Simply Stampin' Theme Week

Good morning!!!

I hope you are up early and ready to check out the new challenge over at Simply Stampin'.

It's a theme week this week so lets see what you can come up with for..... Perfect Pairs!!

So basically we want to see two of something, if you need a little nudge to get your creative juices flowing why not check out what the fabulous Design Team have come up with!!

But before you run off and leave me, here's what I did with this weeks theme.

I decided the pair up two of the motorcycle, as I needed to make a commissioned men's card for a friends brother. This uses a technique called 'Masking', all you have to do is stamp your image, then stamp it again onto a sticky post-it note, cut around your image and place this over the top of you first image, stamp again and voilà! Two motorcycles stamped to look like they are staggered together!!

Why don't you give this technique a try, and don't forget it upload your project for the challenge, I'd love to see how you get on!

Happy crafting, xx

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Good morning,

I hope you don't mind a bit of a shock this early in the morning, I thought that I was doing quite well with keeping on top of my desk until someone with a fresh pairs of eyes looked at it, and was horrified!

So prepare yourselves, I'm going to share my workspace with you.......

I know what you're thinking, all that room and I'm working in a tiny area to one side of my desk! In my defence I think the rest of my craft space is relatively tidy, I have storage boxes, with the colour families of paper, each in it's own little folder. My DSP each has it's own 12x12 folder, all marked up. In the corner, I have a display area, with things people have made for me as well as projects I have showed for 'Make and Takes', I really like having a place to display projects....Honestly I do, it's all on the left hand side just out of shot. Will have to show you the rest soon.

Now for the messy part...my desk. Ok starting Left to right, Top left is my birthday book, I really don't know where I'd be without this baby, it has pockets for each month, so when I've made the cards in advance I know exactly where they are! In the heart shaped wire baskets are (most) of my ribbons, next to that my CD player. Sat on the top of the CD player is my cat Salem, at this point he was frantically swishing his tail at a bird that was teasing him through the window.
In front of the CD player is a stack of scraps of paper, and NEW stamps! Finally just in view in the far right is my Big Shot machine, I LOVE this piece of equipment, it one of those things that make me think, 'what did I do before I had it?' Ooohh I nearly forgot along the window sill, are some of my stamp sets, my retired ones are taking over the white drawers, on the left and my clear ones are in a drawer on the right.

I hope you've enjoyed looking around my very messy desk, xx

Simply Stampin' Colour Challenge

Good morning!

It's that time of the week when the next challenge over at Simply Stampin' is revealed, we had a great response to our sketch challenge last week so I hope that you will love the colours we have for you this week!

I made this card a few weeks ago now, for a friend at work Fiona, who celebrated her birthday at the beginning of this month and I have been desperate to share it with you ever since, it uses what has to be my favourite stamp set from the current mini, (only available until the end of this month, boo hoo) Create a Cupcake.

It's a little cupcake shop!! Its hard to see in this picture, but I scored the blue panel at the bottom to try and make it look like wood panelling, the awning was made using the word window punch! I also added alittle decadence to the cupcakes by adding pearls for decoration.

I hope you like my little shop front card as much as I enjoyed making it, I'd love to visit you and see what you can do with these gorgeous colours!
Plus don't forget to visit the rest of the DT and leave them some love, we all like comments!

Happy stampin', xx

A Blog Award!

Good Evening!

I am very excited this evening. I was checking my blog, to see if I had any comments, and was completely over the moon to see a comment from a lady whose blog I have followed for a while, Lynne Fahey. She had been given an award, and as part receiving it you have to award it to 5 other blogs. To my complete and utter surprise she had chosen me! I cannot thank Lynne enough for thinking of me, I hope you'll check out her blog and become a follower of her fab work!

You will see this award proudly displayed on my side bar shortly, yay! Liebster I have now found out is a German word meaning beloved or dearest, how sweet is that? The award is a way of sharing our ideas and creativity with others.

The honour of accepting the award is traditionally done in the following way:

1. show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to their blog

2. choose 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know about your nomination by leaving a comment on their blog

3. post the award on your blog!

So here are the names of  blogs that I LOVE to visit, I hope you will enjoy visiting them too, and maybe even become a follower, if like me you like what you see!

1. Flower Sparkle

2. Cards and a cuppa

3. White House Stamping

4. Michelle Last

5. My Little Paperhouse

So hard to choose only 5 there are so many amazing blogs out there to inspire your creativity!
Thanks again Lynne!

Happy Stampin', xx

Sketching with Aviary

Good morning,

It's Saturday morning, so that means we have a brand new challenge for you over at Simply Stampin', and this week we have a sketch for you.

Don't forget that the sketch is just a jumping off point, so you can stick exactly to the sketch and keep it simply or you can use it as your starting point.

I decided to use the layout as my background and added some extra details. I wanted to use my Aviary stamp set, I loved these stamps as soon as I saw them, it must be my love of owls that drew me to it, plus I love all the different cage shapes.

I pulled out a colour combo from my trusty Colour Coach, I went with Calypso Coral, Riding Hood Red and Basic Grey, believe it or not they work really well together, check it out!

See what I mean don't those colours look pretty together!! I made my own DSP using the Aviary cages and my stamp-a-ma-jig, plus the Basic Grey marker and my Spritzer tool. there is a small strip of DSP from the Domestic Goddess range running underneath the greeting, topped off with the Lace Ribbon border punch, which I threaded some ribbon through. I also added a few flowers from the Boho Blossoms punch.

I hope that my card has inspired you to join us this week, and have a go with our sketch! Can't wait to visit you to see what you've come up with!

Simply Stampin Challenge Theme

Good morning,

I am very excited because this week at Simply Stampin' is Guest designer week and we have the very talented Vicky Hayes joining us this week!! I have followed her blog for a long time, and I'm always amazed at how different every one of her cards are.

The theme for this weeks challenge just HAD to be Easter, so I'm hoping that you'll show off all the Easter cards and goodies you have been making, if you need some inspiration, the DT have really outdone themselves this week, so head on over to see what Vicky and the DT have to show you!!

I have actually taken the inspiration for the background of my card from one of Vicky's designs. You stamp your image using Versamark onto white glossy CS then sponge your colours over the top, the Versamark ink acts as a resist for the ink so you can see the white of the glossy CS showing through - genius!!

It gives a really soft effect but great for making your own background papers! I also have to thank one of my fellow DT Ruth, I was undecided about buying the Mini Milk Carton die so Ruth kindly offered to send me a few ready cut to see what they were like, and I have to say they are soooo cute!!! I got a little carried away and made up a whole bunch!

Don't they look cute all lined up together?!

I really hope this has got you in the mood to join in with this weeks challenge!
Hope to see you over there, xx

Happy Birthday Pauline

Good morning,

Today is my job share buddy Pauline's birthday, this card was left on her desk last week for her to open today, I hope she likes it!

I made this card a few weeks a go when there was a challenge at Hand stamped sentiments, using blues, I liked the card I thought I would also done in pinks and here is the result. The brayer worked overtime for these cards but the effect it produces is great so it's worth the work.

Happy crafting, xx