happy birthday cupcakes!

hi all

I seem to be in birthday card mode at the moment - but then March and April are quite busy in the birthday dept. for me..

Well, hot on the heels of Mother's day- we're also just about to celebrate her birthday this week.

...and what better reason to give the Create a cupcake stamp set and matching punch, an airing.! So yes, I created a few!  and as her birthday is Tuesday am going to link this to the current 'Seize the Birthday' challenge where they want to see Buttons and Rhinestones' topping's - in my case I opted for 3 rhinestones!. and 'Simon Says' where Happy Birthday really is the order of the day.!

Being still in my 'Crisp Cantaloupe phase' - made all the more easier - as stuff was still out on my desk following my foray into the delights of last week's Sweet Sorbet designer series paper and accessories... but mostly inspired by this lovely lady Sandi and her fabulous card in a box colours.

So, herewith, cherry cupcakes galore, stacked down one side,

My sponged sentiment was die-cut using one of the Chalk Talk framelits and framed with the help of the Scalloped Tag Topper punch. (My very grateful thanks to Linda for her video on how to do this - brilliant!)

and with a touch of toning ribbon and my customary 'bit of bling ' to complete it.

But when I had finished it, I thought there was just too much 'white space' and it needed something else.


So I cut and coloured a few candles from the Cycles Celebration set (Vicky, my lovely up-line would be proud of me with all that cutting out!) and the coloured dots were just the waste from punching a border with the daisy scallop punch (sadly retired though!) which I had used to decorate the inside of the card.

..and of course a matching envelope which I opted to decorate with a label from the Label Love stamp set and matching punch and some trim.

Stampin' Up supplies for this card:

Stamp Sets:Create A Cupcake, Cycle Celebration, Label Love

Inks: Crisp Cantaloupe

Card stock/Paper: Very Vanilla, Crisp Cantaloupe, Birthday Basics Designer Series Paper

Framelits/Punches: Build  a Cupcake Punch, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch,  
Artisan Label Punch, Border punch, Chalk Talk Framelits,
Other Essentials: Stampin' Up dimensionals, toning taffeta ribbon,rhinestones, 
blender pens, sponge daubers

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 on line store 

 
.. of course I had to have a go at making one of those delightful boxes myself.

- thanks so much to both Monica and Sandi for the idea for them. I unashamedly cased Sandi's virtually wholesale - with very few of my own touches.. I just love how it turned out.

and the fact that it all fits in an envelobox for posting.. I worked out the dimensions, but the envelope punch did all the hard work!
Will definitely be making more of these 'cards' am sure...

well sad to say - the lawn mower really had reached a grass length too far after last week's trek into the uncharted territory that is our back garden. so am now the proud owner of a new one .. now quite honestly I can think of far more interesting things to spend my pennies on and lawn mowers are just not it!

til next time

Bye all and have a lovely week.  

Jan x

'Flower shop' for a special birthday!

hi all

well - last time I ventured to post, I was seen headed for Nottingham for a weekend course - Honest, contrary to popular belief, I did come back, but with a new machine under my arm.
... and have spent the last few weeks familiarising myself with it before I go trotting off again mid April to learn more about what it can do..

but its  been put away for the moment and am back to filling the space on my desk with inks, stamps and card stock, just for a delightful change!..

and had a reason for doing so - a birthday card for a special friend!

There are only 2 real main colourways - Rich Razzleberry and Blushing Bride, with  tiny touches of Wild Wasabi bits of leafy trim!

She adores flowers and am convinced she buys them the way I buy tea bags!  i.e. lots of them!

So I opted to base my card round the 'Flower Shop' stamp set, using the 2 step owl punch for the leaves. Have just realised as I look at it,  that everything is based round 3's! Perhaps it's 3 for luck - let's hope so!

but as a result I thought I would enter it into the current challenge over at 'Less is more' where they want to see 'Three of something' on our cards.

This is what I settled on in the end - though it does look a little darker than in real life I have to say!

The sponged card topper I embossed with the Chevron embossing folder, and added a strip of trim,  stamped with the Very Vintage jumbo wheel for surface interest. All, finished off, as always, with a few rhinestones... what I shall do if they ever discontinue these - am not quite sure!  Start hoarding now, am thinking!

