WWWU#11 - Neutrals

It's that time of the week again so I am making an effort to participate early!!

Julie has decided that this week we are to use only Neutrals - now I have no problem with this -

it even gave me a suggestion for the colours for my next diamond silhouette card!!

What do you think??

Colour combo Basic Black, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate and White.

Flower spray from Fabulous Florets stamp set

and sentiment from Petite Pairs.

Does it need a Rhinestone in the centre of the flower?

Fabulous Florets

Happy Mothers' Day!!

Have you had a wonderful day?

Well I have!  I started off with a lie in!

After all the activities of the last two days, it has been nice to relax a little.

Simon and Kerry came with the kids - and instead of me cooking for them, Simon cooked for them!  They brought me my Mothers' Day cards - I always get one from Ellie, Lucas and Lexie

even though I am their Nannan - I am quite flattered that they want to send one to me.

Barry then went down to Simon's to help with some work that needed doing in Simon and Kerry's Kitchen - leaving me and Lexie to have "Girly time together" as Lexie calls it.

Lexie decorated a plain bag with stamping, to hold her knitting  (I started teaching her

to knit the other day!) and Kerry amazed Simon by remembering how to knit.

Lexie was impressed that her mum knew how to knit!

Anyhow after that she made a start on her Easter cards.

Later on we went up to the Cemetery, for me to take my mum some flowers for Mothers' Day.

Came home, Barry made tea for Lexie and me, then Kerry came to take Lexie home.

What a wonderful day!

Here's a card that I made and showed Lexie how to make - hope you like it.

Do you recall me making a diamond shape template out of acetate after my first attempt with a paper one?  Well this is the one that I have used (made by punching with the triangle punch, then turning upside-down and punching again to create the diamond.)

I stippled each diamond separately with different shades of blue ink -

Night of Navy, Pacific Point and Tempting turquoise.

Then over stamped with the flower and foliage stamp from Fabulous Florets.

A tiny greeting finishes this off nicely I think.

Matted first of all onto Pacific Point card stock, then White, 

then layered onto a Black base card and voila.

I am really pleased with this and would like to enter it into

the Fantasy Stampers Challenge #7 Silhouettes

fantasystampers

Language of Love

So sorry I didn't get to post on here yesterday - it was just too frantic.

I got up at silly o'clock and finished off the floral table decorations, had breakfast (toast!)

then cello wrapped and decorated the three single roses for the Ladies song.

Went to hairdressers.  Barry and I then went to the Lodge to set up the tables

as we wanted them.  Saw the Chef who kindly offered to fetch pink napkins from

the Cash and Carry for me (to match the pink rose at the top of the table decs!)

That done, I was given a guided tour of the kitchen and basement rooms at the lodge - it was really interesting, it is like a rabbit warren, with loads of little rooms leading off one another.

Barry and I then decided to go and have a bite of lunch - I needed to get refreshments for this morning's Monthly Workshop, so we killed two birds with one stone (metaphorically speaking!)

and went to Morrisons.

Went home, had ten minutes doing nothing, then went to school to pick kids up.

Had to sit and wait for Lucas returning from his Rugby match, then drove home and the kids asked if they could have a chip shop meal for their tea - who am I to refuse - saved me a lot of work!

Took Lexie to Dancing Class, took her back to ours and Kerry arrived at the same time, so

she whisked the kids off home, leaving me a little bit of time to make myself beautiful!!

Once changed into glad rags and slap applied, off to Ladies night.

Had a fabulous evening, super meal, the ladies who won the flower arrangements loved them!

Got a lot of compliments on them too.  Were entertained by the Eden Duo who were fabulous, then a quick tidy up and off home - by which time I was absolutely cream crackered, 

so promptly went off to bed. So you can see why I didn't have time to blog.

  I have held my Monthly workshop this morning, so I have found out a card that

I made at Christine's a few weeks ago, hope you like it.

Colour combo is Baked Brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe and very Vanilla.

Stamp set used is Language of Love.

Chevron punch used on CC cardstock, then the punched pieces arranged

and stuck onto Baked Brown Sugar DSP.

Tiny Heart punched out of CC cardstock and stuck on with dimensional.

Different flowers

Today I have been playing with different flowers - real ones, Roses, Chrysanthemums, 

Gypsophilia and a bit of greenery, plus some florist ribbon swirls.

Here's what I have made

I have to do 8 of these table decorations for tomorrow evening and I've managed to do 5 today.

I will do the rest tomorrow.  It's our Ladies night tomorrow evening, which is why I have done most of the flower arrangements today. I have a class this evening, so won't have much

 time to get any more done tonight.

I also did a different arrangement just for myself - here it is

Close up view

Well I had better have a quick bite to eat - I have to taxi Barry to Barnsley, 

then make sure I am back, ready for my class at 7 o'clock.

