Seeing Spots card class

I had a lovely time with my card class this afternoon. Some of the ladies hadn't stamped before but were crafting like professionals by the end of the session! (I wish I could take the credit for this but actually they were naturally talented!) We made this little set - a card, a coordinating gift bag and a gift tag:

The card is CASEd from one that my upline Michelle demonstrated at my first party - I've always loved it. The design transfers beautifully to a gift bag and I think the little scalloped tag finishes it off nicely. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Trendy Trees

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Real Red

Card stock: Whisper White, Real Red

Other: Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, scallop, 1 3/8" and 1/4" circle punches, silver brad, silver elastic cord

Have a great weekend, wherever you are.

Hope to see you very soon.

Solid Stripes gingham birthday

The minute I saw the Solid Stripes background stamp in the mini catalogue, I got very excited about the possibilities for checked patterns. So today I've come up with this gingham effect:

Recognise the flower? It's the second time this week it has made an appearance because it's one of my favourite embellishments at the moment! Look out for a tutorial in the next few days. The gingham called out for cross stitch and the faux stitched kisses finished the card off nicely.

Supplies:
Stamps: Solid Stripes, Vintage Labels
Ink: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Pink Passion, Always Artichoke
Card stock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
Other: Certainly Celery brad, paper piercer, two step bird punch (the wing makes these leaves), Pretty in Pink marker

It's been warm and even quite sunny here for the last week but today, while I was at a workshop, we heard rain outside. "Rain?" said one of my ladies. "Must be the cricket season!" She was referring to last summer when we sat outside the cricket pavilion every friday evening and watched our sons play cricket in showers, fog, rain and, on one memorable occasion, a violent thunder storm!

If you live in the UK, you'll be gearing up for the bank holiday weekend. The forecast is for 'cricket season' weather - not so great for cricket but perfect for crafting!
See you tomorrow!

Feminine card using Autumn Splendor

The Autumn Splendor set isn't just for masculine cards you know - here's a frillier little number I came up with:

I loved making the flowers for this. They're just circles of designer paper, cut into spirals and rolled up from the outside. You can secure them with a brad but these are just glued with Tombow, which I find so useful. Here they are close up:

I would have liked to have used the jewellery tag punch from the mini catalogue but I don't have it, so this one's made from a word window punch. Not as pretty but it works!

Supplies:
Stamps: Autumn Splendor, Baroque Motifs, Happy Moments
Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, Pumpkin Pie designer series paper, Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, gold elastic cord, scallop border, word window and handheld hole punch

I designed this card as a make-and-take at a quarterly training session which took place last Saturday. I had a great time, met lots of lovely ladies and look at the fabulous cards we made! Thanks ladies!

Don't forget that my card club will be running this Friday afternoon, 1-3pm. You can find all the details by clicking 'card classes' on the bar at the top of this blog. I'd love to see you if you can make it!

Thanks for spending time with me today!

Masculine cards using Autumn Splendor

Some people don't like making masculine cards but I'm not one of them! I'm not really much of a frills and furbelows kind of a girl and so these are the kind of cards I like.

Here are some of my top tips for masculine cards:

* Keep it clean and simple
* Don't include bows or flowers!
* Keep any ribbon natural (eg twill or linen thread) or masculine in colour
* Try earthy, darker or nautical colours
* Vintage brads, hodge podge hardware, dry embossing, piercing are all good embellishments
* A simple sentiment in a frame is a good focal point
* Other useful focal images include trees and leaves, animals, birds and insects (realistic ones, not cutesy ones) vehicles etc

I've got three masculine cards to show you today, two using my all-time favourite stamp set - Autumn Splendor and the other using Baroque Motifs.

The first card uses one leaf stamped in Garden Green ink on Whisper White and tucked into a folded piece of Chocolate Chip card stock. The fold is given a bit of texture with Dot Dot Dot and the edge is pierced for interest. The card is finished with a sponged sentiment tag, corner rounded edges and clear button embellishments before being mounted on a Whisper White card base.

I love these clear buttons! They're backed with circles punched from Garden Green card stock then linen thread is fed through holes pierced to match the button and tied in simple knots.

