Comfort Cafe

Can't believe that it's come round to Wednesday again.  Spent the day crafting at

Chris's (sis-in-law's) today and Anita joined us.

We did a few cards and had a good old play again!

here's the first one that we did.

Yes I know that this looks lop sided, but it's obviously something to do with

my lack of photography skills rather than my rubbish crafting.

There is very little stamping on this card - just the writing on the panel - En Francais.

The colour combo used is Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede and Very Vanilla.

The roses are the Flower Trim, and the leaves are punched using the Bird Builder punch.

The Textured Impressions Designer frames Embossing Folder was used to make the frame,

 which I distressed using Crumb Cake ink applied with a dauber.

I used the Crochet trim with 1/4" Vanilla Grosgrain ribbon and

a few basic pearls for embellishments.

Mmmm I like it!!

Floral Frame thank you

Decided to used my Floral Frames Framelits to die cut this flower shaped card.

Colour Combo is Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and White.

Stamp set - Bordering on Romance 

Sentiment from Itty Bitty Banners stamp set

-flowers coloured in with inks and blender pens.

Mmm - I like this one!

And there's more........

.......just can't keep away from this stampset... Postage Due

This time I have used Stampin' Write markers to over-stamp the main image which was stamped

 in Crumb Cake, then used Midnight Muse for the bicycle frame, Cherry Cobbler for the flower

and Early Espresso for the number 3.

The Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border  punch was used with Midnight Muse card stock 

to make the ribbon border. 

Flowering Flourishes

When Chris came over on Wednesday, she brought two stamp sets for me to play with-

 here is another of the cards that I made using Flowering Flourishes

I trawled Pinterest (don't we all - where would we be without it!)

and found this little beauty to case unashamedly!

Colour combo is Primrose Petals and White, Textured impressions Folder - delicate Designs

Primrose Petals 3/8" stitched satin ribbon and Basic Rhinestone embellishments.

All Day Training Swaps

Today I am in Leeds for our Quarterly All Day Training Event

 with fellow team members of Julie's Jems in Pudsey.

The theme for our swap today is Male projects.

I have great difficulty coming up with cards for men, but here are my efforts.

Early Espresso. Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake - Gold Embossing

Sahara Sand and Early Espresso - Gold Embossing

Marina Mist and Midnight Muse - Pool Party Embossing

Midnight Muse and Marina Mist - Clear embossing on Midnight Muse ink

Basic Gray and Black - Silver Embossing

Basic Black and Basic Gray with Black Embossing

We had to do 30 swaps for this event, but as I have a low boredom threshold,

I made mine in different colour combos as labelled above.

The die is the Lattice Bigs die and the stamp set is Postage Due.

I relied mainly on the colours chosen and the postage stamp image to give a male feel to these.

Think that I have succeeded.

Thank you Liz

Yesterday I went out for lunch with our select little "Ladies Wot Lunch" group and afterwards one of the ladies, my fellow crafter and friend Liz, came back to our house to "help" me plant some seeds.

My help consisted of being the gopher and seed tray/plant pot filler and Liz did all the technical stuff

like putting the seeds in and gently watering them in.  She worked tirelessly, so I wanted

to make her a little thank you card for being so kind.  She is my gardening guru and has

already made a significant contribution to my garden already with her green fingers and

excellent knowledge of all things gardening!

Really CAS thank you card

The colours are actually Early Espresso and Crumb Cake on Very Vanilla

but on this picture look like Night of Navy, Sahara Sand and White!!

Stamp sets used, Just believe, En Francais and sentiment from Curly Cute.

Liz doesn't do blogging, so I shall email the link to her hubby

and get him to show her this post, and I will give her the card when I see her tomorrow!

Thanks again Liz - you are a star!

Jean's Butterfly

A really short post tonight as it's quite late.

Here is the butterfly that Jean made on Sunday night at our house -

 it was for her friends special birthday on Monday.

I have done these butterflies before , so unless you need to know which die

we used, I won't bore you with details.

Jean was thrilled to bits with it - as no doubt, her friend was!

More Field flowers

Chris and Anita have been over today and Chris brought the two stamp sets that I don't own

 (Field Flowers and Flourishing Flowers) for me to play with - yippee!

