Stampin' Up ideas and supplies from Vicky at Crafting Clare's Paper Moments

Three minutes to create a cupcake

2012-02-16T00:30:00.000Z

The Create a Cupcake stamp set in the mini catalogue is brilliant fun and just the thing to entertain children with - especially if you have the coordinating punch! My ten year old son had a whale of a time with it and came up with all sorts of yummy-looking confections - and the bonus was that when he'd finished he was feeling a bit peckish, so he disappeared into the kitchen with his big sister and rustled up a batch of the real thing!

I thought I'd have a play too while the stamps were out and came up with this super-quick design for Three Minute Thursday:

My cupcake was stamped straight onto the card base in the name of speed but a punched cupcake would be pretty quick too. I love all the different looks this set allows you to achieve - with each cake looking more delicious than the last!

Scored lines are a very quick and easy embellishment perfect for a one-layer card. Mine are there to ground my cake - we don't want any floating cakes now do we?! When I said this to my son while I was making this card, he categorically disagreed with me: Yes we did want floating cakes, he told me, and the more the merrier! He added that he very much approved of the sentiment!

There is something so appealing about cupcakes isn't there? My cake is sporting a stamped ribbon around its paper case with pink sprinkles and a flower on top decorated with a rhinestone but you could really let your imagination run riot with glitters and sparkles, ribbons, buttons, pearls and embossed finishes...
Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Create a Cupcake

Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red, So Saffron, Cherry Cobbler

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Markers, Basic Rhinestones, scoring blade, corner rounder, 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.

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

Call me a complete loon but one thing that cracks me up is a play on words. For instance, my daughter once told me about Undini, a character in a video game she was playing; "Undini?" I said. "Well why doesn't she just do herself up again?" Yesterday, my youngest son mentioned a character in his book, Erac. "Nothing a bit of paracetamol won't sort out!" I said. This is the kind of thing that sends me off into uncontrollable paroxysms of laughter while the children stare at me as if they cannot believe their ears.

Anyway, moving swiftly on... must investigate those cupcakes before they all mysteriously disappear!
See you tomorrow (when wedding bells will be ringing!)

Sew happy birthday!

2012-02-15T00:30:00.000Z

It was my lovely friend Caroline's birthday at the weekend. She is the most talented needlewoman and makes the most wonderful gifts using fabric and free motion embroidery - you can check out her Etsy and Folksy shops here. Naturally her card had to reflect her talents so, after a bit of thought, this is what I came up with:

I used a striped paper from the Patterns designer stack, added some cotton reels in fondant colours, wrapped them in linen thread and added a little label.

I've used a sentiment from my favourite sentiment stamp set of the moment - Happiest Birthday Wishes. This is a hostess set so it's available exclusively to those placing orders of £150 or more. This applies to group orders too and also to members of my Stampers 6 club which is definitely worth checking out if you love Stampin' Up products. It's also worth mentioning that if you do place an order for £150 during the current Sale-a-bration promotion, you'll get three extra stamp sets or paper packs ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

Here's a closer look at my cotton reel embellishments - they're cut out of Naturals Ivory card stock and the thread added with markers. Isn't the little label just gorgeous?! It's from the Tiny Tags stamp set and has been cut out with the Jewellery Tag punch.
Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Tiny Tags, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess set)

Ink: Early Espresso

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla

Other: Markers, Neutrals Patterns designer paper, Jewellery tag punch, linen thread, corner rounder, stamp-a-majig

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

A group of us went out for a meal to celebrate Caroline's birthday. There's always lots of laughter when we get together but the biggest laugh of the evening was when one of our group, who is always beautifully turned out, told us that she'd turned up at an important meeting that week, taken her jacket off in the warm conference room and conducted the meeting in her usual professional way. Later she'd gone to the ladies and, glancing in the mirror, saw to her horror that she'd been wearing her blouse inside out - labels flapping, seams on display and buttons on the inside! Well, we've all been there at one time or another...

