Zoo Babies for Hayden

On Sunday it will be my great nephew Hayden's 2nd birthday,

he is the son of my God-daughter (who is also my niece) Emma.

I wanted to make a fun card for him and I reached for my Zoo Babies stamp set

and combined it with the Party pop-up Thinlits dies.

Here it is.

I love this cute little card and hope that Hayden will love it too!

First Christmas card

I have noticed that a few bloggers are well on the way with making their Christmas cards,
 so I decided that I had better get on the band wagon and join them.

Here's the first.

I used the Woodland Textured Impressions embossing folder which featured in the 

Autumn Winter catalogue, but is making Stampin Up history by returning

(after being retired) to the Annual catalogue in June this year.

So if you didn't get it last year, you may well wish to buy it this year!

I used the Christmas Greetings Thinlits dies to cut the word "peace" with Gold Glimmer paper

and used the Jolly Holly Greetings stamp set for the rest of the sentiment.

I used Wink of Stella on the trees for a subtle shimmer.

Right - only 97 more to go!

Another Party pop up card

Here's the second pop up card that I made the other day.

This one is for a male!

Front view

Inside view

Really pleased with the result.

Carol's card

Last night, at Thursday class, Carol needed a design for a special 80th birthday card.

I suggested  that she use the fabulous Large numbers dies with the matching stamps

And here's the finished result.

Great result Carol !

Open top box card

Here's the card that I made yesterday, Chris had done a card like this earlier and I cased it! 

With a little tweak to make it my own.

Card open and stood

Card flattened for ease of posting in a standard C5 envelope

I used the Botanical Gardens DSP and the matching Thinlets dies.

Colours used are Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Cajun Craze and Wnite.

I haven't put a sentiment on as I will decides that when I decide who will receive this!

Sympathy card

Today Barry and I have been to a funeral of one of his Masonic colleagues.

Here is the card that I made for his wife Hazel.

A really CAS card, but believe it or not I enjoyed making this one, which is strange isn't it?

I was quite calm and composed whilst making this, the white embossing worked a dream 

and I was  really pleased with the end result - so much so that I made another one.

You don't usually feel up to making sympathy cards when you need them!

The image is from Serene Silhouettes, the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes, 

And the sentiment banner was stamped from the Bloomin' Love stamp set.

Punch art pirate

The lovely Liz has been busy punching her art out again 

-  this time she has made a pirate for one of her Grandsons.

Isn't this just fabulous!  I love his designer stubble!

Great punch art Liz!

Thinking of you Ashley

 I made a card to send my good friend and ex work colleague Ashley.  She's the one I go walking with each month.  I received an email from her on Friday saying that she had had to have one of her horses put to sleep, and she was obviously extremely upset.  I had been walking with her the day before when she said that she had had the vet out to John-Jo, but that he seemed considerably better on Thursday, so I was quite upset to hear that she had had to make the decision to put him out of his pain on Friday.

Anyway, here is the card that I made to let her know that I was thinking of her.

I have used the Sunburst thinlits die with a sheet from the Love Blossoms DSP stack.

I layered this onto Blushing Bride card stock on a white base card.

The sentiment is from hopeful thoughts.

Here's a photo of Lexie on John-Jo taken a couple of years ago - happy days!

Party pop up card

Today I have been out in the garden whilst the sun was shining,

and spent a couple of hours just tidying up and doing a little weeding.  

If the weather stays fine, I plan to spend an hour each day to get the garden

back in shape after the long wet winter!

After my back decided it had had enough, I went inside and started prepping dinner, 

then went to the craft room to start playing with the Party pop up thinlits dies 

and made a couple of birthday cards.

Heres the first one.

Viewed from the front

Inside view.

Colour combo is Rose Red, Garden Green,Blushing Bride and White.

The flowers were punched using the Blossom Bunch Punch, 

with papers from The Love Blossoms Designer Series Paper stack, and Blushing Bride card stock.

The leaves were punched in Garden Green using the Bird Builder Punch.

I used the Bloomin Love stamp set with Rose Red ink to stamp the front and the inside corners.

The sentiment on the front is from Happy Birthday Everyone,

The sentiment in the inside is a retired set  - Its your Day.

This is my first pop up card and I am quite pleased with the result.

Alan walking the dogs

This afternoon and early evening I have been up to Liz and Alan's to spend time with Liz,
 helping her with her Ladies Evening menus, whilst the fellas were at the lodge.

We had enough time left for Liz to make a birthday card for Alan's birthday tomorrow.

Liz is the lady who does the punch art men, she had decided that she wanted to make 

a card of Alan walking their two daschunds.

Here it is

I think this is absolutely fabulous, it just looks like Daisy and Jessica in their little red coats.

Easter bunny basket

Here's the last of the projects that I made at Christine's last week, 

A little Easter basket with an Easter Bunny scrambling in to get at the eggs!

And here's the view from the back

I think that Lexie will love this!

Another Easter bunny

Here's the second Easter card that Chris and I made last week.

Love this cute little punch art bunny hunting for his eggs!!  

Easter bunny

Last week at Chris's we made a couple of Easter cards.

We decided to use punch art to make the Easter bunnies.

