Butterfly birthday with a difference

I am having a break from my alphabet postings for a short while 

so I hope that you will enjoy these projects just the same.

I have lots of birthdays coming up so I won't say who this one is intended for, 

and I hope that they'd enjoy receiving it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I have seen a few cards with the basic design of this one, 

using the Bloomin Heart Thinlet dies and the Bold Butterflies Framelits dies.

Here's my version.

The colour combo is Wisteria Wonder and White.

 I have used Versamark with White embossing powder for the little flower spray, 

For the little leaf spray I have just used Wisteria Wonder.

The sentiment is from Wetlands.

A single Basic Rhinestone is the only embellishment used.

I am really happy with this little beauty and can see me doing this in various colour combinations.

Sad news again today.....

I received a phone call from my cousin earlier this evening to say that our Uncle had died last week, and to give me details of the funeral. This is the second sad news that I have received in a week, 

so I was just glad that I had made a sympathy card earlier on in the week, 

and I will send it tomorrow to my Aunt Lizzie.

This is one of my stand by cards that I make, using the ink dusting technique, 

and stamping the text background (retired "En Francais" but much too useful to part with 

until SU do another  large text stamp) through a circle mask.

I then over stamped the flowers and leaves from the World of Dreams stamp set,

Then added the sentiment (yet another retired set Love and Sympathy) cut out with the Large Oval punch and raised up on dimensionals.

Colour combination is Night of Navy and White.

It was a sad finish to an otherwise beautiful day.

Lexie and I have spent the day together, starting off with crafting after breakfast, 

then making a bedroom for her Shopkins.

Later we went for a lunchtime swim and then had a MacDonalds for brunch.

Then Maths homework - maths using Roman Numerals no less - that got my brain exercised too!

Lexie and I compared our answers (I don't do her homework for her, probably as well!!) 

and she says that I have got one wrong , but I'm not convinced.

We had a difference of opinion over 49 - I still maintain that this is IL, but Lexie says it's not , 

and I can't remember what she said it was.  We'll have to see how the teacher marks this!

After the Maths, Lexie made a Celtic Shield from thick greyboard and Fun foam, 

with white acrylic paint and gold crayon no less.  I have to confess she has made a great job of this.

(I'll try and get some photos, we didn't have time today!)

Simon,  Kerry and Lucas joined us around 5:30 and I persuaded Simon to make the Yorkshire puddings to go with our dinner, which he willingly did, then we all sat down and ate.

So we had had a really pleasant day, which is quite good in view of the later call.

Anyway, had better get a move on or it will be bed time before I get this posted.

Tomorrow is another day - onwards and upwards!

Kinda Eclectic - sympathy card

I had some sad news this morning, my friend, and down line, Mavis contacted me to say that her husband had passed away last week.  Although he has been ill and in hospital before Christmas, he had been allowed home, and was attending various clinics. It was obviously a great shock to Mavis and she is still trying to come to terms with it,

All I could do was express my heartfelt sympathy for her, and whilst at Chris's today I have made this sympathy card and posted it to her.

A very CAS sympathy card, cased from the Internet,

 I have altered the ribbon slider, using the die from Project Life Tags and  Labels dies

 and punched the slots using the curvy trio punch .  

The colour combo is Lost Lagoon, Sahara Sand and Whisper White.  

Once again the stamp set is Kinda Eclectis, I am sure that you will agree it is a most versatile set.

The sentiment is from Wetlands 

Thoughts and prayers being sent to Mavis at this very sad time, God Bless!!

K is for Kinda Eclectic

Here's the card I made for Emma's birthday on Valentine's Day.

I can safely post it now, although I don't think for a minute that she has time to blog hop, 

she has an active 18 month old toddler, who keeps her extremely busy,

 and she works 4 days a week too!

The main stamp set I have used here is Kinda Eclectic - which sums it up nicely.  