The sentiment was one from the Label Love stamp set - the matted effect easily achieved with the matching Artisan punch. 

...and inside -  I just partially stamped a couple more of the flowers to lift it from plain to interesting, and chose a stamp from the now retired (sadly!) stamp set Language of Friendship for the inner wording..  stamped exactly where I wanted it with the aid of the
stamp-a-majig to ensure perfect placement.

Stampin' Up supplies for this card:

Stamp / Jumbo Wheel sets :Flower Shop, Language of Friendship (retired),
Very Vintage jumbo whee

Inks: Rich Razzleberry and Blushing Bride

Card stock: Rich Razzleberry, Blushing Bride, Wild Wasabi

Punches: Artisan Label Punch,  Owl builder punch
Other Essentials: Stampin' Up dimensionals,  sponge daubers, 
basic rhinestones, stamp-a-majig

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 - but  only available for a few more days as it finishes March 31st.

Well as am not the best getter upper in the world, and this Saturday night/Sunday morning sees the clocks go forward, every year I think I ought to do a dry run tonight instead.  Hopefully then, by Monday morning,   at what to me should still really feel like 5:15 - won't seem so bad with a 24 hour advance tryout! Well we can live in hope.

Happy Mothering Sunday to all Mum's everywhere - and  we shall be making a lovely fuss of ours!  at 81, we have decided we will keep her after all!

til next time - have a lovely week.

Jan
x

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

Valentine meets Flower shop and 'En Français'

hi all and hope you had a lovely weekend

and it certainly turned out to be far better than I was expecting - it was so nice to see it bright and sunny out there for a change.  It just lightens the mood.  So hope it was the same story where you were.

Which is possibly more than can be said for my card this week, though.

I had Happy Valentine's day in mind  - but to be honest its turned out with a far more sombre feel to it, than I really had in mind.

What do you think?

Well I was back on my Very Vanilla card stock, meets  'En Français' background stamp, as a starting point, again sponged for a bit of interest but this time matted onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock though, in honour of Valentine's day!.

I added the 3 punched flowers, some toning stamping from Clockworks, Flowering Flourishes, and the little hearts from the Language of Love set..  Well,  I was trying to aim for dark and velvety - a bit like yummy chocolate with a touch of  sophistication thrown in. It might have been the intention - but it does need lifting somehow I think...

But with those flowers placed the way they are  - had thought to enter it for the current challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays where this week they want to see  things 'Over the edge' - but uhm... may not quite fit the bill as regards the 'CAS' bit - but shall cross my fingers.

and inside...
my current stamp set of the moment for 'all thoughts Valentine' - from the See Ya Later stamp set.

The little heart from the Two Step Owl Punch was a necessary addition as I dropped the sponge dauber whilst going round the edges, luckily it hit just the one spot - instantly covered up with that little heart ! You know what the say about 'Necessity being the mother of invention'!

...and of course no card would be complete without lovely packaging of some sort - so this is what I came up with.

Envelope punch board to the rescue, and some leftover scraps of designer series  paper, cherry cobbler seam binding and the 'Just for you stamp'  from the Label Love stamp set, punched with the matching Artisan punch and this was the result.

Stampin Up recipe for this card:

Stamp Sets: Language of Love, Flower Shop, Clockworks, En Français, 
See Ya Later, Flowering Flourishes

Inks: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip.

Cardstock/Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla. any toning paper for envelope

Punches: Flower Punch, Two Step Owl Punch, 
Artisan Label punch

Other Essentials: Stampin Up dimensionals, toning candy dots, sponge daubers, 

Stamp-a-majig, .Envelope Punch board, seam binding

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 

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

well, having had a 2nd opinion from he who likes to comment - and in whose hands I had left today's photo-shoot,  am thinking am not going to be getting much peace til I re-work this somewhat. - but can also see him thinking, 'well this can't be mine, then..'  

So, he'll just have to wait and see, wont he?

but til next time - and have a lovely week.

Jan
x