A celebration of friends

Hello crafting friends!

Today I'm sharing the second card I made when I decided I needed to make cards again. I had found a few stray wood-mount stamps (funny how I'm photopolymer all the way now!) and some Stampin' Up markers I'd given my son for school projects but then ruthlessly grabbed back. Come and see:

All the stamps are from retired Stampin' Up sets - the wonderful jar from Perfectly Preserved, the flowers from Garden Silhouettes, the tag from Tiny Tags and the tablecloth from a grid-patterned builder wheel called (and I've just gone off into gusts of giggles over this) Albert. I kid you not - the wheel was called Albert!

I stamped the jar and the flowers, extending the stems so that they rested on the bottom of the jar. To get the water effect, I cut a mask for the jar and sponged ink into it. The whole thing was cut out with sharp paper snips and decorated with a little label tied on with linen thread.

Albert *goes off into further fits of giggles* had been unmounted so I used a tiny bit of glue to get him on an acrylic block. I had to ink him up with a marker as I had no ink pads AND had to stamp him four times without a stamp positioner, but it sort of worked out. (Perfection, as my youngest son would say, is for lame nerds that are cramping on my style! Well yes, indeed! I would totally agree if only I knew what it meant!) I coloured every other square to achieve the gingham tablecloth look before attaching the jar of flowers with dimensionals.

It was a bit of a faff using Albert, and I was going to throw him away, but I can't now because he's become my special friend! Watch out for him on forthcoming cards!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This card was made to celebrate the birthday of a lovely friend of mine. I absolutely love her to bits because she is who I want to be when I grow up! She is full of enthusiasm for everything, always has an amazing new project on the go and sees the best in every situation, as well as being staunch, loyal and always up for a laugh. What a lady!

Do you have any wonderful friends in your life you'd like to celebrate? Any stamps you cannot throw away? Or both? Do tell me about them in the comments below :)

Hugs,

A Spec-tacular hello

Stampin' Up stamps mostly come in sets containing images that have been designed to work beautifully together but, at the beginning of this month, the company released some exciting new stamps that were available as singles. There are some fabulous images but of them all, the one I've used today is my must-have. Come and see:

It's Three Minute Thursday here today, so this is a really quick card - don't let colouring the specs put you off! When I first started stamping, I spent ages colouring the rubber on my stamps when I wanted multi-coloured images but I soon learned that a quick scribble of colour is just as effective!

The label is stamped with a sentiment from the retiring Tiny Tags set. To keep it quick, I cut it out with one of my square punches and snipped the final side with my paper snips, then attached it to the specs panel with a stapler. (By the way, two of the square punches are also on the retirement list and, if you don't already have them, I'd highly recommend going for it. They're great for quick, accurate labels, for inchie-style cards, for cutting ribbon tails on banners, for cutting squares FAST - I don't know what I'd do without mine!)

The Spec-tacular stamp I used today is one of five different single stamps which will only be available until 31st August. They're all cling mount and are priced at £6.50 - £6.95.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Spec-tacular, Tiny Tags (retiring)
Ink: 2012-2014 in colour markers
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Square punch (1 3/8" and 1 1/4" square punches retiring)
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.

I look forward to my children coming home from school. They tend to arrive at different times and come through the living room where I'm usually at my desk so I always get to have a chat. Sometimes our discussions are lengthy and sometimes they're not. "Hi sweetheart! How was your day?" I said yesterday when my daughter came in. "Long!" she said and disappeared upstairs to her room. "Right, " I said to the air. "Well, I can't spend all day chattering away - I'd better get on then!

See you tomorrow when there'll be something fishy going on around here!

Christmas hearts for a Beautiful Season

Any minute now, I'm going to need to send out some Christmas cards! Well, okay, that might be a slight exaggeration but it's only 45 days until the 1st of December and people certainly like to display cards in December don't they?! I thought I'd better crack on with some so, inspired by the gorgeous Green, Brown, Cream and Gold colour scheme at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, and the Heart theme at CASual Fridays, here's what I came up with:

I made a mask with one of my Labels framelits and sponged Summer Starfruit ink into it to create a golden glow. The pine needles from Watercolour Winter were stamped over the top and Early Espresso ink sponged round one side for a little definition before removing the mask.

The heart ornaments from Tiny Tags were stamped in versmark on Naturals Ivory then heat embossed in gold. I used the small heart punch when cutting them out - it's not an exact fit but it certainly helps! The card was finished with this lovely sentiment from Beautiful Season.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Watercolour Winter, Tiny Tags, Beautiful Season (sentiment)
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, Early Espresso
Card stock: Very Vanilla, scrap of Naturals Ivory
Other: Big Shot, Labels framelits, Sahara Sand marker, versamark, gold embossing powder, heat tool, 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, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. 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 +44 (0) 1280 820593.

