Capture Christmas - A Free Tutorial for the Craft Academy

Today I am going to share with some something I am a little over excited about! I am so excited about it for a number of reasons. To start with it is my First Tutorial for the Craft Academy. If you have not yet checked the Craft Academy I would like to suggest you do – just click here for the blog and here for the website. The Craft Academy is a new venture which aims to make learning fun. I am both thrilled and humbled to be one of the tutors there. Each month there will be a class which you can download or you can purchase a kit with all the card etc you need to complete the project. If you are a craft tutor or Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator you will also be able to purchase class instructions and kits that you can use with your classes or workshops.

The next reason I am excited is because this project is going to be a lot of fun and a lot of help to me personally. December is going to be action packed round here, not only do we have the usual whirl of Christmas to contend with but we also have a 21st Birthday (not mine but I can wish!), a 60th Birthday party (not mine either – cheeky!) preparations for a 50th birthday (nope not mine either) and a Baby’s First Christmas. I want to make sure I take lots of photos and remember what we did this festive season so I have created this quick and easy album to do it in.

If you are a fan of Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas, Ali Edwards December Daily, Jessica Sprague’s Holiday’s in Hand or any other similar projects then this album may be the solution you are looking for.

Full instructions are at the Craft Academy. Hop on over there it is free to join and this class being my first is free too. There will also be a prize for one person who downloads this tutorial in the next two weeks

I look forward to seeing you there and to seeing what you make with this tutorial.

Thanks for stopping by

Happy Craftin

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and visitors.

Thanksgiving is not something we would typically celebrate here in the UK, but when visiting some blogs recently I kept coming across a question that got me thinking. The question is ‘What are you thankful for?’ What a great question.

I thought about it for a while and then felt inspired to make a little Mini Book capturing 10 things that I am thankful for right now.

The Mini Book was made from one sheet of 12x12 Card and was a great excuse to use some of my current favourite products, so I have teamed it with papers from the Bella Bleu pack. I am going to have to get me some more of these as I have almost finished two packs already!!!

The book unfolds and reveals things I am thankful for as it goes.

I had a lot of fun thinking about what to put in my list of 10 things as well as making this book.

I kept the embellishment of the book to a minimum so it will still fold flat.

I am really enjoying working in the 6x4 inch size at the moment too – as you will see if you come back in a couple of days when I will be sharing a very special project. Not only is it is going to be my first tutorial for the Craft Academy but it is also going to help me remember for years to come what should be a very special time.

If you decided to create a project recording what you are thankful for right now I would love to see a picture so please leave me a link (who knows there may even be a prize for my favourite!)

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Craftin

Bekka

PS. Don’t forget there is still time to enter the draw for a Free Medallion Background Stamp here

Christmas Wishes

Today I thought I had better step away from the Medallion stamp, although I am sure I won’t be able to resist it for long! A number of you have asked for more details on the baby wipe technique so I will be putting together a tutorial for you as soon as I can and I am sure the Medallion stamp will make another appearance then if not before! Don’t forget you have a chance to win a Medallion Stamp of your own on this post here – leave a comment before Monday 30th for your chance to win.

Christmas is approaching fast and I plan to write my gift lists today so I thought I would share this cute Father Christmas Card with you.

The stamp is from Holly Jolly Christmas and is stamped in Real Red onto Very Vanilla. The base of the card is made from ¼ sheet of A4 folded in half and stamped with stars from the same stamp set. The image is mounted onto Old Olive and then Real Red and even though it sticks up from the base it would still fit in a C6 envelope. After adding a bow made with the adorable striped grosgrain in Old Olive the card was done. These would also make adorable place name cards on a Christmas Table.

How are you getting on with your gift giving list? If you are looking for inspiration please check out the Christmas Extravaganza Post here – free tag punches from Stampin’ Up! when you spend £45 or more on goodies that make great gifts. You could use the punches as gifts too or maybe they could be a special treat for you?

Talking of presents for you ... I also wanted to remind you about my Wish List Service. If you are fed up with finding things you don’t want under your Christmas tree why not start a wish list with me? You tell me what Stampin’ Up! goodies you would like to find there and then give my contact details to people who ask what you want and those who you think may want to give you a gift. When they get in touch I will make it happen and even gift wrap your gifts with a handmade tag. The last date for placing orders for items on the wish list for pre Christmas delivery will be 10 December. However if your gifts are not ordered in time I will be able to provide a voucher confirming to the recipient what goodies are on their way.

Email me today bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk to get your wish list organised

Happy Craftin'

Bekka

Stamp With Us - The Last Recipe Challenge!

