A Postcard to say congratulations

What a great time I've had using Stampin' Up's new Postcard stamp all week! But of all the cards I've made with it, today's gave me the most pleasure because it was made to congratulate a lovely member of my team who recently reached a milestone in her Stampin' Up journey. Come and see what I made for her:

The Postcard stamp makes a lovely frame for a waterside scene. I inked the parts of Postcard image I wanted with a Midnight Muse marker, stamped it, cut it out and sponged in the background. The birds were stamped over the top...

... you can see that better in this photo. TIP: Try inking these birds with markers using one colour for the actual birds and keeping their reflections the same colour as the background. What do you think of the stamped strip at the bottom of the card? It's from Mosaic Madness and I used it because I liked the way it has the same wood-carved feel as Postcard.

Now, you may have noticed the little package in the top photo.

Are you dying to know what's in it?

Oh go on then...

... It's a bracelet - one of my Team Inkredibles charm bracelets to be precise! Members of my team get one of these when they reach their first goal and then for each milestone after that, they receive another of my charms to attach to it.

I would love to be making another of these little gift sets - this time for you! If you'd like to talk to me about joining my friendly team of Inkredibles, contact me via email or give me a ring on 01280 820593, or click here for more information.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Wetlands, Postcard, Delightful Dozen (sentiment)
Ink: Midnight Muse, Soft Sky, Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Summer Starfruit
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Markers, 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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


It's Friday and the weekend starts here! Last weekend my daughter came into the living room wearing a  top covered in shiny sequins. "Sparkles at you!" she said. I smiled at her. "Oooh - look at you!" I said. "Yes," she said. "Je suis un disco ball! I could walk into a room and say 'yay, the party has arrived - everyone can start dancing now!'" Bless her!

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

A three minute bit of a Postcard

I do hope you're being entertained by this week's posts about Stampin' Up's Postcard stamp! I'm loving using it and it has proved to be amazingly versatile.  So far I've made actual postcards, a collage-style card and a Christmas card with it and today, as it's Three Minute Thursday here today, I've got an idea for something fast! Come and have a look:

When I made these layered cards I stamped an extra postcard image so that I could double up parts of the image. There was lots left over and of course we don't like waste in the Stamping Square Metre, so I've used a pretty off-cut to make this notecard!

The flourish makes a beautiful feature, especially when mounted on some beautiful textured core'dinations card stock, and this sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes fits underneath it perfectly. The card was finished with the little flower from Everything Eleanor, stamped in Crisp Cantaloupe ink, given a quick colouring with a blender pen, and decorated with little pearls - guess which bit took the longest time?!!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Postcard, Everything Eleanor, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Early Espresso, Crisp Cantaloupe
Card stock: Very Vanilla smooth, Basic Black core'dinations
Other: Basic Pearls

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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


If you were reading my blog on Monday you may remember me mentioning my vulgar son suggesting that the teacher's initials DHU stood for 'don't have underpants'! Well yesterday I discovered that they are in fact the initials of the headmaster... aaaargh! I can never look him in the eyes again!

See you tomorrow,

A Postcard for Christmas

This week I've been show-casing Stampin' Up's Postcard stamp and today I've come up with a way for it to go all festive! Come and see:

The woodcut-style of the top of the Postcard image fascinates me and I love the sort of label bit that says postcard. It occurred to me that it could make a great garland and the label bit could hold a Christmas sentiment - and so this card happened!

I used a marker to colour the top part of the stamp and positioned it onto my panel using a stamp-a-majig. The sentiment from Embellished Events was stamped and cut out before being 'pinned' on top of the word postcard with some gems. I'm really pleased at how well it fits!

