Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #11 - An Inspiration Challenge

This fortnight's challenge on the Inspiring Inkin' Challenge blog is an inspiration one. The side twist is to use background stamps or wheel stamps on your card or scrapbook page. I love inspiration challenges as people interpret the pictures in so many different ways. I found this picture on the Internet when I was searching for summer time images - this necklace was called Summertime and it is so gorgeous.



Here's my card inspired mainly by the colours that have been used. I used Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery, with a splash of silver!



I used one of the new hostess sets that will be available in the new catalogue that goes live next Thursday! Can you believe how quickly the release date has come round?


Don't forget to check out the cards for this challenges made by the rest of the design team. Just leave us a link to your card for us to see what you did too.


Recipe:


Stamps: Whimsy Wheel, Garden Dream, Sincere Salutations


Papers: Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White


Inks: Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink


Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Silver Brads

New Stampin' Up Catalogue Sneak Peeks

One of the many benefits of being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is that you get to see and order some of the new goodies a little bit before the release of the new catalogue. This year, demonstrators could pre-order some selected stamp sets and accessories and for the first time pre-order some of the hostess sets at Levels 2 and 3. I was so excited about this as I'm never the hostess when a workshop qualifies for a Level 3 stamp set, so this year I could buy one of them.


I ordered a gorgeous Level 3 set called Queue Up which consists of 6 stamps with different objects all in a queue! There are birds:



...and candles:



...and cocktails:



...and mushrooms (I stamped a section of the stamp separately to make 3 different images for this one):



...and prams (again each image was stamped separately, but there are 5 prams on the stamp itself):



and finally teacups. This is such a fantastic set and to get your hands on one your workshop needs to have total sales of £500 or more. Each of the Queue Up cards also uses a different pattern from the Prints Designer Series papers, just so you can see the range of beautiful patterns available.



Another demonstrator who wasn't ordering a Level 3 set very kindly ordered the other Level 3 one for me. It's called Garden Dream (or Dream A Little in America) and has some lovely single and 2-step stamping flower stamps and a cute hummingbird. I don't know if hummingbirds come in Bashful Blue, but mine did on this thank you card I've made for the demo that sent me this set.



And the last set I ordered was a Level 2 set, which you can get when your order total is £300 or more. This one is called Itty Bitty Buds and there loads of stamps in the set. On this card I have used 1 stem stamp and 7 different flower head stamps. We don't have Kraft ink over here so I used Versamark on this card and the flowers really do pop on the base cardstock with it.


So if you like the look of these stamp sets then place a qualifying order with me after October 1st or book a workshop today!

SU Team Training

Yesterday I went down to Fareham for our quarterly team training with Amanda. It's a very long drive down there for me - 3 hours - but it is so worth it! Amanda is a fantastic team leader and I have learned so much from her this past year. My SU anniversary will be October 8th and I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone. My intention was to only sign up to be a hobby demo and get the discount for myself, but I have done a very successful workshop and gained a few customers this year and have thoroughly enjoyed it. If I had the time, I would like to do more but at the minute my day-time job takes up too much of my spare time.


Anyway...back to the training. I arrived late! 30 minutes late to be precise! Anyone who knows me knows I hate being late for anything, but I can only blame the 7 - yes 7! sets of roadworks, including a 15mile diversion for my lateness! We talked business, looked through the new catalogue, talked a bit more, laughed a lot more and then made some wonderful projects, using some new goodies from the new catalogue. Unfortunately I can't show any of these projects just yet, but I will be posting them on October 1st when the new catalogue goes live! But what I can show you is some of the swaps I received.


Tessa's Silent Night Card (I think it was Tessa's, but I'm not 100% sure as I missed the giving out of swaps at the beginning)



Jane's Circle Circus Card - can't wait to get this set!

Michele's cute note pad and pencil using some soon to be retired papers that I am so going to miss!


Michele's Season of Joy and Scandinavian Season card

And finally Marilynn's Animal Stories card with the matching Tall Tales designer papers.


