Paper pieced From Your Teacher

Actually today's card has been paper pieced FOR one of my youngest son's teachers, but the set I've used is called FROM your teacher and features the cutest little smiley apple! You can't see its smile in the card though as I've been doing a spot of paper piecing in response to today's Less is More challenge. Come and have a look:

This is a very CAS design as I was being hassled encouraged to go out with my family! I stamped part of two sentiments from Perfect Pairs onto a panel of Very Vanilla card stock, using markers to pick out the bits I wanted and my stamp-a-majig to stamp them where I wanted them. Then I stamped my apple - again using markers to colour different bits of the rubber different colours. The panel was then mounted onto a Very Vanilla card base using dimensionals. Now, here comes the paper piecing part...

... I stamped the apple on the back of a bit of striped designer paper and cut it out. It was then turned right way up and overstamped with my Solid Stripes background stamp to create this gingham effect. I stuck it over the stamped apple on my card and finished with a gem.

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

Stamps: From Your Teacher, Solid Stripes, Perfect Pairs

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso (all in marker form)

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Other: Real Red paper from the Patterns designer paper stack, Basic Rhinestones, 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.

Tonight my husband will be making pizzas and I shall be curling up in front of a girlie film. This is a concession because tomorrow our household will be gearing up for some serious football-watching as England plays Italy in the European Cup. I shall join in with that too because I'm finding it so amusing: my husband and eldest son are properly manly about watching football but my youngest son and my daughter are hilarious. Last week my daughter disgusted the menfolk when Rooney scored. "Oh look at them!" she said, as the England squad crowded round Rooney. "Aren't they adorable when they celebrate!"

See you later,

Spiced Paisley Masculine Monday

Good morning! It's the beginning of the week and time for Masculine Monday here! I've been having a play with the gorgeous Spiced Paisley stamp set just lately and I think it's a great set for masculine cards. Come and see what I've made:

Paisley could be thought of as a bit frilly for men but I think teaming it with stripes gives it more of a masculine feel. I coloured the rubber on the images with markers before stamping them and cut them out with my sharp paper snips - which was surprisingly quick and easy!

My starting point for these cards was CAS-ual Fridays where the challenge is to make a clean and simple card using a pattern, an image and a sentiment. When I'd made this one I wasn't sure if it would count as there are two images on this card so I had to make another one!

I think I prefer this one anyway! I punched a circle out of a post it note and used it as a mask for my stripy background, added my cut-out paisley and finished with a sentiment using my stamp-a-majig to make sure it was straight. As I used a masking technique on this card, it can be my second entry into the Less is More challenge as my first wasn't as CAS as it could have been - oops sorry ladies!

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

Stamps: Spiced Paisley, Solid Stripes, retired sentiment

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Garden Green

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Markers, 1 3/8" circle punch, paper snips, post it note, 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.

Every day is mother's day in my house as my lovely children are usually very good to me, but yesterday they all gave me handmade cards and there were some presents as well! My middle son drew me a personalised card and had bought me chocolates out of his own money - I was particularly touched that he remembered I love white ones. My youngest son gave me a flower he'd picked from the garden and a card with a poem he'd written inside. One of the lines was 'great cooker, sharp looker' and when I blushed and said I didn't think I could really be described as a sharp looker he said: "Oh yes you can Mummy - you can always tell when my room isn't tidy!" My daughter brought me coffee with her stunning scrapbook card - and what presentation! Can you see how beautifully colour coordinated everything is?

I am incredibly lucky to have my three wonderful children and I truly know it.

See you tomorrow,

Free Minute Friday...

If you popped in yesterday expecting to find a nice fast card for Three Minute Thursday, you may have been a little bewildered. I'm afraid I was having a senior moment and got my posts all mixed up, so we'll have a Free Minute Friday today instead and order will be restored!

At One Layer Wednesday this week, the challenge is to make a one layer card featuring stripes, and that's what inspired me to make this quick card:

I often use three stripes from the Solid Stripes background stamp as a grounding device - I love the graphic look of it. Here I've used Early Espresso, Real Red and Old Olive - a favourite colour combination of mine for Christmas.

Here's a close-up of the stamped group. The tree is from a two-step stamping set called Trendy Trees where you stamp the trunk and the crown of the tree separately using a stamp-a-majig. You can line them up perfectly but I rather like the effect of stamping them slightly 'off'. The tree is finished with the smallest size on my Basic Rhinestones sheet to add a little festive sparkle.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Solid Stripes, Trendy Trees, Season of Joy (sentiment)

Ink: Early Espresso, Real Red, Old Olive

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Markers, Basic Rhinestones

I'd love to order any of these supplies for you and I 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. 

It's half term already - how on earth did that happen?! My two older children are off today and my youngest finishes this afternoon - whoopee!  - so we're thinking of celebrating with a visit to the cinema to see the Three Musketeers later.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you very soon.

Hugs,

Inspiration from convention

Good morning! Yes - even Monday mornings are good when you're a Stampin' Up demonstrator!

If you are a regular reader of this blog you'll know that I've been away at the Stampin' Up European convention. This event brings demonstrators from the UK, France and Germany together and was held at the beautiful Addington Palace in Surrey.

My goodness did I learn a lot there! I can't wait to show you some of the tricks and techniques I've learned - so now is a great time to get your stamping parties booked!

When demonstrators get together, we like to swap the things we've been making - a wonderful idea as we then have a huge library of styles and ideas to inspire us and our customers. Here are some of the things I made.

This is a tag made from Notably Ornate with a touch of Vintage Vogue, and personalised using my Schoolbook Serif and Just Perfect alphabet sets. I used More Mustard to stamp that fabulous frame and I love the contrast with the Rich Razzleberry of the flowers and the touches of Old Olive. You can't see very well in the photo but I decorated the centres of the flowers with basic rhinestones for a touch of sparkle.

