My Swaps November 2017 OnStage

I made nearly 100 swaps for my first Onstage,  I used Message in a bottle stamp set and Dragonfly dreams stamp set for the water.

Check out my You tube video to see what I received.

Christmas Table favour

Today I have been making table favours for the Christmas table.  Really cute.

Dog Birthday Cards

My good friend asked me to make a Birthday card for her friend who loves dogs.  I came up with two cards so she has a choice, hope she likes them!

I have used all Stampin Up paper, Whisper White, Soft Sky and Blushing Bride, the die is an old one from my stash, not sure where I purchased it from.

Ladies Craft Night Scout Fundraiser

This Friday evening I will be at the W.I Hall Kingsland Rd West Mersea where I will be showing you how to make Christmas Cards.  There will also be other crafts available with Jane the Scout leader.

There are four designs to choose from, or make them all!  £1.50 per card.

These have been made with Stampin Up products, all the designs have been cased from Pinterest, I normally love to make my own designs but I have been under a bit of time pressure this week as I am getting ready for a Christmas craft fair for the NSPCC at West Mersea School on the 25th November.

I have changed the card designs a bit.

Please come along on Friday should be a fun evening.

Stampin Up Display Stamper November 2017

Back in July I entered my five best pieces of work to see if I would be choosen to be a Display Stamper at the UK November 2017 On Stage event.  This is a twice yearly event that Stampin Up Demonstrators have the chance to attend.  We get to see the new catalogues early and also get some freebies, as well as stampin and having lots of fun.  I was picked! I was very shocked and happy for this to happen to me.  Early October I received a parcel which was filled with new items from the 2018 Spring/Summer catalogue, it was my job to design and make 20 projects, all while keeping it a secret.

I have a sneak peek below of a couple of my projects, these stamp sets will be available to purchase in Januray 2018  If you would like a catalogue, please get in touch with me.

Novembers card class

Novembers card class we will be making two Christmas cards and a super Christmas stocking suitable for gift cards.  One of the cards is an easel card with a battery operated tea light inside!

Please get in touch if interested in booking a place for this class.

Christmas Gift Tags

I have been getting myself ready for my first Christmas Craft show in November.  The last couple of days have found me making gift tags.

I really like this colour combo, Pool Party and Cherry Cobbler!

I used the Merry little labels stamp set and punch for these tags, I also stamped the background on two of my sets with Pool Party ink.  

Still lots more items to make!

Birthday cards

I had a rush job on today as my husband needed a birthday card for work.  I decided to make two of the same card.

I received this bundle a couple of weeks ago but this is my first play with it.  Its a great set.Oh so eclectic.

If your interested in any of the items used please click on my shop tab.

Tags and Trimmings Christmas Stockings

Join me in making three Christmas Stockings

I have classes available to come to my small studio and make three stockings.  These stockings are great for gift cards and small presents.

They can be made to hang from your tree or you could make for your Christmas table and use as a table favour, filling with mints or chocolates.

Please get in touch on my blog or facebook page and book a place.  Mornings and afternoons available  during October.

Christmas gift bags

This weekend I have been working on items for a Christmas Craft Fair that I am taking part in in November.  I found some brown bags in my stash, that are now retired.  Although if your interested in making this item Stampin Up sell a Framelit (on page 212 of the Annual Catalogue) that makes up small bags.

I started by stamping reindeer all over the bag, in white ink.  Then I cut out a white stitched circle, which I stamped and embossed in copper embossing powder.  I used a sentiment from the Tags and Trimmings bundle.  The leaves were stamped and die cut using the Oh so eclectic bundle and the star was die cut using a die from Tags and Trimmings in Fresh Fig.  I used Soft sky as a strip for the background, again  using the star to cut from the bottom.  All finished off with a bulldog clip.

