Handbag Gift Holder

I have been busy this week and have neglected my blog so I have popped on very quickly tonight to show you a bag that we made at our class last month - the ladies loved it! Quite a long time ago I made small versions of this which held a lip salve but Elaine, at Papercraft Button, made a larger version which reminded me about them again! Elaine's version, along with all the measurements AND a video tutorial, can be found here. While you are there do have a look at the other fabulous projects Elaine has posted.
This one was made with Very Vanilla cardstock teamed up with paper from the Modern Medley DSP pack which, by the way, is only available until the end of the month so get it while you can. I have also used Flower Shop and Petite Petals with the co-ordinating punches and the handles were made with the Circles Framelits.

That's all for now, I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Simples Sunday Watercolour

Unusually for me I didn't get round to making a card for yesterday's new challenge over at LIM which is 'Watercolour'. However, after going to bed last night and still being awake at 3 a.m, I decided I might just as well get up and what else can you do at that time of the morning other than craft??
I don't have many stamp sets that lend themselves to watercolouring but I thought this flower, from Flower Shop, would fit the bill quite nicely. I started by stamping a flower onto Whisper White using the new In Colour Blackberry Bliss, added a post-it mask before adding another flower then set to with my Aqua Painter. I began by blending the ink already stamped then added a little more ink to give more depth. I then repeated this on a scrap of Whisper White and punched this flower out with the Pansy Punch. The stripey image from Gorgeous Grunge was stamped in Crumb Cake and the sentiment from Four You in Blackberry Bliss before matting onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then onto a card blank. The punched flower was added using dimensionals and a few Basic Pearls added to the centre.

I hope you have a lovely Sunday whatever you're doing. For me it's ironing, shopping, visiting Mum then getting ready for a bit of a hectic week at work - and it's another weekend over!!!

Back soon

Margaret x

Oh dear I nearly forgot to say a big thank you to the ladies at LIM for choosing one of my cards to showcase this week and also to all the people who have left me such lovely comments - I really do appreciate it x

A Retirement Card, the Retiring List and a special offer!

Last week a good friend at work retired and I was asked (as usual!) to make a leaving card for everyone to sign. It was another large card - A4 - which I always find quite difficult but everyone loved it so that was ok. For the sentiment I used a couple of retired stamps and the name was cut with (the also retired) Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies. All this was on a Whisper White Oval cut from the Ovals Framelits and matted onto a Summer Starfruit Scallop Oval, from the same set. The larger flowers were made with the Flower Shop and Petite Petals stamp sets and co-ordinating punches and the tiny flowers are from one of this year's SAB sets punched with an Itty Bitty Punch, with leaves from the Bird Builder Punch. The card was finished off with a bit of paper piercing, some scoring, a knot of Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon and a couple of Papillon Potpourri butterflies - oh and of course some pearls!!



The brand new catalogue will be here soon but, in the meantime, the Retiring List is now available. There are lots of stamp sets and accessories, some at reduced prices. Click here to see them. These products are only available while stocks last so get them while you can! I am offering free postage & packing on all orders over £35 until the end of June so, if you would like to take advantage of this, please contact me at margaretk21@hotmail.co.uk or telephone 01933 663477 leave a message and I'll be very happy to help (Only applies to orders placed through me, not any online orders)

Margaret x

This is one of the projects we made at last week's class - a card and matching money/gift card holder. It uses Summer Starfruit cardstock and ribbon and some of this year's SAB designer paper.
The flowers were stamped with an image from Flower Shop and one from Petite Petals and punched with the co-ordinating punches. The sentiment on the card is from Field Flowers and was punched out with the Small Oval Punch and matted on a Modern Label. The closure for the money holder was diecut using one of the Labels Collection Framelits (sentiment and punch on holder are now retired).

The weather here has been atrocious today, it hasn't stopped raining so I have been busy making a commissioned engagement card and 'practicing' projects for my next class. Maybe it will be dry tomorrow :0)

Margaret x

Another Chocolate Box

Back today with the bag/box that I made to match the card I showed you yesterday. It is made with Naturals White cardstock, stamps from Gorgeous Grunge in Raspberry Ripple and decorated with a flower made from Flower Shop and Petite Petals cut with co-ordinating punches,. The closure for the top is a piece of card cut with one of the Labels Collection Framelits, stamped and tied with a piece of Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin Ribbon. The box holds a bag of continental chocolates.

