It's the 'Hoot' in Holt Hoot!

Another quickie tonight to show you the Owl card we made at the 'Hoot'. I must give a HUGE thanks to Brenda Quintana for allowing me to teach this as it was her original design - tinkered with just a little to come up with this. It's always good to ask when you see these things whilst blog hoppin'..... ;) Now this isn't just a plain old card, it's a pop up! Love him just peeping through the tree.... There wasn't much stamping done during the day but it's fun to do something a little different - all with SU! products of course, and everyone loved the projects...phew! I've more photos to show you soon of the fantastic entries to the 'Crafters Choice' competition. Outstanding they were!

These All Day Events take quite some time in preparing and organising and I like to keep them exclusive to those that come along and pay for the privilege. The time in takes in taking photos, writing instructions is huge and I've had to make the decision that I will keep this to the bare bones even for those that attend. Having myself to hand for guidance and the samples available to see is well worth the experience along with all the added extras I provide to make it a really special day. I hope you'll understand why I won't be selling the instructions or doing tutorials on my blog for any of the projects that I do for these events - I post it on here purely for inspiration. Thanks for your understanding and I will still post other tutorials.

If you like the sound of my All Day Events then read on...

1 Day Retreat

on

Saturday 10th September

If you fancy a full day of crafting from early morning till late at night, then keep an eye out for more details coming soon.

I've ideas for classes already which you're going to love!

It's going to be fun! See ya soon, Jo

Happy Easter!

It's all been a bit quiet here over the last week and that's because I've been away with my boys re-charging my batteries. After last Sunday's Holt Hoot! we left for Legoland first thing on Monday morning literally throwing a few clothes in a bag, transporting Chaz off to my mum's and away we went. I left the house looking like we'd been burgled! We had a 2 day pass at Legoland so we stayed over at a gorgeous Hotel nearby for a couple of nights and returned on Wednesday evening. I would like to say at this point that I was feeling back to myself but oh no...2 days at Legoland and I was even more exhausted! It was an experience without a doubt... Since I've been back I've stayed in the holiday mood and caught up with sleep and family time finishing off today with an Easter Egg Hunt this morning, a lovely walk on the beach, a relaxing drink at the Marina and then home for a fantastic buffet at my MIL's...heaven! Anyway, back to crafting. Would you like to see another of the projects we made last week at the Holt Hoot!? Love, love, LOVE these super cute treat boxes!! The projects weren't all with the Owl Punch and being so close to Easter I really wanted to make something Eastery. These treat boxes were inspired from something I saw on Maria's blog which was a name place she'd made. When I saw them a treat box immediately sprang to mind. Everyone made both of these boxes along with a basket which I will share over the next few days. The pictures I took of it are pretty poor so I'll get some better ones taken tomorrow and I'll also show you the Owl project. Right, more catching up to do. Enjoy the rest of your Easter! Jo :)

Super Duper Holt Hoot!

And what a hoot it was! Here's one of the projects everyone made - a cute bag charm. Love him!Just a very quicky post tonight as I'm pooped after 2 events in a week. Thank you to everyone that came along and for making it such a fantastic day. A massive thank you must also go to my wonderful mum for providing us with a delicious buffet as usual and my fantastic friend and downline Julie for helping out - I couldn't of done it without you both! I'll be back later in the week with more photos of what everyone created (the projects have an Easter theme) but for now I'm having a few days off from crafting to spend with my boys. See ya soon! Jo

Is it a Plane?

Last month I went to a Stampin' Up! Regional Training Event at Fareham which was just before the launch of the Mini Catalogue. I love these events - we get to meet up with Demo's from other areas, swap samples, win prizes, learn lots of new techniques and business ideas as well as hear all about new exciting things coming in the world of SU! At this particular training session it was about the Mini and as you can imagine, we were very excited - we hadn't seen the Mini up until this point. Anyway, there was lots of new samples on the boards using Mini products but one particular card stood out for me using 'Plane & Simple'. I took lots of photos of all the samples and of course I had to re-create this one. My version is almost to the exact original which had a french sentiment. I've no idea who made it but isn't it a beauty?!?! At first I couldn't work out where the map paper had come from but it's in the Newspaper DSP on the reverse of the music sheet. A bit of colourwashing to give it a bit of ageing, a few torn bits plus that wonderful colour sprizter and it was easy.

