Easter Blossoms mothers day card

This month's theme over at Make My Monday is Spring and the particular challenge this week is to make a mothers' day card. I've still got my brayer out and have been dying to try the blossom from Easter Blossoms against a vivid spring sky, and I thought it would work well for this challenge. Come and see how it looks:

I've used the brayer/resist technique again, which always makes the image pop. The rubber on the stamp is coloured directly with markers and stamped onto Whisper White card stock a couple of times. I went over the image with a Versamark pen and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. When the water-based ink is brayered over the top, the image resists it.

I've been asked many times for my brayering tips so here they are:
• Make sure your brayer is inked evenly all the way round.
• Don't work directly on a hard surface - a thick pad of paper works for me
• Always start brayering just off the edge of your card stock to avoid harsh lines
• Expect to ink up loads and loads of times and keep blending!

I sponged the edges of my blossom panel with darker ink to emphasise the depth of the sky, then mounted it on White card stock trimmed with the eyelet border punch. A seam binding bow adds to the feminine look and contrasts nicely with the Bashful Blue card base.

Doesn't this sentiment from Petite Pairs made a lovely mothers day message? I used my markers to colour the rubber before stamping and then cut the image out with a 1 1/4" circle punch. A circle cut with a 1 3/8" punch makes a perfect mat for it and I've attached mine with dimensionals.

Here's what you need to make today's card:
STAMPS: Easter Blossoms, Petite Pairs
INK: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist
CARD STOCK: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz
OTHER: Subtles markers, Pear Pizzazz seam binding, Eyelet border punch, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, versamark pen, clear embossing powder, heat tool
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.
As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.


Last week I went to Northern Ireland to attend the funeral of my uncle - and I'm just thinking that the sentiment on my card today could have been his epitaph. He was a much loved and truly christian man and the amount of people paying their respects over the days after his death and at his funeral was phenomenal. Although he died quite suddenly, he had actually been ill with leukaemia for about six years. You never would have known it though: he just cheerfully got on with his life, popping in and out of hospital as if it were a social venue - and of course they loved him there. He was a real character who thoroughly enjoyed the company of others whether young or old, and as well as often instigating gatherings, he was the life and soul of them. He will be missed terribly.

Thank you for visiting me today and letting me ramble on. It's three minute Thursday here tomorrow so if you're looking for a quick card, this is the place to be! Hope to see you then,

Lovely as a tree brayering

A friend of mine has recently got the brayering bug and she's got me all inspired too! I got my brayer out over the weekend to have a go at the brayer/resist technique and came up with this birthday card for today's Masculine Monday post:

The brayer gives a real intensity of colour and a wonderful airbrushed quality that I love and if you're thinking of buying one, I can highly recommend the Stampin' Up one with its soft rubber. I started by stamping the oak leaves from Lovely as a Tree and colouring them with a blender pen and ink. The leaves are then covered with versamark - this is easy with a versamark pen - and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. That makes them waterproof so they resist the ink when you brayer over them. I used Bashful Blue and sponged the edges with Marina Mist.

I have several leaf stamp sets and love combining them. This oak leaf from Autumn Splendor, is a completely different style to the one from Lovely as a Tree but works really well as an embellishment. I've used the acorns from the set too and added a knot of linen thread for extra interest.

I always think it's a great idea to build up a diverse collection of sentiments. This one is from a retired hostess set and it has definitely earned its place amongst my favourites. I chose to stamp it in Cajun Craze which really 'sings' against the blue sky but fits in nicely with the natural theme.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Autumn Splendor, Afterthoughts (retired hostess set)

Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Cajun Craze

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

Other: Markers, stamp-a-majig, clear embossing powder, versamark pen, heat tool, brayer, linen thread

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!

I hope you had a good weekend. It rained here all day yesterday and my youngest son and I curled up and watched a lovely film called 'Black Stallion' about a boy and his horse. Halfway through the film, my husband came in and hovered about for a while a puzzled look on his face. Eventually he said: "So how is this about pirates?" I shook my head sadly. "It's called Black Stallion," I told him. "Not Black Galleon!"

I'll be back tomorrow with some elegant designer paper creations. Enjoy your Monday!

Sail Away - a new lease of life

Masculine Monday is back! Lots of my customers tell me that male cards are the thing they find most difficult so, every Monday, I post a male card for a bit of inspiration. I made today's card for the St Lukes Charity Challenge where this month's theme is to 'give a new lease of life to something old, tired and destined for the bin'. Well I could certainly do with a new lease of life but since that's a bit of a challenge, I had a bit of a rummage round the house for something else! Here's what I made:

The background was a scrap that I'd used to practise brayering on during the holidays. It wasn't very smoothly done so I'd thrown it in the recycle bin but I thought I could rescue it and create a storm for the Sail Away stamp to sail in! Here's a closer view:

I teamed the boat with elements from French Foliage and I think they work really well together. Come to think of it, everything works well with French Foliage! Can you see where I've sponged the uneven brayering with white? After that I crumpled a piece of scrap paper, put it into the Night of Navy ink and dabbed it on. This creates lots of movement gives a wild and windy effect - bit like the weather we had last week! Do you like the sails of the boat? They're coloured with my white watercolour pencil - I love my pencils!

My other piece of recycling was this embellishment. I got a pair of posh secateurs for Christmas which were attached to the packaging with a screw and one of these washers. I found the other washer in the tool box and tied them onto my card with a scrap of linen thread. I always like a nice group of three so I added one of the tiny silver mini brads too.

Supplies needed for these projects:

Stamps: Sail Away, French Foliage

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Night of Navy, Crumb Cake

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Whisper White

Other: Watercolour pencils, silver mini brad, linen thread

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. 

I've got distracted haven't I? I'm supposed to be showing you all the loveliness in the new mini catalogue! Well I'm at sixes and sevens to be honest having spent the weekend in bed with a temperature! My husband was off on a business trip which left my three children to rise magnificently to the occasion. Headed by my teenaged daughter, they formed a crack team that shopped, cooked, cleared away, mopped my fevered brow and entertained me - in fact, I don't think I've ever enjoyed having a bug so much in my life!

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you'll pop back again this week as I've got loads to show you, starting with something purple tomorrow...!

Hugs,