MaKing Papercrafts

Sale-a-Bration Freebies

2012-02-27T08:30:00.000Z

More of those Everyday Enchantment SAB papers for today's card. The ones I have used so far have a vintage feel about them, however there are some more 'modern' designs in the pack - I just haven't had time to use them yet!

This card is a really simple design and quick to make. I used some non SU cardstock, which I found in my stash, for the card base and the colour is close to Very Vanilla. The bird stamp (which is reflected in the paper) is from the SAB set, Elementary Elegance, and was stamped in Crumb Cake onto the card base. A strip of DSP was cut so the focal shape was central and adhered to a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock which was cut slightly bigger. From a scrap of DSP I cut out the 'shape' and layered this onto a circle of R.H.Red cardstock and then glued this onto the DSP. A knot of R.H.Red Taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel before it was glued to the card base. The card was finished with a sentiment stamped onto a piece of card and cut with the Modern Label punch.

Scraps of Lace

2012-02-26T10:22:00.000Z

The Simply Stampin' challenge this week is Lace and I had to think about this one as I'm really not a lacy person. However I remembered I had a 'scrap' of Crochet Trim somewhere, which was left over in my goody bag from the last team training event and, as the rest of my card was using mostly scraps, it is also my second entry for the LIM challenge. I haven't been tempted to buy the Crochet Trim before but as I was really pleased with how it looks on this card that may very well change!

I made the card base with half a sheet of Naturals Ivory, which was left over from a previous card and used a piece of DSP from Everyday Enchantment (a SAB freebie) as my first layer. I stamped the image from Fresh Vinyage (another SAB freebie), in Riding Hood Red, onto a scrap of Very Vanilla and inked all around the edges with a sponge dauber before fixing to the base card. The panel on the LH side is another scrap of Riding Hood Red cardstock with the crochet trim tied around the edge and butted up against the Very Vanilla. I stamped the sentiment and part of the large image onto Very Vanilla and cut out using the Jewelry Tag Punch, these were positioned onto the card with a Basic Pearl added and 3 smaller Basic Pearls down the edge of the panel.

Don't be put off by the suggestion of colours that co-ordinate with the papers as they can all be substituted, I don't have either of the reds that co-ordinate but I am more than happy with how the Riding Hood Red matches (and I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to colour matching, hate it if it 'doesn't quite go'!).

I hope you're all enjoying this touch of spring that we are getting, it's so lovely to see the sun - apart from the fact that it shows up all the dust, dirt on the windows and the effects of winter on the garden! I just hope we don't revert back to winter. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back soon, maybe with even more scraps now they've seen the light of day :0)

Scraps!

2012-02-25T13:42:00.000Z

The challenge at Less is More this week is 'Scraps' where Chrissie & Mandi want us to use up those card and paper scraps, so I thought I would show you the pictures above of my scraps (well some of them). I'm not very good at using up my scraps, of which I have copious amounts, before cutting into a brand new sheet of cardstock or DSP and have hundreds of 'already cut' flowers, leaves, butterflies, circles and branches but always reach for the punches or dies rather than seeing what I've already got! Well that changed for today and I have made 2 cards for the challenge, although believe me I could have made a lot more.

I started by making a card blank in Certainly Celery and then cut a piece of DSP slightly smaller and fixed it to the card base. For the top layer I used a piece of Whisper White, slightly smaller than the DSP, cut out holes with different sized circle punches and layered this on top. I collected all my scrap flowers which had been cut with the Boho Blossoms punch, Itty Bitty punch and the 5-Petal Flower punch and decided to use a Very Vanilla and Pumpkin Pie combination (the only thing I had to newly punch were the two small circles to go in the centre of the tiny flowers) These were assembled and curled slightly before positioning

in the apertures using dimensionals. A small basic pearl, a couple of branches (from the 2-Step Bird punch) and the sentiment were added to finish the card.

My second card is along the same lines but using some of my many pre-cut butterflies (Beautiful Wings Embosslits). This time the colour combo was Pink Pirouette and Elegant Eggplant, with the addition of a bit of Vellum cardstock, and I embossed the Whisper White cardstock with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder. For this card I mounted the white embossed layer on dimensionals and stuck the butterflies to the card base, rather than the other way round, to give a different diemension. Basic Rhinestones were added to the butterflies for a bit of sparkle.

On a final note I would like to add that no new pieces of cardstock or vellum were cut or damaged in the making of these cards :0)

Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon x

Blossom Box

2012-02-24T08:30:00.001Z

I had so many fantastic comments about the card that I made earlier in the week (shown above left), using the branch from Easter Blossoms, that I thought I would show you the box I have made to go with it. The top is made with the Scallop Square die so I made this first as it determined how big the box would be. The Scallop Square was scored on all four sides after the second scallop, which left me with a lid measuring approx 2½" square. The rest of the box was made to fit the lid, mine is 6" high but you can make it as short or tall as you want depending on what you want to put in it. Panels were made for the top, and all 4 sides, using the branch stamp on Whisper White and then layered onto Wisteria Wonder, leaving a tiny border showing. The scallops on the box lid were inked with Wisteria Wonder using a sponge dauber and a Wisteria Wonder Ruffled ribbon loop was added to the box lid. Oh and not forgetting 3 vellum butterflies from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits, sponged with Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo, with a tiny pearl in the centre, on the front panel.

Decorated Tin

2012-02-23T08:04:00.002Z

This is a little covered tin with a matching gift card, made in Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant. I covered the top of the tin with DSP from the Paper Stack and made the 3D flower with the Blossom Party die in Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant. I put a River Rock leaf spray behind the flower, cut with the Little Leaves Sizzlits die.The card is simply made with a strip of matching DSP and a single fower from the Blossom Party die, with a sentiment stamped in Elegant Eggplant. I transformed my tin into a mini scrapbook with photos of my grandchildren but it would make a nice container if you were giving money as a gift and you could decorate the inside of the tin as well if you wanted to.

The tin that I used was a new one bought specifically for the job but you can transform a used container (there are several tins around that contain sweets) with a bit of DSP and maybe some ribbon so, before you confine things to the bin, take a look at them and it's amazing what you can do!

Beautiful Butterflies

2012-02-22T09:12:00.000Z

I got the idea for today's card from an American demo, Tami White, who had CASE'd hers from an 'unknown' demo! I started by cutting a mask from the Beautiful Butterflies die using acetate, which is a brilliant tip in itself. When making masks before I have always used a card scrap, however by using acetate not only do the sponge daubers glide much more easily but you can clean the mask and re-use. Anyway I digress. The mask was fixed to a piece of Whisper White card using a tiny bit of re-positionable glue runner and, using sponge daubers, I added Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie to colour the butterfly. Leaving the mask in position I then used an image from Pocket Silhouettes and stamped in Basic Black. The butterfly was cut out by hand and matted onto a piece of Whisper White which had already been stamped in So Saffron with the small butterfly stamp from Cottage Garden. This was placed on a mat of So Saffron and Marina Mist before fixing to a card blank. The sentiment is part of a stamp from Create a Cupcake, inked with a marker pen and punched with the Modern Label Punch.

Bookmark Card

2012-02-21T09:15:00.000Z

I've wanted to have a go at making a bookmark card for a long time and eventually I got round to it. There are several ways of making these but I have made one which is using a perforated strip down the side of the card which can be detached to use as your bookmark. I took an A4 sheet of More Mustard and cut it down to 14.8cm x 26cm and then, turning it to landscape, I scored at 10.5cm and perforated at 21cm, which leaves a 5cm strip for the bookmark part. I have a perforating blade on my paper cutter but you can buy hand held rotary ones as well. I cut 1cm off the top of the bookmark part purely so that the knot of ribbon was inside the card and not sticking out of the top. To decorate I used a mat of Soft Suede cardstock topped with a piece of Paisley Petals DSP for the front and just a strip of DSP for the bookmark. On the front I added a knot of Soft Suede Taffeta ribbon with the sentiment, punched out with the Modern Label punch, placed on top. To strengthen the hole in the top of the bookmark I punched a ¼“ hole in More Mustard cardstock and then cut out with ½" circle punch and glued one of these on the front over the hole which I had already punched in the bookmark and one at the back. A piece of ribbon was threaded through the hole. The card was finished off with a Very Vanilla Top Note stuck on the inside to write a message.

