Happiest Birthday Wishes in the sky

Of all the styles of cards there are, clean and simple is my favourite - which is why I'm pleased to be joining in with CASology again this week. I love the way the challenges are just one word - this week's cue is 'Sky'. Come and see what I've made:

My sky has been sponged into a post it note mask made with my large square punch. Can you believe it's only just occurred to me that I can make a larger area by 'nibbling' with the punch! I used my 'hungry caterpiller' cloud template too - it's a line of circles, cut out with punches and glued together, and it makes great clouds when you sponge over them!

I topped my sky with the aeroplane from the hostess set Ain't Love Grand, popped up on dimensionals, and gave it a vapour trail with the curvy sentiment from another hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes.

If you'd love to be able to get your hands on hostess goodies but aren't able to have a party in your home, why not join my Stampers 6 Club? The club operates for a six month period and during one of the months you would be the virtual hostess and would be able to choose freebies of at least £25, including the exclusive hostess goodies if you'd like them. You get lots of other benefits too - not least of which are free catalogues during your membership! The next one starts next month when the new catalogue comes out and if you're quick, you can join in - click here to find out how.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Ain't Love Grand, Happiest Birthday Wishes (both retiring)
Ink: Marina Mist
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Markers, square punch, different sizes of circle punches for clouds, 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. 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. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

Yesterday, my daughter came home from school blinking. "You look tired," I told her. "It's not that," she said. "It's just that the teacher in my last class has such a soothing voice it's hard not to drift off!" Oh dear, that doesn't bode well does it? Strong coffee anyone?!

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

Need for Speed - and mud!

You may be wondering why there would ever be the need for speed and mud but of course where males are concerned, they are two of the essentials in life! Today's card was made for a small male person who loves construction sites. Come and have a look:

The background is made by masking with scrap paper and sponging with a variety of inks using a scratchy textured sponge. I stamped the birds from Up Up and Away in the sky to add to the illusion of movement.

The quad bike was the nearest thing I had to a construction vehicle and it went down very well! I coloured it with markers, cut it out with my paper snips and attached it to the background with dimensionals. The sentiment is from the ever-useful Happiest Birthday Wishes hostess set.

When the Simply Scored tool came out, I wondered if I'd be particularly fussed about it but I have to say I use it all the time. I love it, not just for the accuracy of its measurements for bags and boxes but also for subtle little frames, grids and other embossed touches to my cards - like this scored edging which reminds me of tyre treads.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Need for Speed, Up up and Away, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Ink: Basic Grey, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Marina Mist, Tangerine Tango
Card stock: Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Other: Markers, Simply Scored, 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. 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.

I'm getting plenty of opportunities to study mud at first hand as my older son doesn't seem to understand that shoes are the interface between his socks and the muddy ground!

I have a little gift to show you tomorrow. See you then!

Green and blue on The Open Sea!

I'm sneaking in with a quick card for Less is More today - there's a colour challenge over there this week and it's blue and green. I love these colours together and think that whoever thought they 'shouldn't be seen without a colour in between' must have had windmills in his head! My card uses an idea I've had before (here) but this is a pared back version. Come and have a look:

The woodgrain background stamp was stamped in Island Indigo ink and then sponged with more of that colour and Garden Green.

I cut the panel to fit a frame I scored with my Simply Scored board onto the card base. I made sure that this swirly part of the woodgrain was in the bottom right hand corner and emphasised it with a hole cut with my cropadile and this curvy sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes.

I inked up just the top of the ship with a Basic Black marker so that it would look as if  it was sailing in heavy seas.

What you'll need to make this card:
Stamps: The Open Sea, Woodgrain, Happiest Birthday Wishes
Ink: Garden Green, Island Indigo
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Basic Black marker, Simply Scored, cropadile, 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.

Yesterday I heard my daughter giggle as she brought in the post. "Look Mummy!" she said. "Someone has sent us some good advice!" I looked at the parcel. "Excellent advice," I said and added: "but not for bees," just for the pleasure of hearing her laugh. For some reason the word bees really tickles her funny bone. Once my youngest son made us an Easter card in French at school and wrote 'grosses bises' (pronounced 'gross bees') inside; when she saw it she was helpless with laughter!

I'll be back tomorrow for Three Minute Thursday to show you a superfast card. See you then,

A dotty Reason to Smile for a male

Last week I mentioned a new stamp set, Reason to Smile, which is going to be available in August only (and you can get it for free too - scroll down to find out how!) I've been putting my set through its paces for the last couple of posts and this week I'll be showing you more of what it can do. Today, I've taken the 'flower centre' image and made this card with it:

I used my extra large oval punch to make a mask for the sentiment and then stamped the dots fairly randomly. I love these colours together and they're just right for summer - hmmm, well we WERE having a summer!

