Thank yous

Here is a quick thank you card I made from leftovers in the boutique box kit (seasonal catalogue).

Really quick and simple.

Here also are a couple of pictures from our weekend in London. We went to celebrate my forthcoming birthday.

There's one of us together when we went out for dinner and the other is the view from our bedroom window at the hotel of Marble Arch. A really lovely treat of a weekend!

Spirograph inspired

One of my Dad's favourite activities as a young boy was playing with his spirograph, which is what inspired me to try this technique of wrapping Island Indigo bakers twine around a large scalloped circle.

 This was layered on a Pool Party base and a Top Note cut out on the Big Shot in Soft Suede.

 Here is a close up of the central image.

The Thank you sentiment was embossed in Silver.

Not long now til Christmas preparations go wild!!! So many great projects to share with you starting on Saturday 1st December!!!

Summer 's back?!

This card makes it feel like summer is coming back. It's inspired by one on Pinterest but I used Summer Silhouettes as the stamp set as I didn't feel there was enough stamping on the original design!

 

As you can see there are lots of nice floral images, which I can't wait to use. The background stamping was done with the border stamp in Crumb Cake to match the base card colour.

To make the patterned card to punch out the butterfly from, I used the arched blossom cloud to create a unique patterned card in Primrose Petals. This was layered on a large scalloped Tangerine Tango circle and a piece of Primrose Petals CS.

Clockworks

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to a Leadership event that Stampin' Up! ran. It was an awesome day out and the best bit was getting a free stamp set! This one is called Clockworks (pg105).

We made these cute notecards and matching envelopes with some fab colours: Pool Party, Gumball Green, Calypso Coral, More Mustard and Basic Grey. The images all overlapped and made a sort of collage effect, which I love.

This isn't a stamp set I would have chosen at the top of my wishlist, but now I have started playing with it I am hooked! I'll have another card made with the same stamp set later this week.

Grateful Leaves

Hello and Happy Monday! It's been a busy weekend and I he been working hard on a Scrapbooking kit for you. I'll show you that tomorrow...

 

Onto today's card:

It's based on a card I saw on Pinterest (of course!) made by cardmaker2 on Splitcoast Stampers.

 

My version uses French Foliage leaves and I stamped them on white shimmer card in Certainly celery, Lucky Limeade, Gumball green and Garden Green. Don't recognise the name Gumball Green?! Yes it's a little preview of one of the new In Colors for 2012-13!!!!

The background card is Pear Pizzazz (so sad it's going in a couple of weeks :( ...) and I spritzed it with Chocolate Chip ink for interest. The main stamped image was matted on Early Espresso and a sentiment was added from Apothacary Art. Indeed you're right, you can't purchase this set but I'm here to reassure you it WILL be in the new main catalogue! The card was finished with a Very Vanilla satin bow, which I was glad to use as I'll miss all the satin ribbons.

The weekend has been fantastic: warm weather, BBQ, cycling trips, running, lie-ins and family laughs!!! Hope you've had a good weekend too.

Beeline

Hello and happy birthday to my lovely cousin Katrina, who turns sweet 16 today. She's away adventuring in Africa at the moment so today's card is not really for her, but I didn't want to let the occasion go unnoticed.

This card was based on a punch art one seen on Pinterest (naturally!) and I used the set Reason to Smile to create a floral background on Whisper White with Daffodil Delight ink. Only 5 more days left to get your hands on this fabulous set!

The bee was made with the bauble punch. Sooooo much more than just a bauble, it punches the perfect shape for a bee's body. A 3/4" circle of Basic Black was added for a head. To make the wings vellum was cut with the large oval punch, and  they were then sponged with some Basic Black ink. The same oval punch was used to create the bee's stripes on the body and the anntenae.

Such a fun little card! Have a great Sunday. I'll be at work this morning and then hanging with my family in the afternoon enjoying the extra long weekend!

