In the Meadow.

Here's a card I made a few weeks go when I was playing with the In the Meadow stamps.

I wanted to make something totally different, and inspired by a scene on the Internet,

 I attempted this using ink pads and an aqua painter on Watercolour card.

I am quite pleased with the effect, but I think I will keep this one for me

rather than send it to someone for an occasion.

Kate's Christmas crafting without Chris!

This Wednesday I couldn't have my usual get together with Chris as I was playing Golf

at Rotherham Golf Club with my golfing friend Andy.  I had played golf with Andy last Friday at my home club - The Waterfront  , then at her home club - Phoenix on Monday and just to finish the week off in true golfing fashion, I played golf at my old Club - Sandhill with hubby on Friday. Think that I am all golfed out!  No more golf until Tuesday, when I play my weekly game with friend Jo.

Sorry for digressing!  Needless to say, I decided that I was going to make a Christmas card without Chris this week, she can do it later!  This is what I made.

I really love the Cookie Cutter punch, I bought the bundle with the Cookie Cutter Christmas stamps

( And I have since bought the Cookie Cutter Halloween stamps too!!)

there isn't a snowman stamp included, so I simply made up my own, 

using Stampin Write Marker pens to draw his nose, eyes, mouth and buttons.

I die cut the "Happy" using the Hello You thinlits with Red Glimmer Paper 

and I stamped the "Wishing you" and "Christmas" with the Holly Jolly Greetings stamps.

His scarf and hatband were made using stamps of striped paper from my bit box!!

Waste not, want not! I am really pleased with this little fella!

Hope that Chris likes it too.

Happy Birthday Dale!

Yesterday was my baby sister Anne-Marie's partner Dale's birthday

Here's the card I made for him

This stamp set "Wetlands" is one of my favourites  for male cards,

 it's so easy to create a scene with.

The birds in the sky have been hand drawn.

Adam and Heather's Wedding

On Saturday it was my nephew Adam's Wedding Day,

 so all our family travelled to Scarborough to help them celebrate their special day.

Here's the card I made for them.

and here's a few piccies taken on the day.

Adam and Heather

Barry and me

From left to right
Dale, Anne-Marie (baby Sis), Chris (Brother) Maggie (other Sis) and Gerald (Maggie's Hubby)

My son Simon and family

From right to left

Kerry, Lexie, Lucas, Simon

The young ones posing, ready for the photo booth

The gown ups? also posing, ready for the photo booth! 

Well the weather was absolutely dreadful all day and all evening, it never stopped raining,

 but it didn't stop anyone having a fabulous day, and the happy Bride and Groom 

certainly had a day to remember.

September Jems Blog Hop - Autumn Winter Catalogue New Products

JEMS' BLOG HOP - SEPTEMBER

AUTUMN/WINTER CATALOGUE  - NEW PRODUCTS

Well another month has gone by and we are making projects from the new 

Autumn/Winter Catalogue which launched on Thursday, for this month's Blog Hop.

The hardest thing about this month's hop is what products shall I use?
There are just so many gorgeous items to choose from!

After much deliberation I decided to use
Star of Light stamp set with the matching Starlight Thinlits dies.

Pool Party background, Silver foil and Night of Navy on White Star die cuts,
held together with a silver brad.
Sentiment stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Silver embossing powder.
Flourish behind star stamped in Versamark, Heat and stick powder applied and melted, then
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin Glitter applied.
(Hope you can see this)

Night of Navy background on a Silver Foil mat.
White on Silver Foil star die cuts held together with Silver glitter brad,
Sentiment and flourish behind star stamped in Versamark and heat embossed
with White embossing powder.

White background on Night of Navy mat.
Pool Party and Night of Navy on Silver Foil star die cuts
held together with Silver brad.
Sentiment stamped in Night of Navy and flourish behind star
stamped in Versamark and  Heat and stick powder applied and melted,
 then Dazzling Diamonds Stampin Glitter applied.

Three cards of the same design, just with different colourways.

(These three cards are cards that Chris and I made together on one of our weekly
Christmas Crafting days - see the weekly postings on my blog.)

Hope you've enjoyed seeing these cards,
now please hop over to Linda's blog and see what fabulous projects she has to share,
 by clicking on the box below.

Alternatively if you want to go back to Karen's blog to see her creations,
click on this box below.



Enjoy the hop!!

Kate's Christmas Crafting with Chris yesterday!

As promised, here's this week's post on Chris and my crafting day together yesterday.

Here's  just one of the cards that we made using the Santa's Sleigh bundle of stamps and dies.

This is Chris's stamp set, as this set hasn't reached the top of my wish list yet!

Really pleased with how it's turned out.

