More Sneak Peeks.....

I attended a Stampin' Up! Training Day at Reading last Saturday and my wonderful downline Teri had made me this little box using new stash from the mini catalogue.....

and inside was two bottles of Sanctuary lushiousness which I have had my eye on for a while now and despite hinting didn't get any for Mother's Day or Valentines Day, so was doubly gorgeousness for me..

I just want to say thank you so much to Teri, it was a lovely surprise and it was absolutely brilliant to finally meet you at last...

 For this set Teri used the new Vintage Vogue Stamp Set and the new Very Vintage Wheel which I haven't actually bought yet.... I wasn't sure I wanted it until I saw this gorgeous box, now it is definitely on my wish list. But I do have the Vintage Vogue Stamp Set..... watch this space...

We all took swaps along too, and here is the swap I made...

I used the new Sweet Pea Paper Stack for the Patterned Paper and the little owl is from the Fox and Friends Stamp Set, all from the new catalogue. I used Whisper White, Taken With Teal and Rose Red Cardstock and grosgrain ribbon in More Mustard and Chocolate Chip... the sentiment is from the Trendy Trees stamp set....

Am sorting out some storage in my craft area this weekend, yet again, I really need to organise my stamps better and my nestabilities.... I also have a load of stamps to sell so keep your eye on here if you love Magnolia, KatzelKraft, Sugar Nellie, Autumn Leaves and a few other stamps.... I am also selling a hardly used Scor Pal which I bought but wasn't sure I liked.

Have a great weekend all xx

Card Class.....

I thought I would show you what we did at my Card Class this month... the ladies all decided last month that they would like to make a masculine card set this month after seeing my card...

But I thought that maybe the flowers were a bit feminine, so I designed a whole new set to make, and I think they all went down really well, everyone seemed pleased and no one found them too difficult.... Here is a photo of the whole set together....

We even made a little Treat Box, I learnt to do this at a day Monica held in Peterborough, I changed the colour etc, but it was not my template.

The colours I used for this was Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard and Always Artichoke... and a small circle of Really Rust.... the Feather image is from the Nature's Nest Stamp Set and the little leaf is from the Autumn Days Stamp Set... the patterned paper is To The Nine's Speciality Paper... the chocolate bar is now all mine.... he he he

This card used Spiced Cider Patterned Paper, Elegant Eggplant and More Mustard Cardstock and the ribbon is Always Artichoke 1/4" Grosgrain. Stamp Set as above... I used the pricking mat and template to make the holes in the cardstock...

Again for this card I used More Mustard and Elegant Eggplant, the patterned paper is To The Nines and the ribbon is 1/4" Elegant Eggplant Grosgrain.

This last card is an easel card, the patterned paper is from the Perfect Plum Patterned Paper set and everything else is as above....

My little grandson who is 23 weeks old was admitted to hospital again last night, this time the doctor seemed positive that he wouldn't be going home until they found out what was wrong, this included having a gastric team on standby at the Royal London Hospital... they observed him last night, did even more blood tests and today decided that maybe he is allergic to dairy products.... er hello, we said this to them 3 months ago.... anyway this meant that I got to have my 22 month old grandson yesterday evening.... what a shame!! ha ha So small grandson is now home, he has kept his last 3 bottles down apart from the normal baby sick and we have our fingers crossed that this is the problem and finally he will start to put on weight.... the doctors have said he will never be able to have dairy products and the baby milk they have given him is only available on prescription, but hopefully for now everything will be fine... thank you everyone who has asked about him.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and Mums that you have a really great Mother's Day.... (ooops still need to make my mum a card...) Take care all xx

A Male Card....

Well after a truly awful day yesterday and a day of running around after other people today, I did finally manage to make a birthday card for my Son in Law..... my daughter has been warned not to go on my blog until after her birthday next Monday..... lol

Not good at making male cards at the best of times and definitely not when under stress, but I was quite pleased how this one came out, the colours look much better in real life. I used the Groom Speciality Patterned Paper and the Jackpot Patterned Paper from Stampin' Up! The cardstock is Basic Black, Real Red and So Saffron and the Stamp Set is Cheers to You and is awesome for making mens cards..... they always love a pint of beer.... lol The ribbon is More Mustard and the images were coloured in using my Copic Markers.

This is the inside of the card, all nicely matching and with the added benefit of a Martha Stewart Punch.

Have a great evening all, hopefully will be back tomorrow after my card class some time... take care all xx

Stamp Set for Haiti

Please Scroll Down For Newer Posts.....

Thought I would let you know that Stampin' Up! are supporting the Red Cross for helping out Haiti after their devestating earthquake. Stampin' Up! US packed boxes of much needed stuff and shipped it out to Haiti very shortly after the earthquake, and are now donating money from the sales of certain Stamp Sets. In the UK the Stamp Set is Greenhouse Garden and here are my efforts using this Stamp Set.

