Flower power birthday!

hi all

I know its been quite some time since I put digit to keyboard, or even worse, stamp to ink pad - but did absolutely nothing in my little craft square inch whilst Wimbledon was on  - so no excuses now and 'back to it' as they say and happy Sunday snippets.

Today saw me,  and a couple of other demos, who live locally to me, as well as a few other lovely ladies, just while away a few hours doing what we all love best, crafting in one form or another at a bi-monthly meet-up.  From card-making, to boxes, to scrapbooking, and all  things between - it was lovely to just catch up, chat and swap ideas, and actually make something for a change.

Must have sets are Flower Shop and Petite Petals and of course the matching punches.
I just love layering these particular flower shapes and must have punched out hundreds, literally and today was no exception.

..and had seen a stunning card on line and  loved it so much,  I just had to make it  - thank you so so much, AnnMarie,  for the really lovely design. That 'CASE' word is in great use in my vocabulary am ashamed to say..

I just stuck with Very Vanilla and  Lost Lagoon, one of the new colours  from the 2014- 2016 In-Colour range - and seriously like it.!

I just 'stamped off' a few of them onto scrap card to lighten the image,  others were stamped direct to the card,and  some stamped then punched and just glued in place, where as others were popped up on dimensionals. Not too clear (must have a serious word with my photographer!)  is the small background splattering  of 'Gorgeous grunge' and the addition of a  few of little rhinestones - well,  a girl needs a bit of bling now and again!

and to finish it off - I chose a particular old but still a favourite birthday sentiment - but of course it would work equally well as A Thank You card, A  Thinking of You card, or a 'Just Because' card.!

...my next round of birthdays actually begins with my own - though not til next month - followed swiftly by my partner's daughter,  so for once am actually not 'Miss Last minute.com!

Stampin' Up! supplies for this card:

Stamp Sets : Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Gorgeous Grunge, a suitable sentiment

Inks:Lost Lagoon

Card stock:Very Vanilla, Lost Lagoon

Punches: Pansy  and Petite Petal Punches

Other Essentials: Stampin' Up! dimensionals, little rhinestones

As some of you know, my other love in life is sewing and machine embroidery and all the sites that I follow seem to be in the midst of their 'Christmas in July' events.

Now, if only I could be as diligent and apply myself to the various card challenges where the 'C' word is  the order of the day, regularly throughout the year - well I may even have to consider ditching the nickname - but alas not this year!.

To all of you who are already well on their way with their piles of cards at the ready - I wish I could be so organised!

Until next time - have a great week
Jan
x

'en pointe' thank you

hi all

..and Happy Monday, or at least what is left of it.!

Am a bit late posting as was away this weekend to stay with an ex-works colleague - and so just had to say 'Thank you' and chose the current sketch challenge over at Less is More for a bit of inspiration. Many many thanks, Chrissie.

Well I did start off with the best of intentions, but by the time I had finished it had morphed into a bit more that clean and simple, unfortunately.

I chose bright Tangerine Tango, coupled with Very Vanilla and a bit of Forest Green-'ery' for my colours.

A bit of embossing and sponging  for the topper - and a frame using 2 sizes of the Squares Framelits dies, which I opted to set 'en pointe' almost,  some punched DSP petals and itty bitty flowers,  fussy cut leaves from Betsy's blossoms and my sentiment and all of a sudden this was far from clean and simple!

I really must try harder and learn when to stop!

Stampin' Up! supplies for this card:

Stamp Sets:Betsy's Blossoms, Lots of Thanks

Inks: Tangerine Tango, Forest Green

Card stock/Paper:Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla, Venetian Romance

Punches/Framelits :Pansy Punch,  Window Punch, 
Envelope Punch Board, Squares Framelits
Other Essentials: Stampin' Up! dimensionals,  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 

Well having been down near Lee-on-Solent for the weekend - can only say it was certainly far from 'walking on the beach' weather - and any thoughts I had of enjoying sun and sea quickly disappeared after the first of a number of heavy downpours!.

Can only hope everyone else fared a  little better than I did and you manged to stay dry and of course typically today, now am home it has been a really lovely afternoon and this evening its still bright and sunny!

til next time

very best wishes, all
Jan
x

Flower Shop and more sneaky peaks!

hi all and happy Sunday.

I had the delightful task of making a 70th card for an ex-works colleague - whose party  we attended on Friday.  My task was made all the more easier as I opted to follow exactly the colour scheme on one of the sheets of Designer series paper from the an upcoming set, available from 28th January.

The colours in question: were Gumball Green, Island Indigo, Basic Grey and Smoky Slate.. what do you think.?

I matted a layer of Whisper white card on to my grey card base,  again opting for my design element of the moment - my corner rounder.

...and just stamped 6 of the flowers using a stamp from the Flower Shop stamp set,  easily punching them out with the matching Pansy punch.