Simply Stampin' again

2012-02-19T18:03:00.000Z

When I saw the colour challenge on Simply Stampin' yesterday I didn't know whether I would be able to produce anything that I was remotely happy with and here I am, back again, with a card using the same colours! It all began when last night I decided to play with a new stamp from the Easter Blossoms set and the colours just seemed to lend themselves to the pretty blossom. I stamped the branch in Early Espresso and then stamped again without re-inking to give a paler branch at the back and coloured in the blossoms on the front branch with Melon Mambo and the rest with Pretty in Pink. I was amazed at how quickly I managed to colour all those blossoms just by using a blender pen and ink pressed onto the lid of the stamp pad - I thought it would take ages! I wanted the butterflies to be more delicate than cardstock so I inked a piece of Vellum cardstock with Pretty in Pink using a sponge dauber, cut out the butterflies with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, and then lightly inked around the edges with Melon Mambo and fixed them onto the branch with a tiny dot of wet glue. The sentiment from For my Family was stamped in Melon Mambo and, to finish the card, I added a tiny Basic Pearl to the centre of each butterfly and three slightly bigger ones under the sentiment. The panel was matted onto a piece of Wisteria Wonder cardstock and positioned onto a white card blank. Maybe my Mother's Day card ready in advance!!

COLOUR COMBO to DIE for!

2012-02-18T12:54:00.000Z

Back again with some cards I am entering for two challenges - Less is More which this week is Die Cuts or Punches, and Simply Stampin' which is a colour challenge using Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, Wisteria Wonder and Whisper White. I don't feel like I'm cheating as I've made 4 cards in all (scroll down for the 4th one) so that's an average of 2 per challenge!

I needed to make some thank you cards so I'm killing 2 birds with one stone, so to speak, and here they are. Using the aforementioned colours but swapped around to make three different cards,along with the Blossom Party die, Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and the border stamp from the SAB set, Fresh Vintage, and various thank you sentiments. After having cut the butterflies I was left with some over so made another card to use them up which you can see below.

For this I used the large foliage stamp from Just Believe, inked with Wisteria Wonder and, as I only wanted a faint background, I stamped off before stamping onto the card. I added the butterflies which were supposed to be 'scattered' but, after I had glued them, it would appear they are rather more regimented than I intended! The sentiment was supposed to be stamped directly onto the card but I managed to also ink the edge of my stamp leaving a nasty line underneath so I hastily stamped again onto a piece of cardstock and punched out with the Modern Label Punch and managed to cover up my mistake (oh, if only everything were that easy!). The butterflies, as on the ones above, were adorned with the tiniest of Basic Pearls to finish them off.

Again can I take this opportunity to thank Chrissie & Mandi and all the DT at Simply Stampin' for their brilliant challenges they really do inspire me, as do all the other entries. Also many thanks to everyone who leaves such kind comments and not forgetting a big hello to my new blog followers - I hope you enjoy visiting.

Have a lovely weekend, it's cold and damp here at the moment but they say it's going to get milder again next week - roll on spring! x

I'm not Old, I'm Vintage

2012-02-17T17:08:00.000Z

Oh dear you can tell I'm off work - 2 posts in 1 day! Never mind back to the grindstone on Monday so back to normal then (well as normal as normal gets).

Whilst drinking coffee and blog hopping this afternoon I came across a challenge site called 'Friday Mashup' which each week sets a combination of two challenges. You can either mix the two or just use one and this week is the sketch above and, to 'mash it up', also go Vintage or Shabby Chic. As I am definitely much more Vintage than Shabby Chic (me that is, not my style of creating) I chose to go with that. I started by embossing a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock with the rectangle from the Designer Frames Embossing set and cut a rectangle of Crumb Cake DSP to go in the centre onto which I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip. I inked all around the edge of the cardstock with Crumb Cake ink before fixing to a card blank made from Naturals Ivory cardstock which I also inked around. The two 'photo corners' were made with my square punches from Chocolate chip cardstock and glued in place. I cut the flowers from my new Blossom Party die using more DSP to match the central panel and used the reverse pattern for the centre circle. The petals were curled a little before fixing in place.

Do come back tomorrow when, despite still having a hundred and one things I need to do before going back to work, I'm sure I will find time for a LIM card!

Sale-a-Bration Freebies!

2012-02-17T08:07:00.000Z

Something a bit different to my usual style today – fancier and more layers, but I am quite pleased with the result. I wanted to make something with the SAB sets of Everyday Enchantment DSP and the Fresh Vintage stamp set so I chose the paper that echoes the stamp and made a gift box and matching card. The box is just one I made up and is a basic square box with a lid but I cut two of the sides a bit differently to add a bit of interest. The box base is made from Pool Party cardstock with panels of DSP added and the loop is Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon – the actual red in the paper is Poppy Parade but, as I didn’t have this, I tried the R.H.Red and I think it matched just as well.

The card is a Naturals Ivory blank with a strip of Pool Party, a narrower strip of DSP on top and finally a strip of the Pool Party again, punched with the Scallop Dotted Ribbon punch and finished with a knot of R.H.Red Taffeta ribbon. I stamped the sentiment, from Happiest Birthday Wishes, three times onto Very Vanilla, punched out with co-ordinating punches and then layered using dimensionals. At this stage the card looked a little bare on the right-hand side so, before fixing the strip into place, I stamped the stamp (which matches the DSP) in Crumb Cake and then fixed the card & DSP strip on top slightly overlapping the stamped images.

The Fresh Vintage stamp set and the lovely Everyday Enchantment DSP are two of the choices you can get free with an order of £45, available only until 31^st March – so go on, treat yourself and get some freebies while you can!

Corner Page Bookmarks

2012-02-16T09:35:00.001Z

Here are some 'corner page bookmarks' which I have made as gifts for some ladies who are coming to craft with me today. I have tried to draw a diagram to explain how to make these but I can't get it onto here so will try to explain!!

Start off with a 4" square of cardstock and mark the centre point on 3 sides. Place your cardstock so you have a mark at the top and one on each side (unmarked side at the bottom) and then score from the top mid-point to one side and then from the top to the opposite side and fold over. The two triangular flaps can be held together by some sticky tape or just by glueing the decorative triangle on top. For these I used Rich Razzleberry cardstock and DSP with River Rock used for the leaves, cut from the 2-Step Bird punch, and the tag.

The tiny flowers are one of the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes Pack covered in Crystal Effects and a tiny Basic Pearl in the centre.

I thought that 'I'm here' suited a bookmark so I inked up just those words from a stamp in Curvy Verses with a Rich Razzleberry marker, stamped onto card and punched it out with the Jewelry Tag punch. I finished by personalising them with an initial cut with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet die.

2012-02-15T08:29:00.000Z

I got my inspiration for today's card from Vicky (her card can be found here) I have used different colours and DSP but, other than that, it is definitely a case'd card. I 'inherited' this set from someone else and, I have to say, it's the first time I've used it but thanks to Vicky it's now come out of the box.

I used a piece of Everyday Enchantment DSP, which is a SAB set and one of the choices that comes free with an order over £45, and layered it onto a plain white card blank. The feather was stamped onto Whisper White, once in Pool Party and again in Lucky Limeade which are the two colours in the DSP, and the sentiment from Sincere Salutations stamped in Lucky Limeade. The panel was lightly inked around the edges with Crumb Cake before positioning onto the DSP.

Perfect for a man and very quick as well!

Quick'n'Easy

2012-02-14T08:53:00.038Z

Another quick and easy card, this time suitable for a man. I began by placing a post-it note on the inside front of a square card blank and scoring around it using my score board. I then turned the card over and placed the post-it onto the embossed square as a mask before randomly stamping the leaf from French Foliage in Crumb Cake. After removing the mask I stamped the text stamp, again from French Foliage in Crumb Cake, in the centre and then the bird from Notably Ornate was stamped in Early Espresso on top. Have you noticed the wiggly line under the sentiment? Well it wasn't meant to be there but when I inked up the stamp I managed to get a bit of ink on the edge of the rubber which left a mark that I didn't want. I took my Early Espresso marker and fashioned a wiggly line underneath to cover up the mistake. One disaster averted!!!!

