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!

Everybunny baby with Elementary Elegance

The sun is shining, all sorts of pastel-coloured flowers are pushing through the earth and spring is definitely in the air; birds are nesting and soon all sorts of little creatures will be being born out there! Of course our babies don't wait for the spring to be born but it is especially fun to make baby cards at this time of year. This one is for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge:

Okay, I know - I've used my favourite Everybunny stamp set again! But I adore these chubby little rabbit images and they're perfect for baby and children's cards.

I stamped this gorgeous frame to surround my baby bunny. It's from one of the free Sale-a-bration sets, Elementary Elegance, and coordinates with the Curly Label punch which make it very quick and easy to use. The hearts and flower are from another of the Sale-a-bration freebies, sprinkled Expressions...

...and I stamped this cute message from the set inside the card.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Everybunny, Teeny Tiny wishes, Sprinkled Expressions and Elementary Elegance (free Sale-a-bration sets)

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Crumb Cake

Card stock: Whisper White, scrap of watercolour paper

Other: Markers, Itty Bity shapes and Curly Label punches, corner rounder, Itty Bitty buttons, white gel pen, aquapainter, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

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.

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

The way the bunny in this card appears to be reaching out to touch the hearts reminds me when I used to get the bubbles out to entertain my own babies. There was a lovely intent look that came into their faces and they would reach out to try and touch the bubbles. I also used to have a sheer scarf that I would throw over their heads and pretend I couldn't see them. I loved the way they sat very still, with a secret smile on their faces, certain they couldn't be seen!

Thanks for dropping by today. I'll be back tomorrow with more crafting fun - hope to see you then!

Hugs,

Sprinkled Expressions thank you

I've had a right old palaver in my craft square metre this morning! It's a colour challenge at Less is More this week and Chrissie and Mandi are looking for cards using neutrals, so I decided to combine it with the challenge at One Layer Wednesday which I thought was 'Black, white and bling' but which is in fact 'Cream, black and bling'. That was my first mistake, my second was that black and white isn't what LiM is looking for either - and these errors were followed by many more! I won't bore you with my embossing wrangles... but here's what I finally came up with:

This really is the simplest of cards so I can't imagine why I made such a meal of it! I stamped this fabulous flower image from the free Sale-a-bration set Sprinkled Expressions in Jet Black Stazon ink, and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then repeated the process with the sentiment and finished the card by adding bling and rounding one corner.

I tried to get a photo of how shiny this is against the lovely suede finish of the Naturals Ivory card stock but after three tries I gave up - this is the best I could manage!

Edited to add this version:

I've always loved the contrast between Naturals Ivory and Very Vanilla and just wondered what it would look like with this design!

Here's the first card I made, which turned out to be unsuitable for either challenge but which I thought was a good idea at the time! The image is stamped onto the gorgeous, glossy white card stock and it does look quite effective in real life.

It's exactly the same design as the cream card except I've kept the image mat to contrast with the shiny card stock...

...oh and also one of the gems has come off in the photographic process. I give up! It must be time for a large coffee!

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Sprinkled Expressions (free Sale-a-bration set), Afterthoughts (retired hostess set)

Ink: Jet Black Stazon

Card stock: Naturals Ivory or Glossy White

Other: Basic Rhinestones, stamp-a-majig, corner rounder, clear embossing powder and heat tool for LiM card

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.

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

There's been an International Incident in our house. My eldest son (13) has resisted visiting our local library for some time in case any of his friends see him there. Apparently it wouldn't be 'cool'. Today my daughter (16) hacked into his facebook page as an act of revenge and, pretending to be him, wrote: "Just chillin' at the library. Man I love that place!" He was outraged by this and it was very wrong of her as I told her in no uncertain terms, but it was also very funny - especially when one of his friends responded with concern, wondering if he was feeling quite the thing!

Hope you're having a great day!

Hugs,