Christmas stamp sets - not just for Christmas!

Hello crafting friends!

I loved all the festive cards I saw people making with the  Stampin' Up stamp set From Our House To Yours. I've only just got my set (due to my own incompetence!) so I've missed the Christmas boat, but it's come in very handy for making a new home card AND a valentine!

CARD ONE
The new home card was so much fun to make.

I used my new Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border dies to make clouds and bushes and the Wavy Border dies to make hills, and stamped trees as a background. The house was stamped on a scrap of card stock and fussy cut, and I stamped the tiny heart over the window below the roof, before tucking it into my scene.

I added a sentiment from Holiday Home (retired) before mounting the scene on a card base I'd splattered with pink ink. That was a bit too much fun and had to restrain myself from looking for other things to splatter ink on!

CARD TWO
My second card is a simple one layer card that uses the same tiny heart as the first card as well as the larger heart that comes with From Our House To Yours. Two hearts for the price of one!

Using Calypso Coral and Cherry Cobbler inks, I stamped a patterned on the edge of the card base with the hearts. I didn't use my stamping platform for this, I just 'used the force Luke' - that's a Star Wars reference that we say in my family when we just busk it!

The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks II which I stamped and cut out, then attached to the card. To give the card a touch of unexpected colour, I finished the card with gems I'd coloured purple with an alcohol marker.

Two card designs, different occasions, same stamp!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking Card One up with CAS(E) This Sketch - I LOVED the retro sketch there this week! Card Two will be my second entry into both Less is More's One Layer Card challenge with the theme 'Offset' and Perfectly CAS's One Layer Card, using one third of the card or less; I was totally inspired by Just Us Girls this week too with their Red Pink and Purple colour challenge.

Both cards will be my entry for the Twofer challenge which is celebrating its second anniversary with a Hearts challenge! The stamp both of my cards have in common is the small heart. Congratulations on two years of fun and jollifications ladies!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Near where I live there are some large fishing ponds and yesterday afternoon, Eva and I went for a walk there. We are used to the natural beauty of the area and were quite sad to find that a brutal, prison style fence had been put up round the ponds. I stopped to talk to some men who were working in there and they told me the fence had been put up to keep otters out - apparently they eat the fish. As I walked on I came to the part where a stream flows out of the ponds and was surprised to find there was no fence there. Now, correct me if I'm wrong but I have always believed that otters are intelligent little creatures who enjoy a romp about on land but who are also keen swimmers. I wondered in what way the prison fences were going to prevent the otters from casually back-stroking in, dining on some plump fish and then leaving the way they came in. There's something a bit er... fishy going here I think!

It's okay, you carry on being on the computer, I'll just wait here...

Right, I'm off out into the sunshine with a very patient little pupper who's only had one walk today and is feeling a little bit disappointed about it!

Hope the sun is shining on you today!

Moving house with Life's Adventure by Stampin' Up

Yesterday I was very excited to share the Stampin' Up retirement lists with you and explained that this year's hostess stamp sets are about to retire too. I showed you a card made with I Like You and today it's the turn of Life's Adventure. Come and see:

The images in this set are fabulously 'sketchy'. For my new home card I used the house, giving it a wash of colour with an aquapainter and ink and cutting it out with my sharp paper snips.

The house was mounted on a hill embossed with the Spring Flowers embossing folder on p.19 of the spring/summer catalogue. I punched circles out of a piece of Soft Sky card stock so that when it was mounted onto the card base it revealed the white card below and formed clouds. Isn't that fun?!

• The exclusive hostess sets are designed to reward customers who place an order of £150 or more. Any time this happens, you'll earn 'credits' which can be 'spent' on these specially-priced hostess sets or anything else you fancy from any current catalogue. The best news is that the order can be your own or a group order, so it's well worth showing a catalogue to your friends and family.

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE TODAY'S CARD NOW!
Click on any item to be transported to my online shop!

Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz £6.25	Spring Flowers Textured Impressions Embossing Folder £7.50	Life's Adventure Wood-Mount Stamp Set FREE as part of hostess rewards	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky £6.25	1" Circle Punch £11.50	3/4" Circle Punch £11.50

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products from me any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

I really enjoyed making the little scene today but I think that cute house would be a bit exposed in real life! There is a happy medium though and I have to say the triffids in our garden are getting out of hand again, climbing the walls of our house trying to get in. A long string of clematis made me jump out of my skin the other day as it slapped against the window in a sudden gust of wind! It needs sorting out but I imagine that gardening with Eva could turn into high comedy...

