Another of Liz's cards

I showed you one of my friend  Liz's cards that she had made for one of her grandsons

the other week, and promised to show you the other one that she made for his brother 

- well here it is!!

I think it's fabulous - don't you?

She's so clever!

Stampin' Up UK Sale-a-bration Tour - swaps.

Here are a couple of my swaps that I will be giving out tonight!

I'll add the details on how they are made later tonight!

Name Badge for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the Stampin' Up UK Sale-a-bration Tour event in Leeds and my down-line

(and good friend) Carol and I are travelling together to attend this tomorrow evening.

I have made my swaps and only just finished my name badge, 

which is a prerequisite for all these sort of Stampin' Up events.

Here it is, I am quite pleased with this.

Very CAS name badge, using the Back to Basics Alphabet stampset for my name

and  Endless Wishes for the snowflakes.

I used the emboss resist technique, by stamping the snowflakes  in Versamark

then heat embossed with White Embossing Powder,

 I then sponged on Pool Party and Crumbcake ink on top 

and buffed with a paper towel to remove excess ink.

Simple embellishments used - a thin strip of Champagen Glimmer Paper

and I coloured tiny rhinestones to co-ordinate.

Right - must get off to bed now - busy day tomorrow!

Some more Ornamental Pine!

Well I am really getting my money's worth out of this stampset!

Here's my latest card using Ornamental Pine.

Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Soft Suede and White with a dash of Gold glitter.

Only embellishments used on this are a Cherry Cobbler button (retired)

and some Linen Thread.

Festival of Trees ......with scraps!

Today I have been making my Christmas cards in earnest and am happy to report that I have made 6.

These have been quite CAS cards, but I think that they are quite effective.

The basic colours are Pool Party, (Blue again!!) Silver and White

and I have used some scraps of last Christmas's Designer Series Paper

that I just couldn't bear to throw away - I am so glad I kept these scraps!

The stampset is Festival of Trees and the sentiment is from the Wondrous Wreath stamp set.

The tree and sentiment is stamped with the  Silver Encore ink pad.

No bad for scraps eh!

Emboss resist with cling film sponging.

Today I have tried a technique a little bit different to my normal emboss resist.

You stamp in Versamark, then heat emboss with White embossing powder,

then instead of traditional sponging, use scrumpled up cling film to apply

the layer of ink on top. It's a bit more of a grungy effect than ordinary sponging.

I saw this on Louise Welsh's blog

Here's what my card looked like

The stamp set used is Endless Wishes,

and the sentiment is from Ornamental Pine.

Colours used are Pink Pirouette, Pool Party and Coastal Cabana,

Sentiment stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Silver embossing powder.

Two thin strips of Silver Glimmer paper are the only embellishment.

I love this technique - and will try these in different colours.

Watch this space!......

Another Ornamental Pine

Well I have used this stamp set to make several cards, but I think that this card is the one 

which I shall repeat as the one that Barry and I will send out to friends and close family.

The stamp set is of course, Ornamental Pine, which is fast becoming a favourite of mine.

I have used Gorgeous Grunge for the background.

The sentiment is from the Good Greetings Hostess stamp set.

Colour Combo is Crumb Cake, Gold, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla.

The Gold Basic Metal button is a newcomer to the Seasonal Autumn Winter Catalogue.

I have coloured tiny rhinestones to pick up the brown of the cones.

Ribbon and sequins from my stash.

Mmmm - I am very pleased with this one!

What do you think?

Happy birthday Jean

Yesterday I showcased a card my friend Jean had made,

today is her birthday, so I am showing you the birthday card I have made for her. 

I used the Textured Impressions Delicate Designs Embossing folder

to make the lacy border and sponged the embossing with Pistachio Pudding ink.

I wrapped a length of (retired) Pistachio Pudding Stretch Ruffle Trim around the card.

I also sponged a Tea Lace Paper Doily with Pistachio Pudding ink,

then punched a1.3/4" a scalloped circle in white and glued on top,

then on top of this I punched out the Sentiment  using the Label Bracket Punch.

The sentiment was stamped using the Tag Talk stamp set with Pistachio Pudding ink.

The butterflies were stamped using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set, the small one

in Smoky Slate and the large one in Pistachio Pudding.

These were then puched out using the Bitty Butterfly and Elegant Butterfly punches.

Tiny rhinestones for embellishments.

Happy Birthday Jean - hope you are having a lovely day!

Jean's Ornamental Pine

I do so love it when my ladies bring along to class, cards that they have made,

 at home using Stampin' Up supplies.

Here's one that Jean from my Wednesday Class made.

A very CAS card, but so elegant and classy- don't you agree.

The stamp set used was Ornamental Pine, which she stamped

in Versamark and then heat embossed with a mixture of Bronze

 and Silver embossing powder.

(I think they are the colours she said that she used - will check!)

A tiny bow is the only embellishment needed!

Absolutely beautiful Jean - great card!

Must case this one! (Watch this space)

Moonlight and Holiday Home

Spent a great day with Chris (Sis-in law) today, and we only managed two projects -

here's one of them - watch this space for the other one!

It's a little pop-up box card using the Holiday Home stamp set 

and the Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack.

