The Stampin' Grove

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Do you want to build up your Stampin' Up! stash without feeling the pinch ? I am now taking bookings for 2 new Virtual Stampers Clubs. Click HERE for more info on the Stampers 6 Club, and HERE for info on the Stampers 10 Club. Limited places available.

March Promotion - Perfect Pairs has started - for the month of March only. Great prices on Punches. Don't miss out  !! - read all about it here.

If you would like to order Stampin' Up products - please read here.

If you would like to host a party/workshop,please read here.

If you would like to know more about becoming a demonstrator,please read here.

You can email me if you need to know anything at all about Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up! - Lovely as a Tree

Lovely as a Tree. Did you know this is one of my favourite sets ? hehe -  along with s..o..o..o many others.

I'm very tired tonight. I had a sick baby g/daughter here today - vomiting & high temp. All she wanted to do was sit on my lap holding a little bucket in front of her, so that's what we did. I sang to her, told her stories, and held her as she vomited - had to clean up a few times. Poor baby.  She finally fell asleep. Her mother fetched her after lunch. I hope she is better by tomorrow.

This afternoon I did all the jobs I couldn't do this morning, including baking, and I managed to make a card. I'm pleased with this one.

I love how it turned out. Its a case from someone on SCS. I saved the original weeks ago - and can't find it again on SCS. If its yours, or you recognise it, please let me know.

The design is fairly self-explanatory. For the main image

• I punched a circle from a sticky note & stuck it on to Whisper White card. This was used as a mask.
• Using SU Sponge Daubers, I started gently rubbing ink on to the card - first the yellows around the circle, then blues & greens.
• I removed the mask and gently rubbed light blue ink over the white moon.
• I used the fir tree stamp from Lovely as a Tree, stamping off on scrap paper first, and using light ink to stamp the background trees. I used darker inks for the foreground trees.

A few more photos of my day to share with you. Yes..I am going senile...I'm taking photos of my baking lol !

These are delicious - custard biscuits (cookies for my American friends)

 A meat & potato pie about to go in the oven.

 And...my poor baby, fast asleep over her puke bucket ! She wanted it next to her all morning.

Hope you all have a great night (or day depending on where you are). It's only just before 8pm here, and my eyes are closing.

Thanks for all your lovely comments and visits.

 
March Special - Perfect Pairs Promotion. Click here to read all about it.

Join my Stampers 6 or Stampers 10 Clubs. Spaces filling up fast.
  

Stampin' Up! Eggs-travaganza (3)

Afternoon all. I'm busy cooking the food, but keep running in here and typing, to get this post on the blog. I'm also in the middle of making more Mother's Day samples to show you. My brain is running wild at the moment. It has finally come to life. Must be the lovely weather we're having. Beautiful sunshine again today - couldn't ask for more.

This is another of the cards I made for the Easter Eggs-travaganza. The only stamp set I used is A Good Egg. I'm sure you'll agree this is a VERY cute set. I just love it.

This card was made in the following way.

• I stamped the background (flowers and dots) on to Whisper White and coloured it.
• I stamped 2 large eggs, and filled in their background with 2 different stamps - then coloured them and cut them out.
• I ate a few mini-eggs.
• I stamped the little egg bands (they are a separate stamp), coloured, cut out and stuck them to the large eggs.
• I stamped the sentiment & little chick - coloured the chick and cut him out with a circle punch.
• I ate a few mini-eggs.
• Cut a piece of Tea Time DSP - and mounted it on to Pink card.
• I cut mats for the eggs, chick & sentiment from Pink card, and put the card together.

I hope you have a great evening. I will be stamping away later on. Thanks for visiting. :)

 
  March Promotion - Perfect Pairs - click here to read all about it.

Stampin' Up! - Easter Eggs-travaganza (2)

I'm going to show you the easter Eggs-travaganza cards one at a time.

This one may be my favourite. It's just too cute.

I stamped the image 8 times, using 4 of them to make the top of the eggshell - then coloured them with promarkers. I then stuck them on to scalloped circles.

The base card is Whisper White A6 folded lengthwise to make a slim card. I stamped the sentiments - 'happy easter' & 'you crack me up'(lol) along the top & bottom of the card, stuckon a piece of Tea Party DSP and adhered the chicks to that.

I must say I really enjoyed making this card. In fact, I enjoyed all the cards I made using this stamp set - A Good Egg.

 
March Promotion - Perfect Pairs - click here to read all about it.

Stampin' Up! - Easter Eggs-travaganza

A Good Egg. That's the name of the stamp set I used to make the Easter Eggs-travaganza. I ordered the set a couple of weeks ago and haven't stopped playing with it since. It is so cute - I can't put it down. And it makes the cutest Easter cards ever. One of the sentiments reads "you crack me up". I crack up myself every time I stamp it. My grandkids will love these cards.

