Bank holiday weather - somewhere else!

It's a bank holiday weekend in the UK so naturally I thought it would be the perfect time to make a Christmas card! The challenge at Less is More (where I was delighted to discover I'd been showcased!) is Humour this week and the ladies at the 52 {Christmas} card throwdown would like to see some Bakers Twine so I put them together to make this card:

I have now photographed this card three times and I cannot get the photos to look white and clean! Anyway, I hope you can see through the murk: The sentiment was computer-generated using a font called 'Give you Glory' - it says 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... somewhere else!' I stamped the branch from Stampin' Up's Take Care set and loaded it with 'snow', heat embossed with white embossing powder. The same technique was used to add snowflakes around it, then I sponged over it with Pool Party ink and wiped the image clean.

This little owl shivering away on the branch is from the Aviary set. I stamped him onto designer paper and defined his eyes with a marker and then snuggled him up in a bakers twine scarf and a little hood made with the Christmas ornament punch in my Merry Minis punch pack. Isn't he a cutie?! I just want to pinch his little cheeks!

I shall also be entering this card in Sandra's Rudolph Day challenge (kindly set up to encourage us to get at least some of our Christmas cards made throughout the year!)

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Take Care, Aviary, (computer-generated sentiment)
Ink: Soft Suede
Card stock: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Basic Black markers, scrap of Patterns designer paper, paper snips, stamp-a-majig, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, versamark, white embossing powder, heat tool
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
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People sometimes ask me where I get my inspiration from and I have no hesitation is saying that today's owl looks how I felt yesterday (except that my skin was blue!) It was like November here! The sun has come out today but I don't trust it... I'm certainly not about to go trotting outside with my swimming cozzy on!

Hope you enjoy your weekend - an extra long one if you're in the UK! I'll be back on Tuesday with the first photos of my This and That journal. Hope to see you then.

We have all been so excited about the new online shopping facility but I'm so sorry to say that Stampin' Up have had to suspend it temporarily due to some unforeseen issues. Rest assured that the company is working hard to sort these out and I'm sure it will be up and running soon - of course I will keep you informed.

Meanwhile, I'm available as always to help you with your orders. Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back with another project very soon.

Hugs,

Kindness Matters with borders

After another hectic week, I've finally had time to make a card for two of my favourite challenges. There's another glorious colour palette at the ColourQ and the theme at One Layer Wednesday, hosted by Heather this week, is Borders. Come and see what I've been up to:

This card was great fun to make but a demon to photograph! I began by using my stamp-a-majig to position a row of these beautiful butterflies from Stampin' Up's Kindness Matters set (it's one stamp with a row of three butterflies to make life easier.) These were coloured using markers, then covered with versamark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I masked off the bottom half of the butterflies and sponged Midnight Muse ink gently over the top of the card base - it's best to polish the butterflies with a tissue to wipe excess ink off. The Chamomile wheel added a little texture and I added the Mustard lines with a ruler and marker and some linen thread for added dimension.

I love the three useful sentiments in the Made for You set and this one made my day by fitting neatly into the recess between the larger butterflies!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Kindness Matters, Made For You, Chamomile Wheel
Ink: Basic Grey, Midnight Muse
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Markers, versamark inkpad, clear embossing powder, heat tool, linen thread, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

• Get more for your money this month: Place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

You may have noticed that my blog has had a smart (hopefully) new makeover - do let me know what you think! My new online shop made a little blog maintenance necessary and I suddenly realised that everything was looking a little tired and dated - a bit like me! Tired that is, not dated (well not unless I play my cards right with hubby later LOL!)

My children will finish school for half term today so there'll be hats thrown in the air and dancing in the streets of Buckingham later on. Enjoy your weekend!

Three Minute sponged Stippled Blossoms

Good morning and welcome to Three Minute Thursday, my day for producing a super-fast Stampin' Up card. If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I have been in the grip of Stippled Blossoms fever for the past week - I just can't get enough of this fabulous set! But is it any good for quick cards? Of course it is! Come and see:

Using a torn piece of paper as a mask, I sponged a bit of Lucky Limeade ink over the bottom of some lovely speckled Naturals White card stock. The solid, small flower was stamped using Pacific Point ink and a little more of the ink was used to sponge around the sky area. I used a marker to ink up and stamp a leaf, draw a stem and doodle a centre for the flower.