General view

Side view

Front view

View from above

Colour combo is Lost Lagoon, Pear Pizzaz and Smoky Slate.

I love that sentiment!

Bright and Beautiful

I am sure that many of you have noticed that I love to feature blue on my Christmas cards

and this card is no exception.

Colour combo is Night of Navy, Silver and White.

Stamp sets used - Bright and Beautiful  and Petite Pairs

The starry border was punched using the Confetti Stars Punch.

Tiny rhinestones are the only embellishment used.

Ornamental Pine

Well the Christmas Season is creeping up on us so quickly that I have had to up the pace of my Christmas card making, so that I am not on a last minute dash again (as in many years previously).

I have given myself a target of how many cards I need to make each week before

 the posting deadline, and it's not as bad as I expected. 

This is mainly because we have been doing quite a few each week at my classes.

I must get my cards sent off abroad though - Australia, Spain, USA and Japan - 

we must be near the deadline already!

Anyhow - here's the first of a series of cards that I have made,

 inspired by creations on Pinterest, using the Ornamental Pine stamp set.

The colours don't show up very well on this photo, but I used Always Artichoke for the pine needles and stamped the pine cone with Versamark, then heat embossed with Early Espresso

embossing powder, and highlighted it with a white pen.

I ink dusted the sky using Night of Navy, Marina Mist and Soft Sky ink.

I then used the splatter technique using a stiff paintbrush and white ink.

Not sure if you can see this - in reality it has quite a dramatic effect,

but loses this in the photography - sorry!

Fry Box Santa

I really do enjoy making gift boxes ad this one is no exception!

My friend and down-line Carol brought the die for me to cut the fry box out the other week.

We made the box base together using the Fry Box Bigz L die and 

Cherry Cobbler, Black and Gold card stock and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper.

Later last weekend, after doing the rounds of fellow Julies' Jems team blogs, 

I happened across this punch art Santa's head that

 Amanda from The Craft Spa had made

then I knew I had to make one for myself.

I didn't have the moustache die that Amanda used,  so I improvised using 

the bird's wings from the bird Builder punch.

Side view

Front view

I just love it!

What do you reckon Amanda??

Punch art Pop Star

One of my Tuesday Craft class ladies, Liz, (who also happens to be my gardening guru and very good friend!), brought this punch art card that she had made for her guitar playing,

would be rock star, Grandson, for us to see.

Isn't it just fabulous!!

Well done Liz.

(I have another one of her punch art masterpieces to show you, but that's for another day!!)

Endless Wishes

Here's one of the cards that I made at our Julies' Jems Monthly Training last week -

I just love this card and the colour combo!

The stampset is Endless Wishes.

Cardstock is Crumbcake  and Pool Party.

Larger Snowflakes and sentiment are stamed in Versamark

then heat embossed with Pool Party embossing powder.

Smaller snowflake stamped in Lost Lagoon.

Ribbon is Lost Lagoon 3/8" Silky Taffeta ribbon.

Thanks for sharing this with us Julie!

Festival of Trees Tags

Well I may not have started my Christmas shopping in earnest yet, 

but I have made a few tags to tie on the presents!

The Scalloped Tag Topper punch was used on various colours of card stock.

The trees are from The Festival of Trees stamp set and punched with the Tree Punch,

Various colours of embossing powder were used.

The papers are from the Trim the Tree DSP Stack, 

and Gold and Dazzling Diamond Glimmer paper was used.

I'm really pleased with these!

Another Curvy Keepsake box

Chris (sis-in-law) has been over today for our weekly crafting get- together.

It's good to get back into a normal routine after such a hectic month!

I showed her the snowman box and found a couple more designs on the internet,

so can't claim any of the kudos, but I am sure you will agree that this one is so cute!!

I saw this penguin box at Julie's monthly training event last week

(follow the link and you can see more of her makes on her blog)

I just love this little penguin - the kids will love it!!

The punches used are the Owl Punch, Modern Label Punch,

and the Extra-large Oval punch.

Curvy Keepsake Box

I really love this curvy shaped box for table favours at dinner parties, and I am trying

out various designs for the Christmas dinner table.

Here is my first attempt.

Front view

General view

Sahara Sand cardstock was used  to make the box and tag, using the

Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Die.

The stamp set used was White Christmas and the ink used was soft Suede.

I think that I will be making quite a few of these!!                      

I'm back folks!

First of all may I just say thank you to everyone who has contacted me either by phone or email to check that I am well.  

I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have contacted me, concerned for my well being,

Well I am in fine fettle, if a little tired after a very hectic month, the culmination of which was my Ladies Evening last Friday.  I will post more pictures over the coming week and you'll see what's kept me busy.

I am now hoping to settle back into the normal routine and happy to continue blogging!!

So - here's photos of the prototype - version 1 of my flowers for the table decorations.

(You can see by the pictures taken here it was a beautiful sunny day when I

made the first version!)

View from above

Side view

And with the mask added

This is the first attempt of the completed table decoration with the mask added.

The theme for the tables was masquerade if you hadn't guessed!

I'll post more piccies tomorrow.

Nice to be back!