Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts
I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas break and are looking forward to welcoming 2017 in a few days time! I'd like to shout out a big welcome to all my new subscribers and followers who have followed me this month!
If you are visiting my blog for the first time, hello! My name is Kim and I live in the UK. If you live in UK, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Austria, you can purchase Stampin' Up! products from my online shop. If you are visiting from further afield, a very warm welcome to you! I hope you find some inspiration here today. You are more than welcome to follow me through any of my social media channels and keep up to date with my craft creations.
Today I am taking part in Kylie Bertucci's Stampin' Up! Blog Highlight and I am using new products from the forthcoming Stampin' Up! Spring Summer 2017 catalogue which is available to order from on 4th January 2017!! Our theme for this highlight is encouragement as we all need a kind word said to us to build us up.
Voting is now live over on Kylie's blog and I would love it if you could click here to see what everyone has made. The top ten winners will get to be part of an international blog hop, if you like my project, I would very much appreciate you voting for me.
My project features 2 new products from Stampin' Up! Spring Summer 2017 catalogue plus the new Stitched Shapes Framelit Dies which should be back in stock and available to purchase again mid-January!
First up we have a lovely new designer series paper. Its called Falling In Love and all of the sheets are pastel colours and are such lovely soft patterns. Aren't they gorgeous? I've used the sheet on the very far left in my project today. I bought myself two packs in the pre order available to demonstrators as I can see myself using this DSP a lot.
The next new product I have used are the new Detailed Dragonfly Thinlits Dies. There is a coordinating stamp set which you can purchase with the thinlits as a bundle at 10% off. I haven't used this today but I am sure I will be soon. There are 5 dies included in this set which include 4 different dragonflies and a cute little bee!
Now over to my project, I've made a thank you card and coordinating treat bag. I love a matching set! This bag is exactly the same design as my previous blog post, a design that I actually created (my first original!).
Take a look by clicking here to see my Christmas version, you can see the shape a little better on this link. This treat bag has been very popular with my subscribers and followers - its now in my top 10 blog posts (currently it's at no. 5) and my blog has been live for almost 2.5 years.
I've had lots of requests to publish instructions on how to make it so I am currently considering my first YouTube video - eeek! I'll give it a try but if I am not confident with it, the very least I will provide is a pictorial. Make sure you subscribe to my blog to be notified of my blog post when I release the instructions. I plan to do this very soon.
Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to head over to Kylie's blog to vote!
What a nightmare..... having had no wi-fi for almost a month, I have had to resort to buying a mobile wi-fi device for my home. There is still no progress on it being fixed (most of the housing estate are also suffering) so I am limited on when I can go online on my laptop. It also means no catch up TV, Christmas shopping on my mobile phone and massive data charges on both mine and my husbands mobile phones. Naturally blogging has had to suffer and this is really disappointing for me. Massive apologies to all my blog readers, fingers crossed it will be fixed in the New Year.
Anyway, here I am with my entry for this months Pinkies Team Design Challenge. How cute is this gift bag?
We've been challenged to use punching techniques and for my project I've used the Gift Bag Punch Board and the 2", 1 3/4" and 1/2" Circle Punches.
For the gift bag I cut the Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper to 11" by 7" and used the medium setting on the punch board.
Head over to Michelle Lasts blog on Tuesday by clicking here and make sure you vote for your 3 favourite projects. Voting is live for 3 days and the winner receives a £20 spending spree of Stampin' Up! products as a gift from Michelle.
Hopefully I'll be back again for Christmas, but in case I'm not - have a wonderful Christmas!
I made this card for a friend of mine Sasha, who is also a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. It was her birthday earlier this month and I wanted to send her a surprise. Sasha has a blog too so please go and check it out by clicking here.
The paper is just so cute I had to use it again. I never feel pressure to over embellish a card and this is one of those simple cards that I like to make.
My last project used the same Designer Series Paper and also featured the colour grey - if you missed it, take a look at it by clicking here. Its interesting to see how different colours paired with grey look so different. Grey is very versatile and I have been meaning for ages to try it with yellow. I love this version which uses two greys - Basic Gray, Smokey Slate and Pool Party.
