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!!

Tiny Tag Friends

This is a card I have case'd from the new catalogue! I love these Tiny Tags stamps and the jewellery tag punch makes using them soooo easy. I love this colour combination of Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip. So simple but looks really complicated. I think it took about 10 minutes to make from start to finish.

The tags are attached with Clear Rhinestone brads, silver brads, Daffodil Delight brads (from the Brights brad pack) and linen thread. I love getting all the embellishments out to play with!

I'm now just waiting waiting waiting for my order of new things from the catalogue. I can't wait to get creating!!

Moooorning! Hope you are enjoying some sunny weather where you are.

This card is a design I've adapted from Splitcoast Stampers (again!) but I have changed the design little. The colours I've used are Rose Red, Certainly Celery and So Saffron. I stampde the flower images using Ornate Flowers on Whisper White. Then I cut them all out and layered them on scalloped flower squares, also in Whisper White.

The coloured stripes are pieces of Rose Red and So Saffron and then at the bottom there is a single layer of Certainly Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon. I stamped the greeting in Early Espresso, and although it says "Happy Birthday" you can imagine that many other greetings could be used.

Right, I am off to my day job now but I will be back with something new tomorrow!

Princess Perfect

I saw this card on Splitcoast Stampers and immediately liked it. Usually I'm not a "princess" fan, but the crown in the Artisitc Etchings set is just sooo detailed. The colours I've combined are Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black and Whisper White.

The green really cuts through the pink to avoid a princess overload! The middle crown was cut out and stuck with a Dimensional to give it height, and a clear rhinestone brad was added for a bit of sparkle.

Today we're having another quiet day and we're off to Nanny's house for a bit of lunch shortly!

Greenhouse Gala overload!

Good morning! I thought I would share some of the cards that have been part of my world for the past month. I'm soooo happy to be able to show them to you!!!

Above is a card that I made for a swap at a training event I attended last month. I thought I had designed something simple... but I can tell you that making 70 was not quite as simple as I had envisaged. Could it be the 3 different patterned papers? The 3 punched elements? The sponging? Or perhaps it's the fact that I left myself too short a time! (Can you tell that it is the latter?!)

Anyway I am thrilled with the result. I even made a blue version too. The patterned paper comes from the Greenhouse Gala DSP. I was over the moon when I saw this paper in the flesh. It is just divine. The colours featured are Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. I used the Hello Again stamp set, and stamped the background using Crumb Cake ink (aka Kraft).

The small yellow flower was punched from the Boho Blossoms punch and finished with a small silver brad. The large flower was made from a large scalloped circle punch that then had petals cut into it and the edges sponged in Pumpkin Pie ink. The centre of the large flower was a Dimensional (foam pad) that was coated in glitter from the Cosmos glitter set.

Finally there was a strip of Daffodil Delight ribbon and a large oval punch with the sentiment. I used a Pear Pizzazz marker to go around the edge of the oval and draw faux stitching.

Hope you are having a fantastic Monday! See you tomorrow.

Catalogue Launch Party

Where has the weekend gone? I am so sorry for going AWOL for a few days. As you will see, I have had Stampin' Up! at the forefront of my mind all weekend...

Since there was the new catalogue to celebrate I held a Catalogue Launch Party and invited those people who had ordered from me in the past year. In total I think that there were 16 or 17 people. To be honest, it got a bit crazy at one point and the house was just FULL!

Above you can see a display I had of the new clear mount stamps. Everyone seemed to really like them, particularly the cool DVD case storage. Small storage and easy to find DVD storage units. Surrounding the display are some 3D projects that I either have received in swaps from various people or made myself. (I am sure that I will be posting pictures of these in the coming days) We began the party with a catalogue treasure hunt. There was a lot of concentration required, as you can see! It was a fun and light-hearted start to the event, and I was surprised at the competitive streak some of my dear friends showed!! As well as their own copy of the NEW gorgeous catalogue (see on the right for an electronic version) everyone got a goodie bag with various flyers, punched shapes and a pen and notepad set. Each pen is filled with a piece of Greenhouse Gala DSP in Daffodil Delight. The notepads had the person's name on them or friend, depending on how long I knew they were coming in advance!! The notepads are covered in Whisper White CS and stamped with an Ornate Flowers stamp in Pear Pizzazz and Poppy Parade (In Colors). I hand drew the faux stitched edging in Basic Black and then stamped the person's name/friend in Daffodil Delight. using my Simply Perfect alphabet stamps. The final stage was a small piece of Poppy Parade CS and voila!
Everyone also had the opportunity to get inky! You can see how lovely and tidy the Make & Take table looked shortly before everyone arrived. Here is the Make & Take project. It's features Baja Breeze (blue), Chocolate Chip and Whisper White and is stamped with Serene Snowflakes stamps. Simple but effective. I think I have a few Baja Breeze converts on my hands!!
Then there are the refreshments! My Mum is a saint and she baked lemon drizzle cake and flapjacks, which complemented my pumpkin blondies and Chocolate chip cookies beautifully. If you look carefully you can see that I even managed to bring Stampin' Up! to this corner of the party too, as I made name labels for the cakes using my supplies!!

And lastly this is the youngest member at the party... Little Alexander. What an angel. Amazingly he slept through quite a bit of the party (read: noisy women squealing) and enjoyed his toys in between that!!

So, another fun Stampin' Up! afternoon. By the way, if you fancy ordering but want to avoid the postage and are happy to pick up your own order, I will be placing an order on the last Sunday of each calendar month for my own supplies and will allow you tag your order on. However if you can wait, you can just go mad and order from me now!! Your order could be with you within days!!

Woo Hoo New Catalogue!

At last I share the new Idea Book & Catalogue with you! It has been tough not sharing the lushness with you the last few weeks!! Sadly I've got to dash to work but I will be back this evening to post a sample. If you are attending my catalogue launch party tomorrow you'll get to see LOADS of samples in just over 24 hours time!!

Have a great Friday.