Sneak Peek -No-stamp card!

Here's a card that I made today whilst Chris was with me, it's a card that uses absolutely

no stamps at all!! It is simply card stock and the brand new MaritimeDesigner Series Paper.

(This paper does match the really fun stamp set that I used the other day - Sea Street.)

Card closed

Card open

Its a Z fold Square flip card - a White 6"x 6" base card is die cut into a flip card

 using the scalloped square die out of the Squares Collection Framelits.

The same die is used to cut the Night of Navy scalloped square.

The central panel is a selected square piece of DSP cut with a straight square die,

which is then layered onto a slightly larger square of real Red card stock.

The back of the card has a half size panel from another sheet of Maritime DSP.

I chose not to put a greeting on this card - it will come in handy for quite a few occasions,

and the sentiment inside can reflect the appropriate occasion.

Something old with something new!

Something old - the flourish from the Everything Eleanor stamp set

and the flowers from Flower Shop stamp set with the matching Pansy Punch.......

something new - the stampin' pads in the 2014-2016 In Colours:

Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow

and the matching Hello Honey card stock.

Put them together with a couple of sentiments from Petite Pairs

and a sprinkling of Gold Stampin' Glitter - and what do you get?

This little beauty!!

It's for someone special whose birthday is next month

- it could be you!!

Sneak peek Sea Street

Today I have had a play with one of the stamp sets that will be available with the launch

of the new Catalogue on July1st - Sea Street.

I have teamed up the stamp set with a sheet of the  Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack.

I have used colours to match the DSP -

Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey and Basic Gray.

Think that this would make a lovely card for a child.

I love those tiny fishes and that cute crab!!
(Card cased from Stephanie Fuhrmann's blog - Here)

My crafting day with Lexie.

Simon and Kerry had loads of jobs to do around the house and garden today, so Lucas went playing with his friends and Lexie and I have had a girlie day together.

We started off doing a bit of shopping, went home and Lexie baked some buns.

Here they are.......

Lexie used a packet mix, and complained of being short changed - there were only 11 bun cases in the box!
I bet you thought she had eaten one didn't you!

Here's a photo of the chef herself with her creations.
(Notice the missing teeth!  The tooth fairy called on Friday night and left her some money,
which she promptly spent yesterday - on loom bands!)

Speaking of loom Bands -
Lexie showed me how to make a "Fishtail" loom band bracelet after lunch.
She chose to have lunch at - yes you've guessed - McDonalds!
We sat outside and ate our lunch as the sun was shining.  Then we had an ice cream
and went back home.  Lexie then gave me a lesson on how to use the Loom
to make these bracelets.  Lexie herself, uses her fingers - but mine are too big!!
Anyhow, here's my first attempt at a fishtail loom band bracelet and I am quite proud of it!

I think I did really well - what do you think!

Sneaky Peek Mossy Meadow - just for you!

Here's a really quick CAS card made using another of the stamps from the Work Of Art stamp set, this time using another of the new In-Colours - Mossy Meadow!

This photo really does not do justice to the lush rich green colour of Mossy Meadow,

I will try and take another photo when the light is better - it's just been so dull today.

Once again the stamp is inked once and then used several times without re-inking

to give this effect.

The hearts have been punched with one of the new Itty Bitty Accents punches,

ans simply embellished with Basic Rhinestones.

Blackberry Bliss ombre effect card.

Woopee!!

This afternoon my Stampin' Up! 2015 Catalogue Pre- Order arrived.

Unfortunately (no I don't mean that )it arrived just before I was due

to fetch the grandkids home from school, so I didn't even have time to unpack my order.

Although I did manage to open the box and take a quick peek.

Knew that I wouldn't get a chance to play proper until they were back home

so tried to forget it until the family went home after dinner.

Once we had waved be bye, I dashed into my craft room and unpacked all the gorgeous new goodies!!

Thought that I had died and gone to heaven.

The hardest thing was knowing what to play with first!

I plumped for the Work of Art stamp set and a new In-colour stamp pad -

Blackberry Bliss.  Up to now it's my favourite new colour.

I also used one of the new Itty Bitty Accents punches.

So without further ado....

Ta da!!

 I created an ombre effect by inking the stamp once and then stamping the image repeatedly

 without re-inking it. I punched the little shamrocks out of the Blackberry Bliss card stock

and the finishing touch was a basic Rhinestone for the centres.

Think that I will make this the design for my customers' thank you cards this month.

Frugal Friday

I am now in the habit of trying to make cards from scraps that litter the desk after a crafting session -

 for this I blame Lizy Bartaby who started me off with this!!

