May Card Swap

I can show you the card I made for this month's Card Swap Group as I know Alison has received it now.
Alison's favourite colour is purple so I used Elegant Eggplant along with the SAB set, Banner Blast, and Gorgeous Grunge. A small piece of Bakers Twine and a few Basic Rhinestones were all that was needed to finish the card.

Margaret x

Card Swap Group

This is the fabulous card I received from Aileen for this month's card swap. Aileen makes lovely cards so do pop over to her blog here and take a look.
The challenge Jane set us this month was to make a card using pennants or banners in some form or another. Aileen has used the Banner Blast SAB set for this card, the same set that I've used for my swap but I can't show you that just yet as it is winging it's way to Alison as we speak!
This is very definitely my style of card - neutral colours, so clean and simple and just so elegant.

Thank you Aileen, I love it

Margaret x

A Special Birthday

Today's card is one I was asked to make for an ex-colleague who now lives and runs a hotel in the IOW. She left a few years ago but there are still several of us who remember her and still a fair few who go and visit her quite regularly. It needed to be quite large so we could all sign it and it ended up being an A5 card.
I used a white card blank along with Smoky Slate cardstock and ink - teamed up with Raspberry Ripple. The background is stamped with the lovely Hardwood stamp and the sentiment is from Memorable Moments, cut with a Labels Collection Framelit and matted onto a larger framelit. The larger flowers are Petite Petals punched with the co-ordinating punch and the small ones are from Banner Blast, punched with an Itty Bitty punch, with a few leaves from the Bird Builder punch. I added the recipients name which was cut out with the now retired Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies and the ribbon is Basic Grey Taffeta (also retired!)

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Less is More

The LIM challenge for this week is 'Masking or Stencilling' and this is my offering. Now I'm not sure which category it fits into but I suppose you could call the lilac bit stencilling and the central white bit masking but who knows??
I started with a piece of copy paper and cut out an aperture using one of the Apothecary Accents dies, this was then fixed to a piece of Whisper White cardstock using repositionable snail. The central piece was done by cutting a mask from a post-it note with another die from the same set and stuck onto the Whisper White. Once these were in place I sponged inside the stencil using Wisteria Wonder ink. After removing the stencil and the mask I did some paper piercing around the shape using a template from the Essentials Pack. The panel was matted onto Wisteria Wonder cardstock and then onto a card blank.
The central flower is from Petite Petals stamped in Elegant Eggplant and punched with the co-ordinating punch whilst the small flowers are a stamp from Banner Blast punched with an Itty Bitty Shapes punch. A sentiment from Sassy Salutations and some pearls from my stash finished the card.
A big thank you to the ladies at LIM for showcasing my 'Yellow & Green' card this week, I really appreciate it x

Before I go this is what the stencil and mask looked like (after I'd sponged) as I'm not too good with the explanations!!

Have a great weekend

Margaret x

Spring with LIM

I'm back for the LIM challenge after, what seems to be, a week where my feet haven't touched the ground. It's been a stressful time at school and a stressful time for my sister and I arranging Dad's funeral and trying to sort his finances out with banks and building societies etc - I have to say some of which have been extremely helpful and others who just seem to be intent on making life difficult!!
Anyway I decided this morning I would de-stress and do a little crafting for the LIM challenge of Spring Flowers - WRONG! I started off with a picture in my head of a card with Hellebores but, unfortunately, the end result was nothing like the picture in my head and that got filed in the bin so this is the card I ended up with. I inked the stem from Love & Sympathy with a Pear Pizzazz marker then, using my stamp-a-ma-jig, stamped a flower from Petite Petals in Daffodil Delight with a centre from Banner Blast stamped in Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment is from Sassy Salutations and the lines at the side from Gorgeous Grunge.
My apologies for the lack of comments on last week's entries and I'm afraid that this week may be very similar but a big thank you to all who left comments on my entries and hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Have a great weekend

Margaret x

Simples Sunday meets LIM - Masculine

Once again the lovely ladies at LIM have inspired me with their challenge this week which is a Masculine card. So this week's Simples Sunday card is one for the men and is super easy!
The card blank is made from Early Espresso, matted with a panel of Very Vanilla. I stamped and punched the flags from Banner Blast and the co-ordinating punch - both freebies in the SAB promotion. These were fixed onto the card with dimensionals with a piece of Linen Thread placed behind. The sentiments, both inside and out, are from A Dozen Thoughts.

