Wedding Sweet Anniversary Card

A little while ago I was asked to make a wedding anniversary card for a friend. I remembered her showing us the photos of the wedding and thinking how similar the colour of the bridesmaid’s dresses was to Concord Crush and how pretty the butterflies were in the bridal bouquet. So there was only one thing for it …

The large image from the Wedding Sweet Stamp Set was stamped onto Shimmer White Card Stock using Marina Mist ink. The Concord Crush butterflies were cut using the wonderful Beautiful Wings Embosslit. Some Designer Series Paper, Lots of Pearls and a little bit of coordinating ribbon and everything was done!

My friend loved the card and I hope you do to. If you would like to purchase any of the products used on this card please email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin’

PS Don’t forget the next edition of my newsletter comes out next week, if you have not already done so, sign up for free tutorials, hints, tips and special offers.  Just pop your email address in the box at the top right hand corner of this page!

Scrapbook Saturday

Today I am going to share a page with you which shows some of the photos I took on a fun day out with friends at Whipsnade Zoo. It was a beautiful day and ideal for learning lots about how to use my camera in manual mode. The photos on this page were taken before I had quite mastered the exposure levels, but I was really pleased with them none the less.

The otters in this picture spent ages and ages chasing round and playing with each other – so lovely to watch. I have not decided yet if the journaling on this page is going to be about that or about the fun day out we had.

This was one of the pages we made at this month’s Scrapbook Club. If you would like to join us you can find all the details here.

Happy Stampin'

Find Out About Friday - Get Ready For Christmas the Feeling Crafty Way

Back by popular demand, join us for this fun filled day of festive Crafting on Saturday 10 September 2011 at Chews House in Dunstable.

During the day you will make

• A stunning Christmas Wreath

• A collection of treat boxes and decorations

• 25 Christmas Cards

You will be provided with everything you need to complete the projects along with as much or as little tuition as you need. Light refreshments will also be provided and you will need to bring your own lunch.

The day costs £50 which includes a Stamp Set which is yours to take home at the end of the day. The stamp set we will be using is the wonderful Contempo Christmas* which is available in your choice of Wood Mount or Clear Mount.

Booking is essential and if you book before 19 August there will be a very special bonus for you – you will also get the coordinating ornament punch* (worth £15.50) included in your kit.

* If you already own either of these products, congratulations! If you let us know when you book we will arrange to substitute alternative products for you.

Why not join us for a fun filled day of crafting and leave with some stunning projects knowing that you have also made a great start on your Christmas Preparations.

To book email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

I look forward to Getting Ready for Christmas with you

Happy Stampin’

Little Additions

Today I am going to mostly be getting ready to visit the Liverpool Branch of my team for a training day this weekend. I am super excited about this! I can’t wait to see the gang and to spend some quality time with them, crafting, laughing and hopefully helping them grow their businesses. I am excited about the training I have planned and about the projects we are going to make. I am not going to show you those yet as I don’t want to spoil the surprise for the team. It will also be my first visit to Liverpool which is quite exciting too :-D

So today I thought I would show you a card that I made for a recent team meeting where our swap theme was babies. This card features the lovely Little Additions Stamp Set.

Being part of the Stampin’ Up! family has been a wonderful experience for me and one I would love to share with you. When you join Stampin’ Up! you will

• Make money while doing what you love
• meet some amazing people and make lots of friends
• be able to buy your Stampin’ Up! goodies at a significant discount
• share your love of paper crafting with others
• get all the help, support and ideas that you want or need

We would love to have you join our family, to be our latest Little Addition!  To find out more email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk and we can talk about what you need to do and how it would work for you!

Happy Stampin’

40 - Plane & Simple

One of the first Scrapbook pages I ever made was about my ‘baby’ brother. Calling him my baby brother is a bit of a family joke – yes he is a few years younger than me but he is 6ft 5inches tall and has always been very sensible! From last Monday there has been another reason not to call him baby – he turned 40! Gulp! How old do I feel!

Anyway here is the birthday card I made for him.

It features the lovely Plane and Simple Stamp Set and some papers from the Newsprint Designer Series Paper Pack.

And for old times’ sake – here is that Scrapbook Page of the Birthday Boy.

Email me to order these or any other Stampin’ Up! supplies.

