Vicky-Lou's Corner

Saturday, 13 April 2013

Where does the time go?

Goodness! How is it a month since I last posted?

It's been a very busy month, Wedding Fairs, scrapbook clubs, card classes, Easter Holidays.... and that's just a taster! I am scheduling some posts for the coming week or so, this means that I can update you with all that has been going on, what's coming up and share my recent makes with you.

For today I'd like to share a sneaky peek of my swaps that I am making for our quarterly team training day tomorrow. Yes you read correctly "making" not yet 'made' and I need them for tomorrow!!!

I really enjoy swapping at the events that we have as Stampin' Up! demonstrators, it's a great chance to share ideas and I love to see what other people do! Pop back tomorrow to see my finished item.

Monday, 11 March 2013

Customer Thank-You's

As promised here are the bag tags I made using the off cuts from yesterdays Mothers Day card. These tags made me smile :) it's not always something I get time to do. I do like to try and include a thank you card for my customers with their orders but normally they just get their name scrawled in biro on the bag.

Here are the cards that went into the bags. Like the cascading card I showed you yesterday I have been wanting to have a go at the chalkboard technique for a while. This little beauty is based on a card I saw on Angie's blog

Here's a close-up. You can see the dusty, chalky effect that you get by being a bit heavier with the embossing buddy than usual. I've used product from this years SAB offering, remember you have until March 22nd to get your FREEBIES.

Hope you like today's offerings, back later in the week xx

Sunday, 10 March 2013

Mother's Day Cards

Ooops! I'm not quite sure where time has gone! I've had a lot going on personally, thanks to everyone who has helped me out xxx

Anyhow today is Mothering Sunday in the UK and I wanted to share the cards that I made for my Mum and Mum-In-Law. First up my Mum's card. I've been wanting to make a cascading card for ages and this was the perfect excuse.

The next picture shows that although this is a 3d card it folds down flat - great for posting!

Supplies: All Stampin' Up!

Stamp Sets: Mixed Bunch, My Friend, Pappillion Potpourri, Delightful Dozen

Punches: Blossom, Elegant Butterfly, Bitty Butterfly, Decorative Label

Cardstock: Whisper White, Rose Red

Inks: Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Perfect Plum, Marina Mist.

Here's her gift - pink tulips chosen by Daisy, wrapped up in..... yep you guessed it SU! brown packing paper. Or as my son likes to say "Stampin' Up! snake paper!"

Here's the card I made my Mum-In-Law. Based on one made by the lovely Bekka Prideaux. It's a double z-fold card with an apeture, looks confusing but actually quite simple. I've used my favourite pattern from the SAB paper pack - you have until March 22nd if you want some yourself!

Here's a close up of the sentiment, I really like the pierced detail.

Supplies: All Stampin' Up!

Stamp Set: Amazing Family

Dies: Apothecary Accents

Tools: BigShot, Festive Paper-Piercing Pack

Cardstock: Rich Razzlebery, Whisper White

DSP: Maddison Avenue

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

I was even able to use the 'off cuts' as tags on some recent customer orders - more about that tomorrow!

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Wedding Fair Fever!!!

Good morning All! It's been manic here for the last few days, I got a last minute request to attend the Budget Bride Live Wedding Fair at Diana's Health Club in Wellingborough this coming Sunday (see the webiste here). I'm going along with one of my downline Joanne, we're so excited and can't wait to meet all the brides, grooms, friends and family and share Stampin' Up! with them.

Making your own wedding stationery, favours, table settings, even decorations is not only loads of fun but it saves money too! On the day we are offering a FREE make and take so that everyone can experience a little crafty-ness for themselves, would you like a sneaky peek?..... Oh go on then.

It's a very clean and simple layout in Whisper White with a sentiment in black, but it will allow people to see how the BigShot can be used to add texture, how you can use punches, and they'll get to do a little stamping too. Plus it's super easy to reproduce and change up a little by adding another colour or a little 'bling' pop back later this week to see some stepped up versions. Best of all if you wanted to make 40 of these it's really cheap! Get a group of friends together, I'll bring the BigShot and to buy all the other supplies (including envelopes) it could cost as little as £55.40. You'd then have the stamps and punch so that you could make other coordinating stationery items, favours, decorations and gifts too!

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Boutique Boxes

Hello! A relatively quick post from me today as I am busy prepping for a wedding fair at the weekend (in between Princess dressing up with Daisy! Let me know if you'd like to see pictures, I don't want to bore you) I'm actually quite nervous about the wedding fair as the services I offer are very different from all the other stand holders - fingers crossed it goes down well.

Anyway onto today's project. I got the lovely Boutique Boxes Designer Printed Kit recently and had a quick play. I love that everything you need is in the kit (you just need your choice of adhesive). The boxes are really easy to put together and look lovely!

