Circle Circus Birthday

At convention one of the make 'n takes was a card using Circle Circus. It was at that point I realised what a fabulous set it was (it wasn't previously on my wishlist) and now I love it. A good friend of mine had her birthday yesterday - Happy Birthday Katherine! so I cased the original design and made her this. The colours used are Regal Rose, Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue and So Saffron with a hint of Old Olive and Pretty in Pink Ribbon. Cute huh? Sorry for the brief posts lately, Christmas has crept up on me way to quickly this year and my to-do-list is never ending. Catch you real soon though as I'll have details and some samples of Sale-a-bration. If you remember last year it was fantastic but this year is even better! If you don't know what Sale-a-bration is you'll find out very soon and I promise you will love it. tlf, Jo :)

Men!

It's my big boys birthday today, he's 19...where do the years go? We all know how hard it is to make a card suitable for a man and I tend to usually stick with stars, can't go wrong with that and this card is made using Starring You. The design was inspired by some I've seen Julie Hicky make and I used the window sheets to achieve the long window. The stars were stamped with white stazon which has worked perfectly. I've also used the 'to the nines' textured patterned paper and it's a fabulous thickness - almost like cardstock. Right, I've got to wrap some presents before he comes over. Tfl. Jo :)

Trendy Trees

It's been awhile hasn't it? Sorry for the lack of post, life has been very busy lately and unfortunately bloggin has had to take a bit of a back seat. I haven't got many things to show you because what I have created I've had to give to the recipient without managing to take any photos - typical huh! So all I have to show today is a card I made a few months back. It's part of a set but the photos I took of everything together didn't come out too well and this is really all I could salvage. It's another from one of my favourite sets - Trendy Trees and the colours used are So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. I've a birthday card to show tomorrow which I'm going to get photographed now - no excuses. Tfl, Jo :)

Christmas Card Tin Class

Where does the time go! With dark mornings and dark evenings plus work in the middle, the days seem to whizz by lately. Not much creativity for me recently but I did do the Christmas Card Tin Class with six of my crafting buddies last week which was great fun! So here's what everyone made. I've made one before using the now retired Ski Slope papers but this time we used Merry Moments. We started with a plain silver A5 tin which we decorated inside and out and then made six cards to go inside. I was probably being a bit ambitious asking everyone to make them all in the time we had but they all completed four cards and finished the rest off at the crop on Saturday.

It's funny how we all like to make these things but consider them too precious to give away. I don't think anyone is planning on giving it as gift! lol

If you'd like to make one, I have the plain silver tins for sale on the sidebar for £3.50 each plus postage. (Postage will be calculated on checkout.) You can also purchase the step by step class instructions, with colour photos, on how to decorate the tin and make all six cards for £2.95. Use the Christmas Card Tin 'Buy Now' button on the lefthand sidebar and they will be emailed to you in pdf format within the next 24 hours. Just one thing I need to point out, the instructions are ALL in metric.

If you have any questions, please email me at jodumbleton@aol.co.uk

Tfl, Jo

I have a class tonight with some of my fabulous crafting buddies. We're making....well here's a little peek.... More details to follow. Tfl, Jo :)

I'm gradually coming to the end of my Convention photos. This one was on our last day in Bad Homburg. Although Convention finished on the Saturday afternoon, we didn't have our flight till the Sunday evening so a group of us went sight seeing. From our hotel room Jen and I could see what we thought was a castle, it wasn't too far from the hotel and it was good to get be out in the fresh air dispite the fact it was raining. The 'castle' was a Schloss and you'll have to forgive me ignorance on this, on translation is means 'closed' so I've no idea what it actually was. The turret was in a courtyard of this beautiful house, I suppose you could say it was a bit like Repunzels tower.

It was fairly miserable weather, although you can't tell from the photos but after a lovely milky coffee and the best waffle I've ever tasted in my life - it melted in the mouth - I didn't really care what it was doing outside. lol Lastly here's a group photo of some of the lovely demos I was with. Unfortunately not everyone was in the photo.

From left to right is Jackie, Carolyn, Nikki, Jen, Me, Elaine, Annie & Jane.

It seems so long ago now, but if you're tempted by all the fun of Convention and the chance to turn a hobby into something bigger and experience everything and more that I have, then becoming a demonstrator could be for you. You can email me at jodumbleton@aol.co.uk and I'm more than happy to go through everything with no hard sales talk just an honest opinion. And for anyone that joins my team over the next 3 months, I have a little extra to offer. You can email me at jodumbleton@aol.co.uk and if you're local we can even arrange a get together. I love every minute of being a demonstrator and as well as all the benefits Stampin' Up! offer, the friendships and fun I've had is the best! After all there's nothing to lose and literally everything to gain!

Hope to be back with some of my own creations real soon.

