Whole Lot of Lovely #2 - U Fold Card

Following on from yesterday's post I have another card made on the spot with the Whole Lot of Lovely kit we were given at Quarterly Team Training...

So the U Fold card was in my brain on the day having just presented Julie with such a card for her Stampin' Up! 9th year birthday (which I did forget to photo!) ... and then quickly helped her make one up for her crafty session the following day...

But I had to laugh as I remembered the dimensions slightly wrong when making this one.... luckily you can't really tell... but anyways you can click here for the Tutorial with the correct dimensions for a C6 envelope... the front bar being the simple 5.5 x 3cm version...

Not much to say about the decoration... the cardstock and stamping is all Pear Pizzazz.... the flowers are fussy cut from the papers and the ribbon is the new Pear Pizzazz Shimmer ribbon... 

And an update on my efforts for the Birthday Wishes Challenge... 100 birthday cards finished and ready to send to Stampin' Up! for distribution to the Ronald Mac Donald houses... 

And I have to add... what a card making marathon this month... I have made nearly 250 cards in total... no wonder I had run out of Thick Whisper White!!!

Whole Lot of Lovely #1 - Double Z Joy Fold Card

So we had Quarterly Training last week... and we were given a little unexpected challenge....

Julie handed us a bagged kit of Whole Lot of Lovely papers, co-ordinating cardstock & embellishments and the Lots of Love stamps and ink were placed in the centre of the table... one of the ideas being that we should be on the receiving end of a class situation where everything needs to be shared amongst everyone in the room....

But we had to design our own cards on the spot too... you should have seen our faces!!!

But you can never stop a group of demonstrators from being creative... and everyone made some gorgeous projects... Though we were all uncommonly polite and tidy with the stamps and inks!!!

So this is the first of my Whole Lot of Lovely makes... another fully opening A6 Double Z Joy Fold card as the tutorial was in my brain at the time!! Click here for the Tutorial to make one for yourself...

Quick share today as I am a woman on a mission... 100 cards to make today for the Stampin' Up! UK 10000 Birthday Wishes card challenge for Ronald MacDonald Houses. Read more about this weekend's challenge here....

Before you recycle your Christmas cards! Determine your Style!?

Something a bit different today... but hopefully something that will be interesting (about me)... and thought provoking (for you)...

And for those of you that are not sure... maybe a way to define your crafting style(s)!? So I am throwing down a New Year challenge here for you...

So today was the day for clearing away my christmas decorations...and making my house look really bare...!  And then all the christmas cards we were sent were taken down...

And then I had a thought as I carried them to the recycling bin!

I sorted through them... allowing myself to pick just 12ish that I most liked... and here they are....

So what do these tell me about my crafting style... and there probably won't be any surprises here for my long term blog followers... I think these kind of some me up!

I like lots of white space!

I like a clean & simple style!

I like large square cards!

I like things to be fairly monotone - silver/gold/black with maybe a splash of red!

I like lots of glitter & shine on christmas cards!

I like trees!

I like wreaths!

I like houses & churches!

I like big words!

I like snowflakes and baubles!

Just one thing of my crafting style that isn't evident... no fancy folds!! But that is only as I wasn't sent any!

Though I have to admit that I purposely didn't select from my hand made cards... as that is just too hard... because (1) I would always select them to be in my Top 12 cards as they are always the best cards I receive! (2) I so appreciate the work that has gone into them so it would be impossible not to select them (3) Many are made with the sender knowing what I like in any case! (4) Many are from my blog followers!

Now I found this so fascinating that I allowed my self to choose another 12ish that hadn't made the original cut... and I learnt more....

I really like trees!! As long as they are covered in glitter!

I rather like cute Rudolphs! And reindeer in general! Even the stocking is covered in reindeer...

I rather like nordic/kraft & red

So I can hear you asking if there were any surprises!? I think the liking of the wreaths so much and the reindeer was probably the biggest surprise for me.... and that I didn't receive any cards with doors or windows on!!!

So hows about you??? What is your style...?? I would love to hear back from anyone that conducts this experiment for themselves.... or am I just too daft!!!

Un-Convention Challenge Gift Set - Tag and Top Note Box

There is a suite of challenges been organised on In Love With Stamping for those of us demos not in Disneyland, Paris sharing in the annual European Stampin Up! Convention at the moment..... The first challenge was to create a gift set... so with Christmas in mind.... I created a tag and a Top Note box containing 4 decorated tea - light candles.

I have used the PINES & POINSETTIAS stamp set in both of these projects.  This is a stamp set that I cannot stop using ( and it didn't appeal to me at all to start with!! But I am so glad that I bought it!!) There is also the label frame from the WELCOME CHRISTMAS stamp set on top of the box.

The Two Tags die was used to create the Tag and the Top Note die to create the box lid and base. I have also used the Holly Berry Speciality Papers and some of the new Chocolate Chip Scalloped ribbon.  There is also double embossing used on the Tag using the Square Lattice embossing folder  - and then the oval frame embossing folder.

The candles were decorated by wrapping a strip of paper around the side and by stamping an image on tissue paper and then punching out using the 1 3/8" circle punch and the circle hand punch in the centre for the wick to go through ( TIP - make sure you use some scrap paper behind so that the punches can work!!) These discs were than laid on the candle and I used a heat gun to melt the wax into the paper. Very clever and  GREAT FUN!!! ( oh and I can just see a bit of Sticky Strip clinging to right hand front candle in the photo - how annoying!!!)


Next challenge - Repetition - I know exactly what I want to do  - but time and light for any photo has failed me for today. Back to the challenges tomorrow afternoon I hope!!!