sugar and spice

Happy birthday Elli Woo!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Well that's it, my baby is 6! For Elli's birthday she had an ice skating party. Now this party was very well organized by the skating rink so much so that I felt unorganized as I hadn't had to do anything! Now to feel like I had something to do with the party apart from pay, I decided to make some personalised part bags for the kids I was worried that the kids wouldn't give a stuff what was on the front of their bags but the whoops of joy said it all! The Fat and Funky alpha is a set of stamps I cant help but grab for when ever I need an alphabet. A simple paper bag and a bit of glitter as can make a little project fab!. How about a 'goody bag' for the kids on Christmas day?This way the bag will double as a place card and the kids are quite during the yummy dinner.

Happy Birthday Elli Woo!
Love and bugs
Nina
x

Autumn glory

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:12:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

One of my favourite Sunday pastimes is to take myself off for a woodland walk and two of my favourite seasons to do so are Spring and Autumn. I wanted to create a LO with contrasting scenes from my walks and used stamps from the Alpha set to help me create the look I wanted.

I started by using the small swirl stamp from the Alpha set to stamp a continuous border onto yellow cardstock. I used two different colours - toffee and green moss versafine inks, overlapping the two. I then placed my border on my page to create a link between the two photographs.

I then used the lowercase alpha letters to stamp around the circular frame for the smaller photo and to make the letter tiles which form part of the title.

The patterned papers I have used are from bobunny - calypso and Magenta - shades of the season ranges.

TFL, big smiles,

Nic xo.

Button Wreath

noreply@blogger.com (Jayne) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Well it's countdown till the big day. And I'm getting all festive. So I'm thinking Christmas decks and the lovely Cute As A Button stamps from Sugar and Spice and came up with a Button Wreath.

I mixed red and green ink pads and paper and traditional buttons. I love red and green for Christmas. I painted a polystyrene wreath with dark green acrylic crafters paint as a base so that the gaps between the buttons did not show through.

Some buttons were stamped on patterned paper, some on plain cardstock. Some I covered with Glossy Accent and some I edged with Glamour Dust. Some I tied with thin red ribbon and some I pinned onto the wreath with pearl topped pins.

I joined together J O Y with Glossy Accent, painted them a Christmas red with acrylic crafters paint, then covered with glue and red glitter from the Pink Paislee Pixee Stix-Strawberry colour.

I hung this in my hall to take the pic and the postman just remark "bla bla bla your early but I like that"......... Gob Smacked........ Not that he liked it, but that he was here on the doorstep in light of the problems. LOL

... with a cherry on the top!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicki) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:34:00 +0000

Hi all, havent been on blog land for while now, due to family probs... thankfully all sorted now, so this months project is bit late due to that, but had fun with this one.
It's my dad's birthday next month, and know he wont be nosing on blog land, so wont see this card i made for him... inspired by some scrapbooking papers that i bought from Sugar and Spice on Tuesday along with some other bits n bobs! couldnt resist! I also bought the Kraft card and stamps from there too as well as the ink which are the memento ones, they come in the most gorgeous colours too, these are just the cutest stamps called Happy Birthday with a cherry on the top, which i stamped and had to glimmer dust the topping... yum! Hope dad likes it, might even make him a real cake to go with it too?

See you soon
Take care
Nicki
x

Card time

noreply@blogger.com (Fairyqueen) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:35:00 +0000

For me this time of year doesnt mean xmas preparation it means LOTS OF BIRTHDAYS, lots of my friends are celebrating their birthdays this month, which means lots of cards to make!!

I recently bought a lovely set of stamps from SUGAR AND SPICE called SCRIBBLE SENTIMENTS so I thought I would make a card using these.

I started off by layering 3 pieces of card stock and sticking this onto a card blank. Then I handcut a cake shape from a piece of patterned paper and attached this to the front of the card. You could do this with pre made embellishments or your own hand cut shapes.

I wanted a simple stamped message on the front so I used the 'With' and 'Love' stamps and on the inside I used the 'Happy' and 'Birthday' stamps.

This card is so quick and easy to make and can be adapted to suit any occasion.

Hope you like

Louise x x

noreply@blogger.com (Samantha Maddin) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:04:00 +0000

I love this circular Happy Birthday stamp from Sugar and Spice, they're just so happy! So I decided to use it as a centre for some bazzil flowers that I layered for fullness. Using some lovely papers from my stash and coordinating ribbons carried the colourscheme through. Using an embossed paper for the top section added some texture. With the yellow and green card I used a strip of the patterend paper along the ribbon which I think has given a really nice finish.

