Wake Up!… Time to Shop!!!….

Yay!!… It's here… and there are some absolutely great new products…

CLICK to view New Catalogue Items in the shop!

*PRIZE TIME*

Leave a comment with the name of the movie, that you think this blog post title is from…

'Wake Up!… Time to Shop!!'

and I'll draw a random on 15th July - and the winner will get some goodies from the new catty!!

Catch you later!

Flutterby Frames...

With the girls 'School Summer Fair' on Saturday I've been using my good days to make up some things to sell.  

After seeing a picture in an advert for Heals (lovely housey shop in London) I took inspiration from it, grabbed my BigShot, Beautiful Wings Embosslit (118138) and some retired DSP and this is what I made…

(excuse the photography - it's terrible, I seem to live in the house of shadows! No matter where I attempt to take a photo the light is terrible - even my garden is over shadowed with trees :-( 

Anyhow, after the 1st - I got a little carried away and did 3 more…

I'm hoping that these, along with some 'Personalised Kids Frames' I've made  (which I'll show you tomorrow) 

will generate some cash for the Schools ICT Suite - fingers crossed!

********************

With the whole of the SU! Family buzzing about the NEW Catty Launch, I'd better fill you in on a crucial date…

30th JUNE  

FINAL ORDERS can be placed for retiring items from the 

2013-14 Annual Catalogue 

AND the Spring Summer Supplement Catalogue.  

CLICK HERE to go straight to the SU! shop and see some of the retiring items.

See you soon!

New Friend & Weekly Deals...

I know, I know - slapped wrists for me - with my last post being 1st March… and it's now JUNE! - where did that go??

Anyhow, moving forward... 

NEW FRIEND….   

I met the most amazing lady on Saturday, Sandra is a new customer of mine, introduced to me through Mike & Ian (my bestest guy pals) of 'KraftyHands'.  
This wonderful lady still enjoys crafting despite loss of vision in one eye and only partial vision in the other - a true inspiration AND furthermore when she showed me a watercolour painting she had done recently - it was stunning, You Go Girl!!

Sandra had ordered some punches from me (my absolute favourites)…

Bitty Butterfly - 129406 - £14.25 - page 183 of the current annual catty

Elegant Butterfly - 127526 - £14.25 - also page 183, as above

FEAR NOT - although the current catty ends on the 30th June, BOTH of these punches are carrying forward into the NEW Catty - Launching 1st July!!!

So, having been to the regional SU meeting in Telford on 17th May, I thought it'd be nice to put Sandra's purchases in a special bag - and the one we made with Michelle Last as our 'Make & Take' was perfect! … and with a little thanks you card - just so pretty!

WEEKLY DEALS…. 

Check out these fab prices on this weeks ' Weekly Deals'…

You can order any of these directly HERE!

The HOLIDAY ORNAMENT FRAMELITS have been on my personal wish list forever, so I'm finally treating myself to these AND the co-ordinating ORNAMENT KEEPSAKES stamp set...

Don't forget… 

If you also want to get ahead with your Christmas Crafting, we have the full carryover list from the 2013 Seasonal Supplement available until 30th June.

Until tomorrow….

Half Term… chaos as usual!

When Half-Term comes around (or any school holiday, for that matter!) I really should've learnt by now to apologise beforehand for not keeping up to date with MY things, like the blog, the newsletter etc!!!

Friday 14th… Valentines Day - Last day of school, the girls woke me up with a chic chip brioche in bed (which i had to share!) and a gift ….

… my girls and my racal boy Rufus in the middle! - I know I'm biased, but they are gorgeous!

(and Well Done Granny for taking a photo in secret AND not chopping any heads off!)

When the girls came home from school, they had their special dinner… we had pizza and then I melted some white chocolate for us to sit and dip strawberries into!! 

They had gifts to open too!…

I had made them each one of my 'Quesy Boxes' and stuffed some Haribo Hearts into them!

