Sunshine and Flowers

It’s a beautiful cold sunny day here – the kind of day that makes you enjoy sitting in a sunny corner and which encourages you to look forward to summer! 

I may have mentioned before that I love to sit and colour – it’s just so relaxing and today I am going to share some cards featuring some water colouring.

The beautiful flower from Growing Green has been stamped onto the beautiful Shimmer Card using Black Stazon Ink and then the flowers have been coloured using an Aqua Painter Brush and ink from the Stampin’ Up! Classic Ink Pads. I love how the shimmer shows through the colour! The edges have then been inked in the same colour.

For those of you who subscribe to my newsletter there will be some tips on water colouring in the next edition – for those of you who don’t subscribe yet – my newsletter goes out on the first of the month so may sure you sign up today! There is a sign up box on the top right hand side of my blog (if you are using a blog reader you will need to pop over to the actual blog). Its free to sign up for and subscribers get regular hints and tips and get exclusive tutorials and offers. So just pop your details in the sign up today.

Happy Stampin

Bekka

Panto Thank Yous

Today I will be mostly resting and relaxing! This year’s panto is over and I am feeling a mix of emotions – proud of the cast and crew, they did a great job, thrilled with the audience reaction, shattered and a little bit sad – I am going to miss it, and excited about the possibilities of starting the next production.

There is a huge team involved in putting on a show and I have really appreciated their efforts. I made everyone a card to say thank you – and through I would share them with you. There were way way too many to fit in one photo!

It was great to have an excuse to get out the Christmas Stamps again so soon – our show was called Santa the Panta so the choice of stamp was an easy one! This Santa is from Sparkly and Bright.

Did you know if you order the Sparkly and Bright Stamp Set and the two Punches I used to make this card before the end of February, you would qualify for a free Sale-A-Bration stamp set? Now I know several of you are thinking of starting your cards early this year and what better incentive could there be than a free stamp set as your reward? Click here to see how you can claim your reward.

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Rushing through ...

Very quick post from me today, we have our last two panto performances and then I have a party to get ready for!

I have had very little crafting time this week and that little bit I have had was spent working on some projects I can’t share just yet. So today I am going to share some cards I made last year but never showed you. All the product used to make these cards is still available.

Have a fantastic day

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Its Good to Dream!

Well they did it! Our audience last night seemed to enjoy the Panto and the cast and crew certainly did – if you are local we do have some seats for tonight, tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening, after that its no more Panto for us!

As promised here is another blue card, again featuring the beautiful Blueberry Crisp Papers and the Razzle Dazzle Stamps.  I love the sentiment from this stamp set - it's good to dream.

Today’s blue is Not Quite Navy and it has been teamed with Old Olive and Cajun Craze, a combination suggested by the wonderful colour coach.

The colour coach is one of the things which really helps me come up with new ideas. Before I joined Stampin’ Up! one of the things that really worried me was where I would get my ideas from. After all I am just an ordinary crafter.

What I have found however is that I now have more ideas than I have time to make! As well as interesting new colour combinations from the colour coach I get ideas from many other places. My team inspire me, our training meetings with other demonstrators inspire me and give me ideas I can put straight to work in my business. Each month I share ideas and projects with the team and the swaps we do give me ideas too. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone at our next all day training on 6th February - as well as catching up with some wonderful friends and learning all about business I know we are all going to come away with so many ideas to share.

If you are interested in joining Stampin’ Up! check this link to find out why now really is the most inspiring time of year to join my team.

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Tonight's the Night!

Just a quick post from me today – its opening night for the village panto I wrote and am directing and I have more than a few last moment things to finish! True to form there will be some Stampin’ Up! product on stage – I wonder who will spot it!

Anyway, today I am sharing another blue card with you, again featuring the Razzle Dazzle Stamps and the Beautiful Blueberry Crisp Papers.

Today’s blue is Pacific Point and here I have added a Rich Razzleberry accent, alone with more sparking rhinestones – don’t you just love how sparkly these are!

Back tomorrow with another blue card!

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Favourite Colour

What is your favourite colour? When I was younger I used to get asked this a lot and to an extent I still do, but even after all these years I find it really hard to answer. I guess the truth is that I love lots of colours and my favourite changes with my mood. One colour I do keep returning to however is blue. I love the rich variety of blues that you can get and the calm that each of them seems to bring!

I had a lot of fun designing the cards for this month’s card making class – they were all blue and all very different! Today I am going to show you the Night of Navy Thank You card we made. I just love how rich this blue is.

