Thank You...

Well that's Christmas almost over again for another year!

I hope everyone had a super Christmas and had lots of super presents from Santa! I hope you are not still suffering from turkey overkill like we are in our house! We are still plowing through the mountain of food we got for Xmas- goodness knows why we brought so much, being that there is only the two of us and the cat! Maybe it was the thought that we may have visitors, I suppose, or that we were going to get snowed in again & not be able to get to a shop for days!

I thought I would show you a couple of the Thank You cards I made to send out for the lovely pressies we both got. They are based on the cards we made at SU Convention this year at Addington- I'm really liking this stamp set & will be using it more in the future!

The stamps were inked up with marker pens, then spritzed with water before stamping onto water colour paper.(I actually did the first image straight onto the water paper & then spritzed the stamp with water,without re-inking, to get the second image). When this was dry, the image was spritzed using a marker pen a & the Colour spritzing tool.The image was torn around, mounted onto co-ordinating card, ribbon & button added, and then attached to the front of the base card.

Items Used:

Just Believe stamp set;

Card: Not Quite Navy; Bashful Blue; Cherry Cobbler; Wild Wasabi; water colour card

Marker Pens: Not Quite Navy;Almost Artichoke;Bashful Blue;Cherry Cobbler;Pear Pizzazz

Other: Old Olive grossgrain ribbon; Su buttons; linen thread; Colour Spritzer

I am going to make a New Years Resolution -to keep up to date with my blog & to join in more blog challenges in 2011, as I let work take over and lost my Mojo this year. I keep looking at everyone else's blogs & seeing their wonderful creations, but just do not have the inclination to do anything myself! Well, we'll see what happens!

Hope you all have a super New Years eve & day..... and keep crafting!

Teresa xx

Yeah........ Its finished!!!!!!

Yeah....... the extension is all done(almost)

Hubby's office almost finished, furniture here,Christmas tree up & decorated- check!

We carried the wallpapers through to the new extension, so that it made it feel like one larger area rather than 2 separate rooms.

The sofas & chair arrived from DFS at 4.30pm yesterday(they did promise delivery before Xmas!!). All set up & tried out for comfort & TV positioning(hubby!). Now its all in its feels more cosy & like a room to live in rather than a big space to fill!

If you look closely you can see my chair- didn't realise how close the pattern match was to the wallpaper!

The cats love the new suite and were straight in investigating all the comfy sleeping spots(only one is ours- we inherit next doors 2 cats during the day & they go home when its time for bed!)

Next year- the garden!!!!!!

Best Wishes for a Very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to you all....

Keep Crafting..

Teresa xx

A Few Crafty Makes......

I thought I would show a few piccies of the things I made for the craft fair that I was going to attend, but got cancelled due to the snow. I held a mini fair at mine instead the following weekend and sold a few things.

I made some handbag treat

bags which I put mints in, but looked great hanging on my Christmas tree and could be also be used to put a small gift in. I also made up some notepad, ruler & pencil sets, covered notepads, paper-bag albums, Magic Reindeer food holders and cards.

The instructions for the Reindeer bags can be found here at Chic'n'scratch, which is a brilliant blog for ideas by a very talented lady. I did tweak the design to suit as I didn't have the SU Sparkly & Bright stamp set & used a photo download from here called Printable Heaven, which has loads of great downloads.

Hope you are all ready for the big day tomorrow! Have just last minute gift holders to make & prep to do for lunch tomorrow, then that's it- if I have forgotten anything now- too bad!

Merry Christmas to everyone & hope you have a great time. Hope Santa brings you everything you asked for.....!

Teresa xx

Teresa xx

Nans Card..

Here is the card I made for Nan for her 90th birthday.

I made an album card(I think that's what its called), the same as the Scrap club class that we did. It was from a class by Andrea Walford, who always comes up with some brilliant class/workshop projects.

I was quite chuffed with how it came out and used lots of bling on it to make a bit more special for her, and I also made a voucher holder to match.

Items Used:

Card- Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Early Espresso.

Ink - Baja Breeze

Papers- Elegant Soiree

Stamps- SU- Happy Everything

Penny Black - Every Day

Punches- SU-Bird on a Branch, Scallop circle, scallop circle, Scallop border punch. Quickutz lettering and dies.

Misc- SU- filigree brads, Very Vanilla ribbon, pearls.

Other- rhinestone swirls

Hope you like it- might have to make some more of these- but only for special occasions, as it seemed to take ages to make!

See you soon.. happy crafting..

Teresa xx

Nans 90th Birthday....

Good morning to one and all on this fine Sunday morning- most of the snow has now gone from here, with only a few remnants left to show now!

