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

Very Vanilla meets basic black!

hi all

Well today found  me with a particular challenge - that of making a card for my partner's son - and we aren't talking  little boy here - he is...err - well he is getting on a bit!

and really not having very much in the way of something suitable by way of stamp sets - decided I need to make the best of what I did have - so majored on ideas to do with Stampin Up's Clockworks.

Have to admit, devoid of any ideas of my own,  I have unashamedly used this lovely card  as the basis for mine - thanks so much Michelle for the inspiration.

I teamed Very vanilla card stock and Basic black ink as my colour ways - and ended up with this.

I matted a layer of Very Vanilla, shaped with my corner rounder on just 2 sides and opted to sponge the edges for a bit of interest.

I also used the 'En Français' stamp for my custom background and think I used all but the very large stamp from the Clockworks set for the stamping in the 'interest' corner.  With the addition of a basic black candy dot for the middle of the pocket watch!

Parts of the elements I punched out with matching sized circle punches, propped up on dimensionals and mounted them on black card stock just to give some areas a little more depth and definition.

My sentiment is from the Occasions Alphabet. I just love how this perfectly teams up with the Ticket Duo Builder Punch. I punched 2 more in black just to act as a frame, and all finished off matted on top of some toning ribbon.

I used some candy dots in place of my usual 'bling' - thinking these suited the overall effect better, considering the recipient!

...and of course no greeting card is complete without a matching envelope - which my dearly beloved promptly  proceeded to ruin as he got the post code incorrect when addressing it.!

uhm...!

to say the air was a little colourful was putting it mildly.!

However, thanks to my Envelope board punch making a replacement did not take long and peace was soon restored.
   


Things I used to make this card:

Stamp sets: En Français, Clockworks, Occasions Alphabets
Inks: Basic Black 
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Other Essentials : Toning ribbon, Ticket Duo Builder Punch, candy dots, circle punches, Stampin' up dimensionals, corner rounder punch, sponge daubers, Envelope board punch

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

or why not visit my on-line store

Last night we were out at a 70th birthday party for an ex-works colleague - and now that I have handed it over,  hopefully back tomorrow,  with a few photos of the card I made for her.

happy Saturday all - or at least what is left of it.!
very best wishes

Jan
x