I was listening to the great Pam Ayres on the radio yesterday and was delighted to hear some of her housework tips: Fed up with hoovering but like the warmth of carpet? Pam recommends installing hard flooring and sticking bits of carpet to your slippers instead! Cleaning your windows is a mistake she says - dirty windows stop people from looking in and seeing the mess! I may not have taken all her advice but my housework was done in record time!

I'll have a designer paper idea for you tomorrow - hope to see you then!

A Perfectly Preserved marriage!

It's all about weddings at the fabulous Less is More challenge today - and we all love a wedding don't we?! I hope you won't groan when you see my card today... there might just be a jar on it!

I promise I DO have other stamps it's just that I haven't got over my Perfectly Preserved stamp set yet! Moving swiftly on - I started by getting some texture going on the background with a mixture of dry and heat embossing before adding a jar of hearts.

I love this jar to bits as you may have noticed! I stamped it on acetate with white stazon before cutting it out (there are coordinating framelit dies to make this easy.) The hearts are cut out of scraps of watercolour paper using my Owl punch (yes really!), and the jar is secured with glue dots behind the label and a little glue behind the outline of the jar.

It's hard to see in the photo but this sentiment and the little label on the jar are embossed in gold,  and I added a few pearls for that luxurious feel.

I was so pleased to see that my card for last week made it to the showcase - thank you for choosing it Chrissie and Mandi!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Perfectly Preserved, En Français, For My Family and Tiny Tags (sentiments)
Ink: White stazon 
Card stock: Very Vanilla, scraps of watercolour paper
Punches: Owl builder punch, Jewellery Tag punch
Other: Versamark, gold and clear embossing powders, heat tool, Big Shot, Stripes embossing folder, white bakers twine, Basic Pearls, 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 the Retirement Lists - my last order from these will go in at 8pm tomorrow, please don't leave it too late! 

I meant to get my card posted much earlier but my daughter wanted me to go to a local car boot sale with her. It was a glorious day in Buckingham today and there were heaps of stalls to browse. We were looking at a stationery stall when our eyes landed on a herd of small plastic cows arranged amongst the envelopes and packing tape! "And suddenly," said my daughter. "There were cows!" She does make me laugh.

I shall be back on Monday and there'll be lots of excitement here because there'll be a brand new catalogue going live! Whoopee! There'll be heaps to show you so do come and join me for that.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

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,

All in the Family wedding card

I had such fun making today's card! I had the idea when I was making this card and got thoroughly involved in the characters as I was colouring them. I had the adults in the card holding hands and that set me thinking about romance and weddings. Come and see what happened:

Just look at them! I think they met at his sister's wedding and had a wonderful time dancing together. He took her phone number promising to call her and she was devastated when the call never came. Little did she know that he had his suit dry-cleaned with the scrap of paper still in the pocket and so he lost it. He couldn't get his blonde beauty out of his mind though and spent ages trying to trace her with his sister's help. In the end his persistence paid off and when they met up again it was as if they'd never been apart. He finally proposed on valentines day a year later, presenting her with the most beautiful diamond solitaire on bended knee. She had no hesitation in accepting of course and here they are - radiantly happy on their wedding day!

I really enjoyed dressing the happy couple! I sketched in a jacket over the shirt, tie and trousers he came in and made her a pretty vellum frock, adding lacy looking detail with my white gel pen. I chose a red theme for the wedding - have you noticed how he's wearing Cherry Cobbler socks to match the stripe in his tie?!

It's the little details that make a card special and I enjoyed giving my bride a bouquet to carry (stamped with a tiny floral stamp in Tiny Tags and added to with markers) and adding a single, tiny pearl to embellish her lacy gown. 

This beautiful sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes nestles inside scored lines and I introduced more texture to the card by embossing half of the card front with my Square Lattice embossing folder. Finally, with a watercolour pencil, I shaded in some grass for them to scamper about on!

 Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: All in the Family, Tiny Tags, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Grey

Card stock: Very Vanilla, scrap of vellum 

Other: Markers, watercolour pencils, white gel pen, Square Lattice embossing folder, Basic Pearls, scoring blade, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Click here to see all the free Sale-a-bration sets and don't forget to let me know which ones you'd like - remember, you get one free item for EVERY £45 spent!

Last year my son was invited to sing in a small choir at the wedding of one of his teachers. When I asked him whether he'd enjoyed the wedding he said that he'd particularly enjoyed a story told by one of the couple's friends during the service: A pair due to wed asked their mothers' advice before the wedding. "My socks are so smelly - what shall I do?" asked the groom. His mother suggested he get up before his wife and wash them out. "My breath is so stinky in the morning - what will he think?" worried the bride. Her mother told her to brush her teeth before he got up in the morning. On the morning after their wedding night, the bride got up early to get her teeth brushed but woke her husband as she got out of bed. "Oh no - my breath!" she gasped covering her mouth. "Oh no!" he cried. "You've swallowed my socks!"


Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back here very soon.

Hugs,