Blue Monday

Good morning!

I'm here today to share another Beautiful You project, this time it's a card, and this elegant lady is feeling a little 'blue'...

I sponged the background using Pacific Point ink (I need to practice I think!) and stamped my sentiment over the top.

After water colouring the lady I fussy cut her out and popped her up on Dimensonals.

I really like the simplicity of this card, and the sentiment works so well, doesn't it?

I have one more of these lovely ladies ready to show you, so I plan to be back with that one soon.

In the mean time, if you would like to order this gorgeous set for yourself, please just click through to my shop, over on the right >>>>

(and don't forget to add a FREE Sale-A-Bration item for EVERY £45 you spend!)

Have a (not so blue) Monday!

Pop Of Pink meet Botanical Builder Framelits

Good morning!

I am really enjoying getting back into crafting and blogging lately. There are some truly gorgeous stamps, dies and bundles in this year's annual catalogue and it's hard to resist playing!

So today I'm showing you a card I made for a demo at a local craft group last Monday.

Today's card showcases the Pop of Pink DSP, and the Botanical Builder Thinlits, along with a little Sweet Sugarplum inking, using Sponge Daubers to give the flowers a little colour.

I finished the card with a White Perfect Accents and some scattered leaves. By the way, did you notice where they came from? You know I'm not one to waste anything!

Thanks for popping by again today and look forward to seeing you again soon!

Bloomin' Sweetheart

Good morning all!

Today I'm showing you one of my new favourite dies. You may remember it being in the Spring/Summer catalogue, and I am very excited to see it in the new annual catalogue! I have used it in a slightly different way though....do you recognise it?

The die is from the gorgeous Bloomin' Heart Thinlits. I cut the heart out of Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper. To give the heart a different shape, I die cut a sweetheart shape out of the top panel of my card using one of the new Sweet and Sassy Framelits dies and stuck the filigree heart behind it. 

Doesn't it look lovely? I finished with a simple punch Bitty Butterfly and some Basic Pearls.

I'd love it if you could join me on Friday when I will show you a 'manly' and not so 'lovey dovey' way to use this gorgeous heart.

Have a lovely day and see you soon!

Drunken ladybirds!

Good morning!

I hope you are all well! It's a lovely bank holiday Monday here in the UK so I am going to spend it in my garden, but before I do I thought I would share this little card I have quickly made for the Less Is More sketch challenge this week...

I thought this was a 'me' sketch so I couldn't resist playing along!

And I used a brand new hostess stamp set! 

Now I titled this post 'Drunken Ladybirds'....have a look at these cuties...they remind me of one friend propping another up after a couple of drinks too many, don't you think?? I can just see them dancing and singing down the street on the way home from a great night out!

This lovely set, which I am 'slightly' obsessed with, is Love You Lots and is one of the new hostess sets, available for free from Wednesday with any workshop, party or individual order of £150 or more. I teamed it with the new Sweet & Sassy framelits to create the heart. To give a little depth I popped the top of the heart up on Dimensionals.

I fussy cut the very cute 'drunken' ladybirds (ladybugs in USA I believe?) and then after colouring them in Real Red, I gave them a coat of Crystal Effects to make them shine. You could also achieve a similar effect by heat embossing them with Versamark and Clear Stampin' Emboss, though I would do it before cutting them out!

I finished the card with paper piercing for interest without taking anything away from the simplicity of the card.

Right....gardening calls! Have a lovely day, whatever you're doing!

A little sunshine....

Hello everyone!

I am here to share with you a card I made 2 nights ago, after receiving some very happy mail from a very thoughtful fellow Demo, Caroline Hallett. I have been going through a tough period over the last 10 months or so, but I have pretty much kept it to myself. It has affected me in ways I never thought it would, such as not really crafting or gardening...pretty much getting by doing things I have to do, rather than want to do. But I have started to try and pull myself out of this slump, and Caroline's little gift gave me a gentle nudge (or great big kick up the bum!) to get back me into my craft room!

She sent me a beautiful, and very unexpected package of the brand new In Colours, so I decided I should make her a card to say 'thank you'. This isn't it! I had intended it to be, but then I wasn't very happy with it, do I have made her another which I will share when she receives it.