These I then arranged,  linked and inter-weaved together,  down the right-hand edge of the card and here you can just see the inside of the card, peaking through.

For this, I randomly stamped a cluster of 3 flowers in the top left and bottom right hand corners but stupidly forgot to photograph the sentiment inside - 'the earth laughs in flowers..' which I absolutely adore from the Fabulous Florets stamp set.

I tried to balance the left hand side of the card by stamping a few copies of the small sprig from the Morning Meadow Hostess set and topped this all off with my sentiment propped up on dimensionals on top of some toning ribbon. 

The 'Happy 70th birthday' are all separate stamps from the Memorable Moments set. 

That's what is so nice about  Stampin Up, the sets are designed such that they easily compliment each other and it so easy to mix and match different elements , knowing things will 
just work!

I used my Stamp-a-majig to ensure everything was perfectly positioned in the frame,  included with the set,   all then precision cut using one of  the matching dies from the Labels Framelits set.

 Here you can see how the flowers were interleaved and you can just make out touches of my beloved basic rhinestones. I just can't resist adding these where ever I can.

and of course my envelope punch board makes it so so easy to make a custom sized envelope to match the  occasion.

This card is much larger than those I usually make and because I deliberately offset the centre fold of the card, it was then slightly larger than the dimensions quoted for a true A5 sized card. 

But after a few trial and error attempts with old newspaper was still then able to use the punch board to create an envelope just perfect for the job.

Its a definite must have in my book!

I know grey seems like an odd choice for a 'Happy' card but sometimes stepping  'out of  your comfort zone'  - well, it works.  I just hope she liked it too.

Things I used to make this card:

Stamp sets: Memorable Moments, Morning Meadow - Hostess,  Flower Shop
Inks: Gumball Green Island Indigo, Smoky Slate
Cardstock: Whisper White, Basic Grey, 
Other Essentials : Toning ribbon, Labels Framelits, Stampin  Up dimensionals,Pansy Punch,    corner rounder punch, Basic rhinestones, 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

I was a bit late posting  today - as  have had my great-niece here  for a sewing session - she wanted  to make something to go towards her hobby badge for Brownies - now whereas I tried to steer her towards inks and stamps and a card of course, well,  she had other ideas!

We ended up making a  carrier bag holder -  like this one, including the Scottie Dog fabric! - which her mum had got as an offcut for the princely sum of £2:00 from our local Dunelms store. So everyone happy all round and hopefully my great-niece  will have earnt her hobby badge!.

Meanwhile I am still hopeful  she may yet take to card making

Until next time and have a lovely week.
Jan
x

Happy Saturday Everyone!

hi all

As it has been such a fabulous week for us here in the UK with the weather - well, 'Happy Day' just needed to be well and truly wished to everyone.



As I used the current sketch from Mojo Monday (301)for my inspiration it felt rude not to enter it for this week's challenge - which I have to say is my very very first one, never having had the courage to do so before. 









 
You can see what I came up with.
I opted to use the Happy Day sentiment from the stamp set of the same name, easily placed exactly where I wanted it by using my Stamp-a-Majig.

I used lovely Melon Mambo as my card base with a Whisper White top and different papers from the Gingham Garden Designer Series Paper for the card accent strips. The main piece I also sponged for a bit of definition.

The main flower embellishment came courtesy of the Pansy punch - 3 flowers layered together with a retaining Daffodil Delight brad and leaves from the (now sadly retired!) Blossom petals punch

My oval punches came in handy for the centre medallion which I popped up on some Stampin Up dimensionals.  I punched 2 of the scalloped ones to split apart for the matted frame and finished it off with fussy cut little flowers made easy with the flower punch from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch pack.

With a bit of Faux stitching round both this and the card edge to finish off.

Things you need to make this card:

Stamp set: Happy Day
Inks: Melon Mambo, Island Indigo, Pear Pizzazz
Cardstock and paper: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Gingham Garden DSP
Punches: Pansy Punch, Itty Bitty shapes Punch Pack, Scalloped oval and large oval punches
Other essentials: Stampin up dimensionals, sponge daubers, Piercing pack and piercing tool
  
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

...and lastly my most treasured possession on my craft foot square this week just has to be the adhesive eraser.

 Now it may  not look very much and I must admit - I bought it because I  thought perhaps I ought to - not necessarily thinking I would have a great need of it and until today,  am ashamed to say had never used it.

Whoa have I made up for that now - it certainly rescued my card in that I had adhesive over spill on the edges of the melon mambo card stock - the whisper white seemed to attract little balls of it from who knows where and it really sorted both of those out - but more importantly made very short work of cleaning my cutting mat as well - not sure if its meant for that - but it got rid of lots of adhesive from the surface and it really is nice and clean again.   In my book, a definite must have!

Thanks as always and 'happy day' tomorrow, everyone as well.

Jan
x

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