Happiness is a Secret Garden

Do you remember the children's book 'The Secret Garden' by Frances Hodgson Burnett? I loved it - all that imagery about the garden coming to life! You can watch a garden come almost instantly to life under your own hands with Stampin' Up's Secret Garden stamp set. Here's another card I made with it:

The floral design was stamped onto a panel, then given detail with markers and a Watercolour Wonder crayon. I roughed up the edges of the panel a bit using my finger nail before sponging over it with Baja Breeze ink.

The flower centres were given a bit of definition by dotting with a Basic Black marker...

... before I added the sentiment (from Easy Events, as yesterday's card) and mounted the panel onto a card base. And there we are - a bit of quick gardening in the warm!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, Easy Events (sentiment)
Ink: Baja Breeze, Gumball Green, Primrose Petals
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Neutrals Watercolour Wonder crayons (sorry, now unavailable), markers, stamp-a-majig
I'D BE DELIGHTED TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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.

Please note that card stock, ink pads and re-inkers are available only while stocks last in the following colours: Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Regal Rose, Pretty ink Pink, Riding Hood Red, Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery, More Mustard, River Rock. Click here for information about Stampin' Up's Colour Refresh.

One plant seems to be thriving on the chilly conditions here and that's gorse. There's a gorgeous golden bush of it not far from our house which I pointed out to my daughter yesterday. "Gorse," I added thoughtfully. "I hadn't thought before what a funny word that is..." My daughter nodded agreement. "Yes, I know what you mean," she said. "Sort of halfway between 'goose' and 'horse'!" This is one of the reasons I love my daughter - no matter how silly my conversations are, she always enters enthusiastically into the spirit of them!


I'll still be in floral mood tomorrow - do come back and see!

Secret Garden with a twist of lime

It seems ages since I rolled my sleeves up for a good challenge - and the challenges at Less is More really are very good! This week Chrissie and Jen have suggested a lovely zingy colour scheme - lime and black - and, since the sun has come out and we are once again daring to think of spring, I've come over all floral! Come and see:

Stampin' Up has a fantastic range of floral stamps at the moment - Summer Silhouettes, Fabulous Florets, Field Flowers are all favourite sets - but my floral of choice at the moment is Secret Garden from the spring/summer catalogue. You get a choice of five different flower heads to go with the leaves and stem so you can create a whole riot of different blooms! Black flowers could be a little sombre but the lime gives them a zesty twist.

I meant to stamp them with black stazon ink and picked up my old black Classic ink pad instead - but I quite like the translucent quality. I used my Lucky Limeade marker to colour the flower centres then dabbed them with my 2 way glue pen before clear embossing to give a jewel-like effect

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Easy Events stamp set (I separated the sentiments from the images to make two sets for the price of one - bargain!)

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, Easy Events (sentiment)
Ink: Basic Black, Lucky Limeade classic ink plus marker
Card stock: Whisper White, Lucky Limeade
Other: 2 way glue pen, clear embossing powder, heat tool
I'D BE DELIGHTED TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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.

We had a very happy Easter despite the weather being so unseasonably cold. I laid the treasure hunt in the house and everyone got plenty of exercise careering up and down three flights of stairs! It would have been nice to have got out and about but instead we sharpened up our property wheeling and dealing skills... 

It was great fun. My husband, who was obviously re-living a dubious game with his brother back in the 70s, suggested selling Old Kent Road to my youngest son for £100 at one stage. My son stared at him. "You are OUT of your MIND!" he said. My eldest son quietly won the game and my daughter summed it up with: 'Some days you're the dog, some days you're the lamp post'!

I shall be back tomorrow, celebrating the sunshine with more florals. See you then!

Stampin' Up - you'll never walk alone!

