Christmas knitwear and holly

Before I start today, can I just say a sincere thank you to all those who have left me such kind messages while I've been ill and to my customers who have been so patient and thoughtful. It really isn't like me to take to my bed, but sometimes the rug just gets pulled from under your feet...

Anyway, I'm back today with a card for Less is More where there's a colour challenge - Red and Green. What could be more appropriate for the festive season?! Here's my effort:

This year I've been enjoying playing with the contrast between woolly backgrounds and seasonal greenery. The background here has been stamped using a variety of stamps from Make a Mitten, while the sprig is from the two-step stamping set Watercolour Winter.

You've seen me use Watercolour Winter loads this season as I love it to bits, but I wanted to show you this picture because this is what the sprig looks like when it has its outline stamp 'coloured in' with the filler stamp. It's not supposed to match up exactly which is what gives it this wonderful arty style. I spent a few minutes cutting my holly out with my sharp paper snips for this card which is something I enjoy, but it's not one to make in large batches!

The sentiment and the berries were stamped in Riding Hood Red, which I thought contrasted nicely with the Bravo Burgundy knitted background, and I chose Garden Green for the holly leaves from the same colour collection.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Make a Mitten, Watercolour Winter, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso classic inks, Riding Hood Red and Garden Green markers
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: 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. 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 found it pretty scary being ill, especially as my husband wasn't well for a day or two either (although he's so macho he just carried on regardless!) While I was in bed, the children came to visit me regularly and my youngest son was his usual uplifting self. "Mummy I've just realised..." he cried one evening, bursting into my room. "ALL my life..." he began, as though his eleven years stretched back for decades. "I've been thinking that I've been making a penguin noise - but really I've just been doing a duck!"

See you tomorrow,

From our house to yours

I made today's card for Less is More's Houses theme this week but wasn't going to post it as I'm not ragingly keen on the result. However, since time has scooped me up and galloped off with me willy nilly in the last couple of days, it's either this or nothing today! Come and see:

I made a house-shaped mask with my square punches - the new 1" one fits the 1 3/8" one perfectly as a roof! - and my paper snips. Pool party ink was sponged inside the mask, before overstamping with a small snowflake stamp for a bit of texture. The ribbon image from Create a Cupcake was stamped over the top in Real Red ink and I used a marker to extend the lines to the edges of the house shape.

This wonderful sentiment from Beautiful Season is perfect for adding to square images as it wraps snugly around a corner. I embellished my house present with a little heart tag tied up with Cherry Cobbler bakers twine and you may have spotted a little 'smoke' coming from the chimney - that's inked in with a sponge dauber (and a light hand!) Well, you have to have a real fire at Christmas don't you?!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Beautiful Season (sentiment), Create a Cupcake (ribbon image), Make a Mitten (snowflake)
Ink: Pool Party, Real Red
Card stock: Naturals White, scrap of Whisper White
Punches: 1" and 1 3/8" squares, jewellery punch, owl punch (for the hearts)
Other: Red glimmer paper, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, markers, paper snips, 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. Check out current special offers here.

Our French exchange student arrived and is charming! His English is absolutely superb and he fits nicely into our happy little family. There have been one or two little moments of course - I did have to gently point out that when one asks politely whether one may leave the table, it's best not to add "I'm stuffed" afterwards!

Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you soon.

Anniversary with an extra surprise

Have you visited the Pink Paper Bakery yet? I do recommend having a browse there - it's full of fun projects and techniques. I was delighted to be asked to appear as a guest designer there today and have decided to bring out my new Peekaboo Frames Bigz L die for the occasion!

This die cuts six different shapes with little doors in them. They're perfect for scrapbooking of course, and for advent calendars, but I love them for cards too. Children love to open the doors to see the surprise underneath and they can be a great learning resource too! Today's idea though is to use the Petite Pairs sentiment set for an anniversary card. Come and see:

Once I'd cut out my peekaboo frame I wanted to give it a bit of texture, so I clear embossed a heart design on it using my Confetti background stamps and ran it through the Big Shot with the lattice embossing folder. To give it a mat I stuck it onto a piece of Riding Hood Red card stock and cut round the shape with some sharp paper snips.

