Congratulations card, Wild About You

So many youngsters who graduate today have such nail biting moments when trying to look for a permanent post, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that my friend's daughter had finally landed a fantastic job after a long search and many disappointments. She likes giraffes, so I just had to make this card for her!

The letters were cut out from Sizzix dies. The "congratulations" was from a Sale-a-bration set, a promotion SU were running at the beginning of the year. I stamped this in versamark and embossed it in white. The edge was punched with a Martha Stewart punch and a strip of Chocolate Chip was matted underneath. I cut the tree trunk free hand, similarly the palm leaves of the tree and the giraffes were from Wild About You set. I was quite chuffed with the result. Probably a bit of artistic licence with the palm tree, but it was easier to do than loads of little leaves. I hope Bonnie liked it. Card stock used was Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive and Chocolate Chip.

Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #9 sketch Challenge

The challenge this week was a sketch challenge and this is what I came up with.

This is the sketch we had to follow to make the card. We had to use colours from the same colour family plus one neutral colour. I thought it would make a nice change to use a length of the double stitched grosgrain ribbon and pull the stitched cotton from one edge to form a "rosette" for my circles, rather than use paper circles. I used a stamp from Pocket Silhouettes for the centrepiece stamped on Whisper White matted on to Regal Rose and Rose Red from the same colour family. My base card was Whisper White and a strip of Regal rose was cut to cover one half, and some Rose Red DSP to cover the other half of base card. The ribbon rosettes were adhered with glue dots and centrepiece was attached with several tiers of dimensionals. I stamped the butterfly in Taken with Teal and added tombow to part of the butterfly, sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds for a little sparkle. I distressed all round the edges with a sponge dauber.

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Live Your Dream

Inks: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Taken with Teal, Versamark

Papers: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Rose Red DSP

Accessories: 1" double stitched Rose Red ribbon, Whisper White grosgrain ribbon, snips, dimensionals, snail

Doodle That Love Notes in So Swirly Gable Box

This is another sample I made for the christmas workshop - a gable box to hold some "thank you" notes. It's a great gift idea for those end of term presents to give to teacher especially at christmas time. It will also hold some sweets or smellies. I used the "So Swirly" jumbo wheel to decorate the Very Vanilla card stock and used Doodle that image to stamp a matching label to decorate the front of the box. I added a jumbo eyelet and chocolate chip taffeta ribbon to finish it with.

The gable box holds little "thank you" cards made from Stampin' Up!'s love notes. To make them, I punched a 1 1/4" circle on a post-it note to use as a mask, sponging the love notes lightly in Real Red before stamping images from Doodle That stamp set. The sentiment is from Wow Flowers.

Stamps: Doodle That, Occasional Greetings, Wow Flowers

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Real Red

Papers: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Real Red

Accessories: 1 1/4" circle punch, wide oval punch, snips, jumbo eyelet, crop-adile, chocolate chip taffeta ribbon

Pillow Box - clear

This favour box was cut in clear acetate using a sizzix die. A strip of SU's Ski Slope DSP was used as a belly band and the scallop oval punched label was just perfect to finish it off with.

Stamp: Oval All

Ink: Bashful Blue

Paper: Ski Slope

Accessories: Sizzix Pillow Box die, Oval Scallop Punch, Bashful Blue striped grosgrain ribbon, sweets

Box in a Bag - Ski Slope

This is a really popular one and has been around for quite some time. It's basically a box base and then you wrap a rectangular sheet round it secured with sticky strip, attach embellishments on the front, attach two round tabs on the top, punch holes in it through which you thread a ribbon to close the box with.

Ski Slope DSP Pillow Box

Another pillow favour box, this time made with Real Red card stock. I used the gold elastic thread to "close" box and overlaid it with a wide strip of Ski Slope DSP attached with a couple of brads. To get that tail effect, use a square punch and position it to make the necessary angle - punch and there you have it.

Ski Slope Sour Cream container

A quick and easy favour box to make - not just for christmas but for any occasion.

Take a sheet of double sided paper measuring 4.25" x 5.5" and lay it landscape orientation. Have the underside of your paper face up. (The side you wish to have showing should be face down.) Adhere sticky strip along left 4.25" edge and a short piece of sticky strip only half way along the top edge. Then put a short sticky strip in the centre of your bottom edge which is the long side of your paper. Do not remove sticky strip backing off on this piece yet.

