Just another thought - I get a lot of inspiration from pinterest and reading something on a post by Pootles Papercraft on facebook made me think. How do I know when I've done something original or how do I know if it's stored somewhere in the recesses of my mind and is actually someone else's work? May be I'll never know. On the whole the inspiration will have come from someone else - creativity is not natural to me! I did do the banner myself though (I think!).

Generally speaking I look for inspiration and try and change things a bit! My main inspiration sources are Pootles for boxes and gifts and then a wide range of people via pinterest or their blogs e.g. Amanda Fowler, Michele Last, Mary Fish, Kennan Creations, little bay stampin and I'm sure many more!

I shall try and be more vigilant about noting who I get inspiration from if I can - another resolution to add to the list.

Happy New Year

Hmm it's been a while! Real life has been rather in the way! However the craft fairs I was so busy preparing for at half term were a success. Not sure I'll do many more as I find it hard to meet deadlines but I'll certainly look for more outlets for my work!

I've made a couple of resolutions for 2014 - do something creative every week even if only for a short while and to do my regular evenings with friends at least once a month! I am going to try to only buy things I really 'need'! I'm also going to put my phone down more and spend more time with my boys! Not sure how I'll do all that with 2 jobs and a busy home but the last one is I guess the most important so will prioritise that!

My favourite creative piece I did over the Christmas holidays was this banner - it'll be the focus of my first craft evening at the end of January!

I stuck to the Brights colour collection and kept it pretty simple but I really love it and so do my family which is lucky as I think they'll see it at every occasion we have at home for a while!

So, sale-a-bration and the new spring summer catalogue are nearly upon us. I love lots of the new things - referring back to my resolution I'm going to be prudent about how much I get but I did manage to get the mini banner set from my sale-a-bration preorder!

I cased something from pinterest and tried to give it a twist! What do you think?

melon mambo and black! The stamp set and the co-ordinating punch are both free with orders over £45 from the end of Jan to the end of March. What is not to love about that! Check out my online store if you want to get anything or contact me direct. You can also still get some great bits in the clearance section as well.
Hopefully I'll post again soon! Happy creating!

Half term is upon us and so I get some time to catch up with my crafting. I have a couple of craft fairs coming up and need to make lots of little bits to sell. Here are a few I've come up with so far!

 tea light box

 sweetie treats

 baubles

And then I have workshops to prepare - this sunburst card is going to be our next project!  Shame I can't show it the right way up for you! Sorry!

Anyhow - busy busy and loving every moment!

Join stampin up for £25!!

 From the 7th to the 21st October 2013, for just 2 weeks only, you can join Stampin’ Up! for just £25!  This is a fantastic economical way of joining as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and taking advantage of all the great opportunities this will give you. 

For £25 you will get to sample discounts, great resources to help you on your SU journey and extra income if you want.  Purchase the kit through me, and you’ll instantly become a member of an established team structure full of friendly,inspirational demonstrators.  

There are lots of benefits from Stampin’ Up! when you become a demonstrator :

§ 20% off Stampin’ Up! discount on products

§ Pre-order new products one month before the customers sales period.

§ inspired by video tutorials and project ideas on the Stampin’ Up! demonstrator web site and regular newsletters full of inspirational ideas.

§ Earn free stamps with Stampin’ Start, Sale-A-Bration and other promotions.

§ Qualify for cash bonuses, product bonuses, incentive trips and other awards.

§ Earn additional income (called volume rebate) based on your monthly product sales.

§ Enjoy 2 free months of a personalized Stampin’ Up! on-line store and blog.

§ There’s NO pressure to reach quarterly minimum of sales, or if you wish to end your time as a demonstrator at any time.

This offer is a specially priced £25 starter kit including :

• £25.95 worth of Stampin’ Up! product that you can pick from the Annual or Autumn/Winter Catalogue
• A Business pack of : a box of annual catalogues, a pack of current seasonal Autumn/Winter catalogues, Getting Started DVD, Order forms and Customer postcards
• An 10% extra discount on your first order of £150 or more when you place your order in the first 45 days of joining.  This will mean a total of 30% off!!
• If you join and you are ready to party within your first 30 days.  If sales for the party reach £150 or more you can also chose ANY stamp from the annual catalogue FREE!  

There is also no postage to pay on the starter kit, but remember this offer kit is available only between 7th-21st October 2013.  During the offer period, the regular £99 starter kit will not be available.

You can choose to purchase the starter kit to for your own hobby, just to share with friends with catalogue orders or take that first step to start it as a business.  I will support you as a team member and share ideas and business knowledge along with the great supportive structure and training offered within my upline.

If this is the chance you have been waiting for to sign up or you are considering it for the first time, you are sure to have some questions before you commit so please feel you can email on katebodle@btinternet.com and we can talk through it some more.

This is a great opportunity to join right now so grab your chance!

Yesterday was world card making day so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take part! I needed to make a quick card for a friend who has a passion for the butterfly stamp but wanted to do something a bit different with it! I decided to go for colours that I wouldn't usually associate with something as delicate as a butterfly so went for daffodil delight and black. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!

I used the happy birthday from 'sassy salutations' - I did however make the school girl error (once looking it up!) in that I used basic black ink on the whisper white cardstock - it doesn't work! Luckily I had some staz on black in the depths of my cupboard so now I know what to use next time!

Anyhow - happy world card making day for yesterday!

Last week I went to my first Stampin up event! It was the creative tour - an opportunity to get some inspiration and see some sneak peeks of new products. We learnt about MDS - my digital studio - which looks amazing and I can't wait to try it out.... it'll be great for party invitations and I may even try my hand at making some business cards!

The thing that I found most exciting was 'swapping' - well, I was totally unprepared! I'd heard that you needed to take a few 'card fronts' and that you would 'swap' them with others...well! People had little baskets full of delightful creations that they gave away in return for one of my paltry efforts - each one had a sticker on the back with all the details of the cardstock, stamps and punches etc used to make it. I was staggered! I have so many lovely card fronts and a notepad and a 3d sweet holder to look at and get inspiration from!

I have come back full of gusto to make some things for the school Christmas fair - please excuse the photos! I had a go at making a little candle box - a simple design I found on a you tube video! The candles are wrapped with washi tape! I think they'll be great little gifts!

A little bit nervous!

I took my box of wares to sell at a small but really lovely local plant nursery today! The lady there really liked them - let's just hope her customers do too!

They are now for sale at Nin's Nursery in Ewelme http://www.ninsplantnursery.co.uk/ if you are local please go and have a look - lovely plants and nice things in the shop too!

I then had to make a quick card for a friend's birthday tomorrow, it needed to be masculine so I used the neutrals inks and the daring adventure stamp set as well as some washi tape from the Autumn Winter catalogue. Turned out ok I think!

I love it when a brown box arrives!!

Oh my pre-order for christmas has arrived - loving the washi tape and the Christmas paper stack! I managed to order lots of adhesive to replace all that I have used over the last couple of weeks - I am so pleased with the stampin up adhesives. They last longer and are better quality than most things I've bought before! I also got a couple of new stampsets and the new in colour inks and cardstock. Look out for creations after the weekend!! Unfortunately I'm not doing so well with my other holiday jobs of sorting and blitzing the house but hey ho!!