67 and counting.

Hi there,

Sorry for my absence from blog land this week, it has been a bit crazy here. Work was mad, I work in a doctors surgery and you be would amazed at what a few extra closure days can do! It's like people panic-buying in the supermarkets, only it's with their prescriptions.

Also this week we have decided to move, which means LOTS of sorting out and not much time for crafting (boo hoo), I'm dreading the time between packing and selling when all my crafting stuff will be packed away.

However in the sorting out of my craft space, I came to realise that I have far more stamp sets than I imagined, don't get me wrong I'm not completely in denial I know that I have lots, I just didn't realise that I currently have 67 stamp sets with a couple more ordered today. A lot of which have only been inked a handful of times and some never. So I have decided that this will have to change, I love my SU! stamps I don't want to have to sell any so they have to be put to good use. I am guilty of having favourite sets (I'm sure I'm not the only one) and it was pointed out to me, that I seem to put a butterfly on everything!

From now on I am on a mission to use a different set for each card I make until I have used them all!

I'm starting off with a set that I have used before but a stamp that has never seen ink, called Notably Ornate. Now that I have used it I can't believe that I haven't inked this baby up before, it is gorgeous, there is so much detail in it that it makes a great focal point for a card. I've covered up the 'no 5' in the corner with the swallow from the set, which I have used before, once. This has been teamed with the Love letter paper pack, which I have loved so much that I think I will have to be ordering another soon! I have based this card on the Mojo Monday sketch, although I have changed the shape of the focal point and didn't add ribbon (most unlike me) I didn't have any matching colour ribbon left.

Please confront me, by letting me know if you share this problem of buying things and guiltily not getting around to using them, it can't just be me.

Happy crafting

CASE'd myself

Hello,

Another beautiful day here. It's weird to think that the weekends are longer than the working week this week!

Today's card is CASE'd from my triple combo earlier this weekend. My sister had asked me to make to card for 'Rosalind' and I liked the thought of the butterflies fluttering through grasses, that I had done in this card so I thought that I would use the same concept but use different colours this time.

I've also tried to be brave and use colours out of my comfort zone that I would not usually use, orange and yellow both scare me!
I'm pleased with the result, although getting the name central was very tricky! Thank god for my Stamp-a-ma-jig, that's all I can say!

The recipe for today's card
Stamps, Broadsheet alphabet, pocket silhouettes
Paper, Springtime Vintage DSP, Certainly celery CS, Very vanilla CS, Pumpkin pie CS
Ink, Certainly celery, More mustard, Old olive
Accessories, Beautiful wings embosslits, sponge dauber

Enjoy the last of the holiday
xx

Sweet Sunday

Happy Easter!

I have not had one single egg, what a good girl I'm being, or maybe it's because I'm so hot that the last thing I want is chocolate.

As it's Sunday it would be rude not to check out the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge to see what this weeks sketch is,

I wanted to use my new Springtime Vintage paper pack for this card, it was so hard which to choose that I may have to make another to satisfy my vintage cravings! I teamed these gorgeous papers with the new Four Frames stamp set, these two seem to go together perfectly.

Here's my recipe
Stamps, Four Frames, Vintage labels SAB (retired)
Paper, Springtime Vintage DSP, Certainly celery CS, Crumb Cake CS
Ink, Rich Razzleberry, Certainly celery
Accessories, Certainly celery taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, sponge dauber, stamp-a-ma-jig

Enjoy the sunshine!
xx

Triple Challenge Combo

Good afternoon,

Just quickly popped on to post my card which combines three challenges (my most so far!) before we have a BBQ, very impressed that the first one of the year is so early. Isn't the weather just glorious?!

Well on to my card

As I said I'll be entering this one into three challenges, Less is More, which this week challenged us to 'off centre' which after lasts weeks acetate challenge was a welcome relief, thanks ladies. I actually enjoyed last weeks challenge after all my huffing and puffing!

The colours have been taken from Colour Throwdown, which this week let us choose one colour to mix into the combo

I have used Night of Navy, Whisper White and added Old Olive as my guest colour, I was going to go with Rich Razzleberry but I wanted my card to have a more neutral feel to it.

Lastly the sketch used fitted perfectly with the Less is More - off centre, which is from the Simply Stampin' challenge blog, I do love a good sketch, and here it is

The recipe

Stamps, Curly cute, Pocket silhouettes

Paper, Whisper white CS, Night of navy CS, Old olive CS

Ink, Old olive, whisper white

Accessories, Beautiful wings embosslit, 1/4" grosgrain ribbon whisper white, Jumbo eyelets, Designer buttons brights.

