Take out box

Last week my friend Julie came over and we had a go at making take away boxes from the Petal Cone die. Normally the petal cone is long and pointy, but we trimed it down to make it flat enough to stand alone.

We made it from Bravo Burgundy as I can't stand it it is my least favourite colour and we were just experimenting. However, I was so pleased with the finished box that I couldn't resist decorating it with Mocha Morning flocked paper. To get the right shape I cut out two more petal cone dies out the patterned paper and then simply trimmed them down to fit. It means that all the angles are still precise and then finished look is more professional looking.

Turns out Bravo Burgundy looks pretty yummy next to those luxury papers!!

Fluffed up flower

Hello! Today I have a card that was a lot of fun to make! Its flower embellishment was made using the Big Shot and the big flower die. I cut two sizes of flower from about 4 layers of white tissue paper each. Then I pierced a hole and added an antique brad. Once the flower was stuck to the card front it was possible to fluff up the edges to make the flower more 3D.

The card on the Soft Suede base was Bashful Blue from the colour stack and the spotty pieces were from Nursery Nest. I didn't realise how well they went together until I saw them side by side in my scraps box.

I'm definately going to make some more tissue paper flowers as they were so quick and easy. They'd also be lovely on a gift bag too.

Birthday wallet

This card was inspired by one I saw on Jenni Pauli's site. Yes, yes, have you noticed I am a big fan of her designs? I just love them. Sadly the front of this project has not turned out how I envisaged.

Fortunately the inside is much better:

I made the central envelope using the scalloped envelope die on the Big Shot but I trimmed it down by 2 scallops to make it a bit smaller. It was a fab project for using scraps of patterned paper and scardstock too.

This would be nice for a good friend or if you wanted to dress up a money-type of gift.

TIP: stamp BEFORE you stick everything down!!! (I learnt that the hard way on this project.)

Button hole

 Good morning!

Today's card was based on a Christmas bauble card I saw on Pinterest but I decided to make a blue birthday one. There's a Whisper White base with a Bashful Blue patterned paper piece over the top. Both layers were punched through with a 1 3/4" circle punch and the inside area where you'd write your message had the birthday greeting stamped.

Here is a (bit blurry) close-up:

I had a lot of fun adding buttons, rhinestones, silver brads, pearls and mini brads all around the edge of the circle. Above it I added a knot of Victoriana lace as it looked a bit blank without anything.

Not sure if the circle represents anything now, but hopefully it doesn't look too bauble-like!

Birthday wishes

Last Thursday was my Brother-in-law's birthday and I thought I would show a picture of the card I gave him. I actually did a video on how to make it a while back, which you can view here.

I'm going to try a variation on this for a 75th birthday soon, so keep an eye out!

Goth birthday card

Hello and Happy Monday!

It's the beginning of another fabulous week so I thought I would go back to show you some cards. There will be another one tomorrow.

This card was based on one by Linda Aarhus. Her one was Pool Party and Black but I thought Peach Parfait and Black could be fun.

The postage stamp was used. This is technically not available to order just now but it is sure to be available again soon, I think!! I also used the Boho Blossoms flower punch to cut out both the black and orange flowers. A few rhinestones and a Happiest Birthday Wishes hostess set greeting, and voila!

The finished card reminds me of something perfect for a slightly goth/emo type!!

My new make-up bag

Shopping in Boots the other day I saw a blank makeup bag on sale for £4 with pockets. Perfect for customising!

 I found some photos I'd had printed for mini books and trimmed them, layered onto Twitterpated papers. Gosh I love these designs.

To finish I used scraps of ribbon, buttons, brads, rhinestones and die cut shapes that I had left over from other projects. How easy is that?!

No one will have a make-up bag like this and when I get bored I can change the panels over. Plus the patterned paper is double-sided which means the inside is beautiful too.

Twitterpated Cushion

Hello and Happy Saturday!

Today I have a project to share with you that I have been meaning to make for a loooong time but have finally done it.

It's a ruffled cushion!

It uses the Twitterpated fabric in the Summer mini catalogue.

It started off as a cheap cushion cover from Primark. I think it was about £3 or less.