A House-warming card

Last month, two of my golfing friends had a house warming party to celebrate the finish 

of all the building work and renovations that they have had done to their house.

I haven't got a specific card for house-warming - and it's not a new home -

so I did a computer generated square greeting (which I am so fond of!)

and here is the result!

I used Versamark ink to stamp the image and heat embossed with White embossing powder.

I then coloured in the whole image with a white re-inker.

The stamp set used is So Very Grateful

Voila - CAS house-warming card!

Easter Card- WWWU#10

Killing two birds with one stone today - another Easter card

plus a Wade's Weekly Warm Up  -  Challenge #10

Colours for this week are:

Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Baked Brown Sugar and Soft Sky

It's a very CAS card

Stamp set and matching punch used - can you guess which one?

I bet you did - Petite Petals!

For the flower centres I punched 1/4" circles and domed them.

Sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Mothers Day card

You may recall that I made a card for my sister Maggie using Petite Petals

 and the matching punch? (well what else!).  Well Jan ( one of my friends and Crafting class ladies)

made this version of the card, and I asked her if I could put it on my blog as I think the

colours are lovely - Well done Jan!!  Great work.

Heartfelt Banner- take 2

I have done a bit more work on my banner today, so thought you might like to see the progress!

I have had to take pictures of the banner in sections so that you can see the detail

I do think that its pretty, but it still needs something else.  Will do a bit more work

when the inspiration takes me again and show you the finished result.

Thanks for looking!!

Another Great Year

Here's the second card that Chris and I made on Wednesday using the

fabulous "Another Great Year" stamp set.

Colour combo is Gumball Green, Coastal Cabana and White.

Stamp sets used - Simply Stars and sentiment from Another Great Year.

The Pool Party twine is from the SAB Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack.

A couple of Basic Rhinestones just to finish it off.

Think this will make a super man's card.

Heartfelt Banner

On Wednesday, Chris came over to craft, and we decided that it was about time

we both made up our Sale-a-bration banners - from the Heartfelt Banner Kit .

The photo isn't very good , but I think that you can see the general appearance.

It needs some photos to personalise it, but on the whole I am really pleased with it!!

And now for something completely different.

Thought it was about time I used a different stamp set to Petite Petals,

so when Christine came over to craft yesterday she brought with her

the "Another Great Year" set, and we made 3 cards and another project which I will show you once I have managed to photograph it!

Here's the first card - cased from Pinterest.

Card stock is Real Red and Crumb Cake.

Papers from Fresh Prints DSP stack.

Stamp set Another Great Year.

Scalloped Tag Topper Punch

1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon Real Red

3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim Coastal Cabana

Linen Thread.

Dazzling Diamonds Glitter

Dazzling Details Cherry Cobbler

Wasn't too keen on this, but Chris liked it, so glad I did it!!

Celebrate Today - WWWU#9

I made this card yesterday after reading that fellow Crafty Blogger, 

Stephanie from Daily Crafts had decided to quit smoking, so I made

this card for her to hopefully encourage her to keep it up 

(I am an ex smoker who quit over 12 years ago!)

It was also made for our weekly colour combo challenge.

This week the colours selected were:

Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green and Pacific Point.

The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned

and I am sure you know this off by heart now,

for the flowers - the Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch!

Leaves cut using the Bird Builder Punch.

Stephanie - if you are reading this - please email me your address 

and I will post this off to you!!

Easter aperture card

I am really enjoying making these aperture cards, so I thought that I would

design an Easter card using this technique.

I am highly delighted with this CAS Easter card.

The aperture was cut using one of the Squares Collection Framelits.

Sentiments from Teeny Tiny Wishes and Express Yourself.

Flowers stamped in Crushed Curry ink using the Petite Petals stamp set 

and cut with the matching punch.

Basic Rhinestones for flower centres and leaves cut with Bird Builder Punch.

My Tuesday ladies really enjoyed making this quicky Easter greetings card today.

(Probably as much as I did too!!)

Birthday card - versions 1 and 2

Here's a birthday card that I had to get in the post today.

This is what it originally looked like.

version 1

Colour combo is Pool Party and White

Flowers stamped using Petite Petals and cut with the matching punch.

Circle Framelits used to cut an aperture in base card.

Stamp sets used for sentiments - Express Yourself and Blooming with Kindness

And here's the version that went out in the post

Version 2

I had an accident with version 1 - I was trying to rub off a little bit of glue

off the inside with a glue rubber and I must have been too heavy handed as it ripped 

the top layer of the paper and totally ruined the inside of the card.

I cut the front off the card and stamped the greeting on another piece of card,

glued the card front on top of the sentiment, then layered onto a larger base card.

Think I like the second version better anyhow!

what do you think?