This format of patterend papers and ribbon delminiators isn't new, but it has a very modern and classy feel and is very easy to make your own.

Happy stamping, Ladies.

WE'RE BACK.......

noreply@blogger.com (MARION) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:06:00 +0000

Sorry we've been AWOL....but as you are probably aware the Internet Gremlins have been having fun and games with Blogspot. The lovely Design Teamies have still been creating with the Sugar and Spice Stamps and their posts will be going back on soon.
In the meantime we've been really busy here designing NEW CLASSES, we have an all dayer all about CUPCAKES - Yummy.... My Megacrafting day (sorry but the 29th is now FULL and there is only 3 places left on the 7th) Nina has a Halloween Exploding Box with a surprise in the middle!!! and Polly has TWO great Christmas Layout Classes, among these little treats we're holding another Pyjama Crop on the 14th November 6pm - midnight (if we last that long) !!! In fact you can see them all HERE.
I just want to say THANK YOU to you all for your patience and support.
Hugs Marion xx

It's That Time!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Paula P) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Hi everyone, middle of October and I've just realised it's getting closer, dare I say it ................Christmas!!!!!! Don't panic there is still loads of time for shopping and getting organised but if you are in to making christmas cards and haven't started, well this is just a gentle reminder.

I've made a decision to try and use all my scraps of christmas papers this year on all my cards, so with that in mind I have bought a lovely set if Christmas stamps.

The stamp set I've have used for these projects is called Tis The season and are designed by the wonderful Marion Emberson from Sugar and Spice, the set includes messages, snowflake, christmas trees and much more.

In the card above I've used one of the messages and the christmas trees from the set, after stamping the trees I masked them and then by re-stamping with the same stamp, I built a forest of christmas trees.

A small piece of paper, ribbon and the all important glamour dust, my first completed christmas card.

And heres my second. With one set of stamps and scrap pieces of paper different designs are endless.
And don't forget your tags too.............

Hope this hasn't panicked you all too much.

Bye for now and happy crafting Px

Everybody was kung fu fighting

noreply@blogger.com (Fairyqueen) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Hello its that time again and for those of you that visit my blog you will know that my nephew does Karate. A couple of weeks ago he was tested for his orange belt. We all went to watch, which probably made him very nervous! I wanted to make a LO to record the occasion as I was so proud of him. My little Kung Fu Fighter!

For this LO I used a really lovely kit by fancy pants, its completely boy themed and its great! It has an overlay which I used.

I stamped onto the overlay using Stazon jet black ink. I used the Lovely Fat and Funky Alpha stamps to stamp my title.

Once stamped I coloured in my title using a marker pen.

I wanted to carry the funky theme through the LO and so I hand cut some arrows to match the arrows on the overlay. I also used buttons to match the bold colours on the patterned paper

Hope you like

Louise x x

Say it with flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Samantha Maddin) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:54:00 +0000

Marion taught me this technique, of stamping then using a paintbrush, painting on ink colours afterwards. It's very relaxing, and gives a lovely effect. I used the Scribble Flowers stamps without the words, then painted them and added a gem drop before cutting them out and mounting on foam pads for dimension. The sentiment comes from the Scribble Sentiments set. I stamped it on an angle and added a kiss to make it look handwritten, which I think fits in with the informal flower designs.

This would also make a great 'get well soon' card by just changing the sentiment. Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday.

What goes around

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I am a big fan Alpha stamps as I think they are so versatile, they can be used both on LO's and other projects, they are reusuable, and you won't run out of them! From a design perspective you can change their colour, position them exactly where you want, even make letter tiles with them - the list is endless.

I love the font used on the sugar and spice alphabet clear stamps and for this LO I used them to form my title wording.

I used the beautiful Deliah range from BoBunny, the die cut 'by your side' paper and the 'promise' paper for my LO. I cut out the inside circle, raising the outer part of the circle on pop dots for dimension, then used a template and glimmer mists to create the petal shapes on the inside circle.

