Mosaic Madness for Christmas

Everything is selling out fast on the retirement lists now and there's all the excitement of the brand new catalogue coming out next month! As a demonstrator I get to pre-order items - such as the fab new stamp set I'm using today. It's called Mosaic Madness and I love its trendy quatrefoil images (and its coordinating embossing folder and punch!) And wouldn't those quatrefoils make great Christmas ornaments...?! Come and see:

I know it's the summer and I shouldn't be thinking of such things, but there are plenty of fab challenge sites to help us make our festive cards all through the year: 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where the challenge is to use pearls and/or sequins; Merry Mondays where there's a great sketch (scroll down to see); and Rudolph Day where the lovely Sandra reminds us to make a Christmas card on the 25th of each month!

I used one of the quatrefoil shapes to stamp my ornaments, decorated them with lots of pearls and doodled string and bows using a marker.

I love the border stamps in this set - this is one of them which I used to form a base for my ribbon-tailed tabs. I embellished one of the tabs with a string of pearls, underlining the sentiment which was put together out of two separate sentiments using my stamp-a-majig.

This is the fabulous sketch from Merry Mondays that I based my card on today:

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Delightful Dozen, Made For You (retiring)
Ink: Raspberry Ripple classic ink, Rose Red and Raspberry Ripple markers
Card stock: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple
Other: In colour Patterns designer paper (retiring), Corner rounder, 1" square punch (to make ribbon tails), Basic Pearls, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Don't you just love it when you go to your computer in the morning and someone has got there first?

Ahhh! It set me up for the day. Bet the CEO of IBM doesn't get perks like this!

See you tomorrow,

A bit of By The Tide fishiness

I was really pleased to see the FISH cue card at CASology this week because I've been looking for an excuse to give my By the Tide fish another outing. Come and see:

It gave me a chance to use my new Soft Sky ink pad and card stock too - and it's an understatement to say I am thrilled to bits with this fabulous new colour which is similar to, but paler than, Baja Breeze. The background was made by swiping my ink pad directly over the card stock - the firm foam filling in the pads makes this technique much easier than it used to be with the felt filling.

I stamped the fish, coloured it with a marker and cut it out with my lovely sharp paper snips before mounting it onto the background with dimensionals. The sentiment is from a brilliant set of three, all with a lovely quirky curve in one of the letters. It's called Made For You and is on p.the retirement list - it could be a very useful addition to your stash! I added a pierced interrupted frame to link the fish and the sentiment and mounted the panel onto a lovely Soft Sky card base.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: By the Tide, Made For You (retiring)
Ink: Soft Sky, Basic Grey
Card stock: Soft Sky, Whisper White
Other: Essentials paper piercing pack and tool, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Yesterday I made chicken drumsticks and salad for dinner and my youngest son made yummy noises the whole way through the meal. While it may not have been my finest culinary hour, I was flattered that he was obviously enjoying it (was it the exact choice of leaves and vegetables in the salad perhaps? or maybe the piquancy of the dressing?) so I was a bit taken aback when he finally put down his cutlery, smacked his lips and said: "Mmmm. Tasted just like fish and chips!"

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

Hugs,

Summer Silhouettes card and gift box combo

I've always thought the old saying about blue and green never being seen together without another colour between them is bonkers! I love Blues and greens together and for today's project chose to combine Midnight Muse, Pool Party and Old Olive...  come and see what you think:

The leaves from Stampin' Up's Summer Silhouettes stamp set were stamped first and I added some trendy banners, one plain and one in a gorgeous herringbone pattern from the Comfort Café designer paper range. The sentiment is from Made For You - I love that curved feature.

I topped the banners with the large flower from Summer Silhouettes, stamped, fussy cut and centred with a brad, then linked the banners and the sentiment by stamping three of the tiny flower from the set.

The coordinating gift box has a lid in the same herringbone design, and I added a die-cut label stamped with Summer Silhouettes and a couple of sentiments put together with my stamp-a-majig.

Mounting the label on dimensionals allowed the taffeta ribbon to slide underneath so that I could tie the box closed with a bow. Are you wondering what's inside?

Rich, dark Green & Black's chocolate... oh yum!

Here's what you'll need for this project
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Made For You (+  Friendly Phrases, Sassy Salutations for the box)
Ink: Old Olive, Midnight Muse, Pool Party
Card stock: Whisper White, Midnight Muse
Punches:  Corner rounder, square punch
Other: Simply Scored, Big Shot, Labels framelits, Comfort Café designer paper, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, paper snips, stamp-a-majig, 
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.

• Get more for your money this month: Place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

I'm so sorry if you were wondering where my blog post was yesterday morning. I had scheduled it as I knew we'd be on our way back from Somerset where we'd been visiting relatives, but something went wrong (now I could blame blogger for this but, to be honest, it's much more likely that it was something I'd done!) We enjoyed our trip to the west country but I'm getting the impression winter is following us around; we arrived on Saturday in blazing sunshine but the next day turned wet and wild - it really could have been November!

