Could I please ask that anyone visiting my blog, could join my new blog at carolinescraftsandmore blogspot It looks very sad and lonely at the moment. Thank You. :)

Had a funny weekend this weekend, missed my hubby on Saturday as I was at an all day regional training event with Stampin' Up and then had a hen night in the evening. Then on Sunday he had silly golf in the afternoon, which is unusual because he normally plays nice and early on a Sunday morning and then we have the afternoon together. Having said all that, did I have fun and become totally inspired at the training event? you bet I did. It was great, raucous and fun, with loads of ideas and inspiration. We had a pre event challenge to make either a 6x6 scrapbook layout or a card, and I chose the layout of course and worked with the fabby Attic Boutique again. These events are great for doing swaps and some ladies made enough for every member of their team and others did enough for everyone there at the event (75) Wow, that's some hard work, I made a feeble attempt and did ten, I really need to get in training for these challenges :) Anyway, here is a picture of my layout and ...

Perhaps I'll add some bling ! Had time to do a little scrapbooking today, I flew through my first page and then decided to try the gorgeous Stampin Up papers Attic Boutique. They are really on trend and have lovely eclectic images that you can cut out and use. i love close cutting in my scrapbooking, so was really happy when these were released in the new summer mini. I've used a photo of my great niece Nia when she was almost new born two years ago.  A closer look!

Something new and exciting is coming your way! From 1 May, creativity becomes even more customisable for new recruits with the New Demonstrator Starter Kit! This new lower-priced, fully customisable kit gives you  the perfect start your way ! For just £99, new demonstrators get to choose up to £130 worth of any current Stampin’ Up! products—stamps, accessories, tools, and more! Each kit will also include a business supplies pack valued at £45, for a total kit value of £175. Better yet? The kit still ships for free! I love the "your way" concept with Stampin'Up!, there's no pressure, you can become a hobby demonstrator meaning you order for your self and family, with no obligation to carry out parties or classes, and you receive 20% off all of your orders. If you want to receive Stampin'Up! products at a discount, then why not sign up today and take advantage of this new lower priced starter kit :)

There is a gorgeous stamp set in the catalogue called Everything Eleanor, this set is so versatile and so beautiful, you can't fail to make a pretty card with it, I saw this one on Google and because I only had a little time today, I decided to copy, just need to add a sentiment. :) I used crumbcake and white card, pool party card for the butterflies and old olive and pool party ink. The small flower is from the fresh vintage set. These are samples I have copied from the new Summer Mini Brochure.

Well I had a hectic few weeks prior to the retreat and not through retreat work, but family commitments, I'll refer back to them later, but I just have to tell you all about the Scrapstars weekend retreat. I had a fab time (except for the fact that we only had 5 hours sleep on Friday and Saturday night) if I seemed a little "grey" on Sunday, that is the reason, but everything else went superbly. That's what you get when you deal with a bunch of professional, so my thanks go out to the wonderful teachers, Lida, Kirsty, Emma and Jolan. Their projects were fantastic and the ladies were a fantastic bunch again, we had 5 newbies, and they all said they had a fantastic time and asked "when's the next one". We even managed to sort any lighting problems with some funky lights that my husband hired for me, although I did suggest to the girls that they might like to alter the bases as a challenge as they were a little ugly ! Also thanks to Kate and Nicky from Bel...

I can't believe i have a stinkin cold, mind you better this week than next. I have just had a little break in Portugal, and haven't been near anyone but my hubby Craig so I think I have picked this little bug up from the plane on the way home, that's what you get from sharing your air with 300+ people! Never mind it's not too bad but my throat is sore too. I have had a busy few weeks and haven't done much crafting :( but I am on the home straight for the April retreat on the 20th, it means i am going to have a busy week and a half up to the 20th but then as well as being the organiser, I will be able to join in with the classes, and create some amazing projects :) Just before i went away i also completed my first Stampin Up workshop woop woop, thanks to my friend Val for holding it for me, and thanks to Lesley for helping me at it. It went really well and two more ladies have booked workshops for May and June. I will post some pictures a little later of some bits a...

I think i may have a sore throat tomorrow, i have been on a chat-a-thon over the last few days ! I met Kirsty at her favourite coffee shop yesterday and i think we had a bout a three hour catch up and of course spent some time talking about Scrapstars :) Then today i went to meet my friend Val for lunch and we chatted from 12 - 3, straight from there I went to see my mate Claire so from around 3.15 to 8.15 yes a straight five hours, Claire and i were catching up. Craig can't believe that women can get together and talk for five hours straight! It's always the same when i see Claire, I usually go straight from work and stay from about 5 - 10 and Craig is always amazed, i just say "I could have been there until midnight and we still wouldn't have run out of things to say"! It's good to catch up with friends, and even though we don't get to see each other as often as we would like, we just pick up where we left off, it's great, love you guys. :)

I cant believe how long it's been since I blogged but i have been consumed with work and the fast approaching Scrapstars retreat. Things have been pretty grim at work, with the recession hitting hard and work being very thin on the ground. We have had to carry out redundancies and i have found myself (very reluctantly) promoted to personnel department (just me with a little help from my colleague Mel). It has been grim following the redundancy procedure at our factory in Liverpool and has meant me putting a lot of extra days in at work, last week I worked every day, Yes, that was a shock to the system, it's been a while !!!! Anyway, my solace has been my crafting and (ignoring most of the housework last week) in the few snatched half hours here and there that I did have, I did my best to switch off with a bit of crafting. I have been making lots of cards, yes cards !!!! for my Stampin Up demos, and have also managed to do a scrapbook layout with Stampin Up papers. This is not ...

