sugar and spice

Hello to all For my project this time I have made a LO on canvas. I wanted to make a handmade gift for my sister I started with a plain canvas which I sprayed with Glimmer mist. I wanted the photo to be the main focus of the LO so I wanted to keep the papers/card simple. I layered Pink papers and cards and I used a page of an acrylic book which I coloured using alcohol inks. I used blooms and buttons as embellishments. I also stamped onto the canvas using Stazon ink in pink to match the theme of the LO I used the scrolls from the WEDDING INVITES stamps and I used the SCRIBBLE SENTIMENTS wording to stamp along the bottom of the canvas. I hope you like x x

Well i'm hoping that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and looking forward to the New Year? I hadnt had much time for crafting over Christmas, but had to make this little cracker, i made some to put some little presents in, I used some spotty cardstock and set of stamps that Marion has designed. Onto the cardstock i stamped the little trees randomly, to create an outline, that i then coloured in and used some glitter for the baubbles on the trees. I stamped out the sentiment and mounted it onto some red card, stuck that on and then finished off the ends with some ribbon (after putting anything into the cracker!) Well, i wish you all a wonderful and happy New Year, and will see you back here in the New Year with my design for next month, so till then Bye x

Hi all, from sunny and snowy Colorado where I'm staying with family for Christmas and New Year in a place called Broomfield, just outside of Denver. And yes, I travelled with a scrapbooking kit :) It's lovely here, and the shopping is marvellous! It's fun scrapping whilst away too, I brought along some essential supplies and got a chance to use my new Cricut Personal for the first time. This layout combines cutting, stamping and matting, all bread and butter techniques with some lovely silver and blue wintry colours, it's been my first white Christmas this year since I can remember and I loved it. The stamp is from the Christmas personal impressions set designed by Marion, which I've used again and again this season on cards and layouts. Here it's the centre of the large snowflake I cut and stickled within an inch of it's life. I hope 2009 has been a good year for you all, but that 2010 is even better. Don't forget to treat yourself - the Sugar and...

Well, it's not long to go now, one more sleep then the big day is with us!!  I bet most of us have been frantically trying to do all the things we need to to prepare for tomorrow recently and one of the things I've been busy making are money wallets.  The teenagers I give presents to all tend to want money as their gift these days so I make a special little wallet envelope to present their money in as I think it just adds a little extra something and they are really quick and easy to make! You can adapt the wallets for both christmas and birthday and as I've had both this month here are photos of two I've made.  The first is for christmas - I've used Luxe patterned papers, an American crafts topper and the happy stamp from the scribble flowers set which I've stamped in perfect medium ink then heat embossed using tinsel embossing powder. The second is a birthday wallet I made for a birthday gift.  I used the number and part of greeting stamps...

........ this little project is a Christmas present..... This little nifty project was made from a little calender kit I had hanging around in my stash and loads of scraps. I used the fab Fat n Funky alpha stamps again as its not often that you get numbers in an alpha set and you know how much I love em! I couldn't resist using these Number and days of the month stickers. Now lets hope my hubby is happy with the results! Hope everyone has a really super Christmas and I'll see you in 2010! Love n bugs Nina x

Well its nearly upon us, just four days to go. And still I find that I am short on hand made cards. People expect them now. So here are three simple black and white Christmas cards with just a hint of colour. I love the three designs of Christmas tree's that Marion has used in her clear Christmas stamp sets. For this one, I stamped and cut out the three Christmas trees, added a different coloured gem for the top of each one and mounted them on the card with foam pads. My card was too narrow for "With Love" sentiment from the Christmas scribble writing set, so I chopped it in half. Each word then sat perfectly between the trees. I left two thirds of the next two cards with "white Space", stamping on the bottom third only. For this card I stamped straight onto the card and again on another piece of card, cutting out two trees which I then mounted using foam pads. This time I added clear gems to the smaller trees and cerise gems to the larger to look like bauble...

