It doesn't feel much like Christmas

Today has not gone as planned, I think my house needs a revolving door and a secretary to take calls & prioritise them. I have spent the whole day on a mission to make swaps for Sundays training event in Peterborough. I eventually got into my Craft room just after 9pm tonight.
I had in my mind the set I wanted to use, the swap theme is Christmas so I knew I wanted to utilise a non-Christmassy set, so I just had to decide on a colour scheme.

Colour Coach  © Stampin' Up

I reached for my colour coach, this is such a handy tool to help you with colour selection, I love so saffron so chose this combination of 

So Saffron 108611

Rose Red 108613

Wild Wasabi 111850

Confetti White 106557

The non-Christmassy stamp set that I chose was 

Itty Bitty Bits Wood 117056 ~ Clear 120060

This is a set of 9 small stamps that are really versatile, the set also has 3 companion punches to match the shapes, so I thought that it would make the cards quicker to prepare. 

The design was already in my head so i just had to prepare all of the components, what a task that ended up being. I made 32 cards to swap each card had 15 small round heart baubles which were embossed with Silver embossing powder + a silver heart bauble on the top of the tree. So I needed 480 heart baubles & 32 star baubles. Nearly three hours later with the distraction of Facebook and phone calls, I had my 512 baubles embossed, cut & ready to assemble.

I managed to finish my swaps just before 2am, I knew I couldn't leave them until Saturday as I was working all day & I had a Spanish student arriving in the evening, so boy am I going to be tired tomorrow.

The Greeting is from the Contempo Christmas stamp set also stamped in Rose Red.

The next training event in Peterborough is on 21st October, I hope to be more organised. If you fancy finding out more about Stampin' Up & would like to attend the event please let me know.

One Sheet Wonder ~ Part 2

Well as promised two more cards using up the leftovers from the A5 One Sheet Wonder background that I made this morning.
This time I've made two A6 cards using bashful blue card stock I think these really compliments the colour palette I started with today.

Supplies for these projects
Inks
Perfect plum
Pretty in Pink
Concord crush
Rich razzleberry
Cardstock
Bashful Blue
Perfect plum
Whisper White
Concord Crush
Rich Razzleberry
Tools
Decorative Label punch
Heat Tool
Paper trimmer
1/2" Circle punch
3/4" Circle punch
1" Circle punch
1 1/4" Circle punch
1 3/8" Circle punch
Scallop Circle punch
Decorations
Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Basic Rhinestones
White Gel pen
Sticky Strip
3/8" Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon
Linen Thread
Brights Designer Buttons
Stamp Sets
Serene Snowflakes
Contempo Christmas
Four Frames ~ 2011 Mini
Curly Cute
Gifted ~ retired September 2011

One Sheet Wonder

One sheet Wonder, I wonder how many of you have heard that phrase & have wonder what exactly is that?

Well to start a one sheet wonder you need to make either an A4 or A5 sheet of backing paper which you will use for a whole project.
For this backing sheet I used the Serene Snowflakes Stamp set & four coloured ink pads In Perfect plum ( A colour I don't use enough) Pretty in Pink, Rich Razzleberry & Concord crush.

Also I decided with this project to make small cards. I worked out that from a single A4 sheet of card you can make 2 4" square cards & a single 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" Square card, so here they are.

3 1/2" x 3 1/2" Square card

A neat trick for making a glittery border is to make lines using the Sticky strip & cover it with the Dazzling diamonds glitter, This also works as a frame around a square or rectangular aperture. It does look really blingy but I cannot seem to get good light today to take a decent picture.

4" x 4" Square Card

4" x 4" Square Card

Supplies for these projects
Inks
Perfect plum
Pretty in Pink
Concord crush
Rich razzleberry
Cardstock

Perfect plum
Whisper White
Concord Crush
Rich Razzleberry
Tools
Decorative Label punch
Heat Tool
Paper trimmer
1/2" Circle punch
3/4" Circle punch
1" Circle punch
1 1/4" Circle punch
1 3/8" Circle punch
Ornament Punch
Decorations
Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Basic Rhinestones
White Gel pen
Sticky Strip
Stamp Sets
Serene Snowflakes
Contempo Christmas
Four Frames ~ 2011 Mini
Curly Cute
Gifted ~ retired September 2011

Well after making those three cards from an A5 piece of " One sheet Wonder" background I still have a few pieces left over.
I will have a go at a couple more cards this afternoon.