And that's it - told you it was super easy!

Thanks for stopping by and do pop back again this week to see more masculine cards

Margaret x

Mini Sandwich Box

Today I have a Mini Sandwich Box to show you, it measures just 10cm high x 4cm wide and is perfect for a few sweet treats!
I came across this on YouTube and it was designed by an Australian demo, Tanya Bell, who had a tutorial for sale on her blog so I just had to buy it. Tanya's blog can be found here.
For my box I used Real Red cardstock as I wanted to put a few of my Mum's favorite sweets in and the colour matches really well. Rather than using DSP to decorate the box I stamped a flower from Petite Petals all over and the 'tag' was made with a retired stamp, punched with a Scallop Circle and decorated with a stamp from Banner Blast punched with an Itty Bitty Shapes punch.
You may be able to see that the front panel of the box is perforated so you can tear it open - I did this with a handheld perforating tool but, if you are lucky enough to own the Stampin'Up! Rotary Trimmer attachment, you could use this and make the job easier :0) If you'd like to see the co-ordinating card I made to go with this please scroll down to the previous post

Thanks for visiting today

Margaret x

Sketch Challenge

This card is one I've made for the Sketch challenge over at CAS-Colours & Sketches which also co-ordinates with a little treat box I've made today.
I have used Real Red cardstock for the triangular section, stamped with a flower from Petite Petals and matted onto a white card blank. Using a framelit from the Circles Collection, I cut an aperture into the card and decorated around the outside with flowers made from a stamp in Banner Blast and cut with a punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack. The sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments was stamped through the aperture onto the inside and tiny Basic Pearls were added to the flower centres to finish the card.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love you to pop back tomorrow to see the 

co-ordinating treat box

Margaret x

Banner Blast Birthday

A simple card made for my Dad's birthday using Midnight Muse. I stamped the little flags with Banner Blast and cut them out with the co-ordinating punch - both available as freebies in the SAB promotion. A piece of Whisper White cardstock was stamped with an image from Gorgeous Grunge and a line drawn across the cardstock with a Midnight Muse marker. This was then matted onto Midnight Muse and a white card blank, then the banners were positioned along the line using dimensionals. A (retired) sentiment was stamped, punched out with the Decorative Label Punch and sponged round the edges before attaching to the card with dimensionals.
The box was inspired by Michelle Last who has an online Scallop Tag Topper Punch class available to purchase and has instructions for 9 projects using the punch. Details can be found here. I haven't actually used Michelle's instructions as I have made several of this type of box before but never with a Scallop Top and the decoration certainly was inspired by her - thanks Michelle :0)

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

Today's card is a similar idea to the engagement card I showed you the other day (here) but, as this is for Simples Sunday and the LIM One Layer challenge, that is exactly what it is - a simple one layer card!!
I used the Happy Congratulations set, soon available in the Spring/Summer catalogue, and the heart is from a SAB set called banner Blast.
Stamped in Real Red onto a 4" square card blank, with a few tiny Basic Rhinestones added, and it's as easy as that :0)

Have a great rest of the weekend

Margaret x

LIM - Hearts

A super quick post today as I'm running late! This is my entry to the LIM challenge this week which is - One Layer Hearts.
I don't have many heart stamps so I decided to do some masking and use the small heart from Banner Blast (a SAB set coming soon) and a sentiment from Perfectly Penned. Rather than the usual 'across the card landscape' masking I inked a panel diagonally using Wisteria Wonder and added the sentiment and hearts in Elegant Eggplant. Just to add a bit of interest I added some score lines to the sides of the inked panel and four tiny Basic Rhinestones.

Must be off now but I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Sneak Peek Engagement

This is a card I made for a work colleague who got engaged on Christmas day. The stamp sets I used are sneak peeks of products which will be available very soon (SAB free with qualifying orders from 28th Jan and the Spring/Summer catalogue available to purchase from 28th Jan)
I started by silver embossing the images and sentiments,from Happy Congratulations, and added the silver embossed hearts which is a stamp from a SAB set called Banner Blast.
The Whisper White panel was matted onto Brushed Silver cardstock before placing onto a white card blank. Some Basic Rhinestones were dotted around to finish the card off.
My apologies for the 'blue tinge' to the photos but they were taken in not very good light and this was the result :0)
I also made an envelope with DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack, using the Envelope Punch Board. I added a bellyband decorated with a punched heart and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Sentiments.

Back soon

Margaret x