Sneak peek Saturday

Welcome back, today I thought that I would give you a sneak peek at some new product coming soon in the awesome spring/summer seasonal catalogue, which goes live in January, alongside the even more fabulous Saleabration goodies, which you can earn for free!!!.....yes free!!

This is an amazing card that my very talented friend Anne made for my birthday using one of the new stamp sets which will be available in the new seasonal catalogue, I absolutely love butterflies and what I love about this set even more is that it comes with a matching punch which cuts both sizes of butterflies in one punch.  Anne has also used some of the fabulous new papers that are available for free....yes free! when you spend £45 during saleabration. Not only is it a card, but she has added a beautiful book mark in the pocket on the right hand side which makes a gift and card in one.  I will definitely be caseing (copying and sharing) this card Anne! thank you so much for thinking of me on my birthday and taking the time to make this absolutely amazing card, it's really appreciated, as were all of the lovely handmade cards that I was lucky enough to receive on my birthday recently, one of the perks of belonging to a crafty community!
I'm hoping to get some time off over Christmas to play with my new stash, so look out for more samples using new product coming soon.

Jx

Try it out Thursday

I'm back today with a couple of quick ideas for you, these are obviously Christmas cards, yes I'm still madly mass producing last minute cards!, but the ideas are just as useful for cards during the year.

One of the items in my craft stash that I think are probably underused are my Textured Impressions Embossing Folders (or TIEF for short). I love an embossing folder as it gives you a fabulous background very easily with the help of your trusty big shot, and I go through phases of using mine. So on this card there are 3 different folders used, 2 to create a sampler feel to the card and a further one to give a bit of texture to the base card.  I cut my card stock first for the sampler sections and then embossed it to prevent it dragging and tearing or flattening out the pattern when I cut it, this also meant that I was able to run several squares through the big shot at the same time, making it great for mass production!  We have a fabulous selection of embossing folders , so next time you're taking a look through the catalouges, don't forget to have a look at all the amazing folders that we carry, and let me know if you'd like details of the ones I've used on these cards.

 On this card I've used another TIEF, but this time I've used it to create an inked background to make the pattern within it stand out and create depth.  This is an old technique but sometimes I think it's good to re-visit old techniques. For this card I inked the inside of the embossing folder (with the logo on the front) using a brayer to get even coverage with the ink, placed my card stock inside the folder and ran it through the big shot. This pushes the ink to the back and brings the embossed pattern to the foreground.

And for my final 'Try it out Thursday' tip, that deer on the first card is finished off with a Wink of Stella pen to add some shimmer and shine, (unfortunately the camera doesn't do it justice) so imagine my frustration when it ran out half way through 20 cards that i'd just assembled! So...... I unscrewed the pen, took out the insides, added some surgical spirit (rubbing alchol if you're reading this in the USA) gave it a good shake and it finished the other cards easily. Shimmer emergency solved!!!

That's all from me today, check back soon for a sneak peek of some beautiful new product coming soon!

Jx

Top Tips Tuesday

I thought I would share with you some of my top tips for last minute mass production of those all important Christmas cards which we all seem to be making to get into the post as Christmas sneaks up on us at an alarming pace!

This is a card that lends itself to mass production, firstly all the circles were die cut at once, using the circle framelits makes it quick and easy to get a perfect circle, and if you wanted to layer up a scalloped circle behind then there are several different sizes in the set which make it really easy.  I have to say that those circle dies were a great investment as they cover most sizes that you would need to cut.

To make stamping the images easier I turned to my stamparatus, by using one of the pieces that I had cut the circles from (so the waste card) I created myself a jig for the stamparatus, this meant that instead of trying to hold down a circle with a magnet and not get it in the way of the stamping, or trying to judge the distance around the image to stamp first and then cut, I simply reinserted the circle into its hole and stamped, getting a perfectly centered image each time.  This technique works for any die cut shape and speeds mass production up massively.

As I wanted my image to look like it was in a snow globe and we don't carry a snow globe stamp set, I used one of my label punches and simply cut it in half to make the wooden base of the snow globe. I embossed the card base with the softly falling textured impressions embossing folder for some texture.