I thought I would show a few piccies of my Nans 90th birthday party the other weekend, as I have been so busy with work, that I haven't got around to doing so before now.

Mum organised everything beautifully, with help from Dad and some family friends that were staying with Nan for the weekend- thankfully it was the weekend before we had all the snow!

It was nice to see lots of family friends that we hadn't seen for a long while, and it was nice to see Nan enjoying herself & laughing as much as she was!

She had loads of lovely presents and I think there is a trip to the garden centre is on the horizon with all the gift vouchers she got- Dad had better hire a lorry I think!!

Mum made some of her scrummy cupcakes, which went down well with everyone, and as usual there was so much food that most took a doggy bag home!

I hope you didn't mind me showing you a few piccies of my Nan, as I am very proud of her- she is a very independent lady, especially as she still lives on her own- she does have a very good support network, who without I don't think she would be able to do so- Mum & dad, neighbours & friends who keep an eye on her & do jobs for her.

Well off to get some breakfast & a nice cuppa. I will post some piccies later of the cards that Mum & I made for Nan.

Happy crafting.....

Teresa xx

Convention 2010

Wow.... what an exciting couple of days have been had by everyone that went to the SU Convention. It was the turn of the UK to host this years event- at Addington Palace in Croydon.

It has been fun packed, exciting, tiring, inspiring & a great opportunity to make new friends,over the past couple of days.
There were over 300 Demos from the UK, France & Germany and a couple from the US.

Some of us met up on Thurs eve for a pre-convention evening, arranged by Natalie & Monica, for their downlines, at the hotel, with Create & Takes, Raffle prizes, started exchanging our Swaps. There were so many fantastic swaps going around and even more when we got to the convention on Friday. These ladies deserve a medal for all their hard work & for putting up with over 100 rowdy & excitable ladies, most of whom had never been to Convention before!!

Here are some pictures from the Convention....

Natalie with some of her Stamping Stars Team.. we knew where we all were as we wore fluffy stars head bands!
Natalie, Justine, Gill, Cary, Jenny

The table set up for the Awards evening meal...

Natalie & Zoe

Front- Sue, Cary, Gill
Back- Justine, me,

Jackie

Make & Takes on Saturday

Kim, Natalie, Zoe, Jackie, Sue, Gill, Cary

Everyone there had a brilliant time - as well as the Make & Takes, we had Prize Patrols, where you could win a stamp set that had been used to demo a class(guess what..... lucky old me won!! I never win anything usually! I couldn't believe it when my name went up on the screen!).

We had demos, classes & training sessions. There were swaps going on for various different projects- I have never seen so many fantastic ideas! I have taken loads of pictures so I could remember some of the samples & projects, and have loads of fantastic swaps from some very talented crafters!

I can't wait to go to next years conference.... it was announced it is to be held in France at none other than .......DISNEYLAND PARIS! OMG!! I am going to start saving up now.. and set some goals( Natalie will be pleased!)

Will pop back later with some more pictures of some of the fantastic swaps I received...

In the mean time.. happy Crafting

Teresa xx

Sneak Peek......

Woohoo!
Have finally finished my swaps for next weekends SU Convention at Addington Palace! I made 170 in the end as I was getting carried away with cutting & sticking and couldn't stop till had run out of various bits n pieces!
Here's a sneak peek at what I have made...
You will have to wait till after next weekend to see what I made & hopefully the swaps I am looking forward to receiving to get more ideas for classes.


Off to do my homework for work tomorrow as have a Training Day at work & have my SLA & SAR to write!

Enjoy your Halloween evening tonight..

Happy Haunting......

Teresa xx

Serene Snowflakes Class..

Here's the piccies from the class I held on Friday.

We made a couple of cards & a sweet treat holder, using the Serene Snowflakes stamp set & the a couple of the new SU colour inks pads.

Items Used:

Serene snowflakes; Snow Flurries & Occasional Sentiments stamp sets
Pacific Point; Bashful Blue; Marina Mist & Platinum Inks
Whisper White; Pacific Point; Bashful Blue & Marina Mist cardstock.
Stick & stamp, Dazzling Diamonds; Oval circle & Scallop punches;ribbon etc.


The treat bag was from one made by the talented Makeesha Byl, who is a very talented SU demo in Australia.
I am afraid you will have to imagine what the square card looked like, as I cannot find my sample, so I think one of the ladies must have an extra card! However you get the idea from the worksheet I gave them to take. With this card we stamped the snowflake 3 times & cut out to build up the design, rather like a medallion stamp.
I am so loving this stamp set and these new colours...