Thanks for stopping by.

Baby Mojo

Hello again,

This two post thing is becoming a habit on at the weekends!

I've been making another challenge card, this time for Mojo Monday, this challenge blog has a fun sketch each Monday to get your creative juices flowing, and I couldn't wait to get started on this one.
Here is the sketch for this week.

I printed it off Monday, and I knew that it would be perfect for the final baby card I had to make. Talking of babies my assistant manager has just become a nanny again! Welcome to the world baby Felix, who was born on Wednesday afternoon.

This card is not for Felix, my sister had asked for a baby card, in case you're wondering why Felix has a pink card, here it is

The card uses the Nursery suite DSP, and Baby tees jumbo wheel again. I have also been practising my bow tying skills, I tend to just knot ribbon, but wanted a bow for this one, like in the sketch.

The recipe
stamps, Punch bunch SAB, Baby tees jumbo wheel
Paper, Nursery suite DSP, Brights DSP stack, Regal rose CS, Pretty in pink CS
Ink, Regal rose
Accessories, blender pen, dazzling diamonds glitter, 2-way glue pen, pretty in pink satin ribbon, scallop trim border punch.

Hope they and you like it, please leave a comment I'd love to know what you think.
Back tomorrow with more challenge entries, no doubt.
xx

Crafty Cardmakers Wedding

Hello,

Well it's the start of the Easter bank holiday weekend, which for me means extra crafty time, as I only really get chance to get creative at the weekends.

Today I have teamed a challenge with a card I have been asked to make, well not really teamed I was asked to make a wedding card and the challenge this fortnight at Crafty Cardmakers is a wedding card with at optional extra of red, white and blue, for a royal twist. I have just stuck to wedding.

Here's my card

I borrowed the Full Heart Punch from Lou (thanks Lou!) to make the bride and groom, I heat embossed the flourish from Baroque Motifs with Versamark ink and sponged some Champagne mist shimmer paint over it to give it a bit of sparkle, don't know if you can see that well in this picture. The background is the flourish from this year's SAB set Bliss, stamped repeatedly using my trusty Stamp-a-ma-jig, I don't know what I would do with out this handy little tool!

The recipe
Stamps, Baroque motifs, Bliss SAB
Paper, whisper white CS, Basic black CS
Ink, Staz on, Versamark
Accessories, Full Heart punch, Clear Embossing Powder, Shimmer paint, Sponge dauber, Pearls, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals, Scallop border punch.

Hopefully this time I've read the brief for this challenge properly unlike last time when, I missed off half of the requirements!! Oops.

Happy Craftin'
xx

Sew Lovely to see you

Hi there,

Just a quick post before I run off to work.
Well today I thought I'd share another of the cards are I made for my first card party. It's made using the Sew Lovely stamps, and co-ordinating papers, Sweet Stitches.

The papers are really fun and bright, so I wanted my card to have the same feel. I know that pink and orange clash a bit but I really like the way that this combo worked along side the yellow. Which I carried through the card with the buttons.

Here's the recipe
Stamps, Sew lovely
Paper, melon mambo CS, pumpkin pie CS, daffodil delight CS, Sweet stitches DSP, vanilla CS
Ink, choc chip
Accessories, designer buttons, daffodil delight satin ribbon, stamp-a-ma-jig

Hope you like it, xx

Sweet Sunday

Well I'm back again with another challenge card this time for Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge, I find these challenges the most useful, they tend to guide me rather than hurting my brain, which wouldn't feel nice on such a glorious Sunday afternoon.

This is the sketch for this week

I needed to make a birthday card, and I'm completely in love with my Daisies die, you may have noticed, so I thought straight away that I would use a large daisy for the circle element of this sketch, here's my card

I wanted it to be quite bright so I opted for Melon Mambo again, (second time today) but this time coupled with Perfect Plum, and Tempting Turquoise. I've used the Sweet Stitches DSP, as you can see this paper pack doesn't have to be used just for sewing cards!

Here's the recipe
Stamps, Afterthoughts
Paper, Perfect plum CS, Melon mambo CS, whisper white CS, Regal rose CS, Pretty in pink CS, Sweet stitches DSP, Brights DSP stack
Ink, Basic black
Accessories, Daisies Die, Seam binding ribbon (Rose red), Rhinestones, Rhinestone Brad (flower centre)

Back soon, with more to share
xx

Challenge - Acetate

Good Morning,

What a lovely morning it is! We've had bacon rolls while watching the formula 1, well done boys!!
Although I must admit I was sitting at my desk for the first half calling downstairs to my boyfriend when I heard the commentators voices getting high pitched and excited, to see what was going on and came down around lap 30.

