Bloomin' Marvellous to say you care

Whoopee! Sale-a-bration starts today! You really do get so much more for your money during this promotion so don't miss out - find out all about it by going to my special Sale-a-bration page. You can place an order by contacting me here and if you're wondering about joining Stampin' Up as part of my team, click here and follow the link or give me a call on 01280 820593 for a no-obligation chat.

One of the Sale-a-bration stamp sets you can get for free when you spend £45 is Bloomin' Marvellous,  and I can tell you that I'm loving this versatile set! Today I've used it to make a card that would work as an anniversary or valentine card, or as a note for a loved one. Come and see:

The set contains a leaf stamp which is fantastic for creating the clumps of foliage I love stamping so much. Of course I've never seen flowers like these in real life...

...but the whole point about stamping is that you can let your imagination run riot! These tiny hearts are on one stamp from from my Little Additions set and I embossed them before stamping the leaves over the top. What I should have done then was polished them off with a tissue to take off the residue but, as you can see, I sort of forgot that step! Anyway, moving swiftly on...!

There are some beautiful sentiments in the Bloomin' Marvellous set and this is one of my favourites. What a lovely thing to say and what a beautiful pair of fonts to say it in! The butterfly comes from the set too (it's a bit like Mary Poppins' handbag isn't it?!) and there is a new punch coming out very soon that punches it out beautifully!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Bloomin' Marvellous (free SAB set), Little Additions
Ink: Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, Marina Mist, Riding Hood Red
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool
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 CHOOSE ONE OF THESE  SALE-A-BRATION FREEBIES FOR EVERY £45 YOU SPEND.

My children were all delighted to get a Snow Day yesterday. I'm not a raging fan of going out in the snow so I do lots of 'mother-henning'. "Wrap up warm," I tell them as they disappear outside. My youngest son takes me literally and goes out looking like the Michelin Man, while my eldest son is far too cool to wear winter woollies and finds it hilarious when I suggest a hint of scarf or glove! My daughter just teases me with chilly weather puns like "have an ice day" and "I snow it's cold out there". All three of them keep coming in and leaving a trail of snowy garments behind them. I haven't set foot outside for three days and I'm exhausted!

See you tomorrow,

Take Care anniversary lovebirds

I'm just back from Buckingham's Christmas parade which brings the community together with a cavalcade of brilliantly made floats, pipe bands, dancers and other displays all to raise money for various charities. It was a bright, sunny morning which really brought the crowds out and there was a lovely atmosphere. Now I'm back, there's just time to whip up a card for the Less is More challenge before I fly out and get some last minute shopping done. The theme at the site today is Anniversary - come and see what I came up with:

See that branch? That's from my fabulous new Take Care stamp set and I'm very excited about it! I bought the set thinking it would come in handy for Easter with its sweet nest and eggs but the image I love the most is this branch - just think of all the things you can perch on that!

For this card I brought in a couple of the birds from my Aviary set - aren't they cute?! I stamped a heart from my Little Additions set between them and it amuses me how startled they look!

The sentiments from Teeny Tiny Wishes are always lovely and neat and understated, allowing the image to take centre stage.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Take Care, Aviary, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Little Additions (tiny heart)
Ink: Marina Mist, Raspberry Ripple classic inks plus Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede and Early Espresso markers
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: 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 +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

My husband doesn't normally get involved in our family silliness but whenever he does it's always a cracker! Yesterday he looked over at me when we were watching TV and, with a completely straight face, asked me: "Do you know what time Andy Murray goes to bed?" When I replied that I had no idea he smiled with satisfaction. "Tennish," he said. This was to pay me back for a time about twenty years ago when he accused me of being up to mischief. "You're looking positively elvish!" he said. "What?" I said. "Elvish Preshley?!"

Anyway, enough of all this rambling... any minute now it'll be Christmas so I'd better get sorted! I'll be back next week to show you the rest of my festive makes - including some very quick ones for anyone who fancies making a batch of Christmas cards in half an hour! See you then,

Little Additions fathers day card

It's Masculine Monday on my blog as usual and today I've made a fathers day card using a baby set! No, please don't edge away - I haven't gone completely mad! Come and have a look:

The Little Additions stamp set features this lovely squashy-looking chair which I thought was perfect for a fathers day card. My father is 86 now and has lost the feeling in his fingers and toes, so he can't walk far and can't do fiddly things with his hands and is most often found reading in his armchair. I do think of armchairs as being quite male as my husband is obsessed with 'his' armchair! I paper pieced the chair on my card using polka dot paper from the Patterns stack, and I made it for this week's CASual Fridays challenge where the ladies are calling for spotty cards, and for Make My Monday where a fathers day card is required.