Background Resist technique

This card features the technique: Background Resist. The words were from French Foliage in Early Espresso. I then used the solid bloom stamp in Reason To Smile (special offer set this month only!) and used Versamark and Cherry scented embossing powder to create a solid flower image.

A sponge dauber was used to apply Wisteria Wonder ink in a soft layer. This made the flower image come to the foreground and allow the words underneath to be seen too. A quick sentiment from Petite Pairs was added along with a piece of ribbon tied in a bow.

NB. The card was altered from one on Rubber'n'Ink.

Just Thanking

A couple of weeks ago I did a party for a nice lady in Bracknell. To thank her and her guests for having me I made them these cute little cards. They were quick and easy to make and were about 4x4" square of Whisper White base.

A 1" strip of Baja Breeze DSP was added along the bottom and the leaves from Just Believe were stamped in Pear Pizzazz. I simply inked the stamp once but pressed it on the card 3 times to give a shadow effect. A little Baja Breeze flower punched with a flower from the mini punch pack finished off the design. I managed to make 7 of these in about 15 minutes as they are so simple but I think they look really effective.

Teacher Thank You

Last week was the end of term for a lot of children around here and I wanted to share a project my dear friend Rachel created. She is the parent representative for her child's class and had to organise a class thank you present for the teacher.

We came up with this idea. Rachel wanted to have a space for everyone to write their name. We worked our way through my scraps box and punched and die cut images galore. It was then possible to allow each child to choose a shape to write their name on. We could add a main message and voila! A sweet little (actually, rather LARGE) thank you!

Now for the Munchkin fans! I've had a number of complaints that I've been neglecting showing off my little darling. If you weren't one of those then look away now! Here are a couple of photos I received while I was at training yesterday of Munchkin at her favourite place, Bird World!

Box of thanks

 It was my dear friend Jo's birthday party at the weekend and I offered to make her a box of thank you cards as a gift so she could send them out to her guests for gifts she'd received. I saw the design on Shelli Gardner's blog (founder of SU) and adapted it using my own stash of ribbons and adorable Everyday Enchantment papers that are back for this month only!

I made a box to put them in so she can keep special cards she receives as gifts:

 It took no time to put together using my Simply Scored tool! It was fun to spend some time adding more matching paper to decorate it along with some pleated satin ribbon in Pear Pizzazz.

 The cards were straight forward. Each one had a Whisper White base with a panel of Crumb Cake. I used all my different thank you sentiment stamps and stapled a piece of patterned paper and ribbon to the front.

To get perfect angles on my pennants I measure the diagonal distance on my square punch and then made the strips of paper the same length. It was then easy to punch pennants that were all equal and straight!

The box top had an Apothacary Art stamped top from the Summer Mini catalogue. To colour it with my inks I picked out the colours that were in the patterned papers: Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze, Peach Parfait and Lucky Limeade. The Big Shot helped me cut it out and make a mat to match.

So that was one gift I made for my friend. Check back tomorrow to see the other one!

If you'd like to order some of these yummy Everyday Enchantment papers while they are still available, or anything else from the Stampin' Up! catalogues, I'd be happy to put an order through for you. Contact me: blueangelcrafts at gmail dot com

Cuuuuute

A while back I went to my lovely friend Amy's baby shower. It was a HUGE party with over 30 guests and although I wasn't able to stay long I had a great time.

I was thrilled to receive this thank you card made by Amy for the candle I gave her to focus on during the early stages of labour. It's got some Big Shot embossing and the cute baby comes from the set All in the Family. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and was punched out with the Word Window punch.

Here is the candle I made as a gift:

It's a plain church candle and I've stamped baby foot prints and a sentiment from the baby set in the Summer Mini 2012 onto white tissue paper. The tissue paper was then attached to the candle using heat from my heat gun. Simple!

To finish I wrapped it in cellophane and added some bows and a label (that's hard to see in this photo). The label was made from parchment paper that was punched and embossed with white onto Baja Breeze card.

