A special birthday

One of my girlfriends celebrated her birthday recently and so we all went out for a meal and showered her with gifts! I found a pretty scarf for her which provided all the inspiration for the gift presentation. Come and see:

How's this for a burst of tropical colour?! Those fabulous flowers are from Stampin' Up's Secret Garden stamp set - and there are coordinating framelits for those that don't enjoy fussy-cutting.

The background was made using my acrylic block kissing technique (as seen in this video tutorial.)
I had a bag in the same Crushed Curry colour as I used for the card base but it had a shop logo on it...

... so I made a panel for the front and back to cover it using one of the papers from the Regals Designer Paper stack - it is SO useful to have designer paper in every single Stampin' Up colour!

Have you spotted the matching tag?

I stamped it using the same technique as the card and cut it down to 2" wide, carefully cutting around the sticking out flower. Then I was able to use the angled tag topper punch to turn it into a tag, and tied it to the bag with sumptuous stitched satin ribbon in Midnight Muse.

Would you like to see the scarf that gave me the inspiration?

LOVE it! (In fact it was quite hard to give away!)

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

Stamps: Secret Garden wood or cling, Simply Sketched (hostess set) wood or cling

Ink: Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry, Midnight Muse

Card stock: Whisper White, Crushed Curry

Other: Secret Garden framelits, Big Shot, Designer Paper Stack in Regals, Acrylic block E, aquapainter, Angled tag topper punch, stitched satin ribbon in Midnight Muse, 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 AN EXCLUSIVE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET FREE WITH EVERY £60 YOU SPEND

We're gearing up for a bank holiday weekend here in the UK so fingers crossed for some sunshine. I'll be back on Tuesday with the first in a series of projects made with a fabulous, summery stamp set. Have a lovely weekend and hope to see you then,

A pampering gift from the Secret Garden spa!

What could possibly be better than getting the crafting goodies you want? Getting them at a discount of course! Today is the last day to get the items below at the special Weekly Deals prices:

Secret Garden framelits £20.95 NOW £15.71
Dress Up framelits £20.95 NOW £15.71
Festive Flurry framelits £20.95 NOW £15.71
Needlepoint Embossing Folder £7.50 NOW £5.63
Flower Garden Embossing Folder £7.50 NOW £5.63
Framed Tulips Embossing Folder £7.50 NOW £5.63
Blossom Party Originals die £15.95 NOW £11.96
Recipes by Design (digital download) £6.95 NOW £4.17

I made a gift for a friend using the Secret Garden framelits. Come and see:

The box is made using smooth and core'dinations card stock, with a window cut out of the lid with a large framelit from the Circles collection. I laid the white face cloth inside for a spa look and arranged the beautiful skincare products on top.

The larger flowers and leaves were stamped using colours in the product packaging and I cut them out with the coordinating Secret Garden framelits. The Magnetic Platform is so useful for this as it holds the framelit firmly in place as you run it through your Big Shot. I added some tiny white flowers, cut out using one of the flower punches in the Itty Bitty punch pack, and some pearls.

If you'd like to see how I make basic boxes with perfectly-fitting lids, check out my video tutorial.

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

Stamps: Secret Garden wood or cling, Morning Meadow (hostess set) wood or cling

Ink: Pacific Point, Wild Wasbi

Card stock: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi smooth and core'dinations

Other: Big Shot, Magnetic Platform, Circles framelits, Secret Garden framelits, Window sheet, Itty Bitty punch pack, Basic pearls

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.

When I was a little girl I was obsessed with beauty products and longed for a boudoir decked out with cut crystal perfume bottles and jars of luxurious creams and lotions. I was always trying to make some scented lotion with flower petals, water and talcum powder although the resulting messes dampened my enthusiasm a little. My daughter once applied a homemade face mask while getting ready for a special party. It made her feel really pampered, she told me, until she caught a glimpse of herself sitting in the bath with cold, dried porridge on her face!

See you tomorrow - with the latest Weekly Deals!

More congratulations with Secret Garden

I was thrilled to bits when another member of my team, the super-talented Lizy, achieved a milestone promotion just before Christmas. Come and see the card I made to congratulate her:

I was up to my ears in festive greens and reds when I made this and the Blushing Bride, Summer Starfruit and Gumball Green colour combination felt like a breath of fresh air! The floral panel is stamped with one of my favourite stamp sets - Secret Garden. I've made several new year's resolutions this year and one of them is to get loads more floral stamp sets because they are brilliant fun to play with!

