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Saturday 31 March 2012

Picture Inspiration




I have made two cards for today's challenge at Less is More which is 'Picture Inspiration' and the inspiring picture is shown top left - a beautiful colour combination of soft grey, green and pink.
For the grey I took some Basic Gray DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack and punched out a Decorative Label for one card and a large Scallop Circle (available in the Spring Mini) for the second, using the dotty patterned side on one and the script side for the other. These were glued into place on a white square card blank and I drew some faux stitching around the shapes with the fine end of a Basic Gray marker. The flowers were punched in Pink Pirouette using the Boho Blossoms punch and the leaves are in Certainly Celery and punched with the Bird Builder punch. A small sentiment was stamped with Certainly Celery and punched out with the Jewelry Tag punch, and a non-SU pearl was added to the centres of the flowers to finish the cards.
I am very late (for me!) posting my cards for the LIM challenge this week because, for once, instead of crafting as soon as I got up I went out for a mooch round the shops with my sister. We went and had a look in some out-of-town shops for a change and, although we didn't buy anything much, it was nice to do a bit of window shopping and drink coffee of course! 
       I hope you all have a lovely weekend and don't feel too cold after all that glorious weather we've had :0)

Friday 30 March 2012

French Foliage


Another super-easy card to show you today which I made for my son-in-law.  Using French Foliage I stamped the script stamp in Certainly Celery across a strip of Whisper White then, with Old Olive, I randomly stamped the leaves and stamped each one again without re-inking. This was matted onto a piece of Old Olive cardstock, some Linen Thread wrapped around and knotted then mounted onto a card blank. The sentiment is from Curly Cute and stamped in Old Olive.

I thought I would share a photo with you of this Magnolia Stellata which has just bloomed in my garden. Spring is definitely on the way (despite the freak summer weather we seem to be having at the moment) and I just hope we don't get any more hard frosts or these beautiful pink flowers will be a mucky shade of brown!!

Thursday 29 March 2012

 

Back as promised with yet another Mother of Pearl card! This time I sponged over the Frost White Shimmer Paint with Perfect Plum at the top and, at the bottom, Daffodil Delight with a touch of Certainly Celery to tone the yellow down a bit. This was then matted onto Elegant Eggplant cardstock with some retired ribbon tied around one end and layered onto a DL white card blank. The pansies are something I haven't made for a long time but thought it was about time I revisited them! Made with the Butterfly punch and sponged with Daffodil Delight and Elegant Eggplant and the stamens drawn with a Basic Black marker. There are different ways of making these but this is my preferred method and uses three of the butterflies cut down to make the petals of the pansies. The card was finished with a sentiment from Heard from the Heart and an Elegant Eggplant butterfly cut from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Mother of Pearl

I had one last piece of the Mother of Pearl / Perfect Plum cardstock which I made last week so thought I would put it to good use and make another card. A simple card made by matting a rectangle of the treated cardstock onto a slightly larger piece of Perfect Plum cardstock with Perfect Plum Taffeta ribbon tied around. The front of a white card blank was covered with Perfect Plum DSP, from the Subtles Paper Stack, leaving a narrow border of white around it. The Mother of Pearl panel was fixed onto this at an angle and the flower, which was made using the Blossom Party die, glued to the panel. The remaining scrap of cardstock was stamped in Elegant Eggplant, with a stamp from the Hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes, and punched out using the Scallop Circle punch.
When I was making the Mother of Pearl cardstock last week I did a whole A4 sheet with the Frost White Shimmer Paint as this needs to dry before sponging the coloured ink on. I only used half of the sheet when colouring with Perfect Plum so I was left with the other half ready to colour which I did today so pop back tomorrow if you'd like to see what I did with it.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Springtime


Today's card is one that I made for no other reason than I wanted to! I saw some daffodils similar to this that Julie Kettlewell had made for a wedding card and thought they looked really cute so I wanted to have a go. They are very simply made with the larger petals cut from the Boho Blossoms punch and the 'trumpet' from an Itty Bitty Punch Shapes punch, I chose to do mine in Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. I very lightly sponged a piece of Whisper White cardstock with Certainly Celery on the bottom half and Bashful Blue at the top then added some stems with a stamp from Cottage Garden, in Old Olive, and fixed the daffodils in place with a spot of glue. The tiny blue flowers, another stamp from Cottage Garden, reminded me of some blue flowers that have recently started coming out in my garden, the name of them escapes me at the moment but they are prolific! The sentiment from Easter Blossoms and a couple of birds from the SAB set, Elementary Elegance, were added before matting onto Lucky Limeade cardstock and a white card blank.

