Open today!!!

Simosihle Crafts - now part of The Rooms, Brackley!!!

Phew!!!!  I am beat!!  Boy have I been busy!!!  I realized last night that I needed a sign as part of my display and decided to make one with an old frame I once bought in a local charity shop for £1.50 - bargain!!!  This girl loves a bargain.  A piece of card, some Designer Series Paper, a few punches, baker's twine, buttons and adhesives (all Stampin' Up products) and VOILA!!!!!  I have a new sign.

What an amazing and proud day for me.  I have my three shelves stacked with all my cards and gift boxes for sale in the new The Rooms, which forms part of SweetRoo's in our local town, Brackley.   The owner of the shop decided to have a few 'mum-preneurs' as part of the back rooms (hence The Rooms) of her old fashioned and well established sweet shop.  I loved the idea and jumped for joy when I was given the go ahead to be part of it.

             

I've made a few gift boxes each with a matching little card and envelope.  They are ideal to fill with a gift of your choice or even some of the lovely (I can't stop chewing) sweets chosen from the front of the shop as a gift for that someone special.  On the same shelf I am showing a few of the Stampin' Up Products having a set of stamps, one in wood and one in clear, a stamp pad and a few Stampin' Up Marker pens (purely for display)

Other than my new sign I made last night the next shelf I dedicated to the all important Father's Day that is just around the corner.  There are a few on display for people to pick straight off the shelf the others in the basket below.  I love sitting down to make cards and love to hear the comments from people when they realise how much thought has gone into making each and every one of them.

I will change this shelf in a few weeks (when Father's Day has gone) with a dedication to our lovely teachers.  I will have Thank You cards and other 3D items there for the kids to give something to their teacher, as we are fast approaching the end of our school year.

Then, finally on the bottom shelf I have two baskets with cards with the following themes:  Birthday Male, Birthday Female, Birthday Kids,  Any Occasion (and they really are good for anything) Sympathy, Thank You and more Father's Day cards.  I'm sure it won't be long before these two baskets are filled to the brim.  I just cannot stop myself.  Any idea becomes a card.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my new venture and come back soon, as I will be back with soooo much more in the coming weeks.....I'm not saying a word!!!! :-)

Thanks for stopping by.

The Rooms - A New Venture for my Business

I have some very exciting news!!!!

During the month of June, The Rooms, Brackley will open its doors and Simosihle Crafts will be part of it.....How exciting is that?

'The Room's, Brackley incorporates several local businesses including SweetRoo's and Simply Kids and several local 'mumpreneurs' such as Twisted Willow, French Fancy, Olive Tree, Simosihle Crafts and Miney-Moo Makes.  A real Aladdin's Cave.........'

This gives me the chance to have some of my hand made cards and 3D items available for sale to the public direct.  I will be using Stampin' Up products to showcase what I have available.

I will obviously also continue to do the parties/workshops and classes as that is my passion and where I get creative.

So here's to me and this new venture, fingers crossed everyone!!!


Thanks for stopping by.

The Penny Spinning Card

I hope you enjoyed the video (and had a bit of a boogie while you watched) lol.

Tomorrow is my friend's son, Luke's 7th birthday.  He's recently been to Disney Land in the States and thought  I will make him a card along the lines of the different parks and animals you can see there.  So the little monkey in the jungle card came to life.  It is very simple to do, and here I'll explain exactly how I did it.

First you will need two small coins.  In the tutorial I used two pennies, in the monkey card I used two 5p coins as they are a bit smaller as the monkey's not really that big.  You will need dimensionals (they are little double sided sticky pads from Stampin' Up).

Lay the pennies flat and stick one dimensional on each of the pennies.

You will note that I have slightly rounded the one dimensional - this I did to have less friction when the pennies roll/spin along the card. 

Then I stuck the two pennies together with the rounded dimensional in the middle.

I used my label punch to punch a line from a piece of card and this is exactly the right size for the pennies to roll along.  

For demonstration purposes I took a piece of lighter card and stamped on of the Mixed Bunch stamps in Chocolate Chip ink and then used the matching Blossom punch and punched the image out.  This is then ready to be stuck on to the one side of the two pennies that has the other dimensional on it.  

Then very simply slide the pennies through the punched slider and VOILA!!! 

It's done!  Here are two further videos of the same penny spinning card with different ideas for cards.

A pretty feminine card with a spinning flower.

A further spinning card this time with a pirate owl, isn't he just too cute?

I hope you enjoyed watching all of them, and if you and your friends would like to make one of them, please get in touch with me.  I will bring everything over and show you how to make them.

Thanks for stopping by

New Stamp Set

So on Saturday we had our Regional Training (my first one I attended) and it was great!  So many inspirational ideas from my fellow Stampin' Up Demonstrators and then of course, every single one of us received a new Stamp Set called, Mixed Bunch.  We knew before-hand the name of the Stamp Set so in preparation of receiving it on Saturday, I ordered the matching punch, called Blossom Punch which arrived Thursday last week.  I was really excited to receive my stamp set and then of course, the matching punch, as it is a really versatile stamp set.  This is what the stamp set and matching punch looks like.

I love the So Saffron Taffeta Ribbon and decided to use that as the deciding colour for the card I plan to make with the new stamp set and punch.  The other reason I decided to use it, is a friend of mine recently told me that her son is getting married and the colour combination for the wedding will be white and yellow and this just sparked the thought and colour combination behind this card, although I used a 'happy birthday' sentiment.

I further used my BigShot for the embossing (unfortunately the embossing folder is not Stampin' Up - not this time anyway), some Crystal Effects with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter and a Rhinestone to finish it all off.

