

So down to business!

Regular readers of my blog may be aware that I am running a one day retreat here in Horsmonden on Saturday 16th April - and as I am adding the finishing touches to the various items we'll be making on the day - my desk is covered in the leftovers from the day's kit! As most of you know - I'm a scrapbooker rather than a cardmaker so I've used those scraps to create two lovely 12 x 12 pages (Those of you who are coming to the day - you can get these out of your leftoverstoo if you add just 2 sheets of cardstock!)

  
 So first up is this page

 It uses the gorgeous Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper (#121782 - £8.75) on a background of Textured Very Vanilla cardstock. The edges of the papers are inked with crumb cake inkpad and a dauber before being stuck to the base. The photo is mounted on Not Quite Navy cardstock and its position lightly marked on the base. Then I lightly drew a pencil circle on the page and used the gorgeous new Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding (#122330- £6.25) to twist a circle of ribbon over the pencil line. Its secured at intervals by glue dots, and then some Big Designer Buttons (#122301 - £7.75) were sewn on with linen thread. These buttons are seriously big - the smallest one is 1" in diameter the others are even bigger! I finished off with a title cut from Rose Red cardstock and added a journalling block made with the beautiful new Decorative Label Punch (#120907 £15.50)

Here is the second page using the same papers on a base of Crumb Cake cardstock

This time I used the 1 3/8 square punch to chop up the remaining scraps of papers and cardstock and I created a mosaic in the centre of the page. I mounted the photo on Whisper White cardstock to pop it off the fussy background, and used the remainder of the sheet to cut a title and punch a journalling spot. I stitched a butterfly trail with linen thread, and used the lovely new Beautiful Wings embosslit (#118138 - £10.50) to punch and emboss two butterflies from vellum cardstock. I popped some pearls from the basic jewels down the centre of their bodies , and finished off with silver brads and two of our filigree brads  on the junctions of the punched squares!

The Springtime Vintage papers and accessories in the mini are very versatile as they go with so many different themes - the soft blues pinks and greens aren't too "girly" as they will be perfect for projects for male and female relatives as well as weddings and heritage photos if you are a scrapper.

If you are tempted by any of the goodies you see being featured on the blog hops today or tomorrow, please come back and place an order.

As a launch offer - I am personally offering any new items you order at a 10% discount until the 16th April - so you can get even more bang for your buck!

Now before I hand you on to Diane - don't forget to come back and see even more goodies tomorrow morning at 10am - bring your cuppa and a snack and settle in for a morning's browsing!

ScrapaholixUK @aol.com/ 01892 724030