 I cut three 3" strips of each fabric and then used my sewing machine to ruffle the fabric. It was surprisingly easy to do. I'd never done it before so I thought I'd look it up. Basically you sew two rows of the longest stitch length next to each other and then gather the ends up.

I'm so lazy I did not even hem the strips. I think next time I might spend the time hemming and ironing everything.

 Once the ruffled pieces were ready I lay them across the cushion cover and then figured out the space needed between the strips. It turned out to be 2" gaps. I used a pencil and ruler to make marks so I could line up the strips.

 Next I sewed the ruffles on and covered up the rough edge at the top with some lovely Blushing Bride pleated satin ribbon. Lush!!!!

 And here it is, a simple ruffled cushion cover made by a non-sewer! Plus it only took an hour or so to do. I'll have to give this sewing lark another go soon, me thinks!

Breakaway butterflies

This card was a bit of an experiment. To be honest I am not sure what I thought of the result but I thought I should share it as you might have some good ideas/comments.

I used a few scraps of DSP from the colour family stacks. The butterfly punch cut out the shapes that were then "reconstructed"! Pretty quick and simple but I feel like something is missing...

Anyway, the greeting is from You're Cherished, a set from the Simply Sent range. I added a rhinestone and a few glimmer brads to finish...

All comments and suggestions are gratefully received.

Happy Anniversary M&D T

Hello and Happy Anniversary to my In-Laws! Today is their special day and I have made them a card to celebrate!

It's a pretty close CASE from one I saw on Jenni Pauli's site Paulines Papier, the #1 Demonstrator for SU in Germany. I cannot say how much I love her creations. She is just so great at coming up with simple designs that look classy.

I can but try to follow!

This card is pretty simple. There is a Crumb Cake base with a layer of Pear Pizzazz on top. Then there are panels of Whisper White. The top wide panel had some Pear Pizzazz spritzering on it and then some pearls and rhinestones. The bottom left panel was dry embossed on the Big Shot and the bottom right panel was simply stamped in Pear Pizzazz from my favourite sentiment set: Teeny Tiny Wishes.

The heart embellishment was really simple as it is an embosslit. It cuts out the heart shape whilst also embossing it all over with tiny hearts. I cut it twice and then used a heart punch to cut the white heart out so it could be layered onto a Pear Pizzazz one. Finally a glittery glimmer brad in the same colour was added along with a little linen thread.

I hope Mr & Mrs T like the card and we look forward to celebrating with them at the weekend!

And the winner is...

At last I have organised the winner of the prize drawer.  The winner is my 17th Follower: SweetNCrafty.

Do let me know your postal address and I'll get your prize off in the post ASAP!!!

Birthday treats

Woo hoo it's Wednesday! Half way through the week already; where does the time go?

Today's card was inspired by L W Designs. To be fair I changed it up quite a lot.

The base is Peach Parfait and the patterned paper Top Note shape was cut from Just Add Cake DSP. These are the colours that influenced the birthday greeting from Happiest Birthday Wishes, hostess set.

The heart was stamped in Poppy Parade using the Sweetheart stamp set and then punched out to add a heart shaped treat cup. Did you see what the cup is filled with? I was so excited to find these miniture Love Hearts. I also found loads of other miniture sweets so that was a fun little trip. You would have seen more projects with them if only I hadn't scoffed them so quickly!

I thought another colour was needed so I added some Early Espresso and Pear Pizzazz. Kind of a fun retro colour combination, I think!!

Have a great Wednesday and see you tomorrow for another project share.

Scrap-tastic

Good morning

Today's card is another one inspired by a card made by another person. This time it's inspired by a card made by Shannon Jaramiffo of EZPeasyCards.com. You can see her original card here.

Again, I raided the scraps box and got strips of patterned paper and cut Vs into them. These were stuck onto a Whisper White base; to match this the stamped panel was also Whisper White mounted onto Daffodil Delight.

The greeting is from the Simply Sent range on page 104. They are easy to overlook but I love the cute words from You're Cherished. The box looked a little empty with just the words so I punched some flowers using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch set with rhinestones. I found a lone Filigree brad which looked perfect in the top left corner with a glimmer brad through the centre.