I'd like to say a big welcome to my new followers - it means a lot to me that you've chosen to follow my blog and I hope you enjoy your visits here. Do leave a comment or contact me by email if you'd like to - it's always great to hear from you. I shall be back tomorrow with something delicious for Three Minute Thursday so do join me then if you have a minute.

Hugs,

CAS Happiest Birthday Wishes

2012-02-14T00:30:00.000Z

Happy Valentines day! I'll be giving all my family cards and treats this morning and we'll have a celebratory meal later on. Do you celebrate Valentines day at all? I'd love to know what you have planned.

Today I tackled the FTL sketch at Clean and Simple stamping. It was a real challenge for me and I can't say I'm particularly happy with the outcome but, as it's half term here and I have no time to start again, I'm posting it anyway! Come and have a look:

I cut the Baja Breeze designer paper slightly smaller than my card base and sponged the edges of the card with matching ink. The striped paper was cut into a semi circle using my coffee mug as a template! These gorgeous designer papers come from the Subtles Patterns stack which are available in all four colour families and in the in-colours too.

The medallion was made using an image from Happiest Birthday Wishes and a couple of circle punches. I stamped the image onto the striped paper before it was stuck down, and then on the card itself, using my stamp-a-majig to line it up. Once I'd attached the striped paper, I added the layered medallion. Let's zoom in on that:

I think it's so effective layering the image up like this with dimensionals and it makes a great embellishment. I added some self-adhesive pearls for a little extra je ne sais quoi!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess set)

Ink: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Other: 1 3/8" and 1" circle punches, Basic Pearls, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

Everyone's having a lovely half term holiday here. My youngest son spent some of his Christmas money on a set of his favourite Halo Mega Bloks at the weekend and has spent lots of time carefully building some kind of complicated space ship. Yesterday he brought it down proudly to show us all its features. "This bit comes down like this," he said demonstrating a hinged flap. "And you can fit the pilot in here like this," he added, placing a figure in the cockpit. "You can take this bit off..." he went on - and that was when the whole model came to pieces in his hands! There was a long pause while we struggled to keep straight faces. "Er... I'll just need to fix that!"" he said.

Have a lovely Valentines Day and may it be full of love! I'll be back tomorrow with a birthday card I designed especially for one of my crafty friends. Hope to see you then,

Masculine Monday Borderline circles

2012-02-13T00:30:00.000Z

Good morning! I hope you've had a lovely weekend. Mine improved a great deal since the frozen pipes incident on Saturday and I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who left messages of support. I'm starting the week with a masculine card as usual and today I've been inspired by Susan's challenge at One Layer Wednesday: to make a one-layer card with at least 5 circles in it. Hmm, I had to think about this one for a little while but I'm quite pleased with the result. Come and see:

The design started with the 'happy' wrapped around the brown circle outline, which is part of a stamp from the Happiest Birthday Wishes stamp set. (This is why I always recommend markers - they give you the ability to pick out any portion of an image you want and that makes your stamps work so much harder.) I sponged in the green circle using a mask made with a punch and added the blue circle which is a stamp I made by running spare bits of rubber from a new stamp set through my Big Shot with the Fun Flowers Bigz die.

The dotty leaf is from Borderlines and is stamped within the brown circle outline using the mask again. Finally I added the 'Birthday' and grounded the design with a pierced line using the template from my mat pack - more circles! Oh - and I rounded the bottom corners too to fit in with the rounded theme!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Borderlines, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess set)

Ink: Bashful Blue, Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Early Espresso markers, mat pack, paper piercer, corner rounder, stamp-a-majig

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

It's half term here so I have my lovely children and their friends popping in and out which always makes me happy. Naturally this means that I'm running a full-time soup kitchen and my chauffeur duties have intensified but I shall back with more crafting fun tomorrow! Hope to see you then,

Hugs,

Stripily all in the family!

