The wait is finally over........its HERE!!

To view the catalogue on line pop on over to my shop or to download it and view at your leisure click here.

If you are anything like me and prefer a hard copy then please get in touch with me.

There are lots of new stamps, papers, punches and more so keep an eye out on my blog over the coming weeks.

Stampin' Up! also has an  fab  Recruiting Special starting today!!

When you sign up as a demonstrator you can choose TWO - yes, 2 - Stamp Sets of your choice in addition to the £130.00 in product you will already receive for only £99.00! This special is ONLY available until June 30th. Contact me now if you have any questions.

I'll let you sit back with your favourite drink and enjoy reading the catalouge.

Doodlebirdx

Kid's Play

Morning all,

Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was fab, all day class where we made some stunning projects as always. Lots of laughter, fine food and fabulous fun with a group of lovely ladies. Special guest this month was Sue McDonald, Thanks for joining us, hope you enjoyed it Sue.

I've had to share Sue's picture of one of the projects as mine got a little battered on the way home.

Sue then stayed Over and we had a massive clear out of the Den. Amazing what you find when you tidy up your crafting space! 

Then Sunday morning crafting, we made a Peppa Pig card. hope you like it x

Have a good week, happy crafting, make time for you as always, it's REALLY important. Don't forget 2/6/15 is the NEW catalogue release. Promise you some gorgeous goodies as ever. Dont forget to visit for some sneak peaks.

Doodlebird xx 

What a Weekend!

Hello everyone

After a fabulous and hectic holiday in Disney Paris,to celebrate Hayden's 4th birthday (hence the lack of blogs) it's back to reality with a bang. 




Had a very busy weekend creating for a craft Fayre at my church today as its Bank Holiday Monday and it's one of our annual fundraising events. Always popular.

Loved my Skype time with crazy penguin Pam Irwin (who flies over on 14/5 to join us for two weeks) and continual chat with Sue McDonald. Isn't technology great!

Anyway here are some of the makes, using the retiring painted petals for the gift sets, odds and ends of Designer series,paper for the mini notes and stack packs for the tic tac holders. 

Hope you like them and they are a sell out at today's event.

Hope whatever you're doing you're having fun and making time for you.

Doodlebird x

Say Goodbye.........Stampin' Up!s retirement list

Sadly its that time of the year when Stampin' Up! Retire some of their products to make way for new products in their new Catalogue which will be available from the 3rd June.
  

Please remember once the items are gone THEY ARE GONE!!!!!

You can view the retiring stamps, accessories, papers, punches, dies, etc HERE 
or down load the PDF here

All MDS downloads are now 30% off as well as they retire on June 2nd.  to view them on line click here or down load the PDF here.

Please also remember that not all the items in the Spring/Summer Catalogue will carry over to the new Annual Catalogue in June.

You can place an order directly on line here at my online store.

Saturday Scrappin'

Project Life this week!

We are into week 8 of our Saturday Scrappin' and this weeks challenge was set by Sue McDonald and involved creating a project life layout.

At a recent team training this layout was constructed by Bekka Prideaux and when we were creating I knew I had the perfect pictures to complete the page. a day at the beach collecting pebbles and shells with my gorgeous grandson. 

I loved the elements of this page and the Adventure Bound designer series paper was just perfect to compliment the pictures.

I hope you like it, and please come and join in our challenge. You can find all the layouts and our team interpretations over on Pinterest, or look back through my Saturday Scrappin' blogposts.

Have a crafty weekend everyone and make time for you! Enjoy, whatever you may be doing. 

Doodlebird x

Monday Morning Mooch

Morning all. What a fabulous weekend I had!

Crafting at our monthly class all day Saturday, we crafted hard and laughed lots.

11 lovely ladies with Irene and myself created six projects from acetate and vellum.

Shown are two of the projects they worked on throughout the course of the day. 

A whole, host of new techniques were learnt, heat embossing, embossing acetate using the Stampin' Up! Emboss boutique. Multi colour stamping and many other techniques too. 

Hope you like the samples shown. Contact me for more class information or if you'd like the project details.

Happy Crafting 

Doodlebird x 

Scrappin' Saturday

Yesssssssss, it's the weekend!

Today I'm over at our monthly class at Bicknacre with the lovely Irene and tomorrow off to team training at Peterborough with the wonderful Sue from FrankieSue's crafty place and Michelle over at the Krafty Koala. I'm very much looking forward to the girl's day out, and catching up with all my fellow demos and friends. The swaps are always very exciting too! 

