Stamped and cut window greeting meets House of Cards and Vintage Stamping challenges....

hello all and happy Friday.

Uhm  today found me puzzling over what to do for a 'nice and easy'  Christmas card. ..
and, as is often the way with these things,  what you start out wanting to do, ideas and all - usually morphs into something entirely different by the time you have finished - and such was the story here.

...so rather than the one layer card I thought I had in mind - which is still buried in there somewhere I think .. I not only ended up with a raised layer card - what would we do without Stampin' Up's Dimensionals!  - but it had punched/cut-out windows as well, inspired by the November challenge over at House of Cards.

There is a brilliant video tutorial from Mynn, one of the lovely Design team,  to get you started and some lovely samples to inspire us all.

I came across this via a visit to the lovely Em Louise Fairley - aka 'Creative-Em'! a  member of their Group 2 Design Team. For those of you who prefer written instructions, she has some on her blog.

So, they want us to use a cut-out window - so I opted to do 3! using them for my baubles as well! 'Stringing'  these from a little stamped swag of Holly - from the embellished Ornaments stamp set - which I stamped in Mossy meadow but then coloured the berries in Real Red, easily accomplished courtesy of one of my aqua painters.

I die-cut the circles in my card using one of the small size dies in the Circles Framelits set. My insets came from scraps of the lovely music script paper - one of the beautiful designs in the Home for Christmas DSP pack- there really are some absolutely fabulous vintage inspired designs in this set and it is truly is my 'go to pack' of papers -  at the moment. I just love it.!

and with its vintagey feel (is that a real word?) am entering it for their Challenge no. 38#  Traditional Christmas over at 'Vintage Stamping Challenge'. 

The frame for the baubles was just a circle of Real red card stock cut with the 1 and 3/4" punch then I used the same die as I did for the baubles just to cut out the rest  to leave me the frame! I mounted this round the cut-outs then added a little hand drawn strings  and some toning ribbon for the bows,

My tiny poinsettias - are just fussy cut using the Petite petals punch and the  'pointsettia' paper - with  and little yellow and festive coloured candy dots and a bit of stamping/sponging to finish!

and the sentiment - another punched window for this as well - using the Decorative Label Punch - I hope you can see the slightly recessed impression this particular technique gives you a little better in this photo.?

well perhaps not quite so 'Nice and easy' as I originally intended - but then 'change does often happen' as am sure someone once said, somewhere!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

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

Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Embellished Ornaments Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad	Aqua Painters	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper	1-3/4" Circle Punch	Real Red Stampin' Write Marker	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Petite Petals Punch
Home For Christmas Enamel Dots	Regals Candy Dots	Stamping Sponges	Decorative Label Punch	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

Or please just contact me if you have any questions or to place an order for you, if you would prefer.

well, Saturday again tomorrow and where these weeks are flying to is quite a mystery! Scary stuff that the 'C' word is literally only 49 sleeps away!

but another first for me this Sunday and something to look forward to - am off to cheer on some work colleagues in a local 'am dram' performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe - a first for watching a G&S operetta, not cheering on my colleagues, you understand!

til next time - happy crafting and will leave you with this thought

''Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep"

Scott Adams - he of the famous 'Dilbert'  and his boardroom antics, incidentally!

Jan x

Glimmer snowflakes meets Gorgeous grunge topped vellum and some..!

Hi all

and happy Sunday everyone. I sincerely hope that any little visitors you may have had last night were the nice (and not the naughty!)  kind.

well fresh from yesterday's craft class, I came home with Christmas cards still an agenda item  so carried on and made a couple more, and here's one of them.

Inspired by the current sketch #no 210 over at  Freshly made sketches

I opted to flip the design to landscape.

but as am still having trouble with operating a camera  my photograph  is not perfect by any manner of means but the best I could manage... Must really brush up on my photography skills - thanks so much Michelle for the recent hints and tips - could not have come at a better time! I so  so needed them!

A vellum topper on some Pool Party card stock (yes.. another outing for my Home for Christmas card stock pack.!) Just love this and have used so much of it for my 'C-word' cards this year!  Some gorgeous snowflakes punched from the absolute Wow that is Stampin' Up!'s Silver glimmer card.. In my book this is foolproof glittering  without the pain of it ending up everywhere but where you want it!