A simple colour combo of Soft Suede, Gold Glimmer paper and Foil card, and Whisper white, with the fabulous gold bakers twine from the trio pack, and the Falling Snow embossing folder.

All the above items are available from the Autumn /Winter Catalogue, which launched today.

I am sure you will probably love most of the items in this catalogue too, it's so hard to decide which one you love the most, I am truly spoilt for choice.

Cookie Cutter Christmas Sneak Peek

Yesterday evening, after a busy day in the garden, I decided to have a play with
the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch (available from the Autumn/Winter catalogue
on Thursday 1st September) and built a snowman!
Then I found some retired Christmas DSP to create the snowy sky,
added some Thoughtful Branches trees , inked a few snowy hills
and stamped Merry Christmas from the Snow Place stamp set.

I do think he looks cute - what do you reckon?

More of Kate's Christmas Crafting with Chris

I said last week that I would do a regular weekly post of the Christmas projects that Chris and I do on a Wednesday afternoon, so here is one of this weeks cards.

Cased from the blog of Leena Girsa with a little bit of  tweaking.

card open, front view showing double Z fold.

Card fully open showing all three panels

Card closed and folded flat for posting.

A simple colour combo of Night of Navy, White and Silver Glimmer Paper.

Stamp set is Flurry of Wishes  used with matching snowflake punch.

CIrcle Frames dies used for the sentiment and scalloped mat.

Thoughtful Branches dies used for trees in White and Silver.

Woodgrain Embossing folder used for bottom Z strip and shaped slightly to resemble fallen snow.

Do pop  round and take a look at more of Leena's projects.

Another Thoughtful Branches card

At Julies on Saturday I spotted the card that I have cased today, with a little tweaking.

You can see Julie's version on her blog  HERE

And this is mine

I have stamped the leaf from Thoughful Branches in Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate

and Peekaboo Peach to form the background pattern.

I stamped the greeting from Confetti Celebration in Versamark and heat embossed 

with Copper embossing powder. 

I cut the circle out using the Circle Framelits, then stamped and heat embossed in copper

embossing powder, eight leaves, then cut them out and arranged them around the circle.

I coloured in the embossed Happy Birthday using a Crumb Cake Stampin Write Marker pen.

I used the Peekaboo Peach 3/8" Ruched Ribbon under the flower shaped greeting, glued onto the stamped patterned card , and matted and layered first onto Peekaboo Peach card, 

then onto a White 7" X 5" base card.

I am really pleased with the finished effect, and this will be another card for my workshop.

Thoughtful Branches

I am planning a half day workshop using the Thoughtful Branches bundle.

I'm not sure how long some of the cards will take to do, but I do want to make as many cards as possible in the time allowed. So far I have made 3 designs which we did at monthly training and three more cards inspired by Julie and others, plus a carrier bag to take all the projects, the stamp set and dies home in.

This card was inspired by one of Julie's Congrats cards, 

I have altered it slightly and made it into a Happy Anniversary card.

Here's my version.

A colour combo of Silver, Smoky Slate and White.

The tree and branches are die cut in Smoky Slate,

the first leaf canopy is die cut in Silver foiled card.

The top layer is die cut in Whisper white, stamped with Versamark,

then heat embossed with Silver embossing powder.

A simple bow is fastened round the tree trunk with Silver Cording Trim (retired)

The greeting is matted onto Silver foiled card.

Here's Julie's version

Her card was to congratulate Sam on achieving Silver status.

Julie has used 1/8" Silver ribbon on her card.

Kate Christmas crafting and crafternoon tea!

Today I have been to a Social Stamping Day at the Paper Haven with Julie and three other Jems.

We celebrated Allie's birthday, did some really relaxing crafting and Julie surprised us all

by treating us to a crafternoon tea. The scones were absolutely scrumptious!,

So all in all a great day out, with super company and a few more Christmas cards made.

Here's one of the cards I made, using the fabulous Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set,

the matching punch, and thanks to Allie, for letting me punch these great little hats

complete with a little pom -pom using her Jolly Hat builder punch.

Colour combo of Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla.

The papers are the This Christmas Speciality DSP - an absolute bargain at £11.75 for 24 sheets!

The sentiment is from the Snow Place stamp set.

......and here's a photo of the yummy crafternoon tea that Julie set up for us.

The Raspberry Lemonade was lovely and refreshing.

Thanks for a super day Julie xx

Catherine's birthday

Catherine's birthday was on the 13th - here's the card I made for her.

It's a stepped up version of one that we made at monthly training with Julie the other month

And I thought that Catherine would like this.

Christmas crafting with Chris - again

I have decided to make a weekly feature of the Christmas cards 

that Chris and I make on Wednesdays when we get together.

Here's one that I made at Chris's recently.

This card features the fabulous embossing folder Woodland with the In the Meadow stamp set

and a simple colour combo of Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, White and Night of Navy.

