Birthday Card & Gift Box

This is the card and gift box I made for my sister's birthday which was on Saturday. I used the Fabulous Florets stamp set with the leafy image for the card and one of the flowers for the gift box. The colour combo was Smoky Slate and black (Staz-on), embellished with Basic Black Chevron ribbon. The sentiment is from the Hostess set, Simply Sketched, and the vellum butterflies were punched with the Bitty Butterfly punch with Basic Rhinestones for their bodies. The gift box is one I made with the Pop'n'Cuts die, finished off with Chevron ribbon and a tag from Chalk Talk cut with the co-ordinating Framelit.

If you would like to order any products or, maybe, even become a Stampin'Up! demonstrator yourself, then please don't hesitate to contact me and I will be very happy to help.

Margaret x

Card Swap Group September Card

Good Monday morning to you. Today I have the card I've made for this month's card swap and it is for Michelle. (I know I'm safe to show you because I had the loveliest thank you email from Michelle yesterday!)
Jane set us the challenge to make a card using wording as the focal point, so this is what I made. Firstly I cut the word 'hello' using the Typeset Alphabet Bigz dies and fixed these to a piece of Whisper White cardstock using repositionable snail. I stamped images from Summer Silhouettes and Fabulous Florets using Raspberry Ripple and Pear Pizzazz. After stamping I removed the lettering, added Pinflair glue on the back then carefully repositioned them making sure they were in exactly the right place - I needed to add a few touches with my marker pens around the letters where there were small gaps in the ink. This was matted onto Raspberry Ripple cardstock then onto a white DL card blank with a butterfly from Papillon Potpourri finishing the card.
Normally I would use dimensionals but the SU ones are a little too large for the diecut letters hence the Pinflair glue!!
I can't believe we are now in the seventh month of the card swap group and I still find it strange that, although I have never met most of the members, I do feel that I have made some new friends. Michelle, this month's recipient, does a very similar job to me so we have been comparing notes on the 'back to school' events this week (not all good might I add!!).

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Less is More Watercolouring

The LIM challenge this week is to use a rubber stamp and, a bonus challenge, to add some watercolouring. This is my first attempt at what you could call actual watercolouring, that is on proper paper using water, and now I've tried it I have to say it's not a technique I particularly like! Anyway I tried and this is the result.
I used a combination of Field Flowers (stem and sentiment) and Fabulous Florets stamped in Old Olive and Raspberry Ripple and coloured using an aqua painter. The sentiment was punched using the new Label Bracket Punch (available in the new seasonal catalogue) which was then re-inserted into the punch to make a different, smaller shape.
That's it from me as I have a busy day ahead. Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back tomorrow for Simples Sunday.

Margaret x

Another Aperture

A card very similar to yesterday's but I have used Summer Starfruit for this one. The aperture is cut with one of the Window Frames Collection dies and uses another of the stamps from Fabulous Florets.
I stamped the flowers in Versamark onto Summer Starfruit cardstock and embossed using clear embossing powder before fussy cutting them. The leaves this time are again from the Bird Builder punch but in Chocolate Chip. I added a knot Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin ribbon and a Basic Pearl in the flower centres. There's no sentiment on today's card as I'm not sure what I want yet!
Tomorrow I have a 3D item to match a card I showed you last week.

LIM One Layer

Good morning everyone - what happened to summer? Last weekend it was a t-shirt, this weekend it's a jumper and fleece!!

As always the first thing I do on a Saturday morning is look at the challenge over at LIM which, this week, is a One Layer card with a Coloured Card Blank. My first attempt was using More Mustard but I wasn't happy with that one so I did another using Sahara Sand which I was much happier with. Sahara Sand is a colour I rarely use for some unknown reason and I can only describe it as somewhere between grey and kraft but with a hint of green (and one which doesn't show up too well in photos!).

I used some masking on this card and started by stamping the flower, from Fabulous Florets, in Raspberry Ripple. I then added post-it note masks onto the flower and in a strip across the card before stamping the leaves in Old Olive. After removing the masks I drew two lines across the card (where the post-it mask had been) with a Raspberry Ripple marker pen and then scored some lines on either side. The sentiment, from Bring on the Cake, was stamped in Raspberry Ripple and I added a bit of shading to the leaves with a Sahara Sand marker and a bit of sparkle to the flower with Dazzling Diamonds.

I have a lot of jobs to catch up on today but, when I've finished those, I could well be back with another card for the challenge - watch this space :0)

Until next time, have a great weekend and keep warm!!

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)

Lime and Black again

A very quick second post today to show you another card I have made for the LIM challenge of 'Lime & Black'. I used the ornament punch to make a Basic Black vase and embossed it with the Perfect Polka Dots folder. I stamped the leaves from Fabulous Florets in Staz-on then cut out with one of the Oval Framelits and tied a piece of retired Lucky Limeade ribbon around the vase before glueing on. A flower, again from Fabulous Florets, was stamped in Lucky Limeade and fussy cut then positioned onto the card. A tag was made by stamping a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes, punching out with the Word Window punch and one end inserted into the Jewelry Tag punch to give the shaping. The oval was fixed to the card using dimensionals.

Back tomorrow x

Black & White

I recently bought the stamp set Fabulous Florets and after mounting them I decided to have a play. This stem and flower have a certain elegance about them and what is more elegant than black & white? I appreciate using only black and white is not to everyone's taste but I love it so here is my 'monochrome' card for today. I stamped the stem with Staz-on then cut out the image using a die from the Ovals Framelits Collection and matted this onto a larger Basic Black oval. The two flowers were fussy cut and I glued one directly onto the image and the other was fixed with dimensionals to give the card a bit of depth. Then it was simply a matter of matting this onto a card blank and stamping the sentiment. I chose to make a sympathy card but, if you're like me and love b&w, you could use this for any occasion.
When I was typing 'stamping the sentiment'  it brought back memories of a distant past which I thought I would share with you. (Please feel free to leave at this point and come back tomorrow!). My sister and I have dabbled in crafty things for many years and we had both tried stamping, and failed miserably many times, so always resorted to peel-off's (remember those?) for sentiments. When we discovered SU about 5 years ago - and a demonstrator who lived about 5 miles away - we signed up for classes. I remember the first thing she said to us was that she would have us stamping directly onto our cards by the second class and we thought she was bonkers. But no she was right, we were hooked and stamping to our hearts content. Why? Simply because of the far superior quality of SU's stamps than any we had previously tried. If you haven't tried the stamps I urge you to do so and, if you're anything like us, you won't look back.
Thank you for stopping by and do pop back tomorrow when I will have another b&w card to show you x

Another Notelet

Back today with another 'Notelet' to add to my growing collection. This time I have made a pocket style holder in Cherry Cobbler. The stamp set I used is Fabulous Florets and the sentiment is from Field Flowers. The pocket was decorated by randomly stamping the flower using Cherry Cobbler ink and then fussy cutting two of the flowers, which had been stamped on Whisper White, and glueing one and adding the other with dimensionals. On the insert ust one flower was stamped at the top leaving plenty of room to write your note.
I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend and didn't eat TOO much chocolate! I am on holiday for the next 2 weeks so plenty of time for crafting - er did I say crafting? I think I meant cleaning and tidying :0)   Back soon x