Craft Fairs.

I have enjoyed having a table at a few Craft Fairs in the run up to Christmas.
Above are some tea light boxes which held three tea lights each.

I used the Color Me Christmas Stamp Set for these Chocolate Bar treat holders.
The Card Stock is Real Red and Old Olive. The DSP is retired Speciality DSP.
I added a little bit of sparkle with a strip of Red Glimmer Card Stock punched with the Scallop Edge Punch.

The Boxes and the Gift Bag above are examples of the different sized boxes which Stampin Up sells.
In my last class of the year, this Wednesday, we will be making one of each and everyone will get a bottle of wine to put in the Tag a Bag Gift Box.The boxes with a bottle of wine sold well at the Craft Fairs.

Part of one of my displays. I sold note pads and boxes with wine

Above you can see the mini crackers, hot chocolate pouches,origami boxes with 5 chocolates in and the slider boxes.

Some items here were made using the Envelope Punch Board.
The narrow cellophane bags were very useful for packaging sweets.

Envelope Punch Board

I have to say that the Envelope Punch Board is my new all time favourite  product! It is so versatile and so portable.
I took it with me to two Craft Fairs recently and I kept having to make more mini crackers as people kept on buying them.

Here are some of the mini crackers which I made.

I also worked out how to make this little Box with a matching lid. It fits two chocolates inside.
I used the Winter Wonderland DSP, Festive Flurry Bundle and Island Indigo Coredinations Card stock.

Above is a Card made with the board. I love the pocket into which you can put a tag or a gift card.

Gift Packaging Class

I am planning on doing a Gift Packaging Class on Wednesday, December 18th.
We will be doing four different sized boxes and a gift bag -  all pre cut and scored by Stampin Up.
All we have to do is decorate them.
We will also be making two gift bows with the Bigz Gift Bow Die.
As you can see from the above photo the Tag a Bag Gift box contains a small bottle of wine!

December Classes, 2013

 On Wednesday, December 2nd I will be doing a Class in which we will be making several items using the new Envelope Punch Board. Above are a selection of different sized items.
These include a card, gift card holder, crackers, sweet treats pouch, and tiny to larger boxes for different sized gifts.

On Wednesday, December 11th, we will be making the two different styles of boxes pictured above using Christmas Papers.We will be making one additional surprise item!
The tea light boxes hold four tea lights in total.

The origami boxes hold quite a few chocolates. These would make excellent table favours for a Christmas meal or else they could be used as stocking fillers.
I may be repeating this Workshop on Wednesday, December 18th or on that date we will do something a little different!

Highlights from Stampin Up European Convention, Manchester, 2013.

 Some of us visited the Christmas Market before Convention started.

We met up with some of our team at the Radisson hotel which is a stone's throw from Manchester Central where Convention was held this year. Here I am with Chris and Andre from the Office in Germany who worked so hard with many others to make sure that everything went according to plan. Many thanks !

This is a view of the main stage on which most of the sessions took place.

 

A photo of Amy, me and Lindsay in the front row waving the Union Jack. Around 850 people in total attended the Stampin Up European Convention this year.

The team who made it all happen. They were all super stars and worked incredibly hard in public and behind the scenes.

Some of my favourite projects. Above is a Scrapbook which folds out of one of our Woodmount Stamp cases. Season of Style Designer Paper was used with Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler Card Stock.

A cute mini brown bag with mini tags and stamped with white hearts.

Gorgeous Grunge and Papillon Potpourri Stamp sets were used on this card with Teeny Tiny Sentiments for the greeting.Washi Tape, Rhinestones and half a Doily were also used.

This card was made using the triple embossing technique and the Flower Shop Stamp set.
Melon Mambo, Pool Party and Wild Wasabi were the colours used.

Stampin Up Convention 2013.

Today I am off to Manchester with 1,000 other Stampin Up Demonstrators to go to the Stampin Up Convention 2013.
I have made 50 Swaps to exchange with other Demonstrators from Europe.