Happy Stampin’

Clearly for You Necklace

I was reminded last week of some necklaces I had made earlier this year and which I have never shown you. Remembering them and remembering what fun I had making them then sparked a whole load of ideas which will be part of my next card making class (on Saturday 23 July – details here).

I think part of the reason I never showed you this before is that I don’t have a great photo – so apologies in advance! I made several of these for my team and have given them all away now or I would take another photo.

The necklace was made using one of the Beveled Window Panes from the Botanical Gazette Collection. These wonderful acrylic frames are beautifully clear and very versatile. They can be used on cards and scrapbook pages to frame your image and they have many other decorative uses. They are ideally sized to use with the Clearly for You Stamp Set which is what I have used here. The image was stamped in Baja Breeze, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzaz and Peach Parfait. The whole thing was then mounted with Baja Breeze Seam Binding.

If you would like to discover lots of ways to use the Clearly for You Stamp Set and the Beveled Window Panes why not book your place at class now?

Happy Stampin’

Congratulations Flowers for a Stampin' Superstar

Today I am going to share a card that was made for one of my very clever Stampin’ Superstars who recently hit a milestone in her Stampin’ Up! Career. I am so pleased and excited for her and wanted to recognise her hard work on reaching this milestone.

This pretty card features flowers punched from Perfect Plum and Rose Red using the Large Flower Punch and the 5 Petal Flower Punch. The centre of the flower was stamped with one of the images from the Artistic Etchings Stamp Set and decorated with a cluster of Pearls.

I am so fortunate to have a lovely team of very talented people who all also enjoy sharing what they love. We also all enjoy welcoming new people into our team. With Stampin’ Up! I have made amazing friends, learnt new things, made money and had so much fun. What is more I get to craft and call it work – although it feels more like being paid to play! There are lots of exciting things coming from Stampin’ Up! that will make this even better and more rewarding. Soon my team and I will be able to order products from the next Stampin’ Up! Catalogue before they are available to customers and its always fun to play with new products! I would love to share some of this with you. Email me, bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk to find out how you can experience some of this for yourself.

Happy Stampin’

Still Life Flowers

It’s been a busy few theatre weeks for us, last night was the last night of a production of Still Life by Noel Coward that Joe and his son were in. It was a great production of a lovely show – it’s the play that the film Brief Encounters was based on and that is a film I have loved since I was involved in a remake of it, but that is a whole other story.

The cast had all had a fun time during rehearsals and wanted a thank you card for the directors so Joe asked me to make a card that was large enough for everyone to write in.

I had a lot of fun working on a larger card than usual, the base is A5 and I carried on the floral theme from this week’s card making class. The flowers were made using a combination of the Fun Flowers Die, the Large Flower Punch and the 5 Petal Flower Punch. The centre was stamped from the circular image from the Artistic Etchings Stamp Set. The sentiment is from the Curly Cute Stamp Set and it has been layered on the Modern Label Punch and the Decorative Label Punch (which had been stamped using one of the frames in the Four Frames Stamp Set).

The butterflies are from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit. The colours are Marina Mist, Rose Red and Concord Crush. The whole card was sprayed with a mist made from Champaign Mist Shimmer Paint and lots of Rhinestones were added too.

 

Thank you for a great show everyone.

Happy Stampin'

PS if you want to find out about future card making classes please check this link.

Scrapbook Saturday

Goodness this weekend has come around fast! I guess that is what happens when you are having fun! One of the fun things I did was to meet with some of the ladies who are in my scrapbook club, for an evening of laughter and of course scrapping.

This month our theme was pets and other animals and the kit was based on the delicious Botanical Gazette Designer Series Papers. They are full of warm rich muted tones which complemented our theme beautifully.

This is the taught lay out from the evening. It features masking and spritzing to give a fun textured background.

Also featured is an initial under a bevelled window pane – and before you ask the B here is for Bear and not for Bekka as the ladies on Thursday suggested! I still need to add some journaling to this page which hopefully will clear that up a little :-)

I made three other lay outs and a mini book as inspiration for club members, who can see them on the Scrapbook Club Members Only Web Site. If you would like to join the club check out all the details here. New members are always welcome either in person or by post.

I also have one kit available for sale this month. It contains 6 different sheets of double sided Botanical Gazette Designer Series Papers, 8 sheets of 12x12 Cardstock in 4 coordinating colours, approximately 2m of Crumb Cake Seam Binding, 3 Window Panes of assorted sizes and some Pearls. If you would like to purchase this kit it is £15 including postage within the UK, please email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin’

Find Out About Friday - The Stampin' Up! Colour Coach

I love my Stampin’ Up! Colour Coach and you will have heard me talk about it here from time to time so I thought it would be a great subject for today’s Find Out About Friday.

