Aviary happy birthday!

Excuse me while I finish slapping my thighs laughing at the title (I know I'm not supposed to laugh at my own jokes but let's face it, no-one else is going to!) Yes, I'm using the fabulous Aviary stamp set today to make a card for ColourQ where there's another gorgeous colour palette that set my heart racing.

Just look at all these lipsmacking brights! You may want to get your sunglasses on before viewing my card:

I don't often get all the brights out so it was great fun! The cages are stamped in a group and I stamped the flower cluster from Fruit and Flowers on top to look as if the cages are full  of flowers.

This is one of my favourite birthday sentiments ever! I like the way it looks handwritten - by someone with nice handwriting! I added a little snippet of ribbon and attached it with a brad to the top of the cage for a bit of extra interest.

Here's a close up of the cages of flowers. I coloured the flower cluster rubber with markers before stamping to get the multi-coloured image.

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

Stamps: Aviary, Fruit and Flowers, Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess)

Ink: Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Certainly Celery

Card stock: Whisper White, Melon Mambo

Other: Markers, 1/8" taffeta ribbon in Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise brad, 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.

As part of the LAST TWO DAYS of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

My lovely children break up for the Easter holidays today - yippee!  I shall be wielding hoovers, dusters, mops and brooms this morning in an pathetic attempt to have a sparkling clean home for a few hours before the ravening hordes descend on it!

Thank you for visiting my blog, for all your lovely comments and emails, and for all your support - I really appreciate it. Have a great weekend and I'll see you very soon.

Hugs,

3 Minute Everyday Enchantment set

I'm showing you my final Sale-a-bration project today and, if anyone has been saving up their orders until the last minute, can I remind you that now IS the last minute! The same goes for anyone wanting a starter kit - the paperwork must be in by tomorrow lunchtime if you want to benefit from that extra free stamp set...

Come and see my three minute thank you cards, made with my very last scraps of the free Everyday Enchantment papers:

What delicious papers these are - I have loved using them! My design is very quick and simple - in fact the butterfly takes up most of the time! I used the butterfly punch to cut one out of the designer paper and one out of a coordinating card stock, glued them together, drew a 'body' with a black marker and added a black brad. The swirl has to be one of my most-used stamps ever - it's from a Christmas set, Season of Joy; I use a lot of images from my Christmas sets all the year round.

Here's a version using the blue and green papers...

...and another using the orange and blue.

My top tip for cards like this is to take two papers of similar colours and lay them on top of each other. You'll see which one stands out against the other the most and that's the one to use for the embellishment.

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

Stamps: Season of Joy, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Basic Black

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, scraps of Pool Party, Luck Limeade, Riding Hood Red

Other: Everyday Enchantment DP (sale-a-bration freebie), Butterfly punch, Basic Black marker, BAsic Black brad, 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

My daughter offered to help me shop for a few things at the supermarket yesterday. As we walked down to the car she spotted a cat staking out its territory. It looked pretty shifty and my daughter, who likes to talk to cats, immediately launched into 'street speak'. While I stared in astonishment, she made a gesture at her eyes with her fingers to indicate she was looking at the animal. "I'm watchin' you kitty cat," she said. "You wanna go? You wanna take this outside?" She has me in stitches my lovely daughter!

Thank you for joining me today. If you fancy coming back tomorrow you may want to get your sunglasses out! Hope to see you then,

Everyday Enchantment 21st birthday

By now, I'm hoping that everyone who wants Sale-a-bration freebies has placed their orders but if you haven't, do hurry as the promotion will finish at the end of the week! I adore the Sale-a-bration designer papers, Everyday Enchantment, and have used all of mine except for a few snippets. I couldn't bear those to go to waste so I came up with a design which I thought would work well for the Make My Monday theme of New Life and Beginnings. I subsequently realised that although the card is about beginning life as an adult, it doesn't really tie in with the Spring theme at Make My Monday so I can't link it up. (Note to self: must read challenges more fully!) Anyway, come and see:

I ran my card base through the big shot with one of the Designer Frames embossing folders and then cut an aperture in it with the coordinating Extra Large Oval Punch. I suspended the key charm from a piece of embroidery floss, sandwiched it between the card front and a scrap of designer paper and sealed those in with a piece of Very Vanilla card stock to match the front.

Here's a close up of that beautifully detailed key charm. It's just one of a variety of charms available in the spring mini catalogue - have a look on pages 7 and 8, they're gorgeous! Items from this catalogue are only available until the end of April so if you love them, don't miss them!

I used the same design to come up with a card for some Christmas challenges as well: Rudolph Day over at my pal Sandra's blog (I'm afraid I'm rather late!) and 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where the challenge is to use designer paper for embellishments.

I'm used the Sale-a-bration papers for this too - which just goes to show just how versatile they are! I thought the green paper looked like fairy lights on a Christmas tree and I stamped the ornament onto a scrap of one of the red floral papers from the set, cut it out and glued it on.

