It’s Tuesday… one of my favourite days… you may ask why? And it’s simple really Tuesday night means craft night. A night of great fun… lots of craic and friendship and of course crafty makes and cake!

I started doing these classes three years ago now and time has just flown by, there is nothing quite like a evening spent with friends! When you’re feeling blue it’s good to talk and generally spirits are raised. 

Crafting is such fabulous therapy, when I’m at my craft desk I immerse myself in my stamps and card and I switch off my mind to daily troubles and just create! It’s my quiet time, time to recharge. I also find I regularly use this time to talk to God and generally if I’ve music on in the back ground it’s worship music. Thankfully my new house isn’t near enough for the neighbours to overhear me… I haven’t been blessed with a singing voice! Thankfully I have been blessed with creativity… I was created to create! 

This evening in class we will be making a special male card at the request of my lovely ladies. So my design is for my step son who will be 21 tomorrow! Time flies. I can’t share it until tomorrow but I thought I’d share a closer look at the cards I did with the lovely Carol on Friday, we will be recreating these tonight after the speciality card!

These cards are based on Love and Faith, I used the ribbon of courage stampset for these.

These little cards measure 3″x3″ and are perfect little notes to send someone who just needs to know you care. Who would you send one to, and why? 

Anyway time for me to go and buy the buns for tonight, all crafters of any experience level welcome!
Love Gillian x

And hello crafters 

I hope September treated you well and October treats you more so!
It’s not really that long to Christmas at all, every year it seems to sneak up on me…. no matter how prepared I think I am, I always run out of time! This year I’m planning well ahead and my Christmas makes are getting well under way!
Speaking of Christmas and cheer Stampin’ Up! Have not one, not two BUT three special offers for October just for you!
Firstly the Merry Patterns stamp set offer continues until the end of the month! If you spend £250, or host a party that’s totals £250 then you get this fabulous stamp set for free…. and that’s in addition to the normal hostess benefits!


Next to celebrate world card making day Stampin’ Up! Is offering you 15% discount on selected card making materials! These offers run between 1st and 10th October! 

Did you notice the exceptional offer at the end? Buy a fast fuse and receive TWO free refills!! I know I for one will be stocking up on this fantastic adhesive.

Feeling spoilt? I’m not done yet!! Throughout October when you order any three packs of selected designer series paper you will get a fourth one absolutely free…. essentially that’s 25% discount!!!

Please remember if you are ordering online this month to use the hostess code below unless your order is £150 or more because if it is you’ll bag so more freebies!!
Everyone who places an order with me this month will receive a small thank you gift from me at the end of the month, so please remember to share your contact details! 
HOSTESS CODE FOR OCTOBER – AWZMFWXC

CLASSES
Classes are back and up and running in our new craft space based near Portaferry. Classes for October are as follows:

Tuesday – 3rd, 17th and 31st from 7.30pm.This class is now bi weekly but so you do t miss out on projects each class is now offering three (or more) projects for £15 each night. Please prepay your class contacting me on 07446 899418.

Friday – this month it’s on the 13th and is a special Christmas Project class, Hearts Come homes. The cost of this class is dependant on whether you want to include the stamp set and dies (£60) or just the supplies (£30). This is a fantastic price and we will be making multiple projects (six cards and six tags). Contact me for full details and to pre book your seat.

Saturday – 7th is our first Christmas Project Class – Carols of Christmas. We will be making ten cards, priced from £30 or to include the stamp set and dies only £60!

If you would like to come to any of these classes or would like me to consider additional dates please do get in touch!

In the meantime happy crafting! 
Love Gillian x

Gillian Whitcombe 

Uk Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator 

Mobile : +44 (0) 7446 899418

Email : littlethingsbyg@gmail.com

Facebook : facebook.com/littlethingsbygillian 

Blog : littlethingsbyg@wordpress.com

Online shop : www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/littlethingsbyg

Happy Saturday crafters!!

Just a quick hello from me today.  I thought I would share a close up photograph of yesterday’s project. 

This beautiful card measures 5″x7″, and really has a luxurious look and feel. I had such fun making it! 

If you would like a PDF project sheet simply leave me a comment and subscribe to my blog and I’ll get it too you within the next few days! 

And of course a beautiful card front requires a beautiful insert…. and don’t forget to get artistic on your envelope too! 

I had such fun designing and creating this card, I’m so loving the eclipse technique which is everywhere at the minute! 

I’ve attached links below to all the products I used to create this so feel free to shop to your hearts content! And for all those shooing through me in October you will get a lovely surprise in the mail (just remember to leave your contact details)!

Have a fabulous Saturday!

Gillian 

Product List

Good Tidings Polymer Stamp Set

Star of Light Polymer Stamp Set

Tranquil Tide A4 card stock

Cherry Cobbler A4 card stock

Very Vanilla A4 card stock

Tranquil Tide Ink Pad

Cherry Cobbler Ink Pad

Early Espresso Ink Pad

Tombow Multi purpose adhesive

Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals

Acrylic Block D

Acrylic Block G

Large Letter Framelits

Big Shot Die Cutting Machine

Stampin’ Trimmer

Wow, twice in one week, you’ll be begging me to stop!!