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow so why not join me for a quick card? Hope to see you then,

Clockworks in black and grey

Over at Dynamic Duos this week the colour palette is a minimal Basic Black and Basic Grey and there's the optional additional challenge of making a male card. As if that weren't enough, I notice this week's Paper Players challenge is to make a one-layer, CAS card. So, never one to shrink from a tricky moment, here I am picking up the gauntlet... Come and see what I've come up with:

I chose Stampin' Up's wonderful Clockworks stamp set to make my card. This is one of those sets that is so easy to layer you could almost do it with your eyes closed! (But you'll be glad to know that I didn't!)

I started by making a card base with Naturals White - it has lots of speckles which I thought would work well for a masculine, collage-style design. Using sticky notes to mask off strips, I alternated sponging and stamping to form a background and then built up the elements of the pocket watch using my trusty stamp-a-majig to get everything where I wanted it. The watch was coloured by sponging Basic Grey ink through a mask made with a circle punch.

A few cogs were added to the design and the sentiment was stamped in versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder. Finally, the centre of the watch face was decorated with a pearl coloured with a black permanent marker.
Edited to add: Thanks to Jane for pointing out that my pocket watch is obviously from Topsy Turvy land as there's an 8 where the 12 should be... I can't tell you how carefully I stamped it there using my stamp-a-majig!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Clockworks, Made for You
Ink: Basic Grey, Black stazon
Card stock: Naturals White
Other: Versamark, Black embossing powder, heat tool, 1 3/4" circle punch, Basic Pearls, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

Yesterday, my daughter found my youngest son at the hall mirror making adjustments to his hair and felt he needed some encouragement. "I think your hair looks nice today," she said kindly. She needn't have bothered. "I know," said my son complacently. "It's looking better than it's ever looked before, ever!" Hmm. I think he may have been in the loo when the modesty gene was being handed out!

Do join me again tomorrow for a little punch art!

Stampin' Up like Clockworks!

When the annual catalogue came out last year (yes, it was last year!) one of the stamp sets that caught my imagination at once was the wonderful Clockworks. With all the excitement of seasonal projects, I didn't get to ink it up at once so I've really enjoyed using it to make some thank you cards. Come and see:

I chose a Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse and Tangerine Tango colour scheme and I love it! The background images were stamped in Crumb Cake ink, with the clock images added in zingy Tangerine,  and the cogs and wheels in Midnight for a bit of depth. I love stamp sets you can layer like this - so quick and easy!

Here's a close up of the overstamping. What a fantastic set this is - I love the subtle background images, which will get loads of use in my Craft Square Metre, and look at the texture and detail on those wonderful cogs! The clock images are all separate too which makes them wonderfully versatile.

The sentiment is from Made for You - I really like the little curve on the 'h'. Each of the three sentiments in the set has a cute little quirk like that.

This is another card that didn't take long to produce and was perfect for a batch. My daughter decided these were the ones for her!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Clockworks, Made for You
Ink: Crumb Cake, Midnight Muse, Tangerine Tango
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 01280 820593.

Well, I think we've had the last of the visitors now, the decorations have all been safely put away and the children keep wandering around the kitchen looking for Christmas nibbles in vain - except my eldest son whose Christmas presents included a toasted sandwich maker and who now lives entirely on a diet of toasties! 

Have a lovely weekend and I shall see you very soon,

Enjoying my Fabulous Florets

Once my daughter's mid-November birthday is over, I usually turn my attention to Christmas, but I have one or two last autumnal moments in me yet! Here's a card that I thoroughly enjoyed making using the Fabulous Florets stamp set:

Don't these beautiful flowers make a gorgeous focal point?! I used Naturals Ivory card stock because I liked the contrast of the soft suede-like texture and the shiny embossed flowers.

Here's a close-up of those flowers. I stamped the leaves first, using the rock 'n' roll technique, then added the heat embossed flowers which I cut out with my sharp paper snips.

The sentiment is a lovely one from Made For You. The set contains three useful sentiments (happy birthday, thank you and especially for you) all in this lovely font.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Made For You
Ink: Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, Crumb Cake (for sponging edges of card stock)
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Corner rounder, clear embossing powder, heat tool, 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, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. 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.

Life around here has returned to what is laughingly described as normality. My daughter and eldest son came in from school together yesterday and sat down to chat to me (my desk is in the living room).  I turned around to look at them and found that my daughter was lying down cross-legged, with her bottom on the coffee table and her head on the sofa, while my 14 year old son was reclining on the other sofa, whirling his blazer around his head saying "I'm a helicopter!" What hope is there?!

I'll be back tomorrow when it'll be Three Minute Thursday here, so I'll have a quick card to show you. Hope to see you then.

Nicely Knit - and some news!

I've got exciting news today: Stampin' Up has just released a free app for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. It's called Simply Sent and it enables you to make digital cards and layouts to send electronically (click here for more information). It's perfect for crafting addicts like me who would love to be able to carry on crafting away from the craft room! All I need now is an iPhone or something to use it on - Father Christmas, can you hear me?!!!

