Happy Day - an embellished smile

After several occasions of forgetting to make a one layer card for Less is More's one layer challenges, I've accidentally come up with a one layer card for this week's Makes Me Smile theme when it's not required! Come and see:

This brilliant sentiment from Stampin' Up's Happy Day set always makes me smile - the power of suggestion perhaps?!

These Boutique Details embellishments come in all five of the latest in-colours and you get four different designs in each colour. I adore them and they're on special offer at the moment so that's definitely a reason to smile! (Check out the latest special offers here.)

Washi tape also makes me smile, and the corner rounder that's part of the envelope board... okay, let's face it, ALL of my Stampin' Up stash makes me smile!

Edited to add: Thank you LeAnne for pointing out that this card works for the current Washi Tape challenge over at the Paper Players, so I shall link up there too.

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

Stamps: Field Flowers wood or cling, Happy Day wood or cling

Ink: Gumball Green, Early Espresso

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Boutique Details embellishments, Gingham Garden washi tape, envelope board (for rounding corners), 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.

Did you know that if you smile, even when you're feeling down, it can improve your mood? I'm just off to do some hoovering so I'll try the smiling trick and see if it works... Perhaps someone recommended it to this lady?!



See you tomorrow,

A bit of a punchy monster mash

Getting up early on a Saturday morning and indulging in a bit of card making with Less is More seems to be a thing of the past at the moment. I even missed last week's challenge altogether and that very rarely happens! Here I am today though, bringing up the rear as it were, with an entry for this week's Witches, Wizards (and Monsters) one layer challenge (and there's a bonus card too if you scroll down!) Come and have a look:

I could have gone down the halloween route but went monstrously valentine-ish instead! The card is made using two masks at the same time - lots of breath-holding went on while peeling the masks away! The mask for my goofy-looking monster was made with scallop punches (body and head) and circle punches (horns), I sponged over those, while the background is sponged into a mask made using the Labels framelits. Once that was done, I sponged eyes through another mask made with a 3/8" circle punch onto the monster's head.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I've been careering around the UK looking at universities with  my daughter. Last Saturday we were in Leeds where I was delighted with these wonderful information cards which were being given out in the student union building. Aren't they fabulous?! I think you can easily see the inspiration for my valentines card on the bottom right!

Of course I missed the one layer bit of the challenge at first and made a layered version (SIGH!) so I thought you might like to see that one too!

It made me very happy that the sentiment from Field Flowers fitted the space beautifully and I love the way one of the Essentials Hardward clips finishes the card off  - I'll definitely be using these more often!

Here's what you'll need to make these cards

Stamps: Delightful Dozen (1st card), Field Flowers (2nd card)

Ink: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, plus markers

Card stock: Whisper White, Pool Party

Other: Scallop oval, 1 1/4" scallop circle punches, Itty Bitty punch circle, corner rounder, Essentials Hardware clips, 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.

Customers placing orders of £250+

will get a whopping £65 worth of freebies during October!

If you'd prefer to spread the cost of your crafty stash, but still get

freebies as well as handmade gifts and cards and complementary catalogues,

why not consider joining my Stampers 6 club?

We all love the idea of a monster who isn't really a monster - the beast in Beauty and the Beast, rottweiler dogs being cute, tough guys holding babies... I was thinking about it (in a rare philosophical moment) and it reminded me of this:



I know - never philosophical for long! See you tomorrow,

Stamping in My Digital Studio

I've been dying to have a play with My Digital Studio, which has recently been released in the UK, and this week's Get Well card challenge at Less is More was just the prod I needed. A bit of digital layering would work well for one layer week I thought! Come and see what I made:

My Digital Studio (MDS) is a way to 'stamp' online. When you load it, you're asked what you'd like to make - a card, a tag, a photo book, a calendar, a scrapbook page, ... there are plenty of options! There are standard sizes or you can decide on your own, and from there you enter an Aladdin's cave of stamps, embellishments, papers, colours... oh bliss! My Digital Studio is a lot more spacious than the Craft Square Metre!

I didn't have much time so I kept it simple, opting for the large Medallion background stamp which I stamped as a watermark (by turning down the opacity). It's very subtle in real life and you can hardly make it out in the photo so please don't strain your eyes looking for it!

