Post-it Note Holder

Today I'm showing you a post-it note holder that I made from a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers. The colours are Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla with a hint of Chocolate Chip. Yum! Sounds like a dessert, doesn't it?!
The holder is simply a few folds and then a couple of pieces of tape. Simple but effective. The edge has been punched with the eyelet border punch. I think this is a cute little gift, and who doesn't need post-it notes!

This is a side on view so you can see it a bit closer. The stamp set used for decorating is Ornate Flowers and it's really versatile. Love it!

Today we're having a quiet day. Immy seems to be teething so she's worn out, poor lamb. Have a fun Monday!!

Vintage Dasher CASE'd

This card really stood out when I saw it. The use of a single colour that has been layered is just so elegant. The original, by Sue White, was made in Concord Crush. I thought I would make it even icier and use Bashful Blue.

The method is pretty straightforward although there are a number of steps:

1. Stamp Dasher in Early Espresso on a piece of Whisper White CS and cover with a strip of scrap paper

2. Using Bashful Blue on the En Francais background stamp, stamp this randomly over the whole of the base, get rid of the scrap paper

3. Stamp using the Medallion background stamp on the 4 corners of the card

4. Using a Sponge Dauber, dab Bashful Blue ink around the edge of the CS

5. Using a different Sponge Dauber, dab Champagne Mist shimmer paint around the edge of the card

6. Stamp a sentiment using Night of Navy ink

7. Stick the Whisper White CS to a piece of Night of Navy CS and punch 2 large holes using a crop-a-dile

8. Thread Whisper White 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through the holes and tie a knot. Trim the edges and then adher to the Bashful Blue card base.

Hope you are having a nice weekend. I had a stamp a stack of Christmas cards class today. It was lovely as a met a new lady and we had a nice chat and stamped together. Tomorrow is looking like a day of housework (boo) - needs must!

Mini thank you card

I whipped up this cute card when I was experimenting with my new set, Going Green. Love the delicate lines of the stamps! I stamped the flower image using Crumb Cake (kraft) ink onto Very Vanilla CS. This was then punched and layered on a small piece of Early Espresso CS and the sentiment was stamped in the same colour using the set Curly Cute onto a Pear Pizzazz base.

Hope you are having a good week. Today I am tackling the vast quantity of things I have piled up ready to post and trying to clear my craft space ready for my mini book class tonight! There are still places available if you'd like to come, class starts at 8pm!

Vintage chic

The new stamps have got me going a bit vintage... This card is based on one I saw at the High Wycombe training demonstrated by Shaz. The colours featured are Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry and Very Vanilla. To create the background on the base card it was stamped with En Francais which had been stamped off.

My favourite part of the card was using my Cutter kit to distress the edges of the card. Great fun. Then sponge daubers dabbed on extra Soft Suede ink. There is also a nice bit of piercing down the Rich Razzleberry piece.

As this Artistic Etchings set is a clear stamp set, I was able to double up the stamping of the crown and key on the same ink pad. Easy peasy!

Oh yes, and contrary to my Mum's reaction, the card is meant to be distressed and folded over at the corners!!!!

This cute gift bag is called a Bag-a-lope and the Very Vanilla base is actually an envelope that has been stamped in Soft Suede with Bella Toile (background stamp). Super simple and great to fill with small chocolate bars etc. They would also make cute wedding favours.

Sour cream container

This is a simple lil box. I love sour cream containers. They are so satisfying to create and they always look gorgeous. This one is made from Daffodil Delight CS stamped in the same colour ink using Ornate Flowers stamp set. The scallop circle punch was used to cut out Pear Pizzazz CS and layered on that was another flower stamped and then and yellow one cut out and layered on top. To finish was a simple piece of 1/4" Whisper White Grosgrain ribbon. Voila!

Today has felt a bit like Christmas is here! We made rich fruit chutney, festive seasoned salt and planned all sorts of tasty treats for Christmas. I'm looking forward to decorating all the packaging to the hilt now I have so many punches and colours to choose from! I've also been toying with the idea of making Super-sized *pimped* sour cream containers as gift wrapping this year... watch this space, as I am sure to share them with you if I do give them a try.

Hope you've had a good Monday, and see you again soon.

Scrapbooking retreat

Yesterday I went to a fantastic scrapbooking retreat, that was recommended by a lovely friend, Daniela. I was able to take all my own goodies (SU of course!) and learn new ways to scrapbook. This was the first layout that I made in the 6 hour marathon. It is made using the Simply Scrappin' Kit called One Great Year (page 95).

The colours of this kit are great for all sorts of occasions as the colours are good for boys and girls. The colours used are Elegant Eggplant, Pear Pizzazz and Wild Wasabi. You get 6 sheets of DSP, 8 sheets of 12x12 CS and 6 big sheets of self-adhesive die-cuts (aka stickers). This layout came together in about 30 minutes and the only thing I added was a few clear rhinestone brads, a filigree brad and some dimensionals.

This is a close up of the Munchkin. I know I've used the photo on this blog before but it makes me smile every time I see it. She's such a great explorer.