The sentiment was added using my stamp-a-majig to position it accurately - and there we are: a card in around three minutes! Of course I then decided it needed some Island Indigo bakers twine and it took another three hours to tie the bow for some reason!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Petite Pairs
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Pacific Point
Card stock: Whisper White, Naturals White
Other: Lucky Limeade marker, Island Indigo bakers twine, stamp-a-majig
Click here to order Stampin' Up supplies any time of day or night from my online shop. If you have questions or would like advice, send me an email - I'm always happy to help!

• You can get more for your money this month: Place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

Have you noticed the new shopping button in my side bar? I've been chatting to friends about 24 hour shopping and it's amazing how many of us do our shopping in the middle of the night! I remember when our local supermarket announced that it would be open 24 hours. I was in the middle of having my babies at the time and would sometimes turn up there at 3am in the morning feeling that I was having a real expedition!

See you tomorrow!

Stippled Blossoms chalkboard-style

• I'm delighted to announce that it will be even easier to go shopping with me now that I have an online shop with links to all the gorgeous Stampin' Up products! Once you've made an account with me, you can shop at any time, day or night (without waking me up!) - and my blog feeds into the shop too so you can check which products you need for your projects if you need to. Do pop over and bookmark it now - and don't forget to let me know what you think!

Meanwhile, Stippled Blossoms is still the set that I can't get enough of and today I'm showing you how it looks stamped chalkboard style (if you've been on my facebook page, you'll know where the inspiration came from!) Come and have a look:

It's easy to create these trendy chalkboard images: you just stamp in Whisper White craft ink, dry it off and stamp or colour over the top with markers. It gives a wonderfully chalky look!

I find it's best to use bright colours because the craft ink really fades them out to authentically chalky shades. I added the centres of the small flowers with my white gel pen.

This bold sentiment has been stamped in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I scored a frame round the front panel and sponged the edges with more of that Whisper White craft ink to add to the chalkboard feel. This sentiment never fails to make me giggle as it reminds me of Kenneth Williams! I shall be keeping it for when my daughter leaves home and I need to send her a note card as I know it will make her giggle too!

Here's what you'll need to make these cards
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Oh Hello
Ink: Whisper White Craft ink, Melon Mambo classic ink and markers
Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White (for lining)
Other: Simply Scored, White gel pen, versamark, white embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO PLACE YOUR ORDER INSTANTLY, GO TO MY ONLINE SHOP OR, IF YOU HAVE QUERIES, SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money this month: Place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

I asked my youngest son if he remembered blackboards. "Oh yes," he said. "When I was in year 3 we had a Victorian day and they put a blackboard up instead of the whiteboard and gave us all slates to write on!" I began to feel ancient at this point and hobbled through to the kitchen to make a revivifying cup of tea!

It's Three Minute Thursday tomorrow and I wonder if you can guess what set I'll be using...?! See you tomorrow,

Another way with Stippled Blossoms

You may just get a bit fed up with hearing me go on about how gorgeous Stampin' Up's Stippled Blossoms is... I keep thinking of new things to do with it and loving it even more! If you're after a showy bloom, that large flower is a must but the smaller flower is quite capable of carrying a card too. Come and see:

My usual thing is stamping a panel and mounting it onto a plain card base but I decided to turn that idea on its head for this card!  I stamped a floral design over the card base with the solid flower and small leaves, then placed a plain panel over the top featuring just the sentiment, a fussy cut flower, a scored frame and plenty of white space.

You really do have to get some of these little dahlias - quite a bit of the time it took to make this card was spent squealing over them! They come in all the latest in-colours and are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! The fussy cut flower is given more importance than the background ones by having the detailed line image stamped over the top in a darker colour. (I used Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple which make a perfect pair) and by giving it a dimensional centre.

This happy birthday from Curly Cute makes a good strong focus to the card. There are rumours that this wonderful set of sentiments might retire quite soon so I would advise you to get it soon if you're a fan!

I thought I might link this card up as a second entry to Addicted to CAS where the challenge is Birthday and the fabulous new (to me) CAS on Sunday where the team is looking for Pastel Pretties.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Curly Cute, Summer Silhouettes (background flower centres)
Ink: Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Garden Green, Summer Starfruit
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Simply Scored tool, paper snips, In colour dahlias, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

It still appears to be winter in Buckingham this week but what I don't understand is that the garden has decided to ignore this and press on regardless. "The garden needs an assault," said my husband yesterday. "Salt?" I said, mis-hearing him and thinking of triffids. "Isn't that a little drastic?!" 