The heart on the front has been stamped with the woolly heart design from Make a Mitten - you can use these stamps for so many different occasions! The sentiment label on the front was scored and embellished with a tiny heart cut using my owl punch and given a touch of sparkle with Dazzling Details.

When you open the little door, you get the full impact of the other half of the sentiment. Notice that only a part of the woolly design from the front is repeated on the inside - it's easy to do this with markers.

Finally, I mounted the frame onto a scored panel before adding it to my card base.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Make a Mitten, Confetti, Petite Pairs
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory, Riding Hood Red, Cherry Cobbler
Punches: Owl builder, Full Heart
Other: Big Shot, Peekaboo Frames Bigz L die, Lattice embossing folder, Simply Scored, versamark, clear embossing powder, Dazzling Details in Cherry Cobbler, Cherry Cobbler marker, 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.

My husband and I were married 18 years ago today. We always look back with great affection on our wedding day. After a solemn church ceremony we retired to the most beautiful hotel for a wonderful feast with our friends and family, then went on to the local village hall where we danced the night away at a Barn Dance. It really was a great idea - everyone was up dancing, young and old and I think there may have been a few aching bones next day! I remember the lovely lady who made my dress sewed a loop into the train so that I could hook it over my wrist while I danced. 

Well time marches on - although we did get an extra hour in bed in the UK this weekend as the clocks went back to GMT. I shall be back tomorrow with a Christmas card. See you then.

Three minute Papaya Collage background

It's Three Minute Thursday here today, so let's talk about fast card-making! Stamping and punching has to be one of the fastest ways to make a card and I love how Stampin' Up have punches that coordinate with stamp sets. There are butterflies, birds and flowers to choose from, but the circle and square punches are also in constant use in the Crafting Square Metre. Today's card uses the 3/4" circle punch with two stamps from different sets - come and see:

When I first got my stamp-a-majig, I forced myself to use it for everything with the result that it has become a very natural part of my stamping and is now a very quick and efficient way of getting stamped images where I want them.  This background, using the lovely ornate frame image from Papaya Collage, took seconds to stamp.

The sentiment was stamped and cut out with the punch before attaching to the inside of the frame with a dimensional. Of course, I could have gone the other way and cut an aperture in the frame image... perhaps another time! I filled the other frames with the pretty snowflake/flower from Make a Mitten which I thought went rather well with the frame; I deliberately didn't decorate the centres because I wanted the sentiment to take centre stage.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Papaya Collage, Make a Mitten, Mixed Medley (hostess)
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: 3/4" circle punch, 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.

My daughter and I have lots in common. One thing is that we both like zumba fitness classes (where we fondly imagine we're just dancing!) and the other is that we love mucking about with words. Here's an example of both: Yesterday, on the way to zumba, neither of us was feeling entirely up for it - she had a headache and my tummy hurt. "We're just a pair of old crocks," I said, and she immediately made snapping motions with her arms to indicate a crocodile. She always makes me laugh.

Good gracious, it's happened again - the week has galloped past! I shall be here tomorrow with more stamping fun. See you then,

A touch of silver

It seems it's world card making day today which amuses me because every day's a card-making day for me! In fact, today is less of a card making day than usual because I have a very long list of chores to do... So it's a very quick card from me, made for the Less is More challenge where Chrissie and Mandi want to see some Silver, and also for the St Lukes Charity Card Challenge where CAS Christmas cards are the order of the day. Come and have a look:

I adore this wonderful ribbon-like new sentiment from Sassy Salutations and felt it deserved to take centre stage on a Christmas card. I versamarked some snowflakes from my Make a Mitten set around it and heat embossed them in silver...

... before decorating the centres with the largest Basic rhinestones. I've tried to photograph them looking  all shiny but failed miserably! You'll have to take it from me - they are lovely and glittery! The scoring was done afterwards so that I could skip the bits where the snowflakes are.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Sassy Salutations, Make a Mitten
Ink: Real Red
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Versamark, silver embossing powder, heat tool, Simply Scored, Basic Rhinestones, corner rounder, 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.

