Week In Review

Stampin' Up! UK Weekly Deals June 2015

Hello!

I’m live blogging again today, at 10:30AM my monthly online workshop will go live here on the blog, and on YouTube, please let me know what you think, I have great plans for these workshops (and am hoping to do one regularly!).

Weekly Deals

Stampin' Up! UK Weekly Deals June 2015

What a great selection again this week! I used the Decorative Dots Embossing folder in yesterdays project! and I may just go back and order some more! The And Many More stamp set is a great addition to your stamp collection with really useful sentiments for all occasions from birthdays to valentines, mothers day to graduation.

Classes and Workshops

Have you checked out my latests Classes and Workshops? I have 3 events in July, my usual Technique Class – each month we feature one stamp set, this month we are using An Open Heart – A brand new Kit Class – making that wonderful Perpetual Birthday Calender – and a Stamp-a-Stack – a brand new class where we make 10 cards in two hours (2 of 5 designs) this months theme is Birthday!

Stampin' Up! UK July Technique Class 2015 An Open Heart

All my events are listed on Facebook and my Stampin’ Up! Web shop – please RSVP by the date shown, email me for more information or to arrange payment

Family Life!

This week has been super busy here at crafty towers! We are now 7 weeks away from our wedding, so at the weekend I headed to Alton Towers with some friends for my Hen celebrations! We had such a great day even if it did rain continuously! But that just meant no queues and more rides.

I only have 2 days off from the day job this week, today and tomorrow as so am cramming in some much needed crafty play time with some brand new products that landed on my doorstep last night, as well as some much needed wedding planning time; orders of service and table plans are the order of the day I think!

Can’t wait to speak to you all again next week!

Happy Stamping!



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To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

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Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Ink and Embossing

Stampin' Up! UK letterpress ink Embossing folders

I have been loving playing with lots of techniques recently, and you may remember a few weeks ago I shared a great stamping technique using your embossing folders. Well, I’ve been doing it again, but this time I’ve added my Big Shot!

Stampin' Up! UK letterpress ink Embossing folders

 

This card uses the Large Polka Dot Embossing Folder, along with the Crazy About You stamp set. I am so pleased this set has carried over into our Annual Catalogue, It has a great collection of words and phrases to create some great sentiments, and it will be featuring on my Father’s Day cards this year (Nope, I still haven’t made them yet! Eeeek!). That Crazy About You set also includes  that lovely flower image, which coordinates with the Flower Medallion Punch (another carry over item!)

Instructions:

Cut your card base and Whisper White (Or Very Vanilla) matt layer.

Grab your chosen Embossing folder, and ink up the side which presses down into the card stock when you run it through your Big Shot – in this case, I inked up the Polka Dots side of the folder. Run your ink pad carefully across the embossing folder as not to get ink on the sunken areas

Insert your card stock layer into the embossing folder, closing the folder carefully so not to move the card stock inside

Run this through your Big Shot using your normal Embossing Folder sandwich

Stampin' Up! UK embossing folders decorative dotsThe ‘Thanks’ was stamped on Whisper White, and punched out using the 1 1/4″ circle punch, and layered with the Flower Medallion with dimensionals.



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To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

 

Telford Make and Take

Stampin' up! UK training team

I have been meaning to share this card for ages! You may remember I attended Stampin’ Up! UK Regional Training back in May, where we had heaps of fun learning about the new catalogue, getting up close and personal with new products, meeting loads of other demonstrators, swapping projects, and generally having a great time!

Well, I made this card then! I know, I know, I should have shared it before, but life has been a little crazy over the past month (and it ‘s about to get crazier in the final countdown to the wedding in August!) and I completely forgot about this lovely card!

Stampin' Up! UK Awesomely Artisitic Telford Make and Take

It uses the brand new set; Awesomely Artistic, along with 3 of the new In-Colours; Mint Macaron, Delightful Dijon, and Tip Top Taupe. I will be the first to admit – this is so far removed from my usual style of card making I was totally intimidated! I mean, that gorgeous dragonfly – well, it was supposed to be fussy cut – I do fussy cut (sometimes) but really its rare, so I just stamped it (after spritzing with water) straight onto watercolour paper.

The Thanks! sentiment comes from another new stamp set; One Big Meaning – which is definitely on my wish-list!