Am off now to finish my swaps for the SU Convention next weekend & to try to get Bella in, as we have been trying all night to get her in for the past couple of hours, as there have been fireworks going off here. We manged to get next doors 2 cats, but no sign of Bella yet.

Happy crafting....

Teresa xx

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

Me again- 2 posts in succession! What's going on?
Please excuse the photo quality- I was messing around with the lighting in the room,trying to get a Halloweeny feel to the picture(thats my excuse & I'm sticking to it!!)

I made a card for last weeks challenge over at Penny Black, which was Spooky Nights, but didn't get to post it & enter the challenge- so I thought I would use it for this weeks challenge- week 125, which is "Zig zags or Triangles". I think this might qualify,as there is a triangle with his hat & some in the border. The card is on the right of the picture next to Bella Blue, who thought it would be great to get in on the picture and play with the sweets I had put around for added effect! However when I wanted to take some pictures of her, she was having none of it & got off the work top.
The other card is one with images cut from one of my Cricut cartridges- think it was "Paper doll Dress Up"

Items Used;

Doodlebug paper; Penny Black stamped & water coloured image; Halloween downloaded sentiment, which was glazed with Glossy Accents; Nestabilities frame; Cuttlebug Pumpkin embossing folder; Martha Stewart border punch; glitter glue.


The other cards were some other cards that I made last year, using assorted Penny Black & Magnolia stamped images,with Quickutz sentiments; assorted papers, ribbons, buttons, rub ons etc from my stash.
I love this Penny Black stamp & the itsy bitsy spider.
I have brought a couple of new Halloween stamps, but haven't got around to using them yet- oh well, have to wait to next year!

Happy crafting, see again soon.....

Teresa xx

SU Open day

Good evening everyone- hope you are enjoying this pre Halloween evening! Am waiting for some knocks on the door- but none so far- perhaps we will be visited tomorrow night! The candy pot & decorations are all ready!

Thought I would post a couple of pictures from the new SU Catalogue Open Day that I held the other weekend.
I had 8 ladies crammed round my table- not a lot of space I can tell you! They took away 2 completed Make & Takes with them. What was nice was that they were all new to crafting(apart from faithful Mum, who always comes up to help & support me), and said they enjoyed themselves and were up for some classes! Plenty of work ahead then thinking what to do for novice card makers!

The table shows the a few of the new colour ink pads & cards stock, with a couple of the new unmounted stamp sets. Loving these new stamp sets!
It also shows a sample board I made up with the swaps I got at the SU training evening last month. There are also projects that have been made in classes, from the SWU on line classes and classes I have held.

I will post some pictures of the class I had here yesterday afternoon, where we used the new Serene Snowflakes & new colour card /ink pads.

New SU Catalogue Launch Open Day.....

Not long to go now..........!

The new catalogue is launched this Friday 1st Oct. Yea! I hear some say! I have had a sneak preview of the new catalogue and can tell you there are some scrummy new products in there- so many, I want them all! LOL!

On Saturday 9th Oct,(previously posted as Sat 2nd Oct) I will be holding an Open day at my house, so you too can get a look at the new catalogue!

I will be having Make & Takes, Raffle prizes, refreshments, samples from the new catalogue, and you have the opportunity to get your hands on a catalogue too! The cost will £6.00, to include a new catalogue. If you put a £45.00 order in from the new catalogue, I will refund the £6.00.

I will need to know how many are definitely coming along, so I know I have enough Make & Take packs made up, and enough catalogues to hand- so please contact me if you would definitely like to come along. Contact me at: teresa.cain@btinternet.com

Details:
Date: Sat 9th Oct
Time: 11.00am to 3.00pm
Venue: my house- contact me for directions
Confirm place & approx time coming along by: Mon 4th Oct

If you want to come along, but not take part in the Make & takes, then you are more than welcome- please still let me know if you would like to come.

Looking forward to seeing you there.......

Teresa x

Did You Miss Me?????........

I suppose not! Sorry I have been a very bad blogger of late- so many things going on at the moment & not had the creative flow going.

I just wanted to remind everyone that I am holding the Christmas Stationary set class this Friday- 24th Sept, if anyone would like to come along. The pictures are on the posting below. It is not as difficult as you think it looks- if I can make it, then you can!
I am also holding a raffle for the Macmillan Coffee Day, so if you come along, you will be supporting this worthwhile cause too.

I am also holding an Open Day on Saturday 2nd Oct for the launch of the new SU catalogue- i have a preview copy of the catalogue & there is absolutely tons of scrummylicious new stuff jam packed into it! I want it all!!! I will post more details late- please come along as I will be having create & takes, raffle prizes, refreshments and the chance to see some of this new scrummyness!

