Sneak peek - introducing the new Blendabilities from Stampin' Up

I've definitely got my colouring hat on at the moment! There was yesterday's watercolour moment and today (I am quite literally beside myself with excitement!) I've been playing with my new blendabilities from the upcoming Stampin' Up annual catalogue 2014-15. Come and see:

This chintzy floral panel was my first practice session but I quite liked the result so I turned it into a note card! It was stamped with leaves and flowers from Stampin' Up's gorgeous Peaceful Petals set and coloured with the Coastal Cabana and Old Olive assortments of blendabilities. By the way, Peaceful Petals is from the Stampin' Up spring/summer catalogue and will not be carrying over to the new annual catalogue so if you love it as much as I do, get it while you can!

It's great fun shading with the colours in each assortment - I started with little bits of the dark colour, shaded out with the mid tone and blended everything with the lightest colour. Once the flowers and leaves were coloured I sponged around them with So Saffron ink.

So what do I think about the new Stampin' Up blendabilities? Put simply: I adore them! They blend perfectly with not a streak in sight and come in my beloved Stampin' Up colours. That would've been enough for me but there are extra design features too: they are double-ended with a brush tip on one side and a fine tip on the other; they are square so they don't roll off your desk; they have special tight-fitting caps so they won't dry out. You get three tonal shades in a pack for just £10.95 which I think is a bargain, and there's a pack of 6 skin tones and a colour lifter too. My advice is to put them right at the top of your wish list!

• Click here for more Peaceful Petals inspiration

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

Stamps: Peaceful Petals wood or cling

Ink: Coastal Cabana, Old Olive
Markers: NEW Blendabilities in Coastal Cabana and Old Olive (available 1st July)

Card stock: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, Pool Party

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.

Some of the items in the annual Stampin' Up catalogue are retiring to make way for new products. Don't miss out on your favourites! Some of these items have been discounted too - check the lists by clicking on the banners below:

When my children were little, they weren't fussed about colouring books. Every now and again though, I'd get one out and we'd sit and colour a picture in together. They say now that they didn't really like colouring in at all but they did enjoy sitting down and having a good old chat!

See you tomorrow.

Stamp an easy background

You know when you make a card and something's missing, it lacks pizzazz... well, that's what was going on with today's card. I'd stamped a tag and carefully coloured it in but frankly it just looked a bit boring so it went in the bin. But then I had an idea - come and see:

The tag was retrieved from the bin and updated with an ikat background and suddenly it seemed much more interesting! I used just one splodgy image from Stampin' Up's free Eyecatching Ikat set and, because it's a clear stamp set, it was so quick and easy to stamp it in a brick pattern.

My tag was mounted onto Pistachio Pudding core'dinations card stock, which I love for its subtle texture, and I trimmed it with a piece of card stock cut with the tiny scallop blade in my Rotary Addition. The sentiment and ribbon were added in the same bright Pumpkin Pie colour - I love the way everything matches!

• Eyecatching Ikat is one of three gorgeous photopolymer stamp sets you can choose as a free gift with every £60 you spend. Offer ends on Friday - click here for details.

I shall be linking this card up with Seize the Birthday where the optional topping is to use a tag on a card; and ATCAS where the cue word is Texture.

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

Stamps: Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer (free with a £60 order - until Friday!),

Peaceful Petals wood or cling, Express Yourself (for the sentiment, hostess set) wood or cling,

Ink: Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Early Espresso classic inks, plus markers

Card stock: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie smooth, Pistachio Pudding core'dinations

Other: Pumpkin pie taffeta ribbon, Rotary Addition and Small Scallop blade, Scallop tag topper punch

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.

I did manage to get out into the garden yesterday, despite the rain, and you'll be glad to know that the Rambling Rector has been firmly put in his place. My children are off school for half term so my youngest son joined me and helped me plant some sweet pea seedlings. While we built the support for these, he told me about how much he'd enjoyed Gardening Club at primary school where they had grown all sorts of vegetables and flowers including sweet peas. "I remember that to make the flowers grow," he told me, "we had to snip the pods off with er... what are those pointy things?" I giggled. "Fingers?" He looked at me sternly. "Secateurs!" he said.

See you tomorrow,

The bird in the Strawberry Slush

It will soon be time to say goodbye to the exclusive hostess stamp sets in the Stampin' Up annual catalogue 2013-2014 and there are some real beauties. These are specially priced sets that are only available to those placing orders of £150 or more - so it's well worth saving up your orders or clubbing together with friends. Simply Sketched is one of my favourite hostess sets and lends itself perfectly to interesting inky backgrounds. Come and see:

I stamped the Hardwood stamp onto Crumb Cake card stock and attached strips of it to a card base to form a background for my sponged panel.

