What a weekend!

WOW WOW WOW!!!!

I am shattered but happy!!!! Had the most amazing weekend in Blackpool. Sorry for all the photos today but these are a few of my faves!!!!

Having only danced for a year and having never been in this comp before I had no expectations. The competition is tough and involves schools from the whole of the UK but I did much better than I thought I would!

And its all down this lovely fella above!!! My very kind and patient dance teach Tim! He is a star!!
This is my ballroom dress which I wore for Waltz and Quickstep. I had to dance with Greg (below) for the Waltz and had never danced with him before (which freaked me out a bit) but he got me a recall and into the Quarter Final. Sadly I didnt get any further than that but Waltz wasnt my strongest dance so I was really pleased!

He we are just about to start the routine

When I got the Quarter Final I decided to dance with Tim as he was now available as I was the only one from our school to get through.

My favourite dance is the Jive, just love it! Jill and Darren's jive in Series Two of Strictly is still my all time favourite Strictly dance!!! Here I am pretending that I am Jill Halfpenny!!!!!!!!

I was so amazed becuase I got through to the Semi Final in the Jive which meant I was in at least the Top 12 in the UK!!!! Wooo HOOOOOOO So pleased, just wished I could have got to the final!! Maybe next time!!

And here I am with my dance partner Pete. We danced the Quickstep and the Cha cha cha together but we had a couple of hiccups so didnt get any recalls! Still we had loads of fun and I was so pleased with how my solo rounds went

Thank you to everyone who sent me emails, texts, facebook messages and send good vibes!!! You are so supportive. Especially my lovely friend Jane who came with me for the weekend and fetched and carried for me all the time. COuldnt have done it without her! xxx

Jules x

Striped Grosgrain Ribbon Share

I am back with another ribbon share, this time for the gorgeous 1 1/4 inch Striped Grosgrain Ribbon! Shown above in 3 of the colours that you will receive!!

There are 11 colours and you will receive a metre of each colour.

It really is the most gorgeous ribbon

The colours are

Daffodil Delight

Pumpkin Pie (shown top)

Pretty in Pink

Real Red

Rich Razzleberry (shown middle)

Night of Navy

Marina Mist (shown bottom)

Certainly Celery

Old Olive

Early Espresso

Basic Black

The price is £14.00 (posted) and £13.00 if you collect.

I can accept Paypal or Bank Transfer or cash on collection!

Happy Birthday Evelyn!

Today its my lovely downline Evelyn's birthday! Happy Birthday Evelyn! Evelyn joined our team in May this year and has been a superstar with her SU business and has done so well with it! Have a lovely day Evelyn

This is the card I sent to Evelyn. You make think that by sending her this card that she likes a cocktail!! But really I was CASEing a card from the catalogue. There are some lovely samples in the catty and this is one from page 32 but I have made it a bit bigger (and added more cocktails!)

The card is a Crumb Cake card blank with Pretty in Pink paper from the Designer Series Paper stacks. I have coloured the cocktails in with my blender pens and ink pads.

The green scallop trim is Wild Wasabi!

Hope you like the card and hope Evelyn does too!!

As you read this I will be travelling to Blackpool for the dance competition this weekend! I have had a spray tan and quite look the part!!!!

Have a good weekend

Jules x

Countdown to Christmas

Hello there

On Tuesday night I had my regular ladies back, we have been off for 3 weeks so it was great to have the conservatoire full again!!!

This week was Countdown to Christmas. Making things to decorate the table and wrap gifts etc!!

The colour combos were mostly Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler

Here is a little pillow gift box using a die for the Big Shot and teamed with some stamping from the Season of Joy stamp set and the Jolly Holidays papers.

The gift card holder which you have seen a lot of on my blog!

A little wine bottle decoration. The ladies did some much fancier ones than me but it was too dark to take photos!

And finally a little holder for some smellies. My lovely downline Kate gave me some mini Molten Brown smellies and they fit perfectly in here! Thanks for the idea Kate!

Hope you like!!