I have showed my ladies the  technique of brayering and stamping on the embossing folder

to get the effect above and they love it - must say that I like the technique too!

Paul and Cheryl's Anniversay

As well as the 12th August being Barry's birthday it is the wedding anniversary of a lovely couple who we met on a Nile Cruise a good many years ago, who we still keep in touch with.

Here's the card that I made for them

the stamp set is the Hostess set "Love you Lots" and I have just loved colouring in 

these two cute little hedgehogs - aren't they adorable!

The background papers are the Pop of Pink DSP - one of my favourite colour combos.

Hope that you both had a lovely Anniversary !!

And Denise's Birthday......

I did say that there were loads of birthdays last week didn't I!

Barry shares his birthday with one of my good friends Denise.  

Don't see a lot of her these days, but we exchange birthday cards and Christmas cards.

Here's the one that I made for her.

It's quite a simple card, but I think that these beautiful papers from the Blooms and Bliss suite are so beautiful you could just use the paper on a card with a simple greeting.

I chose to use the papers with the sentiment from Vertical Greetings - so useful!

Barry's birthday card.

Friday was hubby's birthday, and to celebrate he went on a lads golf away day, 

so I didn't see him until late! He had a good day and won £20 for scoring a two.

Here's the card I made for him.

The background paper was from the Serene Scenery DSP Stack.

The waves were cut using the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits dies and overstamped with a swirl stamp from the matching Swirly Bird stamp set - the same stamp was used for the background stamping on the base card, using Dapper Denim and Emerald Envy ink.  The little boat was stamped and then die cut using this bundle.

The greeting is the Stylised Birthday stamp. It's a good size for when you need a large greeting.

I am really pleased with this card, which I believe was inspired by the lovely Amanda Bates.

Amy's card

Here's the card that I made for Amy, I used the same design as the one I made for Lucas,

 but used different papers  - from the Pop of Pink suite.

 The colour combo. Melon Mambo, Black and White, which I really like.

The same stamp and dies were used as on Lucas's card.

Lucas's birthday card

Here's the card I made for our Grandson Lucas who was 13 last Wednesday.

Thought this would be suitable for him now that he is a teenager.

I used the retired Its my Party DSP for the background and the retired Little Letters 

and Little Numbers  dies for his name and the 13. 

They are just the right size for this A6 size card.

The greeting is the Stylized Birthday stamp It's a lovely large greeting,

just the right size for this too.

Whoops where did last week go?

Well it was a fast and furious week last week.  Birthdays  - .Carol and Julie on the 8th,

Lucas on the 10th, Amy on the 11th, Barry and Denise on the 12th (as well as Paul and Cheryl's Wedding Anniversary), Catherine on the 13th and now I can make something just for me and have a play with my Stampin' Up Christmas Pre-0rder  - yippee!!

Meantime I'll show you the cards that I made last week.

This is the card that I made for Julie H, I made the original one at monthly Julies' Jems training 

and fell in love with the stamp set, so I just had to have it!!

(you may have spotted that there are nearly as many Julies in my circle of friends as there are Chris's)

This card uses the Jar of Love stamp set and matching Framelits 

and has a colour combo of Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride and White.

Don't  you just love that matching ribbon?  I do - it's fabulous.

I can't find a photo of Carol's card just now, if I find it later I will add it on to this post.

Jems August Blog Hop - Boxes/Bags/Packaging

Well doesn't time fly - I can't believe that another month has passed by and that the time has come

for our next monthly Jems Blog Hop - where our theme is Boxes/Bags and Packaging.

Here's what I have made using the Perfectly wrapped Project Kit

Front view

Top view

Angled view

This kit was only delivered yesterday, so I have only had chance to make this box,

but here's what you can make with this kit.

---------------------------

My second project is one of the Petite Cafe Gift bags,
to which I have simply added a tag and a Gold Binder Clip

Apologies for the poor quality of this picture, but I think that you can see from this

that the bag has a tin tie closure at the top and the bag is food safe.

------------------------------

My third project is a little box which I have made year in, year out ,

it measures 5 cm square by 3cm deep, it's very useful for small pieces 

of jewellery, earrings etc.

Box closed front view

Box closed top view

Box open

Box open view 2

The colour combination is Melon Mambo, Black and White.

Punches used - Scalloped Tag Topper, Pansy and Petite Petals.

Paper is Pop Of Pink Speciality DSP.

Basic Black solid Baker's Twine

and  a single Basic Rhinestone embellishment.

Hope that you have enjoyed seeing my selection of projects,

so now please hop along to see what Linda has to show us
by clicking on the picture below

OR

If you want to go back and see what Karen has made and the ones before her 

click on the picture below

Enjoy!!