Inspired by harvest festival

Yesterday I had a bit of a creative moment! I was fiddling about with my Perfectly Preserved stamp set and came up with a pot of jam and then, not content with that, I made an apple using a punch and some sponge daubers! Seeing the two together made me think of harvest festival and all the times my children trotted off to school carefully carrying their decorated produce. When I'd finished being in Mumland I found that I'd made this:

All sorts of harvest goodies in a wooden crate made using my new Woodgrain embossing folder on Core'dinations card stock and sanding the surface - LOVE this textured look! The jam was made by stamping parts of a strawberry from my Fruit and Flowers set onto card stock and then sponging colour over the top. I stamped my beloved jar from Perfectly Preserved over the top and added crystal effects, allowing it to dry before cutting out with my sharp paper snips. It does look quite realistic in real life!

Can you see how shiny it is? Those ears of wheat next to the jam are from the retiring Autumn Days - such a favourite set of mine! I hooked some of the Perfectly Preserved cherries over the crate to look as if they were spilling out.

The apple was made with a circle punch, sponge daubers and ink and has a stalk made from the cherries stem. I might do a tutorial on this because I quite like how realistic it looks and it was really quick and easy! I finished the card with a bit of rustic linen thread and a sentiment cut out with the modern label punch and fastened to the crate with brads - I love that I can just reach for brads that match the wheat!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved, Autumn Days (retiring), Apothecary Art (sentiment)
Ink: Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade, Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, More Mustard
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso Core'dinations
Other: Woodgrain embossing folder, sanding block, Big Shot, Modern Label punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, markers, Crystal Effects, brads, linen thread, paper snips

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

What is it about my family and food? My oldest son can't get enough cereal and meat (although thankfully not at the same time!) My daughter calls him 'My brother, the Sarlac' (referring to a creature on Star Wars that eats anything and everything and which appears as a hole in the desert with teeth and tentacles!) This is a little hypocritical though... the other day she suggested we had chocolates for pudding and I had to remind her we'd just HAD pudding! 

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I have a quick autumnal card to show you. Hope to see you then,

A Christmas farewell

It's always sad to say goodbye to my favourite stamps but I must put them away as my job is to show you all the lovely things in the current catalogues. I've used three different stamp sets today, all on the Retirement List and all available, as I'm typing this, until the end of this month or until stocks last.

I made the card for the 52{Christmas}Card Throwdown where there's a colour challenge this week: Red, Brown and Cream or White. Come and see:

This was a really fast card to make and there wasn't a sponge in sight for the background! I started off by smearing my Whisper White craft ink pad over a panel of Crumb Cake card stock, more thickly on the bottom two thirds to make snowy fields, and more sparingly over the top third for the sky. The winter grasses were stamped in Early Espresso over the snow - I used Autumn Days and Greenhouse Garden for this.

The robin is made with the Two Step Bird punch, using a simple technique I came up with ages ago - I made a video tutorial of it that you can see here.

Here's the sentiment from one of my all-time favourite Christmas sets, Season of Joy. And have you seen the snow? Another fabulous use for my white Watercolour Wonder crayon - I love how useful these are.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Greenhouse Garden, Autumn Days, Season of Joy (all retiring)
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso classic inks, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White (for the bird)
Other: Two Step Bird punch, Whisper White Watercolour Wonder crayon, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

I can't believe we've been back from holiday for only a week - it feels like forever! I loved the east coast of Kent and we'll definitely be going back there. It's steeped in history and there are lots of unspoilt medieval towns, such as the town of Sandwich (or Sandwiches, as my youngest son insisted on calling it - as in: "Let's go to Sandwiches today!") There are plenty of cobbled streets and narrow alleys and we were amused by this street name. We imagined there being some heated arguments when they were thinking up names for it, culminating in slammed doors and people saying "Fine then! If that's the way you want it, we won't call it anything at all!"

I've just realised I meant to post a card using Perfectly Preserved today! If you were looking for it and feeling a bit bewildered, I do apologise and it'll be here tomorrow instead...

Hugs,

Retiring stamps with a new twist

Well I knuckled down to make an autumnal card this morning despite the fact it's blazing hot and looking like summer! The reason is that I've been able to join in with Less is More again this week (yay!) where Chrissie and Mandi want to see one-layer cards with a Foliage theme. My card was also made for One Layer Wednesday - it's Susan's turn to host and she's challenging us to make cards for her Gratitude Campaign. Come and see what I've made:

I've used the leaf from the sadly retiring Autumn Days (just check out my alphabetical index in my side bar to see how many cards I've made with that wonderful set!) but I've given it a new look by teaming it with the jar from my brand, spanking new Perfectly Preserved set. I LOVE  this jar to bits!