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

Stamps: Tree Trimmings, various sentiment stamps

Ink: Cherry Cobbler (for the ornament)

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Other: Everyday Enchantment DP (sale-a-bration freebie), Designer Frames embossing folders, Seam binding, markers, Trinket keys, corner rounder, 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

Today is not the first time I've misread something. I remember once being on holiday in the south of France and being rather badly bitten by mosquitos; after a cursory glance at the French/English dictionary I sailed into a chemist and explained in French to an astonished pharmacist that I had been attacked by musketeers!

I shall be back tomorrow with a fast card for Three Minute Thursday - do pop back if you have a minute.

Hugs,

Brayered Outlined Occasions

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays this week is to use black with pastel shades. I'd been thinking about this for a little while and then I spotted my brayer and thought I'd whip up a pastel background.  I had the Less is More challenge on my mind too, to combine three of the previous challenges on a card,  and decided to go for Birds, Silhouettes and Use Ink. Come and have a look:

The background reminded me a little of a early-morning lake scene...

... which prompted the stamping of the bird taking off into the sky. I liked the bird against the background so much I made a similar card with a whole flock of them!

Actually I prefer this one! The bird is a very useful little stamp from the Sale-a-bration freebie Elementary Elegance while the 'Thanks' in the first card is from another Sale-a-bration set, Outlined Occasions. The Sale-a-bration promotion will end at the end of this week so if you're keen to add these fabulous sets to your collection, do contact me as soon as possible!

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

Stamps: Outlined Occasions, Elementary Elegance (sale-a-bration freebies)

Ink: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Basic Black

Card stock: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory

Other: Markers, brayer, corner rounder, 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

I rather liked these cards until I showed my teenaged daughter and she burst out laughing! When I asked her what was wrong, she said she was amused that the dramatic birds taking off over the lake should have been accompanied by a sentiment like 'Hello'! What next? she asked me - a raging inferno with 'Let's get together for coffee'! Hmmm, perhaps she has a point!

Thanks for looking anyway. See you tomorrow!

Masculine Monday Sprinkled Expressions

The free stamp sets and papers in this year's Sale-a-bration have been the best ever in my opinion. There really is something for everyone and it would be a real shame to let any of them slip through your fingers. The promotion will be over at the end of this week, so do let me know as soon as possible if you'd like to place an order as I'd hate for you to miss it. And if you're thinking about signing up and getting the extra stamp set in your starter kit, you really will need to get your application in quickly. Send me an email or give me a ring on 01280 820593 and I'll do everything I can to help.

Anyway, I digress! The Sale-a-bration set I'm using today is the wonderfully graphic Sprinkled Expressions. Come and see:

All the strong images in this set work well with lots of lovely white space and the large star image is perfect for male cards...

... and although I've used it as a 'well done' card today, it would be equally at home as a birthday or a 'thanks, you're a star' kind of card. The red stars and sentiment are all one stamp and I've used my markers to colour the rubber before stamping; this is the kind of stamp that looks great inside a card too - as I did in this card with one of the other images in the set. The star at the bottom was cut out with a circle punch and raised on a dimensional. It's from a different set, Itty Bitty Bits, and I thought it looked great with the Sprinkled Expressions images. (And now my brain is now buzzing with ideas for that set too, so watch this space!)

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

Stamps: Sprinkled Expressions (sale-a-bration freebie), Itty Bitty Bits

Ink: Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist

Card stock: Marina Mist, Whisper White

Other: Markers, dimensionals, 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

I hope you had a good weekend. Losing an hour of sleep yesterday as we changed to British Summer Time was counterbalanced for us by the sun shining as if it was summer! The only shadow cast on the day was when an ice cream van drove into our road with its music tinkling, causing my youngest son to dash inside and scramble about finding his money; sadly, by the time he'd run back outside, the van was driving away - and I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that a young boy doesn't take kindly to that sort of thing!

Thank you for visiting me today. I shall be back tomorrow with something a little more feminine - do come back and see!

Fresh Vintage birthday

This week at Less is More, Chrissie and Mandi are inviting us to take three of the previous challenges and combine them on a card. I have a special birthday card to make for a friend this week so this was my chance! I took this wonderful colour combination at ColourQ and chose Flowers, Off the Edge and Bling as my three previous challenges. Come and see the result:

I chose to use the Sale-a-bration stamp set that has become a firm favourite of mine - Fresh Vintage. What a bargain for all those customers that got it for free! (There is still a week left of the promotion so if you're kicking yourself for not getting hold of it, do email me or give me a call as soon as possible!)

I wanted a suspicion of warm, scented evenings about the floral design and I used glitter and rhinestones for a touch of luxury - although I've not been very successful at capturing that on camera today! I started the design with this lovely background strip stamp that's part of the Fresh Vintage set and stamped the birthday sentiment from Sincere Salutations over the top.

