Wonderful Day

A couple of weeks back, the week I was in Anything Goes as it happens, I was able to join Amanda and some other members of the team down in Fareham for a day of stamping fun.  Amanda put this day on as a reward for everyone in her team who had recruited so far this year and as Val joined me in the spring then I was eligible.
It was a lovely day, I met a few people from the Inspiring Inkees that I hadn't met before, including a girl who had been to my school!!  Small world.
Anyway, I digress, Amanda had laid on a few projects for us to try and this gorgeous little box was the first that I attempted.  Believe it or not it is made from Stampin Up's milk carton die!  4 of them to be exact and I did have to cut them up a bit but doesn't it look pretty! 

The colour palette for the whole day was Pacific Point and Very Vanilla and the designer papers were Blueberry crisp.  The box was decorated with strips of the designer paper and flowers made from the 5 petal punch

Starry

 Oh dear, something's wrong here but I can't seem to fix it. This photo is upside down!  On my computer I have turned it round but when I upload it to blogger it's always upside down again!  How's that work ??? Fortunately this design can turn almost anyway up (just as well really!)
I have to confess that I was a little concerned about this one, I'm just not sure about the colour scheme of So Saffron and Certainly Celery, maybe I would be happier if it was brighter colours; the ladies at Make Do and Send liked it so that was ok. 
I punched a star out of the whisper white base card and mounted it onto the celery base card then, using the Seeing Stars stamp set, stamped it all over with a mixture of saffron and celery stars.  For a bit of dimension I punched out some more stars from Saffron designer paper, 3d mounted them and added a few rhinestones.

Plane & Simple

Another offering from last month's Make, Do and Send club but this one has been CASE'd from a fellow Stampin Up! demonstrator.  That's one of the great things about SU, noone minds when you Copy And Share Everything :)  I did change the colour scheme slightly however, I used Poppy Parade designer paper which is one of 2011's In colors and crum cake card and ink.  The stamps are from the Plane Handling set which is one of my favourites, maybe because planes are so much part of our family life. The last card from card club tomorrow :)

Embossed Roses

Morning all,  I am finally beginning to catch up with myself.  Today I have a card that we made at Make, Do and Send card club at the end of June, Yes I am THAT far behind :(
This technique is so simple but it looks so effective.  Take a piece of Stampin Up whisper white card and insert it into the Manhattan Flower embossing folder which previously has been inked by simply rubbing with an inkpad. Run the folder through the Big Shot and the paper comes out both embossed and inked all in one go!!  clever huh! I then trimmed around the roses and mounted it onto coordinating Pretty pink card and added a sentiment.  More tomorrow :)

Tickle Me Elmo!!

This post was supposed to publish with a photo but Blogger isn't playing ball today so I will have to edit it later on,

Everyone loves Elmo don't they? Well I know I do, so, when I found that it was easy to make my own in card form using the Bigz circle scallop dieand my Big Shot, I thought I would share it with the ladies who are coming to my Make, Do and Send Card club tonight.  I attached two real red scallops together to make the card and then used lots of punched circles in various colours to make his face.  I reckon that some of the other Sesame St characters could be made this way too.

Anything Goes

This post was supposed to publish on Wednesday!  sorry :/ 
It's Opening Night of Spotlight's production of "Anything Goes" !!!  OMG!!!! This is the card I made to express both my thanks to the cast for having such a no hoper in the gang and also to wish everyone the best of luck.
The base card is Daffodil delight and Certainly Celery with a layer of Stampin up designer paper in there too,  I used the watercolour crayons and an aqua brush to colour the image.

MonoChrome

I do like a bit of Black and White, it has a simple elegance I think and as I have a fair bit of black and white card I think I may ake a few more of these!  The stamp set is Artistic etchings, all stamped in basic black onto whisper white card.  I used the topnote die in my big shot to create the centrepiece trimming the edge from the white one to create the black mat.  Finished off with some Stampin Up striped grosgrain ribbon.

Pillow Box

Morning! How's the weather today?  I have to confess I cheated and scheduled this to post while I'm at work today.  I have such a busy few days ahead, I have an interview as a volunteer for the London Olympics this afternoon, prep for card club to do tomorrow oh and collection of my costumes for next weeks show and then Saturday is a visit to Birmingham with my daughter to look at the university.  On Sunday we get to the theatre for the last couple of rehearsals before opening night on Wednesday.  So you may not see much of me next week.
But back to today's offering, we made this at card club last month but I first did this at the Girl Guiding event I did in March.  The card stock is So Saffron and I inked boho blossoms in the same colour.  I added some butterflies in Marina mist ink and 3d mounted a marina butterfly and boho blossoms cut of course with their matching punches, so much easier and lovely to have an exact match. The Thanks sentiment is again stamped in Marina mist onto marina card and punched with the scalloped circle before being adhered to the matching satin ribbon.  Add a bit of bling with rhinestones and there you are!

