***** Stampers 6 *****

As most of you know I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in Darlington. Now in July I will be setting up a New stampers 6 group. If you are interested here is the pitch;-

When you sign up you commit to spending £25 per month (plus £3.95 p+p)

During one of those months you get to become the hostess and receive not only a level one (sometimes it can be level 2, depending on sales) gift but also £15 in free merchandise from the catalogue or the mini.

Occasionally you will find a little gift from me too in with your parcel.

This is a fab way to help build up your stash and gain freebies without having to hold a party.

If you think you are interested and have any questions, please email me on melanie.reid2@ntlworld.com

Where did May go???

Well here we are in June, where oh where did May go. I know we have been rather busy gutting and re building one of the childrens rooms. It took forever but since I mainly done most of the work and hubby stood and watched. Yes I have one of those that does not partake in any DIY unless under force. We had stripped it back to the bare wood floors and also took all the skirtings off and replaced. It doesn't sound like a massive task but when I work alone it can be sometimes difficult. But I got there in the end and now all new furniture has arrived and been put in its rightfull place. It looks fab. Kids love it so much, we hardly see them.

I have been doing a few projects but haven't had time to photograph anything as yet.

I did take time out to go on a copic tutorial day with Maddy and Rachel, check out their blogs some great stuff on there. If you can manage to get on one of these workshops, I would really recommend it. Maddy is so sweet and Rachel makes gorgeous cakes. OK so ours was shop bought but it was fab all the same. I will have to take a picture of my now finished card later today. But first I want to do a few jobs while its quiet in the home.

Keep Watching!!!!

Scrapbook in a tin

Well I am not too sure how this is all gonna turn out. My photography is lousy, I really need to take a course but then when do I fit it in?????

Here goes

This is the project I have made based on the card in the previous post. I have left all the photo's off until I get them all from my mum. Plus the lid still needs to be finished with a title. Again I can't decide until I pick the pictures. Hmm.

Well If you want to download the PDF check out ILWS in their tutorials section. Or you can try and follow the ones I will have here.

1. Take your main colour card (perfect plum), compass, pencil and ruler. Set your compass so that you can make a 5 ½” circle. Using the same centre point make another a fraction bigger that the 5 ½”.

2. Cut out on the outer circle, not on the inner one.

3. Using your corner rounder. Take off the guide. Line it up with the outer corners touching the inner circle and punch. Move it along so that one corner matches a corner that has been punches already. Continue in this way until finished. Don’t worry if at the end the scallops are uneven. You can hide this with ribbon or an embellishment. Practice on smaller circles if necessary.

Once finished, you can rub out any pencil lines that are left. Repeat these steps for as many pages as you want.

4. For the decorative section. Make another circle of 5” in diameter on white or cream card. You can do this as we did before with a compass and a pencil/circle cutter or even a Cricut. For every main page you will have two of these, one for either side. If you have 4 pages you will need 8 decorative panels.
5. For the decoration I used two background stamps, En francias and sanded.
En francais I stamped using perfect plum.
Sanded I used Mellow moss.

6. To make it looked aged. I used a kitchen sponge cut up and close to cocoa ink pad. Just dab the sponge onto the ink pad and then onto the cardstock.

Do this with as many pages as you want. You can also do the edges of the main pages.
7. Adhere on to one side of a main page. With the second side you will need take a bit more time positioning the page, so that the text is straight with the one on the other side.

8. For the decorating of the pages, this is all optional. I choose to match a card I had cased from another ladies blog. As I wanted an aged look for the photograph’s I am going to use.
Firstly I cut strips of perfect plum card 1 ¼” (3cm) wide. Lay one over your page where you would like it to be. Take a smaller circle, (mine is 4 ½” in diameter), lay this over and mark your strip of card in pencil. This is then your cutting line. Cut, age with ink (optional) adhere to page.

9. For the next step, again cut strips of card 1” (2.5cm) wide. To make curved edges use a template as we did in the previous step. Decorate as you wish. I used faux stitching and a length of ribbon. Adhere to your page.

10. For the picture section, cut one 7 x 9cm (perfect plum) piece of card, one 6.5 x 8.5cm (mellow moss) piece of card. Mat and layer them together. The picture should measure 6 x 8cm. (this is not shown yet as I am waiting on some family pictures)

11. Using foam pads cut them into strips and place around three sides as shown. Mount this onto your page.

12. For the pull out tab. Cut strips of card (very vanilla) 2 1/8” x 3 ½” long. Punch out a tab punch and adhere to the top. I decorated mine with stamp sets ‘totally tabs’ and the journaling lines stamp from ‘Live your dream’.