The Colour Coach is designed to help you put together great colour schemes for your projects. It contains a coloured reference card for each of the Stampin’ Up! Colours, including the In-Colours. It is held together with a very large screw so when we get new In-Colours in October you will be able to just add them.

Each reference card tells you which collection the colour is part of (the colours in each collection work well together) as well as giving you two cross collection colour combinations. You will also find out if that colour has a dynamic duo partner – and yes that is a bit like a superhero partnership in that the dynamic duo are two tones that work really well together in all circumstances and which can really unlock a project if used together!

Now your Colour Coach is great for helping you find colours that work together for your cards and Scrapbook Pages. It is also fantastic for inspiring you when you feel stuck in a creative rut, but that is not all! I know people who have used it to accessorise their wardrobes and even to help when decorating their house.

The Stampin' Up! Colour Coach is just £13.50 and is available by emailing bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk This very affordable tool will save you money (think expensive mistakes) time (deciding if colours work together) and headaches! Crafting is meant to be fun and rewarding and the Stampin’ Up! Colour Coach helps keep it that way.

Happy Stampin'

Manhattan Flowers Sympathy Card

One of the things I love about Stampin’ Up! is the wonderful friends I have made. Recently, one of those friends lost her father in law. She lives a long way from me and since I was not able to give her a hug in person I did the next best thing I could do – sent her a card.

Sympathy cards are never easy to make, and for me the key is keeping things simple and stylish.

For this card I embossed a River Rock base using the Manhattan Flowers Embossing Folder, added a sentiment from the Hopeful Thoughts Stamp Set stamped in Night of Navy and then added a simple Night of Navy bow to the card. Then the whole thing was posted with a lot of love.

Unfortunately I learnt yesterday that I have more of these cards to make – so I am sending a lot of love to those concerned.

If you would like more ideas for Sympathy Cards please email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin'

 

A Sting in the Tale - Thank You Cards

The first few evenings after we finish doing a play always feel a bit strange to me - having spent 6 weeks with the same group of people for three evenings a week and then every evening with them for two weeks, I miss them when the show is over.

I thought today I would give you a chance to see what we created and I am going to share a few photos my lovely friend Ed took during one of our last rehearsals. Then when you have looked at those there is a card at the end of the post!

Here are some photos of the on stage action.

And one getting ready to go on stage

We had so much fun during this show and laughed so much during rehearsals so this picture, taken when I was giving the cast feedback kind of sums things up.

So to the card ... I had a long list of people without whom the show would not have been what it was and I wanted to make them a card that reflected the show to say thank you.

The plot of A Sting in the Tale by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner involves catching someone ‘green handed’ so there had to be some green in there somewhere. It also involves finding out who the murderer may have been due to a misaligned ‘h’ on their typewriter, so I stamped some 'h's on the paper. I also wanted to remember a funny incident during the set construction. I asked for the walls to be painted a sandy mustard colour and was greeted with something akin to burnt orange!

The card base is More Mustard, the papers are Pear Pizzaz and the contrast colour is Cajun Craze. The Stamp Set is Curly Cute.

I hope you enjoyed this quick look at my theatre exploits – next stop for those will be village panto! To find out more about this or any of the Stampin’ Up! Products used to make the card please email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

Happy Stampin’

Christmas Card Club - their first Christmas Cards of the Year

Wow – what a fun day we had yesterday at the Christmas Card Club meetings! Congratulations to all the lovely ladies who made their first Christmas Cards of the year – I don’t know about you all, but I think it feels good to have started!

Today I am going to share the cards that we made, everyone made 5 of each design and it was lovely to see people’s variation on the themes. 

As well as the card holders I showed you yesterday each participant got a selection of patterned papers from the Holly Jolly Designer Paper Pack and anything they did not use they got to take home. 

If you would like to join us next month and make 10 Christmas Cards I do have spaces available. You can find all the details including how to book here.

We would love for you to join us.

Happy Stampin’

Gifts for the Christmas Card Club

I am so excited – today is the first day of the Christmas Card Club Meetings! There will be three sessions and I can’t wait to get crafting with everyone.