Today we're going out for lunch with my parents and siblings to celebrate my father's birthday. Hopefully another great photo opportunity! Have a great Sunday.

My Baby is One!

Yesterday was Immy's first birthday. I really cannot believe a whole year has passed! Unfortunately DH and I both had to work so we didn't see the Munchkin much but we thoroughly enjoyed every minute in her company. She's soooo much fun nowadays.

This is the card that I made for my lil one. It's Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Wild Wasabi and Certainly Celery. A bit Halloween-y, but I guess it is the season for it. My Just Perfect Alphabet helped me to make a personalised message, which I punched out with a 3/4" circle punch.

The darling was given a huge array of pretty presents and I wanted to send out thank yous asap. I used my All in the Family set to make a little picture of Immy! I stamped in Basic Black and then coloured it in with my In Color markers in Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade, Conchord Crush and Blushing Bride (cheeks).

I'm in love with my new sentiment set, Curly Cute, and got stamping in White Craft ink for a simple greeting. The fantastic thing about this card is that I get 4 from each A4 sheet of Poppy Parade card. I just cut 3" chunks off width-ways to make tent fold cards. Easy peasy.

Hello! Hope you are having a good Tuesday. This morning I took Munchkin to my cousin's house and she played with her little girl. The two toddlers were sooo cute together!

This is a card I put together when I was making samples for my Catalogue Launch Party. It features DSP called Greenhouse Gala in Daffodil Delight that has been matted on a piece of CS in the same colour. The flower embellishment is Marina Mist CS that has been stamped in the same colour ink using the Medallion background stamp. I then white embossed a flower image from Ornate Flowers and punched the whole lot out with the flower punch.

The base of the card is in Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft) that has been stamped with Versamark to get a cool watermark background. A piece of Marina Mist taffetta ribbon goes around the card. The sentiment is from a fab set called Trendy Trees. Oddly I seem to use the sentiments more than the trees themselves! The sentiment was punched out with the window punch and then a button to the left of the sentiment was added (sadly this button is now retired).

It looks like a simple card but there are plenty of details. Hope you like!

In Color Snowflakes

The colour combination on this card is really unusual for a Christmas card. It's In Colors: Peach Parfait, Conchord Crush and Pear Pizzazz with a dash of Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. If, like me, you have studied every inch of the new catalogue you will be aware that this is a total copy of a card in there. I was struggling with how to use my In Colors but combined like this I think they look really smart.
I must be honest and admit that I don't have Pear Pizzazz ribbon... I used a retired Certainly Celery ribbon, but I think I got away with it!

So, we had the birthday party. Here is Munchkin with her Daddy blowing out the candle. Doesn't she look angelic?!

This picture was taken while she enjoyed her favourite present of the day: an indoor swing! Her Grandma and Grandad were really generous with this gift and they were repaid with the widest grin. I've not seen her legs wave about like that in ages.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more projects and an invitation to join my new stamp club.

Leaning tower of Eiffel

This is a card I case'd from ... you guessed it... Splitcoast Stampers! It was really quick and easy. I love it because it includes some of my favourite white embossing powder! The Eiffel tower was stamped using Versamark and even though I have clear stamps I managed to make it wonky!!! So now it's the leaning tower of Eiffel.

Stamps: Artistic Etchings

Card: Sahara Sand, Marina Mist & Early Espresso

Inks: Versamark, Marina Mist

Other: White embossing powder, Dimensionals, Circle Punches

Today we're celebrating the Munchkin's FIRST BIRTHDAY! I truly cannot believe it. To be fair it is not actually her birthday until Wednesday but we both work on a Wednesday so we won't see her much. We've got both sets of grandparents coming and both Aunties too!

I spent the morning organising the cake table and in Paperchase I found these fabulous cake plates:

I also got the tablecloth from Paperchase. I am hoping that it will survive the weekend and then I can use it for future parties. Below is the birthday cake I whipped up this morning:
It's a plain vanilla sponge, baby pink icing and then I decorated it with mini marshmallows, dolly mixtures, hundreds & thousands and edible glitter. I hope that Munchkin likes it!!

Tiny Tag Friends

This is a card I have case'd from the new catalogue! I love these Tiny Tags stamps and the jewellery tag punch makes using them soooo easy. I love this colour combination of Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip. So simple but looks really complicated. I think it took about 10 minutes to make from start to finish.

The tags are attached with Clear Rhinestone brads, silver brads, Daffodil Delight brads (from the Brights brad pack) and linen thread. I love getting all the embellishments out to play with!

I'm now just waiting waiting waiting for my order of new things from the catalogue. I can't wait to get creating!!

Moooorning! Hope you are enjoying some sunny weather where you are.

This card is a design I've adapted from Splitcoast Stampers (again!) but I have changed the design little. The colours I've used are Rose Red, Certainly Celery and So Saffron. I stampde the flower images using Ornate Flowers on Whisper White. Then I cut them all out and layered them on scalloped flower squares, also in Whisper White.

