Jack in a box

Stampin' Up's annual convention is being held in Manchester this week and I'm really looking forward to being wowed by the events the company will have laid on and meeting up with my Stampin' Up friends. Whenever we get together, we exchange handmade gifts and cards of course, so I'm busy creating those, but a young member of our extended family celebrated his birthday this week so I snatched a few minutes to make a card for him. Come and see:

In my experience, young lads like their cards to be simple and to the point - and you can't really get much simpler and to the point than this!

Using a stamp-a-majig to produce an overlapping sentiment creates a bit of detail though and the single red candy dot embellishing the 'C' in the die cut name. I used a retired set of alphabet dies but the Typeset Alphabet Bigz die would work just as well.

Here's what you'll need to make this card

Stamps: Express Yourself

Ink: Real Red

Card stock: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Smoky Slate

Other: Real Red candy dot, Timeless Type alphabet dies, Big Shot, 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.

I don't listen to the radio a great deal but one show I never miss is Radio 4's Sorry I haven't a Clue, hosted by the hilarious Jack Dee and billed as the antidote to panel games. One of the rounds is called The Uxbridge Dictionary, where panellists must suggest alternative definitions for existing English words. Two that just came to mind while writing this post are 'crackerjack - a device for lifting biscuits' and (my personal favourite that had me howling with laughter) 'untidy - let Jack go' (referring to the host's name).

I'll be back tomorrow for Three Minute Thursday (and will be VERY excited as the Stampin' Up convention starts tomorrow and I'll be there!)

21st birthday charm card

My weekends have been so busy lately I've not been able to make a card for the excellent Less is More challenge until the week begins! Anyway here I am, late but enthusiastic, with an entry for this week's theme which is Charms:

I suspended my charm from a branch on the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder with a needle and thread and then embellished with a little bakers twine in Calypso Coral. I've always loved the idea of keys for a coming of age card - they symbolise the unlocking of the door into the adult world. I've made a 21st birthday card although in reality, in the UK, 18 seems to be the age that most legal changes happen (you can get married without permission, vote, make legal contracts, purchase alcohol, fireworks, a crossbow - yes really! A crossbow!)

Here's a close up of my key. It's one of a range of charms from the spring mini catalogue (pages 7-8) which not only make fantastic card embellishments but also look wonderful with the customisable jewellery - as in this picture from Stampin' Up:

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous?! They come in elegant brown boxes and make unique gifts but sadly they won't be available after the end of this month so do get in touch soon if you'd like any of them won't you.

I put together this 21st birthday sentiment using my stamp-a-majig and two sentiment stamps - the 'st' was actually taken from the word Christmas! The numbers are die cut using my Timeless Type medium sizzlit dies.

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

Stamps: Happiest birthday Wishes (hostess set), Petite Pairs (for the 'st')

Ink: Basic Grey

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral

Other: Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, Itty Bitty punch pack, corner rounder, bakers twine in Calypso Coral, Timeless Type junior alphabet dies, Basic Pearls, 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).

I don't know about you but we get inundated with those overseas sales calls. I got one last night where the guy, who spoke English with a pronounced accent, introduced himself as Harry. "Oh hi Harry," I said. "This isn't a very convenient time to call actually because I'm cooking dinner for my family. Thanks for calling though," I added as I replaced the receiver. "Who was that?" my daughter asked, laughing. "Harry Potter?" I shook my head. "No it was Harry Styles," I said with a straight face. The children all giggled but my husband, who has never even heard of One Direction, said "Who's Harry Styles?"

I'll be back tomorrow to show you a gift set I made for my lovely sister. I hope you can join me!

Hugs,

Forever Young birthday set

If you popped in to see me yesterday you'll know that our little household was celebrating my daughter's th birthday! I thought you might like to see the little set I created especially for her.

I used the Forever Young set because that wonderful tree with the child on the swing reminds me of how much my daughter used to love swinging (and actually still does given half the chance!)

Here's the card, a really simple design stamped on Naturals Ivory card stock. A little Old Olive sponging for the grass, the beautiful tree and then a variety of parts of sentiments...

... which I added to make her giggle, and all of which are quite true! - and finishing with...

... the word daughter, which is from For My Family, a really useful set for personalising cards covering every member of the family as well as others such as friends and teachers too! The set even contains the most often used sentiments as well as link words too - I'd highly recommend it. It costs £25.95 in clear mount, £32.95 in wood mount and is sure to become your go-to set.

Here's the larger of the boxes.