And this one's for all you romantics out there - Happy Valentine's Day. This is a card I was 'playing' with yesterday, and I know it's rubbish but thought I'd show you anyway :0) I recently bought a white Stazon ink pad and wanted to experiment as it came with a refill and the pad had to be re-inked before use. Being impatient I tried it as soon as I had put the ink on and I think I should have let it soak in first because it didn't stamp very evenly. It is a stamp from the SAB set Outlined Occasions and the 'you' is part of another stamp. It doesn't show up very well in the photo but, before the ink dried, I sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds just to see what happened and they stuck quite well. Anyway enough of my ramblings, have a good day and do come back tomorrow x

Blossom Party

2012-02-13T09:00:00.001Z

The card I have for you today is still 'simple' but just a little more time consuming. Pretty much all the work is done for you with a die cutting machine and it's just up to you to do the designing! I have been inspired by several crafters in the use of this die (particularly from America and Australia where they have had the die for longer than the UK) so cannot attribute credit to any one in particular but a quick Google search will also inspire you I am sure.

I have used the brand new Blossom Party die available in the Spring Mini and it is fast becoming my favourite! The die has 5 cuts on it and the variety of blossoms/flowers you can make with different combinations are endless.

I decided to use Pink Pirouette for the simple reason it happened to be on my desk, unopened waiting to be put away, and teamed it with Certainly Celery for the leaves which I cut out with the Little Leaves Sizzlits die. I used 4 different cuts on the die to make the flowers and, for this card, I layered and curled them to give some dimension but if you wanted a flatter card to post then you can simply miss out the curling.

The Blossom Party die is available to buy for £16.50 and the Little Leaves die is £4.95 so if you have a die cutting machine then, for a little over £20, I would seriously recommend buying these. I'm sure you will get LOTS of use out of them - I know I will!

If you would like to order anything from the current Stampin'Up! catalogues then I would be happy to help - and don't forget if you spend £45 then you can choose an item from the SAB catalogue completely free (links to the current catalogues are on my side bar so you can browse at leisure)

Simply Stampin' Sketch

2012-02-11T22:38:00.000Z

The Simply Stampin' challenge this week is a Sketch (top right) and here is my interpretation of it. I started by stamping the border, in Early Espresso, with my adapted In Stitches wheel (see yesterday's post for more details about this) and then placed a strip of Crumb Cake DSP above it but slightly overlapping. Part of the swirl stamp from Everything Eleanor was coloured with a Crumb Cake marker and stamped above the DSP. I then took the stamp from the same set which looks a bit like a plaque, stamped onto Whisper White in Crumb Cake, added a few flowers in Crumb Cake, and then cut out leaving a white border around the edge and positioned this onto the card. The flowers, from Everything Eleanor, were stamped in Melon Mambo and the stamens highlighted using an Early Espresso marker, then cut out and glued in place (I used a dimensional for the flower at the bottom to give a bit of depth). A few Crumb Cake leaves punched with the 2-Step Bird punch were added along with a sentiment from Style Beautiful and challenge over!

Stripes

2012-02-11T10:30:00.001Z

My card for today is 'Stripes' which is this week's one-layer challenge at Less is More. I put my thinking cap on whilst I hoovered my very messy craft room (and managed to blow up my hoover into the bargain but that's another story!) and remembered my adapted 'In Stitches Wheel' and, if you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, pop over to Vicky's post here where she gives a brilliant tutorial on how to do it.
I stamped the 'stripe' three times down the side of a card blank in Basic Gray and then stamped an image from Just Believe on top using Basic Black and added a sentiment, also in Basic Black. A very CAS card which could be adapted to suit any occasion
I hope you've all managed to stay safe in the wintery weather this week and managed to get a lot of crafting done because it was too cold to go out :0) This morning I awoke to an extremely hard frost, you know the kind you see on Christmas cards, with all the trees (and cobwebs!) white and sparkly - very pretty with the sun shining on them. I haven't actually ventured out but I'm sure it's very, very cold so I think I'll stay put!
Enjoy your weekend and if you're out and about take care. x

Triple Treat with Wisteria Wonder

2012-02-10T09:00:00.000Z

Another quick'n'easy card for you, this time inspired by Angie Kennedy (an American SU demo), but using a different stamp and different colours. The Triple Treat Flower punch was stamped twice in Wisteria Wonder and the centre stamped in Elegant Eggplant onto Whisper White. The first image was punched out with the Fancy Flower punch, the second with the 5-Petal Flower punch and the centre with the ½" circle punch and layered up with dimensionals. A strip of Wisteria Wonder cardstock was cut at the ends, adhered to the card and the flower placed on top. The sentiment, from Happiest Birthday Wishes, was stamped in Elegant Eggplant.
I am fortunate enough to own the punches used for this card but the image would not be too difficult to cut out by hand (maybe with the exception of the small circle which I am absolute rubbish at cutting!). The only disadvantage in this would be that it would take a little longer to make - it's so quick when you can just punch away. I love the simplicity and cleanness of this card so I think I will be making a few more in different colours, leaving the sentiment off, so that I have cards ready and waiting which would be suitable for any occasion.

When is it Springtime?

2012-02-08T21:11:00.000Z

Another quick card to show you using Easter Blossoms, a new stamp set in the Spring Mini. A piece of Daffodil Delight DSP was embossed with the oval from the Designer Frames Embossing set and adhered to a card blank. The image of the girl was stamped in Basic Black onto Whisper White and then punched out with the Large Oval punch and glued into position inside the frame. The sentiment from the same set was stamped in Basic Black and a Daffodil Delight Grosgrain Ribbon bow added to the bottom of the frame. How quick is that?

I experimented a little with the colour of the silhouette by first stamping in Daffodil Delight but I much preferred the black - but then it's all a matter of taste and it could be stamped in any colour. You could even colour the image using different colour markers but, as I wanted this to be a quick card, I didn't even attempt that!

I Won!!

2012-02-07T17:38:00.000Z

Just a quick extra post today as I wanted to share some news I had over the weekend. You may remember the two cards shown on the left that I entered for the St.Luke's challenge, to recycle something, a few weeks ago. Well the Design Team chose me as the overall winner - and all with some recycled SU brown paper packaging! I have been awarded the winners badge below and a ribbon collection donated by The Ribbon Girl.

I want to say a massive thank you to the ladies who chose me as winner and I urge you to read a bit more about St. Luke's. (or why not visit their blog)

St Luke's is a hospice which cares for people aged 18 and above throughout Sheffield who have incurable illnesses. Their aim is always to control the patients symptoms, alleviate pain, and give them the best possible quality of life – all free of charge. It costs £6 million per annum to keep St Luke's open, and government funding, via NHS trusts only provides one third of the funds required, which means the Hospice has to raise a staggering £4 million each year to provide this vital end-of-life care.
The challenge site was set up by Tara with the aim of people making cards for the monthly challenge and then donating the cards to be sold to raise the vital funds St.Luke's need to keep running. Even if you do not enter the challenges then I'm sure all of you have at least one card you've made that you could spare for this very worthwhile charity (they even sell the stamps that you use to post the card to them!) Last month I had over 7000 visitors to my blog so if just 1000 of those people sent one card each then that would be £1000, at the very least, that would benefit St.Luke's. So please after reading this find just ONE card (complete with envelope) to send, pop it in an envelope (in a cellophane card bag if you have one) and post to:-

Charity Card Challenge
St Luke's Hospice
Little Common Lane
Sheffield
S11 9NE

I would really appreciate it if this charity could benefit from my blog in some way so thank you in anticipation. And why not leave me a comment to tell me you've done it!!!

Everyday Enchantment

2012-02-07T09:00:00.004Z

At the moment I am looking for 'quick'n'easy' cards - you know for that time when you need a card but you haven't got ages to think about it let alone make it as well. I also wanted to incorporate some of the new stamp sets and papers that I have (not all are new to the catalogues but new to me) and here is one that uses the Everyday Enchantment DSP - one of the choices in the SAB catalogue. I have used Calypso Coral which is a colourI haven't used before, a bit bright for my usual style of card but sometimes I need to be just that bit more adventurous and cater for other people's taste as well as my own, and besides that it co-ordinates perfectly with the DSP I chose! I have teamed it up with Crumb Cake as I thought it tied the two together really well. The Calypso Coral cardstock was embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder and cut to size before layering onto a DL card blank and a piece of the DSP was butted up against this. I punched some Crumb Cake cardstock with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch and I tied some Crumb Cake Taffeta ribbon around before placing down the join. The sentiment, from Create-a-Cupcake, was stamped in Calypso Coral onto a scrap of the DSP and punched with the Word Window punch and placed onto a Large Oval.

