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!

Snow!

Hello all! I hope you are well. As a break from Christmas I made the above card. It features Just Believe stamp set and two of the In Colors: Pear Pizzazz + Conchord Crush (as well as some Daffodil Delight). Again, totally CASE'd from SCS. I just loved using my new markers to colour in the flowers and stems and then punching all sorts out.

As I am sure you know (if you live in the UK) there's been a touch of snow. This was the first time that we could "play" in the snow with Munchkin. To be fair, she didn't really enjoy the snow much - too cold and confusing. But one thing she did enjoy was sitting on the sledge with us. Poor hubby is still ill but we got him to pull us along for 5 minutes anyway.

Hope you are safe and warm wherever you are. See you soon!

And the winner is...

For the second hand jumble sale the winner was: Fiona H

For the blog candy: Diane!

These winners were randomly picked by my dear hubby. So the lucky winners can look forward to these goodies winging their way to them soon.

Dear hubby got this honour as it was his birthday on Sunday! Above is a card that I CASE'd from SCS. It's featuring Party This Way stamp set - my new birthday favourite set. The base is made from Crumb Cake CS and then a layer of Wild Wasabi with a touch of Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight & Real Red. Yay!

Other than that I am in total Christmas mode. Above is a bow I made after lovely Amy taught me how last week. It's simply half a sheet of 12x12" DSP. She got the tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers (SCS). The above bow was made with Jolly Holiday DSP.

Hope you are having a good week. We've been hibernating from the cold here and Immy's room has never been tidier!!

I'm back.... with blogcandy!

***This post will remain at the top until 28th November, scroll down to see other posts this week.**

This is a gift card holder that I made based on the one demo'd by Julie at the Stampin' Up! Convention earlier this month. It's absolute genius for giftcard-givers as it makes something that might be seen as impersonal a personal touch.

The stamp set used is Contempo Christmas and it has a little bit of Jolly Holiday paper to bring it all together. Love love love the ornament punch.

Next, here is my blogcandy! There are some lovely 6"x6" patterened papers, buttons, satin ribbon and some stamps - all Stampin' Up! of course!!

All you need to do to win the blogcandy is leave a comment at the end of this post. I will pick a random winner next Sunday (28th November) and announce it here on the blog after 7pm. Good luck!

If you like the gift card holder you might like to attend my Christmas Gifts Class. You will make a gift card holder, a mini After Eights box and a bottle topper all for only £10 per person INCLUDING choccies!

The classes are being held on 3 different dates

• Saturday 27th November 10am-12noon
• Thursday 9th December 7.30pm-9.30pm
• Saturday 11th December 10am-12noon

Contact me to book your place now: blueangelcrafts@gmail.com

Happy Birthday lil sis!

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday and I made this card for her. It's heavily influenced by one I saw on SCS, naturally. The balloons were stamped using the Party This Way balloon stamp in Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight & Real Red. Don't you just love the monkey?He's soooo cute. He comes from Fox & Friends and he's my new favourite little animal. Poor Bambi will feel neglected!!

I couldn't resist using my new markers to make the words have different coloured letters. Yay!

Just in case my sister does check this blog, here is a picture of Munchkin! I know how she likes to see her favourite neice as often as possible. Happy birthday little sister!!

Simple snowflakes

Time for more embossing! haha. The Serene Snowflakes have been calling me!! I embossed them in white on Real Red CS. This was layered on a piece of Whisper White and a Real Red card base. The greeting was again embossed in white on Real Red CS and then layered on a scalloped oval. Easy peasy.
It was finished with a narrow piece of luscious ribbon with a tiny jingle bell. I got the bell from Paperchase and they sell them in packs of 75 for about £3.75. Bargain for adding Christmas cheer to projects.
It's been a weird week what with bugs, ice and the threat of snow but I hope to have more projects to show you later this week.

Simple new colour combo

Happy Monday (or is it Tuesday now?!)

I hope your week has got off to a good start. Munchkin's not been feeling too well but perhaps that is down to the freezing snap of weather!

Today is a card with featuring a colour I am not used to using: Cajun Craze. I've paired it with Old Olive, Marina Mist & Whisper White. There is a simple strip Old Olive CS and then some piercing - can you tell that I have mistplaced my piercing guide?! This Just Believe set is very versatile and I'm liking it more each time I use it. What do you think?

Just Believe

Hello and Happy Sunday! Hope you've had a great weekend. We have been out doing our Christmas shopping and have made a good start. This has left me time for crafting! Above is a card copied from one I saw at Convention. It features the set, Just Believe, which was one of the gorgeous sets we were given there.

This card has a Crumb Cake base and then I stamped the silhouette image using Early Espresso ink. The sentiment was stamped in the same colour on Marina Mist CS. I punched it out with a 1 3/8" circle punch and then distressed it by screwing it up!

To finish I added a small strip of Whisper White CS that had been punched with the eyelet border punch and a few small Rhinestone gems.