Thanks to Jayne johnson for showing us these little gems, I did a video so that I can share with you..... Enjoy xx

Hi everyone, how exciting it's nearly christmas and I'm in my usual chaotically organised state. Here's a little card I made today, it's a 'thinking of you' card for a husband of a dear friend, who has been in hospital. I personally find cards for men sometimes a bit daunting and today I used a dreaded topper, (but sometimes it soooooo needs to be done). By stamping a boarder the plain white card is transformed and adds a more personal touch, and finally this lovely thinking of you stamp is from a fab sugar and spice stamp set called Happy Birthday Flowers. Here's wishing everyone a very happy christmas and a fab crafting new year Bye for now P x

Firstly apologies for being a day late, This time of year means my life gets a little mad I have started to arrange my 30th birthday party and yes folks you've guessed it....I'm making my own invites! I wanted a simple design that I could repeat quickly and easily. Of course I went for pink!!!! I used the SUGAR AND SPICE CLEAR STAMPS FAT & FUNKY ALPHA I stamped the word PARTY using a pink stazon ink, then I mounted this onto a piece of cardstock. I also used the scribble flower from the SCRIBBLE FLOWERS CLEAR STAMPS set as an embellishment, you could change this to suit the invite as SUGAR AND SPICE have some lovely stamps including cup cakes. This was stamped onto card and hand cut. I added a little button to the flower. You could add glitter or bling. Hope you like x x Now I'm off to start my next project......My Stamped Canvas

Hi Ladies. This will be my last design blog posting before Christmas, so here's my card to you. Using the Personal Impressions Stamp set "Tis the Season", designed by our own lovely Marion Emberson, I stamped the trees on a scrap of bazzill using pearlescent ivy ink, the phrase on another scrap - this time using swiss dot bazzill and versa fine ink which I edged in glamour dust. I covered the background with a white stamped snowflake. All of these stamps are in the pack, it's such a handy one to have. Adding a bit more glamour dust to the trees and a shiny bling star to the top of the largest completes the look. I used foam pads to create more layers and finished it off with a length of sparkly silver ribbon. I hope you like it, and I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very sparkly New Year. My next posting, on the 27th, will be coming to you from the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado. I am planning to share a snowy layout with you -...

Now I know everyone is in the Christmas mood but some people still have birthdays you know! This cute card was made from yummy Kraft card and envelope packs which we have in the shop. I have always been a lover of Kraft card and now they are super fashionable I can use it until my hearts content! Now you don't have to use a card as it is, you can chop it up a little too. Boarder punches are wonderful for this and have come a long way from the wacky scissors we used to use to make out edges pretty. So to show off my beautifully scalloped edge I need to cut my card back a bit. To tie in with my 'Sew Cool' motif I used the Cute as a Button stitch stamp. I am quite a confident straight line pen stitcher but when it come to wiggly lines this goes down hill so using the stamp was a perfect solution. Then finishing off with these wonderful gems. Gotta have a bit of bling! Taa Daa! I also wanted to share with you some goings on in the shop recently. As Marion is away in Vegas we...

I love about stamps is their versatility.  Once purchased you can use your stamp again and again, in a variety of different ways and colours and best of all, you can find so many ways of using them on your projects.  As it's getting closer and closer to christmas I thought it would be fun to make a LO which recorded my families  2009 christmas wish list.  I chose my papers using several different patterns from the paper salon 'dazzle' range.  I used a number of sugar and spice stamps on my LO.  I wanted the list to be the focus of the page so cut a 5 x7.5" piece of cardstock, wrote out our list on the bottom using the small numbers from the Alpha set.  As I wanted to record the year I reached for the number stamps from the 'Happy birthday with a cherry on top' and whilst doing so noticed that the frosting stamp could also be used to give a great falling snow effect - so versatile!  I used a white ink pad and stamped the f...

Christmas is just around the corner. I cant wait, but also wish the days were longer so that I can fit everything in. This month I have chosen to do a layout based around the word Joy. The pictures are my niece an nephew who have brought this family so, so much Joy. So coupled with the Christmas terms for Joy, my layout was born. I layers two pieces of cardstock, first cutting an inch off two sides of the green. I then stamped the small snowflake from the Sugar and spice Christmas Stamps around the edge of the red card using an Essential Glue Pad and Glamour Dust. I drew a boot shape on a piece of white paper and went around the shape in a thick black marker pen so that it would bleed through to the back of the paper. This allowed me to see the shape on the reverse side. I then punched out squares of red and gold glitter paper and stuck them alternately onto the white paper with double sided tape. I then turned it over and cut out the shape of the boot. I did struggle as to where to ...