I will be back with some more quick cards, some of which have been inspired by Vicky aka Crafting Clare who is a constant source of inspiration to me and hundreds of others! I do try not to 'case' cards completely but use inspiring designs to change here & there and come up with my own version. So thank you Vicky, I spent a good few hours browsing your gorgeous creations the other night, which kept me happy while it was freezing cold and snowing like mad outside :0)

Aqua Again!

2012-02-05T21:31:00.001Z

Today when I went into my craft room there was a Baja Breeze Scallop Circle sitting on my desk (left over from the frame I made on Saturday for the Aqua Less is More card) so I decided I would use it and have another go at the challenge. I started by masking off an area on a card blank and stamping the tiny flower, from Flight of the Butterfly, in Baja Breeze. I then placed it on my scoring board and scored a line either side of the border to give a negative embossed line. The Scallop Circle was run through the Polka Dots Embossing Folder and the edges inked before placing onto the stamped border. I then used a piece of SU Vellum cardstock to cut and emboss the butterflies with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and placed these onto the card and added some Basic Pearls. The sentiment is one from Flight of the Butterfly and this was stamped in Baja Breeze. This was quite a quick card to make and used up some scraps which would otherwise have ended up in the bin!

On Saturday night it was so cold and I was nice and warm in my living room so, as I didn't really want to move, I did what I do best (and far too much of!) and trawled through a lot of my favourite crafting blogs. I came across someone who had used a technique I was not familiar with - the Bandana Technique - so I diverted to YouTube to investigate. I suppose the nearest thing to compare it with is wax resist but using a white pencil. Now I know I have several coloured pencils and I'm sure one of them has to be white but, in my grand tidy up, I have put them 'somewhere' and could I find them? Well you know the answer to that. As I had already stamped my flower from Greenhouse Garden, and not to be beaten, I decided to try emboss resist using white embossing powder instead and this is the result. No masterpiece but acceptable - ISH. Finished off with Baja Breeze Seam Binding and a sentiment from Perfect Pairs.

Two challenges for the price of one (or BOGOF)

2012-02-05T09:10:00.000Z

Simply Stampin' and St.Luke's -

all in one!

The Simply Stampin' challenge this week is 'Heartfelt' and St.Luke's for this month is 'Love & Lace' so I thought I would combine the two. Both have a Valentine's theme but more on that later!

I used a retired SU heart stamp which I stamped in Versamark, heat embossed with Cherry Cobbler Embossing powder and then cut out with my heart punch. Another heart was punched from Cherry Cobbler cardstock and the embossed heart was layered on top. As I do not have any lace I improvised and made a lace border to go across the card with the Eyelet Punch - hope I can get away with that! The punched hearts were positioned on top of the border and the sentiment was added. The 'love' sentiment is a stamp from the Outlined Occasions set, free with an order of £45 during SAB, and the 'with' is picked out from the middle of another stamp coloured with a Cherry Cobbler marker.

I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to Valentine's Day - is it just me who thinks it's yet another opportunity for the retailers to cash in? Whilst walking round my local supermarket the other day I found myself asking "what can't you get that's heart shaped"? I think it's lost it's meaning somewhere along the way - but that's just me being miserable I guess :0)

On a different subject - the arrival of snow. This was the scene that greeted me this morning - very pretty I grant you -so long as you can stay inside and just look at it! Oh well better don the wellies and get out shovelling. Enjoy the rest of your weekend x

Less is More -Aqua

2012-02-04T14:15:00.000Z

A very simple CAS card for today's LIM challenge, which is 'Aqua'. I stared by punching a Scallop Circle in a post-it note to use as a mask and then stamped the image, which is fromthe SAB set Fresh Vintage, in Baja Breeze. I then made a frame using the Scallop Circle punch and the Large Scallop Circle punch (new in the Spring Mini) and placed this over the image. I added a few dots around the frame with a white gel pen purely to add a bit of interest and take away the plainess! The sentiment is one of the stamps in the new Hostess set, Swirls & Curls Verses (available in the Spring Mini) stamped in Baja Breeze, with the flower and leaf coloured in with a Blender Pen.

The fabulous set of sentiments can be yours free if you host a workshop (or place orders) to the value of £150 and the SAB set is just one of 5 free gifts for you to choose from with every order of £45. For more details, or to place an order, please feel free to contact me and I will be happy to help.

I ventured out this morning to go and buy my Dad a birthday present and it was MINUS 6.5 - brrrr!! Back home now in the warm and that's where I plan to stay, probably until Monday if we get the snow that's promised :0) Have a good weekend and keep warm x

Lavender Sachets

2012-01-30T11:00:00.000Z

Something a little different to show you today - some lavender wardrobe sachets I made with the lovely Deck the Halls fabric from SU. I cut the material out with the Scallop Square die and, as I don't sew, glued three sides with fabric glue, stuffed them with some wadding on which I had sprinkled some Lavender Oil, and then glued the remaining side. I added a loop of Crumb Cake Taffeta Ribbon, a piece of Crochet Trim and a button to one corner (and yes I did sew these on!) As I wanted to give these as gifts I packaged them in a card bag which had been lined with a piece of co-ordinating cardstock and made a topper which was stamped with the branch from Hopeful Thoughts and a sentiment.

Apologies for the quality of the photos but I had already sealed the packages before I remembered to take the photos!!!

Simply Stampin' Colour Challenge

2012-01-29T11:07:00.000Z

Over at Simply Stampin' this week there is a colour challenge using Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso, River Rock & Very Vanilla and this is my card. As the colours were suitable for a male card I decided to use the challenge to make a birthday card for my Dad who, as you can see, will be 90!
I don't know if there is a proper name for this style of card but if there is I don't know it so, in a nutshell, it is a piece of A4 (portrait) cut at approx 15cm then turned landscape and scored at 10.5cm to form the flap. The small scene was made by using a clear block, inked with N.Q.Navy, then stamped onto Whisper White, then repeating this with River Rock and stamping underneath the first block. I then stamped the trees from Lovely as a Tree in Early Espresso and cut down to size. This was matted and layered onto River Rock, N.Q.Navy and Very Vanilla and positioned on the flap of the N.Q.Navy card base. The piece of Very Vanilla for the rest of the card was stamped, again with the trees in Early Espresso and glued in place. The banner is River Rock stamped with 'dad' from the For My Family set, attached with a Metallic Brad, and the sentiment is one of the stamps in Happiest Birthday Wishes coloured with a marker so I could split the sentiment up and place the 90, cut with the Timeless Type Alphabet Dies, in between the words.

In my quest to make the tree scene I ended up with a few rejects but decided this one wasn't too bad to use for another card. Still using all the same colours but this one was far less time consuming - in fact it was thrown together in just a few minutes - which you can probably tell!!! :0)
Just before I go I would like to thank the design team over at Simply Stampin' for putting me in the Top 3 again this week - thank you ladies for that and for all the lovely comments, I really appreciate it. x

Variation on a Sketch!

2012-01-28T17:07:00.000Z

This afternoon my daughter asked me to make her a baby card for her friends new baby who arrived yesterday and, as she needs it very soon, I decided to make it along the same lines as the one I made earlier for the Less is More challenge (scroll down to previous post to see that one!) It was made in exactly the same way but using Pretty in Pink DSP, from the Subtles Paper Stack, and the little bunny stamp from Perfect Postage and tied with Whisper White Organza ribbon. I stamped the sentiment and underneath put the baby's name which I made with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies, run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, and dotted the'i' with a Basic Pearl.

I have to say I'm not very good with pale pink and always seem to get a mental block when it comes to designing anything with it so I was really glad I didn't have to start from scratch with the idea!

Less is More - Sketch

2012-01-28T11:06:00.000Z

I'm back this morning with a card for the Less is More challenge which, this week, is a sketch (shown above right). I've been experimenting lately with mixing colours and 'not quite so simple' layouts so, for this challenge, I thought I would revert back to my type of cards and I have to say it's good to be back!!

I started this card with a strip of River Rock DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack and embossed it using the oval from the Designer Frames Embossing set. I coloured the image from the new stamp set Fruit & Flowers, available in the Spring Mini, with River Rock and Cherry Cobbler markers and stamped once onto a piece of Whisper White then, without re-inking, stamped again three times to give a faded image around the original. This was punched out with the Extra-Large Oval punch and positioned in the frame. A piece of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding was tied around the panel before matting onto a DL card blank. The sentiment from Curly Cute was stamped directly onto the card blank in Cherry Cobbler. Thank you ladies, I'm loving this challenge!

