Simples Sunday

What a busy week - hence no blogging!! However I am popping on quickly with a Simples Sunday card for you.
This was made using the new In Colours, Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow. The stripes across the card are a stamp from Work of Art stamped with Early Espresso, the flowers from Petite Petals punched with the co-ordinating punch and the leaves from the ever faithful Bird Builder punch. I used a card base of Naturals Ivory matted with Hello Honey and Very Vanilla and the sentiment is a very old retired SU stamp.

It is very nearly the end of the school year and is always a very busy time so I will be taking a break from blogging for a couple of weeks but please come back as I have loads of stuff to show you (just not the time!!)

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back in a couple of weeks

Margaret x

A Retirement Card, the Retiring List and a special offer!

Last week a good friend at work retired and I was asked (as usual!) to make a leaving card for everyone to sign. It was another large card - A4 - which I always find quite difficult but everyone loved it so that was ok. For the sentiment I used a couple of retired stamps and the name was cut with (the also retired) Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies. All this was on a Whisper White Oval cut from the Ovals Framelits and matted onto a Summer Starfruit Scallop Oval, from the same set. The larger flowers were made with the Flower Shop and Petite Petals stamp sets and co-ordinating punches and the tiny flowers are from one of this year's SAB sets punched with an Itty Bitty Punch, with leaves from the Bird Builder Punch. The card was finished off with a bit of paper piercing, some scoring, a knot of Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon and a couple of Papillon Potpourri butterflies - oh and of course some pearls!!



The brand new catalogue will be here soon but, in the meantime, the Retiring List is now available. There are lots of stamp sets and accessories, some at reduced prices. Click here to see them. These products are only available while stocks last so get them while you can! I am offering free postage & packing on all orders over £35 until the end of June so, if you would like to take advantage of this, please contact me at margaretk21@hotmail.co.uk or telephone 01933 663477 leave a message and I'll be very happy to help (Only applies to orders placed through me, not any online orders)

Margaret x

Fancy fold for and 80 year old!

This is a commissioned card I have been asked to make for the Auntie of a work colleague - with the brief of Lilac & Cream in a box!
Three stamp sets have been used and they are Everything Eleanor, Papillon Potpourri and Summer Silhouettes with a colour scheme of Wisteria Wonder and Very Vanilla. The roses were made using a Scallop Circle punch with leaves from the Bird Builder punch and the sentiment was computer generated.
For the box (bottom right) I used Wisteria Wonder cardstock and Very Vanilla DSP along with a retired sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

 

Notecard

I have a card/notelet to show you today that is made with the Envelope Punch Board. The DSP is a pattern from Sweet Sorbet, one of the 'freebies' in the SAB promotion, and I used Pistachio Pudding for the base card with contrasting Crisp Cantaloupe punched with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch. The flowers are made with the Simply Pressed Clay and Blossom Mould coloured with a Crisp Cantaloupe marker with a few leaves from the Bird Builder Punch. The notecard is a piece of Whisper White stamped with the flower image and part of the sentiment from the Oh, Hello set and sponged around the edges with Crisp Cantaloupe.

Margaret x

Owl Santa

Here I am back again with yet another entry for the LIM challenge - A Christmas Bird. This time I have used the ever faithful Owl Builder and Bird Builder punches to make a Santa Owl. he is made from Crumb Cake, Real Red and Basic Black cardstock with a teeny piece of Silver Glimmer Paper. His hat was stamped from Embellished Events, cut out with paper snips and a bobble punched with one of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.
For the background I took a square of Basic Black cardstock and swiped the Whisper White inkpad across the bottom to make the 'snow' and some Dazzling Diamonds for the sparkle. As it is meant to be a night scene I used just the tree bauble stamp from Warmth & Wonder to represent lights on a Christmas tree and the twinkly stars (again a stamp from Warmth & Wonder) are stamped with the Silver Metallic Encore pad. The finished panel was then matted onto a Basic Black card blank with a sentiment from Petite Pairs, stamped in silver, added to the bottom of the card.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Christmas Robin

As soon as I saw the LIM challenge this morning, which is to make a Christmas card using a bird, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This little robin, made with the Bird Builder punch, is something I have done many times before but I do love him. Really simple to make - just punch out the bird using Crumb Cake cardstock and ink him however you wish using sponge daubers. My little bird is sitting on a Pear Pizzazz wreath, made from the Stippled Blossoms leaf stamp, and the 'baubles' are blobs of Dazzling Details. A sentiment from Petite Pairs, stamped in Real Red, and a bow of Linen Thread were added before matting onto a panel of Pear Pizzazz cardstock and then onto a Crumb Cake card blank.
Have a great weekend and, hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with a super easy 'Christmas bird'

Margaret x

Last week I had some commissioned cards to make and this is one of them. A long time ago I made a card very similar to this for a friend's birthday so when I was asked to make a 'new home' card I thought this would fit the bill quite nicely.
I have used a few retired products but the current ones are the Bird Builder, Word Window, Circle, Small Heart and Scallop Border punches and the cardstock is Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Old Olive. It was just a pity that the 'm' was glued on wonky!!