I'm really pleased SU! have introduced more masculine sets this time. With a house full of boys I think they'd appreciate something like this instead of hearts & flowers which is what they get now, whether they like it or not...he hee.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo

Langside School Charity Fundraiser

Well it's all over and what a fantastic day we had! Lots of photo's to share, all taken by Julie as Id forgotten to bring my camera - I knew I'd forget something! Thank you Julie for bringing yours along and taking such fabulous pictures! Haskins were absolutely wonderful in allowing us to use this room for our event and it really was a fantastic room - so light, airy and spacious - the perfect facilities, and everyone was so helpful in providing everything we needed. Julie, Helen and myself have been planning this for weeks and it was a bit of the unknown as to how well we would do. We needn't of worried though as it all went to plan. My dear Mum was at the door to meet and greet people - she's such a sweetie and should be on comission for all the help she gives me - bless her. Love ya Mum - mwah! Here were our display boards with lots of samples we'd made ourselves along with others we'd picked up from demonstrators at other events. There was plenty to see.

We had a handmade items for sale table. This photo was was taken before we had finished setting up but you can see some of the items we had for sale. Julie had made some gorgeous little notepads, I'd decorated some rulers, made hairbands and brooches. Julie had also made the oh so cute sheep bookmarks and I'd made the monster ones and froggies. The bookmarks went down a storm! In fact all the handmade items did. We had a Free Door Prize Draw to win an exclusive Stampin' Up! bag, ruler and a stamp set.

There were 15 prizes for the raffle!! ALL donated. A HUGE thank you to Karen & Phillip Kebby of Churchview Joinery, Wimborne for donated the 2nd prize of £40 Stampin' Up! vouchers (you can visit Karen's blog here). Another MASSIVE thank you to Glyn & Lyn Bagley for also donating 4 other prizes to the raffle plus a cash donation and 2 bottles of wine donated by a customer of Karen's. First prize was for over £100 worth of Stampin' Up! Products, second Prize - £40 Stampin' Up! Voucher, Third Prize - £25 Haskins Voucher donated by Haskins, plus lots of other Stampin' Up! and gift items. We held the draw at the end of the day and here are the winners. 1st Prize - Mrs Tarrant, Southampton 2nd Prize - Sandie Smith, Salisbury 3rd Prize - Mrs Vivian, Poole 4th Prize - Anna Keegan, Bournemouth 5th Prize - Wendy Goldsack, Bournemouth 6th Prize - Rachel Tattum, Bournemouth 7th Prize - J Bowater, Bournemouth 8th Prize - Eleanor Clifford, Christchurch 9th Prize - Mrs P Cox, Bournemouth 10th Prize - J Radouis, Dorchester 11th Prize - Joyce Taylor, Bournemouth 12th Prize - G Tics 13th Prize - A Boyce, Ferndown 14th Prize - M Green, Wimborne 15th Prize - Anna Keegan, Bournemouth Through the day we also had a Make & Take table which again all the proceeds went to the charity. Julie was running this table and as usual did a grand job. Here was the Make & Take I designed...

For those that didn't have the time to wait or wanted to make more at home we made up packs to buy with instructions which was our 'Make & Take-Aways'. They went down really well and we sold all 55 of them!

We had an information table with catalogues to browse and order forms, recruitment packs and leaflets on hosting a home workshop and earning FREE products for being a Hostess. And finally we had our Demo table. Here's Helen setting up...Helen and I were demonstrating the Big Shot - our new favourite toy. If you've been following my blog over the past week you can probably guess what I demo'd. The plan was to demo the Milk Carton Die but with my lovely daisies and Bonnet on the table it was rude not to get my Daisy Die out and show how I put them together. If you're new to my blog you can see what I've created here and here along with a tutorial. Helen used the very gorgeous Wallpaper Embossing Folder and Fun Flowers Die along with the buttons sizzlits.

