Making your own gift packaging is Sweet (Sorbet!)

First of all, I must just say how overwhelmed I am by the amazing response from my "So Very Grateful For The Pinkies Blog Hop" post over the weekend! WOW! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, I was really touched! Also, as so many people have asked me how I made the shadow box card, I will endeavour to get a tutorial up on my blog at some point this week! So, watch this space, as they say!!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some ideas for gift packaging that I have recently made. These will be given out as free thank you gifts to my class attendees who book a place for themselves and a friend of theirs, who is new to me/my class. Both the attendee AND their new friend get to choose a gift from my special basket as a thank you from me for the introduction. At my next evening class, one lady will be bringing FOUR of her pals with her, so she will be getting to choose FIVE gifts and her four pals will each get one gift too! I am really looking forward to meeting them all and I can't wait to see which gifts they all choose!

Anyway, here is the photograph for you to see:

I made the tags by stamping on Whisper White Cardstock with the gorgeous "Petal Parade" Sale-a-Bration stamp set (available for FREE when you spend £45 until 31st March 2014) using the  following colours: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pool Party, Sahara Sand and Pistachio Pudding. I then used my trusty Envelope Punch Board to shape the tops of the tags and also to round the bottom corners.

 

I punched a pretty flower-shaped hole in each tag using the "Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack" and threaded them with with either Coastal Cabana Ruffle Stretch Trim ribbon or the Crisp Cantaloupe Twine (the latter is from another fabulous Sale-A-Bration freebie set: the Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack, which has three generous reels of different colour twine and some printed cork stickers! Love it!). The 'thank you' sentiment comes from the "So Very Grateful" stamp set and is stamped in Jet Black Stazon ink. I carefully swiped my Write Marker brush tips around the edges of the sentiment banners to add a bit of definition, before sticking them onto the labels with Stampin' Dimensionals, to give a bit of height.

I took the inspiration for the tag colours from the utterly beautiful "Sweet Sorbet" Designer Series Paper that is also available for FREE in the Sale-A-Bration offer - which I have really fallen in love with! It is my "go to" paper at the moment and I am already sad that it will only be around until the end of March -boo hoo!

 

 The peachy-coloured gift envelope and its co-ordinating belly band are both made using the "Sweet Sorbet" papers and again, I used the fantastic Envelope Punch Board to whizz it up in a jiffy! I adore my Envelope Punch Board - it is just SO versatile and you make make so many other fabulous projects with it too: boxes, gift card holder cards, crackers, mini albums - all sorts! It is an amazing piece of kit!

Think you don't recognise the gift bag on the left of the top photograph? Well, it started life as one of Stampin' Up!'s "Tag a Bag Gift Bags" - three scores, three cuts, a little bit of glue plus a small rectangle of cardstock, to strengthen the base, was all it took to transform the flat paper bag into a pretty, three-dimensional, free-standing gift bag! Da-naaa! Easy! Bit of ribbon and a tag and you're done!

 

If you want to have a go at making your own gift packaging then it is really easy using the Stampin' Up! products I've mentioned above, as they all coordinate beautifully!

 

All of them (and more!) are available to order through me. You can place an order direct with me (via phone or email) or, if you prefer, you can buy them via my online shop 24hours/7days a week. Shipping is only £4.95 direct to your door, regardless of the size of you order! AND don't forget that for every £45 spent (before shipping) during Sale-A-Bration, you earn one FREE special Sale-A-Bration item, too!

The hardest part is deciding which of the 13 gorgeous Sale-A-Bration goodies to choose first!! Good luck! ;O)

Right, I am off to make some more gift packages and plan my shadow-box card tutorial I think...

Until next time, happy crafting everyone!

 

Lucy x

So Very Grateful for the Pinkies Blog Hop!

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up! ® Spring/Summer catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

 

 
Welcome to those who have come here via Erna's blog hop post.

Gosh, there are so many fantastic new things in the new Spring/Summer Catalogue! I have found it really hard to choose which to showcase here for the Pinkies Blog Hop... I eventually decided to show you a card that I made recently as a team training day swap:

 

 I used the fabulous new stamp set called "So Very Grateful", stamped it in Jet Black Stazon ink onto Whisper White cardstock and then coloured the flowers and leaves with Stampin' Up! Write Markers... The card is 3"x3" in size.

 

Here is the card front:

 

 

 The card base is in Raspberry Ripple, with an Old Olive layer under the Whisper White layer. The markers I used were the same colours plus Primrose Petals, Blushing Bride and Pear Pizazz. However, all is not what it seems - in a good way! With a bit of clever scoring with my trusty Scoring Tool, a quick punch out using the Full Heart Punch and a bit more stamping and colouring with my Stampin' Write Markers, a dab of Tombow Glue and ....

 ...Ta-daa!! As if by magic the flat card turns into a shadow box! The style of the flowers reminds me of tattoos for some reason, so that is why I added a little Happy Birthday banner across the punched out heart - to resemble the scroll across the heart that you see so often on classic "pin up" 1950's type tattoos (am sure there's a proper name for that style of tattoo, but I can't remember it!). The sentiment comes from the "Remembering Your Birthday" stamp set - I used the omitting technique to just get the words I wanted from the stamp onto the cardstock.

