Play Date and Sweet Sunday Combo

Good afternoon,

Not content with one post today I'm here with another!

This card is a combination of two challenges the Play Date Cafe challenge, which is a challenge all about colour, this week we have a very girly colour combo, of Coral, Petal Pink and Antique Gold.
So I sifted through my Colour Coach to find colours like these and came up with Tango Tangerine, Blushing Bride, ad So Saffron (I don't have any gold so I went for a golden yellow shade)

 The second of the challenges I have used for my card is a sketch from the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge, I really like the sketches from this challenge site. They are normally quite simple so that you can take them wherever you'd like, here is this weeks sketch.

I really liked the photographs used for the Play Date colour story and was inspired by the dress to use my Sew Lovely stamp set. What do you think?

I used the eyelet border punch for the strips to carry on the fabric theme, I think they look a little like fabric strips.I kept my promise and used several pieces of DSP in this card.

Well that's all from me for today, see you later in the week with some more offerings, xx

Happy Birthday Mum!

Good Morning,

Today is my Mum's birthday! I really don't know what I'd do without her, she is my best friend, and I love her more than I could ever say. So I wanted to make her a birthday card using her favourite stamp set which she picked out of the mini catalogue, Nature Walk.

I think that she would make a great crafter, she is brilliant at drawing (although she'd never admit it) and has also enjoyed decorating and making things for her home. I'm hoping to get her to take the leap into the world of paper craft someday.

I had seen a gorgeous card using this set somewhere, but can't remember who's blog it was on. I always have my phone handy when I'm at the computer so I can take a quick picture of any cards that I'm inspired by.

So here is the card I've made for her,

I have used a few items here for the first time, including the stamp set, the card stock vellum, and the big buttons. I have used DSP from to different paper packs, the bottom half is from Greenhouse Gala, and the top is from Lap of Luxury. Stampin' up usually retire all the designer series paper packs with the launch of the new catalogue is if you've been hankering after one, time is running out.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, xx

Engaged!!

Good Morning Crafters,

No, it's not me. My little sister Nikki, and her partner got engaged at the weekend, so I just had to whip up a card for them, and of course offer my crafting services for her wedding stationary! They should have received it yesterday so I can safely share it with you now.

I went for a DL card to show off as much of the 2 embossing folders as possible, If the green layer looks familiar, I am guilty of using this embossing folder on practically every card I've made recently, but it's only because it's so pretty, and elegant. It was the first outing for the Manhattan Flower folder, but I really like this one too. I'm hoping that Nikki will like it and ask me to make wedding invites with it!

Hope you have a good week, xx

Distressed Anniversary

Good Morning,

I quite often get asked to make cards by people at work, some are a breeze to make, and others quite tricky. This card, even though it involved quite a lot of input with the distressing techniques was so much fun to make. My style is normally quite clean and straight lines, so it was fun to get messy, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

If you click on the image, you can see all the details better, but I randomly stamped a piece of Vanilla CS with stamps from, Tiny Tags, Vintage Vogue and All a Flutter, in Pretty in Pink, Sahara Sand (fast becoming one of my fav colours to stamp with, Don't know how I got on without it!), Chocolate Chip, and Baja Breeze, I then used my distressing kit to stain the edges, and the tiny tags. Distressed the edges of all the layers of CS, and curled the top left corner. Bfore adding In-colour ribbon and a popped up butterfly.

I hope you like my efforts, I will definitely be using this technique more often!

Happy stampin, xx

Simply Stampin' sketch week

Hiya,

Last week I was uploading my Simply Stampin' challenge entry at the very last minute and I'm not quite sure I made it in time. So this week I wanted to make sure that I wasn't trying to get it on in the last 10 mins before closing.

Sketch week is here again, and here is the sketch we've been set to work with,

I love that they've kept it simple so it gives a lot of scope to do your own thing with.

I decided that I wasn't using my Springtime Vintage DSP nearly enough so I thought I would choose a paper and work my colour scheme around it.

I have used the ruffled ribbon as one of my elements (not sure if I like it still though, maybe needs a little tweaking) and an embossed butterfly for the other, whilst making use of my eyelet border punch for the horizontal layers.

I love the Curly Cute greeting set, so went with Happy Birthday for my greeting. I love that SU! products all colour co-ordinate it made it very easy to put out the same colours to layer up with and ribbon matching too.

I hope the girls like my entry and that you do to.

Happy stampin' xx

Less is More - theme week

Hello there,

This weekend I'm all about challenges, so of course I couldn't pass by the Less is More theme challenge, which this week is circles.