The next steps depend on how you want to put your album together.

1. Punch holes in the side of your pages and hold them together with book rings, ribbon or even wires from a bind it all machine.
2. Place into a decorated film tin. I have used this option and made it to match my pages. Again it is left blank for me to add some embellishments and a title.

Measurements for my circles for the tin lid are; perfect plum scalloped circle 6 ½” and 6 ¼”. Make as you did in step 3. For the cream card Measures 5 ¾”. All these sizes depend on your tin that you use.

Cased card with a twist

I have a couple of posts to share, hopefully the second will be done today at some point if not tomorrow.

The first is a card I cased a couple of weeks ago but with a family bereavment and other family issues I haven't been able to get things finished. You will see what I mean in my next post.

Anyhow, back to this card share. I cased this card from Julie Buhler's blog weeks ago now. You really need to check out her blog its fab. This is my interperation

I just loved how it went together and thought, HEY I can turn it, like you do. So here is it turned

I then went on to create something else which is 3D. Will be back in a mo with some instructions on what I made. Enjoy!

Bit of an update on life

Sorry for not blogging at all this month. But there has just been so much happening and I can't see things settling down just yet. Many of you have sent lovely comments and asked how my brother is doing. Well he is hanging in there and has now been put on steroids to try and build him up a bit. This is to see if he would be well enough for Chemo. I didn't know there where different kinds of chemo for different cancers. Anyway he is doing the best he can considering and has talked about going fishing, personally I don't think he could manage it unless he had quite a few helpers. Don't think I would volunteer, lol, thinking pictures here as I can be very squeamish.

We have also had two lots of more bad news. A good friend of ours has just lost there father. He was very old and frail and it was expected. But it still hits you hard.

Then the other was my hubby's mum, she sadly passed away on Monday. So we are having to go up to Scotland this week for a few days. This was also expected as she has been poorly for a while. But again it still hits you very hard. My children have never experianced anything like this, so it makes it a little bit harder to explain what the next few days will have in store for them. I know they will be fine as they are both mature enough to handle this situation.

So for today just grab your nearest and dearest and give them a BIG hug.

I am working on a tutorial for ILWS and hopefully, if camera doesn't play up. I will have it on my blog too. This should be around the 4th May. So happy stamping/crafting.

**** BLOG CANDY **** CLOSED

It will be my little boy's birthday come 1st April and he will be 10, gosh how the years have flown by. To celebrate I have put together a little kit of Stampin' Up! goodies. What a way to celebrate.

Here is what I am offering:

1/2 meter of each of the 1/4" grosgrain ribbons. White blooms from the pretties kit. Felt blooms in all 3 available colours. Metal frames/buckles and other embellishments from the retired hodgepodge kit. Glass beads, brads and pearls from the pretties kit. 5 x whisper white envelopes. 12 sheets of the Tea Party paper size 6 x 6" (this is new and not available to customers till 1st April). 8 x A5 sheets of card to match the paper. Polka dot punches stamp set (no longer available to buy through sale a bration) and a mini catalogue. All of this in an undecorated A5 silver tin. OK apart from the stamp set as it won't fit.

Ok to get your little mits on this lot you will need to leave a comment and tell me. If you where 10 again (I know we can dream) how would you like to celebrate it?

Also If you have a blog can you pop a link on to lead back here. The more the merrier as mum always says ;-)

I will choose a winner on the 1st April. If I can work out the random generator other wise it will be out of the bag. OK I am blonde what can I say, lol.

Blog candy winner

I have tried all morning to upload the winner of the blog candy. And the winner is..........

comment number 6 Aunty Sue

Here is her comment "Hi and Happy Birthday to your son. Well if i was 10 and can think back that long all of 40 years. I would have a night at the pictures with my girlie friends then go to pizza hut for our tea at the trafford centre where there is lots of yummy shops. Off to post a link to your blog from mine."

So if you can email me your address to melanie.reid2@ntlworld.com I will get them in the post to you.

We haven't decided yet on what we are doing at the weekend but it does look like we will be going to ruff and tumble at some point. He would like to take his friend with him who is a girl. Nope its not a girlfriend as such but someone he just cares about. His words not mine, lol. Oh what its like to be 10 again.