The stamps are from the lovely Razzle Dazzle Stamp Set and the greeting is from Thank You Kindly.

I have lots of fun and exciting classes coming up, including a series of Stampfest Craft Days. If you would like to get away from it all and come and stamp with us for a mini break we would love to see you. For this series of Stampfest events we are going to complete three full classes, make a desk organiser, a desk display and a beautiful notebook. No Stampfest would be complete without a goodie bag and a stamp set to take home with you and this time we have put a bumper collection together for you. You can find out more by checking this link or emailing bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk Just one thing – you will want to book your place as soon as possible to avoid missing out!

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Welcome Baby

One of the lovely ladies who comes to my card classes recently became a grandmother for the first time. The baby was quite a few weeks early and it has been a very exciting time for all the family.

Here is the card I made her to celebrate.

The colours are Blushing Bride and Perfect Plum. The stamps are from the lovely Bundle of Love Stamp Set (isn’t this teddy bear just adorable) and the Free Punch Bunch Stamp Set. Punch Bunch is one of four stamp sets you can get for free – one for each £45 you spend on Stampin’ Up! product between now and the end of February. For example if you were to purchase the two punches I have used on this card, plus one of the patterned paper stacks you would get one of the stamp sets for free! You would also have two punches that you could use for ever and 40 sheets of beautiful double sided papers. Just email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk to place your order. Easy!

Now I did not just make one of these cards, in fact I decided to add some to my stock of cards, so I made another pink one and a blue one too! Now I wonder who the next people I know to have babies will be ...

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

PS – have you booked your place at Stampfest yet? Details over on the right of this blog.

Happy Monday

I wonder how many of you now have the Happy Mondays’ songs going through your head ... I know its not a popular view, but I love Mondays! The week lies ahead and is full of possibilities!

How was your weekend? I had a blast – Card Class on Saturday was a lot of fun and then I went to Panto Land, first to see a Panto and then to rehearsals for the Panto I have written and am directing. Our first performance is on Thursday and I am both excited about it and panicking in case we don’t get everything done! I know that Pantomime is a very British Tradition so for those of you who are not familiar with it here is a link to the Wikipedia entry.

At Saturday’s class our theme was Winter Blues – we made a collection of blue cards using the wonderful Blueberry Crisp Papers and the coordinating Razzle Dazzle Stamps. Some of our projects were based on things I showed you last week, but in new colours so I thought I would start the week by sharing those with you.

This card features the wonderful FREE Bliss Stamp Set – click here to find out how you can get your set. This time the colour combination is Marina Mist, Certainly Celery and Early Espresso.

Next we have this pretty love card, using the Blueberry Crisp Papers and Artistic Etchings Stamp Set.

And finally I could not resist sharing how to make these cute heart pouches with everyone!

If you would like to join the lovely ladies who come to my classes you can find out all about them here.

Here is to a fun week for everyone

Happy Stampin'

Bekka

Stamp Free Sunday

What no Stampin’?

I just love the wonderful Designer Series Papers from Stampin’ Up! They are so scrummy and sometimes they are all you need.

For our team meetings we all make cards to swap with each other and today I am going to show you the card I made as my swaps. A card with no stampin’ – quite a shock for me!

Can you guess what our theme was? Yep Valentines. We also made this sweet heart shaped treat pouch.

So cute and ideal for wrapping s special little valentines gift or if you need to make lots of valentines for the kids to share at school or even as a wedding favour.

Happy Stampin

Bekka

Party time?

Today I am going to share another project from this week’s team meeting. Each month we make at least three projects and this one is one you could be making if you book a Stampin’ Up! Party with me.

If you would like to book a party email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Distressed Card

Happy Friday everyone!

I hope you have had a great week so far and are looking forward to the weekend. I know I am – I a going to see a show and I will be stamping with some more lovely ladies at Saturday afternoon’s Card Making Class. You can find out all about the classes I offer here.

One of the classes I will be offering in February is called Distress Magic and we will be focussing on Distressing Techniques. Everyone who attends the class will get a Stampin’ Up! Distressing Kit to take home. Today’s card was one of the projects from this week’s team meeting and was made using the Distressing Kit.

It was so much fun to make! If you have never tried this before get yourself along to class – I am sure you will be pleased you have!