That's it from me today. I hope to be back in the next week or two. Unfortunately I have WiFi issues at home so I am blogging from work on my lunch break today.
in
2016
The weekend before last was the Stampin' Up! Onstage Local event in Telford. Its a mini convention where Stampin' Up! demos get together and find out about new products, receive business training, recognise each other success, receive free products and SWAP!
I decided to use products from the Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter Catalogue and I made 70 Candy Cane Lane Lotus Biscuit Christmas Hanging Tree Treats swaps. I got such a lovely range of swaps back and hopefully I will get a chance to share these with you. Maybe I might finally do a YouTube video?
The Candy Cane Lane Product Suite is just lovely. Whilst I usually favour non traditional colours at Christmas, the main colours featured in this suite, Crumb Cake and Real Red are just perfect to use for the swap idea I had. Early Espresso and Whisper White are also featured in this suite but I decided to use the side of the DSP that was mainly Crumb Cake so my swaps had a uniform look.
I used all of these products shown in the collage below to make my swaps - Read Red & Crumb Cake Stampin' Write Markers, Layering Oval Framelit Dies, Read Red & Whisper White cardstock, Real Red Stitched Edge Ribbon, Candy Cane Christmas stamp set and the Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper. You can order all of these from my online shop 24/7.
To make my swap, I simply cut a piece of DSP long enough and wide enough that wrapped around the biscuit. I then stapled the ribbon around the centre of the long side. I then used Fast Fuse to adhere the DSP wrap to the biscuit.
I then used my Stampin' Write Markers to colour in the stamp. I loved the look shown in the catalogue using 2 different colours on the one stamp. It was totally worth the time it took! The trick is to breathe on the stamp after you've coloured in stamp to reactivate the ink. I really enjoyed using this technique so I ordered the Regals & Subtles Marker packs in my recent order and I am looking forward to colouring stamps in again in the future.
Next I die cut the stamped image using the Layering Ovals dies. I layered the Whisper White oval on top of Real Red Cardstock, using the scallop oval die from the same set. I then used Stampin' Dimensionals to attach it to the front of the biscuit, hiding the staples I used to make sure the ribbon stayed put.
If you don't know what Lotus biscuits are, here is a picture of them. You can buy packs of 20 inexpensively on Amazon and from pound stores. You might have had one or two of these biscuits on the side of a hot drink in a coffee shop - I don't know anyone who doesn't like these so I hope everyone enjoyed receiving one of these as my swap.
I've put together a collage of some photos from Onstage Local in Telford. Here are me and my friends Aimee, Baz & Sasha - we had a great time and I can't wait until the next event. As well as attending this event, we all attended an craft afternoon arranged by Sarah Berry the day before. It was such fun and Sarah created some fab projects for us to make - to see pictures from the day, visit Sarah's blog by clicking here. We all went to Nandos in the evening and chatted the evening away with friends old and new, it was lovely but there might have been too much red wine consumed!
Do you want to come along to a Stampin' Up! next time? All you have to do is join my team of demonstrators and you will be eligible to attend Stampin' Up! events and also events set up by members of Michelle Last's Pinkies group. Please do get in touch with me if you want to find out more about joining and how you would benefit from 20% discount.
I am so thankful to have Michelle as my upline, Michelle runs a successful business, supports the whole Pinkies team all year round through team events, team challenges, Facebook groups and parties - and every now and then some happy mail just turns up. I was so thrilled to find out that Michelle is the #1 Stampin' Up! Demo for the UK and is placed 3rd in the world in the global 100. What am amazing achievement - well done Michelle!
