Bag charm

Way hey!! Only one more sleep and then I am off to Germany for the 

2012 Stampin' Up European Convention in Mainz.

We fly tomorrow at lunchtime and I am getting excited!

We each receive a bag at Convention, and as there will be 700 people there,

 we all have to make something to identify our bag as our own.

I decided to make a bag charm.

I bought the key rings and the flattened bottle tops from a well known internet shop!

I then made up the little beaded gems and fastened them on.

Then I stamped  my initial and punched it out using the Boho Blossom punch

 and then stuck it onto a punched 1" circle, glued it into the flattened bottle top

and stuck the clear domed cover on.

I'm quite pleased with this!

Another Northern Flurry

Here's another card that I have made using the Northern Flurry embossing folder.

It is fast becoming a favourite so watch this space for more of these.

I inked the embossing folder with Night of Navy ink, before sending 

the card in the folder through the big shot.,

I then stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed with White EP,

This was then simply matted onto a White base card.

Another CAS card!!

Northern Flurry

Here's a CAS Christmas card that I really love.

Colour combo Baja Breeze and Whisper White.

I dry embossed the Whisper White layer in the Northern Flurry Embossing folder.

I then used Baja Breeze chalk on top of the embossing to make the snowflakes pop out.

The sentiment is from the Greetings of the Season stamp set stamped in Baja Breexe.

This  is then layered on top of a mat of Baja Breeze, on top of a White base card.

Et voila - clean and simple - but so effective!.

More Altered Art Dictionary pages

Three more pages that I have done today, as a distraction from the monotony of

 mass producing swaps for the Stampin' Up Convention that I fly out to on Thursday!!

Yacht

Pram

Tree

I do seem to have acquired an addiction to these little treasures too!

Blooming with kindness

Another late posting tonight and another of the cards that we made

at Quarterly Training Day last Saturday.

Once again the light is not conducive to good photos, but I hope you can make out:-

The flower and sentiment is from Blooming with Kindness stamp set

and the butterflies are stamped using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and punched

our with the Elegant Butterfly punch

Colour Combo Summer Starfruit, Pool Party and Midnight Muse.

Thanks again to Julie for showing us this little beauty!

Papillon Potpourri

It's a very late posting from me tonight - I have had problems with my camera 

and Barry has now sorted it for me - bless him!!

I am sharing one of the cards that we all made at our all day

Quarterly Training last Saturday.  This is my favourite.

The base card is Calypso Coral, and the DSP is Natural Composition - 

you can see the shine on it in this photo - it is lush!  

The background and butterfly stamps are from the Papillon Potpouri stampset, 

the butterflies are punched using the new Elegant Butterfly punch.

The sentiment is from Tiny Tags -stamped then punched with the Jewelry Tag punch.

Crochet Trim ribbon and Linen thread finish it off.

Beautiful!!  

Thanks Julie for showing us this card

More of my altered art dictionary

Just to give me a break from mass producing my swaps for convention I stamped a couple more pictures for my dictionary.

Owl

Cup

I am really enjoying this - it is so relaxing!!

Believe

Enough of Halloween, before we know it, it will be Christmas! Aaargh!!

Whilst I love Christmas, I never feel that I have prepared for it early enough
and this year is no exception.
What I said I would do is come up with a few new ideas for cards,

then make batches of them in various colours.
So here's the first one, which isn't strictly a new idea, but its a new snowflake
 and a different colour and sentiment - so I suppose it does count!

The light is atrocious at this time of year and doesn't do it justice, but you can tell what it is.

The snowflake is from Snowflake Soiree stamp set (Autumn/Winter Seasonal Catalogue)

I have stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in Clear EP, then sponged

over with Pool Party ink, and finished off with the stamped sentiment

 (also from Snowflake Soiree) in Pool Party Ink.

I might just add a Rhinestone in the middle (if it's not going through the post!)

Altered Art Dictionary

I have been promising myself that I will make an Altered Art Dictionary for a while

(after seeing some fantastic examples on various blogs!)

I couldn't bring myself to deface one of our preciousmuch loved dictionaries,

 so I ordered a cheap paperback dictionary from the internet and it arrived this morning.

Being the simple soul that I am, I started off with some simple images for my first attempts

and here they are .....ta da!!

