Happy mothers day with Nature's Perfection from Stampin' Up

The Stampin' Up yellows come into their own at this time of year as crafters think about spring and Easter. Crushed Curry, Daffodil Delight, So Saffron... they're all such a lovely, positive shades and with this surprisingly warm, spring weather we're having, I'm embracing it too! Come and see:

The large flower from Nature's Perfection looks great in yellow and I've made a whole bunch of them for Mothers' Day by stamping several on the card panel and then adding another fussy cut one, popped up with dimensionals.

• You can choose Nature's Perfection free as part of the Sale-a-bration promotion! Find out more here.

The flowers look pretty watercoloured in shades of yellow. I stamped the outline with Crushed Curry, painted in the shadows with Daffodil Delight and finished off with a wash of So Saffron. The leaves are punched out with the Bird Builder punch - such a useful addition to your punch collection!

I'll be linking this card up with Less is More where the challenge is to make a card using yellow and green.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!
Don't forget you'll get a free Sale-a-bration item for every £45 you spend

Nature's Perfection Wood Stamp Set FREE with SAB	Crazy About You Photopolymer Stamp Set £22.95	Old Olive A4 Card Stock £6.25	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Aqua Painters £12.95	Paper Snips Scissors £8.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

It's Mothers Day this Sunday in the UK but never mind mothers for the minute - today is all about sons! It's my youngest son's birthday today and although he's doing all the usual sleep overs and what not at the weekend, this day after school is reserved for family feasting and games - so I'd better get on with the preparations then! If you'd like a peek at how I wrapped his presents and made his card, do join me again tomorrow when it will be another fabulous Stampin' Up Artisan blog hop day! Hope to see you then,

No frills anniversary card for a man using Stampin' Up washi tape

Every year I give my husband handmade anniversary cards and he accepts them with a smile but doesn't look closely because he's not really a handmade card kind of a guy! This year's card got rave reviews from him though and that made me smile as it literally took a few minutes to make! Come and see:

I used some of Stampin' Up's gorgeous washi tape and a snippet of left over designer paper to create a strong horizontal theme and embellished with a punched heart and some staples. The date of our marriage was stamped with my Day to Day Project Life photopolymer stamp set - what a useful set that has turned out to be!

My husband told me he loved the colours - and who wouldn't?! Blackberry Bliss, Crushed Curry and Cajun Craze are a wonderful rich combination perfect for this time of year.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
(Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!) 

Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock £6.25	Color Me Autumn Designer Washi Tape £4.50	Color Me Autumn Designer Series Paper £9.95	Project Life Day To Day Photopolymer Stamp Set £22.95
Memorable Moments Wood-Mount Stamp Set ...	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack £15.50	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

Our anniversary celebrations were a little low-key this year because our youngest son wasn't well and we didn't want to leave him to go off jollying. Instead we got to spend an evening breathing in the glorious scent of these beauties...

... and if you were passing our house that evening you may have heard the pop of a champagne cork and the sound of clinking glasses. Twenty years of marriage definitely merits a glass of bubbles don't you think?!

See you tomorrow,

Golden wedding anniversary using Stippled Blossoms by Stampin' Up

Last week, I was asked to make a card to celebrate 50 years of marriage - a golden wedding anniversary! I immediately reached for Stampin' Up's Memorable Moments stamp set with its beautiful numbers and sentiments but what to put with it? How about some beautiful deep yellow, velvety roses...?

Stippled Blossoms is the most beautiful set and always makes me catch my breath when I see cards made with it. It's a two step stampin' set too and that meant I could heat emboss the outline/detail image in gold and stamp the solid image over the top using yellow ink.

This worked well but I wanted to intensify the colour to give that velvety look - and how better to do that than with my beloved blendabilities markers!

I added an embossed gold sentiment, cutting out the numbers to give them more prominence. The panel was mounted onto Brushed Gold card stock for an elegant look.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my online shop) 

Stippled Blossoms Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Memorable Moments Clear-Mount Stamp Set
So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Brushed Gold A4 Card Stock

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

My children are all having the most wonderful holidays! My daughter is currently swanning about in France, my eldest son is out on a shopping trip with one of his mates (I'm glad I made the most of our shopping trips in the past because they're definitely off the menu now!) and my youngest son has just returned from swimming with friends. "I've been in the steam room mum!" he told me, throwing his swimming bag down by the front door. "Really?" I said, making a mental note to rescue the bag before it turns into a mildewing mess! "I think it's the most relaxing place," continued my son, mine-sweeping the kitchen for sustenance. "The only things missing are candles and someone playing the pan pipes!"