Here is a close up of the Distressed Panel

Happy Stampin’

Bekka



So Happy For You

I really enjoyed our team meeting last night – it was lovely to see some of my Stampin’ Superstars and our guests, to hear all about what they have been up to and of course to stamp together!

One of the things we do at my team meetings is to celebrate successes – I am lucky and my lovely team give us lots to cheer about. Yesterday we celebrated lots of successes and we recognised two of my team who have achieved big milestones in their businesses.

Here are the cards I made for them as part of that recognition

I used the Free So Happy For You Stamp Set – its a great collection of 5 really useful sentiments and 5 really useful images. I used this cute little star as it seemed right for my Superstars! The colours are Marina Mist, Old Olive and Certainly Celery (a combo inspired by the Colour Coach). If you would like to join me team of Stampin’ Superstars check this link and get in touch.

I will show you some of the cards we made together over the next few days

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Back to Bliss

How long did you think I would manage to leave this set alone? Well the answer was not long!!!! Yes today I am going to share another card made using the wonderful Free Bliss Stamp Set.

The colours I have used are Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Soft Suede and Melon Mambo.

I will always love my wood mounted stamps but I am also loving the Clear Mount Stamps. As well as needing less storage space it’s quick and easy to position the stamps how you want on the page. I also love the creative possibilities you have with the blocks themselves. For the focal image on this card I have taken one of the blocks and inked it straight up – yep with no stamp! I have then stamped this onto a piece of Very Vanilla to get this soft background effect. This is actually the second stamping from one lot of inking up.

If you were to order a complete set of clear mount blocks you could have this stamp set for free! Click here to find out how.

I had a lovely time with some new Stampers last night and we have our monthly team meeting tonight – such fun and I love to stamp with others! 

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Scrapbooking Club - 3

Scrapbooking for me is all about telling stories, using photos and pretty paper to help remember and to share those memories and observations with others. Sometimes the stories are very public, while other times they may be more private.

When you first look at today's page you see my partner, his kids and his granddaughter. The page has been decorated with Stamps (Welcome Christmas and Season of Joy), pretty papers and embellishments from the Christmas Jingle Scrapping Kit.

The story I want to tell with this photo is not however one I want to share publically, or which I want people to see straight away when they look at the album, so this page holds a secret!

You pull the tab and out comes a card ready for lots of journaling. Now I have taken the photos I can tell the story, keep the memory and put it back under the photo on this page.

At next month’s Scrapbook Club our theme will be people and things that I love. We will also be exploring ways to use ribbon on our pages. If you would like to join us please email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk Even if you are not able to attend our get together on Thursday 10 February, you can still join the club and receive your monthly club kit along with instructions and inspiration ideas for your pages.

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Scrapbooking Club - 2

I have another two pages from last week’s scrapbooking club for you today. Our theme was Christmas and these pages show my partners Granddaughter over the last two years. It is amazing how much she has changed.

These two pages also show how you can take one page design and turn it through 90 degrees and get a different look.

Now for those of you who are interested in digital photography there will be a little something you may find interesting going out with my newsletter later this week, so if you are not already subscribed there is a link at the top right hand side of my blog page (if you are looking at this via a reader you will need to click through to the blog to subscribe).

I will show you the final sample page, along with its hidden secrets tomorrow

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Scrapbooking Club - 1

Happy Sunday everyone!

Today I am going to share with you the first of the pages we made at this week’s Scrabook Club. This club is for experienced scrappers and those who have never scrapped before. Each month’s kit will contain a mixture of cardstock, papers and embellishments from which we will make at least 2 pages. We are meeting every month, but if you cant be there you can still join the club and get your kit and example pages.

Each month we will have a theme, there will be one page which everyone makes their own version of and then I will provide some example pages that can either be copied or used as the starting point for your own pages.

So today’s page is the one which we stated with

This month’s kit included supplies from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrapping Kit – these are a great way to get into Scrapping.  You can find details of the club here.

If you would like this month’s kit please email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Punch Out a Birthday Card

Someone in this household had a birthday yesterday, so today I am going to share his birthday card. It was great to have an excuse to use the Happy Birthday Stamp from the Punch Bunch Sale-a-Bration Set.

Now those of you who know the birthday boy and his obsession with football will recognise in an instant why I chose these colours – they are close to the claret and blue of his favourite team! I have used Marina Mist and Cherry Cobbler.

Dont forget you can get yourself this stamp set for free! You can find out how here.

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

And the winner is ...

