Love you Mr T!

A relatively feminine card for Mr T. How I love him! I tried to avoid pink but I could resist the heart.

I used a couple of new items from the Spring/Summer seasonal catalogue: Artisan Embellishment kit (pg10) and Flower Trim (pg5).

The base is from the National Composition Speciality collection in the main catalogue (pg162). Its fabulous as it comes ready embossed!

What have you done for your sweet today?

Belated surprise

Look what I found in my pigeonhole at work! My lovely friend Amy (who's unfortunately not well at the moment) left this for me on Monday!! She's used Sweetheart stamp set and punched hearts from Jolly Holiday DSP. Aren't those ladybirds sweet?

As you may have read yesterday we went up to London yesterday to see my sister. It was a day full of adventure as Munchkin had never been on a train before, nor the underground. Turns out that there are A LOT of steps on the underground!! Anyway, this adorable picture is Munchkin with my little sister trying to restrain her in the restaurant. There was a lot of exploring to do!

Hope your week has ended well and you're looking forward to a fun weekend.

Waitrose inspiration

This is a photo from the Waitrose weekend magazine/newspaper. The image with the Eiffel Tower took my fancy and led to this....

It features Artistic Etchings stamp set, as well as the flower and small heart stamp from Sale-A-Bration set So Happy For You. I got really inky and even got my spritzer tool out!

We had a fun day today visiting a couple of friends who are expecting their first baby in a few weeks... really took us back and 16 months ago seems like a lifetime!!! Hope you had a relaxing weekend with family and/or friends.

Tin of lurve

Thursday already. Today I had my new recruit, Diane, come and visit for a chat and a stamp. It was lovely to see her new creations and share ideas.

Above is a creation I've made based on one by Heather Klump. The original tin came from Waitrose and contained chocolate chunks (for cooking). Just the perfect size for altering at about 4" high.

The stamp set used is Tart & Tangy, a set I've been neglecting recently so it was nice to be making use of it again in Daffodil Delight. The heart stamps are from So Happy For You Sale-A-Bration stamp set and are stamped in Real Red to contrast with the yellow.

This is the top view. I couldn't reist decorating it too. So, another Valentine gift ready to go! Just one more decision to make... what to put inside it. Lemon sherberts maybe?

Crush Valentine

Welcome to Wednesday! Ok so I have a confession... this is not a totally original design like I promised. It's heavily inspired by another Heather Klump creation. However, being such a HUGE Conchord Crush fan, I couldn't help using it as the main colour. The other colours are Melon Mambo and Old Olive.

Yes, and more handwriting. I seem to be overcome with the need to put my messy writing on the front of cards. I'll have to get another sentiment set to put paid to that urge!

Not long until I go into College to teach but until then I am going to be sat on the doorstep waiting for a delivery... check back soon for a post showing you what I am waiting for!

You're so tweet

It's Monday already! Today is another card inspired by Kristina Werner, but this time I have Sale-A-Brate'd it!!

The colour combo is Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Rose Red & Baja Breeze. I stamped the owl from Punch Bunch and the hearts were in the sentiment set So Happy For You. I wanted the specific wording for my card so I had to handwrite it (gasp!).

We had a great day today. Munchkin manage to cause minimal damage at toddler group and then we did a speedy shop. All quiet now as DH is watching the rugby!!

Valentine Class

It's that time of year again when our thoughts go to LURVE!

So this is the Valentine class I am running this year. You make a card and this gorgeous (even if I do say so myself) gift box.

The class is running tonight at 7.30pm at my house. If you can't make it tonight I'm also running it on Saturday 5th Feb 10-12noon and Saturday 12th Feb 1pm-3pm so email me to book if you'd like to come! blueangelcrafts@gmail.com

You can also see photos of all classes (forthcoming and past) here.

Munchkin's going to play with my cousin's little girl this afternoon while I attend a meeting and she is really looking forward to it. Fingers crossed she'll be worn out from playing and will sleep brilliantly tonight.

Duo of Valentines

It's nearly the weekend! What a sunny week we've had after the miserable start on Monday.

As I'm so happy I thought I would share the lurve with these little valentines. They feature Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla with a touch of Crumb Cake. Sounds tasty!! I used the Sweetheart set for the card on the left and the card on the right has a sentiment that has retired.

The right hand card has lots of Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the two hearts, so they look really lovely in real life. If only Canon would get on with that glitter setting on my camera!

Another thing that has made this week extra special is that my team has grown! I'd like to welcome Diane to my team of Blue Angels Stampin' Up! Demonstrators. Hopefully our little team will continue to grow, and if you'd like to be a part of it, please email me to find out more: blueangelcrafts@gmail.com

Just discovered...

Morning all. I have just discovered Kristina Werner's blog. Oh my gosh I LOVE her style. So here are a few cards inspired by ones on her blog.

Above is a card that uses up teeny tiny scraps of Blueberry Crisp DSP. On her blog Kristina used ribbon. I've just realised that the stamp set I've used it another retired one called Sealed With A Kiss. Love this set, so it's sad that it's now retired.

Anyway I was able to use Sahara Sand CS and then spritzed on top of it (there will be A LOT of spritzing in the coming posts as I'm now addicted!!) and the buttons were just ones I had lying around from clothes as my Stampin' Up! ones looked a bit large.

