A Christmas farewell

It's always sad to say goodbye to my favourite stamps but I must put them away as my job is to show you all the lovely things in the current catalogues. I've used three different stamp sets today, all on the Retirement List and all available, as I'm typing this, until the end of this month or until stocks last.

I made the card for the 52{Christmas}Card Throwdown where there's a colour challenge this week: Red, Brown and Cream or White. Come and see:

This was a really fast card to make and there wasn't a sponge in sight for the background! I started off by smearing my Whisper White craft ink pad over a panel of Crumb Cake card stock, more thickly on the bottom two thirds to make snowy fields, and more sparingly over the top third for the sky. The winter grasses were stamped in Early Espresso over the snow - I used Autumn Days and Greenhouse Garden for this.

The robin is made with the Two Step Bird punch, using a simple technique I came up with ages ago - I made a video tutorial of it that you can see here.

Here's the sentiment from one of my all-time favourite Christmas sets, Season of Joy. And have you seen the snow? Another fabulous use for my white Watercolour Wonder crayon - I love how useful these are.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Greenhouse Garden, Autumn Days, Season of Joy (all retiring)
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso classic inks, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White (for the bird)
Other: Two Step Bird punch, Whisper White Watercolour Wonder crayon, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Click here to view my regularly updated lists of retiring stamps and accessories, some at up to 40% discount. 

I can't believe we've been back from holiday for only a week - it feels like forever! I loved the east coast of Kent and we'll definitely be going back there. It's steeped in history and there are lots of unspoilt medieval towns, such as the town of Sandwich (or Sandwiches, as my youngest son insisted on calling it - as in: "Let's go to Sandwiches today!") There are plenty of cobbled streets and narrow alleys and we were amused by this street name. We imagined there being some heated arguments when they were thinking up names for it, culminating in slammed doors and people saying "Fine then! If that's the way you want it, we won't call it anything at all!"

I've just realised I meant to post a card using Perfectly Preserved today! If you were looking for it and feeling a bit bewildered, I do apologise and it'll be here tomorrow instead...

Hugs,

Notably Ornate thank you

It's always so much fun playing along with One Layer Wednesday but I'm only just getting round to Wednesday's challenge today! It's Susan's turn to host and the theme is 'At least one star and at least one stripe'. There are lots of patriotic entries celebrating last week's American Independence Day but, since it's Masculine Monday here, I decided to go for a useful male thank you. Come and see:

This is such a quick card. I started with the notepaper - picking it out of the frame stamp with a Marina Mist marker, huffing on the stamp and stamping it on the edge of my card front. The sentiment was stamped over the top and the stars added.

Here's a close up. Making a simple collage by stamping images over each other is one of my favourite things to do. I created a little bit of interest by stamping one of the Itty Bitty stars onto watercolour paper and cutting it out with sharp paper snips before popping it up over the larger star. I used the water colour paper because (despite its name) it's really thick and has a lovely chipboard feel.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Notably Ornate, Thank You Kindly, Season of Joy, Itty Bitty Bits

Ink: Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, scrap of watercolour paper

Other: Markers, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. Your free brad and ribbon set will be added automatically to any order of £45 or more.

We were away in Tynemouth this weekend visiting my in-laws. My daughter and I nipped into Newcastle on Saturday afternoon for a little retail therapy and I was amused to see everyone sat around on deckchairs at the monument watching Wimbledon on one of those huge screens. We missed the mens final, as we were on the road, but got back in time to watch the presentation. It broke my heart to see Andy Murray struggling to keep his composure as he thanked his supporters.

Hope you're having a happy Monday. I shall be back tomorrow with something gold - hope to see you then!

Mouthwatering for my daughter

I've just come back from my youngest son's school fair. This morning, before we left, I prepared a little 'Something Shiny' for today's Less is More challenge and left it to dry; and now I've turned it into a card... come and have a look:

I've been dying to use this lolly from the Mouthwatering set! Isn't it amazing?! I stamped it twice, once on the card base and again on a scrap of card stock. The second one was given a generous coat of Crystal Effects and left to dry (while I frolicked at the fair!) and I LOVE how glossy it turned out! I cut just the ice bit out with my sharp paper snips before popping it up over the image I'd stamped on the card base.

