With Many Thanks

Good Morning All! hopefully you’ve all been enjoying the sunshine of late. Being the pale and pasty creature that I am, who burns at the sight of the sun (no I'm not a vampire!) I've taken the opportunity to hide in my craft room and make lots of projects in advance – it was too hot to do much else. So, I've managed to get myself a little bit ahead, sneak peeks of July’s class projects will be appearing here shortly, but firstly I’ve had a thank you card on my ‘to do’ list for a little while now. A lovely lady in the US recently helped me get hold of some CD folders, which I couldn't find over here for any love nor money. So I wanted to send her a card and a little something to say thank you for her kindness. Here’s the card….

which uses the vine and sentiment from the vintage vogue stamp set, the ‘thanks’ is from the afterthoughts stamp set. I’ve used a colour combination of rose red, whisper white and basic black. the papers are the sweet and sour specialty DSP and I've embossed the vine using clear embossing powder on the base cardstock – you can just about see it in the photo. I’ll have to post a picture of the gift box later – the box was still drying when I left for work. I have to admit the DSP wasn't initially high on my list of things to buy from this catalogue, but some of the patterns are so elegant and pretty that I can’t believe I overlooked them!

Tomorrow I'll be taking part in a blog hop, organised by the lovely Anthea over on In Love With Stamping. We’ll be featuring colour combinations from the colour coach, be sure to pop by and join in the hops for lots of fabulous inspiration.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Morning all, yesterday was our friend’s little girl Ellie’s 3rd birthday. I’m not so sure where the three years have gone – I remember holding her at 3 days old – she’s certainly grown since then! As with many little girls, Ellie’s favourite colour is pink, pink and more pink. I dug out my crazy for cupcakes stamp set, which is the perfect choice for girly cards, and used a colour combination of pretty in pink, pink pirouette and so saffron to create a card and matching gift bag.

the top note gift bag is made using a tutorial over on Becky Roberts’ blog, using the top note die, so saffron cardstock and pretty in pink DSP from the subtles DSP stack. I also used my new ‘daisies’ die for the first time since buying it 2 months ago! hopefully it fulfilled Ellie’s criteria of being girly and pink.

Right, from girly to masculine. This evening I’m focussing on the design of my next class which is ‘Cards for Dads and Lads’ – the most difficult kind in my opinion. Class is on Saturday 23rd July, and further details can be found here - be sure to email me to reserve your place.

The Longest Day….

Hey folks, it’s Tuesday already and the longest day of the year, which means it must be Dawn’s birthday . Dawn is one of my lovely customers who has become a good friend. To celebrate her birthday I’ve made her a card using her favourite colours, chocolate chip and old olive, and I've added a dash of regal rose to make it a more feminine combination. the stamp set is Vintage Vogue – one of my all time favourites as its so versatile. so here’s the finished card, along with a coordinating gift bag made using instructions on Amy Celona’s blog.

I hope you have a fabulous birthday Dawn! and that today at work doesn’t feel like the longest day…..

I'll be back soon with some more cards that I managed to finish at the weekend.

For Pops…..

Evening All. I completely forgot to post this yesterday – fortunately the same can’t be said about the cards! I made 2 cards for my dad this year – one from me and one from my little brother. The first features the motorcycle stamp – perfect for my dad who is mad about all things mechanical and used to have a red Triumph Bonneville when I was little. you’ll have to excuse the quality of the photo – the crystal effects was still drying when i took the piccie (lastminute.com as usual!) and it bubbled just as i pressed the button, but I didn't realise until I was post processing the picture just now. I’ve also used the square lattice embossing folder on the Riding Hood Red cardstock, newsprint DSP, some twill tape and the star punch.

The second card was a case of Darren’s birthday card from April – I was in a hurry and needed a quick card, and this fitted the bill.

A Marina Mist cardstock base, with the ‘classic stars’ wheel on the base in marina mist ink. the paper is a piece of pacific point DSP from the brights collection stack, some choc chip stars and marina mist wide striped grosgrain complete the card and the sentiment is from the level 2 hostess set ‘something to celebrate’.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some birthday mentions…..

It’s the weekend!