I do love combining sentiments from various sets to make new, unique ones and it's easy with my stamp-a-majig positioner. The 'it's your day' on this one is from Happiest Birthday Wishes and the 'dad' is from For My Family which contains sentiment stamps for every member of the family and teacher too! This is a slightly different version of the card which was made for Technique Tuesday where Mynnette show-cased a fabulous velveteen technique. I thought it would make an excellent armchair cover! It's hard to see though - let's zoom in:

I'm not sure if I was very good at this technique (you stamp a design in white craft ink, allow it to dry, then overstamp it with a solid image and wipe with a soft cloth.) My version is rather too subtle - Mynnette's is more pronounced - do pop over and have a look.

EDITED TO ADD: A weird thing has happened - I scheduled this post on Sunday morning and on Sunday evening I was having a browse online (something I rarely do) when I came upon a card on Mary Fish's blog that is almost identical to this one! Mary made hers first and I promise faithfully that I hadn't seen it before making mine - this is a completely inadvertent CASE and how bizarre that they are SO similar! Do go and check out Mary's wonderful blog where you'll find lots of tips and fabulous card designs.

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

Stamps: Little Additions, Happiest Birthday Wishes, For My Family

Ink: Pacific Point, Basic Grey, Whisper White craft ink

Card stock: Whisper White, Real Red

Other:  Patterns designer paper, Heart to Heart 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.

Do you remember me posting this card at the end of May? I'd made it for my husband's birthday in July and thought I was quite safe to post it considering that crafting isn't really his thing. It was only when he collared me, demanding to know what I meant by saying that he bored the children about historical issues, that I realised that he is in fact a secret reader of my blog! After I'd got over my astonishment, I spent an enjoyable few moments trying to convince him that half an hour lectures on political reform aren't really top of the children's list of favourite entertainments!

I'll be back tomorrow with something more feminine so do come and have a look if you have a minute.
Hope to see you then,

Pocket Silhouettes and other wild flowers

I'm lucky enough to have been asked to be guest designer at Make My Monday this month and I've thoroughly enjoyed visiting all the entrants as well as enjoying the regular design team's samples. If you fancy joining in this week you'd be very welcome! The new challenge is 'Floral - featuring Wild Flowers and Grasses', so I thought it would be fun to rustle up one of my favourite sponged scenes. Come and see:

It is so quick and easy to make these kind of scenes and it looks as if you've spent ages over them! I sponged Pool Party ink over the top of damp watercolour paper and Wild Wasabi and Lucky Limeade inks over the bottom. The Pocket Silhouettes stamps were stamped over the top of this and then the edges of the card stock were sponged with darker inks.

This little cluster is a mixture of stamped and fussy-cut images, and a punched leaf, stapled to the sponged background and tied up with a piece of linen thread.

The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes  and is stamped into a frame in the Little Additions set. You can also see in this photo that I set the sponged scene inside a frame scored with my Simply Scored board which makes this kind of accuracy SO easy!

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

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Nature Walk, Autumn Days, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Little Additions

Ink: Basic Black, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Lucky Limeade, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede, Not Quite Navy

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory, Whisper White, Watercolour paper, Always Artichoke

Other: Markers, small oval punch, two step bird punch, stapler, linen thread, paper snips, stamp-a-majig, Simply Scored

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.

Today's card reminds me of the first time we went camping. We'd practised putting the tent up at home so were pretty confident, but found that when it came to it, the tent had no desire to sit nicely on the pitch but preferred to lurch drunkenly into the hedge where there was a fine crop of stinging nettles! We had a lovely time though and I remember the children spent all evening quietly collecting grass seeds in bowls!

Happy Monday!

Little Additions baby

My husband told me that he was taking our youngest son shopping this morning. He said it with such a ridiculously casual air that even if I didn't know that he loathes shopping, I would instantly have known he was off to search for my birthday present! Since the rest of the family disappeared with various friends I was left home alone and there are no prizes for guessing what I got up to! Come and have a look:

This is my card for today's Less is More challenge to make baby/children cards. The thing that really takes my breath away when I see babies is their purity - that astonishing skin! - and this card is all about that. I stamped the cot in versamark on Naturals Ivory card stock and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder before cutting it out with my sharp paper snips. I love the curvy shape of this cot from Little Additions.

The sentiment was stamped in Basic Grey on Very Vanilla card stock and trimmed into a banner. I added the pretty in pink heart, punched out with my Owl punch, just below the little heart on the cot.

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

Stamps: Little Additions

Ink: Basic Grey

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory

Other: Owl punch and 1 1/4" punch, versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, 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.

Making baby cards always makes me feel wistful for my own lovely babies. I once spent about an hour wafting a sheet up and down on the bed because it made my baby daughter giggle. It was her first real laugh and it was the most wonderful sound I'd ever heard in my life. 

I can't wait to see the baby fest that will be the Less is More gallery today! See you soon,