Inspired by chocolate packaging

While out shopping for gifts for a friend I suddenly found myself in Hotel Chocolat - I know, I've no idea how it happened! They certainly know how to present their goodies in there and I found myself quite inspired... So inspired in fact, that I based the gift wrapping for my friend around a box of chocolate buttons! Come and see:

The packaging was a gorgeous soft blue - very like Stampin' Up's Soft Sky. I stamped the panel with the swirl from the Creative Elements stamp set using Soft Sky ink which gives a lovely tone-on-tone look. Before attaching the panel to the card front I wound some white bakers twine round it...

...and topped it with a chalkboard style sentiment. This was made by stamping the Happy Birthday from Perfectly Penned using versamark ink and heat embossing it with white embossing powder. I always use my embossing buddy to do this so that I don't get unsightly white specks all over the place! Once the embossing was done, I cut the sentiment out with a die from the Apothecary Accents pack of framelits. Isn't it a gorgeous shape?! And it has a coordinating template in the Essentials piercing pack too so it was easy to add a pierced frame for a bit of extra detail.

I made one of my simple boxes out of the Soft Sky card stock and topped it with a panel stamped with that Creative Elements swirl again. I had some black satin ribbon (sadly retired now) which I thought looked rather swish...

...  and I added a little tag made with an image from the Chalk Talk stamp set which tied in rather nicely with the whole chalkboard theme.

Here's the box of chocolates that set me off - they were chocolate buttons in the shape of vintage buttons for goodness sake! How fabulous is that?!!

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

Stamps: Creative elements, Perfectly Penned

Ink: Soft Sky

Card stock: Soft Sky, Whisper White (for the lining)

Other: Versamark, white embossing powder, heat tool, Apothecary Accents framelits, Big Shot, Essentials piercing pack mat and tool, white bakers twine, 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.

The word 'buttons' always makes me laugh: One of our neighbours acquired a kitten some years ago -  a tiny ball of grey and white fluff. They named it Buttons and it really was as cute as a button. Fast forward a few years and you should see it now! It's a great bruiser of a cat, with a cauliflower ear and cross eyes, who terrorises the neighbourhood with his gangster ways! Whenever we see this animal we cast our eyes to the sky, shake our heads and mutter "Buttons! I ask you!"

Have a great weekend and I'll see you very soon,

Christmas Messages with a sparkle!

I so nearly missed the Less is More challenge this week, and it's all about sparkle too! Not have sparkle at this time of year? That would be unthinkable! So here I am bringing up the rear (with a rather subtle shimmer but after all, less is more!)  Come and have a look:

How about this for a card for someone special?! It's made by sponging Blushing Bride ink into a mask cut out with Stampin' Up's large Heart punch then quickly, while the ink is still damp, stamping a flourish image over the sponging with versamark and heat embossing with silver embossing powder. When I removed the mask I had this pretty, sparkly heart with a filagree-style pattern. I used my stamp-a-majig to position the sentiments from Christmas Messages. Aren't these fabulous?!

Here's a close up of the heart to show you how shimmery it is. I added rhinestones and piercing to make the heart look like a hanging Christmas ornament.

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

Stamps: Christmas Messages, Creative Elements

Ink: Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Other: Large Heart punch, Basic rhinestones, silver embossing powder, versamark, heat tool, Essentials piercing template, mat and tool, 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.

These sentiments do amuse me but they are so true. All I want for Christmas really is my lovely family around me but, with our boiler making strange noises for the last few weeks and the engineers unable to identify why, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for hot water and heating too!

Have a great weekend and enjoy your preparations for Christmas.

Hugs,

Gifts!

Having been away (again!) this weekend and back later than expected last night, I'm upside down and all around today! There hasn't been a moment for crafting but I thought I'd show you some little gifts I made recently:

These little folders are made using the Natural Composition speciality designer paper, which looks like clear-embossed kraft and is stunning in real life! There are six different designs, and you can colour the papers in a variety of ways if you choose, but I chose to leave them natural for this project. I tied the folders up with grosgrain ribbon and added a tag, stamped with images from the Chalktalk stamp set and cut out with the coordinating framelit. Are you wondering what's inside the folders? Well, come and see:

A little pocket containing a stack of designer papers all ready to inspire a new creation! These little gifts were sent to some lovely ladies during a recent promotion I came up with for customers of my online shop.

