Craftyduckydoodah! March Updates

Hello and welcome to March!  I have to say that the weather here in Cambridgeshire has been absolutely delightful - glorious blue skies and lots of lovely sunshine. I had my first drive of 2025 with the roof off = a very happy me!  Everything is starting to look pretty and fresh with the promise of Spring flowers and leaves, its such a lovely time of the year and I seem to be reflecting this in recent crafty projects!

As ever, there is a lot happening in the world of SU so, here are all the details you need in one place.

Welcoming Garden Kit

Create your own charming, garden-themed cards with the Welcoming Garden Kit. Featuring pre-cut, colourful flowers and unique garden gates, this all-inclusive kit is perfect for crafting a heartfelt thank-you card or a note to say a friendly hello.

Details

• Makes 9 cards: 3 each of 3 designs
• Folded card size: 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" (10.5 x 14.9 cm)
• Colours: Basic Black, Berry Burst, Calypso Coral, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Gray Granite, Highland Heather, Lemon Lime Twist, Pecan Pie, Pool Party

The kit includes one of each item listed below.

• Welcoming Garden Photopolymer Stamp Set
• Clear stamp block
• Crumb Cake Classic Stampin’ Spot™
• Step-by-step instructions
• 9 printed envelopes
• Adhesive
• A 9-7/8" x 6-1/2" x 2-3/4" (25.1 x 16.5 x 7 cm) printed box for storage or crafting on the go

Maritime Moments Kit

Let your creativity set sail with the Maritime Moments Kit. Drift in the soothing watercolours and costal imagery of these cards that can be either feminine or masculine. With printed sentiments, twine, and a stamp set of nautical images, this kit comes with everything you need to make cards for your favourite sailors.

Details

• Makes 6 cards: 2 each of 3 designs
• Folded card size: 4.3" x 5.5" (10.8 x 14 cm)
• Colours: Balmy Blue, Cajun Craze, Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Gray Granite, Night of Navy, Pecan Pie, Pool Party

Kit includes one of each item listed below.

• Maritime Moments Photopolymer Stamp Set
• Clear stamp block
• Gray Granite Classic Stampin’ Spot™
• Step-by-step instructions
• 6 printed envelopes
• Adhesive
• A 9-7/8" x 6-1/2" x 2-3/4" (25.1 x 16.5 x 7 cm) printed box for storage or crafting on the go

New Online Exclusives

This week sees the latest launch of brand new online exclusive products that you won't find in any of our catalogues.

New stamp and die bundles, suites, DSP and more.  You can see all new products HERE.

One of my favourite new items is the very useful Painted Stripes stamp.  Probably not the most exciting new item but, it will be very useful for all sorts of different projects.  I have this item on my next order!!

Coffee & Cards (C & C)

As promised we made very special cards for Valentines Day again this year - there was a sneaky little switch that turned on some string lights hidden inside the card!

Sessions take place every Tuesday, 10.30 - 12.30pm in Godmanchester.  The cost is £15 and includes all materials, tuition and light refreshments.  Classes are suitable for all level of crafters from absolute beginners to more advanced crafters.  Keep an eye on my facebook page for further details.  

If you are unable to attend the regular morning session drop me a message as I may be able to offer either an afternoon or evening session for you.

Workshops

Our February Workshop used items from the very pretty Wildflower Birthday Suite.  Our projects included a rather special fancy fold card - a slide and reveal card which was designed by my lovely upline Liz. This card will be on its way to my Aunty Doreen in May!

The DSP in this collection is very pretty and includes sheets of die cut images.  We also created an elegant DL card along with a CASE'd version of a project by one of the fabulous Artisan Design Team members.

March Workshops

This month we will be using the online exclusive Mixed Florals Suite for our workshops.  Projects are coming along and I will share details shortly.

Date: Tuesday March 25th

Time: 10:30 - 1pm

Cost: £25

or

Date:    Tuesday March 25th (this is a repeat of the morning workshop)

Time:     7pm - 9:30pm

Cost:     £25

For all classes and workshops please bring basic craft tools with you (bone folder, scissors, paper trimmer etc) if you have them and your preferred adhesives - I have limited supplies available for sale on the day if you forget or run out.

Classes take place at my home in Godmanchester unless otherwise stated.

Full payment is the only way to guarantee your place as regretfully, I have been let down in the past saving places for people who have not attended.

Sorry, no refunds unless I cancel the event. If for any reason you are unable to attend, I will do my best to find someone else to take your place but can't guarantee to do so. If not, your workshop kit will be available for collection after the event (kit will include basic supplies but no stamped images as per SU rules).

McCartney House Weekly Craft Sessions

The lovely ladies at McCartney House continue to develop their crafting skills and they are now planning a return visit to the Godmanchester Town Show later on this year.

I love my Monday afternoons with this group of crafters - none of them had ever paper crafted before but, I am pleased to say they took to it like ducks to water!

Our projects this week used the Storybook Garden Patch bundle to create cards to send to gardeners.

One of the ladies even suggested that the vegetables on the card could count towards two of our five a day - not sure about that though!

There is a very clever die in this bundle that creates the mounds of 'soil' with little slots so that you can pop in the veg of your choice - how clever is that!

A crafty experiment!

Did you see my post on facebook last week?  I have been wanting to try to refresh my blender pens for some time now.  The pens are filled with a specialised solution that allow you to blend ink and pencils to use on your projects and can be used for lots of different techniques.

I have known for a few years that there was a way to refill the pens but I was having trouble getting hold of distilled water in a way that did not involve buying five litres of it and it costing a small fortune!

Then I had a thought so, after a quick search on Google I discovered that so called ironing water was made with distilled water so I added some to my weekly shop.

So the experiment!  I added the following ingredients to a little pot and then carefully removed the nibs with some tweezers and popped them into the pot to soak up the solution.

• 2 teaspoons glycerin
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbing alcohol
• 4 teaspoons of ironing water

A short while later I replaced the nibs and did a little test using watercolour pencils.

I'm very pleased to say the experiment was successful!  Even better, the ironing water had a pleasant smell which was an added bonus!  

And finally ...

Stampin' Up! announced this week that they would be discontinuing the Basic White Thick Cardstock which was a bit of a shock to say the least!  They also announced price increases to all cardstock.  Prices are going up everywhere but the increase is quite significant.  Prices will come into effect with the launch of the upcoming Annual Catalogue at the beginning of May.  I will be placing an order to stock up as supplies will surely sell out quickly.  If anyone local to me would like to piggyback my order to save on postage please let me know asap.  I am busy researching an alternate source of thick white card to use for card bases but I am hoping that SU will realise what a mistake it is to discontinue this essential item!

I hope everyone has a lovely crafty March!

Susan xx

Thank you so much for looking at my Blog today, if you don't have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and you live in the UK, I would love to be yours!  

If you need to order any supplies, simply use my “shop with me” button or click on the catalogue links on the right. Alternatively, contact me and I would be happy to place an order for you.

Orders placed either in my online store or directly with for me £25+ (excluding P & P) will receive a handmade card and a gift as a thank you from me.

Would you like to save on postage costs for your SU orders?

Keep an eye on my Craftyducky facebook page - I usually post when I am about to place an order.  if you are local to me and can collect you can piggyback my orders to save on postage for just £1 per order (any size of order welcome).

If you would like a copy of the Annual Catalogue, the January - April Mini Catalogue or the Sale-A-Bration catalogues let me know and I will pop one in the post for you if you are unable to collect. If you prefer, you can view an online version by clicking the links to the left of this post.