Good Luck James!

This is another really simple card and my second entry to the LIM Colour Challenge - Earth Tones.

As some of you may already know I work in a Special Needs School and have run an after school club for the past 7 years. One of the attendees is a lad who will be leaving school in a couple of weeks to go on to do a Rural Skills course at college. He has only missed 2 after school sessions in the entire 7 years so we really could not let him go without a bit of a fuss. We will be doing some party food at the last session of the year and this is the card I have made for us all to sign to wish him good luck.
Made with the Owl Builder Punch and an old 'good luck' sentiment cut with one of the Banner Framelits. (The name was computer generated)

Good Luck James -

we will miss you x x

Another Valentine

Here is the second of my Valentine's cards made for a team challenge. This is quite a simple card using the Squares Collection Framelits and hearts punched with the Small Heart and Owl Builder punches.
I simply diecut a frame using Real red cardstock and placed this onto a Whisper White square using dimensionals. This was fixed to a piece of Real Red cardstock which had been stamped with the sentiment stamp from the Hostess set, Express Yourself, and matted onto a white card blank. The hearts were placed inside the frame and the same sentiment used for the background, cut out with the Word Window punch, was placed on the bottom edge.
Again this could be used just as well for an anniversary card rather than a Valentine's.

Back soon

Margaret x

Owl Santa

Here I am back again with yet another entry for the LIM challenge - A Christmas Bird. This time I have used the ever faithful Owl Builder and Bird Builder punches to make a Santa Owl. he is made from Crumb Cake, Real Red and Basic Black cardstock with a teeny piece of Silver Glimmer Paper. His hat was stamped from Embellished Events, cut out with paper snips and a bobble punched with one of the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.
For the background I took a square of Basic Black cardstock and swiped the Whisper White inkpad across the bottom to make the 'snow' and some Dazzling Diamonds for the sparkle. As it is meant to be a night scene I used just the tree bauble stamp from Warmth & Wonder to represent lights on a Christmas tree and the twinkly stars (again a stamp from Warmth & Wonder) are stamped with the Silver Metallic Encore pad. The finished panel was then matted onto a Basic Black card blank with a sentiment from Petite Pairs, stamped in silver, added to the bottom of the card.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

Happy 100th!!

This is a commissioned card which I have been asked to make for a lady who is celebrating her 100th birthday and it needed to be 'oversized'. The finished card is an A4 size so the card blank was made with an A3 sheet of white cardstock.
As the card needs to be sent through the post I had to be careful to keep it as flat as possible so most of the flowers, large ones from Flower Shop and small ones from Summer Silhouettes, have been stamped directly onto the card using Raspberry Ripple. As I wanted to overlap the flowers and leaves (from Summer Silhouettes) I cut out several masks from post-it notes so that some of the flowers and the leaves look like they're behind the others.
The Raspberry Ripple Scallop Oval and Whisper White Oval were both cut with dies from the Ovals Collection Framelits and the sentiment is made up from the Memorable Moments stamp set. I placed a piece of Rasberry Ripple Stitched Satin Ribbon across the card before matting onto the card blank, positioned the ovals on top and added three flowers, punched with the Pansy Punch, using dimensionals and a few leaves from the Owl Builder Punch. A bow, a butterfly from Papillon Potpourri and a few Basic Pearls finished the card.
I have to say this took quite a long time to make (especially as I had to make an envelope for it as well!) but I was quite pleased with the finished result - something that rarely happens :0)

Wedding Card

My daughter asked me to make a wedding card about 4 days before the wedding so I resorted to the old favourite - hearts as the bride and groom!
As you can tell the colour scheme is dark red so I used Cherry Cobbler for the splash of colour. A really easy card with a silver embossed sentiment (retired) and some silver hearts from Build a Cupcake set behind the round aperture with a piece of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding tied on one side. The bride and groom are made with the large Heart Punch, the bow tie from two hearts from the Owl Builder Punch and the flowers from one of the Itty Bitty Shapes punches. Basic Pearls were added to finish the card.

Get Well Owl

 

All the credit for the idea of this cute owl tissue holder has to go to Jo Dumbleton who designed this a while ago. You can see Jo's creation here.

For my holder I used Wild Wasabi cardstock and DSP which matched the packaging on the tissues. The nurse's cape was punched with the Bird Builder punch. The 'for you' is a retired stamp punched with the Jewelry Tag punch which is also retiring at the end of this month - this is one punch I will not be getting rid of, retired or not!! The other sentiment is one from the Petite Pairs set.

A short,sweet and very late post - it is my first day back at work and I'm ready for bed!!!