This is a little tag I made using More Mustard, chocolate Chip, Whisper White and the Speciality Designer Paper To The Nines...

And here is the card I made, again using More Mustard, Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip and Always Artichoke, the little leaves you can see come from the Saleabration Set Good Neighbours.

And here they are both together, would make a lovely card with matching card, maybe for Mother's Day...

and as is the norm this week I have decorated the inside of the card to match the front....

So if you would like to buy this set it is £22.95 and Stampin' Up! are donating £1 for every set sold.... for every 4 sets I sell until the end of February I will raffle off 2 Saleabration Sets which means you have a 50% chance of winning a set of your choice.... everytime I sell 4 sets I will put the 4 names into a hat and pick out 2 of them.... the 2 people can then pick a Saleabration set... and on top of that I will also donate an additional £1 to the Red Cross Fund for Haiti.... can't be bad.... Just contact me on LindaLloyd@gmx.net for more information.

Have a great evening all, take care xx

Why Not Make It Wednesday - Lion Chocolate Bar Cover

So today on Why Not Make It Wednesday I am going to show you how to make a lion out of Stampin' Up! punches and how to cover a bar of chocolate so you can give these away to customers, friends etc.... It is so easy to make you could maybe use this idea to make more to amuse the children whilst off school next week during Half Term...

He does look a bit of a friendly lion with his tongue hanging out, better hope he doesn't eat the chocolate.... so check out the video tutorial below to see how it is made.... I know that the angle of the video camera is not too good, will try it in a different position next week....

Hope you have enjoyed it..... see you tomorrow xxx

MoJo Monday Challenge....

I know, I miss a day then post twice in 1 day.... what is happening to me eh?? Anyway, I wanted to do the MoJo Monday Challenge, didn't have a clue what I was going to do but it all came together rather nicely... here is the Sketch....

And here is my interpretation of it.... infact it is probably almost exactly the same, no clever thinking for me this week.... am loving the colours I used, nice and vibrant and just right for this time of the year when it is grey, cloudy and rainy (or maybe snowy where you are)...

For this card I used More Mustard, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White. The patterned paper is from the old hostess Level 1 Set and is Real Red and More Mustard. The Ribbon is Real Red Grosgrain and the scallop edge was used by cutting out the 1/2" circles and putting them in a line along the curve.... The strange shape below the bow was cut out using a Martha Stewart Punch. The image is from the set A Flower For All Seasons (all Stampin' Up! stash except for the Martha Stewart Punch).....

And here is the inside of my card. Both sentiments are courtesy of the Stampin' Up! Saleabration Set Vintage Tags..... just the right size for what I needed....

Dont forget to check back on my blog tomorrow for my Why Not Make It Wednesday Video Tutorial... have a great day all xx

Blog Challenge Winner and a New Colour Challenge

Well I cannot believe it is 2 weeks since I set the last colour challenge, where does the time go.... I have also decided not to pick my favourite card, I didn't realise that this would be impossible as all the entries were so good, so have decided to let Random.Org pick the winner.... and here is the winner, I didn't include my entry in the picking so just entered numbers 2-5 and the winner is......... ta dah!!!!

Here are your random numbers:4
Timestamp: 2010-02-02 11:14:54 UTC

and that is Carol....

Woohoo, well done Carol.

There will be a little something winging its way to you as soon as you send me your address.... to LindaLloyd@gmx.net.

And on to this fortnight's Challenge....

Whilst blog hopping one day I came across a card using these colours but in typical Linda fashion I jotted down the colours but not the blog address so cannot show you the card... but I have made one on time this week to show you and here it is....


All stash is Stampin' Up!, the Stamp Set is Autumn Days and I must admit this is the first time I have inked it up despite having it since before Christmas. The Patterned Paper is the More Mustard from the Hostess Level 1 Set of Patterned Paper, and the Perfect Plum Patterned Paper Pack. The flowers were made using the Scallop Circle Punch and Boho Blossoms Punch and oooops must admit sneaking in a Martha Stewart leaves punch too.... the Ribbon is Very Vanilla Grosgrain but I inked that with Really Rust as well as the edges of all the cardstock I used.

And do you think the pheasant is inked wonderfully.... well I am going to do a video tutorial to show you how this was done which will be up on my blog either Wednesday or Thursday, so keep checking back to see how this works....

And the above photo is the inside of my card, have taken to decorating the insides again this week..... lol

I look forward to seeing your entries during the next fortnight and again there will be a little something on its way to the winner.... unfortunately I can only ship the prize to UK and Europe but would still love to see International entries...

Have a great day all xx

Stampin' Up! Saturday....

