Well hello there! For the past month I've not done any crafting, in fact I've not even been in my craft studio as I've been on an extended vacation in Europe. I had a lot of fun with family and friends, not least because we celebrated the marriage of our daughter. We only got home yesterday afternoon so I'm still unpacking and getting myself sorted out. With such a long break it felt quite odd sitting down at my desk this morning and trying to come up with an idea for my blog. In the end ... VIEW POST
Seasonal greetings
May I be the first to wish you seasonal greetings and a happy Christmas for 2018! I, like many crafters, get very busy in the second half of the year preparing for craft fairs so I plan to spread my Christmas crafting over the next six months in the hope that I'll manage to avoid the last minute rush that seems to stalk me every year. I've started slowly with two cards so far, and I wanted to show you this one that uses a new stamp set from the Stampin' Up! 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue along ... VIEW POST
Sparkle and shine
I was never a really into shiny, sparkly stuff like glitter on my papercrafting projects, until someone introduced me to Stampin' Up! and their Glimmer Paper and Stampin' Glitter. Since then I've not used it a whole lot but it has made an appearance from time to time, and probably more and more often as time has moved on. So I was a little surprised to feel real disappointment when two of the three Stampin' Glitters and all the Glimmer Paper appeared on the retiring list this year. Of ... VIEW POST
Grand designs
Only 3 more days to the end of May and the official end of the Stampin' Up! 2017/2018 Annual Catalogue and 2018 Occasions Catalogue. That means that anything that's on the retiring list and still in stock will be only be on sale for a few more days. After that time there's a slim chance that remaining stocks may appear at some time in the future on the Clearance Rack, but personally I would never bank on that as every year Stampin' Up! clears room in the warehouse by donating huge piles of ... VIEW POST
Emboss away
One thing I love to do to transform plain cardstock is embossing. There are two main ways that I emboss, one is using my Big Shot with an embossing folder and the other is with embossing powder that melts when heat is applied to it. As part of the What Will You Stamp? Challenge Design Team I thought it would be fun to use both methods to create a gift tag using this week's featured stamp set WWYS169 - Bubble Over. The tag base is a 2" x 4" piece of Pool Party Card embossed with the ... VIEW POST
If an octopus had thumbs
I can't believe that we're this far into my sneak peeks from the Stampin' Up! 2018/2019 Annual Catalogue and I've only just got around to sharing the new Sea of Textures Stamp Set and coordinating Under The Sea Framelits Dies! Although I wasn't sure how much use I'd have for an octopus image, I could see a lots of possibilities in the rest of the bundle, and I have to say since getting the them I've not been disappointed. So my first project is a card and although there is a gorgeous pack of ... VIEW POST
