21st birthday arches

Hello, crafting friends!

 

You know that moment when you realise you have to get your niece's birthday card in the post straight away and then you remember it's her 21st birthday... eeek! Well, you know my mantra: When in doubt, reach for the stencils!!

 

The Greetery's beautiful Mistletoe Arches layered stencil set has done sterling service in the Craft Square Metre with wedding, sympathy and birthday cards as well as the Christmas cards it was designed for. So why not a 21st birthday card?! After stenciling the arches, the sentiment was put together with a couple of stamp sets from Uniko and some dies for the 21st bit.

 

This photo was to try to capture the different colours and textures of gold. The leaves were finished with Wink of Stella gold, and the berries a deep gold using a marker. The 'fabulous' was heat embossed in gold and the '21st' was cut out of sparkly gold paper.

Hope she liked it!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Allsorts where Lorraine has chosen the theme Anything but a Square; Inkspirational has a Use Stencils challenge this month as does Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also joining in the Happy Little Stampers Birthday challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

At the bottom of the fields behind our house there's a hedge and, for those in the know, a little hidden archway in it. The arched tunnel leads to quite a steep bank and down to a stream - one of Eva's favourite places to play! It's getting harder for the old joints, but I can still duck through the archway and navigate the bank, hurling myself across the stream at the bottom and up the other side. This is a short cut to the park with its enticing river and means Eva and I don't have to pound the pavements through the town to get there the conventional way! But that archway gets overgrown so, the other day, I performed the annual clipping to ensure we can still get through. That evening I was out with friends and at some point in the evening, while pushing my hair back, brought out a twig!! Honestly, I remember the days when I could still scrub up reasonably well for an evening out!

 

Me on an evening out!

Sending hugs,

A special gift set using Four Feathers from Stampin' Up

The beautiful Four Feathers set in the autumn/winter Stampin' Up catalogue was the perfect choice for making something special for a friend who was celebrating a milestone birthday last week. Come and see:

I went for creamy Vanilla card stock, deeply embossed and decorated with gold and cream feathers, all tied up with crinkled, multi-stranded twine in gorgeous Old Olive for a splash of colour.

The Modern Mosaic embossing folder adds a subtle bit of interest but keeps the card nice and clean and uncluttered looking.

Oh I'm in love with these feathers! They have coordinating framelits which make short work of cutting out the stamped images - and if you buy the stamp set and dies together in a bundle you save 15% off the rrp. Bargain!

The feather and twine embellishment adds a nice bit of dimension but not so much that the card didn't fit into an envelope. That twine is unravelled from the two-tone trim - so many different ways to use that gorgeous trim!

So it's a milestone birthday? Well, whatever the number, there's only one thing to do - celebrate!!! So we did! This lovely sentiment comes from a set called, appropriately, And Many More!

It's so easy to make the Curvy Keepsake Box - you just run the die twice through the big shot and fold the scorelines, put the two pieces together and hey presto! I embossed mine before putting it together but even with that extra step it's very quick and easy. The box is the perfect size for sweet treats or a special piece of jewellery but it has loads of other uses too! Click here for some ideas and definitely watch this space for more!

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS PROJECT NOW!
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my online shop) 

Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Dies £29.95	Four Feathers Wood-Mount Stamp Set £12.95	Feathers Framelits Dies £11.95
Natural Old Olive Two-Tone Trim £4.50	Modern Mosaic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder £7.50	And Many More Wood-Mount Stamp Set £32.95
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder £3.95	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder £3.95	Versamark Pad £6.75

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Much to the horror of coffee fans like my husband, I make my coffee with decaffeinated coffee beans and then dilute it so that it really is coffee-flavoured water. My youngest son has taken to drinking a cup of this at breakfast time too. "I'm so glad I like coffee," he said yesterday, sipping his drink. "Why?" I asked. "Because," he said, "when you're an adult you're expected to drink some kind of hot beverage other than hot chocolate with marsh mallows and whipped cream!" I immediately imagined him as an adult, in some high powered meeting being presented with something that looks like this:

See you tomorrow when I'll be using those gorgeous Four Feather stamps for another special project as part of Stampin' Up's Artisan Design Team blog hop. Don't miss it!

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,

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,