I even remembered to stamp the envelope! I was quite impressed with myself, and a great finish to a wonderful card and a fantastic weekend away crafting with new friends!



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To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Cardmaking 101 – Tools for Cardmaking

Cardmaking 101 - tools for card making

Cardmaking class UK free

Welcome to the second in my series of Card making 101 – this week I thought we would look at some of the tools I most regularly use in my card making.

Stampin' Up! UK Stampin' Trimmer Cardmaking 101

 

Tools are so important, they say you judge a craftsman by his tools – and card making is a craft! I have used a heap of trimmers over the years, but the Stampin’ Trimmer is by far the best! I just love the wide foot-bed, this means that to cut a card base (which is what I use my trimmer for by far the most!) I don’t need to swing out the extension arm. Saying that I love that this trimmer extends to 14″ – way more that I will ever need. The blades are so easy to replace, and you get to choose between the standard trimmer blades or the rotary attachment!

A good pair of scissors is so important, and I would suggest two pair – a good pair of long scissors for cutting along the score lines of boxes and bags, and a pair of paper snips for fussy cutting, and detailed bits. A separate pair of scissors for cutting ribbon is also a good idea as paper will dull the blades and make ribbon cutting difficult. The Stampin’ Paper Snips are excellent, blades sharp right to the tip and comfortable hold.

Stampin' Up! UK paper snips

I also use my scissors for picking up jewels and pearls, candy dots and other little sticky things. But I mostly grab for my paper piercing tool for these sorts of jobs, I’m sure if you have seen some of my YouTube tutorials you will have seen me do this. A paper piercing tool is also great for adding pierced details to your cards and projects, as well as getting all those fiddly bits out of your dies when die cutting.

I think one of the most important card making tools is a good bone folder. For years I had a cheap plastic bone folder, and it wasn’t until I started with Stampin’ Up! that I changed to a ‘proper’ one, what a difference! A clean, crisp edge to all folded projects, cards and boxes. My plastic bone folder has now be relegated to re-inking ink pads!

Stampin' Up! UK paper piercing

The most random tool in my kit though must be my emery board! I use this so much, and it has several uses! Mostly it gets used when my trimmer blade needs changing, when card stock starts to cut a little fluffy, an emery board is great for sanding away the rough edges. Or for when you want that distressed look. Or when you catch a finger nail with your paper snips!


I hope you are finding these posts helpful, and if you have any questions about card making, stamping or Stampin’ Up! either drop me a message via my contact me page, or leave me a comment below

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Shop Now button-001Join my team button-001To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Freshly Made Sketches #190 – An Open Heart

Stampin' Up! UK Freshly Made Sketches 190 An Open Heart

I’m still playing along with some challenges this week!

Freshly made sketches 190

I have been so inspired by this sketch! I had a heap of ideas, but I am so pleased with the final card. I rarely use a sketch for card making, and as I have already mentioned, I am trying to push my card making at the moment and venture out into the unknown!

Stampin' Up! UK Freshly Made Sketches 190 An Open Heart

I have been preparing my July Technique Class this week, and so An Open Heart has been on my desk, along with the new In-colours. I grabbed a piece of Mint Macaron card stock out of my stash for that left hand piece, but it had a heart punched out. I went back into my card stock to find another piece, but when I tried it, I preferred the open heart! This piece has also be embossed using the Decorative Dots embossing folder.

The bird is stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink, stamped off once. I love the font in this set, and the Thank You was the perfect length for that banner piece. I finished this card with two further punched hearts using the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack


Stampin' Up! UK July Technique Class 2015 An Open Heart



Shop Now button-001Join my team button-001

To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Hexagonal Gift Bag

Stampin' Up! UK candle gift designer series paper stack

These candles fell into my bag a few months ago during a mad dash around Ikea. I love Ikea candles, and this scent in particular is one of my very favourites – Vanilla Ice Cream, Yum! I often give them as gifts, but trying to package them is always a little awkward. Or it was, how cute is this gift bag!

Hexagonal gift bag

 

I adore the new Designer Series Paper Colour Collections, these use the Neutrals in Basic Grey and Sahara Sand. The collections have been re-configured this year, changing the patterns, so now each collection contains 40 sheets, 2 of each of 2 double sided designs in 10 colours (or 4 of each of 2 double-sided designs in 5 colours for the In-Colour collections). The designs are stunning; a diagonal stripe, a little floral print, a bold polka dot, and my favourite a wonderful script. They are fab!

