A Trio of Colours for LIM

I am rather late with my LIM entry this week but, with all this lovely weather, I had no excuse not to go out and do gardening! However I did manage to find time this morning to create this card which will be winging it's way to a lady who needs to know people are thinking of her.
The challenge this week is to use a trio of colours - this can either be three shades of one colour or three different colours and, obviously, I chose the latter.
The flower, from Stippled Blossoms, was stamped with Wisteria Wonder then overstamped with Elegant Eggplant and the leaves are stamped with Pear Pizzazz (the first layer stamped off and then overstamped). This was matted onto Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant cardstock before positioning onto a white card blank. The sentiment is from Sweet Essentials on a trimmed Apothecary Accents Framelit. A few small Basic Pearls were added to finish the card.

Enjoy your bank Holiday Monday and I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Card Swap

Today's card is one I made for this month's card swap. Jane set the challenge to use embossing so I chose the Stripes Embossing Folder. I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped images from Stippled Blossoms - a much neglected set which needs to come out again! It is a 2-step set so I stamped the base flower in Pink Pirouette and, using my stamp-a-ma-jig, overstamped using Rose Red with a few Pear Pizzaz leaves dotted around. I then ran this through the BigShot placing just the bottom half of the card in the embossing folder. It is matted onto Rose Red and then onto a card blank with the addition of a sentiment from Four You, punched with the Scallop Oval Punch and matted onto an Apothecary Accents Framelit.

That's all for today, back soon

Margaret x

Another matching pair!

Firstly I must apologise for the rubbish photos but it was dark when I took them and I need to take them to work with me tomorrow! Anyway this is another matching card and treat box made for a work colleague who has recently had an operation. The treat box shown at the top and above right was made with the Envelope Punch Board, measures approx 3" x 4" x 0.5" and holds a small truffle bar. I used Whisper White to make the box and decorated with a bellyband made from Sweet Sorbet DSP (from the SAB brochure) and Petite Petals flowers punched out with the co-ordinating punch. The card was made with Stippled Blossoms and Sassy Salutations in Crisp Cantaloupe and Pear Pizzazz.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Christmas Robin

As soon as I saw the LIM challenge this morning, which is to make a Christmas card using a bird, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This little robin, made with the Bird Builder punch, is something I have done many times before but I do love him. Really simple to make - just punch out the bird using Crumb Cake cardstock and ink him however you wish using sponge daubers. My little bird is sitting on a Pear Pizzazz wreath, made from the Stippled Blossoms leaf stamp, and the 'baubles' are blobs of Dazzling Details. A sentiment from Petite Pairs, stamped in Real Red, and a bow of Linen Thread were added before matting onto a panel of Pear Pizzazz cardstock and then onto a Crumb Cake card blank.
Have a great weekend and, hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with a super easy 'Christmas bird'

Margaret x

Thanks for Simples Sunday & Less is More!

I have made two cards today to combine 'Simples Sunday' and Less is More where the challenge is a One Layer Thank You card. Both cards are simple but the one on the right is even more simple than the other!

The first card uses a card blank made with Naturals White cardstock which was masked with a post-it note before stamping the flowers and leaves from Stippled Blossoms in Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple and Old Olive. I then drew three lines across where the mask had been with a Raspberry Ripple marker and stamped the sentiment, from Four You, also in Raspberry Ripple. The only thing that makes this card slightly more difficult than the other is because Stippled Blossoms is a two-step stamp set so you need to use a stamp-a-ma-jig to get the positioning right.
The second card is made with three stamps from Oh Hello. The chevron oval was stamped in Wisteria Wonder with the sentiment stamped on top using Elegant Eggplant. I then coloured the flower stamp with Elegant Eggplant and Pear Pizzazz markers before stamping to overlap the chevron oval.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend

Margaret x

Simples Sunday meets LIM

For this week's Simple Sunday card I have used the challenge over at LIM, which is a One layer Get Well card.
I started by stamping the sentiment from Sassy Salutations using Pear Pizzazz and then placed a post-it note mask, punched with the Extra Large Oval Punch, over the top.  I stamped around the mask using one of the flower stamps from Stippled Blossoms with Crisp Cantaloupe, and a leaf stamp from the same set with Pear Pizzazz. To add a finishing touch I placed 5 of the tiny Basic Pearls in the centre of just one of the flowers (bottom left).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Margaret x