I may me AWOL for a few days now but please bear with me. I am dancing in the ISTD Grand Finals at Blackpool Tower Ballroom on Sunday so I am there for the whole weekend!!! Very excited but very scared too!!! All good vibes would be appreciated!!

Jules xx

Christmas Rush Sneak Peek!!!!!!

Good morning!!

Here is a sneak peek of one of the cards we will be making at my Christmas Rush class on SATURDAY 4th DECEMBER - at 2pm

We will make 8 different cards in 2 hours - 15 minutes per card

Cost is £12

If you would like to come please let me know - I have 4 places left!

Jules x

Ribbon Share update

Striped grosgrain ribbon share

I have started a new ribbon share as the first one filled up so quickly. The ribbon for the first share will be posted out today and tomorrow and the new share will be out later in the week.

If you would like to take part in this share the cost is

£13.00 COLLECTED

£14.00 POSTED

Please use the Paypal button to the top of my blog.

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow

Jules x

Happy Scrappin!

Hi there

Phew what a busy week. Just having a nice Sunday so far, been to see Harry Potter this morning which was great!

Yesterday afternoon I held my monthly scrapbooking class. I LOVE doing these classes and I am so glad I started them. I have new people coming every month and yesterday we welcomed Shaz to the class!! Who did really well -despite forgetting her reading glasses!!!!

Here are a selection of the layouts, the theme was Halloween/Bonfire/Autumn

Becki's layouts
Peita's layouts

Ginette's layout

And our new girl, Shazza's layout!!

I did have some more to show but the photos arent that brill with the light etc...

If you want to join the scrapbooking club please let me know, classes take place monthly in Pudsey!

See you tomorrow

Jules x

Birthday Jem

Hello there, bit late posting today, I have got Lucas today instead of tomorrow so things are a bit back to front here!!!!

Yesterday was the lovely Ruth's (my downline) birthday so I sent her this card. Hope you had a lovely day Ruth and that Mark and the girls spoiled you!

Its using the Just Believe stamp set which we got at convention and the colour combo is Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla. I have used the papers from the Woodland Walk pack.

I coloured the image in with my markers and I also coloured the Very Vanilla ribbon too!!

If you like this card we will be making similar ones at my first class of 2011 on Saturday 8th January. The cost for this class is £14 but you will get a whole pack of flat backed pearls in with the kit, plenty left over to take home! Please mail me to book a place

Jules x

Welcome Christmas with FREE RIBBON!

Good morning, I'm a bit late posting today but better late than never!!!

I have made a really quick but I think effective Christmas card today using one of my new purchases Welcome Christmas. I love this stamp set, great for Christmas cards from the family. I have added a sentiment from another new set Four the Holidays

Now my favourite feature on this card is the GORGEOUS Real Red Polka Dot ribbon, it is so scrummy and remember you can get this free when you purchase one of the Christmas Bundles. All the details are in the post above!
The papers I have used are from Jolly Holidays, again this features in the Christmas Bundle set. Now the great thins about the ribbon is that you dont just have to use the spotty side!!

As shown above you can use the other side too!!! How cool is that!!!

Sorry for the short post, I am busy planning classes etc..

Please get in touch if you want to get your hands on any of the bundles!

Jules x

Party this Way!

Evan had a lovely birthday on SAturday, thank you for all your Birthday Wishes for him!! It was a very Harry Potter/Lego/Toy Story birthday!!!

I showed you the card I made for him from me and Robin but here is the card I made for his brother Ross to send him. This is the set we got in our convention bags! YES, we get 2 stamp sets included in our bags at convention. It really is the best!!!!

The set is called Party this Way and I love it. Its great for male and female cards and I love the bunting stamp you get in it

The colour combo is Real Red, Pacific Point and Old Olive and I have used the Celebrations papers, love these, already on my second pack!! Evan's name has been stamped with the Just Perfect alphabet.
Inside the card I decorated it with the balloon image from the same set (my friend Vicky will be happy to see I have decorated inside) and used the word Celebrate from the Basic Phrases set.

