Just Believing

This is a copy of a SCS masterpiece. I couldn't wait to try out my new spritzing tool!!! The base is Old Olive combined with Certainly Celery and a small amount of Pirouette Pink. The stamp set is called Just Believe and I finished off the card with a small pearl in the centre of a punched out flower. Yay!!

This is page 4 of my Christmas Journal. The photo was from a Christmas magazine. Love interiors etc. from magazines! Ironically the page is called Perfection but I thought I'd sew the cut out to the page... with disasterous results! You can just about see the terrible job I did along the left hand side!!!

Today we've had a little explore outside the house and found that we're no longer trapped! Hooray!! So now we'll be out and about plenty. How is the snow near you?

Post #200!

Wow it's hard to believe this is post #200! To celebrate I've added 4 photos today. Above is a little card that I made using Just Believe stamp set - one I would never have bought but I was given it at Convention and now I'm a convert. Love it!
I used my markers to colour in the flowers on the stamp along with the frame. The sentiment was added afterwards. The cream part is popped up with Dimensionals and then I added a few pearls onto the centre of the flowers.

Above is Day 3 of my Christmas project. It used some retired Simply Scrappin' self-adhesive die cuts and some current papers.

This was Munchkin eating her dinner today. The day had been a busy one as we'd had 3 other Mummies and 2 babies come for lunch. Entertaining her guests had made her weary!

This is Munchkin earlier in the day in her new fairy dress. She really liked it and regularly swished the skirt about! I think she was flirting with her friends the little minx!!

Less than a week til Xmas!

This card is made with new favourite stamp set. It's a Level 2 Hostess Set called Fast & Fabulous. It really is fast! I did these with markers and NO stamp-a-ma-jig (gasp!). Usually I am glued to my stamp-a-ma-jig but while I was creating I was too lazy to go and fetch it... but the stamp set still worked! The colours I used are Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue with Marina Mist taffetta ribbon. The sentiment came from the set, Just Believe.

This is Day 2 of my Journal Your Christmas project. Yes, I realise it's the wrong way around but I cannot get it to sit the right direction, so apologies. Loved this photo and couldn't resist using it. The Serene Snowflake set made making a background super simple.

Lastly, we made a chocolate log and I couldn't resist sitting a robin on it (SU punch, naturally). It was a Nigella Christmas recipe and it is yum yum yum. Munchkin is much better today so I am sure she'll be tucking in to a piece tomorrow.

Journalling my Christmas

Hello and happy Saturday. We awoke in good spirits as it's the end of term and we have 2 lovely weeks to look forward to. And it was SNOWING! Well, to be honest the novelty of that has already worn off but we managed a speedy trip to Sainsburys before we locked ourselves in. Poor Munchkin is pukey - and I don't think it's through too many mince pies.

Above is a scrapbook page for my first day of my Journal Your Christmas 2010 album. This is an online class that Shimelle.com runs and I love it. I bought a fab 12x12" polka dot album from SU and am lovingly filling it up.

This first page is my manifesto of what I promise myself to focus on during the festive season. It's made from a 12x12" piece of Very Vanilla CS and then I stamped with the swirly stamp in Baroque Motifs stamp set in Crumb Cake ink. There's some Jolly Holiday DSP and cute pearls and of course some glitter. Very simple and quick, just like all the pages I make for this month-long project.

Above is another festive project - Christmas chutney. I took the recipe from Nigella Christmas cookbook and filled up a variety of jars that I collected throughout the year. Then I got some red polka dot fabric and tied it on with some raffia. The tag is punched with my SU punches and a piece of Jolly Holiday DSP and a star (I bought a box of these from somewhere ages ago - too long ago to remember, I'm afraid).

More festive posts to follow...

Santa Claus has arrived

Hello and Happy Tuesday! I hope you are having a good week so far. Yesterday I had 20 minutes so I made some Christmas cards. The idea was originally on Michelle Last's blog, she made the Santas into sandwiches with a chocolate, but I used the Santa as a card topper.

Here are the punches that I used. Love my punches!! There's the scallop circle, boho blossoms, scalloped square, window, 1 3/8" circle and the 1/2" circle (going clockwise from the top left).

The colours used are Whisper White, Real Red and Pink Pirouette, all layered on Old Olive DSP. The sentiment was stamped in Whisper White Craft Ink using the words in the Contempo Christmas stamp set, and the eyes were drawn using a Basic Black journalling pen.

It was great to make 6 cards in just 20 minutes. Munchkin liked them so much she tried to steal them while I took pictures!!

Christmas

I can't believe how fast the past week has gone! Unfortunately I don't have much I can share with you all at the moment as I'm busy making gifts for people. However there will be pictures soon, I promise.
Above is our tree this year. Immy is a little rascal so we've had to duck tape the tree to the table and she's had great fun trying to yank anything she can off the tree/table.
Anyhoo have a good evening and see you online soon!!!