I'm still very much enjoying taking part in the Butterfly Belles Scrapping Challenge and we are now on week 6. The time is flying by and it's great getting pages created and seeing the album grow.

This weeks sketch was based around three 4x4 photos. 

Here is my interpretation of the sketch, the photos were from November last year at my grandson's preschool. I love the way the layout has turned out. 

The layout uses Stampin' Up! Exclusively;The circle and square Framelits, a variety of circle punches, adventure bound stack pack, spiral border punch and the great sport (retired) stamp set. 

Please don't forget we'd love you to join in the challenge and post your interpretations for us to share.

Happy crafting and I hope you're making time for you!

Doodlebird x

Thursday - What's on my desk?

Morning everyone, hooray, it's nearly the weekend!

I've been working on some lovely goodies ready for Sunday. I'm off to our quarterly team training in Peterborough with two of the Butterfly Belles, Sue & Michelle.

The day is always packed full of ideas and tips and involves lots of creating and laughter. It's a tradition we create swaps to take. I usually try and make something that always involves a token gift of some kind. 

This quarter I have made little hanging gifts. Each has a goodie on the back, biscuits or mints. Which do you prefer? I hope they're enjoyed as much as I enjoyed making them with the Ray of Sunshine stamp set. They are layered using the banner framelits and the sentiment is from a set called Label Something and I have used the ticket punch to cut it out.

If you want one of these, come find us at Peterbrough, love having new Butterflies join the Belles!

Happy crafting one and all, pop back on Saturday for the Scrappin' Saturday Challenge.

Doodlebird x

Easter Bank Holiday Monday

Morning everyone, here in the UK it's bank holiday. Anyone got anything exciting planned?

In sunny Southend (laughing out loud) it's our annual Shakedown. This is a charity motorbike ride where thousands of bike converge on our seafront  from all over the country. My husband looks forward to this every year as an avid enthusiast and motorbikes all the way up to London to the Ace Cafe, has breakfast and joins the convoy to ride back to his hometown. I then go and meet him on the seafront (with my gorgeous grandson) and we walk along, look at the bikes and stalls. Weather permitting, it's usually a good day. 

This weekend I managed to spend 8 uninterrupted hours Skype crafting with Pam from Crazy Penguin Designs, We had fun! I managed to get a lot done , here are a couple of the makes that are being made ready for the first communion at a local church. These cards will be available at a local shop called Made@94 to purchase.

I used the Blessed by God and Crosses of Hope Stampin' Up! Sets, all other materials are exclusively Stampin' Up! 

Have a good week wherever you are, and whatever you're doing.

Remember, make time for you!

Doodlebird. X

Scrappin ' Saturday

Happy weekend everyone. Anything exciting planned?

I'm looking forward to an Easter egg hunt with my precious grandson, love watching him hunt out the chocolate goodies hidden around, such fun.

This Saturdays Scrappin' page was a layout I saw on Pinterest (sorry author unknown) and I'm just so enjoying taking part in the weekly challenges with fellow demos Sue, Irene & Linden. 

This is the original sketch.

My interpretation of the sketch is based around a trip to London last November with my husband to see the poppies as a tribute to all those who lost their lives. It was surreal and an amazing experience that cried out to be scrapped. Hope you like it.

I used Stampin' Up! Pleasant Poppies, a favourite of mine and real red. It was so relaxing shading the poppies with the marker pens. 

Have a great Easter weekend everyone and enjoy making time for you, whatever it maybe.

Doodlebird x

Tempting Thursday

Morning all

I had the most wonderful day yesterday and the pleasure of crafting with a lovely group of young adults who have challenging issues affecting their lives. I have crafted with these youngsters before and had such fun, I couldn't wait to spend the day with them.

Everything they do is done with a smile and so much enthusiasm, they are an inspiration to be with. We spent the day creating easter projects:- a basket, a card and a bookmark. 

They all had so much fun using the Big Shot to crank out their baskets and a variety of punches to make the "Easter Bunnies" and thought it hilarious when it was mentioned, the bunny had no bottom in one project! 

We used a whole host of Stampin' Up! Goodies including the Berry basket die, the Four you stamp set, an assortment of punches, Eggstra spectacular (retired) and the retiring incolours (pistachio pudding, crisp cantaloupe and Baked Brown sugar). If you need to stock up before they go don't forget to pop over to my online shop or contact  me direct. I shall be so sad to see these colours go but am very excited to see what new product appears in the new catalogue appearing very soon! 

