A Christmas card

You may recall that my crafting ladies asked if we could make a couple of Christmas cards 

each month - well I found inspiration on Pinterest,but didn't have time to make up

 a card for the ladies to copy. 

I showed the card to Jan on line and she made this sample for the ladies (and me) to copy.

Isn't this super - can't wait to have a go myself and I'll post my version.

Another Great Year

It's my sister's birthday on the 18th, but I can safely post this on here as she doesn't blog

and she isn't crafty! So .... here's the card I have made for her.

Colour Combo is Coastal Cabana, Crumb Cake, Gold and White.

I stamped out different flowers from Petite Petals stamp set in Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake

then cut them out with the matching punch.  Then I heat embossed the others using Versamark and Gold embossing powder and punched these out.

The large sentiment is from the "Another Great Year" stamp set,

stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Gold embossing powder.

The finishing touches were the Basic Rhinestones used for the flower centres.

Ampersand

One of my Stampin' Up! sisters, Amanda, has made several cards using this new 

Ampersand Textured Impressions embossing folder from the Spring Summer catalogue.

When we were first shown this folder at Convention in November, it

did nothing for me at all - it frankly didn't float my boat.

Since seeing Amanda's creations, I have been tempted to buy it

and this afternoon I came up with this......

I used a brayer to ink the embossing folder with Pacific Point ink.

I stamped the corners with one of the stamps from the "Clockworks" stampset.

The words are from the "Loving Thoughts" stamp set 

and the & at the top of the card is one of the  Essentials Hardware Clips

(it's actually silver, but looks black on the photo!)

I'm quite happy with this - watch this space, I could be making more of these!!

WWWU#8 Best Friend

Despite being late blogging today, I am relatively early in making  my card

for the Wade's Weekly Warm Up colour combo challenge.

I am normally on the last push with this, so I thought that I would

get in early doors this week.

The colours this week are

Island Indigo, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit and Sahara Sand.

Wasn't sure  how I was going to put these together, but I do believe 

that they have worked perfectly on this design.

I used a dauber to colour the doily with Island Indigo ink.

I punched a 2.3/8" scallop circle for the centrepiece and stamped

the sentiment from "Label Love" Stampset.

I stamped and punched 3 Petite Petals flowers and punched one Pansy from

Summer Starfruit card stock.

I then punched Itty Bitty flowers in matching card stock for the 3 flower middles.

The leaves were punched using the Bird Builder Punch.

Small Basic Pearls were used for the flower centres.

Thanks for this colour combo Julie - love it!!

In case you are interested - Glynis and I played golf today in the final of 

the Crowther Doubles Matchplay at Sandhill -

AND WON!! Ta Da!!

It was a lovely day, a great game, and fabulous company.

Monochrome Petite Petal Parade

For this card I have used one stamp set from the Sale-a-bration brochure  - Petal Parade

and one from the Seasonal Spring Summer catalogue - Petite Petals (with matching punch!)

A very simple monochrome colour combo of Black and White for this card.

I used the Scallop border punch on black card to layer the strip of card stamped with Petal Parade onto, then stamped black on white card for the punched border flowers

(layered on top of a punched black flower).

The central flowers were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with White embossing powder for the 4 central flowers.

 Basic Rhinestones form the flower centres.

No sentiment on this one - I will put the sentiment inside when needed.

Chalk Talk meets Simply Stars

Went trawling the internet today to find something different for a man's card,

and I happened across Laura's blog and cased this card from there.

Colour combo is Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding and Coastal Cabana.

Stamp sets used are  Gorgeous Grunge,  Simply Stars

and the sentiment from Chalk talk - cut with the matching Framelit.

7/16" Natural Trim ribbon and Early Espresso Bakers Twine.

Thanks for the inspiration Laura.

Fabulous Florets

I am making a concerted effort to ink up unused stamp sets (shame!!)

I thought that I would make a card for our WWWU (Wades Weekly Warm Up) 

using this one - Fabulous Florets.

The colour combo Julie has selected for us this week is

Primrose Petals, Gumball Green, Crisp Cantaloupe and Coral Calypso.

I have created the background using two of the flowers from the stamp set,

then another stamp is the main image on this card.

I have finished off the feature flower with a Basic Pearl for the centre,

but I don't think you can see it as the light was bad when I took this photo a few minutes ago.

Note to self - take photos when sun shining!!

I

Hip Hip Hurray

Yesterday I received my Hip Hip Hurray Designer card Kit. 