I want to thank everyone for their get well wishes this week, they cheered me up no end. I decided to return to work on Friday, after being off all week, to be greeted by comments such as "you look very pale" and "you still sound awful" - which made me feel a whole lot better :0) Anyway, despite not having completely got rid of the bug, I am feeling a whole lot better than I did!!

Have a great weekend and come back to visit soon x

One Sheet Wonder

2012-01-27T16:00:00.000Z

Lots of cards to look at today and all from one sheet of A4 cardstock (well the patterned bits that is!) I have never tried the one-sheet wonder before but decided to have a go and this is what I've done with it. There are lots of templates and ideas out there in cyber-land for the one-sheet wonders and I used a mixture of some of these and a bit of my own. The top-left photo shows my sheet of A4 after being stamped using Circle Circus in Rose Red, Not Quite Navy and River Rock before being chopped up to make the cards. I think Circle Circus is a really good set for this as it contains a lot of sizes and some solid stamps and some which are ideal for 'filling in', but any stamp set can be used and any colours. If you don't want to be bothered stamping a sheet, or simply wish to save time, SU have some fabulous DSP's which could be used instead. It is a great way to make several cards at once as you pick a colour scheme and have your ribbons, inks & cardstock all to hand and, an added bonus, also saves time on cleaning those stamps! I used a variety of sentiments and punches but you can use anything that takes your fancy.

Well it's Friday again so, whatever your plans for the weekend I hope you have a good one. I'm sure I will be back tomorrow for the Less is More challenge so do pop back sometime x

ColourQ Challenge - again!

2012-01-26T18:03:00.000Z

You may have read yesterday that my original idea for this week's ColourQ challenge hadn't quite come together so I abandoned it and made one completely different. Well not to be beaten I went back to it and here it is - absolutely nothing like the original idea I had in my head but finished nevertheless. I began by taking a piece of Riding Hood Red cardstock and glueing two narrower strips of Old Olive and More Mustard on to it before running through the Stripes Embossing Folder. I matted this onto some Crumb Cake cardstock and punched out a circle through all the layers to allow the white card blank to show through, and made a frame for the aperture using two circle punches. I then added my sentiment to the base card using my stamp-a-ma-Jig in R.H.Red and, before fixing the top layer on, I tied a knot of Crumb Cake Taffeta ribbon around and added some small coloured circles down the edge to finish the card off.

ColourQ Challenge

2012-01-25T22:21:00.000Z

The ColourQ challenge this week is based on the patterned skirt above and, as you can see, uses Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, More Mustard, Kraft (or Crumb Cake as we know it) and white. I attempted to make a male card using embossed strips of card but couldn't quite get it to look how I wanted so I may be back with that another day!

So onto the one I did manage to make - I started by stamping the flowers from Everything Eleanor in Riding Hood Red and More Mustard using the rock'n'roll technique. I used my blender pen to colour in the flowers, some by just blending the ink already there and others I added more ink to get a stronger colour, and then cut them out. A piece of Whisper White cardstock was matted onto a Crumb Cake card blank and the background stamp, again from Everything Eleanor was stamped in Crumb Cake. I added some leafy branches in Old Olive using a stamp from Vintage Vogue, some of which I stamped off first to give a lighter colour. I then arranged the flowers and when I was happy with the positioning I glued the small flowers down first and then curled the larger flowers and stuck these with dimensionals to give some depth. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, stamped in R.H.Red and the 'bunny ears' bow is made with R.H.Red Tafffeta Ribbon.

Some news from last week's challenge is that my Paisley Petals entry was picked as a 'ColourQ Courtiers' card - how good is that? I'm not too sure I deserved it as there were some brilliant entries but a big thank you to the design team anyway :0)

More Colour Mixing!

2012-01-25T09:24:00.000Z

I'm really going against the grain with this card in my effort to use DIFFERENT colour combos! Although this one is quite subtle it is still using a mix of colours that I would usually steer clear of. I have used a base card of Naturals Ivory with a strip of Crumb Cake DSP, from the Neutrals Paper Stack. going across the card. I punched four 1" circles in Bravo Burgundy, Old Olive, Pacific Point & Wisteria Wonder and adhered these to the back of the Lace Ribbon Border, punched from Crumb Cake cardstock. This was fixed down the side of the card and a piece of Very Vanilla, punched with Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, placed alongside and the tiny dots were punched with a small circle punch. The sentiment is from Happiest Birthday Wishes and stamped in Pacific Point.

Perfect Postage

2012-01-24T11:00:00.000Z

The heart card I showed you yesterday was made with a stamp from Perfect Postage and today I have three cards to share using the rest of the set.

The first one uses the cake stamp which I coloured with Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point & Crumb Cake markers. I punched them out with a circle punch, inked around the edge and matted them onto a larger circle of Pacific Point. They were placed onto a rectangle of Very Vanilla cardstock and a sentiment, from Happiest Birthday Wishes, was stamped in Pacific Point towards the bottom of the card. A knot of Crumb Cake Seam Binding was placed around the card and the whole thing was matted onto a Crumb Cake card blank.

The next one is the 'bramble' stamp which again was coloured with markers in Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive. I stamped five of these and a sixth one was stamped off so it just left a very faint image enabling me to stamp the sentiment on top. These were cut out leaving a thin white border around the image and then layered onto an Elegant Eggplant Scallop Square. The base layers were made with Elegant Eggplant and Old Olive cardstock glued onto a plain white card blank and the Scallop Squares positioned on top.

The last card shows the 'bunny' stamp which I stamped in So Saffron, Pretty in Pink, Pool Party, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery. These were cut out with a circle punch and matted onto a Scallop Square punched from the corresponding colours in the DSP Paper Stacks. I cut a piece of white cardstock, just a bit smaller than a C6 card blank, and ran it through the Stripes Embossing Folder and then inked all around the edges with Pink Pirouette, glued the Scallop Squares into position and then layered the whole thing onto a card blank.

It only occurred to me while I was typing this post that, from just one set of four stamps, I have made cards suitable for Valentine's Day/Anniversary, a male birthday, a New Baby and an 'any other' occasion. There aren't many stamp sets that can cover so many different occasions and all with four stamps! At £10.95 for wood mount (£8.95 for clear) it's an absolute must-have but, remember, it's only available from the Spring Mini until 30th April so why not add it to your £45 wish list to qualify for your free SAB sets?

On a final note for today I wanted to share one of my 3-year old grandsons creations which he made at pre-school yesterday. It was for his Mummy and was made to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It was a red envelope which contained a gold chocolate coin and the gold painting on the front was his version of a dragon (I'm not sure but it looks like it could have been a rubber stamp!!)

Sale-a-Bration is here!

2012-01-24T09:00:00.001Z

Yes it's Sale-a-Bration time again which, this year, runs from 24th Jan - 31st March. For every £45* you spend you can choose one of the four stamp sets or a pack of the Designer Paper, shown in the SAB catalogue, absolutely FREE! Host a qualifying workshop during the SAB period and you get even more freebies than usual or why not take the plunge and become a demonstrator yourself. For more information please feel free to contact me for a 'no obligation' chat. Take a look through the catalogue(s) and start that wish list while you can get more for your money!
* £45 is not accumulative and must be spent on one order

Lots of Hearts

2012-01-23T10:56:00.000Z

I have another card to show you which I am entering for this weeks Simply Stampin’ Sketch challenge, using a stamp from Perfect Postage, a new stamp set available from the Spring Mini catalogue. One of the many advantages of being a Stampin’Up! Demonstrator is that you get to earn incentives and this set was one which I received. I will be honest with you and say that, until the other day, this set had not even seen an ink pad but I thought this set lent itself perfectly to the challenge for this week.

Here I have used the heart stamp, stamped in Real Red, and cut out by hand. The set does have a co-ordinating Postage Stamp punch to go with it but, as yet, I haven’t got this so scissors it is! I layered these onto Basic Black, punched with the large square punch, and then positioned them on a piece of Real Red cardstock which had been matted onto Basic Black and tied a knot of Satin Ribbon around before mounting onto a white card blank. I didn’t have a suitable sentiment small enough to go into the heart so I used two different stamps and coloured the words ‘love’ and ‘you’ with a marker using the masking technique and my Stamp-a-ma-Jig.

Come back tomorrow to see a second card made with another stamp from this set.

Unfortunately my cold (and particularly my head) is no better so I am off work today. Why is it that I moan about having to go but I do hate being off? It’s very rare that I am off sick so, when I am, they know it’s genuine but I always feel SO guilty!!