The coloured stripes are pieces of Rose Red and So Saffron and then at the bottom there is a single layer of Certainly Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon. I stamped the greeting in Early Espresso, and although it says "Happy Birthday" you can imagine that many other greetings could be used.

Right, I am off to my day job now but I will be back with something new tomorrow!

Princess Perfect

I saw this card on Splitcoast Stampers and immediately liked it. Usually I'm not a "princess" fan, but the crown in the Artisitc Etchings set is just sooo detailed. The colours I've combined are Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black and Whisper White.

The green really cuts through the pink to avoid a princess overload! The middle crown was cut out and stuck with a Dimensional to give it height, and a clear rhinestone brad was added for a bit of sparkle.

Today we're having another quiet day and we're off to Nanny's house for a bit of lunch shortly!

Greenhouse Gala overload!

Good morning! I thought I would share some of the cards that have been part of my world for the past month. I'm soooo happy to be able to show them to you!!!

Above is a card that I made for a swap at a training event I attended last month. I thought I had designed something simple... but I can tell you that making 70 was not quite as simple as I had envisaged. Could it be the 3 different patterned papers? The 3 punched elements? The sponging? Or perhaps it's the fact that I left myself too short a time! (Can you tell that it is the latter?!)

Anyway I am thrilled with the result. I even made a blue version too. The patterned paper comes from the Greenhouse Gala DSP. I was over the moon when I saw this paper in the flesh. It is just divine. The colours featured are Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. I used the Hello Again stamp set, and stamped the background using Crumb Cake ink (aka Kraft).

The small yellow flower was punched from the Boho Blossoms punch and finished with a small silver brad. The large flower was made from a large scalloped circle punch that then had petals cut into it and the edges sponged in Pumpkin Pie ink. The centre of the large flower was a Dimensional (foam pad) that was coated in glitter from the Cosmos glitter set.

Finally there was a strip of Daffodil Delight ribbon and a large oval punch with the sentiment. I used a Pear Pizzazz marker to go around the edge of the oval and draw faux stitching.

Hope you are having a fantastic Monday! See you tomorrow.

Catalogue Launch Party

Where has the weekend gone? I am so sorry for going AWOL for a few days. As you will see, I have had Stampin' Up! at the forefront of my mind all weekend...

Since there was the new catalogue to celebrate I held a Catalogue Launch Party and invited those people who had ordered from me in the past year. In total I think that there were 16 or 17 people. To be honest, it got a bit crazy at one point and the house was just FULL!

Above you can see a display I had of the new clear mount stamps. Everyone seemed to really like them, particularly the cool DVD case storage. Small storage and easy to find DVD storage units. Surrounding the display are some 3D projects that I either have received in swaps from various people or made myself. (I am sure that I will be posting pictures of these in the coming days) We began the party with a catalogue treasure hunt. There was a lot of concentration required, as you can see! It was a fun and light-hearted start to the event, and I was surprised at the competitive streak some of my dear friends showed!! As well as their own copy of the NEW gorgeous catalogue (see on the right for an electronic version) everyone got a goodie bag with various flyers, punched shapes and a pen and notepad set. Each pen is filled with a piece of Greenhouse Gala DSP in Daffodil Delight. The notepads had the person's name on them or friend, depending on how long I knew they were coming in advance!! The notepads are covered in Whisper White CS and stamped with an Ornate Flowers stamp in Pear Pizzazz and Poppy Parade (In Colors). I hand drew the faux stitched edging in Basic Black and then stamped the person's name/friend in Daffodil Delight. using my Simply Perfect alphabet stamps. The final stage was a small piece of Poppy Parade CS and voila!
Everyone also had the opportunity to get inky! You can see how lovely and tidy the Make & Take table looked shortly before everyone arrived. Here is the Make & Take project. It's features Baja Breeze (blue), Chocolate Chip and Whisper White and is stamped with Serene Snowflakes stamps. Simple but effective. I think I have a few Baja Breeze converts on my hands!!
Then there are the refreshments! My Mum is a saint and she baked lemon drizzle cake and flapjacks, which complemented my pumpkin blondies and Chocolate chip cookies beautifully. If you look carefully you can see that I even managed to bring Stampin' Up! to this corner of the party too, as I made name labels for the cakes using my supplies!!

And lastly this is the youngest member at the party... Little Alexander. What an angel. Amazingly he slept through quite a bit of the party (read: noisy women squealing) and enjoyed his toys in between that!!

So, another fun Stampin' Up! afternoon. By the way, if you fancy ordering but want to avoid the postage and are happy to pick up your own order, I will be placing an order on the last Sunday of each calendar month for my own supplies and will allow you tag your order on. However if you can wait, you can just go mad and order from me now!! Your order could be with you within days!!

Woo Hoo New Catalogue!

At last I share the new Idea Book & Catalogue with you! It has been tough not sharing the lushness with you the last few weeks!! Sadly I've got to dash to work but I will be back this evening to post a sample. If you are attending my catalogue launch party tomorrow you'll get to see LOADS of samples in just over 24 hours time!!

Have a great Friday.