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Monday 31 March 2014

Last chance for Sale-a-bration freebies today!

Sale-a-bration ends today so, if you want to join Stampin' Up with extra products in your starter kit, you'll need to do it today! Or, if you want to get free gifts with an order, you'll need to place your order today!

I've had so much fun making projects with the free gifts and I know you will too. Today's card showcases the Decorative Dots embossing folder, the Banner Blast stamp set (and there's a coordinating punch), the Sweet Sorbet designer paper and the fab cord from the Sweet Sorbet accessories pack. You can choose one of these free with every £45 you spend today and there are other products to choose from too!


The designer papers are wonderful with a lovely mix of florals and abstracts but this stripy design especially caught my fancy. I love the contrast with the embossed card stock - I can really see these random dots being useful for snow when it comes to making Christmas cards later on in the year!


I adore the current trend for banners! You can use them to create bunting, or as single tags like this one. I layered my tag with a spray, cut with the Little Leaves die.


The decorative cord comes in the most beautiful colours and is thicker than bakers twine. I nibble a little indent in the side of the panel with a mini punch so that the cord fits neatly around it and attach the panel to the card front with dimensionals so the cord fits nicely behind it.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND TODAY (excl. p&p)

It's been a busy weekend in our household, with chores at the beginning of the weekend balanced out with the most wonderful day of treats for me yesterday. My daughter had suggested we do as the Hungarians do and tie my feet together with ribbon so I couldn't get up and do anything. I declined this treat but was quite happy to pretend! Breakfast arrived while I was still in bed and I was presented with handmade cards filled with lovely messages. When I eventually came downstairs, I was greeted with this:


It's like a little garden - isn't it beautiful?! The boys had various commitments, so my daughter and I went on a frivolous shopping trip and when we returned, we did a little recreational cooking together and gathered everyone together for a feast. After that, my husband generously offered to clear up the outrageous mess we'd made while the boys and I watched a film together. What a great day!

See you tomorrow,


Friday 28 March 2014

Gifts for a Happy Day!

Did you see this gift box and card in Tuesday's post? Well now I've come up with another, more feminine version, with a coordinating card featuring a built-in pocket for a gift card or photo. AND there's a video to show you how to make the box! I need to steady on a bit I think! Come and see:


I am totally in love with Smoky Slate as a base! You'd think it would be quite wintery but it is the perfect partner to all this year's gorgeous spring pastels.


This is such a useful box to have in your repertoire. I used mine for handmade chocolates from our local chocolatier - hence this wonderful sentiment from Happy Day - but it's the right size for chunky jewellery, a fine scarf or perhaps a collection of nail varnishes... Mmm, yes please, if any of my relatives are reading this!


Here's the coordinating card. I ran the Deco Label framelit only halfway through the Big Shot before reversing it out, which made this fabulous shaped top panel. The Happy Day swirl was stamped into the shape again but I added the Smile sentiment this time, dotted with a sweet, pearl-centred punched flower.


You can see the pocket here with a glimpse of something exciting inside...


... it's a Stampin' Up shopping spree with me!!! Do you know someone who would smile and smile if they received one of these gift vouchers? Well, just send me an email to let me know and I can organise one for you to give them in any amount you choose. I always make a pretty voucher holder to present them in at no extra charge too - now that's what I call the perfect gift!

Are you ready for the video tutorial for the Bellyband box? Here goes:



HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS PROJECT
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

It's still raining and raining. Still, it can't be all bad - my daughter told me that her boyfriend's baby sister likes going out in it as it gives her the perfect opportunity to carry her 'rainbrella'!

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you very soon,


Thursday 27 March 2014

So Very Grateful for mothers day

Are you a Last Minute Minnie? If you are you probably haven't made your Mother's Day card yet, but fear not! Three Minute Thursday is here with a quick but pretty little number to make your mum feel loved and appreciated - and that's what it's all about isn't it? Come and see:


The focus of this 9cm square card is the sentiment. If you don't yet have Delightful Dozen, I'd highly recommend it for its variety of beautifully designed sentiments that will cover all the high days and holidays in your calendar!