2012-01-22T16:18:00.000Z

I have been invited to a work colleague's 40th birthday bash and, not really knowing what to buy her, I plumped for a posh bottle of Cava in a sophisticated matt black bottle complete with a gold label. So I just had to make her card to match! I used a piece of the Brushed Gold cardstock with a stamp from Just Believe and the retired 'happy' stamp inked with StazOn (I also added the 'th' from a birthday sentiment which had been masked with a post-it before inking). This was matted onto Basic Black with a bow made from Basic Black satin ribbon and then onto a white card blank. I cut out some butterflies from Brushed Gold cardstock with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and added these to the card along with the 40 from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet die. The bubbly was wrapped in cellophane and tied with Basic Black Striped Grosgrain ribbon and the tag made with the Two Tags die, Scallop Circle, 5-Petal Flower and Boho Blossoms punches and the name was written on a Modern Label punch.

What a weekend, I started off fine on Saturday morning and by the afternoon I was absolutely full of cold, coughing like mad and with a head that feels like it's about to explode. So sitting here, all wrapped up, feeling very sorry for myself having not set foot outside the door since Friday evening. Oh well at least there's a couple of things to watch on the TV tonight (thats if I can stay awake that long!!).

Hope you've all had a good weekend and I'll be back soon :0)

Two Challenges in One!

2012-01-21T13:21:00.000Z

I'm rolling two challenges into one today as my internet connection is SO rubbish at the moment I thought I would very likely have problems posting!

The LIM challenge this week is 'Cut it Out' where the requirement is some kind of aperture and the Simply Stampin' challenge is a sketch using six squares and a sentiment.

I started by making a 'widow frame' in a piece of Chocolate Chip using my large square punch and then cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock the same size. I stamped the flower spray from Hopeful Thoughts in Old Olive and then added Wisteria Wonder flowers punched with one of the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes set. I added some tiny Basic Pearls to the centres and then stamped the sentiment from Petite Pairs in Old Olive. The Whisper White panel was then glued to a plain white card blank and the window frame positioned on top using dimensionals.
I will apologise now for the probable lack of commenting this week but I have lost the connection no less than 6 times while attempting to do this post - SO FRUSTRATING!!

Colour Q Combo - again!

2012-01-21T09:24:00.001Z

Those of you that saw my post yesterday will know that I had a go at this week's ColourQ challenge (scroll down to last post for more details) using Wisteria Wonder, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry, Bravo Burgundy and white. I decided that I really liked the colour combo and the photo that ColourQ provided for the challenge inspired me to make another card using Paisley Petals, so I experimented a little and this is what I came up with.

I started by stamping one of the stamps from the set in Versamark, onto Wisteria Wonder cardstock, and embossed with White Embosssing powder. I then used a combination of Stampin'Write markers, a blender pen and a white gel pen to colour in the image. This was then matted onto a white card blank and a strip of Bravo Burgundy cardstock, punched with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, was positioned underneath. The sentiment, from Petite Pairs, was punched out with the Oval punch and matted onto a Bravo Burgundy Scallop Oval.

My internet is very 'hit and miss' again so my apologies if I do not get to post as often as usual. What did we ever do before computers?? Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll be back soon.

New Colour Challenge

2012-01-19T12:56:00.001Z

This morning, thanks to Vicky, I came across a fabulous 'colour' challenge site called COLOUR Q and just had to have a go. This sort of challenge is exactly what I need to kick me out of my comfort zone, where I invariably choose monochrome for my creations!

The picture, above left, shows this week's colour combo and my attempt is shown on the right. I used the brand new Create a Cupcake set, available in the Spring Mini, and stamped the cases in Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo & Bravo Burgundy onto Whisper White cardstock. The 'frosting' was stamped with Versamark and I used some Heat'n'Stick to adhere the Dazzling Diamonds and then cut them all out by hand (I don't have the co-ordinating punch yet so had to resort to scissors this time!!) The card blank is a 15cm square and I made an embossed frame using my scoreboard before adding my cake stand. This was made, from Wisteria Wonder cardstock, using the Extra Large Oval punch and the Scallop Border punch with a narrow strip of Island Indigo placed across. The candles were stamped directly onto the card blank with the cupcakes placed on top and the card was finished off with two sentiments, again from Create a Cupcake, stamped in Island Indigo. I just hope it was ok to add a touch of yellow for the flames as they really didn't look right in any of the other colours. Not the best card I've ever made but at least I had a go!!!

The ColourQ site is fantastic for anyone like me who's a bit scared of mixing colours - not only can you look through all the past challenges for inspiration but on the side bar there is a list of all the colours if you have something specific in mind (bear in mind though that this is an American site so you won't be familiar with ALL the colours!)

Before you go just hop over to Vicky's site (here) and have a look at her card, it's very CAS and GORGEOUS!!

to DIE for!

2012-01-15T13:48:00.000Z

Housework done and craft room tidied so what better reason to mess it up again making this card for the Simply Stampin' challenge. This week it's ' to DIE for' which basically means a card made with dies and, as Stampin'Up! do a fabulous range, the challenge for me was deciding which ones to use!

I began by making a scalloped edged card blank by using the the Scallop Square die, sponged round the edges, and onto this I stamped the background with a stamp from Everything Eleanor in Crumb Cake. Next the leaves were cut in Certainly Celery from the Little Leaves die and pruned a little before arranging onto the card. The flower is two of the small daisies, from the Flower Daisies die, in Elegant Eggplant and one in Whisper White then layered with a large Rhinestone brad in the centre. To finish the card I added a sentiment from Petite Pairs and a tag using a Tiny Tags stamp and the Jewelry Punch.

I can't believe it's Sunday already - where has the weekend gone? I hope you had a good one x

One Layer Birds

2012-01-14T09:46:00.000Z

Less is More

One Layer

'BIRDS'

A really quick card today for the Less is More challenge as I should be doing housework and more sorting of my craft room and NOT crafting! However, despite telling myself I wasn't even going to look to see what the challenge was until much later I couldn't resist and then, of course, I just had to go and make my card. Oh ladies you really do have a lot to answer for :0)

This week Chrissie & Mandi have set the challenge of a one layer card using birds and there has to be lots of white space which really isn't a problem for me as I have always loved the simplicity of this style of card (even before I discovered the LIM site!)

I started with a plain white, square card blank and stamped the Young Vermillion in Early Espresso on the right hand side of the card then, using my Stamp-a-ma-Jig, I stamped the second one so the branches joined. I lightly coloured in the birds with a blender pen and added just a touch of Certainly Celery to both the birds and the branch. Again using the Stamp-a-ma-Jig I positioned the sentiment from Vintage Vogue in Early Espresso so it looked almost like an extension of the branch and finished the card with a Real Red heart which is a stamp from Create a Cupcake (a brand new stamp set in the Spring Mini).

I ventured out into my extremely cold conservatory to take the photos and, through the window, I could see two sparrows sitting on a very frosty Magnolia tree in exactly the same position as on my card (minus the heart of course!!) but as soon as I lifted my camera to take a shot of them they flew off - typical.

Have a lovely weekend and keep warm - it seems like winter may have finally arrived.

Gift Box & Card

2012-01-12T11:45:00.000Z

A very quick post for you on, what is here, a very miserable, wet day! This is a birthday gift and matching card I have made for a friend's daughter who is at that very awkward age - not quite a kid and not quite a grown-up! I decided I would make her a necklace with her initial on and this has been in 'working progress' since the beginning of the week as the Crystal Effects I used needs plenty of time to dry in between coats. I started with a chipboard circle, sponged with Whisper White ink to give a base coat and, when this was dry, I sponged over with Pretty in Pink and stamped the stamp from Fruit & Flowers in Rose Red. The 'a' was cut with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Die and kept in place with a spot of Crystal Effects. The whole thing was covered in Versamark and clear embossed to prevent the colours bleeding. A layer of Crystals Effects was added with a sprinkling of Dazzling Diamonds, with a second layer added when the first was fully dry. (the back also needs to be done in this way). I made a box in Pink Pirouette.and did a very simple decoration for the lid using a sentiment from the hostess set, Happiest Birthday Wishes. The card was made to match using the same stamps.

More Purple!