My festive garland was crying out for some decorations and what better ones to use than the new baubles from Christmas Collectibles?! I adore the vintage style of these! They're beautifully curvy but cutting them out is a doddle as they have a coordinating punch - love it!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Postcard, Christmas Collectibles, Embellished Events (sentiment)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler classic ink, Gumball Green marker
Card stock: Cherry Cobbler core'dinations, Very Vanilla smooth card stock
Other: Christmas Ornament punch, 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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


Yesterday morning at breakfast my eldest son announced that his school trousers were too long, so I had an amusing 15 minutes taking them up for him before he went to school. What IS it about my children?!!! (But I love them to bits!)

See you tomorrow for a three minute-ish Postcardy card.

Hugs,

Postcards, butterflies, dahlias...

This week I'm showing you what I've been up to with the Postcard stamp and today's layered card is one of my favourites of the batch.

It was designed for my lovely Stampers 6 club ladies - except that I'd already packaged two of them up before I remembered to photograph it!

I stamped the Postcard image and cut it out, adding the gorgeous dahlia from Regarding Dahlias in Crushed Curry (wow, what a great choice that is when you need a good pop of colour!) and the little poem from By the Tide in Island Indigo.

Part of the Postcard image was stamped again, cut out and popped up over the first to give some lovely dimension and then the postage stamp added and the gorgeous little butterfly from Papillon Potpourri, stamped and cut out with its coordinating punch. (By the way, if you have your eye on that stamp set and punch, now is a great time to get it as it's on special offer this month with 15% off - click here for details.)

I love making postage stamps! I used the 1" square punch to make a mask, sponged Pool Party ink inside it and overstamped with this beautiful leaf image from Papaya Collage and the number which comes from my Creative Elements set. The whole thing was cut out with the Postage Stamp punch. Normally I'd make these postage stamps on ordinary card stock but I made these using some sticky labels I had lying around. I thought it would make it more authentic but to be honest I don't think it made much difference!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Postcard, Regarding Dahlias, Papillon Potpourri, By the Tide, Creative Elements
Ink: Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Strawberry Slush
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Postage stamp, 1" square and Bitty Butterfly punches, 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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


On the last day of last term my youngest son sent me off into an apoplexy by leaving his PE kit at school - and yes, I know it's only a PE kit but the school requires vast quantities of special kit and it costs a fortune! I was expecting to have to replace it but he came home from his first day of school triumphantly holding his bag aloft - hurray! Now, the question is: do you think I can justify spending the money I would've had to spend on PE kit on crafty stash instead...?!

See you tomorrow,

Pick up a Postcard!

I loved the look of the Postcard stamp in Stampin' Up's annual catalogue but, once it arrived, I didn't quite know what to do with it! So I left it out on my desk and looked at it and had a think and more of a think... and this week I'll be posting the results of my thought processes! Come and see the first idea:

Okay, so this one's the most obvious way to use the stamp - as an actual postcard. After all, who doesn't love receiving postcards?!

I stamped the postcard image and cut it out with my trimmer, whisked it over...

... and had a lovely inky time with a couple of my favourite stamp sets. This one has been sponged and stamped with the glubilicious (according to my daughter) By the Tide...

... while this one has been has been decorated with Papaya Collage - another wonderful set for layering images.

These make great little notecards or thank you cards. I stamped several Postcard blanks too - they're useful to keep in my stash and I can rustle up a scene for the front any time I like!

Here's what you'll need to make these postcards
Stamps: Postcard, Papaya Collage, By The Tide
Ink: Always Artichoke, So Saffron, Island Indigo, Smoky Slate, Gumball Green, Crisp Cantaloupe, Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Card stock: Very Vanilla
Other: Markers, trimmer, 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.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


Today my children all returned to school looking very smart in their new clothes. Last night my youngest son sat me down and went through his timetable with me. He showed me how all his lessons were listed along with the initials of the teacher taking the class. "DHU," I mused, indicating one set of initials. "Now what does that stand for?" My naughty son gave me a wicked look."Don't have underpants!" he suggested rudely and guffawed loudly. I raised my eyebrows. "Now that's one garment that I would've thought would be indispensable!" I said.

Don't forget to join me tomorrow to see what else I've come up with using the Postcard stamp!