Monday 26 March 2012

Easter Chick Favors







 This week at my grandson's pre-school they are having a children's tombola to raise much needed funds for the school and, as they want all the children to win something, I decided to make some of these little chick treat holders. I used a 4"x4" piece of Daffodil Delight DSP to make a Diaper Fold Pouch (loads of instructions on YouTube for these if you haven't made them before and they are very easy!) and put a little 'punch' chick on the front made with the Bird Builder punch and the Small Heart punch. The pouches are just big enough to hold 2 of the little chocolate chicks available from that well-known supermarket (and currently on offer!). The pouches were put into a cellophane bag and tied with some non-SU ribbon - well I can't give all my SU stash away can I - and a little 'for you' tag added, punched with the Jewelry Tag punch. A quick and easy make and perfect for the little people in your life :0)


Sunday 25 March 2012

Inspiration!



Yesterday I saw a brilliant card which was an entry to the LIM challenge and made by Kimberley (her card is here). The actual card isn't CASe'd because mine has a completely different look to Kimberley's but the idea definitely is!
I cut out the letters from Everyday Enchantment DSP using my Timeless Type Alphabet dies and positioned them onto a square of Whisper White cardstock, leaving a space in the centre for my four leaf clover. This was made with four hearts, punched with the Small Heart punch in Lucky Limeade cardstock, which I scored down the centre and the stem is a bit of the branch from the Bird Builder punch. This was then matted onto a larger square of Lucky Limeade cardstock before fixing to a white card blank.
A very simple card but such an effective idea - thanks Kimberley :0)

Saturday 24 March 2012

It's challenge day again!

 

Well it's Saturday morning and it's challenge day again - don't the weeks just fly by? I have 2 cards to show you this morning, both of which fit the Less is More challenge - Take 3 Challenges, and the second which was made for the sketch challenge over at Simply Stampin'. I'll start with this one though because I know that Chrissie & Mandi won't be too happy with the lack of white space on the second card :0)
As I wanted to make a get well card I used the owl punch to make a nurse and decided to use the Bashful Blue striped DSP and Pacific Point cardstock for her dress and 'cape' as this is the colour I always think of when picturing nurses! The wings were actually punched from the 2-step Bird Punch and the red cross from one of the punches in the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes pack. Her hat, which doesn't show up too well in the picture is the same shape that was used for the dress but turned upside down. I cut 2 circles with the Circles Die to mount the owl on and embossed the white one with the Square Lattice Embsossing folder, glued this to the card blank and added a sentiment from Curvy Verses in Pacific Point.
The challenges I used were Wk 9 - A Touch of Red, Wk 12 - Off Centre, Wk 22 - Shades of Blue and Wk 29 - Things that Move.
Now onto my second card (made predominantly for the Simply Stampin' Sketch)











For this card I used a piece of Whisper White card on which I had used the Mother of  Pearl technique with Perfect Plum ink (left over from a card I made last week!) The bottom edge of the cardstock was punched with the Scallop Edge Border punch, matted onto a piece of Perfect Plum cardstock and a bow of Perfect Plum Taffeta ribbon tied around before layering onto a white card blank. The branch from Hopeful Thoughts was stamped in Elegant Eggplant and some flowers were punched from a scrap piece of the Mother of Pearl cardstock, with an Itty Bitty Shapes punch, and positioned onto the branch with one of the tiniest Basic Pearls for the centres. The stamp is also from Hopeful Thoughts but, as I didn't want all of the sentiment, I used a Perfect Plum marker to ink the bit I wanted, stamped onto Whisper White and then punched out with the Modern Label punch. The label was inked around the edges with a sponge dauber before positioning onto the card.
The challenges I used for this card were Wk 49 - Predominantly Purple, Wk 55 Punches or Diecuts and Wk 56 - Don't Scrap It (the Mother of Pearl cardstock!).
A rather long post today so I'll just say have a great weekend and enjoy the sunshine x

Friday 23 March 2012

Quilting with Scraps


A very quick post to show you a card I've rustled up for the Friday Mashup challenge which is Quilted Scraps. I had several scraps of the gorgeous Mocha Morning papers which, I have to confess, I haven't used since Christmas so I thought I would put them to good use. I punched 9 squares with the large Square punch and arranged them onto a Brushed Gold Square Scallop, cut with the Square Scallop die. A piece of Soft Suede Taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel before fixing to a card blank made with Naturals Ivory cardstock. A simple sentiment was stamped onto Very Vanilla, punched with a circle punch, matted onto a larger circle of Brushed Gold and placed in the centre of the card using dimensionals.A very easy card and an excellent way of using those scraps of paper that you never want to throw away!

