Christmas cards & craft classes and clubs in Bloxham, Banbury, Oxfordshire

Good evening fellow crafty blog friends!

It looks as though winter is just around the corner now, I heard today we are expecting snow at the end of the week! What happened to the Indian summer? With that in mind I thought I would show you some snow related products from Stampin Up! that I have been using in my crafting this week.

Before I do that, I wanted to let you know about the craft club I run on a monthly basis in my village, Bloxham, which is near Banbury in Oxfordshire.

We meet on a monthly basis for a couple of hours on a weekday evening and at our next meeting we will be Christmas & festive crafting which will include making some Christmas gift boxes, gift cards, tags and sweet stocking treats from Stampin Up! products. There are usually about 20-25 of us and we are growing as word spreads! No prior experience is necessary as the club is aimed at being a sociable evening making lovely things in the company of fellow craft loving folk of all ages & abilities. All the materials are provided for club members and no experience is necessary! Members are all ages and from all walks of life but we all share a love of crafting in common :) We don't expect members to attend every club meeting as sometimes they may not fancy the theme we are working on, but some pop in regardless just for a chat! We always welcome new faces and there is a real buzz in the room as we are beavering away with our make and takes.

In time, we plan to expand our club experience to try new craft ideas such as fabric crafts, painting, decoupage etc as well if members are in favour!

Anyway, back to the snow! Here are some projects we will be working on using the gorgeous new festive Stampin Up 6 piece stamp set Scentsational Season combined with the new Snow Festival Designer Series Paper.

The Scentsational Season stamp set is £13.95 clearmount and £16.95 wood mount and has 6 cute Christmas images, however i will probably use the coffee mug throughout the year as its a lovely versatile image! I do like to get that little bit of extra value from my products ;) 

The stamps also come with matching dies - Holiday Collection £20.95 - which really bring them magically alive! To make the stamps just that little bit extra special for Christmas, I have also embossed them with scented embossing powder (£4.95 per 14g pot) in sugar & spice and peppermint sticks so I have a lovely christmassy scent wafting through my craft room at the moment which should last for up to 2 weeks!

The Snow Festival designer series paper is 12 sheets of 12" x 12" double sided patterned paper featuring the lovely festive colour combinations of gumball green, whisper white and cherry cobbler - aren't those just wonderful warming names for wintery colours! A pad of this paper costs £9.95 and its hard to choose which side of the paper to use as the images range from nordic to owls, stars, trees, snowflakes, reindeer and other wintery animal folk, houses and baubles - something to suit everyone!

Here's another of my favourite stamps from the this years Stampin Up! Autumn Winter catalogue which is available to order from now, this image reminds me of being in New York with my fiancee this time many moons ago and watching (and being envious of!) the ice skaters at Central Park and at the Rockefeller Centre, happy days! This gorgeous  image and sentiment is part of the 5 Winter Memories stamp set (£19.95 clearmount & £24.95 woodmount) and the colouring and shading on the skating boots is achieved using Many Marvellous Markers (38 pens for £89.95).

Anyway, back to reality again and this week I will be busy crafting for quite a few craft shows i am attending, this years focus for my products is inexpensive stocking fillers and I will be back soon to show you my wares!

If you would like to put any of the products featured today on your Christmas wish list or would like to have a read of the complete Autumn Winter product range brochure then please get in touch with me!Back soon, 

Gift boxes using Stampin Up Orchard Harvest

As I have young daughters at this time of year we pack up some goodies for them to take to church for Harvest Festival. Their school asks for the gifts to be transported in shoeboxes, but here we like to make more of a gift of our offering and make our own boxes and tags. This is what the girls are taking this year later this week - couscous, rice, porridge oats and a little choccy treat bundled up in a pretty box. 

The lidded boxes are handmade with Stampin Up! designer series paper. You can see the Twitterpated range on the right which is £9.95 per pack of 12 double sided sheets and the orange paper is from the designer brights paper collection of 40 sheets of 12" x 12" double sided pattern for £19.50. the tags are made using the Two Tags Bigz die £18.95 run through my Bigshot cutting machine using the gorgeous Autumn colour range Orchard Harvest designer series paper and then double tagged with a scallop circle die punched from Shimmery White card 10 sheets for £7.25. Both packages are then tied with Stampin Up! ribbons.