Apologies for the rubbish photo! I forgot all about taking a photo until I was just about to dash from the scrapbooking day I was demonstrating at to the party!! I feel glad to have taken a photo at all.

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!!

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!

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!!!

Cup of tea?

Hello all! I've been trying to post to my blog all week and I'm having no luck!! I will continue trying to sort out the issue. Forutnately I appear to have been lucky and can post this one card that I made this afternoon.

It's based on one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers and I forgot to see who exactly made it. I changed it up quite a bit so I think I can safely call it mine. It uses the adorable set Tea Shoppe that is in the Summer Mini 2012 catalogue.

LOVE this set. I am not sure why as I don't drink tea but it's just so sweet I couldn't pass it up. I like the combination of words and images that can make up all kinds of cards from contemporary to vintage. The colours used are Whisper White, Pool Party and So Saffron, which are pretty classic and clean.

Also, don't forget the new Starter Kit! It's just £99 for £130 worth of goodies (all your choice, there's no preset bundle) plus business supplies valued £45.

Even better, if you sign up in May you can get a ticket to the SU European Convention in Germany for FREE. That's amazing as tickets are usually £149! Contact me if you'd like a no pressure chat: blueangelcrafts at gmail dot com

Hope you are enjoying the long weekend and getting some crafty time. We have been out to the cinema, cycling, running, cleaning, eating and seeing family.... and it's only Sunday! Cannot wait for what tomorrow brings.

Variations

Here's a card I CASE'd from Crafting Clare. I love her designs!



Obviously I couldn't resist a little play. The stamped background uses the Fruit & Flowers set in the Spring mini catalogue. Below is a colour variation where Pool Party was swapped for Wisteria Wonder.



The words are a Saleabration set Outlined Expressions. The words are embossed in White and then coloured using darker toned marker to make them pop.

I absolutely love this design and it would be fabulous to make a set of cards as a gift using the person's favourite colours.

One layer challenge

Hello all! Finally here is my Less Is More challenge entry this week!



The challenge was to make a one layer card featuring "something with legs". So... I used a Very Vanilla base and stamped the monkey from Fox & Friends in Soft Suede. I coloured the bellies with a Crumb Cake marker.

The sentiment came from Trendy Trees and was stamped in Crumb Cake and was finished with a couple of pearls. Voilà!

Berry Good

Now for something fruity! It's been so sunny lately that I've been feeling summery!! I needed to make some cards for the ladies who ordered at my Mini Launch party last month so I thought this was just the ticket.

The stamp set is that old favourite, Tart & Tangy. Such a fabulous set and I just love using markers to colour in the different parts of the fruit. I used Real Red and Old Olive and I hope it doesn't look too Christmas-y? I always associated that combination with that but I think I got away with it!

Monogram copycat

Just a quick one today. This was a total CASE from pg 9 of the Mini catalogue. Love the bright colour combination and it was fun to scrunch up the cardstock.

The flower is an A La Carte stamp from the main catalogue stamped in Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment comes from Thank You Kindly (pg75, main catalogue) - I used half of the sentiment and then punched it out using the Window Punch.

We had a quiet day today and it has disappeared in a flash. Time clearly flies when you're enjoying time with your family!

Kind Thanks

Morning! It's a bright and sunny day and already Munchkin and I have been very productive! The colours in the this card suit the weather - bright and vibrant!! There is a Melon Mambo base with a Whisper White topnote cut on the Big Shot. Next I ran different scraps of card through the Beautiful Wings Embosslit. The colours are Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie and Wild Wasabi. The embosslits allow you to make the most of every scrap of cardstock and patterned; hopefully this means my bulging scraps box will diminish soon... The greeting is stamped in Early Espresso onto Wild Wasabi and then punched out using the Modern Label Punch. Although this is a thank you card it would be equally good as a birthday, hello or thinking of you card. Hope you are out enjoying the weather. We're going out in the garden shortly to see the chickens and do a bit of tidying. See you soon!