who hoo nearly time for Valentines day

hi all...

well, unusually for me I knew exactly what I wanted to make,  to enter these challenges:  SU! Only Challenges  #challenge no 167, where yes, you got it -
It's time for Valentines, be it a card, a treat, a 3D item.Yes, the choice is yours.
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge where XOXO is your prompt!
The Card concept where love and romance is the theme - and the overall colours and hearts inspired my own CAS style card.

So,  armed with some suitable coloured card - and of course that just has to be Real Red in my book, combined with Shimmery White card stock,  (my go to choice at the moment, for  card bases) and an off-set topper ....   yes I made a card...

and it came together so quickly.

The lovely die-cut heart and and 'love' from the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies, one of the sentiments from the Bloomin' Love stamp set, a bit of bling by way of Stampin' Up!'s Basic Rhinestones, a card base and an off-set topper of shimmery white card stock, and it was done.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

Just click on the items below to easily access them in my on line store

Or if you wish me to place an order for you, or have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Shimmery White A4 Cardstock	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Big Shot	Magnetic Platform	Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies
Fine-Tip Glue Pen	Bloomin' Love Photopolymer Stamp Set	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Rhinestone Basic Jewels

.. and don't forget everyone,  it is Stampin' Up!  Sale-a-Bration time - any combined spend of £45 earns you a free item from the special Sale-a-Bration brochure.

well this weekend sees me off on a shopping spree to a really lovely place - Blake House Craft Centre. Described as 'Shops, food and fun for the whole family. It is a lovely unique collection and range of all sorts of shops. Everything from handmade jewellery and miniatures to fabric supplies, yarns and antiques, all found in the original farm buildings of what was once Blake House Farm, near Braintree.

and with a full range of workshops and classes, and a fabulous restaurant to indulge your self in - sounds like a lovely way to spend the day, am thinking.

so til next time - and what ever you get up to or wherever you find yourself, have  a lovely weekend and happy crafting

Jan x

Love is in the Air - challenges x 2

hi all

well not sure if I am on my own here,  but I  always start out with good intentions as regards entering  one of my makes for to a few of the card challenges on the go,  at any one time..

and to add here my heartfelt thanks to all the Design teams members who put in all the time and effort to ensure we have fun entering..

but then having made a card - that's where I fall down -  - it rarely fits with the guidelines  of a particular week's card challenge.. so I realize that's where I am going wrong!.

so this time I did it the other way around! looked at some challenge sites first!!

and for some inspiration hopped over to take a look at these  -  the current challenge over at TGIF challenges - #TGIFC91 -   where Love is what's needed here and it  doesn't just have to be about Valentines - just love in general ..

  ...and for my layout I used this week's  fab clean and simple sketch over at Freshly Made sketches #271

and between the 2 was inspired to make the card below.... albeit a bit of a dark photograph!
and so have linked my card to both.

It's unusual for me in that it is just a one layer card using Stampin' Up!'s Shimmery White card stock, (which I hope you can see as it really is very shimmery!)  with a hand masked decorative panel as the focus.
 

 

I made this by first die-cutting one of the small hearts from the Sweet and Sassy Layering Framelits set and used this as a mask  so I could stamp my various hearts, flowers, vines etc around it..

Once that was done I used the waste left from the cut out and used that as a stencil and  sponged inside to softly colour  the inside space I had originally masked off...

I used the scrap pieces of 'Real Red' card stock for my 2 borders and the die-cut words.. The addition of 3 enamel hearts from the Brights Enamel shapes pack to finish,  and it was done.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

Just click on the items below to easily access them in my on line store
Or if you wish me to place an order for you, or have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Shimmery white Card stock	Real Red Card stock and stamp pad
Big Shot - Die cutting Machine	Magnetic Platform
Hello You Thinlet Dies	Sunshine Wishes Thinlet Dies
Sweet and Sassy Framelit Dies
For the various hearts, flowers and vines I used items from a number off different stamp sets ..	Bloomin' Love Stamp set Swirly  Bird Layering Love Endless Thanks Jar of Love
'Brights' Enamel Shapes	Fine Tip Glue Pen

 
.. and don't forget everyone,  it's Stampin' Up!  Sale-a-Bration time - any combined spend of £45 earns you a free item from the special Sale-a-Bration brochure..

Well it will soon be 'V' day and although not like me to be ready in advance - for once am #feelingsmug#  and hoping there will be one in return preferably with copious amounts of chocolate to go with!  Yep, I live in hope!

and to finish - a little photo - to possibly make you chuckle - well it did, me...

Til next time
Happy Stampin'

Jan x

Perfect Plum - befitting for the bride!

hello all

well as its been ages since I posted a card so thought  I would make up for it..
My friend's daughter got married at one of the local golf clubs here and she had chosen as her theme that most royal and regal of colours - Cadbury Purple!

Now am not sure if that is really the correct name for her theme or not, but am sure you get the gist and can instantly visualise the sort of colour I mean here.. So in Stampin' Up! terms I did a bit of a straw pole around a few friends and we decided Perfect Plum would fit the bill as regards the colourway and the Bloomin' Love stamp set and matching Thinlit dies were  just perfect for the card

 

My topper was  white card stock and using the coloured base as I did,  meant I could use the diie-cut heart, replace it back in position so allowing the colour to come through...  and using the Big Shot Magnetic Plate meant I could cut it exactly where I wanted.  The Big Shot Die Brush made very short work of releasing the die-cut heart from the die once I had finished .!

I added some dimension by using a few of the accent pieces from the same Thinlits set

and added a few of the basic pearls for a bit of decoration, and all finished off with some of the little punched hearts from the Owl Builder punch.

The 'Newly Weds' banner is a staple from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set and a couple of the nesting dies from the Sweet and Sassy Framelits collection,  was all that was needed to finish the front with the addition of one of the really useful sentiment pairings from Flourishing Phrases.

I kept the inside really plain - just adding 2 more of the smaller nesting hearts and the matching sentiment to compete it.

Very apt I think, don't you.? 

I hope the bride liked it - having known her since she was 6, I can't quite get to grips with the fact that she is now married. I hope they had a truly lovely day.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

Just click on the items below to easily access them in my on line store

Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Perfect Plum A4 Cardstock	Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Dies	Big Shot	Magnetic Platform
Big Shot Die Brush	Bloomin' Love Photopolymer Stamp Set	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Teeny Tiny Sentiments Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies
Owl Builder Punch	Pearl Basic Jewels	Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Or if you wish me to place an order for you, or have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch

and as promised, next time I shall share some of the lovely swaps I received whist attending a Stampin' Up! demonstrator meeting held in Telford, last weekend.

A great time was had by all and with one of the great perks to being a demonstrator meaning we get to have sneaky peak and play with what is coming - suffice to say - we all enjoyed it.

til next time - have a lovely week and happy Stampin' !

Jan x