See you soon!

CASE'd Shelli

Shelli Gardner is the Co-Founder of Stampin' Up! and I was lucky enough to see her crafting on stage at the European Convention. She showed a version of the card and couldn't resist having a go myself.

The base of the card is Real Red. The Crumb Cake layer had the Fancy Flower punch out of it. Underneath that layer I use a piece of scrap card and covered it with Sticky Strip. (This is super-sticky tape) I was then able to adher 1/4" grosgrain ribbon strips onto the base card, the colours I used are Real Red, Certainly Celery & Marina Mist. Shelli actually used taffetta ribbon but I wanted a brighter look.

The Crumb Cake layer and the Real Red card base sandwiched the ribbon layer to create the card. I then embellished with a little button (sadly retired) that was knotted with linen thread. The leaves were punched from Pear Pizzazz CS as I couldn't lay my hands on a scrap of Certainly Celery using the Two Step Bird Punch.

I stamped a little greeting in the corner using Early Espresso ink with the Tiny Tags stamp set. Easy and cute!!

Hope you are having a good week. I am working on a video tutorial at the moment - just a slight hitch getting the video from the camera to the computer but as soon as I can I'll be posting my first one!! Keep your eyes peeled...

ARGH! Aliens have landed!!

Here is a card that was inspired by my Convention experience. It was designed by Charlotte Harding (I believe) and features Make a Monster. A great little set that I bought in clear. The fantastic thing about clear mount are that you can stamp more than one element of the monster/alien at once.

The colours featured are Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black, Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight and Wild Wasabi. Yum! Details were added with rhinetones and white gel pen.
Here is a view on the inside of the card - you were able to see the monster through the peek-a-boo hole but he looks really cute on the inside of the card! The greeting and balloon come from the set Crazy for Cupcakes - just shows you what a versatile set this is.

The planet and spaceship are all made with punches and the cropadile (for the small holes) so they were pretty quick to put together.

Hope you are having a good week. I've been working away bringing to life all of the fantastic ideas I saw on Convention so keep your eyes peeled!

Happy birthday lil bro!

Hello! It's a miserable Monday morning here but I thought I would share the card I made for my little brother, who's birthday it is today.

It's heavily influenced by one we made on Saturday at Convention. It uses the Party This Way stamp set (which I got for free as a delegate!) and feaures Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz and Tempting Turquoise. I stamped using the same colours of ink so it is tone on tone. The base is made from Crumb Cake and has a Chocolate Chip mat.

The really cool thing is that the arrow on this card spins! You simply stamp the arrow twice and cut them out. You pierce a hole through the centre of one arrow and the centre of the card and use a brad to attach them. Then you stick the second arrow on top using Dimensionals (foam pads). Easy peasy!

I hope my brother likes it. Munchkin contributed by decorating the envelope with some delightful squiggles!

Convention 2010

Hooray I'm home from Convention 2010. There were highs (stamping, chatting and getting ideas) and lows (no hot water and being locked out of my room!) but all in all it was truly an experience!

The best part for me was meeting so many lovely people and seeing how creative they are - hello to you ladies if you are reading this! I was lucky enough to gather around 150 swaps. Below is my swap that I gave in return:

It was stamped using Ornate Flowers. The main image was stamped using markers - Real Red and Pear Pizzazz on Very Vanilla CS. This was layered on Chocolate Chip & Pear Pizzazz CS. The background was stamped in the same colour as this CS - in this case, Real Red.

Considering I only gave myself a week to create the swaps, I was really pleased with the outcome. Before I settled on Real Red for my swaps I got a bit carrided away with my new In Color markers and cardstock and you can see the result, alongside the Real Red ones, below:

My favourite is the Conchord Crush combo. That colour has really grown on me and now I've had to order myself a whole pack of it so I can create so many more projects with it.

In the coming days/weeks I hope to replicate and share some of the ideas and swaps that I saw so watch this space!

Bundle up for Christmas!

Hello! Sorry I've been AWOL for a while. Not been well and there's so much to do! I have managed to get out of bed as I couldn't wait to tell you about the great offer SU have on until 29th December.


Stampin' Up! have put together some gorgeous Christmas bundles for you to choose from, and to complete the festive preparation you get a FREE reel of ribbon with each bundle that you order. Have a look at these (admittedly, slightly fuzzy) pictures of the lush ribbons you can choose from:

Even better, there are some new DSP papers too! With FLOCKING!!


The bundles are as follows:

The offer is good while stocks last.

I love the polka dot grosgrain ribbon and can't wait to order some!! The ribbons have prices against them to show the retail value - you can only get hold of them if you order a bundle from the table above.

Please get in touch if you'd like to order. The postage is £4.95 to your door, but if you're able to collect from me I can combine your order with others to lower the postage cost.

Enjoy your Christmas prep (once Fireworks are out the way!)