Thanks for joining me today. It's Artisan Design Team blog hop day tomorrow and I know that everyone on the team has been working hard to inspire you, so do come back and hop with us then!

Celebrating a 1st birthday using Memorable Moments from Stampin' Up

I've been putting Stampin' Up's brilliant Something for Baby stamp set through its paces this week and one thing's for certain - I'm going to need longer than a week to show you what it can do! As well as some cute baby cards (here and here) and an anniversary or valentine (here), the set is perfect for celebrating those first few birthdays too. I teamed it with the indispensable Memorable Moments set for today's card - come and have a look:

This card focuses on the sentiment - after all, that first birthday is an important milestone! When I inked up the onesie from Something for Baby I stamped it off on scrap paper before making the final impression on my card front. This made a subtle background for the sentiment and the pierced frame pulls everything together. By the way, if you love the look of piercing as I do, you may like to have a look at the new Eclectic piercing template which coordinates with some of the Something for Baby images as well as stars, speech bubbles and lots more!

Memorable Moments is a set designed to commemorate a particular birthday or anniversary so I chose the words 'Happy' and 'Birthday' and added the '1st' from the set between them.

For extra interest, I stamped the number again, cut it out with my sharp paper snips and popped it up with a dimensional.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Stamps: Something for Baby wood or cling, Memorable Moments wood or cling

Ink: Soft Sky, Pacific Point, Tangelo Twist

Card stock: Whisper White, Soft Sky

Other: Essentials piercing template, mat and tool, paper snips, Stamp-a-majig

Click above to place an order 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.

As someone who falls over on a fairly regular basis (!) I have a great deal of sympathy for British cyclist Chris Froome who fell off his bike on live TV and wish him all the best for the rest of the Tour de France. I'm not sure if he'd want good wishes from anyone in our family though - when I mentioned that the competition was starting in Yorkshire, my eldest son said: "Yorkshire? That's not the Tour de France then - that's just a bike ride!"

See you tomorrow,

Hardwood and Petite Petals by Stampin' Up

The garden in summer is a great source of cardmaking inspiration and Stampin' Up has the perfect stamp sets to get me going - like the gorgeous Hardwood background stamp and Petite Petals flower sets I've used today. Come and see:

I inked up only part of the huge Hardwood background stamp so that I could leave a border either side. The label and sentiment are from a Stampin' Up set called Memorable Moments, which is really useful for personalising birthday or anniversary cards. I cut the label out in seconds using one of the framelits from the coordinating Labels set.

A mixture of washi tape and plain card stock banners add interest. I stapled the bakers twine to them and tied it in a neat bow.

The Petite Petals stamp set has a coordinating punch to make floral accents quick and easy - and, as a bonus, you save 15% when you buy the two together! (Click here to see the cling mount bundle in my online shop.) I added leaves cut with the 2 step Bird punch.

• Click here for more Hardwood inspiration and here for more ideas for using Petite Petals.

This card was inspired by Nance's gorgeous sketch at the Paper Players:

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO MAKE THIS CARD
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my shop) 

Stamps: Hardwood wood or cling, Petite Petals wood or cling
Memorable Moments wood or cling

Ink: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Calypso Coral

Punches: Petite Petals punch, 2 step bird punch
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory, scrap of Old Olive
Other: Bakers twine in Calypso Coral, Gingham Garden washi tape (retiring), Labels framelits, Big Shot, Stamp-a-majig

Click above to place an order 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.

DON'T MISS OUT ON THESE SPECIAL OFFERS!

• Join the Stampin' Up family for just £50 - this is too good a deal to pass up!

• Shop from the Stampin' Up 2014 Retired List - don't miss out on a bargain!

Offers end at 10pm on Monday evening!

My husband came in one evening this week and announced he had a joke for us. His jokes are not always well received by the family, so there was the usual groaning, but he persevered with this:  

A man goes to the doctor and tells him he thinks he's going deaf.

'What are the symptoms?' asks the doctor. 

'It's a TV program with yellow people,' replies the man.

There was a minute while we tried to work it out and then, much to my husband's gratification, we all roared with laughter and he sailed off feeling like a top comedian! 

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday,

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,