Morning, hope you are well and enjoying your weekend.

Today's card is rather, err, red, yep, it's definitely red.  This was all down to the flower.  The flower is from the Amy Butler line for K & Co and is the "Lotus Floral" stamp set.  When I first got this set I stamped this image out loads of times and coloured them in using different Pro Markers and this red one was definitely my favourite.  I matted this onto some green cardstock that I had in my stash and put in my embellishment box...

 

.  ... and there it sat, all alone in all it's rich red loveliness until I re-discovered it a couple of days ago, so I had to rescue it and this is the result.

I used "Poppy Parade" cardstock, (Cat Ref: 121694, Pg 81), for the card blank and stamped the "En Francais" background stamp, (Cat Ref: 109521, Pg 61),  in Versamark ink, (Cat Ref: 102283, Pg 103) and heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

Close up of embossing

I love this background stamp and I think it goes really well with this colour palette.

I'm so happy I was able to save this poor little embellishment from the box, I've no idea when I am going to use the card, hense why I've left the sentiment off, but I'm sure the right occasion will present itself!

Thanks for dropping by, chat again soon  :o)

Simply Stampin' Challenge Card

Hello there,
Todays card is my entry for this weeks Simply Stampin' challenge.  This week the challenge was to produce a project using the followig Stampin' Up colours.

Hmm... interesting, quite autumnal colours, but as autumn is my favourate time of the year I thought I'd give it a go, so here is my entry.

I was really pleased how it came out as it was one of those cards that I didn't really have an idea what I was doing I just made it up as I went along.

As you can see, I used Basic Gray cardstock, ( Cat Ref: 121689, Pg 85), for the card blank, I stamped and clear embossed a thin piece of "Always Artichoke" cardstock, (Cat Ref: 108610, Pg 84), using Versamark ink, (Cat Ref: 102283, Pg 103), and the "Sanded" background stamp, (Cat Ref; 109294, Pg 61), which stamped beautifully and I think it is my new favourate background stamp.  I matted this onto a piece of "Whisper White" cardstock, (Cat Ref: 106549, Pg 85).  I heat embossed, but this time using white embossing powder, the three flowers from the "Growing Green", (Cat Ref; 120624, Pg 56),  These images where stamped onto a dotted sheet of "Rich Razzlberry" from the Brights collection of Designer Series Paper Patterns Stack, (Cat Ref; 117155, Pg 91) and cut out just on the outside of the white embossed edge.  I stuck them down, went round the edges of the card using a White Gel pen, (Cat Ref: 105021, Pg 102).  I stamped in "Rich Razzleberry" a sentiment from the "Something to Celebrate" stamp set, (Mini Cat ref: 121897, Pg 5), which is a Lv 2 hostess gift. Punched it out using the Modern Label Punch, (Cat Ref: 119849, Pg 105), I also used this punch on the patterned paper stack and matted it, added a couple of brads and finally I did faux-stitching line round the outside edges of the card blank using a white gel pen.

I like it, I hope you do too - take care  :o)  xx

Wedding Card - well, what else could it be?

Hello, hope you are all ready for enjoying this royal wedding day. Me?, I have a date with the sofa and the telly and have no intention of moving except to get more tea - can't wait!


But before I get settled for the day I just want to share this card with you.  I was inspired by this digi image from a kit called "Peppermint Twist" and wanted to do something with a repeating element over a patterned trail at the bottom of a card, so I produced this card as a first thought.

Close up of detail

Which I then developed into this Wedding card.

Close up at detail.

I used the "Lap of Luxury" DSP, (Cat No. 120436, Pg 90), the "Heart to Heart" punch, (Cat No. 119881, Pg 105), and the "Small Heart" punch, (Cat No. 117193, Pg 106). I freehanded the parrallel lines and went over them with lots and lots of glitter glue, you can never have too much sparkle when it's for a wedding, before adhearing the hearts over the top and adding more dots of glitter glue over the bottom of the card.

I also decorated the inside using the "I {Heart} Hearts" stamp set, (Cat No. 118571 Pg 18), which I stamped in "Concord Crush" ink, (Cat No, 119785, Pg 81)

Continuing the love inside

Hope you have a wonderful day, whatever you are up to, chat again later :o)  xx

Strength & Hope stamp set - long post this one.