Tfl,

Jo :)

More Convention Swaps

Ok after a lot of fiddlin' around with blogger I've managed to get the slideshow working. I'm really sorry if I did swap with you and you don't see it in the slideshow (they took quite a time to photograph and upload) but I can assure you I loved every single one I received and they'll ALL be pride of place on my display boards.

Here's a few that stood out for me....

Maria Angie Dimenna

Unfortunately there was no name on this bag

ETA - Joanne pointed out to me that the name was inside the bag. Doh! I never thought to look. lol

Made by Anette Grunke

Andrea Meister

Ilona Kozok

Moira Mcilroy

A big thank you to everyone for such wonderful creations. Can't wait for next year now!

Tfl,

Jo :)

General Swaps

With this horrendous weather going on outside I should be crafting today but instead I'm having a huge clearout of my sons bedroom. It's got so bad I can't see the carpet anymore and I'm fed up of tripping over things. We're going to Ikea tomorrow to get one of the Expedit units so I can at least have things off the floor. I'm about half way there with the sorting so whilst I'm having a break from this hideous chore, I thought I'd pop on and show you the rest of my swaps I made for Convention.

This last card I made in another colour combo but as it was the night before I didn't get to take a photo. The top two cards are made with Trendy Trees and the bottom two, Live Your Dream. The swaps I recieved are all ready to be uploaded but I'm trying to think of the best way to show you. They'll take forever to upload so tomorrow I may show a few of my faves and put the rest onto a slideshow...if I can work out how to do it. Right, must get on before I ditch the cleaning altogether. Tfl, Jo :)

Convention Cardy Candy Swaps

I spent an hour today taking photos of the swaps I received from last weekend. I did the majority but there's loads and they're ALL fabulous!

For now though I'll show the Card Candy - this was an organised swap on ILWS. I joined two groups and we had to make 10 packs consisting of 6 pieces of card candy for each group. We all chose a different set and as I mentioned before in a previous post, it wasn't easy. Needless to say I haven't a clue why we all worried, they're absolutely amazing!

We exchanged Candy swaps on the Saturday lunch time and there was a huge interest in what everyone had created. Monica came over to have a look and asked if the French Demos could take some pics. From then on our table was swamped with Demos! lol I'm really glad that happened because we spoke to so many UK, French and German demos, exchanged emails and swapped more cards. Lunch passed way to quickly and I know I keep harping on, but it was fantastic to speak to so many lovely people.

So, here we go. Card Candy for the European Convention 2009....

Elaine's Baroque Motifs

Maria's Simply Said

Emma's Forest Friends

Maria's Darling Dots

Jenny's Trendy Trees Jane's Circle of Friendship

Joanne's Nursery Necessities

Su's Pocket Silhouettes

Karin's Hello Again

Jenny's Season of Joy Shaz's Scandinavian Season

Kirsteen's Punch Art

Tricia's One of a Kind Joanne's Flower Art

Bekka's Pocket Silhouettes My Darling Dots

My Mr & Mrs

Tfl and see you soon with some of the General Swaps.

Jo :)

Convention Display Boards

I'm playing catch up yet again with life in the real world so please bare with me for a few days. For now though here's some of the beautiful creations I photographed on the Display Boards....

Isn't this board game amazing!?!

How clever are those little paper cones made into flowers.

Very adorable baby shoes.

This clock is stunning.

Such a pretty Christmas Tree made by Charlotte Harding

And a very neat little bag made by Shellie.

That's it for now. Next job is to take pics of the amazing swaps I received.

Tfl,

Jo :)

I'm back from Convention!

I'm back and what a fantastic time I've had! Honestly I don't know where to start but as it's late (only been back a few hours) here's a few photo's I took.

This first one is Jenny, Maria and myself at the bar on Thursday night.

Jenny with Chris from Demo Support.

A fantastic one of Maria and Chris together.

And this one I absolutely love of my very special friend Jules and I. Now this lady has worked amazingly hard over the last year and has so many awards I can't remember them all, but the most important one I would guess, is that she is the 2nd Top Demonstrator in the UK!!! Well done my fabulous friend up North, you so deserve it!

And of course Jenny also won numerous awards, the biggest being for Top Sales! Both these ladies are off to Monaco next June as their reward for such hard work and I'm green with envy!! lol

I've had such a blast over the last few days meeting so many fabulous Demo's, laughing and forming true friendships, I can't express enough how brilliant it's been. I will be posting more pictures over the week not just of people but of the amazing swaps I've received, so please pop back again soon.

Need some sleep now but tfl and see you tomorrow.

Jo :)

General Swaps

I was planning to make at least 100 general swaps for Convention but sadly time got the better of me and I only made 70. Here's just a couple of my designs..... I have a few more to show you but I think I'll save them till I'm back. I'm all stamped out now! I will be home late tonight (Sunday) and through the week I hope to post some photos of the weekends events. Thanks for stopping by while I've been away and TFL! Jo :)