Next is a simple, one layer  card. It's an A2 card base made from Kraft card stock and stamped with the same leaf as before in Garden Green ink. I love that green against the Kraft! I coloured the leaf stems in faded Chocolate Chip with a blender pen - it's quite subtle but gives a little detail.

The sentiment is from Trendy Trees and I positioned it with my Stamp-a-majig. How did I live without one? (The answer is that I often ruined cards with wonky sentiments!!!)

Here's the final card for today:

The gorgeous swirl from Baroque Motifs was stamped in Sage Shadow ink on Whisper White, then the bottom half covered with this stunning striped paper from the Sweet Pea designer stack. The squarish image from the set was stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink and cut out, then topped with a square clear button, this time backed with a Taken With Teal square and threaded with linen thread. The sentiment is from Happy Moments - and yes, I did position it with my stamp-a-majig!

Whew! That was quite a lot of male cards!
Hope you are inspired to get in touch with your masculine side.
See you soon!

NEWS - Stampin' Up special offer

There's a great promotion going on at the moment which would benefit someone who'd like to become a Stampin' Up demonstrator OR someone who orders Stampin' Up products on a regular basis OR someone who would like to get Stampin' Up kit at a bargain price.

The company are offering a 10% discount off the Starter Kit from 23rd April - 7th May. For that limited time, the kit will cost £125 instead of £139 - which is amazing as you get products worth over £240 - and you can choose which ink and paper colours and which four stamp sets you'd like.

That's a great deal as it stands but you get many other benefits:

* Once you've bought the kit, you don't have to make any further commitment unless you want to.

* You could get a hefty 30% discount off your first order and 20% off orders from then on.

* You'd get to see the exciting new catalogue in September long before it launches in October.

* If you did want to be an active demo, you would have until the end of September to reach your first sales target of £250 net; you'd be a part of my team with loads of support; you'd get demo-only special offers; you'd have the opportunity to get together with loads of like-minded crafters.

This is a great offer which could save you money. If you'd like to take advantage of it, or have any questions, I'd love to hear from you (my contact details are on the side bar.)

I'm back tomorrow with three - yes three! - masculine cards using my favourite set. Can you guess?
Hope to see you then.

FTL Challenge 87 with Sweet Pea designer paper

Oh dear! Hectic weekend + complete disorganisation = late posting for the Clean and Simple FTL Challenge! Here's the sketch for this week:

And here's my take on it:

I loved making the flower - it's three layers of the 5-petal flower punch with a small flower from the Boho Blossom punch bradded into the centre. (Did you like the way I casually threw a completely made-up verb in there?!!!) Here's a close-up:

The petals are curled, the edges peeled apart and the edges inked - although not enough, I can barely see it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Trendy Trees sentiment
Ink: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery
Card stock: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Basic Black, Certainly Celery
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, Certainly Celery brad, scallop circle, 5-petal punch and Boho Blossom punches

Cricket fever has swept through our household and my Simon and I are often required to make up the numbers down on the field. They all whack the ball for six and pull off extraordinarily gymnastic catches while I flail around pathetically with the bat and fumble with the ball before dropping it, but they are kind and I'm always invited back!
Now I must go and get some sleep. A cricket ace needs her rest you know, and anyway I've got my scrapbooking class tomorrow morning at 10 am.
See you soon!

Autumn Days box

Just a quickie today as I'm dashing out for a well-earned dinner with friends. I thought I'd share this box I made to house a little gift for my father:

It's so easy to make boxes to measure with the scoring blade on my Fiskars trimmer. This box was made for a jar 7 cm in diameter and 12.5 cm high and I made the bottom from one sheet of A4 card stock and made the lid and the tag from another sheet. That's the Right on Track Wheel pretending to be a fence along the bottom of the box and I stamped a hedgerow scene on top. Then I put the box together with strong double sided tape and tied the whole thing up with a length of Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. I even took it to the post office!

Supplies:
Stamps: Autumn Days
Ink: Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Old Olive, Always Artichoke
Card stock: Creamy Caramel
Other: Right On Track wheel, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, linen thread, markers to colour pheasant

Hope you're all ready for the weekend - it's set to be a sunny one here!
Wherever you are, have a good one!

