Hooray! A male card for a gardener

My brother, Ray, celebrated his birthday last week. He's a lovely man who gets great pleasure from his garden, so I made this card for him:

It's unusual for me to combine lots of different stamp sets on one card but I used no fewer than four sets on this little scene! Can you spot them?

After sponging in 'earth' using a ripped piece of paper as a mask, I added grasses from Wetlands; the trowel from Tag It; speckles from Gorgeous Grunge; and a sentiment from Geometrical. When I first saw this sentiment I saw immediately how I could pick my brother's name out in a different colour and got very excited!

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

Stamps: Wetlands wood or cling, Tag It wood or cling
Gorgeous Grunge wood or cling, Geometrical wood or cling

Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Pear Pizzazz classic inks, plus markers

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Stampin' sponges, 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)

We're enjoying a heat wave here in Buckingham which, combined with all that rain we had in the spring, means the triffids in my garden are preparing to pounce! If I'm not back on Monday, you'll know what's happened...!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Tag It - you're ill!

I am aching all over this morning after a massive reorganisation in our house that involved lugging bits of furniture up and down two flights of stairs! Talk about cardio fitness! In between the spring cleaning I've been catching up with some challenges in Blogland (well I needed a breather!) Come and see the Get Well card I made:

I wanted to make a card using neutrals with some bright pops of colour. The Smoky Slate background paper is from the Neutrals designer series paper stack and I love the way it matches the Smoky Slate card base exactly.

The paper stack contains four different tone-on-tone designs in every single colour in Stampin' Up's Neutrals colour family and I think it's a great investment. Of course the stacks come in all the other colour families too if you're not a neutrals fan!

The topper was made by inking up one of the images from Tag It with markers and cutting it out with the coordinating framelit. Do have a look at this fabulous, versatile stamp set - every time one of these sets is sold, Stampin' Up donates £2 to RMHC which helps families who have children with serious illness stay together during treatment. (Find out more here.)

The inspiration for today's card came from the intriguing colour palette at Colour Me...!

and the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches.

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

Stamps: Tag It wood or cling

Ink: Basic Black, Bermuda Bay and Real Red markers

Card stock: Smoky Slate, Whisper White

Other: Chalk Talk framelits, Adorning Accents embossing folder, Big Shot, Owl punch (for the heart) 

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 SALE-A-BRATION GIFT WITH EVERY £45 YOU SPEND (excl. p&p)

Would you like to know how I got my hulking great teenage boy to have a clear out in his room? First, I gained entry with a pile of clean washing; once in, I chatted about this and that before casually asking if there was anything he'd change about his room if he could. Being male, he doesn't like change so he immediately said no. "Wouldn't it be great to get your xbox in this cupboard," I suggested. "And then when you weren't using it you could shut the door on it." His eyebrows snapped together dangerously. "It would be like a proper editing suite," I continued hastily before he could speak. "And perhaps you could have one of those big leather executive chairs..." Bingo! A faraway look appeared in his eyes. "One of those swivelly ones?" he asked wistfully. "Yes!" I said. "Of course, you would have to clear out the cupboard by the end of the weekend but I could certainly get one of those chairs for you!"

Oh dear, bribery and corruption... but the chair is on its way!

See you tomorrow,

Gift wrapping with my Stampin' Up stash

Some of my Christmas presents needed to be wrapped and sent off last week and I thought you might like to see them.

Don't they look exciting?! I didn't have long to prepare them but my Stampin' Up stash is perfect for prettying up parcels - come and take a closer look:

This is my favourite! I wrapped the gift in Season of Style designer paper which instantly gives a luxurious look, adding a tag (which is actually a Season of Style journaling tag) and finishing with Cherry Cobbler stitched edge grosgrain ribbon tied in a neat flat knot.

This large parcel is wrapped in recycled wrapping paper but is given a special touch with Burlap ribbon tied up in a great big bow.  The tag is made with Crumb Cake card stock and stamped with Festive Flurry snowflakes in Real Red ink.

I showed you this tag the other day - I'd made lots of them! It's stamped with an image from the Tag It stamp set and cut out with the coordinating framelit. I re-used some striped gift wrap and tied it up with white stitched grosgrain ribbon. By the way, the Tag it set is not only a great purchase for your creativity but also to help others: for every set sold, SU donates £2 to RMHC, a charity which provides accommodation to enable families to stay together when a sick child has to travel to get medical treatment.

