Class

Today and Friday I taught a class for some of the ladies who were at my Stampin' Up! party - most of them quite new to the world of stamping.

I think their heads were properly spinning by the time they left (sorry ladies - my enthusiasm knows no bounds) :).

I simply wanted to touch on most of the basics ... you know card blanks, different inks for different purposes, some basic techniques .... but really, it is impossible to take it all in, so all I did was bamboozle them with info, techniques etc. I do hope they recover from the ordeal.

In the end we made this card, using the SU sale-a-bration greeting and of course my much loved medallion background. I haven't used my medallion for at least 3 weeks and it was time. I will never tire of that stamp, never I tell you!

Way too easily tempted

There is something very wrong with me at the moment. I am by nature rather thrifty and although I do indulge in crafty purchases, I usually don't impulse buy.

But OMG - that premise has been thrown out the window the last week or so.

First off, hubby has gone to the States for business and that can only mean one thing - buying Papertrey Ink stamps, dies .... and the sorts.

Normally that would be enough to last me for a while - having had a shopping fix and all ... you would think wouldn't you.

But then I went and bought those Paper Smooches stamps I spoke about last week ... ka-ching

Not to mention the Stanpin' Up! stamps from my party the other week ... ka-ching

Then I saw a post on facebook by Annette about dies from dies to die for and bought a few of those .... ka-ching

And then this morning I decided to take a break from tidying and surf the web for a little, saw this card by Mary and suddenly I just HAD TO HAVE some Bakers twine, I mean had to have, like someone that has to have cocaine, that kind of had to have. Not just a little bit of twine either, I bought two full spools of 220 metres each from a great shop I found in the States with reasonable postage ..... and breathe.

I KNOW!

What is wrong with me.

Shall I just erase my paypal account right now or what.

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Then, as I am very much resisting getting off this chair and resuming my tidying, I started going through my computer folders and tidying up my images. I stumbled across these old cards I made way back for Simply Cards and papercraft magazine.

I have been so caught up with stamping recently I have completely forgotten how much I love dies and die cutting. I am SO going to make some cards with dies this week ... I am!

Do you like cute and quirky

I do....

...and I just found some really cute stamps designed by Kim Hughes for her new company called Paper Smooches. http://papersmooches.blogspot.com/ Check out those scooters ... so flipping cool.

Just bought myself these two sets.

And the best thing of all, the postage to the UK is only $3 for two stamp sets, and (as far as I know) below customs duty.

Nothing like a little stamp fix to start the morning hey.

As soon as I get my hands on these I shall make some cards.

Whoosh ....

I am just whoosing by very quickly to say hi. We have had our windows replaced and now we have to tackle the decorating ... a mammoth task leaving little time for crafting. There is always something eating into play time isn't there .... sigh.

Anyway, I hosted my first Stampin' Up! party during the week and it was a great success. Go figure. My local friends aren't crafters, but the lure of rubber and ink soon worked their magic and everyone bought at least a little something, leaving me with a lovely hostess gift, some free product and also some sale-a-bration stamps. Woo Hoo.
I am making it my mission to use these stamps as ... I feel very guilty saying this .... last years sale-a-bration set has only been used once in the entire year. I shall do better.

I will be doing some classes with them too and if that goes well I might start running classes again.


On to another manufacturer though, Waltzing Mouse Stamps. I have gushed about Waltzing Mouse before - LOVE their stamps! I used one of Claire's beautiful bloom designs to make some Mother's day cards for Craft Stamper this month. Love this set, which is strange as I am not usually drawn to realistic floral images, but this one grabbed me and is perfect for Mother's day and Mums in general. Not to mention fabulous for Copics, I am so getting into my copics.

I made three cards for the magazine using acetate and this one is extra. You can see a much better and more professional photo on the Craft Stamper website. I am not the best photographer, especially when acetate is involved.

Oh, by the way, I was just on the Waltzing Mouse blog and see that Claire is releasing a bunch of new stamp sets at the beginning of March and from the sneek peaks it looks like we might be visiting the wild west. Yee ha. Sounds cool.

Birthday card

Popping in to share a birthday card I made for my friend Kelly who turned 40 a few days ago. I have been itching to use this cake stamp from Lawn Fawn since I bought it about 6 months ago. Coloured with Copics, added stickles and some paper from Crate - the Bliss collection - drool. I love that Bliss collection, it is one of the few collections that I have bought the entire pack with all the papers, stickers etc.

Well hello there

December has come and gone, copious amounts of food and alcohol have been ingested, new years resolutions have been made (mainly involving losing weight ... refer to copious amounts of food ingested), family have all been ill with the flu and now we embark upon 2011. Already!

One year to go peeps.

About fifteen years ago I read Graham Hancocks Fingerprints of the Gods and was utterly convinced that the world will end in 2012 as per the Mayan calendar. Well, not utterly, but I did like the drama of it all. Now that 2012 is just around the corner it can of course go either way, an absolute anti-climax with nothing at all happening ... a bit like the Y2K hype, or (cue x-files music) we might just be sucked into the vortex of space time and life as we know it will change forever. Just for in case I think we will really have to live it up in 2011, I mean why take the chance. Make hay while the sun shines and all that.

On that note, I wish you all a very prosperous and festive 2011 - may you attend many parties, buy many wonderful things, meditate every day to find spiritual peace, eat chocolate without putting on weight and all those other fabulous pleasures in life that make you happy.

I am going to try and craft more, definitely try to use up my stash before the world comes to an end. Make more for myself and not just for deadlines because I have to.

Talking about deadlines, the Feb issue of Craft Stamper is out on Friday and I want to share with you an aperture card that I made for this issue. You can see instructions and a proper photo here on the craft stamper blog.

LOVE these stamps from Cat's pyjamas - available at Make the day special I used images from both of the sets below to make 3 additional cards for this issue, all using apertures of course. My favourite one by far is with the little fire breathing dragon, perfect for the hot man in your life. Of course if you don't have a hot man in your life, well this is the start of a new year, what are you waiting for!

So don't forget to grab the magazine on Friday, looks like lots of cool projects again by the Craft Stamper team.

Christmas is coming

I have been so totally pre-occupied with the snow that I have completely forgotten to post about the chicken soup 12 days of Christmas challenge. Every day, for 12 days, starting from the 1st, the chicken soup blog will post some cool Christmas inspiration.

Sounds good? I thought so.

Day 2 was Christmas cards, and for me of course it had to be snowmen ... I mean really!

Then tomorrow (or today rather, it seems pumpkin time has come and gone and I am up late again .... yawn), the new Craft Stamper magazine is on the shelves. The January issue

We are totally snowed under and there is no way I can even get my car out of the garage, so I shall walk to the High Street and get my copy in the morning. Then I shall also buy myself a big slab of chocolate, come home and read my magazine while I drink the compulsory cup of tea and of course scoff the chocolate. I can do that now because it is snowing, and if it is snowing we are allowed to indulge in comfort food.

For this issue I have made a card for the designer palette feature using the really cute little dude stamps from Waltzing Mouse. They aren't really called little dudes (it is just always the first words that spring to mind when I look at them), but Half Pint Heroes and are adorable. I won these stamps in a blog challenge and couldn't wait to use them.

This is my new favourite stamp company. I LOVE Waltzing Mouse stamps and Claire, the owner, is not only super kind but ever so talented. I bet I am preaching to the converted, but if by chance you don't know of WMS, have a look at Claire's blog here.

Of course I am not allowed to show you the card I made, but I guess it is okay if I just put up a little sneak peek. 

I have also done some cards with polka dots, and of course there is all of the regular goodness associated with Craft Stamper magazine.