When dry, I stamped my alpha's on the individual petals to form my title words (from one of my my favourite Justin Timberlake songs)

big smiles,

Nic xo

WE'VE BEEN HACKED !!!!

noreply@blogger.com (MARION) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Sorry peeps but it seems we've been hacked...... Now Frankfurt I can deal with BUT Porn....Nah thanks!!!!
I'm looking into Microsoft/Google to see what we can do, we may have to change the name of our blog...but in the meantime please DO NOT click on any of the links.
Sorry about the inconvenience. xx

IT WASN'T ME......FFFFFFF...FRANKFURT!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (MARION) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:08:00 +0000

Don't know what happened there girls.....But I didn't post the Frankfurt Market thingy !!! Although I'm sure it's a wonderful place to go.....So sorry about that, must be a glitch in the machine.....or someone's HACKING....shame on you - I'm sure there's better things to hack than our little Blog !!!
Whilst I'm here, I may as well give you a few words - seeing as I don't get on here much.
At 45 I'm really feeling my age after doing two weekend shows on the trot. Alley Pally - Simply blinding - as always a fantastic show - I hope Polly and Jayne's feet have come back to their normal size and no longer resemble blown up Marigold Gloves !!! Artisan - I wouldn't call it blinding but it was lovely, we really had a giggle and I met some gorgeous peeps, including the most talented girlie by the name of LISA OLSON, she makes the most STUNNING felt bags - yes girlies I said FELT BAGS with gorgeous FELT FLOWERS. I do believe she takes orders AND she's LOVELY - here's her blog - www.craftbugs.blogspot.com.

and the Craft Bug girls were great - but the funniest one there was one of the Glitter Girls (sorry didn't get here name) just had some great banter with her - she was hilarious !!!
We stayed in Warwick - what a beautiful place, had a miniature version of Maggie Thatcher as our landlady and had some great meals out - all in all a good weekend.
The Sugar and Spice stamps sold really well - Yay!!! Sorry still haven't got the new ones on the website - think I'm going to have to order more !!!. I've got to get me head down and design an all day card class - I know, I know I hear you!!! But before that takes place we've got the FREE MAKE AND TAKE on 31st October, don't forget to join us and have some fun!!! See you there.
Hope you're enjoying all the design ideas on the blog, I think you'll agree the girls are doing a GRAND job !!!
Take care
Marion xxx

Thank you!

realmarypoppins@yahoo.co.uk (Polly) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Well, i'm back from Ally... :) It was fab this time round. And even though we had a smaller stand, I really loved this time... not that I didn't like last time... this time I think I saw lots more peeps than last and it wasn't so hot!

Anyhoo, I have gotten into the colour navy in a big way. I made this little card for my design team project this time using kaiser paper, glitteratti gems, felt flowers and of course Sugar and Spice stamps :D I used the wedding set... which seems rather random... but I love the little star in this set.

I stamped a small strip of graph paper with the teenie weenie star stamp using a momento ink called 'paris dusk' (a gorgeous navy blue) it really goes with alot of the papers right now, especially the mamma bushka range by kaiser which i've used here. I then layered two felt flowers from our new felties pack and joined together with a fabric covered brad. The patterned paper actually has tiny buttons printed on it but I covered them with the fairly flat glitteratti gems. I used alot but there are so many on the sheet that I didn't feel like I was being really friviolous ;)

Inside I made alittle matt to match the card front and then stamped 'thank you' from the same set onto it. In the set the stamp comes as one continious line, I chopped mine into two but you could keep it whole and ink up one side and stamp the 'thank' first and then clean well, ink up the 'you' and stamp to get the same effect.

This little project is especially dedicated to Marion and Jayne as a little 'thank-you' for a fabby weekend away...!

Hope you liked it :)

Polly x

Love Hearts

noreply@blogger.com (Paula P) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:09:00 +0000

Hi everyone, the question is why do I always run out of time, even when I actually think about things and plan ahead I seem to be making a card on the quick. Anyway I thought I'd share this quicky card with you.

I cut two hearts and embossed them using my cuttlebug, then by adding some glitter and jewels to the white heart it brought a bit of luxury to the card.

To lift the background card I used the word anniversary and in white ink I bordered it around the edge. The stamps are from sugar and spice.

With an extra message using the same sentiment stamps the card is now complete. With a simple set of sentiment stamps you can adapt any card to any occasion. A must have!

Bye for now and happy crafting!

The big 30

noreply@blogger.com (Fairyqueen) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Hello All

I am soon to turn 30 and I have decided to make a list of things I want to achieve before the big day. I won't bore you with the list (its far too long) but I wanted to create a LO to mark the occasion.

I went for bold colours but wanted the LO to still be girly. I used my favourite stamp Scribble flowers and used the great glossy accents to make them shiney and make them stand out. I also used one of the smaller scribble flowers and again I coated them in glossy accents.

I used the quote stamps but only inked the birthday part and used this to create a border across the center piece of card and also down the side of the main piece of card. You could do this with any of the words on the stamps. They make great borders.