I got a bit distracted in the embellishments department where I found loads of wonderful stitching which I can see is going to be very useful to me since I'm the woman who managed to stitch through her own finger with a real sewing machine!

What I love most about MDS is the scaleability - I'm always wishing I had the same stamp in different sizes. Sometimes it's useful to re-scale a sentiment too - I've taken this gorgeous sentiment from Delightful Dozen, for example, and made it enormous so the recipient of this card will know exactly what to do!

Of course I don't really feel I've made a card unless I've got a bit inky so, once I'd printed off my background, trimmed it and folded it into a card, I stamped it with the beautiful Field Flowers. This is a two-step stamping set so you end up with an image with a lot of depth (loved Chrissie's tip this week for two-step stamping sets!) I inked the solid images in the delicious Crisp Cantaloupe and added the detail in autumnal Cajun Craze. The MDS sentiment is also Cajun Craze and you can see how perfectly they match in the photos above.

I found MDS fun and easy to use - although there are loads of tutorials available if you should need them. I can hardly believe the price - only £13.95 to download and it comes with an astonishing range of stamp sets, sentiments, papers, embellishments and effects. It's suitable for Mac or PC and if you're still wavering, there's a free trial version! You can find it on my online shop here.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Field Flowers, MDS
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Cajun Craze, Gumball Green
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Basic Rhinestones, 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.


I was so excited while I was making this card that I mentioned MDS to my husband. He was watching the football highlights at the time so he just grunted but after a few moments he said: "Wouldn't you be better off with planks of wood?" I did the laughing equivalent of slow hand-clapping at that little quip but he didn't notice because someone had scored.

See you tomorrow,

A Field Flowers gift set

When my girlfriends celebrate their birthdays I love making their presents look special for them. I usually make a card and coordinate the gift wrapping, often stamping a plain white gift bag with the same stamps as I've used for the card (see examples here). But on this occasion, the present (a set of three vintage jars) was too heavy and bulky for a gift bag, so I found a box I'd hoarded and set about transforming it. Come and see:

I love the subtle patterns in the Patterns designer paper stacks and they come in all Stampin' Up's colours. To jazz up my box I selected the 'text' style in Real Red, cut 6" squares of it to fit each panel of my box and simply pasted them onto the box. It was ready for a bit of 'wow' ribbon - and the fabulous 1 1/4" Two-Tone ribbon on page 13 of the spring/summer catalogue definitely fit the bill!

So far, so simple but I knew that a pretty tag would lift the box so set about making one to match the card I'd already made...

... which I based around the wonderful Field Flowers stamp set.

I stamped and fussy-cut all the flowers - and yes my lovely friend IS worth it! - before attaching them to the card and tag.

The flowers were grounded on Primrose Petals Core'dinations card stock which was scored with a running stitch design from my lovely Borders score plate. This was sanded to make 'stitches' stand out, and the edge scalloped with Stampin' Up's scallop border punch. Finally, the Itty Bitty Banners sentiment was added.

Here's what you'll need to make this project
Stamps: Field Flowers, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals, Lucky Limeade, Always Artichoke
Card stock: Very Vanilla smooth card stock, Primrose Petals Core'dinations
Punches: Scallop border, Word Window punches, handheld punch
Other: Simply Scored, Borders plate, Big Shot, Bitty Banners framelits, markers, a spare box!
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.

There's nothing quite as satisfying about finding the right present for the right person and of course receiving a gift is fun too. The best ones are completely unexpected - like the time my youngest son came back from a school trip to a stately home with a little china rabbit adorned with fur which he presented to me. He was only seven or eight and had seen this in the gift shop and thought I'd love its sweet face so of course I'll treasure it for ever (despite the fact it's actually a dreadful little thing!)

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you very soon.

Field Flowers defiance

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Nance at The Paper Players for cheering me up yesterday with her selection of colours for this week's challenge. In Buckingham in the UK we're currently going about our business hunched up against an icy wind, so using those fresh springlike colours felt like thumbing my nose to the cold! Come and see my card:

Aaah - can you feel your shoulders going down?! These beautiful blooms are from Stampin' Up's Field Flowers stamp set. I stamped the stalk image onto my panel first then sponged Pool Party ink around it and at the edges of the card stock. The flowers were stamped separately and fussy cut before attaching to the stems.