(The 'Quesy Box' - come from 'Quick & Easy' and it REALLY is - i'll put the tutorial up soon!)

So Valentines Day was a happy day in our house!!

Saturday 15th -  Shopping expedition to Nottingham!! - trip on the train was fun, shopping was fun, mobile phone dying, no map and not knowing way back to train station, pouring rain and no taxis to be found - NOT so fun!

Evening out at a Party with friends celebrating 'Grenadas 40th year of Independence' - Much Fun!!

Sunday 16th - Beautiful 'BLUE SKY' Day - my favourite, despite being cold, we wrapped up warm and took Rufus on a very, very, very long walk! Followed by grocery shopping and an early night!

Having had 2 really good days I was REALLY tired, achy and worried that I wasn't going to be on top form for my day out on Monday…

Monday 17th -  Girls had a 'Granny Day' and I along with Dorothy had been invited to accompany Mike (a close friend from KraftyHands) to the Craft, Hobby & Stitch Trade Show at the NEC.  

This was always on my calendar back when I had the shop, but with illness and the shop closing I'd not been or seen old crafting fiends and contacts in a long time.  Despite initial anxiety I was able to relax and enjoy a really lovely day.  We saw a few lovely ideas, though not WOWED by anything new.

(I give up !!! - I've tried to transfer photos from my phone to my computer - as my girls would tell me…. EPIC FAIL! - so sorry no pics from NEC)

>>>   <<<

Chapter 2 :  Girls have now had a week back at school and I still haven't caught up with half of my to do list! Arghhh!  I can say though I have a lot of 'bad' days with the Fibro - so not entirely my fault.

TODAY is now 1st March and I can't believe we're in March already….  We seem to have escaped the snow(?) and "Blue Sky Days" (my favourite) becoming a regular thing!!

Poppy is out at a Disco Party so I got her busy this morning die cutting all the pieces for the flower to decorate the gift box and card…

Here is the finished box… Top View...

 

Oooops - party ends in 2 mins - i'd better go fetch her!!

Luurrve monsters!!

Where did the time go…..  I can't believe I forgot to hit 'publish' on this post - and now I have heaps more to share too…

With Valentines Day just 3 sleeps away and being without a 'significant other' , in my house any effort toward romantic gestures is diverted to showing even more love to my girls.

From my time as a nanny in America, I truly absorbed some of their (what us British may call) 'over-enthusiasm' towards 'Holiday Celebrations'  I LOVED Christmas over there, Hanukkah, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving - I even introduced my host family to a very English 'Bonfire Night!'  
In all of these celebrations, the most touching was their way of expressing 'love' on Valentines Day.  In the USA Valentines Day is NOT just a romantic day to share with boyfriends / husbands etc, but to show affection to 'everyone' who they are close to - friends, family and most lovely of all, children.

I fondly remember crafting with my charges Taline and Christopher, making 'treats' to take into school to hand out to their friends on Valentines day.  While at Convention back in November we were introduced to the  'Whole Lot Of Love' promotion and I immediately thought back and knew i could re-live those memories with my girls… I just needed the help of these guys…

My girls had great fun putting them together.  They made Shortbread Biscuits in Heart shapes with Granny and we got some Strawberry heart shaped fruit snacks from the supermarket. We used small cello bags to wrap the biscuit and Strawberry treat, then 'wrapped' the monster arms around them to give them hugs!…

Here is Poppy with 2 of the finished articles - we made 54 in total!!

(all the other photos I took were terrible - very dark and blurred - bad lighting in our dining room)

SAB Playtime Challenge!! (Part 2)

I made 8 items in total! 

Starting from top left…

Pistachio Pudding Thank You Card - I cut a piece of Pistachio Pudding card stock to the same size as the card blanks in the kit (so that it would fit in the envelopes provided) Popped on a square of Bermuda Bay, matted with the Spotty base card provided.  With the Banner Tag punch I made 2 banners, 1 each in Tangerine Tango and Sahara Sand, embossed these wit the Decorative Dots TIEF and stuck them to the underside of the Thank You die cut banner.  Wrapped the right side of the banner with gold thread and floated it on dimensionals!