Mummy

Spider

Witch

Bat

Well it's a start - I might get a little more adventurous with a little more practice.
(I just had to look up how to spell adventurous so it came in quite handy!!)
You may recognise these images as being from the Googly Ghouls stamp set
(which Laura has kindly loaned to me for the week!! - Thanks Laura - appreciated.

Another Spooky Twinchie

Here's my latest entry for the Spooky Stuff Twinchies Challenge.

I have used Pumpkin Pie and Perfect Plum card stock.

I stamped the With  image from the Googly Ghouls stamp set and then used a white gel pen

 for her eyes, the spiders web and the buckle on her hat.

I shall use these Spooky Twinchies to make  4" x 4" Halloween cards.

I would like to enter this in the

Show us your Twinchies Clhallenge #8 - Spooky Stuff

http://twinchie-twinchiehotmaillive.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/challenge-8-spooky-stuff.html

Quarterly Training Swaps

Yesterday was our Stampin Up Team's quarterly training at Pudsey.  There were 30 of us there and as usual we have a swap.

I chose to do bookmarks. 

I managed to get them all done and labelled up in time (just)

and here's a few of them for you to see.

Close up

 

To make these bookmarks, I cut out a load of tags using the Two Tags Bigz die, in various colours, then stamped (and on some I also heat embossed) with the flourish from Creative Elements .
I made the flowers by punching 5 x 1.1/4"  scallop circles, spritzing them, then crumpling them up.
When dry I then fastened them together with a brad and glued them to the circular bit of the die cut.
On the close up photo I had to stick the small oval with the greeting on as I had dropped some glue on it!!

 

Christine's birthday

Today is the very special birthday of yet another Christine - this time it's Christine M,

who regularly comes to my Monthly Saturday 1/2 day workshop.

(I won't tell everyone which special birthday this is Christine - your secret's safe with me!)

As I won't see her now until mid November, I had to design a card that

was pretty flat and would travel through the Royal Mail system safely and economically.

This is what I came up with.

I stamped the background on the  Rich Razzleberry card stock using Versamark
and  the grass/flowers from the Just Believe stamp set. I stamped "Friend" (from Just Believe also) in the top RH corner in Rich Razzleberry ink. I inked up the central image from the Layered Labels stamp set using a Rich Razzleberry Stampin Write Marker, and left the Hearfelt sentiment off it.

I cut this using the Apothecary Accents Framelits die.

When I had done this, I had smudged the central panel, so I had to use a punched Modern Label

in RR and layered the Just for You sentiment (cut with the Word Window punch) on top.

The only embellishment I have used is some Dazzling Details Silver Sparkle on the ends of the flourishes. (The picture's so bad you can't see it, but it really does make it sparke IRL)

I am quite happy with this - and I hope that Christine likes it.

Happy Birthday Christine - hope you are having a lovely day!!.

Plane and Simple

Thursday Craft Club last night and Catherine needed a quick card for her friend's Dad

 who was in the RAF - she asked if I had any ideas. 

This is a card using a retired stamp set -Plane and Simple, and some retired DSP. 

 I kept them because I thought they would come in useful - and lo and behold they have!!

The colour combo is a very simple Night of Navy, Whisper White and Black.

A die cut "Dad" finished it off and Catherine was rightly pleased with it - Well Done!!

Spooky Stuff Twinchies

Here are a couple of Twinchies for the latest challenge on Show us your Twinchies Challenge blog.

I have only used the small oval punch and Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie

 and Basic Black card stock to make these.  Plus Black marker for the spider's legs

and the pumpkin face and White gel pen for the spider's web.

The sentiment is from Tiny Tags.

I would like to enter these into the

Show us your Twinchies Challenge # 8 - Spooky Stuff.

http://twinchie-twinchiehotmaillive.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/challenge-8-spooky-stuff.html

Silver Wedding Anniversary

Today is the Silver Wedding Anniversary of my brother Chris (yes another Chris!!) and wife Jane.

I wanted a special card for them and this is what I came up with.

Colour combo of Silver and White.

I computer generated the greeting on the base card.

For the background I used what is fast becoming my favourite - Creative Elements,

stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Silver EP.

Matted this onto a rectangle of   Silver card (non SU)

I heat embossed in silver an  Apothecary Art image for the centre label, hand cut round this.

and then matted onto a silver frame cut with the Framelits Label Collection Die.

 I added a computer generated name plate for the centre.