Here is a close up of the two colours of swaps that I completed.
I used the Lovely as a Tree, Gorgeous Grunge, O Holy Night and More Merry Messages Stamp Sets.
The left card uses Crumb Cake, Old Olive  and Naturals Ivory Card Stock.The ink is Crumb Cake ( Yes, Monica I have eventually bought it and I love it!) and Old Olive. I daubed the edges with a Sponge Dauber, ruffled them with my finger nail and tore them with a Paper Tearer.
The Ribbon on the Tags is Very Vanilla Seam Binding.
I die cut the tags with the Chalk Talk Framelits.

The colours for the dark blue card are:- Night of Navy, Early Expresso, Crumb Cake and Encore Silver.
I used Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon for the tags.

Build a Banner Workshops

Last week and this week I held  Build a Banner Workshops at my house .The colour choices were Red and Green or Blue and Brown.
We used the Build a Banner Kit from the Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue.

The stencils from the kit were sponged in Cherry Cobbler and Gumbal Green in this Banner.
Notice the three bows die cut with the Gift Bow Bigz Die also from the Seasonal Catalogue.









This Banner was made using the Banner Accessory Kit. The colours are Pool Party and Island Indigo.
You get three sparkly snowflakes in the kit.

Another icy blue banner. I did give everyone extra snowflakes stamped and cut out with the Festive Flurries Bundle. I stamped in Clear Versamark and then added Heat and Stick Powder. I then heated that up to add the glitter.
Heat and Stick Powder makes the most amazing snowflakes. 

Here the letters have been cut out in Crumb Cake Card Stock with Pool Party glittery snow flakes.
If you would like to know any more about the products then please contact me at fhstafford7@gmail.com

O Holy Night Stamp

 I had a Stamp a Stack Christmas Card Workshop last week with eight people. We used the O Holy Night Stamp Set for two of the cards which are shown above.
The background of the blue card was stamped with the Woodgrain Stamp from the Main Catalogue. I stamped and embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder and layered it on Smoky Grey Card Stock with a smidge of Silver Glimmer Card Stock down the left hand side.
It was finished off with a double bow and a large pearl.
The Very Vanilla card was cased from one which Shelli Gardner put on her blog a while ago.

Above is the card that we made with Monica at our Team Training meeting in October.

This card in Midnight Muse was the swap that Monica gave us at the team training. I especially love the two glimmery stars hanging down on Linen Thread!

Build a Banner Workshop.

This week on Thursday, November 14th and next week on Wednesday, 20th November I will be doing a Build a Banner Workshop at my house based on the Banner which Monica Gale designed for the Paperie Retreat in September.
I have only two spaces left at each Workshop so let me know if you would like to join us.
Above is the original Red and Green Banner that I made at the Retreat.

This photo shows the Blue and Brown version of the Banner hanging from my bannisters at home.
I used Baked Brown Sugar and a Sponge Dauber  for the pattern. The accessories are from the Christmas Banner Simply Created Accessory Kit in the Autumn/Winter Seasonal catalogue with a few extra Festive Flurry Snowflakes.added.
I also added a bow made with the Bigz Gift Bow Die cut out of the Winter Frost Speciality Designer Paper which is in  the same catalogue.

Two More Training Day Projects and my Swap.

After lunch we made this Star Decoration using one of the Single Stamps that are now available. It turned out to be 3D once we had scored some lines and used Stampin Dimensionals. The small accent stars were punched out using a Star Punch from the  Merry Minis Collection of three Punches.

The last project of the day was a Scrapbook Page using 12 x 12 early Expresso Cardstock as the base.
We stamped the background using three stamps from the Snowflake Soiree Set stamped with Whisper White Ink.. The sleigh was cut out using the Top Note Die which we then shaped to look like a sleigh. We embossed it with the Northern Flurry Embossing Folder before sticking it down,

Lastly I have included an example of my swaps. Tom put his own name on this one. Monica allowed him to join in with the training day as it was at our house and he is home schooled. He certainly learned a lot in our business sessions! The slider pocket opens out to reveal an after eight. I used the Autumn Accents Dies.