Advent Calendar

This week I have been working on an Advent Calendar, I made twenty three 2" boxes which I covered in retired paper Warmth and Cheer paper stack, this is only £3.60 in the clearance rack at the moment.  Then I made one box  using the Window Box Thinlit die which is for the special 24th

They all look great in the black fabric covered box, I shredded some brown paper to nestle them inside

September Card Making Class

Yes we are starting Christmas cards.  No it's not too early!  We will be making three cards a month from September until November in the card class,  December's class we will probably be making gift boxes and gift tags and maybe a stamped candle.  This class covers different card making techniques and folds.  All materials are supplied in the cost of the class which is £8.00

This months cards

Two of these cards are, hopefully, quick and simple because the card with the ribbon is a bit more time consuming, but not difficult.  I have cased this card fold from Amanda Bates from the Craft Spa, but decoration is my own.

If your interested in joining my class, please get in touch.

Handmade Thank You Cards

My very good friend asked me to make some thank you cards for her sons birthday.  I was only given short notice to make them as she was coming to visit me the very next day!  I have recently been playing around with emoji cards, so rather than come up with a new idea I went with them and made the following cards using Stampin Up's Note cards and envelopes, these are the perfect size for thank you cards and party invites.

I used Tempting Turquoise, Emerald Envy and Pacific Point card stock for the backgrounds. All the Thank You stamps are Stampin Up but some have now retired.

The faces are die cut with the Stitched Shape Framelits and I used Crushed Curry card stock.

Hope you like my thank you cards.

Global Design Project Challenge 096

This week Global Design project theme is Casing the designer, the designer is Tanja Kolar.  Her beautiful card is below

http://www.global-design-project.com/




I went for the layout of this card and used the Message in a bottle and Magical Mermaid stamp sets.

I started with Night of Navy card stock for my background layer.  Then using the Stitched Shape Framelits I die cut  a square in Whisper White and stamped the reeds from the Magical Mermaid stamp set.  I used Night of Navy ink for the reeds and the whale to pull the background in.  Soft Sky card stock was used for the bottle and the Layering Square Framelit behind my stitched white square.

I used my Stampin Markers to colour in the spout stamp for my whale, the heart was coloured with Read Red which looked great but then I needed to use the Real Red again somewhere on the card to pull it all together.  I decided on a small Real Red flag on the side.  I used my die from the Large Number Framelits but you could just as easily fussy cut a flag.  Happy Birthday was heat embossed in white.  

Hope you like my whale card.  If you would like any of the products used in my card please click on my shop tab above.

Emoji Card and gift tags

I was recently looking at Pinterest, that makes it sound like I have an occasional flick through when really I look everyday!  I saw a emoji card on Sizzix and thought I should have a go at that one day...
Then I saw the Global Design challenge theme of kids and it popped into my head.  I was inspired by that card but my card is very different.

http://www.global-design-project.com/

I had such fun making these projects.

I've used Crushed Curry, Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Real Red and Marine Mist cardstock for these projets.

Please click on the shop above to buy any of the items used for this project.

Check out my Youtube tutorial coming out in a few days.

My Favourite Stampin Up items from June 2017

So the Stampin Up new Annual catalogue was really exciting and there are loads of things on my shopping list!  But for now I wanted to show you the items I ordered first, my favourites.

I love nautical stamp sets so Message in a bottle was my first choice.

This is a super easy project, I stamped the whale with Night of Navy ink on to a small piece of the Dapper Denim Colour Theory DSP, the whales spout was stamped using the Stampin Markers using Dapper Denim and Real Red for the heart.  I then used Glossy Accent to make the whale shine.  The frame was from Ikea.

Next up using the same set I made a cool nautical card.