This is a card that is on the most recent post on Kristina's blog but I switched the Bashful Blue and Crumb Cake layers over and then used Poppy Parade to contrast. It's hard to see but there's a little bit of glitter around the edge of the heart. To follow the polka dot theme I used the background stamp Dot Dot Dot to give the blue layer a few Whisper White Craft Ink dots.

Not entirely sure what to do with all the Valentine's I've made... I might have to sell a few as I don't think my husband would be grateful if I sent them to other people!!! Any other ideas... let me know, although please don't say save them for next year as I have a stash of about 5 from LAST YEAR!!!

Have a good Monday xx

Valentine scraps

Afternoon all! Here is a little Valentine card I made the other day using patterned paper scraps - in this case it's Elegant Soiree papers. Gorgeous colours: soft suede, very vanilla, baja breeze etc. Love love love.

Even better I managed to use my spritzer tool on the background which was fun. Another addition you could add is to draw some fake stitching around each heart for a handmade patchwork look.

The sentiment I used is retired (as discovered last night by my downline!) Whoops. But I think that the 'Amour' stamp in the Artistic Etchings set would look lovely. Or the 'bliss' sentiment in the Bliss Sale-A-Bration set would be cute. Lots of options!

Leaning tower of Eiffel

This is a card I case'd from ... you guessed it... Splitcoast Stampers! It was really quick and easy. I love it because it includes some of my favourite white embossing powder! The Eiffel tower was stamped using Versamark and even though I have clear stamps I managed to make it wonky!!! So now it's the leaning tower of Eiffel.

Stamps: Artistic Etchings

Card: Sahara Sand, Marina Mist & Early Espresso

Inks: Versamark, Marina Mist

Other: White embossing powder, Dimensionals, Circle Punches

Today we're celebrating the Munchkin's FIRST BIRTHDAY! I truly cannot believe it. To be fair it is not actually her birthday until Wednesday but we both work on a Wednesday so we won't see her much. We've got both sets of grandparents coming and both Aunties too!

I spent the morning organising the cake table and in Paperchase I found these fabulous cake plates:

I also got the tablecloth from Paperchase. I am hoping that it will survive the weekend and then I can use it for future parties. Below is the birthday cake I whipped up this morning:
It's a plain vanilla sponge, baby pink icing and then I decorated it with mini marshmallows, dolly mixtures, hundreds & thousands and edible glitter. I hope that Munchkin likes it!!

Gorgeous glitter

I'm feeling romantic today! The main goal of today was to make a gift for my friends who are getting married on Saturday. I'm going for a monochrome theme and was getting fed up with the lack of colour, so I took a break. This is the result! Yes, a complete copy from the current Idea Book & Catalogue (pg 86 if you want to see the original) but I did change the colour combo. I used Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise with a little Whisper White.

I think the Sticky Sweet Cuts have been really overlooked so I dug them out. I have grown to like them a lot. They are so versatile. Plus it meant I got to get out my glitter! EVERYTHING is now coated in glitter. I love it!!

Amazingly - NO stamping!!!!!!!!

This picture was taken at the weekend. My cousin has just bought a house with a pool! Very novel in our family so we went to check it out. Immy LOVED it. Even though it wasn't particularly warm we had a great dip.
Tonight I have a Techniques Class which should be fun. Only a couple of ladies are attending so I'm hoping it'll relaxing and full of chatter. Have a good evening!

Valentine Swap (plus an extra)

Here is my lovely Valentine swap that I did with the lovelies on ILWS (In Love With Stamping) website. The one with the gingham heart is one I made for my other half a couple of years ago now, but I added it in for good measure.

Can you believe you can make all these goodies with yummy Stampin' Up! supplies? Amazing!!!

Rustic Valentine

Here is another Valentine that I created to take part in the Colour Challenge this website.

I seem to be having a week of using some random bits in my stash. I found this gingham card in the bottom of my 'red' file and thought it looked nice.
The hearts were punched out then fixed with removeable adhesive so that they stayed in place while I used my sewing machine to run 2 rows of straight stitching on it.
I managed to squeeze an extra bit of stamping onto the envelope using markers to make it two different colours. Fingers crossed my Dad gets brownie points from my Mum with this card!

Valentine Class

Here is the lovely Valentine class I am teaching this January/February. If you would like to book I have a few spaces left so catch them while you can!

I adore this little milk carton and you can put whatever gift you like in it, but I am going to put Minstrels in there as they match the colour combination! The chocolate lollipop is super simple but is a really nice little gift.

Since the arrival of my kraft cardstock I have gone kraft crazy! It's such a versatile background and really makes the cute bunny look even more adorable.

Speedy card

Today I needed a card ready for in 10 minutes time. I don't usually have card emergencies but it really got my mind whizzing. I am quite pleased with the result and hope that the recipient liked it. I am becoming totally addicted to those little love note cards as they are such a dream to put together.

Valentine Plotting

Valentine's Day plotting is happening. Sadly this means I can't post my projects until this time next week!
That's not to say I have stopped crafting this week. What with the snow etc. I have been ultra busy. But with the constant indoors-ness comes laziness. I haven't been scanning the images so there's no photos to post at present.

I promise to be better tomorrow!

Image is from: http://rriderlausd.org/blog2/?p=491