Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Catherine Carroll

Start Sale-a-Bration 2015 with a Pinkies Blog Hop

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using new Stampin' Up!® products that you can earn free during Sale-a-Bration. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

We all say this every year, but Sale-a-Bration is so exciting each time it rolls around. In case you haven't got the idea by now, I'll do a quick recap - choose a free gift with each £45 (or 60€) spend, and extra special benefits for hostesses and new demonstrators! Now, we aren't allowed to share the SAB brochure yet, but you'll see most of the products on offer in this blog hop, so do make sure you make it all the way around!

So... on with my project. I chose to use the Best Year Ever DSP, and I think that sums up SAB for this year - I hope you'll agree once you've seen all the products on offer.

I can't believe I've managed to make myself actually CUT some new DSP, and before Sale-a-Bration has even started! Not only new DSP, but new FREE DSP. You might think that it makes it easier as I didn't pay a penny for it, but as it's only available for the three months of SAB (6th January - 31st March), I really feel the need to ration myself. Luckily this only needed a 1½" strip of each design to cut out all of the 1" circles, and I have offcuts carefully saved. The coordinating Best Day Ever stamp set is available in photopolymer, which made lining up the words across the top of the card a lot quicker than having to reach for my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig.

I was (relatively) reliably informed by my husband that this looks like scale maille, rather than chain maille which is how I first described it to him.

I made it rather more labour intensive that it has to be, as I insisted on measuring out ½" spaced lines with markings each ½" along so that I could line the circles up perfectly. But I am sure that you could get just as perfect a result by eye and save a lot of time.

That's enough from me for now so please hop on over to Christa to see what she's been creating.

 

 

 

 

Punched Double Gatefold with Festival of Trees

I always mean to try out a punched double gatefold card like this one using Scentsational Season (from way back in 2012) whenever there is a symmetrical-enough motif. Festival of trees gave me a more than suitable punch and stamp combo to try my hand at this simple style of card again.

While using a punch rather than a framelit makes it a lot easier to get both punches level, they haven't got any easier to photograph well!

I can see some lovely versions with hearts appearing on my blog come January, so hopefully I'll get a bit better at photographing them!

 

 

 

 

A White Christmas Slider Card

This is another of my (hopefully) Wow! cards from my recent class. I really loved the scenes that so many of my fellow demonstrators were able to create with the photopolymer White Christmas set that I had to give it a go.

Although the photopolymer made it easy to line up and create a scene, I think I need a bit more practise when it comes to the composition!

It's a very simple slider mechanism, created with a piece of folded ribbon around the inside piece. It's a long time since I first made one of these - I remember making one in one of the earliest Stampin' Up! meetings that my upline held. But I think they are due for a revival, don't you?

 

 

 

 

Year End Closouts from Stampin' Up!

We're so used to waiting for Sale-a-Bration for the best deals from Stampin' Up! but this year they have also given us some amazing year end closeout deals.

These offers are strictly while stocks last, so have a look at my online shop now and you could pick up some great bargains. Because we all know we need more craft products, right?

 

 

 

 

Star Shaker Card using Endless Wishes

I held a card class for a new group of ladies on Friday night. I promised them some wow Christmas cards, and I hope I didn't disappoint them!

I'd like to say that this was all my idea, but I think it's a combination of lots of cards that I have seen on Pinterest. 

Making the star shaker component is definitely a bit tricky, but it's worth it for the effect in the end. I only used the bits from the Star Confetti punch cut from Silver foil and Silver Glimmer paper, but some sequins would look lovely in there too!