Clean and Simple, but classy methinks.

Happy Silver Wedding Anniversary Chris and Jane - may you enjoy many more!!

xxx

David's Birthday

Today is Brother-in-law David's birthday (that's Chris's hubby)

I thought that I would send him a funny card - hope he doesn't take offence!!

It's not a Stampin' Up stamp - I have had it a long time and it's an unmounted one

so I have no idea who makes it at all.

Happy Birthday David!!

Happy Birthday Lindsay

Reading between the lines on Lindsay's blog, I believe that today is her birthday.

If I am wrong then you have an early/late virtual birthday card Lindsay!!

This is a tall skinny card  and the colour combo is Night of Navy and Whisper White.

The carnation was made by punching 4 scallop circles, spritzting,

then scrunched up, separated and  joined together with a brad and left to dry.

I then applied 2 way glue to the edges of the flower and dusted with Dazzling Diamonds.

The Base card was stamped using En Francais inked up with Versamark 

then heat embossed using the new Irrediscent Ice EP to give this glitzy glamour look.

Sentiment from Curly Cute and a big bow and 3 Basic  Rhinestones complete the card.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSAY!!

Belated Birthday Card

I've done it again - I've missed someone's birthday so had to make a belated card.

I missed the post yesterday afternoon as well, so it won't go now until tomorrow!

Oh well - they do say better late than never so I hope Alex will like this card.

The colour combo is Real Red, Cajun Craze and Very Vanilla.

Once again I have used the candlelight Christmas Speciality DSP and I have used the flocked Acetate. 

 To fix it to the card I used double sided tape where the flowers are placed

 and then attached the flowers with the brads to ensure it was secure.

Flowers punched with the Blossom and Boho Blossom punches.

Hope that you had a great  birthday Alex!!

Live, Love, Laugh

This morning was my monthly Saturday morning workshop where various projects have been made today.

Cheryl and Sheila did the Warm Winter Wishes wall hanging,

 Carold D and Ann made the Christmas Ornament Keepsake,

Chris (yes - another Chris!) made Live, Laugh, Love wall hanging, but with a twist!

You can see my original version HERE
and see Chris's version for a fella below.

Hasn't she done a great job of this!!

Latest Twinchie Challenge

I am a little bit behind with my Twinchie this time, and my excuse is I have been on holiday -and I'm sticking to it!! That said - better late than never- here it is- my newest Twinchie.

I would like to enter this in the

Show us your Twinchies Challenge #7 - Anything goes

http://twinchie-twinchiehotmaillive.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/challenge-7-anything-goes.html

Carol's Card

Carol is one of my Thursday Craft Club ladies, and she needed a 70th birthday card

for someone special this week, so I came up with this design and here is Carol's finished card - 

hasn't she done a magnificent job of this!!  I am sure her friend will treasure this.

The card base has computer generated border printed on it.

Colour Combo is Melon Mambo and Whisper White.

Background stamped using Creative Elements.

Flowers and label stamped using Everything Eleanor stamp set and cut out by hand.

Sentiment from Curly Cute - 70 is die cut.

A simple knot-less bow finishes it off.

Chris's birthday

Yesterday I went out for an evening meal with a group of ex work colleagues - 

and it will be one of their birthdays on the 12th - Christine - yes it's another Chris -

 I seem to be surrounded by Chris's and Christines!! 

I took this card for her to open on the 12th - she doesn't blog so won't see it before then!!

I took this photo just before I went  to meet up last night so the light was really bad,

 so the colours don't look true.  I used the new In colour Raspberry Ripple and Whisper White 

as the colour Combo.  I used the Lacy Brocade Textured Impressions embossing folder.

I stamped the large flower from Betsy's Blossoms stamp set.  and then punched out a smaller flower

 from this using the Blossom punch and stamped then cut out the smaller flower- again from 

Betsy's Blossoms.  The sentiment is from Curly Cute.  Obligatory bling - Basic Rhinestones

used for centre of flower and either side of greeting.

Happy Birthday Christine!!

Tiny Box

Today I needed a tiny gift box to put a ring inside (for a friend's birthday)

 - I didn't want to put it in the box that the shop had supplied as it wouldn't really have been a surprise.

 To find something suitable I trawled the internet and found this little beauty on 

Sara's Crafting and Stamping Blog - complete with instructions on how to make it.