There is a variety of styles and images in this set and it is fast becoming a favourite of mine, 

so you may well see some more cards using this set.

The colour combination is the In Colours 2014-2016,

 Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon! Mossy Meadow and Hello Honey.

Other stamp sets used are : 

Rose Wonder stamps (for the sentiment plate) die cut with the matching die.

Sentiment from Wetlands - that's a favourite too

Pictograms Punches - the tiny flowers are from this set 

and punched with the matching Itty Bitty Accents punch.

Gorgeous Grunge is used for all the splats - another useful set!

Butterflies punched with the two Butterfly punches.

Basic Rhinestones on the butterflies. 

 I think I have covered just about everything there!

In retrospect should have put bling in the flower centres.

See you tomorrow

PS if you heard about my iPad dying on me Friday night, I went to the Apple Store 

in Meadowhall yesterday afternoon (after arranging an appointment with an engineer there)

And walked out 20 minutes later with a brand new iPad - no hassle whatsoever.

The young man even spent time making sure that we set it up correctly before leaving the store.  

Well done Apple - excellent customer service!

And today is Valentines Day

Taking a break from my alphabet series today as it's Valentines Day, 

and it's also the birthday of my God-daughter and Niece, Emma (Maggie's Daughter)

So today I'll post the Valentine I made for my beloved Barry - he puts up with a lot from me!!

Who else would let me have the biggest room in the house for my Craft Room, whilst he has to put up with the spare bedroom for his music!!

I computer generated the sentiment around the card.

I used the Bloomin Hearts Thinlets to cut the filigree red heart shape, 

then I used the Hearts collection (now retired) thinlets

in the centre of the black card square to frame this.

Three black gems (non-Stampin Up) from my stash 

and voila - a very CAS Valentine for the one I love!!

K is for Koala

I wanted something Australia themed for my Nephew Richard's birthday next week .

Richard is Sister-in-law Chris's son and yes you've guessed, he lives in Australia.

I think that I've left it a little late for posting for him to receive on his birthday,

so I will email him this on the day!!

Here's my punch art Koala card!!

Happy Birthday Richard

PS I know that I can safely post this on my blog as he will never ever read it!

Jo's birthday

The end of this month sees a very special birthday for one of my special friends Jo.

It's not a landmark occasion, but Jo is one of those special people who only have real birthdays once every four years  - yes she was born on 29th February! So it is quite a special day for her, so I wanted to make her a special card?

Jo isn't a crafter and she doesn't blog, so I am quite safe posting this in advance of her birthday, knowing there is no chance of her seeing this before the big day.

Side view showing the gap

Front view.

I simply used Melon Mambo ink, Flower Shop Stamp set with matching Pansy Punch

And Petite Petals stamp set with matching punch to make this Gap card.

The Back to Basics Alphabet was used for her name.

I really like these gap cards (if you hadn't noticed!)

January thank yous

The next J is for my January Thank you cards that I send to my Stampin Up customers 

as a little thank you for their orders in that month. 

Here is the first batch that I have made today.

And here is a close up

The cards measure 10 cm square, and the stamp set used is Kinda Eclectic 

(make a mental note for the letter K coming up soon!)

Colours used are Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow, Blackberry Bliss and melon Mambo.

A couple of Basic Rhinestones completes the design.

The sentiment is from Watercolour Wings.

I am really happy with these and I hope my customers like them them too!

And J is Just for you!

Here's a card made using one of the free Sale-a-bration stamp sets currently available with every spend of £45.00.

I think that this is a really useful stamp set as you only need a couple of ink pads and away you go

- a really quick card in minutes.

The colours used here are Blackberry Bliss, Bermuda Bay and Pear Pizzazz.

Can you see the odd Wink of Stella on here, not sure whether it shows or not!

J is for Julie....... Continued

This time the Julie is my Stampin Up sister Julie Wade.  