I'll have more floral loveliness to show you tomorrow I think. See you then,

Stippled Blossoms with many wishes

When it comes to Stippled Blossoms, I've really got the bit between my teeth! I used it today to make a card using the gorgeous sketch at CASe this sketch - come and see:

Using one of my favourite colour combinations, I started by stamping the large flower and added the smaller flowers and leaves afterwards. Stippled Blossoms is a two-step stamping set so you stamp the solid image first and then stamp over them with the line image to get a lot of definition. You can use a stamp-a-majig to do this but sometimes I think it's nice if it's not too accurate (or perhaps I'm just saying that because mine isn't too accurate LOL!)

Markers are brilliant for giving the flowers coordinating detail and I used the same colour card stock to mat the panel. 

I expect you noticed that the sentiment has gone slightly wrong... It was going to say 'sending happy birthday wishes' and then I got carried away and used 'wishing you' instead so I'll have to send this to someone who has the sense of humour to appreciate the many, many wishes involved!

This is the sketch I was working with today:

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Hopeful Wishes and Petite Pairs (sentiment)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Summer Starfruit, Lucky Limeade, Old Olive, Basic Grey
Card stock: Whisper White, Tangerine Tango
Other: Markers, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

I asked my youngest son whether when he was little he'd believed the wishes he'd made when blowing out his birthday candles. "Yes," he said. "Because they always came true!" He paused. "Of course they were things that were quite likely to come true," he added. "Like wishing we could have take away curry for tea and that I could go to bed late!" What a sweetie he is - always delighted with the simple things in life!

I'll be back tomorrow with another Stippled Blossoms creation. See you then!

Feline peckish with Storybook Friends

It was such a busy week last week that I had to have a lie-in this morning to get my strength back and, when I did finally surface, I ignored the hoovering and the washing up (hoping someone else might do it!) and checked out some challenges - aren't I the rebel today?! Less is More would like to see Cats and Dogs; stamping on designer paper is the order of the day at CASual Fridays; and there's a birthday card challenge at Addicted to CAS. Come and see how I combined them:

Stampin' Up's Patterns designer paper stacks are subtle enough to behave as 'white' space. I stamped the cute little cat from Storybook Friends onto this striped design and then again on a white banner so that I could make the tail appear to drape over it. Let's zoom in a bit so you can see:

A circle of piercing and a line of Island Indigo under the sentiment add detail and I gave that naughty cat a butterfly to bat at - but rest assured no butterflies were harmed in the making of this card! My own cat, Tuppence, is a fiend for eating small flying creatures and actually ate a wasp the other day. I panicked all afternoon but she didn't appear to suffer any adverse reaction!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Storybook Friends, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo in marker form
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Calypso Coral
Other: Patterns designer paper stack in Subtles, Essentials paper-piercing pack and tool, Big Shot, Beautiful Wings embosslits die, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

When my children were small they all enjoyed the Beatrix Potter books and definitely identified with her naughty mice, cheeky squirrels, bold cats and foolhardy rabbits! One of our favourites was the Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher and they would always squeal with delighted horror when the frog says: "I will eat a butterfly sandwich and wait till the shower is over". I still say that now if it's raining and I want to go out, although naturally I've never actually eaten one!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend,

PS. No-one did the washing up and hoovering of course - better do it now!

Stippled Blossoms in a jar

Stampin' Up's Stippled Blossoms set arrived at my house last week and yesterday I finally had some time to see what it could do. The flowers in this set are truly stunning and, since the cue word at CASology this week is 'Bloom', what better set to use?! Come and see:

You may have thought I'd got over putting everything in the Perfectly Preserved jar but all it takes is a new stamp set and I'm off again! Stippled Blossoms is a two-step stamping set - you stamp a solid image and then a detailed line image over the top to create an image that really pops.

Once I'd stamped my flowers and leaves, I fussy cut them (yes, it was a sunny day again!) and arranged them 'in' my jar. I adore these blooms in Calypso Coral!

It was easy to doodle some stems, complete with thorns, using the thick and thin ends of a marker and I finished the card with a sentiment from the Perfectly Preserved set and a simple line to 'ground' the jar.

Here's what you'll need to make these cards
Stamps: Stippled Blossoms, Perfectly Preserved
Ink: Calypso Coral, Raspberry Ripple, Gumball Green, Garden Green, Basic Grey
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Markers, corner rounder, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

These beautiful flowers remind me of the roses at the David Austin garden at Albrighton. We went there a couple of years ago on my birthday and I was in heaven wandering around inhaling the scent of the roses... at least I was until I realised that all the children were doing impressions of me sniffing the roses, complete with vulgar pig noises!