Hello everyone and welcome to this Sunday’s Stamp With Us Challenge. This week is an important week over at Stamp With Us as they are announcing some changes. Firstly, the challenges are now going to be every other week, to give everyone (including the design team!) longer to get their entries together. Talking of the design team – how do you fancy joining us? Pop over to Stamp With Us and find out how – I really enjoy being part of the team, so can highly recommend it.


The third change that has been announced today is that this is going to be the last recipe challenge. I do have to admit these were my least favourite and it seems I am not alone so the decision has been taken to stop doing them! To celebrate this I decided to be very true to the recipe and add absolutely no extra ingredients at all. Keeping to the recipe without adding extras is I think what made these challenges so hard!

This week’s recipe is to use

2 Patterned Papers

1 Stamp

3 Brads

So here is my card.

It features the wonderful Bridesmaid Speciality Papers (which are even more scrummy in real life they have the most beautiful sheen and they are strong enough to be a card base. My other patterned paper is from the Bella Bleu Designer Series Paper – I adore these papers and am going to have to get myself some more of them!

The flowers are from the beautiful Garden Dream’s Hostess Stamp Set and were stamped onto the Bella Bleu Paper and more Bridesmaid paper using Not Quite Navy. These were then cut out and layered onto the card. Due to the sheen on the Bridesmaid papers you will need to allow a little time for the ink to dry before cutting these out. Three of the flowers have Rhinestone Brads in the centre.

The right hand edge of the card was then cut with the Eyelet Border Punch and a strip of the Bella Bleu paper added to the back of the card.

I hope you like this card.

Now there is a bonus card for you too! As regular readers will know yesterday I participated in the 12 blogs of Christmas Blog hop. If you have not checked that out yet I can recommend it – there are some fantastic projects along the way and many chances to get some Blog Candy – including on my post here! There is also the chance to get a free class from the Craft Academy which you can find here. More news about the Craft Academy soon.

In honour of the Blog Hop I thought I would do a Christmas Card following the Recipe too. The supplies I used are very similar, but this time I used the lovely tree from Scandinavian Season.

I was really pleased with how this turned out and may well have to make some more!

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to go round the 12 blogs of Christmas for inspiration, comment on the relevant posts to get some free goodies, including my last post here and the Craft Academy here.

Then please do join in with this week’s Stamp With Us Challenge and put yourself forward for the Design Team.

Happy Craftin’

Bekka

12 Blogs of Christmas and a Give Away ...

Hello there, how are you today? I want to offer a special warm welcome to anyone visiting for the first time as part of the 12 Blogs of Christmas Blog Hop. I hope you had a great time at Jo’s blog – she is one talented lady!

Please feel free to rest up a little, help yourself to a glass of festive cheer and explore a little. There is plenty to go around for old friends and new.

Those of you who have been visiting all week will know I have been using my new Medallion Stamp a lot this week and today is going to be no exception! I am going to share some projects with you all that use non Christmas Stamps to make Christmas Cards.

The first card I am going to share with you is a Christmas version of a design I have shared with regular readers earlier this week. It uses baby wipes to give a beautiful soft multi coloured look. I have had so much fun making these and love how it turned out when I used Old Olive, Rose Red and Bashful Blue. I hope you and the people who I will be sending them to like them too!

The next card is a final variation on this design – and uses some of supplies that are currently in my absolute favourites list! Kraft card, White Craft Ink, the wonderful wide striped ribbon in Chocolate Chip, the eyelet border punch and of course the Medallion Stamp.

The star brad in the middle is from the scrummy Designer Brad collection – if you have not checked these out yet they are on page 84 of the catalogue (there is a link on the top right of my blog) I love this version of the card but it would be better suited for people you are going to see as it is too bulky to post at normal letter rates.


Next I am going to share a card which uses the lovely Pocket Silhouettes stamps. I love Real Red and Whisper White as a Christmas Combination and this card was made by masking a circle in the middle and then simply stamping outwards to form a wreath. I found that by stamping what would be 12, 3, 6 and 9 on a clock face first it was easy to get an equally balanced wreath.

You can find another idea using the very versatile Circle Circus here – a super quick card design!

Thank you so much for visiting and before you continue your blog hop by clicking this link and visiting the lovely Vanessa I have one more things to tell you about ... Since Christmas is the time for giving I could not miss this chance to give something away. I have totally falled in love with the Medallion Stamp this week and want to share that love so I am going to give one lucky reader their own medallion stamp. To be in with a chance of winning please either leave a comment here or email me bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk by Monday 30 November.  If you already have this wonderful stamp (and who can blame you!) I will exchange the prize for any stamp or stamp set of the same value in the current Stampin' Up! Caltalogue.  I will annouce the winner on this blog soon after so please be sure to check back and see if you have won.