So I’ve worked tirelessly all week to get my craft studio, if not finished at least ready to host my first class. Sadly two of the regulars to my Friday class are on holiday and one wasn’t feeling well… but I’m not gonna let that stop the fun! Whether there be two of us or ten the craic is always guaranteed to mighty! 

So today it was Carol and myself, and the mess we made couldn’t have been more if there had been six of us! Carol was delighted to be the first person to craft with me in our new space and I’m so happy to share it with her and all my lovely ladies!

Today’s projects were the beautiful Merry Christmas and the three mini cards on the far right… when we worked out that shaving millimetres off the 3×3 card meant we could get four from the sheet of powder pink that’s exactly what Carol did… so they are 2.74cm square to be precise! Carol added the one with the ribbon to the other three. The live, laugh, love I cased from Pinterest, all other cards are my own design. 

Our next Friday afternoon class is on the 13th October, if you want to join us let me know! 

Have a crafty weekend! 

God bless, Gillian x

Hello strangers!

I haven’t been blogging in forever! Instead I’ve been using my Facebook to share my crafty makes, but I’m trying to take a more organised approach to everything in my life including my crafting and project sharing!

Since last I wrote I’ve retired from work due to ill health and moved house! I’m working on getting my new craft studio sorted and it’s coming along nicely!!

My hubbie is an absolute star and worked like mad to get it painted and floored for me!

I’m so excited to get it finished and I welcome my first classmates on Friday, they may have to navigate boxes to make it there but we will definitely have a ball!

So that’s all for now, hopefully it won’t be so long next time!

Happy crafting ❤️

Gillian

I’ve had a really busy week with work and life getting in between me and craft!

This wee card was an order from Etsy, the fairy and flowers aren’t stampin’ up up the rest is! I’ve water coloured the fairy and highlighted it with white gel pen. The wings are coated with a fine mist of glitter using my wink of Stella pen. If you don’t have one of these and are a glitter guy or gal you need one in your life! And I’m the girl to get you one!

Gillian x

Tuesday again… So quickly. Tonight we did two Father’s Day cards, this one is a fancy swing style card.  The card structure came from a tutorial by another fabulous Stampin Up demo by name of Kirsteen Gill.

I used basic black card stock, neutrals paper stack, whisper white card.  The stamp sets were Guy greetings and suite sayings.

The girls loved this card, so much so they want to make another one next week! 

So that’s it from me tonight… I’m crazy tired and the bath is beckoning!!
Catch you soon Gillian x

Happy bank holiday weekend!

One of the new items coming in the brand new stampin up catalogue are strips of dimensionals that make making a shaker card so simple!

For this one I used Pacific point card to make the card base, then cut a piece of whisper white for the front and inked it with my dauber and Pacific point ink to make the stripes.  We used this technique at one of Lilian Withers classes a few weeks back and it’s such a quick way transform boring white card!  I stamped celebrate in real red multiple times on the stripes.

Next I punched a circle out of the decorated piece of Whisper white using 2″ circle punch. I punched a second circle out of acetate using the 2 1/2″ circle punch and also using the 2 1/2″ I did another one in whisper white to form the back.

Shaker cards are so much easier to make now with the dimensional strips! I adhered the Tombow to the back of the striped whisper white before sticking the dimensional strip around the edge.

I punched lots of little stars out using the star border punch put them inside the adhesive stripe before removing the backing and sticking down the final circle of whisper white which I had stamped the sentiment on. I finished off with bakers twin and then used pieces of the dimensional strips to adhere to the card front. You can’t use ordinary dimensionals as the new strips are a little thicker.

and there we have it!

Enjoy the rest of he bank holiday weekend!

Gillian x

I’ve had a super busy week and I’m posting this as I dry my hair and get ready for work, so it’s just a quick one!

This is a little 5×5 card, the base is blushing bride, and the whisper white is sitting on a rose red mat.
 
I’ve used the elegant dots embossing folder and the something for baby stamp set. I used an acrylic block to lift a little blushing bride ink from the pad and then used my wink of Stella pen like paint brush so I got a subtle wash of. Shimmery colour.  I finished with white binding ribbon and two itty bitty pearls.  
Have a blessed Thursday.

Gillian x

This week one of my customers asked me to make a card for her Dad’s 80th birthday. I always like to know a little about the recipient so she told me he liked Liverpool FC and horses.
Bearing in mind the copyright issues with football club crests I decided to justo on for red and white together.
I’m very wary about copyright issues but I searched the wed and came across the perfect humorous picture to use.  The photograph can be attributed here:

http://www.horseracingphoto.co.uk”>horseracingphoto.co.uk</a> and is licensed under a <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/” rel=”license”>Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Very kindly the artist lets others use it so long as it’s attributed to him! So a big Thank you! 

Anyway I used real red card stock and whisper white.  The rosette I made out of a retired stampin up designer series paper. I rounded all the edges and finished with real red cotton ribbon.

I was really pleased with how it turned out and it’s a perfect keepsake will look perfect in a box frame! 
   
   

That’s all from me for now… Feet up, movie on…. And relax! 

Have a great weekend!

Gillian x