Here's a close up to show you how well this sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes fits into the large oval. (By the way, Happiest Birthday Wishes is a hostess set, meaning that it's available to those placing an order of £150 or more or hosting a qualifying party, but if you prefer not to spend £150 at a time and don't want to host a party you can get it by joining my Stampers 6 club instead! Click here to find out more.)

Can you see the lovely texture of the spots in the photo above? All the solid stamps in the set have the same gorgeous texture - and the reason it's called Reason to Smile is that you can get it FREE with any order of £60 or more in August, OR you can buy it in wood mount (£18.95) or clear mount ( £14.95).

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

Stamps: Reasons to Smile (available during August only), Happiest Birthday Wishes

Ink: Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Extra large oval punch, 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. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more DURING JULY ONLY so you have just two more days left to get your hands on one!

In a raffle at a school fair recently we won a family meal out at a local hotel and yesterday we went for it. If I'm honest, the food wasn't ragingly brilliant, but the company certainly made up for that and we had a wonderful time laughing and chatting together. I was so pleased when our waitress complimented me on the lovely manners of my children but reflected that if she'd arrived at the table a few minutes earlier she'd have been in time to see my youngest son flick his sister with his napkin. "We never flick our fellow diners with a napkin!" I said reprovingly. "She pinched my bottom!" he said indignantly. "And we never, ever pinch the bottom of a gentleman!" I added.


Tomorrow, I have one of my favourite Reason to Smile cards to show you so do come and see if you have a minute.


Hugs,

Happiest Birthday Wishes for a teen

What kind of a card would you make a teen? Well, unless they have a specific interest (music, xBox, gadgets, sport, clothes, shopping...!) my advice is keep it simple. Actually all my cards tend to be pretty clean and simple, so no change there!

Making a card for a teen is the new month's challenge at the St Lukes Charity Challenge where cards are sold to raise money for the charity. Why not join in? You could win a prize and would be contributing to a very worthwhile cause. Here's what I came up with:

A text image works well for teens - this one is from from the hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes. I paper pieced the 'i' with a scrap of Patterns designer paper and a tiny punched heart and popped up the word 'happy' with dimensionals.

You can see how dimensional it is in this photo. I've added more interest by attaching the panel to a textured card base and by scoring a frame with my lovely Simply Scored board. Red Yellow and Blue aren't necessarily colours I would choose but they're the challenge at Make My Monday this week, so I picked up the gauntlet - and I quite like the way it turned out actually!

Stampin' Up's exclusive hostess sets are only available to those making orders (group or individual) of £150 or more but if you'd rather not spend that all at once and don't have crafting friends, why not join my Stampers 6 club? You'll be automatically eligible for freebies in your hostess month and will get free up-to date catalogues as they're released - as well as lots of other perks! Find out more here.

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

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes (hostess set)

Ink: Real Red, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight (all in marker form)

Card stock: Very Vanilla, smooth and textured

Other: Owl punch (for the heart), Simply Scored, scrap of Patterns designer paper, 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. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day at the dentist and my son was given some temporary caps for his teeth. All is well for the time being but we have to be vigilant in case the nerve dies and causes infection. I'd fed him a large brunch before we left but the moment the dentist told him he wouldn't be able to eat for a few hours, he turned into a ravenous beastie! Today, he's gone to senior school for his induction day and I can't wait to hear his entertaining views on that, but meanwhile the house has gone to wrack and ruin and there's a pile of laundry waiting to be done...

See you tomorrow,

Need for Speed male card

Hi folks - just popping in for Masculine Monday! It was my nephew's birthday recently and he is a big fan of cars, so the Need For Speed set was the obvious choice for his card. Come and have a look:

The first job was to swipe the edge of a Basic Grey ink pad over a piece of Whisper White card stock for 'speed stripes'. I topped it with a strip of textured card stock to represent asphalt and popped the car up on dimensionals - here's a close-up:

The car was stamped in Basic Grey ink, coloured with a Poppy Parade marker and cut out with my sharp paper snips.

I love this sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes and I couldn't resist adding those useful birds from Up, Up and Away!

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

Stamps: Need For Speed, Happiest Birthday Wishes, Up Up and Away

Ink: Basic Grey, Poppy Parade marker

Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Grey textured

Other: 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.

My hubby tells me he enjoyed Father's Day yesterday. He enjoyed a nice lie in before being presented with little edible gifts the children had organised and cards they'd made him. After a swim and a bike ride we took him out for dinner before returning home to watch a spot of football. Oh yes, European Cup fever has hit our house! My youngest son amused us when John Terry made a tackle during the England match on Friday. "Terry gets the ball," said the commentator and my son asked "Which Terry is that? Terry Wogan?" He's not previously been a football kind of guy!

See you tomorrow for something a bit more feminine!