2012-01-09T20:14:00.000Z

This was a card I made last week for a friend's birthday, which happens to be today, and when I went to post it here I realised it fits in with this week's Less is More challenge - Predominantly Purple! I started off with a white card blank and hand-embossed a frame using my Hougie board. Then, using a post-it mask, I stamped the swirly stamp from Everything Eleanor inside the frame. The butterflies were cut and embossed with the Beuatiful Wings Embosslits folder, in Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Pretty in Pink with some tiny Basic Pearls added and placed on the swirls. A strip of the new Elegant Eggplant Polka Dots ribbon was fixed across the card and the sentiment, from Happiest Birthday Wishes Hostess set, was punched with the Scallop Square punch and positioned on top of the ribbon.

Challenging Colour Combo!

2012-01-08T09:23:00.000Z

You may have noticed that I regularly enter a couple of challenges and this week at Simply Stampin’ was certainly a challenge for me! It is a colour challenge using Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade and Whisper White and my initial thoughts were that I wouldn’t bother. My next thought was that the reason I enter these challenges is to make me think AND to sometimes take me out of my comfort zone so backing out because I didn’t like the colour combo defeated the object. So this is my card.

I started by stamping the flowers from Greenhouse Garden in Pink Pirouette and, because this is a two-step stamp set, I was able to stamp the centres in Pool Party. I then added the leaf from Happiness Shared, in Lucky Limeade and drew in the stems with a blender pen. I wanted to add a vase but thought a solid colour vase would be OTT so I punched a large oval in Whisper White, ran it through the Stripes Embossing folder and sponged ink over the top before cutting off the top and bottom curves. This was then layered onto a piece of Lucky Limeade cardstock with some Whisper White Organza ribbon tied round and knotted. I chose the sentiment from Just Believe because, let’s face it, whoever saw flowers in those colours! This was punched out with the Curly Label punch and mounted onto a Pink Pirouette Decorative Label. Challenge over and, although maybe not a colour combination I would use, I was reasonably happy with the end result.

All things Purple

2012-01-07T13:46:00.000Z

Less is More

'PREDOMINANTLY PURPLE'

As you can see the Less is More challenge this week is using purple and, unlike Chrissie & Mandi, I love this colour (well for crafting anyway!) For this card I have chosen Elegant Eggplant which has to be one of my all-time favourite SU colours. The stamp set used is Everything Eleanor and I stamped two of the flower stamps in Whisper White then added stems and highlights to the flowers with my white gel pen. A piece of the new Scallop Dots ribbon was placed across the card (although in hindsight I think it may have looked better without) and the sentiment panel positioned on top. For this I stamped the shape (again from Everything Eleanor) in Elegant Eggplant, which had been stamped off first, and added the sentiment from Sincere Salutations - this was then positioned onto the card with the excess on the RHS cut off. I'm not altogether happy with the finished card (when am I??) but I do like the general idea of it - maybe a bit more practise with the highlighting would be an improvement :0)

Have a good weekend, at least the weather is showing a slight improvement.

Magic Wallet

2012-01-06T12:55:00.001Z

Yesterday I was 'playing' and trying out a Magic Wallet ready to do with the kids at Craft Club next week - think I may be being a bit ambitious but we'll try. I used this YouTube video as a guide but it was really a matter of having a go myself as it is rather confusing watching someone else doing it (especially when there's no talking!!) but, when you actually do it, it really is quite simple.
I decorated the front with Basic Black and Very Vanilla cardstock stamped with stamps from the Fruit & Flowers stamp set which is new in the Spring Mini catalogue. The flowers were made with the Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower and circle punches - looks like I picked it up before the glue had dried though as the pearl is supposed to be in the centre, didn't even notice until I looked at the photo :0)

Brown Paper Packaging & St.Luke's

2012-01-05T09:35:00.000Z

The cards I am showing you today are my entries for the St.Luke’s Charity Card’s Challenge which, this month, is to use ‘something destined for the bin’. Now most of the stuff that goes into my bin you would certainly not want to see displayed on a card so the first challenge for me was to think of something to use! Then it came to me – as an SU Demonstrator I get copious amounts of brown paper which the company use as packing in the boxes of SU goodies, so after a bit of experimenting these are what I came up with.

For the first card I took a piece of the brown paper, ran it through the Square Lattice Embossing folder and then folded it to give three pleats. This was then matted onto a piece of Early Espresso cardstock and placed onto a Naturals Ivory card blank. I glued some of the brown paper onto a thin piece of cardstock, stamped the Triple Treat Flower stamp three times and punched out with Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower and ½” circle punches. This was then assembled using dimensionals before adding to the card. I threaded some ‘recycled’ ribbon through some holes which I had punched along the bottom of the card and tied in a bow (the ribbon is some of those annoying loops they seem to put in every jumper/t-shirt to stop them falling off a hanger and which I ALWAYS cut out!!). To finish the card I stamped a sentiment from Sincere Salutations in Early Espresso.

I was now on a bit of a ‘recycling’ roll so the second card was made using the same brown paper and ribbon. This time I put a piece of the paper through the crimper and tore the top edge before glueing to a white card blank. A knot of ribbon was placed across the card and a sentiment (now retired) added underneath. The flower was made, with the same brown paper, by punching 6 Scallop Circles which was then screwed up, unfolded, and laid on top of each other before fixing in the centre with one of the lovely Vintage Brads.

I do hope you've all 'weathered the storm' without too much damage as I know some parts of the country have been hit really badly. I am fortunate enough to live in an area which never sees the extremes but some of the sights I have seen recently on the news have been horrendous and my heart goes out to those people who have been affected. Take care and keep safe x

2012-01-04T07:06:00.003Z

The brand new

2011-12 Spring Mini Catalogue is here!

Bursting with new stamp sets, dies,

fabrics, DSP and so much more ......

Click on the catalogue image to view the online version or, if you prefer, contact me for your very own paper copy.

Card for a Golfer?

2012-01-01T11:47:00.000Z

I needed to make a card for a friend who, sadly, has been taken into hospital. I seemed to have a distinct lack of inspiration so was very thankful to the design team over at Simply Stampin! who, this week, have set a Sketch (above) as the challenge and helped me come up with this card.

I started by sponging a piece of Whisper White, using a post-it as a mask, with Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery and then over-stamped with trees from 'Lovely as a Tree' coloured with Early Espresso and Old Olive markers and then matted this onto a piece of Old Olive cardstock. The other panel is a rectangle of Chocolate Chip DSP from the Neutrals stack matted onto Chocolate Chip cardstock. These were positioned onto a 5" x7" card blank and the embossed circles added on top. My friend is a very keen golfer so I am hoping the circles somewhat resemble golf balls! The sentiment, from Sincere Salutations, was stamped onto Whisper White, cut out and the corners rounded before adding a piece of Linen Thread and fixing in place.

I hope you all had a good New Years Eve and are ready to start a brand new year. I'm sorry to say that the festivities are over in my house for another year as, this morning, I have been busy taking down the few decorations which adorned my humble abode. Yes I know you are supposed to leave them up until twelth night (whenever that might be!) but I am back to work on Tuesday and really need to get sorted and cleaned up before then - well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!

Tomorrow A Brand New Year!

2011-12-31T17:23:00.000Z

Well 2012 is almost here and I would like to wish each and every one of you

a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

2011-12-30T11:20:00.000Z

As promised these are the other 5 cards I made to go in the gift box which I showed you yesterday - the 6th one was posted the other day for the LIM challenge. I won't bore you with the details as I have used a real mish mash of stamps, ribbons and DSP - some current and some retired - but you get the idea!

Now for some SU 'New Year' news!

Stampin'Up! are bringing out the first new mini catalogue (yes there are going to be 2 this year!) which will run alongside the Sale-a-Bration promotion. The mini runs from 4th Jan - 30th April and the SAB from 24th Jan - 31st March. I will be posting more details about this, and an online link to the catalogues, at a later date, but in the meantime if you would like to get hold of a paper copy then please contact me at margaretk21@hotmail.com and I will be pleased to send them to you for the cost of postage.

Gift Box & Card

2011-12-29T13:19:00.000Z

If you visited my blog yesterday you will have seen a card which is part of a set I have made for a gift, so today I thought I would show you the box I have made to put the cards in and the belated birthday card to go with it! Both are decorated with some DSP from Timeless Portrait, Very Vanilla and Basic Black ribbon. The base of the box is made with plain white cardstock and the lid is Basic Black. I made a heated ribbon flower from Basic Black Satin with a Rhinestone Brad in the centre and the leaves were a piece of folded card run through the crimper then cut into a leaf shape, the Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon which I used as a tie for the box is now retired. For the birthday card I used the same DSP but this time with a length of Very Vanilla Satin ribbon running across the centre and the flower was made from the Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower, Boho Blossoms and Itty Bitty punches with some more crimped leaves. The sentiment is from Happiest Birthday Wishes hostess set. I will post photos of the cards that are to go in the box another day.