Happy Friday folks. apologies for the silence here in blog land, and no I didn’t get lost and trapped in the pigsty that was the conservatory. It’s been a hectic one at work and i haven’t had any inky time all week, hence nothing to photograph and therefore no posts . However, I’ve got my occasional greetings class tomorrow, so i thought I'd pop by and share the projects for that. We’ll be making a set of 3 cards and a card storage tote using the Occasional Greetings stamp set (plus a few others) and the gorgeous ‘Elegant Soiree’ papers, here’s a piccie of the ensemble. The kit list for class attendees is here.

well, that’s all for tonight. I need to get in the craft room now and make a card for my dad for Father’s Day (so much for getting ahead this month!).

Have a fab weekend.

Get Well Gitti

Friday at last! and leading the glamorous lifestyle that I do (canned laughter here) this weekend I'll mostly be clearing out my conservatory and cleaning it from top to bottom, as it’s become a junk room of late. But before I rush off to don the rubber gloves I have a card to share. One of my regular class attendees, Gitti, has been ill of late and unable to attend classes which she was rather upset about, so to let her know we were thinking of her I made this bright and sunny card, and got the rest of the class to sign it for her – hopefully it’s got to her before she sees this post! So, get well soon Gitti, we’re all thinking of you and we hope to see you back at class in the near future!

I’ve used a Wild Wasabi base along with papers from the subtles stack and teamed it with some melon mambo spotty ribbon (sadly now retired) and the ‘Hopeful Thoughts’ stamp set inked in Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight markers. It’s finished with a row of rhinestones and a couple of flower buttons from the Brights collection.

There’s still time to book in for my class next Saturday, I’ll hopefully get some time to make up the class kits on Sunday, so email me soon to book your space. Right, enough prattling on, now for the dreaded conservatory, have a great weekend folks!

A week into June…

Happy Wednesday folks! It’s past the middle of the week already, which means it’ll soon be the weekend I’m actually wondering what I’ve forgotten to do this month, as I’m feeling scarily ahead. I finished my class samples on Monday and have been catching up with various bits of admin all week – still have a tax return to fill in, but other than that I’m all up to date. So, somewhat earlier than usual, here are the sneak peeks for this month’s class which features the ‘Occasional Greetings’ stamp set and Elegant Soiree papers.

If you’d like to join us and haven’t booked your place, then email me. Class kit details will be here by the end of next week. Right, following on in the spirit of getting ahead with things, I’ve got a couple of Birthday cards to make for later this week, so I’m going to head into the craft room for some inky time! I’ll pop back later in the week to show you some of what I’ve been up to.

Order thank you gifts

Morning all, it’s nearly the weekend again! A quick post from me today to share some of the ‘thank you’ gifts which I made recently for my customers. The idea is one I found whilst blog-hopping, on Brenda Quintana’s blog, and it’s a fab one for using up scraps of DSP.

I pulled out some of my ‘love letters’ paper, which has to be one of my favourites from the current Stampin’ Up catalogue and teamed it with the heart punch in Riding Hood Red and a section of the ‘Thank You Kindly’ stamp, which I inked in Basic Black on Very Vanilla cardstock and sampled using the modern label punch. The handle is made from a length of Basic Black satin ribbon, and the contents are some individual wrapped chocolate squares.

I'm hoping to get some time to finish designing my next class this weekend which features the Occasional Greetings stamp set and the Elegant Soiree papers, then I might be able to share some sneak peeks early next week. Other than that, it’ll hopefully be a bit of a restful one!

Stampin’ Up! June Promotion

Morning All! I know, I know, twice in one day, first a famine and then a feast! I’m here to let you know about the fabulous promotion from Stampin’ Up! for this month and July. Host a workshop and if it totals £250 in sales you’ll get an additional £20 benefits to spend in the catalogue! So what are you waiting for? Contact me to book your workshop today.

Sail Away for Father’s Day

Morning All! It’s Wednesday already, we’re in June and another week’s simply flying by – I'll be onto Christmas prep before I know it (at least I should be now that we’re in June and I have an all day Christmas class in August!).

However, before I start unwrapping the baubles and playing the Christmas CDs, there is Father’s Day on the calendar. Some of the ladies at a recent workshop asked me to demonstrate ‘male’ cards. The new mini catalogue has provided us with a number of new masculine images, so I dug out ‘Sail Away’ and had a play with a nautical colour theme of Not Quite Navy, Riding Hood Red and Crumb Cake.

The ‘waves’ were created with the curly label punch, the background textured using the square lattice embossing folder and the sentiment is taken from the level 2 hostess set ‘something to celebrate’. I added some gold brads and some bakers twine from my stash. Masculine cards are normally something I struggle with, but I quite enjoyed playing with this one, so I might dig out the motorcycle stamp this week and have a play with that too.