You recall that I said that SU mummy Julie got her gold, well later that evening Julie Wade

got her Silver Elite too, so that meant that mummy Julie achieved GOLD ELITE!!

All this in the space of a few hours - it was a proper domino effect!

Anyhow, I set to and made a card for my Silver Elite twin Julie Wade

A simple colour combo of Night of Navy with Silver, I used the Grateful Bunch stamp set,

 versamark ink and Silver Embossing powder, then punched out the flowers using the 

matching Blossom Bunch Punch (sold as a bundle saving a whopping 15%)

The sentiment was from Cottage Greetings.

I then set about making mummy Julie another congrats card for her Gold Elite this time, so I just repeated the design of Julie W's card, but this time made it in Black and Gold

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, it was late at night when I finished this and the lighting was rubbish, but you can see the detail of it.

Anyhow, all in all it was quite an eventful day for all of us -

Anita, Chris, myself, mummy Julie and Julie W - congratulations to us all!!

J is for Julie.........

Julie my Stampin Up mummy!

During the last week in January a chain of events happened within my Stampin up family.

My Sister-in-law Chris (who is also my downline) gained her Silver status when she signed up her friend and past SU Demo Anita.

All I needed for promotion to Silver Elite was to have a Silver downline, which Chris had now, so I got my promotion.

Julie only needed a Silver Elite in her downline for her to be promoted to GOLD!!

So consequently she got her promotion too.

Here's the congratulation card that I made for her.

L

With a very classy colour scheme of Black, Gold and White, 

I used the Little Numbers Thinlets with gold glimmer paper, a black card blank

The leafy border cut using the Botanical Builder Framelits dies.

The paper is from the free Sale-a-bration Wildflower Fields DSP.

The sentiment is from Sky is the Limit - another Free Sale-a-bration stamp set 

And there's more ........ Pop back tomorrow for the next part of this little tale!

J is for John

John is my nephew (my baby sister's eldest son)........

and tonight we are having a celebration of his marriage to the beautiful Danielle.  

This took place on the 17th November last year, when they were married at sea on board 

the Royal Carribbean cruise ship, Freedom of The Seas.

Here's the card that I have made for them

This card was inspired by the swap that I received from Kylie at Quarterly Training

 - Thanks Kylie it fits the bill perfectly don't you think?

Can you see the Wink of Stella on this close up??

I used the Hearts Collection Framelits to make the large heart, then used the fabulous

Bloomin Hearts Thinlets for the layer below, on top of a piece of Silver card.

The sentiments were computer generated and the only embellishment that I thought

was necessary, was the Wink of Stella for the flower centres.

Hope that they like this!!

Here's a photo of the happy couple on their wedding day!!

I for inspiration.

After a prolonged absence I am attempting a comeback at blogging,

 and just needed a little inspiration.

I have done plenty of crafting in my absence from blogging, just lacked the oomf

 to sit down and blog what I have been doing.  Hope to make amends in the short term!!

At training on Wednesday, Julie challenged us all to make a project using

 the Hardwood stamp and anything out of the Annual catalogue.

My inspiration came from the Internet, where I happened upon a card by 

Narelle Famigia who is also a Stampin Up demonstrator .

This is my version.

I used The Open Sea stamp set, along with the Hardwood stamp, and used Crumb Cake

 and Night of Navy inks.  The sentiment was from Wetlands. 

I am trying to get to grips with blogging from my iPad and it has taken me ages to do this post.

I think that's what has been putting me off doing my blog.

However I will persevere and see if I can't master it!!

If anyone has any helpful tips that might be useful to me I could sure do with some help!!

I is for I can't think of anything else that begins with the letter I

I am stuck on the letter I, so I will take a break from the alphabet and show you a few of my Christmas projects.  Here I have used the cute Snow  Place stamp set and cut them out with the matching Snow Place framelits -much easier than fussy cutting!!

