Making Cards & Gifts Class

At this month's class I decided to use the same stamps and colours so that both projects could be given as a gift together.

Our first make and take was this gorgeous mini treat holder, designed by the very talented Jenny Moors.  It has been designed to hold After Eight Mints but my friend Louise suggested using those "posh" teabags that have the tag and string, will have to try them out for size.

We used the "Kissing Technique" with the "Flower Accent" and "Fine Flourish" stamps in Rose Red and Pretty in Pink inks.  The Boho Blossom Punch helped us to create a lovely centre for our flower to which we added a 1/4" circle covered with Crystal Effects, so pretty.  The Two-Step Bird Punch was used for the leaves.

Well I am sure you all know this, but these are my all time favourite colours, glad they are staying with us.  Looking forward to all those lovely new colours that will be coming in October so maybe I will get attached to some other colour combo!!

Call by tomorrow to see the co-ordinating card we made to go with this gift. 

So addictive!

It's true, these little bird houses are so addictive to make, I keep trying them in different colours and they are just so sweet.  The perfect little gift!

For this one I used some of the So Saffron Patterns Designer Paper and these packs are just so versatile.  You get 12 sheets of patterned paper which are all double sided and all in one colour way.  My dotty window is created using the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp using Stazon Ink onto the Window Sheets.

I am starting a new class over at Thornbury on 5th July called "Making Cards & Gifts" and these little bird houses are on the agenda for one of the forthcoming classes, so if you fancy making one for yourself, just drop me an email to book your place today.  You can get me on stampinkerry@aol.com

Its a Gift!

These little bird houses are everywhere at the moment, and you can see why, they are just so tweeet!  This is one that I made as a gift at a recent workshop, great for filling with yummy chocolates or sweet treats and great to just say "thank you" in its own simplicity.

I used the "Dot, Dot, Dot" background stamp with Black Stazon ink onto some of the medium window sheets and cut a square large enough to cover the circle behind the birdy, of course you can buy the "Night and Day" Designer Series Paper pack which includes two 12x12" sheets of pre-printed dotty window sheet which you can find in the Mini Catalogue.

My flower is stamped using "Vintage Vogue" and of course my bird and branch are punched out using the "Two step Bird Punch".

Don't forget that by hosting a Stampin' Up! Party during June and July, you can earn yourself an extra £20 worth of products, on top of the usual hostess benefits, what an easy way to watch your collection grow!

Give me a call or email me for more information.

New Class at Leonard Stanley

Last week I held a new class at Leonard Stanley School and we made two lovely cards (I think they are lovely, I hope you do too!!)  This card used a combination of Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, So Saffron and Very Vanilla cardstock along with some So Saffron Designer Series Paper.  We used the "Vintage Vogue" stamp set along with "Oval All" for the greeting.  We stamped the small flower image over the base of the card using VersaMark then stamped two flowers onto Very Vanilla cardstock using So Saffron ink and hand cut them.  The bird was punched using the "Two-step Bird Punch" and the Eyele Border Punch created the lovely border to the left of the card.  We stamped our greeting in Chocolate Chip ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock and punched out with the Oval Punch, then layered onto a Close to Cocoa Scallop Oval.

Most of the ladies who attended were seasoned crafters so the evening ran very smoothly considering it was the first class they had attended and I hope that everyone had a fab time.  Will be back soon with a date for next month!

Weddings

Another wedding card, this time using the "Vintage Vogue" foliage stamp for my background, stamped in Versa Mark ink to give that lovely watermark effect, so soft and subtle, just perfect for this wedding card.  My bird was punched out in Pretty in Pink from the "Two Step Bird Punch" and stamped with the foliage stamp in Versa Mark, then I inked around the edges using a dauber to add depth.

The branch was also punched from the "Two Step Bird Punch" in Kraft cardstock to co-ordinate with the rest of the card.  I stamped "Mr & Mrs" from the "Tiny Tags" set and punched out using the Medium Jewelry Tag punch and then attached with Linen Thread, through a button on top of the Kraft Taffeta Ribbon.  I needed to personalise my greeting so I printed from my computer on Very Vanilla Cardstock and cut out, using the corner rounder then added some flat back pearls at the top to finish.

Sweet Pea Sweetie

I just love the new Sweet Pea DSP Stack, 48 12x12 sheets of gorgeous double sided Designer Series Paper, just perfect for your cards and scrapbook layouts.

I bravely cut into the stack, after stroking it for a long time and came up with this card, a sketch I had seen on a challenge blog.  I used the "Two-Step Bird Punch" for the bird and branch, and Jewelry Tag Punch to punch out the tag with the stamped "hello".  My colours are Not Quite Navy, Old Olive and Barely Banana, although the 5/8" ribbon is So Saffron but it blends well.