My daughter is writing an essay about marriage so we were discussing it. I explained that it doesn't cost much to get married in a church but that you do have to pay extra to have a choir, bell ringers, organist etc - 'bells and whistles' as I termed it. "Whistles?" she said in surprise and I suddenly had a vision of a wedding service being punctuated by a slide whistle!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend.
Hugs,

Make a Mitten - in three minutes

No, not an actual mitten! Make a Mitten is the name of one of the new stamp sets in the autumn/winter catalogue - you may have seen the card I made yesterday using it. Making cards with this set and its coordinating wheel are a lot quicker than getting the knitting needles out and they can be distinctly autumnal as well as wintery. Come and have a look:

I made my own multi-coloured ink pad for these cards by folding a baby wipe in four and covering it in drops of ink from my re-inkers, but once I'd done that these cards were very quick: a couple of swipes on the homemade pad with the wheel, stamp and cut out the mittens, add the sentiment and assemble!

The mittens on this design were stamped in Always Artichoke on Certainly Celery card stock. I cut mine out with paper snips - it's quite quick - but, if you hate fussy cutting, there is a punch which cuts out the right-hand mitten and you can always stamp onto the punched shape to get the left-hand one.

The second design is perfect for a November birthday and suitable for a male too! I sponged over the background on this one...

... and topped it with mittens stamped in the homemade pad, cut out and sponged for a bit of definition.

The sentiments on both cards are from Curly Cute - which I think is quite oddly named. I can see the curliness but what's cute about it?! But then again, I'm sure people say that about me...

Here's what you'll need to make these cards
Stamps: Make a Mitten, Curly Cute (sentiment), Nicely Knit (wheel)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive re-inkers, Early Espresso and Always Artichoke ink pads
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Naturals Ivory
Other: Paper snips, stamp-a-majig, Mitten builder punch (optional)

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 - Sunday 30th is the last day to order from the Retirement Lists. 

I had a go at knitting a jumper once. It was an interesting experience - I ended up with a sleeve. I never wore the sleeve. I think that sums up that little foray into the noble art of knitting!

I'll be back tomorrow with an experiment with one of my older sets. Do come back and see if it's worked!

Watercolor Winter woolliness

It's no good, it's freezing! There's only one thing to do this weather... make Christmas cards! Here's one I made using some of my new goodies from the autumn/winter catalogue:

If you like a bit of designer paper on your cards but don't want to invest in whole packs of 12 x 12", then the festival of Prints stack at only £6.25 might be just the thing for you. It contains 48 double-sided sheets of a much smaller size that's perfect for card making (11.4 x 16.5cm) and the designs include a trendy chevron, a gorgeous rustic check and some fabulous Christmassy damasks. I chose this subtle blue print with its suggestion of snow for my card.

I've wanted a stamp set with holly and other winter foliage for ages and the Watercolor Winter set is just right! It's a two step stamping set but this time I chose to stamp only the holly outline and coloured it in with markers for a different look. I used a marker to doodle some wool over one of my branches too...

... and attached these gorgeous mittens to it! They're from the Make a Mitten set which coordinates with the wonderful Nicely Knit wheel I used yesterday. I stamped them in Gumball Green over Marina Mist card stock, which makes a rather stylish mitten - wouldn't mind a pair of these myself! The sentiment is from For My Family - the perfect set for personalising cards to the family.

I'm a day late for Rudolph Day over at Sandra's blog but (panting) I ran all the way Miss!

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Watercolor Winter, Make a Mitten, For My Family
Ink: Gumball Green, Real Red, Early Espresso
Card stock: Whisper White, Marina Mist
Other: Simply Scored, stamp-a-majig, paper snips, markers

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 - Sunday 30th is the last day to order from Retirement Lists. 

My youngest son likes to wrap himself up in a blanket to watch TV whatever the weather. "Blankets are the best thing ever invented," he said the other day, tucking himself up with one. "Apart from the internet." He paused for a moment before adding: "And toilets!"

It's Three Minute Thursday tomorrow so I'll be back here with a fast card. See you then,