A bit of coloring with blends (which as our blends color beautifully, I did in front of the TV to sneak some more crafting into important catch up TV time - had to catch up on the bake off!) and some shading and dazzling diamonds glitter and they were done.

I hope that I've given you some ideas to get those last minute cards done and dusted?  and if I find a way to slow down time, I'll be sure to let you know!

Jx

Christmas Decorations

 Its been a busy time at the Crafty Yellow Camper over the last few weeks, with the final classes of 2018 (where did that year go?) happening, so I thought that I would show you what we have been up to. We had a break from making cards as it's getting near to Christmas and instead tried our hand at some home decoration pieces.  There was still plenty of stamping to be done but this time instead of card stock we were stamping on glass and wooden slices.

We used stazon to stamp on the glass, and on the wooden slices we stamped with our normal inks and did some coloring with blends (when coloring with blends we used Momento ink to stamp).
I hope that these projects give you some inspiration for some last minute stamping.

Jx

More free stuff from Onstage!

 I thought you might like to have a look at some more of the goodies we received at Onstage last weekend.   We were also given this fabulous tool holder during the day, it has pockets to put all those things like glue, snail, snips, and other tools to make crafting on the go easier.  I'm hoping these are going to be available to buy in the future as I think they would make a great addition to the Stampin Up! goodies we already sell.

These are the make and takes we got to do during the day, I haven't had time yet to finish putting them together but when I get a moment to do that I'll make sure to let you see the finished cards.  This is a great part of the day as we get to play with some new product, helping us to get an idea of the loveliness that's coming in the spring/summer seasonal next year.

I'll be back soon with some of the swaps I received during the day from my fellow demonstrators, so don't forget to check back soon.
Julia x

Onstage

Welcome back! 

I've been experiencing some technical problems over at The Crafty Yellow Camper, probably I suspect more to my technical inability than the computer!! 

Hopefully I've managed to overcome them to let you know what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks while I haven't been posting on here.

I've been working hard around my day job to get ready for On Stage Local which is a twice yearly event that Stampin Up! hold and where we get to meet up with other demonstrators, get a look at some of the new goodies that are coming our way and get our hands on some new kit to have a play!

 This is the fantastic team that I belong to, and we had a blast in Birmingham.  The conference itself is only for 1 day, but I got to catch up with my fellow stampers and we had some lovely meals, lots of chat and a couple of overnight stays in a hotel..... no washing up or housework.....what's not to love!!!

 While we were there Stampin Up! lavished us with freebies, and as this year marks the end of their 30th birthday we were all presented with this fabulous keepsake box, which contained even more fabulous stuff!

 These are the stamp sets that I came home with, 1 was in my box, 1 was an all attendee give away, and 1 was my prize patrol.  All of them will be available in the new year, so if you like the look of them keep an eye out for samples, and new catalogue information coming after Christmas.

 We also got given this fantastic reversable canvas bag, it's really good quality and holds more than you would think, which is great as I'm not a travelling light kind of person!!

Also in the bag were these great notebooks, and some lovely pens, as I'm an avid list writer they maaaay get used, or they may get added to my stash of fabulous stationary that I can't bring myself to use!!!! How many of you are like me? I'm just getting round to using my patterned papers rather than hoarding 1 packet to stroke!

If you think that you'd like to join me next year in April for the next Onstage Local, drop me a line and I can let you know how you can join our team.  There are some fabulous offers that will be coming up in the next few months for new demonstrators, so if your Stampin Up! wish list is a long one, and lets face it who's isn't?! maybe you would like to consider signing up and getting some of that wish list in your starter kit?

That's all from me for now, but check back in later this week to have a look at some of the fabulous swaps from my fellow demonstrators that I bought back from Onstage with me. I have loads of inspiration to share with you.
Julia X

Stampin Up! Sale Flyers

Once again my technical abilities (or lack thereof!) strike again!!!! But I hope that you can see the details of the stamp sets on offer in these screen shots!
There are some great sentiment stamp sets among those on offer, and a few that have been on my wish list for a while.  Don't forget that these prices are only for 24 hours! If you want to make some savings and order from me I'll be putting an order in tomorrow evening, drop me a message if you'd like me to add something to my order for you.
X

For One Day Only.........