Well must crack on as I have a class to prepair for and a birthday card or two to make.

Mother's Day!

Hope all you mum's out there had a faberooney day yesterday, I know I did. My kids bought me some rubber stamps although they never knew till yesterday, lol.

Anyway I would like to share a project I made for my mum. she is nearly 80 and is very fit and active for her age. I think that is what keeps her so young.

This is a Tote that I purchased through Here. Her tutorials are fabulous. I did have to enlarge some of the measurements to fit our A6 cards. I used cardstock rather than designer paper. I also used one of the background stamps to make my card look like designer paper. This one I used the paisley stamp.

Onto the cards.

For these cards I used the Tea and crumpets designer paper. The stamp set is birthday best. This is one of the cheaper sets from Stampin' Up! but the quality is fabulous all the same. I have used pretty in pink, and always artichoke cardstock.

Again I have used tea and crumpets DSP. Chocolate chip cardstock and Always artichoke. The stamp set is Crazy for cupcakes. I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to just stamp two lots of the cupcakes, side by side. This really is a great piece of kit. I have embellished it with chocolate chip and pretty in pink taffeta ribbon. You get heaps on a reel for only £5.50

This last one is using the same DSP. Chocolate chip and So Saffron cardstock. The stamp sets used where again Crazy for Cupcakes (my all time favourite) and the hostess stamp set Best yet. This is available for free if you order products of £150 or more. Obviously the more you order the higher the free merchandise you would also be allowed to get for FREE! If you want to know please get in touch.

Just a little update on my brother. He had a heart attack last Thursday and was taken to hospital. They have since unblocked the artery that has caused the problem. Hopefully he may of been sent home late yesterday but as its a tad too early to ring him, I don't know if he has yet. He seems to be in high spirits considering everything he is going through. Thanks again for all your well wishes, they do mean a lot.

**Update**

Thank you to eveyone who has sent some lovely emails and also replies to the posts. Just want to do a quick update on my big bro. He has been diagnosed with mesiothelioma which is a rare cancer. It is caused by working with asbestos years ago. Not many people know much about the disease but from experiance its not nice at all. Fibres can get into your tissue and grow and turn into cancer, not sure how but it can take 20-30 years to come out. Some people lead a horrible life after diagnosis. He has yet to visit the top man to see if there is any treatment but I know when my father had it, there was nothing they could do as it was too far advanced, but that was 12 years ago. So I am hoping as medicine has come along way since then. That there is hope of treatment.

Well I am trying ever so hard to get back into things. I have just received a delivery of a couple of new sets from the new mini, plus the new mini books have arrived too. So I going to try and create something.

I am also working on putting some nice blog candy together for some very lucky person. So keep watching.

Where oh where is my mojo?????

Ever had one of those weeks when your mojo just goes. Well I am having one of those weeks. In fact I have never felt on top form since we came back from Scotland a few weeks ago. Sadly when we came back, we had some bad news that my BIG brother was in hospital, really poorly. Anyway to cut a long story short he has been diagnosed with cancer as he has tumours in his stomach. They have taken some biopsy's last week but we are still waiting on the results. He has gone down dramatically since Christmas. Loosing a lot of weight. Hopefully when he gets the results they can then start on some treatment but the doctors are hush hush until they get these results back as to what type of cancer it is. As he worked with asbestos years ago, we are almost sure its got to do with this. But nothing has been confirmed as yet.

My mum has been really down and I really feel for her and I am trying to stay strong and focused for her, just in case she needs me. Please keep them in your prayers.

So this is why I haven't been posting very much the last couple of months. I am trying to get back into everything but its just so hard to concentrate on anything else.

So if anyone see's my mojo on their travels please send it back home as I really could do with the therapy of crafting right now.

Another Stampin' Up! OFFER

Have you ever wanted cheaper craft goodies?

OR

Have you ever thought about running a crafting business?

Well this month Stampin' Up! are having special on their starter kits. If you sign up to become a demo between 12th-25th March you would get the starter kit for just £125 instead of £139.

Don't worry if doing demo's are not your thing, or even doing parties in peoples homes You can still be a demo but what we call a hobby demo. If you would like to know more about this please email me melanie.reid2@ntlworld.com and I will give you more details.

Here is the flyer.

Just look at all you get for £125, All this retails at over £240 (this is including all the business supplies too).