Remove the sticky strip along the 4.25" side and top edge and roll to form a cylindrical shape (like an empty loo roll), pinch that end together to seal. Fill with your desired filling - any type of sweet, mini marshmallows or savoury treat etc , remove the centre sticky strip backing, and pinch together in opposite direction of the other sealed edge and it will form the triangular shape.

Use a paper crimper to crimp both sealed edges. Attach ribbon and decoration as desired.

Cold Play Tic Tac Treat box

Over the next few days, I will be showing you more samples I made for my christmas workshop this month.

I cut a 3" x 4" piece of Real Red cardstock, scored and folded at 1.75" x 2.25" and rounded off all 4 corners. On the piece of Whisper White measuring 1 5/8" x 2.00" I rounded corners on the right only. A stamp-a-ma-jig was used to position and build a snowman from the "Cold Play" (retired) stamp set. With the 3/4" circle punch, I punched out a circle aperture from the bottom part of the snowman. The ribbon was positioned mid way down before the stamped image was adhered to front cover of box. The box of Tic Tac was adhered inside on right side with sticky strips. You can add a sentiment on the left, if you wish. I finished off with colouring snow in Bashful Blue with water colour crayon and an aqua pen.

This is a great project to use as a stocking filler.

View from the top of the "Tic Tac" treat box.

Stamps : Cold Play (retired) Inks: Black Stazon, Pumpkin Pie
Papers: Real Red, Whisper White Accessories: Red grosgrain ribbon, 3/4 " circle punch, round corner punch, snips, snail, box of Tic Tac, Stampin' Write Marker in Real Red , Bashful Blue water colour crayon, aqua pen, Stamp-a-majig

Meander Book - Ski Slope

This is another project sample I made for a Christmas workshop I did recently. It's made from a sheet of 12" x 12" double sided Designer Paper. I came across the concept in a craft show I went to a while back called a "Zoom" album, photographic paper specially designed and pre-glued (all you have to do is peel off the backing paper) and it comes in an A4 sheet which you put through a photo printer, peel off the backing paper and it's a question of folding it to create this album.

Applying the same principle to a double sided 12" x 12" paper, score at 3", 6" and 9", turn paper round 90 degrees and score again at 3", 6" and 9". Now cut from the bottom edge along the 3" score line but only as far as 3" down from the top edge. Then do the same along the 9" score line, but only cut up to 3" down from top edge. Rotate paper 180 degrees so that both cut edges are now at the top.

The uncut edge is now at the bottom. Now cut at the bottom along the 6" score line but only up to 3" down from the top. Fold all your score lines. Then fold the pages in concertina shape, when you get to the end of the line, fold it under and carry on until the entire "book" is folded. Adhere pages together - only apply sticky strip to the sides if you want to have pockets, if not you can adhere all edges together as desired.

I punched a semi-circle through some of the pages to use as pockets for additional card inserts, some for journaling with and some to add additional photographs. These were stamped on with the stampin off technique. I trimmed a pair of blank beer mat coasters to a tad larger than 3" square and covered with Ski Slope DSP and bound it all together with the Bind-It-All. For the title on the cover, I stamped "Just for You" on Bashful Blue, punched out with scallop oval punch and matted to a scrap of Rose Red.

It's a great gift for a doting grandparent, or even a stocking filler!

Stamps: Ovals All, Snow Burst, Occasional Greetings

Inks: Bashful Blue, Versamark

Papers: Ski Slope DSP, Rose Red, Bashful Blue

Accessories: Oval scallop punch, corner punch, 1" circle punch, bind-it-all, blank beer coasters,
Grosgrain ribbon - chocolate chip, old olive, baja breeze, white embossing powder, heat tool

Panoramic test shot

I've been trying out my new camera using the "sweep" function on a panoramic view of Fleet Pond. Love the result - so user friendly - just point and shoot with perfect results every time!