Wow, what a great day I had on Saturday... DH, 3 sons and myself travelled to Peterborough solely for me to meet my upline and some other wonderful people for some Stampin' Up! training... we also got to make 4 Make and Takes and played some silly games, had a wonderful lunch put together by the WI and swapped some swaps that we made.

This first card is from Saleabration set Happy Moments and is coloured in using Blender Pens and Ink Pads. I have always found this tricky so probably haven't practised enough, but am now getting the hang of it, so watch out for some more of these kind of cards soon. I love the punch too, dont use that often enough either... all in all a nice easy and quick to make card for those moments when you need to get something together quickly. The embossing on the top of the card is done by punching out some 1/4" circles and just sticking them on... how cool is that!!

This is a cool little box which I have put a Galaxy Hot Chocolate into, the hole is made using the Oval Punch and is just the right size for this sachet of hot chocolate, and with the weather being so cold is a great treat for a little someone to keep them nice and warm and show them you care... very easy to make, I will definitely be making more of these. The sentiment and frame are both Saleabration Sets... if you spend £45 on Stampin' Up! before the end of February you can choose a Stamp Set for free.... and you wont be able to buy these ever from Stampin' Up! so you had better get in quick if you want one. Email me at LindaLloyd@gmx.net for more details on how you can get your hands on a free stamp set.

This is a super wonderful Scrapbook using the Sunny Day Scrappin' Kit. It is so easy to make and can be made in a couple of hours easily, plus it only uses one half of the kit, leaving plenty more to make some cards... I think that is what I will be doing with my left over kit... I will be doing a workshop making one of these albums soon, so watch this space or email me for more details.

This is a very cute card using some wonderful colours, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and More Mustard and stamped with the new Saleabration Set Good Neighbours. I must admit this is my favourite of the Saleabration Sets and I love these little clips too at the top of the insert.... you can buy these from the Stampin' Up! catalogue; if you would like a catalogue they retail for £4.95, but you can buy one from me for £2.50 plus £1 postage, or free if you spend £45 in the catalogue.

Now a lot of people made swaps so that we could all get a good collection of cards and other 3D goodies using a selection of the Saleabration Sets... my contribution was a giraffe punch card. The giraffe is made using Stampin' Up! punches, he has a Tempting Turquoise bow and the sentiment is from the Whimsical Words Saleabration Set... again you can get this set free if you spend £45 in the current Stampin' Up! catalogue, and I will enclose one of these cards if you place an order with me before 28th February and you are a new customer. Just click on the box above to take you to the full video tutorial and a picture of this card.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these items.... we also watched demonstrations from Jo Press and Jo Bee and I am definitely going to try out some of the cards they made, very inspirational and such wonderful ideas.... so keep watching this space.

I just want to thank Monica, Bekka and Jules for their wonderful talks and a big thank you for the Big Raffle Prize that little ole me won.... I never ever ever win raffles and hadn't even unrolled my line of numbers.... I am looking forward to the next get together in April....

Take care all xx

A Couple of Challenges

I am still busy making my card order and needed a bit of inspiration, so decided to look up some challenges. This card was made using a couple of challenge, a colour one and a sketch one. I used all Stampin' Up! Stash for this card, am trying to do this more often now... it is so lush!!

The colours I used were Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Bashful Blue, More Mustard, So Saffron and Whisper White as we dont have Deep Red and Baja Blue in the UK.

And the sketch I copied almost exactly except I added a bit of bling in the bottom right hand corner.

I used the new SAB set Happy Moments for the sentiment "Thank You", Circle Circus to edge the inner circle and flight of the Butterfly for the main image, and the Butterfly Punch to punch out the butterfly. I used the Level 1 Hostess Set Darling Dots for the flower on the Bashful Blue Cardstock. It is very unusual for me to use no Patterned Paper, but I did manage it....

The snow is nearly gone around here, but I am having big trouble with my car since the snow. The battery totally died, so had a new one fitted yesterday at a cost of more than £100 and this morning something has drained the battery and the new one is flat.... grrr thats all I need electrical problems with electrical diagnoses costing more than £50 an hour....

Dont forget my card workshop on Thursday, should be good as I am loving the Stamp Set Flight of the Butterfly at the moment, such pretty cards, hope my ladies like them.

Take care all, have a safe day...

Did I tell you I was published???

Cant believe I forgot to tell you all... lol. I was published in the September Edition of Craft Stamper, it was for a Challenge, I was given a colourway and sketch and had to make a card along those lines and here it is....

I used Really Rust and More Mustard cardstock from Stampin Up and the Garden Whimsey Stamp Set. The punch is from Martha Stewart and the flower punch was x-cut I think. the brads are also Stampin Up and the card itself was cut using my cricut.... the article in the magazine is below...


I was so thrilled to be asked to enter this challenge, thank you Katie for giving me this chance.

