Bridesmaid Papers Lace punch flower

I'm back after a couple of extremely busy days of classes, craft trip and an evening out to watch my little Great-Niece in her first performance with her dance school. She is learning Ballet and Tap and loves it. It was the first time she has been on stage and she is only 6 so she made us proud that she didn't lose her nerve.

So all in all I have had no time to craft until today. I have made a little gift box and card this morning with no stamping apart from the sentiment. The flower is one I have seen at a blog called Stampin with Tami. To make the flower you use strips of cardstock punched out along one edge and then you attach those strips to a punched out circle. I love the vintage style look to these and made them in two different sizes, one for the card and one for the box. The cardstock is Chocolate Chip and the gorgeous "bridesmaid" designer paper which I have sponged with Close to Cocoa ink and then rubbed off the excess ( the shiny part of the design resists the ink) This makes a nice standby gift set for a last minute birthday present if needed.

I have my craft club here tomorrow so I'm off to work on a small project idea for them to play with at the meeting.

Happy Moments

Hi there

Very quick post AND card today as I have been beavering away all day in my craft room in preparation for my Flight of the Butterfly class tomorrow. I have two brand new ladies joining me tomorrow and I am thrilled to be welcoming them to my class.

I had planned to show you the birthday card I made for my SU Upline Jenny but I was in such a rush to get it mailed to her that I posted it and then realised I had forgotten to photograph it. Duhhhhhhhhhhh

So instead I get to share a plain and simple pink and black card using the Happy Moments Sale-a-Bration set. This set was not my favourite of the sale a bration stamps at first but having used it a fair bit over the past week I have rapidly warmed to its versatility. This set will be staying in my collection now as I am loving using it.

I will be busy tomorrow with a morning class and an evening one so won't get time to create a new card....hope to have something nice to share with you on Friday though.

Greenhouse Garden card for Mother in Laws Birthday

Hi there

Didn't think I was going to get on here to post today as I have been so busy trying to prepare my packs for my class ladies for Thursday. I have been trying to get more organised so that I am not rushing about at the last minute but this class has crept up on me without me noticing.

Anyway my blog post today is to show you the card I made for my Mother in Laws Birthday which was yesterday. I used virtually the same colours as I used on the covered chipboard book I shared with you yesterday as I knew she would love the combination. I also added a Birthday sentiment punched out with the scallop oval punch. I absolutely love this Greenhouse Garden stamp set as there are just so many different ways you can use the seperate images. I think this set was a perfect choice for SU to pick as the set to raise funds for Haiti as it is so versatile.

Anyway quick post tonight as I have another birthday card to make and time is running out.

Lets make a difference to the people of Haiti

On 12th January 2010 a huge earthquake struck Haiti, leaving in its wake massive devastation that the Haitian people and their leaders are unable to deal with unless they receive help from the outside world.

Stampin' Up! Demonstrators have a long history of trying to make a difference in the lives of others, most especially when disasters strike and aid is needed the most. Many demonstrators have contacted Stampin' Up! this past week to ask what is being done to help and the company have come up with a plan that will enable every individual to help contribute to the relief effort.

The plan is this

From now until the 28th February, Stampin' Up! will donate £1 from the sale of each "Greenhouse Garden" stamp set to the Red Cross International Response Fund. The Red Cross is already well established in Haiti and will use any money raised for both immediate relief and long term support for those suffering from the aftermath of this disaster.

Along with many other demonstrators I will match that £1 donation for every stamp set that is purchased through me. These £1 donations may not be the biggest but for those poor people left with nothing it could make a huge difference.

Please join me in trying to make a difference.

Here is just one of my projects using the flowers from this beautiful Greenhouse Garden stamp set. I made this project before we learnt about the Stampin' Up! donation plan but I am glad I can showcase just a couple of the flower images to show you how stunning this stamp set can be.

Circle Circus Trio

Well I am amazed that I am still succeeding in my New Year's Resolution to update my blog daily. Long may it continue ! ! !

My friend Vikki celebrated her birthday this week and I had to make a much more simple design than usual as she does not like "fussy" cards. I know her favourite colours are earth tones and I also know she loves the wide striped Stampin' Up ribbon so I went with plain and simple Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip. I used my Circle Circus stamp set which all demonstrators received as a free gift when we attended SU Convention in Germany in November (How bad is it that this is the first time I have used this set since November ?) Let me tell you though, I will certainly be using it a lot more in the future as it is gorgeous to work with. As you can see once I had made Vikki's shades of brown card I went on to make a couple more cards, this time using Chocolate Chip and Brocade Blue. I also made a further 8 cards using this set but cannot show you those until early next month as they are for my Stampers 10 ladies when they receive their February orders ( they are really funky for me)

I have been making something really lovely today and will post that project tomorrow when I also show you the card I made for my Mother -in-Law whose birthday it is on Sunday.

Back to my craft room clearout now

Love you (very)Much

I thought I would share something a little different with you today and that little something is a 6x6 scrapbook page of my Great Niece and a tiny pocket filled with sweets (pocket idea from the very talented Monica)

Both of these projects came about came about as a result of my lovely upline Jenny challenging the rest of the members of our team to make something using a heart image. I made the little pocket first (using the Love you Much stamp set) as my entry for Jenny's challenge and then because I loved how that turned out I used two other images from the set and made this page about how much my little niece means to me.