I fell in love with the So Very Grateful stamp set from the spring/summer catalogue the moment I saw it. Colouring isn't really my forté but a scribble of ink with an aquapainter is all these beautiful images need! Don't these pastel shades look wonderful against the Smoky Slate?

I didn't come up with this gorgeous colour palette by myself - it's the latest in a series of wonderful colour combinations at the ColourQ where I'll be linking up this card.


HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

My own mother died when I was very tiny and I was constantly being told that it wasn't a problem because I couldn't possibly remember her. It was only when I had my own babies that I realised how ludicrously untrue that is. This may go a long way to explain why being a mother is such an important part of my life and oh my goodness, how blessed I am to have the three most wonderful children in the universe! (Well okay, perhaps that last bit is a bit of bias on my part!)

Tomorrow I'll be presenting my latest video - how to make a really useful bellyband box. Hope to see you then,


Wednesday 26 March 2014

Hardwood and Hellebores

There's been a return to cold gloomy weather here in the heart of England so I decided to get some winter woollies on and make some Christmas cards! I had plenty of inspiration from Merry Mondays with a fabulous Grey, Red and White colour palette, 52 {CCT} with a theme of Paper Flowers and of course Rudolph Day where two Christmas cards are required! Come and see:


Like everyone else, I am potty about the new Hardwood stamp and the Petite Petals set! (These just keep going out of stock as everyone wants them!) I inked only two thirds of my panel with Hardwood and stamped a leaf and berry image over the top, colouring in the leaves with an aquapainter and adding berries with markers.


This delicate hellebore-style flower looks so beautiful stamped in any colour but I stamped mine in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. You can't really see here but I added a sprinkle of superfine silver glitter before it dried so it has a subtle glimmer in real life, and I added extra shine with gems.


The sentiment is from Petite Pairs and has a lovely second part to stamp inside the card: 'and a happy, joyful, bright new year!'

Now, the question is, did I really make two of these?


Yes of course I did!


HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Card stock: Whisper White, Real Red
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Does it really have to rain ALL day?! You know when you get ready in the morning and you want your hair to look like this:


And then at the end of the day, you catch a glimpse of it in the mirror looking more like this:


See you tomorrow,


Tuesday 25 March 2014

Petal Parade - the leafiest of them all

If you're looking for layout inspiration, the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge never disappoints! There's another cracking sketch there this week and it immediately made me reach for Stampin' Up's Petal Parade free Sale-a-bration set. Come and see:


What do you think? I think it works really well as a mirror image!


I love the strong font from See Ya Later (another set that you can choose free as part of the promotion) and the cursive font from Express Yourself made a nice foil for it, so I used markers and a stamp-a-majig to make a brand new hybrid sentiment. This is so easy to do (click here for a video tutorial) and the possibilities are endless!


I thought this made a nice motif for a male birthday so I made a gift box to go with it. This is another useful basic box to have in your repetoire sp, if you love this idea, look out for my video tutorial coming later in the week!


These will be perfect for my father next month and I can fill the box with something delicious to eat!

Here are the sketch and colour palette I was working from today. Unfortunately I ran out of time to link to ColourQ - the challenge there has closed:


 

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS PROJECT
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

That gorgeous bedroom in the ColourQ inspiration photo reminds me of a conversation I had with my daughter while looking on Pinterest for ideas for revamping her room.
My daughter: I'd like to be there... you'd get up and make yourself a cup of tea...
Me: Couldn't someone else do that?
My daughter: Well no, because then they'd come in and pester you!
Me: Well you could just hiss at them and watch them scuttle off!

See you tomorrow,


Monday 24 March 2014

Just Sayin' a wooden thank you

It was my youngest son's birthday recently and he needed cards to write his thanks for all his lovely presents, so I had to come up with a design that a newly teenaged young man would be happy to write in. Here's what I came up with:


I was thinking of school desks, of ink blots, of comic books and, when I thought of my son, a star! The star I used is from the free Sale-a-bration stamp set Banner Blast and it cuts out in one click of the star punch from the Merry Minis punch set.