Well yesterday I popped over excitedly to Less is More only to find that this weeks challenge is acetate! I made a batch of Christmas cards out of acetate last year so I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for. It's extremely difficult to get a clean crisp image onto it, as it's slippery, and as I also found out not very easy to photograph. We all know that my photography skills aren't fab at the best of times so you'll have to bear with me on this one.

Here's what I came up with

I cut the back piece of card (Melon mambo CS) a little longer than I wanted and scored it so I would have something to attach the acetate to, trimmed this with a Basic black piece using the scallop trim border punch, and added some bling. Opened my card up and stamped a new set called Four Frames, and added a sentiment with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig. I then stamped a little corner using Baroque motifs, before (trying to) stamp the same flourish onto the bottom corner of the acetate. I also added a few rhinestones to this flourish as well.

The recipe
Stamps, Four frames, Baroque motifs, Vintage labels (retired)
Paper, Melon mambo CS, Basic black CS
Ink, staz on
Accessories, Acetate, stamp-a-ma-jig, scallop trim border punch, rhinestones

Hope you're having a fab weekend!
xx

Colour Throwdown

Well hello,

I'm back with another post today. This time it's a challenge blog that again I'm new to, called Colour Throwdown, what a cool name!

Here are the colours for the challenge

I love the way that the colours are all butterflies, it's so cute!

Well as I said in my earlier post I've been asked to make a few baby cards and when I saw this colour combo, I was so pleased as it's a great palette for a baby boy card so here's my card

Now here in the UK we don't have the exact colours as shown in the swatch so, I got out my catalogue and looked at the colour families for close matches and found that Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, were great replacements, what do you think?

Again I've used the beautiful Nursery Suite DSP, and Baby Tees jumbo wheel, I've teamed these with Tiny tags and some designer buttons.

I would never have put yellow with these two colours but surprisingly they work together wonderfully, I really have to get over my fear of yellow!!

I hope the team over at Colour throwdown like my effort.

Bye for now  xx

Crafty cardmakers challenge - YELLOW!!

Good Morning!

Well it's Saturday morning so that means I must be making some cards for challenges!
I searched the Internet for challenges, Although I only started doing them a couple of weeks ago I'm completely hooked, and found a challenge that I haven't tried before called Crafty Cardmakers.

The challenge this time is that the main colour should be yellow, eek! This along with orange is my least favourite colour, I'm a little scared of it, but that's why it's called a challenge.
I wrote down 'yellow' on my pad that I keep on the computer desk for ideas and inspiration, and scurried away to my craft desk.

Here's what I came up with

I have been asked to make a few baby cards, so I thought that this gorgeous pale yellow called So Saffron would be perfect, this background paper has tiny little bunnies on it, from the Nursery suite paper pack. I have also snuck in a little Regal rose and Chocolate chip. It's hard to see (sorry my dodgy photography skills once again) but the striped rosette paper is also these three colours.

Now I;'ve just popped back over to the Crafty Cardmakers website and my heart sank, I hadn't read the rest of the rules for the challenge, it also required, ribbon, stitching and gems, normally all three of these feature in most of my cards but today, I have gone for buttons, doodling, and a strip of the same striped paper used for the rosette to tie it in.

I hope the ladies over at Crafty Cardmakers will forgive me, I must remember to read all the rules before running off to make my entry next time!!

The recipe for this card
Stamps, Baby Tees wheel, Whimsical words (last year's SAB)
Paper, Nursery suite speciality papers, Chocolate chip CS, Regal rose CS, Pink pirouette CS, Very vanilla CS
Ink, Regal rose, delightful daffodil, chocolate chip
Accessories, scallop border punch, scallop circle punch, scallop trim border punch, white gel pen, dimensionals, designers buttons, Bitty buttons.

Hope you like it, back soon
xx

Mojo Monday...... on a Friday!

Hey!

Well as I mentioned earlier this week I'm really enjoying challenge blogs at the moment, (especially the Stampin up challenge blog Simply Stampin' one of the DT Sharon is doing a draw for the super cute Owl Punch!! I'd still really love to hear some other challenge blog suggestions, if you know any) I find sketches so inspirational, and while I was looking at some other blogs I stumbled across Mojo Monday. As the title suggests each Monday there is a new sketch to get your crafty mojo going, and some days I'm really in need of some help along the way!

Here is the sketch for this week

I wasn't sure about the twine across the top so I left it out but I think I may have needed it to balance out the card, what do you think?

