Forest Friends baby card - with legs!

The household was roused by my cackles this morning as I logged onto the Less is More challenge site. Chrissie and Mandi, I discovered, have entertainingly set us the challenge of making a card featuring something with legs! My first thought was a spider... but I don't have a spider stamp, which is lucky as I can't cope with spiders first thing in the morning (or at any time of the morning come to that!) Next I thought of furniture and wished I had the Little Additions set from p.20 of the mini catalogue...

Anyway, then Life happened, and by the time I was able to return to the LiM challenge, I'd come over all gooey! Come and have a look:

I was thinking of Bambi - do you remember when he goes off on his spindly legs with Thumper and learns new words? Well here he is meeting a butterfly! I thought this would make a cute card for a new baby.

'Bambi' is from the Forest Friends set and I think he's adorable! I stamped him in Early Espresso ink and clear-embossed him. The bushes are actually the tops of the oak tree from Lovely as a Tree and the butterflies are a really useful image from one of this year's Sale-a-bration sets So Happy For You.

I built the sentiment out of two stamps and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Taking bits of a stamp and putting it with another is easy with markers and a stamp-a-majig, and the markers contain the same ink as the full sized ink pads so no need to worry about whether the colours match.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Forest Friends, Lovely as a Tree, So Happy For You, Hello You, Tiny Tags

Ink: Soft Suede, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake 

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi, Soft Suede markers, Stamp-a-majig

You can buy any of these supplies from me and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

This morning my youngest son came up to me saying "Mummy, what's this?" He then proceeded to stretch his cheeks away from his nose with his hands, making his mouth stretch in a wide line. I looked at him in astonishment. "I don't know," I said faintly. "I don't either," he said cheerfully. "But I've just learned how to do it!"

Thank you for looking at my card today. I know all you other LiMettes out there will have been working hard on this challenge and I can't wait to see what you've come up with. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you on Monday with a card for a boy that's WAY outside my comfort zone! Hope to see you then!

Three Minute Thursday - Forest Friends thank you card

Good morning and welcome to Three Minute Thursday! Today I'm going to show you a card which took me no time at all - not one minute! I've been beavering away making samples and projects with all the new crafting goodies in the new mini catalogue, and today is the day I'm holding an open house to show them off. So today, my top tip for the time-challenged is to do what I've done - get someone else to make your card!

The someone else in question is my ten-year-old son who loves making 'Mr Rabbit cards'. He's made a whole series of them and this is his latest, being shown off by his lovely assistant, Tuppence (who unfortunately needed a bit of a nap!):

My son made this card to give to his Auntie and his four-year-old cousin to say thank you for the brilliant airfix set they got him for his birthday.

He's picked up some great techniques - sponging, colouring stamps with markers, fancy cutting  - and has made a great job of it. But the thing I like best are those amazing balloons! They were punched out with a 3/4" circle punch and shine added with my white gel pen. He drew the ends of the balloons and the string with the thin end of markers. Clever boy!

Supplies
Stamps: Forest Friends, Hopeful Thoughts, Trendy Trees (sentiment)
Ink: Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Early Espresso, Real Red
Card stock: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Old Olive, Marina Mist
Other: 3/4" circle punch, markers

Now I may have been a bit of a cheat today, but it is absolutely true that getting my son to make a card did save me time and also gave him a lot of pleasure. With the Easter holidays coming up, your children or grandchildren might love to make Easter pictures and cards and projects - and Forest Friends is a great set to set them off. Do email me or give me a call on 01280 820593 if you'd like to make an order and I'll be happy to help. Oh - and don't forget, this is the last day to order from the March Frenzy sale list!

Three Minute Thursday will be back next week in its more orthodox form. Do come back tomorrow when I'll be unveiling the new mini catalogue which is utterly packed with gorgeousness! I can't wait to show you - see you then!

Three Minute Thursday -with Tart and Tangy

Good Morning! It's Three Minute Thursday here but, more importantly, it's Chinese New Year! This is an enormously important celebration for Chinese people all over the world and I'd like to send everyone my best wishes for this year of the rabbit.

So, today's three-minute card is a Chinese new year card. I cheated a little because I don't have a Happy Chinese New Year stamp, so I started timing the card after I'd printed the sentiment.

I chose the citrus image from Tart and Tangy because tangerines and oranges are often given as gifts at this time as the Cantonese words for them sound the same as the words for luck and wealth.

This card was made for my daughter's Chinese teacher - but then I realised that she teaches Mandarin, not Cantonese. I'm sure she'll know! And then I realised that I'd got so carried away with my design that the card didn't have any rabbits on it...

...So then I thought I'd add a rabbit inside the card and obviously that took the card way over three minutes! All in all, Three Minute Thursday has turned out to be a bit of a disaster time-wise today! But, on the other hand, the initial card design would be useful for summer invites and notecards so perhaps you'll overlook it this time...