Cards in a Gift Box

This is a gift I made for a friend and work colleague who left at the end of term. The box held six 4" square cards (below) and was made with Naturals White cardstock teamed with Summer Starfruit. I decorated the box with flowers from Flower Shop and the Pansy Punch, leaves from the Bird Builder Punch, sentiment from Bring on the Cake and butterflies stamped with Papillon Potpourri and punched with the Elegant Butterfly and Itty Bitty Butterfly punches. I tied the box with Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon

The two cards below used Stippled Blossoms (left) and DSP punched with the Hexagon Punch (right)

These two used the Artisan Label and Dotted Scallop Ribbon punches (left) and Flower Shop with a sentiment from Perfectly Penned (right)

And these two use Scallop Circle and Bitty Butterfly punches with a sentiment from Four You (left) and the Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder, Mosaic Madness stamp set and an Itty Bitty Shapes punch (right).

Finally my card to give with the set, which matched the box.

Pop back tomorrow and I will show you a very similar set I made for another friend but with a different colour combo

                            Margaret x

Less is More Inspiration

You may well be wondering what these gorgeous shoes have to do with cardmaking well they are this week's Inspiration picture for the LIM challenge.

Now, as I don't own any shoe stamps, I used the colours and the tall slim image as the inspiration for my card. Come and take a look

I used a Naturals Ivory card base with a panel of Basic Black and Very Vanilla running down the left side. For the stripes I simply scored a few lines down the length of the Very Vanilla before attaching it to the black. I stamped the sentiment tag from Chalk Talk and cut it out with the co-ordinating framelit. This was then fixed to the card and a piece of Basic Black Taffeta ribbon attached to the top with glue dots. The flower from Stippled Blossoms was stamped in Basic Black and fussy cut with paper snips then added to the card with a dimensional.
A really quick and simple card but one which I am (unusually) quite pleased with.

The weather forecast for today in this part of the country says rain but, at the moment, it's looking quite good. Temperatures are down a fair bit which suits me down to the ground. I don't function well at high temperatures - though, having said that, I'm not too sure that I function very well at any temperature these days :0)
Whatever you're doing and whatever the weather have a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon x

Treat Box and Matching Card

I made a couple of these treat boxes to give as thank you gifts and, as you can see, a matching card to go with them. I saw a tutorial for the boxes on Caroline Hallet's blog (a fellow SU demo) and the video can be seen here. (Thanks for sharing Caroline)

I used Sahara Sand for both the card and the box with the leaves, from Summer Silhouettes, stamped in Pear Pizzazz and the flower, from Stippled Blossoms, in Raspberry Ripple.
For the card I also used a piece of Sahara Sand DSP (retired), a tag cut with one of the Chalk Talk Framelits and added Pear Pizzazz Taffeta Ribbon to both.
Back soon x

Simples Sunday

My 'simple' card for today uses a flower stamp from a new set called Flower Shop along with a leaf stamp from Stippled Blossoms. The flowers were stamped with Raspberry Ripple, then stamped again without re-inking to give a lighter flower. The leaves and sentiment, from Bring on the Cake, were stamped with Pear Pizzazz. Another flower was stamped onto a scrap of Whisper White and punched out using the co-ordinating Pansy Punch then fixed onto the card with a dimensional. A knot of Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin ribbon was placed across the bottom corner after matting onto Raspberry Ripple cardstock and then layered onto a white card blank. A Basic Pearl added to the centre of the punched flower finished the card.
It's promising to be another very hot day today so, whatever you are doing, have a great day and don't forget that sunscreen!

Card Swap Group Birthday

Today's card is another one I made using the 'Tile Effect' technique and was made for Michelle, a member of the card swap group, for her birthday last week.
The top section of a Whisper White panel was scored at 1cm intervals to make the tile effect and lightly sponged with Crumb Cake. The flowers from Stippled Blossoms were then stamped using Raspberry Ripple and Pink Pirouette with the leaves in Old Olive. A sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes was added and a knot of Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin ribbon tied around the panel before matting onto a Raspberry Ripple card blank.
The Stippled Blossoms flowers have a sort of vintage-y look about them so I think they really suit this technique.
Have you had a chance to browse the new catalogue yet? What a lot of lovely new products there are and my 'wish list' grows each time I look!
If you would like to purchase anything (and take advantage of my free p&p offer) then please get in touch and I'll be happy to help.

Until next time - Happy Crafting

Margaret x