Triangles and designer paper from Stampin' Up

I do like to play with designer paper - especially when it's all trendy and new - like the Moonlight paper stack from Stampin' Up.  Here's a simple card I made with one of the papers when I had a sudden excitement about triangles:

The size of this stack is perfect for card-making and it contains loads of fabulous double-sided designs inside, each with a different feel.  I love this geometric paper with its retro 80s vibe.

Some of the little triangles already appear in the paper design but I gave it a further sprinkling, adding in different sizes. I snipped these with my sharp paper snips, using off-cuts of the paper as templates.

I'm linking this card to the Geometical challenge at Addicted to CAS (thanks for the reminder Kylie!)

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

Moonlight Designer Series Paper [133701]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad [133642]
Four You Wood-mount Stamp Set [130535]	Four You Clear-mount Stamp Set [130538]	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig [101049]

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 remember once sitting through a very stressful school concert when my youngest son was at his first school. He had previously won many favourable reviews (!) with his scintillating performance as one of the three Kings in the Christmas play (never had a king smiled so winningly!) and was prepared to stretch himself in this concert by playing the triangle. He had the important role of striking the triangle at a key moment and I don't think I've ever seen anyone concentrate so hard for fear of letting the team down. The big moment loomed and sweat broke out on my brow... the moment arrived and there was a pause that seemed to last a hundred years before the note rang out triumphantly and we all breathed and smiled!

 See you tomorrow.

A fun card to make with the Stampin' Up bird punch

Yes, I know I'm in the middle of showing you a series of cards made with Stampin' Up's Something for Baby stamp set but then I saw this week's fantastic colour palette and inspiration photo at the ColourQ and had a sudden idea for something bright and fun!

Stampin' Up's brilliant bird punch is very popular - and quite right too! I love this shape of bird and you also get wings and a little branch (not used here today) which are really useful to use as leaves with die-cut or punched flowers. I punched the birds out of Coastal Cabana, Hello Honey and Real Red and arranged them on a background of Island Indigo card stock.

This bold sentiment from Regarding Dahlias suits the graphic style of the card and it cuts out neatly with the 1 3/8" circle punch. I curved all the corners on my card.

Here's the ColourQ inspiration picture I got so excited by today! (I found Hello Honey and Real Red worked well as substitutes for the retired More Mustard and Poppy Parade.)

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

Stamps: Regarding Dahlias wood or cling

Ink: Island Indigo

Card stock: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana, Hello Honey, Real Red

Punches: Bird punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, corner rounder, handheld 1/8" circle punch (for the bird eyes)

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.

Our cat Tuppence used to sit on the window sill and wind herself up watching the other cats in the neighbourhood until, in exasperation, I arranged some of my little wooden birds there. She still tried to jump up though, sometimes managing to squeeze herself into the tiny gap between the window and the birds! "No, Tuppence," I'd say, lifting her down. "The birds - they say no!" Perhaps that's why she's practically left home... She only comes in to be fed now, allows herself to be cuddled briefly and then shoots off through the cat flap - and if we close the cat flap, she meows the place down. We have been told!

See you tomorrow.

Making a splash with the new Stampin' Up blendabilities

I have a great giveaway going on here this week! Would you like the chance to win a pack of the new Stampin' Up blendabilities or a gorgeous photopolymer stamp set? Click here to find out how!

LETS GET STAMPIN' AND STICKIN'!
There's a mix of favourites from my stash and lovely new Stampin' Up goodies on today's card. Come and have a look:

I've used the lovely, dreamy new in-colour, Lost Lagoon, for my card base today and both the designer paper strip down the side and the stamped sentiment are the same beautiful colour.

It was lovely to get Everything Eleanor out again and use this gorgeous flourish. The simple flower is from Flower Shop. I stamped it with Lost Lagoon ink, coloured it with Coastal Cabana blendabilities (I really, really can't stop using these!) and cut it out with the coordinating Pansy punch. The card is finished with a sprinkling of gems, coloured with the darkest of the blendies.

I was inspired today by the fun tic-tac-toe challenge at The Paper Players this week and I've inadvertently used both the middle column horizontally and vertically!

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

Stamps: Everything Eleanor wood or cling, Flower Shop wood or cling
Regarding Dahlias wood or cling (for the sentiment)

Ink: Garden Green, Lost Lagoon classic inks,
Coastal Cabana blendabilities

Card stock: Lost Lagoon, Whisper White

Other: Moonlight designer paper stack, Basic rhinestones (coloured with blendability marker), 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.

