'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