Christmas box and Stampin' Up voucher

Over at the Make My Monday site there's a fabulous challenge to make a Christmas style box. What a great idea! I've been thinking about how to present my gift vouchers this year and a box is the very thing! Come and have a look:

The box has been made with the wonderfully rich Cherry Cobbler card stock and I stamped the panel that sits on top of the box with my lovely Autumn Days stamp set. There's a little bit of gold embossing too although it's not easy to see it in the photo - conditions are dreadful for photography here today!

The top panel is attached to the lid with dimensionals so a ribbon can pass under it and tie to one side. I've used the divine Cherry Cobbler seam binding - I can't get over the bows you can make with this! (I'm speaking as someone who can't tie a bow to save my life!) The finger indents in the lid were cut with my 3/4" circle punch.

And inside, nestling on a raised insert? Surely every crafter's idea of heaven... a voucher for a Stampin' Up shopping spree! I can make the voucher in any amount and you get the box for free - I can even personalise it for you! I bet you know someone who would love one of these - and if you'd like to be opening one yourself on Christmas day, it might be an idea to start hinting wildly now!

Supplies needed for the box:

Stamps: Autumn Days, Petite Pairs

Ink: Versamark, Cherry Cobbler

Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Very Vanilla

Other: Markers, gold embossing powder, heat tool, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, 3/4" circle punch, stamp-a-majig, scoring blade

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

Both of my boys were off school today, one with a dreadful cold, the other with a hacking cough. It's dark, wet, windy and altogether miserable outside and, frankly, hibernation is beginning to look like an attractive prospect...

But it's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow so, instead of curling up in a nest of warm blankets and sleeping the winter away, I'll be back with a super-fast Christmas card! Do pop in if you have a minute!

Hugs,

A Beautiful Season with extra bling!

I was very excited when I got up on Saturday and found that this week's challenge at Less is More is to make a card using bling. I thought it would be perfect for all those Christmas cards I've been planning to make! Well, it was weird, I couldn't seem to make a CAS card at all and then Life happened and I had to go away and get on with that... This is my fifth attempt and I'm finally happy. Come and see what you think:

The starting point for this card was the frame: I embossed it onto a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock using quite a tight sandwich so that the frame popped out of the surrounding card stock. It was easy then to smother it in versamark ink and heat emboss it using gold embossing powder to produce this gleaming embellishment.

I decided to use the frame to highlight part of an image and this gorgeous bird on a holly sprig from Beautiful Season seemed the perfect choice. The rubber was coloured directly with markers and I used a blender pen to add more colour to the image after stamping. The bird has been turned into a Christmas robin - as Chrissie mentioned I really do have a bit of a thing about robins! I was a little worried that the frame wasn't blingy enough for their royal Limnesses, so I highlighted the holly with a little dazzling diamonds glitter to add a bit more festive sparkle!

The word Christmas in the sentiment was embossed in gold too and I added a small 'merry' to the top of it using my stamp-a-majig. Some of my customers tell me they don't like to say 'merry' Christmas - preferring 'happy' Christmas instead. I always tell them that with a stamp-a-majig you can say pretty much anything you like! I placed my sentiment inside score lines to balance out the image.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Beautiful Season, Petite Pairs

Ink: Versamark, markers

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Designer Frames embossing folder, gold embossing powder, heat tool, dazzling diamonds glitter, stamp-a-majig, scoring blade

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I'm afraid the black cross has had to go on our front door again - this time the children are all going down with colds and, in the case of my eldest son, quite badly so that I've had to keep him off school. I've arranged him on the sofa, next to the cat, and given him the first of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials to keep him occupied. (He surreptitiously exchanged it for the Argos catalogue when he thought I wasn't looking and is obviously fantasising about opening an iphone-shaped parcel on Christmas day!) Just before lunch he asked plaintively when his brother would be home from school. "I could do with a bit of light entertainment," he said. Aaah! Brotherly love!

Thank you for popping in to see my blingy Christmas card! I shall be round to see all the other entries in the next couple of days and I'll be back here tomorrow with a new project. Hope to see you then.

Hugs,

Button Buddies for a baby boy

Good morning! I'm ready to start the week with a masculine card as usual on Mondays and today I'm showing you a card for a very small male person! Christmas might be on its way but babies continue to be born and we always need a stash of baby cards! Here's one for a baby boy:

I love this image of an old-fashioned baby rattle and it's just one of eight stamps in the Button Buddies set. I'm quite a fan of this stamp set - the images are quite graphic and cover loads of occasions!

I was pleased with the 3D look I achieved with the rattles. I first tapped them into Marina Mist ink and then added shading on one side of the rubber with a Night of Navy marker. After stamping, I drew in a shadow with my Sahara Sand marker to give them extra depth.

The sentiments from Easy Events are so useful and I love the font style. And have you spotted that ornate border? I punched a strip of Bashful Blue card stock using the Lace Ribbon border punch and tucked it under the main panel. I love the tone-on-tone look of teaming it with a Bashful Blue card base.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Button Buddies, Easy Events

Ink: Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Whisper White craft ink for sponging edge of card base

Card stock: Whisper White, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue

Other: Markers, Lace Ribbon border punch, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I hope you had a good weekend. We had an extremely busy one with chores and also my youngest son's Christmas fair at school to help out with. I was on an extremely busy stall selling novelties such as lip glosses masquerading as cakes and weirdly-shaped stationery items. At one stage a small boy picked up a bright pink plastic toilet and looked up into my face. "What's this?" he asked. "It's a toilet," I told him firmly. He was not to be easily fobbed off. "What does it do?" he asked, his eyes fixed onto mine. "Let's read the label shall we?" I said brightly. "It says here that it makes rude noises..." He stared at me disapprovingly. "You use it to entertain your friends," I added. The child put the toilet back in the box and took his leave, casting me a look of deep disgust - as if the whole thing had been my idea!

Thank you for joining me today. I shall be back tomorrow with something a little Christmassy so do come and have a look if you have a minute.