Also on Saturday it was another special persons birthday!!! My dance teacher Tim shares the same birthday as Evan!!! I made him a card along the same theme, Because his name is shorter I added the stars to fill it out a bit!

While I was making these I decided to get ahead and make my sisters card which isnt needed until the end of the month but I am very very busy with my dancing around this time so figured it was best to do it now! I have used a colour combo of So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink and Early Espresso.

The papers are from the Nursery Suite, not just for babies!!!

The buttons are from the Subtles pack

Arty farty angle!

Hope you like my little selection of cards

Jules x

Happy Birthday Evan

Happy Saturday!

Today is a special day, its my little boys birthday! Not that he is so little anymore, he is really tall now and will soon be catching me up!!

Here is the card I made for him a few weeks ago which I showed on my blog together with two other monster cards.

The colour combo is Pacific Point, Old Olive and Real Red and I have used the Celebrations papers. Its a 3 fold card which you can make from a sheet of A4, I love this style of card for boys and mens cards!
The stamp set is of course one of my new favourites, Make a Monster and I have used the Schoolbook Serif Number set and the Just Perfect Alphabet.

The monsters were punched out with the 1 3/4 inch circle punch and then I punched 2 more out in a co-ordinating colour and layered them up!

Hope you like!!

I am looking forward to a very lego filled day!

Jules x

P.S It's also my love dance teacher, Tim's birthday today. Didnt make him a monster card though, will post that later in the week!

Convention Swaps

ONe of the great things about convention is meeting all the other demonstrators, some you have met before and also new people. I love to meet the demonstrators from France and Germany too. We always swap cards at any event we go to. This year I made 140 swap cards which was just enough, I probably could have gotten away with making a few less.

My card fronts were made using Regal Rose and Pear Pizazz and the Level 2 Hostess set Fast and Fabulous.
They are a headache at times and there seems like no light at the end of the tunnel but its brilliant to swap them out and then get 140 great swaps back to use on your display boards!

The sentiment is from Curly Cute and punched out with theModern Label punch and layered onto the large Oval punch. I just love the Pear Pizazz ribbon! I went through 2 reels making these!!!!

If you like the sound of convention after all my posts about it then you know what to do!! Give me a call or drop me an email to julie.kettlewell@ntlworld.com to discuss the benefits of being a Stampin Up Demonstrator! Its honestly the best job I have ever had!!!!

Back tomorrow for my special little birthday boys post!!!

Jules x

My convention presentation

Hi there

Had a busy last couple of days as I had 2 lovely training sessions with my lovely team. We have been following up our enthusiasm from convention by getting together this week as we usually do every month. We would love to have some new members!!!!! If you do fancy joining Stampin Up and my team then please do get in touch!

Ok, back to business. Here is a photo taken by my lovely Sarah of me during my presentation on Friday. I think this was near the beginning as I still look quite serious!!! Believe me, the humour and comedy came out shortly after this!!

Here is the first project that I demoed. I did my demo in a Workshop Style as if I was in character at a workshop. I have demoed this project at all my October workshops so I am safe to show it now!! It is a gift card holder which uses Crumb Cake card, the Ornament Punch, Contempo Christmas. I cased this gift card holder from Heather Summers in Canada (with her permission - thanks Heather)

Here is a blinged up version using our fabby new rhinestones.


I then showed how you can use the Ornament punch not just for Christmas. Here is a little card with the Ornament punch as a vase with the point cut off. I have added the Boho Blossom punch to create the flowers and the Old Olive marker to draw the stems. You can now buy some of the markers individually at £2.95 and Old Olive is one of the colours.

Next up is a quirky little card using the Delightful Decorations set and its been turned into 2 "loved up" fish!!!! The fins and tail are created using the 5 Petal Flower Punch and the lips are the small heart punch.

Check out those eyelashes!

And finally I made a flower for the top of a box with the Ornament punch as the petals. I have inked each petal and curled them to make the flower. If you would like to learn how to make this I would love to come and do a workshop for you. Have your friends round for a fun night of crafting! You provide the friends and I'll provide the fun!!!

Thats all for now, hope you enjoyed my projects

Jules x