Strawberry Slush and Crumb Cake inks were sponged all over my square panel and the bird image and some extra grasses stamped over the top in Early Espresso. I stamped the bird again on scrap card stock so I could colour him in and pop him up over the original. Since I was already quite inky, I smeared the Strawberry Slush ink pad all over a piece of scrap card stock and punched flowers out of it with my favourite little flower from the Itty Bitty punch set.

It was this fabulous inspiration photo over at Addicted to Stamps and More that sent me scuttling for my sponges and inks:

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

Stamps: Simply Sketched (hostess set) wood or cling, Love and Sympathy wood or cling,
Hardwood wood or cling, Peaceful Petals (sentiment) wood or cling

Ink: Crumb Cake, Strawberry Slush, Early Espresso

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Other: Itty Bitty punch pack, Basic pearls, Stampin' sponges, 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.

CHOOSE ONE OF THESE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SETS WITH EVERY £60 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Strawberry Slush is a gorgeous colour pink - and it also sounds like the perfect pudding for the tropical weather we're having in Buckingham! Just off to check... (and I may be some time!)

See you tomorrow,

A Peaceful Petals birthday

It's definitely birthday season around here! Come and see this card I made for a friend using a combination of favourite stamp sets:

I started with Stampin' Up's gorgeous Hardwood background, inking up just a little of the image, stamping off once on scrap paper and then finally stamping onto my panel. The leaves from Peaceful Petals came next. You may be wondering what's in the water around here to make the leaves Night of Navy, but I've often noticed that vintage fabric print sometimes features things in unexpected colours so I'm borrowing the idea! Why not have a go yourself? It's fun!

The flower is also from Peaceful Petals, stamped and coloured in Bermuda Bay ink and cut out with my trusty paper snips. I decorated it with a die cut button threaded with some thin chiffon ribbon.

I started with Stampin' Up's gorgeous Hardwood background, inking up just a little of the image, stamping off once on scrap paper and then finally stamping onto my panel. The sentiment is from the fabulous hostess set Express Yourself - available only until the end of June!

I used this week's colours at the Colour Thowdown to make this card, combining them with the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches:

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, Peaceful Petals wood or cling
Express Yourself (hostess set) wood or cling

Ink: Night of Navy, Old Olive, Bermuda Bay

Card stock: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, scrap of Old Olive

Other: Sweet Buttons embosslits die, Big Shot, aquapainter, Lucky Limeade ribbon (retired), 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.

CHOOSE ONE OF THESE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SETS WITH EVERY £60 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

When my children were tiny I used to make sure they had plenty to do on long car trips (I sincerely empathised as I hated extended car journeys myself!) We had toys and snacks as well as a selection of music cassettes (remember those?!) I'd collected from car boot sales and charity shops. They adored nursery rhyme selections but their number one favourite tape was called Silly Songs. I always remember one called Topsy Turvy Land which went:

Wouldn't it be funny if the sky was green and the grass such a lovely shade of blue?
If cats went woof, dogs meowed and birds in the trees went moo!
Oh what a lark, what a giggle, what a laugh - wearing shoes upon your hands!
You'd be walking around with gloves upon your feet in Topsy Turvy land!

The song is quite sweet but we all doubled the comedic value by putting on arch expressions while singing it!

See you tomorrow,

Happy birthday with Epic Day inchies

I've gone square today!  Come and see:

I think the Epic Day designer papers are my favourite of this year's Stampin' Up offerings and I have very little left. There are lots of colours in the pack but I picked out just corals for this card - and just look at the different patterns! The 1" square punch is so handy for cutting these out.

Once I'd laid my inchie grid out, I embellished it with this large sprig of orchid-style flowers from the Peaceful Petals stamp set. I stamped it in Wild Wasabi ink, coloured it with my Stampin' Chalk marker and added speckles with Pool Party and Calypso Coral markers. It was cut out with my paper snips which make short work of an intricate job like this!

The birthday sentiment from Itty Bitty Banners was stamped, cut out and stapled to the panel before the card was assembled.

It was my bloggin pal Irene from All Occassion Cards Papers and More who got me going with inchies and once I'd started I was hooked! There is something very satisfying about punching out snippets of designer paper and card stock and putting them together so go on! why not give it a try?!

I'm long overdue a visit at the Snippet Playground so I'll be linking this card up there.