The rubber of the stamp was coloured with my markers to create a multi-coloured image for the floral design and I repeated this several times. I defined the plants with my markers, creating shadows, and added to the 3D effect by stamping three of the large flower, cutting them out and popping them up with dimensionals. Sponging the edges of the floral panel with a sponge dauber helps it to pop against the Pool Party card base too.

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

Stamps: Fresh Vintage (sale-a-bration freebie), Sincere Salutations

Ink: Pool Party, Tempting Turquoise, Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry, Concord Crush

Card stock: Pool Party, Whisper White

Other: Markers, Basic Rhinestones, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, paper snips, sponge daubers, 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

I love weekends like this: My husband, who works at home during the week, likes to get out and about on a Saturday morning so I stay at home, crafting in the living room while hundreds of lovely boys career around the house (my boys have friends over!) and my daughter, who is a more restful creature, curls up on the sofa tapping away on her laptop. While I was making this card I muttered "Now, where did I put my Dazzling Diamonds?" My daughter glanced up. "Isn't it imported directly from Fairyland Mummy?!" she said. She has a very sarcastic sense of humour and I'm sure I don't know where she gets it from!

I'll be back on Monday with a male card for Masculine Monday and it would be great if you came to visit.

Hugs, 

Spiced Paisley one sheet wonder

Regular readers of my blog will know that I'm all about 'quick' really; I lack the patience to create time-consuming projects, mainly because when I have an idea in my head, I need to see it NOW! I only mention this because today's card is quite a major project for me! Come and have a look:

The starting point was a background. I stamped an A4 sheet of Whisper White card stock with the medium paisley image from Spiced Paisley using versamark ink, then filled the gaps with the smallest flower image. The whole sheet was then sponged with Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder inks. The versamark pattern resists the water-based ink without embossing. Embossing would make it crisper, but I wanted a dreamy feel to this card (and anyway, it's much quicker this way!)

I cut the background into ten equal pieces and decorated each piece with some ruffled ribbon, a scalloped piece of card stock, some die cut swirls and a layered flower.

The flower was made by stamping the two smaller flower images from Spiced Paisley into some Marina Mist card stock, cutting them out using circle punches, sponging the edges with Concord Crush ink and fastening them together with a Circle Ice brad. I thought the ornate 'thanks' sentiment worked perfectly with the swirly theme of the card.

The decorated panels were mounted onto Naturals Ivory card bases - and there we are, ten thank you cards for some lovely ladies!

By the way, if you're a fan of the Spiced Paisley stamp set, do remember that it won't be around for much longer - all the items in the spring mini catalogue are only available until the end of April. Oh and the Sale-a-bration promotion is nearly over too, so if you'd like to take advantage of all those lovely freebies, there's only a week left to do so!

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

Stamps: Spiced Paisley, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade, Concord Crush, Marina Mist

Other: Scallop trim border punch, 1 1/4" and 3/4" circle punches, Swirls Scribbles sisslits die, Big Shot, Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon, Circle Ice brads, 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

I can just imagine you holding your sides laughing at the very idea of me calling this project 'major' so I shall now slink off in shame! I'll be back very soon though and hope you'll come back too. Have a fabulous weekend,

Three Minute Thursday Spiced Paisley

It's Thursday (already!) and time for my weekly speedy card. I was playing with the Spiced Paisley stamp set earlier this week and had the idea of using the stamps to make tone-on-tone patterns. That's what inspired today's little set of café au lait thank you cards:

I used the smallest paisley pattern on the first, masking off the top of the card with a post-it note and stamping the image repeatedly, letting it overlap. It gives this sort of lace effect which I rather like, but it needed something else so I sponged it with Crumb Cake ink and that did the trick! It was very quick to add a strip of card stock at the top of the patterns and snip a ribbon tail in the bit that overlapped. I decorated the strip with three of my gorgeous self-adhesive pearls and finished with this beautifully ornate sentiment stamp from Thank You Kindly.

Here's the same design but this time using the small flower stamp too from the set. I do like the sort of textured effect.

For this last one, I tried a pattern that didn't overlap. I think I prefer the top two - how about you?

Now I would enter this card in the Less is More challenge where the theme is Masking but, since I've already entered three cards this week, Mandi and Chrissie will be fed up with seeing me I'm sure! Why don't you go and enter a card there instead?!

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

Stamps: Spiced Paisley, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Early Espresso, Basic Black, Crumb Cake

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Other: Basic Pearls, papersnips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you (except the post it note!) 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

I've been having some terrible 'senior moments' just lately. When I was staying at my lovely aunt's house a couple of weeks ago, I turned up for breakfast all dressed but with my nightie still round my waist.  She is such a sweetie though (my aunt, not the nightie!) and made me feel much better by sharing a story about going off to church once with a label stuck on her back from some new underwear; the label read: 'scanties'!

I'll be back tomorrow when I'll be showing you my favourite Spiced Paisley project so far. Hope you can join me.

Hugs,