Those Men Again!!

Hello and here I am back with yet another 'male' card and my fifth and last entry to the LIM challenge!! I am showing you two cards today because I started off making the card shown below with the men in mind but, when I'd finished it, I actually thought it looked quite girly so I set to and changed the colours slightly and ended up with the one on the right which I think is a much more manly version.
Isn't it strange how a change of colour to exactly the same design can make so much difference?

 Another very simple card but, as I'm sure you realise by now, less is very much more in my world :0)
I started by stamping a 'splat' from Gorgeous Grunge (a stamp set I didn't like until I actually bought it and now can't stop using!) in Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake (for the card above) and Real Red stamped off (for the card on the left) then added a strip of DSP from the Fresh Prints Stack - available in the Spring catalogue. The sentiment, from Express Yourself for the card above and Teeny Tiny Sentiments for the card on the left, was punched with the Large Oval Punch and matted onto a label cut with an Apothecary Accents framelit which had been sponged round the edge.

Thanks for visiting and I'll be back tomorrow with something girly!

Margaret x

Simples Sunday and LIM (again!)

Well it's Sunday again - where do the weeks go? I have combined my 'Simples Sunday' card with the LIM challenge which, this week, is Handmade Flowers. My entry yesterday really were 'handmade' flowers but I feel like I'm cheating a bit today because these flowers were so easy to make using punches.
I stamped an image from the Flower Shop set three times, using Crisp Cantaloupe, and punched out with the Pansy Punch and the centres are from the Boho Blossoms punch in Whisper White and Crisp Cantaloupe. I shaped the flower parts individually with the end of my pricking tool using a firm, circular motion, glued them together and a Basic Pearl was added to the centres.
An aperture was cut in a piece of white cardstock using one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits, with a piece of Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock placed behind before matting onto a card blank. All that was needed to finish the card was the sentiment from Sassy Salutations stamped in Baked Brown Sugar.

Birthday Cupcakes

 It is a friend, and work colleagues, birthday today and we always buy a smallish pressie. As she is the Food Tech teacher I thought these 'Butter Bath Melts' were ideal. They look good enough to eat don't they?
Having bought the present I needed to make a gift box for them and decided to copy the cupcakes for the box design.
Made with Real Red cardstock and DSP, an Apothecary Accents die, the Cupcake Builder Punch and some now retired Real Red Satin Ribbon

I also made a birthday card to match! (below)

Embossed Dots

A really simple card and a great way of using up some of those card scraps.
For this card I used Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso and Crumb Cake and punched different size circles. These were glued to a panel of Whisper White cardstock before running through the Square Lattice Embossing folder. This was matted onto Lucky Limeade and then onto a card blank with a narrow strip of Early Espresso running across the card. The sentiment was cut with a die from the Apothecary Accents Framelits collection and then cut again to make a smaller frame before matting onto another one cut with Early Espresso.
Tomorrow I hope to show you a matching set which I have made for a friend's birthday.

(Fairly) Simples Sunday

Today's card is one I made a few weeks ago but thought it would fit the Simples Sunday as it was fairly simple to make. I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and lightly drew around the outside of one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits in pencil, Then using the Summer Silhouettes stamp set I stamped three flowers in Raspberry Ripple then covered them using my pre-cut post-it note masks before stamping the leaves in Certainly Celery. (Tip: after cutting masks for stamps don't throw them away, stick them to the inside of the stamp box and you can re-use them several times) With this particular stamp set, to save time, you can stamp directly over the leaves providing the flower is a fairly strong colour and the leaves are not too dark. The centres of the flower are stamped in Early Espresso and the sentiment is from Field Flowers. Once the stamping was done I placed the die back on using the pencil line as a guide, fixed in place with a post-it and ran through the Big Shot. A length of Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin ribbon was placed across a panel of cardstock then fixed to a card blank and the stamped die cut was fixed using dimensionals. I added a few Basic Pearls to finish the card.
I will be taking a break from blogging for a few days as I haven't had a lot of crafting time just recently but I will be back soon.