Here's one of the cards that I made.

Colour Combo is Regal Rose, Basic Gray and Whisper White.

Stamp set is Field Flowers (on my wish-list!)

Textured Impressions Embossing folder is Delicate Designs

The ribbon is retired Stampin' Up from my stash.

I inked the stamps up with Versamark and heat embossed in White, using the

Stamp-a-ma-jig to position the flower heads on the stalks.

The knot-less bow was made using a brad (from my stash) in place of the knot.

I haven't put a greeting on it - I can send it when a suitable occasion arises,

or I might just keep it for me!!

John's grand-daughter Hettie.

Our friends John and Jean came over on Saturday night, but they arrived a little late as John's daughter gave birth to a baby girl just as they were were due to set off to see us on Sunday night.

They took a detour via the hospital, then joined us for a Chinese take-away, then Jean and I

ventured into the craft room, leaving the men watching the golf on TV.

I had promised Jean some crafting, so she asked if she could make a baby card for baby Hattie

(John had said baby was to be called Hattie).

Here's Jean's card based on the blue version that is featured on an earlier blog of mine.

Colour used is Pretty in Pink.

Stampset used is Bundle of Love

Baby details printed on computer then cut with Word Window Punch.

After the card was finished John and Jean received various texts congratulating

them on the birth of grand-daughter HETTIE!! He had got the name wrong - so I quickly printed a new name plate and we stuck it on top of the old one.  She will never know!!!

Happy 40th birthday Kerry

Today is my daughter-in-law's 40th birthday (even though she maintains it's only her 21st!!)

I loved the card that I made for Liz so much that I thought I would do the same design in 

black and white for her - and here it is!!

It was made using the same embossing folders as yesterday's card so the only thing
that I have changed is the computer generated greeting on the card and the colour.
 Mmm  - Idon't know which version I like best now!!
Happy birthday Kerry!!  Have a great day!

Another card for Liz

Liz's husband Alan, asked if I could make him a card for Liz's birthday 

and this is what I came up with.

Colour combo is Bashful Blue and Whisper White.

I have used 5 different Textured Impressions embossing folders-

2 Delicate Designs, 1Adorning Accents, Fancy Fan and Square Lattice.

The hear was cut with the die from Hearts a flutter.

Embellished with ribbon and basic rhinestones.

Flowering Flourishes

Morning all - sorry for not posting yesterday. Had a busy day and then had the children after the

 school run and the rest of the family came for tea.  All in all - a fabulous time but tiring.  

Today I am child minding Lucas and Lexie until teatime, then Barry and I are off to a ladies night,

 so I thought I had better post early.   So without further ado, here is the card that I have made 

for Liz's special birthday (you wouldn't have guessed that would you?)

This is one of the cards that I made at Chris's on Wednesday - using gilding flakes 

and flitterglue - and I am well pleased with this result.

The Stamp set used was Flowering Flourishes and the sentiment is from

Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Happy Birthday Liz !

Stampin' Up! Colour Refresh

Here's the latest news from Stampin' Up! regarding changes to their colour palette

that we will see when the new Catalogue launches in July this year.

The 4 Core Colour families will stay and  there will also still be 2 In Colour families however there is going to be a small change within the Core Colours.

The chart below explains it all BUT please make sure you check out the colours that will be retiring as these will only be available while stocks last 

and not necessarily until the end of June.

So if there are any of your favourites that you can't live without, then you will need to 

act fast and stock up while you can!!  All coordinating products in these colours 

will also be discontinued, including ribbons, buttons and brads, designer papers etc.

The new colours will be available to purchase on 1st July

Well - Hello Doily again

I just love this stamp, my latest acquisition - I have had my money's worth out of it already!

This is for an ex work colleague and fellow crafter, who I don't see as frequently as I ought

- its her birthday on Saturday so this is a combined birthday and thinking of you card-

just to let her know that she is not forgotten.

Stamp sets are Hello Doily and You are loved (floral spray and sentiment)

Colour combo is Midnight Muse, Old Olive and Whisper White.

Doily is stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Floral spray is inked with Stampin Write markers.

Another CAS card for my good friend - you know who you are-

Happy Birthday for Saturday!!