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition to guess how many Dimensional Pads I had used on the two layouts I showed you in yesterday’s post. I loved reading all your answers, and there was a huge range of answers given but no one guessed correctly! So the winner of the pack of Pearls and the pack of Rhinestones is Sally whose guess was just out by one. Well Done Sally I will contact you about getting your prize to you.

Last night we had the first meeting of my new Scrap Club – it was so much fun and I am already looking forward to the one next month – details are here so do check it out. It was fantastic to see what everyone created from their kits. The kits are also available by post each month if you would like to play along with us but cant come to the meetings, email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk for details. I will show you the pages I shared with the group as the start point over the next few days – I just need to get some decent photos!

And talking of photos – I have not forgotten I owe you a tutorial on how to make the card keeper I showed you here. I am hoping to be able to write this up over the weekend for you.

I do have some cards to share with you today too! I am not sure I have shown you any cards made with this stamp set before which is very remiss of me as I love it! Its the beautiful Funky Four Stamp Set.

This little notelet set was made using Marina Mist, Concord Crush and Blushing Bride papers, along with some of the lovely notecards that just make card making so quick!

Thank you for stopping by and for entering the competition

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

More Hellos!

I am very excited about today! I have a great day planned and then this evening is the first meeting of the new Scrapbooking Club. I am really looking forward to it.

I hope you have already sent your entry for the competition – someone is going to win a pack of pearls and a pack of rhinestones. Today I am going to tell you how many dimensional (foam pads) I used on these two layouts.

The correct answer is 109. There are 4 behind each panel except the title piece on the 11 things lay out – this piece has a total of 10 on it – they are stacked two deep to give extra height so I also put a pair in the middle. The butterflies have one dimensional pad each, half under each wing and there is one under the Bliss embellishment on the scrapbooking card. Did you guess correctly? Find out who our winner is tomorrow.

On to on to today’s card. It again features our friend the owl! It is on its way to another lovely lady who has just joined our team. I am so pleased to be able to welcome her and am looking forward to supporting her as she develops her business. There is some information about joining my team here, and when you contact me to find out about joining us, remind me to tell you all about the support members of my team get. Email bekka@feeling-crafty or call me on 07990 837 990

I really enjoyed making this card, all the distressing was a lot of fun. If you want to know more about getting this distressed look I have a technique class coming up next month where we will be exploring this. The details are here.

Yes, there is more good luck ribbon here too!

Welcome to the team Helen, I hope the owl lands with you soon

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

A Wise Owl

Before I show you today’s card just a quick reminder that today is your last chance to enter the competition – its free, its fun and there is a prize! You can find the details here.

Today I am going to show you a card that I have sent to one of the lovely ladies who has recently joined my team of Stampin’ Superstars. I am so excited for her and I know she is going to be wonderful at sharing what she loves and have a lot of fun doing it.

I could not resist using the wonderful free owl stamp from Punch Bunch and combining it with the shamrock and good luck greeting from the fantastic, free So Happy For You Stamp set. Can you see where I have stamped the sentiment? Yep you got it, on the twill tape and hey presto ribbon with a message!

Have you thought about joining us? My team of Stampin’ Superstars are a wonderful bunch and we have a lot of fun. We are a diverse group who all love to stamp, we meet regularly and we love to welcome new people. So if you are considering getting yourself the Starter Kit call me on 07990 837 990 or email me bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk to find out more. Joining us during Sale-a-Bration would mean you get fantastic value from your starter kit and you can start stamping with us straight away. Click here to find out why you should join us now.

I look forward to talking to you soon

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

Punch Bundle

I thought we would keep things nice and bright today too! I always seem to need little cards and so like to keep a supply of them on hand, notice I say like to, not that I do – maybe this year I wont always be making cards at the last moment!  But thank goodness for the Stampin' Up! Puches when I do ...

Anyway the large scalloped circle image in the Sale-a-Bration Stamp Set is ideal for this kind of card. I made a few up, using Pacific Point and More Mustard. I love the rich bright warmth of these two colours together.

For each card I stamped the image twice, once in each colour. I then punched out the whole scallop circle on one and the inner circle with the other. The inner circle takes the 1 3/8 Circle Punch. These were layered over some patterned paper which I had scalloped the edge of. Before sticking these down I stamped the base card with a coordinating pattern (from Artistic Etchings for the Mustard bases and Dot Dot Dot for the Pacific Point ones)

Lovely and quick to make thanks to the wonderful Stampin' Up! Punches.  In fact, I enjoyed making these little cards so much I decided to make some tags to match them too. When Customers place an order with me for collection I like to add a tag for them.