Enjoy your Thursday everyone, and I hope you're remembering to make time for you x

Doodlebird x

Monday Morning Mojo

Over the weekend Sue, came over to play and we spent the morning catching up and playing.

We worked on the PCCCS #137 whilst eating chocolate biscuits, what can be better, crafting, coffee and chocolate!!

I used the Tip Tap Tap, Gorgeous Grunge and What's Up? Stampin' Up! Sets with the Typeset Designer Series Paper. The colours are very neutral, basic black, smoky slate and very vanilla. A touch of Baker's Twine was added to embellish.

Why not pop on over to Sue's blog to see what she created using the same sketch.

Have a great Monday and I hope you're making time for you.

Doodlebirdx 

Saturday Scrappin'

Happy Saturday everyone. Hope you all have a fun weekend planned.

Today is my "Scrappin' Saturday" using my Stampin' Up! Supplies. I am still working on a weekly challenge, and this week is Week 4 and the layout was chosen by Sue , so why not pop over to see hers along with Irene's and Linden's take on the sketch too. My version was based around my Grandson Hayden's achievement at swimming this week and his "fun" swim reward. 

I have used tempting turquoise and tangerine tango from the Brights collection and incorporated with the designer series paper Sweet Taffy. The stamp sets used are What's your Type? and a retired set called Sketched Alphabet. I have also used the circle framelits to create the matt for the photo and the journaling box. 

Hope the sketch pleases your eye, it does mine , but then anything featuring my grandson does!

If you'd like to purchase any of the supplies pop over to my online shop  here or contact me via email at  michellephilips89@icloud.com    

Have  a great weekend everyone, whatever you have planned, and don't forget as always to make time for you! 

Doodlebird x

Easter Goodies!

Hello everyone,

Hope you're keeping busy, easter is certainly keeping me busy with these lovely treats for friends and family, teachers and other special people.

Everyone that I know of just loves Maltesers, and so what better gift to receive. A box full of easter blessings using the Stampin' Up! Envelope punch board. the designer series paper was a previous Sale a bration paper, which is now retired, as is the Easter Blessings stamp.

A delicate butterfly from the beautiful wings embosslits adorns the sentiment stamped on whisper white and shaped using the oval framelits. 

I hope you like, happy Thursday everyone, and I hope you're making time for you x

Doodlebird 

Saturday Scrappin

Hi everyone,

A late Saturday blog this week as I've been busy playing a lively game of bingo with friends for charity, don't think I've laughed so much in ages.

This weeks page was based around a challenge sketch set by Irene Randall, and I have to admit it took me a long time to construct this one, because I kept changing my mind about the photos to use.

Eventually I settled on fun in the park with my gorgeous Grandson Hayden, and I actually love the way it has turned out. Hope you do too.

As always, have fun, keep,crafting and most important 'make time for you'

Doodlebird 

Blow away the Monday morning Blues!

Morning everyone.

I don't about you but like most people I don't like Mondays except for once a month when I hold the monthly card class with my lovely upline Irene Randall. Well today is the day, if you are reading this it is while I'm crafting away with a group of lovely ladies at Bicknacre Village Hall. 

The cards we are creating today are all based around "you", thinking of you, just for you and thank you. I am also trying to use up some of my huge stash of designer series paper, instead of sitting stroking if all the time.

I love the Basic Butterflies set in the Spring Seasonal Catalogue and it works well on the typeset designer paper, and filled with blender pens and real red.

The Thanks card uses one of my favourite sets 'Tape it' and the SAB free stamp set, available until 31/3 with a £45 order. I Love the amount of rewards you receive with Stampin' Up! The final card uses a retired  set called 'Best of Flowers'. Hope you enjoy the cards. 

Have a good week and as always make time for 'you' 

Doodlebird x

  

Scrappin' Saturday

Morning everyone.

It's Scrappin' Saturday which means it's time to post the weekly challenge for our pages. The Scrappin' Saturday was a challenge that myself, Irene Randall, and Linden set ourselves to kickstart ourselves into producing a regular page to add to our memory albums, as we have been slacking. It's working so far!


This week's challenge was set by Linden Rosam, and I found it wasn't as easy as it looked! However, I did very much enjoy completing it. All the challenges can be see over on my Pinterest board 'Scrapbook Challenge'. I would love to see your interpretations of the sketches.

The page was based around a black and white ball we attended on New Year's Eve 2014 with some special friends. We had a wonderful evening drinking lots of fizz, eating fabulous food and plenty of fun.