And here's my swap:

There's more than a touch of the US about this card isn't there? I must have been thinking of my American crafting friends when I came up with this design and wishing they could join us at Addington Palace! I used Seeing Stars and Solid Stripes for this card along with the incredibly useful Thank You Kindly sentiment set of four.

I have had the most wonderful few days, sharing what I love doing with so many other ladies who are as passionate about crafting as I am. It was lovely to meet up with friends from around the UK and Europe and I've made new friends too. When I joined Stampin' Up as a demonstrator earlier in the year I had no idea that it would become such a special and fulfilling part of my life - I really cannot recommend it highly enough.

If you've been wondering about joining Stampin' Up, whether to enjoy your hobby at a discount or to turn your hobby into a business, I would love you to join my team. I'm not interested in pressurising you but I can give lots of information, share my own experiences with you and give you the time and space you need to make an informed decision. It only costs £119 to buy the starter kit and you get an astonishing £230 worth of products! Click here to email me.

I'm closing this post with a picture of me (on the right) with my very special upline and friend Michelle Last who walked away from convention with the top prize - UK demonstrator of the year. I am so thrilled for her and she truly deserves her title - she is the loveliest person and it's a pleasure to work with her.

Thank you for dropping in today.

I'll be back tomorrow for a little Christmas gift inspiration.

Hope to see you then.

Tart and Tangy teachers' thank you

The girls at our local schools wear pretty little gingham frocks in the summer and they were the inspiration for these end-of -term thank you cards. By the way, is it really true that children used to give their teacher an apple to show their appreciation?

The gingham was made by colouring the Solid Stripes background stamp with a dark and a light marker, stamping, then turning it 90 degrees and stamping again. I used my Stamp-a-majig to position the stamp. I cut the gingham out with my trimmer and positioned it on a Whisper White card base using dimensionals. The apple from the Tart and Tangy set was coloured using markers, stamped onto Whisper White card stock and cut out with the 1 3/8" circle punch. I mounted that onto a circle of coloured card stock with a dimensional and then adhered it to the gingham background. The sentiment is a favourite of mine from Trendy Trees.

Supplies
Stamps: Solid Stripes, Tart and Tangy, Trendy Trees
Ink: Garden Green
Card stock: Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy
Other: 1 3/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Earth Elements and Rich Regals markers

Here are some other colourways:

And a close-up look at that gingham. Love it!

You know, I meant to post this yesterday but things went a bit pear-shaped! In fact, there's been a lot of pear-shaped-ness in my life just lately - mostly to do with forgetting things. I think I need to start carrying around a notebook containing written instructions to myself... but first I think I need to make a stash of 'I'm So Sorry' cards.

See you tomorrow with more end-of-term bits and pieces.
(And this time I mean it!)

Tutorial - 5 petal punch flower

Do you remember this card?

When I posted it, I promised to get together a tutorial for making the flower. Well, I have done - and here it is today!

This is what you'll need:
Card stock in Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery
Ink in Pink Passion and Old Olive
5 Petal punch and Boho Blossoms punch
Sharp scissors, paper piercer, daubers and an Old Olive brad

Punch three flowers from Pretty in Pink card stock, using the 5 Petal punch. Then punch one pointy flower from Certainly Celery card stock using the Boho Blossom punch.

Hold one of the pink flowers firmly in the centre and run your other thumb nail from the centre out to the end of each petal. You can be quite rough!

You should end up with something that looks like this, with the petals curving upwards. Repeat this with all the pink flowers.

Now, get your thumb nail (or something sharp) and peel the petal apart a little at the end.

Do this to all your pink flowers.

Now apply a little Pink Passion ink to the very edges of each petal using a sponge dauber. Do this to all the pink flowers.

Next take your Certainly Celery flower and snip between each petal a little way towards the centre. Don't snip too far - you'll be putting a brad in the centre and it won't hold if you've snipped right to the centre.

Apply a little Old Olive ink to the edges of the petals with a sponge dauber. (TIP: I keep a separate sponge dauber for each colour that I use for sponging.)

Put all your flowers into a pile, making sure the petals aren't all directly beneath one another, and put the green one on top. Pierce a hole all the way through with your paper piercer (or a cropadile).

Put a brad through the hole and open it out at the back to secure all the layers of the flower.

 Curl your flower inwards a little and rearrange the petals and - voila! A beautiful 3 dimensional flower to use on all sorts of projects.




At my card club on Friday, we made another card using this flower. I'll be posting that tomorrow, so do check back for that.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.
See you tomorrow.

Solid Stripes gingham birthday

The minute I saw the Solid Stripes background stamp in the mini catalogue, I got very excited about the possibilities for checked patterns. So today I've come up with this gingham effect:

Recognise the flower? It's the second time this week it has made an appearance because it's one of my favourite embellishments at the moment! Look out for a tutorial in the next few days. The gingham called out for cross stitch and the faux stitched kisses finished the card off nicely.

Supplies:
Stamps: Solid Stripes, Vintage Labels
Ink: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Pink Passion, Always Artichoke
Card stock: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
Other: Certainly Celery brad, paper piercer, two step bird punch (the wing makes these leaves), Pretty in Pink marker

It's been warm and even quite sunny here for the last week but today, while I was at a workshop, we heard rain outside. "Rain?" said one of my ladies. "Must be the cricket season!" She was referring to last summer when we sat outside the cricket pavilion every friday evening and watched our sons play cricket in showers, fog, rain and, on one memorable occasion, a violent thunder storm!

If you live in the UK, you'll be gearing up for the bank holiday weekend. The forecast is for 'cricket season' weather - not so great for cricket but perfect for crafting!
See you tomorrow!