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

Stamps: Peaceful Petals wood or cling, Itty Bitty Banners wood or cling

Ink: Basic Grey, Wild Wasabi classic inks, plus Subtles markers

Card stock: Whisper White smooth and core'dinations

Other: Bitty framelits, Big Shot, Epic Day designer paper,  1" square punch, paper snips

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.

CHOOSE ONE OF THESE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SETS WITH EVERY £60 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Hope you had a good weekend. After another busy one here I'm wistfully thinking about holidays... the kind where you do lots of lazing about in the sunshine or wandering about very slowly looking at things! There's no rest for the wicked though and I must have inadvertently misbehaved very badly because there's plenty of housework to do here today!

See you tomorrow,

Arranging the Fun Flowers

If you've been wanting to take advantage of Stampin ' Up's latest low-priced weekly deals, there are two days left to do so! Here's a reminder of what's on offer:

• Stampin' Write Markers (new colour kit) £23.95 NOW £17.96 (Includes Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Wisteria Wonder)
• Christmas Ornament punch £14.25 NOW £10.69
• In colour Boutique Details £8.25 NOW £6.19 
• Modern Medley designer series paper £9.95 NOW £7.46
• I Am Me designer series paper £9.95 NOW £7.46
• Fun Flowers Bigz L Die £28.95 NOW £21.71
• Afternoon Daydream Kit (digital download) £6.95 NOW £4.17

If you'd like to order any of these items at the special price, just pop over to my online shop and click on the Weekly Deals promotion picture.

If you're a fan of those fabulous Bigz L dies, the Fun Flowers die is certainly a bargain! I've layered up some of the flowers from it on this card:

It makes a real statement doesn't it?! I used lush Elegant Eggplant card stock with a matching button and finished it with a contrasting bakers twine bow.

Leaves and flowers from Stampin' Up's Peaceful Petals stamp set make a pretty background. I coloured them with markers and sponged Soft Sky ink around them.

One of the great things about these Bigz L dies is that they're happy cutting all sorts of materials as well as card stock including felt, fabric, foam, magnetic sheets, leather, craft aluminium, cork... A lovely and extremely talented friend of mine made this stunning appliquéed tea cosy using the die:

And (on a much lesser scale!) here's a corsage that I put together using fabric that Stampin' Up used to carry.

What would you make with this die? Doesn't it make your imagination run riot?!

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

Stamps: Peaceful Petals wood or cling, So Very Grateful (for the sentiment) wood or cling

Ink: Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz, Elegant Eggplant, plus markers

Card stock: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant

Other: Fun Flowers Bigz die, Big Shot, Regals designer buttons, Crushed Curry bakers twine from Tag a Bag accessories pack, 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.

Life is on another of its 'go fasts' here and I am as busy as a bee! Recently I helped my daughter have a massive wardrobe clear-out, taking a pile of outgrown or no longer wanted garments to the charity shops and throwing away damaged beyond repair ones. We also ended up with a pile of clothes that need adjusting and I thought it would be a great idea to teach my daughter how to do this. Neither of us have had the time yet though. " We are a busy as bees!" I said when we talked about it this weekend. "I know," said my daughter happily. "Running around pollinating all the plants and making honey!"

See you tomorrow,

Framed Tulips - or any other flowers!

I noticed the Framed Tulips embossing folder featuring in the Weekly Deals Stampin' Up announced for this week. Now that is a folder that is indispensable in my Craft Square Metre! I like to make little sponged scenes and frame them - like this:

I find a 7.5 x 10.5cm panel fits nicely in the embossed frame. Here, I inked up part of the Hardwood background stamp and pressed my panel down onto it, before adding the flowers and sponging colour around them.

Aren't these flowers beautiful? They're from Love and Sympathy, a set that was designed for sympathy cards but which is very versatile. I inked the flowers up with markers to get the multi-coloured image.

I used one of the sentiments from Peaceful Petals to turn my card into a thank you and you can see the embossed frame in this close-up too. The tulips are very stylised so you could use this frame for any occasion - even Christmas!

I'll be linking this card up with the Paper Players where LeAnne's Three Spree challenge is to use three of something on your card.

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

Stamps: Love and Sympathy wood or cling, Hardwood wood or cling,
Peaceful Petals wood or cling (for the sentiment)

Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Gumball Green, Soft Sky classic inks, plus markers

Card stock: Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake

Other: Framed Tulips embossing folder, Big Shot, stampin' sponges, 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.