Just One Word (for the 2nd time!)

2011-12-28T17:38:00.000Z

This morning, instead of doing the sorting and tidying which I intended, I have been making a set of cards as a gift for a friend's birthday and I realised one of them fitted the Less is More challenge - Just One Word. It is using the same retired sentiment that I used for my first entry (see last post) but this time with a stamp from Hopeful Thoughts.
My friend has a similar taste as me, in that she loves black, white and neutral colours, so all the cards in the set are made in these shades. This particular one is stamped in Basic Black onto a plain white card blank with just the addition of a few Basic Rhinestones in the centre of the flowers and a tiny knot of Basic Black narrow taffeta ribbon. A very quick & easy card but, nevertheless, quite effective I think.

Just One Word

2011-12-28T09:44:00.000Z

Well Christmas is over for another year and I, for one, am glad to be doing some crafting which doesn't involve reds, greens and glitter!

The challenge this week at Less is More is 'Just One Word' and I have chosen to use part of a retired stamp to say hello. I finally got my stamp Young Vermillion' mounted (I've had him for a few weeks now and not got round to using him!) and stamped him in Early Espresso and then used a blender pen with Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and So Saffron to colour in. I added the sentiment and some Linen Thread and rounded two opposite corners before mounting onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then onto a white card blank - job done!

The Young Vermillion stamp is an A la Carte single stamp, available from the Stampin'Up! 2011-12 catalogue at only £6.95. On the right I have shown you it stamped in Crumb Cake so you can see there is a lot of scope to turn him into a number of different birds, unfortunately I am not too well up on bird species other than the common varieties but he is still beautiful simply stamped in just one colour.

2011-12-27T09:28:00.000Z

Welcome back and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Today's card is one which I made very quickly yesterday whilst waiting for visitors. It is for my daughter-in-law's January birthday and, as the gift is money, I wanted to give it to my son rather than posting but as usual I left it until the last minute!

I used the flower spray from Hopeful Thoughts and coloured it with Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler markers, stamped onto Whisper White and added the sentiment from the Hostess set, Happiest Birthday Wishes. The Whisper White was matted onto a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock with a piece of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding tied round and knotted and then placed onto a plain white card blank. Some of the tiny Basic Pearls were added to the centre of the flowers to finish the card.

I made the matching money holder by simply cutting an envelope with the Scallop Envelope die, stamping the flap with the same flower spray and using Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding to keep it closed.

The card also shows how you can 'rescue' something if you make a mistake! After stamping the spray I added the sentiment but it was a bit wonky so, because I was making the card in a hurry, I decided to cut the Whisper White at an angle at the top and bottom rather than straight and I have to say I was really quite pleased with a bit of variation from the norm. The moral of the story is - don't panic if you make a mistake - think of a way to utilise it :0)

Until next time, enjoy the rest of the festivities and I'll be back soon x

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T11:06:00.000Z

Well Christmas Eve is here again - where has the year gone? One last post before the big day and my entry for the Simply Stampin' Challenge which this week, believe it or not, is Christmas! This is the card that I made for the lovely ladies who come to my classes and is using a stamp from Pines & Poinsettias, coloured with Early Espresso, Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler, punched with a circle punch and mounted onto a larger circle of Cherry Cobbler. The card base is Cherry Cobbler with a rectangle of Whisper White, first stamped with a sentiment from 'Heard from the Heart' and then run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder. A knot of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding was fixed to the Whisper White before matting onto the card blank and the circular embellishment added.

All that remains now is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year x

2011-12-20T15:32:00.000Z

To you all,

Wishing you a

and a very Happy New Year

Time is fast running out, I still have loads to do and my house is like a tip!! I have a funny feeling this may well be my last post before Christmas so I just wanted to thank every one of you who follows, visits or leaves comments on my blog - your support has been amazing and I am truly grateful. I hope you all get whatever you wish for both at Christmas and in 2012.

Take care, keep warm and a Very Merry Christmas x x

Brooches

2011-12-18T23:00:00.000Z

Just a very quick post today to show you some brooches I was asked to make for someone as gifts to give to her daughter's friends. They are made from felt which was cut using the Fun Flowers die and fixed together with glue and finished with an SU brad in the centre. I used a brooch pin on the back which was mounted onto a circle of matching coloured cardstock covered with Crystal Effects. I packaged them in a cellophane card bag with a topper made with the Top Note die and stamped with a sentiment and a stamp from Pines & Poinsettias. These are very simple and cheap to make but, nevertheless, make a nice little gift and you can have them to match any outfit!!

I'm sure, like me, you will have noticed that 'Blogland' seems to be very quiet at the moment but I expect that is because all the crafters are now busy trying to get stuff done in time for the big day and crafting has had to be put on the backburner for now. Anyway I hope all your Christmas plans are going well and I'll be back soon.

More Matching Sets!

2011-12-16T15:11:00.000Z

Some more matching sets I have made for some friends at work. We only buy each other small gifts but I think even the smallest gift can be made to look lovely by it's packaging. Here I have used a selection of the Mocha Morning Speciality DSP along with Basic Black, Basic Gray, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake cardstock and ribbon. The hexagonal box is made with the Mini Milk Carton die and I used the square punches for the decorative side panels - it holds a pot of 'Body Souffle' (sounds good enough to eat doesn't it?). The small box is yet more of the single chocolate boxes and the side DSP panels are punched with the smaller of the square punches and the top with the Scallop Square punch. I made a very simple matching card to complete the set, with the sentiment from Petite Pairs either silver or gold embossed. All finished off with either Basic Pearls or Basic Rhinestones.

I've had a very busy day crafting trying to finish all the things I needed to do for the last day of term tomorrow. Every year I say I will start these things in plenty of time - why don't I ever do it???

I'm really hoping we don't wake up to the snow that's forecast for tomorrow - so fingers crossed :0)

2011-12-15T10:19:00.000Z

Some more cards and chocolate boxes on the same theme as the last post, again using the Holly Berry Bouquet Speciality DSP but this time the foiled papers and Very Vanilla card bases. The sentiment is from Petite Pairs and punched with the Oval punch, layered onto a Scallop Oval and then onto a Large Oval (or Extra Large as it's called!). The sentiment on the box is punched with the Jewelry Tag punch and the flowers are made with the Boho Blossoms punch.
It is always very difficult to guage the size of things in photos when you have nothing to compare them with but, to give you an idea, the boxes hold a single Ferrero Rocher and are perfect for that small gift to maybe show your appreciation to someone.

Back soon x

2011-12-12T23:01:00.000Z

I must apologise for the lack of posts over the last few days but, despite being busy crafting, it is so dark when I leave for work and get home again I've not been able to get any decent photos. However I managed to get a half decent photo tonight of a card I made to match one of the little chocolate boxes similar to the ones I posted a couple of weeks ago. (This also gives me the opportunity to put right a mistake I made in the measurements for the boxes, here , where I said the top and bottom were made from a piece of card 4.5cm square and scored at 1cm all round when it should have been 5.5cm square. My sincere apologies if you had a go at making the boxes only to find the top & bottom were too small!)

The card and box are made with the Holly Berry Bouquet Speciality DSP and Wild Wasabi cardstock, with a touch of Real Red cardstock and Satin ribbon. The sentiment from Petite Pairs is punched with the Oval punch and layered onto a Scallop Oval and Extra Large Oval.

Only a short post today as it's now past my bedtime!

Handcrafted by Vicky

2011-12-09T16:15:00.000Z

Yesterday I went out for lunch with the lovely Vicky, a fellow member of The Pink Ladies, and she gave me this beautiful gift box and card which she had made. Isn't it stunning? Vicky just happens to be one of the most talented ladies I know and I love and admire all her work so I was really chuffed to receive this gift from her (and in one of my favourite colours - Cherry Cobbler!)
If you've never visited Vicky's blog then I urge you to do so right now, you cannot fail to be inspired by her beautiful creations. The link to her blog is right here.
I'm not too sure when I will be back as I am helping at my grandson's school Christmas Fair for most of the day tomorrow so no time for crafting but, until then, I hope you all have a great weekend x