Yesterday I had an email from someone who'd read my post about joining Stampin' Up saying that she would never dare to set up a business on her own. The truth is though that we're not alone at all. When you join my team, you'll get as much help as you choose from me - I'm always available on the phone or online, and my goal is to help you to get what you want out of being a demonstrator whether that's to pursue your hobby, or build a business, or anything in between. As well as me, you'll have the whole extended team behind you as well as the dedicated official Stampin' Up support team. You'll be amazed at what you could achieve while doing something you love! Click here for more info - and think about  it... this could be the start of something very exciting!

Stampin' Up rewards demonstrators for their achievements and when members of my team get promoted I like to send them a little something too. Here's a little gift I sent to one of my team members recently:

This was made at the same time as yesterday's card and uses a similar design but a different colour scheme. Check out that scored border which, I've realised, was partly scored by my friend Jenny from Crafting in the Country who was round here and playing with the score plate! I think you'll agree it adds a whole extra je ne sais quoi to the project! The flowers are coloured with a So Saffron marker but because they were stamped on Naturals Ivory card stock which is more porous than the smooth Very Vanilla, the colour comes out darker. I love it and the way it contrasts with the Pool Party.

Are you wondering what's inside that little pouch?

It's my exclusive INKredibles team bracelet, complete with a handmade charm! A new charm is sent for each promotion so the bracelets can end up looking very pretty indeed!

I wrapped the bracelet in tissue and secured it with a coordinating label...

... before popping it into a pouch made with the Scallop Envelope bigz die. I folded the die cut as a pocket rather than an envelope - just another way to use this fabulous die!

Here's what you'll need to make the card and pouch
Stamps: Easy Events, Delightful Dozen, Tiny Tags
Ink: Black stazon, subtles markers
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Pool Party
Punches: Decorative Label, 7/8" scallop and 3/4" circle punches
Other: Simply Scored, Borders scoring plate, Big Shot, Beautiful Wings embosslits, Pool Party bakers twine,  Neutrals Watercolour Wonder crayons, stamp-a-majig
I'D BE DELIGHTED TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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.
• Add a free Sale-a-bration item from this list for every £45 you spend!

My poor son is still poorly but hasn't lost his sense of humour. I was snacking from a bag of almonds yesterday when he suddenly creased up laughing and pointed at the side of the packet. There was an allergy warning printed there which said: "Warning - may contain nuts!" I looked at him rolling around on the sofa. "Hmm," I said. "It's a bit like this house isn't it!"

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow - hope you'll join me then for a fast card!

Join Stampin' Up and work from home

Yesterday morning I got a phone call telling me my youngest son had been sick in class. A vision of him upset and mortified flashed through my mind and I told the school secretary that I would be there as soon as possible. When I arrived less than five minutes later, she seemed quite surprised although I was only aware of the sheer relief in my poor son's face. I realised afterwards that she hadn't been expecting me quite that soon and, not for the first time, I felt deeply thankful that I run my own business from home.

In fact, I feel thankful every day, not just because I get to enjoy my work and also be available when my family needs me, but also that I get to be creative, that I work with lovely people who share my passion, that my hobby is all paid for, and that I get a huge sense of achievement from what I do.

Lots of my downline have told me the same thing: they're having loads of fun as Stampin' Up demonstrators and only wish they'd joined earlier!

How about you? Have you been thinking joining Stampin' Up might be a good idea? Well, why not go for it - there really is nothing to lose: If you join my team this week you'll get an additional 25% worth of products in your Starter kit as part of Sale-a-bration. The Starter Kit costs just £99 and you choose £162.50 in products. If you decide it's not for you, there are no penalties and you will get to keep your Starter Kit. You can join online here or do give me a call on 01280 820593 if you'd like to find out more.

Now, how about a card? Here's one I sent one of my downline ladies who was holding an Open House event over the weekend:

I am head over heels with my Borders scoring plate and the pretty scored border on this card is just one of hundreds of different variations you can add anywhere you like on your projects. I masked it off before adding these pretty flowers from Stampin' Up's Easy Events stamp set.

