A Splash of Colour

Well it's Saturday again so time for another LIM challenge and, this week, Mandi and Jen have asked for a 'Splash of Colour(s)' on a dark background. I had an idea in my head on the way to my craft room but, believe me, it wasn't this or anything like it! However I noticed a new stamp set, A Dozen Thoughts, on my desk and this particular sentiment was crying out to be used - hence not the idea in my head. Anyway onto the card -
I started by stamping one of the Chalk Talk frames onto Real Red cardstock then cut out with the matching framelit, onto this I added a Basic Black circle and the aforementioned sentiment punched with a Circle Punch. The card base is Basic Black with a slightly smaller mat onto which I did a little embossing on two corners purely to add a bit of texture and fixed to the card with dimensionals. I finished the card with a knot of Real Red Taffeta Ribbon and added the tag on top.
Have a great weekend and if you're off to a firework party stay safe. I have a (belated) Halloween party to go to later at my Grandchildren's so do pop back tomorrow for 'Simples Sunday' where I will show you some really easy treat pouches which I have made for the children (and some adapted ones for Christmas!)

Margaret x

Gift set

 

Today I have a matching set to show you which I made for a friend's birthday. The card, although not entirely CASE'd, was hugely inspired by a card I saw on Monica Gale's blog a couple of weeks ago. However, when I looked for Monica's post, I read that she had CASE'd it from Catherine Pooler, a Canadian demo. I have looked for the original post and I can't find it but Monica's card can be seen here.

The colour combo is Pistachio Pudding and Baked Brown Sugar which I think look gorgeous together. The little 'envelope' top right holds a gift card and the treat box holds some yummy chocolate truffles.

I used the Chalk Talk stamps and framelits as well as a stamp from Happiest Birthday Wishes, along with the Extra Large Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallp Oval Punch and Bitty Butterfly Punch.

Margaret x

Card Swap Birthday

This is the card I made for Aileen, a member of the Card Swap group, for her birthday yesterday. It was made in a bit of a rush because Jane, the organiser, was a little late telling us so it needed to be made and posted post haste! Poor Jane thought we had another couple of weeks to go so was in a bit of a panic emailing us and said that maybe we should look on it as a way of brushing up on our emergency card making skills :0) No problem Jane, I'm sure we can all rise to that challenge.
I made this in Aileen's favourite colour of purple (Elegant Eggplant) and used the Flower Shop stamp set. The flower in the centre of the row was stamped then punched out with the Pansy Punch and matted using dimensionals. I made the tag from one of the Chalk Talk Framelits and the sentiment is from Create a Cupcake.
Happy birthday Aileen and I hope you had a great day!

Margaret x

Birthday Card & Gift Box

This is the card and gift box I made for my sister's birthday which was on Saturday. I used the Fabulous Florets stamp set with the leafy image for the card and one of the flowers for the gift box. The colour combo was Smoky Slate and black (Staz-on), embellished with Basic Black Chevron ribbon. The sentiment is from the Hostess set, Simply Sketched, and the vellum butterflies were punched with the Bitty Butterfly punch with Basic Rhinestones for their bodies. The gift box is one I made with the Pop'n'Cuts die, finished off with Chevron ribbon and a tag from Chalk Talk cut with the co-ordinating Framelit.

If you would like to order any products or, maybe, even become a Stampin'Up! demonstrator yourself, then please don't hesitate to contact me and I will be very happy to help.

Margaret x

Less is More meets Washi Tape

 

The Less is More challenge today is to create a card using Washi Tape. Now I have to confess that I bought some SU Washi Tape as part of a bundle some time ago and, as yet, have never used it so the challenge was a bit of a kick in the posterior for me to have have a go and, what's more, I've made two cards!! 

I've kept this card really simple using two stamps from Chalk Talk - one image cut with the matching framelit and the other punched with the Extra Large Oval punch. I used grey Washi Tape across the card, Basic Gray ink for the stamping and the new Smoky Slate for matting - and that's about it!

My second card is a bit of a fun card for Halloween, using the grey and orange Washi tape and a 'not yet available' stamp set Tags 4 You and Label Bracket punch (watch out for the new Seasonal catalogue later this month!)

This afternoon I am having a joint birthday 'family get together' for my eldest Grandaughter, who will be 5, and youngest Grandson, who will be 2 shortly after they move back to Suffolk. Luckily I wasn't planning an outdoor party as the weather here today is atrocious. I think maybe the family will have to hire boats to get here if it rains much more :0)

Whatever you're doing this weekend have a good one and I'll be back soon

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

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