I stamped a couple of 'renditions' of Gorgeous Grunge and my 'Merry Christmas' using  White craft ink on the Pool Party card stock first - left it for absolutely ages to make sure it was completely dry - then using my Stamp-a-majig I used the same stamps again, but this time in Metallic Silver, on top of the vellum, but slightly offset to hopefully give a hint of a white shadow effect below, which hopefully you can just make out!

I threaded my snowflakes on to some silver wire and suspended the 3 tiny stars, courtesy of the star punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch pack, below them

I love how it turned out  and hope you do too.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

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

Home For Christmas A4 Cardstock Pack	Vellum A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Gorgeous Grunge Wood-Mount Stamp Set
Sassy Salutations Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad	Snow Flurry Punch	Itty Bitty Accents Punch  Pack

Or please just contact me if you have any questions or to place an order for you, if you would prefer.

Well, somewhat spurred on by today's venture into all things photographic will endeavour to repeat the process tomorrow for a couple of other items from the craft class,  if I can.

til next time - and in case you are wondering or are at all concerned -  I did read this somewhere and am sure it must be true so will leave you with this thought

'A cluttered desk is a sign of genius'

well all I can say is,  mine is very cluttered! 

bye til next time
Jan x 

Sassy salutations and a single layer challenge! - JUGS #317

Hello all

Happy Saturday - well what is left of it..   Hope you all managed to get up to something nice as it has certainly been a fabulous day weather wise - definitely non-seasonal temperatures for us here, for Halloween..

and Me?  Have spent a fabulous day crafting  with another local demonstrator - we were with a  lovely group of ladies all making Christmas cards of various designs - but concentrating on the, in my opinion  must have 'Home for Christmas' series with its beautiful vintage inspired Designer series paper,  toning card stock and related stamp sets, with a few accent pieces from a few others of the holiday season sets...

I had made quite a few samples for the class and ended up with a  couple of particular favourites and cannot say enough about  Stampin' Up!'s Glimmer paper - it is just the best -
but trying to photograph it to its best advantage is proving a challenge - so have passed that over to himself - so am hoping I will have something I can show you tomorrow!

In the meantime my post today is a mono-chrome card we made as an exercise in stamping and how to use the Stamp-a-majig for perfect positioning - works like magic, if its something you have never seen before, which was the case with my stampin' buddy today.

I ended up with a single layer card - well apart from the accent bow! so thought I would  enter it in the current ''Wild card choice" challenge JUGS #317 over at 'Just us Girls'!   where they want to see just that.. single layer designs.

I was very pleased with how it turned out, as was she.

We used Santa and his sleigh from 'Cozy Christmas', the bow, was die-cut from the Wonderful Wreath Framelits set ,  the holly border came from the Embellished ornaments set and the sentiment from Sassy Salutations.. all placed exactly were we wanted with the help of the Stamp-a-majig - a brilliant accessory in my book!

Must admit - it did look as if we needed something to finish it all off  so  decided on just adding a border line and the 3 rhinestones to set it all off.

and inside - 2 more repeats of the holly border again placed with the help of the stamp-a-majig..

what do you all think?

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

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

Whisper White A4 Cardstock

Embellished Ornaments Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Wonderous Wreath Photopolymer Bundle

Cozy Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Sassy Salutations Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

Or please just contact me if you have any questions or to place an order for you, if you would prefer.


Well will hopefully be back sometime soon with a few of the samples for today's class if himself  has managed to come up with some reasonable photos.

Until next time and happy crafting.
Jan x

Merry Christmas - Lovely as a Tree means another card done ... yeahh..

hello All and a happy Sunday

what are you all  doing with your extra hour then? - Me - well,  probably in common with a lot of us,  means more time for stamps and inks am thinking..?..

and I put it to good use - a  tutorial by the lovely Heather Telford -  as have been meaning to do one of these night sky scenes for ages ..

and here it is - unashamedly and virtually CASE'd wholesale as a result of my following the brilliant step by step instructions Heather has so kindly made available - I just substituted current colours for the ones Heather had used.