You can see various samples of her Frugal Friday cards HERE

Tonight one of my Thursday ladies made a card that you can see

on  MY BLOG HERE

and these are the bits that were left on the desk when she had finished.

This reminded me of a card that one of my Tuesday ladies had made using the pieces 

that were left after using the Bigz Lattice die recently - I challenged Jean to make a card with the bits

and she made a masterpiece of a flower and a stunning card.

The one that I have made below was just a quick demo to my Thursday ladies

of how you can make a quick and easy card from the bits.

(I'll see if Jean still has her card and post it on here later if she has it!)

Meantime here's my quick and easy 3 minute special!!

I am quite pleased with this - although the photo isn't very good as the light is fading!

The daisy is made of Brushed Gold card (the punched pieces from the Lattice Die)

these are stuck onto a scrap of Black card, then this is stuck onto a small white base card.

The greeting is from "My Friens stamp set and is stamped in Versamark

and heat embossed with Gold Embossing Powder.

Thanks for your inspiration Jean, and your Frugal Friday Lizy!!

Sneak Peek - Fantasy Flowers

Hello everyone - today I have some fantasy flowers to show you -

punched (mainly) using the new In Colours card stock,

most of the parts are simply punched -

parts of these are made with the triangle punch - can you spot which bits?

The new colours are:

Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow, Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist.

I am quite pleased with how these have turned out.

What do you reckon?

More Rev Up the Fun!!

Chris and I got together on a different day last week.  I went over on Friday (instead of our usual Wednesday get-together) We made a card together, then met up with Janice for a spot of lunch, then back to Chris's for pudding - and made another card!!

Her's the second card we made - once again cased from the lovely Jenni Moors blog.

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Slider pulled open

         I have really enjoyed making these cards, and I have resisted buying this stamp set until now!
Believe it or not, but it is now on the Retirement list and the price is reduced,
and I have succumbed and ordered it - a month before the new catalogue launches!  

The colour combo is Pacific Point/ Real Red. Black, Smoky Slate and White.

Stamp sets used - Banner Blast (SAB) cut with matching Banner punch.

and of course Rev up the fun!

Really love this fun card - hope that you do too!

Congratulations

Here is a card that I have made for my down-line Trisha, who promoted to Bronze 2

and achieved Stampin Start part 1 last month.

Didn't she do well - she only joined as a demonstrator at the end of February!

I have used my new toy - the Triangle punch to create this card,

but also have used 3 of the new In Colours that you will be able to have for yourselves

when the new catalogue launches next month, on 1st July.

The colour combo is -

Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow and Lost Lagoon

(the new colours_ along with Perfect Plum and Wisteria Wonder.

Punches used are Triangle, Bird Builder and Itty Bitty Flower.

Sentiments from Happy Watercolour and Sweet Essentials.

Congratulations and Well Done Trisha - way to go!!

Ann's cards

Today was my monthly Saturday morning workshop.

Ann had expressed an interest in making the diamond cards that I made 

using my little template/stencil with the Triangle punch.

I showed her how to make the acetate stencil, and she set to and made lots of beautiful cards. 

Here are some of the cards she made this morning -

if you would like to see more, pop round to her blog and

see the other things she has made HERE

Aren't these fabulous - great work Ann!!

Crafting with Chris

Well it's been a full and busy but enjoyable day.

Up early for the hairdressers first thing, then off to Chris's to craft.

We each made a card, then went to Crystal Peaks to meet Janice 

(Chris and Barry's younger sister) for a spot of lunch.

A quick trip into Poundland for dishwasher tablets on the way out,

then back to Chris's and made another card.

After that came home, cooked dinner and sat relaxing for a while.

Just realized I haven't posted on my blog, so thought I'd better do it now!

Here's the first card that we made today.

Front view - open

 Colour combo is So Saffron, Black and White.

Card base made from 1/2 a sheet of 12" x 12" Subtles DSP Stack.

The pieces that were cut off diagonally at the top are reversed and stuck on the bottom

which you can see in more detail on the next photo

Fully open showing centre panel to write on

Card closed for posting

Part Open showing centre panel detail.

Stamp sets used : Papillon Potpourri, Everything Eleanor and the sentiment from Petite Pairs.

Really like this different fold, have enjoyed making this - thanks Chris!

WWWU#19

Usually I am a little earlier in the week in posting my card, but here's mine now for  WWWU#19.

This week the colour combo that Julie has chosen is 

Soft Sky, Rose Red and Pear Pizzaz.

Stamp sets used - Happy Day, for the sentiments Petite Pairs.

Punches used Label Bracket , Bird Builder, Boho Blossoms, 1" circle and 7/8 inch Scallop Circle.