This is a great way to introduce the art of stamping and cardmaking to anyone who

hasn't yet experienced the pleasure of Stampin' Up! products.

The kit contains everything necessary (minus scissors) to create

20 beautiful cards and it also makes a perfect gift for a creative friend

or indeed for you if you haven't experienced the thrill of creating your your own cards.

Here are three for you to see

You don't even need glue to create these cards as all the embellishments are

self adhesive, so there's no mess, so they would be great for children too.

I enjoyed making these three cards and it took me less than 30 minutes to make them.

Do you fancy having a go, or maybe someone you know would!!

February Thank You cards

Here are the thanks you cards I am giving to my customer who placed orders in February.

Close up - Midnight Muse

Crumb Cake and Melon Mambo

Tangerine Tango and Basic Black

Bermuda Bay and Rich Bazzleberry

Very CAS thank you cards utilising the Burlap ribbon -

I simply cut squares and frayed the edges.

The sentiment is from Postage Collection (Hostess) stamp set.

I used the names colour card stock to mat and layer onto the White base card

(10cm square)  then used the Petite Petals punch to make the flower.

A small Basic pearl was used for the flower centre.

Rugby Player Punch art

Today one of my Tuesday Crafting Ladies (and very good friend) Liz,

brought her punch art rugby player and asked for my help in creating a background.

So here is the result.

It's for her 13 year old Grandson Alex - and I am certain that he will be thrilled to bits

with this - or as thrilled as a 13 year old cab be!!

The Rugby player was punched with various Stampin' Up! punches,

and fellow Jems will recognise the pattern as being the UPS Man!!

Fabulous project Liz - thanks for sharing!

Belated Birthday card

Yesterday was my niece's (and God-daughter too) birthday, 

and I am ashamed to say that it was late last night that I realised this.

To put it right , I have set about and made this belated card for Katie

and I hope that she will forgive me (maybe the money in the envelope will help!!)

It's a very CAS card but I think it's really pretty.

Colour combo is Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay and White.

A DL card blank was used.

I frayed a strip of Burlap ribbon and glued it to the white card stock,

layered onto the Coastal Cabana card stock, then onto the base card.

The flowers were punched with the Petite Petals Punch and

Basic Rhinestones form the flower centre.

The sentiment is the only one I have that is for belated birthday

and it is from a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set.

Hope that Katie likes it!!

Happy Birthday!

I would like to enter this into
the Crafting Cafe March Challenge - Clean and Simple
http://www.thecraftingcafe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/march-challenge-clean-and-simple.html

and the Crafting from the Heart Challenge #8 - use Dies or punches
http://craftingfromtheheartchallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/challenge-8.html

Lexie's Congratulations card

Lexie has been taking part in a Dance Festival this weekend. so I made her

a congratulations card in advance;

I was quite right to do so as she came second in her ballet yesterday (out of 12) 

and second in her Modern today (out of 27!)

Didn't she do well!

Here's the card that I made for her.

The colour combo is Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and Wisteria Wonder.

(Lexie's favourite colour is purple)

The colours don't show up very well on this photo though.

Once again I have used the lovely Petite Petals stampset and I have 

cut the butterflies out from the Subtles DSP stack using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit.

The sentiment is from Sweet Essentials,

Purple coloured gemstones from my stash for the flower centres.

All other items are Stampin' Up!

Simple Stems

At our last Jems' Quarterly Training day at Pudsey in January, I was lucky enough to win this stamp set in the raffle, but (like a lot of us do, I'm sure,) had forgotten all about it.

So today, I decided to get it off the shelf and get it inked up!

Here is the result!

The colour combo is Marina Mist, Soft Sky  and White with a touch of Old Olive!

Stamp sets are "Simple Stems", butterfly is from "Papillon Potpourri",

Sentiment from "Just the Ticket" - butterfly and ticket both cut with matching punches.

The matching ribbon is now retired, but I haven't any other Marina Mist ribbon.
I think I will have to hand draw an elongated stem on that top flower -it looks to be floating!
What do you think??

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

...more of the So Very Grateful creations - the ones that Chris and I did together on Wednesday.

Chris's Card

My card

White base card, Crumb Cake card, stock, So Very Grateful stamp set inked in Versamark 

and heat embossed with White embossing powder.

Images inked with Strawberry Slush and Old Olive inks

and sentiment from Perfectly Penned stamped in Strawberry Slush too.

I think that Chris's looks more crisp than mine, but I am happy with the result.

