Sunday 31 August 2014

White Christmas autumnal deer

This time of year is really busy on my birthday calendar, with one after another after another for a couple of weeks. I never seem to get ahead, even though I know it’s coming. 

Add to this the need to make a batch of thank you cards for my Virtual Hostess Club ladies, and trying to plan projects for my upcoming Christmas Workshop, and I’ve been pretty busy stamping lately!


These are the thank you cards I made, using stamps from the new Autumn/Winter catalogue. I love this little deer, which is part of the White Christmas stamp set, and the tiny leaves come from Holiday Home. I liked the idea of keeping it clean and simple, with the deer standing in some autumn leaves. 


Then I stepped it up for a birthday card for Kelly, whose birthday is today. She’s not going to have a great birthday as she’s nursing a particularly nasty leg injury but I’m afraid I didn’t have time to make a Get Well card, too! 

The "Celebrate" comes from the new Good Greetings hostess set – free to any hostess who holds a £200 party before the end of October! This is on top of any other hostess benefits, so get booking! 

A note on colouring:

Blender pens
For the VHC thank you cards, I used Black Stazon and coloured them with blender pens and Baked Brown Sugar ink. This was because I was waiting for my new Blendabilities to arrive. Also, I was waiting for my new Stazon Cleaner to arrive and have now discovered that it’s too late to clean the black ink from the photpolymer stamp. I’m not bothered – at least I can see it easily now! –but you might be, so clean them immediately if you can. 

Blendabilities
For Kelly’s card, my Blendabilities had arrived, so I used those. I found the Crumb Cake pens much darker than anticipated but they do look nice and blend very well together. As I was using alcohol markers, I stamped the deer using Memento Tuexdo Black ink. 

Remember

  • When using a water-based colouring medium (such as our Stampin’ Write markers), you need a permanent ink such as Stazon. 
  • When using an alcohol-based colouring medium (such as Blendabilities), you need a water-based ink such as Memento.






119671s
119671

Saturday 30 August 2014

Caturday: Bob


Bob may only have one eye but it doesn't stop him doing anything. Here he is in one of his favourite spots at the shelter; up a tree. You should know that there are no strong branches in this section of the tree, he’s just resting on twigs and foliage, in prime position to attack any kittens who approach him from below!

Thursday 28 August 2014

Autumn/Winter catalogue is here!



It’s here! The brand new Autumn/Winter catalogue is now open for business. And what a catalogue it is! It has to be my favourite Christmas catalogue (because, to me, it will always be the Christmas catalogue) we’ve ever had. It’s packed with gorgeous goodies, way too many to mention, but I will highlight a few. It’s going to be hard to choose but here goes, in no particular order...



135863 - £17.95
Works along the same lines as the popular Envelope Punch Board, this allows you to create boxes just right for your gifts, using the size guide printed on the board itself. 




135845 - £5.50
Gorgeous little 3D epoxy embellishments, which will look great on cards, tags or scrapbook pages. I’m so glad that Stampin’ Up!® is branching out into embellishments of this kind as I love them!




Endless Wishes (page 32)
136829 - £13.95
I completely overlooked this photopolymer stamp set until I stamped with some friends recently. This was one of the sets we used and now it’s at the top of my shopping list!

135820 - £9.95
Three words: gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Beautiful colours, lovely watercolored designs. 




Wood: 137629 - £20.95
Clear-mount: 137630 - £18.50
This is another product I completely overlooked but I keep seeing things on Pinterest which really catch my eye. Gorgeous images, which look fab when cut out using the co-ordinating Framelits. 




135846 - £4.50
I LOVE these little wooden elements. They can be inked, stamped, covered in paper, but I love them just as they are. 




Tuesday 26 August 2014

Tapping away with Tap Tap Tap

I’ve been a bad blogger lately but, in my defence, it is the school holidays and we’ve been busy with lots of different things. Also I am squirrelling away behind the scenes, designing projects for my Christmas in September workshop. I am loving the new Autumn/Winter catalogue and can’t wait to show you some of the fabulous stamps which you will be able to order very soon!

My Christmas in September workshop is going to be great fun and this year it ’s customisable to suit you! Pay the basic fee and make the four projects provided, or make more and more for an additional £1 per project on a first come, first served basis. Full details can be found here.


But back to today... here’s a project from my last catalogue launch, made for me by the talented Donna. I love this stamp set, the colours she’s used and the trendy grungey design. Thanks, Donna!


Saturday 23 August 2014

Caturday - Ebony



Isn't Ebony just the cutest kitty ever? Ok, she looks a bit demonic here, and is chewing on my daughter's finger, but she really is adorable, honest!

Thursday 21 August 2014

Life's Adventure... moving home



This is a really cute stamp set and I have wavered over getting it for a while now. It’s a hostess set, so you need to hold a party or place a qualifying order to earn it. 

Fortunately, while stamping with a friend the other week, I discovered that she had the set so I stamped out a house in readiness for another friend’s house move. 

I’ve been making a lot of really simple cards lately, so decided to put a little bit more detail (effort?) into this one, and incorporated my last remaining paper doily (must get some more of those), some DSP and the very cute Chalk Lines stamp set.

Colouring was really easy with the Blendabilities. They’re so much fun to use - have you tried them yet?




The small print

This is my personal blog and my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. All images are © Stampin' Up!® All content including photographs, projects and text are © Helen Read, unless otherwise stated. Please feel free to copy my ideas for your personal use and inspiration - if you are a SU demonstrator you may use these ideas for your events but please give credit where it is due. Please do not use my ideas for monetary gain, competitions or publication. The images on this blog - including blog buttons - should not be copied and used elsewhere on the internet or on CDs.