This is a great tag for children's parcels and is very quick to make using your circle punches. I stamped the fabulous hat image from Embellished Events in Real Red ink on Whisper White card stock, cut it out with the 1 3/4" circle punch and mounted it on a larger red circle cut out with the 2 1/2" circle punch. The pom pom is a 1/2" circle.

This paper had been around for a very long time but it's come into it's own with a Wild Wasabi tag stamped with an image from the Four Frames set and cut out with the coordinating Decorative Label punch. I added some lush stitched satin ribbon in Gumball Green to finish.

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.

A beautifully dressed parcel really can make a impact and the same is true of clothes it seems! My husband came back from a weekend away and noticed my outfit immediately. "You look nice!" he said. And then spoilt the effect a bit by adding "You look like a Caramel bar!"

See you tomorrow,

Three Minute Christmas preparations with Tag It

Three Minute Thursday really comes into its own at this time of the year when everyone's rushing about like mad loons - so here are a couple of quick designs made with a very special stamp set called Tag It.  Come and see:

I'd previously stamped a load of the little Santa image from the set to make tags. They were quickly cut out with the coordinating Chalk Talk framelit and I punched a hole in them and threaded them with bakers twine.

When it came to a Three Minute Thursday card I spotted the tags and realised they'd make great card toppers. So with a little Seasons of Style designer paper and a touch of sparkle - here's the first one:

And here's the second:

I kept everything red, stamping in Cherry Cobbler and selecting only red papers from my pack. Just one of Stampin' Up's gorgeous sparkly rhinestones was enough to finish the cards off nicely.

So why is Tag It so special?  It's because each time one of these stamp sets is bought, Stampin' Up donates £2 to the Ronald McDonald House Charity which provides accommodation for parents so that they can be with their ill children while they are receiving vital treatment. This really is such a worthwhile service - I believe that no-one should have to go through illness without their loved ones being with them and particularly not children.

There are six fabulous images in the Tag It stamp set. It's available in wood mount £20.95 and cling mount £16.95 and coordinates with the Chalk Talk framelits.

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

Stamps: Tag It

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Season of Style designer paper, Basic rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, Chalk Talk framelits, Big Shot

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.

Yesterday I had a laugh at my own blog! I schedule my posts so each morning I log on to check that Mr Blogger has obeyed my scheduling commands. Life (as I keep repeating in the most tedious way, sorry!) is very busy here and yesterday although I pride myself on my thorough proof reading, a mistake got through: Instead of 'come and see' I'd typed 'come an see' - just as if I was writing in the style of William in the books by Richmal Crompton. Do you remember the books? Here's a list of the short stories in the first book, Just William, with descriptions of each (from Wikipedia) that have set me off again:

• William Goes to the Pictures – William's aunt gives him a shilling, so he buys sweets and goes to the cinema. On his way home he is obsessed with acting out what he has seen, much to the annoyance of the locals.
• William the Intruder – William steals the attentions of his brother's new girlfriend.
• William Below Stairs – William runs away from home after reading a book about a boy who ran away and made a fortune in gold. He gets a job working as a servant in an upper class house, not realising that he doesn't like work.
• The Fall of the Idol – William has a crush on his teacher Miss Drew, but eventually discovers she has "feet of clay".
• The Show – The Outlaws put on an animal show in William's room for money and finally decide to use his sleeping Aunt Emily as an exhibit.
• A Question of Grammar – William's wilful misunderstanding of a double negative leads him to throw a wild party in his parents' absence.
• William Joins the Band of Hope – William is forced to join the Temperance movement along with the other Outlaws, but manages to turn the first meeting into a punch-up.
• The Outlaws – The first ever William story. William is forced to spend his precious half-holiday looking after a baby but decides to kidnap him and bring him to the Outlaws.
• William and White Satin – When William is forced to be a page at his cousin's wedding, he becomes a figure of ridicule. However, he soon finds an ally in an equally reluctant bridesmaid, his cousin.
• William's New Year's Day – William is encouraged to make a New Year's resolution by the sweet shop owner Mr Moss. He decides to be polite for New Years Day and ends up looking after the Sweet Shop.
• The Best Laid Plans – A young man misguidedly enlists William's help in wooing his sister Ethel.
• "Jumble" – The story of how William met his dog Jumble.

I definitely need to read these again so I think it might be take-away for tea tonight! See you tomorrow,