Punch Bunch is such a wonderful stamp set and it can be yours for free. You can get it in clear mount or wood mount when you order any products from me with a value of £45 before the end of February. Find out how here.

Did you really think I would manage to get this stamp set out without showing the owl some inky love?

Now if you are going to get the most of this stamp set you are going to want the coordinating Punches. You will know from the Sale-a-Bration Leaflet which you can download here that the following punches coordinate

• 1 inch circle (£9.75)
• Scallop Square (£15.50)
• Scallop Circle (15.50)
• Large Tag (14.25)

I would personally add that the following punches are also fantastic to use with this set giving you lots more layering options

• 1 3/8 Circle Punch (£14.25)
• Extra Large Tag Punch (£15.50)
• 1 ¼ square Punch (£14.25)

Punch Bundles:

Order any two punches costing £15.50 and any one punch costing £14.25 and you will get the Punch Bunch Stamp Set for free! This means that for just £50.20 (including post and packing) you can have 3 punches and a stamp set delivered direct to your door. Brilliant!

If you have never used Stampin’ Up! Punches before you will be thrilled with the quality of them and how easily they cut through cardstock.

To place your order call Bekka on 07990 837 990 or email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin' and Punching!

Bekka

Blissfully Bright

Have you noticed that I love the Bliss Stamp Set that you can get for free as part of Sale-a-Bration? It’s a set that I just keep getting more and more ideas on how to use and the set we are going to use as part of next month’s Stampfest.

For those of you who have not been to Stampfest they are a crafting extravaganza days and so much fun. Next Month my wonderful team and I are offering three Stampfest Events all over the UK, make sure you book your place as soon as possible, as I would not want you to miss out! You can find the details here. We are also looking into a fourth date, more on that as soon as we know!

So back to today... I have shown you several projects using this stamp set to get a soft vintage look, but that is not all you can do with this set. It also looks wonderful in bold bright colours in a more graphical / Clean and Simple style. Which brings me to today’s offering – three cards with bold bright colours to get your week off to a bold bright start!

Each of these cards features a pair of colours from the Bright’s collection. The stamp has been inked in the lighter of the two and then the edges have been rolled around the darker of the pair. Here is the Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo combination.

Each card then had a length of coordinating ribbon ruffled across it. This one is Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango, with a Daffodil Delight Ribbon.

One of my favourite combinations is Tempting Turquoise and Pacific Point.

Since we don’t have a ribbon in either of these colours I have made my own. I took some of the White Organza ribbon and coloured the central section of the ribbon with my Pacific Point Marker – and how pretty does this look?

Find out how you can get this wonderful Stamp Set here

Happy Stampin’

Bekka

PS – don’t forget yesterday’s competition – have you entered yet?

11 things for 2011 - and a Competition!

Today I have another Scrapbook page to share with you, and a fun, free to enter competition! Let’s start with the Scrapbook page.

Yesterday I shared a page with you featuring my word for the year. I love the idea of having a single focus rather than a set of rules or resolutions. When I thought about this year I also wanted to make sure I did some fun things and so the idea of 11 things for 2011 started. I have shared this idea with a few people and they have started lists too. It would be fantastic if you wanted to play along too and shared your lists with us.

I decided to document my list of 11 to sit alongside the page I showed you yesterday. Together the capture what I hope this year will bring.

I decided not to include work goals in this – all work and no play would make Bekka a very dull girl! I have some work goals that I am very excited about, and some which should take my Stampin’ Up! business to exciting places.

I printed each of the 11 things onto its own card. I then had a lot of fun decorating these, each one is different. That means lots of pictures to share with you! Hope you like them.

I have used lots of different stamp sets, including Artistic Etchings, Just Believe and the wonderful Sale A Bration Sets you can get for free - find out how here.

Now I mentioned a competition.

It’s free to enter.

It should be fun.

All you have to do to enter is answer one question.

Everyone who answers correctly will be entered into a prize draw.

And there is a prize!

You will notice that I have been using a lot of Rhinestones and Pearls recently so the prize will be a pack of Stampin’ Up! Rhinestones and a pack of Stampin’ Up! Pearls.

The question is how many dimensional (foam pads) were used to make yesterday and today’s pages? You have until Wednesday to answer. To enter, please email your answer to bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Good Luck

Happy Stampin'

Bekka