I hope you like this card and that you try restricting yourself to only using scraps sometimes. It's a fantastic way to be thrifty and creative.

Heartfelt Thanks

Happy Monday!

Yes it's the beginning of a new week and time to kickstart your creative muscles!!

Today's card was inspired by Jenni Pauli. You can see the original card here.

There is a Soft Suede base and then a layer of Timeless Portrait patterned paper and Very Vanilla cardstock. I happened to have Sweetheart stamp set on my table and used the greeting from that set for this card. All the red is Cherry Cobbler. It felt a bit weird using such a Christmas-y colour in June but it does look lush next to the Soft Suede, don't you think?

I did a bit more experimenting today though. I bought white bakers twine and had a go at adding a custom stripe. I did this by wrapping the twine around a ruler and then using a Cherry Cobbler marker to add diagonal stripes. This gave the twine a traditional bakers twine stripe. The tip was given to me by a lovely customer, so thank you Veronica!!

More Fathers' Day cards

*Don't forget to sign up as a follower by 8pm today to be in with a chance to win a stash of Stampin' Up! goodies! The draw will be done after 8pm tonight. Check back to see if you won! *

 So there are a few more Fathers' Day cards to share with you. That is the joy of having these lovely men in our lives: lots of lovely cards for them all. Mr T loved the card made by Munchkin in the previous post.

Above is the card I made for Mr T Senior. It's got some nice masculine rustic papers and a trio of gold brads. I hope he likes it.

This is the card I made for my own father. He was a big fan of Spirograph as a child so I thought I would make him a spirograph inspired card. It uses Delicate Doilies in Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie. I had to add the little heart to show him how much I love him!!

I hope you are enjoying a day with your Dad or thinking of him if he's no longer with you or you are unable to be together. Later we are going to have a big family roast cooked by me, so I'd better get the oven on!!!!!

Daddy's Day

Happy Fathers' Day! I wanted to show this cute little creation that Munchkin made for her Daddy.

Yes, I know she's only 2 but she has a keen crafty mind and honestly made this with only a little help from me - supervising the scissors and placing the letters in the right order etc.

She started by using the punch called Heart to Heart which cuts out three cute little hearts with each press of the punch. We dug through my patterned paper scraps and used all shades of blue so that they coordinate nicely.

The hearts were positioned at random by Munchkin using PVA glue (gasp!) onto Very Vanilla. She's not quite got the hang of my Snail glue yet!

Then the Big Shot came out. Gosh, she was so excited to turn the handle all by herself. We used my  new alphabet dies Alphabet Simple Letters. They are nice and tall but not too wide. Perfect for cards and scrapbooking alike.

The final addition was a clip on the left handside from the Clips Assortment. Munchkin loves my rotating Stack & Store Caddy and felt that the card would only be complete if she added something from there! When this was clipped on we stuck the whole card front onto a Pool Party base.

Voila! A cute Fathers' Day card made by a two year old. Who says all this stuff is for grown-ups!!!

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with your family today.

See you again soon when I will announce the winner of my 500th Blog Post draw!

Flutterby

Hello All! Welcome to the weekend! Although it's Fathers' Day tomorrow I thought I'd share a more feminine card with you today.

The card base is Night of Navy (even though it looks purple-ish on the photo). The next layer is a piece of Newsprint DSP. I LOVE this paper. It's really great to tear and crinkle, like I did on this layer. I also sponged the edge with Soft Suede ink using a dauber which is a great way to add a bit more vintage-ness to the already vintage style paper.

The next layer was a bit more complex. I cut 3" x 1/4" strips of Crumb Cake card and then wove them together to make a basket weave look. The ends of the strips were cut randomly to make them look rough and ready.

The butterfly (All A Flutter) is a great versatile stamp in the A La Carte section of the catalogue. It was stamped in Soft Suede ink, and then guess what? Yes, I coloured it! I used my ink pads to pick up: Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Riding Hood Red and Perfect Plum inks. The hardest part was cuttting out those anntenae! To make the butterfly *pop* I used a circle of Very Vanilla behind it.