What are the chances of 'crafting weather' this weekend? Quite high I think... Have fun, whatever you're up to, and I'll see you back here very soon.

Three Minute masculine washi tape card

Things have been so manic around here lately that I haven't had time to get going on my This and That journal (although I have heaps of ideas!) but I've not been able to resist the lure of the washi tape that came in the bundle - I'm LOVING it!!! It's perfect for making quick cards too - like this masculine card I made for my Three Minute Thursday spot today. Come and see:

Washi tape is a bit like masking tape (only a bit shinier and heaps more decorative!) and you can tear it easily. The This and That washi tapes  - you can see them in the photo above - are lovely and edgy and coordinate beautifully.

To make this card, I stamped my panel with the splodge image from French Foliage, using Crumb Cake and Basic Grey inks, then added strips of washi tape quite randomly over the top. Can you see how the inking shows nicely through the translucent tape? Those coral asterisks at the top were stamped with the This and That rotary stamp - another thing I'm really excited about!

The card was finished with this blocky happy birthday sentiment from Stampin' Up's Essentials stamp set which I find really useful for male cards.
• Don't forget the This and That range is available in a super-value bundle until 30th May 2013. See this post for details.

Here's what you'll need to make these cards
Stamps: French Foliage, Essentials, This and That rotary stamp
Ink: Crumb Cake, Basic Grey
Card stock: Whisper White, Sahara Sand
Other: This and That washi tape, Calypso Coral marker, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

The other day, when my youngest son came in from school, I asked him how his day had been. "Average," he replied gloomily. "Well that's a bonus then!" I said encouragingly. "Isn't Wednesday the day with your least favourite lessons? So you went expecting it to be a bad day and in fact it turned out to be average - that's great!" He looked at me. "It's Tuesday today," he said.

I think it's Friday tomorrow (although I could be wrong!) and I'll be back with another project. See you then!

Celebrating a fantastic downline

When I decided I was ready to help other people run a Stampin' Up business, I chose to name my prospective team 'the INKredibles' and little did I know how apt that name would be. My team really are the most incredible bunch and I am in awe of their collective talent, creativity and energy. I was lucky enough to get together with a few of them last weekend at a Stampin' Up demonstrator-only event in Telford, and we had a brilliant time! Here we are at the end of a busy day:

Inkredibles (from left to right) Victoria Jeffries, Jacqueline Dee, me and Helen White

Do go and check out their blogs and leave them some love: Victoria at Furry Tale Cards and Crafts; Jacqueline at Deezinesart (you may know her as founder of the Make My Monday and CAS Colours and Sketches challenges); and last but not least, Helen at TiaraHelen.

Badges of honour
I'd made some gifts for these special ladies:

Badges made with card stock and copper tape (the stuff you put round plant pots to deter slugs and snails!) that ran beautifully through my Big Shot using the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. I punched out bird shapes using the 2-step Bird Punch, glued them together and gave them a pin on the back. The badges were presented on a tag cut with the Two Tags Bigz die, stamped with the lovely Take Care stamp set and finished with the glorious stitched satin ribbon in Gumball Green, tied up with a little linen thread. And yes, I know it looks as if we're called 'the inky birds' but that's not quite as classy!

Fun and Freebies
Some of you have asked what we got up to at Telford. Well, it was a chance to have plenty of giggles, meeting up with like-minded people, many of whom have become friends over the last three years; we swapped items we'd made which always revs up our creativity; there were wonderful displays of creations using current and new products, inspiring presentations on stage and some exciting pieces of news from Stampin' Up (which have to stay under wraps for the moment!); we had a delicious hot lunch, did some crafting together (well some of us did LOL!), enjoyed the excitement of freebies being handed out randomly throughout the day and finally were all given a gorgeous new stamp set!

Come and join in!
Doesn't it sound fantastic fun?! Well, the Inkredibles is a friendly team and there's always room for a new member, so if you've been considering joining Stampin' Up why not join us? There's a warm welcome for both hobby demonstrators and those wanting to start a business in my team - I'm fully committed to supporting you whatever your reason for joining, and you don't have to be local to me either! Have a browse of my team page to find out more and do feel free to phone me on 01280 820593 with any questions or just to have a chat.
• By the way, this month is a great time to join Stampin' Up as you'll get £155 worth of products in your starter kit for only £99! (Offer ends 30th May)

Hugs,


I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Group or individual orders apply.