A mix of Grunge and CAS

You may not think CAS and grunge styles go together at all but I thought I'd give it a whirl anyway! Here's what happened:

The background is stamped with Stampin' Up's fabulous Off the Grid background stamp, through a mask made with one of the Circles framelits. I filled in some of the squares on the grid with a black marker and I must warn you, in case you fancy a go at this, it is strangely addictive!

I loved the shape of the leaves on the sketch and noticed that the sycamore seed image in the Gently Falling stamp set was similar - yay! Love it when I find a new use for one of my stamps! The flowers are stamps from Flower Shop and Petite Petals, both of which have a coordinating punch to make life quick and easy. These stamp sets are natural partners, so if you have one, you might want to consider getting the other so you can mix flower sizes.


Today's card was inspired by Addicted to CAS where the cue word is Grunge; and also CAS(e) this Sketch where there's a fabulous sketch and an inspiration photo courtesy of the Runway Inspired challenge.

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

Stamps: Off the Grid wood, Flower Shop wood or cling
Petite Petals wood or cling, Gently Falling wood or cling

Ink: Tangerine Tango, Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, Sahara Sand and Soft Sky classic inks
plus black stazon and Basic Black marker

Card stock: Whisper White, scrap of Soft Sky

Other: Circles framelits, Big Shot, 1/2" circle punch, Neutrals candy dots, 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 FORGET TODAY'S THE LAST DAY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE WEEKLY DEALS!

Grunge and CAS, sigh. It's the difference between my idea of suitable clothing for my youngest son and his own. Why does he always manage to find the most disreputable-looking pair of joggers from the back of the drawer and team them with some shapeless sludge-coloured t-shirt or hoodie? Naturally I'd prefer him to dress like the boys in this 18th century portrait by Joseph Francis Nollekens:

And, to be fair, he'd probably be quite entertained to dress up like this for about ten minutes or so!

See you tomorrow,

Joyful Christmas working harder

Stampin' Up's Joyful Christmas is a beautiful stamp set with its wonderful poinsettia image, stylised holly and two sentiments but, like most of my Christmas sets, it's not just for Christmas! Come and see how I used it to make a card fit for the blustery autumn season:

See how that stylised holly can make a great autumn leaf? I used the gorgeous Off The Grid for the background and stamped one of the punchy sentiments from Four You over the top and added the leaf and some of my favourite embellishments. Here's a close-up:

The leaf was made by swiping some autumn colours of ink over a piece of Naturals Ivory card stock, stamping the leaf image over the top and cutting it out. Off the Grid has a nice little indent which was crying out for decoration: I threaded bakers twine through a punched hole, added two candy dots and a piece of washi tape. TIP: To get the nicely rounded washi tape, I stuck a piece lightly onto a scrap piece of card stock, punched it with the word window punch and peeled it off gently - and there it was: all rounded and ready to add to a project!

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

Stamps: Off the Grid, Joyful Christmas, Four You

Ink: Old Olive, Summer Starfruit, Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Old Olive

Other: Season of Style washi tape/designer paper, Lucky Limeade bakers twine (retired), candy dots, 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.

Customers placing orders of £250+

will get a whopping £65 worth of freebies during October!

We're looking forward to a joyful Christmas but in the meantime we are certainly having a joyful week! My lovely daughter has received a job offer from the local Waitrose this week, so she'll be able to start saving, and she's also received a conditional offer from Manchester university which was her first choice! I am thrilled to bits for her and love seeing her confidence grow - definitely a Mumland moment!

See you tomorrow when I'll be making a three minute card with Joyful Christmas.

Hugs,

Three minute notelet - and a new stampin' Up catalogue

As the evenings begin to draw in and autumn approaches, Stampin' Up has produced a fabulous new catalogue to cover all the events of the season. As always, there are plenty of exciting new goodies and some gorgeous projects too! Click the picture of the catalogue below to have a browse and get in touch. to order items or if you'd like a copy to curl up with.

And there's MORE exciting news today with a very special offer involving butterflies. Check it out on my Special Offers page.

We're definitely feeling the onset of autumn now with only one more week of the school holidays left. I love the holidays although it can be challenging - relaxing with the family one minute and struggling to catch up with life the next! Today's  little notelet was made in one of the frantic moments - but that's what Three Minute Thursday is all about: cards in minutes! Come and see:

The moment I saw the new Off The Grid background stamp, I wanted to try it with a floral! I stamped it on a card base made with core'dinations card stock to emphasise the griddiness (yay! it's a new word!) of the image and added the scribbled-style flower from the Flower Shop set with a matching candy dot. This bold, flowing sentiment from Perfectly Penned finished the card off.

I was so pleased with this little card I made three more of them in different colours - which just proves how speedy they are!

Here's what you'll need to make this set of cards
Stamps: Flower Shop, Off The Grid, Perfectly Penned
Ink: Sahara Sand, Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi, Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry
Card stock: Whisper White core'dinations
Other: Candy dots, 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.

Talking of speedy, the children and I were watching a film the other evening when a large spider strolled out from under a chair to join us. He wasn't entirely welcome (!) and I banged the floor behind him to send him towards the open French windows. This had the desired effect and he took to his heels and galloped outside. "My goodness," said my older son with respect. "He really can move can't he?!" I nodded. "I expect they call him Spidey Gonzalez!" I said which, I reckon, was pretty speedy of my poor brain too!

See you tomorrow,