Stampin' Up! UK candle gift designer series paper stackThese bags are quick and easy to make, as well as holding a good amount of whatever you choose. They are strong too, these both contain candles, without any danger of the bottom giving way! The base of the bag has 6 layers of DSP, making them super strong.

Measurements:

Designer Series Paper, or card stock; 11 x 8″ (28 x 20.5 cm)

Score on the long side at: 1 3/4, 3 1/2, 5 1/4, 7, 8 3/4 and 10 1/2″ (4.5, 9, 13.5, 18, 22.5 and 27 cm)

Score on the side side at: 3 and 6″ (7.5 and 15 cm)

Fold and burnish all the score lines

Holding the DSP in the landscape direction, with the fatter bit at the bottom, cut off the skinny end section, and cut up each one of the score lines to the first horizontal score.

Apply Fast Fuse to the skinny end section and fold to create a tube. This seam with be the back of the bag. Then apply Fast Fuse to 3 of the bottom sections and fold each section in to form the base.

Turn the bag so it is the right way up, pinch in the top, and make holes with the 1/8″ handheld punch.

Feed your ribbon through the holes, starting from the front of the bag and working your way around

Finish with a bow



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To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Watercolour Thoughts

Stampin' Up! UK Best Thoughts Watercolour

Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing with Stampin’ Up! inks and using them as watercolours. I love our colour palette, and the effects you can create when you add water. I will be the first to admit I am no expert watercolour artist, but I enjoy creating, I’m a card-maker, I only use stamps (my drawing is generally pretty rubbish), but I love the final result.

Stampin' Up! UK Best Thoughts WatercolourI used the brand new In-Colours to watercolour this lovely floral stamp. Its another one of the Hostess Exclusives for this years Annual Catalogue, and comes with a butterfly stamp and two lovely sentiments; ‘You’re in my thoughts’ and ‘The best is yet to come’.

This time I stamped in Momento Black ink, and added clear embossing powder. I prefer to heat emboss my images for watercolour, the raised edge helps me stay in the lines of the image, although I could have just stamped in Stazon and water-coloured without issue. I have been trying out a few different methods of water colouring, and I think this technique was my favourite, adding clean water to a section, like a singe leaf or petal, then dropping the colour in, and allowing it to move through the water.

Stampin' Up! UK Best Thoughts Hostess Code ClubOnce I had the whole image water-coloured I went back and added darker areas by using less water and more ink. The inks for this card are Watermelon Wonder and Cucumber Crush. I finished the card by added some ink splats, by loading my paintbrush with an ink and water mix and tapping the handle of the brush off of my index finger of my other hand, causing the ink to splatter the page. Lovely.

Don’t forget about my Code Club, add the code shown in the Top right hand corner of my blog to the Hostess Code box at check out to receive one of our brand new Hostess Stamp sets for FREE! This months stamp set is Floral Wings, which I used on a card last week.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I’ll see you again tomorrow!



Shop Now button-001Join my team button-001

To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Week in Review – website redesigns, weekly deals and more…

Stampin' Up! Weekly deals

Hi!

I am really enjoying writing these Week in Review posts, I do hope you enjoy reading them too….. let me know if there is anything you particularly want me to feature on my blog, whether its a specific technique or project, a product focus, cardmaking 101 question, or just something about me…. I’d love to hear from you.

Stampin' Up! Weekly deals

I’ll start with this week’s weekly deals

Stampin' Up! UK Weekly deals

What a great collection of deals this week! Weekly deals change each and every Wednesday, and always give you great value. This week our deals feature both Gold and Silver 1.8″ ribbons – cute additions to any project – the eclectic paper-piercing pack – I love adding little details to my cards, and paper-piercing is a great way to add that special something – epoxy stickers, the Simply Scored Diagonal Plate – for creating those all important envelopes! and my favourite the Squares Collection Framelits Dies! all for 25% off! Awesome!

Stampin' Up! UK Free Stamps

Have you seen this month’s great joining offer?! If you join my team of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators this month, not only can you order £130 worth of new catalogue goodies and pay just £99 (and get FREE shipping!), but Stampin’ Up! will also add 2 FREE stamp sets of your choice into your starter kit, AND you will also receive a fabulous welcome pack from me, including my awesome swatch book! How fantastic is that!