I hope you like my project

Louise x x

Happy.....

noreply@blogger.com (Nicki) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Well, after a really hectic month, with one thing and another, i needed to create something bright and happy, so using Scribble flowers stamps, as they are so cute, i love the flowers on these, I created this 'Happy' birthday card.

Obviously it had to be pink, as i just seem to do pink... nothing planned, just turns out that way!
I stamped flowers all over a plain white piece of card, using memento Angel Pink, and stamped the Happy greeting using black memento and Rose Bud inks.

I then used Martha Stewart Doily punch to create a border, and using white ribbon, wrapped and knotted it over, after stampin 'Birthday' onto it again using Memento black. I finished off the flowers with a diamante Gem and added few to the edge, just to fill the gap, all in all, was quite pleased with the finished card and yes... it did make me feel happy!
Heres the stamp sets i used ...

Scribble Flowers Stamps

Till next time, Take care
Nicki
x

Love, love, love

noreply@blogger.com (Samantha Maddin) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0000

You'd have been hard presssed to have missed the recent launch of the remastered Beatles Albums, which meant that there was a lot of their music playing on the radio recently. All you need is love seemed like the perfect title for a wedding layout. I love this photo, taken by our mutual friend Phil Bradley, it shows the couple looking relaxed and enjoying their day. He's a bit of a whizz and turned it black and white for me, just leaving the flowers in colour it highlights their colourscheme for the whole day.

I used my faithful standby, the Scribbles Sentiments to stamp 'love' along the bottom of the white mat and the hearts from the same set on the photo itself in a blank space. The choice of font for the title and the relaxed way I set it out hopefully reinforce the less formal feel of the picture, but the papers keep a more classic wedding feel.

I hope you like it.

Sweet Treats

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:24:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

Are you a savoury or a sweet person? I am definitely in the sweet camp, I have a really sweet tooth and love all things sugary, so when Marion sent me the gorgeous 'happy birthday with a cherry on top' stamp set, the first thing that sprung to mind were all the delicious sweet treats I love to eat.

I decided to create a LO recording all my favourites and used the number stamps in the set to record my top ten (took a bit of narrowing down LOL) and stamped each number using black versafine ink onto patterned paper which I then cut out and stuck onto my cardstock.

I then used the cupcake and the cherry stamps to make an embellishment for my page. I wanted the cupcake to be three dimensional, so began by stamping the bottom half of the cupcake twice onto patterned paper, then I scored and folded the image like a concertina and glued each piece together, to make the paper case.

I then stamped the top half onto pink cardstock and gave it a generous coating of stickles. Whilst it was drying I sprinkled some real sugar sprinkles onto it and a pinch of holographic embossing powder. I stamped the cherry with red dye based ink and coated in glossy accents, again sprinkling a pinch of embossing powder over. It takes a while for both to dry, and I'd recommend leaving overnight if possible.

When dry I pieced it all together and attached to my page.

I used patterned papers from Sassafras, cosmo cricket chemistry range, pink paislee office lingo, bo bunny calypso and daisy bucket. The tranparencies and letter stickers are my little shoebox, stickers are October afternoon and the chipboard letters are american craft thickers and doodlebug.

big smiles,

Nic xo

Getting brave!

noreply@blogger.com (Nina) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:21:00 +0000

Hello peeps! Phew we have been super busy in the shop the past few weeks. Not only have we had HUGE amounts of new stock, we have had the arrival of Edith the EPOS machine. She is wonderful and very clever! And then to top it all off we have had to get ready for The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show at Ally Pally. Are you going too?
So when I sat down to relax with paper and wine, I produced this.....

Now stitching on your page might seem like a brave thing to do but it really is quite easy. There are a few thing that do make it easier though, like my fave piercing tool and a nice springy matt so you don't get loads of random creases in the page. Now starting
off with a frame like mine is a good start. I didn't want it to be all lined up and straight as this didn't go with my fun page. This means that it can be wonky but right!
Also the other brave party of the page was using naked chip board! Hey why does he always have to be painted? After all there are no rules in scrapbooking.

So finishing off the page was my title . I have been itching to get my hands on my new Fat and Funky alpha stamps. They are well, so fat and funky and calling to be coloured in! So when I stamped the letters using Versa fine (the best ink EVER!) I had to cut my letters in using my lush white pen.

So will you be brave enough to get stitching on your page?

Love and bugs

Nina

Cherish, Dream and Live

noreply@blogger.com (Jayne) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

This is a LO designed around a picture of two very special ladies in my life. Both have been through the same horrible illness and both have come through it with a determination to live life to the fullest.

I thought I would have a go at producing my own pattern paper with matching ribbon and embellishments for this entry. Both Marion and Sandra love gardening and so flowers had to be the theme. The colours were inspired by Marion's top.