Starting with a whisper White card base, scored and folded, I stamped the  ship directly onto the base using Island Indigo ink  I stamped the bottle onto some Soft Sky card stock, using Soft Sky ink, then stamped the Octopus in the bottle using Island Indigo and sponging some Dapper Denim round the edge of the octopus stamp.  Then stamp, in Basic black ink,  the bottle onto acetate, you need to be really careful as the stamp can slide, I had to stamp 3 times before getting a clear image.  I then put a small dab of Tombo glue on the neck of the Sky Blue bottle and stuck the acetate bottle on top.  You can then wind some Linen thread round the top of the bottle which hides the glue.  Another one of my  must have items is the Wood Texture DSP, I was really hoping for some wood look paper so was very very pleased.  Cut the Wood Texture DSP to the height of your card, and three inches wide, score at one inch then fold and burnish.  I love the wrap around look achieved with this, came up with this idea when I made a mistake!

Next item is In the City stamp set, this is a host set, found in the back of the catalogue.  I love love love this set, it has 60 stamps, yes 60!  I know its only July but I went for a Christmas card this time, also managed to include my favourite Wood texture DSP

I stamped the buildings and fussy cut these out then mounted onto the background.  I covered some whisper white card in Dazzling Diamonds for the snow on the ground, it has much more sparkle in real life.

Another Nautical stamp set, obviously, Magical Mermaid is next on my list.

Love this beautiful Mermaid, I have a turtorial on Youtube for this card!

Although used in the Christmas cards I forgot to mention these wonderful snowflake dies, and the good news is theres a whole load of great dies in this set Colourful Seasons Bundle, as well as an fantastic stamp set.  Again I've slipped into Christmas with a great set of gift tags and a cute box for storage.

Did you notice I managed to slip some of my favourite DSP in again? Bet you did.

The last item I've made is a Scrapbook page 12 x 12, totally out of my comfort zone here, this is my first scrapbook page!  Using some of my favourite stamps and pictures of my youngest boy walking on our local beach, totally in the moment.

Thanks for looking at this very long blog entry x

Magical Mermaid

This Monday I received my order from the Stampin Up Annual Catalogue.  Very exciting, I managed to restrain myself and only brought three stamp sets.  I wanted to share this card as its so simple and really pretty.

I started by cutting some card stock to fit the front of a normal sized card, using Marina Mist and Pool Party card stock.  I stamped the mermaid and the sentiment in black archival ink.  So far very simple!  I then coloured the mermaids tail using my Stampin Up markers, I used pinks for one and blues and greens for the other.  Still easy peasy.  When ink is dry go over the whole tail with a Versamarker, like a ink pad but in a pen version.  I then covered the versamarked tail in bonding powder.  When the bonding powder is heated with your heat gun it gets sticky enough for you to sprinke your Dazzling Diamond glitter all over tail.  Tap the glitter off and again zap with your heat gun.  Your sprarkly, glittery, simple card only needs sticking to a card base.  Great card for young and older girls.

I have also made a Youtube video for this card, it should be on in a couple of days.  Just type in Linda Handford, there are a few other videos already there to watch.

Hope you enjoy making this card.

60th Birthday Card and Wine Bottle Tag

My husbands boss turns 60 today, husband asked me to make him a card and actually gave me a few days notice, normally I get a day's notice!

I used the sadly retired set Here's to cheers die and stamp set.  The numbers were cut using the Large Numbers Framelits, and the squares were cut with the Stitched Shapes framelits, which are both available in the new catalogue.  Hope you like it.

SU Only Challenges

I have not entered this challenge before but like looking to get some inspiration.

http://suochallenges.com/

I brought the new stamp set Pieces and Patterns as part of my Demonstator pre-order, and really love this set.  I thought the retro camera image would work well for a masculine background.
I started with a crumb cake base and stamped in black ink all over, turning the paper as I went to make a random pattern.  I then cut a Basic Black stitched square and a smaller Whisper White stitched square.  I stamped the camera again on the white square and then coloured in with my Stampin Write Markers.  I popped the white card up with dimensionals and stuck to the black square which I then glued to the base.  I used Basic Black as the card base.  Hope you like!

All products used on my card are Stampin Up, if you wish to purchase any please click on my Shop above.  Stamp set not available until June 1st.