Owl-tastic

Hello All! Apologies for the gap between posts - both Immy & I have been struck down with various ailments. I think we're over the worst of it and we're just hoping that DH doesn't catch anything.

This card was inspired heavily by one on SCS. It uses Certainly Celery patterned paper from the Subtles DSP stack. Fantastic value pack! This was laid on a Marina Mist base and then contrasted with Rich Razzleberry satin ribbon.

The owl stamp came from Fox & Friends and the sentiment is from Tiny Tags.

Hope you like-y!!

Christmas tree oh Christmas tree(s)

Morning all! Hope you have had a good weekend. It's another week that's starting and we're creeping towards Christmas at a rate of knots. Less than 3 weeks to go!!

The base of the card is Night of Navy. The hills are Almost Artichoke, cut free hand (you can tell, huh?!). The trees are cut from Pear Pizzazz and then crimped using my super-duper new crimper. Love it. If you've not tried one before you should. I've been crimping everything in sight since it arrived a couple of weeks ago.

The card looked a little plain so I added a sentiment from Contempo Christmas in Whisper White and then a few Basic Rhinestones for the top of the trees.

Have a lovely Monday!!!!

3 Little Monkeys

Hello All! Hope you've had a good Sunday. I created this little monkey masterpiece whilst at the craft fair today. It features the monkey in Early Espresso from Fox & Friends - my current favourite set - as well as wording in the same colour from Curly Cute.
The Two Step Bird Punch punched the leaves out really easily in Garden Green for the little monkeys to swing from. The base card is River Rock - such a useful colour now I've finally taken it out of its packaging.

Here is my stall from the Craft Fair today. I met some lovely people and thoroughly enjoyed telling them about the fabulous products Stampin' Up! have to offer. I had to take the photo so you'll have to imagine me sat in that empty chair!

Have a good start to your week, I'll be back with more projects soon.

Christmas bunting

Today I have something different to show you: paper bunting! I saw this on Shimelle.com and really liked it so I made it using my Stampin' Up! products.

The base is a simple luggage tag that has been embellished. I then ran the lot through my sewing machine with scalloped circles adding a bit of space between them.

There are 3 main techniques: rosettes, ribbon flowers & layered punches. The papers I used were Jolly Holiday papers with lots of bits and bobs such as pearls, rhinestones & buttons. Hope you liked.

Tomorrow I'm having a stall at the craft fair at Frogmore Leisure Centre (near Yateley), 11am-3pm. Hope you can come along and say hello if you are free!

Christmas wreath

This card was heavily influenced by Kristin Moore. She inspired me to use the bird punch in a different way and also to crack open my River Rock CS. The Always Artichoke CS made a nice contrast for the wreath and it was so quick and easy to use the Two Step Bird punch to punch out all those leaves! I never would be bothered to do this by hand.

The sentiment was from Contempo Christmas and the card was finished with some Basic Rhinestones. I coloured the Rhinestones with a Real Red marker. (To be honest, this seems to rub off. I need to coat them with some Crystal Effects to seal the colour onto the Rhinestones.) The Real Red ribbon finished off the card beautifully, I think.
I hope you are having a good end to your week. Our heating broke yesterday so we had an adventure staying at my parents at the last minute! Fortunately it's all sorted out now. Phew! Have a good weekend!

Variations on a theme

After the card I showed you yesterday I got a real bug to make more in the same style but with different patterned papers and stamp sets! This one features Basic Black & Riding Hood Red with Very Vanilla. The papers are Newsprint & Love Letter and the stamps are Artistic Etchings (which is designed to co-ordinate with Love Letters DSP). I think this is a really classic combo and would be good for a valentine card.

This combo is using Nursery Suite papers with Forest Friends stamp set. Cute!

This one features Woodland Walk DSP and Growing Green stamp set - the greeting is from Vintage Vogue.

This last one is a bit boho even for me! It's Greenhouse Garden DSP with Ornate Flowers stamps. I took the greeting from Something Sweet. There's a little bit of Crystal Effects added for texture and the cute flower brad is so sweet!!

Lastly, since we're snowed in again today I made a start on my Christmas baking. We've added more decorations to the tree, made 2 dozen mince pies and lots of gingerbread cookies ready for icing and then hanging on the tree. Yipee!

Lucky You!

Hello crafters! Today I managed to get a couple of minutes to myself to create this beauty. It's heavily influenced by one on SCS. I've layered pieces of Play Date designer series papers and added some animal stamps from Fox & Friends, and a heart punch and button. The sentiment was stamped using a Level 1 Hostess stamp called Afterthoughts. I don't actually like the afterthought parts of the stamps so I have cut them off but I love this "Lucky You" sentiment.

Hope you are safe and well and enjoying some crafting!