One for the Mum's!

I was asked by a friend at work if I would make her a Mother's day card and this is what I've come up with. Using my favourite stamp sets of the moment - Petite Petals and Gorgeous Grunge!
A very simple card using squares of Whisper White matted onto slightly larger squares of Tangerine Tango cardstock. The flowers were stamped, again in Tangerine Tango, punched out with the co-ordinating punch and shaped to give them a bit of dimension. The ribbon is now retired, the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and there is the addition of a few tiny Basic Pearls.
As this has three squares I am entering it into the LIM challenge as well!

Margaret x

Not So Inspiring!

 

When this catalogue (above left) dropped through my door the other day I looked at the cover picture and thought 'now there's an inspirational challenge' (more of a challenge than inspirational I assure you!). So, as I have set myself a personal challenge to use more colour combinations, I set to and made this card. I will say, before I go any further, that I really don't like the finished card but at least I rose to the challenge and got out of my comfort zone (well and truly!)

The colours I used were Island Indigo (which is much brighter than it appears in the photo) Chocolate Chip, Calypso Coral, So Saffron and Whisper White. The wavy strips were cut with the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die and, once everything was glued into place I ran the panel through the Square Lattice Embossing Folder before matting on to a card blank with dimensionals. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes punched with the Small Oval punch. I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that I don't think I will be making too many cards like this one!!

Now let me show you something REALLY nice! At my class yesterday both my sister and Jen turned up with homemade goodies for 'coffee time'. Both of them forgot to take the spares home so it looks like I'm just going to have to eat them myself - oh what a shame :0)

                  Carrot Cake Cupcakes


                                           and


                                       Danish Pastries (the one bottom centre got eaten before I took 
      the photos, but there's a crumb left!!)

 

Another 'Inspired by.......'

 

The picture that inspired me for today's card is one from a store catalogue featuring a plate and a tray, above right. The stamp I have used is Parlor Prints and is one I've had for ages and hardly used but I thought it would be ideal for the black and pink pattern. As I didn't want the image too dark, and I also wanted to colour over the roses, I used Basic Gray on Whisper White and then coloured the flowers with a Melon Mambo marker, highlighted a little with a white gel pen. I rounded the corners for a softer finish before matting onto Basic Gray which had also been stamped with Parlor Pints and then added a knot of Rose Red Seam Binding. After fixing to a card blank I added a sentiment from teeny Tiny Wishes and a butterfly punched from the Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches. Can you spot the mistake? I didn't until I uploaded the photo. I used Melon Mambo for the butterfly along with Rose Red ribbon!! It really isn't noticeable on the card however, now I know, I will be changing it to a Rose Red butterfly :0) 

Thank you for visiting and come back soon x

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

Simples Sunday

At the beginning of the week I needed a quick birthday card for a member of a card swap group that has recently started. The idea of the group is not necessarily to make new cards but to use up cards already made but, particularly for birthdays, I like to make cards specifically for that person (and my stash of 'already made' cards still sits there!) Anyway onto the card - made with Pool Party and Chocolate Chip, and in the style of Jenni Pauli whose work I absolutely love. I began by stamping the top section of a piece of Whisper White cardstock with the 'splodgy' stamp from French Foliage and matted this onto Pool Party cardstock. I then fixed a piece of Pool Party ribbon, from the SAB promotion, leaving a loop at one end before matting onto a card blank. The sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes was stamped and punched out with a circle punch then matted onto two larger circles before placing on top of the ribbon. To finish the card I punched a tiny flower from Itty Bitty Punch Pack and added a few Basic Pearls.  The card took about 10 minutes to make - quicker than writing this post I reckon!!!
Hope you've all had a great weekend and I'll be back soon x

Thank you gift

 

Last week I needed a very quick thank you gift for a work colleague and this is what I made. I returned to work after a week off with a nasty virus and as you know it was bitterly cold. Every morning at 8.30am I have a half hour duty outside and a very thoughtful lady insisted that I did her inside duty while she braved the sub zero temperatures! I was extremely grateful so the least I could do was make a little thank you gift for her.

I have shown you something similar in the past but this time I made a co-ordinating card as well.The supplies I used are Summer Starfruit cardstock and Stitched Satin ribbon (which looks quite green in this photo due to artificial light!), the Elegant Bouquet Embossing folder, sentiments from Tiny Tags and Teeny Tiny Wishes, the small Scallop Circle punches and Basic Rhinestones. The treat pouch holds a small bar of chocolate. 

If you would like to order any products and have them delivered straight to your door (p&p charge applies) then please don't hesitate to contact me. Or maybe you would like to hold a 'crafty' party from friends and earn yourself free products with a qualifying spend. For any further 'no obligation info' my details can be found on the 'Contact me' page at the top.

Thanks for stopping by x

LIM & Colour Q

I told you I'd be back and here is my second post of the day! This time a card made specifically with this LIM challenge 'Scallops' in mind. Before making this card I popped onto the Colour Q challenge site and I was really keen to have a go at their colour challenge which is Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Always Artichoke, Lucky Limeade and Whisper White. So here is my card that fits the criteria for both challenges. I started by using my brand new Simply Scored Borders Plate to emboss two rows of scallops onto a piece of Whisper White. I masked this off with a piece of copy paper before stamping my three Wisteria Wonder flowers, from Summer Silhouettes and added the stamens in Always Artichoke. I masked off the flowers with some pre-cut post-it note flowers (I keep these in with my stamps so they can be used several times) before stamping the leaves in Lucky Limeade, then stamped again without re-inking to give different shades. After removing the masks I embossed a straight line above the scallops. The sentiment, from Teeny Tiny Wishes, was stamped in Always Artichoke, punched out with the Small Oval and matted onto a Wisteria Wonder Scallop Oval which had been paper pierced. A small loop of Wisteria Wonder Ruffled Ribbon was added and the sentiment placed on top with dimensionals. Three small flowers were stamped in Pool Party and three butterflies from Beautiful Wings Embosslits were added and a few Basic Pearls finished the card off.
Thank you for stopping by and, if you pop back tomorrow you will see my Simples Sunday cards for this week. Take care and keep warm x