I used the Real Red cardstock and the Candlelight Christmas  Speciality DSP as Sara had done 

(because I do think that this is not purely a Christmas paper) 

To make the box I used the Petal Card Double punch to score and cut four panels

 for the sides, base and top.

 In place of the "merry" tag, I punched a "4 you" tag instead, 

using the Tiny Tags stampset and punched with the Jewelry Tag punch. 

I used 1/8" Real Red Taffeta ribbon to hold the box lid closed and to make a bow. 

Just to show how tiny the box is - 3cm square

I am so pleased with this box - thanks Sara for the instructions.
I would like to enter this into 
Craft My Life - All Crafts Challenge:2
http://sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/craft-my-life-all-crafts-challenge.html 

Another birthday card

Here's another one of the beautiful cards that I received yesterday for my birthday

(I got 36, but don't worry, I won't post them all on here!). 

 This one is from a crafting friend and fellow Stampin Up Demo, Cheryl.

Thanks Cheryl - I love it!!

It's my birthday!!

Today's my birthday, and just wanted to share with you this magnificent card that

my sis-in-law Chris made for me - just had to share this with you.

Its a double Tri shutter card - at least that's what I think it's called!!

Card fully open

Card closed

Card semi open

And this is the box she made for it!!

Thank you Chris - this is awesome!!  Love it!!
xxxxx

Baby Boy card

One of the Wednesday crafting ladies wanted to make a card for a baby boy.

I found the inspiration for this one from Pinterest - isn't it a great website!

I used Bashful Blue card stock to make the chest of drawers, and the shape was achieved

 by using one of the Labels Collection Framelits to cut out the piece to form the legs. 

I cut the drawer fronts and inked the edges with BB ink, then punched and shaped and inked the edges of the 1/2" circles to make the drawer handles.

I then stamped and coloured in the various items that are peeping out of the drawers, 

using the Bundle of Love stamp set.

The Congratulations sentiment  comes from the same set.

I really enjoyed making this card - anyone know anyone who has had a baby boy recently??

Ann's Birthday Card

Yesterday was one of my crafting friends - Ann's birthday 

Here's the card I made for her,
This is cased from a card I saw on Pinterest - where would we be without it?

The colour combo is Soft Suede, Night of Navy and Very Vanilla.
The stamp set is new - Betsy's Blossoms.
The paper used is Comfort Cafe, sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.
Little Leaves Sizzlit die used to cut leaves.
Stripes Embossing Folder used on Soft Suede card stock
with Naturals brads for embellishment.
Happy Birthday Ann!!

Celia's Birthday Card

Yesterday was one of our Crafty Bloggers friends, Celia's birthday.

Here is the card that I made for her.

The colour combo is Midnight Muse and Very Vanilla.
The background from Baroque Motifs stamp set (sadly retired now!)
was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with clear EP.
(It does look rather like black in the photo - when IRL it looks glossy !)
The Centre Panel is from the Apothecary Art stamp set, as is the sentiment,
and these are both inked in Midnight Muse.
The only embellishment is the Very Vanilla ribbon.
Another CAS but classy card (methinks!)

Happy Birthday Celia - have a great day!! xx

Heather and Matt's New Baby Card

This is a scheduled post, so I am not sure whether or not I have been a bit previous with this posting.

As I am not at home, I don't know whether my niece Heather has given birth to her baby boy today, 

only that it is due today.  This is the card that I have made for her, and I can safely post this as she doesn't read any blogs.

Card open

Card Closed

Congratulations Heather and Matt!!

Maggie and Ger's Anniversary.

Today is my sister Maggie and husband Gerald's Wedding Anniversary
and here is the card that I have made for them.

Really clean and simple, but I think elegant card .  Whisper White and Silver embossing powder.
I used Creative Elements flourishes stamp for the background,
Apethecary Elements for the centre panel, cut out and layered onto some silver card from my stash,
then cut using the Labels Collection Framelits Dies.
The sentiment is from a retired stampset.
Finished off with a knot-less bow in 5/8" Satin Ribbon.
Happy Anniversary!!

New Calalogue Launches today!!

This is what you've been waiting for - the brand new 205 Pages worth of new Catalogue!!

It's packed full of delicious goodies that will tempt you and inspire you.

So make yourself a cup of coffee, put your feet up and relax whilst you browse through this massive new publication!!

Click here  to view the catalogue online!!

here