Silver 2 Congratulations

Received our monthly Julies' Jems Newsletter and was delighted to read that my SU sister,
Nicky, has just promoted to Silver 2, so set about and made her this congratulations card.

This is my stampset of the moment - I do tend to use the same stamp set for a few cards, 

then move on to another.  This is Flowering Flourishes, and I have been using

Sis- in- law's (Chris) up til now, but I took delivery of my own set on Tuesday,

and I think I have used it every day since.

The colour combo is Basic Black and Pretty in Pink, the Textured Impressions

embossing folder is Delicate Designs and the sentiment is from Little Additions.

So - congratulations once again Nicky - onwards and upwards!!

Elements of Style

This is the card that Chris (sis-in-law) made for our All Day Training Event swap last month.

Colour Combo, Soft Suede, Crumb cake and Very Vanilla

Stamp sets used are Elements of Style and Summer Silhouettes

Natural Trim ribbon gives it a masculine feel

(you may recall that the theme for the day was male!!)

I think that this card is fabulous - don't you?

Happy Birthday Sharon

Today is my Stampin' Up! sister Sharon's Birthday and here is the card that I sent to her,

It's done in the same way as the card that I posted yesterday, just different colours and sentiments.

Inks - Crumb Cake, Old Olive and Early Espresso.

Curly Cute stamp set used for the "Happy Birthday"

and "My Friend" stamp set used for "my friend"

Happy Birthday Sharon - have a great day!!

Floral Frames monochrome thank you

A really quick and easy CAS card today

I die cut the largest Floral Frames Framelit and used the negative as a template.

Stamped over the template in Basic Gray using the En Francais stamp.

Inked the edges of the frame using a dauber and Basic Gray ink.

Overstamped the silhouette from Just Believe.

Then stamped the sentiment (from Itty Bitty Banners) and fussy cut it out.

Die cut the matching Itty Bitty Framelit in Black and stock the sentiment on top

and voila!!  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Cecilia's card to me

Today I am showing you this fabulous card that I received from Cecilia Alin from Sweden.

I take part in a monthly card swap where a list of names are compiled and the person above you

 on the list sends you a card, but you send one to the person below you on the list.

Today I have posted my card off to Karen, but have already received mine from Cecilia.

(You have to send your card on or before the last day of the month)

So thank you very much Cecilia for this beautiful card - I really look forward to receiving

a card after making so many!!

Hello Doily again

This stamp is fast becoming a favourite of mine - you can use it with so many other elements.

Today I have used it with a die-cut flower from Floral Frames Framelit in Early Espresso,

 a small die-cut doily in Very Vanilla from the Large Delicate Doilies Sizzlits,

 a punched Boho Blossoms flower in Early Espresso  and a punched Very Vanilla Itty Bitty Flower.

I have stamped 3 of the corners with the silhouette stamp from Just Believe.

The sentiment is from teeny Tiny Wishes.

This card is to be sent to Karen Varley, for the Post Crossing - Handmade card swap-

hope that she likes it!

Elegant Lines

Had a day off from blogging yesterday as I had a busy morning, then had the kids after 3:00 p.m.

Fed them plus their mum and dad and entertained them all until 10.p.m. when I drove them home.

Phew - I was absolutely cream crackered - hence no blogging!!

Hope that you like today's card - a really CAS card that I made at Chris's.

Once again - the colours on this card were actually Basic Gray and White 

but look like Night of Navy and White!!

The White layer is simply embossed using the Textured Impressions Elegant Lines

Embossing folder, embellished with Basic Rhinestones.

Sentiment from Petite Pairs.

Papillon Poptpourri

Saw this card on Julie's Blog yesterday and had to case it as I fell in love with it straight away!

Colour Combo is Wisteria Wonder and Pool Party with White.

Stampset is Papillon Potpourri.

Butterflies are stamped on the RHS of the card and the RH edge is fussy cut.

The butterflies are the stamped out again on a spare piece of card stock

but this time they are punched out using the two Butterfly punches.

They are then layered on top of the original images.

You can see the edge detail better in the picture above.

I used the Textured Impressions Designer frames Embossing Folder with pool Party cardstock, then fussy cut out  the oval frame.  Then stamped the greeting

 (from Petite pairs stamp set) onto white card.

This was then punched with the Large Oval Frame punch.

A knot-less bow is made with pool Party Ruffled Ribbon tied with matching Bakers Twine.

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 !