Back soon x

Punch Art Super Heroes

 

As promised here is the punch art Super Heroes card I have made for my Grandson who will be five next week. At the moment he is Superman mad but is also quite keen on Batman and Robin. I found the punch art Batman & Robin on Splitcoaststampers done by someone called A.Fairchild. To my knowledge he/she has no blog so I cannot point you in any direction but that's who the credit must go to. Superman was found on a blog but the author did not not know who she had CASE'd it from so I am unable to credit the originator of this one.

It is made mainly with the Owl Builder punch (is there anything you can't make with this punch I ask myself!) but also uses the Extra Large Oval, Bird Builder and Circle punches. They are mounted onto frames cut with a die from the Labels Collection Framelits, paper pierced around the shape and the dots joined together with marker pens. The '5' is cut with the Typeset Alphabet Bigz die and the 'today' from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet die (now retired).

That's all for now but I'll be back tomorrow to show you some little explosion boxes.

 

 

Less is More - Cats!

Having said in my Simples Sunday post, earlier today, that I was going to have a few days off from blogging here I am back already!!!! When I saw the LIM challenge this week was 'Cats and/or Dogs' I thought I was scuppered as I don't own any stamps that would fit the challenge. However not to be beaten I decided a bit of punch art was called for and this is what I have come up with. I can't take credit for the idea of the punch art cats as they have been stalking around blogland for a very long time but these are my versions. Mostly made with Circle punches of varying sizes but with the addition of the heart noses from the Owl Builder and the ears from the Blossom Builder punches.
The sentiment is from A Word for You. Just to add a little texture to the card I diagonally scored lines in the top right and bottom left corners and added a couple of Glimmer Paper hearts.
I am currently working on a Super Heroes punch art card for my Grandson's 5th birthday so, as soon as I have finished it, I will be back to show you. Until then enjoy the rest of the weekend x

Graduate Nurse

Those of you who read the post that accompanied my 'science' card will know that I was asked to make a card for a new graduate who was going into nursing and which also incorporated a bookmark. Have you heard the saying 'the impossible we do immediately, miracles take a little longer'? Well that just about summed up my feelings when I received this request :0)

Not to be beaten, I put my thinking cap on and decided to use the ever faithful Owl Builder punch. On this photo the graduate owl looks as though he is stuck on the outside of the tree but actually the hole is punched in the panel of cardstock so in real life he looks as though he is in a hole in the tree trunk. The nurse owl sits on the magnetic bookmark which was made with the Two Tags die.

Two Boxes

Last week two of my grandchildren came to see me and they wanted to 'make somefing' - my grandaughter announced that she wanted to make a jewellery box! Now, thinking that was a little ambitious for a 2 and a half year old, I persuaded her and her 4 year old brother to do some stamping on a lunch bag and then cut out the letters in their name to stick on with the promise that Granny would make her a jewellery box. Working on the basis that a box made from card wouldn't last 5 minutes in the hands of a toddler I hunted around for a suitable box to decorate and found this (along with several others that have been sitting around in cupboards for a very long time). By pure chance the Scallop Circle die fitted perfectly so I cut one in Pretty in Pink DSP and glued this to the lid. I punched out some butterflies in cardstock and DSP, using the Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly, to decorate. The butterflies around the box were glued straight on but I thought the ones on top needed to be a bit more substantial so I covered them with Crystal Effects and sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds. When they were dry I assembled them and added a Basic Rhinestone before fixing them to the lid. It must be the Granny in me because I don't like to give one without the other so I made this 'treasure chest' for my grandson with a similar box and decorated with the Owl Builder punch.

I have to say they were both thrilled with them and soon had them filled with treasure - albeit the jewellery box was soon home to micro machine cars rather than jewels! Before I left my grandaughter said 'Granny you're special' - I'm not too sure what she meant by that :0)

Spinning Owl

 

Today's card is one I have made for an Owl Builder class next month but thought I would share it now. It is a spinner card and not too difficult to make with the right tools! I remember trying to make one years ago and it didn't turn out very well due to having to cut things by hand but with SU's Window Punch it makes the job really easy. The stamped leaves are from Summer Silhouettes and punched ones from the Bird Builder punch.
I think this punch has to be in my top 3 of 'useful punches'. Thanks to some brilliant ideas from a lot of clever demo's out there you can dress up, or transform, this little owl into so many things. A pig, a giraffe, a pirate, a fish - the list just goes on and on. So, if you're like me and like a bit of Punch Art,  this punch it's definitely one you should think about getting!
Do come back tomorrow to see another 'inspired by' card - the like of which you have never seen from me before, and probably never will again! :0)

