Convention Swaps – a little late!!!!

Hello everyone,
I have yet to share with you the swaps I made for convention back in November.  It seems such a long time ago already!
Annoyingly, I was so late in finishing these up – about midnight prior to boarding a train at 6am to head for Paris – that I forgot to take pictures myself.  Thankfully I kept one swap, and a couple of other convention friends send me some pictures to use.  It’s still a shame, as I made about 70 of these and they looked fab all together.
So what did I make – they are bracelet charms with mini drawstring bags!
My mum, bless her, helped me out by making all of the bags for me.  They are made from two pieces of 3”x3” Flirtatious Designer Fabric which my mum stitched into and bag and used Very Vanilla 1/8” Taffeta Ribbon to the bag could be close up.  She was a superstar in getting these all done for me, and they looked brilliant.

My part was to make the charm.  I used an A4 sheet of Pretty in Pink card stock and did a one sheet wonder using the Delicate Doilies stamp set inked in Melon Mambo and Wisteria Wonder.  I then cut this sheet into little squares that fitted over the third biggest butterfly on the Beautiful Wings Embosslit.  I had to do a lot of running it through the Big Shot as I only had one of these embosslits…………..  Once this was done I then proceeded to cover each side of the butterfly in Crystal Effects.  I left it over night after doing one side, then did the other and left over night again.  I then thought this wasn’t making it stiff enough, so went on to do each side twice more, so three coats all over in total.

I used the 2mm Handheld Punch to give me a hole to put a jump ring through and this was then connected to a small clasp.  My other half really helped me out as the last hours before leaving for convention were upon us, and he did most of the jump ring / clasp connections.

I printed a label topper onto Melon Mambo, Pretty in pink and Wisteria Wonder card and punched them out with the Decorative Label Punch.  I used Basic Black card as a backing which had a recipe label on the back, then popped then into little cello bags and stapled on the topper.
I think it was a rather ambitious swap for my first convention, but they seemed a big hit which I was pleased about.  I didn’t come home with any, but I certainly had a lot of wonderful swaps back that give enormous amounts of inspiration.
So – it just goes to show how versatile Stampin’ Up! products are.  I went left field and made jewellery!
I hope you liked them and maybe you’ll think of something else to do with your craft stash……….

Shine a Light..............

Hello,

I have been having so much fun recently making lots of candle gifts.  Most were for show at my catalogue launch party, but I did a couple of different ones (stupidly didn't take pictures!) for a couple of lovely girlies at work.  They loved them............

First I decided to make some gift boxes to pretty up basic tea lights.

These boxes, once I got the dimensions right, were quick and easy to assemble.  You could make them from any colour card stock and with so many different packs of Designer Series Paper, the options are endless.

I used Pretty in Pink and Wisteria Wonder card for one, with Flirtatious DSP and the sentiment, inked in Wisteria Wonder on Whisper White card, from the Oval All stamp set.  This was mounted on a Scallop Oval of Wisteria Wonder.  The 1/2" Circle Punch was used to punch the end tabs to enable you to pull the tea lights out.

The other box was made with Real Real and Wild Wasabi card, with DSP from the Just Add Cake pack.  I used the ornament image from Tags til Christmas stamp set, inked in Real red and punched out with the Ornament Punch.  This was tied to the box using Linen Thread.

I then moved on to stamping directly on candles.  I thought this was going to be quite tough and time consuming, but I was so wrong!  This is the most simple thing ever, and really quick too.

I got plain white pillar candles, some tissue paper that matched the white candles, and then basic grease proof paper from the kitchen drawer.

It's best to use bright, vibrant colours, and solid images for this technique as they show up best.

Stamp your image onto the tissue paper and then roughly cut around the edge, don't leave too much excess.

Lay this onto the candle where you want it, and then wrap a piece of grease proof paper around the candle so you can grab the ends and wrap it tight.

Use a heat gun and go over the image that you can see through the grease proof paper.  As it sticks to the candle you will notice the image take on a glassy appearance (you will notice a change).  Once it's changed all over it should be done.  Gently peel back the grease proof paper and your image should have melted into the candle!  If an area is still loose, just re-heat gently a second time.

With this candle, after stamping the image, I embellished using Clear Rhinestone Brads of varying sizes to match the flower sizes.

It was stamped all round, about 6 images in total, but here you can just see two. The Island Indigo worked brilliantly.

I then went to town and tried it with other colours, did a bit of rock n roll technique with the butterfly's, and even some masking with the hearts images.

As you can see, the Delicate Doilies images don't stand out quite as well.  The images are quite delicate, as the name suggests, and I also used lighter colours with Calypso Coral and Pool Party.

The tall pillar candle with the I (Heart) Hearts images, was inked in Real Red, Poppy Parade and Cherry Cobbler. The butterfly images from Butterfly Prints was inked in Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry.

Don't you think these would make great, inexpensive, gifts for friends and family this Christmas????

Why not give it a try and let me know how you get on, or even better, send me a picture of your gorgeous candles to craftybugjules@yahoo.co.uk

Just be safe with those heat guns!

Julie xx

Catty Launch Display Creations

I set to work a few weeks ago making a whole host of paper crafting items to showcase everything you can do with the wonderful Stampin' Up1 products.

These butterfly pegs were based on a swap I received at Regional Training in September.  I modified them slightly by getting smaller pegs as I thought they would make great memo board clips.  You can't see, but I also added a small round magnet on the back to they will stick to a fridge.

I stamped the Parlour Prints background stamp onto Whisper White in Island Indigo, Perfect Plum and Old Olive, then cut to the size of the peg so I could cover the front and back.

I then stamped the circular image from the new stamp set called Delicate Doilies in each colour and punched out the centre section with a 1 3/8" Circle Punch.  This was mounted onto the peg and topped with a butterfly created using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit and Big Shot.

I used a 2-Way Glue Pen to add some Dazzling Diamonds to the embossed area.  I love a touch of sparkle!

These will now be adorning my notice board to keep all of my letter and reminders in place :o)

I decided I also wanted to show off the lovely new Designer Series Papers, so I covered some notebooks.

The bottom notebook is covered with one of the patterns from the Timeless Portrait pack.  This is the gorgeous new In Colour - Island Indigo and Very Vanilla.  There are 11 other patterns in this set and all of them have a vintage feel.  The other colours used in the pack are River Rock, Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler.  It is part of the Timeless Portrait Suite that includes a stamp set and fabric!

The middle notebook is covered with one of the pattern papers from Just Add Cake.  It such a versatile DSP pack which uses eight different Stampin' Up! colours.

The top notebook is covered in DSP from a pack called Cheerful Treat.  This is a pack you can only get as a hostess.  The new Hostess Pounds really allow you to get much more of what you want for FREE.  The hostess pounds come into effect with a workshop total, or individual order, of £150.  You get £25 hostess pounds for this size workshop or order, and this pack of DSP is only £8 hostess pounds, so you would still have £17 to spend on other goodies!  How great is that?

I did line the inside of the cover with a co-ordinating piece of card to cover the folds and stuck down edges, but forgot to take a photo of that.

These are really quick to make and would be brilliant in different sizes to add in as stocking gifts this Christmas.