 I'm so excited about tomorrow's Artisan Design Team blog hop and if you're always looking for ideas for using designer paper, you'll definitely want to join us! See you tomorrow,

Four Feathers framed artwork - Stampin' Up Artisan blog hop

Hello and welcome to another fabulous blog hop from the Stampin' Up Artisan Design Team! Are you ready to see what the team have made to inspire you today?

A DIFFERENT WAY TO STAMP
Have you noticed how feathers are a huge trend at the moment, not just in the crafting world but also in fashion and homewares? For my project this week, I decided to use the beautiful Four Feathers stamp set to make a pretty piece of wall art. Come and see:

I love the simplicity of this and it fits in beautifully with the style of my home, although it would also make a great gift. The best bit though is that it's SO easy that absolutely anyone can make it!

The background is a piece of watercolour paper cut to fit a frame I bought in a sale for a couple of pounds. I inked up an acrylic block with Soft Sky ink, spritzed it with plenty of water and dragged it across the paper until I had the shape I wanted. While it was drying, I rolled out some of Stampin' Up's Simply Pressed Clay, stamped my feathers into it and left it overnight. In the morning I cut the feathers out with my sharp paper snips, tied them together with Linen Thread and mounted them onto the inky background with glue dots.

Before putting my artwork into the frame I attached thin strips of dimensionals to the edges to keep the feathers from squashing up against the glass - that wouldn't be the elegant look I was going for at all!

Are you ready to hop around the world to see what my fellow Artisan Design teamies have been up to? Click on the button below where you'll find Allison Okamitsu waiting to inspire you in Canada!

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE MY WALL ART NOW!
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my online shop) 

Four Feathers Wood-Mount Stamp Set £12.95	Four Feathers Clear-Mount Stamp Set £9.95	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper £4.50	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Clear Block I £10.95	Simply Pressed Clay £6.25	Paper Snips £8.95	Linen Thread £3.95

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy your Stampin' Up products any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

When he was at primary school, my eldest son enjoyed a school trip to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. My eldest son has never used several words where one will do (unlike my youngest son whose tongue runs on wheels!) so when asked whether he'd enjoyed his day he gave me a terse "Yes." It turns out that he is also master of the understatement because when pressed about what he'd particularly enjoyed, he replied: "I liked the drawings on the walls." Here is an example of the 'drawings' he was referring to:

See you tomorrow for more crafting fun!

Hugs,

Moving house with Holiday Home by Stampin' Up

Have you seen Holiday Home in the new autumn/winter Stampin' Up catalogue? It's the stamp set with the cute houses and you probably heard me shrieking when I saw it - even if you live on Mars! You can make all sorts of scenes with this fabulous set, as well as quick cards like this one, made to welcome someone to a new home:

This is just one of the beautiful little houses in the set. I stamped three of them in a row - very easy to do as this is a photopolymer set and you can see exactly where you're stamping. The houses were stamped in Memento black ink and coloured using inks and an aquapainter. I usually use Stazon for watercolouring but my Memento pad was out (yes, I'd been using my blendabilities again!) The ink is waterproof when dry - I gave it a quick blast with my heat gun and it worked well.

The sentiment is just one of several in the set, celebrating different occasions, and I embellished with a tiny heart cut out of Cajun Craze card stock with my Owl punch.

By the way, if you're worried that Stampin' Up's photopolymer stamps are poor quality or stamp badly, let me reassure you that they give great results and certainly don't stretch or tear. Buy them with confidence!

BUY THE SUPPLIES TO MAKE THIS CARD NOW!
(Click on each item to find it quickly in my online shop) 

Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set £13.95	Whisper White A4 Card Stock £7.50	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95
Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad £4.95	Aqua Painter £12.95	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad £5.50

My shop is open 24/7 so you can buy Stampin' Up products any time, day or night.

If you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm happy to help.

You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

I hope you like today's little card - especially my readers on Mars!

See you tomorrow,