From the New Seasonal Catalogue

It's a busy time for SU demonstrators (and customers) as not only is the retiring list available, this year for the first time, is the launch of the new Seasonal Autumn/Winter catalogue. As a demonstrator I am able to get certain products on pre-order and I have chosen a couple of very quick and easy Christmas cards to show you which are made with the new Snow Flurry die, Brushed Gold and Brushed Silver cardstock. The die has three snowflakes on it and these cards use the two largest (the larger one positioned on top of the middle sized one) The card at the top is matted onto Raspberry Ripple cardstock and, the card to the right, on Gumball Green which are two of the new In Colours. I used Basic Pearls with the red & gold and Basic Rhinestones with the green & silver. As I was unable to pre-order sentiments I used ones from Beautiful Season and Polar Pals which are carrying over to the new annual catalogue.
The retiring lists (one for stamp sets and one for accessories) can be found here & here and are available while stocks last. You can view the Autumn/Winter catalogue by clicking on the catalogue image on my sidebar.

A Bit of Bling

The LIM challenge this week is 'A Bit of Bling' and I wanted to keep my card very simple so this is what I came up with. 

I stamped the trees from Polar Pals and the sentiment from Petite Pairs in Old Olive onto Whisper White card and then wiped across the bottom of the card with my Versamark pad. I sprinkled on a generous helping of Heat'n'Stick, heated with a heat gun and then added Dazzling Diamonds. I coloured in the trees with a blender pen before adding more Dazzling Diamonds and some Basic Rhinestones to the trees. This was matted onto a piece of Old Olive cardstock and placed on a plain white DL card blank and 5 basic Rhinestones placed underneath.

Hope you all have a great weekend, back soon :0)

When is a Christmas Card not a Christmas card?

When I bought the Polar Pals set I was convinced I would only ever use it for Christmas however, when a work colleague told me he was leaving us to go to France for 6 months to be a Ski Instructor, I knew that little penguin would be ideal to make a card for him. (he’s also an Arsenal fan so the hat and scarf just had to be red!)

I started by tearing three pieces of Whisper White cardstock into strips to make the ski slope and, before sticking down, I stamped some treetops using Old Olive with a stamp from Lovely as a Tree. The little penguin was stamped, coloured with markers and cut out and I attempted to make something, which I hope will pass as skis, from Brushed Silver cardstock and stuck these onto the slopes with the penguin positioned on top. To finish the card off I made some little flagposts and added some Dazzling Diamonds before stamping the sentiment from Sincere Salutations. The whole thing was matted onto Night of Navy cardstock and then onto a card blank.

Treat Pouches

Here are two little treat pouches I made using the Two Tags die. It is very difficult to credit anyone with this as there are so many similar ones across the web that it's virtually impossible to find out who was the originator but, suffice to say, the original idea was definitely not mine! It is made by cutting two of the larger tags on the die and gluing them together at the bottom and decorating as you wish. Here I have used one of the stamps from Pennant Parade to make the 3D Christmas tree on Real Red and the other with the Polar Bear from Polar Pals on Old Olive which was embossed in the Perfect Polka Dots folder. A piece of ribbon and a piece of the brand new crochet trim was used to tie the top of the pouch.

Wish upon a Star

Yes another go at the Less is More challenge 'Stars' using Polar Pals again but, this time, a side-step card. I made the card blank with some white card and sponged the sky with Night of Navy ink before adding some torn White Whisper card for the snow, then it was just a case of making up the story. Mr Polar Bear bringing presents for the little penguins who are 'wishing on a star' that they get what they want!! (are you ready for bed yet??) I used a snowflake stamp from Serene Snowflakes for the stars in the sky, the star the penguins are holding and sentiment are both from Pennant Parade - all silver embossed. The sentiment was punched with the Modern Label punch and layered onto a Decorative Label with copious amounts of Dazzling Diamonds sprinkled around the card. I'm not too sure that this card can be considered 'Less' but I'm hoping that, as a lot of is white, Chrissie & Mandi will let me get away just this once!

The Polar Pals set is a fabulous set and absolutely perfect if you have to make children's cards (or even for some big kids) You get 9 stamps all for the incredible price of £22.95 for wood mount (or £17.95 for clear mount) so that works out to £2.55 per stamp (£1.99 for clear mount) - such incredible value for a set of stamps which can be used together or individually.
If you would like to order this, or any other products from the catalogue then please do not hesitate to contact me and I'll be happy to help.
(Individual orders carry a p&p charge of £4.95)

Stars

This LIM challenge is getting worryingly obsessive with me as I am going out this morning but still had to have a quick go at the Stars challenge before I go!! So it is by no means perfect (please don't look closely at the embossing!) I used a Night of Navy card blank with a strip of torn Whisper White across the bottom then silver embossed some stars across the top. The bear is from Polar Pals and I stamped him in Basic Gray then coloured him in using my markers before cutting him out and placing him 'in the snow'. The sentiment is from Contempo Christmas and after stamping I used a glue pen to squiggle some lines and added Dazzling Diamonds.
Oh and congratulations to the lovely, and very talented, Vicky who is the LIM guest designer this week!

Polar Pals

Why is it that I always get inspiration for a card when I really should be doing something else? Well here it is. After taking delivery of my new goodies from the catalogue (and once I'd got round to mounting all the stamp sets) I had to have a play with these two sets, Varsity alphabet and the really cute Polar Pals. Apologies if I cause anyone offence by using 'XMAS' rather than 'Christmas' however I would have needed a very large card to fit the proper spelling on! It looks quite complicated but believe me it is easy with a few strategically placed post-it notes and a stamp-a-ma-jig. All the images are from Polar Pals (and these aren't all the stamps in the set) the 'xmas' is the varsity alphabet and the 'merry' is from another current set whose name escapes me at the moment -sorry. I started by stamping the large letters in a new In-Colour, Lucky Limeade, then after cutting some letters from post-it notes to use as a mask I stamped the penguins, stockings and candy canes and finally the trees which are all on one stamp. All the images were coloured using a blender pen and some Dazzling Diamonds were added around the card for some sparkle. This idea could also be used for a personalised card with 'Merry Christmas' on the banner and a name in place of the large lettering. I am going to enter this card for the St.Luke's Charity Card Challenge, whose theme this month is 'Masculine' as I think it would make a great card for a "Little Man".

The Varsity alphabet is a considered purchase but did you know that, with the new Hostess Benefits, if you place an order for £300 you can purchase ANY item in the catalogue at a 50% reduction as well as £50 Hostess Pounds to spend on whatever you like in any current catalogue*? So why not host a workshop or, if you prefer, collect orders from friends and place the order with me. What have you got to lose?

(* Hostess Pounds cannot be used to purchase your 50% item and 50% item does not count towards your Workshop total)