Training Day with Monica Gale.

Yesterday Monica gave some of us in the Wirral a Training Day. We started off with a Shaker Card using the Reindeer from the Color Me Christmas Stamp Set. This would be the ideal set for a young person who enjoys colouring. Champagne Glass Glitter was used in the Shaker Frame. Monica said this is made out of crushed Christmas Decorations! I would not want to make my own as I would probably not crush the pieces small enough and might cut myself. Other products used include the Gold Card from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue, some of the Season Of Style Designer Series Paper Stack and the Stylish Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.

For the next card we first stamped a background with the large Woodgrain Stamp on to Pool Party Card Stock. We stamped the Words from O Holy Night Stamp Set in Whisper White on to Crumbcake Card Stock. Monica then showed us the easy way to tie a double bow.Can you see the hints of glimmer Card? It was finished off with one of the gorgeous Frosted Finishes Embellishments.

Our last project before lunch was a holder for chocolate or a sachet of Drinking Chocolate. We used the Color Me Christmas Stamp Set again and coloured it in using a Blender Pen. We put some of the Season of Style Designer Washi Tape on a strip of Whisper White Card Stock and finished it off with a bow made out of the Cherry Cobbler 1 inch Stitched Edge Grosgrain Ribbon.

I have had fun this evening preparing for a Workshop next Thursday while my family have been watching the Jungle Book
I was using the Lovely As a Tree Stamp Set which i got last week..I decided to do a masking technique to give the impression of a snowy scene in the first card.
This is a monochromatic card using Island Indigo as the base and Bermuda Bay was the colour that I used to stamp with. Sponging was the technique used for the sky.
I finished it all off with some Iridescent Ice Embossing powder applied to the image after it was stamped again using the Versamark Clear Ink Pad.
 The sentiment is from the Greetings of the Season Stamp set.

The second card is an adapted card from the original which we did with Monica Gale at the Paperie Retreat.
I have used Naturals Ivory Card Stock to get the rustic feel. I used two stamps from the Gorgeous Grunge Set to give the effect of snow falling on the ground.
The sentiment is from the Merry Messages set. It has been finished off with some Cherry Cobbler Ribbon, Baker's Twine and a Very Vintage Designer Button.

Paperie Retreat with Monica Gale.

 

 Two weeks ago I went on the Paperie Retreat organised by Monica Gale at Monk Fryston Hall in Yorkshire.
It was an amazing Week-end!
On the Friday night we made these Box Cards using the Flower Shop and Festive Flurry Stamp Sets.

 

We then made this cute Gift Card Holder cut out with the Pop n cuts Die and decorated with a bow cut out using the Gorgeous Gift Bow Bigz Die.

 The following day we made this gift box using the Acetate Cover from the Tag a Bag Gift Boxes.
I love the matching card and the envelope made using the Diagonal Plate on the Score Board.

 Then we decorated one of the Muslin Bags from the Autumn/Winter Catalogue. They are so easy to stamp on.
The gold line is glitter applied to sticky double sided tape.
These bags were then filled with fragrant lavender.
They smelt divine!

This is a beautiful box that was filled with four Christmas cards. The Box was made out of Natural Composition card stock and the new Season of Style Designer Paper

This is one of the Christmas Card designs. We used the Special Season Stamp Set on the Natural Ivory Card Stock and finished it off with a Frosted Finishes embellishment and some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.

This was the other design. I used my Bone Folder to distress the edges.The background was stamped using the Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set.
We made two of each card.

This was the icing on the cake! Monica designed this banner especially for the Week end and it is fabulous.
I am now a great fan of Heat and Stick Powder as it it provides the ideal surface when heated to adhere glitter. I tried it with clear embossing powder when I got home but there is no comparison. the heat and Stick won hands down!

On the Sunday we decorated a Decorative Window Gift Box from the Autumn/Winter catalogue.
I love the colour Combo of Tangerine Tango and Coastal Cabana.

Lastly we stamped four coasters using Stazon black ink. We coloured them in with a chalk marker and then used a blender pen with drops of coloured ink.