Birthday wishes from 'The Open Sea'

hi all

well - I am very late posting for last weekend - seeing as it is now Thursday - but all for a good reason -
Last weekend we were away at my Mum's celebrating himself's birthday.

She had arranged a surprise family get together buffet for him  - and I think to be honest he was quite stunned.

My niece made this amazing cake resembling a piece of cheese,  being attacked by a little grey mouse, whilst Mum mouse in her apron strings, stood with 'arms' on hips looking at him disappearing into the cheese!  grapes and a bottle of wine on the cake board to complete it all - it looked brilliant.. almost a shame to cut into it.

but back to today's card - or more correctly 'last Sunday's card'  which I can now post as of course he has opened it!

Being a bit thin on the ground as regards the makings for  'male' themed cards -  I opted for 'The Open Sea' stamp set, full of its nautical related stamps.

This is what I came up with... apologies for the colour cast though - what looks like black ink here,  was actually 'Midnight Muse'!  Truly.! but apart from the colour malfunction,  what do you think?

I used Midnight Muse cardstock, topped with Very Vanilla for my sponged topper and card insert,  and stamped off images from both the Open sea and Mosaic Madness stamp sets. apart from Midnight Muse, the only other colour I used was Marina Mist for one of the mosaic stamps - (well, it sounded sea-like to me!)
and for a bit of interest I used my corner rounder on 2 of the corners for my topper, to tie in with all those round shapes I was busy stamping.

The sentiment is from the Label love stamp set and the co-coordinating Artisan punch. Popped up on dimensionals, set on top of a piece of toning bakers twine which I 'anchored' by punching out small snips using the little 'cross' punch from the 'Itty Bitty shapes Punch pack.

  and inside.. I used MDS to generate the little verse, punched it out with the Decorative label punch, again sponging the edges and finished this all off with one further inking of the little compass stamp from 'The Open sea' set.

















and with lots of  paper to use up (both retired as well as current) -  making a toning envelope using my must have 'Envelope punch board'  is just a matter of minutes.

Stampin' Up recipe for this card:

Stamp Sets:The Open Sea, Mosaic Madness, (MDS for inner sentiment)

Inks: Midnight Muse, Marina Mist

Cardstock/Paper: Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Piece of toning DSP for envelope

Punches:Mosaic Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Artisan Label Punch, 
Itty bitty punch pack, Corner Rounder Punch

Other Essentials: Stampin' Up dimensionals,  sponge daubers, 

.Envelope Punch board, Bakers twine,

I can order Stampin' Up Products for you, shipped straight to your address and am happy to answer any questions you may have - if you would like to find out more or would like to place an order you can email me or contact me on 01438 820829

or why not visit my online store 

 (currently, for every £45 spent, choose a free sale-a-bration gift)

  

well am off again on my travels this weekend - off up to Nottingham, for a course at my sewing machine dealers. Four workshops, all the tuition, and the chance to play with lots of new goodies - am looking forward to it. So apologies as this Sunday's posting will be late again - must really get to grips with scheduling ,my posts, am thinking... but a task for another day...

have a lovely weekend all and bye for now

Jan

x