Treat Basket

This is a little gift basket I made as a peace offering for my 2-year old Grandaughter. Last night my Grandson (aged 4) wanted to come for a 'sleepover' (his word not mine!) with Granny and his sister wasn't very happy that she couldn't come as well. So I had this to give her when I went to pick him up, it goes without saying that she liked the contents (some sweets and grapes) better than the basket but she was swinging it round for a time before her Mummy took it off her and said it could go in her bedroom to keep her hair slides in.
These are the simplest baskets to make, a square of card which can be any measurement that is divisible by 3, score to make 9 equal squares, cut along the two score lines on two opposite sides, then draw up the two sides to meet in a point (glue together where the card touches). Hope that makes sense but honestly it is really easy. The flower on the front was made with the Blossom, 5-Petal Flower and Boho Blossoms punches and fixed in the centre with a Rhinestone Brad. The handle was made with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch again fixed with Rhinestone Brads. I added some loops of Pink Pirouette Taffeta Ribbon and a couple of butterflies cut from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die.
* Update on the blog 'clear out' - there are now a lot of old posts which no longer have the photos but I need to set aside some time to delete them completely. Please bear with me - it's not a quick job!

Triple Treat

Just popped on here to show you a card I am making as part of a set to go in a decorated tin. If you are a regular visitor to my blog you will remember a while back I made a decorated tin of cards to give to a friend - well she asked me to make two more as gifts. I have managed to make one set (although the tin isn't yet finished) and this is the first card for the second set. I have covered the tins in some of the gorgeous flocked paper from the Mocha Morning Speciality DSP and this one is for the Crumb Cake and Basic Black tin. I have used the Triple Treat Flower stamped in Crumb Cake and Basic Black and punched with the Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower and Circle punches. SU have just announced (early) that the 5-Petal Flower punch is no longer available - apparently it was going to be retired at the end of September anyway but stocks have run out and they are not replenishing. Such a shame because it is a lovely punch but sadly if you haven't already got it then you won't be able to now. Having said that it is not too difficult to cut out by hand, just not so quick :0) Back to the card - the flowers were assembled and an Antique Brad was added to the top flower, these were positioned onto a strip of Crumb Cake DSP punched with the Scallop Border with a thin strip of Basic Black cardstock at the top. The sentiment from Curly Cute was stamped in Basic Black onto Crumb Cake and cut into a banner.
Times are changing for SU in the UK - a brand new seasonal catalogue will be available on 1st September as will the retiring list from the current annual catalogue. If I'm right, there will be quite a lot of products on that list this year so, if you have a wish list, make sure you check out what's retiring because these products will not be available after 30th September.

Simply Stampin' Sketch

Oh dear, my posts this weekend are a bit like buses - nothing for ages then two come along at once! I have had a bit of extra crafting time this weekend due to the fact that I had to wait for someone to come and have a look at my conservatory roof which, in all this wind, has decided to come adrift. He has now been and inspected it and has to 'send the boys in' another day - just what I needed :0)
Anyway onto the cards which I made for the Simply Stampin' challenge. The first one is made with Perfect Plum as the card base with a strip of Elegant Eggplant, cut with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, placed across the card. The central panel is a Whisper White Top Note embossed with the Elegant Bouquet Embossing Folder, inked around the edge and glued in place onto the card base. I added two flowers to the top left corner made with the 5-Petal Flower punch and two smaller flowers in the bottom right corner punched with the Boho Blossoms punch. The sentiment is from the retired Create-a-Cupcake set.
The second card was a bit of an experiment and I'm not overly pleased with it (think the added circles were a step too far!) but thought I'd show you anyway. I made a base card with Naturals Ivory cardstock and layered on a piece of DSP from the First Edition Speciality pack which I had overstamped with images from French Foliage in Basic Black. The strip across the middle is the negative part of a piece of cardstock which had been cut with one of the Adorning Accents Edgelits dies, I used the negative part because I thought it looked more manly than the piece you are supposed to use! Three tags, stamped with Tiny Tags and cut with the Jewelry Tag punch, were added to the central strip and I think this is where I should have stopped. However, because the sketch required circles I stamped two of the French Foliage leaves and punched them out with a circle punch and overlapped these onto two slightly larger circles punched from Basic Black cardstock.

 

This card is 'sort of'' case'd from Dawn Griffith, an American SU demo, using her idea but different supplies. For my card I used Old Olive DSP from the Brights Paper Stack for the backing and a strip of Certainly Celery and Whisper White cardstock, punched at the bottom with the Scallop Border punch, to go across the card. The flowers were cut with the 5-Petal Flower punch and the centres with a circle punch and rounded to give a raised effect. The sentiment is from the Hostess set Happiest Birthday wishes stamped in Old Olive. A simple but effective card which could be done in any number of colours using any DSP - I think I may be making some more of these!