Here's s the first one - the background is stamped with Crumb Cake ink

 on Crumb Cake card, using the Hardwood Stamp.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I think he's really cute don't you?

I'll post the second one tomorrow.

Ladies Night

Yesterday Barry and I went to a Ladies's Evening at the Holiday Inn in Barnsley and stayed the night there. We had a lovely evening and I was thrilled to learn that I had been given one of the table decorations.  Today I have made  a thank you card to give to Lynette and Tony, thanking them for the evening and the beautiful table decoration.

I used the Rose Wonder stamp set and the matching die to make this card, and I think I have matched the colour of the roses on the table menu and in the table decoration.

These pictures taken in daylight don't do justice to the table decoration, which is seen best in dimmed light, as it has a battery light in the bottom of the fish bowl, under the glass pebbles, and it gives off a burgundy glow..

Here is the matching table menu

As you can see I tried to match the thank you card to the colours and theme of the evening.

I'm quite pleased with the result.

Need your opinion please

Can you help me decide whether to leave this card with the black mat on its own, 

or whether to mat it again onto a white card.

It's for my sister Maggies birthday next week, and I can safely post this today 

as she neither crafts nor blogs!

I have used the Botanical Builder Framelits Dies with the matching Botanical Blooms stamp set.

The colour combination is black, white and Crumb Cake, combined with a bit of bling,

using Silver Glimmer Paper, Iced Rhinestones and Basic Rhinestones.

Here's the card without the white behind it

And now with the White card behind it

So this is where I'd like you to tell me which you think has the best effect?

I really can't decide for myself, so if you can let me know your thoughts, 

I really would appreciate your opinion.

Hope to hear from you soon!

It's my party doggy card.

This is a card that we made at Julie's January Training (I think!)

I really enjoyed making this and my crafting ladies have loved making it too.

The  backgrounds are from Its My Party DSP, matted and layered 

on Mint Macaron and Melon Mambo card.

Various punches were used to punch out that cute little doggy

Julie has done a cheat sheet showing which punches to use to make this

And you can find it HERE

The balloons were punched using the Balloon Bouquet punch 

and fine silver thread was used for the strings on the balloons.

Isn't this just the cutest little doggy!!

Get well card for Pete

Yesterday (Sunday) Lexie spent a few hours with me whilst Simon and Kerry went to watch Lucas play football.  She had her English and maths homework to do, and once that was finished, she didn't have much time left before she would be picked up to go home.  She wanted to make a Get Well card for her other Grandad (Kerry's Dad - Pete) who is in hospital after having had a back operation. They were going to the hospital in the afternoon to see him.

So whilst she made her get well card, I made one for Pete too.

Here's what I made in less than 10 minutes!!

A really quick and easy Get Well card, using  Wetlands and Hopeful Thoughts  stamp sets.

The colour combo is Lost Lagoon, Basic Gray and White.

Get Well soon Pete!

Lexie's Celtic warrior shield

You may recall that the other Sunday Lexie was here for the day and she spent most of the day making her Celtic Warrior shield.  Her teacher took a photo of her with it, so I thought that I would show you it.

Her teacher was very impressed with her project, and as you can see from the photo, so was Lexie.

More Botanicals!

I do love the Botanical Blooms and matching Botanical Builder Framelits dies.

I happened across a card by Stampin Up Demonstrator Sandi MacIver using these,

and inspired by this, here's my version.

Colour combination is Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow and Watermelon Wonder.

Sentiment is from Blooming with Kindness, Basic Pearls embellishment.

Youu might want to pop round to Sandi's blog and take a peek at her work HERE.

Rose Wonder

Today I have had a play with the Rose Wonder stamp set and matching Rose Garden Thinlits dies.

Now anyone who knows me, also knows that despite my favourite colour being pink,

 I have a tendency to make lots of blue cards. 

 I recall seeing a play many years ago (I think it was The Glass Menagerie) 

where a young girl suffered from pleurosis, and a boy nicknames  her "blue roses".

I think that with that at the back of mind, it prompted me to make this card!

The colour combo here is Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, White and Silver.

The background was stamped randomly with the rose stamp in Sahara Sand.

The rose itself was stamped in Night of navy, onto Watercolour paper, 

then coloured in with an Aqua Painter and the Night of Navy ink.

I then cut this out but not the leaves.

The rose die was cut out of Brushed Silver card and I removed the leaves from this,

Then stuck it on top of the coloured rose.

The leaves were cut out using the leaf die, and I cut these down to make smaller and larger ones.

The greeting is from Wetlands (you may have noticed that I use the sentiments from this set a lot!)

The only embellishments are two Basic Rhinestones.

I wondered what it would look like if 'winked' it with Stella, so here it is 

- don't know whether it shows up on here, but looks pretty good in real life.

Enjoy!

Jan's punch art cat.

Craft class tonight, and Jan needed a cat card for her daughter.

I suggested a punch art cat, so we scoured the net and found a cat cut using a set of dies.

We compromised and worked out which bits could be punched, and which bits needed to be fussy cut, and here's Jan's completed card.

colours used are: Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Black, White and Blushing Bride.

I think Jan has made a great job a of this and I think that Lisa will love it!!