The flowers were coloured with markers and I added a shadow with my Sahara Sand Watercolour Wonder crayon - I love the 3D effect this gives. The Beautiful Wings embosslits butterflies are such gorgeous little embellishments. I like to make up a bunch of them with scraps of card stock so that they're always to hand when I want them.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes which contains 24 sentiments that pair perfectly with the Word Window punch. I attached it to my card with a couple of brads in Certainly Celery to match the butterfly.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Easy Events, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Black stazon, subtles markers
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory, Pink Pirouette
Other: Simply Scored, Borders scoring plate, Big Shot, Beautiful Wings embosslits, Subtles brads, Word Window punch, Neutrals Watercolour Wonder crayons, stamp-a-majig
I'D BE DELIGHTED TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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.
• Add a free Sale-a-bration item from this list for every £45 you spend!

It seems that my son has picked up a bug which, I have no doubt, found him an easy target after his sleepover at the weekend (or shall we call it a no sleepover?) Every cloud has a silver lining though and at least I get to be on snuggling-up-on-the-sofa duty!

See you tomorrow,

Easy Events Christmas tag card

The brilliant 52 Christmas Card Throwdown site is continuing its mission to get us prepared for the festive season in good time and this week the challenge is to use Pearls on a Christmas card. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: there were some tags left over from my Snowflake Season Simply Scrappin' kit and I'd had the idea of stamping festive foliage on them. Come and have a look:

I used the Christmas branch from Easy Events to stamp my mistletoe on the tag and embellished with Basic Pearls - I love the lustre on these! The leaves were coloured in with a Gumball Green marker

The tag was tied up with Cherry Cobbler seam binding, before mounting with dimensionals onto a panel embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots folder.

The eight diverse images in this set come with sentiments attached but I cut mine apart and mounted them on the edge of the block so that they're even more versatile. On this card though, I opted to use my current favourite sentiment from Happy Hour.

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

Card stock: Whisper White

Stamps: Easy Events, Happy Hour

Ink: Real Red, Always Artichoke classic inks and a Gumball Green marker

Other: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Big Shot, Basic Pearls, Snowflake Season Simply Scrappin' kit, Cherry Cobbler seam binding

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. Check out current special offers here.

I was curious about the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe so I looked it up.  Did you know that when a couple kiss they should take one of the berries off the bunch and that when all the berries have gone it's supposed to be bad luck to do any more kissing?! We've never used mistletoe as a decoration as I've never seen it growing wild around here; we stick to holly and ivy instead, and we certainly don't need a bunch of leaves as an excuse for a kiss!

See you tomorrow!

Inspired by an early morning!

At the beginning of the week I had to get up practically before I went to bed to take our lovely French exchange student to the train station for his return home. It was cold and dark and I was not at my most cheerful, but as we left the house my spirits lifted at the sight of the sky as the sun was rising. It obviously stuck in my mind because today's card happened a day or two afterwards!

The sky really did look like this - bright orange in a strip at the bottom with the light of the sun illuminating the line of the horizon, and a purplish grey above it. It was magical. You can see some gorgeous photos of similarly dramatic sunrises here taken by my lovely blogging friend Irene.

I started by stamping the trees in Early Espresso ink onto my card stock panel. Then I made two masks by stamping the trees on a post it note and cutting along the horizon with my sharp paper snips. One half was held over the land so I could sponge in the sky, then the other half was used to mask the sky while I sponged in the ground. Sponging over the stamped trees gives them a misty sort of look and I inked up the trees again (using a marker this time, so I could use just the trees, not the ground) and stamped them again in the foreground. The scene was mounted onto black card stock to make the sky appear to glow.

I thought this design would make a good notecard, so I added the hello sentiment from Easy Events and  pierced a little home for it using my piercing template. I'm so excited about piercing at the moment - it adds detail but in a really nice, subtle way.