There were other swaps including my own, but I can't show those JUST yet either.


To reward her team Amanda has introduced a rewards system for amount of sales each month and I am very pleased to say that for August sales I came third, which really shocked me, but I do have to say a big thank you to a lovely lady (you know who you are J!) who helped make this possible! For my little reward I received a spool of Real Red ribbon which will be so useful in the upcoming Christmas season.

I also entered the raffle that Amanda holds at her team training events and received the second prize of.....the new Christmas Jingle scrapping kit. Now I don't scrapbook - I don't have kids or pets and I don't particularly want to scrap about anything else in my life so I won't be scrapping with this kit. What I will be doing with it though is making a shedload of cards with it!


These are the contents of this set - 2 sheets each of 12x12 textured cardstock in Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Real Red, 3 sheets each of 2 different designer papers, which are double sided and 2 sheets each of 3 different self adhesive die cuts. All in all there is enough stuff here to easily make 25-30 A6 sized cards. And only for £15.50 - that works out about 50p a card or so. What a bargain!


In a few weeks time (after I have done all my Hallowe'en cards) I will have done all of the cards with this set and you can check out what and how many I've made. I think the only other things I will need to add are ribbon, brads and some glitter - you can't have Christmas cards without a bit of bling!


I do love going to these training events. We have so much fun and have such a good laugh that they are definately worth the 3 hours drive! If you are interested in joining our team, contact me and I'll let you know all you need to know!


At each team training Amanda always sets us some homework. It's not hard homework like we used to get at school, but fun homework! This event's homework was to take a cheap memo pad and pen (10p each from Asda!) and make them look pretty! As you can see the pad doesn't look too impressive to start with!

Following Amanda's sample I used the Petal Party Scrapping Kit to make a little notepad folder and pen holder. This is the outside tied up with some So Saffron striped ribbon.

And this is the inside with the notepad all hidden behind some pretty paper! So did I make them look pretty? I think so. And what a cute, but inexpensive gift - ideal for hostess gifts or little thank you presents!

Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #10 - A Theme Challenge

I started school again this week and it has really exhausted me! My new class are lovely with some sparky kids which should make for a fun year! But my body is not liking getting up at 6:30 every morning now (and no I don't start work at 9 and finish at 3 as the perception of teachers is! I start about 7:30 and generally leave school about 5 to come home and do more work in the evening!) This now means my crafting is limited to the weekends so I make the most of it while I can. (But it is only 6 weeks til half term already :P)


Anyway onto the card... This fortnight's challenge on Inspiring Inkin' Challenges is to make a children's card for any occasion with a side twist of using animal stamps.


Stampin' Up has this great set called Wild About You which unfortunately they are retiring this year. I am so going to miss it as it is a gorgeous set (and to be honest I'm not over keen yet on its replacement, which you will be able to see on October 1st when the new catalogue is released.). If you haven't bought Wild About You yet and want it, get your order in before 30th September when the current catalogue runs out!



I will admit that this card took ages to make and is definately not one to do for mass production, but I love it! I stamped and cut out the animals and train parts individually before sticking them to the background. For the background I ran my On Track wheel across the width of a piece of Whisper White before using my daubers to sponge the grass using Green Galore. Using a cloud stencil, I sponged Bashful Blue for the sky. I then added the trains and animals and stamped a quick greeting in the corner. This card will be great for any child, but especially one that loves trains, animals or both!


So why not join in the challenge this fortnight and leave a link in the comments section or Mr Linky box.


Recipe:


Stamps: Wild ABout You, Choo Choo, On Track wheel, Starring You


Paper: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Whisper White


Inks: Bashful Blue, Green Galore, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Yoyo Yellow, Glorious Green, Brilliant Blue, More Mustard, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray (I don't think I've ever used so many colours on one card before!)


Accessories: Cloud Stencil

All Things Magical and Mythical #119 Featuring Mermaid Birthday Party Treasure from Faery Ink

Good morning everyone and welcome to this week's All Things Magical and Mythical post. I haven't used a Faery Ink image for ages so...