Something Fishy nautical birthday

Sometimes things come to me in my sleep - like this nautical little number:

I think if I were making it again, I'd pop the red panel up on dimensionals and have the fish on one panel behind. D'you know, if someone were to tell me that I had to choose one ribbon to use on all my cards, I would choose linen thread (I know it's not really a ribbon but you get my point...) I love it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Basic Phrases
Ink: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Sage Shadow, Brilliant Blue
Card stock: Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Real Red
Other: Something Fishy jumbo wheel, Linen Thread, silver brads, silver eyelets, 1 3/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

Making this card got me thinking about hot summer evenings with sand between my toes... but actually there'll be a sharp frost tonight. I'm off to get a hot water bottle!
See you soon.

Autumn Splendor cards

No, my lovely UK readers! It's not a spelling mistake! Stampin' Up is an American company and 'splendor' rather than 'splendour' is how it's spelt in the US. Anyway, regardless of how you spell it, Autumn Splendor is one of my favourite sets of all time. I don't think I could ever run out of ideas for using it and it's particularly useful for masculine cards. Here are a couple of cards I made using the set today:

Both cards use the Fine Flourish background stamp from the mini catalogue. I've used a blender pen to colour it and I rather like the look.

I absolutely adore these tags! They are actually from the Punches Three hostess stamp set - I used a marker to pick out the outline of the tags (leaving out the sentiments they come with), cut them out, sponged the edges and put in different sentiments using my stamp-a-majig.

Supplies:
Stamps: Fine Flourish, Autumn Splendor, Punches Three, sentiments Vintage Labels and Basic Phrases
Ink: Old Olive, Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke
Card Stock: Whisper White, Always Artichoke
Other: Blender Pen, gold brads, square scallop punch (to make it easy to cut out the tags)

The second of these cards was made for my crafting pal Kerstin Lang, whose gorgeous creations can be seen on her blog here. A couple of weeks ago, I won one of Kerstin's perfect, elegant cards and she duly sent it to me. When it arrived I was stunned and delighted because she had packaged it up in an exciting box with delicious chocolates for me and little Easter eggs for the children. Thank you so much Kerstin for being so thoughtful and lovely! This card is winging its way to you.

And thank YOU for coming to see me today!
Hope to see you soon.

Scrapbooking club starts!

On Monday morning my ladies turned up at my house for their first scrapbook class - and what talented ladies they are! This is the sort of the thing we're doing:

We've started with 6" x 6" albums. Stampin' Up albums come in an elegant natural linen finish - you can see one in the photo above.

The pages are full of all sorts of little details like this...

...I love to hide little surprise tags on my pages and always imagine people finding them in the future.

This one hides a joke that's amused our family for years!

There are areas for writing labels... and this page has some daisies too.

The scrapbooking class meets on Monday mornings 10-12am. We work with a new layout each week and I teach techniques, share tips, help with colours and am generally on hand to give help and guidance. The cost is £20 for the first class, including a beautiful 6" x 6" album, a sketch and materials for your first pages, then £5 for subsequent classes, including all materials. There are still two places left in the group so, if you're interested in creating a lasting keepsake in a relaxed, friendly environment, just email me at v.hayes2009@gmail.com.

Scrapbooking is such a wonderful thing to do. First, you get the fun of creating something beautiful; second, you are enjoying your memories; third, you are preserving those memories for those you love. A lovingly put-together scrapbook can also be a stunning gift for all ages.
What can you possibly be waiting for?!!

Thanks for looking today.
Hope to see you soon.

Two step bird punch bird house- free template

Today's card is completely outside my comfort zone - but don't I keep saying that's a good thing?! My sister has a beautiful painted bird house feeder in her garden and I've been thinking for a while that it would  be fun to try to recreate it. So I made a template (which you're very welcome to share for free - just email me and I'll send you a PDF.) Here's the card:

I printed the template off onto Very Vanilla card stock, cut the pieces out and sponged the edges with Blush Blossom before piecing it together onto the sponged and stamped background. Can you see the sky? I got the idea from Susan's lovely card here. and she kindly sent me the link to her tutorial. The tutorial uses cotton wool, pastels and a scalloped ruler but her card uses sponge, ink and a scallop border template. I opted for sponge, ink and a template made from circle punches stuck together. The birds and card stock leaves are made with my beloved two step bird punch.

