New Year's Eve Neighbours

So are you looking forward to the New Year? I hope you have lots of exciting things planned, not just for tonight but for the whole year! I know I do and you will have read about some of them already if you get my newsletter – if you did not get it and would like to please just let me know but in the meantime you may want to check out the classes tab and the clubs tab here on the blog ...

One of the things I am excited about in January and February is Sale-A-Bration. The stamp sets you can get for free are adorable and I am looking forward to playing with them all – lots! You can see them all by following the link on the right hand side of this blog.  I know you are going to love them too so get in touch as soon as possible to place an order, book a party (I have a few slots left).  Or if you are after a real bargain and the chance to get your supplies cheap in the future as well as make some money crafting, to join my team. If you join my Stampin’ Superstars during Sale-A-Bration you will get two additional stamp sets of your choice for free meaning you get £310’s worth of goodies for just £139 – now sale bargains don’t get much better than that. There are some more details here or just email me.

So would you like to see one of the Sale-A-Bration Stamp sets in action?

How cute are this little house? In fact the whole set is so cute the hardest part of making this card was deciding which house and which tree from the Good Neighbours Stamp Set to use! The base card is More Mustard and the papers are from the So Saffron Designer Paper Pack. The house is Close to Coco and Cameo Coral while the button is Tempting Turquoise from the Playground Buttons set. This card is one I made for a swap on In Love With Stamping, so here they all are grouped together.

I love how the roof and the house are different stamps so there are more mix and match options there and how easy it is to get multi coloured houses. To get the heart in the door on the house a different colour I inked the whole stamp with Close to Cocoa and then removed the ink from just the section I wanted a different colour using a cotton bud, before colouring it with the Cameo Coral Marker. 

I can’t wait to see what you and what everyone else does with these wonderful stamp sets.

Happy Craftin

Bekka

Its time to Sale-A-Brate

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas – didn’t it seem to go fast! I hope Santa brought you what you hoped for and added lots of fantastic memories on top. We had a lovely time with family, it’s always great to spend time with them and as ever we ate way too much yummy food!

Now after Christmas many people’s thoughts turn to the sales and grabbing themselves a bargain. My absolute favourite one is Sale-A-Bration from Stampin’ Up! Now if you had discovered Stampin’ Up! last year you may remember this wonderful event and will know why I am so excited about it – if this is your first Sale-A-Bration you are in for a real treat!

Sale-A-Bration gives you the chance to get your hands on four exclusive, very limited edition and totally gorgeous stamp sets for FREE – yes you read that right for Free!

You can see the stamp sets here or you can click on the link on the right hand side of my blog.

So how can you get these sets for free?

By buying your favourite Stampin' Up! products: For every £45 you spend on Stampin’ Up! goodies you can choose one of the Sale-A-Bration stamp sets for free – so plan your shopping list and decide what you are going to spend your Christmas money on or what you are going to treat yourself to.

As a hostess: If you host a party with sales of over £300 (before post and packing) in addition to the normal hostess benefits you can choose a Sale-A-Bration stamp set for free. Its a great time of year to host a party as your guests also benefit from free sets for each £45 they spend and its lovely to have something to look forward to after Christmas. Contact me to book at date, get your friends round and lets party!

By becoming a Demonstrator: If you join Stampin’ Up! during Sale-A-Bration, as well as your fully customisable starter kit which is already fantastic value, Stampin’ Up! will give you a free stamp set worth up to £38.95 and so will I – so that is two free additional stamp sets. This means you will get goodies worth approximately £310 for only £139 – that is less than half price! On top of that you wont have to pay full price for your Stampin’ Up! goodies again and you will be able to earn some extra money doing something you love – crafting. What have you got to loose – contact me today to find out about joining my team.

How fantastic is Sale-A-Bration going to be? Sale-A-Bration runs from 30 December to 28 February – after then the stamp sets will no longer be available so contact me (bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk) to make the most of Sale-A-Bration

I will be back with some samples in the next couple of days

Happy Craftin

Bekka

Christmas Wrapping

Am I the only one who thinks of that song by the Waitresses when they see Christmas Wrapping? If I have just planed it as an ear worm for you I’m sorry.