I was also excited to be recognised for having recruited a team member in 2016. You don't get to walk the stage but you do get to stand up and be cheered on by fellow demos and receive a ribbon to attach to your badge. I am a hobby demo at heart but I am pleased Aimee decided to join my team in February during Sale-a-Bration and would love to welcome more team members. Aimee became a qualified recruit a few months ago and is enjoying the journey she has taken with Stampin' Up! This was her first Stampin' Up! event and I made a little gift for Aimee to recognise her becoming a qualified recruit. This will be featuring on my blog very soon. If you want to check out Aimee's cards you can find her on Pinterest by clicking here
I hope you have enjoyed reading about Onstage and looking at my swaps today!
I work as a Finance Manger and there are 23 of us in the Finance department, 10 of which are in my direct team and I have a further 8 indirect team members. Its such a lovely team and we all get on really well. We're currently planning Christmas activities such as Secret Santa, Christmas Jumper Fridays and a Christmas buffet lunch. We already have two nights out in December, I need to get shopping for some festive outfits!
Anyway, enough about Christmas and back to Halloween. On Friday evening after everyone had left, I left a little bag of Halloween treats on every desk. I hope it brings a smile to everyone's faces when they come into work on Monday morning. Naturally I had to make myself one - here it is on my desk. And yes, there are two 27" monitors on my desk!
I thought it would be nice to have a bit of fun so I asked the team to come up with some ideas on what we can do. Unfortunately we can't do full on fancy dress as we have visitors in the building but we are accessorising! I have some devils horns and a red glittery stake!
Some of the team are also bringing in Halloween themed bakes. I've made puff pastry bakewell tarts, they were meant to look like pumpkins, with flaked almonds for eyes and a nose - but the orange food die did not come out very well so they are not very orange.. I'm looking forward to seeing the cookies and cakes everyone is making! Definitely off the diet today!
We're also having a pumpkin carving competition - I am terrible at carving but I do like to participate, so here is my entry. I kept it simple and trust me, close up, its not very good. I messed up the top so it has no lid - lesson learned for next year. I really can't wait to see what everyone has made! They are sure to be much better than this.
I've made some prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place using the Baker's Box Thinlit Dies but I forgot to photograph them. They were filled with chocolate treats and some popping candy. I used the Spider Web DSP from the Halloween Night Specialty DSP - the web pattern is silver embossed on black and this particular cardstock is thicker than the rest so it was perfect for this box.
Here are the treat bags I made - each has a tag which is hand stamped using the Spooky Fun stamp set and Ghoulish Grunge stamp set. I've stamped in Basic Black and Smoky Slate.
The Halloween Night Specialty DSP is so spooky this year. I love the combination of Basic Black, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White and the patterns are really great with lots of variety.
Inside each bag are some popping candy spider chocolates, chocolate eyeballs and pumpkins and jellies. Oh, and a few plastic creepy crawlies!
As promised, here are my own little Halloween accessories Charlie & Bayley. I love my cats and they are always close by when I am in my craft room. Charlie often jumps in my photo studio so I encouraged him to sit down and I took some photos of him with one of the treat bags. I swear he knows I am taking a picture - look at that pose and stare into the camera!
Bayley, bless her, wasn't as comfortable as Charlie and this is the best photo I managed to get of her, She looks a little grumpy but I think she might have been scared of my photography lamps.
Bayley tends to sleep on a bean bag the whole time I'm crafting. Charlie comes and goes and surprises me several times a day by jumping on my craft table. I have to quickly grab my pookey tools and scissors and make sure they are safely put away. Charlie likes to demand attention and I think he sometimes is annoyed when I am engrossed in my work and not him. Bayley is just happy to be snoozing and enjoys a cuddle every few hours.
I hope you have enjoyed my projects and photos today! Keep an eye on my blog over the next week for news and pictures from Onstage Local in Telford. I'm busy making swaps at the moment and getting excited about seeing sneek peeks and being able to pre order from the Spring Summer catalogue. Who knows, we might even get to see some Sale-a-Bration goodies too!
I've made today's card for this month's Pinkies Team Design challenge which is being hosted by Michelle Last. The challenge we've been set is to showcase colouring techniques using current products from the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue or Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter Catalogue.
