Two-Step into Fabulous!

Stampin' Up!'s Two-Step Stampin' sets allow you to quickly and easily take your creativity to the next level. If you're not familiar with Two-Step Stampin' - these sets contain pairs of stamps that are used one after the other to create a finished image with extra dimension - and that 'wow' factor!

Here are a couple of cards made using Two-Step Stampin' sets - Greenhouse Garden and Bird on a Branch.

From Sunday 1st to Tuesday 31st August, you can get a fabulous 20% off selected Two-Step Stampin' Sets from the current catalogues - no limit and no minimum purchase required!

The promotion includes all of the stamp sets listed below.

Item	Page	Description	Regular Price	Sale Price
104606	31	Loads of Love	£18.95	£15.16
105709	31	Des tonnes d'amour (Loads of Love in French)	£18.95	£15.16
110662	31	Liebe, nichts als Liebe (Loads of Love in German)	£18.95	£15.16
109439	35	Big Bold Birthday	£23.95	£19.16
110548	35	Un super anniversaire (Big Bold Birthday in French)	£23.95	£19.16
113258	39	Trendy Trees	£12.95	£10.36
113824	43	Greenhouse Garden	£22.95	£18.36
117688	8*	Something Sweet	£23.95	£19.16
118878	8*	Un peu de douceur (Something Sweet in French)	£23.95	£19.16
118880	8*	Süße Kleinigkeiten (Something Sweet in German)	£23.95	£19.16
118091	15*	Tiny Tags	£18.95	£15.16
113266	18*	Bird on a Branch	£14.95	£11.9

*From Mini-Catalogue

To celebrate this promotion, there's going to be a Two-Step Stampin' Blog Hop starting HERE this Sunday 1st August!

The Blog Hop will showcase many of the stamps included in the promotion used in a scrapbooking context. I hope you'll pop along and see how these brilliant stamps can be used on your scrapbook pages.. I can't wait!

Thank you, teacher!

It's the last day at nursery for my boys tomorrow, so I made a couple of quick Thank You cards for the staff who have been wonderful this year.

The first one was totally inspired by a box of chocs I spotted in the Co-op yesterday.. and just had to buy for Charlie's teacher, mainly because of the matching-card-making potential.

I was instantly thinking colour schemes.. 'Hmm, looks like Choc Chip, Cameo Coral and Very Vanilla'... shortly followed by.. 'Hey, I can use my new So Swirly wheel!'

Here's what I came up with, anyway. I couldn't resist adding a splash of Old Olive and some Sweet Pea felt pieces.

Supplies:

Cardstock - Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Old Olive
Stamps - So Swirly wheel, Sincere Salutations
Inks - Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip
Punches - Scallop Edge, Oval, Scallop Oval
Embellishments - Sweet Pea felt pieces, green rhinestones (non-SU!)

My second card had to be super-quick as I was running out of time this afternoon.

 Supplies:

Cardstock - Old Olive, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie
Paper - Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack
Stamps - Flight of the Butterfly
Punch - Butterfly
Embellishment - green rhinestones (non-SU!), Diamond Stickles (non-Su!)

You know what? In hindsight I think the second one is a bit plain.. it could do with something else.. more butterflies maybe.. perhaps a scrap of the patterned paper with a bit more 'going on'? Oh well, too late - it's been handed in!

EXTRA hostess rewards ending soon!

I just thought I'd post a quick reminder of Stampin' Up!'s current promotion. For June and July, we have had the fantastic Extra, Extra! Hostess promotion...

Click here to download this flyer (PDF 594KB)

Dates: 1 June-31 July 2010

Promotion Details:  

Host a £250 workshop between 1 June–31 July 2010 and earn an EXTRA £20 in hostess rewards!

Click here for more information on all the benefits available to you when you host a workshop.

My very first workshop was held in June and my hostess Teresa was able to earn herself (and her scrapbooking club) an impressive haul of freebies. 

There's not long left to take advantage of this fantastic offer (ten days, in fact!) - so if you fancy a fun night in with your friends with the chance to earn free Stampin' Up! goodies, better book your workshop quick :)


If you're interested, click on my 'Host a Workshop' page for further information and my contact details.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah x

Two quick cards for men

We have two blokey birthdays this week - Gareth's friend Jez, and his brother Simon - so I've just made a couple of really quick & simple cards for them.

This one uses the Fun & Fast Notes birthday stamp, stamped with Versamark and embossed in white embossing powder. I've also used the Nestabilities Labels One dies, layering Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock.

This one is based on a lovely set of cards I spotted on Emma's blog Devotion to the Dream. The base card is Ruby Red cardstock, A6 size. The letters are stamped with the Just Perfect alphabet in Ruby Red ink, cut out and the edges inked (messily!) with black ink. The white lines were drawn with a white Signo gel pen.

Thanks for looking!