So I am still mid preparations and today am focussed on the Wrapping. Like many people we are giving some CD’s this Christmas. I decided to pretty them up a bit by making them boxes using scraps left over from my Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ Kit. You will notice I have not written the labels – so no clues here about who is getting CD’s, we don’t want to give the game away now do we!

Next I set about making some gift tags. I am loving bright blues at the moment and my tree is all silvers, whites and bright blues. The wrapping paper I have this year is a similar colour so the gift tags are too. I used a mix of Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue and Night of Navy. The stamps are from the Winter Post and Scandinavian Season Sets.  Just look at the snow outside!

Well I had better go and get wrapping!

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas

Bekka

Stamp With Us Sunday

Hello and welcome to another Stamp with Us Challenge. This week it is a theme Challenge and the theme is the thing that is on everyone’s mind at the moment – Christmas!

I have now finished my cards and I will show you soon (once most of them have reached their destinations) and have moved onto Christmas Gifts. One of the things I am doing at the moment is directing the village pantomime (oh yes I am!) and I wanted to make a little gift for each of the cast. Now there are rather a lot of them so it had to be something simple and suitable for people of all ages.

I decided on decorated Candy Canes - I had made some for the ladies who came to my recent team meeting and thought they would do the trick for this group too! I have also made a container to hold them all.

This would also make a great decoration to have by the door, so you could give gifts to carol singers and to people who visit your house.

Before our next rehearsal tomorrow I need to get some more candy canes so here are the cases waiting for them.

Sheets of A4 Real Red Card were stamped on both sides with the snowflake from the Winter Post in Real Red. The strips were then cut and the short edges punched with the wonderful eyelet border punch. Two holes were then punched for the canes to thread through. The reindeer on scalloped circles finished them off. I hope everyone will like them (and that not too many of them will have seen them here first!)

I dont know why, but seeing a pile of these little fellows all ready to go on my desk makes me smile!

I hope you decide to check out the other DT creations, its the first week for the new DT members and everyone has come up with lovely festive projects. I hope they inspire you to do some Christmas Crafting and that you will share it with us all.

Thanks for stopping by

Bekka

Christmas Bags!

This year I have been fortunate enough to spend one evening most weeks with a fantastic group of six ladies. We get together to craft, but sometimes we just chat and drink coffee. The girls have become great friends of mine and tonight we are all going for a Christmas meal. I am looking forward to seeing them all.

I have a small gift for each of them and had fun today making them look pretty, afterall for us crafty girls it is often all in the packaging!

These little hand bags were made with some Old Olive designer Series Paper (these patterns have now retired but the new ones are just as scrummy!) The bags are decorated with Real Red and the labels were made using the Tags for All Stamps and the star from Scandinavian Season.

Got to dash and get ready ... Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Craftin

Bekka

Happy New Year!

Dont worry I am not getting ahead of myself!  I am still mid Christmas Card and Gift production, so I can’t show them to you as I want them to be a surprise for people as they get them! Instead today I am going to share one of the cards we made at last week’s Card Making Class. I am very excited about next year’s programme as I have lots of fun things planned – I will post about them soon, but in the mean time if you want to join my mailing list and be one of the first to find out please just let me know!


Back to the card – this is a Happy New Year Card, I like to make a few each year just in case I get cards from someone I have forgotten!

The stamp set is the wonderful New Year’s Celebration set. I love the bottle and the kissing glasses - they are going to be so useful for so much more that New Year – I have a big batch of party invites to do and several wedding anniversary cards to do and I think this set could be really great for each of them.

Thanks for stopping by, I’m going back to the craft table!

Happy Craftin’

Bekka

Happy 21st Sam!

Yesterday was the 21st birthday of someone very special indeed, Joe’s daughter Sam. Now she is a lover of all things pink and of butterflies so there are no points for guessing what supplies I reached for to make her card!

The papers are from the Nouveau Chic Designer Series Papers, goodness they are scrummy and it was so hard to cut into them, but she is worth it! I added some dimension by piercing around one of the petals and lifting it to reveal a tempting glimpse of the Pink Passion behind. The Numbers are from the Schoolbook Serif Numbers set.

