In love with Banner Blast!

Are you ready for a week of sneak peeks?! All this week I'll be showcasing the stamp sets and accessories you'll be able to get for free in Stampin' Up's Sale-a-bration promotion which starts next Tuesday. So, let's kick things off with a valentine/anniversary card using the Banner Blast set - come and see:

This is about as layered as I ever get with my cards but there's lots of clear space so it still feels quite clean and simple - but have you spotted those fabulous banners?!

I stamped the word 'you' onto a tiny panel and clipped my stamped banners onto it with one of the Essentials Hardware clips, adding a stamped and cut-out arrow and a punched heart to embellish. This was placed onto a background cut out of one the Sale-a-bration designer papers using a fabulous new punch. These tag topper punches are designed to make tags quickly and easily but there's SO much more you can do with them!

I've whipped the topper away in this photo so you can see that I punched the tag top on both the top and the bottom of this piece of designer paper. The strip the background is mounted on is actually threaded through the tag too - just think of the possibilities! The strip is embossed using the Needlepoint Border embossing folders and layed onto core'dinations card stock which provides a nice contrast with the smooth card base.

This week's fabulous sketch from CAS(E) this sketch inspired my card so I'll be linking this card up over there.

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

Stamps: Banner Blast, Love You More (arrow), Morning Meadow (the word 'you')

Ink: Early Espresso, Calypso Coral, Cherry Cobbler

Card stock: Whisper White smooth and core'dinations, scrap of Crisp Cantaloupe

Other: Essentials hardware clips, Needlepoint embossing folder, Big Shot, Owl punch, 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.

My sister and her family came to visit us this weekend and my daughter, who plans to do English and French at university, was able to chat to her aunt who studied those subjects herself. They discussed idioms (such as 'it's raining cats and dogs' in English) and my daughter explained that you get extra marks for using French ones in the exam and could my sister could think of any? My sister thought for a moment and then came out with 'Il y a du monde au balcon (there are lots of people on the balcony)' which turned out to mean a woman amply endowed in the bosom area! Yes, thanks Sis - very helpful for my daughter's A level!

See you tomorrow,

Houndstooth and Pumpkin Pie to say I love you

I love Valentines Day! Not because I'm a hopeless romantic but because I believe in letting the people you love know about it, so any occasion that encourages that gets my vote. A card is enough to say you care but, let's face it, a little treat never goes amiss! Come and see my card and treat box set:

This project was made using the houndstooth design from the gorgeous black and cream Modern Medley designer paper pack combined with elements from the Love You More stamp set and a splash of Pumpkin Pie, a lovely bright orange.

I used punches to cut out the hearts and the arrow is from Love You More. The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Banners.

The box is just the right size to house a few chocolate-dipped cherries or strawberries but there are plenty of other treats that would fit equally well (tickets for a romantic weekend away to Paradise Island for example...!)

This gorgeous tag is yet another fabulous image from the Love You More stamp set. It cuts out neatly with the 1" circle punch, the Owl punch heart layers beautifully in the centre, and it's brilliant for adding to homemade treats or stamping on the back of cards.

There's an added surprise element in this design - a flash of Pacific Point...

... on the underside of the box tag...

... and on the depth of the heart topper. And that's probably enough surprises for one day - we don't want anyone keeling over do we?!

• I hope you've enjoyed my Love You More showcase this week. If you'd like to get your mitts on this set, it's available until 27th January.

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

Stamps: Love You More, Itty Bitty Banners

Ink: Basic Black

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie smooth and core'dinations

Other: Modern Medley designer paper, Pumpkin Pie 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Large and Small Heart punches, Owl punch (for the tiny hearts), 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.

If, like me, you've ditched refined sugars but want something sweet for dessert, I can highly recommend those cherries or strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate (I use 85% Green & Blacks). Another thing that satisfies a sweet tooth are grapes, washed and put in the freezer over night. The only problem with these is that they're so yummy you could eat half your body weight in them - but then that has to be better than refined sugar and artificial sweetener doesn't it?!

Have a great weekend and I'll be back very soon.