And the final amount we raised for Langside School and their Mini Bus Fund was....

£370!!!

So all in all it was a fantastic day! The weather was absolutely glorious and obviously everyone was out making the most of the beautiful weather in the afternoon but even so, the end result was well worth all the effort we had all put into raising money for such a worthwhile cause.

Myself, Julie, Helen and my Mum would like to thank everyone who came along and supported us on Sunday- customers, fellow demonstrators, Langside School staff & pupils and everyone that came in by chance to see what we were up to. We chatted with so many people through the day and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely!

Thank you for sticking with me on this very looooong post. I'm full swing now for this Sunday's Holt Hoot!!! See you real soon! Jo

Easter Bonnet

I promise this will be the last post (for now) on the Flower Daisy #2 Die. I really do need to get back to some stamping despite my lovely Big Shot luring me all the time.

Ok, so here's my creation I made at the weekend. With all the lovely Easter bits and bobs in the shops right now, I knew I wanted to make a bonnet. I wasn't going to go so mad on the daisies but once I got going I couldn't stop! They were all glued on with a hot gun by the way. For the tutorial on how I put them together with stems, please see my post below here.

the back

the front

I've also used the scallop edge punch to create texture round the edge of the bonnet.

Right, that's me for a few days now. I'm flat out with prep for Sunday. If you're in the Dorset and surrounding areas this Sunday 10th April, please pop in to Haskins Garden Centre, Ferndown and say hello. We've stack loads of samples on our display boards, a very cute Make & Take, Big Shot Demonstrations and a fantastic Raffle with loads of prizes which have been donated. First prize is over £100 worth of Stampin' Up products and that's just for starters! ALL the profits from the day will be going to Langside School and we hope to make them a sizeable donation at the end of it.

Haskins have a wonderful Restaurant where you can park the husband (they do a scumptious tea and cake - tried and test by myself), there's a play area outside for the kids, what more could you ask for.

Hope to see you there!

Jo

Flower Daisy #2 Die Tutorial

Ok then. I've done the photos and as I've a never ending 'to-do-list' before Sunday's event, I thought I'd get this on the blog for you to start creating asap. Plus I'm the worlds worst for being sidetracked so as promised, here it is. Firstly you will need to die cut 2 of the large, 2 medium and 3 small daisies. If you don't know what the die looks like, all three sizes are on the one die. I actually cut my pieces of c/s for each flower which were 10x10cm for the large one, 7x7cm for the medium and 5x5cm for the small. I found it much easier that way especially as I had loads to cut. Also I cut 2-3 at a time of the same flower and that's the beauty of the Big Shot, it easily cuts through layers. Glue each of the flower sizes together as shown. I used a little tombow around the edge of the centres. Turn the largest flower over,punch a 1" circle and stick on the back. Then punch a 1/2" circle and stick to the top of the smallest daisy. Glue all 3 daisies together and then stick 3 dimensionals on top of each other in the centre, leaving the top bit of the dimensional on for now. Turn the daisy over and with a mat pack underneath, pierce a hole all the way through with a pokey tool - including through the dimensionals. I then used a skewer as my stem and just nicked off the very top so it wasn't too pointy and skewered my daisy. You will feel the top of the skewer on the other side but that's ok, it won't show at all when this is completed. At this stage I would shape the petals. The next bit is for the centre of your daisy. Punch a 3/4" circle and using the mat pack and the end of your pokey tool, press hard and in a circle to shape your paper into a dome. You could always use an embossing tool if you had one or even the end of a pen. The more you press around the outside edge of the cirlce the more domed it will become. Pop this onto your dimensional. Add a fairly generous amount of Crystal Effects.... ...and sprinkle with Dazzling Diamonds. Be careful when shaking the DD off, the Crystal Effects will still be runny. If you've not used it before it will take about 20 mins to go off but leave for a good few hours before it's completely dry.

And that's your flower done.

For the stem and fronds I cut 4 very thin strips of c/s - approximately the length of A4. Three of them I attached to some cellotape. The picture isn't very clear on this but hopefully you get the gist.