I used a sentiment from the sadly retiring Feel Goods, (get it from the retiring sale before it sells out!), the sunburst from Kinda Eclectic, and some of the gorgeous new Peekaboo Peach Washi Tape. I used Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum for the stamping, two of the yummy new In Colours for 2016/17...aren't they lush?? The Sugarplum goes perfectly with our Rich Razzleberry by the way.....

So I hope this will be the first crafty item of many that I will be showing you in the coming days and weeks.

Thank you for bearing with me through my tough period, and thank you to my wonderful customers who have kept me active as a Demo....I am coming back and I am coming back fighting!!

See you soon!

I've gone Fluttering Botanical!

Good evening!

So today I had a childless hour to kill before work so I decided to have a little craft time! I don't seem to get much in lately, sadly.

Anyway, here is what I came up with, totally inspired by the latest sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches...

So here's what I made...

I started out with a 6x6in card blank, then cut away 3in from the front right of the card. I embossed the part of the back of the card that shows beyond the front panel using the Fluttering Embossing Folder. Then I scored and paper pierced a 'ribbon' down the front panel. 

I then added 3 x 4in squares cut from Watercolor Wonder DSP...two attached to the front panel, the last to the back panel, all with Dimensionals. I finished with flowers and leaves cut from the fab Botanical Builder Framelits. Again, one of the leaves and flower were stuck to the back panel.

So here's how it looks when it's stood up...isn't it pretty and a little unusual?

I really enjoyed making this card...and I love how it turned out!

If you would like to use any of the products I used today, please do click on the link just over there on the right :) >>>>>>>

Thanks for popping by today...I hope to be back soon!

Pinkies World Card Making Day Blog Hop!!

Welcome to another Pinkies Blog Hop! As it's World Card Making Day today, we hope everyone will get some time to craft, and we've created some lovely projects to help inspire you to create your own beautiful card. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

I have a magic slider card to share with you today...my very first one! I'd love to know what you think of it...

So I started by creating my 'pocket' for the slider element to slide into; (there are some great tutorials on YouTube...I found one by Sharon Griffiths here) which I decorated with some footprints and leaves. 

I then stamped the skeleton from No Bones About It onto a piece of Window Sheet in Stazon White. (It's very important to use the Stazon ink as it is permanent.)

Then on a piece of Pear Pizzazz cardstock, the same size as my window sheet, I stamped the 'body' of my dinosaur and lots of the leaves. I place the window sheet over the green card and added my little tab at the end, making sure not to glue the 2 pieces together! 

I love how much fun this card is don't you?

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog hop! It's time to visit Clare's blog to see her stunning card!

Have a wonderful World Card Making Day!

An Awesomely CASEd card!

Hello!

I hope you're having a lovely weekend? I Keiran came back Friday evening so yesterday we spent some quality time together and went for a 5k run! 

Anyway, today I have a card to share that we made at craft class last Friday...

Now I must admit to CASE-ing this card! I saw a similar one on Pinterest so I tracked it down to the blog it originated from so I can give Chantal the credit she deserves! You can see her card here. 

All the stamping is created using the Awesomely Artistic stamp set...I do love it when you can use so many stamps from one set on a card! Another similar set is Work of Art. 

I added some colour using Watermelon Wonder, and some texture using the Burlap Trim. I trimmed the edges off the burlap and pulled out some threads to fray the edges. I used these threads for the looping behind the dragonfly. The spots are stamped in Gold Encore and I added a little more gold with the sequins. The whold panel is then mounted onto some DSP from the Neutrals stack then onto a Soft Suede card blank.

I really do love this set! Do you have it? Maybe you'd like to share your creations with me? Pop your blog link in the comments and I'll come on over and have a look! :)

I'm off to church now...have a lovely Sunday!

Awesomely Artisitc...me??

Hello everyone!

Wow it's good to be back with a DT card for CAS-Colours and Sketches! I've had a few weeks off as I had some family issues and it took a fair bit of my time dealing with everything, and to be honest, I just didn't feel much like crafting.

But I'm back today with a card I made from just one stamp set...Awesomely Artistic...

I do love this set, ever since I had a play with it at Telford back in May! I've had it a while but just not had the inclination to play with it until now.

I had a little play with the 'kissing' technique on this card....I inked up the flowery stamp and then I 'kissed' it with the fern frond stamps. This gives the ferns a more subtle effect and a slightly watercolour effect. What do you think? The dragonfly was sprayed with water after inking, then stamped, which again gives a smudged, watercolour effect. Why not try it yourself?