I will also show you some of the fantastic swaps I had when I went to my first Regional SU Training event last night- there are some seriously talented SU Demos out there!

Catch you later, happy crafting....

Teresa x

Last Change to buy.......SU Retired List

Sorry I have been AWOL for a while- had a holiday, back to work, extension being built- usual things to keep you distracted from crafting!
The list is out for those products that are retiring from the existing catalogue, ready for all the new & exciting goodies in the new catalogue out on October 1st. Once these items are out of stock, that's it, they're gone, so get them while you can- if there was something you were looking at before & were waiting to buy- have a look at the list -it might be retiring, or already gone! SU Retired List

If you would like anything, then contact me, with your order.

I have changed the date for the Stationary holder from the 8th Sept to 24th Sept- I will also be doing something for the Macmillan Coffee day that evening- so please come along- have some fun crafting & support a good cause.

Happy crafting,

Teresa xx

Christmas in August......

It doesn't have quite the same ring as Christmas in July- but it'll soon be here regardless of which month you start to make your Christmas projects & cards!

Here's what we will be doing in the class on Friday 24th Sept...

We will be making a Christmas Stationary Holder which would make a great Christmas gift, and inside there are 3 x cards, 4- 3x3 cards & 9 x gift tags.
The project is based on the original Love You Much set created by the very talented Andrea Walford, but it has been tweaked to use the Seasons of Joy stamp set.

If you would like to book a place on the class, please email me, as I will need to know numbers for the kits.
Class Details:
Date: Friday 24th Sept
Time: 7.00pm to 9.30pm
Venue: My house- email me for directions

If you would like to order the stamp set before the class, then let me know. The set is £24.95, but I will not charge for postage if you are booking a place for the class.


Catch you later- Happy crafting!

Teresa x

The Next SU Class....

Just a quick post to let you know what we will be making at the next class..

We will be making a desk tidy, a decorated ruler, jumbo paper clip, covered notebook & a book page holder. We will be using the scrummy Cottage Garden papers, Sweet Pea felt flowers & stamp set & the Baroque Motif stamp set.

If you would like to book a place please contact me.

Class date: Friday 27 Aug
Time: 7.00pm - 9.30pm approx
Venue: my house -contact me for directions if needed.
Cost: £12.50, to include all refreshments & kit.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays. Will show some more extension photos later- still not completed, but at least most of the mess is done now!

Happy crafting...

Teresa x

Cheers To You Class this week...

Just a quick post to let you know what we will be making this week. the class is on Weds 28th at 2.00pm till 4.30/5.00pm. The cost is £10.00, to include materials & refreshments.

We will be making 3 cards & a gift bag for a bottle of wine. I have a couple of places left, if anyone would like to come along- it will be at my house, so drop me a line if you are interested and for directions

Sorry the bottle of wine will not be included in the class- this was to tempt you into signing up only! LOL.

We are using the Jackpot DS papers, the "Cheers to You" stamp set, which are in the current Main catalogue, and the red satin ribbon is from the Mini catalogue. You can order your SU goodies from me at any time, just contact me...

Happy crafting,

Teresa x

This Weeks SU Class... Greenhouse Garden.

Just thought I would show you what we will be making this Friday evening on my SU Class I am holding. There are a couple of spaces spare at the moment, if anyone would be interested in joining in.

The class is using the SU Greenhouse Garden stamp set- we will be making 2 cards & a slider gift/card box. I have made both sets up, but we will be making the Pumpkin Pie & Apricot Appeal set up on the night- it was difficult to choose which set, as they both look good made up!

The cost for the evening will be £12.50. This will include all paper, card etc to make the set, and refreshments.If you would like to come along, please drop me a line via the email address on the side bar. It will be at my house from 7.30pm to 9.30pm approx.


The next class I have booked & spaces for is:

Cheers to You
Weds 28th July, 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Male cards- making at least 4 cards, for the men in your life
Cost is £10.00


Please let me know if you would like to come along.

Keep crafting,
Teresa xx

Blog Hop for Bella...

I found this heartwarming story on a blog hop challenge site- Scrap,Stamp & be Merry and thought I would put it up on my blog to see if anyone who kindly takes the time to read my blog would join in. It made me cry when I read Bella's story over on the link to her fundraising blog, and made me realize how fortunate & very lucky most of us are & do not appreciate what we have till its gone. Please take the time to pop on over and read her story, even if you cant take part and make a card to send to her. The link to find out more about Bella is HERE.

The address to send your cards for Bella is:

The Bella Tucker Fund

PO Box 199

Londonderry, NH

03053

USA

Teresa xx

New Extension - Work in Progress.........