Here's another photograph taken from a different angle to show the shadow box construction a bit better:

Almost every person who I gave this card to "oooooh-ed" out loud when they realised that it moves when you open it and the inside turns into a box!! I love cards that move and do things - I call them mechanical cards...but I am sure that's not the right word for it! (Someone will correct me, I'm sure!!)

While I was playing with the stamp set, I couldn't resist making a few more things with it and as the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch is another one of my favourite things from the new catalogue, I thought I'd use it too - it is SO versatile, you can make so many more things with it than just tags... Here are a couple of bookmarks I made - this time using just one colour of ink (Strawberry Slush) and an aqua painter to make a mono-chrome, softer look, topped with, um, well, the topper punch and a little bit of matching Strawberry Slush Ruffle Stretch Trim... 

Well, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed my Pinkies Blog Hop Post, be sure to come back soon to see some more projects that I have made with some of the other gorgeous new catalogue items... in the meantime, please click the "next" icon below to go to the lovely Sarah's blog hop post: 

Happy crafting!

Lucy :O)

 

 



New toy alert!!

Oh my gosh! I have an amazing new tool which I absolutely ADORE! It is the brand new Stampin' Up! Texture Boutique Embossing Machine... and I love it!

"So what is it?" I hear you cry! Well... here are a few facts and figures to explain:

• It allows you to dry-emboss textured patterns onto your card/paper using the Textured Impressions Embossing Folders from Stampin' Up!
• It is lighter and smaller than a Big Shot (but, unlike the Big Shot, it does not cut)
• Because of its size and lightness it is easier to transport, so you can emboss anywhere!
• It is a bargain at only £26.95 (the product code is 132657)
• It even comes with its very own cute mini screw-driver so you can put its handle on when you get first get it out of its box!! (Love that!)

I took mine with me to my card class yesterday and the ladies all loved it (so much so that several of them ordered one straight away!) We used the machine to make of our three card projects and I gave them a choice of several embossing folders to use on their cards. I think their favourite folder design, by far, was the Decorative Dots one (which you can get for FREE if you spend £45 as it's one of the SALE-A-BRATION items!).

In fact if you buy the Texture Boutique and three embossing folders for it, during the SALE-A-BRATION period, you would qualify for a FREE item from the SALE-A-BRATION brochure - one of which is the Decorative Dots folder! Bargain, or what, hey?!

Here's another look at my card class sneak peek photo from my last post, which shows you the gorgeous textured dotty pattern that you get with the Decorative Dots embossing folder:

A little word of warning though: Stampin' Up! only have a limited initial supply of these fabby machines and once those supplies have been snapped up, they won't be getting any more in until the launch of the new Annual Catalogue in July... so don't delay, place your order with me today to avoid disappointment and what I imagine would seem a very long wait! :O)

That's it for today, I'm going off to play with my favourite new toy again!! Be sure to come back tomorrow, though, as I'm taking part in another Pinkies Blog Hop and I will be showing you a couple of projects I've made using some of the new products from the Spring Summer 2014 Catalogue...

So, until tomorrow, happy crafting everyone!

Lucy x

February Card Class Sneak Peek!

Hello!

I am SO looking forward to starting my new classes - thank you so much to those who have already booked a spot on the February and March classes! Can't wait to see you all, stamp with you and have some fun...

Here are a couple of  sneak peek pictures of two of the up-coming class projects that we will be making in February... hope you like them! If you want to see the whole project(s), then you'll just have to book a place on my class!! ;O)

 

 

 

 

There is still time to book a place on my Feb. 6th morning class - if you are very quick! Just contact me before 8pm today (Wednesday) to let me know! If you can't make it to that class, then how about the evening class on the 26th Feb.?

 

 

Want more details about my classes? - Then click on the Classes and Events tab above, where they are all listed, along with a bit more information too.

 

If you book a place on one of my classes and book a space for a friend, who is new to me, too, then BOTH you AND your friend will get a FREE GIFT from me at the class, as a thank you! I've been busy wrapping and decorating some Stampin' Up! goodie bags for those who have already booked classes for them and their "new" friend(s)... Hope you like them, ladies!

It's not too late to amend your bookings if you want to receive one (or more!) of these little beauties:

 

 I do love the chevron patterned Tag A Bag Gift Bags and the Sweet Treat Bags - if you want the latter, then hurry hurry as they  are only available to buy until 14th February! Don't forget you can order them (or anything else from Stampin' Up!) on my online shop! If you haven't bought from me online before then you just need to create an account and choose me as your demonstrator and off you go! Any problems or questions, please do ask me and I'll be happy to help!

Right, that's it for today, as I've got bags to pack and CAKE to buy for my class tomorrow!! I am soooo looking forward to it... the class that is, not the cake... well, yes, the cake too, but not just the cake... I'm looking forward to the class as well!!

Until next time, happy crafting...(and cake for you, too, I hope?!)

Lucy x