Here's a close up showing the Sassy Salutations sentiment, heat embossed with silver embossing powder. You can see the gorgeous Blushing Bride dotty paper too, another design from the Colour Collection range that comes in every Stampin' Up colour, and the Coordinations card stock that adds a nice bit of subtle texture.

When members of my team, the Inkredibles, earn their first promotion, I send them a charm bracelet with a handmade charm and each time they promote afterwards, they get a new charm to add to it. I tucked Lizy's charm into one of my little envelopes (you can find the tutorial here.) I'm loving silver and vanilla with the Blushing Bride!

And here's a quick peek at the inside - the charm was suspended on a tag that had been stamped to coordinate with the card.

• There's always room for more members in my team and I'd love to welcome you aboard. Click here for more details or give me a ring on 01280 820593 for a no-pressure chat.

Here's what you'll need to make the card

Stamps: Secret Garden, Sassy Salutations

Ink: Blushing Bride, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit

Card stock: Basic Black, Very Vanilla smooth and core'dinations card stock

Other: Colour Collection designer paper (subtles), Simply Scored, versamark, silver embossing powder, heat tool, 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.

So, I managed to get the children back to school yesterday. There was a slight hiccup when I overslept due to lying awake half the night wondering if the wind would take the roof off. Honestly, I'm beginning to understand where the tale about the piggies and the wolf huffing and puffing the house down came from now!

Enjoy your day and I'll see you tomorrow for Three Minute Thursday.

Congratulations with Secret Garden

When I first joined Stampin' Up, I certainly couldn't have imagined that I might build a team and help others to start their own businesses too. But, as I began to learn about how Stampin' Up worked, I became enthusiastic about sharing my experience with others and that's when I started my fabulous Inkredibles group. I love getting to know my team and working out how best to support them - whether they want to earn some money or simply enjoy Stampin' Up as a hobby. I'm always delighted when they reach a milestone so I thoroughly enjoyed making today's project for the lovely Jan to celebrate her promotion just before Christmas. Come and see:

It's always lovely to get a handmade something through the post, and a promotion is the perfect excuse to send a card and little gift to say congratulations!

The card was made with Stampin' Up's beautiful Secret Garden set, stamped onto Core'dinations card stock to give a nice textured look. This stamp set has coordinating dies so that you can cut the elements out neatly without scissors if you choose.

I cut out one of the flowers to embellish the scored sentiment banner on this card. I've used the beautiful Express Yourself hostess set again as I think it has to be my favourite sentiment set of the moment! And can you see the piercing round the edge of the panel? I always think a pierced frame adds a nice bit of subtle detail and a neat finish and it's so easy to do with the Essentials piercing templates.

I was really pleased with this little box, made to house one of my team bracelets and a charm. The belly band was made out of Colour Collection designer paper - these amazing stacks come in ALL the Stampin' Up colours and are so useful! The box was tied up with 1/8" taffeta ribbon with two branches from the 2 step bird punch tucked into it, and embellished with one of the tiny flower punches from the Itty Bitty punch pack.

• There's always room for more members in my team and I'd love to welcome you aboard. Click here for more details or give me a ring on 01280 820593 for a no-pressure chat.

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

Stamps: Secret Garden, Express Yourself

Ink: Early Espresso

Card stock: Very Vanilla smooth and core'dinations, scraps of Garden Green and Rich Razzleberry for  box embellishments

Other: Secret Garden framelits, Big Shot, 2 step bird punch, Itty Bitty punch pack, Basic pearls, Colour Collection designer paper (regals), Rich Razzleberry 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Essentials piercing templates mat and tool, Simply Scored, 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.

I'd invited all my children to see the Desolation of Smaug at the cinema yesterday but, since my eldest son got a better offer (!) and my daughter ended up working instead, my youngest son turned out to be my sole companion. He suggested that we watch Frozen instead as we both love a good animation. Sadly it turned out to be a pretty mediocre film in terms of plot and character but it really was a visual treat.  The only problem was that the theatre was a bit on the nippy side and I'd left my coat in the car so all the ice and snow was probably the last thing I needed!

See you tomorrow when I'll have another special gift to show you!

