Stamping; With Love!

 

In December my husband was spending whole evenings being very secretive on the computer, but being the lead up to Christmas I guessed that I ought not ask too many questions!  As it happens he was trying to ask me questions about certain preferences I had so it became clear that he was trying to design a stamp for the back of my cards.  I had to trust that he knew my tastes well enough to make one I liked.

Christmas Day came and I was thrilled with it!  Well done Paul! He put together the fact that I love hearts and that I also love postage stamp stamps and here you can see the result of that combination! 

 

It just so happens that the stamp fits perfectly inside the 1 3/4 inch Scallop Circle Punch by Stampin'Up!  If you put the punched circle back into the punch and line it up in the centre of each scallop and punch again you get the effect as shown in the picture above.  A bit fiddly but worth the effort as you get a lovely natural looking sunflower effect.

 

The great thing about having a punch like this one is that you can colour the ink to suit the card.  Some of the personal stamp designs you can get are pre-inked so not as versatile!  This stamp was adapted from a design Paul found on Etsy with a lady called Simone from DesignKandy in the U.S.  Alternatively there are some good ideas at The English Stamp Company, where you can custom make what you need by experimenting from a range of designs!

My First Event, Make & Take Shotley

The three design choices to Make and Take!

Well, I've had my first event, held in Shotley Village Hall!  It wasn't very busy at first but like buses, you wait for an age and then they all come at once!  Emma, my upline came along to loan me lots of samples and some moral support, along with the gorgeous Kiera, who made the very first card of the day! And very good it was too!  Then we had a few hours of just Paul and I so we spent the time making cards ourselves.  We really enjoyed it - Paul was very proud of his achievements - including one for our Sister-In-Law's birthday at the end of this month!

Relaxed ready and waiting!

Card packs, stamps and punches all organised and good to go!

Some fine examples!

At 6pm the Cubs and Beavers arrived in the main hall for their joint end of term meeting.  Alex, who is a helper as she's a teenager on 1st April and too old for Cubs, came in and made all three cards.  She is a pretty talented crafter and I've got her in my sights for an assistant role in the future!!!! ;-)

As the Cubs and Beavers finished at 7.30pm we had an influx (yep, those buses in the form of little people all arrived at once).  It was in at the deep end all of a sudden and  we got straight to helping as some rather lovely creations came into being! The leaders all made a card too and we are looking forward to getting a picture from Heather once she has added some  finishing touches at home with some special inks that she has.

Once we had cleared up, Paul handed back the keys and paid for the hall hire whilst I ordered us a couple of the newly available takeaway pizzas from Peninsular Pizzeria (01473 787949).  We highly recommend them!!  We think we are grateful to Manesh for opening this takeaway in our village just in time for us (but then again, perhaps it's a little toooo convenient!).  Anyway, the boys were more than ready to help us devour the pizzas as we arrived home at 9.30pm! And all we were fit for was to collapse for what remained of the evening!

Getting some one to one!

Nice Job Alex!

All proud of their achievements!