Forgive me if I don't stay to chat today dahlings... I'm up to my eyes in diamonds!

No, this isn't my outfit of choice for a supermarket run (!) - it's the sequin-tastic gown my daughter will be wearing at her prom this evening to mark the end of her school days. We'll be up to our ears in manicures, hair rollers, perfume and chiffon... oh there will be tissues at the ready this evening I can tell you!

I'll be back at 10pm with the name of the lucky winners of my fabulous prize give away! See you later,

Eye-catching beady background

I'm obsessed with Stampin' Up's free Eyecatching Ikat photopolymer stamp set and have SO many ideas but not enough time to try them all out... do you know the feeling?! I enjoyed making sunflowers with it last week on this card but it doesn't always have to take centre stage - today it features as a background. Come and see:

The flower sprig is from the exclusive hostess set Morning Meadow (available only until the end of June!) To make the image dual coloured, I coloured the rubber with markers and huffed before stamping. The instant it was stamped, I quickly dipped it in clear embossing powder and heat embossed it - you do have to be quick for this! TIP: If you're not quite quick enough or want to add extra shine, 'colour' your image with a fine glue pen and heat emboss again.

Why did I heat emboss? It was so that the flower would resist the ink when I stamped the background over the top of it, making it appear to be in the foreground. Can you see how lovely and glossy everything is?! I  added a paper clip as an embellishment (you can find these clips here in the Clearance Rack of my online store; they have green bows on them but I replaced the bow on this one with bakers twine for a fresh look.)

The sentiment is from Regarding Dahlias and I heat embossed that too before decorating it with a sweet butterfly from a retired Sale-a-bration set.

• 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 used the pretty colour palette at The Colour Throwdown to make this card, so I'll be linking this card up there as well as with the Butterfly Challenge which has  a bingo card this week! I've chosen the 'Wet embossing, Butterflies, Flowers' line.

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 30th May),
Morning Meadow (hostess set) wood or cling, Regarding Dahlias (sentiment) wood or cling

Ink: Soft Sky, Pear Pizzazz, Tangerine Tango, Basic Black

Card stock: Whisper White, Soft Sky

Other: Clear embossing powder, heat tool, paper clips, bakers twine from Tag a Bag accessory kit, 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.

It's a bank holiday Monday in the UK today. Now I've scheduled this post so I have no idea what I'll be doing but fingers crossed it won't be this:



See you tomorrow,

Regarding Dahlias - and other plants

EDITED TO ADD: Wow! Have you seen all the new items that have been added to the clearance Rack? Click here to grab a bargain!

One week of May sunshine and suddenly there are flowers everywhere! And not just in the garden either: there have been a crop of floral challenges in Blogland too and since I love stamping flowers as well as growing them, I had to join in. Come and see:

I adore this beautiful bloom from Stampin' Up's Regarding Dahlias set and it needs very little to set it off. I gave it a twist by stamping onto the lovely textured core'dinations card stock and adding a double pierced frame.

I coloured the dahlia with Pink Pirouette and Strawberry Slush markers, working the colour into the textured card stock to get a canvas look. It was hard to get a decent photo of this but it is really effective in real life I promise! Regarding Dahlias comes with four fabulous sentiments and I chose the 'thank you' for this card, heat embossing it for extra definition.

CAS flowers are the theme at both Less is More and The Paper Players this week so I'll be linking this card up there, and also with CASology where the cue word is Flower.

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

Stamps: Regarding Dahlias wood or cling

Ink: Raspberry Ripple, Basic Black classic inks, plus markers

Card stock: Very Vanilla core'dinations

Other: Clear embossing powder, heat tool, Essentials piercing template, mat and 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 ONE OF THESE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SETS WITH EVERY £60 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

My poor garden is still in desperate need of some attention. I've clipped my filbert tree into a lollipop shape and uprooted those bold Valerian from the path but this weekend I'm determined to tame the Rambling Rector! He's gone quite berserk so wish me luck!