Ski Slope DSP

For the past week or so, I have been busy making up samples for a workshop based on a christmas theme. I'd seen the round paper bauble ornament on various blogs last christmas and decided I'd have a go myself using Stampin' Up!'s Ski Slope Designer Series Papers. I tried it with the square scallop and loved the result. Dead easy to make, six scallop circles, folded in half, taped on the back with sticky strip, add your ribbon, I used the elastic thread and add any beads before adhering final two scalloped sides together.

Summer by the Sea

I thought it was appropriate to use this stamp set for my daughter's birthday. She's still my baby even though she's a Mum herself and will always be my little girl.

The card base in Bashful Blue was stamped with the Canvas background stamp. I stamped the little girl from Summer by the Sea in Stazon Timber Brown on Confetti White and used the aqua pen to colour the image with Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Bordering Blue and Old Olive, Summer Sun and Taken with Teal. I tore and distressed the edges of Confetti White, matted onto Bashful Blue, matted on to Close to Cocoa, pricked the corners on the left hand side, attached choc chip taffeta ribbon with button latte secured with linen thread and adhered to card base. I punched a wide oval aperture on bottom right of card and adhered a sentiment stamped and punched out in Whisper White which was adhered to inside of card under the aperture and added a heart raised on dimensionals.

Scene in a Garden

This is the card I made for my BIL's birthday. I used the Haiku DSP for the decorative strips and Really Rust to mat with. To position the images from the Scene in a Garden stamp set exactly where I wanted them, I used my old faithful SU stamp-a-majig. Images were coloured in with water colour crayons. I punched out three circles with the 1/2" punch in Really Rust, used the embossing stylus on the circles on a soft sponge surface to create paper "buttons" to match and adhered with dimensionals.

Ringing the Changes and my musings

Whilst not really wishing the summer away, I'm getting ahead of myself and giving my blog another makeover - more autumnal colours this time so when Halloween comes, it'll coordinate! (Just being anal! he he)

I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog as often as I would like, there's so much I'd like to share but I can't until the cards and projects I've done lately have been received by those for whom it was intended.

DH sometimes reads my blog - so if you're reading this, a BIG THANK YOU for my lovely new camera - an early birthday and christmas present, a bridge camera which can do sweep panoramic shots automatically and stitches them together at one click! For my homework up to the run up before we jet off for the holiday of a lifetime - I've got to get au fait with the camera so I can get loads of piccies of the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Bryce Canyon etc - we'll also be stopping in LA, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco. Scrapbooking material for when we get back! The countdown has already started, so we're trying to eat sensibly (not dieting, you understand - how I hate that word, because it starts all those cravings for "naughty" foods) but the aim is to shed some weight. I've been really strong this week, and walked past all the temptations in the supermarket during my weekly shop!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're all having a great summer.

Inspiring Inkin' Challenge #8, A Colour Challenge, Baroque Background

I'm not a truly pink/lilac person and I really struggled with this one, but it wouldn't be a challenge then, would it if we were in our comfort zone. I hadn't even broken the seal on the Orchid Opulence packet and I've had it since I signed up to be a Demonstrator last July! Gosh, has it been a year already?

On to the challenge - the colour combo was to use Kraft, Orchid Opulence, Taken with Teal and Regal Rose and using punches somewhere on the card.

I'd just received a free background stamp from SU - "Baroque" so it had to have it's first airing! I inked it with versamark and stamped on Orchid Opulence card stock, sprinkled with heat and stick powder, zapped it with the heat tool, sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds and set with heat tool again. I then outlined the motif with Orchid Opulence marker and cut out motif, layered and adhered to Regal Rose which was also cut around motif which was then matted on to Taken with Teal. I tucked a piece of Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon before all layers were matted onto a Kraft base card (closest as I could get to Kraft - SU Eu don't stock it) and finished off with a sentiment from Ovals All stamped on Whisper White in Taken with Teal, matted on to Taken with Teal punched large oval and Kraft scalloped oval, raised on dimensionals and adhered to left of card.

Dead simple really - just took a bit of time to cut. I hope you like it.

FREE Ribbon in August!

Stampin' Up!'s Gift to You - a FREE ribbon bundle!

To qualify: -

Make a minimum purchase of £45.oo

or

- Host a £300 workshop!

Bundle includes approximately 9.1 metres each, both 5/8" polytwill ribbon in Certainly Celery and So Saffron!