Belated Birthday - tut tut.

I am ashamed to confess that I forgot a friends birthday on Thursday (13th)

so when Carol (from my Thursday class) showed me a quick card to make

on Pinterest, I jumped at the chance.

Believe it or not this card is advertised as taking 48 seconds to make!

Test it out for yourself - it's true!

Here it is.

I used one of the Stampin' Up! Note cards and envelopes,

Gingham Garden Designer Washi Tape, an adhesive backed cork flower

(from the S-A-B Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack)

and the greeting is from a now retired stamp set

(but it's the only belated greeting I possess!!)

I am really pleased with this!

Hope that you enjoyed your Birthday too Cheryl - better late than never!!

All products are Stampin' Up!

My Magical Season

On Thursday I showed you the card that Jan made in class, inspired by a 

card I had found on Pinterest, I couldn't wait to have a go at this myself

and here's my version!

Same stamp - Magical Season (now retired) and basic design of  punched stars, 

glued  around a circular aperture- just a different colour combo.

Jan used blues with Silver glimmer and I have used Black and Gray with Silver Shimmer.

Wonder what other colour combo would look good - mmmmm.

(watch this space!)

A Christmas card

You may recall that my crafting ladies asked if we could make a couple of Christmas cards 

each month - well I found inspiration on Pinterest,but didn't have time to make up

 a card for the ladies to copy. 

I showed the card to Jan on line and she made this sample for the ladies (and me) to copy.

Isn't this super - can't wait to have a go myself and I'll post my version.

Another Great Year

It's my sister's birthday on the 18th, but I can safely post this on here as she doesn't blog

and she isn't crafty! So .... here's the card I have made for her.

Colour Combo is Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake, Gold and White.

I stamped out different flowers from Petite Petals stamp set in Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake

then cut them out with the matching punch.  Then I heat embossed the others using Versamark and Gold embossing powder and punched these out.

The large sentiment is from the "Another Great Year" stamp set,

stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Gold embossing powder.

The finishing touches were the Basic Rhinestones used for the flower centres.

Ampersand

One of my Stampin' Up! sisters, Amanda, has made several cards using this new 

Ampersand Textured Impressions embossing folder from the Spring Summer catalogue.

When we were first shown this folder at Convention in November, it

did nothing for me at all - it frankly didn't float my boat.

Since seeing Amanda's creations, I have been tempted to buy it

and this afternoon I came up with this......

I used a brayer to ink the embossing folder with Pacific Point ink.

I stamped the corners with one of the stamps from the "Clockworks" stampset.

The words are from the "Loving Thoughts" stamp set 

and the & at the top of the card is one of the  Essentials Hardware Clips

(it's actually silver, but looks black on the photo!)

I'm quite happy with this - watch this space, I could be making more of these!!

WWWU#8 Best Friend

Despite being late blogging today, I am relatively early in making  my card

for the Wade's Weekly Warm Up colour combo challenge.

I am normally on the last push with this, so I thought that I would

get in early doors this week.

The colours this week are

Island Indigo, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit and Sahara Sand.

Wasn't sure  how I was going to put these together, but I do believe 

that they have worked perfectly on this design.

I used a dauber to colour the doily with Island Indigo ink.

I punched a 2.3/8" scallop circle for the centrepiece and stamped

the sentiment from "Label Love" Stampset.

I stamped and punched 3 Petite Petals flowers and punched one Pansy from

Summer Starfruit card stock.

I then punched Itty Bitty flowers in matching card stock for the 3 flower middles.

The leaves were punched using the Bird Builder Punch.

Small Basic Pearls were used for the flower centres.

Thanks for this colour combo Julie - love it!!

In case you are interested - Glynis and I played golf today in the final of 

the Crowther Doubles Matchplay at Sandhill -

AND WON!! Ta Da!!

It was a lovely day, a great game, and fabulous company.

Monochrome Petite Petal Parade

For this card I have used one stamp set from the Sale-a-bration brochure  - Petal Parade

and one from the Seasonal Spring Summer catalogue - Petite Petals (with matching punch!)

A very simple monochrome colour combo of Black and White for this card.

I used the Scallop border punch on black card to layer the strip of card stamped with Petal Parade onto, then stamped black on white card for the punched border flowers

(layered on top of a punched black flower).

The central flowers were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with White embossing powder for the 4 central flowers.

 Basic Rhinestones form the flower centres.

No sentiment on this one - I will put the sentiment inside when needed.

Chalk Talk meets Simply Stars

Went trawling the internet today to find something different for a man's card,

and I happened across Laura's blog and cased this card from there.

Colour combo is Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding and Coastal Cabana.

Stamp sets used are  Gorgeous Grunge,  Simply Stars

and the sentiment from Chalk talk - cut with the matching Framelit.

