I made another version of this card and used Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder instead of Silver, Sahara Sand Ink instead of Soft Sky and Pearls instead of Rhinestones inside the flowers.

Which is your favourite?

I decorated the inside of these cards using the sentiment On Your Special Day, perfect for many different occasions - engagements, marriages, anniversaries, special birthdays and more. 

I stamped the sentiment and leaves using Versamark Ink and Emboss Powder onto Shimmery White Cardstock. I then added 3 more flowers, to match the front of the card. I layered this onto a Foil Sheet and adhered it to the centre of the inside using Tear & Tape Adhesive.

I wanted to take the opportunity today to say hello and welcome to all my new subscribers! Thank you so much for subscribing, it means a lot to me and I hope you enjoy looking at the projects I make.

Today's project has been made using a free stamp set that I have earned during Sale-a-Bration.

For every £45 you spend during Sale-a-Bration you can choose one item from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue for FREE. Click here to browse the Sale-a-Bration catalogue

You can do so much with this stamp set but I wanted to show you how lovely it can be with this simple design in silver and white. I'll be working on a stepped up version of this card so keep and eye out for this on my blog !

I stamped the sentiment Just For You in Versa mark Ink and used Silver Embossing Power and my Heat Tool to give this shiny silver effect. I punched out some flowers from Vellum cardstock using one of the Itty Bitty Accent punches and added Rhinestones to the centre.

Have a great weekend!

I made two sets as Christmas presents - one using Blushing Bride cardstock and the other using Pool Party cardstock. Both of these colours match this paper perfectly.

The Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper pack contains 12 sheets of 12" by 12" cardstock and each piece has a design on both sides (6 designs in total). The 6 different designed papers contain one or more of the following colours: Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Pool Party, Soft Suede, Watermelon Wonder and Whisper White.

I think you could quite easily use Old Olive or Watermelon Wonder cardstock alongside this paper, or even Mint Macaron.


If you've been following my blog, you may have seen me using this tin before in my Typeset Specialty Series. Its a great tin for this sort of project as it can fit a number of items inside - this stationery set includes a shopping list, notepad (including post it notes), a mini notebook and a gold sparkly glitter nail file.


I've used my all-time favourite centre piece for the front of the tin and notepads which consists of a die cut butterfly from cardstock and vellum. I've used the medium sized die from the Butterflies Thinlits Dies for the front of the tin and the notebook and the small butterfly die from the Bold Butterfly Framelits Dies for the shopping list and mini notebook. I LOVE these dies, which is why you will find them in lots of my projects! The new Big Shot Die Brush on page 19 of the catalogue is perfect for popping out all of the little pieces from the butterflies! Its my new best friend.

I hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to 2016 and all that it brings.

Myself and my husband had a quiet Christmas at home this year. We started off with an amazing meal at Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill in Congresbury near Bristol on Christmas Eve. The food was amazing, for a special treat and a truly memorable meal, we decided to share a Chateaubriand, essentially a large fillet of beef, intended to be shared and never for just one. This dish came with the most amazing onion rings, a grilled tomato and a small copper pan of triple cooked chips. A little jug of Bearnaise Sauce was the perfect accompaniment.

We opted out of starters so we could make sure we finish this beautiful steak and still have room for dessert - but we couldn't resist the warm basket of beautifully baked sourdough bread. For dessert I had a very sticky toffee pudding and Phil had a raspberry knickerbocker glory. It was a lovely relaxing evening with stunning food. The service was excellent and the waitress very kindly offered to take a photo of us.

We visited Phil's dad and sister on Christmas Day morning then spent the rest of the day at home, just the two of us with our cats Charlie & Bayley. I missed having my mum and brother to stay so we decided to use Skype so we could open our presents together. It was really nice as we were still able to be part of each others day, 130 miles apart.

Whilst I did miss hostessing, it was also lovely to put my feet up and relax and cook Christmas dinner at my own leisure. I cooked roast turkey and all the trimmings - my all-time favourite roast is rib of beef but my husband always says "its not Christmas if you don't have turkey", so turkey it was and it will always be. I'm not the biggest fan of turkey so I always make Jamie Oliver's Get Ahead Chrismas Gravy to serve with the meat, trust me, it makes all the difference to the meal and is well worth the effort to make it.

As we were spending Christmas apart from family, I wanted to make something handmade to give as presents. I made 6 of these little hampers, containing little treats to eat and drink and I really hope everyone liked them and found a little something inside that they really enjoyed. Naturally I couldn't post pictures of these until after Christmas, so here is my version of a Handmade Christmas Hamper and the little treats included within it.

These biscuits are so yummy, they are Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Belgian Milk Chocolate Shortbread Wreaths. I am glad I bought them when I did as they were sold out in no time. I packaged 2 biscuits in 4" x 6" cellophane bags to include in the hamper.