Secret Garden florals with Itty Bitty Banners

The new Stampin' Up seasonal Catalogue has just been released but I'm not ready to leave the flowery projects behind just yet. My tiny garden has put on a lovely display this year - and there have been plenty of flowers blooming on my stamp shelves too! It's great fun to use floral stamp sets to stamp a whole sheet of A4 with a design and then chop it up to make card toppers - like this one:

I chose one outlined and one solid flower image and stamped them randomly, filling some of the gaps with the leaf image. Some of the outlined blooms were coloured with ink and an aquapainter and some were left uncoloured, and I added centres to the flowers using markers. Finally I sponged a little Island Indigo ink in any gaps that were left.

The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Banners. I quite often use it like this with only one ribbon-tailed side showing as if it's been folded behind the panel.

You don't need many supplies to make these kind of cards and it's fun to combine different colours giving a new look each time. Why not add a touch of glitter or a few gems too?!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz
Card stock: Whisper White 
Other: Markers, aquapainter
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.

We went to visit my sister and her small son yesterday. After lunch we made the most of the good weather by going round to the park - a great space with the sort of innovative equipment that interested even my jaded teenagers. We had a lovely time but the highlight was a comedy moment when one woman shouted: "I want to go now! I've been here for three hours and I don't even live here! I only came here to go shopping!" Her daughter got off the zip wire reluctantly. "None of the other mums are moaning," she was heard to mutter as she was dragged away.

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

Secret Garden - handkerchief-style!

I'm quite fascinated by hanky-type layouts at the moment and today's card came about when I saw the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches. It also fits challenges at ATSM (to make a clean and simple card), CAS on Sunday (to use black and white plus one other colour), and Dynamic Duos (a colour combo of Pear Pizzazz and black with the option of featuring a plant). I'm panting after that sentence so without further ado - come and see what I've made:

Black and green is quite a favourite combination of mine and I do feel that a black card base can give a simple layout a nice bit of drama. I particularly like a black silhouetted flower with green accents like this one from Stampin' Up's Secret Garden.

The flower was stamped onto the white panel and the handkerchief-style scoring added over the top using my Simply Scored tool. I stamped another flower, cut it out (there are framelits to make this easy!) and popped it up over the first. I used a marker to add colour to the flower centre with a marker before dotting it with my 2 way glue pen and heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

I could have used the leaves from the Secret Garden but I noticed the clock ticking urgently at this point and felt a quick click with a punch was the answer!

This is the fabulous sketch I was working from today:

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, So Sorry
Ink: Black stazon, Pear Pizzazz marker
Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz
Other: 2 step bird punch, Simply Scored, Secret Garden framelits, Big Shot, clear embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Whenever I offer pears to my family I always ask if they'd like 'a pair of pears'. I started mucking about with words to amuse myself and the children when they were small and I'm afraid I never stopped! (More examples are Sammy Sandwich, sublana (my eldest son's way of saying banana), nippy noodles and creme de la creme a la Edgar (meaning cream and taken from Disney's Aristocrats). We are a weird old lot but it makes me smile and I bet my children will do the same with their own children!

I shall be back tomorrow with another hanky-style creation. See you then!

Smile! It's a Happy Day!

Since all the local cats seem to be using my back garden as the venue for their nightly raves at the moment, I'm feeling a tad sleep-deprived. I had some cheer-up therapy though in the form of this week's CASology cue word - Yellow - and some new stash YAY! Come and have a look:

It's impossible to feel tired and low when working with bright yellow - especially when you get to use this fabulous new gingham washi tape!  I laid strips of it onto a piece of card stock and cut out a frame using two of my Ovals framelits. I also cut an oval aperture into a panel of Daffodil Delight card stock and mounted the frame on top.

The wonderful, bold sentiment is from a new set called Happy Day (which will be available in to order in just 11 days time!) It was stamped directly onto the card base using a stamp-a-majig to make sure it was centred properly. The card was finished with a flower from Secret Garden centred with one of the retiring designer buttons and some delicious new Crushed Curry bakers twine.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Happy Day (available 2nd June), Secret Garden
Ink: Daffodil Delight classic ink, black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
Other: Ovals framelits, Gingham Garden washi tape and Crushed Curry bakers twine (available 2nd June), Brights designer button (retiring), paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

My youngest son has begun to organise his social life but seems to keep forgetting that communication is key! Having had several upsets on the matter, he has resolved to improve. Yesterday, at dinner, he announced that he'd been invited to a friend's birthday party. "That's great!" I said. "When is it?" He looked up from his plate. "Oh I don't know yet," he said. "I just thought I'd give you a pre-warning!" Hmm, not entirely the most useful information then. And what IS a pre-warning? A warning about a warning?! Don't worry though, I will find out when the party is... about five minutes before my son is due there!