New Products coming....

.....VERY SOON. Check them out, click on the link at the right hand side to view some new products that will befcome available from April 1st to30th September 2009.

I am sure you will just lurve something that is in there. I already have my catalogue and will be ordering some later this week. I must say my list has nearly everything on it, but then I just lurve everything Stampin' Up!

I ask a lot of my customers what they like about Stampin' Up! and the majority always say its the way everything co-ordinates. With having four colours families you are never short of colour combo's. They are just fabulous. So what are your thoughts about Stampin' Up!

March OFFER

Sorry its been a while since I last blogged. There has been just so much going on through February, holiday, kids half term and then a very sick member of the family was in hospital. I am trying to get back into things but for the moment, I feel a little out of sorts with the shock of things.

Anyhow for March Stampin' Up! Offer it's 25% off chipboard. For all your scrapbookers its a fabulous offer, but its not just for scrappers. Card makers can use it too and also those of you who do altered art. I just love using the stuff.

If you would like to place an order with me please don't hesitate to get in touch. Details are on the right hand side.

Something to share

Gosh where has January gone? It seems like it was only here yesterday. So much has been going on and things preventing me from blogging. But today I have managed to get a card made and even took pictures with my camera (I have so got learn how to use this thing). OK the light isn't brilliant today as we have had dark clouds and a few snow showers. Not coming to much though, thankfully. But I have tried my best and played with setting too on the camera. Anyway here is the card I want to share with you all. Its technique is called the Split Negative. I learned how to do this many years ago but had forgotten all about it till it was refreshed by another Stampin' Up! demo here in the UK. Thanks Monica for sharing a wonderful technique.

I have used elegant eggplant as my main colour (card and ink pad) also whisper white and also white embossing powder. This is all mounted on some Lavendar lace cardstock. Whisper white taffeta and one of my own brads for embellishments.

I have also stamped inside on the insert.

I have used the small baroque border with the Elegant eggplant ink pad (yep no ink cartridge). You can do this for small pieces of work but I would recommend the cartridges for larges sections. Well I better get back to crafting as I need to get a few things done today. One being my son's Valentines present, for a girl he really likes ;-) Bless him he is only 10.

Dials anyone?

As some of you know I am part of the tutorial team on In Love With Stamping forum(see link to the right). It was my turn to write one for today so here is what I did.

Materials
Cardstock in two colours
Brads
Pencil/Ruler/scissors
¼” and 1 ¼” circular punch
¼” square punch
Craft knife
One of the following methods of cutting; Nestabilities circles, compass and pencil, coluzzle with circle template.
1. I have chosen to work with nestabilities for this project, but you can use a compass and pencil, coluzzle with circular template. Just adjust to accommodate.
Choose 3 sizes, large (9.5cm), Medium (7.5cm), small (3.5cm) all approximate.

2. Choose your main colour and cut out the three circles from step 1.

3. On the back of all three, find the middle by using your ruler and a pencil. (Work in pencil as it can be rubbed out as you proceed.) Make a cross.

Where the lines cross, using a pricking tool punch a hole. This will be for the brad to go through later on.

4. Using a piece of contrasting card cut a strip 2.5cm (1”) wide. To round the edges use your 1 ¼” circle punch. Slide your strip of card through the punch. Centralise it on the end and punch out.

5. To get the length, place under your large circle and pencil the edge. Place it back in the punch and punch a tiny bit away from the marked edge.

6. For the hole, place it under the large circle again but on a pricking mat and prick through the hole of the large circle.

7. To make windows on the strip for each dial. Use a scrap piece of card the same width as your strip (2.5cm/1”). Draw a line along the centre and using the ¼” circle and the ¼” square punches make some windows.

8. To make your windows in your strip, take your brad and push it through your strip. Take the small dial and place that on top. Using a pencil mark the side but on the strip. Do this for all three dials.

9. Remove all dials off the brad and strip. You will now have guidelines for all the dials (these can be rubbed out later).

10. Using your template you made in step 7, place which ever window you want showing over the relevant dial, within the guidelines for that dial and trace. If you don’t like it, you can erase it and choose another.

11. Once you are happy punch/cut them out.

12. Put it all together and Voila!

13. Now you have the basics you can decorate using stamps, rub-ons, peeloffs, even doodling.
You can even experiment using different shapes; making them smaller for different projects, use less or more layers.
The only limit is your imagination.