I made up this mad sentiment out of two stamps from For My Family and the 'delicious' from Creatively Yours' - it's for my own daughter who likes a sentiment to be on the eccentric side! She has been off school revising for her GCSEs and has done much of it in the living room where I work. She's the kind of lovely person who makes everything seem like fun and I have really enjoyed having her there. So this card is for her, to say well done for finishing her exams and for entertaining me at the same time!

Oh and I forgot to mention that I'm still going flourish bonkers from last week! The flourish here is a favourite stamp from the Season of Joy Christmas set that I've used over and over again. I inked it up with Bashful Blue ink and stamped it off on rough paper before stamping it on the card base. The sentiment is finished off with a tiny heart punched with my owl punch.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Mouthwatering, Creatively Yours, For My Family, Season of Joy

Ink: Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Markers, Crystal Effects, Owl punches, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

You may be wondering whether my son enjoyed the fair today. Well, my view is that these fairs are put on to raise money for the school so here's what we do: we decide how much we'd like to donate and then I sit my son down, hand over the cash and tell him solemnly that it is his responsibility to spend it however he sees fit... He had a ball!

I can't wait to see all the shininess going on in the LiM gallery this week - see you later!

Going dotty with Fox and Friends

Over at the St Lukes Charity Challenge this month the challenge is 'Furry Friends'. Tara, who set the blog up, works so hard to raise funds for the St Lukes Hospice - and often under very difficult circumstances -so do lend your support and join in with the fun this month. I have to confess that cute and furry isn't really my style when it comes to cards, but I certainly wasn't going to let that stop me! Come and see what I've made:

I love the little fox from Fox and Friends and I thought he'd look pretty cute popping out of this tea cup from my new Tea Shoppe set! But that isn't what excited me about this card - it's the split panel! I embossed one side with my Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and left the other side smooth, then I joined the two sides together with post it notes before cutting a shape out of them with one of the Labels framelits.

The aperture is the perfect size for my tea cup of foxy goodness! His paws are circles cut with my cropadile and coloured with a marker and I cut his tail off and arranged it the other way up (it's okay, he assures me he didn't feel a thing!) The little tag is from Tiny Tags and is tied to the cup handle with a piece of white bakers twine - I go through boat loads of this stuff!

With all this dottiness going on, I felt this card should be entered into this week's CASual Fridays 'Sweet Spot' challenge too - my second entry!

While I was all excited about the split panel, I thought I'd make another one for the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where the challenge is a white on white festive card - how could I resist?!

Impossible to photograph but SO fun to make! The split panel is landscape this time and I tied bakers twine round each side of the dotty panel where the framelit made an indent before attaching to the card base.

The tree is from Season of Joy and is stamped in versamark then covered with Heat and Stick powder before glittering to prevent the glitter from coming off. Have you tried this? It's brilliant for large areas of glitter! I tied more bakers twine round the tree trunk for a bit of extra texture and added a rhinestone to the top of the tree.

The sentiment banner is rounded on one side (I used my word window punch for this) and ribbon tailed on the other side (a square punch is the easiest way to do this.)

Here's what you'll need to make today's cards:

FOX IN A CUP CARD

Stamps: Fox and Friends, Tea Shoppe, Tiny Tags

Ink: Cajun Craze, Bashful Blue

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Markers, Basic Rhinestones, white bakers twine, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Labels framelits, Big shot, jewellery tag punch, cropadile

CHRISTMAS CARD

Stamps: Season of Joy, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Basic Grey

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Basic Rhinestones, white bakers twine, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Labels framelits, Big shot, versamark, Heat and Stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Word Window and Square punches, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Yesterday my daughter, who is in the middle of her GCSEs, came home from her Biology exam and said with a big smile on her face: "And I never did Biology ever again!" My poor love, she has another week to go but is still smiling.

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I'll have a very fast male card to show you. Hope to see you then,