One week into the Easter holidays my youngest son has confided that his tech teacher is leaving school.This teacher made a huge impression on my son during his first lesson with him. Apparently one of the classroom lights was flickering and the teacher suggested that everyone held their hands up.When one of the class asked why, the teacher's answer was "because many hands make light work". He is going to be very much missed.

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

The Stampin' Trimmer box - with video tutorial!

I know, I know - it's long overdue! I've been promising a video tutorial on how to make a basic box using the Stampin' Trimmer and it's here at last (along with some extras by way of apology!) Now I call it basic but I hope you'll agree that 'basic' is not really the word for this pretty box! Come and see:

I use this basic 'recipe' for lots of my boxes and, if you watch the video,  you'll see how to get a perfectly fitting lid every time! Note the practical finger rests (not the right word I know - but what ARE they called?!) which make it easy to take the lid off.

I thought you might like to see the top of the box, with a better view of that lush chevron ribbon and the pretty tag, decorated with gems. The lid is stamped using the Peaceful Petals stamp set which is fast becoming one of my favourite stamp sets of all time!

This is a slightly smaller version of the box, decorated this time with gorgeous Pacific Point stitched grosgrain ribbon...

... and a tiny heart made with the Simply Pressed Clay and attached with a safety pin from the Vintage Trinkets embellishments.

You know how I like to make cards that coordinate with my boxes - and here's one to go with these:

I stamped some Whisper White card stock with the same design as the box lid and cut first a circle out of it, using the 1 3/4" circle punch, and then a thin strip through the centre of the circle. The resulting split panel was mounted onto a Pacific Point card base.

The sentiment was stamped onto the card base itself using a stamp-a-majig for position. I heat embossed it with white  embossing powder and pierced a decorative circle round it.

Here's the video tutorial - hope you'll be able to see why my Stampin' Trimmer is one of my favourite pieces of kit!

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

Stamps: Peaceful Petals wood or cling

Ink: Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Garden Green

Card stock: Pacific Point, Whisper White

Other: 1 3/4" circle punch, Essentials piercing template mat and tool, white embossing powder, versamark, heat tool, 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.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Some of you may remember that when my daughter turned 18, my youngest son sent her a card with an envelope inside it. Inside was a paper pair of pants with the message 'Now you are a big girl and can wear Big Girl Pants'! My son turned 13 on Tuesday and my daughter was pleased to be able to retaliate with this:

Hmmm. I can see a theme developing!

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

Peaceful Petals with a retro spin

I had a lovely day yesterday and had some exciting news - but more about that later. First I want to show you a card I had great fun making! Come and see:

The Soft Sky chevron background is one of the beautiful papers from Stampin' Up's Designer Paper Stacks. These contain a selection of tone-on-tone papers and are available in all the colour families including the in colours - SO useful!  I topped this with a panel featuring a curved edge...

... which revealed the perfect space on the designer paper for me to stamp my sentiment from Peaceful Petals. You can see that I wrapped some of the gorgeous twine from the free Sale-a-bration Accessories Pack around the panel. I 'nibbled' bits from the edge of the panel with the pointy bit of my Mosaic punch so that the twine would sit neatly and then mounted the panel onto the DSP using dimensionals.

The circle was sponged on through a mask made with my 2 1/2" circle punch and the line art flower , also from Peaceful Petals, was stamped over the top in black stazon ink and left uncoloured for a retro look.

This card was inspired by this week's fabulous Fusion challenge. The colours and the black line art on a coloured block background were taken from the inspiration photo, and I also used the amazing sketch.

I shall also be linking this card up with the Paper Players where the lovely ladies are looking for spring thank you cards.

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

Stamps: Peaceful Petals wood or cling

Ink: Summer Starfruit classic ink, stazon black

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Designer Series Stack in Subtles, 2 1/2" circle punch, paper snips, twine from Sweet Sorbet accessory pack (free with Sale-a-bration), 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.

CHOOSE A FREE SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Yesterday, my eldest son left school at lunchtime as he had an interview at our local college where he has applied to do a Graphic Design course after completing his GCSEs. I could tell he was a little nervous as he isn't taking art at GCSE which is the usual entry requirement; instead he had taken along a portfolio of his work all of which he has created on the computer, coming up with ideas and teaching himself techniques as he's gone along. When he came out of the interview he told me he thought the interview had gone well. Apparently he had shown each piece of artwork and talked about it and after that the interviewer said: "Okay - I'm telling you right now that you're definitely getting a place on my course!"

I'm so excited for him and very, very proud. Of course it was far too late to return him to school, so I took him for a slap up meal instead!

Talking of which, I suppose I better go off and make some pancakes! See you tomorrow,