Managing to find some Mojo for Christmas ~ At last

Last week I was quite pleased with myself as I managed to make three Christmas cards in a spare hour that I had. I do have to say that they are only small cards, so don't get too excited.

The measurements of the 3 cards in this post are 4" square.
With these three cards I challenged myself to use the colour family that I seldom choose which is the Regals collection, I tend to go for the Brights since the colour renovation last October I Love the brights.

Supplies needed for these cards
Cardstock
Very Vanilla
Riding Hood Red
Early Espresso
Garden Green
Basic Black
Ink
Early Espresso
Riding Hood Red
Garden Green
Basic Black
Tools
Scallop circle punch
Stamp a ma jig
1 3/8" circle punch
Corner rounder punch
Large Oval punch
Sponge Daubers
Decorations
Basic Pearls
Basic Rhinestones
Love Letter DSP
Very Vanilla 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon
Shimmer paint in Champagne mist used on the sponge daubers & also made into a shimmer mist using Iso-propyl alcohol.

Well i did say that they were only small cards but just by starting the Christmas cards it has given me the incentive to carry on & get prepared, especially as someone told me that there are only 15 weeks to go.

Stampers 6 project from August

Inside flap of the box has a greeting, but you could also put an image here if you prefer.

I have been such a bad blogger this summer, todays post is the August project from my Stampers 6 / 7 group that I have only just got round to photographing & editing.
The summer has been very strange for lots of reasons.

• Abi went on Study leave in May & went on to take her GCSE's
• June our middle son got married
• June Dan came home from his first year at University & bought bags & bags of belongings that wouldn't fit into storage.
• At work we lost both of our weekend staff, but to safeguard jobs neither were replaced immediately, leaving the existing staff to cover both Saturdays & Sundays, which is something that I seldom had to do previously, so extra hours & commitments ate into my spare time.
• Two litters of beautiful kittens the first litter had two kittens & the second litter had four kittens, one of which we kept as one of my big cats went missing 15 weeks ago.
• I also re-discovered my love of baking, well cupcakes & cake pop's but i'll save that story for another day.

I realised something last Tuesday after we had taken Dan back to Nottingham & Abi had started 6th Form that I hadn't spent a day at home on my own since early May, I don't mind my own company it gives me quiet time to be creative. Usually I start Christmas projects in July but this year I am very much later.

So to kick start Christmas I made this delightful little matchbox card & matching gift card. I thought that you could use these as Table favours or as little gift boxes containing Chocolates, Mini soaps or even a pandorra charm.

I have used the set Contempo Christmas & the Elegance wheel ( Which isn't strictly Christmas but thats exactly what I love about Stampin' Up & being creative )

Contempo Christmas 118734 wood mounted 120594 Clear mounted

Supplies needed to make this card

3" x 12" whisper white card

Scored at 3" , 4", 7", 8" & 11"

The areas coloured red are the areas that need to be decorated  before assembly

4 7/8" x 4 7/8" Whisper white square

Scored at 1" in from the edge on all four sides, this makes the drawer to slide inside the box.

2" x2" Whisper white

2 1/4" x 2 1/4" co-ordinating card stock

Scraps of co-ordinating card stock & DSP to decorate.

Tools

Tombow glue

Mini bulldog clips ( available from good stationers )

Stamp a ma jig

1/2" circle punch

Ornament punch

1 3/8" Circle punch

Word Window punch

Paper Piercer

Stamps

Contempo Christmas

Ink

Old Olive or Wild Wasabi

Real Red or Cherry Cobbler

Decorations

Dazzling diamonds

Basic Rhinestones

Jolly Holiday DSP

This is the first of my Christmas projects for 2011, so keep checking back over the coming weeks while I catch up with all of my Christmas preparations.