More Hearts!

Another heart card for you today and this is using some spare hearts from the card I posted yesterday. I had punched out some hearts with the large Heart Punch but decided they were too big for yesterday's card so I used them up by making this one. 
The hearts were punched from the Sale-a-Bration DSP, Everyday Enchantment and the butterflies are from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, in Riding Hood Red.
The first heart was glued onto a piece of Very Vanilla which had been matted onto Riding Hood Red cardstock, and the second heart raised by using dimensionals, the sentiment (now retired) was stamped in Riding Hood Red and a knot of Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon was tied around before layering onto a card blank.
A very simple, easy-to-make card using limited supplies but nevertheless quite an effective card I think.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Lots of Hearts

I got inspiration for today's card from Julie Kettlewell's blog, Julie's Japes. She made a picture to showcase the Sale-a-Bration DSP, Everyday Enchantment, something she CASe'd from an American demo and I loved the idea. As you can see I have made a card and it is very different to Julie's picture, using a lot less hearts and mainly the reds from the DSP. I cut out different sized hearts using the Small Heart punch, Heart to Heart punch and the teeny heart from the Owl Builder punch. I started by scoring a piece of white cardstock, slightly smaller than a DL card blank with my score board and then played around with the positioning of the hearts until I was happy with the look and then glued them in place. Five flowers were punched with one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch pack and placed onto the card with a small Basic Rhinestone for the centre and the sentiment stamped in Riding Hood Red before layering onto a card blank. I am really happy with how the card turned out and it would be nice for a wedding card by using the wedding colour scheme so you may see some more of these in the future!

Wednesday 21 March 2012

The card I am showing you today is one which I had to make for a very sad occasion and this post is my small tribute to a lovely person. Last week a very good neighbour, and friend, passed away suddenly and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Derek was such a lovely man, always there to lend a hand and someone with a very good sense of humour, something which he certainly needed when his wife and I got together as we constantly ribbed him.
My thoughts are with Dorothy, Andrew, Elaine and his grandchildren at this very sad time.

Supplies used for this card are Whisper White & Basic Black cardstock, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Hopeful Thoughts, Basic Black Satin ribbon

Tuesday 20 March 2012

French Foliage CASed


I try not to CASe cards too often but when I saw this gorgeous card made by an Australian demo, Annette, I just had to have a go. Annette's card can be found here and if you go to have a look you will see that, apart from the sentiment, I have pretty much made mine the same as hers.
It uses a blank made from Naturals Ivory cardstock and the stamp set French Foliage with a sentiment from Petite Pairs. The background stamp was stamped directly onto the card blank in Crumb Cake in a random fashion and the sentiment is stamped in Soft Suede. The script stamp was inked with Crumb Cake and used as a background on Very Vanilla before overstamping the leaf twice in Soft Suede and once more in Crumb Cake. This panel was matted onto Soft Suede cardstock and then positioned onto the card blank.
I am really pleased with the finished card so thank you Annette for inspiring and sharing.

Monday 19 March 2012

'Scrappy' Bird on a Branch



My card today was born out of scraps that have been hanging around my desk for far too long! A while ago I cut out a spray to use on a card with the Little Leaves Sizzlits die and just threw the piece of card it had been cut from on my desk maybe to use another time and the little bird, made with the 2-Step Bird punch, has been hovering for a very long time - having been made for a card and then I had a change of mind and used something else. Put the two together and this is what transpired! I used the scrap from the leaves die as a stencil and inked with Certainly Celery, then moved it slightly and this time just inked part of the branch. Then, using a tip which has been shared by Vicky on many occasions, I drew a shadow around the leaves using a Crumb Cake marker. At this stage of the proceedings I had no idea what I was going to use with the leaves as I had only been experimenting but the little bird looked at me and when he hopped onto the branch I thought he looked good so that's where he stayed. (He was made from Whisper White and sponged with Crumb Cake - with beak & eye coloured with a marker). The corners were rounded before matting onto a piece of Certainly Celery DSP, which also had the corners rounded, a piece of Certainly Celery Taffeta ribbon tied across the top corner, sentiment stamped in Crumb Cake, layered onto a card blank and job done!