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

Picking a bunch from the Secret Garden

The colour combination at the Paper Players intrigued me this week so I had to have a go! I picked Stampin' Up's fabulous Secret Garden to play with and here's what happened:

I definitely wouldn't have come up with this colour combination on my own but there's a summery feel to it that I love to bits!  The leaves are stamped onto a So Saffron stripe from the Patterns designer paper stack and a strip of card stock placed across it...

... then the gorgeous coral flowers were stamped and cut out (framelits are available to make this easy!) and laid over the strip. I used Pool Party card stock to punch out tiny flowers to add to the cluster and  the colour pops up again in the mat and the large flower centres.

Here's the colour combination I was using today (right) - I'll be using it again I think!

Here's what you'll need for this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, Delightful Dozen
Ink: Calypso Coral, Early Espresso
Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, Pool Party
Other: Markers, Secret Garden framelits, Itty Bitty punch pack, Basic pearls, Patterns designer paper stack in Subtles, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• It won't be long before the new annual catalogue is here and to make way for the new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links for lists of the STAMPS and ACCESSORIES that are retiring - some at amazing prices! Sale items are never around for long, so contact me as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

I'm still smiling over our trip to Bourton-on-the-Water.  There was a lovely moment in the railway model museum when all the children were pressing the buttons to activate the trains and other vehicles on one of the breathtakingly detailed scenes. "Mummy look!" said my eldest son, his deep manly voice full of boyish excitement. "When I press number three, Thomas comes out of his engine shed!" Ahhh - it was just as if he was three again!

See you tomorrow, for more crafting fun!

When two stamp sets collide - AND BARGAINS!!!

• It won't be long before the new annual catalogue is here but in the meantime, you can nab yourself a BARGAIN!!! Click here to find STAMPS and ACCESSORIES at amazing prices! Sale items are never around for long, so contact me as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

That news is exciting enough but I can't leave you without a bit of crafting...! Don't you just love it when two stamps from different stamp sets look as if they were made for each other? Today's card happened because I had a light bulb moment when Fabulous Florets and Secret Garden were out on my desk. Come and have a look:

I noticed that the solid flower from Fabulous Florets looked rather like one of the outline flowers from Secret Garden so I thought I'd try combining them. I love the effect of the solid and outlined images together.

Here's a close up where you can see that I've used solid and outline foliage from both sets too. The background has been roughly sponged in using Island Indigo ink and I coloured just one of the outlined flowers and added a zing of Summer Starfruit to the centres of both.

The sentiment is a wonderful one from Hopeful Thoughts which I use often and for many different reasons.

Here's what you'll need for this project
Stamps: Fabulous Florets, Secret Garden, Hopeful Thoughts
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, Gumball Green, Island Indigo, Stazon black
Card stock: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Other: Summer Starfruit marker, aqua painter, stamp-a-majig, 
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.

For those of you that couldn't believe how unhandy I was with my husband's mobile phone yesterday, it isn't an isolated event, believe me! Not long ago I was meeting my daughter in town and messaged her using my own phone to let her know I'd been slightly delayed. "Just have to pop into one more shop," I texted and then attempted to add: "See you in a mo." The phone, which obviously sensed weakness and knew who was boss, refused to allow me to say 'mo' and kept changing it to 'month'. The thought of my daughter receiving a message telling her that I'd been delayed by a month had me whooping with laughter in the shopping centre.

Have a lovely weekend!

Three minute card with punches

One of the fun things about getting older is that colours combinations familiar from when you were growing up make a come-back in a completely fresh way. Summer Starfruit has a real 70s vibe and I can just imagine it being teamed with browns and oranges then... but today's three-minute card goes a little psychedelic with the zingy Gumball Green! Come and see:

I'm loving the little designer paper stacks Stampin' Up have been coming out with. They only cost £6.25 and contain loads of different designs and colours of double-sided papers in a size perfect for card-makers. I chose this fabulous design  and cut it into a square to fit my card base, marked the centre and punched a 1 3/4" circle out of it - just the right size to stamp my Secret Garden flower through onto the card base below.