Hugs,

A gallery of three minute love notes

You don't have to have heaps of spare time to make Valentines cards! I've been playing with Stampin' Up's fabulous Love you More set this week and it's perfect for quick cards. Come and see:

I love the current trend for arrows and this image makes a great Valentine for a man. I used markers to ink the stamp up, leaving the arrow heads off...

... and replaced them with little hearts punched out of Stampin' Up's Silver Foil card stock using the Owl punch. Suitably caveman-esque I thought!

Moving swiftly on to the next card I made using the globe image from the set. :

I inked the rubber with markers before stamping, using Smoky Slate to give a metallic look to the stand, and coloured the actual globe bit with Soft Sky, Pistachio Pudding and Pear Pizzaz.

The globe comes with a heart shape in Africa but I coloured it in so you can't see it. I decided to add a punched heart (which appears to be having a swim in the Atlantic!)

My final offering today was supposed to be a three minute card but didn't turn out that way because love the way the words are entwined on this sentiment and really wanted to make it a dual coloured image...

... and it turned out to be quite fiddly colouring in the rubber of the delicate parts of the 'y'. It worked well though - and this is the first time I've used the narrow end of my Stampin' Up marker on rubber! The sentiment fits beautifully in the Decorative Label punch but then I got carried away and stamped a couple of hearts from another image in the set, cut them out, topped them with a punched heart - enough now!

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

Stamps: Love You More

Ink: Markers in Early Espresso, Real Red, Smoky Slate, Pistachio Pudding, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, Melon Mambo

Card stock: Very Vanilla plus scraps of Melon Mambo, Silver Foil card stock, Real Red core'dinations for embellishments
Punches: Owl punch and Decorative Label punch

Other: 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.

My daughter was attending an interview at Queen Mary's university yesterday so I went off to London with her. Things seemed to go well for her and afterwards we had a lovely time pottering about the kind of shops we rarely see in the depths of the country and eating out. I lived in London for the best part of twenty years so how on earth I managed to get on a bus going in the wrong direction and missing our train home I've no idea!

See you tomorrow,

Birdies bearing gifts

I was delighted to see that the challenge at Make My Monday this week is birds. Stampin' Up have lots of gorgeous ones, but I'm show-casing the gorgeous Love You More stamp set this week and there's a fabulous bird in that set. Come and see what I've done with him:

There's something a bit cheeky about this little retro-style bird! He normally wears his heart on his beak but I took that off him and gave him a flower to hold instead - using markers to ink up an image makes it easy to leave parts of the stamp out.

I masked and sponged a 'ground' for him to hop about on, added the sentiment and finished with a candy dot in the centre of the flower.

It occurred to me that you might want to see the original bird: This young lady is dressed in Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo plumage with Daffodil Delight tights and matching beak-stick; she carries this season's must-have accessory in Real Red!

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

Stamps: Love You More, sentiments from Teeny Tiny Wishes and Simply Sketched

Ink: Markers in Pacific Point, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight

Card stock: Naturals White, Very Vanilla

Other: Candy dots, 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.

The description of the second bird brought back a vivid childhood memory for me of a visit to the Bath and West agricultural show which takes place in Somerset where I grew up. In the 70s, these shows were all livestock and tractors and, to be honest, there wasn't much going on there for a little girl whose passions were drawing and reading. There were stalls selling dog leads and horse blankets as well as the odd novelty stall but amongst all of this I remember discovering a fashion show! For a giddy half hour, I sat wide-eyed in a stuffy tent smelling of manure mesmerised by glamorous ladies floating about in the very latest 70s fashions while a lady with clipped BBC accents described the ensembles over a microphone. What a very long time ago that seems!

I'll be back tomorrow when it'll be Three Minute Thursday here and I'll have some quick cards to show you. Hope to see you then,

Sending more love around the world

When I was making this little card I showed you yesterday, I started thinking about different images to use that wonderful sentiment with. I came up with this:

Doesn't the sentiment fit in well with this fabulous map image from Stampin' Up's The Open Sea stamp set?! And it would work brilliantly with World Map too! I used the lush in-colour Coastal Cabana for the card base and inked the map up in the same colour (don't you just love matching ink and card stock?!) Once the map stamp was inked up I tapped a Garden Green marker over it to vary the colour a little.

