It's A Date! - Class Update

Last Thursday was the last Papercraft Session of 2011 and I decided to push the boat out with regard to the choice of stamp sets available to use. We were making mini desk calendars and I brought in a total of 20, count 'em, stamp sets for everyone to play with, together with inkpads and markers in every single colour in the Stampin' Up! range!! I think some of my ladies were a bit overwhelmed by the choice, oops!

Although the desk calendars didn't look anything special when we started, by the end of the evening everyone had produced 12 individual pieces of art to see them through 2012 in style. I'm so proud of everyone for the designs they came up with; I was blown away by some of them. Typically, I forgot to get pictures so I'm afraid you'll just have to manage with my offering -sorry! Here's what all 12 months looked like together...

...and the following are my personal favourites...

 

The Papercraft Sessions will be back on Thursday 19th January and I'll be posting details of the 2012 sessions next month.

Although the Sessions are taking a break, I will still be crafting away and posting my efforts as always so please keep popping back!

I wish it could be Christmas every day

Hmm, maybe not every day, but I do confess to getting all excited when the weather turns colder as it means that Christmas is getting closer.

I really enjoyed the taste of Christmas I got this weekend at my 'Get Set for Christmas' Papercraft Session. Spending a chilly Saturday tucked away with friends, crafting and listening to carols whilst nomming on mince pies - what could be better? Here are some of the cards we made on the day...

Everyone made cards in five different designs and some even managed to get all ten cards completed in 3 hours - that's good going!

I had some good news this week too. The card I made for the Last Chance Blog Hop was picked as one of the Top 3 in the Simply Stampin' Challenge Blog #23. This is the second time I've made the Top 3 so I'm doubly thrilled!

The Papercraft Session planned for 29th September will now be held at a different address so be sure to let me know if you'd like to book so that I can let you know where it will be. We're going to be making the most of those products which are retiring at the end of this month, and so will no longer be available. So many lovely stamp sets have already sold out, including one of my faves - Forest Friends, so be sure to get in quick if the one you want is on the retiring list.

Lift an Odd Girl Challenge

Some Odd Girl has an unusually titled challenge this week... Lift an Odd Girl! By 'lift' they mean 'be inspired by' and the challenge is to take inspiration from a card on one of the Odd Girl DT's blogs. I saw Asa's card and immediately thought of how I could use the ink spots stamp from 'French Foliage' to imitate the effect she got around her image. I also loved the sweet bow made from Twill tape. Here's my homage to Asa's card...

I masked off the 'Tiny Tia' image and then stamped around it using Crumb Cake both on the stamp and as a distress effect. To get the corrugated effect on the second layer I used my scoring blade on the paper trimmer to score lines across the card.I've then layered it up on So Saffron cardstock and added a sentiment from the 'Best Yet' stamp set (retired SU! set).

I coloured the image using my Promarkers and went for a subtle, almost monochrome colour scheme and I love the innocent look it gives.

Simply Stampin' Challenge #16

I was really happy to discover that there is a Challenge blog especially for fans of Stampin' Up! products and couldn't wait to make and enter a card. This week's challenge is to make a card based on this sketch...

Seeing those flowers reminded me of a project I'd seen recently (on Sarah-Jane's Cards and a cuppa blog) and wanted to try; Scalloped Fan Toppers.

First I made my toppers using patterned papers from the Jolly Holiday DSP pack with Night of Navy CS and Very Vanilla CS. The large topper has been stamped using the french script and ink blot stamps from the 'French Foliage' set and the bird stamp from the Hostess set 'Silhouette Sentiments'. The smaller topper uses the ink blots again with the Paris postmark stamp, again from 'French Foliage'.

The base card is Cherry Cobbler CS layered with Night of Navy CS. I've stamped a wide strip of Very Vanilla CS with the 'Bella Toile' background stamp in Crumb Cake and added a narrow strip of the same DSP I used for the large topper. A piece of co-ordinating wide striped grosgrain ribbon finishes it off beautifully. Oh, nearly forgot the sentiment! It's from 'Perfect Punches' and is stamped in Night of Navy on Very Vanilla, cut out by hand and mounted onto a piece of DSP I punched out using the Oval Extra-Large punch.

I think it's quite 'Parisienne Chic' if I do say so myself ;)  Wish me luck!