Sunday 18 March 2012

Totally Tags


My card today is one I've made for the Simply Stampin' challenge which, this week, is Totally Tags. Usually when I see the challenges an idea springs to mind but for some reason that didn't happen this weekend. I struggled with an idea for both this and the LIM challenge yesterday but, not to be beaten, I was determined to come up with something this morning- and here it is!
I needed a sentiment that was long and thin and this one fitted the bill perfectly, it is an old retired SU stamp but I never get rid of sentiment stamps and will use them retired or not - sorry. I stamped this in Rich Razzleberry onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out, this determined the size for my other tag. For this I used the leafy branch stamp from Borderlines (be warned this set is only available in the Spring Mini until April 30th) and stamped in Certainly Celery and, after stamping once, I stamped again without re-inking. The tiny flower from Flight of the Butterfly was stamped over the leaves in Rich Razzleberry and I added a few to the sentiment panel as well. Both panels were matted onto Rich Razzleberry cardstock, a hole punched in the top and some Whsiper White grosgrain ribbon threaded through. I didn't want a bulky knot in the ribbon so I just folded the ribbon over and used a flower, punched with the Itty Bitty Shapes, to cover the hole and added a tiny Basic Pearl to the centre. I played around with some ideas but decided the tags looked best on just a piece of Rich Razzleberry DSP from the Rich Regals Paper Stack. I added three more punched flowers to the bottom corner just because it looked a bit bare!
Have a lovely Sunday and for those of you who are Mum's - Happy Mother's Day x

Saturday 17 March 2012

Happy Toadstools!


When I said at the end of my last post I'd be back soon I didn't expect it to be quite so soon! However, with the weather being so miserable and me as well, what better to do than craft. When I get up on a Saturday morning the first thing I do is look to see what the challenge is on Less is More and this morning it is Masking - now I use this technique quite a lot normally but I just couldn't think of anything I could do and then I had a sudden flash of inspiration to use the lovely toadstool stamp from Everybunny which is just perfect for masking. (I have shown a picture, above right, of the stamp to give you an idea of how I did the masking). I began by stamping the image onto a post-it note and then very carefully cut it out to make my mask, then I stamped onto Whisper White, using Early Espresso, stamping the central image first. Using the mask I stamped the image another 4 times, twice either side of the original and then coloured in using a blender pen and a mixture of colours. I managed to get a spot of ink at the top of the Whisper White so I decided to stamp the butterfly to cover it up, unfortunately I didn't quite get it in the right place so the spot is still visible but thankfully not enough to ruin the card. I wanted a generic sentiment so just used the hello which was inked using an Old Olive marker. I matted the finished panel onto a piece of Lucky Limeade cardstock, leaving the tiniest of borders around, and then fixed in the the centre of a plain white card blank.
Oh well the rain has stopped now so I'd better get my skates on and get to the supermarket before it starts again!

Faux Mother of Pearl Mashed Up!


The challenge at the Friday Mashup is to make a project using the sketch (above) or the faux mother-of-pearl technique or 'mash it up' and use both. I decided to use both and came up with the card above.
I began by using the faux mother-of-pearl technique on a piece of Whisper White cardstock, using Wisteria Wonder and Pretty in Pink for the sponging. This was then used for the flower, cut with the Blossom Party die. the tiny flowers from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch set and the sentiment tag punched with the Modern Label punch. For the base I used a panel of Elegant Eggplant DSP with a piece of Whisper White matted on top which had been sponged round the edges with Wisteria Wonder and then a knot of the Scallop Dots ribbon was placed over the join (I tied the knot so the ribbon was on the plain side and not the dotty side) before fixing to a plain white card blank. The flower was mounted on a circle of Elegant Eggplant, cut with the Circles die and run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, and then positioned onto the card. It doesn't show up very well on the photo but the Faux Mother of Pearl is a lovely technique and gives a luxurious look to a piece of plain card - give it a go and see for yourself!
The weather here is awful today, rain and lots of it, so wherever you are and whatever you are doing have a lovely day and I'll be back soon. x

Thursday 15 March 2012

ColourQ Greens





I struggled with the ColourQ challenge this week which, as you can see from the inspiration picture above, is all about greens. I made the card shown below first but was not at all happy with it, too much green for my liking, so moved on to make the card shown above 
which is much more my style!                           
I used one of the stamps from Borderlines and stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock with Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green and Basic Gray - and stamped again with each colour without re-inking. This was matted onto Garden Green cardstock and then onto a Vanilla card blank. The sentiment was stamped in Garden Green, punched with the Word Window punch and matted onto a Garden Green Modern label with two tiny Basic Pearls added. Three butterflies were diecut fron the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die using Certainly Celery DSP from the Subtles Paper Stack, a Basic Pearl placed in the centres and added to the card. If anyone's interested, the card on the right was using all the same colours with the Certainly Celery panel embossed in the Elegant Bouquet folder and the addition of Certainly Celery Grosgrain ribbon.