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

Sunflowers with Eyecatching Ikat

Stampin' Up's new photopolymer sets are the business! That's my verdict after a bit of a play this morning when I used Eyecatching Ikat (free as part of this promotion) and found that this set is fabulous  - and not just for those super trendy ikat designs either! Come and see:

Sunflowers are also all the rage at the moment! These sunflowers and leaves were stamped in a cluster using Eyecatching Ikat, cut out with my sharp paper snips and attached to a panel trimmed with one of my labels framelits.

I wanted a little dimension, so I made more flowers and popped them up over the originals. I'm old enough to remember the last time sunflowers were everywhere but the chevron trim adds a lovely fresh twist.

I was inspired today by Less is More, where the theme is flowers; The Paper Players who also want to see CAS flowers; ATCAS where Off the Edge is the code phrase this week; and, last but not least, the gorgeous sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch:

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 every £60 spend), Regarding Dahlias (sentiment) wood or cling

Ink: Crushed Curry, Wild Wasabi, Baked Brown Sugar

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Labels framelits, Big Shot, Designer Paper Stack in Subtles, 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)

Sunflowers are amazing although I'm not a fan of them in my tiny garden. Once, when my daughter was a little girl, she and a friend had a tea party in the garden. They loved pouring 'tea' (water) from a toy teapot and I gave them some little fairy sized nibbles including some sunflower seeds. My daughter later confessed that the seeds were spilled during the course of the afternoon but the following year I couldn't understand why we kept getting rogue sunflowers growing in my flower beds!

See you tomorrow,

Stampin' Chalk marker on pink technique

This week's challenge at Less is More is to use Three Colours or Three Shades of One Colour on a card, which gave me the perfect opportunity to try out an idea that's been in my head for a while: I wanted to use my Stampin' Chalk marker on some bright card stock. Come and see my pink, white and black card:

I used the flowers from Stampin' Up's So Very Grateful stamp set, stamping them in versamark directly onto the front of the gorgeous Melon Mambo card base and heat embossing them using white embossing powder.

The leaves were coloured with a Melon Mambo marker and the flowers with the Chalk Marker, giving them this delicate, lacy look.

To finish the card, I stamped a bold sentiment from Regarding Dahlias and curved the bottom corners of the card with a corner rounder.

• If you love heat embossing, do check out the latest Weekly Deals - there are some fabulous coloured embossing powders among the special offers!

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

Stamps: So Very Grateful wood or cling, Regarding Dahlias wood or cling

Ink: Basic Black, Melon Mambo marker from Brights selection

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Whisper White

Other: Versamark, White embossing powder, heat tool, Chalk Marker, corner rounder, 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 PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET WITH EVERY £60 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

When my daughter was at her boyfriend's house recently, his three year old sister sidled up and asked her if she'd like to see her new dress. The pretty pink dress was duly shown, followed by the rest of the little girl's entire wardrobe. My daughter said she was astonished by two things: first, that every one of the garments was pink, and second, that the little girl was an impressive clothes folder upper! "I was shamed by a three year old!" she said.

See you tomorrow,

A three minute designer paper idea

It's always good to have thank you cards ready for the children to write after Christmas. My daughter is very good at cheerful, newsy letters but both my sons tend to take any suggestion that they 'write a little something' quite literally! To encourage more than a sentence or two, I designed a postcard-style card that can be written on front and back. Come and have a look:

These are so quick to put together using designer paper. I've used left over scraps from the Season of Style papers that are not obviously Christmassy to carry over into the new year.

To make the cards, I cut a sheet of A4 Whisper White card stock into four pieces, added designer paper to the top and curved the corners with the corner rounder on my envelope board. The sentiment from Regarding Dahlias was stamped onto a thin strip of card stock and pasted onto the designer paper. And that was it - forget minutes, it took seconds!

Since I've been using up the scraps, I think I'll pop over to Pixie's snippet playground with these. I hear they've been having trouble with wind there this week!

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

Stamps: Regarding Dahlias

Ink: Early Espresso

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Season of Style designer paper, Envelope board, 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.

My daughter came home from school yesterday despairing about the amount of work she had to do before her exams. "At least we get three weeks study leave," she said. "Although I don't know what I'll do with it. Probably go..." I interrupted at this point: "...on holiday?" I suggested, "...to a party?" She glared at me. "I was going to say I'll probably go insane," she said. "What? The river in France?" I said and was finally rewarded by a small and tiny smile. My poor girl really is working very hard with two jobs as well as her school work.

See you tomorrow,

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,