Supplies Used: (All Stampin Up! Unless Otherwise Stated)
1. Card – Whisper White and So Saffron
2. Papers – None
3. Stamps – Mixed Bunch
4. Embellishments – So Saffron Taffeta Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter and Rhinestone
5. Tools – Blossom punch, Big Shot
6. Mediums – So Saffron and Sahara Sand

Hope you like this one and thanks for stopping by.

Scrapbooking..Me!!!....NEVER!!!

What an amazing day I had today, I met sooooo many lovely new people, one of which, another fellow demonstrator named, Sylvia.  We instantly clicked...she is lovely.  We exchanged swaps, chatted over a Latte for me and some Juice for her...and then the big conversation about the iPad.  She showed me her blog using it and quite frankly.....I am in love!!!!!  Did I mention it is my birthday this week?  Not? well you can probably guess what my lovely hubby is looking into getting me for my birthday .... :-)

But, enough of that.  I primarily do cards, and various 3D items using Stampin' Up products (card and paper) BUT today I tried for the first time ever.....a scrapbook page.

We had to take a summer themed photo (could have been anything) - mine of course, had to be Spain, I loved it there, two years ago and cannot wait for the summer as we're going again!!  This is what I did with my summer themed photo, a new stamp set we received at training and some punches that I already own.  The photo was taken literally a few minutes after I made it and the lighting is not the best, but I really wanted to share this with you today.

My Journal Note : Sunny days!!  Not a drop of rain in sight

The size of the card is 16" x 16" (32x32cm) so this is a really big project and I can safely say, it was fun making it, I maybe, just have to try some more of them, perhaps with photo's of the family.

The day also involved swapping with other Stampin' Up demonstrators and I took 40 card samples (one idea made into 40 card fronts) with me.  They were swapped with the other ladies for a swap they each made.  This has landed me with 40 different ideas to bring home with me and spreading them on my table...look like this...

I hope you enjoy this, and I'd love to hear your views, especially if you are a scrap booker already.

Thanks for stopping by.

Creative Juices!!!!

So this week has been really hectic, it's like everyone I know was born in May and I made soooo many birthday cards, but hey, I'm not complaining. after all that's my hobby and I LOVE IT!!!

On Saturday, the Stampin' Up Demonstrators in the local area have training scheduled for the whole day in Leamington Spa and I am really looking forward to it.  One of the things we have to take with us, is a name badge we've made ourselves.  There is absolutely no restrictions on what it possibly could be only that it should be made using current Stampin' Up products.  


It  seems that's all I needed to know, BOY DID THE CREATIVE JUICES FLOW!!!  I think I went a bit overboard.  Let me not hold you in suspense, here's what I made:

and here's the close-up of the paper roses, which by the way, is super fun to make!!!

To be honest, I'm not sure if it's everyone's cup of tea, but I thought...what the heck, I'm doing it!!  All for fun and I loved making it.


Supplies Used: (All Stampin Up! Unless Otherwise Stated)
1. Card – Pool Party, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
2. Papers – Attic Boutique, Sweet Shop
3. Stamps – Apothecary Art
4. Embellishments – Lucky Limeade Bakers Twine, Twitterpated Designer Fabric
5. Tools – Scallop and Label punches, Framelit Dies, Big Shot
6. Mediums – Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Pool Party, Basic Grey, Pink Pirouette, Certain Celery and Pretty   in Pink
7. My Pink Lady pin (not Stampin' Up) I bought when I started Stampin' Up from Michelle Last.

Let me know what you think of this creation - I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Information Overload

Over the last few days I've told you about so many new things Stampin' Up has introduced, the New Summer Mini Catalogue, the new Starter Kit with the opportunity to go to Mainz, Germany Convention and having your fees paid, the Simply Scored Tool and to top it all off, there is now the Simply Scored Diagonal Plate!!!!

To make things easy I thought...'enough is enough.......no more reading for today...let's watch a video...here goes...

Getting Organised

Not sure about everyone else but, last night we had our monthly training and after an evening of crafting with fellow Stampin' Up demonstrators I simply wish I don't have to go to work the next day as I just want to stay at home and craft.  I got home this evening, my mind fully set on getting organised.  

The new Summer Mini has launched...isn't it great?  Stampin Up has introduced a new reduced starter kit and anyone joining in the month of May get their fee paid for the Convention in November in Mainz, Germany!!!!!   Its such a great opportunity.  The Simply Scored Diagonal plate has launched!!  That's a brilliant tool and my order for one has been placed...I now have the binoculars out for the lovely UPS man that comes my way :-)...and I've made a few thank you cards for a few hostesses and customers who have supported me in my venture the last few months. I'll be sending them each a card with the new Summer Mini Catalogue.

Here's what the 'thank you' card looks like, I made this evening.  A very crisp card with clean lines 

I used my Bigshot with one of the Adorning Accents Edgelits Dies to cut the white card to create the scalloped edge and then stamped the line of flowers from the Bordering on Romance Stamp Set.  A piece of Twitterpated Designer Series Paper was used to add a bit more colour and then I finished it off with a sentiment saying Thanks so Much (retired) which I'm hoping Stampin Up will bring back into our Main Catalogue for 2013...I just had to use that sentiment as it says exactly what I want to say.

Adorning Accents Edgelits Dies

Shimmer Paint Champagne Mist

The top half of the card was sprayed with Shimmer Paint Champagne Mist which I think is my latest craze...I just love the effect if gives, to the card its applied to.  Oops and of course, the little pearl embellishment.

I am, yet again, back in my Zone.

Thanks for stopping by.