Definitely no glitter!!



This is a card which I was asked to make and one for which I had a very definite brief - tasteful, simple, neutrals with maybe a touch of pink and definitely no glitter! Have I managed it?
I inked one of the stamps from the Hostess set, Faith in Nature, with Early Espresso and stamped off before stamping onto Very Vanilla. The flower was coloured using Pink Pirouette and Pretty in Pink and a blender pen, with the stamens coloured with an Early Espresso marker, then punched out with the Extra large Oval punch. A piece of Crumb Cake DSP, from the Neutrals Paper Stack, was embossed with the oval in the Designer Frames Embossing pack and then matted onto a slightly wider strip of Crumb Cake cardstock. A knot of Crumb Cake Taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel before fixing to a cream card blank. The flower oval was glued in the frame and a tiny Basic Pearl added to the centre. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso and punched with the Scallop Oval and then matted onto an Extra Large Oval, with two Basic Pearls added to the sides.
Definitely neutrals, definitely a touch of pink and definitely no glitter. Tasteful and simple? I hope so!!

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Flowers for Easter

I have made another card with flowers made from the 5-Petal Punch, similar to the one I posted the other day, but this time for Easter. I adapted the technique slightly so that I could make some of the flowers look more like buds rather than fully opened. I used Whisper White cardstock and sponged with Daffodil Delight for the flowers and Certainly Celery for the stems. These were positioned onto a piece of Daffodil Delight cardstock which I partially embossed with the Stripes Embossing Folder and grosgrain ribbon tied around before mounting onto a white card blank. The tiny flowers were punched with an Itty Bitty Punch Shapes and a Basic Pearl added to the centre. The sentiment was punched with the Scallop Oval punch and matted onto an Extra Large Oval and mounted onto the card with dimensionals.
Despite the sun shining beautifully I couldn't find anywhere in my house that I could take a photo without it either being too dark (the yellow looked like Mustard!) or getting a shadow of me & the camera on the card so I took it outside and framed it with some tiny daffodils that have just decided to come out in my garden I've still got shadows but at least it was from the ribbon and not me!

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Gift Bag & Card set


As you will know by now I like to make matching sets and here is another one! I needed a little birthday gift for a work colleague so I bought a bag of nice chocolates and have made this gift bag to put them in -with matching card of course. I adapted the pattern which I used to make the larger bags a couple of weeks ago (original pattern by Sarah - here) and this size only uses one A4 sheet of cardstock. Before assembling the bag I stamped with butterflies from Flight of the Butterfly in Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant and filled in with the flower stamp from the same set. The ribbon handles were fixed in place with Rhinestone Brads (both ribbon and brads now retired). I added a vellum butterfly which was cut from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and inked with Wisteria Wonder with a Basic Rhinestone in the centre. The tags were stamped with images from Tiny Tags and punched with the Jewelry Tag punch. The card doesn't really need any explaining as it used practically the same products as the bag except that the sentiment was punched with the Word Window punch and matted onto a Modern Label punch.

Monday 12 March 2012





The two cards I have for you today are using the stamp set Everybunny and are ones that I have made for my grandchildren. Sky is 3 and definitely a 'pink' girl and Conor is only 6 months so I can still get away with using baby blue!
I stamped the bunnies in Crumb Cake then coloured the images using various colours and a blender pen, and then they were punched out with the Extra Large Oval punch. The DSP from the Paper Stacks were embossed using the oval folder from Designer Frames and then glued to a piece of matching cardstock with the oval bunny image placed inside the embossed frame. Some taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel and then the whole thing glued onto a DL card blank. As I didn't want the whole sentiment, I inked the part I wanted with a marker and stamped this above the names which had been cut from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies and run through the Square Lattice (pink) and the Perfect Polka Dots (blue) Embossing folders before being positioned onto the card. On Sky's I added a little pink butterfly which was from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die.
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