SPECIAL OFFER: If you love the effect of piercing too you might be interested to hear that the festive piercing templates come absolutely free when you buy the Ornament Keepsakes stamp set and the Candlelight designer paper! Check here for details.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Easy Events (sentiment)
Ink: Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Black
Other: Piercing template, piercing tool, markers, stamp-a-majig, paper snips
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. Check out current special offers here.

Today's card reminded me of a nursery rhyme I used to read to my children when they were small:
One misty moisty morning
When cloudy was the weather
I chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather
Clothed all in leather with a cap under his chin
Singing how d'you do and how d'you do and how d'you do again.
Does anyone remember it? The children and I were amused by it and whenever it's a damp, foggy day, we always refer to it as a misty, moisty morning in our family!

Hope you have a lovely weekend with no mistiness or moistiness - but if you do, don't worry, there are always more Christmas cards to be made!

See you very soon,

Moving house... slowly?!

It's great to see the extremely talented Jen stepping in for Mandi at Less is More and I'm sure Chrissie is delighted to have her help - she must have commenter's elbow from all her efforts in the past few weeks! I've got to admit I was stumped for a minute or two when I saw the theme this week is Houses - I just don't have any! But then I thought of my Easy Events stamp set - it can usually cover all eventualities! Come and have a look:

Yes I know, but it is a kind of house! The sentiment that usually goes with this cute snail is 'sorry I'm late' (which is pretty useful for someone like me!) but for today's card I made a 'heard you're moving' sentiment on the computer - in a font called Budhand if anyone's interested. The snail usually has a present on top of its 'house' too but  it was easy to leave that out by using a marker to ink the stamp up.

I paper-pieced my snail using one of the papers from the gorgeous Floral District range. You can see  some of them in the photo, but there are also six more gorgeous designs in the pack. Aren't they funky?! I used the paper that's on the top - I thought the poppy made a great shell and the green made a nice texture for my happy snail!

EDITED TO ADD: Guess who was a complete noddle top and didn't notice the one-layer bit of the challenge?! (I can just hear you saying deliberately ignored it more like!) Anyway, I've just come off the naughty step and re-made my snaily card without the extra bits!

It's very similar, but I used a thicker card stock with a lovely speckle for extra interest, and coloured the snail with watercolour pencils instead of paper-piecing. I've tried to get a bit of texture on the shell using a white pencil first and then blending colour over it - it really does look better in real life! The sentiment was made with a font called Give You Glory this time.

Here's what you'll need to make these cards
Stamps: Easy Events
Ink: Basic Grey (I used a marker)
Card stock: Whisper White for 1st card, Naturals White for 2nd
Other: Floral District designer paper and paper snips (for 1st card only) watercolour pencils, 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. Check out current special offers here.

I've got a list of chores as long as my arm to do today so I must regretfully leave my Crafting Square Metre but I'll be back later to see what everyone's been up to. And then I'll be back on Monday with a zingy floral so I'll hope to see you then. Enjoy the weekend!

Easy Events with floral tiles

Never minds sixes and sevens, I'm all at tens and elevens at the moment trying to get things done! So I thought I'd show you a card I made a while ago with one of the most useful stamp sets ever, Easy Events. Come and have a look:

I love making cards with tiles on them and the square punches are so useful for this. Stamp an image several times and punch out what you want to appear in your tile with the smaller punch, then punch out a larger square to mat it onto - how quick and simple is that?!

I've kept my background neutral with Natural Ivory and textured Very Vanilla card stocks and added the splash of colour with gorgeous Peach Parfait. I love the way Stampin' Up provide card stock, ink and markers that match - it makes it so easy to coordinate coloured images with the rest of the card. I coloured the flowers in by squashing the lid of my Peach Parfait ink pad to make a pool of ink appear on the inside of the lid, then picking up the ink with a blender pen. The dots have been added with a Cajun Craze marker. Peach Parfait is only going to be available until the end of September along with the other 2010-2012 in-colours, so if you love it, you'll need to order it soon!

