Don't miss out on Stampin' Up retiring bargains!

We all love a bargain don't we - and when it's a crafty Stampin' Up bargain we REALLY love it! A new stamp set always gets me excited. Imagine getting the gorgeous Geometrical stamp set, for example. - what would you do with it?

Create a simple design with the circle image perhaps? (ooh and you could also use this stamp to create a trendy bokeh look!)

Or maybe make a colourful border with those fab triangles? You could use a stamp-a-majig, as I did here, or you could make a quicker, easier version of this card using the large triangle punch, now HALF PRICE at £7.13! Woohoo - another bargain!

Or how about reinforcing that lovely 'cheer up buttercup' sentiment with some 'buttercups' created with the Petite Petals stamp set and coordinating punch?

Or layering in a fun hexagonal accent?

There are so many fun things to do with this set and I haven't even started on the arrows yet! And you know what I was saying yesterday about how fonts date? Well you'll be bang on trend with this one!

What a wonderful set this is - and now only £22.91 wood mount or just £16.46 in cling mount! But HURRY! These bargains are only available while stocks last!

SHOP FOR YOUR BARGAINS NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!

Geometrical Wood-Mount  £26.95 now £22.91	Geometrical Clear-Mount  £21.95 now £16.46	Large Triangle Punch £14.25 now £7.13
Petite Petals Clear Stamp Set £10.95	Petite Petals Punch £11.50	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig £10.95

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.

You'll be glad to know that Eva is now helping me with the laundry! When I say 'helping with the laundry' what I actually mean is that she gets excited when I take the basket of clothes into the kitchen and rummages around in the basket while I load the washing machine. She usually manages to filch a sock or two and go prancing off with it but when I call her back she comes back with them looking sheepish. She delicately gives me the socks when I ask her and then waits patiently for a treat. The laundry is one of her favourite things!

Tomorrow is Stampin' Up artisan design blog hop day! Do come and see what we've made won't you!

Geometrical buttercups

There are some lovely sentiments in Stampin' Up's Geometrical set as well as all those useful shapes and the one I've used today is just right for giving a boost to a friend. Come and see:

I laid down a Pear Pizzazz background on a square of watercolour paper using my largest aquapainter. This is so easy to do and looks so arty - give it a try! When my background was dry, I stamped the sentiment using Momento black ink.

The flowers are from Petite Petals and although they're not really buttercups, I hoped they'd give a buttercuppish vibe! I coloured them with my Daffodil Delight blendabilities - oh yes, my love affair with these fabulous alcohol markers continues!

To make the little tab, I used the Chevron punch, stapling it to the back of my panel. What a fun card to make! Do you know someone that could do with cheering up?

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

Geometrical [clear] [133161]	Petite Petals Clear-Mount Bundle [134822]	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment [130998]	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment [130999]	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [131180]
Aqua Painter [103954]	Chevron Border Punch [132154]	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550]	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper [122959]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]

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 am exhausted from careering up and down the country this weekend and so is someone else by the looks of things...

Budge up Tuppence!

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,

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,

Hardwood and Hellebores

There's been a return to cold gloomy weather here in the heart of England so I decided to get some winter woollies on and make some Christmas cards! I had plenty of inspiration from Merry Mondays with a fabulous Grey, Red and White colour palette, 52 {CCT} with a theme of Paper Flowers and of course Rudolph Day where two Christmas cards are required! Come and see:

Like everyone else, I am potty about the new Hardwood stamp and the Petite Petals set! (These just keep going out of stock as everyone wants them!) I inked only two thirds of my panel with Hardwood and stamped a leaf and berry image over the top, colouring in the leaves with an aquapainter and adding berries with markers.

This delicate hellebore-style flower looks so beautiful stamped in any colour but I stamped mine in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. You can't really see here but I added a sprinkle of superfine silver glitter before it dried so it has a subtle glimmer in real life, and I added extra shine with gems.

The sentiment is from Petite Pairs and has a lovely second part to stamp inside the card: 'and a happy, joyful, bright new year!'

Now, the question is, did I really make two of these?

Yes of course I did!

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
Simply Sketched (hostess set, conditions apply)

Ink: Smoky Slate, Real Red classic inks, plus Neutrals markers and Real Red marker

Card stock: Whisper White, Real Red

Other: Petite Petals punch, Basic rhinestones, versamark, white embossing powder, 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)

Does it really have to rain ALL day?! You know when you get ready in the morning and you want your hair to look like this:

And then at the end of the day, you catch a glimpse of it in the mirror looking more like this:

See you tomorrow,

Petite Petals for a happy mother's day

When I woke up this morning I wondered if I'd been transported to another country in the night (what do you mean?! It COULD happen!) It's been so dark and wet and gloomy in the heart of England but today it's blue skies and sunshine all the way - and what a perfect spring colour challenge at Less is More to go with it - green and yellow. Come and see what I've come up with:

I wanted to play with flowers today and I've gone for a combination of Stampin' Up's Peaceful Petals, for the leaves, and Petite Petals for the flowers. There's a punch to cut those pretty flowers out so it was quick and easy (and if you buy the stamp set and punch together you get a nice 15% discount!)

The background was made by inking up one of my acrylic blocks and stamping it onto the card base. I coloured the leaves in with a blender pen and some Gumball Green ink - my goodness, I will miss this colour when it retires at the end of June!

I decided this design would be nice for mothers day - coming up on the 30th of this month in case you were wondering! The sentiment was made by combining the 'happy' from Happy Watercolour and the 'mothers day' from Teeny Tiny Wishes. It's so easy to do this with a stamp-a-majig!

• I've made a short video tutorial to show you how to combine stamps using the stamp-a-majig. Click here to watch it.

I used this gorgeous sketch from CAS(e) this Sketch today.

And my card can also be my second entry into the CAS Addicted to Stamps and More challenge!

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, Petite Petals wood or cling,
For the sentiment: Happy Watercolour wood or cling, Teeny Tiny Wishes wood or cling

Ink: So Saffron, Crushed Curry, Gumball Green plus markers (Neutrals)

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, scraps of Very Vanilla

Other: Petite Petals punch, blender pen, Candy Dots (Subtles), envelope board for corner rounding, 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)

Here's someone else enjoying the sunshine this morning.

She was sitting out there as a dark warning to small birds and unsuspecting rodents... but they all laugh at her knowing that she's an old lady with very few teeth, who expects choice viandes to be chopped up for her and would prefer to be fed by hand only she can't get the staff!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend - see you soon!