Simples Sunday

The LIM challenge this week is to make a Christmas card incorporating a bird so what could be more simple than to use this image from the Warmth & Wonder Hostess set? I coloured the stamp with Basic Black, Real Red and Old Olive markers, stamped onto Whisper White and cut out with the Large Oval Punch. This was then matted onto a larger Real Red Oval, cut with one of the Ovals Collection Framelits. A piece of Real Red Taffeta ribbon was fixed across a piece of white cardstock, a bow added to the oval and then this was matted onto a white card blank.
I appreciate that you may not have this particular stamp set but the real purpose of this card is to show that using a single stamp with a couple of dies or punches can make something very simple but effective.
(Edited to add - my bird, being a Cardinal, should have been red! Whoops, shows how much I know about birds!!! Thanks Chrissie)

Enjoy your Sunday and do pop back tomorrow to see a Christmas Owl!

Margaret x

Today's card is another simple one which I made to send to my Grandaughter in Suffolk to wish her luck on her first day at school. She loves pink and, as I'd done all the pale pink sparkly stuff for her birthday the week before, I chose Melon Mambo for this card. The sentiment, from Four You, was stamped onto Whisper White, cut out with one of the Oval Framelits Collection then matted onto a larger Melon Mambo oval. Before fixing to the card blank I glued a little loop of retired Melon Mambo ribbon on one side. The flowers were punched with two of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, the leaves from the Bird Builder punch and the tiny flower pearls in the centres are from my non-SU stash.
I'm pleased to say she has settled very well into school and is thoroughly enjoying it! Let's hope it stays that way :0)

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

For Simples Sunday this week I thought I would show you two very easy cards, made with the same stamp set but look completely different.
Come and take a look

Both cards are made with the Simply Sketched stamp set which you can buy with Hostess Pounds (more on that later). For the first card I stamped a single image in black stazon onto Naturals White cardstock and cut it out with an oval framelit from the Ovals Collection. After sponging around the edge I fixed this onto the next size oval and mounted it onto a Naturals White card blank using dimensionals. The sentiment (from the same set) was stamped onto card and cut out using a Chalk Talk Framelit and, as the framelit was a larger tag which I didn't want, I simply placed the plain end of the framelit back over the cardstock and cut again (hope that makes some sort of sense!). This was also fixed with dimensionals.
The second card uses the same image but, this time, stamped in Pear Pizzazz with the little buds coloured with Crisp Cantaloupe. The same procedure was used for the ovals but for this one I used coloured cardstock for the larger oval, added a Papillon Potpourri butterfly and the sentiment was stamped directly onto the card.
When I see others people's cards that I like I very often don't have the products that they've used but, most of the time, you can substitute to make something just as good. For example on these cards you could use any stamp set and, if you don't have ovals framelits, you could simply cut two rectangles and layer them. However, if you would like to earn some 'free' products then all you have to do is host a party with sales of £150 (excl p&p) and you could get this stamp set plus a minimum of £12 to spend elsewhere in the catalogue absolutely free. Interested? Then please give me a call for more details.

Margaret x

Pop'n'Cuts Gift Card Holder

Back as promised with another project made with the Pop'n'Cuts die (the idea is from a YouTube video by Diane Dimich - see yesterday's post for the link)
This time it's a gift card holder, but money fits in it equally well, and a significantly nicer way to present it than in an envelope!! For this I have used Cherry Cobbler cardstock, ink, ribbon and DSP (retired) with stamps from Papillon Potpourri, Itty Bitty Banners and Sweetly Framed ( a hostess set). The oval inside was cut with an Ovals Collection Framelit die.
These are so easy to make with the die but, if you don't have the die, they could be made by hand using just a rectangle of cardstock. I have a feeling I will be making a few of these to use up some of the mountain of retired cardstock and DSP that are lurking in my craft room :0)
Back tomorrow to show you the third project from the die.

A Challenge

My upline, Michelle, has set up a new forum for her team - The Pinkies - and a challenge has been set using a sketch.
I decided I'd have a go and ended up making two cards, for the simple reason that I wasn't very happy with the first one! (below)
The one on the left is using an In Colour, Gumball Green, along with Naturals White. The DSP is from the, soon to be retiring, DSP stack, the flower is made with the Floral Fusion die and the leaves punched with the Blossom Builder punch which is also retiring.

The card on the right is the one I wasn't too happy with as it looks a bit out of proportion to me, but I thought I would show you anyway.
The sentiment, Beautiful Birthday, is another stamp that will be retiring soon and this card is made using Summer Starfruit. The flower and leaves were made with the same die and punch as the card above and the ovals cut with the Ovals Collections Framelits. The scallop around the oval is made with a strip of card punched with the Scallop Borders punch.

Using leftovers!

The Elegant Eggplant oval, leftover from cutting an aperture for yesterday's card, and the Field Flowers stamp set were sitting on my desk so I thought I would make a second quick card.
I cut a smaller oval from Whisper White cardstock and used one of the flower images to randomly stamp using Wisteria Wonder. Field Flowers is a 2-step set so I used one image for the oval and the other to stamp three images down the side of the card in Elegant Eggplant. The sentiment is from Bring on the Cake which was stamped onto a strip of card and then cut with the oval die to match up with the stamped oval. To finish the card I rounded the corners of the Whisper White panel and the card blank and added a couple of Basic Rhinestones.
Hooray I've actually used a 'leftover' rather than putting it in a drawer to use later - something which never seems to happen!!!