7/16" Natural Trim ribbon and Early Espresso Bakers Twine.

Thanks for the inspiration Laura.

Fabulous Florets

I am making a concerted effort to ink up unused stamp sets (shame!!)

I thought that I would make a card for our WWWU (Wades Weekly Warm Up) 

using this one - Fabulous Florets.

The colour combo Julie has selected for us this week is

Primrose Petals, Gumball Green, Crisp Cantaloupe and Coral Calypso.

I have created the background using two of the flowers from the stamp set,

then another stamp is the main image on this card.

I have finished off the feature flower with a Basic Pearl for the centre,

but I don't think you can see it as the light was bad when I took this photo a few minutes ago.

Note to self - take photos when sun shining!!

I

Hip Hip Hurray

Yesterday I received my Hip Hip Hurray Designer card Kit. 

This is a great way to introduce the art of stamping and cardmaking to anyone who

hasn't yet experienced the pleasure of Stampin' Up! products.

The kit contains everything necessary (minus scissors) to create

20 beautiful cards and it also makes a perfect gift for a creative friend

or indeed for you if you haven't experienced the thrill of creating your your own cards.

Here are three for you to see

You don't even need glue to create these cards as all the embellishments are

self adhesive, so there's no mess, so they would be great for children too.

I enjoyed making these three cards and it took me less than 30 minutes to make them.

Do you fancy having a go, or maybe someone you know would!!

February Thank You cards

Here are the thanks you cards I am giving to my customer who placed orders in February.

Close up - Midnight Muse

Crumb Cake and Melon Mambo

Tangerine Tango and Basic Black

Bermuda Bay and Rich Bazzleberry

Very CAS thank you cards utilising the Burlap ribbon -

I simply cut squares and frayed the edges.

The sentiment is from Postage Collection (Hostess) stamp set.

I used the names colour card stock to mat and layer onto the White base card

(10cm square)  then used the Petite Petals punch to make the flower.

A small Basic pearl was used for the flower centre.

Rugby Player Punch art

Today one of my Tuesday Crafting Ladies (and very good friend) Liz,

brought her punch art rugby player and asked for my help in creating a background.

So here is the result.

It's for her 13 year old Grandson Alex - and I am certain that he will be thrilled to bits

with this - or as thrilled as a 13 year old cab be!!

The Rugby player was punched with various Stampin' Up! punches,

and fellow Jems will recognise the pattern as being the UPS Man!!

Fabulous project Liz - thanks for sharing!

Belated Birthday card

Yesterday was my niece's (and God-daughter too) birthday, 

and I am ashamed to say that it was late last night that I realised this.

To put it right , I have set about and made this belated card for Katie

and I hope that she will forgive me (maybe the money in the envelope will help!!)

It's a very CAS card but I think it's really pretty.

Colour combo is Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay and White.

A DL card blank was used.

I frayed a strip of Burlap ribbon and glued it to the white card stock,

layered onto the Coastal Cabana card stock, then onto the base card.

The flowers were punched with the Petite Petals Punch and

Basic Rhinestones form the flower centre.

The sentiment is the only one I have that is for belated birthday

and it is from a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set.

Hope that Katie likes it!!

Happy Birthday!

I would like to enter this into
the Crafting Cafe March Challenge - Clean and Simple
http://www.thecraftingcafe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-challenge-clean-and-simple.html

and the Crafting from the Heart Challenge #8 - use Dies or punches
http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/challenge-8.html

Lexie's Congratulations card

Lexie has been taking part in a Dance Festival this weekend. so I made her

a congratulations card in advance;

I was quite right to do so as she came second in her ballet yesterday (out of 12) 

and second in her Modern today (out of 27!)

Didn't she do well!

Here's the card that I made for her.

The colour combo is Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Wisteria Wonder.

(Lexie's favourite colour is purple)

The colours don't show up very well on this photo though.

Once again I have used the lovely Petite Petals stampset and I have 

cut the butterflies out from the Subtles DSP stack using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit.

The sentiment is from Sweet Essentials,

Purple coloured gemstones from my stash for the flower centres.

All other items are Stampin' Up!

Simple Stems

At our last Jems' Quarterly Training day at Pudsey in January, I was lucky enough to win this stamp set in the raffle, but (like a lot of us do, I'm sure,) had forgotten all about it.

So today, I decided to get it off the shelf and get it inked up!

Here is the result!

The colour combo is Marina Mist, Soft Sky  and White with a touch of Old Olive!

Stamp sets are "Simple Stems", butterfly is from "Papillon Potpourri",

Sentiment from "Just the Ticket" - butterfly and ticket both cut with matching punches.

The matching ribbon is now retired, but I haven't any other Marina Mist ribbon.
I think I will have to hand draw an elongated stem on that top flower -it looks to be floating!
What do you think??