Another commissioned card and this time for a wedding. The colour scheme needed to be gold and burgundy so gold embossing, Brushed Gold and Bravo Burgundy cardstock fitted the bill perfectly. Stamp sets used were Confetti and Love & Laughter along with the Scalloped Heart of Hearts Embosslits (for the dress and suit), a die from Apothecary Accents Framelits set and the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch pack.
The picture bottom left shows the bag I made for the card to go in.
Posts are a little short this week as they were all written in advance (on the same night!) and scheduled to post each day but maybe that's a good thing :0)
As always, any questions about the cards, to buy products or for further information on Stampin'Up! then please feel free to contact me (details on the 'Contact me' tab above)

Less is More Sketch

Well was that Summer?? It is dark and raining here at the moment so, before I tackle the list of jobs to do today, I made a couple of cards for the LIM challenge which this week is a Sketch.

As this is quite a simple sketch the ladies have asked that the orientation stays the same.
My first attempt was one in Crumb Cake using a stamp from Fabulous Florets and a die from Apothecary Accents Framelits.  I started by cutting an aperture with the die in a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock and another in printer paper to use as a mask. The mask was placed onto the card blank before stamping the images which were coloured using a blender pen. I made a bow with some very long retired and never used, twill tape and stamped with a sentiment then placed this around the panel before fixing to the card with dimensionals. Not being very happy with the finished card I made another almost identical one but using white as the base. This time instead of using dimensionals to fix the panel I glued it directly onto the stamped card. Stamping onto ribbon is something new to me and the jury is still out on whether I like it or not!
I hope you all have a great weekend, despite the weather, and I will try to pop round and look at the other entries later on when my 'job's list' is a bit shorter :0)

Monochrome again

Another black & white (and really simple!) card today. I used the border stamp from Summer Silhouettes to stamp across a card blank in Staz-on and then cut out the black panel with a die from Apothecary Accents. The little semi-circle at the bottom was snipped off to leave a straight edge before adhering to the card. A strip of Whisper White was cut to fit and a sentiment stamped, again in Staz-on, and then glued to the card. A flower, made with the Boho Blossoms and Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, was fixed to the top semi-circle and three butterflies from Beautiful Wings Embosslits were added. The addition of a few small Basic Rhinestones finished the card.

Notecard

You may remember last week I set myself a challenge to design some notecards for my next class, well this is another one I've come up with!
I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock cut to C6 size and matted this onto a very slightly larger piece of Lucky Limeade. I used a stamp from Circle Circus inked with Lucky Limeade and stamped off before stamping twice onto the Whisper White to give me two lighter shades. The band across was made with one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits which I extended but, if you haven't got this set (and if not, WHY not?), you could use just a rectangle of card with a circle punch at either end or just a rectangle of card. The sentiment on the band is from Friendly Phrases. For the actual notelet I cut a piece of Whisper White cardstock wide enough to slip in the band and slightly shorter than the 'holder', inked around the edges with Lucky Limeade and added the stamp 'with love' from Field Flowers at the bottom.

Thank you for stopping by and I'll be back soon x

Easter Bunnies

Here are the bunny treat holders as promised but I still can't find the video that gave me the inspiration! They are pretty much CASe'd so thank you to the American demo who came up with the idea and I'm sorry I can't credit you.
The holder is cut with the largest of the Apothecary Accents Framelits and a hole punched in the top with a 1/4" circle punch. The rabbit is made with the Ornament punch along with the Small Oval, Boho Blossoms and circle punches in Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. Tied with Whisper White Taffeta ribbon and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes cut with the Word Window punch. They hold a mini Malteaster bunny.

Simples Sunday

Well they really don't get much simpler than this! I stamped the Beautiful Birthday stamp (a single wood mount stamp available at just £5.95) in Midnight Muse then cut it out using a framelit from the Apothecary Accents set. I have to admit overlooking this set until I bought it recently and I love it - such lovely shapes! This was fixed to a piece of Midnight Muse cardstock with some mini brads. I took a piece of white cardstock, slightly smaller than C6 and fixed a piece of Midnight Muse Stitched Satin ribbon leaving a loop at one end and then placed my 'label' on top with dimensionals. This was adhered to a white card blank and the card was done!! This would be good for a man as there's no fancy stuff, in fact I may give it to my Mum for my son-in-laws birthday next week!
Hope you're all having a good weekend and thanks for stopping by. Back soon x

Beads and cards with a difference!!