If you would like any more information on Stampin'Up! products, or would like to order anything from the catalogues, please do not hesitate to give me a call - contact details can be found by clicking on the 'Contact me' tab at the top

Five of Six

A bit of a fun card today to go with my set of six. All fairly self-explanatory I think so I'll just give you the basics. The base is a Top Note diecut which was embossed with the Stripes Embossing Folder and a hole cut with a circle punch - the same circle punch was used to punch a black circle to fill in the hole. The owl was punched with the Owl Bulder punch using Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip DSP Whisper White and Basic Black. The leaves and wings were punched from the Bird Builder punch and the banner is just a thin strip of Basic Black cardstock with a non-SU pearl fixed to the top. The sentiment is a retired stamp on Very Vanilla and cut into a banner shape with scissors.

One more to go!!

Three of Six

As I messed up my scheduling yesterday and posted two cards I thought today I would show you a third card for the set I am making. This is such a simple card to make, and an idea which I have used a few times before, but I love the effect the embossing gives - it makes it look like the punched circles are actually printed onto the cardstock. You simply take your piece of base card and arrange punched circles (which also uses up all those scraps) in any way you want to, glue them to the card, trim off any that are overlapping the edge and then run the whole thing through your die cutting machine using the Square Lattice Embossing Folder. For this particular card I matted the embossed panel onto some Crumb Cake DSP and layered onto a plain white card blank. I stamped the sentiment from a retired set and punched with a circle punch then matted onto larger circles of Basic Black and Crumb Cake, this was then laid onto a piece of Basic Black Grosgrain Ribbon and a loop made one side and the other side cut at an angle. I finished it off with a tiny black heart punched with the Owl Punch.
I have always used circles when making this design but you could use any punched or die cut shapes you fancy - one with different sized hearts would be very effective for an engagement, anniversary or wedding card. Back tomorrow to show you number 4 :0)

Another card made for my nephew's birthday but this time from my Mum! Made from the Owl Builder punch with the wings and leaves from the Bird Builder punch. The corners of a piece of Whisper White were cut out using a circle punch then matted onto Chocolate Chip cardstock before positioning onto a white card blank. A metallic brad was placed in each corner, the retired birthday stamp was stamped in Chocolate Chip and the balloons, from the Hostess set Pedal Presents, stamped in Pacific Point and coloured with a blender pen. Mr Owl's waistcoat was punched from Crumb Cake DSP and the card was finshed with 'grandson' at the bottom using stamps from the For My family set and punched out with the Modern Label punch.

Well what a half-term week it's been weatherwise - persistent rain, gales & cold but back to work tomorrow so it's bound to change to warm & sunny, let's hope so anyway because I'm fed up with being cold in June!!

Have a good week and I'll be back soon x

Wedding Card

 

This is a wedding card I was asked to make using pale green so of course the colour I used was Certainly Celery. I stamped the hearts stamp from Confetti onto a strip of Whisper White, tied a knot of Taffeta Ribbon around, matted this onto a wider strip of Certainly Celery and added down the side of the base card (an A5 card blank, matted with Certainly Celery and Whisper White). The same stamp was stamped in Versamark, sprinkled with Heat'n'Stick and, after heating, added Dazzling Diamonds then punched out a large heart for the 'bride' and some small hearts using the Owl Builder punch and added some Basic Pearls to the top of the large heart to decorate. The 'groom' was made by punching two large hearts, one in white and one in black which had a 'v' cut in the centre to form the jacket. The bow tie was made with two more hearts from the Bird Builder punch and a small circle and the buttonhole is an Itty Bitty Punch with a tiny Basic Pearl in the centre. I added some Certainly Celery hearts down the left hand side and some glittery hearts down the right, a tag and a sentiment punched with the Jewelry Tag punch and Decorative Label punch respectively. I did make a bag to put the card in but obviously forgot to take a photo of it!

Nurse Owl

This is a card I've made for our school nurse who is leaving us to do further training. For this I just had to use the owl from the Owl Punch and dress her up as a nurse. Her body is Crumb Cake, her dress is Bashful Blue stripey DSP and her 'cape' wings are punched from the Bird Builder punch using Pacific Point. The hat is made by using the dress from the punch turned upside down with a cross punched with a punch from the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes Pack. I added a strip of white for the belt with a buckle made from Brushed Silver cardstock, as was the outer part of the fob watch, and the tie for the cape is some Bakers Twine. The flowers she is holding are another Itty Bitty punch, the frame is made with two of the Edgelits dies, the branch is from the Bird Builder punch and the letters are cut with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies.