Field Flowers

Been playing at Chris's (sis-in-laws) today and her down-line Anita joined us too.

We played with a couple of stamp sets that I don't own - which is great!.

We played with gilding flakes - and had a lot of fun, but  made a lot of mess

and all ended up with sticky fingers and gilding flakes everywhere.

It's not the easiest of techniques to master, but here is my 3rd attempt!

The colour combo is Bravo Burgundy (soon to retire) Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple.

The stamp set used was Field Flowers for the flowers, sentiment and butterfly.

For the frame, which we used gilding flakes on, we used Papaya Collage.

You can't see the gilding effect on this photo, but it looks lovely IRL.

In Sympathy - Hopeful Thoughts

Today I have made a sympathy card for one of my SU customers 

whose father-in-law passed away over the weekend.

As I said yesterday, I usually turn to this set (Hopeful Thoughts)

when I need a quick Get Well or Sympathy Card and here's another design.

The colour combo is actually Soft Suede, Early Espresso and Very Vanilla

but in this photo it looks like different shades of gray!

I cut a stencil scallop circle (like in yesterdays card) and ink dusted the centre.

Then stamped the tree, and then split up the sentiment using the stamp-a-ma-jig

to place "Thinking of you" under the tree (RHS) and the "Please know that I care"

underneath the tree trunk and centred horizontally.

Another CAS sympathy card that says it all.

More Hopeful Thoughts

Hopeful thoughts is the stamp set that I turn to for those last minute cards 

that you have to make quickly and I tend to use it for Sympathy cards, Get Well cards and generally for the Thinking of You type cards.

Today we have heard that our friend Pat was taken in hospital last night and that she has been kept in for further tests for an irregular heat beat.  This card is winging it's way to her

to let her know that we are thinking of her and hope that she is better soon.

The circular greeting was computer generated on a 6" x 6" card,

then I die cut a scallop Circle template and ink-dusted the scallop circle

using Regal Rose (soon to be retired) ink.

I then inked the flowers with Rich Razzleberry and the branch in Old Olive

using  Stampin' Write marker pens and embellished with tiny rhinestones.

CAS but pretty and thoughtful I think!

Matt's birthday card

Next weekend it's my niece's husband's birthday, and being as how I am always 

at a loss for ideas for men's cards I had to resort to a bunting card.

I also decided that as three of my "masculine" colours will be retired in July, 

that I had better make an effort to use up the cardstock that I have in these colours -

More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy and Not Quite Navy.

(I will really miss the More Mustard as it beautiful for Autumnal colours)

I used one of the Hearts a Flutter dies to make the bunting and stamped them

using the Lovely Letters alphabet stamp set.

The sentiment is from Curly Cute

and the only embellishments are gold brads.

Mmmm - I'm quite pleased with this!

Hope that Matt likes it!

Just Believe again

Another of the many cards that I have to make this month.

Notice I haven't mentioned who these are for - just in case they pop in and take a look at what

 I am doing at the moment - you can never be sure!

I have taken inspiration from a card that I saw on the internet, HERE

on the blog of France "Frenchie" Martin (we aren't related!)

So thanks France for showing me how beautiful these two stamps work so well together.

The colour combo I have used is Certainly Celery with Midnight Muse.

Stamp sets are Just Believe, Hello Doily and sentiment from petite Pairs.

Again quite a CAS card, but I think it's stunning (but I am biased!)

Hello Doily for my sweet friend

This month I will be kept really busy as I have quite a lot of birthdays, male and female, 

so I have made a start today on one of my female friends birthday cards.

A really CAS card that looks a million dollars - don't you think?

I saw something similar using the retired Medallion stamp and thought this would work just as well.

Colour combo is Riding Hood Red (which will retire shortly), Whisper White and Old Olive.

Stamps used are - Helly Doily, You are loved and Petite Pairs.

The doily was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with White embossing powder.

The flower spray from You Are Loved was inked up using Stampin' Write marker pens

in Riding Hood Red and Old Olive. Then this was die cut with the Circles Die (now retired).

The 2.3/8" scallop circle was punched and glued behind this.

This was raised up on dimensionals

The sentiments were both also stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white EP.

I think I might well try this in different colourways.