To get this look, I made two masks - one where I cut around the outside of the jar and one where I cut a hole inside the jar. (There are framelits available to make cutting out all the elements in this set a doddle, but they don't work as masks.) I stamped the leaves in the jar through the negative mask, stamping the jar over the top using Whisper White craft ink, then covered the whole thing with the other mask while I sponged in the background.  To finish, I discarded the masks (keeping them in the box for next time) and added more leaves.

I'm afraid I made a bit of a pigs ear of the sentiment! I stamped it in the white craft ink but left it too long before embossing in white - I should have used versamark. The finishing touch was to add dots of versamark pen and embossing those in white to give the idea that something magical's going on - and so it is: feeling thankful for what you have, no matter how little, makes you feel great!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Autumn Days (retiring), Sincere Salutations (retiring), Perfectly Preserved (NEW!)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Early Espresso classic inks, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Crumb Cake
Other: White embossing powder, versamark pen (retiring), Heat Tool (retiring), paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

Our cat Tuppence is lying comatose in the sunshine. Did anyone read the story on the news last week about the man whose aging cat had taken to falling asleep all over the place and couldn't be roused? The cat had gone to sleep on the top of his rubbish bin and a passing cat lover had gone to stroke her; the cat was in its customary deep slumber and didn't stir and the passer by phoned the RSPCA believing it had died and been put out with the rubbish! I mentioned this story to Tuppence which is why she's sticking to her favourite chair!

I'll be back on Monday when I'll have another Perfectly Preserved idea to show you. Hope to see you then,

Golden Pocket Silhouettes

I suffered from Less is More withdrawal symptoms over the weekend - I was away and my phone wouldn't load the whole site so I couldn't see the challenge. It was so frustrating - and I'm sure a lot of LiMettes can sympathise! Anyway, it turns out that the challenge is to make a card using the colour gold. I'm obsessed with twinchies at the moment, as seen at the fabulous new challenge site Show us Your Twinchies, so I combined the two challenges to come up with this:

Twinchies are two inch squares of artwork and I've made mine in golden shades combined with gold embossing. It's mounted on a panel of Naturals Ivory card stock embossed with the Elegant bouquet embossing folder and wrapped with twill tape tied up with linen thread. I wanted it to be a burst of colour against a neutral background. Come and have a look at the twinchie itself:

This was supposed to be inspired by a long hot golden afternoon in a meadow but since I was working from an extremely distant memory you'll have to forgive any inaccuracies! The background was sponged with layers of colour before inking directly with the edge of a River Rock ink pad, then the plants were stamped over the top.

The final step was to add gold embossing which you can see more clearly in the photo above.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Autumn Days

Ink: So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, River Rock

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Whisper White

Other: Versamark pad and pen, gold embossing powder, heat tool, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, twill tape, linen thread

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

This was the scene at the bottom of our road yesterday morning as the olympic torch came past. My youngest son was given the morning off school to see it so my husband (who is much better in crowds than I am) took him out there. When they returned, my son was full of enthusiasm as always. When he'd gone upstairs to get ready for school, I asked my husband if he'd enjoyed it. He looked at me sideways. "Put it this way," he said, "I'll have forgotten all about it by lunchtime!" Where does my son get his positive attitude from I wonder?!

See you tomorrow,

Pocket Silhouettes and other wild flowers

I'm lucky enough to have been asked to be guest designer at Make My Monday this month and I've thoroughly enjoyed visiting all the entrants as well as enjoying the regular design team's samples. If you fancy joining in this week you'd be very welcome! The new challenge is 'Floral - featuring Wild Flowers and Grasses', so I thought it would be fun to rustle up one of my favourite sponged scenes. Come and see:

It is so quick and easy to make these kind of scenes and it looks as if you've spent ages over them! I sponged Pool Party ink over the top of damp watercolour paper and Wild Wasabi and Lucky Limeade inks over the bottom. The Pocket Silhouettes stamps were stamped over the top of this and then the edges of the card stock were sponged with darker inks.

This little cluster is a mixture of stamped and fussy-cut images, and a punched leaf, stapled to the sponged background and tied up with a piece of linen thread.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes  and is stamped into a frame in the Little Additions set. You can also see in this photo that I set the sponged scene inside a frame scored with my Simply Scored board which makes this kind of accuracy SO easy!

