Cards for the cave man in your life!

Okay, I admit it - I am well and truly addicted to Eye-catching Ikat now! As well as all those subtle backgrounds and stylised florals, I'm finding it perfect for man cards too - and today you get two of them! Come and see:

My ikat design was stamped in gorgeous, earthy colours that a cave man might have daubed with - and it's definitely got a primal cave art feel, don't you agree?  I mounted it with dimensionals on a piece of Soft Suede card stock and placed a panel over the top with an aperture cut into it using one of my square framelit dies. Cutting the aperture slightly larger than the ikat design creates a 'reveal' (ie it allows you to see a border of the Soft suede mount.) I'll be linking this card up with Less is More where the theme this week is Die Cuts.

When making the first card I had cut a piece off my stamped ikat panel, so I thriftily made a second card with the off cut. This time I mounted the ikat on top of a piece of core'dinations card stock.

What do you think of this cute little embellishment? I used my Essentials piercing template to make four holes and threaded linen twine through it in a kiss :) Since this card was made with bits and bobs, I shall link up with Pixie's Snippets Playground.

• Eyecatching Ikat is one of three gorgeous photopolymer stamp sets you can choose as a free gift - get one with every £60 you spend! Offer ends TOMORROW and these sets won't be available after that! Click here for details.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Stamps: Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer (free with a £60 order until tomorrow!),
Morning Meadow (for the sentiment, hostess set) wood or cling,

Ink: Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Pacific Point classic inks, plus markers

Card stock: Soft Suede, Very Vanilla smooth and core'dinations

Other: Linen thread, stamp-a-majig

Click above to place an order 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'm too excited to say and chat today because I'm so big with news I could burst! All will be revealed tomorrow so do check back here then!

See you tomorrow,

Stamp an easy background

You know when you make a card and something's missing, it lacks pizzazz... well, that's what was going on with today's card. I'd stamped a tag and carefully coloured it in but frankly it just looked a bit boring so it went in the bin. But then I had an idea - come and see:

The tag was retrieved from the bin and updated with an ikat background and suddenly it seemed much more interesting! I used just one splodgy image from Stampin' Up's free Eyecatching Ikat set and, because it's a clear stamp set, it was so quick and easy to stamp it in a brick pattern.

My tag was mounted onto Pistachio Pudding core'dinations card stock, which I love for its subtle texture, and I trimmed it with a piece of card stock cut with the tiny scallop blade in my Rotary Addition. The sentiment and ribbon were added in the same bright Pumpkin Pie colour - I love the way everything matches!

• Eyecatching Ikat is one of three gorgeous photopolymer stamp sets you can choose as a free gift with every £60 you spend. Offer ends on Friday - click here for details.

I shall be linking this card up with Seize the Birthday where the optional topping is to use a tag on a card; and ATCAS where the cue word is Texture.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Stamps: Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer (free with a £60 order - until Friday!),

Peaceful Petals wood or cling, Express Yourself (for the sentiment, hostess set) wood or cling,

Ink: Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Early Espresso classic inks, plus markers

Card stock: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie smooth, Pistachio Pudding core'dinations

Other: Pumpkin pie taffeta ribbon, Rotary Addition and Small Scallop blade, Scallop tag topper punch

Click above to place an order 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 did manage to get out into the garden yesterday, despite the rain, and you'll be glad to know that the Rambling Rector has been firmly put in his place. My children are off school for half term so my youngest son joined me and helped me plant some sweet pea seedlings. While we built the support for these, he told me about how much he'd enjoyed Gardening Club at primary school where they had grown all sorts of vegetables and flowers including sweet peas. "I remember that to make the flowers grow," he told me, "we had to snip the pods off with er... what are those pointy things?" I giggled. "Fingers?" He looked at me sternly. "Secateurs!" he said.

See you tomorrow,

Soft Ikat background

I've done all sorts of things with Stampin' Up's gorgeous Eyecatching Ikat stamp set but I haven't actually stamped an ikat background! That's been remedied today - come and see:

Primrose Petals and Soft Sky give a soft, pretty look to these stamps (TIP: if you 'stamp off' the pink, you get colours of the same 'strength'.)  I can't get over how easy it is to line everything up with these fab photopolymer stamps!

The soft pattern made the perfect background for a bold sentiment like this one from Four You, stamped in Early Espresso ink and heat embossed. Gold sequins added a little extra glamour.

• Eyecatching Ikat is one of three gorgeous photopolymer stamp sets you can choose as a free gift with every £60 you spend. Offer ends on Friday - click here for details.

I used the pretty colour palette from Colour Me...! and this week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch to make this card:

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Stamps: Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer (free with a £60 order until Friday!),
Four You wood or cling

Ink: Soft Sky, Primrose Petals, Early Espresso

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Gold Sequin trim, clear embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig

Click above to place an order 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.

If you're wondering how I got on with curbing the excesses of the Rambling Rector in my garden, the answer, I'm afraid, is that the mixture of sunshine and showers over the bank holiday weekend has only encouraged him! Not content with climbing all over the rose arches he is rampaging in the borders and has even encroached on the lawn - shocking behaviour and what will the neighbours say?! I must get out there today...

See you tomorrow,

Eye-catching beady background

I'm obsessed with Stampin' Up's free Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer stamp set and have SO many ideas but not enough time to try them all out... do you know the feeling?! I enjoyed making sunflowers with it last week on this card but it doesn't always have to take centre stage - today it features as a background. Come and see:

The flower sprig is from the exclusive hostess set Morning Meadow (available only until the end of June!) To make the image dual coloured, I coloured the rubber with markers and huffed before stamping. The instant it was stamped, I quickly dipped it in clear embossing powder and heat embossed it - you do have to be quick for this! TIP: If you're not quite quick enough or want to add extra shine, 'colour' your image with a fine glue pen and heat emboss again.

Why did I heat emboss? It was so that the flower would resist the ink when I stamped the background over the top of it, making it appear to be in the foreground. Can you see how lovely and glossy everything is?! I  added a paper clip as an embellishment (you can find these clips here in the Clearance Rack of my online store; they have green bows on them but I replaced the bow on this one with bakers twine for a fresh look.)

The sentiment is from Regarding Dahlias and I heat embossed that too before decorating it with a sweet butterfly from a retired Sale-a-bration set.

• Eyecatching Ikat is one of three gorgeous photopolymer stamp sets you can choose as a free gift with every £60 you spend. Offer ends on Friday - click here for details.

I used the pretty colour palette at The Colour Throwdown to make this card, so I'll be linking this card up there as well as with the Butterfly Challenge which has  a bingo card this week! I've chosen the 'Wet embossing, Butterflies, Flowers' line.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Stamps: Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer (free with a £60 order until 30th May),
Morning Meadow (hostess set) wood or cling, Regarding Dahlias (sentiment) wood or cling

Ink: Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Tangerine Tango, Basic Black

Card stock: Whisper White, Soft Sky

Other: Clear embossing powder, heat tool, paper clips, bakers twine from Tag a Bag accessory kit, stamp-a-majig

Click above to place an order 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.

It's a bank holiday Monday in the UK today. Now I've scheduled this post so I have no idea what I'll be doing but fingers crossed it won't be this:



See you tomorrow,