Have a great day all, take care xx

Do You Want A Bargain...

Then why not sign up to one or all of these clubs....

CLUB 1 (PATTERNED PAPER) (8 PEOPLE PER GROUP)To view the patterned papers check out pages 70-71 of the current catalogue) or click on the catalogue picture on the left hand side of my blog.
You will get 1 6x6 sheet of each patterned paper which makes a massive 84 sheets of 6x6 paper.
Price £14.75 including postage.

CLUB 2 (GROSGRAIN RIBBON) (6 PEOPLE PER GROUP)To view the ribbons check out page 80 of the current catalogue)
You will get 2 metres of 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon in the following colours
Whisper White
Very Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Pumpkin Pie
More Mustard
Real Red
Elegant Eggplant
Night of Navy
Tempting Turquoise
Certainly Celery
Always Artichoke
Price £7.25 including postage (22 Metres of ribbon)

CLUB 3 (5/8" GROSGRAIN RIBBON) (6 PEOPLE PER GROUP)To view the ribbons check out page 80 of the current catalogue)
You will get 2m of 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon in the following colours
Very Vanilla
Chocolate Chip
Bravo Burgundy
Real Red
Regal Rose
Brocade Blue
Certainly Celery
Old Olive
Price £8.50 including postage (16 metres of ribbon)

CLUB 4 (GINGHAM RIBBON) (6 PEOPLE PER GROUP)
To view the ribbons check out page 80 of the current catalogue
You will get 2m of 4.76mm wide Gingham Ribbon in the following colours
Black
Red
Light Blue
Light Pink
Moss
Caramel
Price £5.50 including postage (12m of ribbon)

CLUB 5 (TAFFETA RIBBON) (4 PEOPLE PER GROUP)
To view the ribbons please check out page 80 in the current catalogue
You will get 2m of 9.52mm wide Taffeta Ribbon in the following colours
Whisper White
Very Vanilla
Kraft
Chocolate Chip
Basic Gray
Mellow Moss
Bashful Blue
Pretty in Pink
Price £11.25 including postage (16m ribbon)

CLUB 6 (DOUBLE STITCHED GROSGRAIN RIBBON) (4 PEOPLE PER GROUP)To view the ribbon please check out page 80 in the current catalogue
You will get 2m of 1" Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon in the following colours
Rose Red
Bashful Blue
Chocolate Chip
Price £5.50 including postage (6m of ribbon)

If you join 3 groups, you will get a discount of 2.5%
If you join all 6 groups you will get a 7.5% discount (£52.75 - 7.5% (£3.96) = £48.79

SPOTS AND MARKERS CLUB (4 PEOPLE PER GROUP)
How does it work?
4 people sign up for 4 months and each month they receive a set of markers in 1 colour family and a set of ink spots in 1 colour family.

How much does it costs?
It will cost £45 per month including postage.

What do I get out of it?
You will each get a free level 1 Hostess Set plus £15 of free goodies of your choice from the current catalogue. I will pick names at random and allocate a month to each of the 4 people, they will then need to pick the Stamp Set and Goodies that they want. You will also get the awesome storage for the markers, as each month I will puchase a full set of markers and they come packed in the storage container (which you dont get with single purchases of the markers) and each month 1 person will get their one set of markers in a storage container, so by the end of the 4 months, you will have all Stampin' Up! colours in the inkspots and all the Stampin' Write markers in the awesome storage container without a huge single layout.

If you are interested in any of the above clubs, please e-mail me on LindaLloyd@gmx.net.

A Receipt Holder....

I have made a CD receipt holder which I saw on this blog http://waltzingmouse.blogspot.com/2008/09/tutorial-for-my-cd-receipt-organiser.html except this talented lady made a Christmas one, but I seem to need one for my everyday purchases... I used all Stampin' Up! items to make this...

This is the CD case when it is shut, there is no decoration on the outside, so if you have a large enough handbag, you can slip this inside, along with the kitchen sink and you will always have your receipts with you when you need them.

This is what it look like when it is opened, I have used More Mustard and Old Olive Cardstock, the new scallop edge punch to make the scallop shapes and the Haiku Patterned Paper.

I have used the new Accents and Elements Felt Flowers with Old Olive brads. the brad in the centre of the flower on top of the scallop is from the new Hodgepodge Hardware set, and the scallop is cut out using the scallop punch. The tabs on the top of the sections are the little tabs cut using the tab punch. The stamped sentiment is from One Of A Kind Stamp Set.

I just need 1 more person for my Markers and InkSpots club, so if you want to join, hurry as it is bound to go fast. Contact me on LindaLloyd@gmx.net

And as I said a few weeks ago on my blog there is going to soon be something special for my Stampers 10 and Markers Club members, watch this space whilst my blog undergoes a makeover....