Tiny Hello's!

Yet again the "Two-step Bird Punch" is out in force, along with "Tiny Tags" and in this case, the tiny "Hello" stamp.

My colours are Not Quite Navy, Barely Banana and Old Olive inspired by the Designer Series Paper I chose from the new Sweet Pea Stack.  My bird was punched from Close to Cocoa cardstock and versamarked using the foliage stamp from "Vintage Vogue".  I stamped the tiny "hello" greeting in Chocolate Chip onto Barely Banana cardstock and punched out using the Medium Jewelry Tag punch, tying a bow with Linen Thread.  I added a piece of So Saffron 5/8" Grosgrain ribbon for some texture.

Click on the picture for a closer view to see more detail.

If you would like to order any products from the current Stampin' Up! Catalogue or new Mini Catalogue, just email me at stampinkerry@aol.com and if you have a Paypal account you can pay using your Credit/Debit Card and have your order shipped direct to your door!  Cheques are also welcome!

Back tomorrow with details of the 3D Class that I held last night.

April Card Making Class

Following on from yesterday's post, here is the second card we made at the last card making class.

We used the lovely "Vintage Vogue" set along with the "Rock 'n' Roll" technique.  The colours were Barely Banana for the base, teamed with Rose Red and Pretty in Pink.  At this point I would like to say a huge thankyou to Amanda for lending us her "Pretty in Pink" ink pad as I had brought "Regal Rose" by mistake (drrrr) and luckily Amanda had ordered PIP and I had taken the order along with me to give her, so thank you for saving the day Amanda!

Using the Rock 'n' Roll technique, we stamped our flowers in Pretty in Pink & Rose Red, hand cut them and arranged over our panels, adding leaf stems punched from the "Two-step Bird Punch".  The middle Barely Banana panel was stamped with Versa Mark using the Vine stamp from Vintage Vogue and we then stamped "friends" from the Tiny Tags set and punched using the co-ordinating Medium Jewelry Punch, tying with Silver Elastic Cord in a bow (which is quite tricky by the way but worth the effort!).  Our greeting was stamped in Rose Red at the bottom of the card.

If you would like information about any of my classes, please contact me on stampinkerry@aol.com for further details.

So Tweet!

As you can probably tell I am loving the new "Two-step Bird Punch", its just so tweet!!  I have stamped onto Certainly Celery cardstock with the new "Dot, Dot, Dot" background stamp in the same colour and then punched out my bird.  I added droplets of Crystal Effects to the dots on his wing.  The Designer Series Papers I used were from the "Tea Party" pack which inspired me with my colour scheme for the card.  The greeting is stamped using the "Thanks So Much" stamp from the newly released "Tiny Tags" set and punched out using the new Jewelry Tag Punch which co-ordinates with it, then I tied a piece of Linen Thread in a bow to finish.  The wording at the bottom of the card is from "Vintage Vogue".  I also added some "Frost White Shimmer Paint" to the Old Olive branch which was cut using the "Two-step Bird Punch".

Animal Stack

My card today uses 3 of the wonderful animals from "Fox & Friends".  I stacked them on top of each other using the Stamp-a-ma-jig for easy placement.  My choice of colours Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive and Barely Banana were chosen to co-ordinate with the piece of patterned paper on the bottom layer which is from the new 12x12" Designer Series Paper Pack which is so yummy!  You get 48 sheets of 12x12" patterned paper in this stack, all for £19.50 which is a fantastic price, and to add to that they are all double sided too!  These papers also co-ordinate with some of the new products in the Mini Catalogue.

My greeting is from "Basic Phrases" which has been getting a lot of use recently, I love that these phrases fit lovely inside the Word Window Punch.  The monkey is holding a branch which has been cut from the new "Two-step Bird Punch" and trimmed down to size.  I have also used some leftover DSP from the "Tall Tales" range and layered with Barely Banana cardstock.  My circles at the bottom of the card are punched using the 1/4" and 1/8" circle punches.

Just hanging around!

This monkey stamp from "Fox & Friends" stamp set is just soooo cute, along with his 6 other friends that complete the set.  This is just fab for a young boy card and I am sure there are lots of cheeky little monkies out there that this card would suit perfectly!

The branches were cut using the new Two-step Bird Punch and I stamped the monkey two extra times and cut out the head and raised using Dimensionals.  I used a piece of the new 5/8" Satin Ribbon in Old Olive to tie a knot around one of the layers, this ribbon is just so nice for tying bows and knots as it is so soft and smooth!  My title was stamped using the "Basic Phrases" stamp set and punched out using the Word Window Punch.  I added Crystal Effects to the three 1/4" circles to the left.