The butterflies were punched from the adorable Bridesmaid Speciality Papers and then inked with either Sage Shadow or Pink Passion. I love how the ink resists on the patterned areas leaving them looking jewel like.

Did you guess the supplies right? I am pleased to say she loved the card

Oh and look at the wonderful cake made by her aunt

I will leave you on the Chocolaty note!


Happy Craftin

Bekka

Its time for a Stamp With Us Sunday

I have been looking forward to this Sunday – Not only is there a new challenge over at Stamp with Us but it is also the day the new Design Team Members are announced. Why not hop over there and meet the four talented ladies who have just joined the team – I am sure they are going to show us some totally amazing creations for future challenges.

This week’s challenge is a sketch challenge and here is the sketch.

And here is my mirrored interpretation.

The card is Taken With Teal mixed with Real Red and papers from the Merry Moments DSP pack. The scrummy tree from Scandinavian Season was stamped in Taken with Teal and then coloured with me Stampin Markers. The image was then mounted onto the left over reel of one of my packs of ribbons to give it some strength and to make it easy to cut a circle! After I inked the edges, I then covered the whole things with Versamark ink and then added heat and stick powder so I could cover the whole image with dazzling diamonds. Then, just to make sure there was enough sparkle I then added a glue dot covered with red glitter from the Galaxy Glitter set to the centre of the flower in the tree.

I hope you decide to take part in this sketch challenge and I look forward to seeing what you have created.

Happy Craftin

Bekka

What has been keeping me busy?

I have been a busy stamper this week, but I can’t show you any of the projects I have made as some of the cards are commissions for other people, some of the goodies are gifts, and some of the cards have not yet been sent to the people that they are for. Oh and then there are some Valentine’s themed swaps for our team meeting next week. I have had a lot of fun making them and look forward to being able to show them to you soon!


Talking of team meetings I am going to show you some of the cards we made at our team meeting last month. Each month we focus on a technique and our technique last month was brayering. Inspired by some lovely samples and demonstrations at Convention I actually used my brayer and was happy with the results!

This card used the lovely Level 3 Hostess Stamp Set, Garden Dreams, which you can only earn by hosting a party. If you have a workshop in January of February there will be lots of extra benefits for you so please get in touch to book your party! The cardstock is Whisper White and Night of Navy, and the ink colours used were Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose and Ballet Blue with the brayer. The background flowers were stamped in Regal Rose and the bird and leaves were stamped in either Night of Navy or Basic Black.

Right I had better get started on my personal Christmas Cards - yet again December has snuck up and found me not having started on my own Christmas Cards – how does it do that! Wish me luck ...

Thanks for stopping by

Happy craftin

Bekka


PS Breezy - check out the post below - you won!  and I need your postal address ...

Were you a winner?

I have lots of packages to go to be delivered today and it is not even Christmas yet! There are however two more I need to package up and get ready to go so its time to find out if one of them is for you...

Firstly the Winner of the Medallion Stamp from this post is ... Drum Roll Please

Breezy

Please email me with your contact details so I can arrange to get your delicious Medallion Stamp to you. If you already own this beauty just let me know what you would like instead.

Well done and enjoy!

Secondly I want to announce the winner of my November Customer Club Draw here – its been a while since I did that here.

November’s Customer Club Prize Draw winner is Louise. Well done Louise – I hope you like your prize which is a set of the Scrummy Playground Designer Buttons.

Each month every one of my customers who places an order with me has the chance to win a prize, getting one entry into the draw for every £10 they spend. If you host a party you also get additional entry. In December there are some extra special prizes on offer. The winner of December’s draw will get a bundle of goodies worth in excess of £35, containing the large and the small tag punches, an exclusive co-ordinating stamp set and some little extras. There will also be two more prizes, the second prize is a £10 voucher to spend with me during January 2010 and the third prize is a £5 voucher to spend with me during January 2010. To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is place an order with me. I look forward to hearing from you

Please join me in congratulating both Breezy and Louise

Happy Craftin


Bekka

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