Wrap them around the skewer and just above the cellotape add a glue dot. Attach your 4th strip of c/s to the glue dot and wrap arond the skewer. Continue to wrap to the bottom and secure with another glue dot. Voila! All done! It might be better to do your fronds first and that way you won't have to wait for the crystal effects to dry. The daisy heads can easily be removed so you could change them when you want, transport them without breaking, and they will always look 'fresh as a daisy!!!'

Enjoy making and please link back here to say where you saw the tutorial.

Have fun!

Jo

Wanna see?

Today it's just a sneaky peek of something I've made with the gorgeous Flower Daisies #2 Die. I'm taking the pics now for a quick tutorial tomorrow on how I put the flowers together from this post here .

Flower Daisies #2 is from the new MINI Catalogue, page 7 at £16.95. You can view the catalogue from my right hand sidebar or click here to take you straight to it. Better than that, contact me at jodumbleton@aol.co.uk to have a lovely new copy sent to flick through at your leisure.

See you tomorrow!

Flower Daisy Die #2

E.T.A. I've had so many emails and questions of how I put these together, I'll do a quick tutorial in the week. Thanks for all your lovely comments!

Now I have my lovely new 'Big Shot' to play with, I can't seem to stop using it! How about these gorgeous Daisies made with the Flower Daisy #2 Die? I've also created another project with this die which I will show you soon. It will be quite a centre piece at the Haskins Charity Fundraiser next week.Jake and I had a lovely afternoon creating together. He also used the Big Shot and made 2 beautiful cards with this die - one for me and one for his Nanna. So simple but with a bit of dazzling diamonds they're really striking. I've not got any photos yet but I will take a photo of the one he gave to me tomorrow.

MINI 2011 BLOG HOP

With the Mini Catalogue going 'live' only yesterday I'm hope you're not too overwhelmed with what Stampin' Up! have given us. I still can't believe we've got the BIG SHOT! There was HUGE excitement when it was revealed to Demonstrators a month ago and with 18 of the 24 dies being exclusive to SU! I couldn't wait to get my hands on them! The Top Note Die was second on my order (first being the BS of course...oops!) - it's simply amazing what you can do with this die. If you're a regular blog hopper I'm sure you've seen stack loads of projects created from our international crafters who have had it for a couple of years now, and there'll be many more ideas to come. Anyway, hopefully this Blog Hop will give you tons of inspiration of how to use these NEW products and help you decide on what you NEED first. Or maybe you can't hold back and decide to go for a HUGE blow out?!?! If you do there are 2 NEW HOSTESS sets to choose from which are on pages 4 & 5 - they're both really lovely so why not consider that home workshop where you can earn the hostess set and other products from your wishlist for FREE?!?! So what am I showcasing today? It's the

' SPRINGTIME VINTAGE' SUITE.

I had my team training day a few weeks back and this 6x6 Mini Album is one of the projects they all made. It was designed to showcase all the products in this fantastic 'suite' . The album was called 'Mini ME' because I was going to put pictures of myself in there of when I was a little girl (many moons ago). Trouble is I can't find them on my hardrive so until then, it will have to stay blank. Here's the inside pages.... I have to say I do love this 'suite' sooo much. I've used the Springtime Vintage DSP, Baja Breeze Glass Glitter (apparently it tarnishes over time to give even more of a vintage look), the gorgeous Rose Red Seam Binding Ribbon - honestly it's to die for, so soft and silky! There's the Springtime Vintage BIG Designer Buttons - much larger than the usual buttons, AND the matching stamp set - Baby Blossoms - adorable! I've also used the Top Note Die, the Decorative Label Punch and the Perfect Polka Dot Embossing Folder. My team and myself loved making this project, I hope you've enjoyed it too. Right then, that's me for today. Onward with the prepping for next weeks Charity Event. If you're interested in attending my all day craft event on 17th April - the HOLT HOOT! please drop me an email at jodumbleton@aol.co.uk. I've literally only a few places left now. Details can be found here. To follow on with the Blog Hop please now hop on over to SUE or if you're working in reverse, go back to MICHELLE. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the HOP!