Definitely no glitter!!

This is a card which I was asked to make and one for which I had a very definite brief - tasteful, simple, neutrals with maybe a touch of pink and definitely no glitter! Have I managed it?

I inked one of the stamps from the Hostess set, Faith in Nature, with Early Espresso and stamped off before stamping onto Very Vanilla. The flower was coloured using Pink Pirouette and Pretty in Pink and a blender pen, with the stamens coloured with an Early Espresso marker, then punched out with the Extra large Oval punch. A piece of Crumb Cake DSP, from the Neutrals Paper Stack, was embossed with the oval in the Designer Frames Embossing pack and then matted onto a slightly wider strip of Crumb Cake cardstock. A knot of Crumb Cake Taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel before fixing to a cream card blank. The flower oval was glued in the frame and a tiny Basic Pearl added to the centre. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso and punched with the Scallop Oval and then matted onto an Extra Large Oval, with two Basic Pearls added to the sides.

Definitely neutrals, definitely a touch of pink and definitely no glitter. Tasteful and simple? I hope so!!

Gift Bag & card set

The gift bag and card I am showing you today is inspired by a present I have bought for a friend (hope she doesn't look at this before her birthday!) 

The material is coloured dragonflies, as shown on the left and, as I have a dragonfly stamp in the Nature's Nest set, I thought why not make a matching gift bag to pop my present in. I don't know about you but if anyone gives me something that is handcrafted I am always much more interested in the wrapping/box/container than I am the contents. With something handcrafted you always know that a lot of thought and effort has been put into the gift and it makes it so much more special.

Anyway enough waffle, have a look and see what you think.

The gift bag is made from the same tutorial that I used the other day for the flowery bag (scroll down for more info or see Sarah's turtorial here)

I used two sheets of Whisper White cardstock for the bag and some retired Melon Mambo ribbon (however this is now available in the Scallop Dots ribbon). I used the dragonfly stamp with Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie as these were the closest match to the fabric and the tiny flower, from the SAB set Fresh Vintage, was used just to fill in the gaps! I added a Melon Mambo gift tag from Cottage Garden.

I attached the handles differently this time by using Rhinestone Brads.

Now onto the card which, before you look, I will say I am not overly happy with - much too fussy for me, so may well be doing this again without the Melon Mambo fancy circle for the sentiment. I ummed and aarghed and decided to use it and after it was stuck I wished I hadn't!

I stamped a piece of Whisper White cardstock with the dragonfly and flower, using the same colours as before but this time stamped off to give a more subtle image. This was matted onto Wisteria Wonder cardstock and a piece of Melon Mambo ribbon was put around before layering onto a white card blank.

The sentiment, from the Hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes was stamped in Wisteria Wonder and punched out with the Scallop Circle punch.

Then comes the bit I wish I'd left out - the sentiment was layered onto the Melon Mambo fancy circle, cut from the Perfect Pennants die and glued in place. I'm now convinced it would have looked SO much better without it!!!! Oh well you learn from your mistakes as they say - the number of mistakes I make I'm not so sure that's true :0)

Thanks for looking and for all the lovely comments - they really do mean a lot to me x
Whoops I pressed 'post' instead of 'save' so 2 posts today and probably none tomorrow!!

Birthday Card and Wine Bottle Tag

Oh dear I meant to schedule this post for tomorrow but hit the wrong button, so that's 2 posts today and none tomorrow! (scroll down to see today's earlier post) So here is another simple card made for a work friend's birthday along with a matching wine bottle tag. The card uses the Faith in Nature set which can only be purchased with Hostess pounds and the leaf was stamped in Chocolate Chip, onto Very Vanilla, before being coloured with autumn colours using a blender pen and matted onto a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock. A strip of Very Vanilla was stamped using the Sandy Speckles wheel and positioned across a Chocolate Chip card blank before adding the topper. The sentiment is from another Hostess pounds set called Happiest Birthday Wishes. The matching tag was made by cutting a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock with the Two Tags die and punching a hole with the one & three eighths inch punch to go over the bottle neck. The leaf was stamped onto a piece of Very Vanilla (again cut with the same die and trimmed down to fit) but left uncoloured and a small sentiment added.

The Hostess benefits have changed with this year's catalogue and you now have far more choice as to what to spend your money on - you can choose from a selection of stamp sets reserved for Hostesses but at a greatly reduced price or just spend all the money on items from the catalogue or, if you earn enough, a mixture of both - the choice is yours. If you would like to earn yourself some freebies why not get together a few friends and host a workshop (or simply collect orders from the catalogue to the value of at least £150) and you could be choosing some lovely new crafting products all for free. Contact me if you would like to know more.