Field Flowers is a two-step stamping set so each flower has a corresponding image designed to be stamped on top of the original. I've found that stamping them both in the same colour gives a beautifully detailed flower and a stamp-a-majig makes it easy to position them accurately.

I chose a nice chunky sentiment to balance out that large flower. It's from the Delightful Dozen stamp set and I inked just part of it up with a marker. My stamp-a-majig came in handy again to make sure I got it where I wanted it!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Field Flowers, Delightful Dozen
Ink: Primrose Petals, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso, Pool Party
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Paper snips, 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!

Our family seems to have been so busy lately. This morning my eldest son came down for breakfast looking rather pale. "You look tired," I said with concern. "No, I'm not tired," he said, "Just a bit startled." That sounded a bit odd to me. "Startled?" I said. "What are you startled about?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh you know," he said vaguely. "I'm just a bit startled by the morning!"

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow so do come back for a bit of fast card inspiration. See you then,

What's in your Patterned Occasions cup?

Are you enjoying Sale-a-bration? Yes of course you are! A choice of 17 different freebies when your order is £45 or more - what's not to like?! And it's a wonderful time of year for me too - it feels as if it's raining free stamps at the moment!

Stampin' Up demonstrators really do get a great deal right from the start! For example, if you were to join during Sale-a-bration, you'd get £162.50 worth of products of your choice for only £99! And it doesn't stop there - demonstrators get discounts and commissions; there are cash bonuses, free products and luxury trip incentives for reaching goals; there's the satisfaction you get when you're making money out of something you love doing; and there are the friendships you make when you work with people that share your passion. If this sounds good to you, why not think about joining my team and becoming a demonstrator yourself? Click here to find out more, and do feel free to email me - I'll give you honest answers to your questions and you can mull it over and decide whether it would work for you.

Shall I get down from my soap box now and show you a card? Come on then:

Despite the fact that I've lost all feeling in my toes and it sounds as if the snow is returning to haunt us, I'm still in romantic mood! There's a great cup image in the free Patterned Occasions set that works really well for love notes with its 'whole latte love' sentiment but you know how I love changing sentiments round...

Half of the new sentiment I've made is from Tea Shoppe and the word Love comes from Field Flowers (a set worth its weight in gold!) The rhinestone is one of Stampin' Up's Basic Rhinestones coloured with a permanent marker; I never buy coloured gems, just colour one in on the rare occasions I'd like a coloured one.

I love things that fit into other things! Here, the cup nestles neatly into a trio of punched circles and the heart from my owl punch could have been tailor-made for the heart-shaped steam on the cup. I added a drop of Cherry Cobbler dazzling details to the heart - another way to add a touch of sparkle! The background paper is a beautifully understated design from my favourite range in the new spring/summer mini catalogue Tea for Two. There are some real show-stoppers in this pack and the colours are gorgeous!

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

Stamps: Patterned Occasions (free Sale-a-bration set), Tea Shoppe and Field Flowers (sentiment)

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Midnight Muse

Card stock: Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue, Cherry Cobbler

Punches: 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8" circle punches, owl punch, corner rounder

Other: Markers, basic rhinestones, Tea for Two designer paper, 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.

• DON'T FORGET TO ADD ONE OF THESE FREE SALE-A-BRATION ITEMS FOR EVERY £45 YOU SPEND

People are always telling me about their cats having a thing about boxes but Tuppence is pretty anti them (unless they contain kitty kat krunchies that is!) She hates enclosed spaces and when she has to go to the vet we have to make military-style plans, weeks in advance to get her into her carrier. The only thing that makes her lose her head is canned tuna and that's because she disappeared during a neighbour's impromptu fireworks once when my brother was looking after her and he searched for her waving an open can of tuna; she soon came out of hiding and has always viewed my brother with candid approval ever since, meowing pitifully whenever he leaves here after a visit as if to say: "Please, take me with you - these people don't understand me!"

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow. Do come and join me for a fast card!