Sea shells on the sea shore - to sell!

Today I'd like to show you the last in my series of seaside-inspired cards made for the St Lukes Charity Card Challenge. I've so enjoyed making these and it's great to know that when I bundle them up and post them off to the address given on the site, they'll be used for a great cause. All cards sent to the address are sold to raise money for the wonderful St Lukes Hospice in Sheffield that provides such a valuable service to those with incurable diseases and their families. I hear they'll be having another of their sales at the end of August, so do send them any spare cards you might have.

Here's the card I made:

The seaside always reminds me of ice cream colours so the Bashful Blue, Pink Pirouette and Very Vanilla card stock came out again! And what better to make the sand with than the Sandy Speckles wheel?! I used So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Pink Pirouette and Basic Grey speckles and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

The shell image from the Nature's Nest stamp set is so beautiful - I love it! Here, it's stamped in Basic Grey and coloured in with Pink Pirouette using a blender pen - it's not very clear in the photo but looks very delicate in real life. The scallop border punch on the edge of the blue card stock adds a bit of detail and I've used a great sentiment from Thank You Kindly. This would be a good card to give to a neighbour who's looked after a pet while you've been on holiday, or to a holiday home owner who's gone the extra mile to make your stay comfortable.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Nature's Nest, Thank You Kindly, Sandy Speckles wheel

Ink: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Basic Grey

Card stock: Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Pink Pirouette, 

Other: Scallop border punch, blender pen

You can buy any of these supplies from me and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

My days of lying around on a beach with a good novel belong to my twenties and shell gathering has been a much more likely activity in the many decades that have passed since then! I remember smiling to hear my youngest son as a tiny tot talking about 'olympets' - the word limpet had somehow got mixed up with the olympics games which were going on at the time! He did this a lot - I obviously said "oh dear!" quite a lot when he was two because he said it too - only he said: "oh deed!"

I hope you've enjoyed the seaside fun here for the last couple of days. Do check out the challenge site and join in if you can! See you soon,

Gift set with sandy speckles

Last week my young son went to a birthday party. He wanted to give his friend some money and suggested that I could make something to put it in. (He has such faith in me! Unfortunately this is the same faith in me that leads him to announce that he needs to dress up as a dalek ten minutes before a party...)

Here's what I came up with: a mini pizza box and, to carry it in  - no, your eyes do not deceive you - it's a bagalope! For those of you that haven't come across the bagalope before, it's a gift bag made from an envelope. I love this technique and it has come in useful more times than I can remember!

I thought a 3" square mini pizza box would be ideal to contain a crisp bank note folded in half so I started with a piece of card stock measuring 5" x 9" (click on the link above for details on how to make the box). It was decorated with the star stamp from Hung Up on the Holidays along with stars punched out from card stock. I wanted some of the stars to be smaller than the star punch so I drew a star inside the punched shape with a pencil, following the line of the original, and cut it out with paper snips. It works a treat!

The bagalope was made from a C5 envelope decorated with the Sandy Speckles wheel in different coloured inks and the same star stamp as the box. The handles are thin strips of card stock, twisted and secured to the bagalope with brads. I added a little tag made from a circle of card stock decorated with punched stars and attached it to the bagalope with silver elastic thread.

Supplies
MINI PIZZA BOX
Stamps: Hung Up on the Holidays
Ink: Brilliant Blue
Card stock: Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy
Other: Star punch, Hodgepodge hardware, Brilliant Blue marker

BAGALOPE AND TAG

Stamps: Hung Up on the Holidays

Ink: Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy, Brilliant Blue

Card stock: Ballet Blue, Old Olive, Bravo Burgundy

Other: Sandy Speckles wheel, star and 1 3/4" circle punches, Silver elastic thread, silver brads

Well, my son thoroughly enjoyed the party and returned, weary but happy, early the following morning. He had recovered sufficiently by mid-morning to venture out on an 8 mile bike ride. Where do they find their energy?

I'm off to stoke up my energy levels with some fish, vegetables and saute potatoes and a Victoria sponge for pudding... No-one ever tells you that having a teenage daughter means always having cake in the house!

Thank you for dropping in - see you tomorrow!