My News...

...I am very excited to be able to tell you that I have become a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. I have been crafting for a few years now, playing with product ranges and styles of crafting. It wasn't until I discovered the products of Stampin' Up! that I finally felt happy with what I was producing, and I am so happy now I am able to pass that on to other people

I have a new official email address lisa.seriousstamper@gmail.com which is for business use, and a new blog, although I haven't got it sorted yet, so watch this space for when I get it all up and running. In the meantime, if you would like to book a party, please email me and ask!

And here is the first card I have made from the starter kit I received.

It's so simple and yet so effective. If you want to know how to do it, book a party and I can show you!!!

Oooh, look what I got.

I got some new toys today. I am very pleased with them all, and can't wait to have some time to be able to properly use them and see what I can come up with. All lovely stuff, and not even inked yet. I wonder what I can do with them. I must say a very big thank you to my wonderful friend Karen, who enabled me to get these things.

In other news, I took Tabitha to ENT out-patients today. She was a pickle, she totally refused to play the 'now, lets try and check your hearing' game, and she made it clear she didn't want any one looking down her ears. We got sorted in the end though thank goodness. Trouble is, her grommets are blocked and she's going to have to have more put in. This will be the 4th set, and her 21st operation. Speaking of operations, we are still waiting to hear if the PCT will fund her surgery to correct her protruding ears (I refuse to use the term they use to describe them), which could be number 22 if they agree.

Poor Tabitha. She certainly has more than her share of surgery.

Evening Out.

Last night, I went over to my friend Karen's house for her official Stampin' Up! launch party. She signed up as a demonstrator in September, and has been beavering away making samples up ever since in anticipation of her launch party, which she timed to coincide with the new catalogue launch.

In return for a small fee, Karen provided drinks and nibbles, and we did 2 make and takes, which I will photograph and add to this blog tomorrow. It was lovely to go out, meet some new people and one or two familar faces, and have fun making lovely things in a great relaxed environment. Some of the ideas Karen has are so fantastic and creative, I can't help but be envious of her talent. I am already planning Christmas tree decorations that she showed us last night, well, I don't have the punch yet that she used, so I will have to alter it to another one that I DO have instead.

Please visit her blog to see more of her work, the samples on display last night really were exceptional, and this lady has worked so hard, she deserves to do well in her venture. And I'm certain that she will.

More Crafting

The other two cards I made this weekend are below. One was a birthday card, and one a thank you card. Neither of them are 'required' at the minute, but this time of year is always heavily over subscribed with birthdays in Ellie's class, and I wanted to get ahead this year rather than leaving everything to the last minute as I usually do!

The birthday card uses an Old Olive cardstock background, with Creamy Caramel and Not quite Navy inks, and Chocolate Chip ribbon. The stamp set is the wonderful Fox and Friends, which I bought specifically for childrens cards. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Big Bold Birthday set.

The Thank You card is in Soft Suede and Old Olive, using the Trendy Trees stamp set, with some Melon Mambo ink. I stamped off before stamping the Melon Mambo trees, as the ink is very bright, and I felt the other colours dictated that the pink should be a little less bright.

Please feel free to coment on my work, as always. :-)

The second card...

...which was actually the first one I made last night, but I loved the other one so much more!

This card uses the Big Bold Birthday set. The card stock is Melon Mambo, with Chocolate Chip, and the cupcake is stamped in Melon Mambo and Soft Suede, with the present in More Mustard and Melon Mambo. I used the Basic Phrases set for the sentiment.

I love this!

I haven't crafted for a while, so decided to get out my stash and have a go tonight. I am totally chuffed with what I have made!!!! It's just a birthday card, well 2, but I have only photographed one so far, and here it is.

It uses the Trendy Tree stamp set, which is one of my favourites, and I chose to use Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip colours, except for the tree trunks, which are in Soft Suede. Don't you just love the polka dot ribbon? I do, but I don't have much of it, so it's strictly rationed!!

Adoption Card

My Mum, who is a foster carer, asked me to come up with an adoption card for a a child she knows who is going to be adopted this week. As she said, there are cards available commercially for adopters, but she wanted something more personal, and that could be more for the little girl to look back to one day, so she would have something from someone who knew her before she was given her forever home. After thinking for some time, and discounting using the little girl's name, which the adopters may change, I came up with this.

After I'd finished, I had a crisis, thinking that Mum would want something younger in design, using teddy bears for example. Luckily, she loved what I'd produced.

Latest Cards

I've had to make 2 cards recently, so thought I'd upload the photos tonight. The first one was a thank you card for someone that helped us out recently.

This thank you card uses a background from the Blossoms and Butterflies DCWV matstack, with the Stampin' Up Trendy Trees punched out with the Oval punch and layered on the scalloped oval. The trees are in Old Olive, Melon Mambo and More Mustard. I was quite pleased with this one, although after it had been delivered, I thought how it would have looked nice with some Chocolate Chip ribbon as well.

The next card is a birthday card for one of Tabitha's friends. I'm afraid the colours on this photo are quite poor. I may try and retake the picture tomorrow in daylight to improve it.
This card has been made with the Big Bold Birthday stamp set that I got today :-). I've used Red Red, Summer Sun and Cameo Coral for this one.

Edit: The second image has been taken in daylight and is much more representative of the colours. I also added another stamped image to the card as I felt it needed something else.

Just as a last minute addition, I found this photo of another Thank You card I made for a friend.

This one uses the Simply Said stamp set, my favourite one so far, and I've used the Melon Mambo colour. I really like this card, it's so simple but very pretty.

Please let me know what you think. I think I make cards with varying degrees of success, I need to work on being a bit more consistent.

My first craft post

I wanted to show you what I made for the last day of school. I went to a Stampin' Up party and these were demonstrated, and I thought they were ideal treat boxes to give to Tabitha's helpers at school and her teacher. I made them and filled them with a selection of chocolates. I also made one for a little girl in Tabitha's class, who is the closest thing she has to a friend. I wanted to make sure she knew how much I appreciated what she did for Tabitha every day.

They are 2468 boxes, made from Very Vanilla cardstock, and stamped with the Simply Said set. The ribbon is Chocolate Chip, and the sentiments are from the Trendy Trees set of stamps.

Once I'd decided to do these for Tabitha, Ellie decided she needed some for her teachers too, so I had to make 10 in total. Here are the ones I made for her.

Two of these are in Whisper white, with three in Very Vanilla. They are stamped with either Simply Said, or Trendy Trees, and the ribbon fixing is Chocolate Chip again.

My husband told me I should label them so that people knew they had been made and not bought, but I don't have a stamp. I told him if he thought that, he should buy me a personalised stamp, after all there are websites that supply them. I'm now waiting to see if he took the hint. Fingers crossed. x