Voting will be taking place over the next 3 days over on Michelle’s blog and the
winner will receive £20 to spend on an item of their choice from Stampin' Up!
winner will receive £20 to spend on an item of their choice from Stampin' Up!
To vote, head over to Michelle's blog at 9:00am on Tuesday 25th October. You will have 3 votes each to place on your 3 favourite cards. Just click the heart in the top right hand corner of the photo to place your vote.
If you can't wait until 9:00am on Tuesday and want to place your vote now, all you have to do is click here. Do take some time to check out all of the projects and also visit Michelle's blog to see what she has made.
If you can't wait until 9:00am on Tuesday and want to place your vote now, all you have to do is click here. Do take some time to check out all of the projects and also visit Michelle's blog to see what she has made.
For my card, I chose to use my Blender Pens to 'colour in' the butterflies. This cute little butterfly is taken from the Grateful Bunch Photopolymer Stamp Set and I love it - it reminds me of the large Swallowtail stamp that retired earlier this year.
Although the stamps are photopolymer and clear, to line the butterflies up perfectly, I decided to use my Stamp-a-ma-jig. It's taken me a while to get to grips with it, but now I find it really useful for designs like this!
The happy birthday sentiment on the front of the card is taken from the Baby Bear stamp set and has been punched out using the Classic Label punch.
I used my Blender Pens to pick up some Blushing Bride and Smoky Slate ink from my ink pads. I 'coloured in' all of the butterflies using these colours before adding a sparklyear finish of Wink of Stella to them.
Top tip - Blender pens are really great and can be used when you don't have the Stampin' Write Marker in the colour you want. You do at the very minimum need to have either the ink pad, or the refill in the colour you want to use.
To complete the card, I stamped the sentiment Happy Birthday on the Whisper White inside layer - this sentiment is taken from the Cottage Greetings stamp set.
I hope you've enjoyed my project today - don't forget to place your vote for your top 3 favourite cards by clicking here.
My name is Kim and I live in Somerset in the UK and I have made this birthday card using a sketch by Teneale Williams.
I've used the Blooms and Bliss designer series paper and the lillies from the Remarkable You stamp set.
I have stamped Happy Birthday in Sweet Sugarplum ink using the Stylized Birthday stamp for the inside of the card and also added an edge of torn designer series paper to the top and bottom of the Whisper White layer.
For the front of the card I have added a layer of designer series paper to fit the entire front of the card. I usually leave a border but I really like how this has come out. I then added a small layer of Sweet Sugarplum cardstock before overlapping a layer of Vellum cardstock.
Next I stamped the lillies image onto Whisper White cardstock twice. I used Stampin' Write markers to colour in the stamp - Sweet Sugarplum for the outline of the flower and Old Olive for the stem.
I cut out the flowers using my Paper Snips (I am really not a fan of fussy cutting but let me tell you, these were a dream to cut out!) I adhered one set of flowers straight onto the vellum and then popped up the second set directly over the top using Stampin' Dimensionals. This really has added some fabulous dimension to the flowers and I am really pleased with this effect.
To finish the card I stamped the sentiment Happy Birthday in Basic Gray using a stamp from the Sunshine Sayings stamp set. I cut around the sentiment and used glue dots to adhere it over the top of the stems.
I cut out the flowers using my Paper Snips (I am really not a fan of fussy cutting but let me tell you, these were a dream to cut out!) I adhered one set of flowers straight onto the vellum and then popped up the second set directly over the top using Stampin' Dimensionals. This really has added some fabulous dimension to the flowers and I am really pleased with this effect.
To finish the card I stamped the sentiment Happy Birthday in Basic Gray using a stamp from the Sunshine Sayings stamp set. I cut around the sentiment and used glue dots to adhere it over the top of the stems.
You can order everything I've used to make my card from my online shop today. Until the end of the month you can order 3 packs of selected DSP and get one pack 3!
World Card Making Day Stampin'! Up! Blog Hop feat. Jar of Love Stamp Set
Friday, September 30, 2016 Somerset, UK
It's so great to join together with so many demonstrators from all over the world to celebrate this crafty event, we have lots of amazing inspiration for you today and I hope you enjoy looking at our projects!