Supplies:
Stamps: Itty Bitty Buds (hostess set), Autumn Days
Ink: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Pink Passion, Blush Blossom
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Bordering Blue
Other: Two step bird, circle, scallop edge and round tab punches, Bashful Blue designer series paper, white gel pen

The children went back to school today and the house felt very quiet.
But luckily YOU have come to visit me - I always love it when you do!
See you soon -

It's beautiful birthday

My lovely sister came to us this weekend to celebrate her birthday and we've had a hectic time of partying and picnics! Here's the coordinating gift set I made for her:

Yes, that is the bird from Best Wishes and More and yes, it is carrying another flower! It is one of my favourite images ever! The sweets are her favourite liquorice torpedos - they're in a cello bag with a Whisper White folded topper and decorated with the It's Beautiful wheel. Her gift is wrapped in copy paper decorated with the same wheel and tied with the heavenly Old Olive striped grosgrain ribbon. I don't have the tag punches so I laboriously made this one (those tag punches are definitely on my shopping list!)

Supplies:
Stamps: Best Wishes and More, Happy Moments
Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive, More Mustard
Card stock: Whisper White, Old Olive, Summer Sun
Other: Old Olive striped grosgrain ribbon, It's Beautiful jumbo wheel, Boho Blossom punch, gold brads, Old Olive marker

It's the last day of the Easter holidays today and I'm feeling a bit wistful as I love having the children at home. By the end of tomorrow it will seem as if we'd never had the holidays.
Thank you for visiting!

FTL Challenge 86 with Sweet Pea designer paper

Here's the great sketch over at Clean and Simple Stamping today:

I have pretty much cased Natasha's card because the moment I saw it I thought of that gorgeous circles paper in the Sweet Pea designer series stack.

I punched the circles out of the paper overlapping where I needed to (because not all of them were full circles). I adhered some of the circles to my Kraft layer, added the others on dimensionals and completed the layer with a sentiment from Trendy Trees. The Kraft layer is matted onto Pumpkin Pie  card stock then adhered to a Whisper White card base made from folded A5.

Supplies:
Stamps: Trendy Trees (sentiment)
Ink: Taken With Teal
Card stock: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Kraft
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, 3/4", 1", 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches

I'm still on my thank you card mission and this card can serve as a huge thank you to Natasha for her brilliant sketches week after week. I love the sketches and think you're amazing Natasha!

We have a birthday party this weekend - woohoo!
Hope you have lovely things lined up too.
See you soon.

Fine Flourish thank you

Earlier this week I talked about the tradition of sending thank you cards - much nicer than sending a text or email! I've been making a collection of little notelets and this card is part of that set:

There are four new background stamps in the new mini catalogue and this one - Fine Flourish - is one of them. It works really well as a simple one colour print but could also be coloured in to make a big impact. The others are basic dots and stripes and there's an alphabet one too - all really useful building blocks for cards and scrapbooking that you'll want to use again and again. 

The flowers and leaves are all put together using punches. Have you spotted where the leaves come from? They're the wings from the two step bird punch! They've been folded in half, run through a crimper and sponged with ink. It means that with that punch, not only do you get a bird but you also get two completely different kinds of leaf as well! (Have you noticed - I love to find lots of uses for my stamps and punches!)

Supplies:

Stamps: Fine Flourish, Happy Moments

Ink: Night of Navy, Certainly Celery, Ballet Blue

Card stock: Whisper White, Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Vellum

Other: Two step bird, scallop circle, Boho Blossom and 1/2" circle punches, Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, Ballet Blue brads, crimper

Thanks for visiting me today.

Hope to see you soon!

 

Fox and friends thank you

I'm on a mission to create thank you notelets this week and here's my latest offering:

I am in love with the Sweet Pea designer paper stack - this is another gorgeous paper from it. I've teamed it with the mysterious fox from Fox and Friends and a branch from A Touch of Nature, which is perhaps a bit of a surprising combination but I like it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Fox and Friends, A Touch of Nature, Basic Phrases
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
Card stock: Whisper White, Old Olive
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon

These 3 1/2" square cards are such a lovely size to design and make. They'd be a lovely gift for someone in a little box (the cards I mean, not the someone!) I can feel a tutorial coming on...

