Preparations for 'stamp a stack' party!

Tonight I have some guinea pigs in the form of 8 friends who are gathering at Nicki Pope's house to make cards (hopefully 10 each). I have no idea if I've prepared well enough or how fast we'll manage to work but I'm pretty sure we'll have good fun together. I've chosen these 4 cards as they are all simple but the greetings can be changed according to what you're looking for. They are made almost exclusively with Stampin'Up! products. I'll try to take some pictures of the evening and post them tomorrow, I'll let you know how many cards we manage to get finished!

Today I'm showing you a picture of a card I received yesterday from Kate in Normandy. She'd been telling me about the 'bandana technique' and it was great to get a card showing it in reality! I've seen some samples done on orange and turquoise cardstock which gives great results also. The main image is stamped in black and then you use a white gel pen to add extra doodling. I love it, thanks Kate if you're reading this.

Weta?

Okay, thanks to Kelly, my New Zealand friend, I now know that the beast in question from Saturday's photo is called a 'Weta'. If you google Weta you can find out all about them, all I know is that it stopped me in my tracks when I saw it crossing the path! Bonne soirée.

Yahoo, the sun is out!

No crafting pictures today, it was just too sunny to stay indoors. We had to go out for a walk along the river otherwise I'd have felt obliged to do some gardening! I took my new camera and had fun taking pictures of the boys on their bikes and Ryan trying to teach Greg how to 'skim stones'. The boys have had a week doing a rugby and multisports stage but didn't seem to mind another 2 hours of exercise. I was stopped in my tracks on the way home by a strange looking insect, it was about 10 cm. long, can anyone tell me what it is???????? I'm off now to play with some new stamps I got last week as there will be no time tomorrow. We're having lunch with some French friends and dinner (barbecue hopefully) with some Irish friends, sounds like a good Sunday to me!

A scrapping afternoon in Clermont.

This afternoon was spent at Sophiebio's house in Clermont with Aline (and her daughter Zoe), Nif, Gribouilletaz and loollypapillon. We talked and ate and did a bit of stamping. We did a bit of mutual admiration for each others pages and albums and I showed off some Stampin'Up! stamps and products.

I used the stamp 'sanded' on page 58 of the catalogue to make some pieces of card stock look like certain Basic Grey papers. Here is the link to the tutorial Val found the technique on and then passed on to me. It takes about 5 mins to colour a piece of 30 x 30 card stock and is a lot of fun to do as well as useful to get the exact colours you want to match your photos. If anyone wants any more information on the technique then please get in touch.

Thank you!

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has left me comments on my blog to date. It's a pleasure to read comments from those close to you who visit often and those who are complete strangers but form part of the scrapbooking/cardmaking community. It really is a small world and I am thankful for all the new friends I have made and the fun I've had since starting cardmaking 4 years ago and more recently with the Stampin'Up! adventure.
Comments in English and in French are equally welcome, keep them coming please!
Have a good Sunday.

Mini Album for the Pochon family.

At last here are the pictures of the album that I made the other Saturday when I attended a crop animated by Sandra Charbonnel. We were pre- warned that it was going to be 'assez fleuri' with the colours pink, green and chocolate brown. I had to ask for photos of girls from my friend Julie as I don't think the boys photos would have been suitable in such a feminine album! The crop was great fun, bliss to spend a whole day alongside 20 others who love paper, inks and stamps and I've already put my name down for another one near Lyon in November. This time it's over 2 days and I'll be able to spend some time with my friend Val who is going as well. Hopefully I'll be able to use my own photos for that one!

Alice (one of the girls in the photos) asked her mum if she was going to be famous because her photo would be on my blog, she's too cute!

I've been busy getting some projects ready to take to an afternoon of scrap in Clermont tomorrow, I'll put those photos on next week. I think there will be about 6 of us and I've beeen asked to do a demonstration of Stampin'Up! products. I'm looking forward to it as I'll meet Aline again who I met the day I made the album at Auverscrap3 and Stéphanie from 'Le Coin des Passions' the scrap-booking shop in Clermont. If you click on the link to Auverscrap you'll see some photos of us all at the crop, I'm the third in from the right for anyone who doesn't know me!

Sorry for the lack of messages, we've had visitors from Scotland ........and very welcome they were too. It was good to catch up with all the news and gossip from back home, plenty of cups of tea in the past few days that's for sure.

The cards above are some that were requested by a friend whose sister had twins. She didn't want to leave out big brother so the Winnie the Pooh card is for him! The Stampin'Up! stamp set 'bonheur tout neuf' is very versatile and I've used it a lot, it's currently out on loan to a friend who is making her birth announcement cards, I'm not sure if she's doing them pink or blue!

Okay, that's it for today, the boys are on school holidays so there's not much time for blogging.

Auverscrap 3

It's about time I posted a picture I think.

Saturday I spent all day in Romagnat at my first scrapbooking 'crop'. We made a mini album with a distinct spring flowery look. I've only shown you the front cover, I'll wait until the photos are glued in before I photograph the inside pages. I had to ask my friend Julie for some photos of her gorgeous girls as I don't think the boys would have liked to see themselves adorned with pink flowers and ribbons! We started at 9am. and finished up just after 6pm. It was hard going to listen to all the instructions in French and then try to keep up with the pace everyone was working at. The 'animatrice' was Sandra Charbonnel and she was very good at keeping everyone on track. There were about 20 of us there and we all brought something to share for lunch. Of course there was a table or two displaying lots of stamps, inks and embellishments, too tempting, had to succumb a little! Hopefully I'll be able to show you the rest of the album at the end of the week.

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