Basic Pearl embellishments for flower centres.

Another version of this card

You may recall that on Sunday I posted Sheila's birthday card - it was red and white,

well today, here is a different version of that card,

this time with a colour combo of Summer Starfruit, Midnight Muse and Pacific Point.

This is the card that one of my Tuesday ladies chose to make

following the pattern of Sheila's card.

Card open - Front view

Side view

Card closed - front view

This card was made by Janet from the Tuesday class

fabulous card!!  Love the colours and the papers.

Punch Art Postcard - 102 years old!!

I thought that you blog readers might enjoy and appreciate this little snippet.

My friend Barbara (from the Tuesday Crafters) brought this postcard along today.

Her husband Ken is a Philatelist (stamp collector) and had come across this postcard

when sorting through some items that had belonged to a friend of his.

When I said that it was a punch art postcard, I was only joking, but it is a hand crafted

postcard, made out of used postage stamps and the borders of sheets of stamps, 

hand cut and stuck on this ordinary postcard.  I love it for the fact that it's a golfer - not sure whether it is an ant or a grasshopper playing golf - what do you think?

The writing says

Dear Dorothy.  How do you like

my Postcard Manufacturing

I made this especially for you

Auntie B

At the bottom it says Golf at Harrogate.

The postmark is Harrogate and it was posted at 6:15 21st September 1912

Yes 1912!!  It is over a hundred years old!

And it only cost a halfpenny stamp to post.

Notice there was no need for a post code either, Dorothy received this safely - probably the next day!!

Hope that this has been of as much interest to you as it has to me.

A little gift box

At Telford I received a lovely little gift box with two chocolate sweets inside,

 as a swap from fellow Stampin' Up Demonstrator, Maria Mitchell.

Here's my version of this little box.

Front view - closed

Top view - closed

Side view - open

Rear view - open

The box measures 2 inches square by 1.1/4" deep and is a useful size for small items of jewellery.

The colour combo is mainly Coastal Cabana, Tangerine Tango and White.

Paper is from Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper.

Flowers stamped and punched using Flower Shop stamp set with Pansy Punch

and Petite Petals stamp set and matching Punch.

The lid sides are punched using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch.

The fastener is a piece of  Pool Party Twine (SAB)

Flower centre is a Basic Rhinestone.

I really love this little box - thank you so much Maria

Sheila's Birthday

Today is the birthday of one of the ladies who comes to my monthly Saturday morning workshops-

Sheila - and here's the card I made for her.

Front view

Side view

Folded flat for posting.

The colour combo is a simple Real Red and White.

The papers are from the Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack.

Sentiment from Simply Sketched.

Circle Framelits used to make Semi Circle on Easel and Red Circle on top.

Thinlets Circle (for Pop Up card)   used for scalloped circle centre.

Flowers are punched from Whisper White card stock with the Petite Petals punch,

gems for centres of flowers from my stash.

Happy Birthday Sheila - hope you have had a lovely day with your family today,

and have a lovely holiday!

I Phone stepper card

Here's a card that I made, inspired by the lovely Amanda at The Craft Spa

At one of our Jems' training events, Amanda made us an I Phone for her card swap

(it was the all day training when we did all male themed items)

She gave us homework to do - we had to make the stepper card for

the I Phone to be "docked" onto.

Last night Carol and I had a go at making our own based on the instructions that Amanda gave us

 - you can find them by following the link above.

The phone

Front view of  phone "docked" with speakers

Side view of completed stepper card.

We really enjoyed making these - thanks Amanda!!

Love and Sympathy

Needed a sympathy card to send to a friend whose uncle died this week, and due to pressures of time

(and golf) it had to be a quick card. At last nights craft class, I showed the ladies how to make the diamond stencil using the Triangle Punch and then how to arrange the diamonds in a pleasing order.

The card that I produced was ideal to make a sympathy card with.

Here it is.

Colour combo is Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Wisteria Wonder.

The stamp set for the sentiments is Love and Sympathy.

I am really pleased with this - hope that she takes comfort from it.

70th Birthday card

I needed a card in a hurry for a 70th birthday today,

I went to my box of cards for occasions (that I leave blank ready to add a greeting later)

and chose this one as I love the colours on it and knew that Rita would love it too.

I just added the scalloped circle , stamped with an Everything Eleanor stamp,

punched out the middle and die cut a 70 in Crisp Cantaloupe to pick out the colour 

from the (retired Sale-a-bration) DSP.

I added the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and voila 

- a card finished off literally in minutes - managed to get it sent yesterday afternoon,

so Rita will have received it today for her special celebration.

Happy 70th Birthday!!