Easy Events contains eight images that cover many occasions with sentiments attached but I've separated my sentiments to make them even more versatile! I love the font they've been designed in.

Here's another version of the card, this time with Pool Party as the splash of colour.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Easy Events
Ink: Peach Parfait and Cajun Craze or Pool Party and Island Indigo
Card stock: Natural Ivory, Very Vanilla textured plus Peach Parfait or Pool Party
Other: Square punches, markers, corner rounder, linen thread, 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.

No wittering today as I know how easily those tens and elevens could turn into sixteens and seventeens! Have a lovely weekend and I hope the sun shines all over you!

Hugs,

Male birthday with Easy Events

Chrissie and Mandi have got the LiMettes paper piecing this week at Less is More and I have really caught the bug! So for my Masculine Monday slot today here's a paper pieced birthday card:

I punched a large oval out of my textured Crumb Cake card stock and used it as a guide before stamping my tree on the card base.  The textured panel was then stuck over the top. I stamped the tree on various scraps of designer paper and cut the pieces out; these were then glued to the stamped tree and I allowed the leafy sections to overlap my aperture. Here's a close-up:

That little heart was punched out of Just Add Cake paper with my ever useful owl punch - the leafy bits of the tree were from that range too. I liked the stripy trunk - that's from Mocha Morning, a gorgeous range of speciality papers with flocking and gold details. I got so carried away with my paper snips that I cut a sentiment out too!

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

Stamps: Easy Events, Perfect Punches

Ink: Early Espresso plus Poppy Parade, Garden Green, Early Espresso markers

Card stock: Crumb Cake smooth and textured

Other: Just Add Cake and Mocha Morning designer papers, extra large oval and owl builder punches, paper snips, 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.

It's been a dodgy few days on the sporting front: First sports day was cancelled on Friday due to adverse weather conditions (which I was pretty relieved about actually, as picnicking on a soggy field in a gale watching my son lose his trainers in the mud isn't really my thing!); then my oldest son lost his tennis match yesterday (which he was pretty disappointed about for about a minute and a half!); and then the England football team went out of the European Cup after losing a penalty shoot out (although to be honest, Italy really did deserve to win.) Oh well, back to normality!

I've got lots of fun projects to show you this week so do pop back and see!

Hugs,

Mixed Bunch medallion card

There's a sketch challenge at Less is More this week and it is just the sort of sketch I love - very clean and minimalist with just a circle or square and a sentiment in a huge white space.

I have lots of exciting new stamp sets sitting on my desk from the new mini catalogue which has just been released. It was a question of which one to use... and it ended up being the gorgeous Mixed Bunch!

The set contains a variety of flower images and the large ones coordinate with a punch to make cutting them out easy peasy, but the moment I saw the set I wanted to do some emboss/resist with one of the small flowers.

I've got a thing about making chipboard-style embellishments at the moment and this circle was ideal for the treatment! It's easy to do - I just punched out five or six Early Espresso circles and glued them together in a stack.

Before sticking the stamped image on the top I clear embossed the surface to give it an enamelled look. I rather like the effect - you could make jewellery using this technique!

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

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, 

Ink: Rose Red, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi

Card stock: Whisper White, Early Espresso

Other: Versamark, clear 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.

My daughter has just seen a Christmas card I made for the Rudolph Day challenge over at Sandra's blog. "What? Are you making Christmas cards already?" she said. "It's for Rudolph Day," said my youngest son who likes to keep up with my activities in Blogland. "Rudolph doesn't need a day every month!" said my daughter scathingly. "It's not as if he's a Nobel Prize winner or anything is it?" She's a bit touchy because she's doing her exams at the moment so we'll let her off but honestly, does guiding Santa's sleigh mean NOTHING to her?!

I'll be back tomorrow for Three Minute Thursday with another card made with Mixed Bunch - a fast one this time. Do come and have a look if you have a minute.

Hugs,