I've used loads of my new goodies for this one, including, the Daisies die cut, Square lattice embossing folder, seam binding ribbon, and the Springtime vintage DSP.

I also did a bit of water colouring with my blender pen, I'm really pleased with how this turned out, here's a close up

I've used Pink Pirouette, for the embossing and water colouring layer, but again with my amazing photography skills it looks more like white, but I'm still pleased with the results.
I hope over at Mojo Monday, they like my first attempt at their challenge. This sketch had a lot of detail which is what I tend to go for in my cards, so it was right up my street!

Bye for now, two more of my favourite challenges are tomorrow see hopefully see you back here then with some more cards. xx

Beautiful biker

Hi there,

Well yesterday I promised to pop back today and post a card, as here I am, and here's the card

This is one of the samples that I made up for my demo party last week. It uses a brand new a la carte stamp caller Motorcycle, I have teamed this with another brand new product, glass glitter! This chunky glitter ages slightly with time to give it an aged effect, so it's perfect for men's cards and vintage styles too.

I have spritzed the background to give a textured look to the Real red base, and teamed this with Chocolate chip, and basic black. Also as an added extra I have applied glossy accents to the red sections of the bike to make them really shiny.

Hope you like it
xx

Where has the time gone?

Good evening!

Where has the time gone this week? I can't believe it's already Wednesday evening!

Yesterday I received an order of new Stampin' up! goodies and I'm so excited about them but sad that I won't have time to use properly until Saturday. Although that doesn't seem so far away now.
I am loving the challenge blogs so I'm hoping to find a few more that I like, I love the sketch challenges and the colour combo one's so if you know of any that you think I might like please leave me a comment with the details.

I'm off out this evening with my mum and sister for a girly night but I promise that I will be back tomorrow with a card, I still have to show you a few samples that I made up for my party last week.

So have a great evening, look forward to hearing your challenge blog suggestions!
xx

less is more take 2

Yes that's right two posts in one day, this is becoming a bit of a weekend habit!

I've enjoyed the Less is More challenge so much this week, that I've decided to have another go at it. Stampin' up! has some really nice sentiment stamps so it was really hard to choose which to use yesterday, so I thought that I'd have another go at it with a different sentiment, this time from Occasional Greetings, this set is so useful, it has something for nearly every occasion, and this sentiment is my favourite from it.

Again like with yesterdays card I've stamped then masked off the sentiment, so that the leaves look like they are behind it. I also decided to stamp the leaves, from the Autumn Splendor set off the edge to tie it all in together. What do you think?

The recipe
Stamps, Occasional greetings, Autumn splendor
Paper, whisper white CS
Ink, More mustard, Wild wasabi, Cherry cobbler, chocolate chip
Accessories, post-it note, stamp-a-ma-jig

Enjoy the rest of your weekend
xx

Challenge combo

Good morning,

It's still lovely here, I have to keep reminding myself that it's only April!

Last week I entered a brand new challenge over at Simply stampin', I really enjoyed entering this challenge, so yesterday I hurried over there to see what this week's challenge would be, it was a colour challenge, here is the palette



I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it, so I thought because I had enjoyed last weeks sketch challenge so much, maybe I would be able to find another Sketch challenge and I could combine the two. I found the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge, that had a cute little sketch that was just the inspiration I needed.

So I've done just that and combined these two challenges.

Here's the card I came up with

Believe me the darkest colour is Bravo Burgundy, even though in this picture it looks like its black! I'm afraid I don't own a camera so all my photos are taken on my phone.

I have used a stamp set that I have had for a while but have yet to ink up called Silhouette sentiments, which can be yours for free with an order of £150 or a party of over that value!
I also dusted off my brayer for this card. I quite pleased with the result and for once I managed it first time instead of ending up with one OK piece after several failed brayering attempts! I have also cut my Bravo burgundy CS into strips and cut to look like ribbon, as I don't have any ribbon in the colours for this challenge.

So here's what I've used
Stamps, Silhouette sentiments, Tiny tags
Paper, Very vanilla CS, Pink pirouette CS, Wild wasabi CS, Bravo burgundy CS, Woodland walk paper pack
Ink, Wild wasabi, chocolate chip
Accessories, Brayer, stamp-a-ma-jig, Jewellery tag punch, Rhinestone.

Hope the teams like it, xx

sentiment focus challenge

Well it's Saturday so that can only mean one thing, challenge time!

This mornings challenge was very tricky indeed I've found with the Less is More challenges that thinking of the idea takes longer than making the cards, or it does in my case, actually that seems to happen a lot!