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

Stamps: Chalk Talk, Creative Elements

Ink: Old Olive, Early Espresso

Card stock: Natural Composition speciality designer paper, Old Olive

Other: Chalk Talk framelits, Big Shot, Simply Scored, designer paper stack  (retired), Old Olive grosgrain ribbon (retired), linen thread, corner rounder, 3/4" circle punch, 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.

We were treated to a lovely lunch at the White Swan in Pickering at the weekend. The White Swan was a coaching inn dating back to the 16th century and is well worth a visit if you're in the North Yorkshire area!

My youngest son chose a rum and raisin ice cream for pudding which prompted him to tell us this story: At primary school lunch they used to serve a pudding with chocolate bits in it. It was a favourite with the children but one day they swapped the chocolate bits for 'healthier' raisins and the children stopped eating the pudding. As a result, the recipe was changed again - the raisins were swapped for bits of peaches - "Which was worse!" said my son. My eldest son who had remained his usual monosyllabic self during our meal was moved by this story to utter his longest sentence of the day. "Yeah!" he said with feeling. "I remember that!" He relapsed into silence after this effort and continued to do full justice to his Sticky Toffee Pudding!

See you tomorrow,

Postcards, butterflies, dahlias...

This week I'm showing you what I've been up to with the Postcard stamp and today's layered card is one of my favourites of the batch.

It was designed for my lovely Stampers 6 club ladies - except that I'd already packaged two of them up before I remembered to photograph it!

I stamped the Postcard image and cut it out, adding the gorgeous dahlia from Regarding Dahlias in Crushed Curry (wow, what a great choice that is when you need a good pop of colour!) and the little poem from By the Tide in Island Indigo.

Part of the Postcard image was stamped again, cut out and popped up over the first to give some lovely dimension and then the postage stamp added and the gorgeous little butterfly from Papillon Potpourri, stamped and cut out with its coordinating punch. (By the way, if you have your eye on that stamp set and punch, now is a great time to get it as it's on special offer this month with 15% off - click here for details.)

I love making postage stamps! I used the 1" square punch to make a mask, sponged Pool Party ink inside it and overstamped with this beautiful leaf image from Papaya Collage and the number which comes from my Creative Elements set. The whole thing was cut out with the Postage Stamp punch. Normally I'd make these postage stamps on ordinary card stock but I made these using some sticky labels I had lying around. I thought it would make it more authentic but to be honest I don't think it made much difference!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Postcard, Regarding Dahlias, Papillon Potpourri, By the Tide, Creative Elements
Ink: Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Strawberry Slush
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Postage stamp, 1" square and Bitty Butterfly punches, paper snips, 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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


On the last day of last term my youngest son sent me off into an apoplexy by leaving his PE kit at school - and yes, I know it's only a PE kit but the school requires vast quantities of special kit and it costs a fortune! I was expecting to have to replace it but he came home from his first day of school triumphantly holding his bag aloft - hurray! Now, the question is: do you think I can justify spending the money I would've had to spend on PE kit on crafty stash instead...?!

See you tomorrow,

Autumn flowers with Creative Elements

The Less is More challenge has Autumn as the theme this week (as well as some exciting news about Mandi's new business - so pleased for her!) I'm a huge fan of this season and my thoughts immediately turned to leaves which are now giving a beautiful display of golds, russets and burgundies. There are other colours of autumn though and I've chosen to go with the jewel-like colours of dahlias and chrysanthemums. Come and have a look:

These gorgeous flowers are from the Creative Elements stamp set and I stamped them using a simple masking technique. The stems were drawn with the thick end of an Old Olive marker. TIP: I always add a line from the thin end of the marker too and that helps to make them look more defined.

To get the 'posy' look I made a slit either side of the stems and wove some linen thread through it; the bow is added separately. I finished with a little shadowing with my Sahara Sand marker and a sentiment stamped in the colour of the darkest flower before rounding the corners of my panel and attaching to a Naturals Ivory card base.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Creative Elements, Petite Pairs (sentiment)
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory
Other: Linen thread, markers, corner rounder, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. 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 +44 (0) 1280 820593.