Offer runs from 1st to 31st August 2009! Leave me a comment and contact details if you wish to make a purchase and I will get back to you pronto. Your contact details will not be shared.

Cuttlebug butterfly

I'm pleased with using this Really Rust card.  I just cut out an aperture, stamped and cut out another in the same shape and adhered to card base then used the cuttlebug butterfly dies to cut out more butterfly images, the base one on plain cardstock, and the top one cut from DSP. Instant card, understated but delivers the message with a punch.

Boatloads of Love, Loads of Love, Circle of Friendship

I used Whisper White for my card blank and stamped a canvas background on front and inside of card.  I stamped the images from Boatloads of love (not available in SU Eu cat and has been retired from current US catty) and Loads of Love, coloured with watercolour crayons and an aqua pen and matted on to Taken with Teal.  The corners were partially punched out with a 1/2" circle punch to create that nipped out look and the lettering was from Sizzix alphabet dies. I think my mojo is perhaps returning! 

I couldn't resist putting in these googly eyes to substitue the "oo" in "look" which I had written using a white gel pen.  I'd made a tiny envelope to put some money in for my grandson's birthday for the inside of the card.  

Pressie from Down Under

My brother-in-law arrived from Melbourne bearing gifts -  my baby sister had sent me all the in colour ribbons and cardstock which are current in the Aussie SU catty!  These colours have been retired from the US catty, but I still love them and prefer them to the new in colours in the US catty.  It was their way of saying "thank you" for our hospitality during my BIL's stay and for chauffeuring him up to Matlock for his skeet (clay pigeon) shooting competition.  

My DD lives in Leeds, so we carried on driving and went to visit her too as she is celebrating her 6th wedding anniversary and I just had to use the new in colours so here it is!

Nothing technical about this card - just a question of stamping, cutting and layering and sticking!  For the "thread" on the buttons - I cut a very thin strip of cardstock to use because I didn't have any matching cotton.  Hope you like it.

The top inside card sentiment is from Circle of Friendship - a really versatile set.  The bottom sentiment - "happy" from Happy Everything, and the "anniversary" from Cheer & Wishes.  I used the stamp-a-ma-jig to position the lettering just where I wanted it before stamping and punched out some hearts, one adhered directly to card base, the other raised on dimensionals to add a bit of interest just below the sentiment.

Anniversary card

It happens to all of us - and I've been stuck for inspiration.  In order to regain my mojo, I had to turn my attention to my private stamp collection (stamp sets not currently in the SU Europe Idea Book and Catalogue and non SU products).   So this card is a combo of SU and non SU products.  If you follow my blog, there will be times when I'll stray off my well trod SU track - so bear with me.  ..."Variety is the spice of life"..... so I'm told.

The "flowers" for this was made with 6 punched DSP (Designer Series Paper) circles which were folded in half and glued together.   The image was stamped in Certainly Celery on a scrap of Very Vanilla, distressed edges all round and inked in Rose Red to match card blank and DSP.  I added a piece of Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon  on the left before matting on to Certainly Celery which had a scalloped edge on one side.   These were then finally layered on to the Rose Red card blank and to finish, I added a butterfly and used some crystals for the body for some extra sparkle.

Inspiring Inkin Challenge #7 A Technique Challenge, Tea Party DSP, Playful Petals

For this challenge, we had to make a Surprise Pop-Up card.  I chose to use the Tea Party Designer Series Paper - the colours are so lovely and fresh, just lovely for the summer.  I will be demonstrating this at my Technique Club, so won't go into the mechanics of how to make this.  

Matching card stock used was Pretty in Pink and Almost Amethyst, Stamp sets - Playful Petals for the layered flowers on front of card and background on tag,  and Best Yet (Hostess Level 1) for the sentiment.  Inks used, Black Stazon, Almost Amethyst and accessories were tombow adhesive, dazzling diamonds, 1/2" circle punch, 1/8" hand held hole punch, trimmer, paper snips, dimensionals and Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon.

When you pull the tag, the front of card pops up to reveal the message underneath.

I applied tombow glue with the fine tip end, sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds and when it was dry, coloured it with Yoyo Yellow marker on the cut out flowers.  Just love it when it sparkles in the light!