Well, it feels like the summer is on it's way at last, not because of the weather but because I've finally watched a few games of baseball - thank god for the Internet and the ability to watch games whenever you want, I'm way too old to sit up to watch games live these days - lol!

Anyway, on to something much more important, the Stampin' Up "Strength & Hope" stamp set.

"Strength & Hope" Stamp Set

This is a beautiful stamp set with £1.00 from every one sold going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 
Breast cancer charities are ones that I particularly support as I have had both friends and family struck with this terrible illness.  Also, a few years ago I gave up work and went back to University full time to do a Masters Degree, and during this time I worked in a lingerie shop in Twickenham.  Whilst there I had the privilege to help a few ladies post mastectomy.  The strength, courage and hope that these ladies showed during, what must have been the worst moments of their life was just humbling.  One lady even appologied to me in case I got upset seeing her without a top on - can you believe it, she was worried about me!!  I can honestly say that those 15 - 20 mins I took helping her was probably the most important and personally rewarding thing I have every done.  This is why I am so happy that Stampin' Up has created this marvellous stamp set that is so aptly named.

Gift Card

I made this little gift card with my first play with these great stamps, followed by something a little more ornate.

Strength & Hope card

I know you will love this set and get a lot of pleasure playing with it, I'm off to play a bit more, in the mean time, download the new Mini catalogue from the link on the left of this page, go to page 31 and see it for yourself.  It's available as a wooden stamp set or as a clear block cling set, it's also availabile in French and German.  So all you have to do then is decide which one you want then contact me and I'll happily sort out the order for you, and lets hope that together we make a shed load of money for this very worthy cause

thanks a lot for reading this far, nice chatting to you again - take care :o)  xx

Another male card

Hello everyone.  So to continue with my male themed cards, I wanted to bring a bit of colour into men's lives so came up with this.

Male card

I used the beautiful "Medallion" stamp, (Cat Ref; 115223, Pg 61), which I have to say I'm getting quite a lot of use out of. I deliberately left the sentiment off on this card as I wanted to wait until I decided which 'male' in my family I was going to give it to to ensure that the sentiment would be most appropriate.
I ended up stamping the image four times on the different coloured cardstock to get a good impression, so had enough bits to make a few more cards, so I added a bit of white satin ribbon, (Cat Ref; 114616, Pg 96), and now I have a more female version too.

Female version

Hope you are enjoying your weekend, chat some more soon..  :o)  xx

Male cards

Hello, got a few male birthdays coming up so thought I'd better start creating a few male appropriate cards to have in stock.

This was quite a simple card to make, stuck to classic black, white and red colour combo, with the sentiment stamped in versa mark ink and embossed with white embossing powder.
The patterned paper is from the "Love Letter" collection, (Cat ref; 117162, pg 89), which I love.  Whilst ribbon is quite feminine, I think the bigness and boldness of the 32mm Striped Grosgrain, (Cat ref; 119768. pg 97),  can be quite manly but obviously not with a bow, so I attached a bit of red bakers twine to give it a bit of interest.

Take care, have a great weekend and chat again soon :o)

"Charisma Cardz" Colour Challenge

So I thought I would look around and see what other challenges would be fun to do and I found these guys  http://charismacardz.blogspot.com/

Their challenge was to make a card using Pink, Green and Black, so I had a little go and produced this card.

It's using a technique I wanted to try for ages but never got round to it.  The technique is to stamp a 'solid' block of colour using a clear mount block to transfer the colour - well, you have to make the most of what you have in your stash, and as you can see, it produces a mottled effect, which I think looks great.
I stamped Pear Pizzazz ink, (Cat Ref 119784, Pg 81), for the block of colour on to Pink Pirouette cardstock, (Cat ref 116203, Pg 83),  and used StazOn black ink, (Cat Ref 101406, Pg103),  for the flower and sentiment, both of which come from the "Because I Care" stamp set, which is a free Lv1 hostess set. I also added a little Certainly Celery 3mm taffeta ribbon, (Cat No 119255, Pg 96) and stuck the cardstock onto a Pear Pizzazz A6 card blank.

I'm happy with the effect, I think I will have to have a bit more of a play with this technique using the other sizes of clear blocks that I have.

Happy chatting... xx