For 24 hours only  Stampin Up! are having a sale!
15% of selected stamp sets for 24 hours!
Head over to my facebook page The Crafty Yellow Camper, or the Stampin Up! website for more details.
X

Sneak Peeks and top tips

Hello and welcome back! 

 I wanted to share a top tip with you this week, and it's to do with the fabulous dies we have.  I absolutely love the Happy Birthday Die as it's a great size and makes a fabulous stand alone feature on a quick and simple card, but the thing a lot of us forget is that these types of dies can be cut down.  Now those of you who know me well will know that I absolutely hate wasting the gorgeous card stock and papers we have, and I will hoard the scraps, (I don't think I'm quite up to the stage where it's a problem!...others may disagree!! but here is a way to combat them calling in the clearance team!!)  The beauty of this die is that you can use up all those odd shaped scraps that aren't big enough to cut the whole die on and it still looks fabulous and makes it possible to place the sentiments in different places on your cards.

My other tip for this week concerns our wonderful 2 or 3 step stamping images like the bear in this card. If you haven't already invested in a Stamparatus then  now is the time, not only are they fabulous for multiple stamping, but it makes lining up those different step stamps a breeze. I love this bear image, but to be honest haven't given it as much love as I could because it was a bit of a challenge lining up the 3 steps of stamping. Not anymore, I'm back in love with the multiple stamping thing thanks to that piece of kit!

We've also had a team meeting this past weekend, thank you to the lovely Becki over at Sunshine stamping,  and I thought I would share my swaps from that with you.

How cute are those snowmen!? I think you'll be seeing A LOT of those snowmen!!
I used versamark ink and heat embossed them in silver to make the tags on these cute little gift bags. The tops pull off to save having to undo those fiddly bows and they hold a decent sized chocolate bar inside. The new sprig punch is just the perfect size for a little bit of festive trim too.
They are really quite simple to make with the help of the Gift Bag Punch Board and the Simply Scored board. If you'd like instructions or to have a go at making them drop me a line. I think that they would make the perfect table gift for a Christmas (or any other )celebration. Oh and for the 'snow' I had great fun with our shimmer paint and a paint brush!!!!  I'm still washing it off various things in my craft room.... must wear an apron next time and use a box!!!  I may have been a bit toooo enthusiastic with my flicking!!!!!

And finally! here is that sneak peek I promised you in the title..... The stamp I've used to do that gorgeous copper embossing with is from a new and exclusive set that you'll all be able to get your hands on from the 1st of November, and also the die cut snowflake in our fabulous glimmer paper which co-ordinates with the new stamps.  I'll be creating some more projects using the new stamps in the next few days, so check back next week for more sneak peeks!

As usual if you'd like details on the products I've used in my cards, please drop me a line, or if you'd like to order any of the products used drop me a message and I'll be happy to place an order for you.

Happy stamping!

Julia
x

Christmas is coming!

Hello and welcome back.
It's been a busy week here at the crafty yellow camper, with the days flying by my card class this month focused on Christmas.  Now I know that some of you reading this post will be in denial (you know who you are!) but with the pages of awesome Christmas stamps, dies, papers and more in the Stampin Up! holiday catalogue it's hard not to get excited about the coming festivities.

The first card I wanted to share with you uses the Dashing Deer bundle and some fab embossing folders, Curls and Swirls and the Subtle folder, along with the Tin Tile folder. If you haven't yet seen the Subtle Folder it's worth a look, it gives a linen type feel to the card, very delicate but impressive.
The card was inspired and partly cased from a sample I received from the lovely Karen Henderson over at Furry Cat Designs, as part of a team swap. Thank you Karen for your fabulous card.

Next we revisited an old technique, inking the inside of the folder before embossing. I added some of the shimmer paint to the trees for some shine.

I couldn't resist these cheeky snowmen, they are soooooooo cute! We used the blends to colour, the brush tips make for really easy and quick colouring and although there are no dies to co-ordinate with this set, they are quick to fussy cut with the snips.

We used them again for this card, this time heat embossing and inking the background in the resist technique.