Bordering on Romance

After a very hectic weekend I have just realised I haven't scheduled a post for tomorrow so this is a card I made a few weeks ago and have not got round to posting yet . I was planning on showing you some of the fantastic handmade cards I received on my birthday but I haven't had a chance to take photos yet. I promise they will be on here sometime this week!
For this card I used a stamp from Bordering on Romance and white heat embossed it onto some vellum cardstock. I coloured it on the back of the vellum with Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Old Olive before fixing behind the oval aperture in a panel of Perfect Plum cardstock which had been cut with one of the Oval Framelits dies. A piece of Perfect Plum Taffeta ribbon was tied around the panel and then matted onto a white card blank. The sentiment, from Made for You, was white embossed, punched with the Large Oval Punch and matted onto a Scallop Oval punch. Here's a little close up for you

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a less hurried post :0)

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

Scallops

Good morning, well it's snowing - again! A good excuse for me to do a bit of catching up with my blog :0)
This week LIM have a guest designer, Lizy Bartaby, who has set the challenge of 'Scallops'. Lizy's projects are lovely so do pop over to her blog (here) and take a look.
Now I have a confession to make - today's entries were not made for the challenge, they were made a while ago but have just not managed to find their way onto my blog yet! They are scallops so I thought it was an ideal opportunity to kill two birds with one stone - get them on here and enter the challenge! I do love scallops so I'm sure I will be back with more entries specifically made!

The card and treat box were made for a friend's birthday using the Ovals Framelits collection and Bigz Alphabet Typeset dies with a stamp from Mixed Bunch. I used Baja Breeze DSP and, to get the scallops around the central oval, I punched a strip of DSP with the Scallop Border punch and snipped down each scallop to allow me to shape around the oval. The 'H' was cut from chipboard covered with DSP. The larger base oval was run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder before assembling the card. The treat box was made with the large scallop oval, again from the Ovals Framelits.
My second card is a wedding acceptance card using a stamp from Love & Laughter, silver embossed and matted onto Brushed Silver cardstock. The sentiment is computer generated and is matted onto a Scallop Oval.

Frame it for the Third Time!

A combination of not feeling well and the awful weather has seen me do not much other than craft this weekend so here is my third entry for the Less is More challenge - Frame It. This is a card for my son-in-law whose birthday is next week (he doesn't waste his time looking at mother-in-laws blog so it's safe to show you!)
I started by cutting an aperture in a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock with a die from the Ovals Collection and a piece of First Edition Speciality DSP was placed behind this. I then inked up the 'birthday' part of a stamp, from Bring on the Cake, with a Chocolate Chip marker and stamped this onto the DSP then coloured in with the same marker. The 'happy' from the same stamp was inked and stamped on to Very Vanilla and punched with the Word Window punch before inserting one end into the Jewelry Tag punch to give the shaping, a non-SU pearl was added before fixing to the edge of the aperture. I then scored some lines at the bottom of the panel and tied round some Linen Thread before fixing to a Chocolate Chip card blank.
(If you came to visit to see the Simples Sunday card scroll down to previous post x )

Matching Pair

This is another matching set which was one of the projects we made at a class I held last week. The treat holder holds three Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
I used the Oval dies (available in the Spring Mini) to make both the card and the outside of the treat holder and a small open top box held the chocolates inside the Scallop Ovals. The colours used are Perfect Plum and Certainly Celery for the leaves, which were punched with the Bird Builder punch. The flowers are a stamp from Bloomin' Marvelous, the sentiment on the card from Bring on the Cake and the sentiment on the box is one from Itty Bitty Banners cut with the co-ordinating die. Perfect Plum Taffeta ribbon and some Basic Rhinestones were used for the finishing touches.

If you would like to order any of these products, or any others in the current catalogues, please do not hesitate to contact me, and don't forget you only have until 22nd March to get those free SAB goodies with a spend of £45.

No 'Thanks' to me!

Today I've got a beautiful box to show you which my sister made for my daughter - hence the 'no thanks to me' title as I can take absolutely no credit whatsoever! The box held some yummy chocolates which were probably eaten faster than it took to make the box :0)
The base (which you can't see) was made with Chocolate Chip cardstock and the lid with Chocolate Chip DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack. A cameo of flowers and leaves were made with an Ovals Framelits, Little Leaves Sizzlits and the gorgeous Blossom Party dies in Chocolate Chip DSP, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla cardstock. The ribbon and sentiment are now both retired.
A lovely gift and one which, I have to say, I would appreciate the box more than the chocolates!!!
My sister has no idea that I'm posting this (in fact she doesn't even know I took the photos) and I'm sure she will be quite cross as, being a perfectionist Virgo, she is NEVER happy with anything she makes. However I cannot agree, in my opinion this is a gift that anyone would be thrilled to receive. If you would like to leave a comment they will be passed on!!!!