Hi everyone, I know everyone is christmas crazy at the moment, but like many other people this is one of my busiest birthday times. This one 'obviously' is for my sister. I love the monochrome look, but by adding a little colour the appearance totally changes. For the wording 'sister' I used the fab Fat and Funky Alpha stamps and then cut them out free hand. I actually colour tinted the flowers from white to red using an ink pad, adapting things you already have is a great way to save money. The card is completed with a simple Happy Birthday message stamp, and then by adding a little gem stone for the dot on the i gives great dimension. Warm Christmas wishes and Happy crafting P x

Hello All For my project this week I have made a little easy make card. Now we all know diamonds are a girls best friend so I wanted to make a card with plenty of bling! I made the card by layering 2 pieces of pink card stock onto a card blank, this can be done in any sizes. Its a great way of using up any old scraps you might have laying around. I then stuck a diamond flower to another piece of card and cut it out. This was then stuck onto the card. By sticking it on separately I could then shape the flower and slightly bend the petals. Right now for the fun part.... The stamping I used the 'With Love' stamps from the SCRIBBLE SENTIMENTS CLEAR STAMPS and stamped this around the edge of the card. This can be done with any stamp to change the theme of the card. I used a pink StazOn to match my cardstock. I hope you like my card, it can be adapted to any occasion including christmas, you just have to change the bling flower to something Christmassy!! See you again soon Louise x ...

Hi All My project this week comes straight from one of Marions Mega Crafting days. She showed us how to make this fantastic box from just one sheet of paper. They would make great place settings for a Christmas dinner appropriately decorated and filled with chocolate coins or other goodies. I used the now iconic cupcake stamp with lots and lots of stickles and offcuts of paper and ribbon I had in my stash. To make the box itself all it takes is a scoring blade and a few folds, then some double sided tape to hold it all together. I used the threading water punch to make the scalloped edge on the top. They're filled with sweeties, intended for the PJ Crop a couple of weeks ago, however, an attack of the numpties meant I remembered to take everything else BUT these boxes. The best laid plans and all that.... I hope your Christmas preparations are going well. All the best and happy scrapping.

Well, the christmas fever hasn't quite hit me yet, it's there in the back of my mind, a kind of whisper that 'I need to start to make my cards and think about shopping for / making gifts' but I haven't done anything about it yet - so this year will probably the the same as all the others in that it'll be another last minute frantic dash to do everything LOL! So nothing christmassy from me yet, but I do have a birthday card to share.  I always find it harder to design and make cards for males - female cards seem to flow much easier for some reason.  So when it was time to make a card for my Dad, I thought I would use my sugar and spice stamps for inspiration and reached for the 'In a word set' .  These stamps are great to use on occasion cards and I used the happy birthday stamp to both stamp the sentiment and to make the centre piece embellishment.  I made this by stamping with red staz on ink onto a transparency sheet then die cutting the ...

Well I have seen the Coke advert and heard several song which have jingle bells in, so it must be that time of year - CHRISTMAS! Now for all those people who know me will know that when the tough gets going, the tough goes on a list in a note book! I couldn't live without one. So I had to make this............ Now making your own note book might seem a bit long winded especially as you can go and buy one but this way you can be in control of how big it is, how many pages you put in it and the most importantly, what it looks like! The Bind it all is perfect for making note books but if you don't have one then book rings or ribbons would do the job just as well and I felt the stitching gave it a homely rustic feel. The good ole Sugar and Spice Alphabet stamps come up trumps again for giving a neat and tidy look when stamping on my tabs and who could resist scribble word but with a Christmas touch? Fabby!! So now I have shared it with you I can get writing my lists, my wish list...

Five weeks and a bit to go and my head is spinning with the thought of gift ideas. After making homemade jams and chutneys, presenting them is a job in itself, but a little help with some fab stamps makes it all a little easier. For my lid cover I used a christmas sentiment stamp and a snowflake stamp from designs created by Marion Emberson at sugar and spice. Funky alpha stamps are great for labels and by adding glossy accents gives great dimension. And finally a tag finishes off the gift bag, I stamped this Ho Ho Ho with a glue pad and then covered with gold glamour dust. Bye for now and happy crafting for christmas P x