Competition Winners and a New Catalogue!

Howdy friends!  Today sees the launch of the new Autumn/Winter catalogue.  There are so many things that I love in this catalogue, and I'll be sharing some of them over the next few weeks.  Until then I shall just let you enjoy all the inspiration in here:

If you would prefer a paper copy, just send me an email and I'll get one winging its way to you in the post.

It was really tough deciding on the funniest answer to the "I love crafting because..." conundrum I gave you.  Housework avoidance, chocolate and therapy featured in your answers, as well as avoiding jail in the case of Darnell (snigger).  You can read everyone's comments in the original post as I've published them now.  In the end I totally copped out as I couldn't decide between two funnies so Nessa (aka The Crafty Laydee) and Sherri (The Cat Ate My Card) both win!  Socks really liked Sherri's answer!  I should point out that my husband wasn't sure that crafting was in fact cheaper than therapy... I have no idea what he was implying with that comment!

I also promised a random winner so I numbered the posts and Mr Random Generator came out with:

which is Karen's answer!  Congratulations to Nessa, Sherri and Karen!  Please could you each email me your address and I shall get your prizes off to you very soon.

And finally, here is a cat and dog picture for you:

Thanks for stopping by,

Lots of Exciting News!

There are so many exciting things happening right now that it's hard to know where to begin!

Firstly, the new catalogue has now launched.  You can see a pdf copy if you click on the picture in my sidebar, or if you would prefer a paper copy, please email me.  Paper copies are £5 including P&P.  There are so many wonderful new stamp sets, accessories, punches, dies and more in the new catalogue so happy browsing!  Remember the catalogue is jam packed with ideas and inspiration as well as products, so be warned: you might just have to drop everything and get creating!

Next up is the exciting new 'Best of' release.  This time it's 'Best of Butterflies' and you can see all the details here.

And, if all this wasn't enough, SU are giving you 25% off three different sentiment sets.

• Sassy Salutations is now £16.95 in clear mount or £20.95 in wood mount
• Petite Pairs is now £20.95 in clear mount or £25.95 in wood mount
• Sweet Essentials is now £13.95 in clear mount or £17.95 in wood mount

Sorry to be so brief - I'm off to Paris tomorrow with lots of Y8s and it's a rather early start so I need my beauty sleep!

Enjoy the sunshine - but beware of complaining that it's too hot......

"See" you soon,

Final Days for Ordering!

Just a reminder that today is the last day you can order from the Spring/Summer Catalogue and tomorrow is the last day for ordering from the retiring lists and the 2012-13 Annual Catalogue.  The new catalogue goes live on the 2nd July.  If you would like a paper copy of the new catalogue, they are £5 including P&P.  Just send me an email if you'd like one.  The pdf copy will be available to view from Tuesday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Refreshing New Colours In the Pipeline!

Hello again!  Just popping in to let you know that Stampin' Up! have just announced their new colour plans for the new 2013-14 catalogue, making sure they keep their colours right on trend.

There is some reorganisation amongst the main colour families, with 10 colours retiring, some old favourite in-colours coming back and a few brand new colours to fill in the gaps.  So no need to panic if you're a big fan (like me) of the existing colours!  The Regals, Subtles, Neutrals and Brights family principles are staying the same, just with a few swaps.  This chart summarises the changes:

Red means it's an old In-Colour and grey means it's a new colour.  These will be available from 1st July with the new catalogue launch (unless you're a demo in which case you can get them earlier!).

A couple of existing colours have been moved into another family because they will coordinate better with the other colours there.  Just in case any of you eagle eyes spotted that Rose Red has hopped into Regals, for instance.

So why tell you now?  Well, any colour that is being discontinued will only be available while stocks last.  So if you need cardstock, patterned paper, marker pens, inkpads or refills, ribbons, brads or other embellishments in these colours, bear in mind that they might not be around until the summer.

I get stupidly excited about getting new colours for my ink collection so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also so pleased that Pear Pizzazz and Blushing Bride will be back - love those colours!

Inky fingers,

New Catalogue Launch!

Good evening crafters!

Just popping on to let you know that the new mini (except it's not that mini) has launched and once again, Stampin' Up! continues to spoil us with some absolutely amazing products.

What's caught my eye?  There are some rather beautiful springtime papers.  I especially like Tea for Two with the funky hexagons and wonderful floral and text combinations.  There are some gorgeous new stamp sets, as we'd expect, with coordinating dies and I am in love with the fabulous new background stamps.  I'm quite taken with Hearts a Flutter -- that might be popping into my basket at some point into the not too distant future!  The hexagons embossing folder is incredible so watch this space on that one!  There's a new kind of ribbon available too - a striped organdy ribbon available in Marina Mist, Melon Mambo and Old Olive.