I just love the colours in the Orchard Harvest Collection, I think the reds, yellow, greens, browns and blues are really reflective of Autumn days and make me think of apple pie, thanksgiving, harvests and the rich contrasts Mother Nature is showing us at the moment. Here are the papers in the range and Stampin Up! have also brought out fabric to match! 

The papers are a steal at £9.95 for 12 12"x12" double sided sheets and the fabric is just as lovely at £8.95 for 3 pieces measuring 68.6cm x 45.7cm which is enough for most accessory projects. I have my eye on making a new doorstop, possibly in the shape of an apple or pear to coordinate with the fabrics - time to dust off the sewing machine!

Before I go I just want to show you a few more projects using the Orchard Harvest paper and the coordinating Perfectly Preserved 14 piece stamp set (£25.95 wood mount/£20.95 clearmount) which also has a set of framelits dies (Cannery set £20.95) in exactly the same shapes as the stamp images. Buying both the stamps and the framelits together makes more sense as the bundle is reduced by 15%!

Lastly, take a peek at this little cutie "Tweet Leaves" - how lovely is that little birdie? I would be very pleased to receive such a lovely card in warm, rich colours hint, hint! The stamp is just £8.95 and is very versatile for using part or all of it. 

That's all for today except for a reminder that all supplies used in my projects can be bought from me, in the meantime, will be back soon with more creative craftings! 

Bye for now ...

Halloween paper pumpkins, sweet wrappers, lanterns and iced biscuits using Stampin Up Toxic Treats & Googly ghouls

After years of crafting to my hearts content and then surfacing several times a year with lots of beautiful goodies at craft shows all over the UK, I have taken the leap into blogworld! Here I will be showcasing and sharing my goodies throughout the year and hopefully at times they will delight and inspire you . So lets get started! 

As I just love Stampin Up! products, here are some treats I have been working on this weekend for sale over the next few weeks at craft fairs and for the little folk we know to have as Trick or Treat goodies. I have used Stampin Up's Howlstooth and Scaringbone Designer Series papers in various guises, it's a fabulous selection of versatile and attractive papers perfect for Halloween and Autumn crafting activities as can be seen below, a pack of 12 12"x12" double sided sheets is a bargain at £9.95!

Anyway, onto the sweet treats! These ickle choccy bar treat holders feature a variety of halloween images such as spiders, bats, witches, mummies, frankenstein all from the Stampin Up Googly Ghouls stamp set (see below), stamped in Basic Black as well as Stampin Up's A4 cardstock in basic black and pumpkin pie (i just love the name of that colour!!)

The 6 piece Googly Ghouls stamp set is £14.95 in wood mount or £11.95 in clear mount

These cute little pumpkin bags hold a little box of sweeties too, they were made using Stampin Up's scallop circle die with a little tag made in very vanilla cardstock punched with scallop oval punch and stamped with "Happy Halloween" from the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set, then cello'd and tied with grosgrain ribbon in Lucky Limeade to give a fresh leaf like appearance. 


Lastly for today here are is the treat box and card that we will be making at craft club on Wednesdy night, I have put some orange tissue paper and a little LED candle in my treat box which looks quite spooky when flickering away! This time I have used stamps from Stampin Up's Toxic Treats stamp set also pictured below. 

The Toxic Treat stamp set has 8 halloween stamps and is £25.95 in woodmount and £20.95 in clear mount from the Stampin Up Autumn/Winter catalogue out now! 

As I was baking this week I also made these cute cookies for the kids, needless to say they wont last til halloween here :) I think the little dancing ghost is soooo sweet!! 

In the meantime, if the darker nights are keeping you inside warm and cosy, why not curl up with a copy of the Stampin Up Autumn/Winter catalogue with lots of Halloween and Christmas crafting goodies! If you'd like a free copy, drop me a line at lisa.barton@hotmail.co.uk and I will pop one in the post. Likewise, if you would like to purchase any of the products showcased in my blog today then contact me for further details! In the meantime, have fun crafting for Halloween and see you soon! 

Love