Here's a close up showing the image which was pasted it onto the card base. To frame it in a dimensional way, I cut an aperture into the top panel with one of the circle framelits, and used dimensionals to pop it up. The sentiment was stamped into one of the Itty Bitty Banners frames, which you can cut out using the coordinating framelits, and I added a tiny textured heart, cut out using the Owl punch.

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

Stamps: The Open Sea, Love You More (sentiment), Bitty Banners

Ink: Midnight Muse, Coastal Cabana classic ink plus Garden Green marker

Card stock: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White plus scrap of Real Red core'dinations

Other: Circle and Itty Bitty Banner framelits, Owl builder punch (for the heart), 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.

All these maps and globes are making me dream of hot summer holidays... think I might have to go and turn the heating up!

See you tomorrow,

Sending love around the world

Since we're well into January, I thought it would be good to get some Valentine's projects under my belt. In fact, today's card could be used for any time of year to let someone special know how you feel about them. Come and have a look:

You may remember me telling you that Stampin' Up have released some exclusive Valentine stamp sets and accessories (click here to see). They're only available until the 27th January, so don't you go missing out now!

When I saw the gorgeous Love you More stamp set, I immediately had an idea for the globe. I stamped it in versamark on the card panel and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder, then stamped it again onto scrap card stock and coloured it with markers. The 1" circle punch cut it out neatly and I attached it over the embossed one.

Do you like the piercing? Normally I'd pierce a frame round the edge of the panel but today I decided to position it on the card base itself for a change!

Here's a close up with the lovely sentiment. The image and sentiment come on the same stamp but I've separated mine so that I can use it easily with other images (in fact I have an idea for one that I'll show you tomorrow!)

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

Stamps: Love you More

Ink: Early Espresso, plus Pool Party and Pear Pizzazz markers

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Other: Essentials piercing template, mat and tool, versamark, gold embossing powder, heat tool, 1" circle punch, 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.

Globes are amazing things aren't they?! I think I could do with one as my geography is shockingly hazy  - and it seems it runs in the family: "You know that place that everyone goes to on holiday - Malaysia," said my youngest son yesterday at dinner. He must have seen our bewildered faces. "No wait," he added. "I think I mean Malaga!"

See you tomorrow,

Happy 2014 - wishing you a happy Stampin' Up new year!

In all the excitement of preparing for Christmas you may easily have missed the gorgeous new releases Stampin' Up brought out in December! I've been using some of them today - come and see:

You might be wondering why I've been making all these New Year cards... well, it occurred to me that while I was writing Christmas thank you notes I could be sending happy wishes for 2014 too!

I used the Sweet Sayings card bases and the globe from the fabulous new Love You More set, proving that there's much more to Valentines stash than romance. The numbers from Memorable Moments team beautifully with the pre-printed card bases and it's easy to stamp the year 2014 neatly using a stamp-a-majig.

I'm loving the card bases. They are the perfect start to any kind of card and conveniently come with envelopes in coordinating colours - you get four each of Real Red, Crisp Cantaloupe and Coastal Cabana in this pack for example. In the photo, I teamed my card with the lush Coastal Cabana envelope but they're all as fab as each other!

If you'd like to send out some special thank yous, what could be more perfect than Stampin' Up's little Monster Hugs? How cute are these?!

The new Stampin' Up releases are available only until 27th January 2014 or until stocks last so don't miss out! See all the new stash here.

There's a New Year card theme at CAS on Sunday and  CASual Fridays at the moment so I'll link this card up with them.

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

Stamps: Love You More, Memorable Moments

Ink: Real Red, Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana

Card stock: Sweet Sayings card bases/envelopes,

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.

It's definitely time to take down the Christmas decorations now and clear the decks for a nice uncluttered new year celebration. Last year's delicious meal, prepared for the family by my three children, was such a success that they've offered to do it again - yay! My husband and I will have nothing to do but arrange ourselves on the sofas and talk about home improvements (which we'll probably never get round to doing!)

Wishing all my customers and readers a very happy new year,