I look forward to hearing from you and in the mean time

Happy Craftin

Bekka

Click here for the next stop on the 12 Blogs of Christmas Tour! 

Autumn Medallions

Goodness what a busy day yesterday turned into! I spent the morning with a lovely group of crafty ladies. We had a lot of fun making a lovely Butterfly Easel card a bit like this one. The afternoon was equally fun, coffee with a friend a little crafting and then getting ready to go to the theatre as I am running the box office this week. So I am a little later showing you these than I planned!


As I said in my last post I had a lot of fun playing with the baby wipe ink technique and the medallion stamp, so I made some more with a more autumnal feel – the colours totally inspired by the view from my room when I was at Stampin’ Up! Convention.

And then here are the cards

The ink colours are Ruby Red, Summer Sun and Old Olive. The Medallions were mounted onto Chocolate Chip Card and wrapped with the delicious Chocolate Chip Double Stitched Ribbon. These were then mounted onto a Ruby Red Card Base. Ideal note cards for any occasion. I made some of these up into little packs for my two hostesses yesterday morning and was thrilled that they liked them.

Now when I was making these cards I also made myself some patterned paper by repeatedly stamping the Medallion Stamp over some Very Vanilla Card. I was pleased with how it looks and will be using it on some cards soon, but I have also used some to create a page about the view from my window at Convention, after all it was the inspiration for the colour choice!

I enjoyed putting this page together. The background is textured card which I always enjoy working with, the pictures are layered onto Ruby Red card. The Summer Sun strip has been edged with the eyelet border punch (I think I am becoming addicted to that!) and wrapped with some of the very delicious wide striped Chocolate Chip Grosgrain. One of the things I love about scrapping is I get to keep some pretty bits rather than giving them away, don’t get me wrong I love to give cards but its also nice to be able to keep some of the things I love guilt free! The journaling is on a strip of Ruby Red Card which has been stamped with the Medallion Stamp in Ruby Red for a bit of texture and Pocket Silhouettes in Chocolate Chip for additional interest.

The journaling card was attached to the small photo with strips of the Chocolate Chip Double Stitched ribbon. I also added one of the stunning Filigree Brads with a Rhinestone Brad in the centre. The lucky ladies who are coming to my class on Saturday are going to be using filigree brads on a project and I know they are going to love them!

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day here so please make sure you stop by – It will be one of the stops on the 12 Blogs of Christmas Blog Tour and there will be the chance to win a lovely prize so make sure you visit for your chance to win.


Until tomorrow


Happy Craftin

Bekka

Save the Date

We had my partners Granddaughter to stay over the weekend – it’s hard to believe that she is four months old already. Well after she had gone I decided to put the spare baby wipes we had to a more crafty use.


I had read about this technique and seen several samples from convention so I thought I would give it a go with my new favourite stamp – the Medallion Background Stamp. You are going to see several projects with it this week. It is just so versatile and so easy to use (for hints and tips on using background stamps check out this post here).

To create this effect on the stamps I opened out the baby wipe and put it on top of a plastic bag. Using my Stampin’ Up! re inkers I added a few drops of three different colours and allowed them to soak into the baby wipe. Once I had created a pattern across a surface as big as the stamp I started stamping, using the inky baby wipe as my ink pad.

The Medallion was stamped onto Very Vanilla Card and this was mounted onto an Elegant Eggplant layer and some Regal Rose double stitched ribbon was added before it was all mounted onto an Almost Amethyst card base.

Most of these cards were for some very very special ladies, my Stampin’ Superstars, asking them to keep Saturday January 16th free for a very special day. To find out how you can join them (either as a member of my team or as a guest) please email me on bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk It’s something I am very excited about and something I think will get all our new year’s off to a fantastic and crafty start! And let’s face it, I don’t know about you but I love to have something exciting to look forward to just after Christmas.

Check back for more medallion projects soon!


Happy Craftin


Bekka

Stamp with Us on Sunday

Well normality really has returned as its time for another Stamp With Us Challenge. This week it is one of my favourite types of challenges – the colour challenges. This week’s inspiration is a pair of killer shoes. How I would love to be able to walk in a pair of shoes like this!

And here is my card. I have tried to replicate the mass of patterns and shiny surfaces.

This card is based on Kraft Card, here layered with paper from the Bella Bleu Designer Paper Pack. Two of my current favourite things! I have stamped the Medallion stamp in Chocolate Chip and embossed it with clear embossing powder to give some shine. You can emboss with your Stampin’ Up! ink pads by inking up your stamp with Versamark before you ink them with your Classic Stampin’ Up! Ink Pad. When you stamp the Versamark layer will then hold the embossing powder and you can emboss in any of your 48 favourite Stampin’ Up! Colours.