Birthday Owl

This was made for the Mum of a friend at work who, apparently, loves owls. I used the Owl Punch to make the little character along with the Bird Punch for the wings and she is punched from Crumb Cake. Her dress is made from some retired DSP, just because it is pretty and matched the Rose Red cardstock I used for the heart, flowers and butterflies. The branches she is sitting on are stamped with a stamp from, the now retired Borderlines, stamped in Old Olive and then stamped again without re-inking to get the different shades of green. The butterflies were made with the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die and the flowers punched with the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack. The Happy Birthday is from a SAB set and the Mum is from For my Family. The card front is matted onto Old Olive cardstock and then onto a white square card blank. Some Basic Pearls were added to the centres of the butterflies and flowers.

Decorated Tins

I decorated a tin to give as a small gift to a friend and she asked me if I would make another two, one purple and one red, for friends of hers - so here they are. The lid of the tin was covered with DSP from the Paper Stacks, one in Elegant Eggplant and the other in Real Red, then the edges were lightly sanded to get rid of the rough edges before inking with a sponge dauber. The names were cut with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies in Perfect Plum and Cherry Cobbler with leaves from the Bird Builder punch in Certainly Celery and flowers from the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes Pack and a rhinestone added to the centre. The tiny heart in between the K & T is from the Owl Builder punch.

A bit of a fun card to show you today using my much neglected Owl Punch. I love this little owl but he has been pushed to the back of my punches and forgotten about - not any more! I don't know if I'm the only one who does this but I tend to use the newer things and get hooked on those and forget about the older stuff, anyway he's out now so I will explain how this card came to fruition.
The DSP is from Well Worn and reminds me of tree bark so I cut a strip to stick down one side of the card and cut a hole with a circle punch before glueing to the card blank. I lightly sponged inside the aperture with Crumb Cake and a sponge dauber so it didn't look too white and then started assembling my owl. His body and the smallest and largest part of his eyes were punched from Chocolate Chip, with the middle size eye pieces punched in Very Vanilla. His front was punched from another pattern in the Well Worn DSP pack and two branches punched with the Bird Builder punch using Crumb Cake. These were glued into place and a sentiment, punched out with the Word Window punch, was matted onto a Modern Label and positioned on the card. Easy peasy but quite cute!

It's challenge day again!

 

Well it's Saturday morning and it's challenge day again - don't the weeks just fly by? I have 2 cards to show you this morning, both of which fit the Less is More challenge - Take 3 Challenges, and the second which was made for the sketch challenge over at Simply Stampin'. I'll start with this one though because I know that Chrissie & Mandi won't be too happy with the lack of white space on the second card :0)

As I wanted to make a get well card I used the owl punch to make a nurse and decided to use the Bashful Blue striped DSP and Pacific Point cardstock for her dress and 'cape' as this is the colour I always think of when picturing nurses! The wings were actually punched from the 2-step Bird Punch and the red cross from one of the punches in the Itty Bitty Punch Shapes pack. Her hat, which doesn't show up too well in the picture is the same shape that was used for the dress but turned upside down. I cut 2 circles with the Circles Die to mount the owl on and embossed the white one with the Square Lattice Embsossing folder, glued this to the card blank and added a sentiment from Curvy Verses in Pacific Point.

The challenges I used were Wk 9 - A Touch of Red, Wk 12 - Off Centre, Wk 22 - Shades of Blue and Wk 29 - Things that Move.

Now onto my second card (made predominantly for the Simply Stampin' Sketch)

For this card I used a piece of Whisper White card on which I had used the Mother of  Pearl technique with Perfect Plum ink (left over from a card I made last week!) The bottom edge of the cardstock was punched with the Scallop Edge Border punch, matted onto a piece of Perfect Plum cardstock and a bow of Perfect Plum Taffeta ribbon tied around before layering onto a white card blank. The branch from Hopeful Thoughts was stamped in Elegant Eggplant and some flowers were punched from a scrap piece of the Mother of Pearl cardstock, with an Itty Bitty Shapes punch, and positioned onto the branch with one of the tiniest Basic Pearls for the centres. The stamp is also from Hopeful Thoughts but, as I didn't want all of the sentiment, I used a Perfect Plum marker to ink the bit I wanted, stamped onto Whisper White and then punched out with the Modern Label punch. The label was inked around the edges with a sponge dauber before positioning onto the card.
The challenges I used for this card were Wk 49 - Predominantly Purple, Wk 55 Punches or Diecuts and Wk 56 - Don't Scrap It (the Mother of Pearl cardstock!).
A rather long post today so I'll just say have a great weekend and enjoy the sunshine x