The patterend papers I used were from the "Tall Tales" Designer Series Paper pack.

The new Two-step Bird Punch is just so cute, I have been getting plenty of use out of it already!  I stamped the new "Dot, Dot, Dot" background stamp onto my punched out bird in the same colour as the cardstock to give a tone on tone effect and then daubered around the edges and adhered the wings.  Using the punch again I punched out an Old Olive branch for the bird to sit on!

The patterned paper is from the "Tea Party" Designer Series Pack and I have added punched out circles using the 1 1/4 and 1" punches, cutting the smallest first to end up with a ring.  My Old Olive flower is from the Flower Fusion Accents & Elements collection, a really lovely tin full of felt flowers which you can find on Page 83 of the 2009/10 Idea Book and Catalogue.  Next to this I added two buttons tied with Linen Thread and adhered an Old Olive button on top of the felt flower.  I tied a piece of 1/4" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon around my main panel and stamped my greeting from the "Basic Phrases" set and punched out using the Word Window Punch.

Soft and Subtle

This is the make and take card we made last night at my mini catalogue launch.  I really love these soft and subtle colours, so feminine and pretty.  We used Pretty in Pink cardstock for our base and teamed it with Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla with a hint of Old Olive.  Our stamps were from "Vintage Vogue" which I am really loving at the moment and we also used one of the new background stamps "Dot, Dot, Dot" which is fab.  We used the new "Two-step Bird Punch" to punch out our bird and branch, inking around the edges using the Daubers.  We handcut the large flower image and used a Dimensional to raise it from the background.

We created a faux button using the 3/4" and 1/2" Circle Punches and tied around a piece of 1/4" Very Vanilla Grosgrain ribbon in a knot.  We used the Mat Pack along with the Paper Piercing tool to create pierced holes for decoration.

Open Evening Tonight

You are all welcome to come along to my Open Evening tonight to celebrate the release of the new Mini Catalogue.  Here are the details:

Whitminster Village Hall

(1 mile from J13 of M5)

7.00 - 9.30pm

Drop by for coffee, create a Make & Take card using some of the new products, view samples created using the new products and get to view the new Mini Catalogue and also the 2009/10 Idea Book & Catalgoue.  I will be available to offer any advice and will have information available for Home Workshop bookings and also the classes that I run.

There will be a raffle too so don't miss out, come along for a little social evening, meet other card makers and just be inspired!

Here's a little sneak peak for you:

Hope to see you there!

I saw these flowers on a card but they were tied at the bottom with thread so I decided to put mine in a vase to be different.  The vase was cut using the Oval Punch and cutting the top part with a circle punch and then snipping the bottom off to make a flat base and I think it works!

So my flowers were created using the Two-step Bird Punch, one of the newly released products from the Mini Catalogue.  They are the "bird wing" part of the punch, assembled in three's to create a flower.  The leaves/stem are also part of the same punch and I have used the "Frost White" Shimmer Paint on these to give them a shimmery finish.  My background is stamped onto the So Saffron layer using the new Very Vintage jumbo wheel and my greeting is "Elegant Thank You", one of the new A La Carte stamps.  I completed my card by adding a length of 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon in Certainly Celery and tying in a knot at the front.

Getting Together

Every month our team, the "Inkaholics" have a get together where we have time to talk business and then time to play afterwards!  As part of our get together we do card swaps which is great as we come away with several different ideas that could be used as make and takes for our home workshops.

I forgot to take a picture of my swap but I have a very similar one to show you, the only difference being the two roses on either side were replaced with leaves.

The rose buds were created using the new "Two-step Bird" punch from the Mini.  This is the "wing" punched out three times then adhered to look like a rose bud (or tulip if you added a straight stem).  I used the new "Frost White" Shimmer Paint, which I have to say is just gorgeous, to add a glimmer to the rose buds and inked around the edges using a dauber with Rose Red ink.  To get a better view of the lovely background on the Pretty in Pink layer, click on the photo to enlarge the image.  This is the new jumbo wheel called "Very Vintage" and I used the Versa Mark stamp to gived a subtle effect.

The greeting is the new "Elegant Thank You" stamp from the "a la carte" stamp range, this is a group of stamps that are sold as single stamps which is great.  I punched out three circles using the 1/4" Circle Punch and added Crystal Effects to make them shine.

DON'T FORGET, ANY ORDERS OVER £45 (BEFORE P&P) PLACED BEFORE 9TH APRIL 2010 WILL QUALIFY FOR A FREE, YES FREE INK PAD OR SHIMMER PAINT OF YOUR CHOICE.