Margaret x

If you would like to purchase any products, or join my team, I would love to help. My contact details can be found on the 'contact me' tab at the top

Birthday Candles

Today's card is one I made for my Mum to give to my son (his birthday is not until next week so I hope he doesn't peek on here before then!) and is CASE'd from Mary Fish (her card can be seen here)
I always think it's quite difficult to find something a bit different for male cards but this fitted the bill quite nicely.
I just used some scraps of Pacific Point DSP for the candles and the flames are the wing from the Bird Builder Punch in So Saffron and inked around the edges to give some depth. The sentiment is a retired SU stamp and the banner was finished off with a couple of Candy Dots.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Today's card is another simple one which I made to send to my Grandaughter in Suffolk to wish her luck on her first day at school. She loves pink and, as I'd done all the pale pink sparkly stuff for her birthday the week before, I chose Melon Mambo for this card. The sentiment, from Four You, was stamped onto Whisper White, cut out with one of the Oval Framelits Collection then matted onto a larger Melon Mambo oval. Before fixing to the card blank I glued a little loop of retired Melon Mambo ribbon on one side. The flowers were punched with two of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, the leaves from the Bird Builder punch and the tiny flower pearls in the centres are from my non-SU stash.
I'm pleased to say she has settled very well into school and is thoroughly enjoying it! Let's hope it stays that way :0)

Margaret x

This is a birthday card I was recently asked to make a for a lady who has reached the incredible age of 100!! Apparently her favourite colours are pink and green so that just shouted flowers and leaves. I have made quite a few of this style of card recently and I think the aperture with a sentiment just gives a card a little bit more interest and dimension rather than a flat card with embellishments. The sentiment from Memorable Moments was stamped using a stamp-a-ma-jig, in the now retired Pretty in Pink and the Flower Shop flowers and butterfly from Papillon Potpourri in Pink Pirouette.
The leaves were punched from the old favourite (and very well used!) Bird Builder Punch.

Back to work for me this week so not a lot of crafting time but, hopefully, I will get back into the swing of things soon :0)

If you would like to order any of the supplies, or maybe you are thinking of becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, then please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be more than happy to help.

Until next time take care and thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

This is the first of two cards I have been asked to make for work colleagues who are leaving at the end of term. They are A4 size so there is plenty of room for everyone to sign. This one is made using Elegant Eggplant and Certainly Celery (now retired) and the large daisy was cut from the Daisy Die (now retired) with the smaller flowers punched with the Boho Blossoms and Itty Bitty Shapes punches. The leaves are made with the Little Leaves Sizzlits die and leaves punched from the Bird Builder punch and butterflies are a stamp from Papillon Potpourri, punched with the Bitty Butterfly punch. The sentiment is computer generated and the name is cut from the Timeless Type Alphabet Dies (also retired). The picture bottom right shows the bag I made to put the card in.
I will show you the second card when I've finished it!!!

Get Well Owl

 

All the credit for the idea of this cute owl tissue holder has to go to Jo Dumbleton who designed this a while ago. You can see Jo's creation here.

For my holder I used Wild Wasabi cardstock and DSP which matched the packaging on the tissues. The nurse's cape was punched with the Bird Builder punch. The 'for you' is a retired stamp punched with the Jewelry Tag punch which is also retiring at the end of this month - this is one punch I will not be getting rid of, retired or not!! The other sentiment is one from the Petite Pairs set.

A short,sweet and very late post - it is my first day back at work and I'm ready for bed!!!

Back soon x

Labour of Love!

This is my 'labour of love' card that I was working on last week - called that because of the excessive amount of time it took to make!! It's an oversized card, an A3 piece of card folded to make a card which is A4, made for a work colleague who is leaving and it needed to be large so that everyone can sign it. I used Chocolate Chip for the mat with diagonal score lines across the top right and bottom left corners with Chocolate Chip butterflies stamped on the central plain section. I then used the large scallop oval die to cut Crumb Cake Cake cardstock and a smaller oval die for the Very Vanilla mat stamped with four butterflies, from the SAB set Bloomin' Marvelous, in Crunb Cake. I then punched four butterflies with the Bitty Butterfly punch in Vellum cardstock to overlay the stamped butterflies and added a Basic Pearl to each one. The flowers were made from Very Vanilla cardstock with the Boho Blossoms Punch and Blossom Party die. Leaves were punched from Certainly Celery with the Bird Builder punch. I finished the card with a computer generated sentiment cut into a banner and three Basic Pearls across the top right corner. I made a bag to put the card in which is pictured on the right.
Tomorrow I will be back to show you my card that was made for the same lady.

Using Apertures

I was inspired to make this card by one I saw on Lizy Bartaby's blog who is a fellow Pink Lady. It is not case'd just 'inspired by' this gorgeous card (here) that Lizy entered into last week's LIM challenge. Don't just stop at that card though, take a look at the rest of Lizy's lovely creations.
For my card I cut the aperture using a die from Apothecary Accents Framelits and fixed a piece of Cherry Cobbler DSP onto the base card so it would show through the aperture. Taking one of the images from Fabulous Florets, I stamped some images in Versamark and heat embossed them using clear embossing powder. Then, on a scrap piece of card, I stamped three more flowers and this time embossed with Cherry Cobbler, before fussy cutting them. The aperture panel was then fixed to the card blank using dimensionals before arranging the Cherry Cobbler flowers and adding some Certainly Celery leaves, punched from the Bird Builder punch. I finished the card by stamping a sentiment from Bring on the Cake onto the DSP.
Tomorrow I have another aperture card to show you, using the same stamp set but in a different colour and a different shaped die.

Another 60th

The last of my commissioned cards for this week - another 60th birthday with a requested colour scheme of black and red. I used Cherry Cobbler for the panel on the front of the card and used a stamp from Summer Silhouettes to make a faint background for the cascading Boho Blossoms punched flowers. The aperture in the Cherry Cobbler was punched with the 2 1/2" Circle Punch and the sentiment from Memorable Moments stamped in Basic Black directly onto the card base. I attached some Cherry Cobbler Tulle Ribbon, unfortunately now retired, around the left hand side of the card before fixing onto the card base with dimensionals. The addition of some black leaves punched with the Bird Builder punch, finished the card.