Origami Shirt

I think something similar to this may be my Father's Day card this year but it could equally be used for a birthday.  We did this at card club too; the folded shirts aren't nearly as difficult as they look and make an effective topper for your card don't you think?

I used copier paper for the shirt, stamped both sides and then run through the Big Shot in a textured embossing folder before folding into the shirt shape. It is matted onto some Pear Pizazz designer paper and Pumpkin Pie and mounted onto Crumb Cake card stock.  The sentiment is stamped in matching Pumpkin ink, punched and 3d mounted.



Lots of Scallops

I finally began my own card club last month and this is one of the cards that we made; I'll share the others over the next few days. The stamps are from Fun Fast notes, the words are stamped in razzleberry ink to match the cardstock and the image stamp was coloured with markers.  The card stock is Rich Razzleberry the image is 3d mounted onto a scalloped circle and I used the scallop border to edge the vertical strip.  The Pretty in pink papers are from the designer paper series.

Baby Cake

I made this baby cake for friends who have recently had their first baby.  It's not a good picture I'm afraid and the cake has a bit of a list which I did correct before giving it to them honest.  The cake is made up of nappies and baby gifts arranged in the form of a three tier cake and tied with some Stampin up ribbon.  It didn't turn out quite as I had hoped but fortunately they loved it anyway :)

A Commission!

I've been commissioned!  That doesn't happen often I can tell you.  Although it's an order from my husband for an organisation he is involved with (does that still count?).  In typical husband fashion he has asked me to "knock up" 30 of these by Thursday! I told him that he can have a few but I have to order supplies so he will have to wait for the complete order however, if Stampin Up are their usual efficient selves then I may well have the order by Thursday.
The invitations are very simple; whisper white card for the base with a razzleberry topnote diecut which is in turn topped with a white topnote diecut that has been trimmed to fit inside creating a neat border.  The printing on the card coordinates perfectly with the razzleberry ink daubed around the edge of the topnote and the whole thing is finished off with a band of razzleberry grosgrain ribbon which holds the insert in place.
More cards to follow later in the week from my card class which I held last week.

Bliss

Still haven't found m camera lead and therefore still struggling to upload photos here but I have found an older one on my phone to show you.  Remember I told you about my weekend at the Brighton Hobbycraft show?  Well, here is a picture of one of the make and takes we did that weekend.  It used one of the saleabration stamp sets, Bliss, which remains one of my favourites.  I love this colour combination of Pretty in Pink and Espresso.

Who's that girl?

Who is she?!!! Do you recognise her at all? We were invited to a friends 60th Birthday party recently and as part of the entertainment they had laid on a caricaturist.  Great fun :)
So this....apparently....is ME! 

Wot No Blogging?!

There's really no excuse for not blogging for so long but I do have several :/  The loss of my camera lead being a major reason...it makes it so hard to upload photos! Also, I seem to have been mega busy lately that I've not really made very many cards to share with you; we've had Ofsted in at school, I've been rehearsing very hard for Spotlight's new show Anything Goes (details above) which is now only 3 weeks away!!! Oh my goodness I hope I have the dance routines locked into my head by then.  I've also been working quite hard at my Stampin Up business.  I held my first card club this week, just a small start with 7 participants but I think it will grow.  All the ladies seemed to enjoy it and we now have plans for another card club at the end of this month and requests for a day of Christmas card making and also for a Scrap day  :) 
Talking of Stampin Up; They launched a promotion this week which gives all hostesses an extra £20 to spend in the catalogue when they hold a workshop with a minimum of £250 sales so that means my hostesses can earn a free hostess stamp set and have £45 to spend in the catalogue!
I promise to be back soon :)

Twisted Easel Card

 I'm quite pleased with this one,  my inspiration was a card which we made at Amanda's last workshop, it's called a twisted easel style card because of the way it stands. I have to confess, I pinched the colour combination of whisper white, pretty in pink and rich razzleberry from Amanda too; it was one of the cards that we did as a make and take at the Brighton show. The stamps are from a current Stampin Up hostess set, I stamped the hydrangea in razzleberry ink and used a blender pen to colour it in.  I also used the tiny flower from that set on the back of the card, The background stamp, en francais, is stamped in pretty in pink.  A touch of razzleberry ribbon and a sentiment raised on a dimensional completes the card.

I'm going to use this at a workshop I am doing at the weekend along with a pillow box project.

Mad March Frenzy

 Pinch, punch 1st of the month,  Spring is on the way yay! I can't wait for some sunshine I'm definitely getting a bit fed up of grey and dreary weather.  Although the bad weather does give me plenty of excuses to stay indoors crafting, I'm sure my husband would say that I don't need excuses!  Stampin Up have launched a new promotion today, you can save up to 30% on selected products (you can view them more easily here ).  If anything takes your eye then give me a shout, there are limited stocks of these items so don't miss out!

