You are my sunshine!

Hello and happy Tuesday! I have dragged myself out of my sick bed to share this card with you! It's my entry into the HSS sunshine theme challenge!

It was inspired by a stamp I saw in the new US SU catalogue which features a sunflower. This is as near as I can get! I covered the medallion background stamp with Daffodil Delight ink, then a layer of Pumpkin Pie around the edge and then ran a Tangerine Tango pad around the very outsides to give them further definition.

I was not happy with my original stamping as I thought that the centre wasn't yellow enough so I stamped the centre again and punched it out using the 1 3/4" circle punch. The sentiment came from the set, Something Sweet, and was stamped in Tangerine Tango also. I cut it out freehand to keep the swirly-ness as it reminds me of rays of sunshine.

Tangerine Tango is soooo overlooked in my projects. I love the colour so I aim to use it more!

Naughty cat birthday card

This is a card I made for my father-in-law on his birthday last month. It's based on one from SCS. Using punches makes cardmaking really quick and easy. I used various punches to create the cat: 5 petal flower punch, 1/2" circle, large oval and the window punch. The treat cup has some fish stamped in it from Something Sweet stamp set, then I put a white chocolate fish inside as a little extra gift.

The patterned paper was from the Brights stack - these are an absolute bargain. Check them out in the catalogue!

We've not done too much today which is nice as yesterday was pretty hectic. There are still places on my Alien cards class this Saturday morning if you'd like to join me!

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!

Insect-licious

Having seen a fabulous tutorial on Monica's site (you can see it here). I thought I should break out my Something Sweet stamp set. In the tutorial Monica used a cute ladybird chocolate but I couldn't find them down here. Instead my DH found these liquid filled jelly sweets at Tesco's on Saturday.

The base of the card is made from More Mustard CS with a layer of Old Olive retired DSP paper. The Whisper White card has little leafy prints on it in Certainly Celery and Old Olive using stamps from the Tiny Tags stamp set. The bugs heads on the card are free-hand drawn on and their bodies are sweetie stamps. The magnifying glass handle is stamped in Close to Cocoa (I'm really going to miss that colour when it retires at the end of September!)

These sets used are both on offer this month, with 20% off until the end of August 2010. This makes the Something Sweet stamp set just £19.16 instead of £23.95, and the Tiny Tags stamp set £15.16 instead of £18.95.

Hope you are having a good day. We're having a quiet one as the weather is so miserable. It's been a day for bulk baby food making!

Jelly Bean machine

Noticing a trend? Yes, I really do like playing with the Something Sweet stamp set! This design was cased from one I saw on SCS - but don't ask me which as I can't find it again now.
This card was more an experiment with colours as I just could not decide what colour to stamp the jelly bean machine! In the end I plumped for Basic Grey. I think maybe a lighter colour would have been more effective in hindsight. Perhaps Certainly Celery? The other colours on the card are So Saffron and Regal Rose.
Today I've been a complete misery guts as I am so tired! So not much creativity at present but hopefully my mojo will return soon.

Yes, yes I have been a bad blogger recently. I have so many cards to show you but it feels like no time in which to post them currently!
The above card is Bashful Blue and was used to display some of the gorgeous Sweet Pea stack of papers. Various circles from different patterned papers and then they were layered up with Dimensionals (foam pads). The sentiment is from Something Sweet and is embossed using white embossing powder. Simple but quite sweet, I think.
This card is using the lovely Vintage Vogue set. The large flowers were stamped using Versamark ink and then clear embossing powder. The Chocolate Chip ribbon is pinched with a decorative brad. I rarely use this green colour (I can't remember the name, it might be Garden Green?!) but I think it makes it quite striking.

Beautiful baby

Another card from my Open House. This one has mint imperials inside it. The design is super-simple and would be easy to make for birth announcements. The stamp set used is called Something Sweet and goes perfectly with the treat cups. The hole made for the treat cup is made using the 1 3/4" circle punch. Easy peasy!!
Who wouldn't like a sweet treat to come through the post?
Oh and don't think that the whole card would be ruined if you removed the sweeties. The back panel was stuck with repositionable adhesive so it's easy to stick back.
Today I'm off to a carboot sale, which should be great as the weather is so bright and springy. More photo opportunities for my Week In The Life project....

Boy birthday bugs

At long last here is a card from my Open House. This card has inspiration taken from the fabulous Mrs Wonka, who did a card a bit like this but her bugs were ladybirds. The other inspiration was a post on Andrea Walford's site.
The bug bodies are made from punched circles of Sweet Pea designer paper. Love that stack! The bug bodies are made from the word window punch and the small circle punches. The leaves come from the bird two-step punch. The magnifying glass contains Smarties mini eggs as they had the funkiest colours. The stamp set for the maginifying glass handle is from Something Sweet.
The tab has been punched out and the sentiment comes from the Fun & Fast Notes set.
TIP: Do not place a chocolate filled card in the sunshine! The poor little eggs on this card cracked from the heat!!
Hope you are outside plenty and enjoying the sunshine.