Envelope for above card - I simply embossed the flap and used a gold liner provided - however, I do cut my liners down as they don't need to be so long inside the envelope, no one sees them, so may as well save for use elsewhere!

Black 'Son' Card - This was the last item I made last, trying to figure out how to use the 'foreign' sentiments in the kit - discovered a little 'cut up' trick..using the 'TO' and 'OUR' I attached these to an A6 card blank made from Basic Black then used some random sized scrap pieces, by rounding just 2 opposite corners with the Envelope Punch Board, this made for a more 'retro' look favoured by those men folk - so naturally - although I don't have any - I figured it was lending itself to a 'boys' card.  I cut SON freehand and matted onto a piece of cut up envelope.  Once all my pieces looked happily placed, I added a few banner punched pieces and wrapped some Baker Twine around to 'tie it all together!

Envelope Gift Bag - I sealed up an envelope and use the score board to turn it into a gift bag (i will have to do a whole separate tutorial on how to do this!) I embossed the top half of the bag and embellished the bottom with a strip of spotty card and a skinny banner.  Using an envelope liner I cut the 'flap' off and used this to wrap over and around the top of the gift bag to seal it - punch a small hole and tied twine through to hold the for you banner on! - my neighbour gary came round last night to borrow paracetamol, he looked so poorly :-(  but it gave me inspiration that this gift bag would fit them in for a get well soon gift!

Triangle Gift Pouch - I wanted to use the 'French' Sentiment, ideal for my girls French Teacher!  So, I cut a spotty card base in half, and stuck the two short edges together to make a tube.  Flattened one end and stuck together with sticky strip. Now, as i don't have a paper crimper, i used my score board to score 2 lines over the sealed end, to make it a little prettier.  I filled the tube with Chocolate Mini Eggs (and yes, D and I did manage to finish the rest of the packet!) I flattened the open end in the OPPOSITE direction, making the 'triangle' sealed again with Sticky strip. Scored 2 lines as before, wrapped some twine around with the 'merci' banner and a little gold star to finish - tres jolie!

 2 Mini 3x3 Notelets - Fabulously easy to make, i cut 2 pieces of 3 x 6 inch card stock, folded at 3 inches, used the banner punch in the bottom right hand corner of each.  From scrap strips snipped the bottoms into banner 'inverted V's' and adhered them at differing lengths. To my surprise the Gold pre cut banners were the perfect length to lay horizontally over them!  Inside i put a contrasting square of card stock and then stuck the little gold stars on to the inner from the front, using the centre of the banner aperture as my guide - very sweet, could've easily made heaps of these!!

Gift Card Envelope - I cut a card base to a 5x5 inch square and made the smallest envelope as printed on the Envelope punch board, which holds a credit card sized gift card or dinky notelet.  As the Spotty card is pre scored to be a card blank I knew I'd have a random score line, so I made sure this would be over the top right of my envelope and covered it with a skinny banner strip provided.  On the flap, the banner didn't cover the entire score line so this is where I tied the gold string around and held it it place by a gold punched circle from the spare envelope liner.  Finally placed the banner left over from my 'cut up' trick earlier and a gold star to finish!

Even after making all those, we still have spare stash from the kit - so heaps more could be made i'm certain!… maybe if I get a little more spare time I'll see what i can do with the rest!!

Hope you enjoyed!

SAB playtime challenge! (Part 1 of 2)

Victoria couldn't join us last night, bad back, much sympathy - I myself had a 2 hour massage yesterday to ease mine and it helps enormously with the Fibro pain.  In fact, if you are local to Chesterfield, I can't recommend Ali at Vivienne's highly enough!

