Wedding party invites

You may remember me mentioning back in February that my SIL was getting married. Well, they've done that, had the honeymoon and are now arranging the Wedding Party! I've been given the privilidge of designing the invitations for their special event and I've come up with two main ideas so far:

This first one sticks to Pool Party and Whisper White only. The sentiment comes from the gorgeous set Wedding Sweet and the rabble of butterflies is made with the embosslit Beautiful Wings. There are three tiny pearls down the centre of the largest butterfly but mainly the card is left quite clean and elegant.

This is my second design:

The base is Brushed Gold cardstock with layers of Pool Party and Whisper White. The swirl from Wedding Sweet was stamped in Crumb Cake, along with the word stamp from an old stamp set I found. To decorate I went a bit wild with Rhinestones and a couple of golden Embosslit butterflies.

Not sure which one she will like. Perhaps a combination of the two?

Circle flowers

Last night was scrapbook class night! We had a good laugh, as usual, and this was the page that the ladies we using as inspiration. As is often the case with my projects lately it was inspired by a very similar page by Jenni Pauli.

I used Sahara Sand and Baja Blue but I think Jenni used Pool Party instead. It was a simple page to put together and making the flowers was great fun. Each flower petal is made by a circle that has had two sides folded in. These are then arranged in a circle to make one single bloom. I used different brads for the centres: silver, glimmer and antique!

The swirly stamp in Creative Elements created a nice elegant background that I finished with tonnes of pearls and rhinestones.

Yet another page made for our wedding album!

Blue wedding amour

Here is a second wedding card I've made for my brother to give this summer.



It's based on a lovely card I saw on Vicky Hayes blog.

It features the Eiffel tower and sentiment from Artistic Etchings, as well as background words from French Foliage stamp set (in the Mini). It was Vicky's amazing cards made with this stamp set that have inspired me to get it at all! Now I can't wait to try some more of her ideas!

I added a touch of Botanical Gazette DSP behind the main piece of card and used a piece of striped grosgrain ribbon across the front.

The flowers were stamped in Marina Mist to match the ribbon using the Hostess Set Punch Potpourri. These are quick to cut out as (as the name implies) the images fit the Boho Blossoms punch.

All materials are Stampin Up! and you can order them direct from me! Blueangelcrafts@gmail.com

Today we're having a quiet sort of day with my in-laws and my brother visiting so i'm making a huge fisherman's pie for dinner. Fingers crossed they'll all enjoy it.

Inspired by...

Having taken part in some of the Daring Cardmakers challenges I was checking out the blog this week to see what the challenge is. It was based on the site Pinterest which is a cool site where you can make your own virtual pinboards using pictures from all over the web. Well, it's taken me this long because I've been addicted to the site ever since!

Anyway here is my card for the challenge:



My brother seems to be attending a wedding every week this summer so he asked me to make him some cards. This one is based on a card designed by Monica Gale. Hers was purple and featured butterflies so you can tell I've made my own version.

I had trouble adding the picture from Pinterest but here is a link to her website itself. I promise it IS on Pinterest though!

Here are a couple of close-ups:



This shows the gold embossed crown; the crown is from Artistic Etchings. The Cherry Cobbler hearts are stamped with Bella Toile background stamp and the Very Vanilla heart has been stamped in Crumb Cake with the circle stamp also from Artistic Etchings.



The sentiment was from the set Wedding Sweet and I finished it off with Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon and plenty of pearls!

Happy Scrapbook page

I love to scrap! This is a page I've put together for a forthcoming class demonstration for the local U3A in June. The brief was to have a single photograph and keep the costs down! I managed to include punches, stamping, patterned paper, ribbon, buttons and the Big Shot (for the title alphabet).

It's based on a page that was shown in the January 2011 Impressions magazine. This is a monthly publication that is posted out to all UK demonstrators and is always full of gorgeous projects! I've adapted it slightly to suit what materials I have on hand and the colours I wanted to use.

Hope you enjoyed your week and have something nice planned for the Bank Holiday weekend. We're taking it easy but there will be a match at Twickenham for DH and a family visit to my sister at her new place in London too!

Gift/Favour box

Hello! It's Saturday and such a great day all round. This morning I had a couple of lovely ladies over to play with ideas for weddings. We made this pillow box, using the Big Shot pillow box die, and then decorated it.

The box was cut out using Rose Red and then clear embossed with Chocolate Chip ink using the Wedding Sweet set. The edges were distressed using the same colour ink and a Sponge Dauber.

The flower was punched out of Chocolate Chip CS and then scrunched up. We then separated the two layers of card to create a faux suede look and distressed the edges again. The scrummy button in the middle is from the Mini catalogue - this is a "small" one!!!

These would make lovely wedding favour or gift boxes and are really simple to make using the Big Shot.