My name is Kim Price and I live in Somerset in the UK. You are currently visiting my blog Handmade by Kim. There is a list at the end of this post which will help you to move along from blog to blog so you see all 20 amazing projects.
I wonder how many different countries you will be visiting today?
My project today features the Jar of Love Photopolymer Stamp Set and the Everyday Jars Framelit Dies.
There are 37 stamps and 17 dies between these two sets - what a bargain! Did you know you can buy both of these sets as a bundle and save 10%!
To make my card, I have used the colour Pool Party for the card base and have chosen the same colour paper from the Subtles Designer Series Paper to coordinate.
I stamped the image of the jar in Crumb Cake ink onto Whisper White cardstock and used the matching framelit to die cut it using my Big Shot machine.
Next I stamped some stems onto the jar using Mint Macaron ink and then lightly sponged the lower half of the jar with Pool Party ink to look like water.
I then wrapped some Linen Thread around the neck of the jar and tied a small bow before fixing the jar to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.
Next I did some 2-step stamping and stamped the flowers in 3 different colours using 2 shades that complimented each other - Peach (Calypso Coral ink and Flirty Flamingo ink), Yellow (So Saffron ink and Crushed Curry ink) and Pink (Blushing Bride ink and Sweet Sugarplum ink). I attached Stampin' Dimensionals to the back of each individual flower and arranged them at the top of the jar.
To complete the card I added the sentiment Happy Birthday using a stamp from the Balloon Builders stamp set that fit perfectly into the smallest die from Tags & Labels Framelit Dies.
You can order online 24/7 by visiting my online shop (found in the menu at the top of the screen), or you can contact me through any of my social media buttons.
You can subscribe to receive notifications of my new blog posts by clicking here, it would genuinley make my day to welcome new subscribers to my blog.
Thank you so much for visiting my blog today. Remember that you currently are at my blog - Kim Price, so make sure you check out the blog hop line up list below to see who is next in the list. Simply click on their name to visit their blog.
....... and don't forget to leave us a comment to let us know you stopped by - we just love to receive comments!
Have a great weekend and enjoy blog hopping!
I made this card for a lady in my team at work who did something so lovely for me. One day I went back to my desk after a meeting and on my desk was a Slimming World magazine and a pack of their yummy cereal bars.
She knew I was thinking of rejoining as I needed to not only lose weight for all of the normal reasons but also to help with a knee injury I've had since May. Her little nudge was just what I needed and I rejoined the next day. I've lost 1/2 stone so far and my knee is slowly improving with regular exercise and physio therapy. Any weight loss will also help so her helping me start to think about what I eat again was just the kindest gesture someone has made in a long time. Of course I wanted to say thank you and so I made this card for her. Thank you Jane!
I created my background using the classic old favourite stamp set Gorgeous Grunge. I stamped using Blushing Bride, Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum, Mint Macaron and Island Indigo. I love how handmade this looks yet its all stamping - the large ink blots are my favourite!
I created a layer of Perfect Plum cardstock and using Stampin' Dimensionals I added it to the front of my card at slight angle.
I then stamped my sentiment on Whisper White cardstock using Elegant Eggplant ink and again set it at a slight angle.
I've chosen the sentiment Thank you so much as I really like the phrase and also the size of this stamp as it can be the main feature of the card. The sentiment is from the Thankful Thoughts stamp set, as you can see you are spolit for choice with so many stamps.
I've also entered this card into the Global Design Project #GDP055 challenge using the theme Random Acts of Kindness. Jane's guesture really was a random act of kindness and the card I have made is basically saying thank you.
In the next few weeks I will start making some Christmas cards. I've had all the stamps and papers for a little while but as the weather was still warm I quite simply have not been thinking at all about Christmas yet. October is only a few days away so its time to get started, plan my swaps for an upcoming Stampin' Up! event and come up with some ideas for making large quantities of Christmas cards for my friends and family.
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