Today's challenge is a one layered card, that's main focus is a sentiment. I instantly thought of the sentiment from the Sense of time stamp set, but I had no idea how I would make the card, simple without being plain.
Here's what I came up with

I don't know if you can see but I have used my spritzing tool to add a little texture to this card, however I didn't want it to distract from the main image so I spritzed from quite far away. I also used the gorgeous clock face and cute little cogs, as well as some chocolate chip satin ribbon. Hopefully I have not added too much, it is all stamped/spritzed on a single layer.

I was really nice to sit down and relax with a card today, as yesterday was spent frantically looking for my 7 month old black and white kitty Salem, who had decided that he'd wonder off. He hasn't ever been out for longer than a couple of hours without popping back to make sure someone is still here, however yesterday he decided to go missing at about 8.30am, and didn't turn up again until 4.30 this morning!

The naughty little munchkin is now fast asleep on the bed

Looking like butter wouldn't melt!

Anyway, here's what I've used on today's challenge card
Stamps, Sense of time,
Paper, Whisper white,
Ink, Chocolate chip,
Accessories, Early espresso marker, spritzing tool, chocolate chip satin ribbon, Stamp-a-ma-jig, (post it note for masking)

Happy stampin'

xx

First party night nerves

Good afternoon!!

Yesterday I held my first real Stampin' up! party, I was incredibly nervous, but luckily it was with my friends as guests, and they were very kind to me.

I planned two make and takes, a side stepper card, and a bookmark, both using (you guessed it) products from the mini.

The side stepper card used the Sew lovely set, I love this set even though I'm not a sewer, I think the dress makers form is fab, and I love the bright colours of the co-ordinating paper pack.

The bookmark uses the elegance wheel, and Beautiful wings embosslit, this little guy is definitely my favourite item in the whole of the catalogue!!

Here are some close ups



This card fits an A6 card sized envelope, you can find measurements for the A5 size here or if you would like the measurements for this size please email me via the 'contact me' tab at the top of my blog.

Here's a side view



There are highlights of dazzling diamonds glitter down the wheeled section, don't think they are visible in this picture, but trust me they are beautifully sparkly.

Now that I have done my first proper party, I'm sure I will not be as nervous in the future, fingers crossed, and I'm told that all the girlie's were happy with what they made and took home with them.

If you would like to make these projects you will need

Card -

Stamps Sew Lovely, Occasional greetings

Paper, Whisper white CS, Regal rose CS, brights designer series stack

Ink, Daffodil delight, Pumpkin pie, Melon mambo, Chocolate chip

Accessories, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Bitty buttons, corner punch

Bookmark

Stamps, elegance wheel,

Paper, Very vanilla CS, Marina mist CS, Chocolate chip CS

Ink, Marina Mist

Accessories, scallop circle punch, white gel pen, chocolate chip satin ribbon (retired but early espresso would look just as good), Beautiful wings embosslit, jumbo eyelets, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds glitter.

If you would like to place an order or would like to host a party of your own please contact me.

Happy stampin'

xx

more new products!!

Hello!

I was awake half the night last night worrying about my first real Stampin' up party as a demo. It dawned on me at 4am that I was completely unprepared, and the party is Wednesday, eek!

I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but then the mini came along and changed my mind several times when I was deciding what set to buy. I've decided that my make and takes will be a bookmark and a card,(I'll post these Thursday in case any of the girls check my blog before then), I'm still getting all my kit together and I don't have full packs of paper yet, so this morning panic set in as I tried to figure out what I had enough of to make the projects with.

I think that I'm getting there now, but I need to put some samples together quickly for the table, so my guests can have a look while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Here's one of the cards that I put together this afternoon, what do you think?

It uses a few new products, the Strength and hope stamp set, this set is not only beautiful but when you buy it you are doing your bit for charity as Stampin' up donate £1 every time a set is bought. I've also used the gorgeous new seam binding ribbon, which I've ruffled, and the Springtime Vintage papers, also of course I've used the Beautiful Wings embosslits die, I can't seem to make anything without adding a tiny butterfly to it!

Here's the recipe
Stamps, Strength and Hope,
Paper, Baja breeze CS, Certainly celery CS, Crumb cake CS, Very vanilla CS, Springtime Vintage paper pack
Ink, Pear Pizazz,
Accessories, square punch, scallop square punch, scallop trim border punch, seam binding pear pizazz ribbon, Beautiful wings embosslits die.

I hope everything goes ok Wednesday, the girlies will have to be gentle with me!! Wish me luck xx