Today we had fun at the Aldershot & Fleet rugby club and the park. So nice to just relax and enjoy being a family together - the Bank Holiday weekends are now even more keenly anticipated! Have a great weekend!!

Vintage chic

The new stamps have got me going a bit vintage... This card is based on one I saw at the High Wycombe training demonstrated by Shaz. The colours featured are Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry and Very Vanilla. To create the background on the base card it was stamped with En Francais which had been stamped off.

My favourite part of the card was using my Cutter kit to distress the edges of the card. Great fun. Then sponge daubers dabbed on extra Soft Suede ink. There is also a nice bit of piercing down the Rich Razzleberry piece.

As this Artistic Etchings set is a clear stamp set, I was able to double up the stamping of the crown and key on the same ink pad. Easy peasy!

Oh yes, and contrary to my Mum's reaction, the card is meant to be distressed and folded over at the corners!!!!

This cute gift bag is called a Bag-a-lope and the Very Vanilla base is actually an envelope that has been stamped in Soft Suede with Bella Toile (background stamp). Super simple and great to fill with small chocolate bars etc. They would also make cute wedding favours.

Wedding Fair

Today I attended another wedding fair at the Guildford Holiday Inn. It was a great day.
I met some lovely people and was really excited to talk about weddings again. For those who I met today, you are probably wondering if you won the FREE consultation I was advertising in my prize drawer. Well the winner is..... STACEY!

Stacey was actually working at the fair with her parents and sister. I had a great time chatting to them so I was really happy when luck had it that she won. Congratulations Stacey!

Wedding Weekend

This weekend we went to the wedding of a dear school friend of mine. We don't see each other much as she lives in NYC but our friendship has endured. We had a great time and the happy couple looked fit to burst with joy.

For their wedding present I wanted to make a gift that they could keep and look back on their happy day. Or I guess they could add honeymoon pictures. The book is made up with a monochrome theme, featuring the DSP in the Spring Mini catalogue. Just over a month left to get your hands on these papers before the Mini is withdrawn! I also used some gorgeous rub-ons and ribbon for texture.

As you can see the book unfolds a lot. I also decorated the pages with some double-sided stickers and flocking (sadly not yet available from SU!) for extra texture.

It was great to use the rub-ons. These are another supply that I don't make the most of. This central flap is one big rub-on that I simply cut out to make a tag.

The matching card also used Bride DSP paper. I love love love this paper as it is so beautitfully textured. I showed this to the ladies at my class on Thursday and they liked how the paper has a nice sheen to it too. The design of the card is stolen totally from the current Ideas Book and Catalogue, and I loved using my Pretties kit.

The envelope and inside of the card were stamped in Basic Black ink with Baroque Motifs and a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter. All matching, just how I like it!

Fingers crossed the happy couple get joy from the gifts!!!

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!

Fun Day In

Hello! Apolgies, I meant to post yesterday but time ran away with me. I was priviledged to have a "day off" from being a Mummy yesterday. My Mum kindly took Munchkin out after her morning nap and we fetched her at bed time! Not wanting to waste the opportunity I invited some of my favourite stamping buddies over to join me in a crafting day of leisure. We had a great laugh.

It appears to be "wedding season" amongst my friends, as both of the girls pictured got married this summer and I was making wedding cards for my sister to give to her friends.

The card at the top of the page is a clear copy of one I saw on Monica Gale's blog. However, I did change the colour scheme, sentiment and lose the ribbon. The pretties kit has some gorgeous flat backed pearls which really makes the flowers look extra special. The colours featured are Close to Cocoa, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla and Cameo Coral. The DSP is Bride which is perfect for weddings or any luxury style cards/scrapbook pages. Of course I used my absolute favourite stamp set: Vintage Vogue! However, I made a lot of projects throughout the day with various stamp sets, which I will be sharing with you over the coming days/weeks.

Having spent a day away from Munchkin, it's always extra lovely the next day as I missed her! I found this photo from back in April and couldn't resist sharing.

Have a great weekend and see you soon!

Wedding samples

There's another Wedding Fair in the pipeline! After the success of the one in February it was too good an opportunity to miss. It will be held at the Guildford Holiday Inn on Sunday 5th September 2010. It would be lovely to see you there if you are looking to make your own wedding stationary. Above is a selection of 3x3" cards I have made to give brides to see what a fantastic job Stampin' Up! products do when making wedding stationary.
If this Vintage Vogue set had been available when I made my own wedding stationary I would definately have used it. I LURVE this set so much. To be honest when I look back at my posts my biased nature is evident. No matter, because these samples are so sweet. The above one is made with Very Vanilla base, Regal Rose flowers and Old Olive leaves and sentiment. The below one simply has Bashful Blue instead of Regal Rose. The centre of the flower has a small clear brad and the sentiment comes from the Tiny Tags set.