Colour Q

It's been a long time since I entered a card for the Colour Q challenge but today was the day to change that and I've made, not one but, two cards!! As you will see from the inspiration picture (top right) there are four colours plus white but the two blues are no longer current SU colours in the UK so I have used Bashful Blue and Pacific Point which I thought were the closest.
For my first card I used a stamp from the now (sadly) retired set, Easter Blossoms, and stamped this in Staz-on, then stamped again to give a lighter branch in the background, before colouring the blossoms with a Daffodil Delight marker. I then cut out the image with an oval from the Oval Framelits Collection and sponged around the edge with Daffodil Delight before fixing onto a square white card blank using dimensionals. Two Bashful Blue and one Pacific Point butterflies, cut with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, were positioned onto the branches and the sentiment from Bloomin' Marvelous stamped at the bottom. Basic Pearls were added to the butterflies to finish the card.
When I went back to tidy up my mess I had sudden inspiration and made my second card with Summer Silhouettes.

I'm not too sure what the flowers are meant to be but these two stamps always remind me of Agapanthus which come in beautiful shades of blue - perfect!
I stamped the stem in Staz-on then the flowers in Bashful Blue and Pacific Point and matted this onto Pacific Point cardstock and then onto a square white card blank. I then added a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes, stamped in Daffodil Delight, and cut with one of the Itty Bitty Banners dies with a bow of Daffodil Delight Taffeta ribbon to finish. Out of the two I like this one the best - much more CAS!

(Very) Simples Sunday

Back with a 'Simples Sunday' idea for you and they really don't get any more simple than this!
I used a stamp from Perfect Postage, a very affordable set of 4 lovely little stamps which, I have to admit, sits on my shelf and gets forgotten.
Here I have used the bunny image for new baby cards, stamped then punched with the 1" square punch, one matted onto Bashful Blue and the other on Pink Pirouette cardstock which had been punched with the Scallop Square then fixed to the card with dimensionals. The sentiment, from Teeny Tiny Wishes, was stamped onto Whisper White, punched with the Word Window punch then one end inserted into the Jewelry Tag punch to get the shaping at the end. A Basic Pearl was added for the girl and a Basic Rhinestone for the boy - job done. About 5 minutes to make both cards can't be bad!!

I had scheduled this post after making the cards last week but have just realised the cards fit in with the Less is More challenge of Frame It - so this is my third entry!!!

Thanks for visiting, I'll be back soon x

This is the set I promised to show you, very similar to yesterday's post but using Daffodil Delight and Lucky Limeade. Made in exactly the same way with the addition of some little butterflies from the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die. The wine bottle tag is from the Two Tags die with a hole punched in the top to go over the bottleneck.

Mother's Day

This is the card and chocolate box I made for my Mum for Mother's Day using a colour combo of Calypso Coral and Lucky Limeade. For the card I matted a piece of Whisper White onto Calypso Coral cardstock and punched an aperture with the large circle punch. I laid this onto a card blank and stamped the 'Mum' (from For my Family') and a retired sentiment so it could be seen through the aperture. I removed this from the card blank and stamped the leafy branch and flowers from Field Flowers and the tied a bow with some Calypso Coral ribbon (retired) before fixing back onto the card blank with dimensionals. The 'happy mothers day' from Teeny Tiny Wishes was stamped onto Whisper White and punched out with the Word Window punch.
For the gift I measured the chocolates and made an open top box and then made a wrap, slightly bigger than the box, to put round. A mat of Whisper White was glued to the front and decorated with the same stamps and ink.
On Friday it is Red Nose Day and, at school, we are having a fund raising afternoon so I thought I would make another of these sets (obviously for a different occasion) and maybe raffle it to raise a little bit of money for such a worthwhile cause - the other set does include a small bottle of wine with matching tag so hopefully I will be able to sell some tickets!!! I'll be back to show you that tomorrow.

Spring Box

This box is one I have designed for my next class and, whilst I normally don't post projects beforehand, occasionally there has to be an exception to the rule!!
The base is one of the Kraft Gift Boxes which come in a pack of 4 for just £2.75. Usually I like to make my boxes from scratch but on occasions it's nice to just be able to concentrate on the decorating and these boxes are a good size and very strong. They can, of course, be stamped but for this one I have used Daffodil Delight cardstock along with the Daffodil Delight DSP from the Polka Dot Parade pack to make mats to decorate the sides and top. The flower on the top was made by stamping 2 flowers from the Mixed Bunch set punched out with the Blossom Punch. Once this was done I broke up the fibres in the cardstock by working it quite firmly with a bone folder. By breaking the fibres it allows you to separate the cardstock into two layers, giving you four flower shapes rather than two. A small Pumpkin Pie Scallop circle was placed in the centre of the flower before securing together with an Antique Brad. A large Pumpkin Pie Scallop Circle was glued onto the top of the box and then three loops of Daffodil Delight Taffeta ribbon were attached with sticky strip before glueing the flower in place. The 'sweet treats' sentiment, from Teeny Tiny Wishes, and a retired 'for you' sentiment were punched with the Jewelry Tag punch and fixed onto a petal over the ribbon. The small flowers on the sides of the box were made with the Boho Blossoms punch.
I was really quite pleased with it when I'd finished (a rare occurrence!!!), and the nice, bright Daffodil Delight goes so well with the Kraft. I have a feeling I will be making a few more of these in different colours!