I made this card for the lady opposite who has recently been unwell but has now returned home from hospital. She has a beautiful garden which is always full of butterflies and other creatures buzzing about!

To celebrate  reaching 500 blog posts this week I am offering a surprise goodie bag of Stampin' Up! goodies and cards I've made if you start following my blog!!


Sign up to follow before 8pm on Sunday 17th June 2012 and I'll choose a winner at random. You'll then have 72hours to claim your prize and send me you details so I can post you a surprise goodie bag!!!!


If you're already a follower you will automatically be entered into the draw.

Princess birthday card

This card was made with Little Princess, a stamp set I earnt at the Award Ceremony at Convention in Disneyland Paris last year. If you'd like to come to the next Convention in Mainz, Germany this November why not become a demonstrator? Contact me for more information.

 I've not used this stamp set too much but I actually really adore the images. The card base was stamped all over with the glitterly sparkles stamp in Daffodil Delight. I was going to use So Saffron to match the card I used but it wasn't really bright enough to show up. You need some contrast to show up effectively. Fortunately the colours blend really well at Stampin' Up! so the colours look great together.

Currently I'm into colouring. I'm not sure where the new obsession has come from but I'm going to blame Munchkin as she is extremely partial to a spot of colouring on an afternoon. I used Pink Pirouette for the face and arms, Pretty in Pink for the dress and ribbons, Lucky Limeade for the frog and Daffodil Delight for the hair/crowns. Such a sweet combination and not too sickly, I thought.

My favourite image from this set is the frog. He's so cute and I love his crown. I'll have to make sure this set gets used again soon!

Baby shower

Today is my 500th Post! To celebrate I am offering a surprise goodie bag of Stampin' Up! goodies and cards I've made if you start following my blog!!

Sign up to follow before 8pm on Sunday 17th June 2012 and I'll choose a winner at random. You'll then have 72hours to claim your prize and send me you details so I can post you a surprise goodie bag!!!!

If you're already a follower you will automatically be entered into the draw.

Today I was thrilled to receive this invitation in my pigeonhole at work. It's to my lovely friend Amy's baby shower at the end of the month. Such a cute card that I couldn't resist sharing it with you.

The card is made of a regular card blank that has had portions cut away. The top of the sleeves has the crease. The leg and neck holes were made with circle punches. The teddy bear comes from the set Every Little Bit which is full of cute images that are perfect for so many occasions.

Such a sweet little card and it's so exciting that Amy is having her baby in just a few short weeks!!

Cups of thanks

One thing I don't think anyone can have enough of is thank you cards. I love the one layer cards I saw on Vicky's website, Crafting Clare.... this is my interpretation.

I stuck with In Color 2011-13 collection so they all were simple to put together. The background square was sponged and then the teacups were stamped on top. I am finding so many uses for this Tea Shoppe set. When I first got it I was thinking of a couple of cards but now I have to resist the urge to use it on all the cards I create!!!

The colour used for the cups were repeated for the sentiment and I couldn't resist adding a few Rhinestones! I guess that is my little touch to Vicky's great design.

I hope you agree these are cute little cards and even better they were a breeze to make en masse!

Happy Birthday Natalie

Today is my lovely upline Natalie's birthday! I hope she doesn't mind me spilling the beans about her milestone birthday. I made this card inspired by one I saw on SplitCoast Stampers by Mary Brown.

The base is Lucky Limeade with Basic Grey mats. The strip of patterned paper is from Twitterpated, which you'll find in the Summer Mini catalogue. Gosh I love this paper set. It's kind of filled the gap left by the lovely Sale-a-bration papers we had earlier in the year.

The Big Shot had some good use in this cut with die cutting shapes and numbers plus dry embossing the Whisper White panel with Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. There is also heat embossing for the birthday greeting that was embossed in white.

I hope she has a great birthday!!!

Haven't I seen this before?!

Yes, yes, this is a design I have shown you before. You can see it here.

