Vintage Everybunny!

There's an overall vintage theme going during September at Make My Monday and this week's particular challenge is Vintage Childhood. Vintage isn't really my strong point - as you may have noticed! - but I had a go at this, inspired also by the bingo over at Addicted to Stamps. Come and have a look:

I thought I'd go with a scored card base, made using my diagonal Simply Scored board insert, and topped it with this rabbit from Everybunny on an inked and wheeled vintage-style background. The bunny normally wears a t-shirt, but, when you ink with markers, you can just leave out the bits you don't want - it makes your stamps so versatile!

Now my bunny looks like one of those old-fashioned soft toys - think The Velveteen Rabbit! I gave him a flag to hold - it's a strip of card stock topped with the streamer from Ain't Love Grand - and teamed him with lace and pearls to add to the vintage feel.

I chose the top line of the ATS bingo card, with scoring, yellow (hope the More Mustard ink counts!) and a birthday theme.

I've got to admit, this card is so far out of my comfort zone that I might need a map and compass to get back! I've really enjoyed the challenge though.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Everybunny, Create a Cupcake (sentiment), Very Vintage wheel, Ain't Love Grand (hostess, retiring)
Ink: Basic Grey, So Saffron, More Mustard, Crumb Cake
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Simply Scored plus diagonal board, Basic Pearls, Chantilly crochet trim (retiring), Basic Pearls, 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 01280 820593. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

It's been a busy week but now it's time to wind down for the weekend and welcome my husband back from his parents'. We've already heard that my father in law's operation was a success so let's hope he'll recover quickly and get a new lease of life. Thank you so much to everyone that left good wishes, it's much appreciated.

Enjoy the weekend and I'll be back very soon,

All A Flutter over the lavender

It is the last week of term here and life has gone into overdrive, so I'm just popping in with a quickie today inspired by the fabulous Make My Monday challenge where purple and yellow creations are the order of the day. Come and see:

In a desperate attempt to bring a little summer into our soggy lives I stamped a lavender field, using inks in four different shades of purple, and made a pair of butterflies to live there.

One is stamped on water colour paper and the other on a scrap of Naturals Ivory card stock and they're both coloured with Watercolour Wonder crayons, markers and an aqua painter. The creaminess of the crayons gives the butterflies a lovely velvety look and the different card stocks give a subtle colour difference (the one on the left is the water colour paper). I cut my butterflies out with my sharp paper snips and attached them to the card front with glue dots.

This pretty sentiment from the Curly Cute set is stamped on thick vellum paper and embossed with clear embossing powder. The paper was wrapped around the top layer and secured with Snail adhesive at the back.

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

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, All A Flutter, Curly Cute

Ink: Basic Grey, Concorde Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Daffodil Delight

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, water colour paper, vellum

Other: Markers, Subtles water colour crayons, aquapainter, 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. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

If you live in the UK it will come as no surprise to hear that sports day was cancelled yesterday due to... RAIN - yes folks, it's been raining again! We're going to have another shot at it today so I'll let you know how we get on... See you tomorrow when I'll have something very summery to show you (ha ha, splits sides laughing!)

Bordering on Romance meets The Open Sea

I had a parcel of new goodies delivered yesterday and one of the things inside was a tin of Subtles watercolour crayons. I can't believe I've been using Stampin' Up products for nearly five years and I've only just discovered these! I used them to make a card for two challenges - CASual Fridays, which is looking for cards using text, and Make My Monday, where the challenge is to use purple, green and orange. Come and see:

I love making scored frames at the moment: I work out the size I want, mark it on the back of my card stock and then just score it on my Simply Scored (in fact, for this card, I just put the stamp on the card stock and marked the corners with a pencil!) I stamped this gorgeous text stamp from the Open Sea in versamark and clear embossed it before masking the edges with post it notes and stamping the flowers. Then came the colouring:

I enjoy colouring as long as it's quick and easy and these crayons certainly fit the bill! They come in  the four colour families and are creamy and blendable as well as water soluble - here I coloured the large flowers and leaves with them and blended with an aquapainter, then added shading with markers and blended again. The embossed text resisted the colour and shows through - I will never tire of this effect!

I'm hoping to be test-driving my crayons quite a lot over the next week or so and will let you know how I get on!

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

Stamps: Bordering on Romance, The Open Sea

Ink: Peach Parfait, Basic Grey

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla

Other: Markers, Subtles water colour crayons, versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Simply Scored, 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.

Life really is hectic here at the moment so I really apologise if you're waiting for a comment from me. Yesterday I had another trip to the dentist and my daughter asked if I could drop her at a friend's house on the way. As usual I thought of a hundred and one things that needed doing on the way out. "No rush!" she said as I hurried out to the car where she was waiting patiently. "I hadn't realised you needed to read War and Peace before we went!"

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I'll be using this month's free brad and ribbon set - it's gorgeous! Hope to see you then.

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,

Three minute Button Buddies

If you have children of school age you'll know how manic it gets in the summer term with schools making the most of the 'good weather' (holds her sides laughing) for all their trips, sports days, fund raisers, community events and fairs. I don't know whether I'm coming or going this week but I managed to rustle up a couple of quick cards using Button Buddies. Come and see:

This one was inspired by Make My Monday where they're looking for cards in the summery colours of strawberries and cream  and also Addicted to Stamps where there's a fun bingo challenge this week (I've chosen Red, Free, Buttons)!

I stamped cherries on my main panel then added these die cut buttons over the top, using the embossed side of one and the debossed side of the other. It took no time at all as I keep die-cut buttons in loads of colours all ready made in a little jar!

Textured card stock makes adding detail a doddle when you're in a hurry and I love the contrast it makes with the smooth Very Vanilla card stock. People often worry that they won't be able to stamp on the textured card stock but it takes ink beautifully. This simple sentiment from Thank You Kindly is a real favourite of mine!

The CASual Fridays challenge this week is to use pink and since the little piggy in the Button Buddies set was trying to catch my eye, I thought I'd give him the same treatment.

He really is a cutie with his little button schnozzle!

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

Stamps: Button Buddies, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Basic Grey, Lucky Limeade (cherries), Pretty In Pink (pig)

Card stock (cherries): Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade textured

Card stock (pig): Very Vanilla, Pretty In Pink smooth and textured

Other: Sweet Buttons embosslits die, Basic Grey marker, 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 were with me yesterday, you'll know it was my daughter's prom party last night and I just have to share a photo or two with you. She'd asked me to do her hair and make up and my goodness what a pleasure it was!

She giggled the whole way through the process (and let me tell you that applying mascara to someone in gales of laughter is not easy!) Isn't she just gorgeous?! And here she is in all her finery...

... acting the goat for the camera! Needless to say I was straight off to Mumland and hunting about for the tissues!

I'll be back tomorrow with something I haven't done for a long time - a scrapbook page! Hope to see you then,