So Very Grateful

As I did the rounds of the blogs that I regularly read, the other day, I spotted 

a card on Zoe's blog that reminded me of a technique that I hadn't used in a while.

Thus inspired, yesterday, Chris (sis-in-law) and myself set about making a couple of cards

utilising this technique.  Here's one of my cards.

Basically, what you do is stamp your image in Versamark, then heat emboss with 

White embossing Powder.  Colour everything in with White Re-Inker and an Aqua Painter.

Allow to dry, then colour in your image as desired.

I chose to leave the flowers white, and just paint the leaves with Old Olive ink.

Two tiny butterflies cut using the Beautiful Wings Embosslits die, and embellished

with tiny Basic Pearls finish this card off nicely.

Colour combo is Crumb Cake and White with a hint of Old Olive

and the stamp set used is "So Very Grateful"

All products used are Stampin' Up!

I have once again left the card without a sentiment, but will add a small sentiment

when I decide what occasion I will be sending the card for.

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you another card that both Chris and I made

and I'll show you them both.

All Occasion card (and hand made template)

Whilst browsing Pinterest the other day I came across a card that had been made

with a Harlequin die.  I haven't got one of these, so I set about and made my own 

diamond stencil.  I used my Stampin' Up! Triangle punch to make the diamond shape,

first of all in paper - and since then I have made one in acetate.

This card was made using the paper template - which was a trifle dodgy

as I was working blind placing the diamonds.  In fact I am quite impressed with the result, it will be a lot easier with the acetate one.

Here's the finished card, that I have decided to leave blank, in fact I shall make a few that will be suitable for all occasions, and will just need a sentiment.

The colours which I used and stippled into the stencil were:

Real Read, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive, Coastal Cabana and Pacific Point.

The flower is from the !Love and Sympathy" stamp set,

but I think that this card with the lovely bright colours will lend itself to many different occasions.

Just to give you an idea of how difficult it was to place these diamonds, here is my paper template!

As I said earlier, it will be a lot easier to make the next card now that I have made one out of acetate.  Enjoy!!

WWWU week 6 - Fresh Prints.

I can't believe that it's week six of Wades Weekly Warm Up!!

It's where the lovely Julie Wade comes up with a wonderful colour combo

and we Jems have to come up with a card using them.

Here's this weeks offering.

The colours are: 

Bermuda Bay, Real Red, Crumb Cake and Coastal Cabana

I have punched the flowers out using the Petite Petals punch in the colours above.

I matted a strip of Fresh Prints DSP onto a broader strip of Crumb Cake card stock.

Two leaves are punched in Crumb Cake card using the Bird Builder punch

The greeting is from "Four You" stamp set.

Basic Rhinestones for the flower centres.

All products are Stampin' Up!

(The photo doesn't do it justice as the colours are so vibrant IRL

but you can imagine them I'm sure!!)

In-Colour Anniversary

Here's a card that my down-line Carol made last Thursday and has given me permission to case.

CAS Anniversary

Colour Combo - In Colours :- Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, 

Coastal Cabana. Baked Brown Sugar.

Hearts a Flutter stamp set and matching Framelits used to cut out hearts.

Small heart punched with Itty Bitty heart punch in Silver glimmer paper.

Basic Pearls embellishments.

Thanks Carol!

WWWU - Sympathy card

I had another sympathy card to make this week , it was for the family of one

 of my Stampin' Up! sisters (one of our Julies' Jems family) Doreen.

I always find it difficult to decide what colours to use on a sympathy card,

but our Colour Combo Queen - Julie Wade comes up with some super combinations

for us to use, so I used this weeks colours.

Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Pool Party and Midnight Muse.

The sentiment is from "Love and Sympathy" stamp set.

image from "Hopeful Thoughts" and the background "Hardwood" stamp.

Double Peek a boo card.

Here's the second card that we made at Anita's on Wednesday - I love it.

Anita made a smaller version for her Convention Swaps in November

 and we had asked her if she would show us the mechanics of this clever card.

Card Closed

Card opening

Card fully open.

It's difficult to see how cleverly this card works on the photos, 

but what happens is, as you open the card, the flowers slide back to reveal the greetings.

We were thrilled to bits with this!!

Colour Combo is a very simple Pool Party and White - with a touch

of Old Olive for the leaves.

The stamp set is Bright Blossoms.

The ribbon is retired, but is available in the Clearance rack still!

Sentiments from Petite Pairs stamp set

Thank you so much Anita for showing us how to make this fabulous card!