Simples Sunday

I have two cards today for 'Simples Sunday' both on a get well theme although they could both be used for other things as the sentiment is 'feel better' rather than get well!!
The first one is using the apple from Fruit & Flowers, inked with Real Red and Old Olive markers with a small punched heart and rhinestone in the centre. I used the Real Red marker to colour part of sentiment saying 'to make it' (you can see the full stamp below) and the Feel Better is from Sassy Salutations. A tag made with Tiny Tags and the Jewelry Tag punch was added to the stalk of the apple.

'Simples'

My second card uses two sentiments from Petite Pairs and a 'kiss' made from Real Red cardstock, cut with the Typeset Alphabet Bigz die and then run through the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing folder. Some Basic Rhinestones finished the card with a bit of bling.

'REALLY Simples' !!!

Less is More Sketch

The Less is More challenge this week is a sketch (bottom left) and, despite having lots of jobs to do, I had to have a go at this first!
I decided to do a Get Well card using the Fruit & Flowers stamp set and this is what I came up with. I started by masking a panel with post-it notes and inked the stamps using a Real Red & Old Olive markers. After removing the post-its I drew two lines across with the Old Olive marker and added part of a sentiment from Hopeful Thoughts underneath.
For this card I used the Naturals White cardstock which has quite a rustic feel to it - not too 'pretty' if you know what I mean. Stamping directly onto this cardstock doesn't give the clear, crisp image you usually get from SU stamps but, sometimes, I think this is a nice look for a change.
I love the sketch the ladies have given us this week, very simple and understated so I'm sure I will be back with more entries!
Well I don't know about you but we didn't get the snow that was promised last night (thankfully!). However it does feel very cold and icy out there at the moment so I think I will leave the jobs, that need me to go out, until later :0)
Have a good weekend and I'll be back soon x

Singing the praises of .........

......the Stamp-a-ma-Jig and Stampin'Write Markers!!

What is she going on about you may be saying, well without these two things I would never have been able to  make this card (or certainly not without a lot of difficulty and a fair few rejects I would guess!)

I have had the Fruit & Flowers stamp set since the launch of the Spring Mini (which I would remind you finishes at the end of this month) and in all honesty I haven't really used it. However I had a sudden flash of inspiration and thought 'fruit & flowers' are things you often give to someone who's poorly, so a get well card seemed to be in order!

This is where the jig and markers come in - I started by colouring the fruit stamps with a Real Red and Old Olive marker and stamped onto Whisper White, then punched out with a circle punch and matted onto a larger circle of Old Olive. These were placed onto a piece of Whisper White, which had been matted onto a very slightly larger piece of Real Red, so I could see where to stamp the first bit of my sentiment.  Using the markers and jig, I used words from sentiments in the Petite Pairs set but re-arranged them to say what I wanted. After glueing the fruit circles into position I stamped the '&' from For My Family and 'to make it better' which is again from Petite Pairs - the 'get well soon', I think is from a retired set and was punched with the Word Window punch. The tiny flowers are punched from Itty Bitty Punch Shapes and the centres punched with the 2mm handheld punch.

When I first became acquainted with SU I thought 'I have stamp pads, why would I need markers?' and now I know. Whilst a lot of stamps can be masked with post-it notes it would be practically impossible to use different colours on a stamp without the markers so, if you think you can do without them, take it from me - YOU CAN'T! Several markers can now be bought individually at a very reasonable £2.95 so why not treat yourself to a few basic colours and I promise you that you'll soon want more :0)

I have noticed that when crafters are asked to be guest designers they are often asked 'what couldn't you do without?' - well I hope I'm never asked that question because it would be much easier to tell them what I could do without.

Waffling and inspiration finished I will get back to what I was doing before the making of this card took over!!

Less is More - Sketch

 

I'm back this morning with a card for the Less is More challenge which, this week, is a sketch (shown above right). I've been experimenting lately with mixing colours and 'not quite so simple' layouts so, for this challenge, I thought I would revert back to my type of cards and I have to say it's good to be back!!

I started this card with a strip of River Rock DSP from the Neutrals Paper Stack and embossed it using the oval from the Designer Frames Embossing set. I coloured the image from the new stamp set Fruit & Flowers, available in the Spring Mini, with River Rock and Cherry Cobbler markers and stamped once onto a piece of Whisper White then, without re-inking, stamped again three times to give a faded image around the original. This was punched out with the Extra-Large Oval punch and positioned in the frame. A piece of Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding was tied around the panel before matting onto a DL card blank. The sentiment from Curly Cute was stamped directly onto the card blank in Cherry Cobbler. Thank you ladies, I'm loving this challenge!

I want to thank everyone for their get well wishes this week, they cheered me up no end. I decided to return to work on Friday, after being off all week, to be greeted by comments such as "you look very pale" and "you still sound awful" - which made me feel a whole lot better :0) Anyway, despite not having completely got rid of the bug, I am feeling a whole lot better than I did!!

Have a great weekend and come back to visit soon x

Gift Box & Card

 


A very quick post for you on, what is here, a very miserable, wet day! This is a birthday gift and matching card I have made for a friend's daughter who is at that very awkward age - not quite a kid and not quite a grown-up! I decided I would make her a necklace with her initial on and this has been in 'working progress' since the beginning of the week as the Crystal Effects I used needs plenty of time to dry in between coats. I started with a chipboard circle, sponged with Whisper White ink to give a base coat and, when this was dry, I sponged over with Pretty in Pink and stamped the stamp from Fruit & Flowers in Rose Red. The 'a' was cut with the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet Die and kept in place with a spot of Crystal Effects. The whole thing was covered in Versamark and clear embossed to prevent the colours bleeding. A layer of Crystals Effects was added with a sprinkling of Dazzling Diamonds, with a second layer added when the first was fully dry. (the back also needs to be done in this way). I made a box in Pink Pirouette.and did a very simple decoration for the lid using a sentiment from the hostess set, Happiest Birthday Wishes. The card was made to match using the same stamps.

Magic Wallet

Yesterday I was 'playing' and trying out a Magic Wallet ready to do with the kids at Craft Club next week - think I may be being a bit ambitious but we'll try. I used this YouTube video as a guide but it was really a matter of having a go myself as it is rather confusing watching someone else doing it (especially when there's no talking!!) but, when you actually do it, it really is quite simple.
I decorated the front with Basic Black and Very Vanilla cardstock stamped with stamps from the Fruit & Flowers stamp set which is new in the Spring Mini catalogue. The flowers were made with the Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower and circle punches - looks like I picked it up before the glue had dried though as the pearl is supposed to be in the centre, didn't even notice until I looked at the photo :0)