The panel was stamped in Basic Grey with Stampin' Up's gorgeous Hardwood background stamp. TIP: For even coverage, it's easier to press the panel onto the inked up stamp rather than the other way around. I smeared a Pear Pizzazz ink pad over the wood image for a little colour and then added an ink blot courtesy of the indispensable Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.


British people don't usually send cards with 'Gee thanks' on them unless they're being sarcastic, but it's easy to ink up with markers leaving the 'gee' out. The speech bubbles in the brilliant Just Sayin' stamp set has coordinating framelits so it's quick and easy to cut them out, especially with the magnetic Big Shot platform which holds them firmly in place.

I spotted this fabulous colour palette over at Colour me... this week:


HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Card stock: Whisper White, Soft Sky
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

When I was a girl, it was obligatory to use an ink pen at school and you'd be given bad marks for any ink blots or messiness. Most of the children wrote with cartridge pens but I was bought a fountain pen, which proved impossible for me to cope with. I couldn't work out how to fill it and it would maliciously spit out ink as I was writing. Looking back, that pen caused me a lot of grief but, weirdly, the first thing I spent my wages on when I first started work was...


... a beautiful yellow Harley Davidson fountain pen, which is one of my favourite possessions and writes like a dream!

See you tomorrow,


Saturday 22 March 2014

...What's going on here then?!

Hello, hello, hello from bright and breezy Buckingham today! Today the challenge at Less is More is to use three of something on a card, so this is what I've come up with:


There are some great fonts in Stampin' Up's Simply Celebrate sentiment set and I thought this 'hello' would certainly bear repeating three times!




I stamped an inky background first with one of the splodge images from Happy Watercolour before stamping the word. TIP: I used a sticky note to line up the words on the righthand side and a stamp-a-majig to position them neatly on top of each other.

Here's another version with a neutral Crumb Cake background and card base:


Hmmm. I think I prefer it - how about you?

I spotted the gorgeous colour combination at the Color Throwdown this week:


HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Other: stamp-a-majig
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Does anyone remember the Lionel Richie song 'Hello' from the 80s? When my youngest son turned 13 recently, his sister made him a card by printing off the cutest photo of him on the phone to his grandparents at the age of two or three, along with the caption 'Hello! Is it SQUEE you're looking for?'
How sweet is that?!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you soon,


Friday 21 March 2014

Getting inky with the Wetlands goose

I had a phone call the other day from a lovely lady who mentioned Stampin' Up's Wetlands stamp set and got me all fired up about it again; on the same day I was experimenting with acrylic block inky backgrounds and I came up with a 'kissing' technique. These seemingly unconnected events explain why this gorgeous goose has popped his head up to say hello today - come and have a look:


The acrylic block was inked up and then the circle stamp from Geometrical was stamped onto the block - the 'kissing' technique. When the block was sprayed, the circles softened and turned into arty bush shapes as you can see in the close-up below:


Isn't that the perfect home for the Wetlands goose?! I used a masking technique to enable his tail feathers to poke out of the frame so I'm linking up with Less is More for the second time this week - the challenge there is Masking and Stencilling. My goose will also enter the Make Your Mark challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.

For those that like a video, here's how I made this card (with the bits where I dropped everything and stuck my elbows in the ink edited out!)



HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 
Card stock: Whisper White
Click above to place an order any time, day or night,
but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help.
You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

I remember when my children were tots, taking them down to the river in the winter with bread for the ducks and geese that live there. I would tell them how difficult it was for the birds to find enough food and how grateful they would be for our scraps. In fact Buckingham is a place with a lot of young families, many of whom had the same idea, so the reality was that we would arrive at the river to find the wildlife practically reclining on lilos in the river, sipping champagne and snacking on caviar blinis!

Have a fantastic weekend and I'll see you very soon.