The designer paper panel was stamped with a sentiment in black stazon before attaching to the card base on dimensionals. You need quite a few to keep it solid - I found the 'waste' strips on the sides of the dimensionals pack were ideal for the edges. The central flower was finished with a Basic Black marker and the card was embellished with a punched leaf and flower.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, Just Believe (sentiment)
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White
Punches: Boho Blossoms, 2 step bird punch, 1 3/4 circle punch
Other: Print Poetry designer paper stack, Basic Black marker, Basic Pearls, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

It's so windy here! My oldest son helpfully took the waste paper out to the recycle yesterday evening and provided a brilliant comedy show from my window: the wind snatched a piece of paper, my son gave chase, the paper came to rest on the ground, my son tried to pin it down with his foot, it flew off again...! He came back inside to find me helpless with laughter and, despite the fact that he is VERY cool, he was able to have a laugh at himself too. Bless!

I'll have more designer paper ideas here tomorrow. Hope to see you then,

Sharing Stampin' Up

I love Stampin' Up products! That's not exactly ground-breaking news but it's why I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator. Since then, I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing my passion with others, some of whom have joined me. If you love these amazing products too, there's a you-shaped space in my group - and now is a great time to join because, until May 30th, you'll get to choose an extra £25 worth of products when you buy your starter kit. It costs just £99 and you'll get £155 worth of goodies - and the best bit is that you can choose exactly what you'd like so there's no need to worry that you'll be duplicating products you already own. Interested? Click here to find out more or if you'd like to have a no-obligation chat about joining, give me a call on 01280 820593.

One of my favourite things to do with my Stampin' Up products hasn't changed since I first discovered them - pulling out a variety of stamp sets and getting inky! Today's card is a good example of that - come and have a look:

This is the result of wondering what would happen if I paired some of the tropical blooms from Secret Garden with images from French Foliage. To make the background,  I sponged ink over some Whisper White card stock and added the script and some French Foliage leaves. The focal flowers were stamped over the top, coloured using an aquapainter and given detail with markers. To finish, I stamped the Secret Garden leaves and outlined flowers around the edge of the panel and sponged more ink over them to add depth. Oh boy, that was fun!

And the sentiment? Well, I've already gone into that!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, French Foliage, Life Shared
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Cajun Craze, Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Card stock: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory
Other: Markers, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! OR join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

My daughter is a fervent believer in sharing - especially when it comes to my clothes and jewellery. She's not so much of a fan of replacing the items she borrows, but perhaps that's because she feels that dressing isn't enough of a challenge for me and that I may be invigorated by the thrill of the hunt for a jumper! 

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow so do join me for a quick card!

Triple panel Secret Garden

As always when I've been away, I just want to dive into my crafting and lose myself in creativity... but the laundry says otherwise! I couldn't resist Anne Marie's colour challenge at the Paper Players this week though and the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches inspired me too. I began by stamping a background design which turned out to be too big for my card, so I made another out of the left-overs - which means I can go for a skip about in Di's Snippet playground too, YAY!!! Come and have a look:

This is the snippety one which turned out to be my favourite! I used Secret Garden (fast becoming a favourite) for the background and cut it up into these tiles. They've been arranged on a Crumb Cake card base which I stamped with the leaf image in the set.

I added a line of piercing to balance out this fabulous sentiment from Delightful Dozen. You may notice I've doctored it - I decided I probably wouldn't use a stamp that said 'thank you so, so much', whereas a stamp that said 'thank you so much' would be really useful! I love that I can alter my stamps with a snip of my brilliant craft and rubber scissors.

Here's the other card I made:

I kept it very clean and simple, letting the colours and floral design do the talking, and adding just a sprinkling of glitter for that feminine touch.

Are you curious to know how I made the background? It was very simple:
1. Sponged Baja Breeze ink over Whisper White card stock
2. Stamped Crumb Cake leaves all over it
3. Added the flowers in Rich Razzleberry and coloured them with an aquapainter
4. Coloured the centres with Island Indigo marker
5. Cut into panels, rounded two corners, sponged edges with Island Indigo ink.
What do you think?!

This are the challenges I worked from today:

Here's what you'll need to make today's cards
Stamps: Secret Garden, Delightful Dozen
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White, Crumb Cake/Naturals White
Other: Essentials paper-piercing pack and tool, Island Indigo marker, corner rounder, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP 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 FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Get more for your money - place an order for £250 and choose £65 worth of products free! Or join SU and get £155 worth of products for just £99! Offers end 30th May 2013

This has been a rather long post, and you're probably parched from going so long without tea/coffee, so I won't bore you with any of my domestic witterings - except to say: Trousers in the laundry without removing tissues from pocket - AAAARGH!

See you tomorrow with more crafty goodness,