I love the fact that with Stampin' Up! you can be so versatile and the products can be changed in so many ways to adapt to what you need. In this sketch I used the Project life corner rounder, the daubing technique, some of the lovely resist designer series paper (only available through Sale-a-bration until 31/3), back to black designer series paper, chevron punch and heart punch.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at the page created and will pop back to see others.If you'd like information on classes available please contact me or click on the link 'classes' at the top of the page. Have you ever thought about receiving free goodies or a discount on buying your own? How about joining our ever expanding team of Butterfly Belles?  It'd be great to have you on board.

Happy Saturday everyone, and don't forget as ever 'Make time for you'

Enjoy x
Doodlebird

We ink! We dink! We do!

Happy Thursday everyone! Hope it will be an enjoyable one. It certainly will be for me, my lovely husband and I became a couple today 31 years ago, so we celebrate today as our Valentine's Day, and are off out to a lovely little Italian place for dinner tonight.

Had a fabulous fun day last Saturday crafting with the lovely Irene Randall. We hold a monthly class on a Saturday in a local village hall in Bicknacre (message us if you'd like to come). I do so enjoy doing these days, all materials are always included, as is lunch and the ladies have the opportunity to just come for the day or purchase a bundle of products to go home with.

This month we themed the day round inking and daubing techniques, we had such fun with a wonderful group of ladies.We inked and we dinked and we did, and produced six lovely cards. The ladies went home with Stampin' Up! Daubers and sponges, and very inky fingers, along with their beautiful creations.

I have posted two of my particular favourites, one is a card that Irene Cased from the lovely Pam Staples whom I had the pleasure of spending time with in Florida at Leadership back in January. The other is one that I particularly enjoyed using post it notes to mask and various shades of Stampin' Up! Colours to create the staggered landscape effect and one of my favourites stamp sets By the Seashore.

I hope you like the cards, have a fun day and remember to make time for you!
Happy crafting!

Doodlebird x

The Creative Blog Hop

Morning  everyone. Have you been set a challenge recently? 

 I have, and if you are reading this it is because you have jumped across from the amazingly talented Emily Thompson's blog who set me the challenge of taking part. This is my very first blog hop so please be kind as I'm extremely nervous. I find it hard to share my creativity as I never feel it as good as everyone else's and I'm certainly technically challenged!
The card shown is one that I have been working on recently for a forthcoming class. I just love the Butterfly basics and matching framelits. They are so popular with everyone old and young, and so versatile.

I have used the "incolours" mossy meadow, tangelo twist, hello honey and soft suede (one of my favourite from the neutrals collection). The card is made using the dry Bokeh technique. Sponging the base card with a selection of colours, then masking and applying Kraft white ink and allowing to dry. I just love the affect it creates. No two cards are ever the same.

Now for the next part of the challenge - questions! aggghhhh - the hardest part.

#1 What are you working on right now?

I'm always working on something, whether it's for a class or custom orders for a local shop or for friends and family. I love being able to just close myself away in my "Den" and create to my heart's content.

#2 How does your work differ from others in your genres?

Like Emily I am also an active Stampin' Up! demonstrator and like to ensure I cater for all tastes and designs and therefore my work is very eclectic. I wouldn't class myself as having a particular style that I work to. I hope that my creations reflect the different sides of me and inspire all those that come into contact with my work.

#3 Why do you create what you do?

Hmmmm, that's a tough one! There are many reasons I create what I do:

• a way of expression my emotions, it is like a release for me.
• to share my love of creating with others.
• to inspire and motivate others.
• my creating is a real life line for me from personal circumstance. I can do something I love whilst still fulfilling the challenging situation at home of caring full time for an elderly father in law with alzheimers and vascular dementia.
• finally, it's something I can share with my grandson. He loves to come over and regularly asks if we can stamp in the "Den". How could I refuse?

#4 How does your creativity work?

I find ideas in all sorts of places and continually find myself commenting on colours around me in Stampin' Up! terms, which my family find entertaining.  I love working from sketches and find it so interesting to see how many variations and different ideas come from one sketch, it's great putting your own 'twist' on sketches. I also like challenges , to be asked here's a stamp set, what can you do with it, That's a challenging task at times.

Well,  I hope you have enjoyed my first blog hop (hope it's not my last) and a quick view into my creative world. 

I now ask you to leap over to a very special friend Irene Randall  who will be sharing her creative passion with you.