2012-02-11T18:49:00.000Z

I'm feeling a bit grumpy because everything's gone a bit on the pear-shaped side today... I got up with the lark this morning only to find no water again even though we'd lagged the pipe last week! My hubby works hard during the week and certainly doesn't want to be getting up first thing so off I trotted downstairs with my trusty hairdrier and a hot water bottle to try to get the pipes defrosted...

I didn't get started on the Less is More challenge until this afternoon - and kneeling on a freezing cold kitchen floor with your bottom poking out of the cupboard under the sink does nothing for your mojo let me tell you! This week, Mandi and Chrissie want to see one-layer cards with the theme of Stripes and I had this great (well I thought it was great!) idea of a group of people all dressed in stripy clothes. Come and have a look (you can click on the photo to make it bigger):

I sponged some grass for my people to stand on using a mask made of paper I'd trimmed with scallop border punch. And then out came my lovely All in the Family stamp set and I had great fun creating a whole bunch of cuties! There are so many different heads, arms, legs etc in the set that the possibilities are endless... come and meet the gang:

I think everyone's waiting for the birthday boy or girl to turn up so they can party! I reckon this little pair are twins and they look as if they certainly know how to get up to mischief!

The little girl in the middle feels very grown-up in her new party frock! She will be Dancing Queen of the afternoon while her two companions will be found underneath the buffet table polishing off the remainder of the puddings and looking slightly queasy!

I thought this pair would do very well on an engagement or anniversary card or, if I dressed them up in something a bit posh, even a wedding card! Can you tell how carried away I got? Well it was then, just as I was attaching the banner onto the pole when I remembered - it's supposed to be a one-layer card! Aaaargh! So sorry, Chrissie and Mandi - I am sitting on the Naughty Step as I type!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: All in the Family, sentiment is from a retired sale-a-bration set

Ink: Certainly Celery, Basic Grey

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Markers, Scallop border punch, stamp-a-majig

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

Talking of parties reminds me of a conversation I overheard on the street between an elderly gent and a lady with her small daughter in tow. "How are you?" said the man and then, indicating the little girl who was dressed in a sparkly pink frock, "Are we going to a party today?"The woman looked slightly harassed. "We are going to a party - yes," she replied. "It's tomorrow. We're just practising today!"

Thanks for popping round today. I'm looking forward to seeing all the stripiness over at the Less is More site - see you soon!

Hugs,

Everything Eleanor birthday

2012-02-10T00:35:00.000Z

I love colour! One of my favourite things about Stampin' Up's colour offerings is that they introduce new on-trend colours each year. This year's colours are divine - I just can't get enough of them! When I made today's birthday card I managed to use four out of the five and I think they really work well together. Come and have a look:

Pool Party makes a gorgeous card base! I've layered Very Vanilla onto it with a strip of the wonderful First Edition speciality paper and a Calypso Coral dotted scallop ribbon border tucked under it.

The beautiful label from Everything Eleanor is stamped right over the paper and then masked while the flourish is stamped over that. This gives a really layered look but without the layered bulk. The birthday sentiment (do you recognise it? Yes it's from my favourite Happiest of Birthdays set again!) is coloured with markers and stamped onto a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock. I've cut it out with the Large Oval punch and embellished it with stamped flowers.

Calypso Coral is one of the most glorious colours for accenting and I think it looks wonderful with Pool Party, Island Indigo and the fabulous Lucky Limeade. This butterfly is from the Beautiful Wings embosslits die and has to be one of my most frequently used embellishments. I like to pretty them up with pearls and the chains of pearls on the Basic Pearls sheet fit perfectly in the centre.

While I was in the middle of designing this card I thought it would be a great idea to add a lining to the card base. I've decorated one corner with some of the stamps I'd used on the front of the card - and I must say I do like the way it looks.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess set)

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Calypso Coral

Other: Beautiful Wings embosslits die, Basic Pearls, First Edition speciality designer paper

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

When I was writing this it started to snow again... has anyone else had enough of snow?!!!

Enjoy your weekend (I think mine might involve a large, toasty warm duvet and maybe a mug of hot chocolate!) and I'll see you soon.

Hugs,