I don't think the camera really does it justice, but the blends make it really easy to add a bit of shading to the snowmen, and with the colour lifter blend it to give that frosty look, add a bit of dazzling diamonds glitter and he really looks as if he's just come in from the cold.
That's all from me for today, if you would like to buy any of the products used in this post, please drop me a message. Alternatively if you would like to have a go at making some of the cards and are local to me I'd be happy to show you how. Again drop me a message and I can get in touch.
Check back next week for a sneek peek at the fabulous offer we have coming up in November, I can't wait for my order to arrive so that I can get creating and show you some samples.
Happy stamping
Julia
X

Glad times....... and sad times

Welcome back, it's been a mixed week in the home of the crafty yellow camper this week. We've had yet more birthdays to celebrate in the family with my sister in laws birthday

Please forgive me for the side view of this card, it was late when I took the photo!  I've used the first frost bundle and matching Designer Series Paper for this card, and although it's a simple lay out I think you'll agree that those stamps and dies make for an impressive die cut bouquet, and as for the papers... well the picture doesn't do them justice, they are oh so glossy and the copper accents are so gorgeous.

I also spent some time with my lovely friend Katie this last week and had fun helping her to raise some money at her McMillan Coffee morning.  It's so much fun sharing some thing I love with new crafters and these are the 3 x 3 mini cards we made.

This set is just perfect for those coffee mornings, and such an easy set to get great results with for new crafters.

I think Katie's guests had fun learning how to stamp with the help of the Stamparatus and learning how to die cut with the Big Shot.

The final card I'm sharing with you today was a card I'm never pleased to create, and hope never to send.

A condolence card.

I have thought long and hard about whether to share this card with you, because it represents a huge loss to me, as it is to the family of one of my crafting friends on the sad occasion of her death recently.  But... and this is the thing,  us crafters we aren't just friends, we become family, and Sharon if you are looking down from the great craft room in the sky, with your Big shot running in the background, ( an electric one no less, because your were such a classy lady!) and a selection of stamps and inks surrounding you, I hope that you would approve of the card, and know that you will be very much missed and remembered every time we pick up stamps and ink and remember the beautiful cards and projects you would have made with them.

Julia
X

What a busy week!

Its been a busy week in the home of the crafty yellow camper. We have been enjoying the last of the summer weather during the day, and have had some birthdays to celebrate.
The first cards I'm going to share today were for twins celebrating being 2, they both love animals so Animal Outing seems a perfect choice.

Eclipse cards are one of my favorite to make at the moment, they look really impressive and are quite easy to make with the right dies. The alphabet dies made easy work of cutting out the names for these cards. I added some trees from Rooted in Nature and colored using the blends pens.

The other card I made this past week was for my Dad to celebrate his 80th birthday. He has had some ill health over the last few years, and there were times when I didn't think I'd ever make this card,  but I'm pleased to report that he has made a good recovery and I used a fancy fold for his card as he likes to keep his cards out for a while so I have to make sure I don't use the same designs!! He likes to keep me on my toes!

It was made entirely using the Rooted In Nature bundle of stamps and dies, together with the Wood Textures 6 x 6 designer series papers, brilliant for men's cards, and I know a lot of us struggle with men's cards, so if you don't have this set, it may be time to invest.
(Please excuse the very messy grid paper that the card is standing on, It's been a very birthday heavy month and that piece of paper has seen a lot of ink!!)

That's all from me for today as the light bulb in my office has just blown, so I'm typing this by the light of my mobile phone torch!
If you'd like to buy any of the products I've highlighted in this post, please drop me a line.
I'll be back soon with more cards to share.
Happy stamping

Julia
X

Welcome back.............
It's been a while since my last post, life and my technical inability got in the way!
But I'm back (thanks to help from the wonderful Becki over at Sunshine Stamping who has technical abilities I can only dream of!) and determined more than ever to keep you up to date with all things crafty in my life.

You'll notice that my blog has had a change of name, and you can also follow the adventures of The Crafty Yellow Camper on Facebook under the same name.

Since it's been a while I thought that I would get you up to date with some of the crafty things that I've been up to since I last posted.  I'm pleased to report that my swaps for Telford On Stage Local were well received, and I also got to walk the stage to celebrate 5 years of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, and being part of that great Stamping family.  Which brings me neatly onto the cards I thought I would share with you today.

