Hardwood hearts with a Stampin' Up Blendabilities technique

Valentine cards don't have to be all pink and fluffy. Today's card features hearts, flowers and gems but not in an obvious way! Come and see:

A Basic Grey panel forms a nice, neutral backdrop. I rounded the corners and trimmed out a strip to house the greeting - an appropriate 'I heart you' from Stampin' Up's And Many More stamp set. The hearts were made by stamping a piece of Crumb Cake card stock with the Hardwood background stamp and cutting them out with Hearts framelits.

I sponged the smaller one with Burnt Brown Sugar ink but the larger one was stamped with leaves and flowers from Stampin' Up's new wedding set Your Perfect Day. I stamped them in Whisper White Craft ink then coloured over them with Blendabilities markers. LOVE this technique!

A sprinkling of gems and the card was done - and not a frill in sight!


I was inspired to make this card when I saw the challenge at Fusion. I used both the photo and the sketch.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE MY CARD NOW!
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CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION ITEM WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND!

Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set £12.95

Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad £6.95

Wild Wasabi Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers £10.95

Pink Pirouette Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers £10.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

I'm loving watching my youngest son bonding with the puppy. Yesterday evening, he was sitting on the floor fondling Eva's ears while she rested her head in his lap. "I prefer your ears to Tuppence's Eva," he was saying to her, then caught my eye and chuckled. "I suppose that's a bit like saying I prefer your ears to Daddy's!" he said.

Have a lovely weekend won't you and I'll be back on Monday with more crafting fun!

Choose Happiness

We're having a warm, mellow September here in the heart of England and it's inspired me to pair up Stampin' Up's gorgeous Coastal Cabana and Island Indigo and throw in a zing of sunshine yellow! Come and see:

The Choose Happiness stamp set was just made for casual layering like this and I honestly think you could arrange the elements in the set any old how and it would work beautifully!

You might be wondering where these embellishments are coming from? Well the strip of Coastal Cabana and that cute little mini bulldog clip are from the Tag-a-Bag Accessories kit and the pearls were coloured with one of my Daffodil blendabilities pens. I'm loving colouring everything with my blendies!

I based this card on the fabulous sketch over at CASE this Sketch, so I'll be linking up there.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my online shop) 

Choose Happiness Wood-Mount Stamp Set £21.95	And Many More Wood-Mount Stamp Set £32.95	Tag A Bag Accessory Kit £7.25	Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment £10.95
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment £10.95	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents £4.50	Bermuda Bay Baker's Twine £2.50	Paper Snips £8.95	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig £10.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Yesterday my youngest son came home from school and told me that he's really enjoying Physics. I said I was pleased for him and that perhaps he finds it so easy to understand because of his experience on the lighting crew. He looked at me. "You know, I think you might have got the wrong idea about lighting the play," he said. "Basically I'm just shining a light on some people talking!"

See you tomorrow - ooh and don't miss it because it'll be the Artisan Design Team blog hop and there will be amazing things to see!

Age Awareness - Stampin' Up! Artisan Blog Hop

Hello and a great big welcome to this week's Stampin' Up Artisan Design Team blog hop! We have a whole bunch of inspiration for you, so sit back, make yourselves comfy and let's get going!

I received a HUGE box of new goodies earlier this week (see pic here) so I was spoilt for choice for goodies to craft with but in the end I opted for some fabulous designer paper and a new photopolymer set called Age Awareness. Come and see what I've made with it:

Isn't this fun?! The cake sentiments in the stamp set made me chuckle and I immediately thought they'd be perfect on a cake treat box.

I used my cake slice box template (free to download here) to cut a box shape out of a beautifully understated design from the Confetti Celebration paper pack. Once the box was put together, I knotted some lush Blackberry Bliss ribbon round it before adding the cake sentiments and some candy dots for an extra flash of colour.

I love a coordinating set so I made a card to match my cake box. You'll notice the same fabulous designer paper behind that trendy off-set panel in Blackberry Bliss. Have you incorporated this delicious new colour into your craft room yet? You won't regret it I promise you!

Here's a close up of the label on the card. I love that useful little swirl from the Age Awareness stamp set and have you spotted that the 'happy birthday' comes in the same font as the 'happy cake day'? That meant I could make the card and the cake box coordinate perfectly *does a little happy dance!*

I hope you've enjoyed my cake-ish birthday project! There'll be a new Artisan Design Team blog hop every Thursday so I hope you'll come and join us each week. And now, the rest of the team are dying to inspire you with their creations too so click the button below to get started with the amazing Allison Okamitsu:

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS PROJECT HERE
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my online shop) 

Age Awareness Photopolymer Stamp Set [135381]	Confetti Celebration Designer Series Paper [133692]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]
Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock [133682]	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad [131173]	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad [133642]
Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad [131179]	Blackberry Bliss 3/8" Satin Stitched Ribbon [133668]	Brights Candy Dots [130931]

Place an order online 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.

I would have shown you a picture of the cake that went inside the cake slice box but I didn't make any! Why? Because we ate so much cake on holiday that I thought we'd better give it a rest! There was a cafe near our holiday house that advertised its cake as 'chocolatey to the point of madness'. I mean, what would you have done?!

I'll have another birthday set to show you tomorrow. Hope to see you then,

Choose Happiness for the newly weds

It's wedding season and with all the sunshine we've been having this summer in the UK there must have been plenty of happy outdoors celebrations! Today I have an elegant, one-layer wedding card to show you:

You know what I'm like with leaf stamps don't you? I HAVE to have them and this little branch from Stampin' Up's new Choose Happiness set makes me very happy indeed!

I stamped it in Old Olive ink directly onto my card front and quickly heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. It was fun to colour with a mixture of blender pen and ink and Stampin' Write markers.

I wanted to make a nice space to stamp this beautiful sentiment from And Many More so I masked a strip of the card front off and sponged Soft Sky ink around it. A sprinkling of pearls and a rounding of corners and the card was finished!

My starting point for this card was Less is More where the ladies are having a one layer card challenge featuring foliage this week. Further inspiration came from The Card Concept where wedding cards are the order of the day (check out their gorgeous inspiration picture!) and Fusion where there's a great sketch. Addicted to Stamps and More are having one of their Make Your Mark challenges too, so I shall be linking up there.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Choose Happiness Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134198]	Choose Happiness Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134195]	And Many More Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134276]	And Many More Wood-Mount Stamp Set [134273]
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550]	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [126953]	Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad [126981]	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder [109130]
Heat Tool - Uk Plug [129054]	Stampin Write Markers - Subtles Collection [119700]	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad [131181]	Stamping Sponges [101610]

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.

Yesterday, while looking on Pinterest, my daughter cooed over some pictures of wedding cakes. "I'd definitely get married if I could have a cake like that!" she said. Hmm. Not sure if she's really grasped the whole wedding thing!

See you tomorrow when I'll be showing you an exciting parcel that was delivered to my door yesterday (as well as some stampin' inspiration of course!)