Phew!

What a weekend!!  I've been in Brighton at the ICHF Hobbycraft fair helping out at the Stampin Up stand.  We were running a make and take table every half hour where people could join us to make a lovely card using the Bliss stamp set from the current Saleabration promo.  I met lots and lots of lovely people and had great fun all weekend, hopefully I will meet some of them again at workshops or classes.  I'm off to put my feet up now...all in the name of recovery you understand!  Later I will make a start on my thankyou cards, I'll post some here tomorrow for you.

Altered Clipboard

I'm off to the Hobbycraft show at Brighton this weekend to help out on Amanda's Stampin Up stand.  Please say Hi if you're there too.  Anyway, I digress, Amanda gave us a clipboard to decorate and this is what I did with mine, it was bright blue plastic before I started. The first picture shows the back, I covered it with papers from the Newsprint and Designer papers stacks, then added my name in board letters upon which I used a base of white craft ink and then stamped in razzleberry ink with a circle stamp from the Circle Circus set.  I also stamped the flourish from the Saleabration Bliss set in Razzleberry and sponged ink around the edges.  The flowers are paper daisies which I sponged with ink, I added a touch of bling with rhinestones for pearls for their centres.  The second photo is the front of my board, I needed to keep the hole thing flatter because I will need to write on this side after all.  Again, I covered it in razzleberry card then I added a strip of very vanilla which I had stamped with the So Swirly wheel and also a larger piece of vanilla card which has the flourish stamps from the Bliss set once again. There is a narrow piece of vanilla grosgrain ribbon around the edge of the board and lots of ribbon in whisper white, very vanilla and old olive to add some luxury

February Sunshine

I had to go a long way up to find it but there was some glorious sunshine up there on my way home from Dusseldorf yesterday.  I've been on an all expense paid trip to Germany to take part in some market research on new mpv cars.  It was very interesting and exciting but I'm sworn to secrecy, security was so tight that we had to leave behind all bags, phones, cameras and even watches and money.  I had a lovely tour of Dusseldorf too as part of the trip and took lots of photos that I shall make in to scrap pages eventually.  Something a little more urgent is on my craft table this week though...it's the Brighton Hobbycraft show this weekend and I still have some samples to make and decorate my clipboard.

Stowaway!

  I think someone wants to come away with me!  I'm off to Germany over the weekend on a freebie trip! Well, maybe not quite free, I've been asked to go and review some new cars but it's all expenses paid and some sightseeing included too.  I shall take my camera then I should have lots more lovely photos that I can scrapbook.

Sorry I've not blogged much this week, I seem to have been so busy.  I'll catch up soon promise.

Boy Band

People do some very strange things at weddings don't they! These pictures are from a family wedding last October and as you can imagine the timing of them is fairly late into the evening! I began with a rose red textured card stock base and added a half torn page of rose red paper from the designer paper patterns stack.  The photos were matted onto whisper white card, then I added various sized punched circles from the music print sheet from the Newsprint papers.  The titling is made from punched whisper white circles and Vintage Type rub ons from Stampin Up.

Fun Times

  

These pictures were taken on one of our trips to Alton Towers last year, Sonic was being extremely cheeky but posed beautifully with Charlie for me,  I was really pleased with the other picture too,  I waited for ages and ended up with pictures of lots of other people before my family came past on the Air rollercoaster.

The background paper is a Daffodil Delight dotty page from the designer paper patterns stack, the pictures are matted onto Daffodil Delight and Marina Mist card.  The balloon stamp is from Stampin up's Crazy for Cupcakes and are 3D mounted.  The f u n letters are from On Board Alphabet Soup,  I inked them in Whisper White craft ink to make a base for the coloured inks,  I then made them Daffodil yellow and stamped over the top with a bubbly stamp from Circle Circus in Marina Mist ink.

 

Diamond and Pearls

Another picture from Alice's photoshoot, the girls had such a good time that day and we ended up with so many beautiful photographs.  This one is so unusual that I needed to keep the page simple.  So Saffron textured card for the base page upon which I used the So Swirly wheel with So Saffron ink across all four corners.  Then for just a touch of elegance I added some tiny adhesive pearls to the swirls and in the two opposite corners.

A LARGE picture of my little girl.

I love this photograph and so I thought I would do it some real justice and print it off large! As the photo more than takes centre stage I thought I would keep the rest of the page quite simple.  The dotty background is from the Elegant Soiree designer papers, the photo is matted onto crumb cake and early espresso card and then the hearts ( all from I (heart) hearts) are stamped in espresso ink onto crumbcake card, cut out and 3d mounted.