When I clicked on the Less is More site this morning, there's a lovely message from Mandi and I was also thrilled to see that I'd been show-cased with this card. It gave me a lovely boost and now I've gone challenge-tastic! Today's card is for this week's challenge Hardware and I've also incorporated the wonderful colours at ColourQ, the cue card at CASology 'Thanks' and the theme at Make My Monday 'An autumn card featuring stitching' (hope knitting stitches count ladies!) Come and have a look:

I've used the Nicely Knit wheel and I hope I've shown that it's quite happy to be the focus of a card. Aren't the colours gorgeous?!

Here's a closer view. I wheeled the image in Soft Suede and added colour with markers. I am totally in love with this woolly look!

I've made a thank you tag using the really useful Made For You sentiment set, adding a scrap of retired grosgrain ribbon and the all important hardware - a beautiful, vintage-looking safety pin from my new Vintage Trinkets embellishments pot. A rounded corner finished the card.

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

Stamps: Nicely Knit wheel, Made For You (sentiment)

Ink: Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, plus markers

Card stock: Naturals White, scrap of Whisper White

Other: Vintage Trinkets, paper snips, corner rounder, Old Olive grosgrain ribbon (retired)

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. 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.

I shouldn't have been crafting at all today but got up very early this morning as a girl needs a bit of therapy after all! We're taking our French exchange student out for lunch and to the cinema today. Last night he became my youngest son's friend for life by playing xbox with him. I was much amused to hear my son shouting "Whoa - I'm on fire!" and remarked that he seemed to be doing well. He cast me a scathing look. "No," he said, indicating a building in flames on the screen. "I'm LITERALLY on fire!"

Hope you're having a great weekend! See you soon,

Fabulous Florets in zingy orange

I think I may have to go and take a breather at a hotel for the bewildered soon... I've only gone and missed the deadline at CASology yet again! I'm a bit miffed because the cue word was Orange,  one of my favourite colours. Never mind - here's the card anyway:

I found another scrap of First Edition designer paper under some card stock on my desk and thought I'd stamp on it again. The Gumball Green used for the stem and leaf image was heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I love how bold it looks!

The flower was stamped onto a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock using my favourite zingy orange  Pumpkin Pie and clear embossed too. I cut it out with my sharp paper snips and popped it up on a couple of dimensionals.

I love the font on this gorgeous sentiment from Made For You. It's stamped onto a scored strip of the Very Vanilla and embossed and I added a little tab cut from a piece of matching Pumpkin Pie Patterns designer paper with the Curly Label punch.

Lots of scraps were used in the making of this card so I shall take this opportunity to sidle over to Di's Snippets Playground. I've heard that some of the girls have put up the Christmas tree early to hide some of the damage caused by the bonfire party and if the sheep are still there, we could use them for a nativity scene!

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

Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Made For You

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Gumball Green

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory

Other: Patterns designer paper (Brights), First Editions designer Paper, Curly Label punch, corner rounder, 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, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. 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.

We were watching Sleepless in Seattle at the weekend and at the end of the film, my daughter looked thoughtful. "I wonder if Tom Hanks writes 'T.Hanks' in his thank you cards," she said eventually. "It's like a sentiment and a signature in one!" 

I'd better be off for a lie down now (!) but I'll be back tomorrow. See you then,

Summer Silhouettes goes autumnal!

The leaves have begun to turn here in Buckingham - rather late this year I think, perhaps because of all the rain at the beginning of the year. 'Leaf' is the cue word at the CASology challenge this week and with all that inspiration outside it would be rude not to join in! My card was also made for the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge where the lovely ladies are looking for clean and simple cards this week. Come and have a look:

I've used the lovely leaf image from Summer Silhouettes, stamping it twice using my stamp-a-majig to merge them together - and as you can see, this is not just a summer set! It's very quick and easy to get the autumnal effect - the stamp was first inked up with More Mustard ink, then more ink was added to the rubber using markers. I laid the brush tip of the Cajun Craze marker on its side to get the ridged effect you see on beech leaves and then just tapped the other colours more randomly.

I love this little sentiment from Made for You, a set of three really useful sentiments in this gorgeous font (the others say 'happy birthday' and 'especially for you'). I am loving the Naturals white card stock as much as the Naturals Ivory and find it perfect for one layer cards using the nature images I'm so drawn to.

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

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Made for You

Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze

Card stock: Naturals White

Other: Markers in Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, Gumball Green, 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, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. 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.

I took this photo of the view towards the Corinthian Arch at Stowe yesterday.

Normally the trees would be a riot of autumn colour but as you can see, they've barely begun to turn. I used to drive up here everyday on the school run which I miss, partly for the view and partly for the entertainment. I'm afraid my youngest son picked up my bad habit of talking at other drivers and on one memorable occasion when we were held up behind a very slow car, he said cheerfully: "Steady on love! We wouldn't want you to burst your engine!"

Good gracious - can you believe it's nearly the end of the week? Time certainly flies when you're having fun! See you tomorrow,