I often make little indents for the fingers on the lids of my boxes using a 3/4" circle punch. Have you noticed how much action my circle punches get?!

Inside was a voucher for a year's subscription to a music library - my daughter was delighted with this! There are so many online vouchers these days where the company provides something for you to print off, but I never think they look terribly special. Making your own voucher using card stock and die cut letters, and presenting it in a box or voucher holder, gives the present more importance somehow. I die cut these letters using Stampin' Up's new brushed gold card stock and the Timeless Type Junior alphabet with my Big Shot.

Come and see the smaller box:

This has been made with the Milk Carton die, which is so useful for packaging small gifts. It was stamped with the same Forever Young design before I assembled it. This side shows the stamped sentiment and die cut numbers - 16! I can still hardly believe it!

On the other side you can see the child on the swing and that wonderful tree.

I shredded half a sheet of Melon Mambo card stock and used it to fill the box then popped in the gift. I'm so sorry, I thought I'd taken a picture of the gift but I haven't! A while ago, I bought my daughter a charm bracelet from Bombay Duck so that she could use it to record her personal achievements, and I felt that turning 16 might be worthy of an extra charm!

I popped the charm in a tiny envelope made with my Petal Card double punch and decorated it with a Melon Mambo heart, which also holds it closed. This looked so pretty - I'll add a photo as soon as I can. The carton is sealed with a library clip from the clip assortment.

Supplies needed for this set:

Stamps: Forever Young, variety of sentiments

Ink: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Whisper White craft ink

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Brushed Gold

Dies: Milk Carton Bigz L die, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies

Other: Markers, 3/4" circle punch, clip assortment, Tempting Turquoise 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Rose Red seam binding, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted 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. 

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes to my lovely daughter yesterday - she read them all and was thrilled to bits! We had a great evening chatting and laughing and feasting on curries. The meal ended with a very tasty banoffi pie (even if I say so myself!) complete with 16 candles!

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I'll have some super-quick Christmas cards to show you. Do come and join me!

Hugs,

Masculine Monday – personalising with alphabets

Good morning! It's time to start the week with a masculine card and today I want to talk about something really useful - an alphabet. With an alphabet stamp set or the alphabet sizzits dies you can whisk up a card for any male in no time at all.  I've been using the Timeless Type junior alphabet dies in the mini catalogue to personalise cards and I love it. You just pop a small piece of card stock over whichever letters you need and run it through the Big Shot and hey presto! you have a name or message!

Here's a card for a young friend of one of my sons:

I die-cut the letters to make the boy's name and mounted them on Daffodil Delight striped paper from the Brights patterns designer paper stack. The card base was decorated with stars from the Seeing Stars stamp set before mounting the name on top.

Here's another personalised card:

An Always Artichoke card base was stamped with the Fine Flourish background stamp, which I love. I then stamped a piece of Early Espresso card stock with the Sanded background stamp and scored some decorative lines on it to make a label The letters, which were cut out of sandpaper, were mounted on that. A quick sentiment using a stamp-a-majig finished the card.

One of the best things about the alphabet dies is the variety of materials you can cut out: card stock, chipboard, fabric, felt, iron-on fabric, foam, canvas, rubber, fusible fleece, thin metals, thin leather, sandpaper, wood veneer, bubble wrap, self adhesive paper, plastic, perspex... The list is endless and this versatility is very exciting for scrapbook titles and labels as well as for cards.

Here's a little sign I made using an opened out beer can (when I made this, my long-suffering husband began to appreciate my crafting in a way he never had before...!)

I covered a piece of thick cardboard with Chocolate Chip card stock which I'd stamped with the Sanded background stamp, scored with a frame and sponged with Early Espresso ink. I threaded Early Espresso 1/8" tafetta ribbon through holes punched in the top and finally the fabulous metal letters were stuck to the sign.

The Timeless Type junior alphabet die collection is exclusive to Stampin' Up. The dies come in their own box which contains all the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case, as well as numbers 0 to 9, and various shapes and signs including a heart, a button, a flower, quotation marks and various punctuation symbols etc. You get all of this for £65.95 and I believe it represents a really good investment. If you'd like to order your set, please send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593 and I'll be happy to help you.

I hope you had a great weekend and that your weather was better than ours! Yesterday it rained ALL day and felt more like a November day than a June one. Still, with chess fever still raging through the household I got to curl up with a good book for more than ten minutes! And later I had a lovely time cooking with my daughter too - all in all a top day!

Thank you for visiting me today. If you have a minute tomorrow, do come back and I'll have a coordinated gift set to show you. Have a lovely monday!