You know, I get a lot of people comment on how 'artistic' and creative I am when they see my cards. My reply is; 'I may be creative, but I assure you, I don't have an artistic bone in my body....I just get great stamps from Stampin' Up!'

As I couldn't decide what sentiment I wanted on my card I am leaving it blank, which means I can enter it into the challenge at SUO Challenges where they would like to see cards with no sentiment this week.

I look forward to visiting you all for inspiration...I need lots at the moment after being off so long!

A little bit nautical!

Hi everyone!

I'm back today with my DT card for our sketch challenge at CAS-Colours and Sketches. This week's sketch is a fun, easily adapted sketch...

So here is how I used it...

I used the fab stamp set, Guy Greetings, and stamped then heat embossed the anchor for a metallic appearance.

The sentiment is stamped in Real Read and I used some retired DSP and ribbon to give my card a nautical effect....the red, white and blue work so well together, don't you think? A couple of staples give it a real 'man' feel!

We're looking forward to seeing your creations this week so do drop by and give our challenge a go!

Hats off to our sketch challenge!

Good afternoon!

Today is a sketch challenge at CAS-Colours and Sketches, so here is Jane's fab sketch...

And here is my DT card...

As soon as I saw the sketch I had this stamp set, Guy Greetings, in mind! I figured it would be perfect and teamed with some of the Neutrals DSP I think it makes for a fab male card, don't you?!

I stamped the main hat images in Black Memento ink, then after stamping in Versamark, I heat embossed the top hat in Basic Black Stampin' Emboss and mounted it with a Stampin' Dimensional. 

We've had some gorgeous entries to our challenges recently, and I'm sure this one will be no exception!

Enjoy playing!

A Butterfly Easel card

Good morning to my lovely followers!

This morning I have a lovely easel card to show you which we made at my craft class a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn't got round to posting it until now...

We used the largest die from the Butterfly Thinlits to die cut the butterfly from the centre of a piece of card. We then simply matted and layered the card onto another piece, sandwiching some DSP between them.

We then stuck just the middle of the butterfly down back in position in it's negative and left the wings lifted for dimension. The card was finished with a strip of DSP, some Crochet Trim and a sentiment from Butterfly Basics, punched with the Large Scalloped Oval.

My lovely ladies really enjoyed making this card, along with the others we made that night. If you would like to join our friendly group, please do get in touch...we'd love to see you there!

Pinkies Annual Catalogue Blog Hop!!

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

I have created a really simple CAS card for the blog hop, using one of the gorgeous new hostess sets, Best Thoughts.

Isn't the butterfly stunning? I stamped it in black Stazon onto some of our Watercolour Card, then coloured it with my Stampin' Write Markers and a Watercolour Pen. I fussy cut it to give it some depth.

I stamped the sentiment then paper pierced around it to highlight it. I love how the light shines through the paper piercing!

I hope you liked my card, and now it's time for you to visit the lovely Ilse's blog to see what she has created!

Enjoy the hop...I'm sure you'll find tonnes of inspiration... and see you soon!

Six Sided Sampler....it's been a while!

Good afternoon everyone!
First of all, I'd like to welcome my newest follower, Urska, to my blog. Urska is from Ljubljana in Slovenia and has a lovely, creative blog. I had the pleasure of visiting Ljubljana in 2007...it's beautiful there!

It's my secone week hosting this month at CAS-Colours and Sketches this week and I have designed the following sketch for you...



In my craft class last Friday, one of my ladies was looking through the catalogue and fell in love with the Six Sided Sampler, which reminded me that I haven't used it in quite some time! So as I had it out for her to look at, and my UPS man hasn't been with all my new catalogue goodies yet, I decided to use it for this card!

I stamped the hexagons in Pink Pirouette and So Saffron and punch using the Hexagon Punch, and used a Wisteria Wonder card base. The side panel is embossed with the Hexagon Embossing Folder and the flowers are from Pictogram Punches, punched with the matching Bitty Punches.

I finished with the sentiment from Six Sided Sampler and gem on one of the flowers. A nice feminine card I think!

Now I had a visit from the UPS man yesterday afternoon....oooooh I am so going to have some fun with all those new stamps! Watch this space! ;)

Enjoy playing with the sketch and I look forward to seeing all your creations! :)