I made a label using the Lots of Labels Framelits and some kraft cardstock. I then stamped 'Chocolate Shortbread' using the Alphabet Rotary Stamp and underneath stamped the winter scene using the Cozy Christmas stamp set. I added a white star punched from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper and also coloured in the snow on the roof with a Wink of Stella glitter pen which will be available in the new Spring Summer catalogue. I stapled the label to the cellophane bag using the Handheld Stapler.


Here is another favourite of mine - Sainsbury's All Butter Fudge. It's very crumbly fudge and at £1.25 for 200g it's an absolute bargain. I put 4 little pieces of fudge into a 3" x 5" cellophane bag. The label is Kraft cardstock punched out with the Decorative Label Punch. Again, I used the Alphabet Rotary Stamp to stamp the word 'Fudge' and then added the sentiment 'Happy Winter' from the Happy Scenes stamp set. The little bird has been stamped using the Festival of Trees stamp set. I used the handheld stapler again to fix the label to the cellophane bag.



A hamper wouldn't be a hamper without some good old English tea so I ordered individually wrapped Twinings English Breakfast tea bags from eBay.

I made these cute tea bag holders using some 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper and added a sentiment using the Washi Label Punch and stamped 'Season's Greetings' using the Happy Scenes stamp set.

I used a video tutorial I found on YouTube by Joan Robertson to make the tea bag holder - click here to watch it, it's so easy and quick to make and each one holds two tea bags.

Now this is a real treat. I included in the hamper a little glass jar filled with Mr Miles hot chocolate (made in Somerset), enough for 2 mugs plus some pink and white mini marshmallows for some extra indulgence!

I got the clip lid glass jars from Sainsburys for £1.25 each - unfortunately I can't find them online but they are similar to the Kilner Spice Jars. They are perfect as once the hot chocolate has been used up, the glass jars can be reused in either the kitchen, or even in the craft room.

I used the Alphabet Rotary Stamp to stamp 'Hot Chocolate' onto some Kraft cardstock. I then punched out little tags using the Washi Label Punch. A star punched from Gold Glimmer Paper punched using one of the Itty Bitty Accents punches and fixed to the tag with a glue dot is I needed to finish off the jar. To fix the label to the jar, I punched a small hole using the 1/8" Circle Handheld Punch and threaded through some Linen Thread before tying the label onto the glass jar.

I've kept the design quite simple and stamped  a tag using the Merry Everything stamp set onto Very Vanilla cardstock in Basic Black Archival Ink. I have used the coordinating Note Tag punch to punch it out and added it to the Pillow Box with some Stampin' Dimensionals.

You can buy the Merry Everything stamp set and Note Tag Punch in a bundle where you save 15%. For £26.25 plus P&P you get 5 stamps that can be used for Birthdays, Christmas & Halloween. This set is useful to make tags in super quick time, perfect when making multiple tags for Christmas presents.

To finish off the design, continuing with the simple theme, I added a small star / small heart punched out of Gold Glimmer paper using the Itty Bitty Accents punches. I think its just what it needed without being too fussy.

I started making this gift tag by stamping the reindeer from the Jolly Christmas stamp set in Versamark ink onto Kraft cardstock. I then sprinkled over Heat & Stick Powder, tapping off the excess and putting this back into the pot. By heating the powder with a heat gun it becomes sticky, so you need to quickly sprinkle over the Stampin' Glitter before it dries. Tap off any glitter that doesn't stick to the powder and put this back into the pot. To set the glitter in place, you neec to heat it one more time with the the heat gun.

I love this effect and I certainly want to include this look into this years Christmas cards! I don't have a design created yet but after another month of crafting with these fab products from the new Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter Catalogue, I'll try and incorporate all of my favourite looks into either one or several different designs.


To finish making the tag, I used one of the Circles Collections Framelits Dies to cut out the reindeer but I wasn't sure what to do with it next.... after some pondering I decided to have some fun and pair it with a really bright colour for a modern look. I chose Melon Mambo - doesn't it look amazing against the Kraft cardstock?

I cut the tag and stamped stars from the Jolly Greetings stamp set in Black Archival ink. I added a Black Glimmer Banner and used Stampin' Dimensionals to add the Kraft cardstock to the tag. It looked like it needed something else which I why I added the Melon Mambo stars punched using one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Accents set. Okay so this is not my usual look but like I said this was just for fun! Do you ever craft outside of your comfort zone?

Now back to my comfort zone.....starting from Wednesday I have 7 projects using the gorgeous Timeless Elegance DSP that I can't wait to show you. If you don't subscribe - I blog 3 times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays & Saturdays - see you then!