Making a splash with the new Stampin' Up blendabilities

I have a great giveaway going on here this week! Would you like the chance to win a pack of the new Stampin' Up blendabilities or a gorgeous photopolymer stamp set? Click here to find out how!

LETS GET STAMPIN' AND STICKIN'!
There's a mix of favourites from my stash and lovely new Stampin' Up goodies on today's card. Come and have a look:

I've used the lovely, dreamy new in-colour, Lost Lagoon, for my card base today and both the designer paper strip down the side and the stamped sentiment are the same beautiful colour.

It was lovely to get Everything Eleanor out again and use this gorgeous flourish. The simple flower is from Flower Shop. I stamped it with Lost Lagoon ink, coloured it with Coastal Cabana blendabilities (I really, really can't stop using these!) and cut it out with the coordinating Pansy punch. The card is finished with a sprinkling of gems, coloured with the darkest of the blendies.

I was inspired today by the fun tic-tac-toe challenge at The Paper Players this week and I've inadvertently used both the middle column horizontally and vertically!

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

Stamps: Everything Eleanor wood or cling, Flower Shop wood or cling
Regarding Dahlias wood or cling (for the sentiment)

Ink: Garden Green, Lost Lagoon classic inks,
Coastal Cabana blendabilities

Card stock: Lost Lagoon, Whisper White

Other: Moonlight designer paper stack, Basic rhinestones (coloured with blendability marker), Stamp-a-majig

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.

Forgive me if I don't stay to chat today dahlings... I'm up to my eyes in diamonds!

No, this isn't my outfit of choice for a supermarket run (!) - it's the sequin-tastic gown my daughter will be wearing at her prom this evening to mark the end of her school days. We'll be up to our ears in manicures, hair rollers, perfume and chiffon... oh there will be tissues at the ready this evening I can tell you!

I'll be back at 10pm with the name of the lucky winners of my fabulous prize give away! See you later,

A mix of Grunge and CAS

You may not think CAS and grunge styles go together at all but I thought I'd give it a whirl anyway! Here's what happened:

The background is stamped with Stampin' Up's fabulous Off the Grid background stamp, through a mask made with one of the Circles framelits. I filled in some of the squares on the grid with a black marker and I must warn you, in case you fancy a go at this, it is strangely addictive!

I loved the shape of the leaves on the sketch and noticed that the sycamore seed image in the Gently Falling stamp set was similar - yay! Love it when I find a new use for one of my stamps! The flowers are stamps from Flower Shop and Petite Petals, both of which have a coordinating punch to make life quick and easy. These stamp sets are natural partners, so if you have one, you might want to consider getting the other so you can mix flower sizes.


Today's card was inspired by Addicted to CAS where the cue word is Grunge; and also CAS(e) this Sketch where there's a fabulous sketch and an inspiration photo courtesy of the Runway Inspired challenge.

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

Stamps: Off the Grid wood, Flower Shop wood or cling
Petite Petals wood or cling, Gently Falling wood or cling

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Sahara Sand and Soft Sky classic inks
plus black stazon and Basic Black marker

Card stock: Whisper White, scrap of Soft Sky

Other: Circles framelits, Big Shot, 1/2" circle punch, Neutrals candy dots, stamp-a-majig

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.

DON'T FORGET TODAY'S THE LAST DAY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE WEEKLY DEALS!

Grunge and CAS, sigh. It's the difference between my idea of suitable clothing for my youngest son and his own. Why does he always manage to find the most disreputable-looking pair of joggers from the back of the drawer and team them with some shapeless sludge-coloured t-shirt or hoodie? Naturally I'd prefer him to dress like the boys in this 18th century portrait by Joseph Francis Nollekens:

And, to be fair, he'd probably be quite entertained to dress up like this for about ten minutes or so!

See you tomorrow,

The Gently Falling Flower Shop

It's so good to have a weekend at home! We had chores to do but I did get to make a leisurely card for the Less is More challenge where I'm delighted to see the lovely Lizy guesting today! This week's challenge is to 'use  felt or fabric on a CAS card' and at first I thought I might have to sit this one out, but then I spotted the canvas I'd used on yesterday's card - that's fabric isn't it?!

The canvas was stamped with one of the flowers from the Flower Shop stamp set. This was cut out using the coordinating punch and decorated with one of the beautiful antique brads. (I thought afterwards that the punches are really only designed to cut out paper so perhaps I should have cut it out by hand; but it did cut beautifully and didn't seem to do any harm to the punch which is a tribute to its sharpness!)

I stamped some leaf outlines from Gently Falling onto a piece of Very Vanilla card stock and cut a panel out. I cut only partially on one side so that I could trim round the leaf. A border was pierced on both sides for a bit of detail and the canvas flower attached using glue dots. I used a piece of chevron designer paper for the side of the card but it looked a little stark so I inked over it using the same colours as for the flower and that tied everything together nicely.

This bold sentiment comes from the Oh Hello stamp set and I've stamped it twice, once on the card front and then again on the panel, masking the card front off and using a stamp-a-majig to position it.

I've just spotted that CASual Fridays has a lovely autumnal challenge too, 'Fall colours and a leaf', so I think I'll link up there too.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Flower Shop, Gently Falling, Oh Hello
Ink: Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Early Espresso
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla
Other: Markers, canvas, Essentials paper piercing pack, Pansy punch, Patterns designer paper, antique brads, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop 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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.

It was such a relaxing start to the day that my daughter and I even managed a little rummage through Pinterest together this morning after breakfast! This is one of the images we saw:

Isn't it striking?! (Sadly we couldn't find a source for it.) My daughter, while appreciating the beauty of the image, is never one to pass up on a comedic opportunity. "You know that moment," she said dreamily. "When you kiss your boyfriend and he turns into birds!"

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you soon,

Three minute notelet - and a new stampin' Up catalogue

As the evenings begin to draw in and autumn approaches, Stampin' Up has produced a fabulous new catalogue to cover all the events of the season. As always, there are plenty of exciting new goodies and some gorgeous projects too! Click the picture of the catalogue below to have a browse and get in touch. to order items or if you'd like a copy to curl up with.

And there's MORE exciting news today with a very special offer involving butterflies. Check it out on my Special Offers page.

We're definitely feeling the onset of autumn now with only one more week of the school holidays left. I love the holidays although it can be challenging - relaxing with the family one minute and struggling to catch up with life the next! Today's  little notelet was made in one of the frantic moments - but that's what Three Minute Thursday is all about: cards in minutes! Come and see:

The moment I saw the new Off The Grid background stamp, I wanted to try it with a floral! I stamped it on a card base made with core'dinations card stock to emphasise the griddiness (yay! it's a new word!) of the image and added the scribbled-style flower from the Flower Shop set with a matching candy dot. This bold, flowing sentiment from Perfectly Penned finished the card off.

I was so pleased with this little card I made three more of them in different colours - which just proves how speedy they are!

Here's what you'll need to make this set of cards
Stamps: Flower Shop, Off The Grid, Perfectly Penned
Ink: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi, Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry
Card stock: Whisper White core'dinations
Other: Candy dots, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.

Talking of speedy, the children and I were watching a film the other evening when a large spider strolled out from under a chair to join us. He wasn't entirely welcome (!) and I banged the floor behind him to send him towards the open French windows. This had the desired effect and he took to his heels and galloped outside. "My goodness," said my older son with respect. "He really can move can't he?!" I nodded. "I expect they call him Spidey Gonzalez!" I said which, I reckon, was pretty speedy of my poor brain too!

See you tomorrow,