Ooh I should really take another picture - sorry about the quality. Here's a snap from the Spring Summer Catalogue, you can buy a bundle which includes the "A little Greeting" stamp set in wood, plus the box kit enough for 8 boxes plus teeny note cards too for only £11.95 - BARGAIN!

That's all for today - happy crafting! x

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Passionette's Spring/Summer Blog Hop

Good morning! Thank you for coming to see me Today I am taking part in another blog hop with The Passionettes, my Stampin' Up! team mates. We are going to take you on a whistlestop tour of the fabby new spring summer catalogue - how exciting!

So for those of you that don't know how a blog hop works, it's basically a loop of blog posts that you can look at. The hop starts here with me, I am focusing on the stunning Tea for Two product suite that covers pages 3-5 of the NEW Spring/Summer Seasonal catalogue and you will hop around each person going through the catalogue until you end up with Fanny on pages 32-33. I'll put a full list of everyone at the bottom of this post too.

I've had a rough couple of weeks personally but have thrown myself into my craft therapy so today's post may be a long one, I have a lot of pictures to share but I hope you like!

My first make was two little oval boxes using the new framelits dies. These were inspired by some made by the lovely Val and you'll see her work later in the hop. They were a bit hit and miss and I think I could get a better fit on the lids - something to practise :) Don't you just love the flower trim around the pink lid?

Products used: All Stampin'Up!

Stamps: Oh, Hello

Inks: Pretty in Pink

Card stock: Pretty in Pink, So Saffron

DSP: Tea for Two

Accessories: Big Shot, Ovals Collection Framelits, 5/8" Flower Trim, Vanilla Seam Binding, Stampin Dimensionals, Sticky Strip.

Next up a card. This is totally out of my normal comfort zone but I LOVE it! I used a sponge to add colour to the doily and a little to the flower trim too, I hope you can see this from the close up. Pretty but not too girly as I stayed away from pink :)

Products used: All Stampin'Up!

Stamps: Oh, Hello

Inks: Lucky Limeade

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Accessories: 5/8" Flower Trim, Tea Lace Paper Doilies

Next another card, this time DL sized. This card was inspired by the one at the bottom of page 5, what do you think? I've used Stampin'Write markers direct to the stamps so that I can selectively add colour. Ooh and did you know that if you are careful you can emboss a piece of cardstock that is longer than your embossing folder?

Products used: All Stampin'Up!

Stamps: Oh, Hello

Inks: Calypso Coral, Early Espresso, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink

Card stock: Whisper White

Accessories: Lucky Limeade Bakers Twine, BigShot, TIEF - Needlepoint Border, Stampin' Dimensionals

Finally a card file and 6 co-ordinating cards. This was a labour of love as I worked out the dimensions for the file from scratch, I really wanted to add some crumb cake seam binding to tie it closed too but I've run out! I didn't add sentiments to all the designs as I like to have some generic cards stashed away in case of an emergency :)

Products used: All Stampin'Up!

Stamps: Oh, Hello

Inks: Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso, Whisper White Craft

Card stock: Crumb Cake

DSP: Tea for Two

Accessories: Simply Scored, BigShot, Finishing Touches Edgelits, Large Oval punch, Ticket Duo builder punch, Linen Thread, Lucky Limeade bakers twine, Stampin' Dimensionals

Some close ups of the cards...

A hole pierced in the spine of this one means that you can wrap the linen thread around without any ugly ends on the inside.

Love the paper bow on this one :)

I'll be back later in the week with more using the tea for two papers - I'm sure lots of you have seen all the designs out there that incorporate the hexagonal motifs.

I really hope that you've enjoyed my offerings, now it's time for me to send you on to look at what the very talented Val has been upto - happy hopping!

Here's the full list just incase - simply click on each person's name.

Vicky - You're here already :)

Val

Friday, 1 February 2013

SAB & Spring/Summer Blog Hop

Good Morning! This morning I am very excited as the NEW Spring/Summer Seasonal Catalogue goes live! You can view it by clicking the link in the left hand side bar. To celebrate the Spring Summer Catalogue and the fact that Sale-A-Bration is well and truly under way I am taking part in a blog hop today. I've gone for SAB items as I've not had very much time to play with my new things, do pop back on Sunday though as I'm taking part in another blog hop then too.

So you should have come here from Emma's blog did you love her creations?

For today's cards I have gone for 10.5cm square cards in one of my favourite colours - Pool Party. On both cards I have used the SAB dsp pack called Sycamore Street. I LOVE the colour combinations in this paper.On the 'thanks' card the sentiment is selectively coloured from the elephant image in Patterned Occasions. The line of flowers is stamped in Island Indigo with an image from Maddison Avenue, this is then highlighted with punched flowers using one of the itty bitty punches. A final touch of Island Indigo ribbon from the SAB bundle to finish off. The 'Just Because' card was a really quick make for a friend. The sentiment is from Vintage Verses and then it's just varying widths of dsp cut to a banner end. The lighting is a bit dim but with my little point and click not too bad really.