Meanwhile I'd like to say a great big thank you to you for looking at my blog and for taking the time to comment on my projects - I really appreciate it.

Sweet Pea DSP thank you notelet

Don't you love it when you receive a thank you card? I know I do - but sometimes, in these days of facebook, texts and emails, it can seem like a dying tradition. A text is nice, but a card is nicer! Especially when it has been lovingly made by hand. Here's a simple one I made today:

I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately to prepare for my new scrapbooking class (contact me for details) and my Just Perfect Alphabet stamp set was out, so I used it to make the punchy sentiment. The striped paper's from the Sweet Pea designer paper stack - look at the gorgeous colours in this! I made the flower after watching Julie Allain's tutorial.

It's finished with a fabric flower from the Pretties kit, which I coloured with a Pumpkin Pie marker, and a Tempting Turquoise button from the Playground collection, threaded with linen thread - love that stuff! The leaves are from the two step bird punch in the mini catalogue - how did I ever live without that leaf?!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Just Perfect Alphabet,
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard (to ink the edges of the flower)
Card stock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, two step bird punch, scallop circle punch, Pretties kit, Tempting Turquoise button from the Playground collection, linen thread, corner rounder

Wouldn't it be fun to make a little stash of these little 3 1/2" square notelets so that you've always got a proper thank you to hand. Let's keep that great thank you note tradition alive!
I'll be back with another one tomorrow.
Thanks for visiting me today.

Forest Friends birthdays

It's the school holidays here and I like to start work early so that I have some time with my family. It's very peaceful first thing - my husband doesn't come down until about eight o'clock and the two older children don't surface until later. But my youngest son is an early riser (and also a sociable personality!) so we sometimes craft together until the hustle and bustle of the day begins.

Do you remember the adventurous Mr Rabbit, who found himself adrift on the high seas? (He's on this card on the left.) Well, you'll be glad to know, he was rescued by friendly fish and found himself a new home in the Warbling Woods. Here he is on his way to a birthday party!

The card came together very quickly. I wheeled Funky Forest across a Whisper White card base, then adhered Patterns DSP in Old Olive below it. The Right on Track 'fence' was wheeled across that and across a cut-out Mr Rabbit (oops! he's the wrong colour!) and then he was attached to the matching part of the fence so it looks as if he's behind it. Some balloons coloured in with a blender pen, a sponged sky, some cut-out Trendy Trees for the woods, a sentiment - and voila! It was done!

I can't resist showing you the card my son made this morning. His Mr Rabbit IS the right colour and look - he's having another adventure! My clever boy - he did everything himself apart from the matting. Just look at that professional sponging!

Crafting is a lovely activity that all ages can enjoy together. And if you do it with someone under ten you might get a story thrown in for free!
Have a good day.

Stamping 411 Challenge 146

Have you had a chance to look at the Saturday challenge over at Stamping 411?

I loved the sketch this week and had no hesitation in heading straight for my new Sweet Pea paper stack. I picked out this gorgeous striped paper and teamed it with a couple of images from the versatile Punches Three hostess set - look:

I love working with stripes. It's so easy (but also fun!) to pick out colours and use them in the design. My trusty paper piercer came out too for a bit of faux stitching. If anyone were to ask me which tools I couldn't do without, my paper piercer would be high on the list. It has many uses - not least of which is a quick hole maker for brads!

Supplies:
Stamps: Punches Three, Vintage Labels
Ink: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive
Card stock: Rose Red, Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White
Other: Sweet Pea designer paper stack, square scallop and scallop edge punches, Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, paper piercer, Pretty in Pink marker, So Saffron brads

I had an amusing moment today when I bought the week's eggs from my neighbour. I had just put my change away in my purse and carefully placed the egg boxes in my basket when my neighbour's little boy decided to share a confidence with me. "We keep chickens you know," he said. Well, thank goodness those weren't dinosaur eggs!

Hope you had a good weekend.
See you tomorrow!