I started with a white card stock and randomly stamped large scribble flowers over it using a watermark stamp, and heat embossed them with white pearl embossing powder. Then using a baby wipe, I padded contrasting green and blue ink over the whole page. I used the more textured side of the card stock as it kind of looked like a rough weave when inked.

I then repeated the embossing process, this time using the Cherish yesterday, Dream tomorrow, Live today stamp and this time, white heat embossing powder. I wanted the sentiments to be and element of the page but not to be the main emphasis.

I stamped a piece of twill ribbon with the smallest scribble flower using the same blue ink pad and stapled that to the page. I had edged one side of the picture with a cotton lace and used the same lace and two buttons to make an embellishment for the bottom of the picture.

I chose to have hidden journeying for this layout, so stamped a scribble flower and stapled it to the top of the tag for a handle.

I hope this inspires you to have a go an make your own pattern paper.

Love

Jayne

... Autumnal Feelings...

realmarypoppins@yahoo.co.uk (Polly) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:46:00 +0000

As all the leaves are falling from most of the trees around us and during the early morning there has been a bite in the air I have taken my colour choices from the season Autumn. It's well on its way! And for many of us our kiddos have returned back to school... with a little 'yippee!' from us crafty peeps out there :)

I used the scribble sentiments set, which if you haven't laid your hands on yet... you need to! It is one of the most versatile, with lovely words in the most delish font. I *heart* this one so much.

After layering all my paper on my layout up, I freehand (yes!) cut some wobbly and shaky circles. The whole layout just needed alittle bit of plain to balance up all the patterns. I then inked around the edges (I love the momento brown ink we have in, it's one of the best dark, deep browns that i've found) and still using this ink I stamped the 'love' and 'you' from the scribble sentiments. I stamped around the random sized, freehand circles... Thats the joy of clear stamps. You can see that you are stamping in exactly the right place. Thats if you keep them clean ;) And I strongly recommend that too!

By stamping your own little phrases, its abit like adding your own customed patterned paper... you really can make your layouts unique and get them to say exactly what you want them too!!

Love, Polly x

Hanging Around

noreply@blogger.com (Paula P) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Hi everyone, kids back at school, husband back at work, what better than to have a photo 'wall hanging' to see them all.....................anyone would think that I missed them!

For this project I cut some frames out of chipboard using a die cutting machine, mine being a cuttlebug, I also cut out the same amount of frames in acetate. The chipboard frames are painted in a black acrylic paint and then overlaid with the acetate. Before overlaying, I used a lovely frame stamp from sugar and spice and stamped on the acetate using stazon cotton white.

The stamps used in this project are called fancy flourishes and also contain some fab corner stamps.

I covered the back of the frames in a black and white paper continuing the theme. I also added an extra solid frame at the top of the 'wall hanging', and by writing on it made it personal to me.

Bye for now and happy crafting!

Mobiles

noreply@blogger.com (Fairyqueen) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:55:00 +0000

Hello again everyone

For my project this time I wanted to do something a little different. I was inspired by my friends baby shower. Someone bought her a mobile, it was so beautiful and I decided to have a go at making one.

Not a great photo. but I will replace with a better one ASAP

For this I used the scribble flowers stamps. I stamped onto pink card and cut the flower part out. I covered them in glossy accents to make them slightly stronger. Once dry I pierced a hole in the middle for my thread to pass through.

I used an acrylic flower that I coloured pink using alcohol inks as the top of the mobile and then strung beads and the flowers onto thread, the embellishments stay in place on the thread by making little knots.

I attached pink ribbon at the top to hang the mobile.

I hope you like my project

Louise x x

Good enough to eat?

noreply@blogger.com (Samantha Maddin) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Hello fellow ATN's (all things nice).

The good news is the weekend is almost upon us. And that's rarely a bad thing! I'm all organised this time round and have my project ready in advance. Wonders will never cease.

I've only used one set of stamps this time, the gorgeous Happy Birthday with a Cherry on Top set, and got to play with my stickles collection. Cupcakes, stamping and stickles. Perfect night in really. Ok with wine and friends then.

With the exception of the pink vellum, I made this entirely from bits and bobs I had in my stash, scraps of paper, ribbon, stickles and the threading water punch. You have to love card making for that. I built up layers of stickles on the 'frosting' of the cupcake to give it dimension and mounted it and the cherry on foam pads. Two layers of ribbon also add interest. I only used a single layer of vellum inside the card rather than a full insert to keep the colour light.

Happy stamping!