Enjoy your week, and make sure you 'make time for you' however it maybe.

Doodlebird xx

Scrappin' Saturday

Morning everyone,

Wow, that week flew by quickly. Hope you have all had a good week. 

Mine has been productive, I'm still making the most of using our Stampin' Up! sale a bration freebies before they end on 31st March. I just love the Designer Series Paper, almost as much as I love "my star".

I love the colour combinations of early espresso (base), crushed curry, calypso coral and whisper white used on this 12x12 page, along with the star Framelits and spare accessories from the Perpetual Calendar kit. It is great that whenever you buy a kit from Stampin' Up! that there are so many extras leftover to play with in other projects. always fabulous value for money.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look and enjoy your weekend.

Doodlebird xx

Made@94

Morning everyone. Hope you're having a good day. I always have a good day if it involves one of two things in particular; my grandson Hayden or Stampin' Up! Today involves Stampin' Up!.

I was lucky enough to spend the morning teaching some lovely ladies at a shop in Leigh Road called Made@94 at our fortnightly card class.

One of the beautiful cards they made this morning was case'd from Sue McDonald. The ladies loved the colour combination of Wild Wasabi and Daffodil delight with the Sale a Bration resist designer series paper. They also loved being able to use the Stampin' Up, butterfly thinlets, they are so popular.

Hope you like the card, if you'd like to join us we would love to see you, contact me for more information or click on 'classes' above to find out more.

Happy crafting everyone.

Doodlebird 

Paper Crew Craft Challenge

Wednesday is known to as "hump day" here In The UK but for me it's fun day because Paper Crew release their weekly challenge based upon a given sketch.  This sketch is PCCCS #134. I just love to participate each week. It's great to be set a challenge and see all the different variations emerge from one sketch.
This is the sketch for this week. If you'd like to join in pop across to Paper Crew Craft Challenge , they'd love to see you, or have you participate.. 

Now for my version! I've used the On Film framelits and the camera
from the Stampin' Up! Traveller set, which is one of my favourites.
I've also used the 'smile' sentiment from the 'Oh, Hello' set. The colours used are real red, basic black and crushed curry to tie in with the Flashback Designer Series Paper. I've used the 1" circle punch and banner punch for the embellishments. Please pop over and take a look at all the beautiful entries posted throughtout the week, and checkout the fabulous design team.

See you soon, happy crafting.
Doodlebird x

Another week begins .....

Monday Morning all. What are your plans this week?
I've had a great weekend crafting with my friend and fellow demonstrator Sue McDonald, it's been a blast and a whole weekend of learning to step out of my comfort zone for me. As many of you know I'm not technologically savvy and have had a whole weekend of learning to 'modernise' myself! We also got to craft with our overseas friend met at Leadership this year, Pam Staples and worked on our 'Bokeh' techniques and loved the outcome of the card we made (see card below).
This week is a busy week, have lots planned. Two classes this week. I love hosing classes and sharing information with lovely ladies, and fun and laughter is always involved. This is one of the cards we will be making at our weekend class on Saturday, with my lovely upline Irene Randall.

Hope you like the card we are making. It's not too late if you'd like to join us this Saturday. Click on classes above for more information or contact me to reserve a space.  Whatever you're doing, enjoy your week.
Happy crafting everyone.
Doodlebird xx

Scrappin' Saturday

Morning all from a damp Leigh on Sea. hoping the weather will brighten up a bit later on for a stroll along the Old Town.

Meanwhile, here is a "happy" page I have constructed in order to brighten up my workspace.

The layout is made up using mainly SAB "freebies" (contact me on how to get yours). I have also used the "hello" Thinlets from Stampi ' Up! to create the sentiment.

I hope you like my "happy" page as much as I do, there's nothing better than looking at a page to see my husband and grandson smiling up at me.

I've also made a card for SAB saturday, again using Stampin' Up! freebies, a new home card case'd from a recent team training at Peterborough.

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend. 

Putting my big girl pants on................

Today I've taken the plunge and put my big girl pants on!! 

Spent an evening learning how to update and create a blog (with a little help from a bottle of wine and a lot from Sue McDonald!) Before having to go back into the classroom we decided to have a little fun first creating for the Paper Crew Craft Challenge (#133).

I used the Wood You Be Mine stamp set to create the above card based upon the design layout specified by the Challenge. Colours used were crumb cake, whisper white and chocolate chip.  Hope you like it!

Now back to the classroom for my next IT lesson xx