Here's how to make this card:

• Cut an 8cm square piece of Whisper White card stock.
• Stamp a sentiment in the centre of the card stock using a stamp-a-majig for accurate positioning. TIP: Blocky sentiments look good with this design - I used the Fathers' Day sentiment from Occasional Greetings but Happy Birthday from Afterthoughts (hostess) or one of the sentiments from On a Pedestal would work really well too.
• Stamp the sentiment onto a post-it note and trim to size. Use this to mask the sentiment on the card stock.
• Stamp the citrus image all over the card stock using Pumpkin Pie ink. Now sponge More Mustard ink over the whole area using a sponge dauber, paying particular attention to the edges of the mask. Remove the mask.
• Cut a 9cm x 18cm piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock. Score and fold in half to make a card blank and attach the stamped image to the card front.

Supplies

Stamps: Tart and Tangy, Occasional Greetings

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard

Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White

Other: Cherry Cobbler marker

Since I've already blown the three minutes, and anyway I'm in a Chinese New Year mood, here's another celebratory card:

I've been told that chrysanthemums in various shades of red are also big at Chinese New Year so I thought I'd use these two-step stamping flowers from Greenhouse Garden on this card. Have you noticed how much I use these self-adhesive rhinestones at the moment? I love them!

Here's a close-up of the sentiment. I used my computer to print the numbers because I haven't got my set of numbers yet (I really need them but something pretty always tempts me first!) The 'be' is from a sentiment in Just Believe!

Well, now that I'm in a thoroughly Chinese mood I think I might plan a Chinese feast for later. Happy Chinese New Year! Have a great day!

Forest Friends birthdays

It's the school holidays here and I like to start work early so that I have some time with my family. It's very peaceful first thing - my husband doesn't come down until about eight o'clock and the two older children don't surface until later. But my youngest son is an early riser (and also a sociable personality!) so we sometimes craft together until the hustle and bustle of the day begins.

Do you remember the adventurous Mr Rabbit, who found himself adrift on the high seas? (He's on this card on the left.) Well, you'll be glad to know, he was rescued by friendly fish and found himself a new home in the Warbling Woods. Here he is on his way to a birthday party!

The card came together very quickly. I wheeled Funky Forest across a Whisper White card base, then adhered Patterns DSP in Old Olive below it. The Right on Track 'fence' was wheeled across that and across a cut-out Mr Rabbit (oops! he's the wrong colour!) and then he was attached to the matching part of the fence so it looks as if he's behind it. Some balloons coloured in with a blender pen, a sponged sky, some cut-out Trendy Trees for the woods, a sentiment - and voila! It was done!

I can't resist showing you the card my son made this morning. His Mr Rabbit IS the right colour and look - he's having another adventure! My clever boy - he did everything himself apart from the matting. Just look at that professional sponging!

Crafting is a lovely activity that all ages can enjoy together. And if you do it with someone under ten you might get a story thrown in for free!
Have a good day.

Forest Friends nautical children's card

I had such fun with this card! It started when I was playing with my Something Fishy wheel and realised that if you cut out and layered the waves you could tuck a little boat in there. So I made a boat and then felt it needed a sailor... although I'm not sure that Mr Rabbit feels all that happy about it!

I thought it needed an extra something so I tried a circle of piercing round the boat. The light shone through it in an interesting way but the colours were a bit same-ish so I sponged some sage shadow onto the water to give it a bit of depth.

That's better! The children and I were making up stories about the rabbit: we think he was running away from someone and hid in the boat. He was so tired out that he fell asleep and next minute he woke up and found himself all alone in a boat on the high seas! Poor Mr Rabbit! I was so worried about him that I almost put a friend in the boat to keep him company but that would've ruined the card... and anyway, those fish look friendly - I'm sure they'll help him out! (My wicked daughter began muttering darkly about Piranhas at this point but I told her firmly that all my stories have happy endings!)

Supplies: (all Stampin' Up unless specified)
Stamps: Forest Friends
Ink: Brilliant Blue, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow
Card stock: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Other: Something Fishy jumbo wheel, paper piercer, circle punches, white gel pen

We've become rather fond of Mr Rabbit in our house and I've a feeling we haven't seen the last of him. Come back soon for more of his exciting adventures!

Forest Friends spring/easter card

I've been staring at my Forest Friends stamp set and thinking about using them for a spring card. My youngest son calls them my 'Disney' stamps and I know what he means - they definitely bring to mind Bambi and Thumper and all their little woodland friends! This is what I came up with:

Not very Disney but quite reminiscent of an illustration in a vintage children's story book I thought. I could imagine Hippity and Hoppity scampering off to meet Wise Owl at the Tree in the Top Field. Look how surprised they are to find that he isn't there!

I used Stampin' Pastels for the background, which gave a lovely soft, faded look, and I doodled in some tufts of grass.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up)
Stamps: Forest Friends, Itty Bitty Buds (level 2 hostess set)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun, Whisper White
Cardstock: Kraft, Whisper White
Other: Stampin' Pastels, Old Olive stampin' write

My children consider themselves much too sophisticated to watch Disney classics now but I treasure the fondest memories of curling up on a sofa with armfuls of cuddly tots shrieking with laughter at the chase scene in the Aristocats or the blustery-day-in-Owl's-house scene in Winnie the Pooh. Thank you Mr Disney!

Thanks for visiting today.

Vicky