Family is an important thing for me, I'm pleased to say that I have a fantastic family who are very supportive of me and everything that I do, they are all quite crafty in different ways, but I also have an extended family of friends that I value very much and this card was for a wonderful friend of mine who has been having a hard time recently so her birthday card and packaging had to be very special as befits her.  I chose to use beautiful you, (as she is!) and the wonderful share what you love papers, I have to credit Dawn Griffith over at Dawn's stampin' thoughts for the idea for the interlocking gate fold card, (and a fabulous video tutorial on how to make it....pop over to her to check out her blog)

The next card I wanted to share with you is another birthday card, again for a wonderful friend who I have been privileged to have in my life since our boys started school together, we've been through some ups and downs together and we don't always get together nearly as often as I'd like, but again I had to pull out the stops to make this card as special as she is.  Thanks to a fellow demonstrator Anne Ronsky for the instructions on how to make this fancy fold (Anne you write a fabulous tutorial!)  This wonderful friend of mine loves all things to do with trees, and also Hares, so I turned to the fabulous Rooted In Nature for the stamps for this card, sadly we don't have a Hare stamp so I snuck in a rogue stamp, but hopefully no-one will notice......!

And the final card I wanted to share with you today features stamps from Beautiful Bouquet and Love You To Pieces.  What you can't see is that the image on the front of the card is replicated as a mini jigsaw inside the little envelope peeking out from behind the flowers, and this is created with the jigsaw die from the co-ordinating framelits from Love You To Pieces.  This was an anniversary card for another wonderful friend who I consider as family and her lovely husband, I hope they had a fabulous anniversary.

I think that you can tell that my over riding theme for this post has been family, and I can safely say that being a part of the Stampin' Up! family is one of the great things about being a Demonstrator. I've met some fantastic people who have been exceptionally generous in their help and advice and welcomed me with open arms into that family. If you think you might like to become part of that big stampin' family, drop me a message about becoming a part of my team.

Well that's all from me for today, I hope I have been forgiven for my lack of posts with this overload of images! If you'd like to order any of the stamps, dies or papers that I've featured in today's post, please drop me a line and I'll be happy to help.

Happy crafting

Julia X

Telford On Stage Local

Ive just got home from a trip to Telford for Stampin Up On Stage Local, which is where Stampin Up Demonstrators get together from all over the Uk for a day of training and crafting.  There is always lots of fun to be had, free stamp sets and other goodies to bring home, and the chance to catch up with the rest of the team. I can't share the new stamp sets and other lovely things we saw there yet, but will be giving you some sneak peeks of projects made with the new stuff in the coming weeks.
What I can share with you is some pictures of the project I took with me to swap with the other demonstrators that I met.

These were my swaps in progress, I took them away with me in my trusty camper and stamped the cork coasters using my stamparatus, such a useful tool, while dodging the rain!

Then I made some simple boxes for them using my scoreboard,

And finally they got a lid and a belly band to complete them, again using the stamparatus for the punched starburst circle on top. I used the lovely Flying Home stamp set to decorate the lid of the box and using my stamparatus made stamping in the round soooo easy!  I hope the other Demos who I swapped with were pleased with them.

I received some lovely swaps too, check back in a day or so when I will post some pictures of the wonderful swaps I received.  Now off to peruse the new catalogue and put in an order for new goodies.
Happy crafting

Jx

Saleabration goodies

There are some fantastic freebies up for grabs until the end of March with every £45 spend from the seasonal and annual catalogues. 

One of my favourite sets has to be Happy Wishes, a 2 part set with endless possbilities, free with a £90 spend it will be such a useful addition to any craft stash. Here are a couple of cards we made at my last class. If you would like to order and get these stamps for free, please don' hesitate to contact me.

J x

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!

I set up this blog some time ago and I am sorry to say that that is as far as I got with it!
I'm not a very technically able blogger and its taken a while to find my way round it.
Hopefully now I've managed to get to grips with the whole thing and I will be using this page to share some of my creations.
I dabble in various crafts but am still an Independant Stampin Up Demo, and that is mainly what you will find here.  Please bear with me as I post what I love.
Jx