Well for those of you who know me through the medium of craft, you will know i have never been much of a cardmaker, well as you can see from my 4th Feb post, "I have gone over to the dark side" and am totally hooked on Stampin Up. I mentioned we had a great time at my workshop/party with a great mixture of friends from different parts of my life, many who had never met before but it was a great night, great atmosphere and great Demo. So I have signed up! Yes me to be an Independent Stampin Up Demonstrator. Today was my induction with Julie and three other ladies, it was great, with a real team spirit and julie is a great mentor (or up line in Stampin Up speak) Julie also provided our lunch and brought these lovely cupcakes from her great friend Mel https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Cupcakes-by-Mel/153344434749199  Don't know if that will work, i haven't added links before. Here's a picture.

Well I know these papers are a little old, but I've had them a while and just keep touching and stroking them! On Wednesday a new crafting friend Janine came to my house, she's a brand new scrapbooker (well she's done a little bit) and I had two sheets of the main paper and a few sheets of the rest of the collection. I put one in front of Janine and asked "does this scare you to death" her answer was yes, this looks like advanced scrapbooking. So we worked simultaneously with me instructing Janine and both of us creating this layout. Janine was really happy with hers and I have a few finishing touched to add to mine like were I will place the little cream flowers and the bling, oh and what photo to add!! The collection is called Butterfly Garden. I love the little cupid fairy note card at the top right and can't wait to work with the pieces of paper I have left over.....................................

Well you probably saw from my last post I had a stampin up party, well a few of us decided it would be a good idea to make the weekend even better (in a creative way) to have a little kitchen table retreat on Saturday. So Lesley and Kathy slept over, and we continued to craft on Saturday until the girls were snowed off! Here is what I managed to make, thanks to Kathy for supplying the template.

Well as my friend Sarah put on facebook, I have crossed over to the dark side! I have never been a card maker, i think I have made two under duress ever. Julie Kettlewell a great stampin up demonstrator came to my Scrapstars retreat last September and did make n takes on the Saturday evening. I was so busy running around, I hardly had chance to look at anything, but Robyn talked me into buying an owl punch. I haven't even had it out of the bag, but Julie rang me in the new year and asked me if I would have a party, I don't normally like to have these parties as I never think I can get anyone to come and I don't like my friends to feel pressured into buying. BUT It was a great evening, everyone joined in, we had a great atmosphere and everyone enjoyed themselves. Thanks Julie, and thanks to everyone for coming. These are cards I made at julie's class the week before the party.

Don't know If you've ever had a look at the online shop the fruit pixie? Kirsty (Wiseman) put me onto it and the great thing is she has a pound shop. I was talking about downloading images to slip in the back of your layouts and build up little 3D corners on a page. These old fashioned cigarette cards work a treat and you get about 50 for £1. When you go on the site you just scroll down the page and select £1 shop.

So above is my other scrap lift I did a few weeks back, it's the same as a layout in issue 59 (Nov) of Scrapbook magazine. When i saw it, I was going to do a page of Robyn as her and Chris went to Butlins with some friends in October. I changed my mind when I went on google looking for some images as I was inspired to use photo's of my mum and dads honeymoon, yes I know, very romantic, they went to Butlins at Skegness! So talking about scraplifts again, who can actually hold there hand up and say "I did that first" and what does it matter. We all see things in magazines, learn techniques at classes and have eureka moments. We learnt some lovely background techniques from Emma Trout with spritzing and acrylic paints at Scrapstars and I noticed a lot of people using those techniques now. A lot of people say "oh she learnt that from XYZ" what does it matter really, your then using a technique in your style adapting to suit your own layout and in my case, I al...

So I was talking in my last post about stash busting and the great images you can download from google, (on to a piece of white or cream cardstock, Bobs your uncle). Sometimes when you loose your scrapping mojo, it's great to look at galleries on UKS, or someones blog or flip through a magazine. I sometimes put post its in pages in magazines and write on the top, "holiday" or "baby" or "Christmas" so that i can pick a mag up, look at the post it tabs across the top, and pick a theme i feel like scrapping. So when is a scraplift a scraplift, well I would say, when it's an exact copy of a layout, often I will start a scraplift and go off on a complete tangent, other times i will stay true to the original layout, sometimes I start with the same colours and it ends up looking nothing like the original. When i start with a scraplift and it ends up fairly different, I call those my "Inspired By", they've been inspired by someone elses layou...

I was really surprised to see a thread on UKS about 10 days ago asking them to set up a forum or group especially to follow a stash diet. It surprised me as UKS is funded by sponsors who are on there to try and drum up business and get people to spend! Do we need a forum to help us "stash diet" or do we need to just show a little self restraint? In an attempt to be good myself at the moment, i have decided that if i join in with a document life type project this year, i am not going to buy a kit to complete it. Last year i opted for the "Life Stories" kit, they have a lovely website if anyone is struggling to find something like that for a year long project. This year I'm going to revert back to the Shimelle Document 2010 format, and use up anything that i have lying around that fits with my photo's each month, I'll keep you posted. I also have to say another great way to stash bust is to get images from Google. I have been hooked on the Glitz whatnots ...

Well here's what i managed to get done on Friday, I haven't quite finished the page, may add some fancy brads and of course a photo would be good (I just slipped the piece of red card in for now), but haven't decided which one yet. It doesn't look like much but I did cut round all the little blue dots down the left and the red dots across the bottom. On New Years Eve I also performed a miracle ....... this will make my nearest and dearest laugh, I finally cleared the large table in the lounge after being a naughty girl and having it covered in stash for about 3 months. My hubby is very understanding bless him. :)