Sarah x

More scrapbooking with Sweet Pea

It's been a while since I did any scrapbooking.. card-making seems to have taken over for the last few weeks. But I've been itching to get back to it, and yesterday I came up with this:

The photos were taken in our garden and at the Chalk Farm Hotel where I was experimenting with the macro setting on my camera. The patterned paper is from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper stack - I used one sheet and cut out a couple of butterflies from another and stuck them on with foam pads. Can you spot them?

I used Old Olive cardstock to mat the photos, stamping it with flowers from Baroque Motifs and Flight of the Butterfly stamp sets. I layered the Old Olive with So Saffron cardstock, using the Scallop Edge punch on the top and bottom edges.

The 'Summer' part of the title was made using Stampin' Up!'s chipboard letters pack - On Board Loads of Letters, £10.25 for three 12x12" sheets in various designs. I pressed each letter on to an ink pad - Ruby Red and Old Olive - until the letters were covered in ink.

The 'garden' letters were stamped using the Just Perfect alphabet stamps - Ruby Red ink on So Saffron cardstock - then cutting out each letter. I gave the letters an aged look by dabbing around the edges with an orangey-yellow chalk ink, then creasing them up a bit.

To complete the distressed look, I ran the blades of a pair of scissors around the edge of the patterned paper and turned back the corners before adhering to a 12x12" piece of Summer Sun cardstock. The Sweet Pea designer papers are double-sided with coordinating patterns on each side, so it's nice to be able to see both sides of the paper in this way!

It feels good to be scrapping again.. watch this space for news of a scrapbooking blog hop coming soon!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Dashing through the snow...

I've just made my first Christmas card! Totally inspired by a beautiful card I spotted on Carolyn's blog, it uses the adorable Dasher stamp (£6.95 in Stampin' Up!'s mini-catalogue). Items from the mini-catalogue are only available until the end of September so if you would like your own Dasher stamp, better order it quickly!

My next card-making class is on Friday 10th September, 10am - 12noon, and you can bet we'll be making cards with this stamp! If you'd like to come to the class, please email me to reserve a place. Contact details are on the 'Cardmaking Classes' page.

Supplies:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Stamps - Dasher, Sincere Salutations
Ink - Chocolate Chip
Punches - Oval, Scalloped Oval
Ribbon - 1 1/4" Chocolate Chip Striped Grosgrain
Adhesives - Snail adhesive, Stampin' Dimensionals foam pads

A quick thank you

I've been terrible at sending thank you cards to friends and family lately.. but the other day I made a heap of little cards that were so quick and easy, there really is no excuse any more!

These were made using the Two-step Bird punch with a selection of patterned paper scraps - the two on the right are using papers from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Papers. The greeting is from the Sincere Salutations stamp set. I added little green sticky gems for eyes and inked the edges.. and that's it!

Thanks for visiting :)

Sarah x

Baroque Motifs.. my new favourite stamp set!

This morning I held my second card-making class, this time in the comfort of my dining room! I had three ladies - Jo, Michelle and Joan - and we had a lovely time making some beautiful cards with (my new faves) the Baroque Motifs stamp set, along with Sincere Salutations for the greetings.

 

The cards made by the ladies were fantastic - all made to the same recipes but each made unique by the ladies' colour choices and addition of ribbons and gems. I wish I'd taken photos of their cards but I forgot - so here are some pictures of the ones I made...

I am also LOVING the Oval punch combined with the Scalloped Oval punch - together with the Sincere Salutations stamps, they are the perfect way to add a classy greeting to your cards.

 
Thanks for looking!

Sarah x

A special birthday card.. and the one that got away

This week I had two special birthday cards to make - one for my dear mum-in-law's 60th birthday which was on Monday, and one which was commissioned by a Toddler Group friend for her mother-in-law who is 98 at the end of the month.

Both cards needed to say 'Mum' and 'Happy 60th/98th Birthday' as appropriate. Not having the alphabet stamps needed to stamp this out, I 'cheated' and printed my greetings on patterned paper. Both cards used pink papers from the Sweet Pea Designer paper stack, along with the 'Baroque Motifs' stamp set (my absolute favourite at the moment). I also used the Two-Step Bird punch on my mum-in-law's card.

The Baroque Motif was stamped with Versamark and embossed with holographic embossing powder so it catches the light much better than the photo shows.

And the one that got away...? Well, what a numpty I am. In my haste to get to Toddler Group this morning with the 98th birthday card I forgot to photograph it. It was similar to the one above.. but the image was stamped in Old Olive on the houndstooth check paper, and instead of the bird it was festooned with pinky-lilac paper hydrangeas (from Prima I believe). I'd also printed the 'Mum' and '98th' a bit bigger, which looked better I think.

My second monthly card-making class is this Friday - and we'll be making cards using the Baroque Motifs set.. can't wait! Also, I have lots of exciting plans for September, including an idea for a scrapbooking class which I've been nurturing for soooo long.. I'll share more details very soon.

Meanwhile.. if you are interested in coming to a class, or purchasing anything from the Stampin' Up! catalogue, I'd be delighted to hear from you.