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Nature Walk, Autumn Days, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Little Additions

Ink: Basic Black, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Lucky Limeade, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Not Quite Navy

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory, Whisper White, Watercolour paper, Always Artichoke

Other: Markers, small oval punch, two step bird punch, stapler, linen thread, paper snips, stamp-a-majig, Simply Scored

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Today's card reminds me of the first time we went camping. We'd practised putting the tent up at home so were pretty confident, but found that when it came to it, the tent had no desire to sit nicely on the pitch but preferred to lurch drunkenly into the hedge where there was a fine crop of stinging nettles! We had a lovely time though and I remember the children spent all evening quietly collecting grass seeds in bowls!

Happy Monday!

Pocket Silhouettes thank you

I thought the colour challenge at the ColourQ this week was crying out for geometric patterns but in the end I went another way. Here's the fabulous palette...

... and here's what I came up with:

I stamped a golden meadow using some of my favourite grassy stamps from Pocket Silhouettes and Autumn Days, sponging a little colour round the edges.

I expect you recognise the butterflies - I use them all the time! They're cut with my Beautiful Wings embosslits die and attached using glue dots. I wanted to add a little more black to the card so I doodled black bodies and antennae with the fine end of my black journaler.

The sentiment is stamped onto a strip of Whisper White card stock, but have you noticed the black border? It's made with the Postage Stamp punch and I rather like the effect!

I based my card on last Friday's sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping, although I've taken rather a lot of liberties with it!

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Autumn Days, Thank You Kindly

Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Basic Black

Card stock: Basic Grey, Basci Black, Whisper White

Other: Postage Stamp punch, corner rounder, Beautiful Wings embosslits die, journaler, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. And don't forget to add a free pack of designer paper if your order is £45 or more (Offer limited to one pack per qualifying order - click here for details).

Yesterday I was talking about how to make your card making work to help others - for example playing along with the St Lukes Charity Challenge - but I know that a lot of card makers are also brilliant with other crafts. If you are able to knit, you could join in with making baby clothes for the Fish and Chips babies - babies who are sent home wrapped in newspaper as they are born into such poverty there's nothing else. Click here to find out how to help.

Rain is forecast all across the British Isles this weekend - whatever will we find to do? Happy crafting!

Birthday bird and Simply Adorned

I'm having a lovely time using my new things from the spring mini catalogue and today's projects give me the opportunity to show you how well the new goodies work with some established favourites! The card was inspired by Make My Monday where the month's theme is 'nature' and this week's challenge is 'birds'. Come and see:

I layered Very Vanilla card stock onto an Island Indigo base to make this card and I love the combination with the earthy colours I've used for the main panel. Stamping on designer paper is one of my favourite things to do and I think the Easter Blossom branch looks rather effective on this vintage-look First Edition speciality paper. (By the way, if you're a fan of this paper but don't feel you need a whole pack, you might be interested in the paper share in my special offers section.)

Let's zoom in and have a look at that gorgeous bird! Isn't she a beauty? Nature Walk is a set I'm definitely never parting with! I stamped the bird onto the background and then again on a scrap of Very Vanilla which I sponged with ink, cut out and popped up on top of the first.

The sentiments in the Teeny Tiny wishes set fit beautifully in the word window punch - and there's a sentiment for practically any occasion! And come and see what I made to coordinate with the card:

I am so thrilled with my new locket, which is just one of a whole range of customisable jewellery in the new mini catalogue. (The range is called Simply Adorned and you'll find it on page 7  - do have a look!) What I love about the lockets is that you can open them up and insert different artwork depending on your mood or your outfit. They're quite roomy inside so your artwork can be quite dimensional, and they make fabulous, unique gifts! I'm obsessed with mine and yearning for the matching bracelet and some of those beautiful charms too... If you're a fan of these lockets, watch this space because I can't wait to make more inserts for mine!

Supplies needed for these projects:

Stamps: Easter Blossoms, Nature Walk, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Autumn Days

Ink: Island Indigo, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade

Card stock: Island Indigo, Very Vanilla

Other: Word window punch, First Edition speciality DP, 2.5 cm x 3.2 charm locket, chain, paper snips, basic rhinestones

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 think the storms have calmed down at last and thank goodness for that! I'm fed up with going about with a comedy hairstyle and my two older children came back from school yesterday so wet and cold that it took hot chocolate to get smiles out of them!

Thank you for dropping in today and for all your comments and emails. I shall be back soon and hope to see you then. Have a great weekend!