I is for ink dusting

You will probably have seen various examples of ink dusting on my cards over the years,

and I used this technique on the swaps that I made for our Julies' Jems Quarterly training

event last Saturday - here's what I made.
See the Winter's scene I have created on these two cards,
showing you the view from inside the house, looking out.
This has been created by stamping the trees, masking off a circle for the moon,
 then using the ink dusting technique to apply Night of Navy ink to make the sky.

                                    

                                   

                                   

The third card that I made was of the scene viewed from the outside looking in

This was just stamped, glittered  and lace ribbon used for the net curtains!

                                   

 

I'll pop back in the morning and add the list of materials used.

It's getting late and I think I am coming down with a cold after having a runny nose,

sneezing and coughing for most of the day!!

So it's off to bed with some cold/flu capsules and hope to get a good nights sleep.

And the final H is for Happy Birthday!

I have loads of birthdays in the second half of September, 

so have lots of cards that I can show you to finish off the letter H.

Here are two versions of the same style card. 

Version 1

Version 2

The stamp sets used are Kinda Eclectic and Happy Birthday, Everyone.

Inks : White (Craft), Crumb Cake, Lost Lagoon and Soft Suede.

Can't decide which I like the best.

Which one do you like the best??

Another H - this one's for a Happy Christmas!

                Have you noticed that there aren't many stamps which say Happy Christmas, 

as opposed to Merry Christmas?  Well I like to have Happy Christmas on the cards 

that I make for the kids, so I dug out this retired sentiment from More Merry Messages

stamp set - (I am always loathe to part with sentiment stamps -are you the same??)

Front view

Side view

The colour combo is Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler and White.

The little elf is from the Christmas Cuties stamp set.

The background paper is some retired SU DSP which was just the right style

for a little boys Christmas card.

Did you notice the lovely Home For Christmas Enamel Dots on the sentiment??

Think that these just finish off the card nicely!

Now who shall I give this to?

H is for Happy Anniversary!

It will be my sister's wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks,

 so I thought I had better make sure that I have their card ready in good time.

Here's what I came up with - another gap card.

A simple colour combo of White and Crumb Cake and a computer generated 

personalisation and greeting.  Simple but effective I think.

 The white bakers twine and gemstones are all that was needed to finish this card off.

On to H - for half completed fancy fold card.

Here's a card that Chris and I made the week before last.

It has a fancy fold middle. but a plain C6 card is the outside - 

and it's not been decorated on the outside yet!!

When I decide on the front, I'll update this post.

Here you can see the card fully opened

View from above showing the folds and positioning of the flaps.

Apologies for the poor quality photos, I can't fathom out how to transfer these from my iPad
to Blogger direct - I have to email them - there has to be an easier way!!
I'll ask the grandkids on Friday!!

And G is for Get Well Soon (Male version!)

Hi everyone!!  Well I thought  I had better pop a quick post on here to let you all know that I am 

still alive, and well and kicking!!  After a prolonged absence ( the last post was 5th May!) I think I am ready to take up the reins again and try to get back into the habit of regular blog posts.  

Don't think I can promise daily posts, but will try my best.

It will help that the golf season is almost at an end - with my last competition tomorrow!! 

I think I am all golfed out, having played 7 times in the last 10 days! Phew!

My craft room has been emptied, redecorated, and put back in order - it looks a treat now,

 it is so light and airy and spacious to boot!!

So - carrying on with the theme of the alphabet and picking up where I left off -

G is for Get Well Soon.

Here's a card that I have made for a golfing colleague of both Barry and myself,  

who has had a stroke a couple of days ago and is in hospital.

I had to keep this masculine (which wasn't easy!), but I think the colours

have helped to make it work.

The stamp set is Serene Silhouettes, and I have created the background using the 

ink-dusting technique, which I have also used on the sentiment -

from the Hopeful Thoughts stamp set.

Colours used: Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Marina Mist and So Saffron.

Get well real soon John!