Of stars and stripes

What do Benedict Cumberbatch and Twiggy have in common with Handel and Charles Dickens? They are all supporters of 275 year old children's charity Coram! Stampin' Up has asked a number of celebrities to make cards which will be auctioned between 6th May and 16th May 2014 to raise money for the charity which helps some of the UK's most vulnerable children in many different ways. Find out more here and check out Mr Cumberbatch's and Twiggy's fabulous artwork as well as cards made by a host of other celebrities.

I didn't want to be left out of all this star-studded creativity and although I can't imagine any of my cards being auctioned for any princely sums, I thought I'd make my own tribute to a charity that touches my heart. Come and see:

If you go along to the Coram website, you'll notice that its colours are bright and positive orange and red so I  used those colours and some of the design elements on the site to make my card. While you're there you can read a bit about why Thomas Coram set up the charity back in 1739 and what it's trying to achieve in the present day.

This was a very quick card, suitable for my Three Minute Thursday slot today. I cut strips of card stock and glued them to a curved square base. That was topped with a fabulous graphic label from Hello Lovely which was stamped twice in Pumpkin Pie and Real Red, then snipped and spliced together for a two-tone effect.

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

Stamps: Hello Lovely wood or cling

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Real Red

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler

Other: Envelope board (for rounding corners), paper snips

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.

My daughter's boyfriend brought his three year old sister round to play yesterday and I was transported down memory lane. All our favourite stories were read aloud; a little house was built under the kitchen table and 'porridge' made in a saucepan and dished out onto our picnic plates; our cat was (much to her horror!) petted by eager but clumsy fingers; bubbles were blown and chased after in the garden; my boys' old wooden garage and road system was put together and played with; there was a special lunch out followed by a trip to the playground. I was thinking about all this as I typed up today's post - this is childhood as experienced by the lucky ones.

See you tomorrow,

Who framed Petal Parade?

So the Sale-a-bration promotion is drawing to a close now and I still can't decide which of the free stamp sets is my favourite! I've certainly used Petal Parade a lot, in pastel colours mainly but when I saw the new Fusion challenge (scroll down to see) I wondered how it would look in greens and yellows. Come and see:

I've always liked a simple square card with a square focal panel and this frame, cut out with my square framelits, is a twist on that.

The flowers have been stamped in Gumball Green and then given a sunny centre by pressing an inked up sponge dauber into the centre of it. I added some dots with a Basic Black marker to add a bit more detail and then cut them out. The leaves are the useful branch from the 2 step bird punch.

This fabulous banner is from a set that I'm going to be using a lot more - Hello Lovely. It has loads of tile-like elements - perfect for men's cards - as well as lots of graphic elements like this sentiment.

I really like the Fusion  challenge, which always has a sketch and an inspiration picture and you can choose whether you use one or the other or both. Here are this week's:

I'm a 'both' kind of a girl - can you tell?!

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

Stamps: Hello Lovely wood or cling, Petal Parade (free with Sale-a-bration) wood or cling

Ink: Gumball Green, Daffodil Delight classic ink, stazon black

Card stock: Whisper White smooth and core'dinations, Gumball Green

Other: Squares framelits, Big Shot, sponge daubers, 2 step bird punch, paper snips, Basic Black marker, 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.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

When I say I'm a 'both' kind of girl, I'm practically Winnie the Pooh's twin... remember the bit where Rabbit asks if he'd like condensed milk or honey with his bread? Pooh's reply is: "Both - and never mind the bread!"

See you tomorrow,

Peaceful Petals on the tiles

I'm always banging on about the stamp-a-majig and how brilliant it is. It helps me to be a neater stamper, with straight sentiments and accurate image positioning,  but it also enables me to do more with my stamps - make a new sentiment for example, by combining words from different stamps or add part of one image to another using markers. The repeat stamping on today's card certainly wouldn't have been possible without a stamp-a-majig - come and see:

Stampin' Up's Hello Lovely set contains loads of gorgeous images which look great stamped together collage style but the tile image was the first thing I noticed. To me, it was just crying out to be repeat-stamped to make a bold background! Enter the stamp-a-majig!

Rich Razzleberry was out on my desk so I ended up with a lovely zingy tiled look! What on earth would hold its own on top of that I wondered... Well, how about this beautiful flower from Peaceful Petals? Not looking so ragingly peaceful in hot yellow is it?!

• If you'd like to know how to use a stamp-a-majig, take a look at my new video tutorial - it will be featured here on my blog tomorrow!

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

Stamps: Hello Lovely wood or cling, Peaceful Petals wood or cling

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

Card stock: Whisper White smooth and core'dinations

Other: Markers, paper snips, 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.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excluding p&p)

Have you noticed that I'm using a lot of yellow lately? I must be feeling really positive - well, either that or a bit banana-ish! Which reminds me of when the boys were little and my eldest couldn't say banana but said sublana instead, so of course we all said it!  I used to amuse them by springing out from behind doors a la Starsky and Hutch with a banana in my hand instead of a gun. "Freeze!" I would shout convincingly. "I've got a sublana and I know how to use it!"

See you tomorrow,

A Clockwise countdown to 2014

Have you had a lovely Christmas? We certainly have! But it's over now for another year and in just a few days time, 2013 will draw to a close and a brand new shiny new year will start! I've been making cards to celebrate - come and see:

This design is based on Stampin' Up's fabulous Clockworks stamp set along with some die cut numbers but I've added elements from other stamp sets too...

... So, for example, I've sprinkled a little Coastal Cabana magic using Gorgeous Grunge, added my favourite arrow from Hello Lovely, used the Hello from Four You and the perfect new year message from Remembering Christmas. It's great fun making collage-style cards - as my daughter would say: "10 out of 10 - highly recommended!"

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

Stamps: Clockworks, Gorgeous Grunge, Four You, Remembering Christmas

Ink: Summer Starfruit, Elegant Eggplant, Coastal Cabana, Pumpkin Pie

Card stock: Elegant Eggplant, scrap of Whisper White

Other: Notecards with matching envelopes, markers, Big Shot, Timeless Type sizzlits alphabet (retired), paper snips, 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.

Top moments from our Christmas? Of course there are far too many to choose from but I loved it when all my children ganged up together in the kitchen on Christmas Eve to make special truffles for me...

They melted dark chocolate, whipped it up with double cream, left it to set in the fridge and then rolled balls of the mixture in chopped nuts, chopped coconut or cocoa powder - I nearly fainted with pleasure when I tried them!

Then there was the bit when my youngest son, who was already sporting a striking onesie and furry slippers ensemble, unwrapped this frog hat from his uncle...

 and declared his Christmas outfit complete!

And then there was the moment when our spoilt puss looked under the Christmas tree and seemed outraged to discover that there were no pampered pet pouches for her!

At the risk of sounding sentimental, the best bit was spending time relaxing with the people I love best in the whole world (ahhhhh!) Hope you had a lovely Christmas too and are looking forward to a shiny new year.

No holiday would be complete without a moment or two spent playing with my gorgeous new Stampin' Up stash so I'll be back in the next day or two to show you what I've been up to! Happy holidays!