Saturday 31 July 2010

Punch Art flowers

This card was also part of my recent Punch Art class a couple of weeks ago. The class is being repeated on Sunday 8th August if you'd like to come along! There are still a few places available.

The idea of the class is to think of creative ways to use punches. This one shows an alternative use for the butterfly punch. As you can see the butterfly punches were layered on each other to create pansy-shaped flowers. The idea was adapted from a box on Split Coast Stampers by Kiwiinaus.

It's tricky to see but the edges of the butterfly punches were dabbed with Champagne Mist shimmer paint using a sponge dauber to give them a subtle sparkle. The centre of the pansies are simply a clear brad. Simple but effective! Obviously since I love stamping I had to add some somewhere on the card and this took the form of Vintage Vogue. The little leaf print is just gorgeous and sooo versatile. It's stamped in Old Olive to match the grass at the bottom of the card. The darker grass was Garden Green (I think). The leaves were punched with the large bird punch, which I must admit is my most used punch!!

Hope you are looking forward to a fun weekend. Lovely husband has been painting our hall and bathroom this week so we are going to go buy some finishing touches: light fittings, mirrors, cupboards etc. Plus all the pretty pretty things. Can't wait!

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Flowers and sparkles - perfect!

A big thank you to all those lovely people who came the second-hand craft sale. All those who attended were just lovely and it was great to finally put faces to names. Unfortunately I hadn't bargained on the Air Show or the fact that it was the end of term so the turn out for buyers was a little disappointing. However we had such a nice time that I intend to organise another sale at a quieter point in the year... perhaps October/November time. Do leave a comment if you think you'd be interested or have any ideas of how to improve the sale.
As I've been pretty busy with our French guest (who sadly went home today, sob!), getting over a virus, decorating the house and planning the sale last weekend I haven't managed to actually finish many projects! There are lots of on the go but I seem to be flitting from one to another. Fortunately my lovely lil sister (who, by the way, saved the day on Saturday with her scrumptious baked items) created the above card. Isn't it gorgeous.

Unbelieveably my sister doesn't think she's very good at the creative side of card making but I totally disagree. I think the Tempting Turquoise base really makes the flowers "pop". She made this card using scraps of patterned paper that I keep in a huge mixing bowl in my craft room. There are bits from the Sweet Pea paper stack as well as a couple of random bits of kraft patterned paper (not sure where from). The flowers were punched with the 5 petal flower punch and the boho blossoms punch. Cards are super-easy with these versatile punches. She finished the card off with some stickles and gems she found in my sale stash! Gorgeous.

N.B. Check out the new classes added to the schedule for August and September! Book your place now to avoid disappointment.

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Look what I grew!

This is what I made our dinner with tonight! I was so surprised because for the longest time I was sure that my grow-your-own efforts had come to nothing. All of a sudden we're surrounded by edible treats! These delights were made into a tasty gratin along with aubergine, tomatoes and garlic with basil. Yum!
As it's been so hot here recently we took the opportunity to take the babies out for a paddle at a local pond. It was glorious and the babas lurved it!

Tuesday 20 July 2010

The French touch

As many of you know we have a lovely French lady staying with us this summer. Yesterday I let her loose in my craftroom to decorate her holiday journal with my supplies. Above is an example of what she produced! I love the picture she took of the countryside near our home. I was also impressed with her creativity - I had never thought to use the bird punch as a template to stencil with. What a fab idea!

Monday 19 July 2010

Punch Art card

This is a card that we made last Thursday at the Punch Art class. We had a lovely evening chatting and creating and the ladies who attended were great fun.

The idea of the punch art class was to show versatile punches can be. This one featured a 1 3/4" circle punch, one of the hearts on the 3 heart punch and the scallop punch. It was inspired by Fletch95 on Splitcoast Stampers.

The flowers were made using the scallop punch and I have shown how to make these numerous times but I still love them. The centre of the flower has a heart that has been coated in Crystal Effects to make it nice and shiny, a bit like a button.

I altered the colour scheme to incorporate Melon Mambo and Soft Suede as I couldn't resist using these new colours.

It was quite a romantic looking card so I used this as a wedding card for the lovely Tidds!

Sunday 18 July 2010

Wedding bells


This is the gift I made for a dear friend who got married yesterday. She had a gorgeous dress and looked really happy. I hope that she will fill this album with photos of her big day or her honeymoon.
Congratulations Mr & Mrs Tidd!

The album was made using the Simply Scrappin kit, Love Stories, featuring the colours Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink and Bashful Blue. The kit is great because it contains cardstock, patterned paper and self-adhesive die-cuts that all coordinate beautifully. Even better you plenty of left over bits and bobs from this project so you can use them to embellish cards, envelopes etc.

Also, don't forget that the craft sale I've organised is next Saturday at St Peter's Hall in Ash from 10-12. There are still a few tables left so book one now if you have craft materials you'd like to sell.