One of my favourite items is the Artisan Embellishment Kit.  Priced at just £8.95 you get 2 designer tags, 4 designer ticket stubs, 45.7cm of scalloped lace, 45.7cm cotton lace, 45.7cm large oval lace, 91.4 seam binding, 6 paper flowers, 1 resin heart, 2 resin flowers, 5 buttons, 1 heart paper doily and 1 round paper doily.

Regular customers can expect their catalogues to be with them shortly, and if you want to see the catalogue in pdf form, just click here.  Don't forget that any orders from this and the main catalogue of £45 qualify you for a Sale-a-bration freebie.

A funny picture to make you smile...

... and a big thank you for stopping by,

It's here! The new catalogue has launched!

And what a catalogue!  At 206 pages, it's bigger than ever before... and with practically everything that's in the US catalogue, we really are spoilt for choice!  A massive range of new stamps, with the return of a few old favourites, new punches, gorgeous new embossing folders, a vastly expanded dies section........ this could turn into a very long post indeed!

To see a pdf copy of the new catalogue, click here and prepare yourselves to be transported into stamping heaven!

Here are some of my favourite things out of the new catalogue:

A wonderful range of truly beautiful new sentiment stamps

A fantastic variety of stamps; it's really hard to know what picture to show you, but have a look at these gorgeous new 2-step flower stamp set with these lovely flower heads.  You can achieve such wonderful texture with 2-step stamping.

Be still my beating heart!  2 whole pages full of embossing folders!

I could go on but I'll stop there! If your wish list is anything like mine, you might want to consider joining one of my Inky Fingers clubs.... bet you just checked your fingers, didn't you?!  The basic idea is that you commit to spending either £25 per month for 6 months or £15 for £10 months. Once I have 6 or 10 ladies or gents interested, the club starts and you each get a turn at being the 'hostess' or 'host', meaning you can choose at least £25 of free goodies from the catalogue.  Sounding good?.... email me to let me know you're interested or to find out more!

Or maybe there's enough here to tickle your fancy into becoming a demonstrator so you get a nice little discount for yourself?  Well, if you join SU during October, November or December, as well as the amazing deal you get on your starter kit (over £175 worth of stuff for £99) you also get a FREE designer paper pack every month for six months.  WOW!  To find out more, again send me an email and I'll be happy to let you know more about SU so you can see if it's the right thing for you.

If browsing a PDF catalogue ain't cutting the mustard for you and you want a nice paper copy to curl up with, I am charging the princely sum of £3 for them during October only, plus £2.20 postage. Again, just send me an email.

Right, off to drool again (and maybe plan a few lessons?  Nah, more drooling...)

A Brand New Catalogue & Retiring Products List

Are you excited?  You should be!  For the first time in the UK, we have an Autumn/Winter Stampin' Up! catalogue, filled with seasonal treats to delight you!  Truly beautiful Christmas stamp sets, scented Christmas embossing powder (I am soooo excited about this! Can you imagine opening up a Christmas card and it smelling of sugar & spice or peppermint?!), lots of new dies, scrapping kits, papers, paper piercing kits, embossing folders, new hostess stamps...... there is so much packed into our new bigger seasonal catalogue!  There are some big saving to be had too as SU has started to do special 'bundle' prices for stamp sets and coordinating dies.

Some lucky people have already got their mitts on their copy, and if you too would like a paper copy and are based in the UK, just send me an email with your address and I'll pop one into the post for you.  Alternatively, to start drooling now, click on the catalogue in my sidebar to see a PDF copy.

Of course, as well as all this excitement, we are also preparing for the launch of our new Annual Catalogue on 1st October.  As a demo, I get a sneaky peek (and a sneaky pre-order) and let me tell you that it is absolutely amazing... start saving now as your wish list is going to be huge!  A new Catalogue means that it's the time of the year when the retiring lists are published.  This is a big list of all the stamp sets and accessories that will NOT be available after this month.  Some of these have big discounts so it's well worth having a nosy to see if you could get that long-lusted-after stamp set for 25% less!

The retiring stamp sets can be found here while the accessories list is here.  Go on, have a peep!

One last thing to mention: as we now have a seasonal catalogue, some of the colours (e.g. in the papers) are from the new In-Colour range 2012-14.  We have Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starburst, Gumball Green and Midnight Muse.  I am delighted to say that these can be ordered NOW in advance of the launch of the main catalogue when they are usually first available.  Inkpads (in the new firm foam style - more on this in another post), card and marker pens are all available.  I'll be adding a flyer with all the details to my sidebar later today.

Have a great weekend,