When I saw the Less is More challenge this week was 'Use Beads' I decided this wasn't the week for me. I don't even own any beads, let alone use them (or so I thought!) so I took myself off to my craftroom to have a go at making another 'notecard' for my class next month. You can see that one below. After making that I decided I would make a wedding version, for a friend of my daughters who is getting married in a couple of weeks, and I suddenly remembered that somewhere I had an old SU Pretties Kit lurking (never used might I add!) Perfect - a card 'with a difference' made and an entry into LIM!!! I made an open top envelope and used one of the Apothecary Accents Framelits to cut the shape in the top. The insert was made from Brushed Silver and Whisper White and the sentiment silver embossed. The outside was decorated with two punched butterflies, Basic Rhinestones, Whisper White Taffeta ribbon and a stick pin with BEADS!!!! Both of these 'cards' fit into a standard C6 envelope.

This is my original version made in the same way, using Pool Party and Whisper White for the colour scheme along with Basic Pearls. The sentiment is from Friendly Phrases. Can you see how the size of the sentiment framelit has been reduced? Well there's a brilliant tutorial on YouTube, by a demo named Tanya Bell showing you how to do it - take a look here

And just to finish - this is what I woke up to this morning and it's still snowing. Did someone say it was Spring????

21st Birthday

This is a 21st birthday card I have been asked to make and is one which was inspired by the very talented Gill Prescott (see her card here). Gill not only makes beautiful cards but she also makes fantastic cakes - pop over to her blog and you can't fail to be inspired as well!
I have used Pool Party and Brushed Silver for the flowers, made with the Blossom Party die and a punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes pack.The sentiment is made up from individual stamps in the Memorable Moments set, although this is one of the more expensive SU sets I find it invaluable as you are able to make any combination of numbers (great for kids who like to be reminded of their age!) and also has an 'anniversary'  as well as the 'birthday' stamp. This was silver embossed and then cut with a die from the Labels Collection Framelits before matting onto a larger Pool Party diecut. Three loops of Pool Party ribbon (a freebie in the SAB ribbon & buttons pack) were placed onto the card before fixing the sentiment panel with dimensionals. As you probably know I like to make a matching bag for special cards so here it is

The retired sentiment was cut with an Apothecary Accents die.

Frame It! Take 2

I thought I would have another go at the Frame It! challenge over at Less is More (you can see my first entry here) and this time I have gone for the more traditional square frames. I started by punching three square apertures in River Rock cardstock with the Large Square punch and then cut a piece of Very Vanilla to fit behind. I stamped onto the Very Vanilla, using a stamp from Hopeful Thoughts, and then glued this in place. The flowers are made with the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack in Elegant Eggplant and Wisteria Wonder, with Basic Rhinestones for their centres. The sentiment was stamped in Elegant Eggplant and cut with one of the dies in the Apothecary Accents Framelits set. The panel was then fixed to a DL River Rock card blank.
For those of you who saw my first post earlier I said the frames were cut with the Apothecary Accents when, in fact, they were cut with the Labels Collection! Sorry about that but I have corrected it now :0)

LIM Spots and Stripes

Saturday again and that means another Less is More challenge which, this week, is Spots and Stripes. Easy - that is until you find out it's a One Layer card as well!!!!

This called for a bit of masking and sponging so I took one of the frame dies from Apothecary Accents and cut a mask in a piece of copy paper, placed this on my card blank and stamped the spots from Confetti before lightly sponging with Crumb Cake. When this was done I stamped a sentiment from Friendly Phrases and removed the mask. I then used the other piece of die cut copy paper to place over the image and drew three stripes with Crumb Cake and Early Espresso markers. Unfortunately drawing straight lines only served to show up the fact that the sentiment is wonky but you get the general idea.
Certainly another challenge this week ladies but I could well be back!!

Before I go I would like to thank Chrissie and Jen for picking one of my paper pierced cards to showcase this week (bottom right) and also to the people who have sent me messages of congratulations. Thank you all, it's really appreciated x