However, I couldn't resist having another go with a couple of different colour combinations. These are monotone but the top one is Melon Mambo and the one below is Black with Basic Grey stamping. You might also be able to see I did some embossing on the white panel of the black card. I think this would be a nice sympathy card but I couldn't decide on a suitable stamp so it got stuck being a Happy Birthday card!!

I'm just LOVING the Apothacary Art stamp set. It is so classy and elegant. Just like me (mwah hahaha).

Let me know if you'd like to place an order as I would be happy to do that for you. Or if you just want some advice about stamping you can email me too: blueangelcrafts at gmail dot com

Special 70th

My parents are going to lots of milestone birthday parties this summer so here is one card I have made for a dear friend of theirs.

It's using Paisley Prints papers, which I adore. There's a strip of Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon all crinkled across the join and then I took my Big Shot out and did some cutting! I used gold card for the curvey shape and Cajun Craze card for the numbers.

To make the flower so colourful I used the marker-to-pen technique and used all the different colours contained in the Paisley Prints papers to ensure the image matched perfectly. The stamp is from Ornate Flowers, I believe. I am losing the plot with names and dates this week as I have been rather worn out by a small person; who seems to be testing my patience!!

I'm quite pleased with this result and I hope the recipient will like it too.

Have you got any milestone birthdays coming up? One of mine is next March but I am warming up by attending a friend's 40th this summer. 2012 is full of important dates it seems.

Bordering on original

This card is based on an original desgin by Karen Barber.

My version uses Early Espresso as a background. I then used the same colour ink and stamped the large clustered flower image from Bordering on Romance onto Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade and Peach Parfait cardstock and cut the images out.

Once the images were laid out and lightly glued onto the Early Espresso base I ran it through the dotty dry embossing folder on the Big Shot. This brought all the pieces together to make it look a bit like custom-made patterned paper. The colour combinations are endless and you can have a lot of fun stamping and cutting if that's your thing!

I hope you are having a great weekend and I will be back soon with more cards.

Thank you downlines!

Last week I received a call from Stampin' Up! HQ congratulating me on my leadership bonus. I was thrilled and also a bit surprised. I'd taken my eye off the ball so I thought I'd best make some cards to thank the downlines directly responsible for me receiving the bonus: Fiona, Bev and double thanks to Diane!

 The card base is Crumb Cake that has been stamped all over with the Very Vintage wheel using Soft Suede ink. This wheel is fabulous as it makes a really aged look but super fast.

 Then I set about using some of the products I ordered in my latest splurge: Apothacary Art and the matching nesting dies. Plus I purchased the watercolour pencils and used them to colour in the images. Oh how I have fallen in love with these!!

 The top version is Pool Party, then we have So Saffron and then at the bottom it's Pirouette Pink. Which is your favourite colour combination? I think I like them all!!!

Baby girls

Hello all! Today I have two similar cards for you, but made by different people so they are slightly different. The first is my CASE of the card I saw in the Summer Mini Catalogue 2012.

I switched up the colours a bit to match the papers I used from Just Add Cake. The base is Blushing Bride with Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait. It's tough to see in the photo but the white card is actually shimmer card and looks really shimmery in real life. I made this card to celebrate the birth of my friends Julia & Adam's baby girl Holly. She looks really cute in the photos and I can't wait to meet her in real life!

The second card is my sister's CASE of my card! Again, she used Blushing Bride as the card base along with some Blushing Bride patterned papers from the In Color 2010-12 stack. I love the variation she made as it's so girly and cute.

Craft room tour (part 2)

After looking back at the original craft room tour I realised I'd left off my most used parts of my craftroom! So here is a small second instalment filling in the gaps.

This card (below) was made by my sister for her flatmate's birthday. I love the colour combination: Poppy Parade, Rich Razzleberry and Pumpkin Pie. She stamped the Delicate Doilies stamps onto vellum and then attached it using the narrow strip of Rich Razzleberry grosgrain ribbon. What a fabulous card!

We had fun time over the long weekend, the highlight being going to the Hawk Conservancy near Andover with family. Here is Munchkin with a cute owl on her arm. She looks so pleased! Since then we have not stopped hearing about how she held an owl. I think she enjoyed herself!!!! What did you do over the long weekend?