I used the triple heart image and punch to make the flowers on the right of the page. You use 5 or 6 heart punches for each flower and they are just held together with a brad at the pointed end of the heart. I know this is quite a plain scrapbook page but I do like the clean cut look to pages especially when they are only 6x6. I save my "busy" look for my 12x12 pages lol.

Well hope you like today's offering, please leave me a comment if you do

Happy Moments Card Box set

Here is my creative offering for today. This little box is called a Mini Pizza box and it easily holds up to six little cards and envelopes. I have made this matching set using the Happy Moments stamp set. This is just one of the four "Sale-a-Bration" sets you can choose from to earn for free if you place a qualifying order with me before the 28th of February (£45 minimum spend before P&P for each free stamp set)

I stamped the images in black stazon and simply water-coloured using my ink pads and an aqua painter brush.I hope you like this set as much as I do.

More Bella Toile

Hope you are not fed up of Bella Toile yet as I have another idea to share with you using that same stamp.

This time I have actually used it to create decorative panels to use in place of Designer paper on this little card box. The box template comes from a class by the lovely Jenny Moors and is available to purchase on her blog HERE I love that you can make such a detailed patterned paper from just one stamp and as I said before you can choose many different looks dependant on the colour ink you use. I stamped in black stazon and then just highlighted a couple of the flowers using my pretty in pink ink pad and waterbrush as before. I then made the three thank you cards to match with the Bella Toile stamped in Pretty in Pink and also using the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set. (You can fit more cards and envelopes inside the box if you wish).

I love this striking colour effect of the black, with the pretty in pink and very vanilla. This would make a lovely useful gift for a non crafter and I'm sure it wouldn't take long to make a batch of them.

Bella Toile Background Stamp

I keep meaning to upload one new card each day to share with you but somehow it doesn't seem to happen. Today however I have not one but TWO cards to share with you, the reason being I want to show you how one simple background stamp can look so different depending how you use it.

For the simpler of the two cards I just inked my new Bella Toile stamp( I am already loving this stamp) with Close to Cocoa, layered the stamped image onto Chocolate Chip, then Very Vanilla cardstock. I simply added a ribbon and sentiment and it was done. I think this makes for an elegant card and with 48 matching Stampin' Up cardstock and Ink Pad colours available there is a colour to suit everyone. ( ohhhhhhhhhhh and I must tell you that I have just taken delivery of all 48 re-inkers so will now be able to easily dye any of my Whisper White ribbons to create a perfect match )

For the other card I stamped the Bella Toile in Stazon Black onto Whisper White cardstock and then coloured it all in using my ink pads as a colour palette ( squeeze your SU ink pads before opening and this will transfer a little ink onto the inner lid of the pad and you can then pick up this colour with a water brush as I have done) I then just used cardstock and brads to match the ink colours I had used. This card seems much "busier" to me but I still quite like the effect.

My hubby said the two cards reminded him of the difference between black and white and coloured photography and I thought that was a brilliant description. I'm amazed at how different the two cards look.

Almost forgot to share this masterpiece

Hi there

I have been uploading some pictures from my camera this evening and discovered this picture that I meant to share with you last week. This is the Christmas card that my hubby made for all our family members this year. I was a wee bit bogged down with preparations leading up to Christmas so he offered to make ALL of the family cards for me ( think it was just the excuse he needed to play with my SU stash really)

The upshot of all of this is that this is the card design he came up with(5 weeks or so ago) so I think he is to blame for all our snowfall as it only started after theses cards were made. Little did we know that our landscape would so closely resemble the scene on his creations. Anyway we finally now have rain so hopefully all the snow will melt over the weekend and we will be able to get back to normal, so thought I would share this last snowy scen with you all.

I will be back tomorrow to post one of my new creations, my first of 2010.

We still have snow

Just thought I would share another snow picture with you. This is how my rear garden still looks, three weeks after it was first covered with snow and all the roads on our estate look the same. Luckily hubby's car does have snow tires so we have been able to get out for essential food shopping etc but my little car has not moved since the Sunday after boxing day.

I usually love snow but being housebound for virtually 3 weeks and having been suffering with a nasty hacking cough seems to have had an extremely negative effect on my creativity. I do feel more positiveand creative today however (maybe because I have my Stampin Up! Sale-a-Bration order due to be delivered) so I am making a start on a special birthday card for my Mother-in-Law. Her birthday is on 24th January so I shall be very pleased to get it completed today ready for posting in plenty of time to reach her.

Tomorrow I will be working on my card making class for Thursday 28th of this month. We will be making a lovely box with matching 4"x4" cards using the gorgeous Bella Bleu designer papers. If you would like more information or wish to join me for this class please contact me as places are limited.

And we have yet more snow !!!!!!!

This is the view from my window this morning.

We have had a few heavy falls of snow for over a fortnight now (which have not cleared) but with this blizzard that is falling right now I have a feeling we are definitely going to be snowed in by tonight. It's a wee bit worrying in that hubby is actually 30 miles away at work in Manchester until later this afternoon and could easily get snowed "out" whilst I will be snowed in. Ummmmmmmmmm think I will leave it another hour or so and decide if I need to let him know just how bad it is getting.