Thought would show a few pictures of the new extension we are having built at the moment. It feels like its taking forever, although its not really- its just all the dust I keep having to clear up constantly! It will be worth it in the end, especially as I will get the "Sad Room" all to myself!!!! Once the walls started to go up, it seemed to be much bigger than we thought- mind you the inner walls have still to go up & the wall for hubby's new office. There will be 3 windows in the roof, so we should gets lots of light inside still and hopefully not make the kitchen & dining room too dark. Can't wait to get it all finished- then there's decorating, redesign the garden, planting, new fencing...........!!!

Might show some more pictures later as we get more done!

Enjoy your Sunday...

Teresa xx

MAWTT 1st Birthday Challenge...

Its MAWTT 1st birthday celebrations on their blog this week, with the challenge being to make something for a birthday, but not a card!. There is also a blog hop with the DT, who are offering their own challenges as well. The prize on the MAWTT blog is some lovely Gorjuss Girls stamps.

So here goes... for my project I made an Explosion Box , as it happens to be my sisters birthday this week, and this has one of her pressies inside- should be safe to show, as she doesn't look at my blog anyway!!

Items Used:

Bazzill card & sugar coated brads; Quickutz heart die.; mirror card; Basic Grey paperpad; Prima flowers; peel-off stickers & ribbon from stash. The edges were lightly distressed with a brown inkpad.

I went through a phase of making these a while ago... might have to do some more for a SU class....!

Well, must go as the ironing beckons, as does the sunshine- shame I cannot do the ironing outside at the moment, with all the mess from the building going on. Must post some pictures to show how its coming along.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of this gorgeous weekend- make sure you put plenty of sunscreen on and thanks for spending the time looking at my blog.....

Teresa xx

Thursdays Class...

I held a small workshop at mine on Thursday afternoon- this is what we made, using SU papers & stamp sets.

The scrapbook page layout was one that I did at Scrap Club, and was created by Mrs Wonka(she is soooo into this DS paper set & stamp set!). The easel card I created to use up odd bits of paper, but decided to make it 6 x 6 instead of my normal 5 x 5. Think it turned out OK.

Items Used: Flight of the Butterfly & Cheers & Wishes stamp sets; Bella Blue DS paper, Very Vanilla, Bordering Blue & Kraft card; Kraft taffeta ribbon; Bordering Blue & Night of Navy ink pads; SU string & stamp-a-ma-jig.

For my other easel card, I used the new Melon Mambo ink pad & card; Hello Again stamp & Baroque Motifs sets; Whisper white card; dazzling diamonds.

This is a picture of my God daughter taken a couple of years ago when we all went skiing. She's not too keen on the cold- so doesn't really enjoy going, only for the hot chocolates she has at the cafes on the mountain!

I thought the new colours matched perfectly with her bright ski jacket.

Hope you have been enjoying this lovely hot weather.. the builders have at last started to build the walls to the extension- so it is finally starting to look like something, and not just a cement patio outside the back door!

Thanks for stopping by....

Teresa xx

Birthday Cards....

Just a quick post with the cards that I made for my Mum, Dad & Father-in-laws birthdays this Thurs & Friday just gone- May seems to be a busy month for family & friends birthdays in our house!

The Magnolia card was for Mother and the SU cards were for both Dads.

Items Used:

1) Tilda stamped & water coloured image; Basic Grey papers, Prima flowers; rub on sentiment; Penny Black sentiment inside card; ribbon, charm & other bits from stash.

2) SU stamped image from Loads of Love set & accessories set; sentiments from Cheers & Wishes set inside card; SU DS papers. Images were stamped onto 140/ 300gsm water-colour paper & coloured with distress inks.

Hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday- the weathers a bit hit & miss, as normal, for the Bank Holiday. We went to my parents yesterday afternoon for a BBQ tea for their birthdays, but it poured with rain all afternoon, so we had an indoor one instead! Typically the weather was better today!

Anyway, see you later, as I feel there is some crafting to do this afternoon...

Teresa x

Todays class...

Had the pleasure of spending the day at CUL on a class run by the very lovely & patient Kim Piggott. She was showing us the basic techniques of water colouring, using distress ink pads. We managed to do at least 2 samples each, as it was a long process trying to get it right(or as near as we could!) to Kim's sample!

I think I still have a long way to go, but practice makes perfect they say.....

Items Used:

300gm water colour paper; black Versafine ink pad; new Magnolia Tilda stamp

Inks: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Black Soot, Brushed Corduroy, Milled Lavender.

As I say, I still have a long way to go to get anywhere near Kim's standards, but I'll keep trying!

Teresa xx