I can waffle all day about how awesome it is to be a demonstrator, but I’m trying to keep things short and sweet, so I’ll just say this….. 20% discount, pre-order periods, fabulous events, rewards, friendships, inspiration, gifts, cash……

Get the picture? To join my team, just follow this link!


I had such a busy week since the last time we spoke, I managed to survive a long weekend at work (always a miracle!), complete an order of 75 Orders of Service for a customer, re-design the website (do you like it? I think I’m in love!), as well as the usual mass of blog posts, videos, projects and customer orders.

I have a few exciting things coming in the next few weeks; a wonderful Team Blog Hop on the 27th of June, more Cardmaking 101, and another FREE online workshop, it’s all go here!

See you again next week

x


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Supply List

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Shop Now button-001

Join my team button-001

To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

 

Ronald McDonald House Charities – Sprinkles of Life

Every year Stampin’ Up! creates a special charity stamp set for Ronald McDonald House Charities, donating over $1 million to the charities across the world. This years stamp set is awesome! but I fear you might not have spotted it in the catalogue, its right on the very back cover! page 189!

Stampin' Up! UK Sprinkles of Life

It’s it adorable! and if gets even better, there is a coordinating punch available too! Allowing you to create trees, cupcakes, clouds, ice creams, flower baskets, and much much more!

Stampin' Up! UK Sprinkles of Life Cupcake

This card was so quick and easy to stamp, and punch. The centre cupcake is raised on dimensionals, but only after being curled with a bone folder to create that round effect. The sprinkles on the same cupcake are Designer Series Paper – Cherry on Top – and they are actually tiny little hearts, but look so good as sprinkles!

For each stamp set purchased Stampin’ Up! will donate £2 to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Have I mentioned what they do? I don’t think I have! Ooops! They are an amazing children’s charity providing homes for families of sick children near to the hospital, keeping families together at the most difficult times of their lives, Awesome right!

What are you going to create with this great stamp set?



Shop Now button-001Join my team button-001

To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator

Cardmaking 101 – how to cut a card-base

cardmaking 101

Cardmaking class UK free

Today marks the start of my completely free weekly card-making class here at StampinByHannah. This class has been in the planning for ages and I am so pleased I am finally ready to share it with you.

Each week, on a Sunday, a new tutorial will be released focusing on card making basics; hints and tips, tools, techniques and useful information to help you to make amazing projects. I am so excited! shall we begin?

cardmaking 101 - how to cut a card base

This week I thought we would start at the beginning; how to cut yourself a card base. I know that not everyone will cut there own card bases, but I think its a useful thing to know, particularly as then your not stuck with white or cream cards all the time – lets get some colour in here!

How to:

I use A4 card stock, I know that these measurements will not be useful for everyone, particularly those who use 8.5×11″ however, I live in the UK and A4 is all we have

There are two ways to cut a card base, depending on the style of card you wish to create. I frequently use tent fold cards and so cut my A4 length ways at 10.5 cm to create two long skinny pieces of card stock, I don’t tend to score in the middle for these and find that folding them in half and burnishing with my bone folder is enough

The other common card base is a ‘book style’ card, and for these I cut my A4 width-ways at 14.8 cm, scoring them in half at 10.5 cm and folding to create my card

These two methods create the same size card; 14.8 x 10.5 cm

To create a layer for the front of your card, take an A4 piece of Whisper White and cut at 10 cm, and 14.2 cm to create a slightly smaller piece that will fit beautifully on the front of the card base you have already created.

To create further layers reduce the size of your card stock by 0.5 cm each time, the next layer would therefore be 9.5 x 13.8 cm, the next 9 x 13.2 cm, and the next 8.5 x 12.8

 

I hope this has been useful, if you have any card making questions or queries please let me know and I will endeavour to answer your questions in later editions of Cardmaking 101



Shop Now button-001Join my team button-001

To purchase any of the items featured in my projects please use the links above. To join my team of Stampin’ Friends select ‘Join My Team’ or send me a message!

Please support StampinByHannah by using the Hostess code featured in the top right hand of my blog. For orders of over £150 please do not use this code, as you are entitled to your own Hostess benefits!

Sign up to my newsletter here – http://eepurl.com/2if59

Hannah Wilks

Stampin’ Up! UK Independent Demonstrator