Back to last night then,  Dorothy came and I'd already set the table for our 'challenge'!

Along with the Chocolate & Caramel cookies (Tesco Bakery - delicious!)…  I'd laid out...

• SAB Good as Gold Simply Sent (TM) kit
• SAB Decorative Dots TIEF (forgot I'd got this! - so only 5 more SAB items to get!!)
• SAB Petal Parade Stamp Set
• SAB Banner Punch 
• Cardstock in the co-ordinating colours of…     Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay, Sahara Sand, Pistachio Pudding, Basic Black and Whisper White.

• Classic Stampin' Ink Pads in…    Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay & Pistachio Pudding
• 1-3/8" Circle Punch (because - a circle will always come in handy!)

AND as a treat, we also played with the 

• NEW Scallop Tag Topper Punch! (133324)

Dorothy split the Good as Gold pack between the 2 of us, in the SAB brochure it claims to make 8 cards… but being the frugal miss that I sometimes am - I wanted to 'stretch' it… 
So by adding the bits mentioned above, we set ourselves a time limit of 2 hours to come up with something/anything, just as 'Many' projects as we could make!  With the usual tools to hand, trimmer, adhesives, Envelope Punch Board,  Simply Scored Scoring Tool etc  - we started the clock!

(Can I just say, I'd never known Dorothy so quiet!! - Bless, I really made her think 'outside the box' (hate that expression - but it sums up the challenge requirements perfectly!)

The Results Were….

D made 6 items in total! 

Starting from top left…

Spotty Thank You Card - she used a full card blank from the kit as her base, then cut another card base in half and trimmed it down, matted it onto Basic Black and mounted in 'on the wonk' Using a die-cut sentiment banner, she matted that onto Basic Black also, fussy cut around it, adhered it to the front of the card and added a Bermuda bay Bakers twine bow with a glue dot - Simple and lovely!

Co-ordinating envelope for the above - (sat underneath the card on the picture) she used another piece of card base and adhere it to the flap of the envelope, trimming off the excess.

Embossed Thank You Card - Making an A6 card Blank from Whisper White, D then cut a panel from Sahara Sand card, embossed it with the Decorative Dots TIEF and adhered to the card front. Using the die cut sentiment and gold banner, she place those against the bottom right edge of the embossed panel.  Finally decorated with 1/2 inch wide strips of the patterned base card, Bermuda bay and cut up a gold envelope liner too! - angle the bottoms with scissors and stuck down with a random gradient, popped the gold star on the bottom of the longest strip - et voila!

Peeking Petals For You Card - A6 card base was made from Whisper White, the petal stamp inked with Tangerine Tango and randomly stamped around the card.  A piece of Spotty base card was cut, the 2 banner strips added, gold thread wrapped around - and again stuck down 'on the wonk' - I'm loving the 'Wonk' it adds interest by being fun!

Thank You Gift Envelope - Strips of the spotty base card were added to the top and bottom of the envelope, then the skinny banners placed vertically down the left side.  A slice of Tangerine Tango was placed beneath the top spotty paper, the thank you sentiment hovers over this with dimensionals and finally the gold star banner was placed down the right hand side - a lovely envelope for placing a voucher or gift card inside!

For You Gift Envelope - She was itching to play with the NEW Scallop Tag Topper punch, so here she used it to make a 3-layer tag with the spotty card and Bermuda Bay, with the addition of the For You banner and some Gold thread it was ready to stick on the envelope, but prior to attaching, she embossed the flap of the envelope to add a little more interest.  Finally popping on one of those lovely little gold stars!

D admitted she'd found it a little difficult, as she mostly see's other creations elsewhere and alters them to her taste - to be told what she could use and to make 'original' items was a little daunting, but once she got into the flow - she flew! and ended up being really proud of her creations - so much so, that she's going to add them to her PINTEREST BOARD - click to follow her!

See Part 2 - for my creations!

Hope you enjoyed!