For me Christmas is all about giving and sharing so I made a little gift for everyone who is coming today.

A card holder to keep their Christmas Cards in – either written and in the envelopes or just ready to write.  And you even get a sneak peak of the cards we are making today - I will show you them properly another time.

I am determined not to leave my Christmas Card making to the last moment this year as I want to have time to enjoy making and writing them as well as to enjoy the Christmas season. If you would like to join us we will be making 10 cards a month between now and then, crafting and chatting together. You can join us for as many or as few sessions as you would like – all the details including how to book you place can be found here.

Got to dash – the first group will be here soon!

Happy Stampin’

Just Believe Wedding Card

I mentioned yesterday that two lovely friends of mine were getting married. Unfortunately we were not able to attend but from everything I hear it was a wonderful celebration. I hope by now they have received the card I sent them and I thought I would share it with you today.

The card base and the Top Note layer are Shimmer Card Stock and it has been stamped in Sahara Sand which gives an almost gold effect which I love. The focal image is from the Just Believe Stamp Set. The lovely couple in question are both very musical so I used the Musical Notes Wheel to create the background.

Their wedding colours included a rich deep burgundy pink so I included some Rich Razzleberry as my accent colour. The initials are from the Broadsheet Alphabet and the greeting is from the level 2 Hostess Stamp Set, Something to Celebrate. This is a wonderfully versatile and useful sentiment set and it could be yours free if you book a Stampin’ Up! Party with me. Book your party before the end of July and you could also benefit from the current Stampin’ Up! Promotion which gives qualifying hostesses extra money to spend in the catalogue – click here for details. You don’t have to live close by to book a party, just email bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk and we can make all the arrangements.

I hope Mel and Paul love their card and that yesterday was just the start of a long and happy life together full of music and laughter.

Happy Stampin’

Scrapbook Saturday - Prague Scrapbook Pages

St Swithun was an Anglo Saxon Bishop of Winchester (near where I grew up) and according to tradition the weather on his feast day will be the weather for the next 40 days and nights. This year I really had hoped the tradition would be upheld – his feast day was yesterday and the weather was lovely. Today some wonderful friends of mine get married and it is raining. Unfortunately we cannot be there to celebrate with them as it is the last night of the play I have directed tonight.  I hope that even if the rain does not stop they have a wonderful day and that it is the start of a long and happy life together.

Being Saturday I am going to show you a Scrapbook Page, well two actually as its a double page lay out and it is of a Cathedral. It is not however Winchester Cathedral but of the outside of Prague Cathedral.

These pages will form part of a series of pages about the cathedral and when I have completed all the pages I will add the journaling.

The Papers I have used are from the Love Letters Designer Series Paper Pack.

I have also used Stamps from the coordinating Artistic Etching Stamp Set and Butterflies from the Wonderful Beautiful Wings Embosslit. I aim to put both something circular and some butterflies on all the Prague Pages I make to help tie the whole album together.

Next Thursday (21st July) is the next meeting of the Feeling Crafty Scrapbook Club. Our numbers have grown which means I have three additional kits available this month. This means you could join our fun club either by post or in person. Click here to find out more and I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy Stampin

Find Out About Friday - Ask Bekka!

Regular readers and newsletter subscribers will know that I love to answer your questions and share hints and tips with you on how to get the most from your crafting supplies.

Here on the blog every Friday there is a weekly hints and tips post which covers a very wide range of topics and tutorials. Every month in my newsletter as well as specific Tool Tips and Technique Instructions I have a Question and Answer section where I answer questions I hear regularly from my customers and subscribers.

When I was planning this month’s newsletter it occurred to me that there is a group of people whose questions I have not specifically answered – you my wonderful Blog Readers ...

So what questions would you like to see answered either here on in my newsletter? What tools would you like to be able to get more from? What products would you like to understand better? What techniques would you like know how to do?

Please leave your questions in the comments section below or email them to me at bekka@feeling-crafty.co.uk

I will endeavour to answer all the paper craft ones – others we will have to see!

In the mean time here is another twisted gift card holder for you.

As well as all the hints and tips that are in my newsletters, the next edition, which will be out early next week, includes a tutorial on how to make these.

This time the Stamp Set is Plane and Simple and the Paper is from the Newsprint Designer Series Paper Pack.  So if you are not already subscribed pop your email address in the box on the top right hand side of this blog – its free and who knows I may also answer your questions!

Happy Stampin’