The technique used is called masking. You simply stamp the flower where you want it. On a separate piece of paper (a post-it note works well) you stamp the same flower image and cut it out carefully. The post-it note flower is then stuck over the original stamped flower providing a mask for when the leaves are stamped overlapping the image. When the post-it note image is removed you get the flower with the impression that the leaves are sprawling out from behind. Hope this explanation makes sense!

Punch Art card

This is a card that we made last Thursday at the Punch Art class. We had a lovely evening chatting and creating and the ladies who attended were great fun.

The idea of the punch art class was to show versatile punches can be. This one featured a 1 3/4" circle punch, one of the hearts on the 3 heart punch and the scallop punch. It was inspired by Fletch95 on Splitcoast Stampers.

The flowers were made using the scallop punch and I have shown how to make these numerous times but I still love them. The centre of the flower has a heart that has been coated in Crystal Effects to make it nice and shiny, a bit like a button.

I altered the colour scheme to incorporate Melon Mambo and Soft Suede as I couldn't resist using these new colours.

It was quite a romantic looking card so I used this as a wedding card for the lovely Tidds!

Wedding bells

This is the gift I made for a dear friend who got married yesterday. She had a gorgeous dress and looked really happy. I hope that she will fill this album with photos of her big day or her honeymoon.
Congratulations Mr & Mrs Tidd!

The album was made using the Simply Scrappin kit, Love Stories, featuring the colours Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink and Bashful Blue. The kit is great because it contains cardstock, patterned paper and self-adhesive die-cuts that all coordinate beautifully. Even better you plenty of left over bits and bobs from this project so you can use them to embellish cards, envelopes etc.

Also, don't forget that the craft sale I've organised is next Saturday at St Peter's Hall in Ash from 10-12. There are still a few tables left so book one now if you have craft materials you'd like to sell.

Vintage-y favour box

So here is another favour box made using my Big Shot. This one is a bit smaller but really cute. The box was cut out of Very Vanilla cardstock and then stamped using the Very Vintage jumbo roller in Close to Cocoa ink. The decorations are a lil sneaky preview of some felt flowers from the Spring Mini! Naughty I know but they were sat on my table looking so cute and keen to be included on this project!
Really simple box but big enough for some scrummy caramel bunnies!

Bubble favours

Just a quick one today as it's my birthday. I got out some of these little bubbles yesterday at the teaparty, but they were originally made for our wedding tables. Each person had one and the ribbon tied around them matched our invitations and other wedding stationary.

The bubble pots came from a website and were incredibly cheap (£4.99 for 50 or 100, I think) but they provided some nice entertainment between courses. You could adapt the ribbons to match whatever colour scheme you want too!

Chocolate Favours

A simple but stylish table decoration is a chocolate favour. These are made with 3/8" circles that have been stamped with a co-ordinating colour. These are mounted on circle scallops and these sandwich Elizabeth Shaw after dinner mints. You can buy these from most supermarkets and come in mint and orange flavours.

You can embellish the stamped images with brad and glitter. You could even print the bride & groom's initals if they were for your wedding table. The perfect accompaniment to after dinner coffee no matter what the occasion!

Hairslides

The idea from this was from the wonderful Monica Gale. She has a fabby video tutorial so I won't even try and give detailed instructions as her tutorial is just great.
These hairslides are made with regular hairslides from the supermarket. The slides take minutes to make and are a great gift. You can even make them match to your bridesmaid dresses or put them on the top of favour boxes.
The pink slide is made from Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose card. The blue one is made from Bashful Blue and Bordering Blue.
We wore the blue ones yesterday to go along with my Blue Angel theme and it was great to show yet another use for the lovely Scallop Circle Punch.

Guildford Holiday Inn Wedding Fair

Today we were at the Holiday Inn Guildford with a stand at their Spring wedding fair. It was a grotty day outside but we had fun showing everyone the great opportunities the Stampin Up! products can give people planning their wedding.
(If you were there and saw us we would love you to comment and give us some feedback!)
We met lots of excited brides-to-be and we hope to meet up with them again soon!
In the coming weeks I intend to post many wedding related posts as we have been making so many gorgeous things for weddings recently! Look out for some tutorials so you can re-create them yourself!!!

Wedding Fair

Although we have been making our own wedding stationary for a while now, we have noticed that lots of people are wanting to do the same. The problem is that unless you do a fair bit of crafting already, it's how to make them that is the problem.

Also, it's great to have everything co-ordinated and this is something that Stampin' Up! excel at. We are here to help!!

We have a stand at the Guildford Holiday Inn wedding fair this Sunday. Come along and see all the yummy things we can help youmake for your wedding! See some more previews here.