Next I put strips of sticky tape around the design to form a border and added some of the delicious rose red glitter from the Cosmo glitter pack.

I hope you decide to play along with this challenge and I look forward to seeing what you create

Happy Craftin


Bekka

Was it really a whole week ago?

It’s hard to believe that this time last week I was in Germany for the first ever European Stampin’ Up! Convention. WOW what an amazing experience and one I did not want to admit was over! It was a privilege to spend so much time with such a fantastic, loving and inspirational group of people. I had read people’s reports of the American’s Conventions but was still a bit sceptical that things would be as wonderful as they described but they were at least that good.

There were so many highlights I almost don’t know to start! The first one was probably getting my swaps finished – I made almost 200 of these cards. I loved the colours and I really enjoyed colouring them in. Anyone who has seen me recently will have seen me colouring in odd places (including back stage at the theatre!) Lots of people asked me for a tutorial on how I got this effect with the Stampin’ Up! Markers, I will do one for you all soon.

Next there was catching up with the others in my Stampin’ Up! Team and actually meeting the lovely Nicci – she is a total doll in so many ways.

Then a real high for me – meeting Shelli Gardner the co-founder of Stampin’ Up! What a wonderful, warm and welcoming woman, so much time for each and every one of us. She truly is an inspiration. I was especially touched by her words of encouragement when I received an award. An award which I have to thank each and every one of my team and my customers for. It was such a privilege to receive an award for being one of the top demonstrators in the UK – I am still not sure I believe it but I have the pin and the certificate to prove it!

Then there were all the friendships that were either cemented or formed. Way way way to many of them to mention or to include photos of but you are all amazing and I am thrilled I got to spend time with you.


Next year’s convention will be in London and if you want to come along it is easy – join my team! Get in touch and find out how – I would love to have you there with me

I have done some crafting since I got home so will be back with pictures soon

Happy Craftin


Bekka

Hang out the Bunting!

What horrible weather we are having today – torrential rain and lots of wind! It’s a good thing we have lots of indoor activities planned for today! We are going for lunch with the family, then its panto rehearsal time (Oh yes it is!) before heading straight out to a quiz. I think I will be ready for my bed tonight!


Well despite the weather its Sunday so it is time for another Stamp With Us Challenge. This week the theme is Christmas. Now I have been busy making swap for Stampin’ Up!’s first ever European Convention so I thought I would make something other than a card!


This is what I came up with – Some Christmas Bunting.

I love how bunting always makes a place look ready for fun, so wanted to put a festive twist on and am looking forward to hanging this in my porch nearer the big day. It was however more of a challenge to photograph the finished article than it was to make it!

It is made with papers from the Merry Moments Collection and elements from the lovely Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ Kit – I think I may have mentioned before how in love I am with that! It also features some of the adorable Real Red Striped Ribbon as well as Real Red Grosgrain. I have also used the Eyelet Border Punch to give a nice decorative edge to some of the flags.

I hope you like it.

As our thoughts turn to Christmas it is time to start to think about gift giving. I have two important things I want to tell you about which I hope will help your Christmas Planning.

Firstly Stampin’ Up! have produced a Gift Giving Guide, with lots of helpful suggestions on things you may want to give or things you may want to use to make gifts. I will be back with lots of ideas for gifts in the next few weeks, many of which will feature the products on the gift giving guide. Click here to download your own copy or if you would like me to email a copy to you please just let me know.

Now in addition to the Guide Stampin’ Up! are making a very special offer. If you spend £45 on items that are listed in the guide you can claim either a Tag Punch or a Small Tag Punch (worth £12.50) for free. Brilliant! This could either be a gift for yourself, after all it will help you get everyone’s Christmas and Birthday presents organised, or it could be a gift for a crafty friend. Either way you win.

Secondly I wanted to remind you that I offer a Wish List Service. Imagine finding a selection of the Stampin’ Up! goodies that you have been longing for all beautifully wrapped and under your Christmas Tree. No more pretending that the bizarre presents are what you always wanted – no more having to fake being pleased with what you receive, you genuinely will be thrilled. Between now and Christmas several people are likely to ask you what you want so rather than saying you don’t know all you would have to do is give them my contact details and we will arrange the rest.

To register a wish list with me just email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk with your list. Then all you have to do is to tell people about it and wait for the big day! I operate wish lists all year so you can also keep a list for birthdays or any other gift giving occasion. I am also offering additional entries into the November and December Customer Club Draw for anyone who registers a wish list with me, giving you extra chances to win a monthly prize.

I hope you decide to play along with this Stamp With Us Challenge – it runs for a couple of weeks so there is plenty of time! I look forward to seeing your creations.

Happy Crafting

Bekka