Must confess to  enjoying all that sponging and the effect it produces though also managed to sponge myself quite well, into the bargain.!

I did resort to making use of a retired  set for my snowflakes - it is one of Shelli's signature collection - Serene Snowflakes which I can't bring myself to part with and still remains my 'go to' set for the odd snowflake or three!

All in all though am so so pleased how it turned out and even for someone like me who does not confess to having much of an artistic eye as it were - I think it worked really well  - what do you all think?

and inside I  just repeated  a 'stamped off', fading to virtually nothing, top and bottom border of more of those lovely snowflakes.

I just love the effect of the overall card.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

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

Wisteria Wonder A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Stamping Sponges	Wisteria Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad
Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Gray Archival Stampin’ Pad	Sassy Salutations Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Multipurpose Liquid Glue

Or please just contact me if you have any questions or to place an order for you, if you would prefer.


And with this card, well am pleased to say my Christmas card haul has now made it almost to double figures...  another couple to go and we will be there - double figures I mean, not 'there' as in finished.! Still a fair bit to go for that, so not that organised you would probably say and I have to agree.

Come back later in the week and I will have another one for you - as have put my fussy cutting skills to the test  once again - when you get going it can be quite therapeutic I have to say.

with best wishes and have a lovely week everyone.
Jan x

Home for Christmas 2 - meets Mojo Monday!

hello all -

Uhm on reflection, the title of my post this evening really does sound like some film sequel - but honest, I can assure it isn't.

Am still here, in my little crafting metre,  playing with the delightful papers in the Home for Christmas designer series paper pack such that I was able to use a left over poinsettia from my foray at fussy cutting a few days ago.

Having just managed to enter last week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge by the skin of my teeth - this week am a bit more prepared and actually ready to enter a card now  and it still is quite early on in the week..!

inspired by this and all the fabulous designs from the Design team for this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge

I came up with this as my interpretation of the sketch: 

and this time I did augment the card with a bit more stampin'!

I really do love the whole vintage feel of all this from the classy music sheet paper, to the homespun feel of the  linen thread and really Chistmassy Red, Greens and Cream colourways featured,  right down to the toning Enamel Dots set I used.!

and with Stampin' Up! where co-ordination is definitely the 'C' word here - you know that  all the products in the 'Home for Christmas' product range will just complement each other perfectly.

Nothing like Stampin' Up!'s Real Red to make you think of Christmas and coupled with lovely Mossy Meadow from the 2014 - 2016 In-colours - well, it really is 'Jingle all the Way' or it would be if I could sing.!

Both the sentiment and my stamped holly branches and berries come care of the Embellished Ornaments Stamp set (and excellent value as this comes bundled with the matching Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies).  Off stage, bottom right,  the lovely spare poinsettia which I just matted on top of some Very Vanilla card,  fussy cut and popped up on dimensionsals,  curling some linen thread around,  for the overall look I wanted - To quote 'Sergei' - 'simples'

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

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

Pay just  £4:95 whatever the size of your order, and have them shipped straight to your address.

Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper	Home For Christmas A4 Cardstock Pack	Embellished Ornaments Clear-Mount Bundle	Home For Christmas Enamel Dots
Stampin' Dimensionals	Multipurpose Liquid Glue	Linen Thread	Real Red Stampin' Write Marker	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers

Or please just contact me if you have any questions or to place an order for you, if you would prefer.

well this evening saw me glued to the television earlier, waving my England flag whilst watching Team GB vs Australia at the 2012 Copper Box arena, competing in the World Wheelchair Rugby competition. 
If anything is madness on wheels - phew that has to be it.. no wonder they used to refer to it as Murder Ball.!

and little GB against mighty OZ - well you would have been forgiven for thinking we would have faced a right drubbing - but team GB really held their nerve almost taking the Aussies  to a draw, but in the end only losing by 2 points. An absolutely amazing achievement from a very young side with Rio 2016 firmly in their sights.. Go Team GB!

well that is it from me - til next time have a lovely week.
Jan
x