I spent a very happy Sunday afternoon making all the things you see here. It was so much fun. Look at that little chick ! He is so sweet - yes, he's a boy !

As with the Mother's Day ensemble in the last post, I used SU Tea Party DSP (the packet was already open). Such beautiful papers - they really suit Easter -all bright and Spring-like.

I'm going to take a few posts to show you the individual items - too many photos for one post.  Back later with another post.

 
March Promotion - Perfect Pairs - click here to read all about it.   
  

Stampin' Up - Mother's Day Ensemble

I had a lovely long walk this afternoon. It was beautiful out there. The sun was shining brightly, and that really lifts the spirits, doesn't it ? There are little signs that Spring is just around the corner - a bud here and there, grass growing, spring bulbs sending up green leaves. I can't wait.

Another thing that's just around the corner is Mother's Day - a couple of weeks away - and I've been playing around with some Mother's Day ideas.

I made this little ensemble on Sunday afternoon (also made an Easter Extravaganza - to show you in the next post). Although I do love making my own papers, I decided to use the beautiful Stampin' Up! DSP - Tea Party. These papers are delicious ! Scrumptious.

The card in the photo above is a very simple card. I used the Mother's Day stamp from the Occasional Greetings set. Also SU Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon - it really is pretty.

The little handbag above is one of the sweetest things I've ever made. I love it (and so do the granddaughters - they both want one). I got the template online, but it originally came from  Chiaki at http://www.stampingpro.com. That girl is really talented - go and visit her when you finish here. It wasn't difficult to make at all - a bit fiddly, especially getting all the brads through. But that was my own fault. I used really thick card, from an old box. I could barely fold it, never mind get a brad through lol.

Isn't it cute ? It will look wonderful with a bottle of perfume inside, or a nice piece of jewelry wrapped in tissue.

Below is a little treat pouch. So cute. I copied Monica's idea - she has a video on Youtube showing how to make it here. Now..it's supposed to hold a little bag of treat - and I bought a little bag of treats to go in there. But...ooops...I got hungry...em...greedy, and ate them. hehehe. Couldn't help myself. I stamped the tag with a stamp from the Fun & Fast Notes set.

 
I'm off to do a few jobs - dishes etc. Have a great evening. Thanks for your comments and visits.

 
March Special - Perfect Pairs Promotion. Click here to read all about it.

Stampin' Up! Pefect Pairs Promotion

Great news for all Stampin' Up! customers (potential customers too!). The month of March brings us another Promotion, and we have a great deal to offer -

The Perfect Pairs Promotion

Dates: 1-31 March 2010

Promotion details:

Buy a qualifying stamp set and receive the coordinating punch for 20 percent off! Plus, be the first to purchase the brand-new Full Heart punch—now available in the United Kingdom for one month only (or while supplies last)! Believe me - I don't think supplies are going to last. The Full Heart punch will be available in our new catalogue in October, but the month of March is the only chance you have to get one until October.

You can click on the brochure below to download the pdf file.

Basically, if you order the stamp sets in the offer, you will get the coordinating punch for £10. That's a real bargain. The stamp sets and punches are listed below. If you click on the image below, it will open in a pop-up window and you should be able to read it better. :)

I'll be showing you the punches and the wonderful things you can do with them throughout this month. I am going to be punch-drunk by the beginning of April - and so are you ! lol.

If you would like to know more about this Promotion, or would like to order, get hold of your Demonstrator, or email me.

Stampin' Up! - Sunday Stampin'

Happy Sunday everyone. Well...its almost over actually.

I hope you had a really good weekend. I did. Quiet, but very productive. The weather here has been very changeable. Yesterday was lovely, mild and sunny. Today it has rained on and off all day, and is bitterly cold. I hope its warming up wherever you are.

I had a great weekend, and got lots of stamping done. I'll take photos of the things I made tomorrow, and get them on the blog. I really enjoyed myself, and made some really cute cards and a lovely little handbag.

The card I'm showing tonight is one I made on Friday. My son & family will be moving house in a few weeks, and I want to make a cute Good Luck card for them. The only trouble is, I couldn't find my stamp that says "Good Luck". grrr. I did find it after I'd taken the photos, and have stamped the words between the two little trees.

I used the Stampin' Up! Neighbourhood wheel - such a cute little row of houses. And then I used the Trendy Trees set for the 2 little trees. I coloured with my SU Watercolour Wonder Crayons - gorgeous and so easy to use. I may try another design for their Good Luck card. I'll see. Maybe this one will grow on me lol.