I immediately thought of my Circle Circus stamp set, and had an idea of making a Hungry Caterpillar out of the circles, (good thing I didn't) have just popped over to the blog to link up and found that someone else had that idea too!

When looking at my Circle Circus stamps I thought that one of them looked like bubbles so I looked through some more sets and pulled the whale out from Fox and Friends.

I masked off the edges of my vanilla CS and brayer Marina Mist into the centre, positioned the cute little whale, and set to work with my whisper white ink pad and my circles, which from now on are bubbles!!
I glittered a few bubbles, (the glue will dry clear but I had to take my chance and photograph the card in between showers) and cut out the Little Leaves die in Old Olive and Certainly Celery to look like seaweed.

I decided after much deliberation not to add a sentiment in case this made it over crowded.

Hope you like my fun take on the theme - xx

Anything But A Card

Good Evening,

I'm hoping that I can just sneak in this entry to the Simply Stampin' challenge this week before the deadline.

As you can see from the title this week we have been challenged to come up with anything but a card, this has been tough for me as on the whole I only make cards.

I decided to make a bag, an excuse to get my big shot working. I used the scallop circle die, to make the bag itself, and the Fun Flowers die to decorate it.

I'm really quite pleased with the result, not bad for my first try anyway!

I have used one of the very bright and funky patterned papers from the Greenhouse Gala DSP packs, and picked out one of the colours from the paper for my flower, finished off with a brights button.

I hope the ladies like it!! xx

Broadsheet Anniversary

Hello!

I love my Broadsheet Alphabet set, any excuse to get it inked up and I'm there. So when my friend Gill asked me to make her son and daughter-in-law an anniversary card I knew exactly what I was going to do.

I pulled out my retired Mr and Mrs set and my Broadsheet alpha, not forgetting (of course) the fail safe Baroque motifs set and the card practically made itself!
Just a touch of glitter, some punched and shimmer painted Boho Blossoms, with a band of beautiful striped grosgrain ribbon and this is what I came up with.

I'm loving monochrome at the mo, its so sophisticated and elegant. Thankfully Gill liked it to, so this card will be winging it's way to the happy couple this weekend.

Happy crafting xx

Pick a Petal

Good Morning,

I have been crafting for almost 4 years now and have been purchasing Stampin' up! products for the last 2 years although I have only been a 'demo' since January. Ever since I got to thumb through my first SU! catalogue I have had a wish list as long as your arm! There are some sets that you want, but they never seem to get to the top of your list, other things always push them back. Well that's how it was for the Pick a Petal set, it's always been on my wish list but when ordering I've always been wooed by something else. Well about a fortnight about I finally got my hands on it and now I'm wondering how I ever did without it!

Take a look at this card I made using the Pick a Petal set and the in-colours.

I don't want to blow my own horn but isn't it pretty?! I wish that I'd got it ages ago now, and I can see it being being turned into butterfly wings, and I have used the centres for the background stamping in this card.

I have also just managed to get this posted in time for the Try it on Tuesday challenge, which is flower power.
Hope you like my offering, xx

Top Note Make and Takes

Hi,

It's dull, raining and miserable here this morning so I thought I'd share my Wednesday night workshop make and takes with you to brighten up a dark morning.

I got my hands on the top note die in May and I'm in love. The shape is just gorgeous, so this had to be the centre of my workshop, there were six fabulous ladies, one of which was completely new to the world of paper crafting, but still got stuck in and made the cards, I hope she loves them as much as I do!

So here is the first

A shaped card, all you have to do is make sure that the folded edge of your card blank doesn't go all the way to the end of your shape and you have yourself a great curvy shaped card. The top note also has a dotted line just inside the edge (which you can see at on the inner part of the card) which makes it easy to cut a perfect fit for layering. I got the ladies to do this with a black layer and then emboss with the vintage wallpaper embossing folder, isn't the pattern fab! I thought that the embossing was so pretty that it only needed a quick bit of ribbon (this ribbon is so great, you can colour tint it with your ink pads)
and a glittered butterfly, and viola!

The second card is a great way of using up those scraps of paper you just can't part with.

Just arrange your paper strips onto a scrap of paper and run it through your big shot with your top note, and you have a great backdrop for your card, I have spritzed the background (not sure if you can see it) with marina mist marker, stamped one of the four frames stamps, I love the bird, but the great thing about craft is that it's individual so some of the ladies went for the polka dots, and some for the roses too. Now onto the bit I don't think they thanked me for, the boho blossoms punched flowers. I made them scrunch them, a couple of faces didn't look happy, but I asked them to trust me, and hopefully they like the finished effect, just topped off with some rhinestones.

Hopefully these make up for my week long absence?