That's all for today but I'll be back soon

Margaret x

Variation on a Theme

If you saw my post on Sunday then you will see that today's card is a variation on that. I loved the layout of the card when I saw a similar one showcased by Aida (here) so I decided to try it with a flower rather than a butterfly and, I have to say, I was really pleased with the result.
As with Sunday's card I used Gorgeous Grunge but this time stamping in Raspberry Ripple and added a flower stamped with stamps from Flower Shop and Petite Petals, both cut out with their respective punches and the sentiment is from Perfectly Penned. A large basic pearl was added to the centre of the flower.
As usual I have made a matching box to go with this card which I will show you tomorrow. Please pop back and take a look :0)

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)

A Bit of a Cracker!

 

Here are some more little boxes I have made for the Christmas Present Evening, to be held at a friend's house, which hold a pale lilac cube candle. I won't pretend that this was my idea but I was inspired by a similar box I saw on Monica Gale's blog (here) made with the Envelope Punch Board and I simply measured the candle and made the box to fit. Basically they are made in the same way as the crackers I showed you the other day, except at one end you punch and score to make the 'cracker' shape and the other end is simply a box closure (does that make any sense??)
I used Elegant Eggplant and white cardstock along with a stamp from Flower Shop, punched out with the Pansy Punch, and tied with Elegant Eggplant Grosgrain (retired) and Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon.

Back soon

Margaret x

50th Birthday

Yesterday, for my Simples Sunday post, I showed you a card I had put together with some pieces left over from a commissioned card so today I thought I'd show you the actual card.
It is the same design as a card I made for a 100th birthday a few weeks ago but a completely different colour scheme. The card base and taffeta ribbon are Perfect Plum and the flowers from Flower Shop and sentiment are stamped in Perfect Plum. The leaves were punched from the Bird Builder punch and a few Basic Pearls were used to finish the card.

Margaret x

Simples Sunday

Today's post should have the title - Simples Sunday using Scraps because that's exactly what it is! I was asked to make a 50th birthday card the other day and these leftover oddments were lying on my desk, so what could be simpler than using pre-cut cardstock or pre-stamped images?
For my commissioned card I cut an aperture in a piece of Perfect Plum, using one of the Labels Collection Framelits, so this left me with the diecut shape which I used for the centre of this card. I stamped the now retired Beautiful Birthday sentiment onto this using Whisper White Kraft ink and stamped a couple of flower images directly onto the card blank before fixing the diecut. A few leaves from Stippled Blossoms were stamped around in Pistachio Pudding and the three diecut flowers, from Flower Shop, were arranged on top. The 'friend to friend' is from Teeny Tiny Sentiments and punched with the Word Window punch.
I am always very careful to keep all my leftovers as they can be really useful if you need to put together a quick & simple card - the only trouble is, once I have tidied them up, I never seem to remember to use them!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back soon

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

Another birthday card for my sister but I made this one for my Mum to give her. A simple 3-panel card using Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake along with the leaves from Summer Silhouettes and a flower from the Flower Shop set. The sentiments are from 'For my Family' and the flower on the banner is a punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack and a Basic Pearl.

Thanks for stopping by

Margaret x

This is a birthday card I was recently asked to make a for a lady who has reached the incredible age of 100!! Apparently her favourite colours are pink and green so that just shouted flowers and leaves. I have made quite a few of this style of card recently and I think the aperture with a sentiment just gives a card a little bit more interest and dimension rather than a flat card with embellishments. The sentiment from Memorable Moments was stamped using a stamp-a-ma-jig, in the now retired Pretty in Pink and the Flower Shop flowers and butterfly from Papillon Potpourri in Pink Pirouette.
The leaves were punched from the old favourite (and very well used!) Bird Builder Punch.

Back to work for me this week so not a lot of crafting time but, hopefully, I will get back into the swing of things soon :0)

If you would like to order any of the supplies, or maybe you are thinking of becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, then please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be more than happy to help.

Until next time take care and thanks for stopping by

Margaret x