Don't forget - our wonderful March Promotion/Special starts tomorrow. It is a really good promotion - good products and good prices. In this day and age, we can't afford to be throwing money away - we want something that's good value for money, don't we ? I've already created a post all about it, and scheduled it to post just after midnight tonight hehe. So...if you are still up after midnight, you can come back and see what it is. I won't be up, that's for sure. My eyes are closing already.

Thanks so much for visiting, and thanks for your lovely comments. You may have noticed I don't get around to answering them as I should. I'm trying, but I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day. Back tomorrow. Have a good night.

   

Stampin' Up! - Mother's Day Cards

It's that time of the year again when we start thinking about Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday as it is called in some countries. Now I know we don't need a special day set aside to remind us to be nice to our Mothers, we should be nice to them all year through. But it is great to be able to honour them for this one day a year, and show how much we appreciate them, isn't it ?

My old Mum is with my brother at the moment - in Africa - and she'll only be back home at the end of April. I really do miss her so much and can't wait for her to get home.  I'm in the process of making a special card for her - not, not the one I'm showing here - and I'll share it with you before I post it. Where she is at the moment, Mother's Day isn't celebrated until May.

I saw a similar card to this on some-one's blog - ooops - don't know where. Now apparently, there is a stamp available that makes a grid like this - anyone know anything about that ? My grid was made with a ruler and pencil. It took quite a while to measure it all up. Then there was a LOT of masking involved as I stamped in the blocks.

I used 2 stamp sets - for the tulip - Garden Whimsy (an old favourite) and for the Butterfly - Touch of Nature (okay, another old favourite). I have so many favourites hehe. I used the Happy Mother's Day stamp from the Occasional Greeting set (a very handy set indeed). I coloured the butterflies with a green marker.

The Whisper White cardfront was then layered on to some Real Red, and then on to Green Galore cardstock. I added a few gems.

I'm really pleased with the way this card turned out.

Hope you all are having a great day. I will be doing the usual, and also helping hubby who has decided the living room needs painting. I'm delighted. So yes...I could be wielding a brush at some time during today. (I could have a stiff arm by tomorrow). I hope to fit in some cardmaking too. I need to show you some samples of the March Promotion which is starting on Monday. Don't forget to come and see what its all about. I'm very pleased. Its a good Promotion.

Have fun today whatever you're doing - and start thinking about your Mother's Day card.

Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration Reminder

The clock is ticking, and Sale-A-bration ends in 2 days. Yes...just 2 days left to get your FREE stamp sets. For every £45 worth of goods you order from our main catalogue - you will get a FREE stamp set from the Sale-A-bration brochure. What a bargain. FREE is always a bargain lol !

I made a set of little note-cards this morning - 4" x 4". I used stamps from Sale-A-Bration - Whimsical Words - for the sentiments. This is one of the sets you can get FREE. I love this set. 6 sentiment for 6 different occasions. Actually, I think the sentiments in this set will cover almost anything.

These cards took me no time at all to make.

I used scraps of everything. Not one piece of A4. Love it when I can use up my scraps. I coloured the images, very quickly, using my Stampin' Up! Watercolour Wonder crayons and a SU blender pen. 

I'll make a little box for them, and they will make a sweet gift for someone.

Thanks for visiting. I'll be back later this evening with a roundup of the week. Ho...hum !

Stampin' Up! - Teeny Tiny Totes

Long post today - and lots of photos. Who knows how long this page will take to load. Could be forever LOL !

Crafting first. I found the template for these little totes at www.melstampz.blogspot.com. Mel is super talented, and has some great ideas on her blog. Do pay her a visit. Anyway, I had such fun making a few last night. I'm definitely going to use them for Mother's Day, and also make a few for Easter treats when the time comes (is time flying or what ?)

 
 

I used Old Olive cardstock for one, and Whisper White for the other. Each bag can be cut from one A4 sheet of card. So cute. They can be decorated in so many ways. I used the little flower from the Seeing Spots set to stamp the Old Olive card, and a favourite, Greenhouse Garden to stamp the WW card.

Don't they look cute. The white one holds some SU items - perfect for a hostess gift. And the Olive one is holding the lovely crocheted flowers that I won at My Creative Rumblings. Shelly is so sweet to have sent them all this way. Thanks Shelly.

 Its a bit milder today. Baby g/daughter went home after lunch so I'm having a half hour on here to post, then I'm off to the shops for a few things I need.

We went for a really long walk this morning - and I actually remembered to take the camera.

 I'm showing a few snaps I took along the way.

 We walked for an hour and a half, and were both exhausted when we got back.

It was nice to be out in the fresh (if cold) air.

  

 
Right...I'm going to add the photos to this post, and then I'm out of here.

 

Have a great rest of your day.