The fair has come to Buckingham this weekend. I'm afraid I reached the age where I can't understand why anyone would want to test their digestive system by eating a combination of chips and candy floss before heading for the 'Freakout' but needless to say, there's great excitement amongst the younger members of the household!

Hope you have a more restful day than I'll be having! See you soon,

Something old, new, pink and brown!

It seems far too long since I made a card so, when I finally emerged from under the pile of holiday laundry I popped over to the Less is More blog where I found the lovely Chrissie and Mandi are looking for pink and brown cards this week.

Stampin' Up published lists of Retiring Stamps and Retiring Accessories on Saturday (why not have a browse? - there are some real bargains to be had!) and I'm show-casing some of them this week. Come and have a look:

The textured card stock, the butterfly stamp and coordinating punch and the sentiment I've used are all on the retirement lists and won't be available after this month. I've combined them with the gorgeous flourish from Creative Elements (which definitely won't be retiring!) and something else that's brand, spanking new - the colour of the butterfly! It's called Primrose Petals and is one of the five exciting new in-colours for 2012-2014. (And yes, it IS available now!)

I like the way the flourish looks stamped in Early Espresso on the Pretty in Pink textured card stock. It's coloured with Soft Suede ink and a blender pen and I added detail with an Early Espresso marker before stamping the butterflies. The butterflies were stamped again, on Pink Pirouette smooth card stock this time, then cut out with the butterfly punch. I popped them up over the original stamped ones and added fussy cut bodies.

This lovely flowing sentiment comes from one of my favourite and very well-used sentiment sets, Sincere Salutations. It's one of a set of eight and if you've been thinking about adding it to your collection, I wouldn't delay as I can't see it hanging around on the shelves for long!

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Butterfly Prints (retiring), Sincere Salutations (retiring), Creative Elements
Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Primrose Petals (new)
Card stock: Pretty in Pink textured (retiring), Pink Pirouette smooth
Other: Blender pen, Early Espresso marker, Butterfly punch (retiring), stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight 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. If you are ordering from the Retiring Stamps list or the Retiring Accessories list, please be aware that items are only available while stocks last.

It feels so good to be creating things again although it does everyone good to take a break I think. Thank you for all the good wishes you left for me - I had a wonderful time in beautiful Kent with plenty of sunshine and the best company in the world, my family. I'll tell you more about it this week but for now, I'll leave you with some very good advice from a bench we saw in Margate outside a shop that was being renovated:

See you tomorrow,

Summer butterflies with Creative Elements

Once, when I was a young girl, long ago in ancient times (as my children would say!), I went on a romantic summer holiday on the Greek island of Paros and the colours of today's card remind of it... Come and have a look:

I started by stamping the background stamp from The Open Sea onto a Naturals Ivory card base and topping it with a panel which had been brayered with Island Indigo ink. I stamped over it with the stunning flourish from Creative Elements using versamark and heat embossed it using gold embossing powder.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this Beautiful Wings embosslits die as these pretty embossed butterflies are a favourite embellishment of mine. I came up with the combination of Night of Navy with Island Indigo and gold by accident and I love it!

This fabulous Curly Cute sentiment fits in well with the flourishes and draws the eye across the width of the card.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: The Open Sea, Creative Elements, Curly Cute
Ink: Island Indigo, Night of Navy
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Night of Navy
Other: Brayer, Night of Navy marker, Beautiful Wings embosslits die, versamark,  gold embossing powder, heat tool, 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. If you are placing an order of £60 or more, you will receive a free Reason to Smile stamp set in your choice of wood or clear mount. The set is also available to buy for £18.95 wood mount or £14.95 clear mount.

My youngest son flabbergasted us last week by informing us that in just two years time he'd be a teenager! Not just yet though - he still runs around making explosion noises when he thinks we're not watching!

There'll be no Masculine Monday next week but instead I'll have something tasty-looking for you! Have a fabulous weekend and I'll see you then.