Back to work today so maybe not quite so many cards to show you over the next few days but I'll try my best :0)

Spring Flowers

I got the idea for these flowers from a site called Valita's Designs & Fresh Folds, where the very talented lady has done a video tutorial which can be found here. They are made with the 5-Petal Flower punch and the branch from the Bird Buillder punch.

I just had to have a go at making some of these and this is how they looked when I'd finished. I used Whisper White to make the flowers and coloured them with Melon Mambo using a sponge dauber, and the stems are made with Certainly Celery cardstock.

I made three flowers for my card and mounted them onto a panel of Melon Mambo which had been embossed with the Square Lattice Embossing folder. A knot of Pretty in Pink Taffeta ribbon and a sentiment finished off the card.

I am entering this card for the St.Luke's Charity Card Challenge where this month's theme is Spring into Spring.

Triple Treat meets SAB

Another very quick and easy card for you today using one of the DSP's from the SAB set, Everyday Enchantment, teamed up with the Triple Treat Flower stamp. The flower was stamped once in Baja Breeze and twice in More Mustard and the three layers punched out with the Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower and ½" Circle punches. The flower was then assembled using dimensionals. A strip of DSP was cut at one end with a square punch, layered onto a piece of More Mustard cardstock which had also been shaped at one end, and then positioned onto a white card blank. The flower was glued in place on top, a couple of gems added and a sentiment stamped in More Mustard.

Scraps!

The challenge at Less is More this week is 'Scraps' where Chrissie & Mandi want us to use up those card and paper scraps, so I thought I would show you the pictures above of my scraps (well some of them). I'm not very good at using up my scraps, of which I have copious amounts, before cutting into a brand new sheet of cardstock or DSP and have hundreds of 'already cut' flowers, leaves, butterflies, circles and branches but always reach for the punches or dies rather than seeing what I've already got! Well that changed for today and I have made 2 cards for the challenge, although believe me I could have made a lot more.

I started by making a card blank in Certainly Celery and then cut a piece of DSP slightly smaller and fixed it to the card base. For the top layer I used a piece of Whisper White, slightly smaller than the DSP, cut out holes with different sized circle punches and layered this on top. I collected all my scrap flowers which had been cut with the Boho Blossoms punch, Itty Bitty punch and the 5-Petal Flower punch and decided to use a Very Vanilla and Pumpkin Pie combination (the only thing I had to newly punch were the two small circles to go in the centre of the tiny flowers) These were assembled and curled slightly before positioning 

in the apertures using dimensionals. A small basic pearl, a couple of branches (from the 2-Step Bird punch) and the sentiment were added to finish the card.

My second card is along the same lines but using some of my many pre-cut butterflies (Beautiful Wings Embosslits). This time the colour combo was Pink Pirouette and Elegant Eggplant, with the addition of a bit of Vellum cardstock, and I embossed the Whisper White cardstock with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder. For this card I mounted the white embossed layer on dimensionals and stuck the butterflies to the card base, rather than the other way round, to give a different diemension. Basic Rhinestones were added to the butterflies for a bit of sparkle.

On a final note I would like to add that no new pieces of cardstock or vellum were cut or damaged in the making of these cards :0)

Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon x

Gift Box & Card

If you visited my blog yesterday you will have seen a card which is part of a set I have made for a gift, so today I thought I would show you the box I have made to put the cards in and the belated birthday card to go with it! Both are decorated with some DSP from Timeless Portrait, Very Vanilla and Basic Black ribbon. The base of the box is made with plain white cardstock and the lid is Basic Black. I made a heated ribbon flower from Basic Black Satin with a Rhinestone Brad in the centre and the leaves were a piece of folded card run through the crimper then cut into a leaf shape, the Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon which I used as a tie for the box is now retired. For the birthday card I used the same DSP but this time with a length of Very Vanilla Satin ribbon running across the centre and the flower was made from the Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower, Boho Blossoms and Itty Bitty punches with some more crimped leaves. The sentiment is from Happiest Birthday Wishes hostess set. I will post photos of the cards that are to go in the box another day.

Silver & Sparkle

Today's card is one that I was commissioned to make for a lady who likes 'silver & sparkly'. I admit to finding it quite hard to come up with a birthday card that didn't look like it was for a wedding or Christmas but think I have managed it reasonably well! I used a piece of the Basic Gray DSP from the neutrals stack to silver emboss the flourish from Everything Eleanor and matted this onto a slightly wider strip of the Brushed Silver cardstock and added a small piece of silver elastic near the bottom. The flowers were made, again with the Brushed Silver cardstock, by punching with the 5 Petal Flower, Boho Blossoms and Itty Bitty Shapes punches and, after curling a little to give dimension, they were layered onto each other. Part of a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes (a Hostess set) was inked with a Versamark pen and silver embossed before cutting out with the Oval Punch and matted onto a Brushed Silver Scallop Oval. A few Basic Rhinestones were added for the 'sparkle'. The sheen on the silver cardstock does not show up very well on the photo but it has the most gorgeous finish and is double-sided, absolutely perfect for Christmas cards and boxes.